BRITISH MUSEUM (No. 2) BILL. (Hansard, 14 July 1924)

§ LORD MUIR MACKENZIE

My Lords, this Bill is so short and, I think, so plainly drafted, that no detailed explanation or epexegesis is required, and I propose to read the clause to the House:— 1.—(i) The Trustees of the British Museum shall have power at their discretion, 521 and under such regulations as they may think fit from time to time to prescribe, to lend, for public exhibition in any gallery or museum under the control of a public authority or university in Great Britain, any duplicates of printed books, prints, medals, coins or of other objects comprised in the collections of the Museum, or any object, not being a duplicate, which in their opinion can be temporarily removed from the Museum without injury to the interests of students or of the public visiting the exhibition galleries of the Museum. (ii) Before making any such loan the Trustees shall be satisfied that due provision is made for the safety and insurance of the specimens lent and for payment of all expenses in connection with the removal and return of the said specimens or otherwise in connection with such loan. This Bill passed the House of Commons with general assent. It was introduced by the Conservative Attorney-General, it was backed by the Minister of Education of the late Liberal Government, and it had the consent of the Government itself and also of the Speaker, who is himself one of the Trustees. I have reason to believe that the Bill is also approved by those Trustees who sit in this House. I do not know whether the most rev. Primate or the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack will say anything upon that subject, but, so far as I know, there is no difficulty, or objection to the Bill, except from one person. I noticed on Saturday that there was a letter in The Times on the subject of the British Museum Bill, but I think that the writer must have got hold of some other Bill, because every one of his criticisms is expressly covered by the Bill as it stands. I ask your Lordships to give the Bill a Second Reading.

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

My Lords, there are many of your Lordships who are Trustees of the British Museum. I think there are ten or twelve who are Trustees, and seven, I think, are members of the Standing Committee. Therefore I stand in the presence of several who are able to speak with knowledge, I will not say equal to mine in length, for my experience as a Trustee extends now over forty-one years, and I have been pretty regular in my attendance at the Museum during the whole of that period. I have a right therefore to say something about it, but I do not want to claim to be 522 speaking on behalf of the Trustees, further than this, that the matter was before a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Trustees and then before the Trustees as a whole, and it has undoubtedly our general support.

The reason why I rise is this. It is of supreme importance that this Bill should not be allowed to raise expectations on the part of the public which would prove to be unrealised in fact, with the result that disappointment might ensue. So far, at least, as I am able to speak from any knowledge of the Museum and its management, the important part of the Bill will be the Regulations which the Trustees are empowered to make, and, indeed, are required to make, as to the conditions under which alone they will allow articles to be taken outside the Museum on loan. I regard it as a virtuous act, an act of self-sacrifice, on the part of the Trustees, to accept this Bill at all, because at present when the applications, not infrequent, are made for the loan of objects in the Museum's custody, we are able to answer that we have no power to lend them, and, with that perfectly simple answer, no difficulty arises. We now have the duty thrown upon us to make Regulations, under which we are to have power to make the kind of loans that may be asked for. I venture to say, though I am afraid the utterance may be a disappointing one to some outside, that I believe the Regulations that we shall make will be of a very restrictive kind, and that we shall be extremely cautious as to what we render possible by our Regulations, as regards the scattering of objects which are in the custody of the Museum authorities.

There are, of course, certain objects, say, some Egyptian antiquities and certain things of that kind, of which we have a very large number of practically identical examples, and there I hope that other museums may profit by loans. But, if it be supposed that this measure, because it gives us the power, will make it probable that there will be scattered up and down England all kinds of articles now to be found in the British Museum alone, and that this will be done in a way to meet the sort of demand which certain museums are sure to make, I desire now to issue a word of warning. I believe—at all events, I hope—that the 523 Trustees will be exceedingly careful how they act. Your Lordships will see that we are empowered not only to lend duplicates—and that must be interpreted with very great strictness—but also other objects which can be lent without detriment to the interests either of students or of the public. Now, half the interest of the student who comes to the British Museum to examine old books, or mediæval books, or manuscripts, or very many other articles of beauty and of art, is in comparison. It is in order to look at the successive editions of a particular book so as to see what were the variations—to an amateur, looking absolutely trifling between one article and another, but to an expert making all the difference —that the student comes. That is the kind of thing which we have, with the greatest care, to safeguard in the interests of students.

I am anxious to make it clear from the outset that, so far, at least, as some of the Trustees are concerned, we shall do our best, while serving the interests of the public in the way the Bill suggests, to safeguard also the interests of students, who come from all parts of the world to the Museum, knowing for certain that they will find there, not only a particular article of which they are in search, but other corresponding articles, with which they, as students, desire to compare it. That I believe to be true, though in the Natural History Department of the Museum the details are less under my eye than they are in other Departments. But undoubtedly with regard to antiquities, literary and artistic, we shall, I hope, be exceedingly careful in the Regulations we make, and, though I hope and believe that we shall be able, to lend for exhibition, to many local museums, articles which they could not otherwise obtain, it must not he supposed that there will suddenly be a perfect readiness on the part of the Trustees to lend anything that is asked for. The refusal may, in the public eye, seem to be unnecessary, though we know that in the eyes of students a very large number of things which the public might think could easily be lent must be in the Museum, if the Museum is to do its work.

The popular idea that the visits of the public to the Museum are its sole purpose is, of course, a complete fallacy. I do not wish to estimate the relative 524 importance of what is done for the public visiting the Museum, and what is done for the care and satisfaction of students, who come as scientific men to look into things at first hand. I am not prepared to say that that second purpose of the Museum is in any sense inferior to the first, and it is with due care to safeguard the interests of those students to the uttermost that I hope we shall now draw up the Regulations which we are bidden to draw up. For these reasons, while gladly supporting the Bill, I want to utter that word of warning at the outset as to the way in which we shall be able to give effect to it.