In 1873, he was appointed privy counsellor to the government, and was entrusted with the temporary direction of the Berlin library. We were witness to the extreme and careful deliberation with which he considered the matter before assuming this onerous office. He did not conceal from himself that it would hinder the completion of many an enterprise which he had already begun and which was very dear to him; but on the other hand he told himself that he was the right man to regulate and carry through numerous affairs which he knew would be of benefit to the important institution which he was to conduct. The broad and firm foundation of his education, his prolonged work as a student at Paris, Rome and London, and his practical intelligence, specially fitted him for the place of a chief librarian. He entered upon the post on the twenty-fifth of March, 1874. Pertz had formerly been a very useful man, but had now become enfeebled by age, and was difficult to manage. We learn from the most authoritative of all sources that Lepsius, at the instance of Delbrück, then vice-chancellor, undertook to induce Pertz first to resign the management of the collection of the archives of the German people, (the Monumenta Germaniae), and afterwards to retire from his office of chief librarian. After Lepsius had succeeded in this--the wits of Berlin called him Propertz, as the successor of the aged Pertz,--the Minister, Falk, invited him in April, 1873 to assume the management of the Royal Library. The place was at first provisional, but when he definitively assumed the office in March, 1874, he did it under the condition that the Budget for the library should be considerably increased, and that provision should be made for erecting a new building. Of this there was and is urgent need, for the limited amount of space in the old “roccoco-cabinet of Frederick II.,” produced, and still produces, incredible disadvantages. After inspecting many large foreign libraries during the long vacation of 1873, and taking into consideration everything which he found there suitable for the end in view, Lepsius looked over the plans of the grounds available for this purpose. As the result of his reflections a bold idea saw the light of day. The place which he chose for the future library of the capital city was the great square enclosed by Unter den Linden, Charlotten, Dorotheen and Universitäts streets. This was a bold but extraordinarily happy project, which might perhaps have been adopted, had it been earlier laid before the Government and the chambers. But the golden days of flood in the Prussian treasury were passing away. Lepsius succeeded in arranging that the rear portion of the Dutch palace, towards Behren Street, should be specially appropriated as journal rooms, whereby space was procured for from one to two hundred thousand volumes more. But he did not live to see the realization of his project. Nevertheless, the impulse given by