59.
attended to, the Library has suffered great defalcations and damage. The Books presented by the China Branch of the Asiatic Society are of considerable value - and these two Loans would supply a most useful foundation for a tolerably complete Library of reference in matters connected with China and the contiguous regions - while there is an institution principally supported by and circulated among the contributions of the middle classes consisting of several thousands of volumes. It is my purpose to unite these three Libraries, to place them under proper Superintendence, - to provide for their safe keeping, make them generally accessible and to appropriate to a desirable purpose a portion of that public building I have in contemplation, which I intend a reading room shall be attached to a Museum.
27. We have come Materials for a Museum which I propose to attach to the Public Library. They belong to the Asiatic Society but have hitherto suffered from the want of a proper Curator. But this Colony is admirably situated as a central point for collections of all sorts from beyond the Cape, and the extension of relations with the whole Western Coast of America...