The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-01 00:00:00

that 30,000/. Perhaps it had been the occasion of the
whole of his celebrity and property ; and he held (as he
was sure every other Member of that House would), that
if a man received mo:itty by his wife, he had no right to
dispose of it, although there was no settlement binding
it. He had no moral right, at any rate, to dispose of
it in any way whatever, otherwise than the wife agreed to
its disposition. By this act, however, the donor was taking
a maintenance from the wife's grandchildren, for they were
her grandchildren as well as his. Let any man, he would
asy, lay his hand to his heart, and say if such an act cou'd
he considered a just proceeding on the part of the grand-
lither. He should therefore give his opposition to the
Bill, in order, at least, to show, by the records of the
House, that there were some Members who had felt it
their duty to protest against this unnatural proceeding.
The Hon. Member then conclud-d by moving, " That
Soane's Museum Act be referred to a Select Committee,
or to the Judges, for them to report their opinion to the
House, how far an Act. of Parliament, declaratory of the
intentions of a certain individual therein named, can be taken
to be a conveyance in fee of an estate in trust to be here-
after created by his will, supposing he should omit to com-
plete the same by his will, or should direct his will to be
drawn, when by subsequent evidence he may he proved
to have been incapable of dictating or proving of the same."
Mr. FIELDEN seconded the amendment.
An Hole. MEMBER. said, that as he understood, it was
a first principle not to be questioned that a man had an
unequivocal right to dispose as he pleased of his property;
and when a generoui offer like the present wa, made, it
was most ungrateful for the House or far Hon. Members
to say they would decline accepting it, while it would be
a national acquisition, on the presumed ground that it
was unfavourable to the grandcbildt en. In a free country,

he would say such a p (weeding could not otherwise he
characterized than as one of the greatest and most dange.
rous tyranny.

Mr. HUME considered it was necessary that the public
should not be misled by the statements of the Hon. Mem-
ber for Oldham, who, he was sure, had been much misin-
formed, or he would never have made those statements
which were so far from being true. The facts were, that
Sir John Soane got a large sum of money with his wife.
which he probably had laid out in the purchase of part of
his Museum, .but what had been concealed was this, that
there had been an elder son than the petitioner, who had
left a family, upon whom Sir John Soane had settled a sum
of 20,000/, Be it remembered that this was to the family
of the heir-at-law. He did not wish to say anything
that might be offensive, but in justice he must say that the
conduct of the petitioner had been so bad, that Sir John
bad been prevented from, probably, settling as much
upon his family. They might be sorry when family dif-
ferences took place, but on that account were they to re-
fuse the whole of the great and splendid gift which was
offered to them ?

Mr. HODGES said he was upon the Committee on the
Bill, and bore testimony to the fact that it was unanimous
in their report.

Mr. BARING said the House hail never before in-
quired of any gentleman how he became possessed of
property which he had bequeathed to the nation, or whe-
ther he had provided for his family before so doing. The
only question was, would the Huns, accept, in a gracious
or ungracious manner, the most splendid bequest
that had ever been offered to the nation ?—(Hear.)
Mr. COBBETT, in reply to what had fallen from' the
Hon. Member (Mr. Baring), said that he never meant
to contend that the petitioner had any legal claim.
The amendment was then put and negatived, and the
Bil! was read a third time.

Sir R. PEEL said he had a chute to propose, which
might, perhaps, answer the objections of the Hon. Member
for Oldham. The t ffect of the cl ,use would be to enable
Sir John Soane at any time, after the passing of the Act,
to bequeath all his valuable relics to the British Museum,
instead of placing them in two houses, the property of Sir
John Soane, in Lincoln's Inn-fields. Those two houses,
by the el ruse, would thereby be placed again in his abso-
lute power and control, and also so touch of the Bill
as related to the money : he would have the whole control
of disposng of the3o,ooo/. and the two houses as he pleased.
The expense of keeping up two establishments was unne-
cessary, and by the proposed clause the expense of a
separate establishment would be saved. There were
abundant reasons why the public sh.uld not derive any
benefit from the large sum of money which Sir John
Soane had proposed to place at their disposal. Let the
public restore to Sir John Soane the whole power over
that money. So far from discouraging such splendid
gifts, he was for receiving them, and acknowledging them
in the fullest and most handsome manner—(Hear, hear)
—and he hoped that F•ir John Soane would consider
whether he would not better promote the object he had in
view by placing the relics in the British Museum, and
having the collection called by his own name, than by
placing them in a separate establishment.
The clause was then put, and read a first time.

On the motion that it be read a second time,
Mr. HUME said he highly approved of it, and he hoped
the Hon. Member for Oldham would see that it accom-
plished the object for which he had contended. He
(Mr. Hume) could not, however, help thinking that Sir
John Soune might still find it tend to the advancement of
science, if he still added to the value of the collection by
endowing it with 5001. a-year, or any portion of the
1,1001.
Sir' S. WHALLEY was understood to complain of
having been disappointed of seeing the contents of the
British Museum on two or three occasions, in conse-
quence of having mistaken the days of exhibition, and
to suggest that more trouble should be taken to apprise the
public when the exhibition was open, and when closed,
which might be done by occasional advertisement in the
Morning Papers.
Mr. BARING stated that if the public were admitted
every day, as on the days of public admission, when there
were generally more than 2,000 visiters passing through the
rooms, it would be impossible for the students to perform
their duties. He would assure the Hon. Member (Sir
Samuel Whalley) that there would be no difficulty of his
admission on any of the six days.—(The Honourable
Member dissented, by saying that he bad found
difficulty.) If such then bad been the case, it
must have been because the Hon. Member went as a
casual visiter, and bid not made a particular application to
the Librarian, who be (Mr. Baring) was convinced
would admit any gentleman who came there for any pur-
pose connected with science or art. The question of
holydays was now in course of consideration—(Hear,
hear)—but he begged to assure Hon. Members, that even
during those holydays, no foreigner or any person in pur-
suit of particular information was ever refused ad-
mittance.

Mr. MORRISON was aware that it had been stated
that there were 123 drys in the course of each year on
which the public were admitted, and supposed therefore his
own applications must have been peculiarly unfortunate.
Within the last two years, he bad made at least a dozen
attempts to obtain admission, but had always called upon
a wrong day. He thought that there was another class
of the community deserving of equal attention with
artists, and those were the manufacturers.—(Hear, bear,
bear.) At this season of the year, a vast num-
ber of persons interested in the manufactures of the
country came to the metropolis for the purpose of obtain
ing information, and on their account he would, if pos-
sible, have the British Museum opened every day in the
week during the months .f April, May, and June. It
was not enough that upon application to the public officers
of the establishment those persons might obtain admis-
sion, because all persons who knew anythivg of the
institutions of this country must have experienced
how repulsive applicitions to public officers were, when
any difficulty could be thrown in the way of granting the
required favour. He could not permit himself to lose this
opportunity of expressing how extremely grateful he felt
to a gentleman who presented to his country a collection
of which it stood so much in need.

Mr. RARING was understood to say, that the sug-
gestion of the Hon. Member, respecting the admission of
manufacturers would be taken into consideration.
Mr. CORBETT—The Hon. Member for Essex bad
said, that any person who appeared in a .decent dress
would obtain admission on public days; but he (Mr.
Cobbett) considered that dress had nothing at all
to do with the matter, and that the working orders,
who could not affard to appear in what the Honourable
Member might consider a decent dress, were con-
tribitiors to the maintenance of the British Mu-
seum, although they did not participate in the privilege of
admission. He (Mr. Cobbett) would have the British
Mu,cutri opened, during the summer, from six o'clock in
the morning until ten o'clock at night; nor would he have
it closed "urine the months of August and September.
Mr. ROEBUCK trusted that something would be done
for the purpose of haying the British Museum opened on
those holy days, and those days when the working classes
were able only to attend it, such as Christmas day, Good
Friday, and even on Sundays.—(Cries of "No, no.") He
begged to remind Hon. Members that such exhibitions
were always kept open on Sundays on the continent.
Mr. PRYME thought that if such exhibitions were
kept open till a later hour, to a period after the mechanic
bad left his work, every purpose would be answered,
without resorting to the extreme expedient of keeping it
open on Sundays.
Sir R. PEEL was of opinion that immense advantage
would accrue, if the most public notice possible uas given
of the hours and days on which the Museum was open.