654 EEroKT — 1881. 



and it was possible that provision for sucli residences marked in the plan whicli 

 accompanied my report might not be adopted. Moreover no statement of grounds 

 for adequate space-requirements for the whole of the National Natural History had 

 previously been submitted to authority. The legislative mind had not been pre- 

 pared for calm and due consideration of the subject. Still I flattered myself that, 

 by whomsoever the details and aims and grounds of mj' report were known and 

 comprehended, any strong opposition on the part of Parliament could hardly be 

 expected. Nevertheless, an Irish member, seeing a way to a position in ' The House,' 

 which is gained by the grant of a Committee of Inquiry, of which the mover be- 

 comes chairman, made my Report and Plan the ground of a motion to that effect, 

 which was carried. The Select Committee, after taking the evidence published in 

 the Blue Book (ordered to be printed August 10, 1860, quarto, pp. 238, with teu 

 plans), reported against the removal of the Natural History Collections from the 

 ]3ritish Museum. As to the chief reasons alleged for such removal the Report 

 states that with one ' eminent exception the whole of the scientific naturalists 

 examined before your Committee, including the Keepers of all the Departments of 

 Natural History in the British Museum, are of opinion that an exhibition on so 

 large a scale tends alike to the needless bewilderment and fatigue of the public, 

 and the impediment of the studies of tlie scientific visitor .... Your Committee, 

 therefore, recommend the adoption of the more limited kind of exhibition advocated 

 bj' the other witnesses, in preference to the more extended method recommended 

 by Professor Owen.' 



Lest, however, the House might attach undue weight to the exceptional testi- 

 mony, the chairman of the Committee deemed it his duty, in bringing up the 

 Report, to warn the House of the character of such testimony, and his speech 

 left, as I was told, a very unfavourable impression as regards myself. I was chiefly 

 concerned to know what might be put upon record in ' Hansard.' In that valuable 

 work Hon. Members revise their reported utterances before the sheets go to press. 

 I was somewhat relieved to find Mr. Gregory regretting that ' a man whose name 

 stood so high should connect himself with so foolish, crazj', and extravagant a 

 scheme, and should persevere in it after the folly had been pointed aut by most 

 unexceptionable witnesses. 



* They had on one side, and standing alone. Professor Owen and his ten- acre 

 scheme, and on the other side all the other scientific gentlemen, who were per- 

 fectly unanimous in condemning the plan of Professor Owen as being utterly useless 

 and bewildering. 



' Among these gentlemen were Professor Huxley, Professor Maskelyne, Mr. 

 Waterhouse, Dr. Gray, Sir Roderick Mnrchison, Mr. Thomas Bell, P.G.S., Dr. 

 Sclater, Sec. Z.S., Mr. Gould, and Sir Benjamin Brodie. To give the House some 

 idea of that gigantic plan, he might mention that a part of it consisted of galleries 

 850 feet in length for the exhibition of whales. The scientific men e.xamiued on 

 the subject, one and all, disapproved of that plan in f.oto ; and they advocated 

 what was technically called a " typical mode of exhibition." ' ^ 



In point of fact "that Supplementary Exhibition Room which was planned and 

 recommended for the purpose I liave already cited, was urged as the sole reasonably 

 required National Museum of Natural Historj', for which the nation ought to be 

 called upon to provide space and funds, a conclusion subsequently adopted and 

 unanimously recommended by the Royal Commission on Science." 



Although grief was natural and considerable at this result, not without mor- 

 tification at the reception by Parliament of tlie Report and Plan submitted thereto, 

 I now feel grateful that the sole responsibility of their author is attested in the 

 pages of a Work ^ which will last as long as, and may possibly outlast, the great 

 legislative organisation whose debates and determinations are therein authorita- 

 tively recorded. 



I was not, however, ca?t down, nor did I lose either heart or hope ; I was 

 confident in the validity of the grounds of my appeal, and foresaw in the inevitable 



' HaJisard. 'Debate of July 22, 18G1,' pp. 1861, 1018. 



- Fourth Ecport, p. 4. ^ Hansard, vt siq)ra. 



