The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-21 00:00:00

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

This morning were published the accounts,
estimates, of the British Museum. The expenditure
for the year ended the 31st ult., was 101,8081. 14s. 4d. ;
the sum required for the ensuing year is estimated at
102,7441. During the year 1865, 369,967 persons visited
the general collections, exclusive of readers. This is a
less number than that in any previous year from 1860.
It seems that in the reading-room about 4,158
books are used per day. The number of readers
in the year 1865 was 100,271, or, on an average, 349 per
diem, each reader having consulted 12 books daily. 29,686
volumes have been added to the library. The number of
deliveries of manuscripts to readers during the year is
2,311, and to artists and others in the rooms of the
department to 4,190. The collection of manuscripts
has been added to by 1,177 documents, 180 ori-
ginal charters, and 231 casts of seals. The Eger-
ton collection has been increased by 40 manu-
scripts. Some valuable acquisitions are reported in
the department of oriental, British, and mediaeval anti-
quities and ethnography. At the sale of the
celebrated collection of the late Count Pourtales a
number of antiquities were purchased for the Greek
and Roman departments, and various other pur-
chases, presents, &c., are recorded. In coins
and medals we learn that the great collection for.
merly in the Bank of England, and numbering with the
I medals collected by Messrs. Hoggsrd and Cuff about 7,700
I specimens, have been deposited in the Museum by the
IBank authorities. Professor Owen reports 16,700 additions
in the department of zoology, 10,079 in that of geology,
I and 3,623 in that of mineralogy.

We do not give to-day our usual list of parlia-
mentary business for the ensuing week in consequence of
the uncertainty which exists as to the duration of the re-
form debate. This on Monday, at all events, will have
the precedence, and possibly private members will give
way on Tuesday should the debate be then unfinished.
Mr. Sheridan's motion on fire insurance is the chief sub-
ject on the paper. On Wednesday the first order of the
day is the committee on the Fellows of Colleges Declara-
tion Bill, when Mr. Walpole will move that the house go
into the said committee that day six months. The last of
the orders of the day on Wednesday is the Commons
(Metropolis) Bill. The adjourned debate on the Irish
Established Church stands fixed on the paper for Thursday.
With reference to the curious geological pheno-
menon relative to a layer of pebbles which is now gradually
covering the coast at the back of the Isle of Wight from
west to east, mentioned in the Express a few days ago, the
Isle of Wight Chronicle states that a shingle island near
the Needles rocks, on the south-west coast of the
island, mysteriously disappeared a few years since.
The Chronicle further states that Hurst Castle,
I opposite the Needles rocks to the westward, is built
on a spit of land, and that marked pebbles have been
placed on the western edge of the spit, which, after a few
years, have been found on the eastern edge, and have
afterwards disappeared. The tide rashes with great force
I over this spit of land from west to east.
" The unfortunate Ott," says the Siiele, " who
was assassinated by Count d'Eulenberg, left four sisters
advanced in age, whom he supported by his exertions. A
pecuniary indemnity for the benefit of this family was ap-
plied for to the Prussian government, but refused. A
pamphlet on the subject has been since published by M.
Henri Schirmer, which, having been translated into Ger-
i man, has just been seized at Berlin."