astern countries, particularly in Japan, we
find the dexterous joiner or carver of to-day is the descendant of a long
line of more or less excellent mechanics.

It must be obvious, too, that "Trades Unionism" of the present day cannot
but be, in many of its effects, prejudicial to the Industrial Arts. A
movement which aims at reducing men of different intelligence and ability,
to a common standard, and which controls the amount of work done, and the
price paid for it, whatever are its social or economical advantages, must
have a deleterious influence upon the Art products of our time.

Writers on Art and manufactures, of varying eminence and opinion, are
unanimous in pointing out the serious drawbacks to progress which will
exist, so long as there is a demand for cheap and meretricious imitations
of old furniture, as opposed to more simply made articles, designed in
accordance with the purposes for which they are intended. Within the past
few years a great many well directed endeavours have been made in England
to improve design in furniture, and to revive something of the feeling of
pride and ambition in his craft, which, in the old days of the Trade
Guilds, animated our Jacobean joiner. One of the best directed of these
enterprises is that of the "Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society," of which
Mr. Walter Crane, A.R.W.S., is president, and which numbers, amongst its
committee and supporters, a great many influential names. As suggested in
the design of the cover of their Exhibition Catalogue, drawn by the
President, one chief aim of the society is to link arm in arm "Design and
Handicraft," by exhibiting only such articles as bear the names of
individuals who (1) drew the design and (2) carried it out: each craftsman
thus has the credit and responsibility of his own part of the work,
instead of the whole appearing as the production of Messrs. A.B. or C.D.,
who may have known nothing personally of the matter, beyond generally
directing the affairs of a large manufacturing or furnishing business.

In the catalogue published by this Society there are several short and
useful essays in which furniture is treated, generally and specifically,
by capable writers, amongst whom are Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Edward Prior,
Mr. Halsey Ricardo, Mr. Reginald T. Blomfield, Mr. W.R. Letharby, Mr. J.H.
Pollen, Mr. Stephen Webb, and Mr. T.G. Jackson, A.R.A., the order of names
being that in which the several essays are arranged. This small b