is the most valuable and reliable mass of information on the national library at that period that is anywhere to be found. One of the recommendations of the report to the House of Commons by this Committee was to the effect that no one should continue to hold office at the Museum who had any other appointment. It was this that led to the resignation of Mr. Baber, who had well and faithfully served the trustees for thirty years; and who began to feel that the comparative repose and grateful quietude of a country rectory were more to be desired than to remain in his post at the Museum, where he would have to superintend the carrying out in the library the recommendations of the Committee. He accordingly resigned, and retired to his living at Streatham; where, as a clergyman, he was as successful in the discharge of his sacred duties as he had been for so many years a faithful servant of the public.

The resignation of Mr. Baber made an important vacancy in the library of the Museum; and the appointment of his successor gave occasion to no small amount of misapprehension and much angry feeling among certain parties more immediately concerned, and was also made the subject of free criticism by the public press. As this is a very important event in the career of Mr. Panizzi, we are the more desirous of putting the question before our readers

C

with as much fairness and truthfulness as we are able.

It will be remembered that, at the retirement of Mr. Baber from the Museum, Mr. Cary was the "Assistant-Keeper of the Department of Printed Books." This gentleman-whom Charles Lamb designates "the pleasantest of clergymen " -very naturally expected to succeed Mr. Baber in the Keepership of the department. The great literary attainments, accurate scholarship, and high social character of Mr. Cary, fully justified him in looking confidently for the promotion he sought. Unhappily, the state of his health, occasioned mainly by his grief at the recent loss of his wife, was such that it was deemed by, the trustees, upon public grounds only, not desirable to confer upon him the appointment he so much coveted, and so richly merited. The amiable and accomplished translator of Dante was, as might have been expected, most acutely affected by the loss of the appointment. He addressed an able and characteristic letter of earnest remonstrance to Lord Chancellor Cottenham, which was published in the Times of July, 1837. This dignified and indignant letter is a good specimen of the style of Mr. Cary, and fully justifies the high eulogium Lord Macaulay pronounced upon his translation of the divine poem of the great Florentine, of which he says:-"I turn with pleasure to Mr. Cary's translation. There is no other version

which so fully proves that the translator is himself a man of poetical genius. It is difficult to determine whether the author deserves more praise for his intimacy with the language of Dante, or for the extraordinary mastery over his own." Talfourd, in his Final Memorials of Charles Lamb, speaking of Mr. Cary, remarks, that he was a man "whose sweetness of disposition and manner would have prevented a stranger from guessing that he was the poet who had rendered the adamantine poetry of Dante into English with kindred power."

The appointment of Mr. Panizzi to the Keepership of the Printed Books was so freely discussed by the public press, and such a topic of criticism in conversation at the period, that we may be pardoned if we state the exact particulars of this transaction. We know for a fact that no application for the appointment was made by him until he heard from Mr. Cary's own lips that the Principal Trustees would not give him the appointment. We, ourselves, heard Mr. Panizzi remark to Mr. Cary that that being the case, the question was simply whether a stranger should be appointed. This led him to write at once to the Principal Trustees, urging his claims, he being next in seniority to Cary; and the result was his appointment to the Keepership. We have always been of opinion that the real cause of opposition and unkindly criticism of Mr. Panizzi, in the public press, was the fact that

he was a foreigner. Had he been an Englishman, he would have been accepted at once, as he was undoubtedly a man of great ability; and possessed, moreover, singular qualifications for taking the headship of a great library.

Having said thus much as to the real facts of Mr. Panizzi's appointment to be Keeper of the Printed Books-and those who remember the fierce and constant attacks that were made upon him at the time, and long afterwards, will not deem the reference needless-we may say that he entered upon his work with all the strength and energy of a young and vigorous mind. The removal of the library from Montague House to the building recently erected for its reception, gave immediate scope for the exemplification of Mr. Panizzi's plans for the improvement of the national collection. We remember the morning that the first load of books was removed from the old to the new library; it was an eventful day in the history of the Printed Book department. The fine collection made by Mr. Cracherode, and bequeathed by him to the nation, was the first that was placed in the new library. As load after load came up, the Keeper himself began to classify them for their new home. This collection contains some of the most beautiful volumes that ever came from the printing press; and among them are rare tomes bound by Grollier, and not a few were from the hand of Roger

Paine, whose cunning fingers seem to have been formed for the art in which he so much

excelled. It was our pleasant duty, on the occasion, to affix the new press-marks to the volumes as they were placed upon the shelves by Mr. Panizzi; and we remember well, at this distant period, the rapturous exclamations of the Keeper, as the fine books passed one by one through his hands. The hand is a wonderfully expressive part of our complex body; and to see beautiful books gently lifted and delicately handled, as if they were the choicest flowers, or the most exquisite specimens of art, led us at that early period of our Museum service reverently to regard the precious volumes. Nothing roused the anger and stirred the indignation of Mr. Panizzi more than when he saw books carelessly handled, or allowed to fall to the ground. He would, if within hearing, leave any work upon which he might happen to be engaged, when the crashing sound of the falling of a book was heard in the library. We have known him administer reproof, as he only could do, many a time to careless fellows who had not the same reverence for books as that cherished by the great librarian. It is said of Charles Lamb that, on one occasion, he was seen to kiss one of the small folios of his favourite old authors. No lover of books will be surprised at this: the covering of a choice volume will produce upon some men very much the same feeling