Guildhall Library, its origin and progress : being an appeal to the Corporation of London for its reconstruction / by W. Sedgwick Saunders.

  • Saunders, W. Sedgwick (William Sedgwick), 1824-1901.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Guildhall Library, its origin and progress : being an appeal to the Corporation of London for its reconstruction / by W. Sedgwick Saunders. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    better in City architecture than scene-painting, archi- traves in pasteboard, Corinthian capitals in “ papier- mache ” and Dutch gilt. Facts and figures, particularly the latter, are tangible, and to escape the imputation of exaggeration, “ let us speak by the card.” In a return presented last year to the Court of Common Council of the sums ex- pended upon such works will be found the following statement, viz: “ For fitting up the Guildhall for Lord Mayor’s day since the year 1800, £36,249 8s. ; and for expenses incurred for special receptions and entertainments, £66,946 2s. Id; repairs and altera- tions in and about Guildhall (exclusive of those works performed under the direction of the Guildhall Im- provement Committee), £110,867 17s.; beyond this, £82,990 4s. has been absorbed by repairs to the Mansion House during the same period: making an aggregate of £297,054. Where are the objects attained by the outlay of these vast sums of money ? The re- sponsive echo is “ Where !” I leave the further consideration of the main ques- tion, to j^roceed with the special object of my solicitude. As Chairman, for the second time, of the Committee to Avhom the affairs of the Guildhall Library are en- trusted, I deem it to be within the range of my duty to endeavour to awaken the generous feeling of the Corporation on behalf of the requirements of this re- ceptacle of civic literature. In the prosecution of this needful work, in addition to the cordial supjDort of my colleagues, I look for much help from the citizens at large; and this not so much as a matter of choice as of sheer and absolute necessity, if we are to aim at maintaining our present raidc in the social