49 



is no doubt a big place, and must cost a good deal to keed 

 clean, but is the public prepared to learn that twenty-four 

 window cleaners are employed at ^1,500 a year and all 

 their materials found them, while a " foreman of window 

 cleaners" has close upon £100 a year to see them do their 

 duty? After this we can hardly grudge the ^150 for 

 brooms, brushes and pails; the £200 for washing the 

 dusters and towels; and the ^"149 for beating carpets — 

 how many, and how often? — or the four housemaids at 21s. 

 to 25 s. a week. De minimis 11011 curat lex. 



There is one item which has puzzled me more than any 

 other I have seen. Mr. Jones has an office at the Museum, 

 and the credit of this country is pledged to see it comfort- 

 ably furnished. But Mr. Jones's office seems to take a long 

 time furnishing, or else he changes its furniture rather 

 capriciously. Look at this table. 



FITTINGS AND FURNITURE FOR PRINCIPAL 

 LIBRARIAN'S OFFICE. 



1868- 69 o 



1869- 70 135 



1870- 71 107 



1871- 72 123 



1872- 73 • •• 239 



1873- 74 i54 



1874- 75 Hi 



Total 899 



All this for furnishing one office ! Mark how gradual the 

 process. £900 expended and yet nothing superfluous. 

 What a wilderness the place must have been five years ago, 

 when but ^135 was laid out ! What stoical endurance 

 must have been needed to put up with a paltry ^107 in 

 1870-71; and how outraged human nature at last asserted 

 its rights in the .£239 just as Deutsch was dying for want of 

 common necessaries. 



