Abstract
THE inadequacy of the salaries of the officers of the British Museum has long been a standing grievance. It is manifestly impossible to give any valid reasons why the literary and scientific men of this great national establishment should not receive emoluments at least equal to those granted in the ordinary branches of the Civil Service. The obstinacy of the trustees in clinging to obsolete principles of priority, and in endeavouring to keep entirely in their own hands the right of nomination to all the more important posts, has, no doubt, been the main cause why the Treasury have until recently refused to do justice to a most meritorious and ill-treated branch of the public service. From the “Correspondence between the Trustees of the British Museum and the Treasury,” which has lately been issued as a Parliamentary Paper, we are glad to find that in this instance, as on former occasions, the present Ministry has been induced to do justice where their predecessors in office have persistently ignored righteous claims. After a long correspondence, commenced in May, 1876, and extending over some fifteen months, it seems to have been finally settled that the salaries of the keepers of the various departments shall be raised to 750l. per annum after five years' service, instead of stopping at 600l., the former limit, and that the salaries of the assistant-keepers shall rise to 600l. after five years' service, instead of being restricted to 450l. as heretofore. The assistants in the various departments will, in future, be divided into two classes, the first, or upper class, with salaries commencing at 250l. per annum, and rising by annual increments of 15l. to 450l.; those of the second, or lower class, commencing at 120l., and rising by increments of 10l. to 240l. This will create a considerable general improvement in the position of these subordinates, of whom the junior assistants, as they are called, have hitherto commenced at 90l., and the senior assistants have never risen beyond 400l. But the trustees have agreed to regard the new second class for the future as an “educational class,” from which those persons who show special aptitude for the work of the different departments may be promoted to the first class, whilst those who have no extraordinary abilities must remain content with the maximum salary of the lower class. Another concession that the trustees have been compelled to make in order to obtain the above-mentioned advantages is a reduction in the number of the assistants of the upper class. The Treasury justly point out to the trustees that the scheme of having a first class of assistants double the number of that of the second class, is “inconsistent with all ordinary classification,” and that the comparative numbers of the two classes “ought to be exactly reversed.” This the trustees have, as it appears, somewhat unwillingly undertaken to effect, by a gradual reduction of the number of first-class assistants as vacancies occur, and by making all future appointments into the second class, except when “an opportunity occurs of securing the services of a person possessing very special qualifications.
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The Salaries of the Officers in the British Museum . Nature 17, 197 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/017197a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017197a0