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Miscellaneous. 
Arts, have consented to act as a Commit- 
tee for promoting LE&ISLATIVEa REcoeGI- 
TION OF THE RIGHTS OF INVENTORS, by 
means of an easy registration of them, in 
accordance with the principles agreed 
on by the Council of the Society in 1849. 
These principles are :-1. That inventors, 
designers, &c., ought not to be subjected 
to any other expenses than such as may 
be absolutely necessary to secure to them 
the protection of their inventions.  2. 
That the difficulties and anomalies ex- 
perienced in connexion with patents 
should be removed. 3. That the present 
term of copyright in design  for articles 
of manufacture, and the protection af- 
forded to the authors and proprietors of 
inventions, and of designs in arts and 
manufactures, are inadequate. 4. That, 
for carrying out these objects, the co- 
operation of all persons interested there- 
in be invited. Committee :-The Mar- 
quis of Northampton, the Earl of Radnor, 
Sir John P. Boileau, Bart., Sir J. J. 
Guest, Bart., M.P., the Right Hon. T. 
Milner Gibson, M.P., Henry T. Hope, 
Esq., M.P., Samuel M. Pete, Esq., M.P., 
Sir James Anderson (Glasgow), George 
Brace, Esq., Henry Cole, Esq., Charles 
Dickens, Esq., R. B. Dockray, Esq, C.E., 
J. H. Elliott, Esq., John Farey, Esq., 
C.E., P. Le Neve Foster, Esq., NI.A., 
Charles Fox, Esq., C.E., Wyndham Hard- 
ing, C.E., Edward Highton, Esq., Captain 
Boscawen Ibbetson, K.R.E., Owen Jones, 
Esq., Herbert Minton, Esq. (the Pot- 
teries), R. S. Newall, Esq. (Gateshead), 
Richard Prosser Esq. (Birmingham), 
Professor Forbes Royle, W. W. Rundell, 
Esq. (Falmouth), J. Jobson Smith, Esq. 
(Sheffield), Professor Edward   Solly, 
F.R.S., Arthur Symonds, Esq., Professor 
Bennet Woodcroft. The points on which 
the Committee wish particularly to ob- 
tain information are,-lst, the effect 
which the existing system of patents 
may have had on suppressing, and thus 
depriving the public of the knowledge 
and use of the inventions of those who 
are unable to bear the heavy expenses 
required under it; and, secondly, in- 
stances where the expenses have been 
fruitlessly incurred. The Committee re- 
quest that any facts in any way bearing 
upon these points may be forwarded to 
them." 
AnRT-EDUCATION  FOR WOnKSIEN.-A 
correspondent, who is very zealous in 
education, writes :-Almost all workmen 
would be much benefited by some know- 
ledge of geometry. Some time ago I 
gave a number of lessons on geometry to 
the workmen of -, and had then 
some opportunity of observing what per- 
sons of that class require and can take 
up. They cannot follow trains of argu 
ment. What they want and like are 
facts. I have, therefore, begun a table of 
the main and most useful and easily 
comprehended facts in geometry, and in- 
tend to lithograph it in one large sheet, 
to be stuck up in factories, mechanics' 
institutes, and common boys' schools. 
Workmen are used to broad sheets, but 
do not readily find their way in the pages 
of a book. When everything is before 
them at once, they discover what they 
require at the moment, or point it out to 
each other, more readily in this mode 
than in a book-at least that is my 
opinion. As soon as the table is in a 
state to enable any one to form a notion 
of it, I will forward you the MS. My in- 
tention is to lithograph it myself, i.e. to 
copy it on transfer-paper. Some of my lit- 
tie pupils are getting on very well, though 
our lessons do not average more than 
three-quarters of an hour a-week, which 
is not enough. Several of them might 
become artists, and of about thirty there 
are not more than two who do not shew 
a taste for drawing; and those two are 
very young, and have been ill-managed 
at home. I have just returned from a 
few days' visit to France, and should 
have liked to see the Paris schools, to 
which strangers are not admitted. In 
Paris alone there are a great many 
schools of design, for both males and 
females, juvenile and adult, many of 
them gratuitous. Galignani, in his very 
excellent "Paris Guide," says that up- 
wards of 10,000 adults receive instruction 
in these schools; the number of children 
in them he does not state. The supe- 
riority of the French workmen in all 
articles of taste is, therefore, easily ac- 
counted for. In all, or almost all, the 
lower branches of art the French appear 
to excel us, - not so in the highest. 
Whatever a Frenchman does, he tries to 
do in an artistic manner. He often suc- 
ceeds, often fails, and often succeeds but 
partially-partly through his compara- 
tive poverty, partly through his turn of 
mind. We, I think, seek good and sound, 
rather than showy, work-we appear, to 
me, to be more congruous but less ar- 
tistic. The Louvre, Luxembourg, and 
many other public exhibitions of paint- 
ing, sculpture, ornaments, curiosities, 
and models and specimens of every kind, 
are open to all classes in Paris on Sun- 
day, and are crowded with all classes of 
visitors. These are important schools of 
art. The numerous beautiful churches 
of Paris are also open all day, and as 
they contain numerous paintings and 
sculptures must have an effect on the 
public taste.                     G.