Letter, dated March 10, 1852, addressed to the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P.

Abstract

Letter to the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, M.P., President of the Committee of Council for Trade, &c.

Board of Trade, Whitehall, March 10, 1852.

Sir,

1. In entering upon the duties of this new Department, we venture to submit that a leading principle of its future management should be the endeavour to make the Department as far as practicable self-supporting in all its branches. We apprehend it will be found that, on the one hand, as the Department responds to the wants of the public, so, on the other, the public, as individuals, will be ready to pay to a considerable extent for the educational advantages which it offers. We think it is apparent that in the most successful educational institutions in this country, the public use them and pay for the use of them according to their sense of their value, and thus render extraneous aid in great measure unnecessary.

2. The minute of the Board of Trade of 16th February points to three principal objects as constituting the business of the new Department : I. The promotion of elementary instruction in Drawing and Modelling. II. Special instruction in the knowledge and practice of Ornamental Art. III. The practical application of such knowledge to the Improvement of Manufactures.

I. Elementary Instruction in Drawing and Modelling.

3. Past experience has proved that without sound elementary instruction in drawing, which is the education of the eye and hand, all satisfactory progress in ornamental art is difficult, if not impracticable ; and in all schools connected with this Department it has been found necessary to establish a large class for elementary instruction... [Excerpt]