The principal libraries of the several capital cities of Europe, in the order of their magnitude, in 1848 stood as follows:

do.

*Paris, National Library, 824,000 *Milan, Brera Library, . 600,000 Paris, St. Genevieve do.

*Munich, Royal Petersburg, Imperial do.

. 446,000 Darmstadt, Grand Ducal do. 150,000

*London, British Museum do. 435,000 *Florence, Magliabecchian do. 150,000

The oldest of the great libraries of printed books is probably that of Vienna, which dates from 1440, and is said to have been open to the public as early as 1575. The town library of Ratisbon (in Bavaria) dates from 1430; St. Mark's Library at Venice, from 1468; the town library of Frankfort, from 1484; that of Hamburg, from 1529; of Strasburg (France), from 1531; of Augsburg (Bavaria), from 1537; those of Berne and Geneva, from 1550; and that of Basel or Basle, from 1564.

The Royal Library of Copenhagen was founded about 1550. In 1671, it had 10,000 volumes; in 1748, about 65,000; in 1778, 100,000; and in 1820, 300,000. The National Library of Paris was founded in 1595, and was made public in 1737. In 1640, it had about 17,000 volumes; in 1684, 50,000; in 1775, 150,000; in 1790, 200,000. The library of the British Museum was founded in 1753, and made public in 1757, when it contained about 40,000 volumes. In 1800, it had about 65,000 volumes; in 1823, 125,000; in 1836, nearly 240,000. The whole of the difference between 1836 and 1848 does not arise from the actual increase of the collection; a portion of the difference results from the fact, that many thousand tracts, formerly in volumes or cases, have been separately bound, and are now enumerated as distinct volumes. The rest of the increase is mainly ascribable to donations. Of its 435,000 volumes, at least 200,000 have been presented or bequeathed. The growth of the Copenhagen Library arises mainly from judicious purchases, at favorable opportunities. The increase of the National Library of Paris, since 1790, is in a great measure to be ascribed to the Revolution. Special instructions were usually given, that the officers of the library should have unlimited power of selection from the many libraries at the disposal of the government upon the suppression of the monasteries and convents, and the confiscation of the property of rebels and emigrants.

*These libraries are entitled by law to a copy of every book published within the states to which they respectively belong.

The chief University Libraries in 1848 ranked as follows:

The date of the foundation of some of the libraries is as follows: :---Turin, 1436; Cambridge, 1484; Leipsic, 1544; Edinburgh, 1582; the Bodleian, 1597. The library of the University of Salamanca (24,000 volumes) is said to have been founded in 1215.

The following table shows the whole number of printed volumes in the public libraries of some of the principal cities of Europe, in 1848.

The average annual sum allotted to the support of the National Library at Paris is £16,575; the Royal Library at Brussels, £2,700; of Munich, about £2,000; of Vienna, £1,900; of Berlin, £3,745; of Copenhagen, £1,250; of Dresden, £500; of Darmstadt, £2,000; of the British Museum prior to 1835, less than £8,000, and of this sum only £1,135, on an average, was expended for printed books. In 1846 and 1847, £10,000 was annually appropriated for the purchase of printed books, which sum was in 1848 reduced to £8,500. The whole sum expended in the purchase of printed books for the British Museum, including maps and musical works, from its foundation in 1753 to Dec. 25, 1847, was £102,446, 18s. 5d.; for manuscripts, £42,940 11s. 10d.; prints and drawings, £29,318 4s.; antiquities, coins, and medals, £125,257 Os. 9d.; specimens in all branches of natural history, £ 43,599 7s. 8d.; in all, £344,562 2s. 8d.

*These are lending libraries.

†These are legally entitled to copies of all works published in the states to which they respectively belong.

The average number of volumes added annually to the National Library of Paris is stated to be 12,000; to that of Munich, 10,000; of Berlin, 5,000; of Vienna, 5,000; of St. Petersburg, 2,000; to the Ducal Library of Parma, 1,800; to the Royal Library of Copenhagen, 1,000; to the British Museum under the special grant, about 30,000 volumes, usually comprising about 24,000 separate works.

The publication of Mr. Edwards contains the sums granted annually, from 1823 to 1848 inclusive, by Parliament, and by the French Chambers, for the support of public libraries and museums; also the expenditure in detail, upon the library of the British Museum, from 1753 to 1848 inclusive. We give below the summary by Mr. Edwards of the public libraries in America, for the year 1846. The summary takes no account of libraries containing less than 5,000 volumes. We hope soon, from the publications of the Smithsonian Institute, and from information furnished by correspondents, to give later and fuller information:

THE following tables comprise many particulars of interest in relation to coal. They are derived mainly from the valuable work on this subject by Richard C. Taylor, Esq.* The very general substitution of coal for wood as fuel, and its employment in the manufacture of iron and in the production of steam and gas, have, of late years, given an amazing impulse to the trade in this article. Thirty years ago, the coal trade in this country was limited to three hundred and sixty-five tons of anthracite, brought from the Lehigh mines to Philadelphia; now, the annual production of anthracite greatly exceeds three millions of tons. This rapid increase is not confined to the United States. In the twenty years from 1825 to 1845, the exports of coal from Great Britain increased 713 per cent.; the production of coal in France, 181 per cent., in Belgium, 111 per cent., in Prussia, 124 per cent. Indeed, so great and various have the uses of coal become, that, in connection with iron, it must now be considered one of the most important elements of a nation's commercial and manufacturing prosperity. It is in

* Statistics of Coal, by Richard C. Taylor. Philadelphia. 1848. 8vo. pp. 754.

teresting, therefore, to ascertain and compare the extent and quality of the coal deposits of various countries. Unfortunately, there exist innumerable deficiencies and discrepancies in the statistical materials at command. In some countries, however, as in France and Belgium, measures are taken to register every important particular in mining operations. It is much to be regretted, that the same fulness of detail is unattainable in Great Britain and in this country. The work of Mr. Taylor, by exhibiting the importance of these details, will, it is hoped, do much towards securing so desirable a result.

In the distribution of coal the United States are highly favored. Exclusive of Texas, New Mexico, California, and Oregon, all of which are known to contain coal, the area of coal formations in the United States is estimated by Mr. Taylor to be 133,132 square miles, while the total area of these formations in Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, and Newfoundland, is, according to the same authority, less than 30,000 square miles. Nearly the whole of this vast area is occupied by bituminous coal. The total area of the anthracite region of Pennsylvania is estimated at less than 400 square miles. Yet more tons of fuel are now annually produced from this small area, than from the almost boundless fields of bituminous coal scattered over twelve States. The railroads and canals built to develop the wealth of this region had cost in 1847 about $40,000,000. Anthracite seems, indeed, to have superseded bituminous coal on nearly the whole of our Atlantic seaboard. The freedom from smoke of anthracite is alone sufficient to account for the preference given to it for domestic purposes. In steam navigation it admits of much closer stowage, and is not liable to spontaneous combustion, as is the case with bituminous coal. In war-steamers there is this additional advantage, that no smoke betrays the motions of steamers burning anthracite, whereas steamers burning fat, bituminous coal can be "tracked" seventy miles, before their hulls become visible, by the black smoke trailing along the horizon.* The preference given to anthracite may be illustrated by a comparison of the importations of coal into Boston, in the years 1840 and 1847, which stand thus:

Thus, while in 1840 the excess of anthracite was but 20,551 tons, in 1847 it was 188,336 tons.t

In regard to the red-ash and white-ash varieties of anthracite mentioned in Table VIII., “it seems established," says Mr. Taylor, "that, for closed furnaces for warming houses, the white-ash variety, being the most compact, dense, and slow-burning, is more durable" than the softer red-ash coal, and consequently preferable. "In open grates," he adds, " for warming apartments, the latter is decidedly preferred."

"A very important and interesting experiment was recently made for the purpose of testing the comparative value of the red and the white ash coals for domestic purposes. Two rooms of nearly the same size, and having the same temperature, were selected to ascertain how many pounds of each kind would be required to heat them to a temperature of 65 degrees, during a period of 15 hours, when the temperature out of doors at 9 A. M. was at ten degrees below the freezing point. Two days were occupied in the trial, so that the red and the white ash coals might be used in alternate rooms. Fires were made at 9 A. M., and continued until 12 P. M. Two thermometers (one in each room) were suspended at the greatest distance from the grates, and the temperature was carefully registered every hour. The result was as follows:

"Thirty-one pounds each day of the Schuylkill red-ash coal gave a mean temperature of 64 degrees; and thirty-seven pounds each day of the whiteash, taken from a vein of high repute in the Lehigh region, gave a mean temperature of 63 degrees; - making 2,000 pounds of the red-ash to be equal to 2,387 pounds of the white; or red-ash coal at $5.50 per ton to be equal to white-ash at $4.61.” *

Table I. gives a comparative view of the areas of coal lands, and the production in 1845 of the six principal producing countries. As to the area of coal formations in France, it is to be remarked, that the area of the "concessions," or grants made for working, is all that is given. The amount of coal produced includes 152,900 tons of lignite or brown coal in France, and over 700,000 tons in Prussia. The fourth column gives the relative parts in 1,000 produced by each country.

TABLE I.t

Official estimated Value at

Square Miles Tons of Fuel Relative the Places of Production.

of Coal For

mations.

American Pounds Ster-
Dollars.

Countries.

produced in Parts of

1845. 31,500,000

1,000.
642 45,738,000

ling.

9,450,000

4,960,077 101

United States,

133,132

4,400,000 89

6,650,000 1,373,963

Table II. gives an analysis of different kinds of coal, arranged more particularly to show the adaptation of each variety to the manufacture of iron. The difference in the amount of carbon, volatile matter, and ashes is very striking between the bituminous coals and anthracite. Anthracite has now been successfully introduced in the manufacture of iron in Pennsylvania and in South Wales. In 1842, but four furnaces used this coal in Pennsylvania. In 1846, nearly one third of all the iron manufactured in that State was made by anthracite, as may be seen by the following statement: ‡ 1 Ibid., p. 135.

*Taylor, Introduction, p. lx.

Ibid., Introduction, p. xx.