“The Standing Committee of the Trustees of the British Museum think it their duty to address to the Government of Her Majesty, in the form of a minute to be communicated to the First Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury, the following representation in favour of Mr. Antonio Panizzi, who for many years filled the office of Keeper of the Printed Books in this Institution, and was lately selected Principal Librarian in the same Establishment:—
‘The Trustees are fully aware that the exemplary activity, zeal, and ability shewn by Mr. Panizzi, in the execution of his duties as Keeper of the Printed Books, are well known to the greater part, if not to all, the present members of Her Majesty’s Government; but they wish, on the present occasion, to call the particular attention of Lord Palmerston to the very remarkable proofs which this gentleman has recently given of his devotion to the general service of the Museum, by the extension of its means of contributing to the instruction and accommodation of the public.
In the expression of their sentiments the Trustees are especially influenced by the deep sense they entertain of the obligation they are under to Mr. Panizzi for the suggestion of the building recently erected in the Interior Quadrangle of the Museum for supplying additional room for the books composing the Museum Library, and for the better accommodation for an increased and increasing number of visitors to the Reading-Room.
The success which has attended the erection of this Building, the universal admiration which it has excited among the thousands who have been admitted to view it since it was completed, the various excellent and simple arrangements for the supply of books to the readers, the ingenuity and invention displayed for the arrangement of a very large library within a very limited space, and the facilities which it may eventually afford for extending the available space for other departments, the novelty of the design and the comparatively small cost of the construction are all in a very great manner to be attributed to the energy and inventive powers of Mr. Panizzi whose views have been most efficiently carried out by the architect, Mr. Sydney Smirke, in the material construction of a building which, the Trustees believe, is without a rival on the Continent. All these facts are, however, too well known to Lord Palmerston for it to be necessary for the Trustees to dwell upon them further; but they confidently hope that the circumstances of the case will be found sufficient to induce Her Majesty’s Government to testify their appreciation of what Mr. Panizzi has thus done for the public benefit in such manner as may appear to them most expedient.’
(Signed) W. R. Hamilton.”
CHAPTER XV
Sir Wm. Temple; His Collection; Correspondence; Museum Staff; Visit to Brescello; Archduke Maximilian’s Visit to the Museum; Reports of Heads of Departments; Correspondence; Mr Newton’s Expedition to Budrum; Blacas Collection.
Panizzi was called upon, within a few months after his appointment, to give practical proof of that energy which characterized him; indeed, it appears that he lost no time in setting to work to reform the Museum as regarded the want of space and the improvement of the position of his subordinates. The Parliamentary papers of the day will show the amount of correspondence, both private and official, through which he had to wade. Though desirous of maintaining chronological order, we first take up here for a moment what, at the time, was considered a valuable bequest of Sir William Temple, brother of Lord Palmerston, who died in London on the 24th of August, 1856, having for many years resided at Naples as Minister Plenipotentiary.