35 



feeling. I confess I have been thinking that some parts of our 

 collection — such for instance as the quadrupeds — are so incom- 

 plete as to be of little value ; and the necessity for these no 

 longer exists to the same extent as formerly, as there is now, I 

 understand, a more complete collection of such at the Queen's 

 College. I speak only for myself, and am not to be understood 

 as making any proposal, as I have not mentioned the subject to 

 my colleagues, who may entirely dissent from me ; but, for my 

 own part, I should not object to see the Museum handed over 

 as a present to the town, as the nucleus for a Free Museum and 

 Library. We have fine collections in ornithology, geology, Irish 

 antiquities, foreign arms and implements, and other things; 

 but in those departments where our collections are poor and 

 not progressive they might, with little disadvantage, be dropped, 

 and the space thus gained be devoted to books. There is room 

 enough at the rere for another pretty large building, part of 

 which might be arranged as an art gallery, and the remainder 

 to library purposes. I apologise to my fellow-members for 

 having said so much without first speaking to them ; but they 

 may rest satisfied that I have not compromised them or the 

 society in any way, and what has been said may bear fruit in 

 one direction or the other. While I should much regret to see 

 the Museum terminate its independent existence, I should regret 

 still more to see that existence indefinitely prolonged if the 

 building could otherwise be devoted to more distinctly useful 

 purposes. Such a step as the giving up the ownership and 

 management of the Museum would by no means entail the 

 extinction of the society, which would go on, as I hope it will 

 in any case, prosperously and vigorously. 



A great English statesman, who is a true friend of this coun- 

 try, alluded with regret in one of his recent public utterances 

 to the absence of a middle class in Ireland. Such is unfor- 

 tunately the case in the greater part of the country ; but I claim 

 for this town and most of the province the possession of a middle 

 class — not so rich, truly, as the similar class in the sister island, 

 but not inferior to them in those qualities that go to make a 

 country prosperous and contented — I mean intelligence, indus- 



