This idea has received encouragement; and many have expressed their willingness to contribute towards the support of proper establishments for that purpose. But, notwithstanding the favourable auspices with which it was received, it seems of late to have been discountenanced and obstructed.

Objections have been dispersed through the medium of the public papers; the weapons both of argument and ridicule have been employed against it. These have not been without their effect; and the proposition seems likely to sink into oblivion, not only without being tried, but without that consideration which any plan connected with the improvement of the lower classes of society imperiously demands.

Imperfect as the present system of education may be, it will readily be admitted, that whatever tends to introduce novel modes of instruction, ought not to be received without serious deliberation. If the present methods be wrong or defective, it may not follow that a new one may be precisely right. It is on this account that the objections that have been raised against this plan are entitled to notice; and until these are removed, it is not to be expected that it can meet with a cordial and general support.

Before we enter upon the consideration of these objections, let us, however, first see what the present system of education for the lower classes of the community is, and what is proposed to be grafted upon it. To describe the former, a very few words may suffice-the children are shut up in a room-frequently a great number together, for six or eight hours every day, where, in the course of as many years, by the united means of imprisonment, threats, and discipline, they learn to read an easy book, to write an indifferent hand, and in some cases to understand the first rules of arithmetic; although the latter branch of education is often regarded with peculiar jealousy, as being likely to awaken those dormant powers of mind, which, although the gift of God, many persons think it the duty of man to extinguish.

What precise quantity of misery is thrust into that space of human life which extends from six to sixteen years of age, it is not possible to de:

Dismissing, however, the consideration of the means adopted, let us look at the improvements made, which, with respect to the lower classes of the community, are chiefly confined to reading and writing. To these it is proposed to add the art of Drawing, with a view, in the first instance, of qualifying the children for a trade or profession, in which such accomplishment may be of use, and eventually, perhaps, of extending through the country at large, a more general taste for the fine arts, than that by which it has hitherto been distinguished.

In the first point of view, the advantages to be derived from a knowledge in the art of Drawing, are appa rent and indisputable. If to see be an advantage, to see correctly is certainly an additional one; and how can this correctness of sight be given by any method, so effectually, as by the practice of drawing the objects that present themselves? In fact, the genera, lity of mankind go through life without ever having acquired the proper use of their bodily faculties. The eye of a painter, or even of a good me chanic, is as much superior to that of a common person, as a watch is to a grindstone.

Should any person ask in what profession these acquirements are neces

sary

sary, it may, perhaps, shorten the examination, to ask, in what they are unnecessary? From the architect who designs a building, to the workman who cuts the stone, or the carpenter who raises the roof, is not a correct eye the first qualification? If, from the outside of our houses, we enter the rooms, is not every thing around us the result of the arts intimately connected with drawing and design? Have not our chairs, our tables, the papers on our walls, to say nothing of the pictures with which they are decorated, been invented and fashioned by artists or mechanics, who have acquired for themselves, in afterlife, those endowments which might have been given them when young, and which, consequently, they would not only have obtained with more ease, but enjoyed in greater perfection? If we look into our manufactories, whether of hard ware or earthenware, of silk or cotton, in what de, partment is not the skill of the designer, and the talent of the workman, indispensibly necessary? or by what other accomplishment is it that the manufactures of our Country are preferred to those of others, but from the elegance of the design, and the truth and correctness of the workmanship? Whatever, therefore, tends to the improvement of these powers, from which this Country has already derived such benefits, must be a natioanl advantage; and if, instead of confining this improvement to drawing, it could be extended to communicate to our infant progeny some degree of maDual skill in arts and manufactures, it would certainly be of as much use, at least, as any accomplishment in which they are now to be instructed.

To this scheme, however, many objections have been raised, which it may now be proper candidly to examine; at least as far as they are seriously made. The chief of these is, that by instructing a great number of children in drawing, a considerable portion of our youth will be taken from those useful and laborious occupations to which they are destined, and to which the good of society requires that they should be confined; and will be instructed in an occupation of no real utility, or of merely an ornamental kind; besides which, it may lead them to indulge in hopes of profit, advancement, and even of

fame, which all cannot obtain, and which the very number of candidates will prevent from being beneficial to any. As a proof of this, we are told, by a writer in the Courier, who signs himself A. B. that "since the establishment of the Royal Society, and other free academies, artists have encreased to that degree, that perhaps the far greater part of them are genteelly starving and that even those of eminence in their profession are obliged to submit to the most humiliating circumstances, to procure a bare existence; so that, to add to these would, in many respects, increase the sum of human wretchedness."

If the above statement were true, which it is not, the inference to be drawn from it is exactly the reverse of that which the writer would imply. It is not because of a too general dif fusion of a taste for the fine arts, and a knowledge of their excellencies, that artists are not encouraged, but because of the ignorance which prevails on this subject, and the indifference with which the works of real merit are often viewed by the publick at large. If we consider the proficiency that has been made in this Country in other departments, we cannot but be astonished at the little improvement which has taken place in this, and even at the comparative small number of persons who devote themselves professionally to the arts of design. To say nothing of the ancient states of Greece, where these arts were held in the highest honour, and conferred wealth and immortality on their numerous professors, let us look at France, or at Holland, or the Netherlands, in the middle and latter part of the XVIIth century, and see the immense benefits derived to those countries from the works of the eminent artists with which they at that period abounded. Even the City of Antwerp alone could boast of many hundreds of eminent painters, whose names have descended with honour to posterity, and whose works are yet purchased at enormous and even increasing prices. The influx of wealth thus brought into that City from the rest of Europe may readily be imagined—an influx obtained through the mere effort of genius and of talent, in which the vafue of the materials employed was as nothing to the profits acquired, and in which those profits were not liable

to

to be reduced by any countervailing loss.

But it is said, that these are not useful occupations, but are subservient to luxury; that to encourage them would be to degrade the character and lower the spirit of the nation, and that on this account only, they ought to be discountenanced and put down. Be it so; let us avoid every thing which can soften the ferocity of our manners, which can improve and humanize the mind; and, instead of endeavouring to obtain the wealth of other nations by our superior industry or skill, let us tear it from them by war and plunder. But if the productions of the pencil or the chisel are thus to be reprobated, let us not forget that the same reasoning will equally apply to our manufactures and our mechanical arts. It has hitherto been the policy of this country to produce from the raw material, whether mineral or vegetable, an article which exceeds in value that from which it is produced in an almost incalculable degree; and it has generally been thought that the more the labour and skin exceeded, in value, the material on which it is employed, the more was obtained to the common stock; but, although the iron employed in a highly finished stove grate, or the wool in a Norwich shawl, be comparatively small, yet they exceed beyond all proportion the relative value of the canvas which the genius of a West can render worth three thousand pounds; a sum as actually realized to the artist by his picture, as it is to the manufacturer by his goods, and with at least equal advantage and honour to the community at large.

Luxury is a relative term. When the first rude inhabitants of the earth sought for shelter from the inclemency of the seasons, in a hollow tree, then luxury began. When one of them finding, by long experience, that the winds of night frequently incommoded his repose, provided himself with another tree, opposed to a different aspect, and occupied one or the other, as they might happen to afford him a screen, undoubtedly his ruder associates exclaimed against him, as being unable to bear the blasts of heaven, and as being the

slave of luxury.

therefore, is ever too late; we lay out our grounds, we trim our hedges,

we erect palaces, we decorate our rooms in silk and linens, we are seated on the skins or the wool of animals, and we repose on beds of down. At what precise point we are to stop in this dangerous career, it is not easy to say but it is by this that the taste is displayed, the eye gratified, the limbs reposed, the ingenious encouraged, the mechanic fed, the poor comforted, and the world combined, associated, and improved. If, then, a fine picture afford a pleasure to its possessor, equal to that of an elegant screen, or an inlaid book-case, let us allow it an equal place in our estimation-or if we despise the one, let us despise the other, and return to our original luxuries, the wild berries, the mountain stream, and the hollow tree.

PAINTERS - no

"By

Such are the answers that might be made to the objections before stated, and to those of a similar nature, if such objections could be thought to have any relation to the subject; but, in fact, it is not within the scope of the present plan to raise up practitioners in the higher departments of art. On this head the proposer of the scheme has expressed himself in terms too clear to be misunderstood. studying and design (says he), I do not mean that all our boys should be -to be a painter of history, a man should have a most liberal education indeed---all I mean is, that he should learn to be a draughtsman, only with pen and ink, chalk, or black-lead. I mean them to draw correctly a steady outline, no shadowing, no washing, no colouring--and so much only taught in all our charityschools, would be an advantage to the public welfare." Thus the objec tions against raising numerous hosts of painters, to contend with, and to starve each other, apply not to the present scheme, which extends no further than to teach the pupils to see with that correctness which is necessary in whatever business they may subsequently be employed, and to describe what they see in a clear, correct, and intelligible manner.

Mr. URBAN

S

PERICLES.

Muirtown, Invernessshire, Jan. 14.

As the following observations partly relate to Gen. Moreau, they may at present be not unacceptable to many of your Readers.

Towards