612 



LEWES LIBRARIES. 



phus, which was criticised by Kellgren, and led to 

 an intimacy between the poet and the critic. As 

 Leopold was obliged to earn by his labours the 

 means of continuing his studies, he was sometimes 

 obliged to interrupt them. By dint of savings he 

 at last realized a small sum, which enabled him to 

 repair to the university of Greifswald, where he 

 took his degree of doctor of philosophy in 1781. 

 He returned to Sweden in 1784, and the learned 

 Liden committed to him the care and superinten- 

 dance of the library which he had presented to the 

 university of Upsal. Through the interest of two 

 of his noble friends, baron Erenheim and count de 

 Creutz, he was introduced to the notice of the 

 king, Gustavus III., who invited him to Stock- 

 holm, gave him an apartment in the palace, and a 

 sum of money to pay his debts. In 1786 the king 

 founded the Swedish academy, and named thirteen 

 members, who were to appoint the other five to 

 complete "the eighteen." Leopold was one of 

 these five. In 1788 he had the charge of the royal 

 library of Drotningholm, and in 1778 became the 

 king's private secretary. Leopold accompanied 

 his Majesty in his campaign against the Russians, 

 and wrote odes on his victories, and verses on his 

 defeats. In 1790 his tragedy of Odin was brought 

 out at the theatre of Stockholm, when the king 

 sent him a diamond ring, and two laurel leaves 

 gathered at the tomb of Virgil. At the end of 

 the same year he married Miss Ferman, daughter 

 of a Danish counsellor of justice, a lady of great 

 beauty and accomplishments, and deeply conver- 

 sant with French literature. The death of the 

 king was a great blow to Leopold's fortunes. 

 Shortly after that event the Swedish academy was 

 suppressed by the ministry, and Leopold removed 

 from the capital, to which he did not return until 

 the academy was re-established by Gustavus Adol- 

 phus IV., who made him amends for the long ob- 

 scurity in which he had been left by the flattering 

 distinctions conferred upon him. After the depo- 

 sition of Gustavus, and the change of dynasty 

 which succeeded, he continued to be treated with 

 equal favour. The last ten years of his life were 

 very melancholy. After suffering greatly for 

 nearly three years, he became totally blind ; and 

 nearly about the same time his wife became 

 insane, and continued so till the third of May, 

 1829, when she died. Her husband survived her 

 just six months, he dying on the 3d Nov. 1829. 

 Leopold was considered as at the head of the 

 French school of literature in Sweden a school 

 now nearly exploded in that country. 



LEWES; a town in the county of Sussex, si- 

 tuated on the right bank of the Ouse, forty-nine 

 miles S. by E. from London. It is a place of great 

 antiquity ; and still retains the remains of an an- 

 cient fortress. The borough has returned two 

 members of parliament since the reign of Edward 

 I., a privilege which the Reform Bill continues. 

 The principal manufacture now carried on here is 

 that of paper: on the banks of the Ouse are some 

 cast-iron founderies. The trade in wool was for- 

 merly extensive, but grain and malt, sheep and 

 cattle, are now the chief articles of traffic. The 

 river is navigable for barges to Newhaven. The 

 county assizes are held at Lewes. Population in 

 1841, 32,377. 



LIBRARIES, (a.) The contents of the public li- 

 braries of Europe, which amount to between seven 

 or eight hundred, have been estimated by Malthus 

 at 19,847,000 volumes. Of these, there are in 



I Austrian States 

 : many ] Prussian do. 



(. Other German Statei 

 France .... 

 taly . . . 



.n-iit Britain 

 tusaiau Empire 



2,220,000) 



997,0005-6,741,000 

 3,524,000j 



. 6,427,000 



3,139,000 



. 1,633,000 



880,000 



18,7:20,000 



M. Adrien Balbi gives a tabular view of twenty- 

 line of the largest libraries in the world ; and he 

 also presents a vaiiety of the different statements 

 of different writers, respecting the number of vol- 

 umes contained in some of the principal libraries 

 n Europe, with some remarks on the difficulty of 

 obtaining authentic and correct information on the 

 subject. With respect to different modes of com- 

 muting the number of volumes in a library, he says : 

 "One author counts only the printed books; to 

 these another adds the number of manuscripts ; a 

 third reduces to a certain number of volumes the 

 dissertations, pamphlets, and fugitive pieces, which 

 are preserved in a separate form, or bound in vol- 

 umes, and which were entirely excluded by the 

 first from the enumeration ; a fourth adds by the 

 same process a certain number of volumes for the 

 engravings, maps, and designs, which are not com- 

 prised in the printed volumes which they accom- 

 pany ; and a fifth regarding as so many volumes all 

 the dissertations, pamphlets, and fugitive pieces, 

 thinks proper to add their number to that of the 

 printed books contained in the library, the number 

 of volumes of which he thus increases in an ex- 

 traordinary manner." 



Table of the Largest Libraries in tlte World, Ancient and 

 Modern, from M. Balbi. 



The number of volumes in most of the above 

 libraries is stated by some writers as considerably 

 greater ; by others, as smaller ; but the above 

 statements are such as M. Balbi thinks most to be 

 relied on. With respect to the number of volumes 

 contained in the several ancient libraries above 

 enumerated, there is great uncertainty : and it is 

 difficult to fix upon any satisfactory method of 

 computing them. 



In the " Gentleman's Magazine," for January, 

 1836, the Bodleian Library is stated to contain 

 420,000 volumes; and the Library of the British 



