A. D. 1753. 297 



' his faid colledion, iii all its branches, might, if poflible, be preferved 



* together whole and entire, in his manor-houfe at Chelfea) did devife 

 ' to certain truflees his i'aid mufeum ; confifling of all his library, 

 ' drawings, manufcripts, prints, medals, and coins anticnt and modern, 

 ' antiquities, feals, cameos, intaglios, pretious (tones, agates, jafpers, 



* veflels of agate and jafper, chryftals, mathematical inftruments, draw- 



* ings, and pictiu'es ; and all other things in his faid collecT:ion, more 

 ' particularly defcribed and numbered, with fhort hiftories or accounts 

 ' of them, in catalogues by him made, containing thirty-eight volumes 



* in folio and eight in quarto ; to have and to hold to them, and their 

 ' fucceflbrs and afligns forever, for fuch purpofes, and with fuch powers, 



* and under Ihch reftridions, as in the faid codicil are exprelTed ; willing 

 ' and defiring, that the faid truftees fhould make their humble appli- 



* cation to his majefty, or to the parliament, after his deceafe, to pay 

 ' the fum of L20,ooo to his executors, in confideration of his faid 

 ' mufeum ; and alfo to obtain fuch fufficient powers, for veiling in the 

 ' faid truflees the faid mufeum in all its branches : and alfo to obtain 



* a fufficient fund or provifion for maintaining and taking care of his 

 ' faid collection and premifes. And as the mufeum is of much greater 

 ' intrinfic value than the fum of L20,ooo, and as all arts and fciences 

 ' have a connedlion with each other, and difcoveries in natural phi- 

 ' lofophy and other branches of fpeculative know lege (for the ad- 

 ' vancement and improvement whereof the laid colledion was intended) 

 ' do and may, in many inftances, give help and fuccefs to ufeful expe- 

 ' riments and inventions, it i-s enaded, 



' I) That L2o,ooo be paid to the executors of Sir Hans Sloane for the 

 faid mufeum. 



' II) And whereas by an ad of the 12th and i3thof King William III, 

 ' for better fettling and preferving the library kept in the iioufeatWeft- 

 ' minller, called Cotton-houle, in the name of the family of the 

 ' Cottons, for the benefit of the public ; reciting, that Sir Robert 

 ' Cotton, late of Conington in the county of Huntingdon, baronet, 



* did, at his own great charge, and by the afllftance of the mod; learned 



* antiquaries of his time, colled and purchafe the moil: ufeful manu- 

 ' fcripts, written books, papers, parchments, records, and other memo- 

 ' rials, in moft languages ; of great ufe and fervice for the knowlege 



' and prefervalion of our conftitution in church and ftate : and farther" 



' recitmg, that the faid library had been preferved with the uimoll 



* care by Sir Thomas Cotton, ion of the faid Sir Robert, and by Sir 

 ' John Cotton, (then living) grandfon of the faid Sir Robert ; and had 

 ' been very much augmented by them, and lodged in a very proper 

 ' place in the faid Sir Robert's anticnt manlion-houfe at Weftniinfter, 



* for public ufe and advantage. — III) That the truftees thereby ap- 

 ' pointed Ihall have the faid Cotton-houlc and gardens, &c. and alio the 



Vol.. III. P p 



