prerogative is unfettered. On the other hand, the last three coronations have given perhaps an indication, if they have not constituted precedents, of the principles likely to govern the distribution of honours. The only feature, however, that can be safely anticipated is the further bestowal on peers of Scotland and Ireland of peerage dignities of the United Kingdom. This has become a settled policy, although in the case of Ireland the excessive proportions of its peerage are due to the lavish bestowal in the past of what was deemed an inferior dignity on Englishmen as well as on natives. The result has been that, as has been shown by the learned author of "The Complete Peerage," although, up to the time of the late Queen's Jubilee, seventy-eight peers of Ireland had received since the Union peerages of the United Kingdom, there were still nearly ninety without seats in the House. In view of this further absorption of Scotch and Irish peers, one may perhaps venture, with all deference, to suggest that every care should be taken to ascertain, in the case of those selected, that their right to the titles they bear has been proved before the House of Lords; for it is still possible, in both countries, to obtain recognition of a title without so proving one's right thereto.1

J. HORACE ROUND.

1 See "Studies in Peerage and Family History," pp. 13, 99.

THE SCANDAL OF THE MUSEO

Ν'

DI VILLA GIULIA'

EVER, perhaps, since the forgeries of Mr. Shapira, has a greater archæological fraud been perpetrated than that for which the recent Administration of Public Instruction in Italy has been responsible in the creation and publication of the collection of the Villa Giulia at Rome. Seldom have false accounts been published and original documents suppressed with greater levity. In no country but Italy would it have been possible for a small band of public officials to dispose of the whole machinery of Government for its own private purposes, to seize the honours due to excavators, to garble their reports, to exhibit their finds as its own, to hush rumours of its own malversations, to throw dust in the eyes of students, suppress their inquiries and investigations, present false material for their studies, while denying them all verification and proof of this material, and boldly to claim this mystification as a laudable and suitable achievement of Public

1 (1) Monumenti Antichi. Pubblicati per cura della Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Vol. iv., with atlas, 1894. (2) Reale Tribunale Civile di Roma. Prima Sezione, Principe del Drago contro Ministero della Pubblica Instruzione, Allegati, Roma. Casa Editrice Italiana, 1899. (3) Estratto dal Supplemento al Bolletino Ufficiale, il 10. Giugno, 1899. Inchiesta sul Museo di Villa Giulia. Relazione. Ludovico Cecchini, 1899. (4) Fausto Benedetti. Gli Scavi di Narce ed il Museo di Villa Giulia. London. David Nutt, 1900. (5) Le Rivelazione di Fausto Benedetti sopra il Museo di Villa Giulia e la stampa estera. Scuola Tipografica Tata Giovanni, 1901.

Rome.

Instruction. And nowhere else would the partial disclosure of these profane proceedings have received more decent and courteous sepulture at the hands of men of science.

The Museo di Villa Giulia is perhaps not as much visited It lies outside the gates, about half-way between the Piazza del Popolo and the Ponte Molle. It contains no sculptures. It purports to be scientific. Its appeal lies to archæologists. Those who find their way there discover a charming villa, a fine sarcophagus of terra-cotta with recumbent figures (much like a second example in the British Museum), the restoration of a Faliscan temple, and, in the upper story, a large collection of vases, wooden coffins, ornaments, odds and ends, and a few beautiful, but much restored terra-cottas. The tourist retreats with the profound conviction that all these things will interest others. He errs, however.

as the other museums of Rome.

Among all there are but few of intrinsic importance. There is, indeed, a very fine case of Greek vases in the central hall; and there are a few more scattered here and there. The museum can boast of the famous astragalos, probably by Syriscus; a fine dog's head, a psykter with centaurs, and some other treasures. The Faliscan vases have a character of their own, loose indeed in style, but retaining something of Greek grace; and the evidence that they were often produced in almost exact duplicate is interesting. But in general the collection is poor, consisting of vases that could not find their rightful place in a museum except on some plea extraneous to artistic merit.

The common superstition that an archæologist delights in anything that is old hits only a part of the truth. He will delight in anything old that will help him to appreciate what is important in ancient art, literature, or history-anything that will establish a date, give the solution of a problem, or, if possible, complete the disiecta membra of a ruined past. But he no longer, like Vergil's farmer, merely wonders at bones dug up from ancient sepulchres. He tries to put them together.

The museum, in fact, rested its claim on quite other grounds No. 17. VI. 2.-FEB. 1902

than that of the artistic quality of its exhibits. It suppliedor, till lately, was supposed to supply—a want very vividly felt by students.

The Government, it is well known, reserves all excavations for Italians. It is almost a crime to see any object come out of the ground. Your presence gives rise to fearful suspicions. Doubtless you are meaning to spirit away the “national patrimony," or secure for yourself the glory of its discovery. Any native who chooses to speculate on a capital of four or five hundred francs, any yokel or imbroglione is more welcome than you.

We doff our hats and respect the wise patriotism of a nation, which, as we have been recently assured by Professor Pigorini, is "amply competent to dig up and bring into full light the relics of its past." The history of the Museo di Villa Giulia, on which the professor is commenting, proves precisely the contrary; but foreigners must evidently be content with what they can get, and, failing excavations, they were glad to see, as they supposed, the results of excavations exhibited in scientific order in a museum.

The plan of this museum as announced was perfect. You were to find the contents of each tomb arranged together. A descriptive volume was to tell you in what sort of a tomb they were found, an Atlas was to give you designs of the tombs and plans of the cemetery. From this you were to draw your own conclusions.

Perhaps the greater archæologists, who can carry the Annali and the Notizie degli Scavi in their heads, would not have rejoiced in such a collection so perfectly as the man who only remembers what he sees. But all would have found it delightful to be able to confute a controversialist by telling him that the kinds of art he is so anxious to hold apart are at least contemporary, since they are represented by objects found in one tomb. The flash of light on a single moment of the past

1 Non abbiamo bisogno dell' opera di alcuno, per ricercare e mettere in piena luce quanto rimane sepolto del nostro passato.-Inchiesta, p. 1142.

which is given by the heavy fall of the stone door of a sepulchral chamber is no less impressive to the student than to the traveller in search of emotions. One or two objects, or an inscription, decide the question. Sixth century, end of fifth century, you say, and all the things found must fall into line. Some shard reveals to you that at that date an early style survived in decrepitude, or that a new style was already begun. All the learned arguments of Professor Dry-as-dust must collapse before the proof of fact, and, what is perhaps best, you do not need to read the professor's lucubrations. But a tomb, especially if it is filled with mud, and a little lake on top, may cost something in time and trousers to excavate, and may contain nothing to give you a clue. Not nine out of ten tombs, but perhaps thirty-nine out of forty, are useless. What a blessing to have the contents of the best tombs of a necropolis arranged in order, with a handbook full of notes on the general character of the rest, not worth transportation! This the Museo di Villa Giulia was supposed by the archæologist to furnish. But he erred.

True, a very rich necropolis, one which should have exercised the special watchfulness of the "defenders of the national patrimony," had furnished the materials for the museum. For a part of the finds accurate notes had been handed in. But the notes had perished, when the museum chose to destroy the whole (!) of its archives, and the contents of the tombs, like the babies in "Pinafore," had been mixed up. All certainly had vanished. It was thought that some of the finds themselves had likewise vanished after being placed on the shelves of the museum. This, it seems, was not true. They had vanished long before, because the museum had refused to buy them.1 In extenuation it must be said that some of the finds so

refused were important and valuable. The museum was evidently bent on maintaining its character-poor but honest.

Professor Helbig, however, had heard ugly rumours, and disallowed the second adjective. He would not accord scientific 1 Fausto Benedetti. Gli Scavi, p. 13.