EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
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larly wishes to exhibit. Should this proposition be favorably accepted, each artist and industrial workman will find enough to inspire him in his branch; and, to mention only one thing particularly, modern ornamentation will become richer in new models of design.
“ But, in order to prove to the public the practical influence of these institutions, it is indispensable that the publications of each single museum should be exhibited in samples and in single numbers ; by this, we mean, more especially the reproductions—plaster casts, galvanaplastic impressions, photographs—and the artistic literary publications of the museums. Concerning the former, they must be confined, not only because of the space, to these works of art, the originals of which are in the possession of the country exhibiting. As to the latter, we cannot sufficiently express the desire to see them exhibited in collections as complete as possible.
“ Finally, the museums are requested to give exact statistical statements of the number of visitors to their institutions, of the organization of their schools, etc., in order to furnish materials for the statistics of the museums of Fine Art applied to Industry.
“ Signed by the President of the Imperial Commission: Arch- Duke Regnier; and the Chief Manager, Baron Schwarz-Senborn. December 10, 1871.”
It was a perfectly feasible idea, and one easy to execute, to show the official arrangement of the different institutions mentioned in the programme, and to exhibit a collection of the objects belonging to the museums of Art as applied to Industry.
Any of the museums mentioned above, that at Edinburgh, for instance, might, through its president, have sent a detailed statement of when the institution was founded and opened to the public, the amount of its endowment, i^s size, number of rooms or galleries, a list of their contents, estimated value of the collection, number of visitors each year, etc., and w T e should be but a very little nearer to a clear or precise knowledge of the effect produced by the museum upon the people of Edinburgh. It is clear that such information, so desirable 1 to attain, must be sought for outside, and not within the
museum, even if it be possible to glean it at all.
We can all fan<^ the immense influence the classical works • of our language have had and still exert upon the English- speaking race. There is no one among us who can measure its extent; but we might imagine our loss, if we were to be