REPORT OF MR. HIXTOX.
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Because he studied the ancient and mediaeval models. What gave Pugin his reputation for Gothic metal-work hut his study of mediaeval models? What had created a trade in majolica, in England, hut the Soulargo collection? What had given the Craces, and Jackson and Graham, and Gil- lows, and Holland, their reputation for furniture, but their knowledge of ancient examples. It was simply savage ignorance and priggish pedantry not to recognize the absolute necessity for examples of art, easily consultable by the public who Avere consumers, by the manufacturers who were producers, and by artists and artisans who were students. Where were they to consult them if not in public Museums ? II hy was the Frenchman more apt at Industrial Art than the Englishman? Because, for a century, he had had his free Museum in Paris and every other large town.
" And public Museums were necessary for Science as well as Art. Collections of diagrams, of educational apparatus, and of specimens of natural history, were indispensable to the managers of schools and teachers. The tact was, if Museums were not educational they were ot very limited value.”
Without doubt it is greatly due to Mr. Cole that the South Kensington Museum and Schools have attained their
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present proficiency and value—sufficient to secure for it the Medal of Honor given to it as the best of this class of institutions at the Vienna World’s Fair.
To return to the Commissioner’s Report and the subject °f Science-teaching.
Tq begin at the beginning, it is necessary to cite the speech of the queen, in 1853. She then, by the advice of her Government, declared that the time had come when the 11:1 tion should systematize scientific instruction having a bear- ln o upon industry.
That was at the opening of the sessions of Parliament. -A-fter her majesty’s speech Lord Aberdeen’s government to °k the subject into consideration, and, after a correspond- ence with the Board of Trade, they enlarged the department called the Department of Practical Art into the Department °f Science and Art. The object was to extend the system