4 



INTRODUCTION. 



Government. At a special general meeting, held on the 21st 

 of January, 1860, many members of the Government sitting 

 as official Trustees, a resolution, moved by the First Lord 

 of the Treasury, was carried, "That it is expedient that the 

 Natural History Collections be removed from the British 

 Museum, inasmuch as such an arrangement would be attended 

 with considerably less expense than would be incurred by 

 providing a sufficient additional space in immediate contiguity 

 to the present building of the British Museum/' The esti- 

 mated cost of the required ground on three sides of the 

 Museum was £240,000, that of five or eight acres at South 

 Kensington £25,000 and £40,000 respectively. 



No immediate action was taken on this resolution. In 

 order to obtain fuller assurance of the best method of pro- 

 ceeding, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was 

 appointed in the session of the same year, 1860, with 

 instructions to inquire how far, and in what way, it might 

 be desirable to find increased space for the Museum collections. 

 Their report was adverse to the decision of the general 

 meeting of the Trustees of the 21st of January, distinctly 

 stating their conclusion " that sufficient reason has not been 

 assigned for the removal of any part of the valuable collections 

 now in the Museum, except that of Ethnography and the 

 portraits and drawings." They pointed out that the ground 

 immediately surrounding the Museum, comprising about 

 51 acres, and valued at about £240,000, belonged to a single 

 owner, and gave as their opinion, " that it would be a con- 

 venient, and possibly even a profitable, arrangement for the 

 State at once to purchase that interest, and to receive the 

 rents of the lessees in return for the capital invested and 

 they urged that if this suggestion were disregarded, " to avoid 

 greater ultimate expense through alterations and rearrange- 

 ments, sufficient space should be immediately acquired in con- 

 nection with the British Museum to meet the requirements of 

 the several departments." 



The Trustees had no other course than to refer to the 

 Government the final determination of the question, and in 

 November, 1861, they received intimation from the Lords of 



