The English manufacturer excels in the proportions of his paper, (English, 12 yards long, by 21 inches wide; French, 9 yards, by 18 inches). But, the art is still difficult and costly; the blocks for a single pattern sometimes amounting to thousands. One of the principal French manufacturers is, at present, producing a design, requiring upwards of three thousand blocks, at a cost of £2000., the design alone costing £1200. But, time and practice will lighten both the difficulty and the expense. The manufacture may yet spread through every mart in the world. In its more advanced stage, it may supply the place of FRESCO, or rather be a multiplied Fresco. The Cartoons of Raphael, the noblest work of design, are upon paper; the finest Italian pictures might be copied upon paper; and the tardy and toilsome work of the Engraver might be exchanged for the rapid, cheap, and popular design, no longer limited to the palace or the cloister, but sent, in thousands of copies, round the globe. Nor let this be called Utopian; what can be Utopian, in the country of the Railroad, the Steam-ship, and the Electric Telegraph! The art wants only public encouragement. Let the encouragement be given, and the talent will be found. Let Government offer a premium of even a thousand pounds for the best specimen. Let the Society of Arts make it one of the objects of their patronage; let it be once favoured, and it will soon advance to excellence. Nor let any one scoff at the interest, which I venture to express in the ornament even of a cottage wall. Ornament is the crown of art. Taste is thought. Elegance is the refinement of civilization. The study of beauty, grandeur, and truth, in History and in Nature, is the most practical education of man! Who shall say, that the sight of some heroic action—some noble figure of history—some sublime exercise of talent, magnanimity, or patriotism, pictured on a cottage wall,—may not be like a flash through the darkness of the peasant heart; may not suddenly awake the latent energy of the unconscious poet, the patriot, and the hero; may not give to the world a Shakspeare, a Wallace, or a Wellington! ADVERTISEMENT. The Author desires to state for the information of the Subscribers, that the delay which has arisen in the publication of this work has been altogether unavoidable; owing to the labour and difficulty of preparing such illustrations as were found to be necessary: many of the Specimens inserted having been produced from moulds which were manufactured expressly for the purpose. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. ADAMS, FRANCIS BRYANT, Esq., (Messrs. Charles Morgan and Co.) AMOS, C. E., Esq., Consulting Engineer to the Royal Agricultural Society of England. ANNANDALE, JAMES, Esq., Newcastle. ANNANDALE, PETER, Esq., Newcastle. APPOLD, J. G., Esq., F.R.S. BALSTON, R. E. P., Esq., Maidstone. BALSTON, WILLIAM, Esq., Maidstone.