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years later, and of which the Royal Society is the official visitor. If the labours of this establishment had been limited to the computing and publishing its Nautical Ephemeris, it would still have rendered a powerful aid to the commercial and maritime superiority of Great Britain, and we might confidently appeal to this work as to one of the most beneficial of all the practical results of astronomy.

It was nearly a century after the institution of the Royal Society before a national museum of Natural History was founded in our metropolis. The British Museum was opened in 1759, and the magnificent collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and one formed by the Royal Society, were at that time deposited there. Deficiency of space has, from the commencement of this Museum, impeded the increase and arrangement of the specimens, and we therefore congratulate the public on the noble additions to the building now in progress. The collections in various branches of Natural History at present assembled there are undeniably of the first importance, nor have their scientific classification and arrangement been neglected, in so far as means were provided by the country for this purpose; but, regarded as a national museum, and still more as the first in the British empire, it is wholly unworthy of the present age. As England is not only the most affluent of modern nations, but the grand centre of commercial activity and communication between the most distant portions of the globe; as her colonial possessions are more diversified in climate and local character than those of any other European empire, we may naturally ask why her museums do not display a proportional extent and magnificence, and set all foreign rivalry at defiance? Why, on the contrary, are they so decidedly inferior not only to those of France, but of several petty states of Italy and Germany? The reply to this question is not difficult. The inferiority complained of could not long have existed in a country where the opinion of the enlightened and educated classes exercises a predominant sway and disposes of the whole resources of the state, had there been a general taste for promoting physical science, or had our countrymen discovered the intimate relation between its progress and large accumulations of objects of natural history. They have at length made this discovery, and having perceived the inadequacy of private funds and individual efforts to accumulate these treasures on a scale of liberality consistent with the present state of science, they have organized associations and obtained liberal grants from parliament for establishments both in England and Scotland, and are taking steps to secure the enlargement and future permanency of scientific institutions.

But we are still passing the threshold only of this new æra in

public opinion; and the measures adopted now, however small their apparent pretensions, will widely affect the success of future undertakings. At a moment so critical in the history of the progress of science and natural history in this country, we learn with great satisfaction that the National Gallery of Pictures is not to find a place, as was first designed, in the buildings now erecting at the British Museum. The propriety of separating subjects so entirely distinct as are the fine arts and natural history, cannot be doubted on a moment's reflection. By neglecting to assign an independent government to either establishment, we infallibly diminish the zeal, activity, and emulation that spring from the exaggerated importance attached by all men to their own pursuits and avocations; by associating in a common direction persons of different if not uncongenial tastes, we are perpetually in danger of partiality in the distribution of their patronage, and the sacrifice of the less popular to the more favoured object; at best a want of harmony and unity of action will result, even if the force of rival prepossessions be adjusted and fairly balanced. The possibility of such inconveniencies is happily precluded at Paris, where the administration of the Galleries of the Louvre and the Luxembourg has been always separated from the Museum of Natural History, and the latter placed under the sole direction of a body of professors of various branches of science and natural history. Its decided superiority over any in our own country or in the rest of Europe may well excite a generous feeling of national emulation; more especially as this superiority is in a great degree the fruit of modern industry, and the recent progress of scientific research. To retain a gallery of the fine arts and cabinets of natural history even as distinct departments in the same building is objectionable, as there is the highest probability of the mutual interference of such unconnected repositories of national treasures in the event of future enlargements of the original design. The most splendid collections of either description have been almost invariably the result of slow and gradual additions, and for this reason their growth may be effectually retarded by inconveniencies apparently too inconsiderable to be apprehended as obstacles to a great national undertaking. To continue, therefore, to associate in our museum the antiquities and Grecian marbles with cabinets of natural history is, at least, a measure of questionable expediency. The Royal Library at Paris, containing a collection of books of greater value than any in Great Britain, is also separated from their national museum, and our arguments may seem applicable to the impropriety of connecting these departments in our own metropolis. But although we are far from denying the weight of this objection, yet not only does the central position of

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the British museum recommend it as the site of a great public library, but the convenience also of a large class of students is consulted by the facilities afforded of referring at the same time to the collections and to publications on natural history and science. The models, forming as they do a most valuable part of the treasures assembled here, are considered as so intimately connected with the library as naturally to belong to the same place.

The library at this Museum claims only, in point of extent, a fifth or sixth rank in Europe, and is not even the principal library in Great Britain. It contains at present only 165,000 printed volumes and 20,000 volumes of MSS. In the King's library, which will be added to the Museum, there are 65,000 volumes; and in that of Sir J. Banks, which will also eventually become the property of the Museum by bequest, 16,000 volumes, making a total of 246,000 volumes, exclusive of the MSS. It is computed that the Bodleian library at Oxford contains above 200,000 volumes; and besides the occasional additions of new libraries by purchase, a much larger sum is annually expended there on new works than at the British Museum, which it also surpasses in the value of its MSS. particularly those relating to classical literature and those in the Hebrew and Arabic languages, of which an admirable catalogue raisonnée has been nearly completed by the present learned professor, Dr. Nicol. The library of the Vatican is the most considerable in the world. The King's Library at Paris, so accessible to the public, and where the attendance of librarians is excellent, contains 350,000 printed volumes, besides an equal number of pamphlets, and 50,000 MSS. In addition to this splendid collection, the number of printed volumes in the libraries of the Arsenal, of St. Genevieve, and of the Mazarine palace, make together a total scarcely, if at all, inferior to that of the Bibliothèque du Roi.' The estimated number of volumes in the library at Munich is nearly 400,000, at Vienna 300,000, at Gottingen 200,000; besides these, Stutgard, Milan, Florence, Madrid, and other cities, possess large collections. The comparative value of libraries, it is true, depends not on the number of volumes which they contain; and the libraries of London (as having been more recently formed) are furnished chiefly with useful works, whilst many of the older collections are crowded with ponderous tomes on subjects now obsolete, the canon law, the ancient medicine, astrology, alchemy, and so forth. But the object of large public libraries is not merely to provide such works as are most useful, but publications which, from their costliness or their scarcity, are placed beyond the reach of ordinary students. The activity and perseverance requisite for deep research are not least to be expected from those

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whose circumstances render it difficult for them, either by favour or by purchase, to obtain access to rare and expensive publications. For these reasons, extensive libraries ought not to be regarded as objects of splendour alone, but as capable of affecting the literary and scientific character of a whole people. To accomplish this end great facility of access is indispensable. We rejoice, therefore, that a more accommodating spirit has of late years been shown in affording admission to the reading-room of the British Museum, and that the public have not failed to avail themselves of this liberality,—the number of admission tickets ordinarily in circulation having increased since 1816 from 300 to 2000. A new reading-room, on a larger scale, is now in progress. The number of visitors to the collections of natural history amounted in the year 1810 to 15,000. The year following, upon the mode of admission being changed, the number was doubled; and it has since that time constantly increased, amounting in 1818 to above 50,000, and in 1824 considerably exceeding 100,000.

Soon after the foundation of the British Museum, and at different periods of the last century, considerable collections of natural history were formed in this country with a view to public exhibitions. These contributed much to diffuse a taste for such studies, and would have been permanently useful to science had they been purchased for the museums of scientific societies, but having been formed merely with a view to pecuniary profit, they of course were broken up whenever the proprietors ceased to derive from them sufficient remuneration. Private collections were also formed with purely scientific views, such as the Herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, remarkable not only for its extent but its utility, as containing the original collections of many celebrated botanists, and consequently affording the means of identifying many doubtful specimens, by comparing them with those described by authors. This herbarium and the splendid library of natural history and science before mentioned, were open both to foreigners and Sir Joseph's own countrymen during the long period intervening between his return from his voyage with Captain Cooke, to the hour of his death. We We may take this opportunity of briefly mentioning some other private collections of a similar kind. The herbarium of Mr. Lambert, to which every English and foreign botanist has been allowed access in the most liberal manner, is second only to the Bankesian in value. It contains the collection of Pallas and other celebrated foreign botanists, and is rich in undescribed plants. The collection of Linnæus forms the foundation of the museum of Sir J. E. Smith at Norwich, and deservedly places it in the highest rank. The herbarium of Dr. Hooker, the present professor of botany at Glasgow, is very extensive, and, as it is constantly

constantly receiving additions from the liberality of the enterprizing and intelligent merchants of that city, promises soon to rival any in Great Britain. We have enumerated these the more willingly, because the English have shown greater zeal in providing materials for the advancement of botanical knowledge than of any other branches of natural history. We shall have occasion again to allude to this topic, and shall only observe that the total number of species preserved in the herbariums of British collectors is estimated at not less than 40,000.

From the institution of the Royal Society in 1663, to the year 1788, when the Linnean Society was founded, no subdivision of scientific labour was attempted in our metropolis. The Royal Society continued, without assistance, to embrace within its aim the cultivation of every department of natural philosophy; but a farther subdivision of labour, as inseparable a consequence of the progress of the sciences as of the arts, was at length effected with the concurrence and co-operation of the Royal Society itself; and the prosecution of the studies of zoology and botany in all their details was the chief object of the institution of the Linnean Society, which received a royal charter in 1802, and has now published fourteen volumes of Transactions, containing a variety of most valuable memoirs. It possesses also a library of natural history, and a museum, in which are found a large proportion of the quadrupeds of New Holland, and a collection of the birds of that remarkable country, more complete than any other in Europe. Those who are acquainted with the history and progress of this society will not attribute the slow advancement of zoological knowledge in Great Britain to any want of zeal and energy in its leading members, but to the general deficiency of funds indispensable for the formation of collections, and for the publication of illustrative plates.

The Royal Institution, the next in order of date, was founded in 1799. This establishment has conduced to the progress of science by the lectures delivered there on various subjects, particularly on chemistry, by its excellent laboratory, and by a library containing nearly 30,000 volumes. So much sound instruction has been afforded to the public by the lectures given in this establishment, that we should be sorry if any diminution of patronage were to circumscribe its utility.

The College of Surgeons was founded in 1800, and in the same year the museum of the celebrated John Hunter was purchased by parliament and given to the Institution, upon condition that twenty-four lectures should be delivered annually to members of the profession of surgery, and that the museum should be open to the public, under certain regulations. The collections of John

Hunter

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