growing popularity. The total of the Sunday is to that of the weekday visitors very nearly as three to one, and the largest number which passed through the gate on a single Sunday (June 20th) was 9,810. How gratifying it is to know that the conduct of these large numbers of people has been most satisfactory, and, with one exception, no injury has resulted from the perfect freedom with which all who visit the gardens are allowed to circulate throughout all parts, including the greenhouses.

In the Metropolitan School of Art the number of students was 503. The head master's report for last year states that the teachers have discovered "that students very generally are unable to continue at their studies as long as in past years, or for periods sufficiently long to enable them to pass through a full course of instruction with a view to a more or less complete education in art, and it is to be regretted that many possessing special aptitude for art pursuits are, owing to ill-health, home-requirements, and the distractions of a great city, prevented from attending the school with regularity, or during the full number of hours that it is open for study. I beg to remark that a system by which small weekly allowances could be made to some of the more advanced students of the school, on condition of regular and full attendance, and the following of a prescribed course of study, might probably be attended with satisfactory results."

This is certainly a novel suggestion and would be quite a new departure in art instruction to poor students. Usually the most promising students are those who are too poor to give themselves wholly up to study, and were such a plan as this in operation it might, if very judiciously exercised, be the means of rearing some students to produce work far beyond the range of mediocrity.

With the present grants, however, it will be at once said by the authorities that this is impracticable. There are any number of fat pensions for Government officials, who are supposed to work from eleven to four o'clock, and during this limited number of hours perform as much work as would be comfortably done by a business man of good despatch in about an hour. But when it comes to giving a lift to honest effort on the part of poor students in the Art schools, it is not likely that officialism will be quick to take up the suggestion. In saying this reference is made to the headquarters and not to the teachers in Dublin from whom the suggestion comes.

be

Ireland is not particularly rich in Museums. The Royal Dublin Society, founded in 1749, had for years the chief Museum in Dublin. The Royal Irish Academy has a Museum specially rich in Irish antiquities. For educational purposes the Museum of Trinity College, the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, and one at Armagh, may mentioned. Belfast hopes to have its Free Library open to the public this year, and when in full operation it may, perhaps, prepare the way for a Museum also supported out of the rates. It is difficult to understand the lukewarmness in the Belfast Town Council respecting the Library building. Several years have been absorbed in its erection.

EDINBURGH.

The Industrial Museum of Scotland had its origin in 1854. By a good deal of pressure brought to bear upon Parliament at the time, the House of Commons granted £7,000 for the purchase of a site upon which the Museum should be built, and a further sum was voted for expenditure in the acquisition of specimens

and the salaries of the officials. Among the reports sent is the one for 1858, a little pamphlet of fifteen pages. From this it appears that the Natural History Museum of Edinburgh has been in existence since the year 1812, when it was established in connection with the University, receiving at the same time for its maintenance a Government grant of £100 a year. In 1819 Mr. Bullock's Museum and the very extensive collection belonging to M. Dufresne, of Paris, were for sale, and £3,000 was voted by the Senatus Academicus from the funds of the College for the purchase of a selection from Bullock's Museum and of the entire of the collection belonging to M. Dufresne. From the manuscript catalogue which accompanied M. Dufresne's collection it appears that this collection contained 1,600 birds, 2,600 shells, 12,000 insects, 600 eggs of birds, 200 fossils, with a considerable number of radiata and a few mammals.

In 1820 the Museum was opened to the public at an admission charge of two shillings and sixpence, which was subsequently reduced to one shilling, and in 1831 the Government grant was increased to £200 a year, the sum at which it has since remained. In 1855, by a vote of the Town Council, the Museum was handed over to the Department of Science and Art, then under the Board of Trade; and in 1857 the Department of Science and Art, having been transferred from the Board of Trade to the Privy Council Committee on Education, the Museum passed under the control of the last-mentioned body.

The last report, issued in February, 1888, records that the interest taken by the public in the Museum as indicated by the number of visitors has been fully maintained. The number of visitors during the year was 316,704, and of these during the year 9,359 were students who entered on the free days. As a guide to

the work of the Museum the following figures are very instructive:

The list of donations to the Museum of Science and Art, and to the Natural History Department, covers a considerable space. Colonel Sir Murdoch Smith is the Director. The list of objects acquired during 1886 is particularly interesting, and comprises a multiplicity of curios and specimens for the Industrial Section.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCOTCH MUSEUMS.

HE cast of the Scotch mind is essentially philosophic and scientific,and the hard matterof-fact sciences like geology and kindred subjects especially have received an impetus from the attention which Scotchmen have devoted to these questions. There are probably among the sons of Scotia more collections of geological, mineralogical, and ethnological specimens than would be found among a corresponding number of any other nationality. This is highly creditable to them, and has tended to produce a type of working naturalist such as would be an invaluable acquisition in any large Museum. Of this type of man was the late Thomas Edward, the Banff naturalist, who was nearly starved till Dr. Smiles wrote his life. He henceforth became "passing rich on fifty pounds a year "-for he was put on the Civil List, and richly he deserved it. He was an old correspondent of mine. If rich men would but distribute their abundant coin as zealously as rich intellectual men do their mental accumulations there would be less misery in the world. Dean Swift said of the mere money-grubbers that "you could see what the Almighty thought about money by the people He gave it to.' Science is engaged in redistributing knowledge. Nowadays it is no man's monopoly-three centuries ago it was the rich man's perquisite. Science is the most democratic element in modern society. These remarks