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EXHIBITION OF 1851.

(a) The Mineral Kingdom.

MinorafKingdom This department is represented by the Government Museum of Practical

Geology, and its associated School of Mines. This institution has arisen and beendeveloped by various circumstances to which it is only possible briefly to refer.

The Geological Survey, formerly under the Ordnance Department, had ampleopportunities of collecting specimens illustrative of the industry connected withour raw mineral resources, estimated to produce annually 24,000,000?. sterling.In 1835 a small house was devoted by Government to the retention of specimensthus collected. The value of these, imperfect and limited as they were, wasrecognised by the Public, and numerous contributions from the mining andmanufacturing interests soon enlarged the collection to such an extent, that afterthe Museum and Geological Survey were united in one department (in 1845), thethen Office of Woods and Forests erected the large building in Piccadilly inwhich the museum is now displayed. From the first establishment of the Institu-tion, the Government, by the advice of Sir H. De la Beclie, to whose unweariedenergy the importance of the establishment must be in a great measure ascribed,contemplated using it for instructional purposes, but it was found impossible toexecute this intention until it was located in more commodious premises. Inthe meantime, however, important memorials wore presented from the chiefmining districts, praying that the institution should be converted into a MiningCollege; and the Government, acting upon this request, instituted last year inconnexion with it, ami by its own officers already attached to it by other duties, adepartment for conveying instruction, under the name of the “ Government Schoolof Mines and of Science applied to the Arts.” The museum, thus enlarged in itssphere of usefulness, was opened by His Royal Highness Prince Albert only a fewdays after the opening of the Exhibition, but so great has been the demand for theindustrial instruction which it professes to give, that its accommodation is alreadyinsufficient, as we have shown in a previous part of this Report. This Museumand College was attached to the Office of Woods and Forests, when the latterhad charge of the Government mines, but in the recent changes in that depart-ment the institution has been retained by the Office of Works, with the duties ofwhich it would appear to have little connexion. The obvious tendency of thismuseum has been of late years to extend in the direction of Mineral manufac-tures, and its collections represent these in certain cases in a very completemanner. Its natural objects would therefore appear to be more in unison withthe objects of the Board of Trade than with those of the department to which itis at this moment attached.*

(b) The Vegetable Kingdom.

In addition to the exertions of Bodies like the Horticultural and Botanic

Vegetable Kina

MWIVj uivS (as shown in their gardens and the exhibitions of flowers held by them),the public wants in this direction have begun to find expression at lvew, underthe zealous superintendence of Sir W. Hooker. A museum, commenced in1848, and yet in its infancy, comprehends for the vegetable kingdom collections

similar to those embraced in the Museum of Practical Geology for the mineral

* His Royal Highness tlio Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, has instituted two exhi-bitions of 301. each, in connexion with the instructional part of this institution.