224 Technical Education . [April, 
increasing year by year, and the wealthiest part of the 
Capital of England receives the lion’s share of them. 
The establishment of Art Museums in London cannot 
create an art atmosphere in the provinces ; just as a school 
established in London could not teach those who live in the 
country ; and it is in Art Museums that the artistic artizan, 
as well as the technical artist, must perfect his taste and 
seek for inspiration, as the landscape painter seeks for in- 
spiration by living a portion of his life amid the most beau- 
tiful scenery. Mr. Potter’s answer to a question on the 
expenditure at South Kensington is as true to-day as it 
was when spoken in 1864 — “ I think there is too large an 
expenditure there, and too little in the country, and that 
it ought to be shared if it is desirable to promote technical 
art teaching at ally 
It is to be hoped that some pradtical plan, which will 
prove beneficial to the nation at large, will result from the 
interview which took place, on the 8th of March, between 
the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education and a 
highly influential deputation, introduced by Mr. Jesse 
Collings, M.P., with respedt to the establishment of local 
museums. The deputation was not on this occasion put off 
with the stereotyped official answer that the provinces must 
rely upon themselves, and therefore it is evident that the 
Government feel that, even in the interests of trade and 
commerce, they can no longer oppose the granting of aid 
towards the establishment of Museums in the provincial 
towns. Mere loans of art objedts from the South Kensington 
Museum will not accomplish the objedt sought. There must 
be ever present an art atmosphere, and this can only be 
attained by having, as in London, permanent museums. 
And if the colledtions in these provincial museums were 
varied for each museum, and made interchangeable at stated 
periods, there would thus be provided for each locality a large 
art colledtion at a comparatively small cost ; and by the 
exchange freshness and novelty would be imparted to each 
colledtion, and the freshness and novelty would be most 
fully sustained, and the practical difficulties connedted with 
the exchange overcome, if only a portion of the colledtion 
of each museum were interchanged on each occasion. 
