I2 APPENDIX. 



derable delay the purchase was ultimately effected for the 

 sum of £1250. In 1835, a Parliamentary Committee was ap- 

 pointed by the House, to enquire generally into the state and 

 management of the British Museum, and among other matters 

 of which they took cognizance, were the circumstances under 

 which Mr. Hawkins's collection was bought ; more especially 

 with reference to the minutes of certain steps taken by the 

 Trustees, in consequence of a communication made to them 

 by Mr. Konig, as to the state of some portion of the collec- 

 tion. I shall here make an extract from the Parliamentary 

 Report. 



" The Rev. Josiah Forshall called in ; and examined. 



"2962. DO you produce any papers which the Committee called for on 

 a fonner day, with reference to Mr. Hawkins's collection? — The first paper 

 I now produce, is a copy of a report made by Sir Henry Ellis, Mr. Konig, 

 and Mr. Children, on the 2nd of February, 1829, regarding the department 

 of Natural History. — {See Appendix, No. 27). — That paper does not relate 

 at all to Mr. Hawkins's fossil remains. 



" The first paper I have in my custody regarding Mr. Hawkins's fossil 

 remains, is a minute of the 1 1th of May, 1833, it merely states that an of- 

 fer was made by Mr. Hawkins of a collection of fossil remains ; that a let- 

 ter from Professor Buckland, on the subject of the collection, was laid 

 before the Board; and that the Trustees, being ignorant of the extent of 

 the collection and the price at which it was estimated, declined the offer. 



" In the following month, June 1833, there is a second minute, that a 

 letter was read from Mr. Thomas Hawkins, offering to the Trustees his 

 collection of fossil organic remains for £4,000. ; Mr. Hawkins expressed 

 his willingness to dispose of the best of the Saurian animals for £3,000. ; 

 or should that offer prove unacceptable, with the rarest of them for £2,000.; 

 a catalogue and drawings of the most remarkable specimens were laid be- 

 fore the Trustees, and the Trustees declined the purchase." 



The next is simply a copy of a British-Museum minute. 



" (11.)— MINUTE of Committee, dated 1 August, 1834. 

 " At a Committee, 



"A Letter, dated 12th July, from Professor Buckland was read, stat- 

 ing that he and Mr. Mantell had separately estimated every article in Mr. 

 Hawkins's Fossil Sauri, and that they considered the remains figured in 

 Mr. Hawkins's work to be worth £1,025.; and that the worth of the re- 

 maining Sauri, not figured in the published plates, was £225. These last 

 Professor Buckland and Dr. Mantell strongly recommended to be also ac- 

 quired for the Museum. 



" This estimate was stated by Professor Buckland to be exclusive of the 

 value of the cases in which some of the fossils are set; these last had been 

 valued by Mr. William Caldecott and Mr. W. Bracher, two upholsterers 

 and appraisers, at £60 5s. 



" The Secretary acquainted the Board, that as directed by the Minute 

 of the last Committee, and under the sanction of several of the Trustees, 

 to whom Professor Buckland's letter had been communicated, he had writ- 



