4i 



antiquities that are hustled into cellars, sheds, or ignoble corners ; and 

 the stream of literature pours in, from every quarter of both worlds^ 

 until the managers are in despair, and the architects completely puzzled. 

 It seems a problem which only Parliament can solve ; for there are two 

 Parliamentary points at issue : — one, of a vote for sanctioning a whole- 

 sale removal from Bloomsbury elsewhere ; and one of another vote, f 

 upon a far more magnificent scale, authorising the completion of the 

 British Museum as a National institution, to meet the wants of the pre- ' 

 sent, and to a reasonable degree, of the future. The actual under- 

 ground, huddled, and destructive state of affairs cannot be permanently 

 tolerated, and it would be indeed a shame were we to deal with our 

 national collections by disbanding them." 



This being the state of affairs no one can be surprised 

 that the Museum is not increasing in popularity. In 1873 

 the Athenaum noticed this in a warning article, in which 

 it says : 



"The numbers of 1 persons admitted to visit,' such is the style of the 

 place, the British Museum have considerably declined during a period 

 much longer than that included in the Report before us, which goes 

 no further back than 1867, between which year and the last the 

 decrease was more than 21,000 ; while, excluding last year, the 

 diminution was not less than 27,000 — a rate of reduction which seems 

 to have been checked, but only checked by the opening of the Museum 

 on Monday and Saturday evenings, between May 8 and August 12 

 from six till eight o'clock — an extension of time which has been 

 conceded in consideration of the too-evident decline of popular interest 

 in. this magnificent establishment. This concession was in a right 

 direction ; but it has not been made sufficiently known to the public to 

 produce the fullest results. The fact is, there appears to lie at the 

 bottom of this matter a sort of feeling, not less happily because un- 

 consciously expressed by the phrase quoted above, ' persons admitted 

 to visit,' the British Museum, a remnant of the chary, not to say 

 jealous, spirit which limited the number to fewer than thirty or there- 

 abouts ' persons admitted to visit,' &c. , and which still obtains so far 

 that the collections are closed on two days and a half of each week — 

 a restriction which we have no hesitation in saying is as unnecessary as 

 it is vexatious, and for which no excuse can be urged, excepting the 

 the supposed interests of the youths who draw in the sculpture 

 galleries, and who, for want of a little good counsel, waste three parts ot 

 their time in copying bad models." 



There is no doubt that this writer's remarks are correct 

 in attributing the falling off to the churlishness of some 

 officials, and to the very unsatisfactory state of the Museum 

 itself. On this point I will avail myself of the unimpeach- 



