154 Lectures on the Results of the 



times when food is not so plentiful, or sent to countries where it is 

 always more difficult to procure food. Is not this a very great 

 gain ?* 



V. — Professor J. F. Royle, M.D., F.R.S. 



The Indian Collection a basis for Schools of Design. — That I 

 may not appear singular, says Professor Royle, especially to people 

 in India, in my estimation of the value of these Indian products, I 

 would beg, before concluding, to adduce some unconnected and in- 

 dependent testimonies. For this I may first refer to the articles 

 in The Times, which were distinguished as much by their talent 

 as by their discriminative criticism. " Turning to the class, ma- 

 nufactured articles, we find the long-established industries of the 

 Indian Peninsula asserting their excellence in a manner at once 

 characteristic and extraordinary. The same skill in goldsmiths' 

 work, in metals, in ivory carving, in pottery, in mosaics, in shawls, 

 in muslins, and carpets, w r as attained by those ingenious commu- 

 nities which now practise them, ages and ages ago. Yet, in these 

 things, which the natives of India have done well from time imme- 

 morial, they still remain unsurpassed.'' — (April 25.) And again, 

 " Yet, in another point of view, these remarkable and characteristic 

 collections have a value that can hardly be overrated. By their 

 suggestiveness, the vulgarities in art manufactures, not only of 

 England, but of Christendom, may be corrected; and from the- 

 carpets, the shawls, the muslins, and the brocades of Asia, and 

 from much of its metallic and earthenware products, can be clearly 

 traced those invaluable rules of art, a proper definition and recog- 

 nition of which form the great desiderata of our more civilised in- 

 dustrial systems." — (Times, July 4.) 



I may fitly conclude these quotations with an extract from a 

 letter of the Government Committee, on the selection of articles 

 for the use of the Schools of Design, addressed by J. C. Melvill, 

 Esq., Secretary to the Honourable East India Company : — u We 

 have to request that you will acquaint the Court of Directors, 

 that, having duly examined the collection exhibited by the Court, 

 we have found it to contain, beyond any other department of the 

 Exhibition, objects of the highest instructional value to students 

 in design, and that we have selected the accompanying list of arti- 

 cles from their collection, which we express a hope may be 

 secured for the benefit of the Schools." The Committee selected 

 about two hundred and fifty. As some belonged to private indi- 

 duals, they were able to purchase nearly two hundred articles out 

 of the Indian collection, for the use and improvement of the 

 Schools of Design in this country. 



* The agency for the sale of meat-biscuit in tliis country, is 2 St Peter's 

 Alloy, Cornhill. 



