111 
to get together things which are instructive in themselves, and 
doubly instructive when they can be compared with each other, 
independently of all consideration of rarity or cost. When a 
thing is dear the museum buys it, if the outlay appears judicious ; 
and when a thing is cheap the museum buys it also, if it is 
wanted to complete an instructive series. And although instruc- 
tion is the main purpose pursued at South Kensington, the 
result has been that the museum fully satisfies at the same time 
the desire for beauty. It is indeed very rich in beautiful works 
of art. In the management of the National Gallery a different 
principle has been pursued, and quite rightly. A national collec- 
tion of pictures must include authentic works by as many of 
the great masters as can be procured, at whatever cost. To 
organize a collection on that principle requires a long time and 
an enormous expenditure of money. It is right that there should 
be one such national collection in a great and wealthy nation, 
but if the minor provincial towns were to try and do anything of 
the same kind, the result would be mere uselessness. A few 
second-rate or third-rate pictures by old masters might be got 
together at a heavy expense, and nobody in the place would be 
much the happier or better for them. On the other hand, a 
museum established on the South Kensington principle would be 
an inexhaustible source of instruction and enjoyment to all the 
different classes of the community. It would have a direct 
practical influence on the work done in the place, and on the 
mental culture of the place. The good of it would penetrate 
into hundreds of private houses like gas from your gasometers 
and water from your reservoirs. It needs little prophetic 
insight to see that art museums of some kind will ultimately 
be established in the provincial towns of England; and it 
will depend upon the wisdom and judgment of men like 
yourselves whether such institutions are to be dead things from 
their first establishment, or living and fructifying things. It is, 
perhaps, fortunate for England that her movement in the direc- 
tion of public art museums has been somewhat late. She may 
profit by the example of France in avoiding some mistakes which 
have gone far to neutralise the effect of the French provincial 
collections. Those collections are not the living influences 
which, under more consistent and purposeful management, they 
might have been. I will not tax your patience by going into 
further detail on the present occasion. It is always best, when 
plans and projects are in a very early stage, to recognise general 
principles only, and leave the application of them in detail to 
those who may have to carry them out. The suggestions of 
local wants and circumstances have to be listened to and con- 
sidered. For this work the local mind is naturally more 
competent than any other, but whatever may be the means 
