STATE PAPERS. 



451 



topes in the first class of works 

 in high relief, and knows of 

 nothing so fine in that kind. He 

 places also the frize in tlie first 

 class of low relief J and consider- 

 ing a general museum of art to 

 be very desirable, he looks upon 

 such an addition to our national 

 collection as likely to contribute 

 to the improvement of the arts, 

 and to become a very valuable 

 acquisition ; for the importation 

 of which Lord Elgin is entitled, to 

 tlie gi-atitude of his country. 



IV. The directions of the House 

 in the order of reference impose 

 upon your committee the task of 

 forming and submitting an opi- 

 nion upon the fourth head, which 

 otherwise the scantiness of ma- 

 terials for fixing a pecuniary 

 value, and the unwillingness, or 

 inability in those who are prac- 

 tically most conversant in statuary 

 to aiford any lights upon this part 

 of the subject, would have rather 

 induced them to decline. 



The produce of this collection, 

 if it should be brought to sale in 

 separate lots, in the present de- 

 preciated state of almost every 

 article, and more particularly of 

 such as are of precarious and 

 fanciful value, would probably be 

 much inferior to what may be 

 denominated its intrinsic value. 



The luutilated state of all the 

 larger figures, the want either of 

 heads or features, of limbs or 

 surface, in most of the metopes, 

 and in a great proportion of tlie 

 comparlments even of the larger 

 frize, render this collection, if 

 divided, but little adai>ted to serve 

 for the decoration of private 

 houses. It should therefore be 

 considered as forming a whole, 

 and should unquestionably be kept 



entire as a school of art, and a 

 study for the formation of artists. 

 The competitors in the market, 

 if it should be offered for sale 

 without separation, could not be 

 numerous. Some of the Sove- 

 reigns of Europe, added to such 

 of the great galleries or national 

 institutions in various parts of 

 the continent, as may possess 

 funds at the disposal of their di- 

 rectors sufficient for such a pur- 

 pose, would in all probability be 

 the only purchasers. 



It is not however reasonable 

 nor becoming the liberality of 

 Parliament to withhold upon this 

 account, whatever, under all the 

 circumstances, may be deemed a 

 just and adequate price ; and more 

 particularly in a case where Par- 

 liament is left to fix its own valu- 

 ation, and no specific sum is de- 

 manded, or even suggested by 

 the party who offers the collection 

 to the public. 



It is obvious that the money 

 expended in the acquisition of any 

 c-ommodity is not necessarily the 

 measure of its real value. The 

 sum laid out in gaining possession 

 of two articles of tlie same intrin- 

 sic worth, may, and often does 

 vary considerably. In making 

 two excavations, for instance, of 

 equal magnitude and labour, a 

 broken bust or some few frag- 

 ments, may be discovered in the 

 one, and a perfect statue in^the 

 other. The first cost of the broken 

 bust and of the entire statue 

 would in that case be the same ; 

 but it cannot be said that the value 

 is therefore equal. In the same 

 manner, by the loss, or detention 

 of a ship, a great charge may 

 have been incurred, and the ori- 

 ginal outgoing excessively en- 



2 G 2 hanced ; 



