The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-23 00:00:00

would be unduly taken by surprise if this change was now
forced upon it.

Mr. MALINS said he would not divide the house on his
proposal, as he had Lot given notice of it.

The house then agreed with the amendment made by the
Lords.

Clause 103 was then struck out.

On clause 105, the amendment of the Lords, relating to
certain county courts, in which petitions for adjudication
of bankruptcy may be filed, was disagreed to.
A number of verbal amendments necessary for carrying
out the alterations made in the former clauses were agreed
to.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the appointment
of the following committee for drawing up the reasons of the
house for disagreeing with the Lords' amendments :—The
Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Sir George Grey,
Sir G. C. Lewis, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Malins.
This motion was agreed to.
The house then went into Committee of Supply.
On the vote of £100,414 for the British Museum,
Mr. WALPOLE said the increase of £3,300 in this vote
was partly occasioned by the decrease of the head keeper of
the Museum. There was another item of £2,700 for special
purposes. Last year he had to ask for £3,700 under this
head. The vote now was principally for valuable Oriental
manuscripts belonging to General Taylor. Two committees
had been appointed last year, who made certain recommen-
dations and one of the most valuable reports that ever was
presented to the house. In the drawing up of that report
the late Mr. Braidwood rendered essential service. The
question was, whether the building should be opened in the
evening. Mr. Braidwood said it was one of the deleterious
properties of gas to dry up papers, and produce discolora-
tion ; and that if an explosion tookiplace, the consequences
might be most serious. The consequences were that the
committee reported against the opening of the South Ken-
sington Museum in the evening. There was another report
respecting the British Museum as to the propriety of sepa-
rating or keeping together the whole of the collections. The
Government had been unable to advise the committee upon
that head. Within the last few days some most valuable
collections had been received, and now the qvestion was,
whether the Government could give additional space for
that and the rest of the collection, if the collection were
to be separated, then additional space would be imperatively
required ; if it were to be kept together, then, of course,
the space that would be needed must be confined to its pre-
, sent limit.

• Mr. GREGORY regretted that the Government had not
thought fit to propose a real enlargement of the Museum.
At the same time he knew the financial difficulty of the
Government, and he would rather that the building should
remain in its present form, than that piecemeal alterations
should be made. He had hoped that the Chanceller of the
Exchequer would have proposed to adopt the proposal of the
committee of which he had been chairman, to purchase cer-
tain lands abutting on the Museum, which would have en-
abled them to make the institution one really worthy of
a great country. He had himself last year been of opinion
that the mediaeval collection should be removed from the
British Museum, and to that opinion he still adhered. He
was aware that some difficulty might be started as to an ac-
curate definition of the mediaeval; but, in point of fact, it
would be comparatively easy to settle the question, while,
at the same time, a great deal of amusement and harmless
excitement would be given to antiquarians. He, however,
would strongly insist upon the necessity of preserving in
the British Museum everying which might throw light on
our national history, whether mediaeval or not. The pro-
posal to remove the natural history collection was, in his
opinion, the most extravagant, the most useless, and the
most unpopular that could be conceived. He regretted that
so eminent a man as Professor Owen should support such a
plan after its absurdity had been pointed out. If Mr. Old-
field's plan bad been adopted for the arrangement of the
sculpture, great advantage would be the result, and great
expense would be saved to the nation. He thanked the
Government for improving the position of the gentlemen
connected with the Museum. He regretted that the Museum
had lost the services of Mr. Oldfield, and thought that the
trustees might well have acceded to his terms. He had to
congratulate the trustees on their obtaining the collection
of M. Chaillu, and admitted that the conduct of that gen-
tleman had been most liberal. Whatever plan the Govern
ment might propose next year, he hoped they would never
propose to separate the natural history collection.

Mr. LAYARD complained that, notwithstanding the
important:suggestions which had been made by the com-
mittees which had sat on this subject, nothing had been
done. He believed that the trustee system of management
was altogether a vicious system, and that the whole should
be placed under one responsible head. The collections of
Halicarnassus and other marbles were all concealed be-
hind, in a hoarding in the portico, and the rain and soot beat
in through the hoarding on these marbles, and had done
them a serious amount of injury. While this niggardly sys-
tem was going on, the house was perfectly ready to vote
large sums for:purposes of a useless and extragavant nature.
With respect to the collections themselves, he thought they
ought to be judiciously separated, and the plan which he
would propose was to separate the works of God from those
of art—to have one department of science and one of art,
both perfectly distinct and separate from each other. The
ethnological collection, the dresses of the New Zealanders
and other tribes, he thought could be advantageously re-
moved to some collection at the East-end. There was a col-
lection of portraits in the British Museum which he consi-

dered might be usefully removed to the National Portrai
_ _

Gallery. He did not agree with the proposal to separate the
medimval collection, and take one portion to Kensington,
and to leave another at Bloomsbury. The Campana collec-
tion had been lost to the British Museum through the want
of energy in the officers of that establishment, and this was
evidence that some change was necessary in the organisa-
tion of that establishment. At the present time there was
no collection in the world equal to that of the British Ma-
seum, but it was almost useless on account of its bad
arrangements. The system of management was radically
bad. It was now tee late in the session to adopt any exten-
sive plan, but he should feel it his duty next year to bring
forward the whole question, with a view of settling the
matter upon a satisfactory footing, and forming one com-
plete art collection worthy of the country. The reading-
room in the British Museum showed what could be done by
a proper system of adaptation, when not followed by that
great curse of architects. (A laugh.) That was an instance
of what should be done by a man of practical common
sense, and not by an architect, who thought only of his
columns and deiments, and their jimcracks, without paying
any regard to the purposes for which the building was re-
quired. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. M. MILNES also complained of the congestion of
articles in the British Museum, which prevented the spe-
cimens being so useful either for purposes of art or educa-
tion, as they ought to be. The reason of the comparative
uselessness of the Museum was that the Government and
the house had declined to look fairly in the face the ques-
tion of separation. The hon. member for Galwayhad spoken
in the strongest terms against the idea of separation, but he
was, after all, a great separatist himself, though he pro-
posed the factitious division of Christian and Pagan art,
li whereas he (Mr. Milnes), and those who thought with him,
were desirous of seeing a broad distinction made between
r works of science and those of art. Under the present sys-
tem, the collection of collections was perfectly bewildering
and almost repulsive. He was not disposed to attach much
weight to the objections urged by the late Mr. Braidwood,
on account of the use of gas, as he thought the buildings of
the Museum might be lighted with gas in the same manner
as the A.thenmum club, which was entirely lighted fronfthe
outside, and where no deleterious effects were produced from
thatsystem of lighting. The government of the British Mu-
seum was in the hands of amateurs, and the patronage of
the.establishment, from a clerk to a housemaid, was left in
the hands of the Speaker of the House of Commons, the
Lord Chancellor, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. (A
laugh.) This was a state of things which called for imme-
diate reform, and he hoped that the subject would receive
the serious consideration of the Government. (Hear.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that
on the whole the view presented of the British Govern-
ment, the British people, and their Museum, was not en-
couraging if they were to adopt the views of the pessimist
party. (Hear, hear.) Her Majesty's Government was of
opinion that the Museum did require some change, but the

reason nothing had been done was because of the wide dif-
ferences of opinion which prevailed on the subject. It had
been said there should be no " patching." It was, no
doubt, very easy to subscribe to that opinion, but the
question was what this " patching" meant. This
patching might be made to include the addition of the 21
acres proposed by Professor Owen for the natural history
collection. (Hear.) There could be no doubt that the in-
convenience of crowding in the Museum was very great,
and the Government entertained the opinion that that diffi-
culty ought to be met by some plan that would afford a
large and complete provision for a great length of time.
For this purpose it was necessary that there should be a
separation between natural or scientific objects and works
of art. Her Majesty's Government were not, however, pre-
pared to adopt the suggestions of the committee of last year,
for, though opposed to separation, they did not adhere
strictly to the principle, but had recommended the removal
of the ethnographic collections. It would be the duty of
the Government to consider what would be due to the pub-
lic convenience, and in some respect to the public feelings,
but so to act that it might not be required to undo or alter
in the future what might be decided upon. Neither the
Government nor the trustees of the British Museum would
attempt to do anything which would be in contravention of
their duty to the House of Commons. This, however, he
would say, that the Government did not intend to adopt
the recommendations of the committee. It appeared that
there were in the building of the Museum some portions
that might be remodelled with advantage, and there was
some ground within the precincts of the enclosure of the
building which might be made available for providing fur-
ther accommodation in the Museum. There were also some
portion of the collections which might be removed without
inconvenience to the public or to the scientific world. The
Government thought that there were means of greatly im-
proving and increasing the accommodation in the British
Museum, and there were no reason for at present entertain-
ing the question of the removal of the zoological or natural
history collections. (Hear.) Sufficient time had been
allowed for the consideration cf the report of the committee,te
and it would be the duty of the Government to bring h
matter under the consideration of the trustees duriPg the