cumstances at present against us, in England, that we must not be
sanguine as to too speedy an effect. I believe that one great reason of
the superiority of foreign countries in manufactures is, that they have
more beautiful things about them continually, and it is not possible for
a man who is educated in the streets of our manufacturing towns ever to
attain that refinement of eye or sense; he cannot do it; and he is
accustomed in his home to endure that which not the less blunts his
senses.

The Committee has been informed that with regard to some of our museums,
particularly the British Museum, they are very much overcharged with
objects, and I apprehend that the same remark would be true as to some
of our picture galleries. Are you of opinion that it would be conducive
to the general elevation of the people in this country if our works of
art, and objects of interest, were circulated more expeditiously, and
more conveniently, than at present, throughout the various manufacturing
districts?--I think that all precious works of art ought to be treated
with a quite different view, and that they ought to be kept together
where men whose work is chiefly concerned with art, and where the
artistically higher classes can take full advantage of them. They ought,
therefore, to be all together, as in the Louvre at Paris, and as in the
Uffizii at Florence, everything being illustrative of other things, but
kept separate from the collections intended for the working classes,
which may be as valuable as you choose, but they should be usable, and
above all things so situated that the working classes could get at them
easily, without keepers to watch what they are about, and have their
wives and children with them, and be able to get at them freely, so that
they might look at a thing as their own, not merely as the nation's, but
as a gift from the nation to them as the working class.

You would cultivate a taste at the impressionable age?--Especially in
the education of children, that being just the first question, I
suppose, which lies at the root of all you can do for the workman.

148. With regard to the circulation of pictures and such loans of
pictures as have heretofore been made in Manchester and elsewhere, are
you of opinion that, in certain cases, during a part of the year, some
of our best pictures might be lent for particular periods, to particular
towns, to be restored in the same condition, so as to give those towns
a