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THURSDAY, JULY 18, \\ 



THE PROPOSALS OF THE COMMISSIONERS 

 FOR THE EXHIBITION OF 1851. 



THE Statement which the Commissioners for the Ex- 

 hibition of 1851 have recently published, concerning 

 their future policy in dealing with their Estate at Kensing- 

 ton Gore, is a reply to the memorial of the Metropolitan 

 Gardens Association, a memorial in the same terms as 

 that printed in Nature of May 9 (p. 25). From the 

 Times of July 9, it appears that various public bodies, 

 Corporations, &c., who had memorialized the Commis- 

 sioners, have been supplied with copies of this Statement. 

 The result has been that further remonstrances have been 

 addressed to the Commissioners. The Statement to which 

 we refer is drawn up in ten paragraphs, the first of which 

 quotes a sentence from the Commissioners' Charter of 

 Incorporation, to the effect that they are to apply their 

 resources " to increase the means of industrial education 

 and extend the influence of science and art upon pro- 

 ductive industry." By the side of this we may place a 

 passage from the second Report of the Commissioners — 

 the Report, in fact, which laid down in 1852 the broad 

 lines upon which the Commissioners determined to act. 

 The passage runs thus : " We are of opinion that if the 

 surplus" (profits from the 1851 Exhibition) "were applied 

 in furtherance of one large institution devoted to the 

 purposes of instruction," &c., &c., "it would be productive 

 of important results ; whilst if subdivided amongst local 

 institutions," &c., &c., "the effects produced would be 

 comparatively insignificant." 



The second paragraph of the Commissioners' State- 

 ment enumerates the number of museums and schools 

 founded upon their estate, which form the " one large 

 institution " originally contemplated. These, they state, 

 prove " that their scheme has been in a great measure 

 successful." 



In the third paragraph the Commissioners argue in 

 favour of now selling, leasing, or otherwise disposing of 

 portions of their estate in order to do something more for 

 promoting science and art than granting sites for public 

 institutions. They then refer to the representations made 

 to them, about 1878, by a deputation from certain large 

 towns in England and Wales, with the object of obtain- 

 ing funds which might be distributed as grants in aid to 

 the formation of provincial Museums ; and they explain 

 why they rejected those representations at that time. The 

 Commissioners' wisdom on that occasion has been justi- 

 fied by the number of important local municipal Museums 

 of science and art which have been created by local effort 

 rates, and Government aid, as at Birmingham, Manchester, 

 Nottingham, and elsewhere. 



With respect to paragraph 5 of the Statement, which 

 recognizes an expression of public antipathy "to the 

 aggregation of public institutions in one locality" (South 

 Kensington) of London, it may suffice to say here that the 

 Commissioners did not feel the force of the arguments 

 advanced against placing the Imperial Institute at South 

 Kensington. But now, upon reconsideration, they admit 

 the general justice of the representations from the country 

 (eleven years ago) and from the metropolis (two years 

 Vol. XL.— No. 1029. 



ago). They accordingly announce their intention "of 

 disposing of portions of their estate for private building 

 purposes " so as to raise " a considerable income " to be 

 applied first to the reduction of the mortgage debt on 

 their estate, and next to " the establishment of Scholar- 

 ships " for science and art, and to the making of grants 

 to " provincial local institutions." 



This new departure was in ovo at least a year ago. 

 Six months ago it was estimated that the portions of the 

 "inner court" of the estate which the Commissioners 

 were determined to sell " for private building purposes '' 

 would bring in an income of ^10,000 a year. Recent 

 circumstances have slightly modified the disposal of so 

 large a portion of the " inner court " of their estate for 

 private houses as was at first intended. There are 

 difficulties in at once making a new public roadway 

 from east to west across the northern gardens of the 

 estate — it may be mentioned as a detail that this 

 road is to be driven through the existing Science and 

 India Museums — and housebuilders, not unreasonably, 

 cannot come to terms with the Commissioners until these 

 difficulties are got rid of. Instead, then, of aiming at 

 ^10,000 a year, the Commissioners contemplate getting 

 an increase to their income of between ^5000 and ^6000 

 a year. 



In thus diminishing their estimated new income by 

 /4000 or ^5000 a year, and so reducing it to ^5000 or 

 ^6000 a year, we have it on good authority that the 

 Commissioners do not intend to devote any of this money 

 to the Imperial Institute. It is to be used, as shown in 

 the Statement, (i) for the reduction of the mortgage 

 debt, (2) for establishing Scholarships and Exhibitions, 

 and (3) for making grants to " provincial local institu- 

 tions." It is urged that no pressure in respect of clear- 

 ing the mortgage debt on the estate exists. Last year it 

 was ^141,000. ^5000 has just been paid off, so that it 

 now amounts to some ^136,000. In 1887, the announce- 

 ment was made that in the three years from 1884 to 

 1887 the large sum of ^40,000 had been paid off. The 

 regular income of the Commissioners amounts to 

 ;^ 1 2,000 from ground-rent and other sources, so that the 

 repayment of the debt, under the mortgage upon the 

 estate, is said to be in a healthy state, thanks to the shrewd 

 economies and management of Sir Lyon Playfair. The 

 founding of Scholarships and Exhibitions, as now pro- 

 posed by the Commissioners, was certainly announced as 

 one of the functions of the Imperial Institute. Accord- 

 ingly the question has been asked, and not perhaps 

 entirely without some sort of reason, why are the Com- 

 missioners to set about the same work as well, especially 

 when in 1879 they decided against proceeding with a 

 scheme of Scholarships which they had in contemplation 

 at that time ? An impression — as we now know, an 

 erroneous one — is abroad that the revival of the Scholar- 

 ship scheme and the sale of land for private houses are 

 not due solely to an ingenuous wish on the part of the 

 Commissioners to do the best for their public trust. 



We are invited by those who disagree with the Com- 

 missioners to turn to the time when the Imperial Institute 

 scheme was floated early in 1887, and when there was 

 some discussion over the appropriation to the Institute 

 of the land at South Kensington. Prof. Huxley warmly 

 espoused the cause of an Imperial Institute, for reasons 



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