One most important recommendation they made, which unfortunately was not acted upon—viz., the provision of means for the compilation of an index of subjects to the catalogue, to proceed _pari passu_ with the alphabetical titles of the latter. This would have doubled the value of the Catalogue; but thirty years have passed, and the Catalogue is still destitute of this inestimable auxiliary. The suggestion may still be carried into effect at any moment, as regards accessions for the future; but the lost ground will be regained with difficulty.
Of many other questions raised, the only really important one, outside the Printed Book Department, related to the Secretary’s Office, and here the Commissioners’ purpose was firm, and the reform they proposed radical. The post of Secretary, as distinct from that of Principal Librarian, was to be abolished altogether. This return to the ancient practice of the Museum had the advocacy of one of the most accomplished and influential of the Trustees, Mr. W. R. Hamilton; and the indisposition of Mr. Forshall soon rendered it necessary, as well as expedient, to carry it into effect. From that hour Panizzi was the real ruler of the British Museum.
It may be remarked that the Trustees and their officers alike appeared in a much more advantageous light than before the Parliamentary Committee of 1835. The inquiries of that Committee had borne fruit. The duties of the officers were understood and discharged in a far more liberal spirit, and the Board of Trustees had profited largely from the disposition to elect its members out of regard to literary and scientific eminence or proved administrative ability rather than mere rank.
This tendency, happily for the Museum, has gone on increasing to the present day.
We may now proceed to treat of that acquisition of the Grenville Library which so greatly affected the fortunes of the British Museum, and for which Panizzi has mainly to be thanked. For this a new chapter seems to be required.
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_Mr. Thomas Grenville; his Bequest; Portrait by Manzini; Chartist Demonstration; Copyright Act; Mr. Bohn._
The acquisition of the Grenville Library, in 1847, made that year notable for the British Museum. Before describing the collection, or the circumstances under which it was bequeathed to the Nation, it will be well to recall the liberality and discriminating judgment of the high-minded donor, who brought it together at so great a cost; and, therefore, we append a short notice of the Rt. Hon. Thomas Grenville, the nation’s benefactor, who was born on the 31st of December, 1755, and entered as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church before he was sixteen years old. On the 10th of May, 1778, he joined the army as an ensign in the Coldstream Guards, but resigned in the following year. His reasons for having taken such a step were narrated by himself in Parliament on the 11th of April, 1780. On the 26th of October, 1779, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Buckinghamshire, and enrolled himself in the party of Fox, who in 1782 trusted him to arrange the terms of the treaty drawn up for the separation of Great Britain from her American colonies.