A discussion arose on the Report of the Standing Committee as to 

 the announcement made in a letter from H.M. Treasury to the 

 Society of Antiquaries that a member of the Office of Works had 

 been appointed to take charge of the duties of Inspector of Ancient 

 Monuments. At the 1905 Congress a Resolution was adopted and 

 duly sent to H.M. Government asking that the Inspectorship vacant 

 since the death of General Pitt-Rivers should be filled up. 



Lord Avebury pointed out that, under the Act for the Preservation 

 of Ancient Monuments, the salary of ^250 a year was allotted to the 

 Inspector by Statute and appeared in the Estimates every year. 

 General Pitt-Rivers had never drawn the salary and the office had 

 been vacant since his death and the salary had been taken by the 

 Treasury for general purposes. The Act, which he had himself intro- 

 duced, contemplated that the Inspector should not only keep watch 

 over the Monuments that had been made over to the Public but 

 should help in the preservation of others and give facilities for their 

 being handed over to the nation ; he could not therefore look upon 

 the proposed arrangement as carrying out the intention of the Act, 

 and he pointed out that distinct injustice was being done to those who 

 had handed over monuments under the provisions of the Act. 



Lord Balcarres said that he quite agreed with what Lord Avebury 

 had said, and pointed out that the appointment of a member of an 

 important Government Office to attend to the duties of Inspectorship 

 must necessarily be most unsatisfactory, as it was idle to suppose that 

 such an official could be spared from his regular work to travel about 

 England and assist in the manner, that, as Lord Avebury had pointed 

 out, was intended by the Act. The Congress would note in the 

 Report of the Earthworks Committee, the far too numerous cases of 

 destruction of ancient Earthworks ; in all such cases it would have 

 been most useful if there had been an Inspector to whom appeal could 

 have been made and who could have brought to bear the influence 

 bestowed by the prestige of his office. He pointed out that it was the 

 Statutory duty of the Government to appoint an independent 

 Inspector, and he thought Archaeologists should enter a strong protest 

 against any other arrangement. 



Dr. Laver (Essex) pointed out that the Office of Works had often 

 themselves been guilty of destruction of Ancient Monuments and it 

 was therefore very undesirable that the post of Inspector should be 

 attached to their Office. 



Mr. C. E. Keyser spoke to the same effect, advocating that the 

 Inspector should be independent. 



The Earl of Liverpool, Mr. Dale (Hants.) and others agreed in 

 this view, and eventually Lord Avebury proposed and Mr. Keyser 

 seconded, that " This Congress regrets that the Government has not 

 carried out the provision of the Ancient Monuments Act for the 

 appointment of an Inspector. Various monuments have been placed 

 under the Act on the faith that the provisions of the Bill would 



