Dutch in a language that has stores of much interest, both in old and recent times,—in the relations of its early voyagers, and in the largo body of information on record concerning its empire in the East. There are also lung sets of tracts or pamphlets of the 17th century, bearing on the commerce of the East and West Indies, and on the striking political events of that century in which Holland so gracefully terminated its long struggle with England by sending us the vindi cator of English liberty. The Dutch have many libraries, but none of remarkable extent, and they have bestowed little attention on the collection and preservation of their own literature. The largest assem blage of the Dutch drama in existence has somehow found its way to the imperial library at Paris, which in other respects is not rich in the literature of Holland. The largest collection of Dutch books anywhere assembled is in the library of the "Society of Dutch Literature" at Leyden, of which a valuable catalogue has been published. There is good reason to suppose that the British Museum contains the largest collection to be met with any where out of Holland, and that it does not yield to any library in Holland in this respect, except that of Leyden. The same language, called Dutch in one country and Flemish in the other, is, with small variations of dialect, common to Holland and Belgium, but neglect of the national language in Belgium, and the aversion which has often prevailed between the two countries, has prevented either from paying sufficient attention to the literature of the other, while at the Museum neither has of late yearn been neglected.
The ancient language of the North, which still flourishes in Iceland, and was by common consent till lately denominated Icelandic, produced in the middle ages a body of literature, much of which has, since the invention of printing, been given to the press in Iceland, in Denmark, and lately in Norway, while much more still remains in manuscript. The recently founded library of Reikiavik, the capital of Iceland, contains less of this printed literature than may be found in the British Museum, which had the advantage of receiving from Sir Joseph Banks a col lection made during his visit to Iceland, and comprising some of the rarest volumes, acquired from the library of Halfdan Einarsaon, the historian of Icelandic literature. To this have been added a collection offered to the Museum by the learned Icelander, Finn Magnusson, and of late years everything of interest that has appeared in this very curious branch of letters. The older literature of Denmark has never yet been much sought after beyond the boundaries where the language is spoken. In its own country the collection made by Hjelmsterne, and presented to the royal library of Copenhagen in 1807, made the first approach to completeness. The Danish department in that library was then made a separate one, and the object of particular care ; and about that time it might have been expected with some confidence that it would be the most complete collection of a national literature made by any nation in Europe. Danish was then spoken by
no one beyond the dominions of the King of Denmark ; his authority, though paternal, was despotic, and the law to deliver a copy of every book in his dominions to the royal library was so peremptory, that at first five copies were required. The prospect soon vanished. Norway was separated from Denmark in 1814, and took almost imme diately to perplexing Europe by calling the language it speaks Norwegian, though the same idiom prevails at Copenhagen and Christiania, with some slight difference of pronunciation, which a patriotic Norwegian sedulously exaggerates. Of course the library of Copenhagen lost its claim to Norwegian books, and can, liko other libraries, only receive them by present or acquire them by purchase. At the same time the Norwegian literature, since the separation of the countries, has become of more importance, though still of such small extent that it has been asserted that the expenditure of a few pounds a-year would procure a copy of everything issued in Norway. The British Museum received with the library of George III. a valuable collection of Danish books, which has of late years been carefully in creased ; and it probably at present surpasses every library out of Scandinavia in its stores of the literature of Denmark and Norway.
Sweden, like Denmark, has had no foreign competitor for its earlier literary treasures. In Schroeder's work on the earliest productions of the Swedish press, the books he enumerates are extant in a very small number of copies, and those copies are almost all described as existing in Sweden. In that country, as formerly in England, the principal library is not in the capital, but in the chief university—that of Upsal ; and this collection, which far surpasses that of Stockholm, but is itself inferior not only to the royal library of Copenhagen but to the university library of that city, contains a large number of Swedish books ; but has, like other university libraries, never been directed with a view to embracing a complete collection of tho national literature. Sweden too, like Denmark, has suffered in this century a dismemberment. The conquest of Finland by Russia took from it a country in which, though the language of the uneducated classes was Finnish, the language of the educated was Swedish, Runeberg, the most popular poet now living in the Swedish language, is by birth and residence a Finlander, and has never been in Sweden. Few Swedish libraries are extant out of Scandinavia, except in parts of Germany-and Russia which were formerly Swedish provinces, and none of these are probably so eAtensive as that now the British Museum.