22 May

Monday 22^d. My Uncle had asked me to remain at Fulham

today, & as I had nothing to do at the Mus^m. for Mr Petrie

I at first accepted his invitation, but afterwards changed

my mind, & walked up to town by 11 oC. with Henry. On going

to the Mus^m. my first object was to see Mr Baber; & on ob=

taining an interview, I was greatly surprised to learn from

him, that on Thursday last the Rev^d. Mr Bean, sub-librⁿ

in his Departmt. had died suddenly, & by that means occa=

sioned a vacancy, which he was good enough to wish me to

succeed in getting. To inform me of what had taken place,

he had written to me on Friday, (so that the letter must

have arrived at Oxford an hour after I left it) & he

supposed I had come up to town immediately on the receipt

of it. He had also been kind enough to write to Mr Petrie,

so that Mr P. might lose no time in addressing Ld. Spencer

on the subject. While this conference lasted, Mr Baber took

me his own house, & explained to me the course I ought

to pursue, which was to address a letter instantly to each of

the Principal Trustees, viz. the Abp. of Canty, the Ld.

Chanc^or. & the Speaker, to propose myself as ^a## Candidate,

and to follow that up by whatever testimonials and

recommendations I could obtain. Mr B. told me there

would be many Candidates. Among them Walther, the

gentleman who succeeded Bliss at the Mus^m. & who is

an Extra Sub. librⁿ.; _^^{Rev. H.} Horne, who has been employed for

some time on the Class Catalogue; & who^{Rev. H. F.} Cary, the

translator of #####^{Dante, S. W.} Singer, the Editor of Cavendish’s _^^{Life of Wolsey} ##

and, perhaps, _^^Dr. Dibdin. Of those, Walther is not considered

competent to the situation, although possess.^g the claim

of services. Horne, on the contrary, is a man of acknow=

ledged talent, but on his applying to L.^d Colchester for

his interest, Ld C. advised him for the present to be

quiet, assuring him that the Abp. had already a list,

& his Grace w^d much rather strike one off, than add

another to it. Immediately after this I went home,

& wrote letters to the three Principal Trustees, & also to

Petrie & Bliss, to procure all the interest they could.

The two latter I sent off by Post directly, but the

others I gave to one of the Messengers at the Mus^m.

recommended by Baber, to deliver at each of the

Houses of those to whom they were addressed. This event

has taken place so suddenly, & so unexpectedly, that

sh.^d I succeed, it will be a piece of the greatest good

fortune, but I shall not be too sanguine, knowing

the claims of my opponents.