SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS ENQUIRIES. 



14'J 



C.B., F.R.S. 



1872. 



Captain financial year lately completed to £1,767"; and then 

 D. Galtoii. ^,lY. Canutheis, beinc; particularly interested in the 

 success and completeness of the herbarium at the 

 British Museum, goes on to observe, "I know of no 

 way in which the country can at once advance the 

 interests of science and encourage its students at a 

 smaller cost, and with more important results, than by 

 maintaining in their full efficiency the two botanical 

 collections at present existing." You see that Mr. 

 Carruthers' statement is of an exceedingly strong 

 character I — Yes. 



13.014. I cite that more because if there were such 

 a thing in science, it might be supposed that any 

 rivalry that he might feel towards Kew would have 

 rather led him to take another line. The present 

 organisation of Kew, speaking broadly, dates from 

 about the year 1840 . • . when Sir William Hooker 

 was appointed. 



13.015. Aie you a<xiuiaint€d with the Treasury letter 

 defining the constitution of the gardens at that period? 



— Xo. 



13.016. Then you are not aware that in that letter 

 there is a distinct statement that the institution shall 

 be to a large extent a purely scientific institution? — I 

 have not seen the letter. 



13,017-18. Speaking broadly, the whole constitution 

 of Kew has not been altered, has it, since the time that 

 Sir William Hooker was appointed there ? So that 

 anything that has been done there has been done in 

 consequence of the original constitution of the place ? — 

 I really knew nothing about Kew till very lately. 



13.019. The present Director has held his office only 

 a few years, has he ? — ^I think since 1865. 



13.020. Anything which now exists in Kew, any her- 

 barium, for example, existed there at the time when 

 he was appointed ? — I have no knowledge on that 

 point. 



13.021. As far as the herbarium is concerned, the 

 great mass of it, that which was founded by Sir William 

 Hooker, and to which additions were made by Mr. 

 Bentham and others, could not be said in any sense to 

 have been created by the present Director ? — I have no 

 knowledge. 



13.022. Is it not, then, a matter of fact that what- 

 ever exists at Kew in the way of collections which may 

 be duplicates of the British Museum collections, cannot 

 be said to have been created by the present Director ? — 

 I cannot give you any information upon that subject, 

 because I really do not know, but I take it exactly as 

 you say it. My argument has no reference to that. I 

 brought in Kew rather as an instance that a science 

 council was required for the purpose of advising the 

 Government as to bringing scientific institutions into 

 one focus. What I want is for the British Museum to 

 be brought into the same focus as Kew, South Kensing- 

 ton, the Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh, and other 

 institutions. 



13.023. It is not absolutely certain, under those cir- 

 cumstances, from the evidence of the botanists to which 

 I have referred, especially of Mr. Carruthers, that the 

 existence of those two collections, even although they 

 were duplicates, should be a waste of public money, or 

 a waste of anything ? — It is not absolutely certain. 



13.024. I apprehend that .you would judge so from the 

 evidence which I have jiist read from this competent 

 botanist, testifying to the necessity of having tsvo 

 separate collections ? — ^If it is admitted that it is 

 necessary to have two separate collections, of course it 

 is not a waste of public morev to have them. 



13.025. You would not yourself controvert the 

 evidence that I have just put forward on the part of 

 Mr. Ball or Mr. Carruthers ? — Of course these are 

 points which I should not be prepared to admit or to 

 controvert "without going into the question more fullj-. 

 I do not controvert them, because, first of all, I have 

 not read the evidence. I have only heard that part of 

 it which you have read. Of course their evidence 

 would be taken by the Commission on that point as 

 much more valuable than any I should give. They are 

 botanists and I am not. 



* * * 



ENQUIRY OF 1872. 



The last official documents which have to be quoted 

 here are those rela4;ing to the management of the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew, as under. They contain an 

 account of the events which led to disputes between 

 the First Commissioner of Works, the Rt. Hon. Acton 



Smee Ayrton, and the Director of the Eoyal Gardans, 

 concerning which, 



A Memorial was drawn up and presented to the 

 First Lord of the Treasury, in which the following 

 passages occur : — 



Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., to the Right Hon. 

 W. E. Gladstone, M.P. 

 Royal Institution of Great Britain, 

 20 June, 1872. 

 My dear Mr. Gladstone, 

 I have been requested to forward to you the accom- 

 panying memorial from some of our most eminent 

 scientific men, on the subject of the changes recently 

 introduced as regards the botanical establishment at 

 Kew. 



The signatures have been intentionally restricted to 

 a few well-known names, but I have reason to know 

 that the opinions expressed in the memorial would be 

 shared not only by the science of England, but by 

 scientific men throughout the world. 



I am, &c., 

 (Signed) John Ltbwock. 



The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 

 &c &c. &c. 



EasrcLOSUBE. 



To the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, First Lord 

 of the Treasury, &c. 



We, the undersigned, deeply interested in the condi- 

 tion of Enghsh science ... do most respectfully beg 

 your attention to the following statements and observa- 

 tions : — 



In the year 1840 the private Botanic Gardens of Kew, 

 which had previously been in the possession cf the Royal 

 Family, were handed over by the Queen to the Govern- 

 ment. 



A commission, then appointed to report on their con- 

 dition, recommended that they should be enlarged and 

 maintained as a national scientific establishment, which 

 should form a centre of reception for the useful pro- 

 ducts of the vegetable kingdom, a centre of reference 

 and distribution for England, India, and the Colonies, 

 and a means of augmenting the rational pleasure, in- 

 creasing the knowledge, and refining the taste of the 

 English public. 



The late Sir William Hooker was at that time professor 

 of botany in the University of Glasgow. The founding^ 

 of an estabUshment like that contemplated at Kew har- 

 monised so completely with his scientific tastes and power 

 of organisation that at a sacrifice of more than half his- 

 income he offered to undertake the superintendence of 

 Kew Gardens; his ofi'er was accepted, and he was ap- 

 pointed Director of Kew at a salary of £300 a year. 



Sir William Hooker was at that time the possessor of 

 an excellent private herbarium, and of a scientific library, 

 both of which were wanting at Kew; to provide house-- 

 room for these an additional £200 was granted by the 

 Government. No allowance, however, was made for the 

 maintenance or increase of either the herbarium or the 

 library ; the expense of both fell upon the director. 



During his residence in Glasgow the excellence of his . 

 collections had attracted to the house of Sir William 

 Hooker various active investigators, the number of wliich 

 increased materially after his arrival at Kew. Fourteen 

 rooms of the house he occupied were devoted to his her- 

 barium, which, for twelve years, was the resort of the 

 scientific botanists of Europe. Unaided by the Govern- 

 ment, save to the extent above mentioned, Sir William 

 Hooker devoted his private means to the purchase of 

 new books and specimens, and opened a correspondence- 

 with botanists of all lands ; he thus made his house the 

 most extensive botanical laboratory in this country, and 

 the most important centre of reference regarding syste- 

 matic, economic, and descriptive botany, as illustrated by- 

 his herbarium. 



The Gardens expanded equally under his vigorous and 

 enlightened supervision ; in ten years after his appoint- 

 ment they became the first in the world. 



For twenty-five years he had been collecting textile 

 fabrics, drugs, gums, dyes, and other pro'ducts to illus- 

 trate the structure, uses, and physiognomy of plants ; 

 with these ftoUections, made at his private cost, Sir Wil- 

 liam Hooker founded in Kew Gardens the first museum 

 of the kind that had ever been established. Of such 

 museums there are now three at Kew ; they contain up- 

 wards of 50,000 named objects of scientific and economic 

 interest, views of tropical vegetation, and maps illustrating 



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