'856-81 
PLAN NEGATIVED 
35 
^vhich he asked inevitably involved change of 
locality, and that no other plan for gathering 
together the whole of the national natural his- 
tory collections had previously been submitted 
to authority. The legislative mind was there- 
fore unprepared for calm and due consideration 
of the subject. Still, Owen considered that if the 
details and aims and grounds of his report were 
l^nown and comprehended, no strong opposition 
on the part of Parliament could be expected. 
In this he was disappointed. An Irish member'^ 
^ade his ‘ Report and Plan ’ the ground of a 
'Motion for a committee of inquiry, which was 
Carried. 
This committee, after taking the evidence 
published in the Blue Book (ordered to be printed 
August 10, 1 860),^ reported against the removal 
of the natural history collections from the British 
l^Iuseum. Indeed, as the report states, with one 
eminent exception, the whole of the scientific 
'Naturalists, including the keepers of all the depart- 
'NNents of natural history in the British Museum, 
'^’‘0 of an opinion that an exhibition on so large 
NN scale [as that proposed by Owen] tends alike to 
needless bewilderment and fatigue of the 
public and the impediment of the studies of the 
scientific visitor.’ The committee also recom- 
"Nended a more limited form of exhibition, their 
^ Mr. Gregory, M.P. for co. July 23, 1861). 
Galway {Hansard, Debate of * Pp. 238, with ten plans. 
D 2 
