47 Geo. III. 
Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer (by command 
of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent) ac- 
quainted the House, that His Royal Highness, 
having been informed of the contents of the 
said Petition, recommends it to the consideration 
of the House. 
Then a Petition of the Trustees of the Bri- 
tish Museum was presented and read ; setting 
forth, that the Library of Printed Books at the 
British Museum is, in many important classes, 
very defective, and the deficiency has been par- 
ticularly complained of in that part of the col- 
lection which respects the British Islands and 
the several Possessions of the British Empire, by 
persons conversant in this branch of Learning, 
who resort to the Library for information upon 
those subjects ; and that the only Fund belong- 
ing to the Petitioners, applicable to the purchase 
of Books, Coins, and Medals, consists of Eight 
Thousand and Fifty-eight Pounds Twelve Shil- 
lings and one Penny, Old South Sea Annuities, 
given by the Will of Arthur Edwards, Esquire, 
yielding an annual income of Two Hundred and 
Forty-one Pounds Sixteen Shillings and Four 
Pence ; and that the sum which has been usually 
granted by Parliament, except occasionally, for 
a specific object, has been calculated only for 
maintaining the establishment of Officers and Re- 
H 
