The Sun.
London, England, 1833-03-05 00:00:00

30th of January, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday,
the sth of November, and any Fast or Thanks-
giving Days ;"—a list of exceptions, including
Sundays, amounting to about 150 days, or five
months. This it must be observed is independent
of the half of every week, consisting of the Tues-
days, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, of which the
public is deprived under the pretence of its being
wanted to dust and clean the cases, &c., a work
which Mr. HUME, we think it was, observed
once, might very well be performed every morn-
ing before 10 o'clock ; or supposing that on the
alternate clays, the Museum were only opened
at 11 o'clock, that would be better than total
exclusion, to the disappointment of thousands
who come from the country with only one day
to spare. But putting these three days aside,
although it is evident that the officers have in
turn the benefit of them as holydays, there are
still nearly five months, or, without Sundays,
three months, during which they have nothing
to do but to amuse themselves. This is an
amount of vacation enjoyed by no other public
officers ; and the duties of those attached to the
Museum are certainly not so onerous as to justify
such an indulgence at the expense of the public
convenience.

It so happens, too, that the months of August
and September are precisely those (with the ex-
ception of July) in which the greatest numbers
would probably visit the Museum. It appears
by the returns that the 147,896 visiters of last
year were thus distributed :
January 9,179 June
February
March
April 12,498 November
May ....... . 18,158 December
The proportions in the respective months in

,he two preceding years are much the same ;

and if we calculate that so few as 20,000 per
month would visit the Museum in the months
now closed to 'the public, there are still

40,000 disappointments to be laid to the
charge of the Museum officers. We would
strike off' one of the months altogether, and
give the other at Christmas instead of the
week now allowed, as at that period the smallest
possible number of those who pay these
officers would then be inconvenienced. The
salaries of the officers and attendants of the
Museum, we see, amount to 9,9281. out of the
total 16,0001., and we are not at all wishing to
lower that sum, for, although some of them are
upon rather a high scale, and the duties, as we
said before, are not very onerous, yet the em-
ployees even of the humblest class, must, upon
such an establishment, be of a superior de-
scription. But, while willing to pay for the
proper maintenance of this interesting part of
the national property, we have a right to insist
that it is made to contribute as largely as pos-
sible to the national instruction and amuse-
ment. This it at present does not, and we
trust that some public spirited Member of Par-
liament will take the matter up in a decided
manner, and not let the vote pass almost sub
silentio as has been hitherto the case.

Accounts have been received from the Hague
of the proceedings of the Second Chamber of
the States General on the Ist of March. One
of the Dutch Ministers read the diplomatic note
which had been framed by the Government in
answer to that of Lord PALMERSTON and
Prince TALLEYRAND Of the 14th of Feb-
ruary, published in The Sun some time back.

It is utterly without interest, being merely an
attempt to mystify still further the course pur-
sued of late by the Dutch Government. It is a

fine sample,

" upon the whole,
"Of rhetoric, that the learned call rigmarole."

The upshot of the matter is that the Dutch
Ambassador, Baron VAN ZUYLEN VAN NYE-
VELT, at his own request, of course, is to
be recalled, and that another Plenipotentiary is to
be sent to London " to negotiate a preliminary con-
vention with the Plenipotentiaries of France and
Great Britain, and to establish the relations with
those Powers on their former footing, in order
to pave the way for the subsequent conclusion of
a definitive treaty of separation between Belgium
and Holland, with the participation of the other
three Powers, parties to the treaty of the 15th of
November," all which, in plain English, amounts
to saying that we are not much further advanced
than we were two years back, in the attain-
ment of the object France and England have in
view, viz., the establishment of peace on a solid
foundation.