194 J. HOPKrNSON — rORMATION AND 



We now come to our special subject, Provincial Museums. In 

 their formation the first consideration should be to make them 

 represent, as faithfully as possible, the district in which they are 

 situated. The various productions, natural and artificial, of a 

 definite area, should be brought together in a space no larger than 

 is necessaiy for their systematic arrangement, proper display, and 

 efficient explanation. 



It will, I think, be generally conceded that although almost all 

 the larger towns in the kingdom, and many of the smaller ones, 

 possess one or more museums, there are comparatively few which 

 nearly approach to a possible, or even an easily-attained, state of 

 perfection ; and the reason of this will in most cases be found to 

 be that too much has been attempted. "What a provincial museum 

 should be, and what, chiefly from this cause, it most often is, I can 

 best express in the words of the late Professor Edward Forbes,* than 

 whom few could be named better qualified to form and express an 

 impartial judgment on this subject. After stating that " In their 

 instructional aspect, considered apart from their educational 

 applications, the value of museums must in a great measure depend 

 on the perfection of their arrangements and the leading ideas 

 regulating the classification of their contents," and also that he 

 believes that "it is to the development of the provincial museums 

 we must look in the future for the extension of in- 

 tellectual pursuits throughout the land," Professor Porbcs says : 



" When a naturalist goes from one country into another, his 

 first inquiry is for local collections. He is anxious to see authentic 

 and full cabinets of the productions of the region he is visiting. 

 He wishes, moreover, if possible, to study them apart — not mingled 

 up with general or miscellaneous collections, — and distinctly 

 arranged with special reference to the region they illustrate. Por 

 all that concerns the whole world or the general affinities of objects, 

 he seeks the greatest national collections, such as the British 

 Museum, the Jardin des Plantes, the Royal Museums at Berlin and 

 Vienna. But that which relates to the particular country he is 

 exploring, he expects to find either in a special department of the 

 national museum, or in some separate establishment, the purpose 

 of which is, in a scientific sense, patriotic and limited. So also 

 with the students of history and antiquities ; they are often 

 disappointed, and in the end find what they require here and there, 

 bit by bit, in the cabinets of private individuals. In like manner, 

 when the inquirer goes from one province to another, from one 

 county to another, he first seeks for local collections. In almost 

 every town of any size or consequence he finds a public museum, 

 but how often does he find any part of that museum devoted to the 

 illustration of the productions of the district? The very feature 

 which of all others would give interest and value to the collection, 

 which would render it most useful for teaching purposes, has in 



* In a lecture " On the Educational Uses of Museums," delivered before the 

 Metropolitan School of Science (now the Royal School of MLaes), in 1853. 



