4 o 



cess in any way. They were speedily taken away. What 

 the useless experiment cost the public I have no means of 

 ascertaining. 



Let us now put another witness into the box. The 

 Building News of the 29th January last contains a long and 

 carefully written article on the present condition of the 

 Museum ; referring entirely to the pressing want of accom- 

 modation for the treasures stored there ; the most valuable 

 records of antiquity are huddled together in unexplored vaults, 

 shut up under lock and key, or packed away in wooden 

 penthouses. Incidentally the writer touches on the 

 Library, and he thus concludes his remarks : 



The " gigantic warehouse of unpacked goods " could not, however 

 be appreciably relieved by their removal, although, in all likelihood, it 

 would gain in security by the transfer of the binders' industry to other 

 premises. Every one is aware of the materials essential to this industry, 

 but few imagine the terrible storage of them in the vaults below the 

 British Museum. Again, few will deny that, in many respects, the In- 

 stitution has been degraded into a monstrous receptacle of curiosities, 

 often given by those who wanted to be rid of them, and accepted hap- 

 hazard as attractions for Boxing-Day and Easter Monday. As the col- 

 lection was made upon no principle, so its depository was constructed 

 upon no plan ; but, having dwelt upon the antiquities, let us linger for 

 a few moments among the books, which are multiplying at a rate never 

 before dreamed of. Is it necessary to shelve and catalogue every mis- 

 cellany and trifle sent in due form to the Librarian? Would it be 

 more profane to keep a three-volume romance out of sight — when out 

 of date — than to put a cloak of dust upon a Xanthian marble worth, 

 perhaps, fifty times the literature of a modem season ? Nothing is 

 heard of except a continual process of filling, and little wonder that the 

 "readers" get for answer so often, "not to be found." Where is the 

 lost volume ? Sunk, perhaps, in the same vault which hides some 

 lovely Phygalian torso, or some far-situated cell which not one in ten 

 of the officials has ever heard of. And another remark has to be made. 

 While these treasures are thus condemned to darkness, they are decom- 

 posing. Further, grand though the Reading-room and the King's 

 Library may superficially seem, they do not answer their true purpose 

 so well as the Library — Royal, Imperial, and National, as it has been 

 called by turns — of, for example, Paris, where the structural arrange- 

 ments are incomparably superior, both as regards convenience, and as 

 regards the preservation of the volumes themselves. Taken altogether, 

 the question, old thougn it be, has acquired fresh aspects recently, and 

 must continue to acquire them while the incessant influx continues of 



