298 BRITISH MUSEUM structure became necessary. The present edi- fice, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, was com- menced in 1823, and completed by his younger brother, Sidney Smirke; and in 1845 Montague house was levelled with the ground, and the new portico was finished April 19, 1847. Ac- cording to the report of the commissioners appointed in 1847-'8, to examine into its con- stitution and government, the buildings alone had cost since 1823 nearly 700,000. The reading room, completed in 1857, cost 150,000 Reading Room. more. It is circular, surmounted by a dome 106 ft. high and 140 ft. in diameter, being one foot more than that of St. Peter's, and two feet less than that of the Pantheon ; it can accommo- date 300 readers, each having a separate desk. The entire public expenditure for the mainte- nance of the institution, and for the purchase of the various collections, from 1755 to 1858, was more than 1,500,000; in addition to which there have been numerous bequests from private individuals. The museum con- sists of seven departments : manuscripts, print- ed books, antiquities, prints and drawings, min- eralogy and geology, zoology, and botany; to which should be added the reading room. All of these departments are under separate keep- ers, to whom and their assistants and subor- dinates the business of the museum is intrusted. The library occupies the ground floor of the present building, filling 25 spacious depart- ments and galleries, one of which measures 300 ft. in length. In July, 1838, the vol- umes of printed books, being counted one by one as they stood upon the shelves, were found to be in round numbers 235,000. Counted in the same manner in December, 1849, they were found to amount to 435,000. In May, 1851, they amounted to 460,000, and in July, 1853, to 510,110. In 1860 the number of printed volumes was estimated to be nearly 700,000; and as they increase at the rate of 20,000 I a year, the number must now considerably i exceed 1,000,000, not counting separate parts and pamphlets. There are 40,000 volumes of
- manuscripts, exclusive of more than 20,000 ori-
ginal rolls, charters, and deeds. There is also a collection of pamphlets exceeding 200,000 in number, illustrative of English and French his- tory, and a series of newspapers going back to j the first appearance of these publications early in the 17th century. The museum contains twice as many books relating to American history as are to he found in any library in the United States. The collection of Hebrew books is the largest in the world. As a whole, the library of the British museum is inferior only to the national library at Paris. The manuscript collections are deposited in four rooms, situated at the southern extremity of the east wing, ad- joining Great Russell street. These collections, which have been pronounced to be the most numerous and in some respects the finest in the world, are 11 in number, several of which once belonged to the private libraries of men emi- nent in rank, and of refined taste and culture. They are as follows : Sloane, acquired in 1763, containing 4,100 volumes ; Cottonian, 900 vol- umes ; Harleian, 7,639 volumes ; Royal, 1,950 volumes; Lansdowne, in 1807, 1,245 volumes; Hargrave, in 1813, 499 volumes ; Burney, in 1817, 524 volumes; King's, in 1823, 438 vol- umes ; Egerton, in 1829, about 2,000 volumes ; Arundel, in 1831, 550 volumes ; additional, about 5,000 volumes. The progress of the printed collections will be best understood from the following brief chronological summary of the more important donations and purchases, made since the foundation of the library in 1753 : 1759, a collection of Hebrew books, 180 volumes, presented by Solomon da Costa; 1762, a unique collection of tracts, published 1640-'60, consisting of about 30,000 articles, presented by George III. ; 1766, a collection, rich in biography, bequeathed by the Rev. Dr. Birch ; 1768, a collection of Bibles, bequeathed by Ar- thur Onslow ; 1786, a collection of classical authors, 900 volumes, bequeathed by Mr. Tyr- whitt; 1799, a collection of rare editions of the classics and of Italian authors, 4,500 volumes, bequeathed by the Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode; 1815, Dr. Burney's collection of books on music, purchased ; a collection of books belonging to Baron de Moll, 20,000 vol- umes, purchased at Munich; 1818, Dr. Bur- ney's library of printed books, valued at 9,000 guineas purchased by a special parliamentary grant; 1820, a splendid library, rich in scien- tific journals and books on natural history, 16,000 volumes, bequeathed by Sir Joseph- Banks; 1823, the magnificent library formed by George III., at a cost of 130,000, amount- ing to about 80,000 volumes, presented by George IV. ; 1847, a collection of the Chinese books of Robert Morrison, in 11,500 volumes, presented by the secretary of state for the for- eign department; 1847, the library of Thomas Grenville, 20,240 volumes, collected at a cost
