124 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER chap. 



Trustees were Archbishop Benson, Lord Selborne 

 (Lord Chancellor), and the Speaker of the House 

 of Commons, now Lord Peel. 



There seems to have been little hesitation as to 

 their choice, though Sir Edward Bond^ seems to have 

 entertained some doubt as to whether Flower wished 

 to leave the Hunterian Museum, and he was right, 

 for Flower was much attached to it and to his home 

 in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; he also felt leaving his 

 great friend Sir James Paget, who urged him to 

 remain, even offering to get the salary increased if 

 he would. Flower felt that the British Museum 

 had the strongest claims. From his boyhood he had 

 an enthusiasm for this national institution, so that 

 when the opportunity came to serve it he had no 

 hesitation in applying for the post.^ While expert 

 opinion, including that of Sir E. Bond and of Huxley, 

 was earnestly in Flower's favour, the prospects of his 

 appointment soon took almost the form of certainty. 

 On December 3, 1883, Huxley wrote : — 



1 The Chief Librarian of the British Museum. 



^ Among "things not generally known" is the following. In 1866 

 twenty-five of the most distinguished representatives of all branches of 

 science in London presented a memorial to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

 praying that " the administration of the Natural History Museum should be 

 separated from that of the Library and Art Collections of the British Museum, 

 and placed under one officer, who should be immediately responsible to one 

 of the Queen's ministers.'' In other words, they desired to terminate the con- 

 trol of the Trustees of the British Museum. Among the memorialists were 

 George Bentham, William Carpenter, Professor Huxley, Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 Lord Lilford, Professor Alfred Newton, Professor Andrew Ramsay, Mr. Alfred 

 Wallace, Lord Howaid de Walden, and Canon Tristram. Flower, when 

 invited to sign this .document, declined. Eighteen years later he became the 

 servant of the Trustees. 



