1
To the President and Council
of the Royal Academy
Gentlemen
In submitting for your approval a
report on the proposed new classes of the Architectural
School, I venture to premise it by a few remarks.
The establishment of this School, the first of its kind
in this country is necessarily attended by many
difficulties with which experience alone can make us
acquainted. Not only is there a great difference in
the age, degree of Knowledge of design, and power
of drawing possessed by those students who now
present themselves for admission to the academy,
but, in the absence of any such well defined
academical course of study such as is found in
Foreign schools each student practises his own
particular style of design. In addition to this,
as the system of pupilage forms the readiest and
most practical method of acquiring an architec-
tural education, office work constitutes the chief
motive power, and all evening study is a work of
supererogation and pursued only by a limited number
of students; these and other considerations would
be sufficient to show that the first efforts towards
the establishment of any system of instruction in
this school must necessarily be tentative __ to be
added to or modified as experience shall suggest.
Inasmuch as the rewards at present offered to
architectural students will form the chief induce-
ment for study in the new classes, I have
embodied them in the report and made such
suggestions as I hope will not be deemed out
of my province.