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Institutions: The Female School of Design.                 29 
In the centre is the world, encircled by the proclamation of the Exhibition,
and 
surrounded by the peaceful arts of all nations,-Raw Materials, the miner,
planter, 
and shepherd-Manufactures, the potter, artist, and weaver-Commerce, the mer-
chant, retailer, and export trader. The shield is divided by the Caduceus
(the sym.- 
bol of concord) and types of the three kingdoms ; around runs a wreath on
which are 
inscribed the names of great men of all nations who have aided manufactures.
Earthenware Jugs, manufactured by Thomas, John, and Jos Mayer, of Dale Hall
Pottery, Longport, and exhibited in the Exhibition of 1851. 
Instftutwns. 
THE FEMALE SCHOOL OF DESIGN, 
THE defects of the Government Schools 
of Design are a subject of which we fear 
our readers will, ere long, become as 
thoroughly tired as we ourselves are; but 
so long as they continue, they must be 
exposed and discussed, with the hope of 
reform even at a distant date, It is now 
about three years since that the Govern- 
ment School of Design, as we then point- 
ed out, finding its family becoming 
numerous, took lodgings for the female 
portion of it in the quiet and salubrious 
neighbourhood of the Strand, near the 
classic regions of Drury Lane, Newcastle 
Street, Wych Street, and Holywell Street; 
and there the "female classes" are at 
present domiciled. The apartments con- 
sist of six rooms, three in the front, each 
about fifteen feet square; and three in 
the rear, not very much more than half 
that size. One of the latter is the private 
room of the superintendent, Mrs. M'Ian. 
One of the larger rooms is devoted to 
wood-engraving, leaving four rooms for 
the general pupils, who amount at the 
present time to the number offifly-nine. 
Of these there is an average attendance 
of about forty, for from three to eight 
hours a-day, during Ave days in the week 
throughout the year, vacations excepted. 
Each of the small rooms accommodates se- 
ven, and each of the larger about fourteen 
pupils. The front rooms have a south 
aspect; so that a pupil drawing from the 
round finds the shadow on one side of 
her model when she commences in the 
morning, and on the opposite side when 
her day's work is finished: this must give 
a pleasing variety to the drawing, and 
afford an excellent lesson in light and 
shade. The seats are so close, that Mrs. 
M'Ian is compelled, in some instances, 
to give instructions to a pupil over the 
heads of one or two others. The students 
are in the predicament of the scene- 
painter: they cannot get an idea of the 
general effect of what they are doing while 
at work; for if they step aside, they touch 
a neighbour; if backwards, they strike 
against a desk or an easel, or overturn a