208 BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Major Edwards's libraries ; but, before the opening-, King George 

 the Second added the royal library, which contained all the valuable 

 literature of the country from the time of Henry VIII. ; and to his 

 gift was annexed the valuable privilege of claiming a copy of all 

 books entered at Stationers' Hall. The subsequent additions to the 

 library are too numerous to mention. King George III. gave a 

 collection of pamphlets written between 1640 and 1660; and since 

 then, at different times, acquisitions have been made by gift and 

 purchase from Dr. Birch, Sir John Hawkins, Dr. Charles Burney, 

 David Garrick, Tyrwhitt the classical scholar, Sir William Musgrave, 

 Dr Bentley (with MSS. notes), Sir Richard Hoare, the Rev. C. M 

 Cracherode, Sir Joseph Banks, and many others. In 1823 the 

 library of George III. was presented by his son to the nation, and 

 ordered to be placed in the British Museum. 



This library contains selections of the rarest kind, more especially 

 of works of tha first ages of the art of printing : it is rich in early 

 editions t of the classics, in the history of the states of Europe in the 

 languages of the respective countries, in the Transactions of Acade- 

 mies, and in a grand geographical collection. Its formation was 

 commenced at the time when the houses of the Jesuits were sup- 

 pressed, and their libraries sold through Europe. It was still further 

 enriched from the secularized convents of Germany. It was fed for 

 more than half a century by an expenditure of little less than 

 200,000^., and is in itself, perhaps, the most complete library of its 

 extent that was ever formed. 



Enriched by various editions and by large annual purchases, the 

 Museum library now contains upwards of 220,000 printed books, and 

 about 22,000 volumes of MSS. Under judicious management the 

 collection might have been much larger, and really have been what 

 Sir H. Ellis calls it, upon a range with the greatest libraries of con- 

 tinental Europe.* The parliamentary enquiry has brought many cu- 

 rious facts to light about the library which the jealousy of the pre- 

 sent managers would fain have kept buried in Cimmerian darkness. 



* The following account of the different libraries of Europe may be relied on as 

 being tolerably correct : 



Paris Printed Books 700,000 MSS. Volumes 80,000 



Munich 500,000 16,000 



Copenhagen 400,000 20,000 



St. Petersburg 400,000 46,000 



Vienna 350,000 16,000 



Naples ,... 300,000 6,000 



