The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-21 00:00:00

THE NEIV READING-ROOM AND LIBRA.
b Erb' Wbition BIES OF THE BRITISH .211USbU3I.

YORK RACES.—(This Day.)

(BY ELECTRIC TELEORAPII.)

GREAT NORTHERN HANDICAP.
Skirmisher

Pantomime

The Dupe
3
Thirteen ran. Won by half a length. Two lengths
between second and third.
KNAVESMIRE STAKES.

Terrific
Admiral Lyons
Gentle Kitty colt

Twelve ran.
SPRING ST. LEGER.

walked over.
ZETLAND STAKES.

The new Reading-room of our National Museum
and Library is now eubstantially completed. We
announced on Thursday last that it would be
opened to public view on the Bth of May for a week
only, and that on the following week readers will
be admitted to its use under the usual regulations
of the trustees. In the meanwhile our readers will
be interested by an account of one of the most re-
markable public buildings and architectural won-
ders of modern times. The Times, in a leading
article on the 7th of May last year, contained a
general description of the building then in progress;
and we humbly conceive that, by our then pro-
test against any false economy or miserable stint
of means for embellishment, we contributed to the
perfection of interior decoration. With the ex-
ception of a brief article in the Builder, of the 24th
ot March, 1855, when the foundations were just
laid, accompanied by woodcut plans of the in-
tended area and interior, we are not aware
of any public notice of this marvellous work.
Its site, in the internal quadrangle of the
Museum, has concealed its progress from
the public eye, although the lofty and capa-
cious edifice occupies an area of 48,000 super-
ficial feet. This site was indeed its proper and only
situation from the obvious necessity of the new
Reading-room being adjacent to the vast magazines
of books and manuscripts contained in the various
apartments of the Museum. In the public view,
therefore, the magnificent structure when visited
will appear to have been created by the wand of a
magician. Except to a few favoured visitors it is
unknoWn and has been unseen.
The present number of volumes in our great
public library is upwards of half a million ; but
even that large figure does not comprise th far
larger collection of separate and distinct articles—
in tracts, pamphlets, and manuscripts. They are
legion, and not yet accurately catalogued or com-
puted. Probably, theeuormous quantity of pamph-
lets, political, theological, and scientific of Great
Britain, since the Reformation, constitute the Bri-
tish Museum Library the largest collection of printed
literature in the world. Maps also form a rela-
tively considerable portion. The rats of increase
is enormous. In the Parliamentary return for the
year ending the 24th of December, 1856, not yet
published, it will appear that the last annual addi-
tions number 10,434 volumes, including music,
maps, and newspapers, of which 753 were pre-
sented, 4,018 purchased, and 5,831 acquired by
home copyright. The number of distinct articles
in these volumes was 27,516. In addition, the
Library had accumulated numerous maps, charts,
and plans, variously obtained. The number of
pieces of music &one added was 2,347. In gross,
the total additional articles that year numbered
42,639. Of the complete works accumulated in the
12 months 1,908 were presented, 2,005 purchased,
and 7,933 were acquired under the Copyright Acts.
In the same year, also, each article being stamped,
the number of stamps used was 162,910 !
The number of books returned to the shelves of
the General Library was 110,873 ; to those of the
Royal Library, 8,869 ; to those of the Grenville
Library, 1,018; to the closets in which books are
kept from day to day for the use of the readers,
79,598 ; making a total of 200,358, or 604 per diem.
Adding the number of volumes returned to the
shelves of the Reading-rooms, about 144,000, the
whole amounts to 344,358, or 1,175 per diem.
The whole number of readers within that year was
53,209, or an average of 181 per diem, the Read-
ing-rooms having been kept open 293 days. Each
reader had, therefore, consulted on an average 6i
volumes per diem.
Thus had our giant Library outgrown its local
habitation since its foundation in 1753, and when
the first contents of " Montagu House," Blooms-
bury, consisted of the Sloane Collection, including
only a few books, the Harleian MSS., and the Cot-
tonian Library ; Parliament providing no money,
but by act authorising the provision of 30,0001. by
a Lottery ! The old mansion continued perfectly
sufficient for the whole miscellaneous contents of
the Museum until a few new rooms were added for
the Egyptian antiquities obtained in 1801, and for
the Townley Marbles. In 1823 the present entirely
new building, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, be-
came necessary. Montagu House was finally
levelled with the ground in 1845, the new portico
being only finished April 19, 1847. It is worthy of
record that in the month of July, 1759, only five
readers attended the public reading-room.
The utter insufficiency of the institution for book
room and accommodation for readers existed during
the last four Parliaments, and without a remedy.
The public, the trustees, men of letters in the
Leg,i-lature, in vain devised various plans, and de-
manded pecuniary aid from the Commons. Select
committee reports and annual returns followed in
rapid arid abortive succession. The blue-books
and other Parliamentary papers and privately
printed statements would almost fill a private
library. It is sufficient now to refer our readers
to the two volumes of reports in 1835 and 1836,
and to the various Parliamentary returns asked
for since 1850 ; to similar Parliamentary volumes
on Public Libraries in 1849 and 1850 ;
and, lastly, to the effective Report of the Royal
Commission (with 800 appended folio pages of
evidence) appointed in 1850 to inquire into the
constitution and government of the Museum. The
practical result was an unanimous representation of
the Commissioners that " the subject of additions
to the Museum was one which must evidently, at
no distant period, engage the attention of her Ma-
jesty's Government." Mr. Hume, fortunately, was
an active member of the Commission, and con-
curred from honest conviction in the necessity of
an early and munificent grant of public money.
The aßoyal Commissioners, reporting the inade-
quacy of book-room, the injury to the valuable
contents of the library by the existing reading-
room arrangements, the slave-labour of the attend-
! ants, and the bad accommodation of the readers,
stated that " these circumstances have suggested
to Mr. Panizzi a scheme of extension by which the
buildings to be constructed would consist of new
MSS. rooms and a new enlarged reading-room,
which would enable the trustees to devote the pre-
sent MSS. rooms, including that at present made
over to the Grenville Library, to the printed
books. This report lay dormant almost for four
years. " Questions" were constantly asked in the
House of Commons as to the intentions of the Mi-
nisters of the day. The answers were of the usual
circiunlocutive character. The ordinary annual
vote was now and then opposed by individual mem-
bers, on the ground of theindeciewn or indifference
of the Government to the recommendations ot the
Commission. Actually the trustees ono year de-
clined to take more than half of the sum proposed
to be voted for the purchase of books and other ob-
jects of acquisition, assigning as a true reason that
the Museum would be inadequate for the reception
of increased contents. Matters thus continued in
status quo. In the meantime the difficulty of find-
ing room for the current accessions to the Library
became daily greater.
The plan first suggested by Mr. Panizzi, and
alluded to by the Commissioners, bad to be aban-
doned on the ground of expense and delay. As a
last resort, Mr. Panizzi proposed to the trustees
that a building should be erected in the inner quad-
rangle of the Museum. By this scheme the cost of
purchase would be avoided. This proposal was a, •
corupanied by drawings, showing the ground plan,
and a general detail of the manner in which it was
proposed that the interior arrangements for the ac-
commodation of the readers and of books should be
framed. Tie architect of the trustees Mr. Sydney
Smirke, was directed to confer with dr. Panizzi on
the details of this plan, and reported favourably
upon it. It is a remarkable circumstance that, al-
though some modifications were made by Mr.
Panizzi in his original plan, they were ultimately
abandoned, and the schf me, as ho first conceived
it, carried out. Mr. Smirke has the great merit
that, laying aside all professional jealousy, he has
always shown himeelt ready to carry out the plan
of the original designer ; and the result is a build-
ing, than which none are better, few perhaps so
thoroughly, adapted to the purposes for which it is
intended. Ultimately, on a " Supply night," on
the 3d of July, 1854, Parliament, by its lastetyteedn-
ing vote, on the " miscellaneous estimate," granted
55,2251. for the "British Museum establishment,"
towards its ordinary expenditure, and 101,142/. for
"new buildings and fittings." In this latter gross
estimate there was an item of 61,0001. "for the
erection of a building within the interior quad-
rangle, for the purpose of affording increased ac-
commodation." One member only " thought the
sum a great deal too much." Such was the first
vote for the great national monument we are now
describing. The first grant was not half enough,
as will soon be seen ; still it was a beginning, and
laid the foundation. Within three years the vast
structure has been completed, at the cost of
150,0001., or about that sum when &l the " ex-
tras" are accounted for.

The building is circular. It does not occupy the
entire quadrangle, there being unavoidably a clear
interval of from 27 to 50 feet all round, to give light
and air to the surrounding buildings, and as a guird
against possible destruction by fire from the outer
parts of the Museum. The dome is 140 feet in
diameter, its height being 106 feet. In this dimen-
sion of diameter it is only inferior to the Pantheon
of Rome by 2 feet ; St. Peter's being only 139 ; St.
Maria in Florence, 139 ; the tomb of Mahomet,
Bejapore, 135 ; St. Paul's, 112 ; St. Soptlia, Con-
stantinople, 107, and the church at Darmstadt, 105.
In other particulars our new dome is far superior.
The new reading-room contains 1, 250, 000 c übic feet