Assistant-Keeper of Printed Books, and succeeded Mr. Panizzi as Keeper
upon the latter's promotion to the Principal Librarianship in March
1856. His period of office as Assistant-Keeper was chiefly distinguished
by the erection of the new Reading Room, and the libraries in connection
with it. The design of this grand and commodious structure belongs
entirely to Sir A. Panizzi; but Mr. Jones saw the original sketch
(engraved in the catalogue of the Reading Room reference library) as
soon as it was made, and was consulted upon every detail during the
progress of the work. One of his first duties as Keeper was to edit,
with a valuable preface, the above-mentioned catalogue, which had been
entirely prepared by Mr. W. B. Rye, late Keeper of the Printed Books. As
Keeper Mr. Jones paid the greatest attention to the organisation of his
department, which he maintained in the highest condition of efficiency.
The number of titles written annually for the catalogue was unequalled
before or since, and the department never had so many assistants of
literary distinction. He followed in his predecessor's steps in using
every possible endeavour to increase the library, both numerically and
by the acquisition of special bibliographical treasures. The annual
grant, long diminished from want of room to store accessions, was
raised to £10,000 in 1857, and Mr. Jones proceeded to expend it with the
assistance of the vast literary knowledge of his colleague Mr. Watts,
and valuable aid in the acquisition of German and other old foreign
books from Mr. Albert Cohn, of Berlin; in American literature from the
enterprising and indefatigable Mr. Henry Stevens; and in ancient
service-books from Mr. William Maskell. Among the many important
official documents prepared by him may be mentioned a memorandum of
objections to the recommendations of the Royal Commissioners; and
reports on additions to the staff, on the superannuation of assistants,
on Civil Service examinations, and on vellum books.
In July 1866, Mr. Winter Jones, having previously acted as Deputy
Principal Librarian from December 1862 to May 1863, became Principal
Librarian on the retirement of Sir A. Panizzi. It will have been
inferred from the tenor of the preceding narrative that his abilities
rather qualified him to maintain an existing system in a high state of
efficiency than to initiate alterations, and such was precisely the part
marked out for him by the character of the times. The institution,
thoroughly reorganised during the last thirty years, required rest, and
no impulse was felt towards the reforms and developments which have
proved practicable and salutary under his successor. The great question
of the removal of the Natural History collections to South Kensington
had been determined for good or ill before he took office, and no
question of corresponding public interest arose under his
administration. He presided, however, over a committee formed to
consider the proposed transfer of the South Kensington Museum to the
Trustees of the British Museum, but its deliberations led to no result.
He was especially careful in ascertaining the qualifications of persons
recommended for appointments in the Museum. His method,
clear-headedness, and general capacity for business rendered him highly
acceptable to the Trustees, especially those who, like the Duke of
Somerset, Mr. Walpole, and Mr. Grote, took a peculiarly active share in
the affairs of the institution. With Mr. Grote he was particularly
intimate, and frequently visited him, and subsequently his widow, at
their charming residence near Shere.
In 1877 his health, which for the last forty years had been good, began
so far to fail as to render a winter residence in London exceedingly
difficult to him. He obtained a four months' leave of absence, in the
hope of an amelioration which did not take place. That his mental, and
to a considerable degree his physical vigour were unimpaired, he had
just proved by the transaction which entitles him to a record in the
_Transactions of the Library Association_. It will be remembered how
upon the foundation of the Association, a proposition, well calculated
to enlist support, was made, that its presidency should be conferred
upon a gentleman whose writings have laid the profession under deep
obligations.[320:1] It is not the least of Mr. E. B. Nicholson's many
services to the Association which he called into being, to have
discerned that it could not in its infant stage prosper without official
patronage, and that, without prejudice to individual claims, its fitting
head at that period would be the chief librarian of the chief library,
the Principal Librarian of the British Museum. He accordingly invited
Mr. Jones to accept the office of President, and to invest the young
society with the sanction of official prestige, by consenting to open
its first Congress, and deliver an inaugural address. Mr. Jones, however
favourably disposed to Mr. Nicholson's project, might well have declined
on the ground of engrossing public duties and delicate health, but he
did not. The members of the Association will long recollect his
appearance in the chair at the preliminary London meeting of 1877; the
staunch persistence with which, though evidently suffering from
indisposition, he delivered his carefully prepared inaugural discourse;
and the firmness and dignity with which he conducted the proceedings
until the close of the morning's meeting. It was his last act of
importance as a librarian. His temporary retirement during the ensuing
winter having failed to recruit his health, he resigned in August 1878,
receiving a farewell address from his colleagues, and the individual
tributes of several of the leading Trustees. He withdrew to Henley,
where he had erected a residence at a considerable elevation, commanding
a charming view; his winters were spent at Penzance, where, not long
before his death, he showed his undiminished interest in research by
delivering a lecture upon the Assyrian discoveries. The present writer
visited him at Henley in June 1881, and found him, although suffering
somewhat from asthma, in tolerable health and excellent spirits,
interested in the affairs of the world, and happy in the affection of
his family. On the morning of September 7, after having entertained a
party of young people to a late hour with great good humour, he was
found dead in his bed. He had died of disease of the heart. He was
interred at Kensal Green, his funeral being attended by most of his
Museum colleagues then in town. He had married in 1837 the daughter of
William Hewson, Esq., of Lisson Hall, Cumberland, a very amiable lady,
who predeceased him by a few years, and whose protracted indisposition
in the latter years of her life occasioned him much sorrow. He left one
married and one unmarried daughter.
* * * * *
It may surprise those slightly or only officially acquainted with Mr.
Jones to be informed that one of his principal characteristics was
extreme kindness of heart, but such would be the opinion of all who knew
him intimately. He was not emotional, but his affections were warm and
deep: he was not impressionable, but kindness was with him an innate
principle. If he ever seemed to act with harshness, it was from a
constraining sense of official duty, and it might easily be seen that
the necessity was very disagreeable to him. It was exceedingly
difficult, for instance, to get him to take steps for the removal of
attendants whose incapacity from ill health had long been notorious: and
he may be censured for having sometimes closed his eyes to circumstances
of which he should have taken notice. What seemed in him stiffness—and
had all the disadvantageous effects of stiffness—was in reality a
reserve which made him appear constrained where men of less real
courtesy and kindness would have seemed facile and genial. His was
indeed by no means an expansive nature, but it was a very genuine one;
he was deeply beloved in his family; his friendships were solid and
lasting; and he exhibited that general criterion of a good heart,
kindness to children and animals. He says in an early letter: "On Friday
last I went out fishing. The weather was very fine for sailing, but not
at all adapted for the sport we had in view: which was a great source of
satisfaction to me, for spitting the poor worms for bait was a dreadful
task to my unpractised nerves; and tearing the hook out of the throat of
the animal when caught was, if possible, still worse." He despised
claptrap popularity, and was perhaps even unduly indifferent to the
shows and surfaces of things. This concern for reality, however,
combined with his legal education, made him a lover of justice; and he
thus earned the respect and confidence of his subordinates, who knew
that they might fully rely upon his equitable consideration, and his
support in trials and difficulties. His judgment of men was in general
very correct, though he was capable of being swayed by long intimacy or
personal liking. He was on various occasions subjected to considerable
obloquy, but as this always arose from his opposition to the interested
views of individuals, it only redounded to his credit with those
acquainted with the circumstances. His literary tastes were such as
befitted the bibliographer, but he admired many poets and novelists,
especially Shakespeare, Goethe, Ariosto, and Wieland. He possessed a
peculiar vein of dry humour, which he occasionally manifested with great
effect. Intellectually, he represented one of the most frequent types in
the generation to which he belonged—the generation of Grote and Mill
and Cornewall Lewis—the essentially utilitarian.
He was not the man to innovate or originate, but was admirably qualified
for the work which actually fell to his lot—first to be the right hand
of a great architect, then to consolidate the structure he had helped to
erect, and prepare it for still vaster extension and more commanding
proportions in the times to come.
FOOTNOTES:
[304:1] Contributed to the _Transactions of the Library Association_,
1882.
[306:1] Mr. Bythewood bequeathed to Mr. Jones his gold repeater watch,
valued at one hundred guineas; and Mr. Jones received in after years a
precisely similar legacy from Sir Anthony Panizzi.
[320:1] Mr. Edward Edwards.
THE LATE HENRY STEVENS, F.S.A.[325:1]
With the exception of the death of the late Henry Bradshaw, taken away
so nearly at the same time, the Library Association could have sustained
no loss more sincerely regarded by its members in the light of a
personal bereavement than that which it has suffered by the death of
Henry Stevens, on February 28. Mr. Stevens's interest in the Association
has been so warm, his counsel so valuable, his genial presence and witty
discourse such recognised features of attraction at its gatherings, that
his loss must be felt as one almost impossible to supply. It must be
long indeed before any one can fill Mr. Stevens's place as a link
between the librarians of Europe and America, and it may be much longer
yet before the happy union of bibliographical attainments with social
qualities is witnessed to a like extent in the same individual.
Henry Stevens was born August 24, 1819, at Barnet, Vermont, U.S., hence
the initials, G.M.B. (Green Mountain Boy), prized by him, there is
reason to surmise, above his academical and antiquarian distinctions. He
was sixth in descent from Cyprian Stevens, who had emigrated in the days
of Charles I. The family came originally from Devonshire. It had had
its share of colonial celebrity and adventure; one ancestor had
successfully defended a fort against the French; another had been stolen
by the Indians, and ransomed for a pony. After receiving a fair ordinary
education at the school of his native village, and two local seminaries,
Mr. Stevens, at the age of seventeen, began to teach with a view of
obtaining means to take him to college. He received from twelve to
sixteen dollars a month, boarding with his pupils' families, "three days
to a scholar, except when the girls were pretty, and in that case four."
In October 1838 he proceeded to Middlebury College, defraying his
travelling expenses by peddling cheeses contributed for that purpose by
his excellent mother. His father, a man of literary tastes and culture,
founder and President of the Vermont Historical and Antiquarian Society,
seems to have been always behindhand with the world, and to have been
unable to aid his son to any material extent. It was customary for
students thus destitute of support from home to defray their college
expenses by teaching in the winter months. Stevens obtained leave to try
his fortune at Washington, relying on the patronage of Governor Henry
Hubbard, then Senator for New Hampshire. He called upon him accordingly,
and though he was a Whig and the Senator a Democrat, he found himself,
as if by magic, clerk in the Treasury Department "in charge of the
records and correspondence of the Revenue Cutter Service," with a salary
of a thousand dollars a year. He was soon afterwards transferred to a
clerkship in the Senate, where after a while he was employed as clerk to
the Senate branch of the Joint Committee of the Congress for
investigating the claims of Messrs. Clark & Force under a contract for
publishing the American Archives, which it was desired to terminate.
Much time and labour had been expended upon the volumes already printed,
but it was generally surmised that the contract would be broken,
because, as a Democrat remarked, "it would cost more than the building
of the Capitol, and, what was worse, both the editor and the printer
were Whigs." The Committee, who seem to have had no taste for literary
drudgery, turned the task of digesting the papers entirely over to Mr.
Stevens, who on his part, finding the documents intrusted to him
insufficient, scraped acquaintance with Colonel Peter Force himself, and
extracted abundant information from him without divulging his official
position. At length the digest was ready, and the Committee, convoked
for the purpose, heard their officer read the whole, up to the entirely
unexpected and unwelcome conclusion, "Resolved, that this contract
cannot be broken." Stevens was severely taken to task for his
presumption, when Daniel Webster, a member of the Committee, interfered
on his behalf, and advocated his view with such effect that "the
Committee was discharged from further consideration of the subject." The
contract was shortly afterwards rescinded. The service Stevens had
nevertheless rendered to Force had an important influence on his
subsequent career. Quitting Washington, as he had always intended to do,
and repairing to complete his education at Yale College, he took with
him a commission from the Colonel to collect books, pamphlets, and MSS.
in aid of the American Archives, which not only helped to provide the
expenses of his University course, but endowed him with knowledge,
tastes, and aptitudes qualifying him for future eminence as book-hunter
and bookseller. Another main source of income was his fine penmanship,
both as transcriber and teacher. He took his B.A. degree in 1843, and in
1843-44 studied law at Harvard under Justice Story, continuing to act as
agent for Colonel Force, and forming connections with other collectors.
At length, in 1845, he determined to visit England on literary errands,
not expecting to be absent more than one or two years. Fortified by
introductions from Francis Parkman and Jared Sparks, he took his
departure, and in July 1845 found himself at the North and South
American Coffee-House, the bearer of a huge bag of despatches for the
United States Minister, Mr. Everett, and of a tiny one of forty
sovereigns of his own. Mr. Everett's influence opened the State Paper
Office to him; and ere the sun set on his first day in London he had
visited the four great second-hand dealers of the day, Rodd, Thorpe,
Pickering, and Rich. The last-named had just acquired the valuable
library of M. Ternaux-Compans, and Mr. Stevens immediately purchased
£800 worth on behalf of Mr. John Carter Brown of Providence, Rhode
Island, from whom he had a general commission to forage, and who showed
wisdom as well as spirit in ratifying his agent's decided action. Those
were the golden days of speculation in books relating to America, when
rarities could be obtained for hardly more shillings than they now cost
pounds. Mr. Stevens probably contributed more than any other man to
terminate this happy state of things. While, on the one hand, he
ransacked the chief European capitals as agent for wealthy American
collectors, on the other hand he drained America on behalf of the
British Museum, then for the first time entering into the market to any
considerable extent. Mr. Panizzi had just prepared his celebrated report
on the deficiencies of the Museum Library, in which he had said: "The
expense requisite for accomplishing what is here suggested—that is, for
forming in a few years a public library containing from 600,000 to
700,000 printed volumes, giving the necessary information on all
branches of human learning, from all countries, in all languages,
properly arranged, substantially and well bound, minutely and fully
catalogued, easily accessible and yet safely preserved, capable for some
years to come of keeping pace with the increase of human knowledge—will
no doubt be great; but so is the nation which is to bear it. What might
be extravagant and preposterous to suggest to one country may be looked
upon not only as moderate, but as indispensable in another." With such
views on Panizzi's part, he and Stevens fortunately encountered. Ere
they had been long acquainted, a proposal came from the former, that
Stevens should undertake the agency for the supply of American books.
Stevens at first hesitated; he had not contemplated remaining in Europe.
He soon saw his way to accept it, and, in his words, "an exodus of
American books to the British Museum commenced that has not ceased at
the present time."
It would be impossible within the limits of this notice to enumerate all
the important transactions in which Mr. Stevens was engaged, or the
numerous instances in which his ready and inventive intellect was
exerted for the furtherance of bibliography. One of his most important
enterprises was the purchase of Humboldt's library, which resulted in
disappointment. The Civil War supervening, his American patrons "shut up
like clam shells," and most of the books were ultimately destroyed by
fire while warehoused in London. A portion, however, had been previously
separated, and the British Museum possesses numerous presentation copies
to Humboldt, with the autographs of the authors. Members of the Library
Association who were present at the Liverpool meeting will long remember
Mr. Stevens's humorous account of his dealings with Mr. Peabody, and of
his dismay when the collection formed by the philanthropist for
presentation to his native town, at an average cost of one shilling a
volume, was described in the local paper as the special selection of
that intelligent bibliographer, Henry Stevens, Esq. Mr. Stevens's
relations with the most important of all his customers, Mr. James
Lennox, have been so recently detailed to the Association that it is
needless to do more than allude to his narrative as one of the most racy
of literary monographs, affording an excellent idea of the writer's
quaint, shrewd, and anecdotical conversation. It has been republished by
his son in an elegant volume. Another remarkable passage in his life was
his active share in originating and organising the Bible department of
the Caxton Exhibition, when he propounded views respecting Miles
Coverdale which involved him in many a polemic, and devised for the two
different recensions of the Bible of 1611 the appellations of "Great He"
and "Great She" Bible, which they seem likely to retain. The most
interesting, perhaps, of all Mr. Stevens's achievements was his
redemption of Franklin's MSS. from oblivion. Bequeathed by Franklin to
his grandson, they had been only partially published, after a long delay
and with suppressions which exposed William Temple Franklin to the
unjust imputation of having disposed of a great part of them to the
British Government. In fact they had been put aside and forgotten after
Temple Franklin's death in Paris, and had eventually come into the
possession of an old friend of his who repeatedly offered them for sale,
but could find no customer, from the universal belief that they had
already been printed and published. Mr. Stevens acquired them in 1851,
and after thirty years' delay, and spending a thousand pounds over and
above the original price in cataloguing, binding and adding to their
number, ultimately disposed of them to the United States Government.
Their eventful history, involving a complete vindication of Temple
Franklin and the British Government, is told in a privately printed
volume of his own, accompanied with beautifully engraved portraits and a
valuable bibliography of books by and concerning Franklin. The
collection is also the subject of an article in the _Century_ for June
1886.
Notwithstanding the engrossing nature of his pursuits, Mr. Stevens was
always striving to aid bibliography by his pen. For this, in addition to
his knowledge and acumen, and a cultivated taste which served him
admirably on questions of typography, he possessed the qualifications of
untiring industry and great facility of composition. He did much, and
would have done more but for the sanguine temper which led him to
undertake more than he could complete, and the fastidiousness which
indisposed him to let work go out of his hands while anything seemed
lacking to perfection. He left several bibliographical or biographical
memoirs wanting hardly anything of completeness but the final
imprimatur. Among them may be mentioned a life of Thomas Heriot, the
mathematician, and a friend of Ralegh; an essay on Columbus's
administration in the West Indies; and an account of the newly
discovered globe by John Schoner. Another work of which he frequently
spoke, a volume of British Museum reminiscences supplementary to Mr.
Fagan's life of Sir Anthony Panizzi, existed, it must be feared, only as
a project. It would have required leisure which he never possessed. The
most purely literary and perhaps the most important of his publications
was his _Historical and Geographical Notes on the earliest discoveries
in America_, a subject on which he was most enthusiastic. His catalogue
of the American literature in the British Museum to the year 1856 is
also a valuable publication, as are likewise his _Bibles in the Caxton
Exhibition_, already mentioned, and his catalogues of the
bibliographical curiosities relating to America in his own possession,
issued under the title of _Historical Nuggets_, in 1862. A second series
was in course of publication at his death. He had devoted great
attention to the reproduction of title-pages and frontispieces by
photography and photo-gravure. His admirable paper on the subject, read
in 1877, will be fresh in the memory of members of the Association, as
also the companion essay entitled "Who spoils our English Books?" read
at the Cambridge meeting, a characteristic example of his humorous
manner, not intended to be taken quite _au pied de la lettre_. His
letters from Europe to his father are, we trust, destined to see the
light. He was a frequent contributor to the _Athenæum_, especially on
the history of the English Bible and early discovery in America, and his
communications were always highly valued.
It is unnecessary to enter at length into Mr. Stevens's personal
character when addressing a public to most of whom he was personally
known. Perhaps his most distinguishing characteristic was his eminent
large-heartedness. He had room in his mind for every individual and
every interest. He was cheerful, genial, expansive, and preserved his
buoyancy of spirit under circumstances the most trying and vexatious. He
possessed great sweetness as well as great liberality of disposition;
his combativeness was devoid of every particle of rancour; shrewd and
crafty, he was yet open and candid. Intent, as he could not help being,
on his own advantage as a trader, the interests of his customer had a
very definite place in his mind. He worked for his patrons even more
than for himself, and prided himself more upon having made another man's
library than he would have done upon having made his own fortune. As a
man of business, his principal defect was an over-sanguine temper; the
spring, nevertheless, of his enterprise, and hence of his success. "Si
non errasset fecerat ille minus."
Mr. Stevens died of a general decay of constitution resulting in dropsy,
against which his vigorous constitution and indomitable cheerfulness
contended with great hope of success to the very last. He had been
married for upwards of thirty years to a highly accomplished lady, whose
daughter by a former marriage is the widow of Mr. Hawker, the celebrated
Vicar of Morwenstow. His son, Mr. H. N. Stevens, succeeds to the
direction of his business, and inherits his literary and bibliographical
tastes.
FOOTNOTES:
[325:1] _Library Chronicle_, vol. iii., 1885.
THE LATE SIR EDWARD A. BOND, K.C.B.[335:1]