THE ENTOMOLOGISTS 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 187.] SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1860 [Price Id. 
THE BKITISH MUSEUM. 
The inhabitants of the Celestial Em- 
pire deem that the spot where they 
reside is the centre of the globe. In 
like manner, the residents at Ken- 
sington conceive that they inhabit the 
centre of the great metropolis. 
It never occurs to a Chinaman that 
others may have notions similar to his 
own, though a few thousand miles re- 
moved from him, and so the Ken- 
singlonians never realise the vision of 
a denizen of Poplar proclaiming that 
delightful suburb the most truly central 
in all London. 
What we do is sense ; what others 
do is nonsense! Very good logic, and 
very convincing — to the utterer! 
We are glad to find that a Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons is to 
sit in judgment on the closely-balanced 
vote of the Trustees of the British 
Museum, respecting the removal of the 
Natural-History Collections to Bromp- 
ton. Surely the Committee will take 
a sensible and practical view of the 
subject, and not he led astray by any 
false notions of economy. 
No doubt a much smaller building 
would sufiice at Kensington, because 
fewer people would go there ; but if 
the object be economy, why not go to 
Salisbury Plain at once? We had 
always imagined that the object of the 
British Museum had been, by means 
of its endless collections, to give the 
greatest possible amount of information 
to the greatest possible number of 
persons. If this be not the object, 
we shall be glad to be enlightened on 
the subject. 
The ‘Times’ has recently discovered 
that the object of the Post Office is 
to convey our correspondence and our 
newspapers, and that it is only inci- 
dentally that it adds to the revenue, 
whereas the Post-Office officials seem 
of opinion that the Post Ofiice is a 
mode of taxing the community, and 
that the conveyance of newspapers and 
letters is quite a secondary considera- 
tion. 
Just imagine if the British Museum 
had been viewed in the same light, 
and if persons were charged for going 
in, in order to eke out the revenue; 
and if the Museum, or any part of 
it, be transported to Kensington, the 
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