OUR NATIONAL MUSEUMS 
E may congratulate ourselves that the Museum 
question is now being taken up with vigour. Not 
only must the Royal Commission on Science include it 
among their inquiries, but the Society of Arts is directing 
_ public attention to it. 
This is the more opportune, as the intention of the 
‘Government to transfer to irresponsible trustees the only 
‘museums under the direction of a Minister of State has 
recently been declared, and needs only to be declared to 
‘be condemned on all hands. 
_ We now let the following documents speak for them- 
selves. Next week we shall return to the subject :— 
I. 
Memorial to the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P. 
“tj. We, the undersigned members of the Council and 
Members of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 
Manufactures, and Commerce, request the attention of 
Her Majesty’s Government to the remarkable proof of 
the public desire for instruction and pure enjoyment 
afforded by the examination of works of Art and Science, 
which has been shown by the opening of the Bethnal 
Green Museum, 
“2. This Museum, established in one of the poorest 
and busiest districts in London, where men, women, 
and children are most laboriously employed, has been 
frequented during three months by more than 700,000 
visitors,* a number which probably exceeds that of the 
Visitors to all the other metropolitan museums and gal- 
leries during the same period. 
_ “3. The undersigned submit that this museum could 
never have come into useful existence, and have been in- 
strumental in conferring great benefits on the people, 
without the aid of Parliament; and they desire to press 
this fact upon the consideration of Her Majesty’s Govern- 
ment, with the hope that they will submit to Parliament 
the policy so essentially national of voting increased 
_ means to facilitate the establishment of museums, libra- 
‘ries, and galleries of Science and Art in large centres of 
population, wherever such localities are willing to bear 
their share in the cost.” 
Appended to this are the signatures of 250 Peers, 
_ Members of Parliament, and other well-known and dis- 
tinguished men. 
. 
Ef, 
- CORRESPONDENCE RELATING 10 THE ABOVE MEMORIAL. 
“The Secretary of the Society of Arts to the Right Hon. 
, W. £. Gladstone, MP. 
4 “ July 3, 1873. 
__“Str,—A memorial relative to the beneficial action of 
the Bethnal Green Museum, has been prepared by the 
Society of Arts for presentation to you. 
“It has been signed by one hundred and fifty members 
of the Council and of the Society, of whom twenty-two 
are peers, and sixty-three are members of the House of 
Commons. In addition to the above, thirty-seven peers 
and sixty-three members of the House of Commons, not 
members of the Society, have expressed their concurrence 
in the object of the memorial. 
“T am directed to request that you will have the kind- 
; "ness to receive a deputation to present the memorial, and 
| to name a day for doing so, giving, if possible, at least a 
_week’s notice.” 
 * “The numbers up to the end of September were upwards of one million 
and a half of Reople i to 31st December, 1872, only six months and a half, 
they amounted to gor,464, whilst the number of the general visitors to the 
No, 209—Vol, VIII. 
- NATURE 
ritish Museum for the whole year 1872 were only 424,068.—October 1873. J 
“ Mr. Gurdon io the Secretary of the Society of Arts. 
“July 5, 1873. 
“StR —Mr. Gladstone desires me to acknowledge the 
receipt of your letter of the 3rd inst., requesting him to 
receive a deputation to present the memorial from the 
Society of Arts, on the subject of the museum at Bethnal 
Green. I am directed to express Mr. Gladstone’s sincere 
regret that the pressure of his duties, as First Lord of 
the Treasury, renders it absolutely necessary that he 
should confine his attention to those matters which fall 
directly within his province ; and he therefore trusts that 
those on whose behalf you have written will kindly 
excuse him if he asks them to address themselves to the 
Privy Council Office.” 
“ The Secretary of the Society of Arts to Mr. Gurdon. 
“S1R,—I have brought before the Council your letter of 
the 5th July, in reply to mine of the 3rd July, asking Mr. 
Gladstone to receive a deputation to present a memorial 
from this Society on the subject of the Bethnal Green 
Museum. The Council observe that you express Mr. 
Gladstone's regret that the pressure of his duties as First 
Lord of the Treasury renéers it absolutely necessary that 
he should confine his attention to those matters which 
fall directly under his province, and his trust that those 
on whose behalf the reception of a deputation was sought 
will kindly excuse him if he asks them to address them- 
selves to the Privy Council Office. 
I am directed, in reply, to point out that the memorial, 
having relation to a subject of vast importance to the 
education, general cultivation, and social welfare of the 
people, did appear to the Council to bring the subject 
strictly within the consideration of the Prime Minister, 
rather than of a department of the Government. More- 
over, it did appear to the Council that the deep interest ~ 
which the subject excites is manifested by the unusual 
character of the signatures, being those of 60 peers and 
130 members of the House of Commons attached to the 
memorial, and justified the Council in asking for the spe- 
cial attention of Mr. Gladstone himself. 
“Under these circumstances, the Council submit their 
conviction that the subject involves considerations of 
principle and policy worthy the attention of the Prime 
Minister of this country, and too wide in its political and 
fiscal considerations to be dealt with effectually by any 
single department of the Government. 
“They, therefore, respectfully decline to adopt Mr. 
Gladstone’s suggestion that they should address them- 
selves to the Privy Council Office,” 
“Mr. Gurdon to the Secretary of the Society of Arts. 
“S1r,—I am directed by Mr. Gladstone to acknowledge 
the receipt of your letter of the 18th inst., and to request 
that you will be kind enough to acquaint the Council of 
the Society of Arts that the intention of the reply to your 
communication of July 3 was to point out that, in regard 
to a subject of the nature of that which you brought 
before him (viz. the beneficial action of the Bethnal Green 
Museum), which falls properly within the province of a 
department of the State appointed to deal with it, the First 
Lord of the Treasury could not take the initiative out of 
the hands of that Department. 
“This Mr. Gladstone would be doing were he to re- 
ceive the proposed deputation ; and he would be acting 
contrary to the rules of administration which are neces- 
sary for the conduct of public business. 
“Tf, however, the Society of Arts think fit to favour 
him with a written communication, Mr. Gladstone will 
himself correspond with the proper department concern- 
ing it.” 
“The Secretary of the Society of Arts to the Right Ron. 
W, E. Gladstone, M.P. 
“StrR,—The Council of the Society of Arts have 
EE 
