102 PROCEEDINGS AT ^tEETINGS OF

Secretary of State in that cmerpjency, praying tlie consideration of the Government to the evils which must attend the proi~.osctl measure."* At a subsequent time, at the instance of Mr. Alarldand, 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 conse- crated sites had been averted, and that the proposed Bill had ultimately been rejected by Parliament. Another subject of material moment in reijard to national monuments had been urijently brought under the consideration of the Institute, at their closing meeting of the last session." It will be remcmbcrod 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 judg- ment, Professor Donaldson, and that, on his invitation, many leading members of the Institute had accompanied him in a visit of detailed inspec- tion. The general impression had been at the time, that any •' Restora- tions " of such memorials were to be deprecated, and must necessarily involve the destructiun of their value and authenticity as examples of art. The apprehensions of many anti([uarics were aroused by the ap])earance, amongst the estimates submitted tu Parliament, of a large sum which it was proposed to expend in the repairs of the royal monuments. The feeling of the members asseinl)lcd 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 accord- ingly 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 lleport 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 apjiropriated to that jiurjiose at the British Museum.' It was with deep regret and mortification that they felt bound now to advert to the failure of all exoriions made with the view of impressing upon the Trustees, the importance of making acqui- sition of the " Faussctt Collections," comprising a richer and more instruc- tive 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 tho desire for its j)erinanent j)reservation in tho National Depository, and tho very moderate estimate of HGol. had been named as a valuation. Tho Tru-^tees, however, heedless of the appeals addressed by tho Institute, as also by the Society of Anti(piaries, and turning a tleaf car to all expres.sions of individual opinion of the value of these antiquities for public instruction, even from tlios(! whose jjraetical knowh-dge and earnest devotion to tlie study of national anti(|uities might have entitled tlicni to consi<leration, ultimately rejccteil the proir(Te<l ae(piisitioii. Negotiations, the CoMiniittco • S«M- pp. 177, I'l^J, in tliirt voluinc. Cliiiln-HtiT Meeting, Anliaol. Jniiriiiil, '■' .S<f p. "JOl, in tlim voliinie. 'iil. x., p. '.rll. ' Ill-port of tli<! Coiiunilti'e iit the