i894. ADDRESS TO THE MUSEUMS' ASSOCIATION, 43 



in 1893. During the current year the total attendances promise to be 

 very much larger. 



In preparing the lines upon which this Museum should be 

 arranged, both with regard to its then present condition and future 

 acquisitions, we encountered from one quarter some opposition to 

 the idea of our having any legitimate aspirations beyond those of 

 making it a teaching Museum, which would exhibit only such types 

 as were requisite for instruction in the various branches with which 

 it dealt. But it appeared to us that our proper duty under the 

 circumstances, while by no means losing sight of the educational aspect, 

 was to steadfastly keep in view the desirability of making it a reposi- 

 tory, in the fullest sense of the term, of all such objects as might 

 fitly find a place in a national institution; and that, not merely in the 

 sense of representing the productions and industries of this country 

 of ours, but in the wider sense of providing for the nation a means of 

 seeing and studying the productions of the world at large, and the 

 arts of many nations, these, as examples for imitation, to be the best 

 of their kind attainable with the means at our disposal. 



While we endeavour to provide, both for our own fellow country- 

 men and for visitors, fitting exhibits in all branches of Irish decora- 

 tive-art, antiquities, and science, we are also glad to say that our 

 efforts to provide exhibits from other countries have often met with 

 warmly-expressed approval, and we rejoice now at the prospect of 

 their being examined by the experts whom this Association has 

 brought together. 



There is one Section which is not and cannot be largely 

 dealt with in such a Museum, namely, that of purely industrial 

 objects. For these, we are convinced, periodical exhibitions afford 

 the proper medium for making them known. In such exhibitions, 

 the exhibits can, and do, keep pace with the times, whereas in a 

 Museum they must of necessity be in some departments far behind the 

 progress of invention, as frequent renewals up to date would be 

 impracticable ; while in other departments it would be impossible, 

 even with enormous financial resources, to exhibit at all. How, for 

 instance, not to speak of minor industries, could we exhibit steam or 

 electric plant so as to be constantly up to date ? 



Anxious that this National Museum might be made to spread its 

 influence over a wider area than the metropolis alone, I sometimes 

 dream of projects by which peripatetic loan collections might be sent 

 out from it to provincial centres in Ireland, but so far the project is in 

 a visionary stage without concrete form. But if it is the case that as 

 yet collections cannot be sent out to be seen by the people 

 throughout the land, it is a gratification to find among our visitors so 

 many tourists, not only from various parts of Ireland, but also from 

 Scotland, and these with the large contingents which now arrive every 

 year from the western counties of England byway of the Isle of Man, 

 swell our numbers of average daily admissions. 



