Our Museums And Art Galleries.

OUR MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES .

Questions connected with the local habitation of the national collections of art-works , and specimens pertaining to different branches of science , have been long kept undecided : six months at least must elapse before they can be revived in Parliament ; but so much entanglement

has accrued , that the time is not too much for the consideration due , and which even yet they have not received . Hitherto the questions have been discussed with an appreciation of the interests bound up witli them , that has been second in importance to the indulgence of

personal and political animosities ; and it has been impossible to recognise in the Legislature any definite aim , or the assertion of an accepted principle . Each Government , indeed , has made attempts to provide for the location of a portion of the collections ; but it has usuallhad to "bow "

y to a "decision of Parliament , " made in direct contradiction to a decision registered some short time previously . All that can be said in defeuce of the unsatisfactory position is that it may be in part due to the manner in which we became possessed ofthe first instalments of the collections .

It has not been till quite recently that the importance , in a national point of view , of the several kinds of works and specimens , arranged in galleries or museums , has been felt ; and now the inferiority of our appliances for study and progress is most evinced by a comparison of those which we

maintain in the Museum of Patents—which is devoted to the very matters that there has not been much difficulty in showing are intimately connected with the national welfare—with the appliances as they are in that noble institution the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers , held up indeed

as a model during as many years as we can recollect . The separate institutions of the British Museum , the Jermyn-street Museum and School of Mines , the National Gallery , and the South Kensington Museum and Schools—the last named museum embracing a great variety of

objects—neither include the whole domain of the arts and sciences , nor exist as accordant with any classification . Geological specimens are to be found in two places ; and works of fine art are in several . Prints and some paintings are in the British Museum . One institution , containing

objects that , if destroyed , would be irreplaceable , is open on certain evenings -. other institutions are not so open , reason given being the impossibility of completely guarding against fire . All the institutions are closed on Sundays ; whilst galleries out of London , as at Hampton Court , and even

the Painted Hall , Greenwich , are open . For the National Gallery , or the works of the old mastersto be appreciated chiefly by artists and connoisseurs , and liable to be injured by dust or the consequent cleansing—a central locality is deemed important : for the South Kensington collections , interesting to all persons , and for the schools

offering education to students , many of whom must be resident in Islington and . the eastern part of London , a similar locality is not thought essential . Connnected with some of these circumstances are questions which we do not UOAV attempt to solve ; but Ave mention the facts

altogether as showing the absence of system in the conception and maintenance of the institutions that prevails . What should be taken as the value of public opinion on any question , after the recent melancholy exhibition in the electionsor what the

, Avisdom of a body of legislators so chosen , we hardly dare to enquire ; but now that it is to be hoped there is a cessation of that throwing of eggs , soot , and stones , which appears to be considered part of the cherished liberty of the British subject , we trust attention may be given to some

of those questions that concern the welfare of the nation , and for the calm discusssion of which Parliament is usually found unprepared . It is merely evident to us , that the whole of the Avorking class is not incapable of dispassionately considering subjects relating to the interests of

the community ; and there has lately been proof of this iu the discussions that have taken place at Exeter Hall , promoted by the Working Men ' s Club and Institute Union , and referred to by us on several occasions .

The matter of one of these discussions pertains immediately to the present subject . In a recent number we gave a condensed report of the address wherewith the discussion was opened , but only alluded to the speeches which followed . It Avas impossible to listen to those speeches Avithout

feeling the great value of such discussions , for the solution of any difficulty wherein the Government may be placed , animated by the desire to do that which is right , but checked by an unreasoning opposition . All that has been done or initiated by Mr . CoAvpersince he came into officemay

, , not meet with approval ; but we must give praise to the First Commissioner of Her Majesty ' s Works , for his intention to open the proceedings to which Ave have alluded , and at which , by accident , lie could not be present . Mr . Layard was a very efficient substitute ; and Ave should have no

hesitation in saying , —had not he himself said as much , —that he went away from the discussion benefited by , as well as gratified at , the direction it took . The questions submitted by Mr . Laylard , it was hoAvever plain , would have served ' several eveningsand might Avith advantage have

, been placed before a larger meeting than could be got together on the occasion . We Avould endeavour to remedy the defect by recalling them to our reader's attention ; and Ave hope that the result will be some assistance in the questions , Avhich we must iu due course revert to . We are

not at present disposed to register conclusions on some of them , or at least on one which has been placed in the front , Ave mean the Sunday opening