272 Report of the Select Committee on 
nothing so fine in'that kind. He places also the frize in the first 
class of low relief; and considering 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 the gratitude of his country. 
IV. The directions of the Nouse in the order of reference 
impose upon your committee the task of forming and sub- 
mitting an opinion upon the fourth head, which otherwise the 
seantiness of materials for fixing a pecuniary value, and the un- 
willingness, or inability, in those who are practically most con- 
versant in statuary to afford 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 depreeiated 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 mutilated state of all the larger figures, the want either 
of heads or features, of limbs orsurface, in most of the metopes, 
and in a great proportion of the compartments even of the larger 
frize, render this collection, if divided, but little adapted 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, aud a study for the formation of 
artists. The vompetitors in the market, ‘if it should be offered 
for sale without separation, could not be numerous, Some. of 
the sovereigns 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 directors sufficient for such 
a purpose, 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 j in a case where parliament is left to fix its 
own valuation, and no specific sum is demanded, or even sug- 
gested, by the party who offers the collection to the public. 
It is obvious that the money expended in the acquisition of 
any commodity is not necessarily the measure of its real value. 
The sum laid out in gaining possession of two articles of the 
same intrinsic worth, may, and oftem does, vary considerably. 
In making two excavations, for instance, of equal magnitude and 
Jabour, a broken bust or some few fragments 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. 
