pid--and, I fear, consequently
imperfect--sketch which I send you of the general character of the
BIBLIOTHEQUE DU ROI; both as respects its dead and its living treasures. It
remains to be seen how this sketch will be completed.--- and I hereby give
you notice, that my next letter will contain some account of a few of the
more ancient, curious, and splendid MANUSCRIPTS--to be followed by a second
letter, exclusively devoted to a similar account of the PRINTED BOOKS. If I
execute this task according to my present inclinations--and with the
disposition which I now feel, together with the opportunities which have
been afforded me--it will not, I trust, be said that I have been an idle or
unworthy visitor of this magnificent collection.

[16] [Mons. Crapelet takes fire at the above passage: simply because he
misunderstands it. In not one-word, or expression of it, is there any
thing which implies, directly or indirectly, that "it would be
difficult to find another public establishment where the officers are
more active, more obliging, more anxious to satisfy the Public than in
the above." I am talking only of _dress_--and commending the silk
stockings of Mons. Van Praet at the expense of those by whom he is
occasionally surrounded.]

[17] So, even NOW: 1829.

[18] In the year 1814, the late M. Millin published a dissertation upon
this medal, to which he prefixed an engraving of the figure of Louis.
There can indeed be but one opinion that the Engraving is unworthy of
the Original.

[For an illustration of the _Medallic History of France_, I scarcely
recollect any one object of Art which would be more gratifying, as
well as apposite, than a faithful Engraving of such a Medal: and I
call upon my good friend M. DU CHESNE to set such a History on foot.
There is however another medal, of the same Monarch, of a smaller
size, but of equal merit of execution, which has been selected to
grace the pages of this second edition--in the OPPOSITE PLATE. The
inscription is as follows: LUDOVICO XII. REGNANTE CAESARE ALTERO.
GAUDET OMNIS NATIO: from which it is inferred that the Medal was
struck in consequence of the victory of Ravenna, or of Louis's
triumphant campaigns in Italy. A short but spirited account is given
of these campaigns in Le Noir's _Musee des Monumens Francais_, tome
ii. p. 145-7.]

[19] ["And it is Mr. DIBDIN who makes this c