A letter to the Rt. Hon. Thomas Spring Rice, M.P. Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer ... containing a plan for the better management of the British Museum / [John Millard].

  • Millard, John
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Rt. Hon. Thomas Spring Rice, M.P. Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer ... containing a plan for the better management of the British Museum / [John Millard]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/28 (page 5)
    not in any ot‘ these eauscs is*‘its inferiority to other museums to be sought for ; but in the existing con¬ stitution of the establishment, composed, as it is, rather of an aristocracy of rank and wealth, than, as it ought to be, of an aristocracy of science and intellect. Although the act of incorporation of the Museum (26 Geo. II) states that “ all arts and sciences have a connexion with each other, and discoveries in natural philosophy, and other branches of speculative know¬ ledge, for the advancement and improvement whereof the said Museum or collection was intended, do and may, in many instances, give help and success to the most useful experiments and inventions,’’' it does not appear tliat the real objects of the Museum have ever been |)roperly understood by those appointed to conduct it. in the year 1761, only two years after the opening of the establishment, a conijdaint was made as to the limited extent of the objects which it embraced,—an evil v/hich still exists in full force, and which, it is to be hoped, will now be remedied. Mr. Dodsley, in his Preface to the “ Contents of the British Museum,” at that period, says, It were to be wished, that thep/(m of it were enlarged, that the buildings were more exten¬ sive, and that a fund were established sufficient to answer the purpose of encouraging ingenious men in every useful art, in every science', and I can know of nothing that can be done that will tend more to the honour of our country than to have such a large fund appropriated for the encouragement of ingenuity and learning. When we read over the list of the names that compose the Royal Society, the Trustees of this Museum [then all men of high attainments] and that numerous train of Britons who wish so much to en-