TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 765 



University owes to the ingenuity and munificence of General Pitt-Rivers, who not 

 only provided the material on which it is based, but also the original and unique 

 echeme of arrangement, which adds so greatly to its value as a means of education, 

 and is so admirably calculated to awaken an interest in the subject, even in the 

 minds of the most superficial visitor. In speaking thus of the method of displaying 

 the Pitt-Rivers collection, I must not be supposed to imply any disparagement 

 of others arranged on different plans. Provided there is a definite and consistent 

 arrangement of some sort, it is well that there should be a diversity in the treat- 

 ment of different collections, and for such a vast and exhaustive collection as that 

 under the care of Sir WoUaston Franks, at the British Museum, the geographical 

 system which has been adopted is certainly the best. In it every specimen of 

 ■whatever nature at once finds a place, in which it can at any time be discovered 

 and recognised. 



In referring to our great national collection, I cannot refrain from saying that 

 there seemed till lately to be only one element wanting to make it all that could 

 be desired, and that was space, not only for the proper preservation and eshibition 

 of what it already contains, but also for its inevitable future expansion. The pro- 

 vision in this respect was totally inadequate to do justice to the importance of the 

 subject. Happily this consideration will be no longer a bar to tlie development of 

 the collection. The provident action of the authorities of the Museum, aided by 

 the liberality of the Duke of Bedford and the wisdom of Her Majesty's Government, 

 has secured for many years to come the necessary room for the expansion of the 

 grandest of our national institutions. 



More modern even than museums lias been the introduction of any systematic 

 teaching of Anthropology into this country. This is certainly most remarkable, 

 considering that there is no nation to which the subject is of such great importance. 

 Its importance to those who have to rule — and there are i'ew of us now who are 

 not called upon to bear our share of the respousibilities of government — can 

 scarcely be overestimated in an empire like this, the population of which, as I 

 have just said, is composed of examples of almost every diversity under which the 

 human body and mind can manifest itself. The physical characteristics of race, so 

 strongly marked in many cases, are probably always associated with equally or more 

 diverse characteristics of temper and intellect. In fact, even when the physical 

 divergences are weakly shown, as in the different races which contribute to make 

 up the home portion of the Empire, the mental and moral characteristics are still 

 most strongly marked. As the wise physician will not only study the par- 

 ticular kind of disease under which his patient is suffering before administering 

 the approved remedies for such disease, but will also take into careful account the 

 peculiar idiosyncrasy and inherited tendencies of the individual, which so greatly 

 modify both the course of the disease and the action of remedies, so it is absolutely 

 necessary for the statesman who would govern successfully, not to look upon 

 human nature in the abstract and endeavour to apply universal rules, but to con- 

 sider the special moral, intellectual, and social capabilities, wants, and aspirations 

 of each particular race with which he has to deal. A form of government under 

 which one race would live happily and prosperously may to another be the cause 

 of unendurable misery. All these questions, then, should be carefully studied by 

 those who have any share in the government of people helonging to races alien to 

 themselves. A knowledge of their special characters and relations to one another 

 has a more practical object than the mere satisfaction of scientific curiosity ; it is a 

 knowledge upon which the happiness and prosperity or the reverse of millions of 

 our fellow-creatures may depend. The ignorance often shown upon these subjects, 

 even in so select an assembly as the House of Commons, would be ludicrous if 

 it were not liable to lead to disastrous results. 



Now let us consider what, amid all the complex, diverse, and costly machinery 

 of education in this country, is being done to satisfy the demands for such know- 

 ledge. We may say at once, as regards all institutions for primary and secondary 

 education, absolutely nothing. The inhabitants of the various regions of our own 

 earth are treated with no more consideration and interest in all such institutions 

 than if they lived on the moon or the planets. We must turn straight to the 



