Secretary of State in that emergency, praying the consideration of the Government to the evils which must attend the proposed measure.[1] At a subsequent time, at the instance of Mr. Markland, the Bishop of London had courteously received a deputation from the Society, and had given full consideration to the arguments urgently advanced by that gentleman and the influential members of the Institute accompanying him. The Committee rejoiced that the apprehended evils in the profanation of so many consecrated sites had been averted, and that the proposed Bill had ultimately been rejected by Parliament.
Another subject of material moment in regard to national monuments had been urgently brought under the consideration of the Institute, at their closing meeting of the last session.[2] It will be remembered that, in 1853, attention was drawn to the decayed and neglected tombs of the royal race in Westminster Abbey, by a gentleman of highly cultivated taste and judgment, Professor Donaldson, and that, on his invitation, many leading members of the Institute had accompanied him in a visit of detailed inspection. The general impression had been at the time, that any "Restorations" of such memorials were to be deprecated, and must necessarily involve the destruction of their value and authenticity as examples of art. The apprehensions of many antiquaries were aroused by the appearance, amongst the estimates submitted to Parliament, of a large sum which it was proposed to expend in the repairs of the royal monuments. The feeling of the members assembled at the meeting was strongly in concurrence with that of the Central Committee, and it was unanimously determined that such measures should be taken speedily as might, if possible, avert the projected renovation of those venerable memorials. A memorial was accordingly addressed to the First Commissioner of Public Works, and it is hoped that the conservation of the tombs at Westminster may be found fully compatible with the preservation of that authentic evidence and originality which renders them most valuable to the historian and the antiquary.
The Committee had referred, in their report of the previous year, to the lively interest and satisfaction with which they viewed the growth of a series of national antiquities in the rooms at length appropriated to that purpose at the British Museum.[3] It was with deep regret and mortification that they felt bound now to advert to the failure of all exertions made with the view of impressing upon the Trustees, the importance of making acquisition of the "Faussett Collections," comprising a richer and more instructive assemblage of Roman and Anglo-Saxon antiquities, than might be ever attainable from other sources. The family of the late possessor of this valuable collection had shown the utmost liberality, impressed with the desire for its permanent preservation in the National Depository, and the very moderate estimate of 665l. had been named as a valuation. The Trustees, however, heedless of the appeals addressed by the Institute, as also by the Society of Antiquaries, and turning a deaf ear to all expressions of individual opinion of the value of these antiquities for public instruction, even from those whose practical knowledge and earnest devotion to the study of national antiquities might have entitled them to consideration, ultimately rejected the proffered acquisition. Negotiations, the Committee
