Page 42

Institutions: Spitalfields School of Design. 
- director, appear to have been undertaken 
-by the Committee of Management, in 
addition to a general superintendence 
over the working of the whole machinery, 
both lay and artistic. 
For the transaction of all the business 
attendant upon these extensive and di- 
versified duties, the Committee of Ma- 
nagement meet at a monthly meeting on 
a given day; usually the first Wednesday 
in the month, at the Board. Mr. Deve- 
rel " does not consider the meetings 
sufficiently frequent for the despatch of 
business ; sundry matters are necessarily 
deferred, and delay must take place 
where it would be desirable that the 
matter should be disposed of at once; 
various items on the agenda are una- 
voidably postponed for further considera- 
tion, or referred to the sub-committee, 
which inevitably cause delay. (3138-9.) 
Delay of several weeks may thus be 
caused." It must be obvious that such 
a meeting cannot be more than one for 
the confirmation of the work done during 
the intervals, which is intrusted to sub- 
committees, not very precise in character, 
or where much individual responsibility 
can be felt by any one. 
"The sub -committees," Mr. North- 
cote says (40), "do not keep minutes, 
and are not very formal bodies, especially 
the financial sub-committee." They do 
not summon one another "to a meet- 
ing." (Northeote, 55.)  The administra- 
tion, such as it is, of the business, is 
divided among the sub-committees; thus 
there is one for finance, consisting of 
Mr. Porter and Mr. Northcote (Ev. 33, 
40 passim), an occasional committee for 
instruction, of which the artists on the 
Committee of Management are members, 
(Appendix 4, p. 4, also 16, p. 1, &c.); 
and there is also a sub-committee to 
inspect and control the provincial schools, 
which consists of Lord Granville, Mr. 
Northeote, and Mr. Poynter. But not- 
withstanding the responsibility for the 
execution of all the numerous and differ- 
ent duties which attach to the manage- 
ment of the schools is stated by Mr. 
Northcote to rest with the "general com- 
mittee," (Ev. 45), "who have no votes, 
but act as assessors without authority," 
to assist the Board of Trade. (Ev. 70, 
71.) In some cases the acts are those 
of the Board of Trade. (74.) In other 
cases they are those of the Committee of 
Management, in which, as Mr. North- 
cote admits, there is " an apparent con- 
fusion" (67), calculated, in the opinion of 
Your Committee, to lessen the sense of 
responsibility. 
(To be continued.) 
SPITALFIELDS SCHOOL OF DESIGN. 
THE annual meeting to distribute prizes 
took place on the 30th July. We were 
glad to see that Lord Granville, the Vice- 
President of the Board of Trade, pre- 
sided. We hope we may view this as 
a token that his Lordship is going to 
distinguish  himself as the reformer 
of the Schools. The very first step 
towards improving    the  system- one 
without which all hopes of improve- 
ment are idle-is that some one in a re- 
sponsible and authoritative station shall 
give his mind to the subject, understand 
it, and qualify himself to judge, not in- 
deed of every detail, but of plain, broad, 
indisputable results, and of the smooth 
working of the establishment. That Lord 
Granville can do so if he will, and that he 
may make the country and our manufac- 
turers indebted to him for rendering our 
Schools of Design realities, we have little 
doubt. But it will not be a task to be 
accomplished by a modicum of indifferent 
attention. Let Lord Granville take pains 
to have information from its source, re- 
solve to form a judgment for himself on 
all important points, and he will succeed; 
and let him appoint responsible, ostensible 
advisers, acknowledged by name, whether 
artists or laymen. If his deputy is to be 
Mr. Northoote, be it so. Let the public 
know it, and compel Mr. Northeote to give 
an exclusive and undivided attention to 
the School. We shall soon see if he can 
become wiser than he appeared before the 
Committee. He will have enough to do 
for the next two years to regain the confi- 
dence of manufacturers,-which may be 
done; to extricate the provincial Schools 
from debt by increased subscriptions,- 
which may be done; to secure the willing 
co-operation of the masters,-which may 
be done; to make it everybody's interest 
to work well and honestly, or to resign at 
once,-which may be done; to bring be- 
fore the public palpable evidences that 
the School is directly improving manufac- 
tures without question,-which may be 
done; and to enlarge the basis of that 
" sound" elementary instruction which 
was the alpha and omega of Mr. Rich's 
views in the Commons' Committee; but 
to do these things, or even half of them, 
Mr. Northeote must give up representing 
and writing " My Lords ;" drawing Cus- 
toms Bills, revising treatises, &c., and 
attend  wholly  to  the  school.   The 
Board of Trade is now at its fourth trial