The Express.
London, England, 1864-07-01 00:00:00

THE KENSINGTON MUSEUM.

The vote of 97,5821. for the Science and Art Depart
led to an animated debate, in the course of fhicb the
South Kensington Museum was severely criticised by Mr.
Gregory, Mr. Ayrtoa, Mr. Maguire, Mr. Cavendish
Bentieck, Sir George Bowyer, and others. The latter boa.
baronet said he never entered the museum without feeling
that be was in a receptacle for stolen goods. He inquirQ
from whom the sedan•chair of the Grand Duke of Tuscany
had been obtained—whether it had been purchased of
Garibaldi, sad why it was not returned to its rightful
*war.

Major STUART wished to know if the boa. and learned
baronet bad sees the oollection of pictures in the Vatican at
Rome ; many of those were takes by the French from dif-
ferent parts of Italy, but whim the Preach gave them up
they a ere not sent back to the rightful owners. He asked
the hoc. and learned gentleman why they bad not been
returned'

Mr. A YRTON observed be had thought the great bad-
ness of the department of science and art at Kensington
had been to pick up curiosities, but latterly
they appeared to have taken a literary turn, sad bed
composed a drama called Maestro Ju alto, or the Mountains of
the Moon in the Gaboom—pond laughter)—whichoontained
some of the greatest nonsense soy man could conceive, and
which bad been performed at the Botanical Gardens before
the beads of the department. Be asked if the public
servants ware compelled to take part is such folly as this.
Mr. BRUCE said be was unable to gratify the curiosity of
his hon. friend. Be was quite unaware of this perform-
ance. All he could say was that it was not with his sane.
tion, and that the sum which the committee was called upon
to vote this evening was devoted to quite another purpose.
If he were to answer all the questions which bad been put
to him, be would have to answer almost as many questions
as then were objects in the museum. The boo. member for
Manchester had objected b this collection being confined to
the metropolis, but that objection would apply toall metro-
politan collectioes. With regard to the pictures, some were
placed at Kensington because then was not room for them
in the National Gallery ; it was because they were the
works of coetemporary @nide, and would out be admitted
to the National Gallery; sad the Sheepshanks oollectioe
was bequeathed to the mike on the express condition that
it should not be kept in the National Gallery. Another ob-
jection was to the amount of the vote, and it was proposed
toed reduce it by 15,0001., the excess over the vote
last
year. That sum represented the additional buildinp which
were necessary to coughs the valuable collection of objeeta
In reply to the hon. member for Dusgarvan he had to
state that the schools referred to were under the considerr
tioa of a select committee for the purpose of determieing
how the collections could be made most servirmalsk for the
advanoennut of solstice and art, and certainly a peat deal
of the evidence was favourable to the school&

Mr. A. SMITH moved the reduetios of tbe vote by
13.0001. for Deer bundle.% but oa a divines, the prepo-
sition wee negatived b 7131 te 73.