INTRODUCTION 
vii 
ther, as an addition to the Cottonian Library. 
This offer was willingly accepted ; and a clause 
was inserted in the Act, ordering the payment of 
the above mentioned sum to the parties above 
named, and that the collection be disposed of 
according to the conditions of the purchase. 
This Library, consisting of upwards of 7>6<30 
volumes, many of them, as is usual in all MS. 
collections, containing a great number of separate 
articles, and upwards of 40,000 original rolls, 
charters, and other instruments, among which 
there are many of great antiquity, the whole 
chiefly relating to the political, parliamentary 
and ecclesiastical history of Great Britain and 
Ireland, is now placed according to its destina¬ 
tion. A general view of its contents is given 
in the preface of the catalogue of the Library, 
printed in the year 1 759, in 2 volumes folio. 
In order to defray the expenses necessarily 
implied by these purchases, and to provide a 
proper Repository for the preservation of them, 
as well as a fund for the permanent support of 
the establishment, Parliament resolved to raise the 
sum of 100,000 by way of Lottery; which hav¬ 
ing been drawn according to the provisions laid 
down 
