454 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



posal, for the reasons stated by 

 him in his evidence : and until 

 the month of June 1815, no fur- 

 ther step was taken on either 

 side ; but at that time a petition 

 was presented, on the part of 

 Lord Elgin, to the House, which 

 owing to the late period of the 

 session, was not proceeded upon. 

 Eighty additional cases have been 

 received since 1811, the contents 

 of which, enumerated in Mr. 

 Hamilton's evidence, now form 

 a part of the collection. The 

 medals also, of which the value 

 is nioie easily defined, were not 

 included in the proposal made to 

 Mr. Perceval. 



Against these augmentations 

 must be set tlie rise in the value 

 of money, which is unquestionably 

 not inconsiderable, between the 

 present time and the year 1811; 

 a cause or consequence of which 

 is the depreciation of every com- 

 modity, either of necessity, or 

 fancy, which is brought to sale. 



Your committee, therefore, do 

 not think that they should be 

 justified, in behalf of the public, 

 if they were to reconuiiend to the 

 House any extension of Mr. Per- 

 ceval's offer to a greater amount 

 than .50001. : and, under all the 

 circumstances that they have en- 

 deavoured to bring under the 

 view of tlie House, they judge 

 tiiirty-five thousand pounds to be 

 a reasonable and sufficient price 

 for this collection. 



Your committee observing, that 

 by the act 45 Geo. III., c. 127, 

 for vesting the Townleyan col- 

 lection in the trustees of the 

 British Museum, sect. 4, the pro- 

 prietor of that collection, Mr. 

 Townley Stiuulish, was added to 

 the trustees of the British Mu- 



seum, consider the Earl of Elgin 

 (and his heirs being Earls of 

 Elgin) as equally entitled to the 

 same distinction, and recommend 

 that a clause should be inseited 

 to that effect, if it should be ne- 

 cessary that an act shoidd pass 

 for transferring his collection to 

 the public. 



It may not be deemed foreign 

 to this subject, if your committee 

 venture to extend their observa- 

 tions somewhat beyond the strict 

 limit of their immediate inquiry, 

 and lay before the House what 

 occurs to them as not unimport- 

 ant with regard to the age and 

 authenticity of these sculptures. 

 The great works with which Pe- 

 ricles adorned, and strengthened 

 Athens, were all caiiied on under 

 the direction and superintendence 

 of Phidias ; for this there is the 

 authoiity of various ancient wri- 

 ters, and particularly of Plutarch; 

 but he distinctly asserts in the 

 same passage, that Callicrates 

 and Ictinus executed the work of 

 the Parthenon ; which is confirm- 

 ed also by Pausanias, so far as 

 relates to Ictinus, who likewise 

 ornamented or constructed the 

 temple of A})ollo at Phigalia;* 

 from whence, by a singular coin- 

 cidence, the sculptures in high 

 relief, lately purchased for the 

 British Museum, and frequently 

 referred to in the evidence, were 

 transported . 



The style of this woi'k in the 

 opinion of the artists, indicates, 

 that it belongs to the same period, 



though 



* The penultimate syllable shoulci be 

 pronounced long ; Pliigalia closes two 

 hexameter verses, one of which is quoted 

 by Pausanias, and the other by Stephanus 

 Byzantinus, IVora Rhianus, a poet of Crete. 



