The Management of the British Museum

Abstract

I BEG to protest against the remarks upon the management of the British Museum contained in your article of November 6. The general question whether a public institution of the sort is best governed by a public official or by a body of Trustees, may very likely admit of much discussion, but the decision should not be prejudiced by totally ignoring the noble work which has been and is being done by the Museum. No scientific man surely can be ignorant that the British Museum exists not so much for the momentary amusement of gaping crowds of country people, who do not understand a single object on which they gaze, as for the promotion of scientific discovery, and the advancement of literary and historical inquiry. We are told about the indifference of the Museum Trustees to the best interests of science, but we are not reminded frequently enough that it is almost impossible to carry out any scientific or literary inquiry in a complete manner, without resorting to the great national museum. There are doubtless many things which the Trustees have not done, but is it a slight matter that they have given us, on the whole, by far the most extensive and complete body of collections anywhere brought together in the world? The library and reading-room alone are enough to do honour to their management, and it is almost impossible to fathom the degree in which this library assists every kind of inquiry. When we are least aware, we are often enjoying the fruits of investigation in that library; the late Prof. Boole, for instance, spent the last few months of his life in the Museum, pursuing an exhaustive inquiry into previous writings on the subject of Differential Equations.