embarked, it is often so stowed that it cannot be lowered in case of need without long delay, and is frequently deficient in sails, oars, thole-pins, plugs, and always without an efficient compass. Yet in this ill-equipped boat the lives of thirty, forty, perhaps fifty, of our too confiding countrymen are risked. It would be easy to see, before the vessel sailed, that the life-boat was efficient; that a certain supply of provisions and fresh water were placed in proper cases; that the mast, sails, oars, and thole-pins were secured into the boat, and that an efficient boatcompass was provided, instead of the ridiculous toy that goes by that name, the card of which spins round like a top at every stroke of the oars. The beautiful spirit or liquid boatcompass of Dent may be purchased for less than 51. A life-boat thus furnished would give confidence to the passengers, would serve them well in time of need, and would be no more than the legislature is entitled to require under the provisions of the Act. Anything less is a gross imposition upon the simple emigrants, who embark in 'confidence, believing that everything has been done for their safety.

In addition to the life-boat system we have located in most of the coast-guard stations rocket and mortar apparatus to enable a connection to be established with stranded vessels by firing a rope over them. This method was effectual in 243 cases during the last year, and is well worked under the auspices of the Board of Trade. The drawback to the use of the mortar apparatus is its weight, which prevents its being easily transported along the rocky shores where it is chiefly needed, but we understand that Mr. Brown, of the General Register and Record Office of Seamen, has invented a portable apparatus, which is at present under trial, and which if found to succeed will greatly facilitate our means of communicating with stranded vessels, and tend in no small measure to still further lessen the dismal list of seamen who annually perish on our weatherbeaten coast.

ART.

ART. VII.-1. Report from the Select Committee on the British Museum; together with the Minutes of Evidence. London. 1835, 1836. Fol.

2. Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Constitution and Management of the British Museum, with Minutes of Evidence. London. 1850. Fol.

3. Acts and Votes of Parliament relating to the British Museum. 4. Synopsis and Contents of the British Museum.

5. Copy of all Communications made by the Architect and Officers of the British Museum to the Trustees respecting the Enlargement of the Building of that Institution, &c. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 30 June, 1852.

6. Copies of all Communications made by the Officers and Architect of the British Museum to the Trustees respecting the want of space for exhibiting the Collections in that Institution, &c. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 1 July, 1858.

THE

THE British Museum is insufficient to accommodate a vast portion of its treasures. Either this great national establishment must become a gigantic warehouse of unpacked goods, or it must be enormously enlarged, or there must be some division of its multifarious contents, and a single building be no longer made the receptacle for almost everything which man has executed and nature produced from generation to generation and from one end of the earth to the other. Literature, art, and science are each interested in the solution which may be given to the problem, and as all persons are agreed upon the necessity of an immediate remedy, and as there is a difference of opinion as to what that remedy should be, we shall endeavour to assist the public in arriving at a decision.

The British Museum has not been formed upon any wellmatured plan. It has become what it is because the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, which, in conjunction with the Cottonian and Harleian libraries, constituted its basis, happened to be of an exceedingly miscellaneous character, and that the casual bequests of its numerous benefactors were equally various. All the curiosities which were brought to the door of the building in Great Russell Street found a home there, and its contents have been regulated in a great degree by the chance fancy of the contributors, and not from a previous consideration of what objects were proper to be grouped together. An account of the manner in which the Museum has grown up will best explain how things have been brought into juxtaposition in this country which in every other capital in Europe are kept distinct.

In the year 1753 the Act of Parliament was passed by which the museum of Sir Hans Sloane was ordered to be purchased and placed, together with the Cottonian and Harleian Libraries, in one General Repository.' The books and manuscripts of Sir Hans Sloane were estimated at 50,000 volumes, which was, no doubt, a great exaggeration; but the number must have been large, and, combined with the Cottonian and Harleian collections, they constituted the principal feature of the Museum. In consequence, the framers of the Act gave to the person in whom the care and custody' of the General Repository was vested, the title of Principal Librarian, while all other employés are styled 'officers and servants.' The preponderance, however, of the book department caused the whole of the subordinates to be technically termed under and assistant librarians. From the recital of the will of Sir Hans Sloane in the Act of Incorporation, it appears that in addition to books, drawings, and manuscripts, he had gathered together 'prints, medals, and coins, ancient and modern, seals, cameos and intaglios, precious stones, agates, jaspers, vessels of agate and jasper, crystals, mathematical instruments, drawings, and pictures;' and it might have been added, stuffed birds, beasts, and fishes, together with anatomical preparations, and divers reptiles, monsters, and abortions, very fit for the museum of a learned physician, but rather offensive than pleasing to the general public. It is evident, from the silence with which the natural history department is passed over, that it was then thought of subordinate importance, and, in truth, science had seldom much share in those days in the formation of collections from the animal kingdom, which were generally regarded by educated men with contempt. Sir Hans Sloane expressed a desire that his medley of curiosities might be kept together, if it were possible. As it bore about the same proportion to the present establishment that a Thames wherry does to the Leviathan, there was then no difficulty in complying with this request, and Parliament acceded to it without foreseeing the result.

It was the wish of Sir Hans Sloane that his collection should remain at his manor-house at Chelsea, and therefore rather at a distance from town than close to the metropolis; but as this was incompatible with the formation of a General Repository, Montague House was purchased. Thither the whole was removed in the year 1757, and opened to the public in 1759. Large additions were contemplated by the Act of Incorporation; but it never appears to have occurred to the Trustees that either their Institution embraced too wide a field, or Montague House must soon become too narrow for the purpose. No prophetic eye foresaw what treasures from every quarter of the globe would be rapidly accumu

lated,

lated, and it is not improbable that the managers thought more of filling the cistern than of providing against its overflow. The immediate result was to attract fresh contributions. King George II. led the way in 1757 and presented the old royal library, which comprised a very valuable collection of about 2000 manuscripts and upwards of 9000 books, formed by the sovereigns of England from Henry VII. to the time of the royal donor. In 1759 Mr. Solomon da Costa presented 180 Hebrew books, which had been collected and bound for King Charles II., though from some circumstance not explained they never became the property of that monarch, perhaps because he was unable to pay for them. Always needy, he had tastes which he cared much more to indulge than the possession of books in the Hebrew tongue. In 1762 a large and unique collection of tracts, relating to the period of the great Rebellion and the Commonwealth, was presented by King George III. In 1766 Dr. Birch bequeathed a collection rich in biography. Mr. Speaker Onslow bequeathed a collection of Bibles in the year 1768; and in 1773 and 1783 Sir Joseph Banks presented a considerable number of books printed in Iceland. In 1778 and 1798 Sir John Hawkins presented several works on music. In 1780 the remarkable collection of English plays, formed by Mr. Garrick and bequeathed by him to the nation, were received; and above 900 volumes, chiefly classics, were bequeathed by Mr. Tyrwhitt in 1786. In 1790 and 1799 about 1900 works, chiefly biographical, were obtained by gift and bequest from Sir W. Musgrave; and in 1799 the library was enriched by the splendid collection of Mr. Cracherode, who bequeathed to the Museum all his books, consisting of nearly 5000 of the most choice volumes, together with his prints, gems, minerals, &c. This was the last acquisition of importance by gift or bequest to the library of printed books within the first half century of its existence.

The manuscripts obtained during the same period were principally derived from two sources. In 1796 the trustees purchased the collection of Oriental manuscripts formed by Brassey Halked, Esq., for 5507.; and in 1803 the Museum came into possession of the large and important collection relating to topography and biography, bequeathed by the Rev. William Cole.

In 1765 Gustavus Brander presented a collection of fossils, obtained principally by himself in Hampshire, and to which he afterwards made considerable additions. In 1798 a large and valuable collection of minerals of every class was purchased from Charles Hatchett, Esq., which received an interesting accession under the will of the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, besides a considerable number of the volcanic productions of Mount Vesuvius,

Vesuvius, presented by Sir W. Hamilton. An extensive collection of stuffed birds, which had been exhibited for some time by a person named Greenwood, was purchased for 4607. in the year 1769.

The antiquities received an important addition in 1772 by the purchase, for the sum of 84107., of the collection of Etruscan, Grecian, and Roman antiquities, formed in Italy by Sir William Hamilton, who also presented many objects of a similar character; and in 1802 à large collection of coins, formed by Mr. Samuel Tyssen, and containing the most complete series of Saxon coins, perhaps, at that time in the kingdom, was bought for 6201. About the year 1773 Sir Joseph Banks presented the collection of dresses, implements, &c., from the South Sea Islands, which has become the nucleus of the Ethnographical collection. In 1804 the Egyptian antiquities, acquired by the capitulation of Alexandria in 1801, were directed by George III. to be deposited in the British Museum. In 1805 the House of Commons granted 20,0007. for the purchase of the Townley collection of sculptured marbles, terracottas, and bronzes and gems; and in 1799, under the bequest of the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, a collection of prints, valued at 50007., was received. During the first fifty years of its existence the Museum was divided into three departments,―manuscripts, printed books, and natural history; each of which was from time to time fostered or neg. lected according to circumstances. To such an extent did the antiquities increase that, instead of continuing to be classed with the library-an incongruity only to be accounted for by the fact that the library was considered the main feature of the institution-they were formed into a separate department of Antiquities and Art in 1807, and placed under the care of Mr. Taylor Combe.

Twenty years later another department, that of botany, was called into existence. But this arose rather from accident than necessity. Sir Joseph Banks by his will bequeathed about 16,000 volumes to the Museum, subject to the use of them for his life by Mr. Robert Brown. This distinguished botanist allowed the specimens and library to be at once transferred to the Museum, on condition of his accompanying them as one of the under librarians of the institution, or, more plainly, as keeper of the botany. Thither he came, and, to use his own words, brought his department with him.'

It would be wearisome, and, indeed, almost endless, to particularise the additions which were made to the Museum after the first fifty years of its existence. Enough has been said to show how diversified were the gifts of its benefactors and the pur

chases