BOOK V. Chapter XI. Spain and Portugal. to the destructive fire of 1761. Very soon after that The Libraries of event, Beaumarchais visited the Library, and his keen observation detected an agency that was to prove more fatally obstructive of the growth of a great Library than fire could be. The works of all our "modern philosophers," he says, are prohibited, and not only all that they have written, but "all that they may hereafter write." About 1809, it was removed to Madrid, and when restored by Ferdinand VII., nearly 10,000 volumes, according to Mr. Ford, lost their way. Mr. Inglis saw it in 1830, and says that it did not then contain more than 24,000 volumes. There is no complete catalogue of the books; Casiri's very inaccurate catalogue includes only the Arabic manuscripts rescued from the conflagration of 1671, with a few others subsequently acquired. This catalogue, however, is in one respect valuable, inasmuch as each manuscript is not only enumerated, but its age and the author's name, when known, are also given, together with occasional extracts, both in the original Arabic and in Latin. 2 An excellent catalogue of the Greek MSS. by Miller, was printed at the expense of the French government, in 1848; for, to the honour of France, under all its changes of polity and administration, the promotion of learning is regarded,-with more or less of wisdom in respect of the methods,-as one of the public duties of a government, whatever its party complexion, and 1 Letter to the Duke of La Vallière, 24 Dec., 1764, published by De Lomenie in the Revue des Deux Mondes. 2 Spain in 1830, i, 347. alike whether the political barometer may stand at "stormy," or at "set fair." The number of Provincial Libraries in Spain is considerable; but (like too many of the Libraries themselves) unprogressive. There is no official account of them of later date than 1835, when the more extensive and important were stated to be those of Toledo (30,000 printed books), Salamanca (24,000, with 1500, MSS.), Santiago University at Corunna (17,307, with 41 MSS.), and Valladolid (13,250). At Malaga, Peruel, Murcia, Lugo, Cervero, Oviedo, Palma, and some other places, not to mention the Library of the Asturian Institute, and that of the Junta of Commerce at Corunna,' are collections of books varying from 3000 or 4000 to between 9000 and 10,000 volumes each. BOOK V. Chapter XI. The Libraries of Spain and Portugal. brary at Seville. Elsewhere than in Spain, the Columbian Library at Columbian Li Seville would surely have grown into a very cynosure of book-lovers. At one time, it was so choice a collection as to be worthy of the great name it bears; but (cosa de España) the tineœ and the blatte had it so long to themselves, that they quite ruined many of its treasures, although it still possesses about 18,000 volumes; and, amongst them, a precious MS. in which Columbus tried to satisfy the Inquisition that his discovery had been scripturally predicted; it has also some books. that were his cabin companions, and bear his MS. notes. 2 See App. to the Report on the British Museum, 514, 515, et seqq. 2 Ford, ubi supra, 176. BOOK V. Chapter XI. When Dr. Gustav Heine visited Portugal in 1846, The Libraries of he found but three Libraries strictly to be called Public. Spain and Portugal. of Portuguese Libraries, in 1846. These were at Lisbon, at Oporto, and at Evora. A fourth Public Library was in course of formation at Heine's account Braga. All of them were based upon the collections of Monasteries. The Royal Library at Lisbon was still in course of arrangement. The Oporto Library, according to Heine, possessed about 60,000 printed volumes and 2000 MSS. Of the contents of the Library at Evora he failed to obtain satisfactory information. It was founded by Manuel do Cenaculo, Archbishop of Evora, and augmented by the collections of some Monasteries in that diocese. The official accounts ot 1850. Of Proprietary Libraries, Heine mentions more especially the following: (1.) The Royal Library in the Palace Necessidades, containing about 36,000 volumes; (2.) That at Ajuda, containing 40,000 volumes (sent to Brazil in 1807, but brought back again, he says, in 1821); (3.) The Library of the Monastery of Mafra; (4.) The University Library at Coimbra, which at the dissolution of Monasteries received the printed works from Santa Cruz, whilst the Manuscripts were sent to Oporto.3 In the Official Returns to the Foreign Office of 1850, accounts are comprised both of the four Libraries first-named by Heine, of that of Coimbra, and of a small Library at Ponta Delgada, founded in 1841. They also include information respecting the collection of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, 1 Briefliche Mittheilung des Dr. G. Heine an Hofrath Hänel über Spanische und Portugiesische Bibliotheken (Serapeum, vii, 193-199). which, together with all the preceding, are described as Public Libraries, freely accessible. The National Library was created by a decree of the 29 February 1796; is at present governed by regulations which were established by royal authority in 1836; and was largely increased by the remnants of monastic collections in 1841. Don José Feliciano de Castilho Barreto, the Principal Librarian, has a melancholy tale to tell (in his Relatorio a cerca do Bibliotheca Nacional, published in 1844) of the confusion into which these monastic books had been suffered to fall, and of the other chaotic elements which he had to subdue, more or less completely, as he could. In 1850, the general statement of contents is "Printed volumes, whether bound or sewed, 84,073. The MSS. amount to 8075 volumes." The Library of the Royal Academy dates from 1779; received the collection of the Jesuits in 1834, and, at the same period, was opened to the Public. The number of printed volumes is stated as about 50,000, and that of MSS. about 10,000. The Oporto Library is stated to contain "48,000 printed volumes, and 1222 MS. codices." The return as to Braga is, "the printed and manuscript volumes amount to 20,000;" as to Coimbra,-"the printed books amount to more than 52,000 [printed] volumes; the MSS. to 900;" as to Evora, -"there are about 25,000 printed, and about 1800 MSS. volumes," of which latter a printed catalogue is stated to be in the press.1 1 Castilho Barreto, Relatorio a cerca do Bibliotheca nacional, i, 5-123; Foreign Office Returns of 1851, 35-39; Serapeum, ubi supra. BOOK V. Chapter XI. Spain and CHAPTER XII. PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. "As Years are running past us, let us throw some- LANDOR (Citation of Shakespeare, 1835, 146.) BOOK V. Chapter XII. and Future. In casting a retrospective glance along the path we have trodden, three things strike me as standing out Past, Present, somewhat prominently from the rest. The first, that both here in Britain, and in almost all parts of Europe, the world owes to the Clergy,-Protestant or Romanist,—a majority of those literary storehouses, whose rise and growth have been narrated in these pages. The second, that the comparative inferiority of our own country (even to States of far subordinate rank), in respect of the public provision of Libraries, although it be an indubitable historical fact, is now in a fair way to become an historical fact only. The third, that recent experience in the History of Libraries, whether it be British, American, or Foreign, points, alike and unmistakeably, to the conclusion that for the Libraries of the Future we must mainly look to the local action of |