V.
[We believe the Quarterly Reviewer has been misinformed as to the facts connected with the transfer of the Royal Library to the British Museum. We have reason to know that George IV., being unwilling to continue the expense of maintaining the Library, which he claimed to treat, not as a heirloom of the crown, but as his own private inheritance, entertained a proposal for its purchase from the Russian Government. This having come to the knowledge of Lord Liverpool (through Dibdin, from Lady Spencer, to whom it had been mentioned by the Princess Lieven), the projected sale was, on the remonstrance of the Minister, abandoned, and the Library presented to the nation. The King thus got rid of the annual expenses; and although we do not believe that any bargain was made upon the subject, it is not unlikely that the Ministry felt that this surrender of the Library to the country gave the King some claim to assistance towards the liquidation of his debts, and that such assistance was accordingly furnished. Even if this were so, though the result might be the same, the transaction is a very different one from the direct bargain and sale described in the Quarterly Review.]
In justice to Kind George IV., the letter which he addressed to the late Earl of Liverpool, on presenting the books to his own subjects, should be printed in your columns. I saw the autograph letter soon after it was written, and a copy of it would be very easily met with.
Would it not have been both desirable and very advantageous, to have converted the banqueting room at Whitehall into a receptacle for this magnificent collection, which would doubtless have been augmented from time to time?
Instead of concentrating such vast literary treasures at the Museum, might it not have been expedient to diffuse them partially over this immense metropolis?
To Peers and M. P.'s, especially, a fine library at Whitehall would be a great boon. The present chapel was never consecrated, and its beautiful ceiling is little suited to a house of prayer.
J. H. M.
THE CAXTON MEMORIAL.
(Vol. iv., p. 33.)
For the information of your correspondent MR. BOLTON CORNEY, I beg to inform him that there was an intermediate meeting of the subscribers to the Caxton Memorial at the house of the Society of Arts between the first meeting to which he alludes, and the last, held at the same place the other day. Over that meeting I had the honour of presiding, and it was determined to persevere in the object of erecting a statue in Westminster to the memory of the first English printer; but the report of the last meeting shows that the funds have not been so largely contributed as might have been expected, and are now far short of the sum, 500l., required for the erection of an iron statue of the illustrious typographer. True it is that no authentic portrait of Caxton is known, but the truthful picture by Maclise might very well supply the deficiency; and I see the engraving to be made from that painting rather ostentatiously advertised as "the Caxton Memorial." The original design of the Dean of St. Paul's, for "a fountain by day, and a light by night," was abandoned as more poetical than practical; my chief apprehension being either that the gas would spoil the water, or that the water would put out the light. The statue was therefore resolved upon as less costly and more appropriate than the fountain.
The statue of Gutenberg at Mentz is a good example of what might be erected in Westminster; yet I very much doubt whether any likeness of the great printer has been preserved. The expense necessarily attendant upon MR. CORNEY'S Literary Memorial appears to me to be fatal to its success; for, however dear to the bibliographer, I fear but little public interest is now felt in the writings of Caxton. The Typographical Antiquities contain copious extracts from his works; and the biographies of Lewis and Knight appear to have satisfied public curiosity as to his life. Besides, a memorial of this nature would be hidden in a bookcase, not seen in a highway. I may add that the present state of the Caxton Memorial is this: the venerable Dean of St. Paul's is anxious to be relieved from the charge of the funds already subscribed, and to place them in the hands of the Society of Arts, if that body will receive them, and undertake to promote the object of the original subscribers by all the means at its command.