the deadening influences of a past period, through the awakening perceptions of the mass of the people, and the well-directed efforts of the few; who, seeing the advantage to be derived from a higher cultivation of those perceptions of the beautiful which all men enjoy in a greater or less degree, took up this question as one of the greatest importance in a commercial point of view, and as calculated to add lustre to our national position, by the development of those graces of civilisation-the arts decorative and ornamental."

If it were

To trace this progress, and the well-directed efforts of the few, will be the first step in this history. It must, however, be constantly borne in mind that the influential example of our neighbours, the French, has had a most powerful effect in stimulating thought and concentrating our efforts in this direction. The results following each of the Quinquennial Exhibitions held at Paris were very marked, more particularly that of 1844, and in one class of minds produced serious misgivings as to the future position of those ornamental manufactures in which we had hitherto excelled, whilst in another class it produced a firm conviction that nothing was worth buying except of French design at least, and if of French workmanship so much the better. possible to estimate the amount of falsehood and chicanery to which this state of things has led during the past twelve or fourteen years, it would astound and horrify every ingenuous mind, since the legitimate commerce of the country was fast becoming overlaid by a complete system of forgery or misrepresentation, and the ingenious artisan or talented artist constantly mortified and discouraged by seeing his best efforts, those too on which he most prided himself, sold as the production of his rival, for no other purpose and producing no other advantage to the seller or buyer than the mere gratification of a certain whim or prejudice arising out of an ignorance of the talent around them, which only required fair and legitimate encouragement to become ali that the most fastidious could expect or desire. Too

frequently men who knew better, and ought to have set a better example, were seized with this anti-nationality, sagely pronouncing that their countrymen could never do what they had never in modern times been taught or encouraged to do, and instead of invoking the example of the talented and well-educated foreigner as a stimulus to greater exertion, they used it as an argument against the promotion of the best interests of their country--the development of the talent of its artizans in the production of the decorated utilities of every-day life, by and through which our commerce and national position are alone to be sustained in future. The veriest savage looks for some kind of ornament or decoration, and as men progress, their wants become more refined and more distinct in this respect; and if one class of men or one country cannot provide for these wants, they seek out another, and those who cater best reap the advantage. Again, nations live by the arts of peace, and no nation more so than the British; yet all, or nearly all, her rewards have hitherto been lavished on the professors of the arts of war, and instances are very rare of the real benefactor of his country in those arts by which we hold our position as a people, being recognised and rewarded for these services to their fellow-men. If, like Arkwright, Watt, Peel, or Stephenson, fortune crowns their efforts, they take rank not from the utility of their pursuits, and their value to their fellow-men, but from their individual success, and the conventional position which that success, as manifested in their well-earned and nobly-merited wealth, gives them in common with men neither possessing their capacity nor emulating their utility.

It was time, therefore, that some such celebration of the progress of the great cause of the industrial arts as that now in preparation should be held; and it is because it was time, that it is to be held, and that it has met with such signal favour on all hands, except at the hands of those who never see beyond their noses, and

never understand anything beyond the ordinary pale of every-day ideas, or of those who are too polite or wellbred to meddle with useful things. But in addition to the importance of this question of art as applied to manufacture, a palpable and complete illustration of the value and triumphant development of the mechanical skill of our countrymen needed some just and perfect recognition. The talent which our manufacturing system had brought out and encouraged, together with the results of our railways in necessitating the construction of works in civil engineering, of a magnitude such as the world has certainly not seen in modern times, and of a utility immeasurably beyond ancient works of a kindred character, rendered it imperative that some such gathering as this should be made, so that the ingenious men of the day may at least be recognised and rewarded, though in a slight degree, for the benefits their inventions have conferred on the present age, and will confer on future ages. The principle that such ought to be the course adopted by a great nation is as old as nations themselves. In all ages great occasions have been seized or created, upon which the meritorious sons of each individual nation could be rewarded and publicly recognized; and the present great occasion only differs in the degree to which this principle is to be carried out, since in the one case we have a nation doing the necessary act of justice within itself, whilst in this year (1851) it is proposed to recognize the talent, skill and industry of all nations, and to bestow upon the most worthy children of the present age rewards which, if not altogether adequate to their deserts, will yet, when gained in such an arena, be a substantial

"Amongst the Greeks, the best man, and the most highly honoured by the public, was he who could manifest the greatest personal worth and the most superior ability. All were invited to a competition, where whatever was truly excellent in nature, in conduct, and in arts; whatever was great, admirable, graceful, and becoming; whatever could tend to give the utmost degree of finish and completeness to the human character, was the object of general admiration.”—Barry's Lectures on Painting.

earnest of contemporaneous appreciation. This principle, too, has been that on which some of the most useful associations in Great Britain have been based, and by and through which an enormous amount of talent and skill has been brought out and encouraged during the past century. The present movement, likewise, is indebted to these associations for its full and complete growth; and through one of them, "The Society of Arts," the first paragraph of whose Royal Charter of Incorporation recites that it was "established in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce of the country, by bestowing rewards for such productions, inventions, or improvements as should tend to the employment of the poor, to the increase of trade, and to the riches and honour of the kingdom, by promoting industry and emulation," it is mainly owing that this great and glorious project was launched upon the tide of public favour, and placed in such a position that nothing but the most culpable apathy, or the most perverse blindness to national interests, could have prevented the public from taking it up and making it the astounding reality it has now become. The Society of Arts had, from its very commencement, acted more or less in this direction. Like all such associations, it had its fluctuations of prosperity and periods of activity and inaction. For some years previous to His Royal Highness Prince Albert becoming its President, it had done comparatively little towards the real object for which it was instituted, and its affairs had fallen into such a condition that but for the infusion of new blood, that last and desperate expedient of falling concerns -amalgamation-would have been resorted to. Happily this was avoided; earnest and intelligent men took the helm of its affairs, and it is, as already stated, beyond all question that the Great Industrial display of 1851 owes very much to this now flourishing and useful society. In Ireland the Royal Dublin Society, founded in 1723 (thirty years before the London Society of

Arts), had done much for the encouragement of the arts and manufactures of Ireland, and there is no doubt that the triennial exhibitions of this society, in which gold and silver medals and certificates were awarded for the best products of various kinds in agriculture, manufactures, and the arts, were really the first properly organized expositions of the industrial arts held in the three kingdoms. Two or three futile attempts were made pricr to anything like a successful result being achieved; but in 1829 an exhibition of Irish products was duly opened,* and similar displays have been held every three years since that period, and with increasing success. The rewards, as above indicated, were confined entirely to Ireland, and until the one of last year (1850), in which the seventh exhibition was held, none bu: Irish manufactures were permitted to be exhibited; on this last occasion, however, contributions were solicited from, and sent by, many manufacturers in England and Scotland, and the result, according to published accounts, was a display of a most interesting character.

England and Ireland being thus represented by their respective associations, each working in its own sphere of usefulness, it is now necessary that it should be shown that Scotland was not idle in the encouragement of her manufacturers and skilled artizans. The Board of Trustees for the encouragement of manufactures in Scotland was established in 1727, and arose out of arrangements as to the appropriation of certain funds due by England to Scotland at the Union; and there can be no doubt that to the influence of this Board, and its encouragement of the early efforts of Scottish industry, much of the present success of that country in the manufacture of carpets, shawls, linen-damasks, and fancy muslins, is due. One of its leading features, however, was a School of Art, and when it is known that all the most eminent artists of Scotland were educated in

The credit of this successful effort is said to be due to Sir Edward Stanley, still a member of the Committee of Manufactures of the Royal Dublin Society.