PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, 495 
a vast and scattered literature for the sake of synonymy would surely far 
out-balance any temporary injustice. 
One last phase of my subject and I have finished with what I want to 
say on the subject of organising zoology. In Europe the great museums of 
our metropolitan towns are State museums, endowed by the State, managed 
by the State, and in Great Britain and Ireland staffed and curated by the 
State ; that is to say, the officials at the museums are Civil Servants. Let 
us consider for a moment what that means, and let us take the British 
Museum, which, in its entirety, is second to none in the world as an example 
of a State museum. 
The British Museum was established by an Act of Parliament in the 
year 1753 (26 Geo. II. cap. xxii). This Act sanctioned the purchase of 
collections and library of Sir Hans Sloane, that prince of collectors, for 
the comparatively insignificant sum of 20,0007. In fact, Sir Hans left his 
magnificent collection of natural objects, which, twenty years before his 
death, amounted to just under 70,000 specimens, his library of 40,000 
printed volumes and 4,100 manuscripts, to the nation, on condition that 
20,0007., about one-fourth of the estimated value of the collections, be paid 
to his executors. Under the above-mentioned Act 10,000/. were paid to each 
of Sir Hans Sloane’s daughters, Mrs. Stanley and Lady Cadogan. The 
same Act provided 10,0001. for the purchase from the Duchess of Portland, 
heiress of the second Harl of Oxford, of the Harley collection of charters 
and manuscripts, which were then in the market, and other moneys for the 
purchase and repair of Montagu House, Bloomsbury, and for maintenance. 
The Act incorporated with the Museum the Cottonian Library at West- 
minster, which, by an Act of Parliament of William III.’s reign, was under 
the care of trustees, chief amongst whom were the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker; the money was raised by a lottery, 
and the museum was opened in January 1759, just 150 years ago. 
Now it will be noticed that at its formal birth the museum consisted of 
about two equal parts—on the one hand books and manuscripts, and on the 
other what used to be called ‘ natural objects.’ 
The ‘ General Repository,’ as the Act of George II. called it, was placed 
in the hands of a body of trustees, now forty-nine in number, three of them 
relics of William III.—namely, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord 
Chancellor, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, are trustees by 
virtue of office. These three are known as the principal trustees ; there are 
twenty-one other trustees in virtue of their office—e.g., the Bishop of 
London, the President of the Royal Society and Royal Academy, and so on 
—one is appointed by the Crown, nine represent the families of donors, and 
fifteen are co-opted. So large and unwieldy a body cannot, as a whole, 
transact the business of a great museum, and they have largely delegated 
their functions to a standing committee of the three principal trustees and 
fifteen annually appointed representatives. 
Now the manner of appointing to the museum is this. The junior 
members of the staff are selected as the result of examination, and when 
appointed they become Civil Servants. Not a bad thing in itself, but bad 
for a man of science. He, through no fault of his own, becomes entangled 
in red tape ; above all, he must not make himself a nuisance ; trop de zéle 
must be avoided, his enthusiasms tend to become checked, he is perpetually 
observing what is called ‘ official reticence,’ and he perforce spends his days 
in performing routine work during routine hours. No amount of skill and 
ability—and the staff at the museum is both skilled and able—hastens his 
promotion. This is a matter almost entirely of seniority. In fact, the con- 
ditions of the Civil Service are incompatible with that freedom to research 
in any line that proves most suggestive, and with that absence of outside 
control which alone makes scientific research on a large scale possible. 
The appointment to the senior staff, the keepers or heads of departments, 
