We regret to see that in the debates in Supply
upon the grants to the British Museum and National Gallery, no very great hope was held out that either institution would be in future opened at night. In the case of the British Museum, there is in reality no excuse for the public being excluded from visiting the galleries after dark, for the Trustees declare they have no objection to, and, indeed, encourage, the scheme, provided that the Treasury will make the necessary extra grant of about 23,000 a year. if people understood to the full how easily the taste for beautiful things grows among the working classes, and how much the opening of the Museum at the only time when they can make use of it would be appre- ciated, the Treasury would never be allowed to refuse the necessary funds. If it can be done in no other way, the amount of money spent in purchases should be reduced. National collections are meant to be seen and enjoyed, not to be mere hoards of rarities. In the case of the National Gallery, the Govern- ment has a better excuse for doing nothing, since the Trustees there are against evening opening, believing that the pictures would suffer even from electric light.
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