23
As a further illustration of the want of space to which they are now alluding, Egyai Academy,the Commissioners would refer to the case of the Royal Academy , where thegreatest inconvenience is caused hy its being necessary to close most of the schools •during the four summer months, when the light is best adapted to the study ofdrawing and painting, solely because the rooms are required for the purposes ofthe annual exhibition. A memorial to Her Majesty on the subject, from thePresident and Council of the Academy , in which the practical inconveniences ofthe want of sufficient accommodation are clearly set forth, is appended. (SeeAppendix H.) The interruption of the tuition, by giving desultory habits ofstudy to the pupils, is found to be productive of much injury.
But no case affords such an illustration of the lamentable want of space now British Museum referred to as that of the greatest national institution in this country, the BritishMuseum , in which there is scarcely a single department where extreme practicalinconvenience is not sustained in consequence, while the impediment therebyopposed to the advancement of science is self-evident. It will suffice to mentionthe following examples of overcrowding in the Museum :—
The Department of Printed Boohs, which now contains about 480,000 volumes,has more than doubled in extent since 183G, the increase having been at the rateof 16,000 volumes a-year; and at least an equal rate of increase in future yearsmust be looked for, and a due provision for it ought, as a matter of course, to bomade. Almost the whole of the space, however, that can possibly be applied to thepurposes of the department is now occupied, and the inevitable consequence mustbe, that unless additional accommodation be provided, books received in future willbe unavailable for any useful purpose, and it appears that even already thecollection is falling into arrears. It is the opinion of the head of the department,
' that, in order to render the Library worthy of its name and of the country, pro-vision ought to be made for its being doubled in the next 30 years, and he moststrongly urges the necessity of no time whatever being lost in providing additionalaccommodation in order to enable the collection of printed books to keep pacewith the demands of the public.
It is also evident, that in proportion to the increase of the Library mustbe the increase of accommodation to readers ; but, even at present, the lteading-rooms of the Museum are far too small for the number of students making use ofthem, who are exposed to great discomfort in pursuing their researches.
A Minute of the Trustees of the 5th June last, states that “the want of accom-modation for printed books and for readers is daily more and more felt, and will,in a few months, be a most serious evil,” and proceeds to urge that immediatesteps should be taken for affording increased accommodation.
In the Department of Antiquities, the amount of available space is most in-adequate for the display of the present collection, and it has been found necessaryto deposit all the later Roman Works of Art, the Sepulchral Monuments, Inscrip-tions, the Etruscan , Mexican, and Indian Antiquities, &c., in the basement orcellars, the access to which is inconvenient ami the light defective. The head ofthe Department reports that the present possessions of the Museum are, in almostevery room, crowded together and piled over each other like goods in a warehouse,