§ 116—118. TASTE ACCESSIBLE TO ALL. 355 



monumental designs, it would not be difficult to prove that 

 many of their architects and sculptors, who enjoy great 

 reputation, are guilty of anomalies and short-comings quite 

 as glaring as any to be found in an exhibition of English 

 competitors. We may be deficient in the full appreciation 

 of proportion, form, and colour ; and the postage-envelope 

 arrangement, the figure banished to the top of a column, the 

 ill-understood obelisk (sometimes on four stone balls), the 

 slab (half pyramid, half obelisk) with a portrait within a 

 wreath, and a few other commonplace compositions may 

 still occur among our designs; but many of them appear 

 also in those of foreigners, who fail in erecting good monu- 

 ments equally with ourselves. 



118. Nor are our improvements confined to architecture; 

 the interesting and instructive collection of sculpture, in the 

 Crystal Palace of Sydenham, shows that British sculptors 

 compete most successfully with those of other countries ; and 

 the English school of painting, by the position it has taken, 

 maintains the credit of the country in its own department of 

 art. Nor can I abstain from noticing the great improve- 

 ments made in pottery and porcelain, in glass, in carpets, and 

 some other manufactures, where theory has not been allowed 

 to interfere ; and it would be satisfactory if the demand for 

 them showed that the taste of the public kept pace with that 

 of the makers. Unfortunately it is this which retards its 

 progress ; and however great may be the talent of the pro- 

 ducer, he receives little encouragement from those who ought 

 to be the first to give it — the educated and wealthy portion 

 of the community. In fact, no one in this country can make 

 works of a purely ornamental character with the hope of 

 being remunerated for his labour and expense; they must 

 be of general use to command any sale; and unless his 

 profits from such as are required by everyone, for household 

 and other purposes, are sufficient to counterbalance Lis loss 



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