CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 49 
brought to him as ‘antiquities’ was simply appalling. Personally he felt 
that in consequence of the organisation of such Societies as were connected 
with the British Association and the local museums, which were now fairly 
on the alert, the disposal of local antiquities, other than gold and silver, 
might be fairly left as at present. The man who finds anything is gene- 
rally the least qualified to know anything about its value, and often 
thinks a thing of priceless value when it is of no value whatever, and 
vice versd. In Hull they had tried something similar to the rule which is 
in practice in London in reference to the finding of treasure during the 
demolition of property, but it had not acted satisfactorily. The fact 
that the Hull Corporation had a clause put in the agreement that any 
objects found upon the site were to be given up to the Corporation simply 
gave the men the idea that they were not entitled to anything; and 
consequently, as soon as anything was picked up it was ‘sneaked’ into the 
pocket and probably sold to anybody who happened to be on the spot. 
The result was that, notwithstanding the official statement in the agree- 
ment, and notwithstanding the fact that the foremen were told to look 
out for specimens, very few of them were really given up. He would 
strongly support any resolution to make the law of treasure trove better 
known than it is at present. He did not see the advisability of includ- 
ing all antiquities, but thought something might be done to let the local 
museums have a share. 
Mr. J. Hopkinson (Hertfordshire Natural History Society) said that 
while it was pretty generally known that the finder got the bullion value 
of the article found, it was not generally appreciated that now, according 
to the regulations made in 1886, on the suggestion of Sir John Evans, 
the finder got the archeological value, which may be considerably more 
than the bullion value. He quite agreed with the suggestion made that 
there should be some notice to that effect put up at the post offices all 
over the country ; but the deduction of 20 per cent. of the value would, 
of course, act as a deterrent from sending the objects found to the 
Treasury. He thought the law at present bore most unjustly on local 
museums, for in his opinion the local museums should always have the 
first right of purchasing the objects at their value. He thought it was 
very hard upon a locality that valuable things found in it should have 
to go to the British Museum. 
Mr. W. Gray (Belfast) said he thought something should be done to 
-make people know that they would be remunerated for anything they 
found. Reference had been made to the Circular issued by the Royal 
Irish Academy, and it would be very interesting for Societies like theirs 
to know the result of that Circular. He knew that a Circular issued by 
his Society to the National Schools had been an absolutely dead letter. 
Mr. W. Taylor (Elgin Literary and Scientific Society) said he would 
like to suggest that, whenever things were found about the value of which 
there was any doubt, they should be sent to the proper authorities for 
investigation. 
The Rev. J. O. Bevan (Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club) asked 
whether it would not be desirable to enter into correspondence with the 
Society of Antiquaries on the subject before any formal action were 
taken, as possibly it possessed some information of which the Conference 
might be ignorant, or it might have taken action in relation to the 
matter. Mr. Bevan said that as it was possible for the Crown sometimes 
to delegate its rights for the possession of treasure trove to some other 
1905, E 
