TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. — DEFT. ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 655 



accumulations year by year, the evidence which would attest its soundness and 

 make plain the emergency of tlie proposed remedy. 



Moreover, there was one who, though not a naturalist, Lad devoted more time, 

 pains, and thought to the subject than had been bestowed by any of those — 

 whether naturalist or administrator — who testified adversely thereon. " The Kioht 

 Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, an elected trustee of the British Msiseum, took 

 nothing on trust ; he explored with me, in 1861, every vault and dark recess in 

 the Museum which had been, or could be, allotted to the non-exhibited specimens 

 of the natural liistorj-, those, viz., which it w.as my aim to utilize and bring to light. 

 He gave the same attention to the series selected for exhibition in the public 

 galleries, and appreciated the inadequacy of the arrangements to that end. He 

 listened to my statements of facts, to the grounds of provision of annual ratios of 

 increase, to the reasons for providing space therefor, to my views of the aims of 

 such exhibitions, and to the proposed extended applications and elucidations of 

 the collections. Mr. Gladstone tested every averment, and elicited the grounds 

 of every sugf^estion, with a tact and insight tliat contrasted strongly with the 

 questionings in Mr. Gregory's committee-room, where too often vague interroo-a- 

 tions met with answers to match. 



Conformably with Mr. Gladstone's convictions, he as Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer moved. May 12, 1862, for 'Leave to bring in a Bill for removal of por- 

 tions of the Trustees' Collections in the British Museum.' 



On May 19, when the bill was to be read a second time, a new, unexpected, and 

 formidable antagonist arose. Mr. Disraeli early got the attention of the House to 

 a speech, warning hon. members of the 'progressive increase of expenditure on 

 civil estimates,' and laying stress on the fact that the 'estimates of the actual year 

 showed no surplus.' ^ The influence of this advocacy of economy is exemplified in 

 the debate which ensued.- For repetitions of the nature and terms of objections 

 to the Eeport and Plan, as already denounced by Mr. Gregory, Mr. Bernal Osborne, 

 and others, reference may be made to the volume of 'Hansard ' cited below. An 

 estimable hon. member, whose words had always and deservedly carried weight 

 with the country party, lent his influence to the same result. Mr. Henley, repre- 

 sentative of Oxfordshire, said : — ' All the House knew was that a building was to 

 be put up somewhere. He considered this a bad way of doing business, particularly 

 at a time when nobody could be sanguine that the finances of the country were in 

 a flourishing state. Let the stone once be set rolling, and then all gentlemen of 

 science and taste would have a kick at it, and it woidd be knocked from one 

 to the other, and none of them probably would ever live to see an end of the 

 expense.' ^ 



Permit me to give one more example of the baneful influence of the opening 

 speech on our great instrimient of .scientific progress. Mr. Henry Seymour, 

 Member for Poole, said : — ' If a foreigner had been listening to the debates of 

 that evening it must have struck him that it was, to say the least, a rather curious 

 coincidence that a proposal to vote 600,000^. for a new collection of birds, beasts, 

 and fishes at South Kensington should have been brought forward on the very 

 evening when the Leader of the Opposition had made a speech denounciug that 

 exorbitant expenditure — a speecli, he might add, which was re-echoed by'many 

 Liberal members of the House.' ^ 



It was however not a ' curious,' but a ' designed coincidence.' Mr. Disraeli, 



kno\ying the temper of the House on the subject, and that the estimates for the 



required Museum of Natural History were to be submitted by Mr. Gladstone, chose 



the opportunity to initiate the business by an advocacy of economy which left its 



.intended effect upon the House. In vain Lord Palmerston, in reply to the Irish 



1 denunciators, proposed as a compromise to 'exclude whales altogether from 



\disporting themselves in Kensington Gardens.' ^ The Government was defeated 



"ty a majority of ninety-two, and the erection of a National or British Museum of 



atural History was postponed, to all appearance indefinitely, and in reality for 



.1 years, 



> Hansard, 1862, p. 11)27. = Ibid. » Ibid. p. 10o2. 



■• Ibid. p. 1918. » Ibid. p. 1931. 



