270 Report of the Select Commitice on 
no other individual: but then, as Lord Elgin observes, no other 
individual applied for it to the same extent, nor had indeed the 
same unlimited means for carrying such an ‘undertaking into ex- 
ecution. The expression of one of the most intelligent and di- 
stinguished of the British travellers, who visited Athens about’ 
the same period, appears to your committee to convey as cor- 
rect a judgement as can be formed upon this question, which is 
incapable of being satisfactorily separated, and must be taken in 
the aggregate. 
The Earl of Aberdeen, in answer to an inquiry, whether the 
authority and influence of a public situation was in his opinion 
necessary for accomplishing the removal of these marbles, an- 
swered, that he did not think a private individual could have ac- 
complished the removal of the remains which Lord Elgin ob- 
tained: and Dr. Hunt, who had better opportunities of informa- 
tion upon this point than any other person who has been ex-~ 
amined, gave it as his decided opinion, that *¢ a British subject 
not in the situation of ambassador, could not have been able to 
obtain from the Turkish government a fermaun of such extensive 
powers.” 
It may not be unworthy of remark, that the only other piece 
of sculpture which was ever removed from its place for the pur- 
pose of export was taken by M. Choiseul Gouffier, when he 
was ambassador from France to the Porte ; but whether he did 
it by express permission, or in sone less ostensible way, no means _ 
of ascertaining are within the reach of your committee. It was 
undoubtedly at various times an object with the French govern- 
ment to obtait possession of some of these valuable remains, and 
it is probable, according to the testimony of Lord Aberdeen, and 
others, that at no great distance of time they might have been 
removed by that government from their original site, if they had 
not been taken away and secured for this country by Lord Elgin. 
Il{. The third part is involved in much less intricacy: and 
although in ail matters of taste there is room for great variety 
and latitude of opinion, there will be found upon this branch of 
the subject much more uniformity and agreement than could 
have been expected, The testimony of several of the most 
eminent artists in this kingdom, who have been examined, rates 
these marbles in the very first class of ancient art, some placing 
them a little above, and others but very little below the Apollo 
Belvidere, the Laocoon, and the Torso of the Belvidere. They 
speak of them with admiration and enthusiasm ; and notwith- 
standing the manifold injuries of time and weather, and those 
mutilations which they have sustained from the fortuitous or 
designed injuries of neglect, or mischief, they consider them as 
among the finest models, and the most ‘exquisite monuments of 
antiquity. 
