stand in those streets and back upon it. If he will take the trouble of an attentive walk up Great Russell-street and Montague-place, he will perceive that his own buildings come more into the view of the public eye than he is inclined to believe. Under the impression, however, that they do not, he proposes to append a series of rooms to the outer side of the King's Library, no matter how unsightly, for the purpose of receiving books. No more appropriate name can possibly be given to such a proposal as this, than that it is one for cobbling the Museum.

A preferable way of obtaining additional room would be that of transferring one part of the collections of the Museum to another national establishment-the Gallery in Trafalgar-square. When the Museum was first set on foot, it was intended to be, and it long continued, the sole receptacle for the public treasures in literature, science, (including the study of Nature) and art, the three great departments into which it has for some time been divided, with much more show of reason than if Mr. Millard's classification had been adopted, and sixteen departments created, of which literature was to form but one. But a new establishment has recently been founded by Government, expressly for the reception of works of art, the National Gallery-the pictures of the British Museum have already been transferred to it-and why should not the statues follow? The collection at the Museum would then remain of an entirely homogeneous character-it would be exclusively devoted to convey literary information, while that at the Gallery would have for its object to refine and cultivate the taste. The various curiosities accumulated at the Museum might be considered as a vast assemblage of "book-plates," serving to illustrate and elucidate the literature of the library.

But if this should not be thought advisable, it would certainly be still less so to adopt the cobbling plans of Sir Robert Smirke. As it seems unavoidable that the Museum must be extended, let a grand design be formed for extending it, to be executed as occasion shall arise. So much has been expended on the great quadrangle, that it might seem barbarous to propose filling up the square, as ought to have been originally done. Perhaps the best plan would be to design an

other range of building entirely, enclosing the present on the eastern and northern sides, as the Elgin Gallery, &c. do on the west. To do this it would be necessary to purchase and pull down one side of two streets-Montague-street and Montague-place. Let it be supposed, for illustration sake, that Montague-street is begun with. The same plan could then be executed, with trifling altera tions, as might have been originally effected with the quadrangle. The Li brary-one side of it being formed by the present King's-could be carried round four sides of a grand reading-room-a front opening fully on the street would be obtained for architectural display, and an entrance distinct from the general one might be made in it for the readers.

With the space afforded by the houses in Montague-place another scheme might be carried into effect, which has been already proposed in the Asiatic Journal. It has for some time been a practice with Government to borrow apartments in Somerset House for the use of the most distinguished scientific Societies. To a recent application of the Asiatic Society to be assigned the rooms vacated by the Royal Academy on its removal to Trafalgar-square, a reply has been given that the request should be taken into consideration, but, in all probability, those apartments would be required for the use of some Government offices. Would it not be better for the future to locate these grants of house accommodation at Montague rather than at Somerset House; and as a return for the accommodation afforded, might not Government stipulate that the public should be admitted to view the collections belonging to these Societies. A range of handsome rooms might be erected in Montague-place for the meetings of such Societies as should be thus favoured, devoted exclusively to their use, but communicating in the rear with a line of apartments likewise accessible from the Museum to contain the Society's collections, to which the public should in Museum days be admitted. There would thus at once be added to the national treasures already accumulated a mass of additions of no mean value. The museum of the Asiatic Society, for instance, would partly supply a deficiency which is much felt in the stores of its prouder rival, the British. Since the days of the

earlier voyages to the Pacific Ocean, which furnished it with Otaheitan dresses, South Sea islanders' idols, and other interesting articles of the same kind, there has been a singular inattention shown to he augmentation of its stock of ethnographical curiosities, tending to illustrate the manners and customs of nations. There has, indeed, of late been a sufficiently liberal expenditure in acquiring a number of ancient Egyptian relics; but of articles less costly, and yet quite as interesting, of curiosities throwing light on the modern life of the Mahometan and Indo-Chinese nations, there is a 66 plentiful lack," which must, indeed, surprise the stranger who comes with his imagination excited by the thought of the almost boundless regions which England holds dominion over in the East and West.

So

It may be thought that these plans are too visionary and too expensive, would those which are actually carrying into execution have been thought twenty years ago. At that time the visitors to the Museum were, compared with their numbers now, but "few and far between." The Institution should assume an additional dignity proportioned to its increased importance in the public eye. It is true, that this view does not seem as yet to have been sufficiently impressed on the Government. Lavish in every other article of expenditure, our rulers appear to have exhibited a singular spirit of cautious cunning in every thing relating to an establishment, on which even lavish expenditure would be approved of by the vast majority of the public.*

It remains to be seen what effect the recent recommendation by the Committee of the House of Commons for a more liberal scale of grants will produce. Part of the expenditure, however, here recommended has already been decided

* We learn from the evidence of Sir Robert Smirke, that that delay in the building which has been so often attributed to his inaction and inattention proceeds, in reality, from the parsimony of Government, who have seldom granted more to the annual building-fund of the Museum than half what was applied for. It is due to Sir Robert likewise to state, that in various other respects-in the declination of the continuous corridor to the northern wing, and the portice which was to adorn its front-in the cutting up of the space over the Gallery of Antiquities, &c., the fault is not to be laid on his shoulders, but on that of the Trustees and officers of the Museum.

The

on, since it is stated that it has long been the determination of the Trustees to apply to Government for funds to purchase some of the property of the Duke of Bed ford in Great Russell-street and at the corner of Montague-street, for the pur pose of the enlargement of the premises of the Museum towards the south. amount required to effect the rest would hardly surpass that which would be indispensably requisite to execute the recommer.dation of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests in 1826, for pulling down the houses in front of the Museum as far back as Bloomsbury Church, for the mere purpose of adding a new square to a neighbourhood already so rich in them, and showing off the front of the Museum more to advantage. This scheme was part of a plan projected by the late Mr. Nash, which has long remained in abeyance, but which has not, it is to be hoped, been altogether abandoned since; though objectionable in many of its details, it bore in its main features an air of grandeur which stamped it worthy of a great metropolis. His proposal was to lead a new street from south to north in the direction of St. Martin's-lane, and as he had already by one broad and magnificent avenue, now famous throughout Europe and America, connected the Regent's and St. James's Parks, unite by another of equal splendour the NATIONAL GALLERY and the BRITISH MUSEUM.

P. P, C. R.

Description of Engravings of Ground Plan.

The parts shaded represent the buildings actually erected; those not shaded, the buildings proposed to be erected.

Division 1. A, the entrance from Great Russell-street.

B. Entrance-hall.

CCC. Rooms for Trustees.
DD. Department of MSS.

EE. Rooms to be also assigned to ditto, but now used as Reading-rooms, F. Room proposed for Receiving, Sorting, &c.

GG G. Galleries for Miscellaneous Antiquities.

HH. Apartments for Resident Officers

LL. Lines of the present Boundary Walls.

Division 2.-M. Quadrangle, 238 feet by 317.

NNN. The Royal Library.

000. Additional Rooms for Printed Books.

PP. Reading-rooms.

QQ. Library of Printed Books.
R. Print-room.

SS. Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities.
T. Phigaleian Marbles.

V. Gallery of Athenian Marbles.

MR. UTTING'S ASTRONOMICAL TABLES.

Sir,-Your correspondent, Mr. J. Utting, C.E., has, in your 677th Number, made a most severe and, as I imagine, a most unwarrantable attack upon that able and assiduous astronomer, Professor Struve, of the Dorpat Observatory, in consequence of two sets of observations made by the Professor on Saturn and his ring, and on Jupiter and his satellites. Mr. Utting, in plain English asserts, that what is styled the second set of corrected observations, were manufactured from the first set, by a mere reduction of the part of the first set of observations. Mr. Utting adds, "it is millions of times more probable, that if fifteen dice were thrown out of a box that they should all of them come up aces, than that the above results should obtain from observations only."

th

Now I certainly think, Mr. Editor, that it would have been far more charitable in Mr. Utting, to have supposed, that the first set of observations might have been taken with the instruments (the telescope and micrometer), which from some cause, or combination of causes, might have been faulty, and consequently the results of the observations, although taken with the most scrupulous accuracy, would of course have been false; but that the second set of observations had been taken with more perfect instruments. I cannot, therefore, help agreeing with the remarks of the Edinburgh Journal of Science,. "that their accuracy may be inferred from the slight difference between the old and new results." Besides, what earth ly motive could the Professor have had

for committing such a contemptible fraud? He has always borne the character of being one of the ablest, assiduous, and most faithful astronomical observers of the present age. If such a sweeping charge were to be brought against our Sir John Herschel, or Sir James South, who would believe it?

But, Mr. Editor, who could have imagined that Mr. Utting, after having brought such a serious charge against the Professor, should in his next communication to the Mechanics' Magazine, (No. 705) have been guilty of a similar kind of simulation as that which he imputes to the Professor? In the said communication he states, "On examining (not astronomically observing, be it known) the motions of the planets and their satellites for different periods of time, I find that a conjunction of all the planetary bodies takes place (or does not take place, he should have added) after a period of 250,904 solar years, in which are contained 91,640,740 mean solar days, supposing them to have been in conjunction at the commencement of the above period."

Mr. Utting in his first table gives us the number of revolutions the planets describe round the centre of gravity of the solar system, and also the periodical times in mean solar days, &c.; and this he has given to the hair-splitting accuracy of the ten thousandth part of a single second of time!! That is, if all the planets were exactly in conjunction, at the end of 250,904 solar years, they would all be again in conjunction, having each finished a complete number of revolutions, and consequently all arrived at the same points in their orbits that they were in at the commencement of the above period. If the first seven mentioned planets would be kind enough to adjust their periodical times to that calculated by Mr. Utting, the conjunctions would no doubt happen in the way and time he has mentioned. But I will ask Mr. Utting from what authority has he deduced the periodical times of the planets given in his first table? For I find that none of them agree with the best modern discoveries. The periodical time of the earth is very nearly true, but of the others some are minutes wrong, some hours, some days, yea, even months wrong. The truth is,

Mr. Utting, by the aid of his knowledge 'in arithmetic, has himself manufactured all the times of these tropical revolutions, so that there may be a complete number of revolutions performed in 250,904 solar years. With regard to the moon, he must manufacture a new period for her ladyship; for although the period of 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 47129 seconds is contained very nearly in 91,640,740 mean solar days, still this will not answer in the case of a conjunction; he must try and make it as near as he can to a synodical month, and yet an exact part of 91,640,740. Instead of the time from conjunction to conjunction of all the planets being performed in the way and time he mentions, let him take the time of their tropical revolutions from the best authority, only to the nearest second of time; and instead of the time being only 250,904 solar years, it will be many millions of times that period. Then suppose we only take two of the planets, namely, the Earth and Saturn; and let us assume the tropical periods to be 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 49 seconds, and 10746 days 19 hours 16 minutes 15 seconds, it will be found that one of Mr. Utting's conjunctions between these two planets only and the sun, would require a period of no less than 928523775 solar years; and, combining this period with the tropical time of revolution of a third planet, we would obtain a number of solar years, prodigiously greater than the above-mentioned period, and so on for the other planets. Indeed, we might go a little farther and say, that suppose two planets to be in conjunction with the sun, there never will in time, be another exact conjunction of the said two planets and the sun, each planet having performed a complete number of revolutions; and this would be the case if the respective times of their tropical revolutions were incommensurable, and this is as likely to be the case as not.

I might still go on, Mr. Editor, to make several other remarks upon Mr. Utting's last article, but I am afraid this letter has already extended to too great a length.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

A SCOTCH DOMINIE.

Forfarshire, Feb. 17, 1837.

ABSTRACT OF THE NEW PATENT LAW

BILL.*

A Bill to Amend the Practice relating to Letters Patent for Inventions, and for the better Encouragement of the Arts and Manufactures.

§ 1. His Majesty, by charter or Letters Patent under the Great Seal, may establish a board of commissioners to carry this Act into execution; and by commission under the Great Seal appoint one person to be the chief of such commissioners, and two other persons to be other commissioners of the board. The commissioners are to hold their offices during their good behaviour, and so long as they shall personally give their attendance upon their respective duties, and shall conduct themselves honestly and faithfully in the due execution of the duties of their offices.

§ 2. The commissioners are to be styled "The Commissioners of Patents for Inventions," and any two of them may sit as a board of commissioners; and acting as such, they are empowered, by summons under their hands and seal, to require the attendance of all such persons as they may think fit to call before them upon any question or matter connected with or relating to the administra tion of the laws relating to Letters Patent for inventions over which they shall have any jurisdiction or control by virtue of this Act; and to examine all such persons upon oath, and to require and enforce the production upon oath of all deeds, models, drawings, books, contracts, agreements, accounts and writings, or copies thereof respectively, in anywise relating to any such question or matter; or in lieu of requiring such oath, the commissioners may, if they think fit, require any such person to make and subscribe a declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which he shall have been or shall be so examined.

§ 3. Commissioners are to have a common seal, and the rules and regulations sealed to be received as evidence.

"

§ 4. His Majesty to appoint one principal secretary and two registrars of board.

§ 5. The commissioners to have power to appoint inferior officers, and their salaries to be regulated by commissioners of Treasury.

§ 6. Commissioners to take an oath prescribed in the Act, "faithfully, impartially, and honestly, to execute the trusts reposed in them, "without favour or affection, prejudice or malice."

§ 7. The commissioners to hear and determine all matters relating to Letters Patent for inventions hitherto heard by the attorney

The second reading of this Bill, which was fixed for the 2nd of March, has been deferred to the 1st of April. We shall offer a few observations in our next Number.

and solicitor-general; but the powers of commissioners not to interfere with the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council or Courts at Westminster.

§ 8. The powers of the attorney and solicitor-general to cease, and to be transferred to the commissioners.

9. From henceforth the practice now in use in obtaining Letters Patent for inventions shall cease, and in lieu thereof, every person who shall be desirous of presenting a petition to his Majesty for the grant of any Letters Patent for any invention, shall leave or cause the same to be left at the office of the registrar of the said commissioners, accompanied by such affidavit in support thereof as hath been heretofore in that behalf accustomed, or as the said commissioners shall by any general order or orders to be at any time issued by them in that behalf direct, and that the said registrar shall thereupon cause such petition and affidavit to be filed and kept as of record for the purposes of this

Act.

The commissioners to publish objects of petition in the London Gazette, and appoint a day for hearing all objections to grant of Letters Patent.

The

The parties to attend the commissioners by themselves or their agents to support and oppose grant of Letters Patent, and commissioners if they shall think the prayer of the petition ought to be granted, to make out a draft or bill of Letters Patent, and send same within one calendar month to Secretary of State for his Majesty's sign manual. Secretary of State to return draft or bill, with his Majesty's sign manual, to the commissioners, and the commissioners to make out Letters Patent, and send same with draft or bill to Lord Chancellor. Lord Chancellor to affix Great Seal to Letters Patent, and return same to commissioners.

§ 10. Repeal of so much of Act 5 & 6 Will. IV., as relates to entering disclaimer and memorandum of alteration.

§ 11. Any person who, as grantee, assignee, or otherwise, hath obtained, or who shall hereafter obtain, Letters Patent for any invention, shall be desirous of disclaiming, amending, or altering any matter or thing in the title of his said invention, or the specification relating thereto, may, if he think fit, make or cause application to be made, to the said commissioners for leave to enter with the registrar of the said commissioners a memorandum of such disclaimer, amendment or alteration, stating the reasons therefore respectively, the same not being such disclaimer, amendment or alteration as shall extend the exclusive right granted by the said Letters Patent.

§ 12. Commissioners to publish application for leave to disclaim, and fix a time for

hearing parties in support and opposition to such entry. The memorandum filed with registrar to be deemed part of Letters Patent or specification. Provided in all suits then pending, original Letters Patent, &c. alone be given in evidence.

§ 13. Stamps on Letters Patent reduced to 101. viz. 51. on the petition, and 51. on the specification.

14. In Letters Patent which shall hereafter be obtained for any invention, there shall be inserted a memorandum or indorsement, the same to be verified and attested by the seal of the said commissioners, setting forth the day of the date on which the petition to his Majesty, for the grant of the said Letters Patent, was filed at the office of the registrar of the said commissioners, and that the said last-mentioned day shall thereupon be held and taken to be the day of the date of the said Letters Patent, in all actions, suits, and other proceedings relating to the said Letters Patent, and to all intents and purposes whatsoever: Provided always, that the specification shall be enrolled in the manner and within the period in that behalf fixed by the said Letters Patent: And provided also, that the time for which the sole making, exercising, using, and vending of any invention shall be hereafter secured by any Letters Patent, shall bear date from the day of the sealing of such Letters Patent respectively.

§ 15. Letters Patent to extend to Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies, except when specially limited.

§ 16. And whereas it is expedient, for the greater encouragement of the useful arts and manufactures in these realms, to afford some further protection and assistance to the inventors of new and useful improvements, by vesting the property therein in the inventors or proprietors thereof for a period shorter than that for which Letters Patent for inventions are usually granted; be it therefore enacted, that any person who shall hereafter invent, design, or contrive, or shall become the proprietor of any invention, design, or contrivance, whereby, in the opinion of such inventor, designer, contriver, or proprietor, some new and beneficial operation or result shall be obtained in any art, science, manufacture, or calling whatsoever, shall hereafter have the sole right and property in every such new invention, design, or contrivance, for and during the term of twelve calendar months from the time of registering the same in manner and under the regulations herein in that behalf mentioned.

§ 17. Persons availing themselves of this Act, to deposit a fac-simile, model, or specimen of their invention with commissioners.

§ 18, Commissioners to find some suitable