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of assistants, in lieu of the superfluous Keeperships. An increased scale of salary, and consequent incom- The Imperial patibility of a Keepership or Assistantship with other offices is also recommended. Regular promotion, an ascending scale of salary, a Rota of vacations, and a sort of B. A. qualification on the part of candidates, are among the details of the measures suggested.

IV. On the important question as to the Terms of Accessibility the Commissioners recommend that the present rule of free admission be adhered to; but that two Reading-Rooms be provided, one for the ordinary use of the Public; the other for students only; that the privilege of free Admission be restricted to the former, the books supplied to which are also to be limited, both as to character and extent; whilst some satisfactory voucher is to be required from students seeking access to the latter. The hours of admission, it is proposed, shall be six daily, throughout the year, at the least.

IV. Public
Service.

V. On the much controverted question as to the loan V. Lending. of books from the Library, the Commission expresses its clear conviction that the abuses which have heretofore attended the practice have been already greatly reduced by the zealous exertions of the officers, and may by some further and discreet restrictions be wholly removed.

and Binding.

VI. As to the augmentation of the Library the Com- VI. Acquisitions missioners strenuously recommend greater liberality on the part of the government, and a more systematic procedure on the part of the expenditors. With this view the creation of a special office for watching the requirements and the acquisitions of the Library is

BOOK V. Chapter I.

Library at Paris.

wisely suggested. Fuller attention to the exigencies

The Imperial of the collection in respect of Binding, and with a direct view to the encouragement of the art in its highest departments, is also desired.

VII. Catalogues.

VIII. Copy Tax.

IX. Suggested
Board of
Visitors.

VII. Next comes the question of the Catalogues, a subject which I have spared no pains to discuss to the best of my ability, in its appropriate place. Here it must suffice to express my earnest conviction that the Commissioners have utterly failed to bestow on the labours which have been performed that just and truthful appreciation to which they were so obviously entitled; and have caught eagerly at petty, superficial, and flippant objections, both to what has been actually done, and to what it was in contemplation to do. Here, and now, it must suffice to quote the puerile phrase in which the Commissioners have disclosed their own inability to deal with the question at issue:-"In such a matter," say they, "the great point is to come quickly to an end." (... en pareille matière le grand point c'est d'arriver vite au but....) There is much greater wisdom in our homely English proverb: The more haste, the worse speed.

VIII. The Commission proceeds to point out that the law of Copy-tax is very imperfectly complied with; that the text of the law itself needs improvement; and that the measure should be extended to public books and documents, which at present it fails to reach.

IX. It also suggests a sort of Board of Visitors to watch over the Imperial Library, somewhat on the model of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum, but with much restricted powers of action.

X. Finally, it treats of the various matters involved

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in the enlargement and partial reconstruction of the The Imperial

BIBLIOTHÈQUE IMPERIALE. PARIS.

Library at Paris.

X. The Build

ings.

14

15

с

Cour

O

10

O

Globes

RUE COLBERT.

Cour:

E

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buildings of the Library. Two sets of plans, prepared The Imperial by M. Labrouste, are briefly described. By the one set it is proposed to erect, on the site of the present Southern transverse gallery, two Reading-Rooms with annexed accommodation for 560,000 volumes, without interfering either with the noble Mazarine Gallery, extending along the Rue Richelieu, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,) or with the great central court (c c). By the other, both Gallery and Court would be destroyed; à new building would be erected over nearly the entire site, and the ReadingRooms would be placed in its centre. A glance at the prefixed plan will make this paragraph more easily intelligible. The faintly marked outlines at E indicate houses in the Rue Vivienne, the removal of which is recommended as absolutely essential, whatever may be the plan ultimately adopted.

In submitting this Report to the Emperor, the Minister of Public Instruction, wisely (as I venture to think) disapproved of the proposed alienation of the Department of Prints; passed over in silence the recommendation that the printing of the Catalogues should be suspended; and postponed any decision as to a 'Board of Visitors'.

An Imperial decree of the 14th July 1858 enacts (1) that the Library shall be under the general control of an Administrator General, subordinate to the Ministry of Public Instruction; (2) that it shall be divided into four departments (the geographical collections being attached to the Printed Books); (3) that it shall be open throughout

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the year, a fortnight at Easter excepted; and, from the 1st of October next, for six hours daily; (4) that there The Imperial shall be two Reading-Rooms (with the limitations recommended by the Commission); (5) that each department shall have a Keeper (Conservateur-sous-directeur) and an Assistant Keeper (Conservateur-sous-directeur adjoint), with the exception that the Department of Printed Books and Maps shall have three Assistant Keepers. It then proceeds to regulate, on the principles I have already indicated, the details of the administration and staff; and finally directs that a general inventory of all the collections shall be made forthwith.1

It is evident from these documents that, whilst that large and liberal mode of viewing the claims of literature which has so long characterised the government and the institutions of France, has maintained itself, amidst all the changes of rulers and the revolutions of policy, practical reforms and prudential limitations have not been neglected. The Imperial Library is an establishment of which France may justly be proud, and of which thousands of students-the obscure as well as the known-in all parts of the world, conscious of the benefits they have indirectly derived from treasures which many of them can never hope to look upon, will say, with all their hearts: "LONG MAY IT FLOURISH." But in reference even to such a topic as this, it is impossible to forget that a system of Government which wars with the free thoughts of the living, can

1 Le Moniteur Universel, 20 Juillet, 1848.