18

EXHIBITION OF 1852.

spare no effort and relax no energy. It was in the Department of I)esign thatonr English deficiencies were most apparent, and no greater benefit could berendered to the worsted trade than the introduction of a purer and more culti-vated taste, not only amongst the producers, but also the consumers of our fabrics,by an extension and improvement of our plans of Art-Instruction. This wasmainly to be effected by indoctrinating the pupil with the true principles of art,and placing before him specimens illustrative of the right application of theseprinciples to the specialties of his own particular manufacture.”

Many similar passages from the lectures of the other gentlemen might be citedto the same effect, both showing the importance of no time being lost incommencing a movement for the extension of industrial instruction, and specify-ing particular instances of the injury sustained from the absence of it. One ortwo of the latter, taken from lectures recently delivered at the Museum of Prac-tical Geology, are given below.*

* Mr. Warrington Smythe (Inspector of Mines to the Duchy of Cornwall), in his Intro-ductory Lecture to the Course of Mineralogy and Mining, used the following language :—

“The mining districts of Great Britain are so utterly destitute of the means of Miucralogicaleducation, whether in schools or suitable collections, that it need he no source of wonder tofind the most intelligent miner acquainted only with some two or throe of the substanceswhich in the routine of his employment have been brought prominently before him, and oftenneglecting others from ignorance of their nature, or dangerously confounding things which aretotally distinct from each other. It is matter of history, that the copper ores of Cornwall were recognised as useful only at a comparatively late date, the minors having concentrated alltheir attention upon the tin with which that county was so plentifully supplied. Morowonderful does it appear, that even at the commencement of tlio last century, when theyellow ore or pyrites had been long appreciated, the far more valuable redruthito, or sulphideof copper, was thrown as worthless rubbish over the cliffs of St. Just into the Atlantic : andPryce informs us that “ many thousand pounds’ worth of the rich black ore, or oxideof copper, was washed into the rivers and discharged into the North Sea from the oldPool mine.”*

“Those might bo considered as the errors of a past age, but wo may recollect that theyoccurred at a time when the value of the same substances was understood in other countries ;and by mere accidental rencontres similar cases arc still not unfrequently brought to ournotice.

“ During a visit, three or four years since, to a mine which was supported chiefly by raisingblende, the sulphide of zinc, my attention was attracted by a lump of white mineral lying onthe window-sill of the office, a single glance at which was sufficient for recognition ; and I put tothe agent a few questions regarding its nature and occurrence. Ho replied that it was nothingbut ‘ spar,’ and that in working a particular part of the lode they had met with many tons ofit, which, however, had been all, except this accidentally preserved specimen, irretrievablymixed with the rubbish heaps. The surprise of my informant was not small, when he learnedthat tho so-called ‘ spar,’ confounded by him with quartz, was calamine, an ore containing inits pure state above 60 per cent, of oxide of zinc. Not to leave the same metal and its ores,which put on a great variety of characters, I have knowm zinc-blende taken for lead-ore, andhonoured with tho erection of a smelting furnace, when, to the chagrin of tho manager, thovolatile metal liew away up the chimney, leaving only disappointment and loss behind. Again,from a faint resemblance which some of tho varieties bear to certain iron-ores—a resemblancewhich would at once disappear before accurate observation—a considerable quantity was

Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 1778.