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st Oxford and the Fitsmilliarn Museum at Carnbridgo. Under
the fifth class must also be placed tho minor teaching Museum
already formed at Harrow, Clifton, and some other public
schools, rand the indefinitely numerous small collections, whi&
will, I hope, be eventually found, as already explained, in all
schools.
Of the sisth class of privato Museums it is not necessary
to say much. They are usually formed for spocial scientific
pnrposes, and often become by bequest or purchoso tho foundntion
of the corresponding branches of the national collect~iou.
SO far as I am awaro no complete and spstemat.ic information
is anywhere to bo found as to tho numbcr, kind,
purposes, and regulations of the local Museums of tho United
Kingdom. Tlloso which were formed under tho Museurn Act
(8th and 9th Vict. cap. 43) or under the Free Libraries Act.q,
may be found enumerated in tho statistical tables mentioned
in my previous article on Free Libraries. But. thcre are
undoubtedly great numbers of Rluseums owned by local
learned societies, by royal institutions, or even by privato
pcrsons which are more or less open to the public.
But when the Free Library and Museum Act,s come fully
into operation it is to be hoped that every county town, and
every town of, say, 20,000 inhabitants and upwards, will have its
public Museum in addition to, but in no case in place of, its public
library. There ought to be a great many more libraries than
Museums, and for pretty obvious reasons it would be better to
concentrate t,he Museums than divide them up into 8 great
number,which cannot maintain proper curators. Probably about
onehundred efficiently maintained public Museums would suffice
for the whole of England, and other local collections might
often be usefully absorbed into the public Museums when
established. It is very desirable, however, that in forming such
county Museums, definite ideas should be entertained BB to tho
purposes of the local collection and of the proper means to
c8q out such purposes.
Everybody knows what a heterogeneous and absurd jumble
8 local Museum too often is in the present day. Any awkward
article which e person of the neighbowhood wanted to get