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The history of this withdrawal of the grant is as remarkable, and as worthy of record, as its origin.

The last Committee upon the linen manufacture sat in the year 1825. They had before them Foster's, Lord Oriel, paper on the linen trade, which appeared in the year 1815, and they did all that an honest Committee could attempt, in impressing upon Parliament the necessity of continuing the grant. They were of opinion that Parliament was bound, by the pledged promise of William III., to support the trade; and they stated that Ireland had, "undoubtedly, strong claims at least to the extent of the annual Parliamentary grant," and that, "the trade having acquired a degree of advancement in the North, a most zealous attention ought to be exerted for the purpose of extending it to the other parts of Ireland." This Committee further resolved, that, "a fund being provided for the encouragement and advancement of the linen manufacture of Ireland, and legislative enactments for the regulation of that manufacture being necessary, together with officers appointed responsible for the execution thereof; some superintending authority is required to make due application of such fund, to controul the conduct of such officers, to receive and decide upon the claims of those taking interest in promoting the manufacture, and in hearing and redressing the complaints of parties concerned or connected with the trade." These recommendations and resolutions of the Committee were unavailing. The Linen Board was doomed to destruction at the first favorable moment. The grant of £21,000 was voted for the last time in 1827; in 1828, it was reduced to 10,000, and in the succeeding year was entirely withdrawn, and the Linen and Yarn Halls are now transformed into barracks-thus has the compact of 1698 been observed, and that promise of William III. to the English Parliament-" I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the woollen mannfacture in Ireland, and to promote and encourage the linen manufacture there, and to promote the trade of England," must now be read with the omission of that portion which we have placed in italics.* But knowing this, and

In the month of July just past, the Reports of the Linen Board, the copy belonging to the Commissioners, beautifully bound, was offered for sale by a respectable bookseller: the price asked for the set, wanting two volumes, was £5; the highest sum offered by any public institution, was £3-and the books are now in Russia, having been purchased at £5 by the Minister of Public Instruction. It will be almost impossible to collect again so complete a set of these Reports.

remembering the history we have given of our trade, and learning from Mr. Maguire's book, and seeing in the Dargan Exhibition the real position of our country, who can doubt that our people are, at length, self reliant, and that, from what we believed to be our misery, has sprung the first sure evidence of our future prosperity. We have not tried, we repeat, to rouse angry feelings: not a page of THE IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW has ever been, nor shall it be, prostituted to serve a factious purpose; but we never have forgotten, we never can cease to remember, that it bears IRISH in its title, and that the truest friend of England is he who states facts, plainly, honestly, and openly, upon all subjects connected with that country and with Ireland. There is an Irish scoundrelism which mis-states facts to serve a party, but there is an Irish scoundrelism and flunkeyism commingled which fears to state facts honestly-Sir Robert Kane and Mr. Maguire have, each in his sphere, dared to tell the truth, and shewn that England has all to gain by incorporation with us, and thus the follies and crimes of English Parliaments may be atoned-those Parliaments of which Jeffrey wrote,-"Without pretending to enumerate, or even class, the several charges which might be brought against them, or to determine what weight should be allowed to the temptations or provocations by which they might be palliated, we thing it easier and far more important to remark, that the only secure preventive would have been an early, an equal, and complete incorporating union of the two countries:-and that the only effectual cure for the misery occasioned by its having been so long delayed, is to labour, heartily and in earnest, still to render it equal and complete. The only remedy is to identify and amalgamate them throughout-to mix up the oppressors and the oppressed-to take away all privileges and distinctions, by fully communicating them, and render abuses impossible, by confounding their victims with their authors." Thus the "Bedouin Arabs and the degraded Chinese," as Sir Archibald Alison considers the Celt, will become one with the "English yeoman."

We have quoted the opinions of English authors in support of our views, and we have done so, because we are unwilling that any reader should suppose that we write as partizans, whilst fairly reviewing an honest book, which we recommend to all who love the advancement of Ireland, and the advantage of the United Kingdom.

ART. VI.-ART IN OUR METROPOLIS.-AN IRISH NATIONAL GALLERY.

1.-Official Catalogue of the Great Industrial Exhibition.

Dublin: John Falconer.

1853.

2.-Supplement to the Official Catalogue of the Great Industrial Exhibition. The Gallery of Old Masters. Dublin: J. M. O'Toole. 1853.

3.-The Exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy. The Twenty-Seventh. Dublin: Clarke and Son. 1853.

THE most perfect collection of pictures that has ever been displayed in this country, is now in the Fine Arts Court of the Exhibition Building, in Merrion Square. Ancient and modern Art, in its various schools, is there represented, forming a gallery perhaps unexampled. One cannot but regret that, in a few months, these will all be dispersed. What a splendid National Gallery, those purchasable, would form in our city, where the want of such an institution has been long felt. A National Gallery for Ireland was one of the pet projects of the Royal Irish Art Union; but, like many other magnificent resolves, it came to nothing-for our ideas are generally much in advance of the ability to execute.

We ought to have a National Gallery in Dublin. Scotland has lately received a grant from Parliament for the formation of one-and why not Ireland? In the Report from the Select Committee on Arts, and Their Connection with Manufactures, presented to Parliament in the year 1836, it is stated by the Committee," that from the higher branches of poetical design, down to the very lowest connexion between design and manufactures, the Arts have received little encouragement in this country; attributable, mainly, to the want of public instruction, and the absence of Galleries and Museums freely open. They would, therefore, recommend the establishment of Institutions throughout the Kingdom for the double purpose of Museums or Galleries, and for instruction practically as well as theoretically." The Report further suggested, that "the principles of Design should form a portion of any permanent system of National Education." Schools of Design have of late been established in various parts of the country,

and there is one now in Dublin, to which a public gallery would be a most useful and necessary adjunct. Care, however, must be taken that the course of instruction is not of that kind more likely to form artists, than designers for manufacture—and that there is a tendency to this abuse of the intention of Schools of Design is apparent. It is a very mistaken idea to suppose that an artist must, of necessity, be a good designer for manufactures, or that the same course of instruction will form the one and the other. A power of drawing is essential to both, but they have little else in common. Ornamentation is the very essence and spirit of design as applied to manufacture, but is a thing of no great moment to the artist, whose province is to instruct by representing to the eye what is beautiful in nature; therefore, except to give accurate notions of form, the study of the antique ought not to be much insisted on in these schools, for it may produce what is quite opposite to that which is intended, forming a multitude of bad artists.

It strikes us forcibly, however, that, in thus commencing with National Galleries, Academies of Art, and Schools of Design, the beginning has been made at the wrong end: it is like creating a supply before the demand has arisen. That the great mass of our population should be brought to admire what is beautiful and refined, in preference to that which is vulgar and debased, is universally admitted; as also that, in those respects, they are wofully deficient. A tendency to deface and injure whatever the more refined portion of the community take pleasure in, is, unquestionably, but too often manifested when it can be done with impunity. This is excellently pointed out in the following extract from Wyse's work on Education Reform:

"We constantly complain of the indifference of our people, not merely to the cultivation of the fine arts, but even to their preservation. In our towns, statues are maimed, if not protected by iron bars and an ever-vigilant police; in our churches, fees are exacted as barriers against the indiscriminate vulgar; in our palaces, tickets and permissions are necessary, in order to secure the proprietor against all chance of injury to his property we have no nice instincts among our people-no national love of the fine arts to rely on-to appeal to. In Italy, every man is a protector of these productions, for every man is an admirer. The Vatican on Sundays is crowded with Sabine mountaineers, quietly enjoying their walk through the noble

works of sculpture and painting with which its galleries are so profusely adorned. The festival of the Adobbo of Bologna has year after year taken place, without a scratch occurring to a single picture. During its continuance, the most precious paintings and tapestry are hung up in the public streets. Yet our shops are open, and our parks uninjured. The reason of the difference is simple: our education is commercial, but not æsthetic. To complain of the effect is puerile: it is to complain that we reap what we have sown. A habit of seeing and understanding-but above all, of feeling these pleasures at an early period, would make them pleasures during the remainder of life. Bull baits, and boxing matches, and cock fights, might perhaps still continue; but this would be one more means of weaning the people from those gladiatorial amusements natural only to an uncivilised or degenerate populace."*

Nothing will counteract this tendency but making drawing an essential and invariable portion of education-as much a matter of course as reading and writing-than which latter it is not more difficult. Drawing is but a combination of straight and curved lines, and this practice is exactly what writing consists of especially in the early lessons. It is a mistake to assume that the power of drawing is a gift conferred only on a few. Such it is, undoubtedly, in its highest manifestations-as likewise the poetic spirit-but any man who can speak and write can put his ideas on paper, although far, indeed, from being a poet. A common peasant will often have occasion to recollect a peculiar construction, either of house, instrument, or the appearance of a plant. The artisan, the mechanic, absolutely require it-a stroke of a pencil is often worth in accuracy, to say nothing of the economy in time and labor, a thousand written words. From whom do most of our mechanical improvements originate? Naturally, from men most acquainted with practice-from workmen—not from scientific men, theorists, &c. How many more might originate if they had better instruments to work with-if they possessed an adequate knowledge of drawing.

If there should be established in our city a National Gallery, it may be worth considering what ought to be the nature of

⚫ Education Reform, by Thomas Wyse, Esq., p. 197. London: Longman. 1836.

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