... “The reverence and respect your Petitioners bear to the memory of the most learned Sir ROBERT COTTON are too great not to mention, in particular, that from the liberal use of his Library sprang (chiefly) most of the learned works of his time, for ever highly to be valued. The great men of that age constantly resorted to and consulted it to shew the errors and mistakes in government about that period. And, as this inestimable Library hath since been generously given and dedicated to the Public use for ever, to be a National Benefit, your Petitioners presume that no expression of gratitude can be too great for so valuable a treasure, or for doing honour to the Memory and Family of Sir ROBERT COTTON.”—‘_Petition to the Honourable House of Commons from the Cottonian Trustees_’ (drawn up antecedently to the Foundation Act of the British Museum); 1752. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. _Chronological Epochs in the Formation of the British Museum._ In two particulars, more especially, our great National Museum stands distinguished among institutions of its kind. The collections which compose it extend over a wider range than that covered by any other public establishment having a like purpose. And, if we take them as a whole, those collections are also far more conspicuously indebted to the liberality of individual benefactors. [Sidenote: THE PUBLIC DEBT TO PRIVATE COLLECTORS.] In a degree of which there is elsewhere no example, the British Museum has been gradually built up by the munificence of open-handed Collectors, rather than by the public means of the Nation, as administered by Parliament, or by the Governments of the day.