of the figures of animals, and also to any subject being matter of invention in sculpture. It is very difficult to ascertain the true construction to be put upon the words "being matter of invention in sculpture," but my opinion is that they would not extend to guarantee the copyright of any model of scroll work, &c. cast in metal, as in the instance of the iron gates of the royal entrance to Buckingham Palace at Hyde Park Corner, which are remarkably beautiful. Now I apprehend that if casts or impressions were to be clandestinely taken from those gates, and another pair similar in all respects, but with the omission of the royal arms, were to be thereby made and sold, and the proprietors of the model were to bring an action for the piracy, it would be contended that there was no copyright in the design, as it would not consist of models of any part of the human figure or the figure of animals. Moreover, as it could be easily proved that the models of those gates were originally made in wax, clay, or some plastic material, and then cast by the founder in iron, it would be held that there was no sculpture in the matter, and that therefore they could not come within the meaning of the words "mat. ter of invention in sculpture." They might be imitated, provided the King's Arms, which of course contains representations of animals, were omitted. This imperfection of the law applies to the proprietor of the model, whether he be the artist, or whether he has purchased it from the artist. By the copyright of a model is of course understood the exclusive privilege of making copies or casts from that model, which a manufacturer may purchase from the artist. The inventor of models which come within the Acts of Parliament as representing human figures or figures of animals, is, I think, sufficiently protected by the present law. I do not consider that the present copyright is for too long a period with a view to afford the inventor a fair protection, and at the same time with a view to the interests of the public, because articles of the nature of which I have been speaking do not sell rapidly; at first the manufacturer will sell but few, and it is only when they become known that he is repaid for his outlay. In respect to plans for recording new designs and models in England, I would suggest that offices of registration or depositories of original designs should be established in the principal towns of the kingdom, where artists or proprietors of new models should deposit a correct drawing or copy of that model, accompanied with a declaration or affidavit of the artist or proprietor, that it is really a new model, and is his property. With respect to the stamps or marks on castings, taken from those models, the plan now adopted under the Act of Parliament is to stamp the name

of the proprietor and the date in every such casting previously to publication for sale; but this mode is extremely inconvenient, and it would be a great disfigurement for small castings of figures, or otherwise, to have so large a stamp as would be required on them, It would, I think, answer the purpose better if to every drawing deposited a number were attached at the office; and that the manufacturer should be required to stamp his article with that number, and a letter which should stand for the name of the town in which it was registered, as A might be London; B, Manchester; C, Birmingham, and so on; a kind of index; and by using the letters of the alphabet in the Roman, Italian, and English characters, and those doubled by taking the capital and small letters, we should have 124 towns, many more than would be required for registration in the kingdom. In order to facilitate the understanding of these marks, it would be essential to the public that a key to the letters, that is, a list of towns and their distinguishing cha racters, should be exhibited in some public part of every office of registration. By that arrangement it would be easy to ascertain whether the models were really registered or not, which would be necessary to prevent persons from stamping their works without taking the trouble to register them, and from passing off copies of old models as new and original ones. A mode of registration exists in France, by depositing drawings of models, but I believe the other part of the plan I have stated is new. The numbering and the alphabetical key to the register is my own idea. A provision ought to be made to protect the copyright of models in cases not of an exact copy, but of so near an imitation that one might sell as well as the other; for instance, a figure of Apollo, by altering the posture in the slightest degree, or putting a different drapery upon it. With regard to designs in jewellery, the observation I made as to the additional costliness of articles of silver extend also to jewellery; in England, our designs in jewellery are superior to the French designs. In this case the manufacturer is frequently his own designer. I attribute the superiority of the English in designs of jewellery to the superior encouragement afforded in England to the manufacture of expensive articles in gold jewellery. In imitative jewellery, however, the French excel us, for there is greater encouragement in France for the inferior classes of ornaments than there is for the real; the propriety of the distinction that I draw between the qualities of the real and imitative jewellery of the two countries may be inferred from the circumstance, that immense quantities of gilt jewellery are annually imported from France and but little or none in gold.

Mr. Charles Harriott Smith, Sculptor of Ar chitectural Ornaments, examined: My profession relates to the decoration of buildings; the exterior in stone, and the interior in marble; particularly such work as that about the exterior of the new National Gallery, on which I am now occupied; it is that particular department which I principally profess. The capitals and other ornaments, small monuments for churches, ornamented chimneypieces, &c. There is no difficulty in finding useful assistants, provided I can afford to give them a fair remuneration. The ordinary wages of a clever person, according to his abilities, about 21. or 31. per week. I design myself, but I work a great deal under the direction of architects from their designs. There are no national schools where students can obtain instruction; a few private academies. I have always found workmen who can draw, if ever so little, are more useful and have the preference. I was going to mention a case in point that recently occurred to me; I sent my foreman into Yorkshire with work; on his arrival he found difficulties arose which he had not, nor had I anticipated, and by letter to me, illustrated by his sketches, he explained all that I could wish for. No one but a man conversant with drawings could have done that; similar circumstances are likely to occur to any man in business; and such Len obtain in consequence higher wages. The workmen have gradually improved, which I attribute to good practice and emulation among themselves; also, the opportunity of seeing works of art, and the opportunity of practising upon works that are likely to improve them. The public demand for architectural ornaments increases, especially in my department. We are most deficient in the true spirit of the Gothic or old English style of carving; but what is strictly called architectural ornaments are more particularly a mechanical process, such as Corinthian and other capitals, friezes of regular proportional parts, &c.; but where trophies, draperies, and those sorts of things occur, they become more decidedly connected with the fine arts. The workmen are, of course, less skilful in that branch than the mere execution of the mechanical part, such as the capitals of Corinthian columns, because it approaches nearer to a work of fine art, and hence becomes more difficult to execute. Wages increase pretty much in the proportion in which the operative is removed ́ from mechanical labour towards the production of art; those branches that are purely mechanical and depend much on accuracy of measurement, such as the execution of Corinthian capitals, are done by ingenious common workmen, if I may so term them; when they are employed on work nearly approach

ing to fine art, which requires more study and mental comprehension, of course the men have better practice, and if they succeed they demand higher wages, and are entitled to it. I think, that simply in consequence of the improved habits of artisans in my branch of art, it is desirable to give them further means of improvement, since their tendency is to a greater degree of refinement, and that they deserve encouragement by instruction, and opening public places of resort, where they will be made familiar with works of art. I have heard them express a wish to that effect. I have frequently heard them complain of impediments in the way of seeing works of art; and that the museums and exhibitions are not opened after their working hours, and that they have no opportunity of going to them, without not only having to pay for admission, but to lose their time, and of course it thus costs them much more than it does persons in easier circumstances. I think it would be desirable that those collections of works of art, whose influence upon the labouring population would be so benefi-cial, should be accessible to them at times when they could be visited without any great pecuniary sacrifice on their part. I have always considered that the best means of serving the industrious classes, is to increase their means of serving themselves. I have visited most of the museums in France, and I do not think them superior in designing. The French are more aware of the importance of employing artists to design for their manufactures than the English are. What I have observed as to the comparative merits of the same description of works in the two countries, is this; I think ornaments are as well designed in England as in any country, but the French workmen, collectively, are better educated in art than the English work. men; consequently the French artist has a greater facility of getting his designs well executed than the English artist. The French people, as a body, seem not to be so satisfied with inferior performances as the English Whatever deficiency of taste is displayed in our manufactures, arises not so much from want of taste in artists to design and in our workmen to execute, as it does from want of study and education in the arts among proprietors and conductors of establishments wherein classical design and execution forms an important feature. I am also of opinion, that the public, as a body, are not yet sufficiently educated in the arts to discriminate between pure classical elegance and meretricious finery. I am alluding to the public as a body in this country; and the dealers' study is not so much to improve the taste of the public, as to discover what goods will sell most readily, and produce them the largest profit. To mention instances in which

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like a cour de prud' hommes, or a board of competent arbitration, but doubt whether it would be right for them all to be artists. I also think that the period of the duration of copyright should be in proportion to the talent displayed and the importance of the ob. ject. Some cases might not deserve three months' protection, others would require 50 years. Some things deserve also to be better protected than others, in consequence of the great facility of copying them. All works that can be cast in plaster particularly require protection; for that which has cost the labour of months or years and vast expense, may be re-produced by the plagiarist in a few hours. Such circumstances prevent the ap. plication of first-rate talent to any such productions. In a great measure, the protection should depend on the talent of the artist. I consider that it would be for the interest of the public, for instance in a very beautiful work, that such a board or special jury should have the power of proposing, on the part of the public, to the artist, that his design should be bought up; but I have a very strong objection to the consideration of the interest of the public being paramount. The circumstance of the Americans giving to their citizens an exclusive privilege of copyright, takes away all energy and exertion from those citizens. It has become scarcely worth while for an American to produce a work of talent, when the bookseller can get them from abroad for the price of a single copy. The French are superior to us in the accuracy of execution of their work, but not equal in fancy and imagination; I have myself been employed to design for a work that has been sent over to France to be executed, and the execution was exceedingly correct. I should speak rather in favour of their execution and knowledge than their taste; for works in metal we still prefer that of the early period of Louis XIV. as more free and effective. I attribute the superiority of the French in correctness of drawing to the various schools of design established in every principal town, but more particularly in Paris; there schools are so various, that I do not think that any but a resident in Paris can fully understand the relative difference; they consist of the Royal Academy and the Government school of drawing; of private schools under an eminent artist, and of subscription academies, with no other than mutual instruction. Having resided seventeen years in that capital, and studied in one of their best schools and at the Royal Academy for eight or nine years, I am decidedly of opinion that private schools, under the most eminent masters, are greatly superior to any public establishments. The private schools are the original system of the instruction in France, as they were in Italy during its greatness. These schools are

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generally intended for the higher branches of art; but persons who do not evince talent of a high order, naturally fall into the employment of manufacturers. There is one school in Paris for the instruction of artisans employed by manufacturers. Each department has also something like a school of that kind; I am afraid it will be found they produce very little of that which may really be called talent. The national course of instruction for artists in France is very superior to the usual means in England; it consists of private schools, which system bears the most national character of any. Every man of talent, as an artist in France, is supposed to owe much of his reputation to the pupils he produces; his object is to produce men of superior abilities, but the school gets popular, and the system is so well understood, that the number of students becomes very great, and from their superiority they are, when interest does not interfere, appointed teachers in the Government schools, and give a general tone to the talent of the country as far as circumstances admit. The Government schools are very inferior to the others in utility. The private establishments have the spirit of the country in them much more than the Government schools, for the Government schools are founded on one system, and, with one or two exceptions, all follow the same course; they do not fall into the wants of the times and the people so much as the private establishments. I do not mean that they are in name national schools, but they are the schools that give a national character to the French artists; which character is materially checked by the control of Government administration. France, Government interference in positive instruction is injurious. The encouragement given to art in France is principally from the liberality of exhibitions, and most particularly of the libraries and the museums. The opportunities of study in the libraries and museums are far superior to any thing in this country. I may mention, in proof thereof, that the works of Flaxman, of Mr. Hope, and the publications on Etruscan vases of Sir William Hamilton, were shut up in private collections in England, and produced little effect on the public taste; but being placed in the libraries in Paris and other towns, where not only artists but the public had free access, the knowledge and taste of Flaxman and Hope became there generally appreciated, instead of being, as in England, confined to a few. A fine example of their museums was that of the French monuments, where, in appropriate halls, samples of French statuary of seven successive centuries, afforded an excellent opportunity of studying the taste and the history of the nation. That of mechanical machines is also of great

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utility. Museums, I apprehend, must be the permanent and all-important sources of taste. Public lectures on the great pr nciples of design and taste may be advantageously added thereto; and from the necessity of the case, another country being so greatly in advance of us in those branches, schools for the instruction of mere outline, and still more of the rules of perspective, would produce very great and beneficial effect. I certainly do think that much advantage would be derived from instruction in the proper simple rules, without shackling the taste; but it appears to me that good taste is so essential to the interests of the community, that museums should be provided at the national expense; but practical skill being an advantage of a more individual nature, ought rather to be paid for (moderately) by the individual. The general taste is decidedly higher in France than in England; but superior taste and imagination more frequent in England. I account for the distinction from this circumstance, I think the arrangements of Louis XIV. and Colbert have placed such fetters on imagination that the utmost that instruction can do in France is to inculcate fixed principles and precision of execution. In the fourthyear of the republic, under the Convention, schools of various kinds were instituted. Exhibitions and prizes were also decreed on a liberal scale, but they were ultimately counteracted by the re-establishment of the Academy, similar to Louis XIV., and the occasional injudicious interference of the Emperor. There has been no alteration in the Academy of Arts from 1800 till the present moment,except the exclusion of foreigners from the prizes, and a few minor bye-laws. I conceive that the fixed principles and correctness of execution are all that can be properly conveyed of instruction to an artist. They are all that can be wished for when competition is encouraged; and without free competition art is stifled, therefore it is absolutely essential. With regard to the departmental schools, if the appointments of professors were popular they might do a deal of good; but when I have seen an old man of 62 or 63 appointed to one of those schools, not for the good of his pupils, but to save him from starving, I cannot expect much good therefrom; when I have known in the principal school for the mechanics of Paris, a man of the highest talent, M. Peyron, after 25 or 30 years' exertions in the under professorship, superseded in his claim to the higher professorship by a friend of the Minister, I find a total want of that principle which free competition and proper elections would have carried out. The reason I think superior taste and imagination more in England, is on account of the restriction in

France, where, being under the Minister of the Interior, all follow one system and routine. In England, competition is created by commerce, which frequently brings a man from the humbler branches of manufacture to the highest stage of art, such as Martin, Muss, Bone, Bacon, and Banks. In fact, the French attempt to teach that which is probably not within the strict limits of teaching, and interfere a great deal too much. The positive, the undeniable, fixed and positive rules of art, such, for instance, as perspective, anatomy, proportion, and perhaps botany, and those things which connect arts with manufactures, in which the principles are undeniable, should, of course, be taught. I think it almost as necessary for a people to possess a knowledge of those points, as to know how to write; I consider it a second way of reading all the beauties and merits of nature. The deficiencies, both in England and France, which still exist, are, first, the deficiency of correctness of perspective, even where correctness of outline is otherwise generally attained; perspective is often little understood in other countries, but is particularly neglected in England. Secondly, a very imperfect knowledge of the history of the arts and of commerce, their effects on each other, and on the state of nations, and thence false theories. The relative influence of the taste of Paris and London, is this, the taste of Paris spreads all over France almost like lightning, while that of London is very nuch counteracted by the different habits and influences of our commercial towns: for this very reason, museums exactly similar might be established in France without any material injury; but museums in England would be best under the direction of a general board, but modified by the management of men capable of applying them to local purposes. If the town of Liverpool had a museum, it certainly would not, if left to the management of a local board, be similar to a museum in Birmingham or Sheffield, and it would be right that they should not be similar. A knowledge of mineralogy might be exceedingly useful in one town, and perfectly useless in another. Objects of general utility, of general taste, such as fine representations of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture, objects of taste, such as vases and ornamental designs in general, might be exceedingly useful in them all, but each would superadd what was of local interest, in proportion to its connexion with different countries, and the manufactures on which it depended. A local administration should be under a general control, or the control of a general board, in order to prevent local interests from holding too great an influence in the elections, and contracted views in the management; for I am greatly mis