with little change of system, save that in 1809
their number was increased from twenty-one to
twenty-eight, and out of that number the Crown
was empowered to appoint seven to be Commissioners
for the Herring Fishery j and from that
time the Fishery Board and the Board of Manufactures
have virtually been separate bodies.
Regarding the Royal Institution, in which it now
has chambers, Lord Cockburn says :-? Strictly, it
ought to have been named after the old historical
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION AS IT WAS IN 1829. (From a Drawkg ay S h @ M )
mental art, and also in taste and design -in manufacture.
In the same year Sir John Shaw Lefevre
was sent down by Government to report on the
constitutionand management of the Board and the
erection of the Galleries of Art in Edinburgh.
Since the Board began to give premiums for the
encouragement of the .linen trade, that branch of
business has made giant strides in Scotland. ?It
takes about six months,? says David Bremner,
?? from the purchase cif the raw material before the
board of trustees, because it was by their money
and for their accommodation chiefly it was made,
and ?the Trustees? Hall? had been the title ever
since the Union, of the place in the old town where
they had met.?
In 1828 new letters patent were issued, giving to
the trustees a wider discretion; and empowering
them to apply their funds to the encouragement not
only of manufactures, but also of such other undertakings
in Scotland as should most conduce to the
general welfare of the United Kingdom.
In 1847 an Act was passed by which the
Treasury was enabled to direct the appropriation
of their funds towards the purposes of education in
the fine arts generaliy, in decorative and ornagoods
can be manufactured and the proceeds drawn,
so that the stock-in-trade of manufacturers and
merchants will amount to ~t;5,ooo,ooo. It would
thus appear that a capital of ~ ~ z , o o o , o o o is required
for carrying on the linen trade of Scotland.?
It was under this Board of Manufactures that
the quality of Scottish linen was improved. One
of their earliest acts was to propose to Nicholas
d?Assaville, a cambric weaver of St. Quintin, in
France, to bring over ten experienced weavers in
cambric, with their families, to settle in Scotland
and teach their art to others. The proposal was
accepted, and the trustees purchased from the
governors of Heriot?s Hospital five acres of ground
eastward of Broughton Loan, whereon were built
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