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PUBLIC WORKS.

BRITISH MUSEUM.

Report from the Committee of the House of Commons, to whom the Petition of the Trustees of the British Museum, relative to Mr. Rich's Collection of Manuscripts, Antiquities, and Coins, was referred.

THE collection consists of three parts, viz. manuscripts in the Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Syriac languages, and a few printed books; gems, and various antiquities, chiefly collected in the neighbourhood of Babylon and Nineveh; and oriental, Greek, and Roman coins.

MANUSCRIPTS.

Dr. M'Bride, laudian professor of Arabic in the university of Oxford, recommended the purchase of the collection of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts, as the museum is particularly defective in that department of literature, and especially as there is little probability of so large and well-selected a library being again offered for sale.

Dr. Nicoll, professor of Hebrew in the university of Oxford, considered the collection of manuscripts in the Persian and Arabic languages, as containing a great number of the most esteemed works in both languages, in excellent preservation and of great antiquity. The Syriac manuscripts he thinks also of considerable value; and that the whole collection is more valuable than any which has been brought into England since the time of Pococke and Huntingdon, and so extensive and well selected, that the loss of it would be almost irreparable to the national museum of this country.

of one other copy, which is at Oxford. There are copies of the Nestorian and Jacobite editions

of the Peschito version of the Scriptures, there being no other complete copy of the Nestorian edition in any of our libraries. The Nestorian and Jacobite sects separated as early as the year 500, and continued their editions in their own churches; the collection of them may be important on certain disputed passages. Some of the copies are a thousand years old; they are not all perfect, but as much so as they are generally found. There are two copies of the Gospels and two of the New Testament perfect, with the exception of the Apocalypse.

After having examined more particularly the collection, Mr. Lee stated, that the manuscripts are much less mutilated than he had before supposed; there is a history of the persecutions of the Nestorians, which he believed to be unique ; there is an old chronicle, which he considers as a very curious historical document—it is written in Syriac and Arabic, in parallel columns, the Arabic in the Kufic character; it gives the dates of the bishops, and various persons of the Syriac churches, of the Persian kings, and of the dynasties of the east and west; he thinks it difficult to set a pecuniary value upon the Syriac part of the collection, but had it been offered to the uni Versity of Cambridge, he would rather that 10007. had been paid for it than the university should have lost it, though he thinks that sum a little above the value. With respect to the remaining part of the collection; he has examined accurately a fourth part of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, and which he believes to be a fair The rev. Samuel Lee, professor of Arabic in specimen of the whole; they are extremely valuthe university of Cambridge, stated, that the able, because they are the best books in those manuscripts, taken on the aggregate, are the languages. They consist of history, poetry, and best he had seen collected by any one man; con-grammar; commentaries on each, and commensidered the collection as unrivalled, from the taries on the Koran; there are also works on importance and variety of matter it contains; geography, mathematical works, and generally and that the placing it in the British Museum works on the sciences. There is also a copy of would be conferring a real benefit upon the the Koran in the Kufic character, which is, pernation. haps, the only copy in Europe. This collection of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts is the best he has ever seen made by one person, and he thinks it cannot be worth less than 50007.

Mr. Lee was requested by the committee to examine the manuscripts more minutely, with a view of giving his opinion respecting the condition and value of the manuscripts, and particularly as to the Syriac part of the collection. He represented the Syriac to consist of 68 volumes; there is one copy of the Philoxenian version of the Gospels, which is valuable; he only knows

Dr. Young, M.D. had carefully inspected the manuscripts of the late Mr. Rich, and obtained information from the best judges of oriental literature, and estimates the value of it at 50007.

Sir Gore Ouseley valued the Persian, Arabic, | very few oriental manuscripts in the British and Turkish part of the collection at from 40007. Museum, and none in the Syriac language. to 50007.; they would sell for more if taken back to Persia.

Mr. Hine was assistant to Mr. Rich, and resided with him many years at Bagdad, and kept

his accounts. Mr. Rich paid between six and seven thousand pounds for the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts; he does not know what was paid for the Syriac manuscripts, or for

the medals or antiquities.

Mr. Terrick Hamilton had examined the

manuscripts; thinks the generality of them in better condition than are usually met with; the selection is a good one. He thinks the value of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish part of the collection worth about 80007.

Mr. Colebrooke represented the manuscripts

as a valuable collection; they are in good order, and have been well selected; but he had examined them only cursorily.

Col. Baillie, a member of the committee, stated, that in his opinion the Persian and Arabic manuscripts might have been bought at one period for 1000l. or at the utmost for 15001. in India, and for double that sum in Persia;

but on a further and more minute examination

of the collection, he considered himself to have undervalued them, having found several works

in Arabic and Persian which he had not seen

before, and to which he attaches considerable value. In his first estimate, too, he wished to be understood as referring to a period nearly 20 years ago, during his residence in India, when oriental manuscripts were comparatively cheap, and the demand for them extremely limited.

Mr. Trant, a member of the committee, was desirous when at Calcutta, about four years and a half ago, to make a collection of manuscripts, and was deterred by the high price asked for them; 70, 80, or 100 rupees each were demanded for books not of the first rate. There are 688 Persian and Arabic manuscripts; to make a good collection of this number when he left Calcutta, would have cost between four and five thousand pounds.

Sir John Malcolm has examined the Arabic and Persian manuscripts, but does not know anything of the Syriac or Turkish; he has purchased oriental manuscripts for many of his learned friends. Persian manuscripts have, within the last five or six years, risen in value very considerably; he has paid treble the price he paid formerly; thinks this part of the collection would not have cost less than 40007. In the way in which Mr. Rich collected them, he is more likely to be 10007. under what was paid than over it. In this valuation he includes the printed books.

Mr. Foss and Mr. Darling, booksellers, valued the printed books, one at 100%., and the other at

907.

Mr. Henry Ellis, keeper of the manuscripts of the British Museum, stated, that there were

COINS.

Mr. Marsden had examined the collection of coins and medals. There is one coin, a Kufic Derham, represented to have been struck in the 79th year of the Mahomedan era, which he be

lieves to be worth 100%.; there is only one other

similar, which is known, belonging to the royal

academy of Sweden.

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Dr. Wilkins had examined this Kufic Der. ham; he believes the coin to be genuine; and agrees with Mr. Marsden as to its value.

Mr. Matthew Young, dealer in coins, examined the whole collection; observed the Kufic Derham, it is in fine preservation; believes it to be struck, not cast; such coins have never in this country sold for more than a guů. nea. He observed particularly a Thracian coin; considers it to have been cast, and worth only a would be worth 1007. He estimates the whole few shillings; a genuine one, in fine condition, collection, according to what he is in the habit of charging for such coins, at 8407.

Mr. William Bankes, a member of the committee, considered the Thracian coin as a cast, but being doubtless an exact impression from a true coin of extreme rarity, it may as such be worth 201. to complete a series.

Mr. Francis Palgrave observed, that the appearance of a coin being cast was not a proof of its being a modern forgery; ancient moulds and ancient furnaces for casting coins have been often found; the reason for employing these moulds has not been satisfactorily explained.

ANTIQUITIES.

Mr. Edward Landseer is acquainted with antiquities similar to those shewn to him, and thinks them very valuable, and that the study of the hieroglyphical part of these gens may throw light on the inscriptions in the arrowhead character. He considers the cylinders to have been signets, and that their impression was given by rolling; with respect to pecuniary value, he remembered one of a similar kind, found at Marathon, being valued at from 15 to 20 guineas; valuing the collection at that rate, it would be worth about 30001.

Sir John Malcolm had looked over these Babylonish and Nineveh antiquities; thinks, from his own experience, that this collection has berm obtained at great cost; upon a cylindrical brick being shewn him, covered with the arrowhead character, he says it is the best specimen he had ever seen, he would give 501. for it; and be thinks Mr. Rich could not have expended less than 4007. or 5007. upon the remainder of this part of the collection, independent of the gems.

Mr. William Bankes, a member of the com→

mittee, estimated the value of the cylindrical collection of Babylonish and Nineveh gems and brick at 50%., and thinks it a great object to get antiquities would be a great acquisition to the together a large mass of the arrowhead and cunei- museum. form character, as the only chance hereafter of deciphering it.

Mr. Francis Palgrave considered the collection of antiquities as very valuable, and thinks such a collection may lead to important results, when we see what Dr. Young and Monsieur Champollion have done with regard to Egyptian hieroglyphics; he thinks the collection of gems and other antiquities may be fairly worth 10007.

Dr. Noehden, assistant keeper of the antiquities of the British Museum, thought that this

The committee, having considered the evidence adduced, submit to the house, that the sum of 5,5001. is a fair and reasonable price for this collection of manuscripts, the sum of 10007. for the coins, and the sum of 10007. for the Babylonish and Nineveh gems and antiquities; and they recommend to the house, that the whole of the collection of the late Mr. Rich be purchased at those prices, making altogether the sum of 7,500l., and that it be placed in the British Museum for the benefit of the public.

General Account of all Receipts, at the British Museum, from Christmas 1823
to Christmas 1824:

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General Account of all Payments, at the British Museum, from Christmas 1823

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Drawings, engravings, &c. for the publication of the Gallery of Antiquities

Purchase of engravings

Purchase of books and MSS.

Printing, &c. of the Alexandrian MS.

Clearing goods at the custom house, freight, &c.

Treasury stamp on parliamentary grant

460 14 3

150 4 6

302

5 0

93 17 6

496 10 6

190 16 9

228 10 10

34 9 0

21 0 0

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FUNDS.

Account of Funds of the British Museum for the Year ending Christmas 1825:

Balance in hand

Dividend on £30,000 reduced annuities

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Receipts from the sale of the Museum publications, estimated to produce about

200 0

0000

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Estimated Expenditure of the British Museum, from Christmas 1824 to Christmas 1825 :

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Candles, and gas light company

£ 8. d. 3,010 0 0 1,850 0 0 2,325 0 0

564 10 7

400 0 0

350 0 0

300 0 0

94 0 0

190 16 9

Incidents, for sundry articles of domestic use

Fitting up shelves, repairs, &c. not paid by the board of works

Purchases in natural history, shells, zoology, &c. and preserving the same.
Drawings from the Athenian marbles

Engravings from do.

Purchase of prints, &c.......

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For the purchase of foreign books, and continuing the works in progress in the

library of Sir Joseph Banks, and MSS...

Law expenses

Treasury stamp on the parliamentary grant, about..

Estimate for the fifth quarter........

General total..

Deduct, the funds.......................

Add the fraction of £1........

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Sum to be provided for the year ending Christmas 1825 ...£ 15,416 0

Return of the Number of Persons admitted to view the British Museum
from the 26th March, 1818, to Christmas 1824.

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Mem. The days of public admission are,-Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in every week; when, between the hours of ten and two, visitors are admitted immediately on their application.

TURNPIKE TRUSTS.

Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to inquire into the Receipts, Expenditure, and Management of the several Turnpike Trusts within Ten Miles of London.

YOUR committee proceeded to call for the detailed accounts of the different trusts, and to inquire into the quality and price of the materials

used by them, the number of turnpike gates and the general management of the funds. Many of the accounts were found to be in a very confused state, and the clerks of the trusts utterly incapable of affording the information which the committee required; and it appeared that in some instances no regular accounts had been kept till within these few years. The evidence shews that the amount of income raised is much larger than is necessary to keep the roads in the

best state of repair; and that, if those funds had the house. These are matters more directly be. been skilfully applied, and proper materials ob- longing to the different parishes, and ought not tained and used for the last seven years, accord- to be levied upon the public at large in the shape ing to the recommendation of the committees of of tolls. But so various is the practice in this this house, who first instituted inquiries on this respect upon the London roads, that your comsubject, the roads would have been in a much mittee have found, that whilst some trusts are more perfect state of repair, and the debts of the watched and lighted by a parish rate, the extrusts much reduced, and the tolls consequently pense of others, in similar situations in populous lower. The committee have no hesitation in neighbourhoods, is defrayed out of the money stating it as their decided opinion, that the collected by the tolls. The misapplication of surface of the roads has undergone consider-money collected by the tolls is manifested in able improvement since the first inquiry took place in 1819, and when the attention of parliament was particularly called to the expensive management and defective state of the roads in the vicinity of the metropolis. Though the surface of the road is now of a better form, and (in some places) better materials are now used, still much remains to be accomplished; in proof of which, the committee cannot refrain from extracting part of Mr. Telford's report of last year, submitted to the house under the authority of the Holyhead commissioners, on that portion of the London road (within the Highgate and Hampstead trust) that comes within their inspection :

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"This trust is still defective as regards the transverse sectional shape of a perfect road; "the degree of convexity is scarcely in any two "places the same; the breadth of the road is <6 not sufficiently uniform or defined by proper "side channels; they are crooked in their direc❝tion, and of every variety of form."

many cases, and in some instances large sums are paid out of them for the maintenance of pavement, which ought to be defrayed from the rates. St. George's parish, for example, receives 10007. per annum out of the Kensington trust for the repair of a part of Piccadilly, a sum more than adequate to keep that portion under the management of St. George's parish in a perfect state of repair; its present defective and dangerous condition ought not therefore to be continued. The parish of St. Mary-le-bonne likewise receives 500l. per annum from the Mary-le-bonne trust for the repair of Oxford street. These compromises and arrangements for paying a part of the funds of the turnpike trusts in aid of particular parish rates, and committing the care of a part of their street to a separate direction, appears to be very injudicious, and is attended with the bad consequences of placing the road under the direction of a body not responsible to the public, and of affording a pretext for placing gates in the Your committee deemed it also expedient to streets of the metropolis. The payments to have a survey made by Mr. John Loudon these parishes are highly objectionable in point M'Adam, and Mr. Cook, the surveyor of the of principle; but, of all the parishes in London, roads and pavement for the parish of St. Mary- those of St. George and St. Mary-le-bonne have the le-bonne (to which your committee beg to refer), least claim for extra assistance in such contribu-> who point out the present negligent mode of tions, inasmuch as these parishes are the most superintendence, defectiveness in the form of wealthy part of the town, and are consequently the road, drainage, materials, &c., from which fully capable of paying the necessary rates for it is evident, that great improvement might be maintaining their own streets in proper repair. made under a uniform and better management. Your committee beg to observe, that a great It is clearly proved by the evidence, that whin- portion of the money borrowed is still at 57. stone is decidedly the best material for the forma- per cent; and your committee cannot but distion of a good, economical, and durable road, approve of the practice of borrowing money on and that this material has been little used in the annuity at a very exorbitant rate. The security immediate vicinity of London. The drainage, which the revenue derived from these tolls afof so much importance to the formation of a fords, under proper management, would cergood road, requires to be directed by a more tainly enable the amount of the debts to be skilful and experienced executive department, raised on such advantageous terms as would and upon a more extended, uniform, and com- soon effect its final extinction. One of the prehensive scale. By due attention to these, numerous advantages that would arise from the and other points referred to in the evidence, consolidation of these trusts is, that the whole additional cleanliness would be insured; the of the revenue might be lodged in the Bank of quantity of materials required for repairs very England, by which the many disjointed interests much diminished, and on the whole the expenses of the several treasurers would be annihilated, very considerably reduced. The frequency of and that procrastination of payment which now repairs under the present system also causes appears under the head of "floating debt," and great interruption and inconvenience to passen-is a source of further waste in the public fund, gers. Your committee have observed, in the accounts brought before them, large items of disbursements for watching and lighting, to which they beg leave to call the particular attention of

entirely prevented. Your committee have learned with surprise, that three of the trusts have estates independent of their revenues from tolls; and that in the instance of the Harrow road,

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