752 EEroRT— 1886. 



to their wares. Art, on the contrary, should he studied with as much daily care 

 as the other branches of the manufactory. Facts are adduced to show that it is 

 only when such care has been devoted that the work will live and be most pecu- 

 niarily profitable ; and the attention which in former times was given in this 

 direction is contrasted with the comparatively small amount of thought now, in 

 several instances, devoted thereto. The designer employed, being insufficiently 

 appreciated by his master, often either takes to some other branch of art or leaves 

 England to seek more remunerative employment. This statement is confirmed 

 by personal experience, and it is also borne out by the recent Eeport of the Tech- 

 nical Commissioners. Three ways in which artistic manufactures may be ad- 

 vanced : (1) By the encouragement of all hand manufactures and decoration ; (2) 

 by counteracting the apparently natural tendency of machinery and other inven- 

 tions to vulgarise art by the inordinate use of ornament of a poor character; and 

 (3) by making the training of the eye and of the hand by the use of tools an 

 essential part of education from the beginning of school-life. Each of these sug- 

 gestions is given in detail. The paper concludes by an allusion to the satisfactory 

 influence which architects and architecture may have on art manufactures. 



5. Imperial Federation, or Greater Britain United. 

 By Robert Grant Webster, LL.B., M.P. 



In this paper the author set forth with a declaration that it was not his intention 

 to place before his hearers anything in the nature of a schenle of his own for the 

 accomplishment of Federal Government. lie pointed out difficulties in the way of 

 developing a solution of the question capable of practical adaptability, and said his 

 desire was rather to put before them one or two prominent aspects of the great 

 question with a view of inducing discussion that might bring it a little nearer pro- 

 bably towards consummation, and to suggest what he considered might be a neces- 

 sarily first step towards the desired end. Starting with the declaration that the 

 absolute advantage of the closer and more real union of the diff'erent parts of our 

 vast empire was generally conceded, he claimed that not one of the various sugges- 

 tions that had hitherto been made bore the faintest chance of being practically 

 worked out. In his opinion the federation of the empire, if it was ever to be 

 accomplished, could only be brought about on lines completely new to those 

 hitherto advanced. Discussing the chief points on which it was desirable that the 

 empire should be brought into closer union, he placed first that of defence against 

 internal and external attack, which was only to be attained, he believed, by a quota 

 of both arms of the service being recruited and quartered in, and paid for by the 

 important dependencies. Secondly, he believed a thorough intercommunication of 

 the various parts of the empire would do much to solve the question ' how to 

 utilise the surplus population in any one portion of the empire by developing the 

 resources of the other parts;' for to him the keeping in the empire of the tens of 

 thousands of emigrants who now quitted our shores to swell the prosperity of other 

 countries was a matter for deep consideration. The question of paramount 

 importance, however, seemed to him to be the further consolidation of the commer- 

 cial relations of the British Empire. He believed it to be practicable to unite the 

 whole British Empire for commercial purposes. With regard to the means to this 

 end, he deprecated radical changes in the Constitution — the starting of bran new 

 constitutions. Eather let them work on old lines and proceed by gradual and 

 tentative measures, substituting improvements for old systems. The ' High State 

 Councd ' system of federal government advocated by Sir. Staveley Hill was un- 

 practicable, and he believed the Imperial Parliament and the legislative bodies of 

 the Colonies would never consent to place the great Imperial questions of the day 

 in the hands of the body suggested, which would be less in touch with the actual 

 existing feeling of the countries concerned than they themselves now were. In his 

 view the only true course open to this country was to make an endeavour to place 

 the matter within the range of practical politics by the appointment of a Royal 

 Commission, composed of representatives from all parts of the British Empire, 



