ORIGIN OF NEW READING-ROOM AND LIBRARIES. 7 



I mansion continued perfectly siiflScient for the whole miscel- 

 I laneous contents of the Museum until a few new rooms were 

 added for the Egyptian antiquities obtained in ISul, and for 

 the Townley Marbles. In 1823 the present entirely new 

 building, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, became uecessaiy. 

 Montagu House was finally levelled with the ground in 1845, 

 the new portico being only finished April 19, 1847. It is 

 worthy of record that in the month of July, 1759, only five 

 readers attended the public reading-room. 



Origin of New liEADiXG-RooM and Libraries. 

 ** The utter insufificiency of the institution for book room 

 and accommodation for readers existed during the last four 

 Parliaments, and without a remedy. The public, the trustees, 

 men of letters in the Legislature, in vain devised various 

 plans, and demanded pecuniary aid from the Commons. 

 Select committee reports and annual returns followed in 

 succession. It is sufficient now to refer our readere to the 

 two volumes of reports in 1835 and 1836, and to the various 

 Parliamentary returns asked for since 1850; to similar Par- 

 liamentary volumes on Public Libraries in 1849 and 1850; 

 and, lastly, to the effective Report of the Royal Commission 

 (with 800 appended folio pages of evidence) appointed to 

 inquire into the constitution and government of the Museum. 

 The practical result was an unanimous representation of the 

 Commissioners that 'the subject of additions to the Museum 

 was one which must evidently, at no distant period, engage 

 the attention of Her Majesty's Government.' Mr. Hume, 

 fortunately, was an active member of the Commission, and 

 concurred from honest conviction in the necessity of an eai*ly 

 and munificent grant of public money. The Royal Commis- 

 sioners, reporting the inadequacy of book-room, the injury 

 to the valuable contents of the library by the existing read- 

 ing-room arrangements, the slave-labour of the attendants, 

 I and the bad accommodation of the readers, stated that ' these 

 circumstances have suggested to Mr. Panizzi a scheme of 

 extension by which the buildings to be constructed would 



