§ MR. DANIEL GRANTasked the honourable Member for Cumberland, as one of the Trustees of the National Gallery, Whether any steps have been taken so as to light the Gallery as to enable it to remain open to the public until ten o'clock at night every week-day throughout the year, in accordance with the requisition very numerously signed by Members of this House, and forwarded to the Trustees at the Session before last?
§ MR. GEORGE HOWARD,in reply, said, that the Trustees had not as yet taken any steps to meet his hon. Friend's demand. They were, however, anxiously considering the matter, and had made inquiries as to the safety and efficiency of electric lighting, and they were informed that, in both respects, improvements were 1158 likely to be made. They had, therefore, thought it advisable, as far as yet, not to take any steps on the matter; and he might say that they were anxious to avail themselves of any suggestions on the subject, so far as they did not involve any risk of injury to the pictures. They had observed what had been done in lighting the Museum at South Kensington. The last time he went there he found that the electric light had suddenly gone out in the Library. Any unfortunate confusion that might have resulted was prevented at South Kensington by the use of gas lamps; but that was a resource not open to the Trustees at the National Gallery. Gas would be very damaging to the pictures. Though the glazing of the pictures proceeded very steadily, it would be impossible to give a wholesale order for glazing, for the pictures required careful cleaning before they were glazed. If the Gallery was opened at night, it was feared, from the neighbourhood in which it was situated, that the rooms would be crowded by persons who did not go there for study. The case of South Kensington was not analagous, because that place was not near Leicester Square.