A further donation from the same city arrived on the second of September, 1847. These were rare and useful works, relating to the internal police of France, statistics upon subjects of general and local interest, and historical works, illustrated by engravings, making a collection of ninety-six volumes.

His Honor, JOSIAH QUINCY, Jr., the mayor, Aldermen THOMAS WETMORE and WILLIAM PARKER, and Councilmen RICHARD B. CARTER, GIDEON F. THAYER, and WILLIAM EATON, were appointed "a committee to report what acknowledgment and return should be made to the City of Paris, and to furnish a suitable place within the City Hall for the safe keeping of these volumes." Upon their recommendation, the mayor was authorized to make a suitable acknowledgment, and to transmit a number of volumes to the authorities of Paris. It was thus:

Ordered-That the room in the third story and south-east corner of the City Hall, be appropriated as the place of deposit for the donations of the City of Paris and any other books of a similar nature that may belong to the city.

On the fourteenth of October, in the same year, the mayor sent a message to the City Council, strongly urging the formation of a public library, and announcing that "a citizen," (since ascertained to be Mayor Quincy himself,) "has offered to give to the city five thousand dollars, for the purpose of making a commencement, on condition that ten thousand dollars be raised for the same purpose, at large, and that the library be open to the public in as free a manner as consistent with the safety of the property."

This message was referred to the committee above named, with the addition of the President of the Common Council, BENJAMIN SEAVER, Esq., Messrs. SAMUEL E. GUILD and JAMES WHITING, with instructions "to consider the expediency of commencing the formation of a public library, under the control and auspices of the city, with authority to receive donations for the same, either in books or money." At the conclusion of an elaborate report, the committee recommended the passage of the following orders, which were unanimously adopted :

Ordered-That the City of Boston will accept any donations from citizens or others, for the purpose of commencing a Public City Library.

Ordered-That whenever the library shall be of the value of thirty thousand dollars, it will be expedient for the City to provide a suitable place and arrangements to enable it to be used by the citizens with as great a degree of freedom, as the security of the property will permit.

The subsequent history of the Public Library of the City of Bos

ton, down to the year 1856, will be found in the second volume of this Journal, (p. 203,) in an article by GEORGE S. HILLARD.

On the first day of January, 1858, the building erected by the City of Boston, for the accommodation of the PUBLIC LIBRARY-at an expense of $363,633.83, including the lot, which cost, with drainage and damages, $116,582.76-was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies and addresses; the latter by Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, in behalf of the Commissioners charged with the erection of the building, by the mayor, Hon. Alexander H. Rice, and by Edward Everett, President of the Board of Trustees, on receiving the keys.

PLANS AND DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING.

The lot on which the Public Library stands, facing the Common, measures, on Boylston street, one hundred and seven feet three inches, and on Van Rensselaer Place, one hundred and eight feet and eight inches, with an average depth of two hundred and thirteen feet.

The building is rectangular, being eighty-two feet wide, and one hundred and sixteen feet long, exclusive of the towers at the rear corners, which are fourteen feet and six inches in length, and eighteen feet in width. The architecture is of the Roman Italian style. The foundation, upon which the walls rest, is composed of blocks of granite, about four feet in length, set and bedded in hydraulic cement. Upon these is laid a base course of hammered granite, above which, the exterior walls, excepting the front, are plain, being constructed of the best quality of faced bricks, with dressings of Connecticut sandstone. The front of the basement is constructed of the best quality of Rockport granite, finely hammered. Two stories in hight are seen from the front. In the first story in front are four windows, with a door in the center. The windows are circularheaded, capped with ornamental archivolts, supported on carved scroll-brackets, and crowned with treble keystones. The doorway is also circular-headed, and its style ornate, having deeply molded and carved jambs, with a carved and vermiculated architrave, and with projecting canopies or hoods, supported on brackets and crowned with keystones, all of which are ornately carved.

In the second story of the front are three large windows and two conspicuous niches. The niches are constructed of freestone, with heavy, projecting bases, carved in foliage and finished with ornamented architraves. Between the first and second stories are a rustic belt and a heavy, projecting balcony, inclosing the front windows of the main hall, and supported upon carved scrollbrackets. The corners or angles of the building are finished with heavy rustic work, the whole being surmounted with a rich Corinthian cornice.

The roof is constructed of iron, covered with copper. The lantern, by which the main hall is chiefly lighted, occupies the center of the roof, and is forty feet wide, ninety feet long, and ten feet high. It is built of bricks, and freestone, with a roof of iron, covered with copper.

The building is entirely fire-proof. It is thoroughly ventilated through the vaultings of the walls, by openings at the bottom and top of each of the rooms.

The corner-stone is a massive, hammered ashler of Connecticut sandstone, weighing five tons, and is securely laid at the north-east corner of the foundation. In the lower face of the stone, within a cavity, is a box, containing a sil

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Janitor's Rooms.

Fig. 2.-BASEMENT.

ver plate, suitably inscribed, various city documents, coins, medals, photographs, etc. There is, also, in the same cavity a leaden box, containing a copy of each of the weekly and daily newspapers published in the city, seventy in number.

The front of the building recedes fifteen feet from the line of Boylston street, the intervening space being inclosed by a massive fence, of Italian style, constructed of freestone and iron. On either side is a space for light and air, and in the rear is a large area, which has been filled, graded, and prepared for flowering plants, ornamental shrubs, etc. These grounds are protected by an iron fence, resting upon a granite base.

From the top of the building a magnificent panoramic view can be obtained, embracing the whole of the city, the harbor, and the surrounding cities and towns.

The basement, which is light and airy, is almost entirely below the grade of Boylston street. It is eleven feet high, in the clear, to the spring of the groined arches, and contains six large and convenient rooms, which will be used for unpacking, and storing books and newspapers, and for other conveniences of the library. The furnaces for warming the apartments and the rooms for fuel are

also in this portion of the building. The basement is approached from Van Rensselaer Place by doors in the towers. There is also an entrance on the

easterly side of the building.

The first story is twenty-one feet and six inches high. The floor is constructed with groined arches. This story contains five apartments, separated by brick partitions. They are designated as follows:-vestibule, general reading-room, special reading-room for ladies, room for conversation and the delivery of books, and room for the circulating library. A spacious entrance, through three sets of richly-carved doors, leads to the vestibule, which occupies the central portion of the front part of the building, and is twenty-two feet wide, forty-four feet deep, and twenty-two feet high. It contains the main-staircase, which commences with two flights, each six feet wide, both leading to a platform, at an elevation of ten feet, from which a single flight, ten feet wide, ascends to the main hall. In the original design of the architect, which was altered by the Commissioners, the grand hall was directly accessible from the vestibule by slightly winding staircases, and the view from the entrance-door to the main ceiling was unbroken.

The staircase is constructed of iron, laid on brick arches, and bedded in cement, in order to prevent the noise usually made in passing over iron stairs. The flooring of the vestibule is of encaustic tiles. The walls, to the hight of the platform above mentioned, are plainly finished in block-work, and thence to the ceiling with Corinthian pilasters in scagliola and arched panels, formed with archivolts, supported upon pilasters and imposts, the whole being crowned with a full, rich Corinthian cornice and entablature, supporting an ornate ceiling, laid off in square panels, deeply sunk, relieved with heavily-carved moldings, pendent drops, etc.

The vestibule is lighted, in the evening, by two lanterns, with carved rosewood columns, standing upon newel-posts of Italian marble.

The room for the delivery of books, which is also the conversation room, is enterea from the vestibule, and occupies the central portion of the east side of the building. It is thirty-four feet wide, fifty feet deep, and twelve feet high. This room forms a kind of inner vestibule, with delivery counters for the circulating library, and entrances to the general and ladies' reading-rooms. It is finished in a plain manner. The floors and bases are marble, and the walls and ceiling are laid off in panel-work.

The special reading-room, for ladies, occupies the north-east front corner of the building, and is twenty-seven feet wide, forty-four feet deep, and twenty-one feet and six inches high. It is intended to accommodate one hundred readers, having six circular tables, for books and papers, surrounding the elaborately ornamented iron columns which support the ceiling. The walls and ceiling are tastefully laid off in panel-work, exquisitely tinted and gilded. The arrangements for lighting this room, as well as all the other rooms, are complete and ample.

The general reading-room is in the north-west corner of the building. It is twenty-eight feet wide, seventy-eight feet long, and twenty-one feet and six inches high. It is finished and furnished in a style similar to the special reading-room, having every needful accommodation, with water-closet, etc. It will accommodate two hundred readers.

Almost all the walls, ceilings, and finish throughout the building have been neatly tinted in encaustic colors, relieved with gold.

The room for the circulating library occupies the remainder of the first floor,