The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-28 00:00:00

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

The institution should be made either a national
museum or a national library. Both it cannot permanently be,
and the sooner a choice between the two is made by those who
have the power to make it, the better it will be for science,
antiquities, and literature. If the miscellaneous galleries—
now, by the admission of the heads of departments them-
selves, scarcely available for serious study—were emptied of
their contents, we should have a library the finest—as in a
few years it will be the largest—in the world, with ample
space and verge enough fur all purposes, not only for our
time, but for ages to come. The other collections would all
find their more appropriate resting places elsewhere, in
special museums. To repeat ourselves: Is not the Zoo-
logical Garden in the Regent's Park the natural repository
for the stuffed animals and birds? Would not the
metallic and geological treasures stowed away in the
Museum be more useful to the public if gathered under
such a roof as that of the Museum of Practical Geology ?
Ought not that matchless collection of osteological speci-
men/ POW rotting in the cellars of the overgrown mansion
in Bloomsbury to be transferred to the great museum of the
medical profession ? Is not Kew the obvious home for the
botanical sp.eimens ? And so of all the rest. No other
country mixes up in the same collection obelisks from Luxor
with lady-birds from Kent, sea shells from Sums: with
eoluenns from the Parthenon. Still less convenient is it
to have these things jumbled together with books,
prints, and manuscripts—u readers at the rooms
in Montague-place have most of them found to
their cost. Many of our readers probably know
that at first it was intended by the founders of
tho itish Museum to collect and preserve the
national pictures under the name roof with all these things
—one of the wings being appropriated as a picture gallery.
But when, in 1823, Sir George Beaumont announced to the
trustees his intention of making over to them his extensive
collection of pictures for the benefit of the public, the diffi-
culty of finding room to hang them so as to be seen created the
necessity out of which arose our National Gallery. Thus the
first limb was lopped off the design. Difficulties of a similar
kind are at this moment pressing on the trustees. They
are embarrassed with the mass of their wealth—and
nsein4 should prevent the ultimate dispersion of the
esnlemet of the Manama into special ell
Thom gsathmaint already talk about limiting the
fatale grew* of sistills and antiquarian departments
" by sordiatt al; POPOIWOW and by refusal of gifts," in a
way to s w that this node of deeding with the question of
has been pressatad to their minds as a possible expe-
dient. But if so, wiser, see they to stop ? lithe alleged
want of space be mesa nifilciant to justify the rejection of
a Lamm or a Sphinx, what is there to prevent the same
reason being given for the rejection of books or manu-
scripts ? The very idea of such a helpless mode of evading
the difficulty is absurd. A rich and powerful country like
England, teeming with intellectual activities, unable to
provide a lodging for its historical and scientific treasures !
—Arkisaust.