The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-15 00:00:00

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

it probably occurs to few of the visitors to the British
Museum to inquire what that establishment really is.
We do not mean as to its material form and aspect,
which is patent enough—cold, classical, huge, and not
very significant—but as to the soul which animates the
vast mass, and which, infused as it were throughout
the whole, constitutes its vital and active principle.
People occasionally hear of this or that treasure or rare
volume being offered to the Museum, or being purchased
by the Museum ; but as for any distinct idea of what the
entity so designated really is, few persons, perhaps, care
to know much more than that the stony allegorical ladies
and gentlemen, standing out against the blue paint over
the portico, are not the Museum. Yet it is not the less
a fact that the British Museum has an executive, and
that it is administered on similar principles to those
which have been so eminently successful in the parallel
institution of the National Gallery. The Museum and
the Gallery are each governed by a body of amateur and
unpaid trustees. To institute a directory of this sort
used to be a favourite device of John Bull. Like many
rich and clever people, the country was afraid of being
taken in. Loth to believe that a paid servant would do
other than make a job of his place, it never entered into
our heads that we should ruin our housekeeping, and,
indeed, get no service at all, if we trusted only to ama-
teur butlers and dilettante footmen. We could not con-
ceive it possible that a salaried director of pictures and
fine arts, or the salaried curator of a museum, would acton
any higher principle towards his employers than that of
purchasing with a view to a private per tentage. We sup-
posed if we put these great national establishments under
the control of the great officers of State—men above sus-
picion, and above temptation—we should be sure to get
the thing well done. They, we argued, will only have
an eye to the common good—under their administration,
peculation, jobbing, favouritism, will be impossible. We
shall have our institutions managed on the loftiest prin-
ciples of public virtue, disinterested patriotism, pure
zeal and integrity ; and, above all, we shall get the work
dune for nothing.
And so the British Museum was inaugurated ; and its
government was committed to a body of forty-eight
noblemen and gentlemen, nearly one-half of whom were
selected on the eminently judicious ground that they
were, beyond a doubt, the busiest men in England.
The problem being, to give a public institution an effec-
tive executive, we pitched, first of all, on the following
twenty-three persons, as being peculiarly possessed
of the requisite leisure for their duties— as men of
lettered ease, whose thoughts and time could be exclu-
sively spent in devising rules for the management, and
superintending the purchases, of au establishment so
multifarious that it is itself an encyclopaedia :
Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Steward
Lord Chancellor Lord Chamberlain
President of Council Three Secretaries of State
First Lord of Treasury Bishop of London
Lord Privy Seal Attorney-General
Chancellor of the Exchequer Solicitor-General
Chief Justice of Queen's And Presidents of the Royal
Bench Society, College of Phy-
Master of the Roils sicians, Society of Anti-
Chief Justice of Common qnarics, and Royal Aca-
Pleas decoy.
First Lord of Admiralty
And her Majesty was to appoint a twenty-fourth trustee,
but this nomination trusteeship is, and long has been,
vacant. Here is one-half of the executive. Nine other
trustees represent special benefactors—founders' kin
trustees—on the principle, we suppose, that a taste in art
must necessarily descend like a physical • nonformation,
and that the Towneleys and Elgins of all time must as
infallibly develop a taste for old broken statues as certain
families propagate a squint or red hair. These 33 offi-
cial and family trustees complete the mystic number of
43 by electing 15 other members ; the individuals at pre-
sent being :
Earl of Aberdeen Duke of Sutherland
Duke of Rutland Sir R. Inglis
Marquis of Lansdowne Mr. 11. Hallam
Mr. W. R. Hamilton Mr. Macaulay
Dean of Westminster Dean of St. Paul's
Sir D. Dundas Sir P. Egerton
Mr. Goulburn Lord Seymour
Sir Roderick Murchison.

It would be difficult to imagine a body more happily
constructed for failure than an executive thus constituted.
It is simply impossible that it should ever work. Nor
does its practice differ from its theory—the planet, when
found, verifies the calculations made about it.

As to the official gentlemen, we can only say that, if
they did attend to the British Museum, they would
most wofully neglect their other and higher functions.
Just think of an Archbishop of Canterbury pottering for
hours over a Roman pot—of a Lord Chancellor quitting
his court and woolsack to discuss the propriety of pur-
chasing a rare lot of Pacctice—or the Chancellor of the
Exchequer abandoning his bills for bullce—or the Presi-
dent of the College of Physicians neglecting his patients
for the charms of a Dinornis. It is not too much to say
that, of the official and family trustees, not one ever
does, can, or should bestow one hour per annum on the
tooffirs.cialus
elriaevweedoshuabltllehssayseeltehcetederelalmadof-
Museum.
e very highest representatives of English
ltmihtieeßrracaubrttelueartmceh,oe—a dat3jrhu3t, and taste, and scienc_e. Even if this
busyryloumi
men—official
lei
could be said of all the fifteen l
towoueog, are
hat rto disqualify far
ruinotables—which
rifaya saying—this
themil for
ae—iai
men—activethis
this is the
rte.very reason which
particular
men—men with
icular office. They,
their own pursuits, callings, duties, and T tastes, which
do not leave them a moment's lei
e
statesmen or placemen—men of
OTC. ial hrank,ey
comeimthiesr-
sioners, or writers and authors by profession, engaged
with learned societies or with engrossing pursuits. Look
over the list, and it will be found that, from one cause or
other, out of the fifteen working trustees, not more than
five at the outside can ever be depended upon for a leisure
hour from one year's end to another. Those five are,
let us suppose, Mr. Hamilton, Sir D. Dundee, Sir R.
Inglis, the Duke of Sutherland, and Lord Seymour.
But the duke is a confirmed invalid ; so we are reduced
to four. And of these four, what with religious so-
cieties and other avocations, the time of the veteran Sir
R. Inglis—especially with the representation of the
University on his hands—has been pretty well filled.
Sir D. Dundas has only recently been relieved from an
arduous official post. Consequently, it comes to Pals
that the whole practical government of the British
Museum centres in two individuals—Mr. Hamilton and
Lord Seymour. Mr. Hamilton has a taste—that for
Greek antiquities. Lord Seymour is a very excellent
man of business ; but we are not aware that he possesses
that encyclopedic range of scientific, artistic, and anti-
quarian lore which his gigantic task requires.
We have now answered the question, what is the
British Aluseum '?And the public, who want their at-
tention drawn to this preliminary and elementary jo.
quiry, may fora, time be left to ponder upon the chances
of a great national institution being fairly dealt with,
which, for all practical purposes, is under the manage.
ment of Lord Seymour and Mr. W. R. Hamilton. Of
course, if their colleagues have attended, and do attend,
to the duties of their office, we shall, before we say any-
thin, further on the management of the Museum, be
glad to publish the minutes of the meetings and attend.
ances of the trustees—say, during the last twelve
months.—Morning Chronicle.

OPENING OF THE NEW STREET TO ST. PAUL'S. —in
orderth to expedite the opening of this important thorough-
fare, e men engaged in the construction of the sewer
between Old Change and the Cathedral-yard were kept
employed throughout the whole of yesterday. From
the great elevation of the ground at this point, the sewer
has to be sunk an immense depth—it is said 70 feet from
the surface. The Ist of May is now spoken of as the
time of the opening,