94 MEMOIR OF ALFRED SMEE. [CHAP. IX. 



true, that one of the managers tried his utmost to bring about 

 this arrangement. Mr. Smee wrote to him as follows : 



MY DEAR SIR, I have read with very great care your proposal to 

 annihilate the London Institution. 



It does seem to me to be a most highly objectionable project, and one 

 which I hope there will be but little chance of carrying out. 



It is a total change of purpose to convert a literary and scientific 

 institution into a mere boys' school, but one step better than that of a 

 charity school. 



You have fixed the meeting at a time when I am afraid I cannot 

 possibly attend, next Wednesday, which I extremely regret, as I fear that 

 I shall feel it my duty to oppose it with all my might. 



My doctrine would be to improve what we possess, not to radically 

 destroy. 



Mr. Smee went to the meeting, which was attended by the 

 proprietors and managers, and in a long speech denounced the 

 movement as being most pernicious to the London Institution. 

 When he finished his speech, the proprietors rose en masse, and 

 cheered and cheered him again and again. The scheme was 

 upset, my father victorious, and the London Institution saved. 



"While my father and myself were on a short visit to 

 Paris in the autumn of 1866, we visited a splendidly fitted-up 

 aquarium, which had recently been established, and which, 

 before the Brighton Aquarium was made, was a master one 

 of its kind. This aquarium in Paris fired my father's ima- 

 gination, and forthwith he considered that it was a grievous 

 pity that an equally good if not a better one should not be 

 immediately established at the Zoological Gardens in London. 

 Accordingly, the next morning, when I came down to breakfast, 

 before 9 o'clock, I found he had written off to the late much 

 lamented and distinguished naturalist, Dr. Gray, of the British 

 Museum, on the subject, and I found afterwards the aforesaid 

 letter published in the ' Annals of Natural History,' 3rd series, 

 vol. xix.* 



THE " MONDE DE LA MER." 



MY DEAR SIR, I have just returned from a visit to the " Monde de 

 la Mer," a noble aquarium opened to the public at a charge of two francs 

 per head within the last week, on the Boulevard Montmartre. It is 

 arranged as a large grotto, with cement stalactites, and the light almost 

 entirely comes through the glass front of the aquarium. There are no less 

 than thirteen aquaria, with glass fronts, about 15 feet long and 4 feet deep ; 



* The Brighton Aquarium was not in existence when this letter was 

 written. 



