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and standing at Coventry or Bath is tested and rewarded. The broad-cast system of prize-giving is of very doubtful utility, except so far as it goes towards levelling all distinction, or as an excuse for the employment of those who award the prizes, since present inspection simply means examination and adjudication. The result, however, of so much prize-distribution is already seen in the large crop of personal vanity grown in the recipients; for it has been remarked by persons employing these prize-students that the conceit which some of them manifest, after a course of prizes has been taken and had time to operate, is something laughable, if it were not likely to become of serious importance to the future relation of employer and employed. It is, therefore, to be feared that persons employing youths in ornamental manufactures will rather seek to prevent than promote their attendance in schools of art, if the working of the system of instruction tends to engender personal vanity in the students. Honours are sore temptations to grown men, and frequently lead to forgetfulness of duties and responsibilities; no one can wonder that youths forget themselves and mistake the beginning for the end.

Now this is not a national good, does not point to any really serviceable result, is not calculated to benefit popular education in the arts; but, on the other hand, is rather calculated to retard true progress. Nor is it likely that the temptation to so many young men, who might become good decorators or designers, woodcarvers and marble-cutters, to attempt to qualify themselves for teachers of art, will ultimately lead to satisfactory results. The true qualification of a good teacher is never obtained by going into training for it. The student carries it with him. If he loves to impart his knowledge to others, has aptitude of illustration, and zeal in his work, he will make himself a better teacher than any mere grinding through courses can possibly do. Without these, he will lack that force of character which enables a man to conduct a system of class instruction with success; and while no one can undervalue a proper course of systematic training for the work of education, and a fair test of the powers of the student after he has passed through such training, few will believe that either the training or the examination makes or qualifies the man, without there is also within him that which no system can give, and no mere routine of training develop. The practical result will be, as it is pretty well known it has been, that men incapable of leading public opinion in relation to matters of art will undertake the work for a stipend so beggarly that, had they persevered in some mechanical employment, to which their genius really fitted them, they would have done better for themselves, and certainly been more useful to society; whilst men capable of doing the work of arousing and directing an apathetic and—it is not too much to

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The effect of Schools of Art.

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say, since it is not intended offensively-an ignorant public, retire from a work in which they have to descend to the level and compete with the merest country drawing-master, submit to tests of an inspection so elastic as to bring prizes within the reach of the meanest capacity,' and a position so indefinite that they are only recognised in a public capacity when something is wanted from them. In short, our art-teachers are now, so far as official position goes, neither flesh, fish, nor fowl;' and with every disposition to think highly of and appreciate the action of the Science and Art Department of Education, it is clear that, so far as regards the elevation of popular feeling in regard to art-instruction, its operations have not only been a failure, but have positively undone very much of what was already done for lifting up art and artists in public estimation. In saying this, however, it is only right to give its leading officers full credit for earnestness, zeal, and sincerity of purpose. Mr. Cole's lecture, followed as it was by that of Mr. Redgrave and others, proves this. The real cause of non-success, where success was desirable and might have been easily achieved, was the attempt to cover too much ground at once; an impatience of results without providing adequate means; a choice of cheap, rather than effective instruments; and a forgetfulness of the fact that anything approaching to a true appreciation of the value of art in this country, either in its moral, social, industrial, or educational aspect, had to be cultivated. On the contrary, it was assumed that all that was necessary was to provide the school-rooms, the examples, and the teacher, and each class of society would rush to learn art upon terms adapted to their means. This happened in a few respectable cities-such as Cheltenham, Hereford, Bath, and Bristol-where, ten years ago, no one would have thought of interfering with the conventional drawing-master, and where the novelty of the thing 'took' with a certain class. It would now be curious to investigate the practical results of these schools. What have they taught? Whom have they taught? What has been the object of their teaching? These would be fair questions. Who will answer them? the mean time the question of popular art-instruction has been embarrassed in our large manufacturing towns; drawing a la mode encouraged, because it paid best; and the Government-following the example of the manufacturer, whose wares it set out with a desire and an avowed intention to improve, and whose argument that if an article 'sells' it is the best and only proof that it is the right thing is repudiated by the official art-mind-actually does the very same thing, and undertakes to provide that sort of instruction which the public will buy,' without caring if it is truly that kind of instruction which the Government alone ought to sell,' or allow itself to be mixed up with.

In

It is with a feeling of more than ordinary regret that every one must see a great work, in which so much has been and is doing in the right direction by this very Department, so compromised in its first and most important element, that of direct instruction to the rising generation. In the matter of museums and libraries, and the modes of access thereto, the administration at South Kensington is to be highly commended; and no one can possibly calculate what will be the result of the facilities thus afforded to the public for examining and comparing so much that is good and useful. If the direct educational management had but a tythe of the power shown in the indirect instruction, a few years would place us at the head of every European nation in the matter of popular education in the arts of painting, sculpture, and decoration. As it is, we are doing and undoing; building up and pulling down; one day rushing along with a speed that takes away the breath, and the next dawdling in listless apathy, wondering what it will be desirable to do next.

ART. VII.-1. Pictorial History of England. Part VI. Manners and Customs. London: Charles Knight.

2. Antiquarian Library. H. G. Bohn. London.

3. Essays Historical and Critical on the Temperance Question. No. I. Ancient Teetotalism. By F. R. Lees, Ph.D. London. 1853.

4. An Argument Legal and Historical for the Legislative Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic. By F. R. Lees, Ph.D. Third Edition. (United Kingdom Alliance, Manchester.) London: W. Tweedie. 1857.

5. Statutes at Large. Ruffhead and others.

6. Reports of Parliamentary Committees.

7. Suggestions for a Bill to Prevent the Traffic in Intoxicating Drinks. United Kingdom Alliance, Manchester.

IF

F there be any virtue in antiquity it may certainly be claimed by the Temperance movement. The opponents of Total Abstinence Societies admit that they may boast as ancient and honourable an ancestry as any in the world,' that 'in some of their features they are as old as history, in others, as modern as yesterday, and in all, not inexpressive of certain of the wants and aspirations of society." Without contradiction, in every age of the world there has been a total abstinence movement.'+ To assign, therefore, to temperance its place in general history would occupy more space than can be devoted to our present article. On every page of the great volume of the past the student may find

* Westminster Review.' † 'Medico-Chirurgical Review,' January, 1851.

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Antiquity of the Temperance Movement.

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traces of its influence. He may decipher on the walls of the stupendous Egyptian temple the hieroglyphic history of twenty-five dynasties of kings, all of whom, from Menes to Psametichus, drank of the juice of the grape, pressed, as by Pharaoh's butler, into the cup before the king. Or he may read in the legendary poetry of the old minstrel of Greece, the sentiment familiar to him as again uttered by the divinely accredited wisdom of Solomon.† Or, turning to the precepts of ancient theology, he may ponder the significance of that wondrous temperance revival among the nations, when, almost contemporaneously, Zoroaster was endeavouring to purify the religion of Persia; Heraclitus was weeping over the debauchery of his native Ephesus; Buddha was promulgating to the vast multitudes of Hindostan his special law, Obey the truth and walk steadily in the path of purity, and drink not liquors that disturb the reason;' and Isaiah, the inspired prophet of the Hebrews, in tones, the thunder of which, reverberating through the ages of the past, still roll awfully upon the ear, was proclaiming, Woe to them that rise early in the morning to follow strong drink, who tarry all night, till wine inflame them! Woe to them that are valiant to drink wine, and men of might to mix strong drink, for they have cast away the law of Jehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.'§ Or, throwing himself, in imagination, into the midst of Athenian society, with its love of pleasure and its high intellectual development, he may mingle with the throng which listens to Socrates teaching abstinence from such articles as stimulate to eat when not hungry and to drink when not thirsty.' Or, without more violence to chronology than imagination often commits, he may pass on to hear Plato discourse approvingly of the Carthaginian law, that no sort of wine be drunk in the camp, nor anything but water; and that every judge and magistrate abstain during the year of his office.' Or, he may linger before the door of Epicurus himself, and there read the inscription, Passenger! here thou wilt find good entertainment; it is here that pleasure is esteemed the sovereign good. The master will receive thee courteously, but take note! thou must expect only a piece of cake and thy fill of water. Here hunger is not provoked, but satisfied; thirst is not excited, but quenched.'**

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* Plutarch, De Iside et Oseride.'

Far hence be Bacchus' gifts, the chief rejoined,
Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind,

Unnerves the limbs and dulls the noble mind.
Let chiefs abstain.'-Iliad, Book 6, line 322.

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.'-Prov. xxxi. 4, 5.

Precepts of Buddha.' § Isa. v. 11, 24.

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Plato, De Legibus.'

Prof. Tyler, 'Socrates.' **Seneca, Epistolæ ad Lucilium,' Ep. 31.

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In the present article, our object is more practical, and, therefore, more limited. We propose briefly to sketch the history of our own social condition, and of our laws in relation to intemperance, with the view of ascertaining whether there may be discovered any sound principle, both of individual practice and national importance, by which we may be confirmed in our present course or learn to amend our future.

According to Macpherson, when the Romans invaded Britain intemperance was already ranked among the national vices. To whatever extent this may be true, the introduction of the luxury accompanying the Roman power certainly tended to increase the evil. When, however, the centre of the empire being threatened, the conquerors withdrew from the extremities to defend the seat of government, they left behind them comparatively few traces of an influence on the habits and manners of the people they had subdued. Their dominion having partaken more of the nature of military occupation than of colonisation, its magnitude rather asserted itself in vast military works, and in some important political institutions, than in domestic or social relations. The Saxon power, under which Britain then came, gradually strengthening itself, until its consolidation under Egbert, was of a widelydifferent character. To it we are rightly accustomed to look as to the fountain whence have flowed to us most of the refreshing streams of domestic and political freedom which have gladdened our country. Modern England does not belie its lineage; with all their free institutions, the Saxons were proverbially drunken. Their common drink was ale or mead. By 694, so important a luxury was this beverage considered, that Iné, king of the West Saxons, directed that every possessor of ten hides of land should pay him an annual tax of twelve ambers of Welsh ale. Pledges, as indications of courtesy, or incitements to excess, though possibly due to the refinement of classic civilisation, were universally adopted, and the word, waes hail,' indicates the readiness with which the custom became incorporated not only into the habits, but even into the language of the people. It be an innate quality of this people,' says William of Malmesbury,† 'to be more inclined to revelling than to the accumulation of wealth. . . . Drinking in parties is an universal practice, in which occupation they pass entire nights as well as days.'

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The vices attendant on drunkenness of course followed, and it was to their enervating and degrading effects upon the national mind and energies that the old chronicler attributed the result of the battle of Hastings. Nor were these habits confined to any class. The poem of Beowulph' introduces us to the banquets of

* An amber--seven gallons.

+ Chronicle,' B. 3.

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