and Hearne confirm every thing here advanced by Masters; and
the testimony of Pope himself, that Harley "left behind him
one of the finest libraries in Europe," warrants us, if
other testimonies were not even yet daily before our eyes,
to draw the same conclusion. In a periodical publication
entitled _The Director_, to which I contributed all the
intelligence under the article "BIBLIOGRAPHIANA," there
appeared the following copious, and, it is presumed, not
uninteresting, details respecting the Earl of Oxford, and
his Library. After the sale of Mr. Bridges's books, no event
occurred in the bibliographical world, worthy of notice,
till the sale of the famous _Harleian Library_, or the books
once in the possession of the celebrated HARLEY, EARL OF
OXFORD. This nobleman was not less distinguished in the
political than in the literary world; and "was a remarkable
instance of the fickleness of popular opinion, and the
danger of being removed from the lower to the upper house of
parliament." (Noble's _Continuation of Granger_, vol. ii.,
23.) He was born in the year 1661, was summoned to the house
of Lords by the titles of Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, in
1711; declared minister and lord high treasurer in the same
year; resigned, and was impeached, in the year 1715;
acquitted, without being brought to a trial, in 1717; and
died at his house in Albemarle Street, in 1724. A character
so well known in the annals of this country needs no
particular illustration in the present place. The _Harleian
Collection of MSS._ was purchased by government for
10,000_l._, and is now deposited in the British Museum (vide
p. 89, ante). The _Books_ were disposed of to THOMAS
OSBORNE, of Gray's Inn, bookseller;--to the irreparable
loss, and, I had almost said, the indelible disgrace, of the
country. It is, indeed, for ever to be lamented that a
collection so extensive, so various, so magnificent, and
intrinsically valuable, should have become the property of
one who necessarily, from his situation in life, became a
purchaser, only that he might be a vender, of the volumes.
Osborne gave 13,000_l._ for the collection; a sum which must
excite the astonishment of the present age, when it is
informed that Lord Oxford gave 18,000_l._ for the _Binding_
on