Lillingston,
or that part which relates to Cape
François and Port de Paix. 8^o
Lond. 1704.

It appears from Sir N. H. Nicolas's first letter, that the work he wanted was the last; and had he given a ticket somewhat as follows, there is no doubt he would have got the book in five minutes:—

(Date) May 18th, 1846. N. Harris Nicolas. (Signature)

Please to restore each volume of the Catalogue to its place, as soon as
done with.

Instead of this, he gave a ticket, of which the following is a fac-simile:—

Please to restore each volume of the Catalogue to its place, as soon as
done with.

Now the attention of those who take an interest in this matter is particularly requested to the following details, every one of them trifling indeed, and yet all springing from the ticket which was given, and more than enough to show the consequences which followed from the carelessness of its writer:—

After having sent into the Reading Room four out of the five books asked for by Sir N. H. Nicolas—which, as he states, took half an hour—and therefore, as nearly as possible, at half-past three, the same attendant went in search of the fifth, marked 581 i. He found that 581 i contained only folios, and he did not, therefore, and very properly, lose more of his time in looking for an octavo, which was written for; he had lost enough by being sent to a place where what was wanted could not be. In justice to the other readers, as well as to the department, the ticket ought to have been at once returned to Sir N. H. Nicolas, marked "wrong," in order that he might have corrected his own mistakes. If a reader's mistakes are to be corrected by the attendants, all the evils arising from the old system, as described in my evidence before the House of Commons, are increased; for in addition to the loss of time in finding what a reader wants, there is the previous and additional loss caused by the error of the applicant, in directing an attendant to look for a work where it could not be. This loss of time proves injurious chiefly to the other readers; and it is "for their own comfort" that readers are requested to comply with the rules, without causing an attendant to waste the public time to discover what an individual applicant may want, which no one can know so well as the applicant himself.

The attendant, however, being newly appointed, and being anxious to serve Sir N. H. Nicolas, set about trying to find what was wanted. The first difficulty which presented itself was to make out the ticket, so badly written as almost to defy the eye of a man unaccustomed to the hand. A consultation was held with another attendant (and thus the loss of time of another man added to the former) and the name Burchett being made out, the Catalogue was referred to, and the three entries found as already transcribed. The ticket, let it be remembered, contained only the words "Burchett's History of Transactions at Sea, 8^o. fvr 1704," without saying for what period. The first of the three entries began with the words "Memoirs of Transactions at Sea," and related to an 8vo. printed at London in 1703; Memoirs and History are not the same words; yet, as a mistake had occurred, might this not be the book, the date, 1703, being so near to 1704? The second entry was to be sure, of an 8vo. printed at London, in 1704; but then it was not a History of Transactions at Sea; the third entry, besides being a History not of Transactions at Sea, like the Memoirs, but only of the most remarkable ones, was a folio, not an 8vo. and printed in 1720, not 1704: It stood, however, in 581 i. In doubt which was the book wanted, the attendant not unnaturally supposed it might be the first; but then the entry had no Press-mark which could enable him to ascertain the fact by looking at the book itself: this led him to make a third attendant likewise lose some time to examine into the circumstances; who, knowing more of the Library, (having been longer in it) perceived that this entry was unmarked, because the volume to which it referred had been sold as duplicate of one in the Royal Library, where the preserved copy would be found. The first attendant then transferred the ticket to a fourth well acquainted with the Royal Collection; and this fourth attendant, after all proper enquiries, came to the correct conclusion, that the "Memoirs" were not wanted; but, as he could not say which work was, he returned the ticket to the attendant from whom he had received it. Now there was yet a chance of making out the meaning of the writer of that ticket, and that was to examine the identical copy of the volume of the Catalogue kept in the Reading Room, from which the ticket ought to have been copied, and to see whether all this trouble was caused by an error in it, which might have misled Sir N. H. Nicolas. To ascertain this the attendant went to examine that volume, but with no better result, and he was still unable to discover where the error lay.

Whilst all this was going on, Sir N. H. Nicolas complained once and only once to Scott the attendant, who did not tell him that he had corrected a wrong Press-mark given for the book, as stated, nor that "he had often applied for it." To Mr. Grabham and to Scott Sir N. H. Nicolas pointed out in the Catalogue the book he wanted. Scott went into the Library, found the attendant, assisted by another, still endeavouring to discover the book, and on the entry being pointed out by Scott, as it had been to him by Sir Nicholas, the attendant went with the Catalogue in his hand to show to this gentleman whence the delay arose, and to express his great sorrow that Sir Nicholas should have been kept waiting: He, moreover, told Sir Nicholas that he should now have the book in five minutes. Sir N. H. Nicolas did not, however, seem satisfied, and allowed the attendant to have the additional trouble of finding the book in a hurry; yet, as soon as he had heard that it would be forthcoming in five minutes, Sir Nicholas left the room, without waiting the few minutes requisite to find it, and went away; most fortunately leaving behind him the ticket, which enables me to show the real state of the case. And he complains of having been kept waiting an hour and a half for one book! The fact is, he was kept waiting one hour—for during the first half hour he had got four other books—and who can wonder at it? And who has more right to complain, the reader of the officers, or the officers of the reader? The only reader who had a right to complain, but who did not, although he considered the delay unusual, was Mr. Fairholt, who wanted to look at a work merely to correct a proof sheet which he had brought with him, and who had asked for it very correctly, but who could not obtain it for more than half an hour,