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 ESTABLISHMENT OF RATE-SDPPORTED LIBRARIES 
 
 IK TIIR 
 
 PROVINCE OF ONTARIO, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHinsr H-A^XiL-A-]^ 
 
 TORONTO : 
 
 PRINTED BY THE GLOBE PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
 1882. 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 jN preparing the following notes on free public libraries, I am 
 greatly indebted to J. D. Mullins, Chief Librarian of the 
 Birmingham Free Libraries, and to others who have written 
 on the formation and management of the greatest educational 
 machinery of our age. T visited many of these institutions in 
 England, France, and some of the People's Libraries in Ger- 
 many. Not knowing the language, I could get very little informa- 
 tion, only that they were in som'^ way under the management and 
 control of the municipal authorities, and " free to the people." 
 
 These notes are mere " shreds and patches gleaned on the way;" 
 simply a summary of what the writer saw and hoard about free 
 public; libraries in lands beyond the SPa. 
 
 Free public libraries, to be useful and successful, must be rate- 
 supported, and free from the tedious formalities of an educational 
 department, and represent every phase of human throught and 
 opinion, every class and condition of men, and be absolutely free 
 from all political and sectarian influences. They are the institutions 
 of the people. They must initiate, manage and pay for theii' 
 support. 
 
 LiNDKN Villa, 
 
 Toronto, 28rdDec., 1H81. 
 
f w/ 
 
A PLEA FOR 
 
 Rate-Supported Libraries. 
 
 Taking part in any movement having for its object the en- 
 lightenment and lilting up of the people has always been to me a 
 source of enjoyment, and on this occasion I feel it a privilege as 
 well as a duty which, if realized, must not only secure ni'^ntal 
 enlightenment for many, but be an honor of high character to the 
 city of Toronto. I have seriously thought over the propriety of 
 having a free public library in Toronto ; and the more I have 
 pondered over the subject, the more have I been convinced that we 
 ought to possess one. The establishment of such a library has a 
 special claim on all clisses in this Queen City of tlie West, apart 
 from the direct bonetits it will confer on the couimunity. We all 
 feel a pride in our city and its many useful institutions, and would 
 feel more so if we had a free public library, for all must be 
 sensible of the fict that the foundation of a public library has in 
 all ages of the world constituted a claim on the grateful remembrance 
 of posterity, and added distinction to the place in which it has been 
 established. In all the chief and most vital departments of life there 
 is more practical intelligent action displayed now, and also a greater 
 yearning for such action, than at any former period of the world's 
 history. 
 
 Upon activity of this kind depends the welfare of man and the 
 true progress of nations. It is the force which moves the world : it 
 is THE only real power which can move it. Individually and nation- 
 ally, we each day become more alive to the fact that " Knowledge 
 is power" — that it is the very source, spirit and embodiment of 
 power the most lasting, and strength the most useful. As nations 
 emerge from barbarisui they resort more to brain and less to mere 
 muscle, aud the true superiority of the civilized man over the savage 
 consists in the former having secured more rational ideas as to the 
 conditions of life, the resources of nature, and the best way such 
 resources can be utilized. Education can alone fully supply and 
 sustain the power. ^* 
 
6 
 
 A I'LKA KOIt 
 
 Some pewons have received a high and liberal education, but tlu^ 
 majority, througli no fault of their own, have but a defective supply 
 of that light which we term education. The prevf iling notion of 
 education is, lo teach the young. Here the mother is the first 
 monitor, and then the schoolmaster. Education at this stage is 
 |)rimary and fundamental, and means drawing out the faculties of 
 the young mind and not the uiere cramming and accumulation of 
 things in the memory, which is too ofte.i the case now. ^The young 
 mind should not be a cupboard, and never was intended to be a place 
 for the storing of things without first knowing their meaning and 
 import. Children are like saplings full of tendrils ; they must be 
 trained before they are taught how to shoot. Here comes in the 
 difference between education and information. Education means all 
 this, and something more. It has been truly said, " Education i.s the 
 process of making individual men participators in the best attain- 
 ments of the human mind in general, namely, in that which is the 
 most rational, true, beautiful and good." 
 
 Tellier says : " Much of our education, even our best education, 
 is got out of school." 
 
 Then how are we to attain this desirable end ; for people cannot 
 always be going to school ( It follows that, in order to make up in 
 some degree for that which has been either neglected or but partially 
 performed, and to keep pace with the progress and requirements 
 of civilization, communities should, during their leisure hours, resort 
 considerably to books, and where books cannot be individually pro- 
 cured, then I hold that they should be obtained by combined action. 
 As sup[)lements to ordinary education, as means for supplying to the 
 masses what defective training or limited resources of money may 
 have deprived them of, and as counter attractions to the many ener- 
 vating allurements which have crept into modern life, I look upon 
 free libraries as the best possible agencies and material aids which 
 can be devised. 
 
 The words "Free Public Library" |)0sses.s a charm which scarcely 
 any others can claim, and there are few associations so pleasant as 
 those excited by them. To all lovers of books and poor students the 
 doors of these institutions are wide open, without money and without 
 price, to the rich and poor alike. They mean a place where they 
 may withdraw from the hurry and bustle of everyday life, from 
 the cares of commerce and the strife of j)olitics, and hold sweet com- 
 
IIATK-SUPPORTBD LIBIIAKIES. 
 
 munion with the saints ami hnroos of the past; "and .where I can, " 
 says Edmund Waller, " call uji the ablest spirits of ancient times, 
 the most learned philosophers, the wisest councillors, and make 
 them serviceable to me. " The multiplication of free libraries, and 
 their popularization, is one of the pro^'ressive signs of the age in 
 which we live. Greater, <,'rander anil nobler in their aim and in 
 their ultimate results, are these institutions. They are designeil 
 at no distant future to take possession of the public mind. These 
 will be the future temples, where the ij;randost anil noblest of 
 the high priests of literature will sing ihcir sweet songs, to cheer 
 and console us through life's journey. 
 
 In a mental, moral and social sense, they are liighly useful : they 
 not only tend to enlighten und to uiak(! sharper men and better 
 citizens generally, but they involve a real pleasure which, if once 
 tasted, will never be wholly neglected or forgotten. 
 
 In the perusal i.f properly selected books— such books as ought 
 to Hnd their way into every free library— pleasure is intermingled 
 with proHt, and, I need hardly say, is a very admirable coml»ination. 
 An allusion to the history as well as to the advantages of books 
 will not, I think, be with »ut interest. Here let me give some testi- 
 mony as to the value of good books : 
 
 "Books rule the whole civilized worlil. " -Voltair>'. 
 
 "Books, dear books, 
 Have been anil are my comfort morn anil night. 
 Adversity, prosperity, at home. 
 Abroad, health, sickness, good or ill report— 
 The same firm friends, the same refreshment ricli. 
 And source of consolation. "~Dr. Doddx. 
 
 " Books are a guide in youth and an entertainment in old age. They 
 help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our cares and lay 
 our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of the living we may 
 repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevisluiess, pride or design in their 
 ■convei'sation. "—Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 " Books are each a world, and books we know, 
 Are a substantial world, both pure and good. 
 Round these with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, 
 Our pastime and our happiness will grow. ' — Wordsworth . 
 " A good hook is the precious life-blood of a master spirit embalmed, and 
 treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. "—Milton. 
 
 "Books are for company the best friends; in doubt, councillors; in 
 <ieep sorrow, comforters ; Time's prospective ; the iiome traveller's ship or 
 
8 
 
 A PLEA FOR 
 
 horse ; the busy man's best recreation ; the opiate of idle weariness ; the 
 mind's beat ordinary ; Nature's garden, seed-plot of immortality." — Richard 
 Whitelock. 
 
 "Books, my sure solace, and refuge from frivolous cares; books, the 
 oalmers, as well as the instructors of the mind." — Mr», Inchbaid. 
 
 " Come my best friends, my books, and lead me on. " — Cowley. 
 " A book is a friend that never deceives. " — Ouelbert Be Pixerecourt. " 
 " My books are always at leisure for me ; they are never engaged." 
 
 — Cicero. 
 " Books are the legacies that genius leaves to mankind, to he delivered 
 down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of those 
 who are yet unborn." — Addison. 
 
 The remotest facts we can get at show that man has always had 
 a special regard for books. Books are records of human feeling, 
 opinion, action and experience ; and though the mere form of such 
 records may have differed in different ages, the desire for and creation 
 of such records have been inseparable from the career of mankind. 
 Stones, metal, shells, leaves of trees, bark, skins, slabs of wood, sticks, 
 wax, ivory, parchment, papyrus, and ultimately paper, have been 
 used for those recording purposes. And the difficulty of production 
 or reproduction — through the absence of printing — was so great, that 
 the price of books, or, more properly, bound manuscripts, was in old 
 times most extraordinary. So great was the value of books in those 
 days, that the gift of one to a monastery or other religious place 
 entitled the donor to sundry raaspos for the repose of his soul. 
 
 In the lives of the Popes and some of the bishops of the Roman 
 Catholic Chirch, the donation of books to religious orders are 
 recorded as acts of signal generosity, and the gifts even inscribed on 
 the monuments of the departed benefactors. 
 
 Mention is made of a Homily which was once sold for 200 sheep 
 and five quarters of wheat. An Egyptian King once gave in money 
 the equivalent of $15,000 for the works of three Greek authors, 
 whose productions, or such of them as i-emain, can be bought for $1.75. 
 In the year 1 440 a book which we can now purchase for one dollar 
 and twenty-five cents would have cost $2,500. The first type books 
 were only printed onone side — as many nursery books now are ; and 
 the first book printed in English related to the " Game and playe of 
 the Chesse," and was printed by Caxton. In the old times some books 
 were deemed so valuable that money could not buy them. In the 
 monastery of Suabia the monks had a very rare copy of Virgil 
 which they could not be induced to part with for money ; but an 
 
 _J 
 
KATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 9 
 
 Englishman soon found out that these pious old monks had a weak- 
 ness for hock, and this classical rarity, which could not be bought 
 for gold, was ultimately secured with hock to the value of about 
 $36 ; so that one may say they were completely hocussed out of this 
 literary treasure, which found its way into the famous library of the 
 Earl of Spencer. It is also stated that this famous and rich book 
 collector bought the whole library of the Duke of Cassano to got 
 possession of the Naples edition of Horace, printed in 1474 ; and to 
 show the scarcity and value of books in 1425, when the English 
 became masters of Paris, the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France^ 
 sent the whole of the royal library to England. The collection 
 contained 853 volumes, comprising missals and devotional works, 
 valued at £2,250. The value of money then, it is needless to .say, 
 was very much greater than now. 
 
 So valuable were books, or so scarce — which is the measure of 
 value — were tliey, tliat some time iifter the introduction of printing, 
 volumes were deposited in churches for public perusal, and chained 
 to the desks or benches on which tlioy were placed so as to prevent 
 their more ardent or covetou^i admirers ste.ilin!^ tliem. In the 
 parish ..lurch of Leyland, which is about three miles from my native 
 place — Chorlny, in Ijancashire — there are novv founJ relics of this 
 old book-planting system. Tiiey consist of four hooks rehiting to 
 martyrology, &c., and they are bound in wood and fhained to the 
 bottout of a window. The people living when this sys!em was 
 in vrguc coidd not know much about books, owing to their rarity ; 
 but I pro.sunie they wouhl, at any late, know a little more as to the 
 meaning oi tlicir ccmtents than some literary speculators I have read 
 of, who once, to their apparent great delight, met with some volumes 
 written in Arabic, purchase<l them, then hur^i^■d home apparently 
 still more gleeful, and afterwards, on getting the said "works" ex- 
 amined by soniebo«ly, were as amazed as exasperated to find that 
 they were merely the old used-up account books of some Arabian 
 tiadesfolk or siiopkeepers — waste paper, like that wo buy now for 
 about two and a quarter dollars per hundred pounds. Amongst all 
 the leading natifUis there Las always been a desire evinced for book- 
 collecting and libi-ary-forming. The oldest or first library is said to 
 have been formed by an E,'yptian king at Memphis. The first 
 library of the Greeks was at Athens. In Western Europe libraries 
 were firat formed by Charlemagne in the eighth century, under the 
 
 I 
 
10 A PLEA FOR 
 
 direction and nianageuKjnt of Alcuin, a leanmd 8axon, who, in 
 «arly life was a pupil of Egbert, Ai-chl)ishop of York, who got copies 
 of books, and thus transplanted into France the flowers ot Briiaiu. 
 The Anglo-Saxons manifested a disposition iavora'!)le to having 
 libraries in England ; subsecpiently, the first library in that country 
 was at York. Libi-aries were founded in Germany in the eleventh 
 century, and in Spain in the twelfth. The iirst lending or circulat- 
 ing library of which we read in well attested history, according to 
 i)r. Adam Clarke, was formed at Oicsarea about the year 309 A.D. by 
 St. Piiniphilius, and comprised about 30,000 volumes, a most extra- 
 ordinary number for that time. They mostly treated on religious 
 subjects, and the books were only lent to religiously disposed persons. 
 
 The first circulating lil^yary we read of in England was formed in 
 London about 1730, by one Wright, a booksjeller in the Strand. 
 
 Southey says that Samuel Fancourt was the first to start a circu- 
 lating library in London. 
 
 In 1745 there was a circulating library established at Cambridge. 
 
 In 1751, William Hutton, a learned bookseller, started a real 
 circulating library at Birmingham. This class of librai'ies ra])idly 
 extended, and were a great boon tcj those readers wh(j could not 
 atibrd to buy hooks. They were the means of effecting an immense 
 improvement in the bettor diffusion of (sducation and information 
 to the i)eople. 
 
 The success of these libraries was so great that some wise heail 
 proposed to tax them by license at a } early rate of tw(j shillings 
 and sixpence per 1 00 volumes. 
 
 In the year 1 799 an Act was [)assed reipiiring every one who 
 wished to start a news-room or circulating liljrary to take out a 
 license ; but let me quote the words of this Act, which are most extra- 
 ordinary : " Every house, room or place, which shall be opened or used 
 as a place of meeting for the purjtose of reading books, pamphlets, 
 newspapers, or other publications, and to which any person shall 
 be admitted by payment of mor.ey (if not regularly licensed by those 
 in authority), shall be deemed a disorderly house, and the persons 
 opening it shall be punished as the law directs." 
 
 The greatest libraiy of anticpiity was founded by Ptolemy Soter 
 at Alexandria, and with the contents of another, called its "Daughter," 
 the total number of books of a j)ublic library character in that city 
 wtis about 600,000. Through the fanaticism of Caliph Omar chiefly, 
 
IlATE-SUPPOKTEl) LIBRAUIES. 11 
 
 the gi-eut collection of books here was destroyed, liis arginnent being : 
 '* If the books agree with the Koran, the word of God, they are use- 
 less, and need not be preserved ; if they disagree with it, tliey are 
 pernicious ; let them be destroyed." Gibbon has, witli icy scepticism, 
 sneered away the romantic tale of the learned Albiipharagius as to the 
 burning of the famous Alexandrian Library by Cali[)h Omar. He is 
 strongly tempted to " deny that the 700,000 volumes, more or less, 
 collected by the learning and munificence of the Ptolemys, were dis- 
 tributed among the four thousand baths of the captured city." The 
 historian leans to the opinion that " the library had been dispersed ages 
 before the time of Caliph Omar." Omar evidently had as great a con- 
 tempt for books as Hobbes, the Malmesbury philoso[)her, who, though 
 greatly indebted to them, once said that he should like all the books in 
 the world to be put into a ship— a pretty big ship he must have had 
 in his imagination, to take such a freight — and then to have a hoK- 
 bored in her side and sunk. I suppose he would have excepted his 
 own great work, the " Leviathan ;" but I am not certain, for, having 
 such a name, he might suspect, like the writer of old, that the 
 •' Leviathan " could swim. 
 
 This one-book theory reminds me of a story 1 once heard lelated 
 about an old English lady. She had a very bad meuiory. One 
 book satisfied her ; and yet this was strange, for she was (piite fond 
 of reading, and liked to read something fresh ; but having such a 
 memory as that I have named, her one book was always a new one- 
 for, by the time she got to the end of the volume she had for- 
 gotten all the previous ])U-ts, and so kept reading it over and over 
 again, deriving each time the enjoyment of original perusal. She 
 was a woman of one book. 
 
 There is a very good story told of a respectable alderman of 
 Oxford, who was so fascinated with "Robinson Crusoe," that front 
 youth to old age he could read no other book except the Bible, and read 
 it through every year and believed every word to be true. Unfortu- 
 nately for him, a matter-of-fact sort of a friend told him it was little 
 more than fiction, and the hnro nothing more than a Scotch sailor 
 named Alexander Selkirk, whose plain story of his shipwreck on 
 the Islaml of Juan Fernandez had been embellished, and worked up 
 into the charming narrative he so much admired. 'Your informa- 
 tion may be correct, " said the worthy alderman ; *' but, in unde- 
 ceiving me, you have robbed me of one of the greatest pleasures of 
 my old age. " 
 
18 
 
 A PLEA FOR 
 
 With respect to modern libraries, printing has of course done 
 very ranch for them. The greatest libraries in the world are in 
 London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, St. Petersburg and 
 Copenhagen. The chief libraries in America are the Congress 
 Libraiy, the public one at Boston, and that at K.irvard College, and 
 in Canada the Government Library at Ottawa, and the University 
 Lil)rary at Toronto. 
 
 That famous storehouse of learning, the British Museum, has a 
 wondrous collection of books, comprisinjj ovor 1,350,000 volumes. 
 The yearly addition of books to the library is over 35,000 volumes. 
 
 Antonio Panizzi, in his evidence before a Select Committee on 
 the British Museum, said : " I want a poor student to have the same 
 means of indulging his learned curiosity, of consulting the sime 
 authorities, of following the most intricate inquiry, as the richest 
 man in the kingdom, as far as books go." The noblest and most 
 costly bequest of books ever made to this temple of learuin<» wis 
 that of Thomas Grenville. This rare collection comprised 20,240 
 volumes, and had cost over $270,000. Rich and rare wei-e the 
 gems, and without a rival for beauty and splendor of binding. All 
 accessible to the public except those priceless rarities, Caxton's ''Game 
 and Playe of the Chesse," and Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and 
 TMgcdies, printed in 1623. 
 
 The memorandum to the codicil to the Right Hon. Thomas Gren- 
 villc's will, in which he gave his unique collection of books to the 
 nation, is very nobly worded tit us : " A gr.'at part of my library has 
 been purchased foin the pi'olits of a sinecure office given me by the 
 public, and I feel it to be a debt and a duty that I should acknow- 
 ledge this oblig.iiion by giving th^it library so acquired to the British 
 Museum, f«)r the use of the public." 
 
 With respect to frae public libraries, though they may seem 
 very novel to some persons and grate unpleasantly upon the cars of 
 others — those highly economical people, who consider that it is a 
 good deal more blessed to button up their trousers' pocket t!i m to 
 give anything out of them — I say, that while to these folks free 
 public libraries may look sinj;ular and by no means agreeable, they 
 are in one senate old institutions and in another sense institutions 
 which, in the Old World and especially in England, are bKComing de- 
 cidedly populiir. On the continent of Europe free libraries have 
 long met, in their establishment and protection, with the favor of 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 13 
 
 municipal bodies. In developing these libraries and keeping them 
 abreast of the times, some of the municipal authorities alluded to 
 may have been remiss : but they nevertheless have shown a praise- 
 worthy desire for their establishment and conservation. Private 
 generosity has, in many instances, been at the foundation of them. 
 Books given by lovers of literature to corporations, to be kept by 
 corporations for the use of the public, have been the origin of these 
 
 libraries. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 It is said that " they do these things better in France," and if I 
 
 may judge of the truth of this saying from the number of free public 
 
 libraries under the control and support of the different municipal 
 
 departments wherein tliey are established, I would say they did. 
 
 There are in France over 350 free public libraries ; of these about 
 
 300 are consulting or reference and lending libraries, the balance 
 
 lendiiJg libraries only. The number of printed books were estimated, 
 
 in 1&78, to have been over 4,250,000 volumes, and about 45,000 
 
 MSS. relating to the early history of France, and to ecclesiastical and 
 
 Church history. Not a few of these libraries had thoir foundation 
 
 at the spoliation of the monastic institutions of the country; and being 
 
 taken care of by the municipal authorities, to them can be traced 
 
 the beginning of the French free public libraries. To go into this 
 
 more jwrticularly : There are six provincial towns having over 
 
 720,000 printed volumes and MSS., and sixteen towns having 
 
 485,041 volumes and MSS., besides a nuniber of villages having 
 
 from 2,000 to 3,000 volumes each. Paris possesses the finest free 
 
 libraries in the country, rich in every department of literature, and 
 
 Laving many bibliographical rarities. There are eight free libiviries, 
 
 the chief being the National Library, and the whole stock of books, 
 
 maps and IvISS. is equal to about 2,000,000. The City Council of 
 
 Paris has a magnificent municipal library, which was lodged in a little 
 
 chapel of the Palais Luxembourg during the rebuilding of the Hotel do 
 
 Ville. This unique collection of books is bound in different colors, 
 
 according to the country from which they came, each nation having 
 
 a color assigned to it. There were books from Canada, United 
 
 States, England and Germany. Lyons has a noble free library, 
 
 creditable to the town of silks. This library comprises over 150,000 
 
 volumes and MSS., and is chiefly famous for the grand collections 
 
 bequeathed to it by Pierre Aubert, Claude Brossette, and Pierre 
 
H 
 
 A PLKA FOR 
 
 Adamoli, who made it one of the conditions that tlie librarian should 
 be neither " monk nor bookseller." Rouen, a very large manufacturing 
 town, has a famous free library, and is notable as the birthplace of 
 Corneille. This library comprises about 200,000 volumes pud MS.S. 
 rich in French history, and some very rare works. Vire is a beauti- 
 ful village in NorraHudy, famous for its old castle and its library of 
 English books. The founder of this library was a Frenchman- 
 Monsieur Pichon. He was taken prisoner by the English at the 
 capture of Louisburg, in 1758 ; he then went to England, and got up 
 this library, and presented it to his native place, Vire. It was in 
 this collection that Dibdin saw a black-lettered Latin Bible, by 
 Proben, of the date 1485, and offered a gold Najwleon for this black- 
 letter diamond ; the librarian replied, " We are always pleased to 
 show our books, and even allow them to be read, but we do not sell 
 
 them." 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Berlin has a Royal Library liaving over 700,000 volumes and 
 about 15,000 MSS., 9 public libraries, and L') people's libraries, in 
 various parts of the city. These, as nearly as I could learn, not 
 knowing the language, were under municipal control, and free to 
 all comers, I also found good libraries at Leipzic and Dresden, free 
 to the people. Germany is a nation of book publishers and authors. 
 The catalogue of Leipzic contains the names of over 57,000 authors ; 
 and it is estimated that over 10,000 new publications are sent out 
 from the German press (;very year, comprising over a million volumes : 
 and it has been sarcastically stated that the time will soon 
 come when the number of (}erman writers will exceed that of 
 German readers. There is one very noticeable feature about the 
 German libraries which is very commend able, and which exists no- 
 where else : that of sending books from one city to another, through 
 the different libraries, to any student who may recjuire them, at thi- 
 trifling cost of the carriage. 
 
 GRE.VT BRITAIN. 
 
 Respecting the United Kingdom, the free library movement is, 
 especially in England, making commendable headway. For many 
 years libraries given by private individuals and rendered accessible 
 to the public by personal recommendations from mayors, aldermen, 
 etc., have been in existence in some of the older Imroughs. Bui 
 many of these libraries, though very good in their way, and substan 
 
KATE-SUPPORTED LIBRA UIES. 15 
 
 tial monuments of the generosity of tliose wlio bequeathed them to 
 the public, have become too antiquarian or classical for popular 
 appreciation. Free libraries for the people, dependent on subscription* 
 and gifts of books from th*^ clergy and gentry, have not been a 
 success in England, for they had the branil of charity on them^ 
 which was an insuperable hindrance to their becoming popular and 
 useful. Only by such stores of modern books as town authorities 
 can obtain by means of the Free Libraries Act of 1850 can the popu- 
 lar mind of the United Kingdom be attracted and tangibly operated 
 upon. By the English Legislature, several Acts of Parliament have 
 been passed in regard to free public libraries. The tirst had re- 
 (^•en ce to Englsmd, and was passed in 1850. Three years later the 
 Public libraries Act was extended to Ireland and Scotland. Since 
 then, so far as legislation goes, it has involved various amendments, 
 the last being made in 1877. 
 
 By the Act of 1850 the supporting rate could not exceed one- 
 lialfpcnny in the pound, and somehow it made no allowance for the 
 supply of books. By an amendment passed in 1871, all towns having 
 a population of upwards of 5,000 may, through their town coun- 
 cils, and with the consent of two-thirds of the ratepayers, establish 
 free libraries and support the same out of the rates to the extent of 
 one penny in the pound. Parishes with a .similar population, as 
 also local improvement districts, can, by a similar majority of rate- 
 payers, establish free libraries in their midst, and support them by 
 the .same means. The Act only applies in Scotland and Ireland to 
 boroughs with populations of 10,000 and upwards. I think this is 
 a mistake. Any town or district, whatever its population, shoidd, 
 if it is Avilling to tax itself for a pur ose so laudable as that of book 
 biiying and book reading, b(! allowed to do so. With respect to the 
 Irish, ])erhaps the Legislature thought that all communities with 
 10,000 were enlightened enough by nature — a compliment to Pat; 
 or that, like Jack Lofty, the creation of one of Ireland'.s and the 
 world's mo.'^t plea-sant writers (Oliver (Joldsmith), they did not care 
 about indulging in or ina!dng tlu; acipiaintance of very polished 
 people ; for it will be remembered that lack Lofty, who figures as a 
 character in (Joldsmith's " l.lood-natured Man, " said, when a modern 
 poet was mentioned to him, " Oh, a modern ; we men of business 
 desi)ise the moderns ; and as for th(j ancients, we have not time to 
 read them. " Then, so far as Scotland goes, the Legislature might 
 
16 A PLEA FOR 
 
 conceive that the parochial school system, v/hich has so loujj wnd so 
 excellently prevailed there, would, in the less populous districts, 
 secure for the inhabitants as much education as they needed, iiut 
 the education which the system named confers is chiefly if not 
 entirely elementary; to the bulk it amounts to no n»ore ; and it 
 should have been remembered that in the matter of reading, say, 
 after people aie made efficient in that department, they then require 
 somethinii^ placed within their reach to read, otherwise it is simply 
 like giving a person brisk morning exercise, and then telling him 
 tiiat thei-e is no breakfast for the appetite created. 
 
 In the United Kingdom there are now about 100 rate-supported 
 free public libraries, possessing in the aggiegate upwards of one 
 million volumes ; and the great majority — nearly all of them, I might 
 say — Ituve museums connected with tiiem. equally free to the j)ub- 
 lic. Lixncashiie was the first county in Britain which took advan- 
 tage of the Public Free Libraiies Act of 1850, and Manchester was 
 the first place within that county which applied the Act. The 
 principal free libraries in Englaud are sit Manchester, Liverpool, 
 Birmingham. Sheffield and Leeds. Nearly all the free libraries 
 in the United Kingdom have reference departments, containing books 
 which can be iic "ly referred t((, but which cannot be taken off the 
 premises like the volumes in the lending sections. Works of fiction 
 form a considerable [lortiou jf the ctock of lending books at each 
 libiary. 
 
 The people of Leicester appear to be fonder of works of fiction 
 than those of any other borough in the kingdom wheie the Free 
 Libraries Act has been adopted. There, according to the latest re- 
 port, I have seen the issue ot books of fiction actually amount to 80 
 per cent, of the entire lot taken out of the library. Considering the 
 practical mauncr in which the people of Leicester devote themselvas 
 to he understandings of other people — their staple trade beiug boot 
 and shoe making — it is somewhat strange that they should attend 
 to their, own in this very "light" fashion. 
 
 Novels. — Many persons oVyect to free public libraries because a 
 large per-centage of the books taken out of the lending de|)artiuent 
 are novels ; forgetting that a great number of the books in our Sun- 
 day School libraries are works of fiction, moral and religious stories, 
 drawn with a delicacy of touch on the line of novel land — 
 " Truth severe by fairy fiction dressed." 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 
 
 17 
 
 The type of novftla in these libraries is best represented by " The 
 Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," " The Dairyman's Daughter," " Ccelebs 
 in Search of a Wife," " The Basket of Flowers," &c. These are novels 
 in every sense of the word — novels with a purpose to teach religious 
 and moral truths. 
 
 Gibbon says : "The constitution of minds differs like that of bodies ; 
 the same regimen will not suit all ; each indiyidual ought to study 
 his own tastes." Just so ; there are good and bad books on every 
 subject, as well as good and bad novels. 
 
 Charles Lamb says : '• I have no repugnance. ' Shaftesbury ' is 
 not too genteel for me, or ' Jonathan Wild ' too low. I can read any 
 thing I can call a book." 
 
 There would be a great many Sir Anthony Absolutes now if they 
 could have their way, condemning eveiything in books that did not 
 agree with their ideas. Thanks to the universality of reatlin^. which 
 is the true and sure test of good taste, they cannot have their wav 
 or our free libraries would be condemned, as the circulating libraries 
 were in 1775. In Sheridan's famous play, "The Rivals," Sir 
 Anthony Absolute says : " A circulating library in a town is an ever- 
 green tree of diabolical knov ledge ; it blossoms all the year ; and 
 depend or. it, that they who are so fond of handling the leaves will 
 long for the fruit at last." 
 
 The most careful folk regarding books in the kingdom appear to 
 be those of South Shields, for there I find they have only lost about 
 three books since their free library was opened eight years since. 
 
 All the free libraries in England seem to be much in favor by tlie 
 communities among whom they are situated. I heard of no sruniblinf 
 at their cost ; and they have come to be regarded as most pleasant, 
 convenient and necessary institutions, and the people cheerfully pay 
 to sustain them. Perhaps, however, I ought to except just one 
 place — the before-named place devoted so much to other people's 
 understandings — I mean Leicester ; it makes no headway at all ; 
 evidently thinks that in the mattei of progress there is and should 
 bo "nothing like leather;" for there I learn (if a chanjre has taken 
 place, it has occurred recently) that " the issues of books in both 
 lending and consulting departments have been stationary since the 
 opening of the free library ten years ago." One of the English free 
 libraries — that at Bolton— has a peculiar, and yet a quite advan- 
 tageous sort of inner circle department of reading. It has what I 
 2 
 
18 A PLEA FOR 
 
 may term a central subscri[)tion library ; its government and mem- 
 bership are separate from those of the general free library ; the sub- 
 scription is one guinea per annum ; books are purchased and in no 
 case hired, and after a period of twelve months all prvate proprie- 
 torship in them ceases, and they pass from the subscription library 
 into the free library. A somewhat similar plan to this exists at 
 Dundee. In Wales there are about half a dozen free libraries ; in Scot- 
 land about eleven (there is one not so very far from John o'Groat's 
 house, it is at Thurso) ; and in Ireland there are only three places 
 which have as yet adopted and put into force the Free Libraries' 
 Act — Dundalk, Ennis and Sligo ; they ai-e of recent adoption, and 
 no particulars are yet within reach as to their success. There is one 
 fact which is self-evident to all who visit this unhappy island, that 
 in some parts they are sadly in rear of all kinds of educational works. 
 It is hopeful to see some signs of improvement. 
 
 BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 This magnificent free library was destroyed by fire in January, 
 1879. The Shakespearian Library, said to contain over 7,000 volumes, 
 and in which, by yeai's of labor, the most complete body of Shakes- 
 pearian literature had been brought together, was entirely lost. The 
 Cervantes' Library, containing all the known editions, and of books 
 relating to and illustrating them, was also destroyed. 
 
 Nearly the whole of the reference library, containing over 40,000 
 volumes, was destroyed, also a unique collection of works on War- 
 wickshire. These rare collections were gems of literature and invalu- 
 able ; most of them can never be replaced. There was much interest 
 manifested in the loss of this library, and for its restoration contribu- 
 tions were given, and in a very short time 390 persons gave $66,315; 
 working-men, $285 ; members of the Natural History and Liter- 
 ary Associations, $4,135 ; making in all $71,675. The report says, 
 on this sad literary calamity, " (Jreat sympathy was felt and expressed 
 throughout the country and abroad. Valuable gifts of books were 
 received towards the restoration of the library." 
 
 The present number of volumes is 80,000 ; the reference library 
 has recuperated itself wonderfully since the disaster named. It now 
 includes 44,000 books ; the monthly average of volumes lent out is 
 35,000 ; while the number consulted for purely reference purposes is 
 on the average 21,600 per month. The library system here is of the 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 19 
 
 •divisional kind. It consists of one reference, two central lendin". 
 and six town branch lemUnsf libraries, with news-rooms attached. 
 The maintenance is, of course, considerable, but the penny rate 
 meets the expenditure — must do so. It realizes £6,000 a year, 
 which sum supports the libraries and pays off the interest and pro- 
 ])ortion of the capital borrowed. At Birmingham there are also an 
 art gallery and a museum under the management of the Free Library 
 'Committee. They are partly provided by gifts and partly by pur- 
 •chased articles. And they are well patronized by the public. 
 
 MANCHESTER 
 
 has a fine free library system. It consists of seven divisional lib- 
 raries, the total number of books being 147,031 — 64,077 for reference 
 and 83,554 for lending purposes. The monthly average of refei-ence 
 books consulted is 19,058 (this, at any rate, was the number referred 
 to in March — the month quoted in the return I have procured), while 
 the monthly average of books lent out (same month given) is 71,411. 
 The total annual cost of books and maintenance is £11,000. The 
 yearly costs of the newspapers, magazines, etc., of the reading room 
 department is £650. In connection witli the free library system there 
 is no museum department, but the inhabitants are not without gra- 
 tuitous accommodation in this respect. Thoy have, and for many years 
 have had, certainly one very tine museum. I refer to that at Peel 
 Park. It is a commodious, extensively patronized, well equipped 
 museum, and I should sav one of the most valuable and interestins 
 in the United Kingdom. This library has a most remarkable collec- 
 tion of pamphlet literature relating to trade, commerce, political and 
 religious questions which have agitated the public mind for the last 
 40 years, and must prove of immense value to the future historian ; 
 is rich to overflowing in English history and literature, county 
 histories, and a splendid collection of works on plastic arts and 
 textile manufactures. The library enjoys a most liberal and gen- 
 erous endowment, but this great educator was not left to depend 
 for its lasting success on the liberality of individuals, for when 
 it was put before the ratepayers for the adoption of the Library 
 Act, they voted 4,000 to 441 in favor of taxing themselves to the 
 extent of one penny in the pound for library purposes. All honor 
 to the town of calicoes and prints as being the pioneer in this noble 
 and regenerating movement. The people never grumble at being 
 
20 A PLEA FOR 
 
 taxed for a good tiling. The Hon. Edward Everett, on the incidence* 
 of taxation in the States, told Lord Lytton, in a conversation a fe.w days 
 before the openini,' of this library, "that our largest tax of all is our 
 education rate. We nevergruinble at its amount, because it is in educa- 
 tion that we find the principle of our national safety." This library^ 
 with its numerous branches, is the best and most successfully managi-d 
 institution in the world, and stands in the front rank for usefulness. 
 At the opening of thu lending department of this library, speak ing^ 
 to a resolution, Monckton Milnes (Ijord Houghton) said : " These 
 books are to be enjoyed by all the inhibitants of this place in full 
 community, and thny will be shared alike by the wealthiest and most 
 intelligent amongst you, and by the poorest and simplest.^' 
 
 Lord Lytton said on the same occasion : " A library is not only a- 
 school, it is an arsenal and an armory. Books are weapons either for 
 war or for self-defence, and the principles of chivalry are as applicable 
 to the student now as they were to the knights of old. To defend 
 the weak, to resist the oppressor, to give to man the service and to 
 God the glory, is the student's duty now, as it was once the duty of 
 the knight." 
 
 LIVERPOOL. 
 
 The questions I submitted for answers could not, for want of time^ 
 be replied to as they were formulated ; but from the Town Clerk's 
 office I received a copy of the last report issued. It is the 28th 
 annual report, and brings matters down to the present year. From 
 this I learn that '* the history of this in.stitution has been one of con- 
 tinued progress from its commencement, nor has the last year fallen 
 short in any department of usefulness." It has a well patronized 
 reference library ; the average daily consultations during the past 
 year being 2,057. The total number of volumes in the lending 
 departments is 43,285, and the issues during the past twelve months 
 have been 436,415. The daily average issue of magazines for the 
 same period has been 231, or 65,056 in the aggregate; the average 
 issue of weekly periodicals 213,975, or 760 per day. There is here, 
 as at other places, a stock of " Patents for Inventions" volumes, 
 which, during the year, have been consulted 13,913 times. There 
 are many dictionaries at the library of which no statistics are taken. 
 In connection with the library there is a large and magnificent 
 museum, which, during the 213 days it was open last year, had an 
 average daily attendance of 1,948 visitors, and a baautiful art gallery. 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES 21 
 
 •which last year had an average daily attendance of 2,349. The con- 
 tents of the former consist largely of given and loaned articles. 
 Those of the latter are to some extent of a similar character. The 
 building, I understand, with some pictures, was a gift of Sir A. B. 
 Walker. Exhibitions of pictures, independent of the ordinary stock 
 on view, have been periodically held in this gallery, and have attracted 
 much public attention ; 84,G50 of the 610,779 persons who went to 
 the place last year being visitors thereof In addition to the library, 
 museum and art gallery, an annexe for ethnological objects is now 
 beinjr constructed in the rear of the last named institution. The fact 
 that this combination of places r«;ceives the popular patronage which 
 the figures indicate, shows the way in which they are appreciated. 
 Indeed, as a simple matter of common sense, they would not be kept 
 open — certainly the free library and reading room — if the people did 
 not feel convinced that they were worth the money expended upon 
 them. The people of Liverpool are greatly indebted to Sir William 
 Brown for his unbounded liberality towards establisliing the free 
 library and museum. The first stone of the Brown Free Libraiy and 
 Museum buildings was laid on the 15th April, 1857. On this occa- 
 sion Sir William spoke as foUows : " When T proposed building the 
 library and museum, I considered that I was only performing an act 
 of [)ublic duty which Divine Providence had placed within my power, 
 and which deserved very little thanks." About one in three of the 
 volumes issued are novels. Next come travels, voyages, poetry, history, 
 biography, botany, and many magnificent works on natural history, 
 including the works of Catlin, Bonaparte, Audubon and Wilson. 
 What would not William Roscoe, one of Liverpool's noblest sons in 
 literature, have given when entering as a young and a poor student 
 upon the battle of life — before he bacame famous as the author of the 
 "Life of Lorenzo de' Medici" and the " Life and Pontificate of Leo 
 X." — for the opportunities and helps these institutions now afford 1 
 Those sad yet hopeful words he wrote on being forced by adverse 
 oircumstances to part with his noble library : 
 
 "As one who, destined from his friends to part, 
 Regrets his loss, but hopes again, erewhile 
 To share their converse and enjoy their smile. 
 And temper as he may sftVction's dart : 
 Thus, loved associates, chiefs of elder art, 
 Teachers of wisdom, who could once beguile 
 My tedious hours, and lighten every toil, 
 
22 A PLEA FOR 
 
 I now resign you. Nor with fainting heart ; 
 For pass a few short years, or days, or hours, 
 And happier seasons may their dawn unfold, 
 And all your sacred fellowship restore ; 
 When freed from earth, unlimited its powers, 
 Mind shall with mind direct communion hold. 
 And kindred spirits meet to part no more." 
 
 PRESTON 
 
 has recently adopted the Free Libraries Act. In 1879 it opened a 
 small free libiciry for its inha bitants, the nucleus thereof being a lot 
 of cheaply purchased books from a semi-moribund local place called 
 the Preston Literary and Philosophical Institution. There are now 
 in this free library 9,073 volumes : 200 being of the reference order. 
 The monthly average of books referred to is 200 : the monthly 
 average of books lent out is 8,000. The annual cost of books and 
 maintenance is £1,000, and the cost of news room per year is X60. 
 Attached to the library is a reading-room, well stocked with news- 
 papers, niJigazines, etc., and, like the library, chiefly patronized by 
 working-class people. A sniall but neat and newly-organized 
 museum, free to the public, is located in a building belonging to the 
 Corporation, about a quaiter of a mile otf, and in immediate conti- 
 guity with it is a collection of books consisting largely of classical, 
 historical and biographical works, called " Dr. Shepherd's Library "^ 
 — Dr. Shepherd, an old and now long-deceased local gentleman, 
 being the generous bequeather of it to the town. This is chiefly a 
 reference library, and gratuitous admission to it is obtained on th« 
 personal or written recommendation of any of the local aldermen. 
 The general free library is situated in the Town Hall. By and by 
 a tine new building will be erected in Preston. Acting in conformity 
 with discretionary powers invested in them as the trustees of a de- 
 ceased local gentleman (Mr. E. R. Harris)^ they have, on condition 
 that the Corporation will provide a suitable site, decided to give 
 jB90,000 for a new free library and museum building — £60,000 for 
 building purposes, £15,000 for endowment, and £15,000 for refer- 
 ence books and works of art. The Corporation have decided to give 
 the requisite site, the cost of which, in the demolition of rent-making 
 premises, etc., will amount to several thousands of pounds. Thfr 
 money granted by the trustees in question for endowment, reference 
 works, and museum articles, will not meet the whole of the provi- 
 sional and maintenance charges ; the deficit in this i-espect will have 
 
RATE.SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 28 
 
 to be met by the ratepayers, and thus far, though the times have 
 for between one and two years been anything but prosperous or even 
 promising, tbey have, with very rare exceptions, given no audible 
 vent to anything like a grumbling spirit in reference to free library 
 expenditure. 
 
 BRADFORD. 
 
 This Yorkshire borough has a good free library, consisting of a 
 central reference collection of books, a central lending department, 
 and six divisional collections in different parts of the town, for the 
 greater convenience of the inhabitants. According to the last issued 
 annual report (for 1880), the reference portion of the library con- 
 tains 11,152 volumes, the lending department 13,401 volumes, and 
 other branches (that for patent specifications supplied by Govern- 
 ment being, I should say, the chief), about 8,000 other books. The 
 library was opened in 1872 for reference purposes ; in the following 
 year a lending department was added, and in 1874-5 the first of the 
 divisional places was opened. The total consultations of reference 
 books last year was 217,598 ; the issues from the lending depart- 
 ments during the like period were 1,081,871 ; and the specific it'ou 
 book were evidently fairly attractive, for during the year there were 
 11,355 consultations. The yearly cost of books and maintenance is 
 about £3,000. In connection with the free library there are news- 
 rooms for males and females. The cost of the newspapers, maga- 
 zines, etc., supplied to the news- rooms is about £120 per year. The 
 library rate of Id. in the pound yields at present about £3,200 per 
 annum. There is also in the town an art museum, established under 
 the Public Libraries and Museums Acts, and since its opening on 
 the 6th of December to the 11th of October — ten months within 
 five days, and the latest period reported upon — the number of pub- 
 lic visits was 132,261. 
 
 There has been more real suffering and poverty in Bradford, 
 through the change of fashions in women's dress goods, this last five 
 years, than in any part of England. They paid their taxes, and the 
 library and museum flourished. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 does not possess a free library, for this simple reason : it has already 
 plenty of libraries, etc., virtually free to the public. It has also, as 
 anybody who has seen its " sights " must know, plenty of free 
 
24 A PLEA FOR 
 
 museum facilities. Through methods of its own, and in consequence 
 of its special character — nationally and educationally — the capital 
 of Scotland has provided for its occupants means for mental improve- 
 ment, recreation, etc., which other places, as a rule, can only hope 
 to secure bv the aid of such a legislative enactment as that which 
 the Free Libraries Act constitutes. 
 
 IN DUBMN 
 
 there are collegiate, professional, and mechanics' institute libraries, 
 but none of the popular free order. The only approach to the hitter 
 are the Library of the Koyal Dublin Society, transferred to the Gov- 
 ernment by " The Dublin Science and Art Museum Act, " for the 
 purpose of being developed as a National Libraiy, and Marsh's 
 Library, which consists chiefly of works pertaining to theology, 
 ancient history, etc. As to museum facilities, there are many in 
 Dublin. A museum is part of the Science and Art Department. It 
 is now maintained by Government. It is almost exclusively a Mu- 
 seum of Natural History, and admission to it is fiee. The admission 
 to the University Museum is also free. Then thnre is a Uotanic 
 Museum at Glasnevin, also free. At the Royal Irish Academy there 
 is also a Museum of Irish Antiquities. With the.se facts before us 
 we can reasonably come to the conclusion that rate-supported lib- 
 raries are appreciated in Great Britain. 
 
 All has been said that is necessary in reference to the free library 
 movement in the United Kingdom and on the Continent of P^urope. 
 There can be no moral doubt that they have been j)re-eminently suc- 
 cessful ; their influence has been of the highest order, both morally 
 and socially, and they have been incentives to intellectual activity. 
 There is nothing better worth studying than success, when success 
 means something ; and the fact of its succeeding furuishes the clue 
 to a particular state of the public mind. The subject is full of mf rit, 
 and is worth ventilating and thoroughly threshing out, and would 
 not be complete without a reference to the United States, The 
 Americans are a practical and matter-of-fdct people. The free library 
 movement has taken deep root, and is flourishing in every State. 
 
 Commissioner Eaton, in his Special Report to Congress on Public 
 and other Libraries in the United States of America, gives a list of over 
 3,649 public libraries, besides the number of books in each, and the 
 name of the librarians. I can only in a general way refer to them. 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED IJBRARIRS. 
 
 26 
 
 Some of these public libraries are very fine, and many of them free 
 and rdte-su[)ported. 
 
 The oldest and in some respects the finest library in the States, 1 
 mean the College Library at Cambridge, Mass., is free for all pt'rsons 
 living in or visiting that city for study. New York has the honor 
 of being the first place in the States where what is termed a " Free 
 Town Library" was formed; this was early in the last century. 
 There aie now several free libraries in New York city, the greatest 
 being the Astor Library. Boston has a splendid free library system. 
 
 Upwards of 20 years ago there were at least 153 free state, city 
 or town libraries in the United States, and since then, it is hardly 
 necessary to remark, there has been an onward and upward move- 
 ment in this great cause of civilization. 
 
 Aid. Ta} lor says in his neat circulars on Free Libraries in the 
 United States, that the people there have ceased arguing the question. 
 They accept the necessity of a free library as they do gas works, in 
 every town (for the fact is accomplished before it becomes a city), 
 and assess ai^.d build accordinglv. Here are a few cities taken at 
 random, showing how maintained, &c. : 
 
 Place. 
 
 Sour.,»; of Revfinue. 
 
 I 
 
 Cincinnuti 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Watertown,N.Y. 
 
 Lawrence, Mass. 
 
 Cleveland 
 
 Taunton, Moas... 
 
 Worcester, Mass. 
 Newton, Ma-ss. . . 
 
 Board of Eduration. 
 City Library fund.. . 
 
 City Library fumi 
 
 City a|ipro|>riation. . . 
 
 Dug tax 
 
 City a|ipropriation. . . 
 
 I Dog tax 
 
 I City appropriation. . 
 City appropiiution. . . 
 
 Dog tax 
 
 'City a|)i)ropriation . . 
 
 I Dog tax 
 
 City appropriation. . . 
 
 Amount. 
 
 18.991) ( 
 33,703 
 2,500 I 
 •JOK 
 7,000) 
 1,;«0| 
 17,tJ72 
 3,200 ) 
 1,1-27 ) 
 8,000 ) 
 9.H10 { 
 7,.50u 
 
 No. of 
 Volumes. 
 
 132,807 
 07.722 
 24,270 
 
 40,062 
 29,1.55 
 10.878 
 
 47,521 
 17,013 
 
 Circulation. 
 
 City's 
 Population. 
 
 769,307 
 
 374,806 
 
 27,233 
 
 134,062 
 
 130,443 
 
 61,347 
 
 150,398 
 83,393 I 
 
 289,0000 
 
 603,000 
 
 10,600 
 
 40,000 
 
 170,000 
 
 21,000 
 
 59,000 
 17 000 
 
 The worthy alderman goes on to say regarding the expense of cliis 
 educator: "Last year the sum of j£lG5,000 was voted for a now 
 "brary building in Sydney, New South Wales, and £6,400 for main- 
 tenance for the year. The income of the Hoston establi.«lnnent for 
 1878 was $124,200, of which |14,400 was spent in books. Our 
 country is too young, and the struggle for bread and butter too 
 general, for the princely becpicsts that grace the records of other 
 lands. To establish free libraries in Baltimore, George Peabody 
 donated $1,400,000 ; the Astors gave $700,000 for New York, and 
 Walter N, Newberry left $2,000,000 for a similar purpose in Chicago. 
 
^26 A PLEA FOR 
 
 Philadelphia received from Dr. James Eush $1,000,000 to maintain 
 a library, and Asa Packer left, by will, $500,000 to the library of 
 Lehigh University. These are large sums from large-hearted and 
 long-pursed men. Let our men of means do their proportion. Never 
 before was there such a chance to live in the hearts and memories of 
 their countrymen as now offers, and though the city may, and un- 
 doubtedly will, establish a library, yet something more than the 
 proceeds of a fractional assessment will be required to put our city 
 in the same grade that cities of a like size and importance occupy in 
 other countries." 
 
 The far-reaching movement in favor of public provisions for the 
 establishment of free public libraries, seems likely to exten4 eventu- 
 ally to all the great mercantile cities and towns of the United States, 
 and the instances given go to show that in the States public and 
 private opinion as to the Value of free public libraries is very much 
 the same as in England. Their record of gifts and bequests of books 
 and money exhibits striking examples of the great good that wealth 
 may do in the hands of beneficent men. A few years ago I heard a 
 very rich man in Toronto say, that he was merely a trustee in the 
 hands of God ; but he died, and lost, it is said, from want of informa- 
 tion to guide his benevolent intentions, the opportunity and the 
 privilege of giving a part of his immense wealth for the establish- 
 ment of any institution for the public good. 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 Very little has been done in this great country for free public 
 libraries. The establishment of these institutions has a special claim 
 on every ratepayer who desires to see our country advance to the 
 front, and keep pace and progress in art, science, business, and every- 
 thing that goes to make a country great and augment the sum of 
 human happiness. The most potent secular agent next to our com- 
 mon schools is rate-supported libraries. 
 
 If the principle so ably and successfully contended for by the late 
 Chief Superintendent of Education in Ontario is right — that the^ 
 citizens of every city, town and village should be taxed to support 
 common schools so that education should be free and accessible to all — 
 it cannot be wrong to tax in the same manner for free public libraries. 
 I believe he was the first to origiuate township libraries in Upper 
 Canada, supported by grants partly from the Government and partly 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 
 
 2T 
 
 from the townships, as well as the system of common schools. In the 
 year 1849 Dr. Egerton Ryerson made a report to Lord Elgin recom- 
 mending a grant of public lands for educational and library purposes ; 
 and pursuant to this recommendation, the School and Librar}' 
 Act was passed, settmg apart one million acres of public lands for 
 that purpose, thus providing a large sum of money annually. Free 
 public libraries under this scheme made very little progress, though 
 when Lord Elgin was leaving this country, ho said : ** I look 
 upon your township and county libraries as the crown and glory of 
 the institutions of this Province." According to the Repo't of the 
 Chief Superintendent of Education, 1880, the free public libraries of 
 Ontario received from the Education Department the following sums- 
 from 1853 to 1879 : 
 
 
 MONEYS. 
 
 as 
 
 "S tie 
 
 II 
 
 2 « 
 
 Number of libraries exclu- 
 sive of sub-divisions. 
 
 S 
 
 i 
 
 o 
 
 If 
 
 
 d 
 S 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 < 
 
 1 
 
 C 
 ID 
 
 4d 
 
 = i 
 
 I"" 
 
 9 c. 
 
 142844 96 
 
 18874 76 
 
 13065 67 
 
 X 
 
 •3 
 
 "3 c 
 fr< 
 
 $ c. 
 
 145697 22 
 
 19289 29 
 
 13295 64 
 
 Total Counties and In- 
 corporated Villages. . 
 
 Total Cities 
 
 9 c. 
 
 1420 13 
 173 78 
 114 98 
 
 « 0. 
 
 1426 13 
 240 76 
 114 98 
 
 4 c. 
 
 2852 26 
 414 53 
 229 97 
 
 3281 
 393 
 138 
 
 3812 
 
 1486 
 17 
 63 
 
 257675. 
 24471» 
 
 Total Towns 
 
 1C681> 
 
 
 
 Grand Totals 
 
 1714 89 
 
 1781 80 
 
 3496 76 
 
 174785 39 
 
 178282 15 
 
 1.506 
 
 298743 
 
 
 
 1. The amount expended in library books during 1879 was 
 $3,496, of which one-half has been provided from local sources. The 
 number of volumes supplied was 3,812. 
 
 2. The value of public free libraries furnished to the end of 1879 
 was $178,282. The number of libraries, exclusive of subdivisions, 
 1,566 The number of vohunes in these libraries was 298,743. 
 
 3. The classitication of these books is as follows : History 49,648 ; 
 zoology and physiology 17,019 ; botany, 3,069; phenomena. 7,030 : 
 physical science, 5,236 ; geology, 2,499 ; natural philosophy and 
 manufactures, 14,414 ; chemistry, 2,701 ; practical agriculture,. 
 10,609 ; literature, 29,244 ; voyages, 27,545 ; biography, 33,071; 
 
"38 A PLEA FOR 
 
 tales and sketches of practical life, 83,500 ; fiction, 5,041 ; teachers' 
 library, 8,118. 
 
 Surely if these books were well selected, and not too elementary 
 in their character, there should have beca no f tilure in this first 
 uttevipt at the establishment of free libraries in Ontario. 
 
 The Hon. Adam Crooks stated that the library system had been 
 practically abandoned. Then, should not the Ontario Legislature pass 
 a permissive Free Library Act, ami let the people themselves deciilo 
 the question of the establishment of rate-supported libraries'? 
 
 There is one fact worthy of notice just htu'e, that Upper Canada 
 had rate-supported schools lona; before they had them in England, 
 but England had rate-supportetl libraries first, and I believe that 
 rate-supported schools in England was the outcome of free public 
 libraries. I put the question, that if a municipal tax fi-eely voted by 
 the people for the support of common schools works wisely and well, 
 Burely a rate for libraries must work in the same way. No one will, 
 I think, be bold enough to deny this self-evilent truth. 
 
 The highest as})iration of man is to obtain knowledge and wis- 
 dom. The common schools are a'lmirably adapte I to train the 
 youth of our country, but what shall be done with them after they 
 leave school autl begin to battle with the practical realities of lite, 
 for many of them cannot afford to buy books any more than they 
 could affotd to pay for such an education as the common schools put 
 within the reach of the masses. Here, then, is a much felt want in 
 Toronto that can only be supplied by free public libraries. Then let 
 the masses have rate-bougKt books, and let them read and not fall 
 into the ways'of ignorance and drink, and into the dark prison-house 
 of thoughtlessness. Reading improves the inborn faculties, makes a 
 man a better citizen, and helps him to form correct opinions of what 
 is transpiring around him. With this in view, some one has said 
 " that reading was regarded as an agent in solvation, and a means of 
 applying the knowledge so gleaned more closely to the soul." Then 
 what is to be done to secure so desirable an end 1 Should not the 
 Council petition the Ontario L'^gislature to pass a Lil)rary Act 
 similar to that of Ens^land, enabling municipalities of cities, towns 
 and villages, on the vote of the peojjle, to impose a rate not less than 
 one-half mill on the dolla^ for the purpose of forming and maintain- 
 ing free public libraries and acquiring by bequests real estate, books, 
 and money, and the holding of the same by the people for librarj 
 
RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 2ft 
 
 purposes, with full power to hypothecate part of this rate for a num- 
 her of years, so that the money necessary for the wants of the people 
 in this direction should be supplied at once. Tiiis would give giand 
 and inmiedi<ite results, and not bo burdensome to the taxpayer. Such 
 a rate would [)roduce annually, Mccordinj; to our present assessment 
 of $34,000,000, the sum of $27,000. We could borrow say $225,000, 
 at 4^ per cent, interes', with | of 1 pei* cent, for sinking fund, 
 to pay the principal. The annual charge, at rate of o^ per 
 cent, (including sinking fund), would be $11,812.50, leaving a 
 balance of $15,1 S7. 50 for die purchaseot books, reviews, maga- 
 zines and newspapers, for paying salaries, lighting, heating, and 
 otherwise maintiining the library. We could spend for a central 
 site and a good handsome bnilding adapted for the requirements of a 
 city like Toronto, with reading and lecture rooms, say $150,000. 
 With the balance .S7i,000, we could purchase at once from tifty to 
 sixty-five thousand volumes of printed books. 
 
 This scheuje may be too comprehensive and costly at first sight, 
 and the oveicautious ratepayer may pause before he assents to any 
 such expenditure ; but on reflection, for the due encouragement of 
 learning by reading, and a free diffusion of knowledge by a good 
 reference library, he must consent to it. The establishment of .such 
 a library has a claim on all classes in Toronto apart from the direct 
 benefits it confers on the connnunity. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle, in a speech delivered before the students of the 
 Univeisity of Edinburgh, on "Books, study, life and duty," bit 
 the nail on the head and drove it right home, when he said : 
 " It remains, however, a curious truth, that the main use of 
 universities of the present is that, after you have done with all 
 your classes, the next thing is a collection of b )oks, a great library 
 of good books, which you proceed to study and to read. What the 
 universities have mainly done — what I found the universities did for 
 me — was, that they taught mo to read in various languag(!s and various 
 sciences, so that I could go into the books which treated of these 
 things and try everything 1 wanted to make myself master of gradually. 
 The clearest ami most imperative duty lies on every one of you to be 
 assiduous in your reading." 
 
 I am satisHed that the free library movement, on the broad- 
 est and most liberal basis, should be recognized in this city. Sec- 
 tarianism need in no way, and should in no way, bo allied with such a 
 
30 A PLEA FOR 
 
 movement as this. Politics should in no form be associated with 
 it. In the United Kingdom the free libraries are entirely undenomi- 
 national and non-political ; and this is the only sure, the only 
 Wealthy and durable basis they can be worked on. I know 
 that, as compared with the days of our immediate ancestors even, 
 we have many splendid facilities for mental improvement xad 
 popular enlightenment. I am proud of numerous institutions for 
 ihe spread of education which we have in Toronto, and I wish them 
 God-speed ; and I furthermore desire to say that the tree library 
 cause which I am now advocating would be an auxiliary of them — 
 would supplement and in no way come into conflict with any of 
 them. Far too many of our young people, and not a few of our old 
 ones, are now in their leisure time simply wasting their existence. 
 Many of the liappiest hours of my life have been spent amongst 
 books : I am wishful that the pleasure I have felt, and the profit I 
 have derived, and the safety from external temptations I have en- 
 joyed through companionship with books, should be experienced by 
 others, by as many as possible of all classes — by those belonging 
 to what is called " the better end " as well as by the humblest 
 members of society ; perhaps more so by the former than the latter, 
 inasmuch as it is harder to " stand corn" than thistles. At any 
 rate, I am anxious to see the free library movement well and 
 •comprehensively inaugurated in our midst. I do not want to 
 bore people to death with reading ; I should not wish any of 
 you, even if you had time, to follow the example of that old 
 German book worm, John Christopher Adelund, who devoted 
 fourteen hours a day to books ; and yet he even did not take 
 very much harm, and somehow managed to squeeze out of 
 *< this vale of tears " sufficient time to look well after the " inner 
 man," for we are told that he loved the pleasures of the table, and 
 had " never less than forty sorts of most precious wines in his 
 •cellar." Nor, in the construction of a free library, should I wish to 
 give you dry and uninteresting reading. I think the ingi-edients of 
 such a library should be as general, as attractive and as fascinat- 
 ing as possible. I would have in a libraiy of this sort a grand and 
 durable foundation of solid, standard, fact literature. I would have 
 a choice, clean-minded, finely imaginative superstructure of light 
 reading. The vulgar, the sensuously sensational, the garbage of the 
 modern press, I would most scrupulously avoid, just as I would avoid 
 

 RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 31 
 
 <lirt and the devil. I would have everything in a library of this 
 kind useful and captivating ; mentally speaking, there should be 
 nothing nasty and nothing dull in it. Next to dirty reading, for 
 badness of effect, is dull reading. 
 
 " Some books were to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and a few to be 
 chewed and digested," — Bacon. 
 
 The most striking illustration of the effect of hard dull reading I 
 ever met with is given by Macaulay. He mentions the case of an 
 Italian criminal who was permitted to make his choice between 
 reading the works of an Italian historian and going to the galleys as 
 a slave. Ho decided to read the writings of the historian. He 
 began to read them ; he read on ; but when he got to a part referring 
 to the history of the war of Pisa he gave up the job, dished, 
 dead beaten. Rather than read any more of this history he decided 
 to go and be a slave on one of the galley boats. 
 
 I am at the concluding point. I want the ratepayers of this city 
 to go in for a free library, and in time such branches as the cir- 
 cumstances of the community may require. Libraries of this kind 
 excellently sustain and help on the cause of education and virtue. 
 Looked at from the commonest standpoint — viewed in the dollars 
 and cents light — I maintain that free libraries are profitable invest- 
 ments for ratepaying bodies. They develop a taste for reading ; they 
 keep people out of bad company ; they direct the rising generation 
 into paths of study ; they divert working-men from the street corner 
 and the low, corrupting dram-siiop ; they secure for the people an ac- 
 quaintance with the productions of the best and greatest minds ; they 
 tend to promote public virtue ; their influence is on the side of order, 
 self-respect, intelligence, and general enlightenment ; and by develop- 
 ing these virtues amongst the multitude, they must necessarily dimin- 
 ish the ranks of those two great armies which are constantly marching 
 to gaols and penitentiaries, and in the same ratio they must decrease 
 the sums of money which ratepayers have to provide for the main- 
 tenance of those places. And even if these libraries effected no saving 
 of money, nay, even involved an ultimate increase in public expendi- 
 ture (which they will not), then, I say, it would be still wise to have 
 them ; for I contend that it is infinitely preferable to pay for intelli- 
 gence than to tole^'ate ignorance. I want Toronto to pay for intelli- 
 gence — for popular education in the free library sense. If she does 
 so fairly and fully, her bill for poverty and depravity will bo mxteri- 
 
^2 A PLBA FOR RATE-SUPPORTED LIBRARIES. 
 
 ally diminished, and with such diminution we shall all be benefited 
 and blessed. I know of notliin^r m )re useful, notliing more genuinely 
 ornunaiital or credit ible to a community, th^n the possession of a 
 good free library, by means of which mxy be enjoyed the productions 
 of the finest minds — 
 
 "Brilliant wits and musing sages, 
 Lights who beamed through many ages." 
 A cheap supply of good bjoks, a free supply ot them by mems of 
 a library, I advocate; for, with Thomas Carlyle, I believe that " in 
 books lies the soul of the wliole past time— the articulate, au.lible 
 voice of the past, when the body and material substance of it has 
 altogether vanished like a dream. Mighty fleets and armies, harbors 
 
 andarsenals,vastcities,liigh-domed,many-engined—thby are precious, 
 great ; but what do they becon J Agamemnon, the many Agamera- 
 noiis; Pericleses and their Greece— all are gone now to some ruined 
 fra'.;mcnts, dumb, mournful wrecks and blocks. But the books of 
 Gn-ece ! There Greece to every thinker still literally lives— can be 
 called up again to life. No magic rune is stranger than a book. All 
 that mankind has done, thouglit, gained or been — it is lying, as in 
 magic preservation, in the pages of books. They are the chosen pos- 
 sessions of men." I want this city of ours to be rich in this enduring 
 and splendid possession. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 RULES FOR THE SELECTION OF A 
 
 FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 
 
 1. That the library should, as far as possible, "represent every phase of 
 human thought and every variety of opinion. 
 
 2. That books of permanent value and standard interest should form the 
 principal portion of the library, and that modern books of value and import- 
 ance should be added from time to time as they are published. 
 
 3. That the library should contain those rare and costly works which are 
 generally out of the reach of individual students and collectors, and which are 
 not usually found in provincial or private libraries. 
 
 RULES AND REGULATIONS SUITABLE FOR FREE 
 
 LIBRARIES, 
 
 Used by the, Birmingham Free Library. 
 
 FREE LENDING LIBRARIES. 
 
 RULES AND RKGULATIONS. 
 
 1. The chief librarian shall have the general charge of the libraries, and 
 shall be responsible for the safe keeping of the books, and of all other property 
 
 belonging thereto. 
 
 2. The newsroom shall be open to the public, every day (Sundays, Christ- 
 mas Day, and Good Friday excepted), from nine o'clock a.m. to ten o'clock 
 p m., and the library from ten o'clock a.m. to nine o'clock p.m. 
 
 8 
 
34 APPENDIX. 
 
 3. No person shall be admitted who in in a state of intoxication ; nor shall 
 any audible conversation be permitted in the rooms ; nor shall any person be 
 allowed to partake of refreshments therein. Any person who shall offend 
 against these regulations, or shall be guilty of any misconduct, shall not be 
 allowed to remain within the building, 
 
 4. No person shall be allowed to pass within the enclosure of the lib- 
 raries, or to take any book from the shelves, except by permission of the 
 librarian. 
 
 5. Persons enrolled as citizens of Toronto shall be entitled to borrow hooka 
 on their own responsibility. Persons not so enrolled shall be recjuired to 
 obtain the signature of one citizen to the following voucher, which must be 
 renewed annually : 
 
 •' I, the undersigned, being a citizen of Toronto,' declare that I 
 believe occupation age 
 
 of No, to be a person to whom books 
 
 may be safely entrusted for perusal ; and I hereby undertake to replace 
 or to pay the value of any book belonging to the Board of Management 
 , which shall be lost or materially injured by the said 
 borrower, " 
 
 Any person having signed this engagement, who shall afterwards desire 
 to withdraw from the same, must give notice thereof in writing to the lib 
 rarian, who will give a release as soon as he shall have ascertained tliat no 
 loss has been incurred. 
 
 This voucher must be delivered to the librarian three days before the first 
 issue of books to the person recommended. 
 
 6. All books borx'owed must be returned to the libraries within the time 
 specified on the respective covers, under a penalty of one penny for the whole 
 or any portion of the first week, and one penny for each week or portion of a 
 week afterwards. 
 
 7. The librarian shall carefully examine, or cause to be examined, each 
 book returned, and if the same be found to have sustained any injury or 
 damage, he shall require the person to whom the same was delivered, or his 
 guarantor, to pay the amount of damage or injury done, or otherwise to pro- 
 cure a new copy of the book of equal value, and in the latter case such person 
 shall be entitled to the damaged copy on depositing the new one. 
 
 8. All books borrowed from the libraries must be returned, irrespective 
 of the time allowed for reading, at the half-yearly dates specified on the 
 printed labels at the beginning of each book ; borrowers neglecting to com ply 
 with this regulation will risk the forfeiture of their privilege of borrowing 
 books. 
 
 9. Borrowers leaving town, or ceasing to use the libraries, are requested 
 to return their tickets to the librarian, in order to have them cancelled, other- 
 wise they and their guarantors will be held responsible for any book taken 
 out in their names. 
 
APPENDIX. 35 
 
 10. Borrowers, when they change their residence, are required to hand in 
 their tickets with their present addrcds to the librarian, otherwise they will 
 lose their right of borrowing books. 
 
 11. Borrowers are cautioned against losing their tickets, as they will be 
 held responsible for any book or books that may be taken out of the library 
 in their names. 
 
 12. No borrower will be allowed to have more than one work at the same 
 time. 
 
 13. No book can be renewed more than once, if required by any other 
 borrower. 
 
 14. No borrower will be allowed to make use of more than one of the 
 lending libraries at the same time. 
 
 15. The librarian shall have the power to refuse books to any borrower who 
 shall neglect to comply with the rules and regulations of the library, but any 
 person so refused shall be at liberty to appeal to the Library Committee. 
 
 10. That the Free Libraries Committee shall not make any dividend, gift, 
 division or bonus in money unto or between any of its members. 
 
 By order. 
 
 Librarian. 
 
 RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE REFERENCE LIBRARY. 
 
 No person will be allowed to obtain any book without signing a "Reader's 
 Ticket, " and such signature shall be taken and considered to be an assent to 
 the rules and regulations of the library. 
 
 Readers giving a false name and address will be held re' ponsible for the 
 consequences. 
 
 Readers cannot obtain more than one work on the same ticket. 
 
 It is expressly forbidden to take out of the reading room any book, map, 
 manuscript, or other article belonging to the library, or to write or make 
 any marks upon the same. 
 
 Readers desirous of proposing books for addition to the library, or of 
 making any suggestions as to its management, may do so by writing the same 
 in a suggestion book, which is regularly submitted to the committee for con- 
 sideration. 
 
 No person will be admitted to the library who is intoxicated, or in a dirty 
 condition ; nor will any conversation be permi 1 in the room. 
 
'p 
 
 36 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No person is allowed to pass within the enclosure, except by special per- 
 mission of the librarian. 
 
 Persons under fourteen years of age are not admitted to the reference 
 library, except for special purposes to be determined by the librarian. 
 
 The costly illustrated works are i4iued only on written application to the 
 committee. f * » 
 
 Newspapers liaving been cut, and illustrated works disfigured, are in 
 future to be used on the large round tables near the desk. Copying is per- 
 mitted, but not tracing, as tliis has resulted in damage to the dlustrations. 
 Readers are particularly requested not to soil or injure the illustrations by 
 fingering or laying their hands on them. 
 
 The use of ink for copying extracts, etc., is not permitted, as seriom 
 ^njury to plates and books has resulted therefrom.