REPORT OF MR. HINTON.
135
to establish Schools of Design over the whole of the United Kingdom. Since then, she has pursued her work with characteristic perseverance, and without shrinking from the sacrifices demanded by an enterprise in which everything had to be created. A new branch of the council on education has been established, under the title of Department of Art. Its special mission is to urge forward the creation of Schools of Design, the professors of which receive a direct payment from the government, and further remuneration, proportioned to the number of pupils to whom they give instruction. At the same time a Normal School was established for the training of masters, and a system of awards and prizes organized to encourage the study of drawing on the part of the pupils who attend the schools. A Museum of objects of Art was likewise formed to help this teaching, and the Department of Art itself caused to be prepared from the commencement, models to serve for instruction in the schools. Its example has since been followed by publishers, who have already begun to publish important collections of models of design.
“ It would be out of place to expect from a system of education which is s'till in its infancy, the progress which such a system may have made in countries where it has been long established; nevertheless, in examining the English Exhibition, we must at once admit that England has turned to good account the experience of other nations. In particular, she has borrowed largely from France, whose published models may be found frequently employed in the ■English schools.
“ In observing the results of these efforts, and taking notes of deficiencies, it is impossible to ignore the fact that a serious struggle awaits France from this quarter, and that by slumbering in treacherous security, our country would risk the loss of that superiority to which numerous branches of her industry owe their importance and their glory.
“ It may not be useless to add here that England is in another respect our competitor bj T carrying off our designers. For many years her manufactories have attracted them, by the high wages With which their services are remunerated. But it is a very remark- a ble fact that these artists have often lost, after sojourning some lime on the other side of the channel, the superiority of taste by which they, were previously distinguished.”
[Extract from Report by M. C. Robert.]
u Since the Universal Exhibition of 1855, immense progress has I* e en made throughout the whole of Europe, and although we have n °t remained stationary, we cannot conceal from ourselves that the