object. With respect to official trustees connected with the government, we 'quite agree that a much smaller number would suffice; and official trustees should be no more than trustees-not managers. Those distinguished personages are too much involved in public business to allow of their proper attendance to the Museum affairs. With respect to the elected trustees, the mode of their election should be wholly different. So long as the trustees have the election of their own body among themselves, private interest will often prevail for the election of improper persons. The king's government are the only proper electors of these trustees; and the desirable men for such an office are scholars and highly distinguished scientific persons.

6. "Resolved That the extension of the collections which has taken place, and the still greater extension which may be looked for, render a further division of departments necessary, and that at the head of each department there be placed a keeper, who shall be responsible for the arrangement, proper condition, and safe custody of the collection committed to his care."

The suggestion of a further division of the departments is very good; and we trust that the council will act upon it. All the departments need division, and none more so than that under Mr. König, one of the most efficient officers of the place. The evidence of Dr. Grant, Mr. Vigors, and other naturalists, is quite conclusive as to the inefficiency of the arrangement in the Natural History department.

7. "Resolved That it is desirable that the heads of each department shall meet once in three months, for the purpose of consulting with reference to any matters of detail relating to the internal arrangements of the Museum, which they may desire jointly to submit to the trustees in writing."

The heads of departments ought to sit at the board and act with the trustees, having a vote on all subjects but expenditure. According to the present system, the officers go into the council-room only when called, and stand during their brief conferences with the trustees.

8. "Resolved That whenever there may be a vacancy in the office of principal librarian, or in that of secretary, it is desirable that the distribution of the duties now discharged by those officers respectively, including the expenditorship, be reconsidered, and that the office of Secretary be not combined with the keepership of any department."

An immediate separation of these offices should have been recommended. Sir Henry Ellis is only fifty and Mr. Forshall forty-two. This is indeed waiting for dead men's shoes. Mr. Forshall is a highly respectable man; but human nature is not inaccessible to the evil temptations of official influence. The possibility of evil should be removed out of mere charity to that excellent clergyman.

9. Resolved That it is desirable that the hours during which the Museum shall be open on public days be hereafter from ten o'clock until seven

throughout the months of May, June, July, and August, and that the reading-room be opened throughout the year at nine o'clock in the morning.”

One of the greatest evils-one that has been more complained of than any other is here left untouched without even the recommendation of reform. The Museum library is the national storehouse of literature; and its books should be at once liberally thrown open to the reading public, and to those among others whose occupations give them respectability and standing in society. Those who are not professionally literary men, or mere idlers, are excluded by their occupations. Barristers and other professional men have a right to be considered; and we trust that the question of an evening readingroom will be unceasingly agitated by men of letters, until the object shall have been gained. The winter evenings require artificial light, which, if badly managed, might set fire to the building; but surely, during six months, the natural light of the sun would be found sufficient until seven in the evening. This, however, after all, is not sufficient. The rooms should be open, like the libraries of the Royal and London Institution, to all who visit the Museum for purposes of study. The expense of extra servants is too paltry for consideration. The Museum library thirty years ago that is, before it was generally used-was opened in the evening during two days of the week when not open in the morning. (See Sir Henry Ellis's evidence.) This was an arrangement made for the convenience of the officers-an alteration, not an extension, of the hours of admission. Besides, to reason from the inutility of evening admission in 1801, when scarcely twenty readers could ever be counted in the rooms, and to contend that it is needless at present, when the readers amount to several thousands, is absolutely ridiculous, a weak invention of the enemy!

"10. Resolved that it is desirable that the Museum be hereafter opened during the Easter, Whitsun, and Christmas weeks, except Sundays and Christmas-day."

The public rooms of the Museum should be open on every day during the holiday weeks, not merely on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as at other times. The mass of the people should have every opportunity afforded them of spending a rational holiday. The provision of innocent enjoyment for the lower orders will effect more than many sermons and prohibitions against licentious revelry.

"11. Resolved that it is expedient that the Trustees should revise the salaries of the Establishment, with the view of ascertaining what increase may be required for carrying into effect the foregoing Resolutions, as well as of obtaining the whole time and services of the ablest men, independently of any

remuneration from other sources; and that' when such scale of salary shall have been fixed it shall not be competent to any officer of the Museum paid thereunder to hold any other situation conferring emolument or entailing duties."

The sum voted to the Museum last year was 11,000l., quite sufficient for every purpose if due regard be paid to economy. With respect to ability, there is much room for improvement, though we fully admit the high talents of many as men of letters. Fitness for the particular duties of each office should be always regarded in making the appointments.

"12. Resolved that it is desirable that the Heads of Departments do consult together as to the best method of preparing, on a combined system, an improved edition of the Synopsis of the museum,-that each officer be responsible for that part which is under his immediate control, and attach his signature to such part,-and that the work be prepared in such a manner as to enable each part to be sold separately, which should be done at the lowest price which will cover the expenses of the publication."

In no matter connected with the Museum is there greater need of improvement. The present Synopsis, which is sold for two shillings, answers the purpose of no parties, neither the scientific nor the unlearned; and its many absurdities and inconsistencies have called. down the ridicule of intelligent men. There should be two kinds of Synopsis: one a mere guide book, of a nature to satisfy the necessary enquiries of casual visitors; and another, of an exclusively scientific nature for students,-persons who would make the collections available for scientific education. The latter might be sold in parts.

"13. Resolved that it is expedient that every exertion should be made to complete, within the shortest time consistent with the due execution of the work, full and accurate Catalogues of all the Collections in the Museum, with a view to print and publish such portions of them as would hold out expectations of even a partial sale."

Full and accurate catalogues are certainly desirable, but we for our part should have wished the words systematically arranged, to have preceded catalogues. The necessity of classed catalogues both in the library and in the scientific departments, is so severely felt by every person who resorts to the Museum for purposes of study and research that we are sure that parliament could not confer a greater benefit on the literary public than by making it compulsory, when making the next year's grant, that classed catalogues should be forthwith begun and completed within a stipulated time. There is, so far as we know from enquiry, no properly classed catalogue of the collections. With respect to the manuscripts, each collection has its own catalogue without classification (unless we except the im

perfect classification of the Harley MSS.), and readers have the trouble and vexation of looking through many volumes before they can find the required document. Why is there not a general index to the manuscripts? But even a general index would be of little service unless it was classed. It is a general classed index of the MSS. that is wanted. And this directs our attention to the printed books, which even more than the manuscripts require a classed catalogue; inasmuch as all the valuable literature of our own country, dating so late as the middle of the sixteenth century, may be found in types. We hesitate not to say that nine-tenths of the present readers use almost exclusively the printed books of the library. It is to be hoped that many years will not have elapsed ere the catalogue that was so auspiciously begun shall have been re-commenced and completed. In the mean time we should not forget that two separate offers have been made by individual publishers to complete the work from which the whole body of trustees shrunk on the ground of

expense.

"14. Resolved That it be recommended to the Trustees that every new accession to the Museum be forthwith registered in detail, by the officer at the head of the department, in a book to be kept for that purpose,—and that each head of a department do make an annual report to the Trustees of the accessions within the year, vouched by the signature of the principal librarian, of desiderata, and of the state and condition of his own department."

This is quite insufficient. It is due to the public that an advertisement should be made in a regular manner in the most public papers of the dates of such additions, in order that the public shall know how soon the books or collections so received may be reasonably expected to be open to the general visitors of the Museum. Legislature is the only body besides, which ought to be respon

sible for the Museum.

The

"15. Resolved That it be recommended to the Trustees to take into consideration the best means of giving to the Public a facility of obtaining Casts from the Statues, Bronzes, and Coins, under competent superintendence, and at as low a price as possible."

Every person connected with the arts, who is acquainted with the antiquarian department of the Museum, is well aware that sufficient provision has not been made for artists, particularly designers, carvers, chasers, and others engaged in the practical and mechanical departments of the arts. This recommendation demands immediate attention.

"16. Resolved That the Committee are well aware that many of the alterations, which they have suggested, cannot be carried into effect, except by increased liberality on the part of Parliament, both with respect to the

Establishment of the Museum, and also to a much greater extent, for the augmentation of the Collections in the different Departments; but they confidently rely on the readiness of the Representatives of the People to make full and ample provision for the improvement of an Establishment which already enjoys a high reputation in the world of science, and is an object of daily increasing interest to the people of this country."

The parliamentary grant has been increased to the amount of 4000Z., and certainly, notwithstanding Mr. Hume, there is no disposition in the representatives of the people' to deprive the Museum of its just demands, so long as it holds the station to which it should aspire in the world of science.

"17. Resolved That the Committee, in the alterations which they have suggested, do not mean to convey a charge against the Trustees, or against the officers of the Museum, whose talents, good conduct, and general and scientific acquirements are universally admitted; and they are aware that, where imperfections exist in the Collections, those imperfections are mainly attributable to the very inadequate space hitherto available for their exhibition, and to the limited pecuniary means at the disposal of the Trustees; and they are of opinion that the present state of the British Museum, compared with the increasing interest taken in it by all classes of the people, justifies them in the recommendations contained in the above Resolutions."

From a resolution so negatively complimentary to the present management, we ought not to dissent in deference to the honourable members of the committee; but, at the same time, we hope that such compliments will induce the powers that be' to comply the more easily with the recommendations of that committee. We have seen the collections of fossil-zoology and botany, and of zoology generally, as placed in the new buildings, and certainly no very high compliments are due to Messrs. Children and Gray, for the arrangement of the various specimens. (See Dr. Grant and Messrs. South and Vigours, in evidence.) "18. Resolved That the Committee, having taken into consideration, the Petition presented to the House by Mr. Charles Tilt, and referred to the Committee, which Petition prayed for public assistance in the preparation of a work from the Medals in the British Museum, and having taken Evidence on the said subject, consider that in no way can they more satisfactorily discharge the duty confided to them by the reference in question than by simply laying before the House the Minutes of Evidence so taken, and ordering the Petition of Mr. Charles Tilt to be placed as an Appendix to that Evidence, and to these Resolutions."

The relief process of M. Colas of Paris, which Mr. Charles Tilt has proposed by petition to apply to the copying of the medals in the British Museum, is most beautiful, and should be immediately adopted. Nothing but the jealous interference of some of the family trustees can stand in the way of so reasonable a proposition.

We have thus given to our readers, accompanied with a few passing remarks, the resolutions of the select committee of enquiry, which