Manchester Examiner, 26th June 1876.

Most persons who are interested, either commercially or politically, in the affairs of India and the British colonies, must have had occasion to regret that there is no central place in London, either as a museum or library, where information with regard to India, Canada, and Australia, or any other group of our possessions, can at one time be page 26 obtained. There is the India Museum, which is as interesting as an exhibition as it is valuable to the specialists; but then it is practically inaccessible to those who have the most frequent need of the knowledge to be gained there. There was also a collection of the products of Queensland on view at South Kensington; but that is now at Philadelphia, where indeed at present the only adequate representation of British colonial industries is to be found. For all useful purposes, therefore, there is nothing to supply the want which manufacturers among others must more particularly feel in searching for Indian or colonial products which it might be profitable to introduce here, or in seeking to know something about the economic resources of the colony or colonies in which they are interested. This being the case, the project which Dr. Forbes Watson is now advocating demands attention, and in our opinion deserves every encouragement. Dr. Watson, who as Director of the Indian Museum, has done so much for our great dependency and also for British manufacturers, is proposing to bring together in one building, to occupy a convenient and central site, a series of museums containing examples of the products of India and the colonies. He has found a capital site—that of Old Fife House—nearly two and a half acres in extent, and lying close to the Thames Embankment between Whitehall Place and Whitehall Yard, in the neighbourhood of the India and Colonial Offices. The land is the property of the Crown, and if Government could be persuaded to be liberal the initial difficulty of purchasing the ground might be easily overcome. On this site Dr. Watson proposes to combine the India Museum and the India Library; establish a connection with the Royal Asiatic Society, whose meeting rooms should be in the same building as the Indian collection; found an Indian Institute for lectures, inquiry, and teaching under the direction of the society; and then prepare a set of Trade Museums, which should exhibit the products and industries, and at the same time give an idea of the resources of our colonies. In fact, the plan is to form an Imperial Museum, representing the whole of the British possessions, and containing, besides the Indian department referred to, a Colonial Library and Reading-room, the rooms of the Royal Colonial Institute, and the offices also of the several colonial agents, by which a most desirable concentration and equally desirable saving of expense would be obtained. To the colonial agents the existence of an adjacent museum and library would be invaluable in their dealings with commercial men or with intending emigrants. In Dr. Forbes Watson's own words, the combined India and Colonial Museums, established according to this plan, would in every way become a living institution worthily representing the past history and the present resources of the British empire throughout the world. Such an institution would afford not only exhaustive materials for study and research, but would likewise be suitable for reference by the Indian and colonial authorities, by men of business or of letters, and by officials or emigrants intending to proceed to India or the colonies. Everything, of course, depends upon adopting a site which is central, and assembling the various museums in one building. Scattered over London, at distances apart, their value would be small. This is so obvious that we may regard Dr. Watson's scheme as the only possible one if the object he has in view is to be attained; and it is to be hoped that it will receive such support as will induce the Government to look upon it with favour, and give it that aid which is indispensable to its success.