The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-31 00:00:00

suited by artisans employed in architecture. The same •
want of room has hitherto prevented the department from
taking possession of the architectural casts obtained as
models for the Houses of Parliament, purchased by the
public at £7,000, and now costing the Office of Works
£492 a year for the house •room at Thames-bank.
9. The collection of books, maps, diagrams; models, and
apparatus, used in primary education both at home and
abroad, has been made chiefly by private liberality. This
collection was begun by the Society of Arts, and first exhi-
bited at St, Martin's-hall in 1854, and at the close of the
exhibition numerous objects were presented to the Govern-
ment to form the nucleus of an Educational Museum. The
collection remained for some time afterwards unexhibited
for want of room, and was sent to South Kensington. It
has cost the public £2,101, whilst the value of the gifts and
loans is estimated at £5,085. It is now chiefly supported by
the producers of educational works, who voluntarily send
them for exhibition. The catalogue of the collection shows
its comprehensive and practical nature. It excites great
interest among the visitors, and is attended by clergymen
and others especially interested in schools. Your committee
regard it as a highly useful collection.
10. The collections of materials for building and construc-
tion, food, and animal products, have been almost wholly
made by private individuals without cost to the State. The
greater part of them were given to the Commissioners of
the Exhibition of 1851" by exhibitors, and for several years
were packed away in E ensington Palace until space was
provided at the Kensington Museum to receive them.
Whilst the State has purchased objects of the value of
£371, the public has supplied objects valued at £14,290.
These collections greatly interest the public, and are useful
to commerce. The Rev. W. Rogers states that they espe-
cially attract the notice of the working classes, and your
committee consider that they are well worth preserving.
Whenever sufficient space is provided for the netural
history collections belonging to the public, it may be
worthy of consideration if the animal products collection
ought not to be united with them.
11. The collection of models, of patented inventions under
the Commissioners of Patents is placed in a portion of• the
iron building at South Kensington, and is muds cramped
for room.
12. The collections of reproductions by photography and
casting have been made primarily to furnish models for the
use of the eighty art-schools in connection with the Depart-
ment of Science and Art; they are obtained from public
collections at home and abroad. After providing for the
art-schools, it has been thought right to give the public at
large the benefit of the photographs at cost price, for the
promotion of general art-education. The Science and Art
Department express a desire to avoid any competition with
professional photographers by limiting their sales to photo-
graphs taken from Government collections, to which, ex-
cept in rare and special cases, the trade is not admitted ; but
it has been objected by one commercial firm, enjoying pecu-
liar privileges of admission to collections, and by Mr. Fen-
ton, a photographer of eminence, that even such a limited
sale by the department is an improper interference with pri-
vate enterprise.
There is an obvious distinction betwven copying and pho
tographing pictures and works of art belonging to the pub-
lic. Copying is attended by no very serious inconveniences,
while photography almost invariably requires the removal of
the object, deprives the public of the exhibition of it, exposes
it in the light, to the risks of breakage, rain, &c., which can
only be guarded against by great vigilance, requires a special
apparatus of considerable bulk, and uses chemicals which are
always unpleasant and often dangerous. Mr. Panizzi shows
that the only fire ever known at the British Museum was
caused by the negligence of a photographer. Under such
circumstances, all the witnesses agree that a general
right to photograhy cannot be conceded to all,
like the right to copy. Mr. Fairbairn stated that, at
the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition, the pho-
tographic professors were pests, and that it was
found absolutely necessary to limit the privilege to one per-
son. In order to execute photographs in public collections
there must be a monopoly somewhere. If it be proposed to
grant this privilege to a limited number of competent per-
sons, as was at one time the practice at the British Museum,
the difficulty arises, which was felt by the trustees, of de-
ciding who is competent. Mr. Panizzi considers it " a very
difficult thing to determine who is competent ;' and the
trustees were forced to say, " We will only admit our own
photographer." For a public department to attempt to de-
termine this question in the case of every application would
lead to constant difficulties and heartburnings. Moreover,
the favoured persons having the monopoly among them
might league among themselves to make the public pay an
unfair toll for the use of their own property. These objec-
tions would apply all the more strongly to the appointment
of a single private individual or firm, as the monopoly would
be all the closer. The experience obtained at the British
Museum, as well as at the South Kensington Museum, has
led to the conclusion that the only feasible course for public
interests is to employ one responsible public, officer ; and by
harmonious co-operation between these two departments,
one photographer is employed for both. A tariff of moderate
prices is published, at which the public mayobtain negatives
and print positives for themselves. Any publisher may
thus produce and publish, at his own prices, any object in
ss- - essaseh -
As respects " positives " of public objects, the sale of
them by the department to the public is limited to objects
in public collections which is not permitted to private en •
terprise Zto photograph, and to a price only covering the
cost of production. Your committee consider that there is
no other course so free from objections or so good for the
public at large as the present system of the department.
The printing of photographs stands on the same footing
as the printing of Parliamentary papers, and the publishers
might, as well as the photographers, complain of the
low price at which they are sold. If the price
were increased, there is no doubt that the sales would be
greatly diminished, and the spread of knowledge of parlia-
mentary proceedings arrested. The trustees of the British
Museum attempted to supply the public with photographs
of objects in the British Museum, at the same time allowing
their photographer the privilege of publishing, but they
abandoned the system after considerable losses.
Your committee have investigated fully a complaint of
Mr. Scott, in respect of the photographs taken by him from
Raffaelle's cartoons. Mr. Scott complains that Mr. Caldesi
was obstructed by the officer of the Department of Science
and Art in taking his photographs, and that he has been
undersold by the department; but Mr. Redgrave proved
that Messrs. Caldesi would have been unable to have pro.
duced any satisfactory photographs unless the department
had permitted them to have the benefit of the removal of
the cartoons by their officer, and that as the sale of the car-
toons by the department cannot yet be said to be in opera-
tion, the apprehension of being undersold is at least pre-
mature. At any rate, the public have no reaton to regret
that 4lr. Scott's suggestion of vesting in his firm an abso-
lute monopoly of the photographs of the cartoons has not
been complied with. The arrangement by which a private
was joined to an official photographer was almost sure to
lead to disputes, and should not be repeated.
13. Your committee find that the total cost of the South
Kensington Museum in its collections, land, and buildings
has been £167,805. This amount is exclusive of the annual
cost of management, which so far as it can be separated
from the cost of the general administration of the Science
and Art Department and the cost of the Art Training
Schools, exclusive of the Supply of furniture and postage,
and official stationery, is estimated at about £7,000 a-year.
14. Your committee are informed that above one million
and a half of visitors have inspected the museum during the
first three years since its opening, on the 22d of June,
1857. Such a result in so short a time proves that the
museum has met a public want. This success is clearly due
to the great care taken to meet the convenience of the
public, especially by admission in the evening. The returns
show that very nearly half the number of visitors attended
in the evening, although the hours for admission in the
evening are less than one-fourth of those in the day time.
Much cost for lighting and vigilant superintendence arises
from opening in the evening ; but as the arrangement makes
the museum accessible to labouring men and their families,
who would otherwise scarcely be able to visit it, your com-
mittee consider the money well laid out, and the experi-
ment deserving of imitation. The success of the museum
has also shown that an institution, although it may be
situated in the suburbs, may be rendered so attractive as to
compete in point of the number of visitors with other insti-
tutions nearer the centre of the metropolis.
15. So vast is the metropolis, and so ready are the people
to avail themselves of every convenient opportunity for in-
tellectual improvement and recreation, that similar institu-
tions, if properly managed, in other parts of London, hold
out fair prospects of a similar success; and it would be
within the means of the South Kensington Museum to faci-
litate the formation of such institutions by loans of objects,
made on a principle similar to that of the circulating
museum.
16. The principles upon which the administration of the
museum is conducted have been explained fully to your
committee, and documentary details are given in the appen-
dix. Authority for every measure is obtained direct from
the Lord President of the Council, or the Vice-President of
the Committee of Council on Education. The accounts cer-
tified by the vice-president are sent, monthly, to the Audit-
office. The rules for the appointment of officers are calcu-
lated to exclude incompetency. Finally, a full annual report
of proceedings has been always submitted to Parliament.
17. Having arrived at the opinion that the South Ken-
sington Museum, in respect to its action, as well through-

out the United Kingdom as in the metropolis, is exercising
a beneficial influence, and that it is fully deserving of con-
tinued Parliamentary support, your committee next turned
their attention to the state of the buildings at South Ken-
sington.

18. The South Kensington Museum is sivate on a plot of
ground consisting of about 12 acres, which under the Act
21 and 22 Vic., cap. 36, have been reserved by the Treasury
for the use of the science and art department, at the origi-
nal cost, namely, £5,000 an acre. The land has therefore
cost the country £60,000. The land is at present occupied
by various buildings, the nature and uses of which are
shown 'ey different colours on a plan attached to this report.
In 1855 Parliament voted £15,000 for the erection of a
temporary iron structure to receive various collections pre-
sented to the public. The object in view was to obtain the
greatest amount of covered space at the least possible cost.
So large a building of iron, applied for the first time to such
PUrNSes, was altogether UOVOitY in this country, and ex-

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