BOOK II, Chap. IV. THE KING'S OR THE NEW BUILDING ERECTED FOR THE GEORGIAN LIBRARY. 1821-28. table (at Brighton), to assure Lord LIVERPOOL-in his official capacity-of the satisfaction he felt in having 'this means of advancing the Literature of my Country.' Then he proceeded to add :-' I also feel that I am paying a just tribute to the memory of a Parent, whose life was adorned with every public and private virtue.' The Executors or Trustees of King GEORGE THE THIRD knew well what the monarch's feelings about his Library would, in all reasonable probability, have been, had he possessed mental vigour when preparing for his last change. They exacted from the Trustees of the Museum a pledge that the Royal Library should be preserved apart, and entire. Parliament, on its side, made a liberal provision for the erection of a building worthy to receive the Georgian Library. The fine edifice raised in pursuance of a parliamentary vote cost a hundred and forty thousand pounds. It provided one of the handsomest rooms in Europe for the main purpose, and it also made much-needed arrangements for the reception and exhibition of natural-history Collections, above the books. The removal of the Royal Library from Buckingham House was not completed until August, 1828. All who saw the Collection whilst the building was in its first purity of colour-and who were old enough to form an opinion on such a point-pronounced the receptacle to be eminently worthy of its rich contents. The floor-cases and the heavy tables-very needful, no doubt-have since detracted not a little from the architectural effect and ele gance of the room itself. Along with the printed books, and the extensive geographical Collections, came a number of manuscripts——on Chap. IV. KING'S OR historical, literary, and geographical subjects.* By some BOOK II, transient forgetfulness of the pledge given to Lord FARN- THE BOROUGH, the manuscripts, or part of them, were, in March, KON 1841, sent to the Manuscript Department' of the Museum. LIBRARY. But Mr. Panizzi, then the Keeper of the Printed Books, Minutes of successfully reclaimed them for their due place of deposit, (1850), as according to the arrangement of 1823. Nor was such a claim a mere official punctilio. In every point of view, close regard to the wishes of donors, or of those who virtually represent them, is not more a matter of simple justice than it is a matter of wise and foreseeing policy in the Trustees of Public Museums. The integrity of their Collections is often, and naturally, an anxious desire of those who have formed them. In a subsequent chapter (C. ii of Book III) it will be seen that the wish expressed by the representatives of King GEORGE the THIRD was also the wish of a munificent contemporary and old minister of his, who, many years afterwards, gave to the Nation a Library only second in splendour to that which had been gathered by GEORGE THE THIRÓ. Not the least curious little fact connected with the Georgian Library and its gift to the Public, is that the gift was predicted thirty-one years before GEORGE THE FOURTH wrote his letter addressed to Lord LIVERPOOL from the Pavilion at Brighton, and twenty-eight years before the death of GEORGE THE THIRD. In 1791, Frederick WENDEBORN wrote thus:-'The King's private Library ... can boast very valuable and magnificent books, which, as it is said, will be one time or another * Curiously enough, three volumes of the Georgian MSS. had belonged to Sir Hans Sloane, and had, in some unexplained way, come to be separated from the bulk of his Collection. They now rejoined their old companions in Great Russell Street. Evidence above. BOOK II, Chap. IV. THE KING'S OR WENDEBORN* was a German preacher, resident in London for many years. He was known to Queen CHARLOTTE, and had occasional intercourse with the Court. May it not be inferred that on some occasion or other the King had inti mated, if not an intention, at least a thought on the matter, which some courtier or other had repeated in the hearing of Dr. WENDEBORN ? joined to those of the British Museum.' *See, before, p. 339. CHAPTER V. THE FOUNDER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM 'It may be averred for truth that they be not the highest instances that give the best and surest information. It often comes to pass [in the study of Nature] that small and mean things conduce more to the discovery of great matters, than great things to the discovery of small matters.'-BACON. 'Not every man is fit to travel. Travel makes a wise man better, but a fool worse.'-OWEN FELLTHAM. The Life, Travels, and Social Influence, of Sir Joseph BANKS.-The Royal Society under his Presidency.His Collections and their acquisition by the Trustees of the British Museum.-Notices of some other contemporaneous accessions. THE FOUN DER OF THE AND We have now to glance at the career-personal and BOOK II, scientific-of an estimable public benefactor, with whom Cha King GEORGE THE THIRD had much pleasant intercourse, both of a public and a private kind. Sir Joseph BANKS MUSEUM was almost five years younger than his royal friend and LIBRARY. correspondent, but he survived the King by little more than three months, so that the Georgian and the Banksian Libraries were very nearly contemporaneous accessions. The former, as we have seen, was given in 1823, and fully received in 1828; the latter was bequeathed (conditionally) in 1820, and received in 1827. These two accessions, taken conjointly, raised the Museum collection of books BOOK II. Chap. V. DER OF THE BANKSIAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY. (for the first time in its history) to a respectable rank THE FOUN- amongst the National Libraries of the day. The Banksian bequest made also an important addition to the naturalhistory collections, especially to the herbaria. It is as a cultivator and promoter of the natural sciences, and preeminently of botany, that Sir Joseph won for himself enduring fame. But he was also conspicuous for those personal and social qualities which are not less necessary to the man, than are learning and liberality to the philosopher. For the lack of such personal qualities some undoubted public benefactors have been, nevertheless, bad citizens. In this public benefactor both sets of faculties were harmoniously combined. They shone in his form and countenance. They yet dwell in the memory of a survivor or two, here and there, who were the contemporaries of his closing years. THE BANKESES OF RERESBY Joseph BANKS was born at Reresby Abbey, in Lincolnshire, on the thirteenth of December, 1743. He was the only son of William BANKS-HODGKENSON, of Reresby Abbey, by his wife Sophia BATE. Mr. BANKS-HODGKENSON was the descendant of a Yorkshire family, which was wont, of old, to write itself 'Banke,' and was long settled at Banke-Newton, in the wapentake of Staincliffe. The second son of a certain Henry BANKE, of Banke-Newton, acquired, by marriage, Beck Hall, in Giggleswick; and by his great grandson, the first Joseph BANKES, Reresby Abbey was purchased towards the close of the seventeenth century. His son (also Joseph) sat in Parliament for Peterborough, and served as Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1736. The second (and eldest surviving) son of the Member for Peterborough took the name of HODGKENSON, as heir to his mother's ancestral estate of Overton, in Derbyshire, but on the death of his elder brother (and his consequent heirship) resumed the |