There were two Sir Thomas Robinsons living at the same time. One was a man of talent, particularly in architecture, and he added a wing to Castle Howard. When the one called Long Sir Thomas was in his last illness, some one mentioned it to Lord Chesterfield, and said "He is dying by inches." "Then," said Lord Chesterfield, "it will be some time before he dies." In the Walpoliana, Horace Walpole mentions his being at dinner in Paris with a party of French people, when Sir Thomas came in, in leather breeches, green jacket, and jockey cap; and a French abbé, after staring for some time at this unwonted appearance, asked his neighbour, "Peut-être ce Monsieur est le fameux Robinson Crusoe." We have now only room to add one short passage, partly for itself and partly that we may add a comment. Now, though Klopstock's fame as a poet has declined in Germany and is almost at zero in England, yet his lyrical poems are not without merit, and will please those who, like ourselves, confess we never could get through the Messiah. We advise those who wish to form a correct opinion about him to consult the admirable work of his compatriot, the Isagoge of J. M. Gesner, in which he will find the merits and defects of Klopstock critically and impartially discussed. We point out the places: vol. i. pp. 221, 242, 308, 327; and give the following epigram, which exactly states the truth as it was: Wer wird nicht einen Klopstock loben? Wir wollin weniger gelobt, und mehr gelesen seyn. Which we thus may endeavour to represent in the mirror of own language: Who does not Klopstock praise? Not one. THE DICK TESTIMONIAL. the late Duke of York, his royal highness was much struck with the youthful appearance of the gallant soldier. The highlander, fully equipped in heavy marching order, reclines against a marble pillar, supporting his head in a drooping attitude upon his firelock; the left hand grasps his bayonet, while the right is placed below the spring. A Sikh shield and helmet of chain-mail rest against the pillar at the feet of the figure. On a tablet is written "Sacred to the memory of Major-Gen. Sir ROBERT HENRY DICK, K.C.B., K.C.H., of Tullymet, N.B., one of the heroes of the Peninsular war, who, after a brilliant military career in H.M. 42nd Royal *The same artist executed the bronze medallions on the granite testimonial at Woolwich to the late Sir Alexander Dickson, G.C. B., K.C.H.; the military testimonials in marble to those of the 16th Lancers and 31st Regiment who fell in the Sutlej campaign, in Canterbury cathedral; and he designed for the successful competitor, Mr. Railton the architect, the whole of the sculptural details for the Nelson column, without however having further participated in the result. praise. Although in one sense but a costume figure, it is from that very circumstance of value as an historical record. It is treated at the same time with a chaste and classic feeling. The attitude is easy and natural, the effect pleasing and picturesque. This meritorious work, as also one of a more elaborate character to the late brave and talented Major George Broadfoot, C.B. (also for Madras), will remain on view at the studio of the artist during the month of June, prior to their removal for erection in Madras cathedral.* THE BRITISH MUSEUM CATALOGUE. MR. URBAN, May 8. THERE is a passage in an article of your number of last month, headed Report of the Commissioners on the British Museum," upon which, as it is calculated (though not intended) to do me injustice, you must allow me to make a few remarks. It occurs in the second column of p. 508, where you say, "If Mr. Panizzi's catalogue, the result of the singular concentration of power and knowledge which he has under his command, had been examined by any of the witnesses in the same minute manner as he and his assistants have criticised the hurried slips made by Mr. Collier, there would have been little in the result to please any one." These words allude to certain slips of paper,† twenty-five in number, on which I had written the titles of as many books from my own shelves, in order to shew the Commissioners the brief, speedy, and, at the same time, satisfactory method in which I earnestly recommended that the 435,000 volumes in the library of the British Museum should be catalogued. I was in no sort of haste, and the drawing of them up occupied precisely an hour, going at an easy, steady pace, such as I could have kept up for six or more hours without fatigue. To call them "hurried slips" is, therefore, to do them and me palpable wrong. Give me leave to observe that my twenty-five "slips" were not "hurried" in any sense of the word. I took quite as much time about them as I wanted. I had another object also in view in deliberately preparing them. It had been given in evidence that a cataloguer, acting in observance of Mr. Panizzi's ninety-one rules, was considered to have got through a good day's work if he made only sixty entries. I contended that, disregarding these rules, and acting only in obedience to the dictates of common sense, it was very possible to proceed at a much faster rate. To prove it I tried my experiment thus:-with my own hand Itook from my shelves works in any language I sufficiently understood, and on a separate slip of paper wrote the title of each, as I thought it ought to stand in a catalogue of the library of the British Museum. The result was my twenty-five slips, and I do not hesitate to assert that I could have made thirty or more of them in the hour, which is three times as fast as cataloguing proceeds under Mr. Panizzi. The experiment had often been tried by me before, and had inva * A memoir of Sir Robert Dick will be found in our Magazine for May, 1846. The words "hurried slips," as they stand in your article, are somewhat ambiguous, and those who did not hear my evidence might fancy that they referred to certain errors of haste of which I was vivá voce guilty, and of which Mr. Panizzi afterwards availed himself. riably succeeded. In this instance I preserved my slips, and when I was examined by the Commissioners, I mentioned what I had done, and the result. I was asked to produce my slips, and to place them in Mr. Panizzi's hands. I did so instantly: never for a moment objected; being, in truth, very glad that he should practically be made aware of what I considered the only mode of proceeding with a huge accumulation of books, and that he should avail himself of any hints he might possibly derive from my hour's work. Some of your readers may be curious to see my slips, exactly as I laid them before the Commissioners, who handed them over to Mr. Panizzi; and for many days they ran the gauntlet of cavil and criticisin by all the practised partisans under his orders, drilled and disciplined to his elaborate and tedious method. The more my slips were examined, and the more value that was attached to them, the better I was pleased; but when I wrote them out I never dreamed that any such estimate would be formed of their importance. When dealing with an assemblage of not very far from half a million of volumes, it seemed obvious that the shortest mode of making out the separate titles (as long as they were perfectly intelligible), was the best; but I so far yielded to Mr. Panizzi's notions, that I inserted various words I did not consider necessary, taking care, however, to underscore them, as capable of omission. In my twenty-five titles which follow, these unnecessary words are printed in italics : 1. ARCHEOLOGIST, the, and Journal of Antiquarian Science. 2 vols. London, 1842. 8vo. 2. CASTI, GIAMBATISTA, Novelle di. 3 vols. Paris, Anno XII., 1804. 8vo. 3. DODSLEY'S OLD PLAYS, with additional notes and corrections by Isaac Reed, Octavius Gilchrist, and the Editor. 12 vols. London, 1825. Post 8vo. 4. DOUCE, FRANCIS. The Dance of Death, exhibited in elegant engravings on wood. With a Dissertation, &c. London, 1833. 8vo. 5. GRIMM. Kinder und Haus-Märchen. Gesammelt. durch die Brüder Grimm. 3 vols. Berlin, 1819. 12mo. 6. HALLAM, HENRY. View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. 2 vols. London, 1846. 8vo. 7. HARVEY, GABRIEL. A new Letter of notable Contents, &c. London. 1593. 4to. 8. HAWKINS, THOMAS. The Origin of the English Drama. 3 vols. Oxford, 1773. 8vo. 9. HEYLIN, PETER. France painted to the Life. By a learned and impartial hand. London, 1656. 8vo. 10. Homerus. Odvoσeia, Græce. 2 vols. Oxford, 1811. 12mo. 11. LODGE, THOMAS. Rosalynd. Euphues golden Legacie, &c. Fetcht from the Canaries, by T. L., Gent. London, 1598. 4to. 12. LOLME, JEAN LOUIS, de. Constitution de l'Angleterre. Amsterdam, 1778. 8vo. 13. LONGINUS. Διονυσίου Λογγίνου περι Ύψους Βιβλιον. Dionisii Longini de Sublimitate. Oxford, 1730. 8vo. 14. MASSINGER, PHILIP. The Plays of, 2nd Edit. 8vo. The Blacke 4to. with notes by W. Gifford. 4 vols. London, 1813. 15. MIDDLETON, THOMAS. Booke. London, 1604. 16. MINOT, LAURENCE. interesting events of the reign of King Edward III. Edited by Joseph Ritson. London, 1795. Post 8vo. Poems on the 17. MITCHELL, T., A.M. The Achar nenses of Aristophanes. With notes, &c., by T. Mitchell, A.M. London, 1835. 8vo. 18. Navarre, Marguerite de Valois, Royne de. L' Heptameron des Nouvelles. Paris, 1560. 4to. 19. QUINTILIANUS. Institutionum Oratoriarum. Libri duodecim, Notis illustrati. London, 1758. 8vo. 20. RAUMER, FREDERICK von. History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Translated from the German. 2 vols. London, 1835. Post 8vo. 21. SACCHETTI, FRANCO. Novelle di. 8vo. 2 vols. Florence, 1724. 22. SCHLEGEL, AUGUST WILHELM. Shakspeare's dramatische Werke, übersetzt von. 9 vols. Berlin, 1816. 8vo. 23. STAEL, LA BARONNE DE. Considerations sur les principaux Evénemens de la Revolution Françoise. 3 vols. Paris, 1818. 8vo. 24. ULRICI, HERMANN. Shakspeare's dramatische Kunst. 2nd Edit. Leipzig, 1847. 8vo. 25. UTTERSON, EDWARD VERNON. Select Pieces of Popular Poetry. 2 vols. London, 1817. Post 8vo. These, with the correction of a literal error, were my twenty-five titles, and some persons may perhaps wonder how the preparation of them could occupy as much time as an hour. If the words in italics were omitted, of course the titles would be so much the shorter; and this is the manner in which, I humbly submit, a great catalogue ought to be made, and in which, I feel sure, it could be made with the utmost facility. I have been a searcher in catalogues of all kinds during more than forty years, and, as far as I am concerned, I am ready to rest the whole case in favour of a short, sufficient, and accurate catalogue of the books in the Museum upon this single issue-Will any three competent and impartial literary men assert, that the preceding twentyfive works are not designated in such a way as to lead to their instant identification? If they can be identified by a reader who wants any of them, an attendant, with the aid of a press-mark, can go at once to the very shelf and number, and bring them for his use. It sounds strangely, but the fact is undoubtedly so, that, although I took the twenty-five books at random, and without the slightest selection, from my own shelves, no fewer than eleven of them were not among the 435,000 volumes in the Museum. Mr. Panizzi was, therefore, obliged to borrow them of me, in order that his astute assistants might test the accuracy of my titles, and ferret out objections to them. If I had refused to lend the volumes he must have omitted all the criticism upon them in his evidence, which occupied so many days. But I had nothing to keep back, and nothing to fear; as I had lent him my slips, so I lent him my books, and he was welcome to make what use he pleased both of the one and of the other. You are aware of the use he did make of them by the elaborate strictures which he employed one of the gentlemen under him to put in writing. He did not attempt it himself, so that a failure could not fairly be visited upon him; but his examination contains a lengthened attack on my twenty-five entries by a person whose learning and competence I do not for a moment question, but who, perhaps, wanting a little of the sound judgment that does not always fall to the lot of men of great acquirements, was guilty of the almost inconceivable absurdity of trying my twenty-five brief titles by Mr. Panizzi's ninety-one long rules. This, in fact, was the only way in which he could assail them; but, as my titles were drawn up in total and avowed disregard of Mr. Panizzi's foreign rules, and in strict conformity with what I considered the rules of English common sense, it would be just as fair to try a man abroad for an offence committed in this country, as to try my titles by laws to which I purposely and studiously disclaimed all allegiance. Try Mr. Panizzi's titles by Mr. Panizzi's rules, but try my titles by the rules I professed to follow. I allowed this piece of injustice to work its own cure.. I thought it too glaring to require more than that it should be pointed out, and I doubt much whether even that was necessary. I have from the first advocated the speedy compilation of a brief and accurate finding catalogue, to be indefinitely multiplied in print; and, if Mr. Panizzi should persevere in his determination that the only catalogue of its own books that the English nation shall possess is one in 500 manuscript volumes, that can never exist but in a single copy, and cannot be completed for many years, literary men must all bitterly regret that his knowledge and talents should be so misapplied. Let me add that I have not, and never had, any difference with Mr. Panizzi, excepting on the score that he is the author of a bad, useless, and most dilatory system of cataloguing. His conduct to me personally has been unexceptionable, and all I wish is, that he had consented to devote his energies to the compilation of such a catalogue as is immediately wanted, and would be of the greatest possible use to the thirty or forty thousand persons now entitled to admission to the Reading Room of the British Museum. Yours, &c. J. PAYNE COLLIER. We cannot, of course, but regret that any ambiguous or hasty word of ours should have been capable of a construction calculated to give pain to Mr. Collier, but, in its results, our inaccuracy has worked well. It has produced in the above communication a letter which is at once strikingly characteristic of our manly, straightforward friend, and powerfully conclusive against the outrageous scheme |