this; but it is related that Pope was greatly delighted with 'Pamela;' one of Richardson's correspondents writes to him, immediately after the publication of the book, that he has heard Mr. Pope and Mr. Allen both speak very high in its praises, and,' he adds, 'they will not bear any faults to be mentioned in the story; 'I believe they have read it twice a-piece at least. I believe Mr. Pope will call on you.' Pope probably did not actually call; but at any rate Richardson soon got connected, not with the openly adverse faction of the scribblers who had been satirized in the 'Dunciad,' but with some professing friends of Pope's, whose real feelings were not very different. Poor Aaron Hill had never been able to forget the mere mention of his name in the allblighting satire, although in the way of compliment; he had, indeed, on Pope's explanation, consented to be reconciled to him, and they had continued apparently good friends to the last; but it is amusing to see how Aaron's old sore opens and bleeds afresh as soon as their friendship has become only an affair of memory. 'Mr. Pope,'-it is thus he writes to Richardson-as 'you, with equal keenness and propriety, express it, is gone out..... Indeed, it gives me no surprise to find you thinking he was in 'the wane of his popularity. It arose, originally, but from medi'tated little personal assiduities, and a certain bladdery swell of 'management.' Then, after explaining how this was, he proceeds: In fact, if anything was fine, or truly powerful, in Mr. Pope, it was chiefly centered in expression; and that rarely, 'when not grafted on some other writer's preconceptions. His ' own sentiments were low and narrow, because always interested; darkly touched, because conceived imperfectly; and sour and acrid, because writ in envy. He had a turn for verse, without a 'soul for poetry. More follows in the same strain. 'But,' at last concludes our critic, quite satisfied that he has exhausted his subject, rest his memory in peace! It will very rarely be disturbed 'by that time he himself is ashes. It is pleasant to observe the 'justice of forced fame; she lets down those at once, who get them'selves pushed upward; and lifts none above the fear of falling, but ' a few who never teased her.' If there be anything that could add to the effect of all this, it is what the vain poetaster, who was at the best nothing better than a bad imitator of Pope, immediately subjoins: What she intends to do with me, the Lord 'knows! The whole I can be sure of is, that never mortal courted 'her with less solicitude. And, truly, if I stood condemned to 'share a place in her aërial storehouse with some characters that 'fill up great voids there, as things go at present, I should rather 'make a leg, shrink back, and ask for pardon.' The preachers of the modern doctrine that Pope is nothing of a poet may see from this that their supposed discovery is not so new as it seems.

72.

ART. III. (1.) Catalogue of the Library in Red-Cross Street, Cripplegate, founded pursuant to the will of the Rev. Daniel Williams,

D.D. 2 vols. [vol. i. Books; vol. ii. Tracts.] 8vo. Lond. 1841. pp. 420; 438.

(2.) Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum. Vol. i. fol. Lond. 1841. pp. 457.

(3.) Bibliotheca Grenvilliana; or, Bibliographical notices of rare and curious books, forming part of the Library of the Right Hon.

Thomas Grenville. By JOHN THOMAS PAYNE and HENRY
Foss. 2 vols. royal 8vo. Lond. 1842. pp. 846.

(4.) A copy of a Representation from the Trustees of the British Museum to the Treasury, on the subject of an enlarged scale of expenditure for the supply of printed books, with Treasury Minute thereon. Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 27th March, 1846. [Sessional Paper, 166.] Fol. pp. 44. (5.) Examen de ce que renferme la bibliothèque du Musée Britannique; extrait de documents soumis au Parlement en 1846. Par OCTAVE DELEPIERRE, Secrétaire de Légation, &c. 12mo. Bruxelles, Vandale, 1846. pp. 109.

(6.) An Account of the Income and Expenditure of the British Museum for the year 1846; of the estimated Charges and Expenses for the year ending 25th March, 1848, and of the progress made in the arrangement of the Collections in 1846. Ordered to be printed, 15th March, 1847. [189.] Fol. pp. 12.

(7.) On the supply of printed books from the Library to the Reading Room of the British Museum. [By Mr. ANTONIO PANIZZI.] 8vo. Lond. [privately printed] 1846. pp. 30.

(8.) Animadversions on the Library and Catalogues of the British Museum: a Reply to Mr. Panizzi's Statement; and a Correspondence with that Officer and the Trustees. By Sir HARRIS NICOLAS. 8vo. Lond. Bentley, 1846. pp. 87.

(9.) Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. Third Series. Vol. lxxxvii. pp. 1440-1446. [Debate in Committee of Supply, July 17, 1846.] (10.) Budget de l'Exercice 1847.—Ministère de l'Instruction Publique. [Printed for the French Chamber of Deputies.] 4to. [Paris, 1846.]

(11.) De l'Organisation des Bibliothèques dans Paris.

Par le Comte DE LA BORde. Lettres 1, 2, 4, 8. 8vo. Paris, Franck, 1845-46. pp. 24, 56, 125, 52.

(12.) Réforme de la Bibliothèque du Roi. Par P. L. JACOB, Bibliophile [i. e. PAUL LACROIX.] 12mo. Paris, Techener, 1845. pp. 151. (13.) Exposé succinct d'un nouveau système d'Organisation des Bibliothèques publiques. Par un bibliothécaire [i. e. M. DANJOU.] 8vo. Montpelier, Boehm, 1845. pp. 29.

(14.) Bulletin du Bibliophile, 1844-1846. 8vo. Paris, Techener.

SINCE the year 1842, the annual Miscellaneous Estimates' presented to the House of Commons have exhibited the novel feature of a distinct series (issued as a separate Sessional Paper)

under the head Education, Science, and Art.' Such grants as had previously been voted for literary, scientific, or artistic purposes, were mixed up with those for Public Buildings, Royal Palaces, Roads, Harbours, and Gaols.'

The following tabular view of the sums voted, under this head, in each of the last six years, shows a progressive annual increase since 1843:

'Estimates, &c., Miscellaneous Services.-Education, Science, & Art.'

The last named of these sums-that voted for the year 1846-7, was thus apportioned:

CLASS I.-Universities and Schools.

1. Public Education-Great Britain

2.

Ireland

3. Professors at Oxford and Cambridge

£100,000

85,000

2,006

4. University of London

4,526

The whole sums granted in aid of museums, and other public collections, comprehended in the second of the preceding classes,

* We have altered the order in which the several items occur in the Parliamentary paper, for the purpose of classifying them as above.

and including the grants for buildings to receive them, in the several years from 1830 to 1845 respectively, were as follow:

Of this sum of 1,180,2647., the British Museum—which, it is to be remembered, includes a library of manuscripts; a library of printed books; a museum of ancient sculpture; museums of natural history, in all its departments; collections of prints, of medals, and of maps and charts; and (not least in importance) the nucleus of an ethnographical museum-has received the sum of 894,0997.: viz. for the maintenance of the establishment and for acquisitions, 468,6567., and for new buildings (including temporary corridors and passages), 425,4437. If to these sums be added those granted from the year 1753, when the museum was founded, down to 1830, together with the grants of the current year, 1847-8, the whole sum devoted to the British Museum by Parliament will amount to 2,061,8957.-viz.

Purchase and fitting-up of Montague House (1753), £247,000 Establishment and Acquisitions, from

1757 to 1829

£516,668

* We take these sums from the Parliamentary Estimates of the several years

referred to.

The sum voted for general purposes, in the first year after the foundation, was 2000%, and last year, as above, 45,406. The mean annual average of the sums granted, both for general purposes and for buildings, during the last twenty-four years, is

54,1052.

We have ventured into these numerical details, partly because they appear deserving of more notice than they are likely to obtain while scattered among some five-and-twenty several parliamentary papers, (one of these, the Report of the Select Committee of the Commons on the British Museum in 1835, 36, containing upwards of 1500 folio pages ;) and partly because we wish to do the amplest justice to the past and present liberality of parliament, whilst earnestly contending that it is still inadequate to the extent and worthiness of its object.

But our more immediate purpose, in this article, is to give a rapid summary of the history, and existing condition, of public libraries in the metropolis-amongst which that of the British Museum is pre-eminently the chief, although not the earliestand then to compare the advantages which in this respect are provided for the student in London, with those which are presented to him in the capital of our neighbours across the channel. The honour of founding the first public library in London is due to the excellent Archbishop Tenison, and that of founding the second, to his eminent Nonconformist contemporary, Dr. Daniel Williams.

In March, 1684, Dr. Tenison applied to the vestry of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, for permission to erect, upon certain ground belonging to that parish, a fabrick for a public library, for the use of the students of the abovesaid precinct [of Westminster,] at his own proper costs and charges, and to make some settlement for the support of the said fabrick, and towards the maintaining of a keeper of the said intended library.** In pur

·

Minutes of the Vestry of St. Martin's, (MS.) vol. v. p. 13. In a note on p. 11 of Mr. Panizzi's valuable report on the British Museum Library, to which we shall hereafter have occasion to revert, mention is made of a certain Proposal for building a royal library, and establishing it by Act of Parliament,' as proving that the [then existing] royal library was intended for the public.' There is certainly an oversight in this statement, as the Proposal' merely asserts that the Royal Library now at St. James's' was designed and founded for public use,' without adducing a tittle of evidence in support of the assertion, in itself an improbable one, inasmuch as, were it true, there would surely be some better testimony to the fact than that contained in an anonymous broadside, dateless, and without even the name of its printer. Besides which, Archbishop Tenison says expressly, in the letter above quoted, There is not in the said precinct.... any noted library, excepting that at St. James's (which belongs to his Majestie, and to which there is no easy access.' For the rest, this Proposal' is a very curious piece. We remember to have met with it some half-dozen years ago, and to have formed the opinion that it was printed in 1716 or 1717.

.