Star.
London, England, 1825-02-26 00:00:00

Sir CHARLES LONG held in I;is hand a-Petition

hoor the Trustees of the British Museum, to which, as
it tespecied a subject of considerable interest, he beg-
ged to solicit the attention of the House. The widow
ola Gentleman who had for many years been the East
India Company's resident at Bagdad, at present pos-
sessed a most valuable collection of MSS. medals, and
Oriental curiosities, which her husband accumulated
during his stay in Asia. It was the wish of Mr.. Rich,
the Gentleman alluded to, during hii lifetime, that this
collection should be placed after his death in the British
Museum. Mrs. Rich had accordingly proposed to dis-
pose, of it to the Trustees of that Institution, in the most
reasonable manner, namely, that she should receive in
return only whatever sum such persons as might be
competent to estimate the value of the collection,
should deem its fair worth. The Trustees, feeling-a
disposition to tieat.with Mrs. Rich, referred to several
persons uistinguished fot their knowledge of the sub-
jects offered to them—to Dr. M'Biide, to the Professor
of Oriental Literature at Oxford, to Dr. Lee of Cam-
bridge, and others; and the testimony of all those ac-
complished and skilful judges, concurred in stating that
tl.c collection was most valuable, and wou)cl be a most
it:portant addition to the other Collections already in
the possession of the 'latish Museum. At a future
tp,o;tunity he (Sir Charles Long) should be able
Le trusted to enter more fully into a descrip-
tion of the vatiety of cutious and important ar-
ticles which Mr. Rich bad with indefatigable zeal
amassed during his residence in the East. He should
now merely trouble the House to mention that among
other things the Collection contained 900 volumes of
MSS. in the Persian, C aldee, Syriac, and other Ori-
ental languages—that in the Persian MSS. were even
some ancient Commentaries on the Sacred Scriptures,
which would probably be found most usetul in illus-
trating particular passages in the Div hue Writings.--
net ew- al oumter of Greek works which Mr.

Payne Knight, than whom few parsons wete bitter.
qualified to estimate, had pronounced to be -highly.
interesting. Among.the Medals were:many relatively
the antiquities of ilabyinn and Nineveh, which, when.
fully deciphered, werezalculated-tivelnaidate the sculpi
lure ofsverrremote ages—andithbough•they had nor
'been so deciphered, the onlrdlatice of ever effecting •iti

geiher. Another circumstance which gave this
tion additional value was, that notwithstanding the ex-
tent of our Asiatic dominions, and the length of time
which our authority hadezisted over that portion of the
globe, the Library of the British Museum was at pre-
sent almost destitute of Oriental literature. For this
reason, if no other, he thought it well worthy the atten-
tion of Pat liament, at least to examine whether the col-
lection now offered for sale on such equitable terms,
were worthy of supplying, in•some degree, so remark-
able a deficiency. He should likewise beg to observe,
that oaing to the circumstance just noticed, there was
no possibility. in this instance, of .any loss arising from
duplicatei, all the MSS. being literally new to the
country, and forming in themselves not an indiscrimi-'
natc, but a choice collection. He (Sir C. Long) might,
belore he concluded, be permitted to remind the House,
that when the Library of the British Museum was in-
creased by the munificent gift of the Royal Library,
presenrei to the Public by his Maje..ty; he indulged in
predicting that the example would be followed in due
time _by other gifts of a similar kind. It would no doubt
be satisfactory to the House to learn, that already those
anticipations had begun to be realized—as the Trus-
tees had received intimation from Sir R. Hoare, that a
very large Library collected by him and his family
would, as soon as the state of the new erections rendered
it acceptable, be transferred to the British Museum.—
Among the works in Sir Richard Hoare's Library were,
he understocd, not less than seventeen or eighteen thou-
sand volumes on Italian history and topography, se-
lected with the utmost taste and judgment. The present Petition
he would submit to the House to be taken into consideration in a
similar manner to that respecting the Lansdown Collection. The
sum at which the whoje was valued was 28,000—viz. £B,OOO for
the MSS. £l,OOO for the Medals, and £l,OOO for the other Curiosi-
ties. The /lon. Member concluded by moving, that the Petition
be referred to a select Committee to report on the same. The Mo-
tion was agreed to, and a Committee appointed accordingly.
Sir JOHN NEWPORT moved, that the Order for certain
Statistical Returns relative to Ireland, which be bad obtained list
Session, but bad not yet been complied with, should be received.—
Sir JOHN NEW PORT gave notice,in a very lovi tone of voice,
that on Tuesday, the Bth of March, be should move for leaver to
bring in a Bill limiting the Plurality of Benelloes in Ireland.

t' Them—were also atv