he National Gallery as a memorial of him; and
at a meeting for the purpose, Ruskin spoke warmly of his labours in the
cause of the working classes.

In the summer of 1857 the Art Treasures Exhibition was held at
Manchester, and Ruskin was invited to lecture. The theme he chose was
"The Political Economy of Art." He had been studying political economy
for some time back, but, as we saw from his letter to Carlyle, he had
found no answer in the ordinary text-books for the questions he tried to
put. He wanted to know what Bentham and Ricardo and Mill, the great
authorities, would advise him as to the best way of employing artists,
of educating workmen, of elevating public taste, of regulating
patronage; but these subjects were not in their programme. And so he put
together his own thoughts into two lectures upon Art considered as
Wealth: first, how to get it; next, how to use it.[7]

[Footnote 7: July 10 and 13, 1857. He went to Manchester from Oxford,
where he had been staying with the Liddells, writing enthusiastically of
the beauty of their children and the charm of their domestic life.]

There were very few points in these lectures that were not vigorously
contested at the moment, and conceded in the sequel--in some form or
other. The paternal function of government, the right of the state to
interfere in matters beyond its traditional range, its duty with regard
to education--all this was quite contrary to the prevailing habits of
thought of the time, especially at Manchester, the headquarters of the
_laissez faire_ school; but to Ruskin, who, curiously enough, had just
then been referring sarcastically to German philosophy, knowing it only
at second-hand, and unaware of Hegel's political work--to him this
Platonic conception of the state was the only possible one, as it is to
most people nowadays. In the same way, his practical advice has been
accepted, perhaps unwittingly, by our times. We do now understand the
difference between artistic decoration and machine-made wares; we do now
try to preserve ancient monuments, and to use art as a means of
education. And we are in a fair way, it seems, of lowering the price of
modern pictures, as he bids us, to "not more than L500 for an oil
picture and L100 for a water-colour."

After a visit to the Trevelyans at Wallington he went with his parents
to Scotland; for his mother, now beginning to grow old, wanted to
revisit the scenes of her youth. They went to the Highlands a