As to the outward walls, what sort of thickness do you think they should be with regard to the sound; ought there to be a very thick outer wall or not?—I should prefer a thick outer wall, as giving more power to heating in winter and of cooling in summer, as well as in reference to the communication of sound.

And in excluding sound?—Yes; a thick wall would render it freer from all disturbing causes, whether from sound or cold.

Do you contemplate the actual roof of the House of Commons should also be the outer roof, or a double roof?—I should contemplate a double roof; for in case of noise from rain or hail, if there were only one roof, it would be almost impossible to prevent the greatest interruption, and in summer no means could be adopted with facility to prevent the room becoming extremely warm.

Would you rigidly interdict the use of all ofnamental work in such a roof?-On no account; I should consider it not merely desirable for its own sake, but advantageous for sound. Had it not been necessary to attend in the strictest manner to economy in a large establishment I put up at my own expense alone, I should have had every one of these cross partitions in the roof ornamented. I consider these cross partitions are of great value in respect to the communication of sound, and on this ground: in the first place, experimentally, I found that if I made an impulse in water in a particular direction, instead of that impulse extending, as it were, throughout the whole of the water, as it is generally believed to do, a wave was made to roll along upon a particular surface, while the rest of the water was quiet and still; this I believe to take place to a certain extent in the communication of sound; if the voice, for instance be directed on an extremely plain surface, at a particular angle we know we can speak to people at a great distance, if we both go nearer the side of a wall; now if so much of the sound were to fall on the roof at this particular angle, my opinion is, it would run along the roof a considerable way before any amount of it would be reflected on the ground; whereas if the surface of the roof be broken by transverse beams (by pillars or pilasters, if it be a wall), the sound will not travel in this manner; there is always a reflection at each part to the ground below. There is a tunnel connected with one of the railroads in the west of Scotland, in which, as I was informed by Mr. Granger, an engineer, it was utterly impossible for one person to hear another at any distance. It happened, however, that either some pilasters were put along the walls, or the tunnel was made irregular, whereas formerly it had been made smooth, and after that individuals heard

each other in any direction, at any distance, with great facility and very distinctly.

You do not suppose this interruption would, in fact, impede the voice from going to the extremity of the room from where the person speaking was?-To a certain extent it would necessarily affect the progress of the sound; but still, if the general outline is alluded to, I believe the diffusion on the whole would be more equal than what it would be without them.

Could it be admitted upon principle, could you beforehand state what amount of ornaments could be safely introduced, or what amount ought not to be introduced, so as to guide the architect in his course?-So much would depend on the particular construction of the building, that I do not see at once that I could answer that, unless the question was subdivided. But this I might say, that I have seen buildings which were entirely covered with ornaments, and that in these buildings the sound of the voice was heard distinctly, and I would only refer to principle, but let applications be made according to the peculiar kind of building to be adopted for the House of Commons; so long as you can bring up a reflecting power to act upon the air, while the direct voice of the speaker is still sounding there, so long you will strengthen the voice of the speaker; but I found every thing upon this, that the human voice of itself, when it does not meet with interruption, is sufficient to fill the most ample assembly that ever has been made, provided there be no noise from extraneous sources; that you may, if you choose, dispense entirely with the additional power of reflection, and have the walls crowded with ornaments, but taking care there is a perfect power of absorption, so that the audience hear solely by the direct voice of the speaker, and in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, if the room be moderately quiet, they will hear distinctly; but they will not hear that body of voice which they would have heard had they also gained by the reflection from the roof; and in a building such as the House of Commons, I consider it would not be desirable to take away this reflected strength which may be communicated to the voice; performers on instruments and singers say, when they are in a room which has no reflecting power, that the sound escapes easily enough, but that they do not experience that resilient and sustaining power which makes so many rooms so delightful to speak or sing in; those who pay much attention to the subject feel the tone escaping easily from the mouth, but they do not feel the sound sustained and buoyed up, as it were, where there is too little reflection; in other rooms, where the reverberating power is so great that it

slem Subscription Library, and all the whole bead-roll of Subscription Libraries, are to be considered "public and permanent Literary Institutions, and as such entitled to receive duplicates from the British Museum," I would advise Mr. Bull, of Holles-street, Mr. Horne, of Cheapside, and all the other proprietors of circulating-libraries about town, to bring their claims under the notice of Parliament without further delay. It would, I feel sure, excite about as much surprise in the librarian to one of these local and private establishments for a stranger to walk into their rooms and set about availing himself of his right to examine the Records, as it would, in one of these London caterers to the public, for a person to take up a novel from his counter and propose reading it through-free, gratis, for nothing. It seems, indeed, from S. S.'s statement, that the condition on which the Records were presented was, that they should be accessible to any person without difficulty; but I, for one, should not like to be the unfortunate wight compelled to bring this circumstance to the recollection of the librarians. At an establishment of the kind which I frequent (the London Institution, in Moorfields) there is a complete set of the Commissioners' Records presented by them, but though on the back of the titlepage of each volume there is a printed notice, that in the event of the dissolution of the Association, the books are to be returned to the Secretary of State for the Home Department-which shows that the establishment is not looked upon as necessarily "permanent"-I have never observed any thing to intimate that the donation has the effect of rendering the library a whit more "public" than it was before-that is, not at all. Such is the practice of the case, at all events, if not the theory; and if it were not, I suspect the Commissioners would have had a few waggon-loads of their ponderous publications returned on their hands. But even if we grant that this right of inspecting the Record donations were in full exercise, how can this circumstance be said to render the Institution generally "public," any more than an occasional permission for a stranger to inspect the Court Guide or London Directory at the circulating-libraries aforesaid, would confer on them a right to a term now proposed to have such privileges attached to it? So

much for the publicity; as to the permanency of such establishments, surely none need bid fairer to bloom and flourish than the Surrey Institution in the Rotunda, near Blackfriars' Bridge, some years ago; and yet has it not long given way to the Rev. Robert Taylor, the waxwork, the wild beasts, and one knows not what else? Besides, the list given by S. S. is not that primarily selected by the Record Commission for the reception of its favours. In a return to an order of the House of Commons in February, 1822, there is a "List of Public Libraries and Repositories to which the Distribution of Works printed under the Record Commission is limited," or just then was limited, in which not more than two or three of those mentioned by S. S. are included. This list, of course, takes the precedence when any privilege is in question; and I hope, for the honour of S. S.'s consistency, to find him in some future letter advocating the propriety of bestowing duplicates on the Library of Doctors' Commons, on the King's Remembrancer's Office in the Exchequer, on the Auditors of the Land Revenue, and the Town Clerk's Office, city of London-or, to quit the metropolis, on the Episcopal Library of Worcester at Hartlebury, and a number of other deadalive repositories" of the same kind, which, of course, since thus patronised, must be public and permanent.

The only proposal which can, I think, be seriously supported for the disposal of the Museum duplicates, would be to present them to the Trinity College Library of Dublin (which, in that case, ought to be rendered more accessible)—and if that were in possession of them, to the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, which is said to be accessible enough-and so on to the Bodleian at Oxford, and the Public Library at Cambridge. All these libraries ought, in return, to be bound to offer their duplicates to the rest in the same succession, beginning with the Museum; and any work that was found to exist in them all, might be put up for sale without any compunctious visitings of conscience. Perhaps, however, it might be advisable to place second in the list a large public library, to be founded in London, to consist entirely of duplicates of works in the Museum, and to be open to every one without any recommendation or introduction whatever. It

sensation in Denmark are entirely miss ing. These authors are of the last century-the Danes who have written in the present, appear to have been entirely forgotten. Now if, before the catalogue of the Museum were published, a person acquainted with the Danish language and literature were sent to Copenhagen in the Royal Library of which, a copy of every work in that language is deposited, he might make out a complete list of such works as were worthy of a place in the Museum, and might, doubtless, at once purchase in that capital a copy of most of the numbers. A similar plan should by all means be adopted with regard to Sweden, Russia, and even Poland, though Prince Czartoryski's liberal present of books in the Polish language to the Museum a year or two ago, bas filled up that branch better than most others. To wait for the slow drib. bling in of books from these countries from sales in London would be ridiculous -the literary intercourse between us and them is shamefully feeble-and the only way of procuring a really good collection of their books, is by sending a literary expedition to Copenhagen, Stockholm, and St. Petersburgh. It may be asked whether this feebleness of literary intercourse is not a proof that the advantages to be derived from this expedition, would not be worth the trouble and expense of it? May it not rather be urged that this very fact, that Danish, Swedish, and Russian books are scarcely to be met with any where else in London, is an additional reason that they should be at the Museum. I would go further and say, that what really is not worthy of a place any where, is worthy of a place there, and ought to be found there. Old newspapers, for instance, are mere lumber in a private house, yet a large collection of old newspapers forms deservedly one of the boasts of the establishment. To return to the subject of the "literary expedition: it was observed by Sir Henry Ellis, in his late evidence before the Committee, that many of the books which were wanting in the Museum could not be bought at once from booksellers' shops, they must be waited for and picked up as opportunities occurred. This is true with regard to some, but I am convinced not with regard to the greater number. From the great deficiencies in foreign literature, and that in

the very newest foreign literature, the yearly reports of the Swedish Academy, for instance, on the state of the sciences, which, however hard to procure in London, must, of course, be easy enough to procure on the spot of publication; it is not too much to say, that there must be at least 100,000 volumes on the shelves of booksellers in Europe which deserve a place in the Museum, and might, were money liberally granted, and proper spirit exerted, at once be transferred there. Before any new catalogue is printed, an extraordinary grant of Parliament for this purpose should be applied for, and a great effort made - for, in fact, what reason is there unless the collection in some degree approaches to completeness, for printing the catalogue at all? It cannot serve as a sort of index to literature to assist in the formation of other libraries-it cannot form a trophy of the literary honour of the countryit would rather be a monument of disgrace. The mere purpose of informing a visitor to the Museum of what books he will find there, may be as well or better served by manuscript catalogues. The addition of about 100,000 volumes would really place it "in a range with the first libraries of continental Europe," and we might then feel some pride in its condition.

When the departments were once well filled with the standard literature of the past, it would be easy to keep on a level with the current literature of the day. The British Museum should regularly take in at least one literary journal from every country in Europe, containing reviews and announcements of new publications. It should be part of the duty of the librarians to peruse that, and to make a note of every work that seemed worthy of admission to the library; these might then be ordered at once from the places of publication, one of the objects of the literary expedition to the north having been, of course, to establish a connexion with one of the chief booksellers of each capital. A constant supply of foreign literature would then be pouring in; and to mention the means of procuring that are so obvious, that it is matter of wonder the Museum should be so defective in this respect as it is. Every publisher is bound by Act of Parliament to send a copy of every book he publishes, unasked for, to the Museum;