There are no separate papers whatever, in the Privy Council Office, of a date prior to 1700 ; but the registers of its proceedings are preserved complete from the time of Queen Elizabeth. " The library of tlie British Museum, already a magnificent monument of the public spirit '

of the nation, is daily becoming more and more worthy the admiration of the world. The collection of printed books and pamphlets, whose number, though not accurately known, certainly exceeds 300,000 volumes, is one of the most perfect in existence ; and there are

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nearly 40,000 volumes of manuscripts. The arrangements for the examination of these literary treasures are very convenient ; and though, in such a metropolis as London, some regulations are necessary to exclude improper persons, those regulations are so easy to be complied with that the library may be said to be, in effect, open to the public. Through the kind and polite attention of Sir Henry Ellis, the principal librarian, I had every facility afforded me for examining the various printed and manuscript collections, and quite a number of transcripts were made of papers bearing upon our history. While speaking of this noble institution, I may be permitted to remark that nowhere else was I more strongly convinced of the indispensable necessity, to the investigator, of accurate catalogues, both for printed books and for manuscripts. There is now in course of preparation a systematic alphabetical catalogue of the printed works, of such comprehensiveness, that the letter "A" alone occupies about twenty large folio volumes. Notwithstanding the active and skilful exertions of