The maxim that, by most men, what is seen is much better known and remembered than what is only heard or read of, is sufficiently trite. But the lesson laid up in that maxim, as to the right methods of teaching men how to make the most of those callings by which they have to win both their daily bread and their means of mental culture, is but now beginning to be learned. Between the artisan who works with a clear knowledge of the materials he handles and transforms, and the other artisan who treads his daily round of routine with little more real apprehension of what he is doing than the horse who helps to compose a railway-train has of the steam-engine which propels it, the disparity is very obvious. Yet in many of our great centres of industry, workmen have, in the year 1860, no means of comparing their own treatment of a commercial product with its treatment elsewhere, and even manufacturers themselves are very much at the mercy of chance for their accurate knowledge of the raw materials on which their several enterprises depend.

When copper ore first attracted the attention of the tin-miners of Cornwall, they were wont to give it the contemptuous name of "poder," and to say, by way of proverb, "the poder comes in and spoils the tin." Sometimes, if much of it came, the mines were abandoned. Certain Bristol merchants made for a while no small profit by buying the casual product at some L.3 or L.4 a ton. When, at length, the yellow ore came to be better appreciated, the miners found a new grievance, for new ores of darker colours persisted in obstructing their operations. Many thousands of pounds' worth of the rich black ore (oxide of copper) were washed into the sea. In the same county, only ten years ago, the attention of Mr Warrington Smythe, one of the inspectors of mines, was attracted by a lump of white mineral which lay on the window-sill of a mining-office, and was recognised at a glance. To the question, "What have you there?" the agent replied, "Nothing but 'spar,' of which we have had to throw many tons into the rubbish-heaps." When told that his "spar" was calamine (containing in its pure state above 60 per cent. of oxide of zinc), his surprise was instructive. This incident was related by Mr Smythe at the Government School of Mines, and the story was capped by Dr Lyon Playfair, to whom a lead-smelter had, not long before, brought another lump of white mineral, as a specimen of a large quantity of sulphate of barita, which he had put aside, to be used in adulterating white-lead. Dr Playfair had to tell him that it was white-lead, and much richer than the ore he was accustomed to smelt. Instances of like ignorance of elementary facts, about things which are handled daily, abound in the annals of industry. Nor is it less striking to observe for how long a time processes may be used in the works of one district without attracting any attention from persons pursuing the same occupation in another, although vitally affecting their interests. Thus, in the trial respecting the validity of the late Mr Josiah Heath's patent for his process of employing certain proportions of carburet of manganese in the manufacture of cast-steel, it was deposed on oath by credible witnesses, that the very method in question had been used in the iron-works of Derbyshire in 1824. The Sheffield manufacturers derived from Mr Heath's patent their first knowledge of a process which cheapened the production of cast-steel from 40 to 50 per cent.; which made English iron available, when before only Swedish or Russian could be used; and which brought into Sheffield cutlery important improvements of detail, dependent on the new property of being weldable, which the manganese communicated to the steel thus manufactured. And the interval of total ignorance in the Yorkshire iron-works of what was being done in the Derbyshire iron-works, was an interval of fifteen years, in an era of vast commercial progress.

The best conceivable provision of Trade Museums and What may Industrial Schools will not convince all men of the short-be hoped sightedness of that policy which has so often rendered for from manufacturers far more ready to make a common purse for the ruin of an inventor than for his reward; but it will at all events make it unlikely that the hard-won recompense of inventive genius and long labour, shall be lost for want of a record of what had been precededly attained. To secure from loss what has once been gained, and to make the humblest worker share in the acquirements of the most gifted, are among the prominent objects of that thorough industrial education which is destined, we hope, to achieve great things, although it is as yet but in the cradle.

Probably, Descartes was the first thinker who planned, with something like precision, a methodical Trade Museum. But in this particular, as in some others, he may well have been indebted to our own Bacon for the suggestion. The outline of such an establishment is plainly indicated in that passage of the *New Atlantis* which describes the "two very long and fair galleries containing patterns and samples of all manner of the more rare and excellent inventions;" and in that other passage which records the duties of the "merchants of light," of the "depredateurs," and of the "three that collect the experiments of all mechanical arts."

Descartes' scheme was to gather for each trade (corps de métier) the tools, machinery, and other apparatus needful to its practice, and to attach to these collections a lecture-hall, with competent teachers. But it was destined to remain only a scheme for almost a century and a half. The Academy of Sciences, indeed, in the discharge of its function of reporting from time to time on new discoveries and processes, collected a multitude of machines and models, but it never exhibited them to the public, nor did it take much pains even for their preservation. It was not until a few years before the Revolution that the mechanician Vaucanson at length formed a museum, destined eventually for public and permanent instruction. At his death he bequeathed the collection to the State. The then Comptroller-general of Finance acquired by purchase the house (Hotel de Mortagne) in which it was placed, and appointed Vandermonde to be keeper. A law was also passed which required from all inventors who should receive public encouragement or reward the deposit of specimens or models of their respective inventions. Between 1783 and 1792 the collection was augmented by 300 new machines and models.

In the stormy times which followed, the museum was preserved, and even somewhat increased, but no efficient organisation was given to it until the period of the Consulate, when, under the superintendence of Joseph Bonaparte, as Home Minister, the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (the erection of which had been decreed by the Convention in 1793) was definitively established. In 1810, under Chaptal, a school for mechanics was attached to the Conservatoire. The additions to the museum during the Empire were considerable. Ferdinand Berthollet brought with him his collection of timekeepers and of horological mechanisms; and the remarkable "Cabinet de Physique," formed by Dr Charles, was obtained by purchase. In 1819, three professorships were founded—(1) Mechanics, Charles Dupin; (2) Chemistry, Clément Desfossés; (3) Industrial Economy, J. B. Say. A fourth chair, that of Physics applied to the Arts, was created in 1829, and was filled by M. Pouiller, who retained it for twenty years with much distinction, and also discharged the office of administrator or director.

Under the Restoration (from 1817) and until 1839, the general management of the Conservatory was entrusted to (1) an ordinary committee, of which the professors were members; and (2) a board of improvement (Conseil de perfectionnement), composed of six members of the Académie des Sciences, and six mechanical manufacturers, and agriculturists; and removable by thirds, triennially. Of this board, Berthollet, Chaptal, Arago, Gay-Lussac, Michel, and Molard, were members. In 1839 ten additional chairs for the various sections of the several sciences to arts and trades were established, and their respective professors formed the "Board of Improvement." Under this new organisation, the schools seem to have been fostered at the cost of the museum. Ten years afterwards, Colonel (now General) Morin became chairman of the board and chief administrator, and addressed himself to the task of giving development to both departments evenly. In 1863 three new professorships were created—(1) Spinning and weaving; (2) Preparing, dyeing, and printing woven fabrics; (3) Zootechny. The building was also reconstructed, much on the plan of 1817.

The establishment is placed under the control of the Minister of Commerce. Its staff comprises a director, an assistant-director (who is an engineer), fourteen professors, a financial officer, a keeper of the museum, a librarian, and several subordinate officers. Each professor must give two lectures weekly during the six months of the session of the schools (November to April). The budget is defrayed from national funds.

The museum includes illustrations of every important manufacture and industrial pursuit of France. Its classification is as follows:—(1.) Motive power machines (récepteurs); (2.) Hydraulic machines; (3.) Geometry; (4.) Metallurgy; (5.) Calculating machines; (6.) Measuring and astronomy; (7.) Timekeepers; (8.) Arts of construction; (9.) Cinematics (Cinématique); (10.) Dynamometric apparatus; (11.) Hoisting and shifting machinery; (12.) Machine-tools; (13.) Printing, engraving, and papermaking; (14.) Heating, lighting, and domestic economy; (15.) Ceramic arts; (16.) Physics; (17.) Agriculture; (18.) Weights and measures; (19.) Locomotion; (20.) Miscellaneous manufactures; (21.) Spinning and weaving; (22.) Preparing, dyeing, and printing woven fabrics; (23.) Tunisian and Chinese collections; (24.) Chemical apparatus and products; (25.) Industrial fine arts.

The Ceramic collection is very fine, as is also that illustrative of the weights and measures of various nations. Amongst the more special curiosities of the museum is Vaucanson's loom, the primitive type of the Jacquard loom—a series of models of geometric geometry in silk thread, so made that the surfaces may be modified or transformed at pleasure; and the original arithmetical machine of Pascal, with this autographic inscription: "Est probato instrumenti symbolum hoc: Blasius Pascal, Arvense, inventor, 20 Maii 1652." The Conservatory occupies the site of that ancient royal priory of St Martin-in-the-Fields, which furnished so large a contingent to the illustrious phalanx of literary Benedictines.

The Museum of the Hotel de Cluny is largely illustrative of Manufacture des arts and trades, especially of medieval times; and, like the Imperial Conservatory, is placed in a building rich in historical associations. The Hotel de Cluny occupies the site, and includes some of the remains of that palace of the Caesars in which Julian the Apostate was proclaimed emperor in the year 360, and which became the residence of the kings of the first and second races. Here, towards the close of the fifteenth century, the Benedictines of Cluny raised their sumptuous hotel, partly on the Roman foundations; here Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII., lived during her mourning for Louis XII.—her chamber is still called the chamber of the White Queen—and here James V. of Scotland was married to the daughter of Francis I. During the Revolution, part of this edifice was let to a cooper, and was afterwards granted to the Hospital of Charlevoix.

The rich collections of the cabinet-work, pottery, painted glass, manufactures in metal, woven fabrics, and other industries of the middle ages and of the period which followed, were first brought together by the late Alexandre du Sommerard, who acquired the Hotel de Cluny for their reception in 1833, and died in 1842. The museum was purchased for the public in 1843, and has since been augmented. In 1855 it received a liberal bequest from Count Honore de Sussey, including some fine tapestries of Beauvais, which had belonged to Sully's country-house at Romy. Amongst the later inducements to visiters, English visitors sometimes notice—not without wondering how it came into his—a grand cabinet of ebony, labelled as having been "brought from Spain by Nelson." This museum is placed under the general control of the Ministry of State, by which its annual budget is prepared.

The School of Arts and Manufactures was established, chiefly Ecole des arts et métiers, in 1829, with the special object of educating Arts et métiers, metallurgists, and chemists, fit to become the managers and foremen of workshops and factories. Students under the age of eighteen years of age are not admitted; and a good elementary training is the condition of admission above that age. The school received assistance both from Government and from the Councils-General of the Departments, more particularly by the provision of exhibitions for poor students; and it has been signal success. In 1852 it was ascertained that more than 500 foreigners had passed through the establishment, coming not only from the known industrial countries of Europe, but also from North and South America, the East and West Indies, Turkey, and the Mauritius.

The great Musée de Pottery, Glass, and Enamels at Sévres, Musée de poterie, has been forty years in course of formation, and is now estimated to be worth £125,000 sterling. Besides many thousand example specimens, arranged in the main so as to illustrate the technical history of the art, it has plaster-casts of the most remarkable productions of the Sévres manufactory, with models of figure-pieces by the best modellers of France. In 1832, there were here exhibited single panes of plate-glass nearly five feet six inches square,

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1 Morin, Catalogue des Collections du Conservatoire Impérial, &c., passim; Block, Dictionnaire de l'Administration Française, 535–537. 2 The catalogue of the museum has some interesting notes, but it is impossible to praise its execution generally. scarcely any pains are taken to supply dates, nor does it seem that the compiler regards chronological order as at all important. In Class I., for example, Frison's steam-engine, deposited in 1804, appears as No. 6; James Watt's steam-engine is No. 13. 3 Ministère d'Etat: Musée des Thermes, &c., passim. 4 Playfair, "Notes on Foreign Trade Schools," &c., in Appendix to Second Report of Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, 60–70. Trade Museums and Trade Schools.

At Lyons there is a School of Arts and Trades, called La Martinière, which was founded by the city in 1833, in pursuance of the last will of Major-General Claude Martin, who entered India as a French solder under Lord Cornwallis, with brave spirit, but soon succumbed to what he deemed to be oppressive conduct on the part of his superior, deserted to the British. In this new service he attained the rank of colonel, and laid the foundation of the enormous fortune which he afterwards realised as banker to the Nabob of Oude. At his death he bequeathed large sums, chiefly for educational purposes, to the cities of Calcutta, Lucknow, and Lyons. The Trade School and Museum of Lyons thus established have already given to its factories chemists and foremen, by whom the ancient renown of that centre of industry has been largely increased.

Prussia had, in 1852, twenty-five provincial trade schools, affording an extensive course of technical instruction to about 1200 scholars, of whom the most successful pass, in due course, into the Central Trade Institutes at Berlin, which is maintained, from national funds, at an annual cost of about L7000. Here the curriculum occupies three years, and those students only graduate who evince a satisfactory progress in the early stages. Bavaria has a central school of trade and agriculture at Munich, with a rector and 13 masters, which was attended in 1854 by an average number of 330 students; another at Nuremberg; and a third at Augsburg, each with about 250 students. Each of these three cities has also a superior polytechnic school. That of Munich devotes itself chiefly to the arts and trades connected with building; that of Nuremberg chiefly to manufactures in metals; that of Augsburg to woven fabrics and to dyeing. The aggregate number of pupils in 1854 was 470. In an able report addressed to Lord Clarendon (then Foreign Secretary) in 1854, Mr. Consul-General Ward testifies to the good working of the system, which dates from 1833. Most of the other states of Germany have like institutions, liberally supported; so that, in the whole of that country, not less than 13,000 students receive instruction in the various schools of trade, mining, and polytechnic institutions; and more than 30,000 workmen annually receive like instruction of a more elementary kind. Belgium has been slow to enter into this field, but is now making progress in it.

Among the beneficent results of the Great Exhibition of 1851, not the least conspicuous has been the attention it awakened to the importance of systematic industrial instruction; to the poverty of the then existing means and appliances for promoting it in this country; and to the fact that, in spite of our immense commercial advantages, and our well-known commercial successes, there really were some matters closely affecting commerce, in which Britons might profitably go to school to foreigners. It chanced that the financial prosperity of that Exhibition made means available for an important contribution towards the direct supply of the much-wanted Trade Museums and Trade Schools. But what has thus been done directly, valuable as it is, is of less weight than the impulse which has been given, indirectly, to other countries; and, above all, to the thorough working out of institutions of which we had the germs already, although up to that time they had been turned to small account.

The first steps towards anything deserving to be called a "Trade Museum," in the United Kingdom, had arisen incidentally out of the geological survey, and were taken in 1857. In the course of that survey, many specimens of rocks, minerals, metallic ores, and earths, were from time to time collected, and for these the late Sir Henry De La Beche had obtained a place of deposit—in Craig's Court, London. Under his auspices, the collection grew apace. In 1859, the late Mr. Richard Phillips was appointed its curator; a library was commenced; facilities for chemical and mineralogical analyses were provided; and a foundation was laid, by classes for instruction in chemistry and metallurgy, which is now rapidly becoming an excellent school of science applied to mining and the allied arts. But that Great Britain, whose mineral products are estimated to be worth L28,000,000 annually, should have remained without any adequate mining museum or mining school until 1851, will hereafter look more wonderful than it looks now.

The Museum of Practical Geology was inaugurated on the 14th May 1851, and the School of Mines in the following November. The building is itself an illustration of some of its objects. The façade towards Piccadilly is constructed of Yorkshire dolomite, or magnesian limestone; the steps of Peterhead red granite; the doorway slab is Penrhyn slate; the inner-steps are Portland stone; the base within the vestibule is Irish granite; the upper portion, Derbyshire alabaster; the pilasters are of Peterhead grey granite. The Museum is classified into these nine divisions:—(1.) Metallic and Porcelain; (2.) Glass; (3.) Enamels; (4.) Monocles; (5.) Biological minerals and metals; (6.) Foreign minerals; (7.) Colonial ores; (8.) Metals; (9.) Palaeontological collection. The mineral ores are so arranged as to show all the varieties and their uses. A separate series of specimens and models is so arranged as to exhibit many of the conditions under which mineral lodes are discovered. Like their forefathers, who condemned the rich copper ore as "poor," the mass of miners are loath to give credence to anything which seems strange to them. They express proverbially their disinclination to believe in discoverable laws by saying, "Where it is, there it is." But here, in a model of part of a mining district in Cornwall, they are made to see how, at some distant period, cracks have been made in the rocks traversed by the mineral lodes; how those cracks became channels through which water passed to a considerable depth; and how, in process of time, these rocks became full of earthy or metallic minerals, which, by the force of crystallisation, not only enlarged the original fissures, but formed new lateral ones. There is also a series of models of coal formations, of steam and water-pressure engines, and of mining apparatus of all kinds. Amongst the minor curiosities is a gilt copper cup, such as the German miners show to travellers, with the inscription—

"Gest zeigst mir sein grosse Macht, Der aus Eisen Kupfer macht."

The cost of the museum and school, together with that of the Office of Mining Records (begun in 1838, and now of very great public value), is about L6300 a year, of which sum L3300 is devoted to the establishment (including eight lecturers); about L1300 to the purchase of specimens, models, books, and records; the residue being applied to miscellaneous and incidental expenses. The school was attended in 1858 by 130 students, of whom 150 others studied the chemical laboratory; by 74, and the metallurgical by 17 students. There were four courses of lectures attended by from 440 to 600 working-men; and the museum during the year was visited by 24,877 persons, showing an increase of more than 7000 as compared with the visitors of 1857.

The Museum of Economic Botany in the Royal Gardens at Kew was commenced in 1848, and is intended to contain vegetable productions of all kinds, both raw materials and their results, whether Botany woods, dry-stuffs, drugs, resins, or fibres, used in arts, manufactures, medicine, or domestic economy. The collection is large, well chosen, and of great practical value for commercial purposes. And in its formation, we may boast to have set an example to most of the great capitals of Europe, since, in this department, nearly, if not quite, all of them have been neglectful. Neither its cost nor its number of visitors can be stated separately from the cost and frequentation of the splendid gardens with which it is connected; but it may be mentioned that the annual aggregate number of visitors, which in 1848 was 91,705, had increased in 1856 to 344,140.

The Museum of Economic Geology is still, as the Museum of Economic Geology was formerly, under the general control of the Board of Works. But the latter, like all the other trade museums and schools, both metropolitan and provincial, is now a branch of the Department of Science and Art, and therefore under the control of the Education Board. The department itself has grown, by a series of developments, out of the Normal School of Design, founded by Schools of the Board of Trade towards the close of 1836, in pursuance of the recommendation of Mr. Ewart's committee (of that and the preceding years) "on the best means of extending a knowledge of the arts of design." From 1837 to 1849, the original school and its provincial offshoots gave more or less of instruction in design to upwards of 15,000 pupils. The schools assumed, of necessity, a more elementary character than had been at first contemplated. Their object having been as stated by Mr. Ewart, "to teach the art of designing ornament, both in respect of its general principles and its specific applications to manufacture." An elaborate inquiry by another committee of the House of Commons established the fact, that this end had been very insufficiently attained. And hence, in 1852, its further prosecution was entrusted to a department of the Board of Trade, called Department of Practical Art, with a general superintendent (at L1000 a year) and an art-superintendent (at L500 a year). During the first succeeding year, 20 local schools, with 4868 students, shared amongst them a parliamentary grant of L7500, to which sum another of nearly equal amount was added from school fees, subscriptions, and other sources. Lectures, scholarships, and special classes for technical instruction were established, and a Museum of Manufactures was begun by means of a parliamentary grant of L5000.

At this period the final settlement of the accounts of the "Exhibition of 1851" showed an available balance of L186,436. Suggestions for its application had been previously invited from the principal towns and corporations which had contributed by public subscription towards the creation and the financial success of the Exhibition itself. The replies were, of course, very diversified. But on mature consideration of all the plans and suggestions which had been submitted, the commissioners determined to apply their surplus funds to the establishment of a great metropolitan institution, which should serve to increase the means of industrial education, and extend the influence of science and art upon productive industry; and so to apply it as to elicit like action, and, if possible, like contribution, on the part of parliament. Toward this end they appropriated L150,000 for the purchase, in part, of an estate at South Kensington, and obtained parliamentary grants for the completion of the purchase and for building thereon, amounting to the further sum of L177,500. The commissioners had already been permanently incorporated by charter; in 1854 they received statutory powers for facilitating the formation of a site for institutions connected with science and the arts.

The parliamentary grant previously made towards the formation of a Trade Museum, with a special view to purchases from the Exhibition of 1851, was aided by large voluntary contributions from the exhibitors. Of the 7381 British and Colonial exhibitors, 1232 made valuable gifts; and of the 6356 foreign exhibitors, 803 did the like. The merely commercial value of the articles thus given is estimated at L5718, but probably no collection of equal intrinsic value could have been formed even with an expenditure of three times that sum. The result was largely increased by the labours of Professor Solly, carried on with the special purpose of forming as complete a collection as might be possible of animal products applied to industrial purposes, no such series having been previously formed within the United Kingdom, and also by that of Dr Lyell, Pliny, in the formation of the "Food Museum," and other collections at South Kensington in conjunction with the other collections which illustrate the building arts and the multifarious applications of the arts of design to trade and daily life. The Economic museums, both of geology and of botany, shared in the advantages of the parliamentary grant and in the liberality of the exhibitors of 1851. All these collections were placed under the management of the "Department of Science and Art."

During the 54 public days on which the new museum was open in its first year, it received 42,134 visitors; and during the 47 student days, 3426 students. In 1854, the aggregate number of visitors to the museum of the department collectively was 104,829. In 1855, it had increased to 351,400; the aggregate number of visitors in 1858 to all the museums and collections under the department was 755,893. In 1858, the visitors to the South Kensington Museum alone amounted to 450,288; and in 1859, to 475,365. On the 31st March 1860, the aggregate number of visitors to this one museum, amounted to 1,251,594 persons. This rapid and remarkable progress (extending both to students and to the public at large) is due to two causes:—First, to the energetic improvement and liberal management of the collections; secondly, to the system of opening some of them to the public during the evening (at South Kensington, from seven o'clock until ten, on two public and on one students' evening in each week) as well as during the ordinary hours of the day.

On this point, the select committee appointed by the House of Commons in 1860, to consider what further facilities could be afforded "for promoting the healthful recreation and improvement of the people," by increased access to public institutions, report that the experiment has been tried with the most successful results; that not the slightest complaint has been made, either as to the effects of gas-light or the behaviour of the visitors; that in like manner, "the National Gallery, and portions of the British and other public museums could safely be visited in the evening, if proper precautions against fire can be taken;" and finally, that in order to extend the advantages of such museums throughout the country, there should be loans of the articles they contain (of course under prudent and necessary restriction) "wherever responsible parties would provide suitable premises for their exhibition."

To some extent the plan of a circulating trade museum has been tried already. A collection specially prepared for this purpose has visited 22 different localities, including our chief manufacturing towns, and has been seen by 283,882 persons. In five Irish towns alone, nearly 100,000 persons came to see it.

The Scottish Industrial Museum at Edinburgh, which includes a fine museum of natural history, was organised in 1853. Parliament granted L7000 towards a site. The Lord Provost and Town Council presented an additional piece of land, and also, jointly with Scottish Universities, transferred to the Crown their rights in the colliery-Industrial Collections (chiefly of natural history) theretofore kept at the University Museum. The Highland Society gave a valuable gift of minerals. A further parliamentary grant of L10,000 towards the erection of the new museum was made in 1858. This institution has had two directors of eminent endowments—Professor Edward Forbes and Dr George Wilson,—and has had the misfortune to lose both of them by early deaths. The Industrial Collections are not yet available; but the Natural History Museum was visited in 1858 by 88,831 persons.

The Museum of Irish Industry was founded in 1845. Its Museums of Animal Products and of Food. Museums of Irish Industry contains collections of the rocks, metallic ores, minerals, Irish clays, &c., of Ireland, and of her Fauna and Flora as far as relates to their industrial applications. Each material is traced through its industrial history, so as to exhibit its treatment and its products. Where the raw material is not fully turned to account in Ireland, illustrations from other countries are shown so as to indicate its capabilities. A separate department is devoted to the exhibition of specimens of rocks and fossils collected by the officers of the Irish Geological Survey. The total expenditure on this museum from 1st April 1848 to 31st March 1854, was L23,235 of which sum, rent, buildings, fittings, and furniture cost L14,840; specimens and books, L1178. The salaries amounted to L5510, and the incidental expenses to L1299. The establishment includes a director, four lecturers, and two chemists. The number of visitors to the museum in 1858 was 33,341. In addition to the Industrial Museum, the Royal Dublin Society, the plan of which includes similar objects, and which possesses a valuable museum as well as schools, receives a yearly grant of about L6000.

The most important assistance which the Department of Science and Art gives to industrial schools and classes throughout the schools and country, consists in the supply of trained and certificated teachers; classes in annual grants of L10, L15, or L20, according to the several grades of competency; in systematic inspection and examinations; vices, according to prior or subsequent attendance; and in a knowledge of the best methods and explanations of industrial instruction. In 1858, the number of masters and mistresses in training at South Kensington was 65. In the same year, the number of associated provincial schools, teaching design and its applications to trade, was 77, with 68,212 students. The total amount of school fees was L12,735. The number of associated "Trade and Navigation Schools" was 18, with 3302 students. The School of the Board of Manufactures at Edinburgh was also brought into connection with the department in that year.

The results of this expenditure, as given in the following table—which, for the United Kingdom, amounts, in the aggregate, to L547,138, 12s., 9d.—immature as they must needs be, already more than justify it. When compared with the magnitude of the interests which are at stake, it becomes insignificant. No public expenditure, when once brought under efficient parliamentary control, is more certain to ensure abundant fruit in the elevation and wellbeing of the workman, in the extension and security of trade, and in the increase of public contentment by means of the increased participation of public wealth in some of its highest forms.

What is now being done in this direction, whilst it broadens that public domain in which rich and poor have a common interest, is so done as to incite, not to deaden, private exertion. What is now most wanted is an increase of municipal action on a like principle. The Act of the 18th and 19th Vict. c. 70, enables towns and boroughs to levy a rate for the support of schools of art or industry and of museums, or of either; but it has yet to be brought into effective operation. The first necessity in establishing either an industrial school or a museum is the provision of suitable premises. This is usually the chief difficulty, and is sometimes an insuperable one. Here the Act will intervene most advantageously, whenever public opinion shall have