1844. 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



169 



power lonins, and for tlip various innchinerv hy wliich miinnfacUires 

 are in tliis cmintry carried on. Willi llie s.une feeling, we s:iv, it 

 is a miilter of interest even to tlie inacliine nrikers that smnid in- 

 struction in art should be given in the scliools of design. 'I'liey form 

 ttieir [lursuits, and wiih the idea, as they imagine, of benertting their 

 own workmen, have a prepossession for mechanical drawing, drawing 

 from cbjscts a la Butler Williams, and all the various artilicial cork- 

 swimming contrivances which convert designs into a malter of rules 

 and compasses. On the other hand we maintain that they have the 

 strongest interest in sufjportiiig instruction in design on the basis of 

 art, and we hope that in Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, E linburgh, 

 Newcastle, Birmingham, and other places, the inacliioisis will nutonly 

 he forward in subscribing to the schools of design, but that they will 

 he foremost in promoting the due cultivation of taste in design, which, 

 altliough it is to be aided by geometrical study, can never be attained 

 on such a basis. The independent instruction of the eye is the grand 

 thing, and lines and compasses so far from effecting that absolutely de- 

 tract from it most seriously. Nay so strongly do we feel this that we 

 say it is better for the mechanical draftsman himself to begin with the 

 delineation of the human figure, and that he will profit more by such 

 studies in his own branch than he would under Ihe ordinary curriculum. 

 Here however the change is hopeless, for if you could convince ilie 

 employer, you can never convince the self-satisfied mechanic, whose 

 preconceived ideas are an invincible obstable. 



It is with such impressions of the importance to all classes of our 

 readers of the study of design, that we are pleased to see Mr. Hay's 

 work as one useful in itself and gratifying as an evidence of Imb pro- 

 gress which has been made. These designs are in'ended (or the use 

 of decorative painters, weavers of carpet'., damasks and shawls, 

 printers of calico, paper stainers, stained ({I 'ss inanidacturers and 

 others, and will, we have Utile doubt, prove of value, for Mr. Hay has 

 paid particularatlention to this branch of desi:^n, which is of extensive 

 application, and as to which few accessible exam .les exist. For the classes 

 to whom it is addressed it is ess>-ntial that ■■ur.li a work should be iii a 

 cheap form, and in this res.ect Mr. hay has nut been neglectful, while 

 it will from its intrinsic interest |irove an attractive woi-k fur the study 

 and the drawing room. Each plate is of a largf' foolscap size, and each 

 d"sign in du|>licate,one plate being an oulline and the other with tinted 

 c<im|iartments. The outline plates will of course be found useful tor 

 fillin" up as coloured paiterns in different branches of decoration, and 

 we sliould recommend Mr. Hay to i/ublisli ihe outline plates in a 

 separate form for this |)urpose. The filling u i of these plates in 

 colour may be made to serve as a very useful study both for private 

 students and in schools of design. A very good exercise and an ap- 

 propriate means of coinpetilion would be to require the emblazoning 

 of a plate in a particular key colour, say blue, or orange, or purple, 

 from which competitions great advantages would accrue, for accord- 

 ing to the relative taste and instruction of the pupils, many diversilies 

 ol treatment would result, which would become the subject of com- 

 ment and the means of improvement. 



Prefixed to the prpseut part is the commencement of an essay on 

 ornamental design, which has many (loints of interest, and wliich sub- 

 sequently is to be directed to the discussion of the practical points of 

 decorative study. In the loUcjwing extract from this essay, we fully 

 concur, and we think m iny will agree that its applicability to archi- 

 tecture IS not its least merit. 



"There has been much said and written upon purity of stvle, and it 

 may startle some to see it asserted, that this has had only one temiencv, 

 and that has been to retard the progress of the art of ornainenial de- 

 sign in this country. But many of llie kinds of ornament calletl styles 

 being themselves impure, in so far as they are destitute of the first 

 principles of beauty, a servile adherence to them is not onlv a very 

 questionable kind of purity, but calculated to corrupt the taste, while 

 it retards originality of conception. 



" 1( an ornamental designer were asked to imitale another in the 

 same profession, he must either be conscious of his own inferioritv, or 

 feel his reputation compromised by the request. And the same in iv 

 be said of any other profession where conception or originality of de- 

 sign is required, to constitute t-xcellence. If a poet imitates the 

 works of another poet, he thereby acknowledges his own inferiority; 

 and so does the artist who copies tlie work (either ancient or modern; 

 of another artist. But in neither case can the works copied constitute 

 Ol supersede the laws or first principles of art. The greatest iiierii of 

 all woiksof art, either in poetry, music, painting, or sculfiture, con- 

 sists in their being unlike the style of any that have preceded them ; 

 for there are no limits lo the iuvmtive powers of genius; and indeed 

 it is only invention and originality that prove the possess. on of that 

 divine gilt. But the mode of proceeding in regard to tuition in the 

 ornamental arts has, in this counirv, been of a very opposite 

 character. What lias hitherto beeu understood Dy purity of style, is 



notliing more than servility of copying, and if we were to inquire very 

 closely into the origin of what are termed styles of ornament, we 

 should find their idaims to this distinction to rest on a foundation of a 

 very slight and unsatisfactory kind." 



Before we leave this subject, we may remark that we are glad to 

 hail the formation of a Society for the Promotion of Decorative Art, 

 for much good must accrue from such an institution. It will tend to 

 m ike decorative art a rnspectable pursuit, and respectability, as a 

 matter of political economy goes a good way towards cheapness, and 

 it will be the means of strengthening good impressions and diffusing 

 new ideas. It will also, we hope, serve to brush up other depart- 

 ments ol art. The architect, the painter, and the sculptor, want the 

 exercise of a wholesome influence upon lliem, until they duly feel 

 which they will never put forth the energies which, as Englishmen, 

 it behoves them to exhibit, nor leave the fleshpots of Egypt, the ser- 

 vile imitations of the woiks of antiquity. What dwarfs do even our 

 mighty appear when we come to compare them in any respect with 

 the great men of old. Our people have no love of wisdom for her 

 own sake, a love of her as a holy thing, but all they care about is just 

 the smallest amount of knowledge in their own particular pursuits that 

 will give them a money-mongering proficiency. Where are we to 

 look for a Michael Ang'^lo — architect, sculptor, poet, engineer, anato- 

 mist, mathematici.m, great in every pursuit ; and who has acquired 

 fame in each where a Leonardo da Vinci, whose engineering dis- 

 coveries were not less admirable than his pictorial triumphs, where a 

 Titian, a Raffaelle, a Rubens, anAlonzo del Cano, a Holbein, men who 

 con^'idered art a Catholic pursuit, who not merely acquired m.inual 

 proficiency in every branch of il, but thought it could not adequately 

 be studied, if literature and science were neglected, men who com- 

 manded esteem by the extent of their acquirements, were enlrusted 

 with the most varied em|)loyineuts, and looked up to with respect as 

 the rightful ministers of the public, wherever the highest degree of 

 instruction, and the most extraordinary talent were to be displayed. 

 To such a mean pass, have, we coine that painters are regaideil ,is 

 next to musicians and actors, that class which has the least sympathy 

 with learning, and architects, defeated in every competition, are 

 threatened, with invasion hy the engineers. I'o seek a painter who 

 could read a page of Homer would be a hopeless task ; to find one 

 decent y acquainted with our own literature, or our own history, would 

 be scarcely more easy. We need hardly say that art has sufifred 

 much from these fact>, art and learning have become dissociated, and 

 art has become a poor relation, so neglectful of appearances as not to 

 command respett. Undoubtedly one main reason why you have not 

 lecturers in art at London, Oxford, or Cambridge, is because you have 

 not gut painters, sculptors, or architects, who have the decent rudi- 

 ments of letters to qualify them fur the task they would have lo per- 

 form. What an expositor of Homer, of Sophocles, -jr Herodotus, 

 would he be who could not read liiui, and how could one, fathoms iii 

 acquirements below the dullest freshman, command respect. Lec- 

 tures from such men wou.d be farces, in which students would be 

 more occupied in criticizing the ignorance of the exhibitors than in 

 acquiring any other degree of instruction from ihein. We liave heard 

 attempts within a metropolitan college, and we mustsay they were sick- 

 ening. It IS very true, the lectures were not attended by the body 

 of the college, or there would have been much to disgust. Now, 

 it is under these circumstances, we conceive any kind of brushing u[i 

 will do good, and even the humble studenis of declarative an, having 

 healthier sympathies, and a greater love lor knowledge, will be able 

 to read a uselul lesson to their sophisticated soperiurs. We sincerely 

 hope this will be dune, for we wish well to art, and sliould not have 

 lahoured so m.my years for its advancement, il we had not felt that 

 there aie the elements of iinproveinent, and that art is nut at the pre- 

 sent moment dulv pursueil, nor Its possessors in that elevated posi- 

 tion winch, from the right exercise of their acquirements, they would 

 derive. 



RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION. 



A Letter to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Prts/dent </ l/ie 

 Board 0/ Trade, on Railway Legmlatiun. " Nitor in Adversum." 

 London: Nickissou, 1814. 



We have seldom seen a more masterly exposition on the subject of 

 railways than is to be found in this brief pamphlet; if, thertlure, we 

 dissent from its reasonings and the remedies it proposes, it is because 

 we draw different conclusions from tiie same premises, and regard 

 premises upon which our autlnu' has not argued. At a time win n rant 

 and cant are so prevalent with regard to railways, and a pretext is 

 earnestly sought to hunt them down, il is matter of great cuiisulatiun 



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