8 ORIGIN OF NEW READING-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 the 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 Ministers 

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

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

 cision or indifference of the Government to the recommenda- 

 tions of the Commission. Actually the trustees asked no 

 more than half of the sum which they conceived desimble 

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

 Library would be inadequate for the reception of increased 

 contents. Jlattei-s thus continued in statu quo. In the mean 

 time the difi&culty of finding room for the current accessions 

 to the Library became daily greater. 



" The plan alluded to by the Commissioner had to be 

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

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

 should bo erected in the inner quadrangle of the Museum. 

 By this scheme the cost of purchiise would be avoided. This 

 proposal was aocompanied by drawings showing the ground- 

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

 suggested that the interior arrangements for the accommoda- 

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

 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 * Supply 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 G1,000/. on 

 accoimt ' for the erection of a building within the interior 

 quadrangle, for the purpose of affording increased accom- 

 modation.' The first grant was not half enough, as will soon 



