Chap. II. speak with some sympathy on this point, since it was as a BOOK III, temporary assistant in the preparation of this formidable HISTORY and keenly-criticised Catalogue, that the present writer THE entered the service of the Trustees, in February, 1839. That some objections to the plan adopted in 1839 are well-grounded I entirely believe. But the important point in this matter, for our present purpose, is, not that the plan preferred was unobjectionable, but that the utmost effort was used, at the time and under the circumstances of the time, to prepare such a Catalogue as should meet the fair requirements both of the Trustees and of the Readers. It is within my recollection that, to effect this, Mr. PANIZZI laboured, personally as well as in the way of superintendance and direction, as it has not often happened to me, in my time, to see men labour for the Public. Assuredly to him promotion brought no lessening of toil in any form. In shaping the plan of the General Catalogue of 18391870 (for it is, at this moment of writing, still in active progress), the course taken was this:-A sort of committee. of five persons was formed, each of whom severally was to prepare, in rough draft, rules for the compilation of the projected work, illustrated by copious examples. It was to be entirely new, and to embrace every book contained in the Library up to the close of the year 1838. The draft rules were then freely discussed in joint committee, and wherever differences of opinion failed to be reconciled upon conference, the majority of votes determined the question. Such was Mr. PANIZZI's anxiety to prepare the best Catalogue for the Readers that was practicable, that he never insisted, authoritatively, on his own view of any point whatever, which might be in contention amongst us, when he stood in a minority. On all such points, he voted upon OF MUSEUM TO THE MUSEUM PRINTED Book CATALOGUE (1839-1869). BOOK III, Chap. II. OF THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR an exact equality with his assistants. The rules that were most called into question (before the Commissioners of 18481850) had been severally discussed and determined in this fair and simple way. Beyond all doubt, some of the rules might now be largely amended in the light of subsequent experi ence. But, when adopted, they seemed to all of us the best that were practicable under all the then circumstances. The committee thus formed consisted of Mr. PANIZZI himself, of Mr. Thomas WATTS, of Mr. John Winter JONES (now Principal-Librarian), of Mr. John Humffreys PARRY (now Mr. Serjeant PARRY), and of the writer of this volume. The labour was much more arduous than the average run of readers in a Public Library have any adequate conception of. It occupied several months. It was pushed with such energy and industry, that many a time, after we had all five worked together, till the light of the spring days of 1839 failed us, we adjourned to work onwith the help of a sandwich and a glass of Burgundy-in Mr. PANIZZI's private apartment above the old gate in the Court-yard. If the result of our joint labours had been printed in the ordinary form of books, it would have made a substantial octavo volume. The code has, no doubt, many faults and oversights, but, be they what they may, it was a vast improvement upon former doings in that direction; and not a little of it has been turned to account, of late years, in the Public Libraries of France, of Germany, ers of 1848-9. and of America. See Mr. Panizzi's evidence before the Commission In the labours of this little house-committee my late friend took a very large share. To Mr. PANIZZı, and to him, all their colleagues in the task of 1839 will readily admit that the chief merit of what is good, and the smallest part of the demerit of what may have been injudicious, in the Rules for the Compilation of the Catalogue of Printed own BOOK III, was HISTORY Chap. II. OF THE MUSEUM H. ELLIS. Books (now before me) is incontestably due. My experience in such matters, in the spring of 1839, small indeed. That of my friend PARRY was even less. Mr. Winter JONES possessed, already, the advantage of a UNDER SIR thorough familiarity with the Library about to be catalogued, and also an extensive and thorough general knowledge of books. Of Mr. PANIZZI's qualifications and attainments, for such a labour, it would be supererogatory and idle to say a word more, except that he had already— and single-handed-made so good a Catalogue of the fine Library of the Royal Society that the meddling of half-adozen revisers' failed to spoil it. But there is no impropriety in saying of Mr. WATTS, that he so delighted in the labour in hand as to make it seem, to those who worked with him, that he looked upon it in the light of a pleasant recreation rather than in the light of a dry task. But whatever the ultimate differences of opinion, amongst those concerned in such a matter, about the merits of the Museum Catalogue, begun in 1839, there was no difference at all, either in the House or out of it, as to the conspicuous merits of his performance of every subsequent duty. His stores of knowledge were put, with the utmost readiness, at the service of all sorts of readers; and he was not less admirable in the discharge of his office of Superintendent of the Reading Room than afterwards in the more prominent office of Keeper of Printed Bookswhich he held little more than three years. When Sir Henry ELLIS retired, in 1856, from the office of Principal-Librarian, the Collection of Printed Bookswhich he had found, on his accession to that office, extending to less than one hundred and fifty thousand volumesexceeded five hundred and twenty thousand volumes. BOOK III, OF THE MUSEUM H. ELLIS. MR. PANIZZI'S MEMOIR ON TION OF Books, 1845. The annual number of Readers admitted had increased from about seven hundred and fifty to nearly four thousand. The one step which did more than aught else to promote this improvement was the systematic survey of the then existing condition of the Printed Library, in all the great departments of knowledge, which Mr. PANIZZI set on foot in 1843, and embodied in a Memoir addressed to the Trustees, on the first of January, 1815. In The principle on which this Memoir was compiled lay in the careful comparison of the Museum Catalogues with the THE COLLEC best special bibliographies, and with the Catalogues of other Libraries. In Jurisprudence, for example, the national collection was tested by the Bibliotheca Juridica of LIPENIUS, SENCKENBERG, and MADAHN; by the list of lawbooks inserted in DUPIN's edition of CAMUS' Lettres sur la profession d'Avocat, and by the Bibliothèque diplomatique choisie of MARTENS. In Political Economy, by BLANQUI'S list given in the Histoire de l'Economie politique en Europe. The Mathematical section of the Library was compared with ROGG's Handbuch der mathematischen Literatur. British History, the Bibliotheca Grenvilliana, and the Catalogue of the Library of the Writers to the Signet, were examined, for those sections of the subject to which they were more particularly applicable, and so on in the other departments. The facts thus elicited were striking. It was shown that much had been done since 1836 to augment almost every section of the Library; but that the deficiencies were still of the most conspicuous sort. In a word, the statement abundantly established the truth of the proposition that the Collection of Printed Books in the British Museum is not nearly so complete and perfect as the National Library of Great Britain ought to be. . . . . Chap. II. OF THE and it then proceeded to discuss the further question: By BOOK III what means can the collection be brought with all proper HISTORY despatch to a state of as much completeness and perfection MUSEUM as is attainable in such matters, and as the public service UNDER SIR may require ?' It was shown that no reliance could be placed upon donations, for the filling up those gaps in the Library which were the special subject of the Memoir. Rare and precious books might thus come, but not the widely miscellaneous assemblage still needed. As to special grants for the acquisition of entire collections, not one of ten such collections, it was thought, would, under existing circumstances, be suitable for the Museum. The Copyright-tax has no bearing, however rigidly enforced, save on current British Literature. There remained, therefore, but one adequate resource, that of annual Parliamentary grants, unfettered by restrictions as to their application, and capable of being depended upon for a considerable number of years to come. Purchases might thus be organized in all parts of the world with foresight, system, and continuity. In the letter addressed by the Trustees to the Treasury, it was stated that, for filling up the chasms which are so much to be regretted, and some of which are distinctly set forth in the annexed document, the Trustees think that a sum of not less than ten thousand a year will be required for the next ten years,' in addition to the usual five thousand a year for the ordinary acquisitions of the Library. H. ELLIS. The Lords of the Treasury were not willing to recommend to Parliament a larger annual grant than ten thousand pounds, for the purchase of books of all descriptions,' but so far they were disposed to proceed, for some Treasury years to come;' and they strongly inculcated upon the 1845. Trustees the necessity, during the continuance of such Minutes, |