From that year the collection of Printed Books increased steadily and at a rate unexampled in any other country. This influx of books, the necessity of Cataloguing, placing, and binding them, to render them available, and the difficulties created by want of space, added enormously to the already onerous duties of the Keeper. Nor was this special grant otherwise than truly necessary; in fact, it ran short of the sum requisite for purchasing the rarest and best editions; the commonest being consequently acquired, and this only tended to increase the bulk, thus reducing it to the level of an ordinary Library, instead of raising it to the rank and splendour of a National Collection, worthy of so great a country as England. Interesting and important as is the subject of the present chapter—viz, the gradual development of the resources of the National Institution, and the energy displayed by those whose duty it was to use every endeavour to raise the Museum in grandeur and extent—no great digression is admissible, inasmuch as there is on our hands so great a press of matter that nothing should induce us to lose the thread of our biography, or forget that we have the life of Panizzi under treatment, and the history of the British Museum only so far as it bears on his doings and his labours on its behalf. Of these we have attempted to give a clear and honest account. As Panizzi was one of those who felt sincerely that “whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well,” and as he was blessed with ability and decision of character to carry out whatever he had in hand, it is pleasant to remark how thoroughly and efficiently he applied his talents to the benefit of the National Institution; and much as it would delight us to expatiate further on the subject, we must deny ourselves at present, as it is now incumbent on us to enter into new channels in connection with his life. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] CHAPTER VI _Bridport Election; Desire to visit Modena; Mazzini; Post Office Espionage; Biographer’s Personal Reminiscences; Portland Vase; Psalter, 1457; Interview with Francis IV; Libri._