.04 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



wisest administration in every department. High attainments in literature 

 and in science, great knowledge and experience of the world and its affairs, 

 and practiced habits of business, distinguish many of them in an eminent 

 degree ; and it would be unjust either to deny the interest which all of them 

 feel in the prosperity of the institution or refrain from acknowledging tho 

 devoted services which some of them have rendered in its administration. 

 But, on the other hand, absorbing public cares, professional avocations, and 

 the pursuits of private life, must, in many instances, prevent those indi- 

 viduals whose assistance might have been best relied on from giving any- 

 thing like continued attention to the affairs of the institution." 



While the report alludes, in the above language, to the 

 inability of such official persons, in general, to attend with 

 sufficient particularity to any extra business incidental to 

 affairs out of the sphere of their more appropriate duties. 

 it makes an exception in favor of the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, who, in the words of the report, "gave to its affairs 

 .more time and attention than we could have supposed it 

 possible for a person the most active to have spared from 

 his momentous and sacred duties." 



The commissioners dwell at length upon the tact that the 

 trustees were not in the habit of communicating directly 

 with any other officers of the institution but the secretary, 

 as in the following passage: 



" The secretary attends all the meetings, and the officers of the establish- 

 ment, generally, are perfectly aware of the extent of his influence and con- 

 trol over the business, while he has no direct responsibility for the conduct 

 or actual state of any department. 



" There may be many cases, certainly, in which it is not expedient only, 

 but necessary, that the board should deliberate in the absence even of the 

 principal librarian, or of the heads of departments; but there must be ex- 

 ceptional cases, and considering the persons who are heads of departments, 

 and the knowledge and ability by which they are and ought to be distin- 

 guished, it seems impossible to suppose that the trustees would not derive the 

 greatest assistance from immediate, full and unreserved communication 

 with them on questions arising in the administration of their respective 

 departments. We find, however, there is scarcely one of the highest officers 

 of the institution who has not complained of systematic exclusion from the 

 board when the affairs of his department are under consideration, as equally 

 disparaging to himself and injurious to the interests of the department 

 giving no opportunity of explaining their reports or meeting the objec- 

 tions and criticisms to which they may have been subject; and their own 

 absence, joined to that of the principal librarian, leaves them under the 

 painful but natural impression, where their suggestions are disallowed, that 

 the interests with which they are charged have not been fully represented. 

 We cannot but ascribe to this cause the unfortunate and unseemly jealousies 

 which the evidence shows to have long existed among the principal officers 

 of the museum ; their distrust in the security of the means by which they 

 communicate with the board, their misgivings as to the fullness and fairness 

 <>f the consideration which their suggestions receive, and their feelings of 

 injustice done to their own department, arising, it may be, from an over 

 zeal for its interests or over estimate of its importance. 



Finally, they use this language in reference to what they 

 judge to be the too overshadowing power allowed to the 

 secretary by the trustees : 



