The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-25 00:00:00

THE EAST LONDON HMV! OP
SCIENCE AND ART.

Withitt.t.h; next few ;lays the "metier of the
East London Museum will probably. have corn-
mouced, the neceseary legislative powers for that 1
purpose having been at last obtained. The site 1
of the museum is at the junction of
the Be read with the Cam heat&
mit **Mai - hem WhitedaliaLk - I
boots
one of the most crowded routes to Maoris,- .
from which the museum will not be more
half a mile distant. Strange as the circumatanos
mayappear, it is nevertheless a positive fact that in
11 the whole of the eastern portion of the metropolis,
with its many thousands of inhabitants, numbering
two-thirds of a million, there is not, with the
solitary exception of Victoria-park, a single public
institution, for providing -the industrial classes
with amusement and recreation of a re-
fined and intellectual character. There are
cheap theatres, public-house music-halls, and,
sporting entertainments in plenty, but of t
museums, picture galleries, and the like, there aro
absolutely none. Funds wherewith to purchase
bread, coals, and blankets, for distribution among
the poor, can be raised s ithout difficulty ; but when
it comes to the establishment of such places as the
proposed museum, the promoters invariably find
themselves discouraged by the small amount of
subscriptions and the slowness with which they;
arrive. Lord Redesdale appears to think that
the museum should have been established without 1
the assistance of government. Unfortunately, at
the East-end little has been done to inculcate the
principle of self-help, or to imbue the minds of the
poor with an ambition for higher things
than being dependent on the charity of
others. That such elevated and refining influences as
that of the intended museum would not be wholly
thrown away on the East-end artisans is evident
from the example of Victoria-perk. None but
those long resident in its neighbourhood CM form
anything like a true ides of the immense social
change of which that recreation ground has been
the direct cause. Five and twenty years ago not a
Sunday passed without disgraceful exhibitions of
drunkenness, brutality, and indecent behaviour on
its site. Dog-tights and pugilistic encounters were
also extremely common. Now all these have dis-
appeared. On Sundays, Saturday afternoons, and
at holiday time, the park is visited by immense
multitudes, more than a hundred thousand persons
having been known to frequent the place in a
single day ; yet half a dozen park-keepers are more
than autficient to preserve order. The dowers
lemain uninjured, the aquatic birds are treated
kindly, drunkenness is almost unknown, and the
general demeanour of the crowd is courteous and
good-humoured in thee xtreme. Cricket has taken the
place of dog-fighting, and the gymnasia furnish
spurt quite as exciting, and certainly much more
healthy than that afforded by the spectacle of pugi-
listic encounters. The establishment of a tarp and
commodious museum near the park would unques-
tionably tend to further develop the encouraging
results arising from the formation of the latter.
The South Kensington Museum is too far distant
from the East-end to be easily accessible to the
Whitechapel and Bethnal-green artisans • indeed,
the number of visitors from the east of London to
that important educational institution is very
hunted. Except by name, it is scarcely known to
them. The British Museum is more popular, but
then it is closed at dusk, a fatal impediment in
the way of its utility to those engaged in labour
during the day. The recent demolition of the iron
portions of the South Kensington Museum afforded
en opportunity for making a beginning in the
establishment of an East-end Trade and Art

Museum, by the re-erection of a portion
of the materials on a suitable site, provided in the
' vicinity of Bethnal-green. Endeavours had, how-
ever, been previously made for the erection of a
local museum, but without effect. In 1851 the
merchants and bankers of the City, headed by Mr.
Thomas Hankey, Mr. J. G. Hubbard, Mr. William
Cotton, Mr. J. B. Heath, Mr. George Carr Olyn,
.and others,, memorialised the committee of tho
Exhibition of 1851, suggesting the formation of a
collection in the City of the rare produce of diffe-
rent countries, as the nucleus of a trade museum
for the East-end. Afterwards, in 1860, the Marquis
of Westminster presided at a meeting, at which,
after reading a letter from the Right Hon. W.
Cowper, Chief Commissioner ut Werke,. promising
government aid to any scheme far providing bene-1
ticial recreation and intellectual improvement for
the East-end, it was resolved, on the motion of
Lard Ebury, seconded and supported by the county
and borough members, that vigorous effort& should
be made to obtain a public library and museum
adapted to the wants of the densely populated
neighbourhood of East London. Two years after
this, Mr. Antonio Brady, Mr. Alderman Roee, and
others applied to the Com miasione rs of the Exhibition
of 1862 toestablishatrade muaeum in Bethnal-green.
lln 1864 an attempt was made to form an indus-
trial ball and museum' under the patronage of the
Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Ebury, Lord Fever-
sham,
the Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P. Sir Charles'
Eastlake, and others. Twelve months later, on
the 6th May, 1866_, a meeting was held at South
Kensington, the Lord President of the Council
(Earl Granville) being in the chair, to consider the
establishment of museums of science and art, and

how the iron building of the South Kensington
Moen= might be made useful for that purpom.
This was attended bi_ Lord Ebury, the Right Hon.
W. Cowper, M.P., Mr. Bruce, M.P., Mr 4.3rt0n,1
M.P., and • large body of members of parliament,
clergy, and others. The Bishop of London wrote,
approving of the establishment of museums in the
venous dietre of the metropolis. The feeling
was unanimous in favour of such museums, and
the Routing was put off for six months in order
that the Tamils propositions might be put into
practicable shape. In August, 1805, Mr. Glad-
stone wrote, suggesting that, as the district
museum buildings would take a long time to get
ready, a pilot or trial exhibition should be
arranged in Mast London, and, with other mug_ I
ance, offered to lend for the purpose his oollecti
of porcelain, earthenware, metal work dz., since
sent by him to LiverpooL The first definite step
was taken at the end of 1865 by Mr. Antonio
Brady, the Rev. Beptinpis Hansard, rector of
Bethnal-green, and Dr. Willer, who entered into a
treaty with the trustees of the poor's lands of
Bethnal-green (comprising about 15 acres) for the
porthame of part of such lands for the rapers of •
museum. The land had b.eoa valued by Mews.
Norton and That at SOO/. an sere, but it was ulti-
mately arranged that 2,0001. should be paid to the
trustees for albout 41 acres, Wining " the Green,"
which has hitherto been enclosed within high
fences, and let to butchers, to the exclusion of the
public. The annual premeds, on amount of the
the cost of thefences, have not exceeded 41. Various
technical objections, however, rendered • short
act of parliament necessary before the regnisite
transfer could be legally made. Hence the meentre

;rhichli;;;;tree-el ;;c1 the royal assent. From the
very first, both the litte.and present govepuse*

[ONE PENNY

have entered heartily into the scheme. A Num el
20,0001. was placed on the estimates for the area-
lion of the mamma% of whisk 6,0001. hes already
blmbeeirpmaietepdlin:redae.°!.Traiha:PareAklinaeceonleriythobsthmataecuyOanabenoatwwrsorane.yz°nhi: hawalv;
lie the want of funds to pay for the site.
gentlemen have @Tema donations varying from 61.'
to 1001. each, but until the whole of a further
sum, not lees than 2,0001., is raised, not a brick of
the structure can be laid, although the, iron build-
ings from South Kensington are already on the
land. When erected, the museum will be furnished
and supported permanently by the government as
a national institution, such portions of the land so
are not occupied by the museum buildings being
laid out, and kept up as ornamental gardene.,
When completed, it is intended that the mu-
seum shall remain open until nine or ten in
the evening, and that accommodation shall be
made for the delivery of lectures of an instructive!
character, it being desired that the new institu-
tion should bo educational in the widest sense of
the word. That it will be popular with the Kest;
end artisans there cannot be the slightest dcubt
while as to its probable usefulness and officiary,"
tae is bat ass opiaks. The ankabliametZ.
ilienewilutenen of Settles and Art in Rest
Lon-
don, it is hoped, will do much to counteraell
the low, pauperising feeling which has been of later
years creeping over the spirit of a oonsiderablet
portion of the population, and tend to develop
those improved intellectual tastes and habits of
self-reliance without which no permanent int=.
provement can be effected in the social and physi-
cal condition of our artisan communi•-