The members of the" North of England Society for the
Promo- tion of the Fine Arts," held a meeting on the 26th October, in the lecture-room of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle. upon. Tyne. The Bishop of Durham took the chair. In his opening speech, he dwelt upon the advantage which must accrue front the suc- cessful labours of the society It was not alone in the mineral treasures of the earth that wealth was to be ought: commerce and manufactures were not less the source from whence emanated the luxuries of the rich and the comfort of the less Alio lit. Every one must know that the fine arts gave splendour and effect to manufactures. and increased their commercial field. In two useful objects, the one that inn found to be superior to the other must consequently carry away the palm from the other ; and, so it now happened, that the French school had arrived at that state of perfection, that they were enabled to produce works, which although, per- haps, not intrinsically so good as ours, yet externally so much snore beautiful, as to carry away the prize from the English nianfactures; thus, in the produc- tion of silk at Lyons, in France, their designs are preferred to the English. He felt happy to say, that the subject had not only been taken up by a society in London, but by Parliament, and that a Committee of inquiry had already sat upon it. There might, lie thought, be some now present, old enough to remember, as he did, the impulse that was given to the art of pottery, by the introduction of the Etruscan vases, and other specimens of ancient compositions, by Wedgewood. The forms also of furniture had, even in his time, been im- prayed by different individuals who had visited Greece and other places, so that the oldsfashioned furniture, clumsy and shapeless, hail given way to those beautiful specimena which now not only adorned the mansions of the affluent, but even added to the domestic comfort of the cottage. In a moral point of view the Society might do much good— Whatever tends to fill the mind of the lower classes with pleasing and agree- elle subjects, by placing before them works of art, which they might be in- duced to imitate and produce by their manual skill, would be, in fact, drawing them away limn those brutalizing and intoxicating habits which the lower orders had too frequently recourse to. Therefore, it was obvious, that upon every point of view the society could not fail to be most advantageous : and Peculiarly so to this neighbourhood, where so many facilities were to be had for the carrying on of manufactures—for it was not merely on its mineral produc- bons that the prosperity of it must depend. He did not see that because this district bad risen in prosperity, chiefly from ite ready supply of fuel, why it should not also riee in inunufacturee and commerce. Under these circum- stsoces he believed that from such a society as the one now in contemplation, if Walely formed, not embarking in any wild speculation or attemptmg to go beyond its funds, the greatest benefit wou'd must assuredly arise. Afters few worla from the Reverend W. Turiier and Lord Havens- worth, Mr. Hutt addressed the meeting on " the Inure homely and money-getting part of the subject "— It was a fact well established, that in consequence of the various difficulties, in almost every article produced by our manufacturers, where the fabric is Con- nected with the fine arts, we are often surpassed by foreign nations; and, therefore, in the foreign markets, the English manufacture finds no place at all This fact was established by the committee of inquiry to which he had alluded, but they needed not this evidence for he saw many who were well aware of the fact, from personal knewlege. He appealed particularly to the ladies, who were better acquainted than he was with these articles of ornamental manu- facture, whether in regard to silks they did not believe that the plain silks of British produce were equal, if not superior, to any on the Continent, and if the descriptions of foreign silks where design. entered into the manufacture of the article, were not always preferred ? [Several very pretty faces here involun- tarily smiled assent.] For instance, if the ladies wanted a piece of figured satin with a beautiful design, they would have to purchase it from the operatives of France ; or a figured muslin dress, it must be the produce of Switzerland; and if they desired one of those beautiful designs to fill up their leisure hours by embroidering, they must import it from Germany. Even articles containing flower designs were almost all imported from France. A few years ago they were sent exclusively from Italy, but France had taken up the art, and possessed it
nearly all to herself. He would not go further at present, but merely remark, that if such articles were produced in this country—and why not in this town? it would have the tendency to give employment to hundreds of necessitous
females, for whom society had appointed so few means of employment. Now he would ask why they might not, if they could procure an equal por:ion of instruction, secure all those advantages to themselves? Heknew, that it was the opinion of the people of the Continent, that Englishmen were not adapted for the cultivation of the fine arts, that there was something physically wrong in their construction. But he never would recognize the opinion, that there WAS such an organic inferiority in the composition of an Englishman's intellect, that he was precluded from celebrity in any art or seicuee. Why should this be the case? Was it that they ate too much beef, and drank too much beer? In answer to that he would say, that there never was a more uafounded or offen- sive charge. He was sure that his lordship knew very well that the British artists of the day exceeded the best artists of the Continent, as portrait and landscape painters; and that in the ant of engraving, the foreigners resort in hundreds to this country to study under our artists. They, therefore, can excel the foreigners in pure art, and yet in the application of it to manufactures, they had to fell beneath them ; but be would take upon him to submit to their notice that which would show that the result arose, not from any inherent defect in the intellects of our nation, but from the want of means to elicit that talent which existed, and only required to be sought after to be found.
Mr. Hutt then directed attention to two beautiful figured screens, the production of a boy of fifteen, employed in Jennings' and Bat- tridge's manufactory at Birmingham— Every one present (continued Mr. Hutt) could not but admire the beautiful arrangement and the harmony of colouring. Now, there had nothing of this kind ever been attempted on the Continent ; and it was his firm belief that Englishmen had that in their composition that, if they had but a fair chance, they could overcome every thing but impossibilities. But it was impossible that they could excel in any art upon which they had received no instruction. It was on this account that he congratulated them on the formation of thie sozd. iety, which he Was sure would do much good in the to,vo and neighbour.- h Some confusion arose in consequence of a speech by Mr. Beaumont, editor of the Northern Liberator, published at Newcastle, and from which our account of the proceedings is taken. Mr. Beaumont seems to have considered that the working men were insulted by the manner in which they were spoken of: he objected to the Society, that working men were not culled upon to join it as equals. He ridiculed the pre- ference of men of high birth for the chief officers ot such societies; and wished some working men to be placed on the Al rila4ing Commit- tee. Nobody seconded a motion by Mr. Beaumont to this effect- and after an unanimous vote of thanks to Dr. Maltby, the Bishqp, the meeting broke up.
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