ABSTRACT
The Committee intended to have laid before the House, returns received through the medium of the Foreign Office, explanatory of the different schools and institutions connected with the arts in foreign countries. In England, the rising Institute of British Architects promises great advantage to our manufacturers, and the more matured Mechanics' Institutions have disseminated much valuable instruction in the arts. Unless the arts and manufactures be practically combined, the unsuccessful aspirants after the higher branches of the arts will be infinitely multiplied, and the deficiency of manufacturing artists will not be supplied. In nothing have foreign countries possessed a greater advantage over Great Britain than in their numerous public galleries devoted to the arts, and open gratuitously to the people. Were the arts more extensively diffused among our population, many articles, such as marble, terra cotta, wood, and ivory, would give additional employment to the people.
