Page 60

Miscellaneous. 
trouble at all, being too content to leave 
their successful efforts to revive the So, 
ciety to speak for themselves- and 
were defeated. The result has been to 
disgust those who have been most use- 
ful and active, and who have already 
shewn their sense of the ingratitude by 
retiring from the Council. The effect of 
the Exhibitions has been to raise the 
number of members from 320 in 1846 
to 660 in 1850; and it needs no prophet 
to foretell what will be the result of 
making patents and patent agency the 
watchwords of the Society, and suppress- 
ing those exhibitions which had placed 
the Society in the most forward posi- 
tion among metropolitan institutions. 
We doubt if any Society has ever before 
been so recognised in a royal warrant as 
the Society of Arts has lately been. If 
the Society did not value, then they de- 
serve to lose all these advantages, and 
lose them most assuredly they will. It is 
peculiarly significant of the fatuity of 
this contest, that whilst the Society has 
just opened one of the most interesting 
Exhibitions ever made, to which the 
Queen and Her Royal Consort (the 
President of the Society) have most 
graciously contributed, the Society should 
thus apparently repudiate in fact the po- 
licy of which the present and all past 
Exhibitions have been the fruits. We 
had written thus far when we received 
the names of the new list for the Council 
of 1850, the first fruits of the new bye- 
laws. To put forth this list as repre- 
senting the intelligence of the Society is 
quite ridiculous. For the most part, the 
names are those of gentlemen quite un- 
known; except in a very small cir- 
cle, and that a narrow one of its kind;- 
we mean patent agency. To shew how 
strong the bias is in* this direction, 
we have marked those names with P. 
who are known either to be in the 
business or very sympathetic with it. 
Besides this Council list, there are Mr. 
Farey, Mr. Rotch, and Mr. Webster, on 
the list of Vice-Presidents, all connected 
with some branch of "patent" agency. 
In fact, the whole is simply a "patent" 
machine of the chief mover. We indicate 
the "Patent" men,- 
F. Fuller, 
H, G. Calthrop, P,  }Aicuture. 
D. Campbell,       ,      i 
'Chemnistry. 
J. J. Cooper, 
T. Creswick, A.R.A.  }Fine Arts. 
W. Wyon, R.A. 
E. Sper, P          Mechanics. 
3. Gooch 
W. Newton,    P.    }Manufacture 
J. B. Simpson, 
T. Winkwortb,       } Council. 
F. Whishaw,   P.    I 
J. H. Gooch,        }Audito.. 
J. Miler, 
J Payne, 
P. Le Neve Foster,   Treasurers. 
G. Grove,            Secretary. 
We will tell the Society something of 
the mode of concocting this list. The chief 
mover having professed that the com- 
mittees were not duly represented by the 
former Council, attended himself all the 
committees, and dictated to them whom 
they should elect-those, in fact, for the 
most part, who he considered were sup, 
ple machinery for his own aims. 
We have reason to hope that the 
most respectable names in this list will 
not be allowed to serve as the cat's-paws 
of the non-entities. 
The annual election takes place on 
April 3, and we shall be curious to see if 
the Society will sanction this outrage on 
its common sense. 
.Aikdtancous. 
EXHI3ITION OF MANUFACTUYRES AT MAN- 
CHESTER.-Already we have alluded to 
the fact that very few, if any, of the 
-rinters in and about Manchester appear 
to know anything about this Exhibition. 
The result is, that the Exhibition is now 
opened, though as yet very incomplete; 
it hardly presents at the present time a 
single specimen of the staple of the town 
of Manchester. There must be something 
wrong. We suspect the Manchester men 
prefer shewing their goods anywhere 
except in Manchester. A good deal may 
he said on this subject, and we have a 
very strong suspicion that numerous as 
the causes may he which prevent a cor- 
dial co-operation on the part of the manu- 
facturers of Manchester, that is not the 
least amongst them which arises out of a 
desire to conceal how far they are actually 
indebted to each other for the patterns 
they issue; for it is notorious to what an 
extent even the smallest scintilla of a 
new idea is worked upon by as many 
as can get hold of it. We shall have 
more to say on this subject at a future 
time. As regards the Exhibition, we can 
only say that it appears to be made up of 
a large sprinkling of the articles lately 
displayed at the Society of Arts in 1849, 
and in Birmingham. Metal-work, glass, 
and porcelain, would appear to take the 
lead, when textile fabrics ought to pre- 
dominate. There is some little glorifi- 
cation expressed in a local print as to the 
developement of the glass trade in Man-