The Express.
London, England, 1862-03-19 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 19, 1862.

subsists upon, the public fuses are to the private as 30 to 1.
The boost had, therefore, a perfect right to deal with the
matter is the way be proposed. and to apply the remedy
which he suggested. That remedy was to put all those
bodice under one responsible miuister of the crown. (Hear,
hear.) It was of course for the government to.carry out the
details. He would be sorry to be understood as having used
a personal or offensive observation, or as wishing to say a
word to stay the progress of real art io this country which
was the natural result of the growing intelligence of the
people arising from the spread of education. Above all, be
would be sorry to do so at a time whoa public sttention had
not recovered from the loss of a great and illus.
triune prince, whose mind directed and whose band
helped forward many of the institutions established
in the country for the promotion of art. (Hear, hear.)
The people no doubt eujoyed a visit to the national imtitu-
Dons, but the house must consider the amount which each of
the museums cost the country. For ev visitor to the
Kensington Museum the country paid is. 2d. To visit the
British Museum the cost to the country, including the
board of management, was no lees than .is. 2d. each person,
and each person who went to the exhibition in George-
street, Westminster, omit the country the enormous sum of
from 16s. to 16e. (Laughter.) In making these observa-
tions he had no wish to mar the progress of art, but he
could not think that the institutions were managed
efficiently or economically. What he desired was, that when
these enormous votes were asked for, the House of Commons
should require farther responaibility in their administration.
He could not accept as an answer to his statement that the
time for bringing it forward was inopportune. The house
had been bamboozled over and over again. Committees
had aat, commissions had reported, and inquiries were ex.
hinted, sod further proceethogs in that direction would be
useless. It was quite time that the House of Commons
should act upon the reports made to it. If the house
would support him it would have • responsible manage-
ment for the institutions of the country. The noble lord
concluded by moving the resolution, of which he had given
notice. (Cheers.)
Mr. GREGORY said he had very peat pleasure in
seconding the motion of his noble friend, and be thought
he was justified in Raying that not only the House of Com-
mons, but all those who felt interested in the promotion of
education, science, and art, out of the house, must thank
the noble lord, not merely for the intrinsically good object
which he bad in bringing forward this queetioa, but also for
the care, industry, and admirable manner in which he had
put it before the house. With raped to the public
works and buildings of the metropolis, nothing could be
more melancholy than the whole management of these
things nothing would strike a stranger more than the mean.
nen, the weakness, the incongruity, and the mismanagement
which he would see on every side. He had been much
amused by • letter which he had teed that morning
in a public journal, from a sensitive foreign gentleman,
who wrote from the Sablonliire Hotel, in Leicester-square,
and who expressed a most sincere hope that if the Emperor
of the French were invited to the opening of the Great Ex-
hibition, he might be taken into the building blindfold in
order that his Majesty might escape the shock which the
inconceivable uglions of the building would necessarily give
him. (Laughter.) Suppose you met this foreign gentleman
in Pallmal4 and wen MUM to give him a sight of the
handsomest part of London as you conducted him to his
hotel. Suppose that to maps the bad company and the
shell-fish houses in Piccadilly you took him down Pall-mall
and through Tiafalgarequare, the first thing that would
meet his eye would he the hideous statue to the Guards,
with its mythological female— whether Virtue, or Valour, or
Sorrow, Heaven only knew—who stood apparently pitching
quoits into the space between the Athenaeum and the
United Service Clubs. (Cheers and laughter.) Next you
would have to show him the pepper-castors of the National
Gallery, and the soda-water bottles of the fountains below
them. Then he would see the unfinished statue of Nelson ;
then that of George IV., stand* solitary in one corner;
and then the statues of two peat warriors, which, as the
right hon. gentleman (Mr. Cowper) told the house last year,
his predecessor had allowed to be erected, and which, though
they spoilt the elevation of the National Gallery, the right
hon. gentleman said must remain where they were.
Then, taking this sensitive foreign gentleman up
those mean, narrow steps into the National Gallery,
they might convey him to the sculpture den •, and by that
time he would be in a state of mind that, notwithstanding
the proverbial politeness of Lis nation, he would give vent
in no me surd terms to the bitterness of his feelings.
(Cheers and laughter.) Something ought surely to be done to
remedy the present state of things, and he (Mr. Gregory)
could not help thinking that if we had an officer similar to
the Directeur des Arta in France, his counsel would be
found of great service by the President of the Board of
Works, who was rarely chosen from among his colleagues
to fill that particular situation on account of the excellence
of his taste or the correctness of his eye. He (Mr. Gregory)
hoped he should not be rebuked as he was the other night for
meddling with matters that were beyond the province of an
Irish member. He hoped he should not be told that he
ought to employ himself in wranglingg over some grand jury
bill or in some pleasant religious squabble, and leave the
improvement of the metropolis, and the constitution of the
British Museum, to the metropolitan members. If he
were, he should endeavour to receive the rebuke in • proper
spirit, but he should nose the lees give his cordial and un-
hesitating vote to his noble friend, if the noble lord pressed
hie motion to • divides. (Cheers.)
The CHANCELLOR elf the EXCHEQUER said that a
new arrangement wee made is 18110 with regard to the
National Gallery, which it was open to the hoses to have
questioned at the time. As veserdid what he sight call
the indictment which bad bees bad wised the British
Museum, he denied that the sharp of psend mismanage-
meat was sustained by oxidises. Me oestesded that the
mere fact of that institution bob, represented in partht-
meut by a private meadow at the hem did not
detract from the responsibility el the •
and production of the estimates to it,
while the government was also responsible for He
stated that shortly • proposition would be laid before the
house relating to the British Museum' which would bring
that institution under discussion sod enable the house to
decide upon that which was proposed. He moved the pro
vious question.
Mr. LUNLNOIIA3I concurred in the proposition to place
the oostrol of then who had the expenditure of public
money under a minister of the crown.
After some remarks by Mr. BLAKE and Sir J. BIMILIST,
Mr. DISRAELI said he thought Lord H. Lennox would
do wisely in not pureeing his motion. After the speech of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, confessing the general
justice of his views, it would be imprudent to run the risk
of • division. He (Mr. Dierieb) concurred generally in the
resolution, though he dissented from some of the opinions
Lord Henry had expressed, and in regard to the manage-
ment of the British Museum hie views were not in accord-
ance with Lord Henry's. The vesting the control and
responsibility attached to the expenditure in a minister of
the crown was compatible with the prerogative exercised by
those who had hitherto managed the national collections of
the country.
Lord H. LENNOX withdrew Lis resolution, believing
that he saw in the speech of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer • vista leading tothat consummation which heso much
desired.

The motion wee then withdraws.
BRITISH MERCHANTS

IN CHINA.

Mr. GREGSON rose to call the attention of the house to
the position of British merchants in Clime, and to move
that due protection be afforded to them and their property
in the treaty of that empire. They had conducted them
avocations to the great satisfaction of the Chinese govern-
ment, but in certain of the treaty ports they were iu great
peril of property and life from a cLuo as to whose true
character there was much misconception in the public mind.
He had recently had much communication with gentlemen
recently returned from China, and had read many letters
on the subject, from which it clearly appeared that the Tee-
=;:ithe national party, as they wens called—were in fact
and murderers. Mr. Ward, the late American em-
broider, told him that the Taepiugs should rather be
called robbers than rebels. Missionaries in Chine
were formerly disposed to think them reformers, but
they now formed a very different estimate of them.
He wished to show from the documents in his possession
that our relations with China urgently called for the atten-
ties of her Majesty's government. By the 18th article of
the treaty it was agreed that at all times British subjects
should have the fullest protection for their persons and their
property. He did not know whether thegovernment intended
to require that protection, but they ought to du so. He
thought it must be apparent to the Louse that the
were utterly unworthy of support. TheyctendTesett
Christians, and, under the cloak of , committed
barbarous acts and minden. He thought he was justified
in asking protection for their fellow people in China who
were carrying on commerce there in a peaceable disposition,
and, as he believed, in perfect honesty. He felt sure that
the commerce of this country with China was of the utmost
consequence to both countries. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer received four-and-a-half 'Milieus of revenue
from the duty on tea, and if the Taepinp were allowed to
interfere with our commerce, they would cut this revenue
off altogether. The exports from this country to China
amounted to no leas a sum than 7,000,000/. sterling. In
conelluico, he would express a hope that the government
would declarei that British subjects in China should be pro-
tected horn lawless violence, and that all interference with
trade at the ports meutiosed in the treaty should be pee-
vented. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. J. A. TURNER semoded the motion.
Colonel MYKES denied that any single instance had
been given of any injury done to any British subject ; but
it was the fact that there was a panic at Shanetuse about the
Taepinge, which be contended was ill.foundeil, although
when they came to take peaceable possession of the city
they were received by the French end English with volleys
of shot and shell, in rehire for which they did no injury to
the usigisbounes country, and were generally peaceful in
their conduct.
Mr. LAYARD said that all the information re-
solved by the government tended to show that the
Twinge were a rebel rout of marauders and
men, and the hem gentleman read a number of demi-
Meets to thow the tree character of these persona, end the
&tuns el their proceedings, which were inch es to desolate
the orreotry into which they came. Mr. Pukes had stated
to him the effect ea a populous city of the Yangtse-kiang
width the rumoured advance of the Taiping§ can
namely, the evarmatiou of the city by the whole populatiom
This city and the district in which It stood, which bad af-
forded au opening for our trade beyond the most sangutne ex-
pectationa, was liable to utter desolation by the Taspings.
On the other hand, the conduct of the Imperial govern.
meat was favourable to increased intercoms, end coin-
romnial dealings with Europeans, while the people were