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dueing to public notice the principal discoveries in Arts and Manufactures which
have been brought to light during the
present century in this country.

The Council further appoint from time
to time Committees for various Special
purposes;—among others may be named
that for Elementary Drawing Schools,
and those for Foreign, Colonial, and Provincial Correspondence.

ENCLOSURE No. 2.

The principal objects which the Council have in view in establishing the Colonial Committee may be generally enumerated under the following heads:

1. To make known to the Mercantile
   and general Public of this Country the
   principal products of each of the Colonies, and the facilities for obtaining them.

2. To point out to the Colonists any
   of those products which may be advantageously imported into England.

3. To afford such information as any
   Colony may require in regard to Implements, Machinery, Chemical or other
   processes necessary to the prosecution of
   its special branches of Industry.

4. To exhibit and make known to the
   British Public, Inventions which Colonists have otherwise great difficulty in
   introducing into notice, that being one
   of the principal branches of the Society’s
   operations.

5. To collect for the Thirty Standing
   Committees, information relative to the
   various departments of Trade in the Colonies.

6. To make a comparison of Coins,
   Weights and Measures, as used in the
   Colonies, and to receive and discuss propositions for giving them uniformity.

7. To investigate and report upon the
   operations of the Patent Laws in the Colonies.

It is hoped that the periodical transmission of the printed Proceedings of the
Society of Arts may often convey valuable
information to distant Colonies, and
the Society hope to enrich their own
Annual Volume by communications from
kindred Associations, and from Individuals in the Colonies.

The Council feel confident that these
measures cannot fail to be of use both to
the Mother Country and to the Colonies,
and that should they be unsuccessful in
some of the objects above enumerated,
benefit will ensue from the remainder.

It may be desirable here to state the
reasons which induced the Council to
originate the present scheme.

It was as President to the Society of
Arts, that His Royal Highness Prince
Albert first announced to the World the
project of the Exhibition of 1851. The
Society had a considerable share in the
early progress of the Exhibition, and
counts amongst its Members a large proportion of those who took an active part
in that great Work.

The Society also contains many Members eminent in the several branches of
science, and influential in the Country,
and consequently the Society possesses
the means of making extensively known,
amongst the Manufacturers and Public of
Great Britain, any new or important products which may be made available in
the Arts, Commerce, or Manufactures of
the Country. As a recent instance of
this nature, it may be mentioned, that
Gutta Percha and its valuable properties
were made known through the exertions
of the Society.

The Correspondence that has taken
place with the Colonies, on account of
the Exhibition, has brought to notice
that those by whom it has been conducted are capable of affording a vast amount
of information, which only requires to be
collected and printed, to make it of great
use to this country. And the anxiety
which has been evinced for such information as, it is hoped, may be advantageously furnished by Members of the Society, has directed attention to the fact
that they have now no direct means of
obtaining such information.

The Society feels confident, that those who took
an active part in the promotion of the
Exhibition, will be the first to come forward and render assistance to any scheme
such as the present, by which efforts are
made to perpetuate its results.

It may be interesting also here to refer
to a few of the advantages which have
been actually derived from the display of
Colonial Produce at the Great Exhibition.

Isinglass had hitherto been regarded
as obtainable principally from the fish of
the Russian rivers. But it has been ascertained that the rivers of Canada
abound with fish producing Isinglass of
the first quality, and that a new industrial
occupation is thus open to the Canadians,
whilst a supply of Isinglass can be fur-