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BOOK III,
Chap. II.

HISTORY

OF THE

MUSEUM

ELLIS.

believe I may say that, with the exception of perhaps fifty volumes, every book that has been purchased by the Museum within the last three and twenty years has been UNDER SIR purchased at my suggestion. I have the pleasure of reflecting that every future student of the less-known literatures of Europe will find riches where I found poverty; though, of course, the collections in all these languages together form but a small proportion of the vast accumulations that have been added to the Library during your administration and that of your successor.'*

Reports of 1861, pp. 17, 18.

When the reader comes to add to his estimate of the amount of mental labour thus briefly and modestly indicated by the man who performed it, a thought of the further toil involved in the re-arrangement and careful classification of more than four hundred thousand volumes of books, in all the literary languages of the world (without any exception), he will have attained some rough idea of the public service which was crowded into one man's life; and that, as we all have now to regret, not a protracted life. He will have, too, some degree of conception of the amount of acquired knowledge which was taken from us when Thomas WATTS was taken.

To his works of industry and of learning, the man we have lost added the still better works of a kindly, benevolent heart. Many a struggling student received at his hands both wise and loving counsel, and active help. And his good deeds were not advertised. They would not now have been spoken of, but for his loss-in the very thick of his labours for the Public.

In a precious volume, which was first added to the manuscript stores of the British Museum a little before

* The 'successor' referred to is Mr. Winter Jones, then Keeper of Printed Books, now Principal-Librarian of the British Museum.

Chap. II.

OF

MUSEUM

UNDER SIR
H. ELLIS.

Mr. WATTS' death, there occurs the rough jotting of a BOOK III, thought which is very apposite to our human and natural HISTORY reflections upon such an early removal from the scene of THE labour as that just referred to. When somebody spoke to BACON of the death, in the midst of duty and of mental vigour, of some good worker or other in the vineyard of this world, almost three centuries ago, he made the following entry in his private note-book :-' Princes, when in jousts, triumphs, or games of victory, men deserve crowns for their performance, do not crown them below, where the deeds are performed, but call them up. So doth God by death.'

Lord Bacon's (MS ADDIT.

Note-Book

B. M.).

OTHER

LITERARY

THOMAS

But these several branches of public duty, onerous as they were, were far from exhausting Mr. WATTS' mental LABOURS OF activity, either within the Museum walls or outside of WATTS. them. He was a frequent contributor to periodical literature. To his pen the Quarterly Review was indebted for an excellent article on the History of Cyclopædias; the Athenæum, for a long series of papers on various topics of literary history and of current literature, extending over many years; the various Cyclopædias and Biographical Dictionaries successively edited by Mr. Charles KNIght, for a long series of valuable notices, embracing the Language and Literature of Hungary; those of Wales; and more than a hundred and thirty brief biographical memoirs, distinguished alike for careful research and for clear and vigorous expression. These biographies relate, for the most part, to foreign men of letters. To the pages of the Transactions of the Philological Society he was a frequent contributor. His Memoir on Hungarian Literature, first read to that Society, procured him the distinction of a corresponding-membership of the Hungarian Academy, and the distinction was en

BOOK III,
Chap. II.
HISTORY

OF THE
MUSEUM

UNDER SIR

H. ELLIS.

THE

MUSEUM

PRINTED

hanced by his being elected on the same day with Lord MACAULAY.

Within the Museum itself two distinct and important departments of official labour, both of which he filled with intelligence and zeal, have yet to be indicated. In 1839, he took part-with others-in framing an extensive code BOOK CATA- of 'rules' for the re-compilation of the entire body of the In May, 1857, he took charge of the Public Reading-Room, as Chief Superintendent of the daily service.

LOGUE OF

1839-1869,

AND WATTS'

LABOURS IN
RELATION TO

IT.

Catalogues of Printed Books.

It need hardly be said that the first-named task-that on the Catalogues-was a labour of planning and shaping, not one of actual execution. It was very important, however, in its effects on the public economy of the Library, and it was the one only labour, as I believe, performed by Mr. WATTS, whether severally or in conjunction with others, which failed to give unmixed satisfaction to the general body of readers. The Minutes of Evidence, taken by the Commissioners of 1848-1850, whilst they abound in expressions of public gratitude both to Mr. PANIZZI and, next after him, to Mr. WATTS, contain a not less remarkable abundance of criticisms, and of complaints, upon the plan (not the execution) of the Catalogue of Printed Books begun in 1839. The subject is a dry one, but will repay some brief attention on the reader's part.

When Mr. PANIZZI became Keeper, he had (it will have been seen) to face almost instantly, and abreast, three several tasks, each of which entailed much labour upon himself, personally, as well as upon his assistants. The third of them-this business of the Catalogue-proved to be not the least onerous, and it was, assuredly, not the best rewarded in the shape of its ultimate reception by those concerned more immediately in its performance. I can

Chap. II.

HISTORY

speak with some sympathy on this point, since it was as a Book III, temporary assistant in the preparation of this formidable and keenly-criticised Catalogue, that the present writer 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 THE MUSEUM UNDER SIR H. ELLIS.

OBJECTIONS

TO THE
PLAN OF THE

MUSEUM

PRINTED

Book

CATALOGUE

(1839-1869).

BOOK III,
Chap. II.
HISTORY

OF THE

MUSEUM

UNDER SIR
II. ELLIS.

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 experience. 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. PANIZZI, 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

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