and more perhaps in some other countries than in England. The polytechnic schools of Germany are admirably conducted, as are also the agricultural colleges which are numerous in the German states. The only instance which we have found of a systematic attempt to direct the attention of a poor class to a more refined species of industry, is in the improvements introduced by Cardinal Tosti in the poor school of the Ospizio di San Michele at Rome. The idea was a natural one in a city containing so many splendid works of art, of which strangers are desirous of taking away copies; and a number of youths are consequently chosen, according to the talents they display, to learn the arts of making the well-known mosaic ornaments, cameos on shells and of other materials, intaglios in glass and precious stones, which some have carried to great perfection, although the school professes only to turn out artists of what is called there the second class. Another department of the school is destined to revive the old art of weaving tapestries; and if we except one branch, which weaves cloth for the uniforms of the Papal army, the evident tenor of the whole establishment is that of raising the kind of labour to which its inmates devote themselves above the ordinary level. The total number of young people of both sexes in the establishment in 1834 was 474, of whom 222 were boys and 252 girls. The sale of their works contributes to the support of the establishment after allowing the payment of a certain share to the pupils. 135 old men and 125 old women, who are supported in an especial branch of the establishment, contribute their services in the household of this splendid institution, which is airy and roomy without any unnecessary expense having been incurred in its decoration. The cost of supporting, clothing and finding employment for 734 individuals was, in 1834, 48 scudi 21 pauls per head, or about 10%., including the salaries of artists of merit in every branch, as well as tradesmen of various kinds employed to instruct the pupils. The consciousness of the full importance of the change he was introducing we find expressed in Cardinal Tosti's printed report for the year 1834: "Considering," says the Cardinal, "that it is not only a debt of charity to provide these orphans with a respectable trade or civil occupation, but that this case is demanded by the interests of society, several of them are destined to some of the most important arts, to which formerly but little attention was paid*.” The results of the experiment are likewise stated by His Eminence to be remarkably satisfactory. "Those are in error," he says, "who fancy that, as far as regards this hospital, too many youths are educated to pursue the fine arts. Here the fine arts are not taught as the chief aim of the pupil (with the exception of the case of some pronounced genius-of which there is never a deficiency); it is not the object of the establishment to train architects, painters or sculptors. The attention of the youths is directed to the second class of the liberal arts, of which there is no school in any other place. And this superior kind of industry is an ornament to Rome, which is without parallel in Europe. In training the pupils to these arts, more or less liberal, the special care of the superiors is directed to studying their dispositions in order to choose those for which they show the greatest talent. It has too been proved by actual experience, that, after leaving the hospital, those who at any time present themselves to obtain bread or assistance are not the professors of the liberal arts, but those who have been engaged in mechanical occupations↑.” * "Le arti mechaniche, a cui sono addetti parte degli alunni, si riducono ai seguenti mestieri, cioè stampatore, legatore di libri, falegname, ebanista, sartore, calzolaio, ferraio, scarpellini, metalliere, calderaio, tintore, lanaiuolo, e imbiancatore. Se ne destina altresì taluno alla computisteria dell' ospizio, non solo per procurargli una professione, ma ben anche per formare degli addetti all' azienda: perchè in virtù della primitiva institutione tutti i ministri è gl' impiegati del luogo pio dovrebbero essere stati suoi allievi. Ma sì provvida disposizione si e mandata negli ultimi tempi quasi in totale inosservanza con molto danno dello stabilimento. "I trascelti poi alle arti liberali si sono applicati, quali alla scultura d'intaglio e di ornato e a formarsene modellatori ed intagliatori di pietra e scarpellini, di che aveva gran difetto questa città; e quali all'incisione, e alla fusione de' caratteri, di cui eravamo rimasti privi, e a cui si sono potuti ultimamente destinare alcuni giovani dacchè la sa. me. di Leone XII., per mezzo di Monsignore Mai fece venire il Villania eccellente artista di questo genere. "Alcuni si sono messi alla incisione di medagli e camei, arte che andava decadendo in Roma, mentre riviveva altrove, se le sollecite cure del lodato pontefice non l'avessero rinvigorita; altri come prima, all' incisione in rame, scuola stata gia di sommo splendore in Roma, perchè la prima a stabilirsi con aperto insegnamento, almeno in Italia, illustre anche al presente per tanti allievi insigni non solo in Roma medesima in Napoli, in Parigi e altrove. V' ha di quelli che attendono agli arazzi, arte come dissi perduta nella figura, e nell'ornato decaduta tanto, che erano indegna a vedersi; e cio nondimeno ridotta sotto la gratuita direzione di sommi professori di belle arti, a sì belle speranze, da ripromettersene il piu felice riuscimento. Qual cuno finalmente si e dato all'arte de' musaici, sotto un'ottimo e caritatevole maestro, arte ch' era d'antica instituzione e che piu non esisteva all'ospizio. Le quali arti liberali, come ognun vede, vogliono le scuole affidate per felice ventura a cinque grandi maestri accademici di S. Luca, del disegno, della figura, dell' ornato, dell' architettura, della geometria, della prospettiva, della scultura, della plastria, non chè dell' anatomia (di cui si e preso l'incarico in questi ultimi tempi il chirurgo del luogo, professore anch' egli dell' academia di S. Luca); senza dire che questi studi giovano oltremodo anche alle arti mechaniche." "E però in fatto dell' ospizio errano grossolanamente coloro, che pensano oggidi The grandest attempt at a poor-house, combined with means of instruction for the ignorant of all classes and all ages, is unquestionably the hospital founded at Naples by King Charles III. On the 9th of April, 1839, this establishment had upon its list 2233 male and 1933 female inmates. The occupations of the male inmates were as follows: Lancastrian school : SCHOOL OF ARTS. 450 56 81 136 84 42 26 164-1039 པ་ 42 58 27 42 57 75 16 6 81 16 18 Wool-spinners and carders In the service of the establishment, cooks, bakers, scavengers, etc., including sixty-five firemen... Disabled and superannuated The 12th class of finished apprentices has leave to 113 2199 allevarsi troppi giovani alle belle arti. Poichè qui le belle arti non s'insegnano già periscopo principale (tranne il caso di qualche genio, che mai non manea) a formare architetti, scultori o pittori, ma sono dirette alle descritte arti liberali di seconda classe, che non hanno scuola completa in altro luogo. Ed è questa una bella industria ed una gentilezza singolari di Roma, che in Europa non ha esempio uguale. Nel dare gli alunni alle arti piu o meno elevate, è cura speciale de' superiori e de' maestri d'indagare la dispozione loro, destinandoli poscia a quelle a cui mostrano maggior talento. Intanto e provato per via di fatto, che all' ospizio, dopo esserne usciti, si presentano a domandar pane e ricovero non già gli addetti alle arte liberali, ma quelli che esercitano le arti mechaniche." In this institution, whatever be the age of the person received, the workshop or department to which he is allotted. is considered as a school in which he is to learn or to perfect himself in some occupation which contributes to the support of the hospital while he remains in it, and furnishes him with the means of independence when he leaves it. We regret that our notes do not contain the ages of the male inmates nor the employments of the females, and the more so that no account of this institution has been published. The good side of it is the more worthy of attention, that the minority of superannuated and cripples are forced upon the notice of travellers in a disagreeable and often disgusting manner, in consequence of the privilege which they monopolize of begging. The notions of charity in Italy do not admit of restraint being laid upon appeals to benevolence by those who can be furnished with no means of bettering their condition. But although we think these two instances of an admission of the poorer classes to a share in the more refined employments well worthy of attention, yet they are, as our readers have doubtless already perceived, by no means examples of the more general operation which the fine arts can be allowed upon the education of all classes. Here the exercise of the arts is made a trade, and consequently the separation of the classes who exclusively study and those who consider that they have no interest in works of art is preserved. This division is what we should like to see done away with, and in a manner which would rather diminish the number of aspirants to the practice of the arts of painting and sculpture, than of those whose minds are elevated, and whose taste is cultivated by the contemplation of beauty. We would have beauty constituted the standard of value, both for rich and poor. The form, the expression, the fitness of an object, should become more points of consideration than the materials of which it is made. Such a direction of the mind would of course in no way prevent the rich man from indulging in utensils of gold or of crystal, while it would have the advantage of both improving the taste of such costly articles, and of allowing the poor man to be contented with the same utensils moulded in glass or in bronze. Were it possible for the humbler material to be more beautifully worked, then would the owner of such an article be more proud of it than if an alchymist had transformed it into gold. It was in this way that in antiquity the cultivated lands preserved the purity of judgment which distinguished their citizens, although they were no less immediately and constantly in contact with the lands which placed their boast in "barbaric pearl and gold" than we are. This is too the characteristic of the connoisseur, who sets the true value upon the relics of art which have descended to us from those times, and which is so inexplicable to vulgar minds. The beauty of a bronze medal, or of the fragment of an antique work of art, may indeed be difficult to appreciate for one whose taste has been formed in the rococo school of a modern boudoir, or whose childhood has been spent in drawing-rooms defaced by china monsters; and while a most inexplicable want of ambition is so constantly exhibited in the manner in which in our age families of rank and fortune consign the effigies of themselves and their forefathers to posterity, it can excite but little surprise that gold and jewels should appear to the labouring classes the sole indicating instruments of wealth. How important an instrument for stimulating to exertion, as well as for combating the covetous feelings, the dread of which is on all occasions put forward to excuse the harshness of laws and the separation of classes, do we not voluntarily abandon while we neglect to cultivate this taste for real beauty! Rewards might thus be simplified and rendered less costly, while their real value would be greatly enhanced for the receiver. It is not difficult to imagine cases in which a medal or an intaglio of first-rate merit, even if unworthily bestowed, would of itself remedy the error committed, by awakening in the possessor a consciousness of his deficiency. Thus we have seen ancient cameos, representing cattle of such beauty, that some of the notables amongst our agricultural gentry might take a lesson from the stone, while they imagined they had produced a model from their stables. Our agricultural societies, mechanics', and other institutions, present the best opportunities for the diffusion of works of art as rewards, which may be made instructive as well as beautiful, and the possession of which in families ought to form a just object of ambition, and would afford at once the best proofs of, and |