the Earl of Elgin’s Collection of Marbles, Sc. 273 
equal. In the same manner, by the loss or detention of a ship, 
a great charge may have been incurred, and the original out- 
going excessively enhanced; but the value to the buyer will in 
no degree be affected by these extraneous accidents. Supposing 
again, artists to have been engaged at considerable salaries du- 
ring a large period in which they could do little or nothing, the 
first cost would be burdensome in this case also to the employer ; 
but those who bought would look only at the value of the article 
in the market where it might be exposed to sale, without caring, 
or inquiring how, or at what expense it was brought thither. 
Supposing, on the other hand, that the thirteen other metopes 
had been bought at the Custom-house sale at the same price 
which that of M. Choiseul Gouffier® fetched, it could never be 
said that the value of them was no more than twenty-four or 
twenty-five pounds a-piece. 
It is perfectly just and reasonable that the seller should en- 
deavour fully to reimburse himself for all expenses, and to ac- 
quire a profit also; but it will be impossible for him to do so, 
whenever the disbursements have exceeded the fair money price 
of that which he has to dispose of. ; 
Your committee refer to Lord Elgin’s evidence for the large 
and heavy charges which have attended the formation of this 
collection, and the placing of it in its present situation; which 
amount, from 1799 to January 1803, to 62,440/. including 
23,240/. for the interest of money; and according to a sup- 
plemental account, continued from 1803 to 1816, to no less a 
sum than 74,000/. including the same sum for interest. 
All the papers which are in his possession upon this subject, 
,including a journal of above 90 pages, of the daily expenses of 
his principal artist Lusieri (frem 1803 to the close of 1814), who 
still remains in his employment at Athens, together with the 
account current of Messrs. Hayes of Malta (from April 1807 to 
May 1811), have been freely submitted to your committee; and 
there can be no doubt, from the inspection of those accounts, 
confirmed also by other testimony, that the disbursements were 
very considerable ; but supposing them to reach the full sum at 
which they are calculated, your committee do not hesitate to 
express their opinion, that they afford no just criterion of the 
value of the collection, and therefore must not be taken as a just 
basis for estimating it. 
* M. Choiseul, the French minister at the Porte, had obtained permis- 
sion to remove sculptures from Athens. The frigate which was conveying 
them to France was captured by Lord Nelson. ‘The marbles were after- 
wards sold at a rummage sale at the Custom-house, and bought by Lord 
Elgin, who then thought them a part of his own collection, the packages 
having no directions. —Epir. 
Vol. 47. No, 216. April 1816. S Two 
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