8 ORIGIN OF NEW RE.\DING-ROOM AND LIBRARIES. 



consist of new MSS. rooms and a new enlarged reading-room, 

 which would enable the trustees to devote the present MSS. 

 rooms, including that at present made over to tlie Grenville 

 Library, to the printed books.' This report lay dormant 

 almost for four years. ' Questions' were constantly asked in 

 the House of Commons as to the intentions of the Minister 

 of the day. The ordinary annual vote was now and then 

 opposed by individual members, on tlie ground of the inde- 

 cision or iudilFereuce of the Government to the recommenda/- 

 tious of the Commission. Actually the trustees asked no 

 more than half of the sum whicli they conceived desirable 

 for the purcliase of books, assigning the true reason, that the 

 Libi-ai'y would be inadequate for the reception of increased 

 contents. Matters thus continued in statu quo. In the mean 

 time the difficulty of finding room for the cmTcnt accessions 

 to the Library became daily greater. 



" The plan alluded to by the Commissioners had to be 

 abandoned on the ground of expense and delay. As a last 

 , resort, Mr. Panizzi proposed to the trustees that a building 

 j should be erected in the inner quadrangle of the Museum, 

 By this scheme the cost of purcha.se would be avoided. This 

 I proposal was accompanied by drawings showing the ground- 

 I plan, and a general detixil of the manner in which it was 

 I suggested that the interior arrangements for the accoramoda- 

 ' tion of the readers and of books should be framed. The 

 I architect of the trustees, Mr. Sydney Smirke, reported favour- 

 ably on this plan; and the result is a building, than which 

 none are -better, few perhaps so thoroughly, adapted to the 

 purposes for which it is intended. On a ' Supjjly night,' the 

 3rd of July, 1854, Parliament, by its last evening vote, on 

 the ' miscellaneous estimates,' granted 55,225/. for the 

 * British Museum establishment,' towards its ordinary expen- 

 diture, and lul,142/. for 'new buildings and fittings.' In 

 this latter gross estimate there was an item of 61,O0OZ. on 

 I account ' for the erection of a building within the interior 

 ! quadrangle, for the purpose of affording increased accom- 

 j modation,' The first gi'ant was not half enough, as will soon 



