The People's Share In Art.

THE PEOPLE'S SHARE IN ART .

LONDON , SATURDAY , APRIL 1 , 1865 .

On Tuesday week , Mr . Beresford Hope , the president of the Architectural Mrseuui , delivered an address on this subject to the members , and said that , on previous occasions of a similar nature , he had been permitted to make some general remarks on questions of artistic interest having reference

especially to the objects to promote which the Architectual Museum was established . At the opening of the session of 1863 , he had endeavoured to explain the peculiar phase of art which they were associated together to support—not art

simply , but an intermediate something which they might call architectural art . Last year , having established what architectural art was the year before , he took up the art-workman ' s positionthe position of the men who were the executive iu

the execution of architectural art—the art-producers , he now proposed to regard the whole question from another point of view , and to deal with it not much as regarded the advancement or trade profit of the art-producer as from the point of view in which , the interest and advantage of the art-consumer are concerned . He proposed to

speak of the people s share m art ; the share of those persons , some of Avlioni might be able to practise more or less of art , but to do so for their own amusement and edification , and not as their calling in life . He desired to place before them , plainly and emphatically , a general test for the

general qualification for art—as not one of those things to which they ought to be indifferent—one of those things which , as the world was now constituted , might or might not exist in a nation ; but as a tiling which ought to exist , if the nation

meant adequately to fulfil its mission amongst the other peoples of the earth in a social , moral , intellectual , and material point of view . They should first inquire how far it was desirable or necessary to the well-being of a people that a

general appreciation of art should be diffused ; next , how far it was desirable towards this diffusion of taste in art that facilities for making acquaintance with art should be afforded to the general public . How far , in other words , should they take

steps , not only that persons should appreciate drawing , carving , and so on ; but also to a certain extent be converted into carvers and draughtsmen ^ although , carving and drawing might never be nfojfe--to them than an amusement , or , at the oxAmm , Qfi hi ° Vr >\

very temporary and occasional employment . And , thirdly , he would apply the solution of the two questions to the peculiar circumstances of their own institution . Pirst , how far ought _ a nation as a nationto endeavour to make a general appreciation

, of artin all its branches—painting , sculpture , & c . —¦ the general property of the people ; not merely of the highly educated classes , but of those whose education and technical knowledge were comparatively limited;—in - short , how far ought educa- ¦

tion to be the education simply of the eye , and not so exclusively of the memory and the intellect . The question brought them back to principles of a deeper and wider character than mere consideration of artistic beauty . It resolved itself at once into that great first principle which all those who

studied the philosophy of the human mind in no narrow , or bigoted , or dry spirit , were united in asserting ; namely , that for the healthy development of the mind , the imagination , no less than the reason , must be cultivated . This is an age in which science has made gigantic progress—an

, age in which the machinery of literature , so to speak—printing , journals , public speaking—had attained a position and acquired a power such as no previous time furnished any instance of . All these were , in their way , antagonistic to the development of the imaginationbut the other

; , on hand , they were ' good and right in themselves . How , then , was the imagination to be fostered ? In former times more rude , and perhaps more stirring , the imagination was fostered through the

means of the memory and popular poetry and ballads . Heroic action , except in time of great . refinement , threw itself into the form of lyric or ballad poetry . The Homeric poems were the form in which the Greek mind treasured up for ages those gallant feats which it was fondly hoped

were not altogether fabulous . The Romans had their ballads , such as those which Macaulay , in his "Lays of Ancient Rome , " had attempted to revive . The Border forays , before England and Scotland , —although they only concerned cattlestealing caseswhich a justice of the peace would

, dispose of now , —produced the ballad of " Chevy Chase" and its compeers . In Ireland the influence of ballad poetry upon the imagination of the Celtic race there was very great ; and the treasures of the ancient poetry of Brittany had lately been displayed by the facile muse of Mr . Tom Taylor .

Coming down to the middle of last century , they knew how amongst the then half-civilized jjeople in the Highlands of Scotland much stirring poetry contained in the Jacobin ballads had been enshrined . But take one more century and its heroic events—the great contest of right against

wrongthe glorious , scientific , and successful feats of g"B « itish arms ; they only practically exist for us -fiSS & ie one ballad , "The Burial of Sir John Alfeom" "Waterloo was unsung ; the Crimean D G E ) r )