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 THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 

 
 EDWARD EDWARDS
 
 EDWARD EDWARDS 
 
 THE CHIEF PIONEER OF 
 
 MUNICIPAL PUBLIC LIBRARIES 
 
 THOMAS GREENWOOD 
 
 SCOTT, GREENWOOD AND CO. 
 
 19 LUDGATE HILL, E.C. 
 IQ02
 
 TO TUB 
 
 FORGOTTEN BENEFACTORS 
 OF HUMANITY 
 
 643106
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE preparation of this Appreciation of the work of 
 Edward Edwards, and the Digest of his evidence before 
 the several Parliamentary Committees, has been a 
 labour of love. It has entailed a great deal of work and 
 much unproductive research, and has left behind a feeling 
 of having hewn away a small mountain to make a 
 hillock, but the hillock was well worth making. Such 
 biographical details as it has been possible to glean 
 have been included, but these are of a scanty character. 
 I have endeavoured to keep the volume within a reason- 
 able limit. Edwards' life was of a simple and ordinary 
 nature, and its interest with the reading public rests 
 on his being the chief pioneer of the public library 
 movement, and with such of his writings as are likely 
 to have a permanent character. No history of the 
 second half of the nineteenth century would be com- 
 plete without due notice being taken of public libraries, 
 the people's universities, and these are the outcome to 
 an important degree of Edwards' earnest work and 
 abiding enthusiasm on behalf of these institutions. The 
 principal materials for this record have been found in 
 his private diaries, which extend, so far as they have 
 been discovered, throughout the following years : 1844 
 to 1852, 1854 to 1858, 1860 to 1868, 1870, 1881, 1882 
 and 1884, making twenty-seven in all. In the Man- 
 chester Public Reference Library there are batches of
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 correspondence addressed to Edwards ranging mainly 
 from 1838 to 1869. So far as was practicable I have 
 endeavoured to come into touch with those living who 
 knew him, but these sources have not yielded much 
 information. I have been enabled to acquire the re- 
 mainder of his books, a number of them containing 
 notes; a considerable amount of correspondence up to 
 the time of his death ; a number of note-books ; the 
 existing manuscript of the second edition of Memoirs of 
 Libraries ; guard-books full of memoranda and some 
 other miscellaneous matters. The correspondence in- 
 cludes over ninety letters addressed to Edwards by his 
 sisters. What is in my hands will, I hope, find an 
 ultimate resting-place in the Manchester Public Refer- 
 ence Library. There are missing diaries and note-books, 
 but the appearance of the present volume may lead to 
 these being placed with the other material indicated. 
 
 The public library movement has many earnest 
 friends, and this suggests two appropriate ways of per- 
 petuating Edwards' name. An " Edward Edwards " 
 Librarians' Home of Rest, at Niton, and an " Edward 
 Edwards" Library School, which should be the head- 
 quarters of the Library Association and all other library 
 organisations, as well as a centre for the municipal 
 library world. If any generous friend of the cause, 
 with the necessary means, will make either of these 
 suggestions possible, all who have this movement at 
 heart will be grateful. The Library Association will, 
 I do not doubt, gladly take charge of any endowment 
 for these purposes. 
 
 Librarians all over the country, in the Colonies of 
 the Empire and in the United States, have shown the
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 warmest satisfaction with the efforts made to arouse a 
 renewed interest in the work and writings of this man. 
 The letters received by me, in acknowledgment of the 
 receipt of the first volume of the second edition of 
 the Memoirs of Libraries issued for presentation, were 
 cheering and helpful. 
 
 To Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., I am indebted for 
 the active and sympathetic interest with which he has 
 followed this undertaking throughout. He has also 
 been good enough to read the proof sheets. To Mr. 
 James Duff Brown, Librarian of the Finsbury Public 
 Libraries, my thanks are given for the compilation of 
 the index. I am grateful to those who have sent me 
 letters received from Edwards. 
 
 Should this little volume serve in any measure to aid 
 in securing for Edward Edwards the recognition due 
 to his splendid services in the cause of education and 
 librarianship, its sole purpose will be accomplished. 
 His memory deserves to be held in everlasting remem- 
 brance among the great mass of users of municipal 
 public libraries. 
 
 To Edwards I owe much of the stimulus which led 
 to an increased activity in the public library movement. 
 The year of his death saw the issue of my first writing 
 upon the subject, and what then became to me an 
 interesting hobby remains the same after the lapse of 
 years. Edwards is to me as a library father, and if I 
 can cultivate but a fraction of his enthusiasm and able 
 advocacy of municipal libraries, I shall be content. 
 
 T. G. 
 
 FRITH KNOWL, ELSTREE, 
 
 HERTS, April, 1902.
 
 LIST OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY . i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS AND HIS PLACE IN THE PUBLIC 
 
 LIBRARY MOVEMENT 7 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS ON LIBRARY AND EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS, 
 AND HIS EVIDENCE BEFORE THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE 
 ON THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 1836 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WORK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM 1839-1850, AND HIS ADVOCACY 
 
 OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN 1847 AND 1848 .... 50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DIGEST OF THE EVIDENCE OF EDWARDS BEFORE THE PARLIAMEN- 
 TARY COMMITTEES OF 1849 AND 1850 65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858 107 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP .... 126 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 His LITERARY AND OTHER WORK 142
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE HOMELY SIDE AND LIFE AMONG HIS BOOKS . . . 180 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 His MOTHER AND SISTERS AT MANNINGTREE .... 196 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH . 210 
 
 APPENDICES 223 
 
 INDEX 241
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The mere tradition of a great ancestry has sometimes helped, 
 visibly, to mould the characters of men who were intrinsically strong 
 enough to stand alone. Reveries about historic birth and the doings 
 of historic foregoers have frequently given colour to a lifetime, even 
 when the man who has indulged in them bore Nature's own stamp 
 that he was one of the chosen few who are to hand down greatness- 
 rather than to derive it. 
 
 EDWARDS, Life of Ralegh. 
 
 EDWARD EDWARDS had in him the essentials of a strong 
 mind, and an individuality which impressed itself upon 
 everything he undertook : yet less could scarcely be known 
 of any one who had filled an important place in a great 
 public movement. For this, the modest, retiring nature 
 of the man was no doubt partly responsible, though it is 
 doubtful if there is a parallel instance on record of the 
 chief pioneer of a large and widespread public improve- 
 ment being so generally unrecognised, even within the 
 circle of his own profession. Reasons for this lack ot 
 appreciation will emerge in the course of this narrative. 
 
 The idea of a public library in its modern conception, 
 as a democratic institution freely accessible to all, had 
 not even emerged from the cloud of speculation with 
 which the question was surrounded, when Edwards first 
 gave his attention to the subject. It is somewhat per- 
 plexing to find many of the most eminent men of the 
 period, extending from 1830 to 1850, debating with all 
 seriousness, not such a matter as what is best in literature 
 to put before the people, but whether it would be safe, 
 wise and politic to admit the general public to libraries 
 at all. In these later times, it appears strange to read 
 
 I
 
 2 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 some of the arguments for, and against, making libraries 
 accessible to readers, when it is remembered that, at 
 present, the principal subject of discussion is the desir- 
 ability of permitting the public to make use of libraries, 
 without barriers or restrictions of any sort. When 
 Edwards was a comparatively young man, the controversy 
 raged round the question of admitting the public to library 
 buildings as a privilege, and all thought of libraries being 
 centres of light and leading, to which students and readers 
 could resort as a matter of absolute right, was still in a 
 vague, unformed condition. So far from readers being 
 considered entitled to handle and examine books, it was 
 a moot point, in the thirties and forties of the last century, 
 whether or not the rough, uncultured democracy should 
 be permitted, even with the most stringent precautions 
 and regulations, to invade the sacred precincts of a library 
 building. The Education Acts, and the work of men like 
 Edwards, have changed all this, and as the library 
 movement grows, so does every method of extending 
 and popularising work among the people meet with more 
 and more acceptance. 
 
 Edward Edwards had the spirit of one of the old monks, 
 and lived a good part of his life as a recluse. In some of 
 the circumstances connected with the pathetic incident of 
 his passing away, he may be said to have died like the 
 solitary tenant of a hermit's cell. There is about his life 
 much that reminds one of Francis of Assisi. He is not 
 compared to the founder of the Franciscan Order, because 
 there was about Edwards no voluntary espousal of poverty 
 as a leading principle of life. But poverty he certainly 
 endured, on account of his devotion to the cause of public 
 libraries, and the same spirit which made a St. Francis 
 dwelt in Edwards. It may be doubted whether any man 
 ever displayed a more overwhelming passion for libraries 
 and everything appertaining to them than did Edwards. 
 For fifty years he worked in one way or another for 
 these institutions. His enthusiasm for libraries and the 
 accessibility of books was the one abiding interest of his
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 life. His books on libraries, and the one on the British 
 Museum, will ever be the quarry, to which all interested 
 in libraries and the institution named will turn for in- 
 formation. 
 
 He was a many-sided man, and the deeper it has been 
 possible to enter into the spirit of his life, and the main 
 avenues of his activities, the more complex do they pre- 
 sent themselves. He cherished high ideals ; but he had 
 not sufficient faith in himself, or discipline of mind, to carry 
 them into full operation. Could he have found some 
 generous soul to lift him above the cankering cares of 
 life, it is likely that he would have given to his day and 
 generation, and the generations to follow, works of erudi- 
 tion which would have been valuable contributions to 
 literature, and assured him a more commanding place 
 among writers of high merit. He had a gift for patient 
 research, and possessed a keen insight into the forms and 
 moods of literary endeavour. His acquaintance with 
 seventeenth-century literature was extensive. Of libraries 
 and the history of libraries his knowledge was unique. 
 His political predilections would have prevented him from 
 handling some subjects with the careful discrimination 
 required by a historian, but where he was on neutral 
 ground he was perfectly safe, and on purely literary 
 questions he would, doubtless, have been able to produce 
 works of mark and reputation, outside his writings on 
 libraries. His versatile mind would have enabled him to 
 write upon almost any literary subject. It is lamentable 
 that a mind such as he had should have been distracted 
 with the constant recurrence of the financial difficulties 
 incident to a limited income. But poverty has ever been 
 the lot of those who wield the pen, and will not bow the 
 knee to Baal, and some of the best work in literature has 
 "been done by men and women who felt acutely the dearth 
 of this world's goods. The predominant note in the 
 career of Edwards is one of sadness. In everything this 
 shows itself; but he was too proud to make the prevailing 
 despondency a topic for complaint.
 
 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 He seemed to lack a vein of humour. During the 
 years of intercourse with like minds to his own in his 
 early manhood, he must have had a disposition possess- 
 ing a certain amount of magnetism. But in his diaries 
 and letters he appears throughout to be cast in a very 
 serious mould. There is no record of laughter ever having 
 filled his soul. Some psychological moments can only be 
 effectively met by an outward assumption of gaiety. In- 
 wardly the human heart may be far enough from a good, 
 wholesome laugh. But the man or the woman who can, 
 in the midst of cankering care, which no power on earth 
 can remove, indulge in a little laughter, has a resource 
 which is denied to their less favoured brethren. There 
 are many husbands, and many wives, who have to spend 
 their lives in an association that presents no aspects of 
 companionship. To such, the faculty of mirthfulness is 
 a heaven-given boon, which helps many a saddened life 
 over the obstacles that strew the pathway of years. 
 Edwards, so far as can be gleaned, had little either of 
 humour or mirthfulness in his composition. 
 
 Another element which he gravely lacked was ambition. 
 He had this quality as it applied to his writings, but he 
 does not seem to have cherished this spirit, so far as it 
 affected his general environment. Reasonable ambition 
 gives a new interest to life. It may even throw a radiance 
 over what would be a dull and commonplace existence. 
 Wisely cultivated, it helps to subdue that species of mental 
 robustness which may become mischievous if not kept 
 within due restraint. What would have happened, had 
 Edwards determined to fill the highest place that the 
 British library world has to award, it is impossible to say. 
 To have discovered that he had steadily set before him 
 such a task would have probably altered the whole of this 
 record. Temperaments exist to which rational ambition 
 becomes a positive safety-valve. The mere discipline 
 exacted, in travelling along the path which leads to the 
 possible realisation of a wholesome ambition, forms an 
 excellent school in which, for a time, to dwell. It cannot
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 be discovered that, outside his library writings, and his 
 enthusiasm for libraries, he had any ambition, and in this 
 aspect his nature was greatly the poorer. 
 
 He was, in the end, a forgotten old man, wrapped up 
 in his books and writings, keenly sensitive to his surroun- 
 dings, and afflicted with occasional bursts of vehemence 
 and irritability. But there was a softer and a gentler side. 
 It may be doubted whether he ever showed his whole self 
 to any living soul, or if he did, it was to the sister who 
 out-lived him, and there was much dissimilarity between 
 them. His extreme reserve and his great deafness pre- 
 vented much conversation with him, and he very rarely 
 ever talked about himself. His mother and sisters, and 
 especially the younger sister, were of the same tempera- 
 ment. They were not unsociable, and loved human 
 sympathy, and were deeply touched by the kindly aid of 
 friends, extended to them as the days darkened and the 
 lamp of life grew dim. The letters of his sisters, covering 
 the period from 1854 to 1885, breathe a spirit of family 
 tenderness and solicitude for each other's welfare, very 
 beautiful to see. The last four years of his life brought 
 some little comfort to him, and much disappointment and 
 sorrow. Disappointment, that the cherished work of his 
 later years, a second and revised edition of the Memoirs of 
 Libraries, could not be issued ; and sorrow and distress of 
 mind, caused by limited means and increasing debts. He 
 struggled with the fever of an over-active soul, battling 
 against the limitations of its environment. He died in 
 loneliness, and with despair in his heart. The kindness 
 of neighbours, whom he barely knew, provided him with 
 decent burial, and he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave. 
 
 It is not an unfair claim that Edwards deserves to be 
 recognised as an educationist of like importance to Froebel 
 and others in Germany, Horace Mann in the United States, 
 and William Edward Forster and Joseph Lancaster in 
 England. 
 
 Among the millions of readers who now use public 
 libraries a large number of whom are in ignorance of
 
 6 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 the true history of the origin of the library movement 
 there should be many to whom the story of the cradle- 
 days of this great educational scheme, and its close 
 connection with Edward Edwards, will appeal with 
 interest.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS AND HIS PLACE IN 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY MOVEMENT. 
 
 But, just as in a campaign there must be generals to command 
 the whole army, officers to head regiments, soldiers to win battles, 
 and also pioneers to open the trenches, sappers to work the mines, 
 engineers to make the escarpments, and fatigue-parties to carry 
 the earth-bags and fascines ; so in the agitation of public questions, 
 there must be not only men qualified to be leaders when those 
 questions become ripe for final decision, but also the humble 
 pioneers, working in obscurity, yet helping to create that array of 
 public opinion which gathers force by degrees until it comes to be 
 irresistible. 
 
 EDWARDS, Manchester Worthies. 
 
 EDWARD EDWARDS was born in London on i4th Decem- 
 ber, 1812, l and was in all probability the eldest of the 
 family. Anthony Turner Edwards, his father, was a 
 builder, and the family lived at 12 Idol Lane, Great 
 Tower Street, up to the time of his father's death. His 
 mother was a native of Hull. Charlotte, the elder 
 of the two sisters, was born in 1814 at Writtle near Chelms- 
 ford, Essex. The mother, two sisters and Edward were 
 brought up as Nonconformists, and attended the ministry 
 of the late Dr. Thomas Binney at the old King's Weigh 
 House Chapel. The mother and sisters remained Dissen- 
 ters until their death. Edwards lamented in later life his 
 Nonconformist training, and became a most ardent Church- 
 man. It is a pleasing trait in the family character, that 
 this difference in religious views never came between the 
 
 1 The date is in Edwards' writing in his Bible on the page where 
 John xxi. occurs. He has written, " Niton 14 Dec. 1884 (my yand 
 birthday) ". In his autograph copy of Martin's Handbook of Con- 
 temporary Biography there is the following entry : " Edwards, 
 Edward, English writer, b. in London, 1812 ; " etc. This entry 
 Edwards has left unaltered, although he has made alterations in 
 several other entries in the book. 
 
 (7)
 
 8 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 mother and sisters, nor son and brother. It is difficult, 
 in the absence of personal or other records, to trace the 
 moulding forces which exercised the most potent influence 
 upon the intellectual development of Edwards. Only by 
 studying his early associates and taking into account what 
 is known of his youthful predilections and pursuits, is it 
 possible to arrive at any conclusion as to his gradual 
 gravitation to a particular line of interests. The most 
 remarkable feature of his career is the fact that, when but 
 twenty-three years of age, he was called before a Parlia- 
 mentary Committee to give evidence as to improvements 
 in the administration of the British Museum. That a 
 young man, practically unknown, should have been con- 
 sidered sufficiently expert in technical knowledge to advise 
 with grave legislators and librarians of standing, touching 
 improvements in the conduct of a literary, scientific and 
 artistic institution like the British Museum, is a tribute 
 alike to the impression which was made by his pamphlet, 
 and to the wisdom of those who had charge of the inquiry. 
 No doubt the committee were appalled when this com- 
 paratively youthful witness appeared, but of this there is 
 no evidence. It is quite certain that Edwards must, from 
 early boyhood, have been a student of the most diligent 
 and earnest kind. He tells us himself that he used the 
 British Museum during 1833-1834 almost daily, and thus 
 it is evident that, shortly after leaving school, he must 
 have embarked upon a course of study calculated to fit 
 him for the splendid work of his more mature years, on 
 behalf of public libraries. At this period he must also 
 have been a prominent member of the Literary and Scien- 
 tific Institution, whose magazine he helped to conduct, 
 and thus, as hereafter shown, other elements in his mental 
 training were introduced, In another direction his studies 
 also conducted him into the field of historical collaterals. 
 There had been occasion for him to refer to coins and 
 medals for the purpose of looking up some matters of 
 French history. The compilation of a catalogue of French 
 medals in 1837 was one f ms earliest attempts in this
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. g 
 
 direction, as will be seen from the chronological table in 
 the appendix. That a young man of his age should at 
 that date have been able to do this is significant. Numis- 
 matic studies represent a close acquaintance with peoples, 
 countries and history. This cannot be quickly acquired. 
 Whether his father had a collection of coins, and this had 
 given him a taste for these studies, is not clear, but it is 
 more than probable that such was the case. At all events 
 it equipped him, when but twenty-five, with a comprehen- 
 sive groundwork of knowledge, which gave promise of the 
 future attainments afterwards displayed. Even at this 
 age he seems to have had a wide acquaintance with Ger- 
 man andiFrench literature, for he was able to indicate the 
 deficiencies in the English collections of books in these 
 languages, with a minuteness which apparently surprised 
 the authorities of the British Museum, as well as the 
 members of the Commission. 
 
 It is an old adage that a man is best known by his com- 
 panions. By-and-by, as conditions alter, it will be the 
 way in which leisure is spent that will stamp the man. 
 Edwards had several intimate friends who later occupied 
 prominent positions like himself. Edwin Abbott (1808- 
 1882) was head master of the Philological School in 
 Marylebone, London, and an educational writer of distinct 
 merit. His son, the Rev. Edwin A. Abbott, D.D., has 
 become even more distinguished than his celebrated father. 
 He was head master of the City of London School, and 
 has stated that he often heard, in his boyhood, his father 
 speak of Edwards as a man of remarkable ability. Edwin 
 Abbott was a bosom friend of Edwards. His letters ad- 
 dressed to him, which are still in existence, would fill a 
 volume. They afford extremely interesting reading, and 
 give a chatty survey of men, books and events as they 
 presented themselves to the writer. They visited each 
 other to and fro, and the correspondence dating from 1835 
 has a glow of warmth which is quite refreshing. 1 Un- 
 
 1 Edwards was godfather to one at least of Abbott's children.
 
 io EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 fortunately the letters of Edwards for this period have 
 been destroyed. In one of the earliest letters Abbott says,. 
 " I hope to see you at five that we may have a little 
 German together ". Abbott was a kindly and helpful 
 critic, and his good judgment must often have been of 
 immense service to Edwards. " Believe me," says Abbott 
 on 4th July, 1836, after going minutely into some points- 
 in Greek history, " I am not insensible ... of all your 
 acts of kindness. The world is made up of small things, 
 and a true friendship shows itself in ministering to the 
 peculiar wants of its object." At a later date in the same 
 year Abbott says, " What will Parry say to the time spirit 
 ofWhiggism? . . . Do you mean to plead Radicalism?" 
 On aoth November, 1837, Abbott writes: 
 
 ... I have no news to tell you except that I am going to be very 
 industrious ; the only difficulty being the exact time when I shall 
 begin. If you are in civilised society I shall hope to see you forth- 
 with ; if not, for our sakes return without delay lest you should 
 contract a taste for wigwams and cannibalism. . . . 
 
 The Parry in question was John Humffreys Parry 
 (1816-1880), at one time engaged at the British Museum, 
 but who became later a serjeant-at-law, and the repre- 
 sentative of a distinct school of forensic lore and special 
 pleading. He belonged to the group of Edwards' early 
 friends, and was for some years at Abbott's Philological 
 School. On iyth March, 1837, Parry wrote, "You may 
 be sure that I sympathise cordially in your feelings 01 
 regret at the cessation of our delightful meetings in 
 Gloucester Place, and to their renewal I look forward 
 with eagerness. For your own kind notification of open 
 house every Wednesday and Thursday I thank you, and 
 will try to avail myself of the invite." Eight quarto- 
 pages represent one letter from Parry, chiefly on the 
 question of copyright in pictures, sculpture and literary 
 productions. Edwards had suggested a new tribunal for 
 copyright cases, and Parry did not quite see eye to eye 
 with him upon the question. On another occasion they 
 had gone together to see Macready, and Parry writes a
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. n 
 
 warmly eulogistic letter about the acting of that artist. 
 Parry's lectures on the novels of Bulwer Lytton and other 
 subjects figure largely in the letters. On i8th September, 
 1840, Parry wrote : 
 
 . . . I read the concluding notice of your book in the Times. 1 Depend 
 upon it the writer was prevented from saying all he would have wished 
 to say by the fear of offending the orthodox journal. . . . There was 
 surely covert satire in the note enjoining you to open your eyes and 
 see the unwillingness of the public in London to visit exhibitions of 
 art on the Sabbath. That which would be blasphemous in the metro- 
 polis is allowable at Hampton Court. There the portraits of Charles 
 II. 's mistresses may be gazed upon without disturbance of the Christian 
 feeling. . . . We may gaze upon a parson but not upon a picture, we 
 may walk in the parks but not in the galleries of the British Museum. 
 We may attend the teaching of Home but must not profit by those of 
 Correggio. . . . The second fact which more especially concerns you 
 as an art reformer, is that the officers at the barracks of Canterbury 
 are not allowed to hang pictures in any of their apartments for fear 
 of spoiling the walls, which said walls are painted of the dullest colour 
 which the commanding officer could select by the aid of his peculiarly 
 dull and stolid faculties. 
 
 A third associate was George Godwin (1815-1888), the 
 successful architect who laboured zealously to improve 
 the sanitary condition of the dwellings of the poor in 
 town and country. He was a man of lofty ideals, who 
 left his mark upon the architectural work of his time, 
 and his ephemeral writings and numerous lectures 
 contributed largely to educate the public taste in matters 
 of art. He and Edwards were chiefly responsible for the 
 Literary Union, described as " a monthly magazine con- 
 ducted by members of the City of London and Western 
 Literary and Scientific Institutions," which appeared 
 during the year 1835. Edwards had apparently much to 
 do with the general working of this publication, for on 2nd 
 August, 1835, addressed to 47 Leicester Square, Godwin 
 reminds him that his " first step will be ... to get in as 
 much money as possible from our vagabond subscrip- 
 tions". One article in this periodical on "Thoughts on 
 the Management of Popular and Scientific Institutions " 
 
 1 The Fine Arts in England, etc., mentioned in chapter viii.
 
 iz EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 bears the stamp of Edwards' work. It was intended to be a 
 magazine for Popular Literary Scientific Institutions and 
 to chronicle their proceedings. The magazine came to grief 
 after the first year, but it did not spoil the friendship between 
 Godwin and Edwards, and the others who had a share in the 
 venture. Godwin's letters are cheery to a marked degree. 
 The playful banter about men and things in general is 
 delightful. These four and others formed a group of 
 young men full of earnest purpose and zeal for the 
 widening of educational facilities in every direction. 
 They had a literary society of their own, known by the 
 name of the Society of Wranglers, in which a fine was 
 exacted as a penalty for non-attendance, so earnest were 
 they all for mutual improvement. Edwards was a leading 
 member of this society. One of the earliest subjects for 
 discussion noted was " Is the French Revolution attri- 
 butable more to the writings of the French Encyclopaedists 
 than to the privileged classes ". A common designation 
 among themselves for the members of this society was 
 that of " Soul-Squeezers ". Godwin distributes the phrase 
 freely throughout his letters to Edwards, but never in any 
 sarcastic way. They were a band of young men terribly 
 in earnest, and held definite views about most things. 
 No subject was too dry or cosmopolitan for them to 
 consider. They roamed over the whole range of art, 
 literature and politics, and expressed themselves with a 
 freedom which never seems to have alienated them from 
 each other. Devoted friends, enthusiastic over the 
 respective work that each was trying to do, the circle must 
 have had a material influence in forming the character 
 of each of the members. They met constantly, and 
 their correspondence was voluminous. It was not so 
 much a question with them that the world was out of 
 joint and required putting to rights, as it was one of 
 their individual readiness to help in adjusting things 
 that in their eyes needed readjustment ready at all times 
 to take part in any helpful movement, and contribute an 
 honest share of work. Every age has had its young men
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. 13 
 
 who dream dreams, and it is well for the generations that 
 such men have been willing to render an unpaid service 
 in the solution of pressing problems. The " Soul- 
 Squeezers " belonged unmistakably to this class, and 
 so far as can be gleaned, Edwards ranked among the 
 most active and alert of the number. The three others 
 named achieved positions of financial success. It is to 
 be regretted that Edwards did not meet with a like fortune. 
 Friend sharpened friend in that group, and Edwards all 
 through hi-s career must have carried mentally and morally 
 the benefits of his intercourse with them. 
 
 Other friends or close acquaintances were E. William 
 Wyon, one of the family of engravers at the Royal 
 Mint; John Pye, landscape engraver; John Imray, a 
 near neighbour for some years*, and an architect who 
 aided him with the maps of libraries printed in the 
 Parliamentary Report of 1849. In his diary summary for 
 October, 1847, Edwards records that he " began a course 
 of historical reading twice a week and viva voce, with my 
 friend Imray " ; James Macarthur, a New South Wales 
 colonist, with whom Edwards collaborated in a book on 
 that colony, which will be named later ; F. Espinasse, 1 
 a colleague at one time in the British Museum, and after- 
 wards on the staff of a Manchester newspaper ; Thomas 
 S. Gowing, who refers in his letters to the circle as " Soul- 
 Squeezers ". From all these there are letters existing 
 addressed to Edwards. 
 
 Most of these friends shared his desire to see libraries 
 established everywhere, and made as accessible as it was 
 possible to make them. One direct outcome of these regular 
 gatherings was the formation of the Art Union of London 
 in 1837. Mr. Henry Hayward, a brother-in-law of Ed- 
 wards, was the prime mover, and of this association 
 Edwards acted for a time as honorary secretary. 
 
 With Joseph Hume, M.P. (1777-1855), Edwards was 
 on terms of more than passing acquaintanceship. The 
 
 1 In his Literary Recollections and Sketches he gives a warm tribute 
 to Edwards, pp. 17-18.
 
 i 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 first letter available from Hume was in the autumn of 
 1838 asking Edwards to call and see him. With Hume, 
 Edwards evidently conversed and corresponded often, 
 upon public questions, and especially such questions as 
 affected art and literature. It may be remarked that 
 Hume rendered good service as a member of Parliament 
 when the question came before the House. 
 
 In 1844 Edwards was married to Miss Margaretta 
 Frances Hayward, a Hampstead lady, whose acquaintance 
 he probably made about 1834. She was his senior by 
 nine years, and was about forty-one when the marriage 
 took place. They had no family : a misfortune which 
 Edwards lamented on various occasions, as was but 
 natural in the case of a man who took keen interest in 
 children, and no doubt fully appreciated their value in 
 cementing family ties. 
 
 It is not often that a man's life-work so quickly yields 
 results as in the case of Edwards. Within a generation, 
 municipal public libraries have spread themselves on all 
 sides. They all owe their existence mainly to the pioneer 
 labours of this man, and to William Ewart and Joseph 
 Brotherton. The three men presented a strong combina- 
 tion. Whatever public question they might have taken 
 in hand, it is probable that it would have been brought 
 to a satisfactory conclusion. Edwards had the active 
 enthusiasm which enabled him to work patiently, in sup- 
 plying the energy, for the other workers. Notwithstanding 
 his subsequent conservatism, and his possession of all the 
 prejudices of the scholar, he had an absorbing passion to 
 see libraries made everywhere accessible to the people. 
 There was not an atom of exclusiveness in his disposition 
 so far as books were concerned. Politically, his anti- 
 democratic spirit gave him later a spirit of exclusiveness. 
 But this had no place when public libraries were in 
 question. When the politicians, Ewart and Brotherton, 
 were doing their part of the work, he it was who kept the 
 arsenal furnished with ammunition. His critics fixed 
 upon some weak parts in his statistics, and found fault
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. 15 
 
 Avith them, but with the larger bearing of the whole 
 subject they did not attempt to deal. Edwards had a 
 clear grasp of the possibilities held out by the establish- 
 ment of fully equipped public libraries, made available 
 for the use of everybody, with none but the simplest of 
 restrictions. Public libraries were to be the people's 
 universities, to a far larger degree than was ever known 
 in this country, or on the continent. It is very possible 
 that Edwards realised this more fully than the two men 
 who fought the question in the legislature of the nation. 
 There is nothing invidious in stating that in scholarship 
 lie was in advance of the two members of the House of 
 Commons especially interested. He represented in him- 
 self the double qualification of constant user of the British 
 Museum Library, up to 1839, and afterwards of an experi- 
 enced assistant in that library. In both capacities he 
 had amassed a wide and intimate knowledge, and each 
 had aided in intensifying his enthusiasm. Ewart and 
 Brotherton were naturally dependent on some such help, 
 for facts and information with which to combat the 
 undercurrent of distrust and ignorance that prevailed in 
 the country and in St. Stephen's, and were pleased to 
 enlist the powerful aid of Edwards, even though he was 
 much younger than either of themselves. 
 
 William Ewart (1798-1869) was a typical legislator. 
 He was the only one of the three men who had received 
 a university education. He had travelled extensively 
 and had seen the library facilities of the continent, and 
 longed for his own country to possess equal advantages. 
 He was a well-educated and well-to-do representative of 
 the yeoman class, who have done so much for the 
 consolidation and natural development of our national 
 institutions, and for British liberty. The spirit of true 
 and cautious progress governed his soul. He was no 
 iconoclast, but a patient plodder through the meshes of 
 Parliamentary procedure, and all who have the most 
 casual acquaintance with the promotion of a bill in the 
 House of Commons know well what this means. He
 
 16 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 was the friend at Court of the proposed measure, and 
 nothing was more vital to the welfare of the several Acts 
 than the intimate knowledge of what to do, and how to 
 do it, which was possessed by the member for the 
 Dumfries Burghs. It seems to be the case that Ewart's 
 idea of what was possible to be done in the way of 
 providing libraries did not extend to lending departments. 
 Edwards supplied the suggestions which made this 
 element such a wonderful factor in later developments. 
 A multiplication of small British Museums in various 
 parts of the country was, it may be judged, what the 
 political promoters had chiefly in mind. The reformer 
 must be content with progress in easy stages, and it is 
 well that it should be so. None knew this better than 
 Ewart, and his painstaking care in each step of the 
 progress of library legislation was of the greatest moment 
 to the welfare of the measure, as it was to other subjects 
 in which he had taken an active interest. It was from the 
 House of Commons that help was to come for the exten- 
 sion of public libraries. Private benevolence had done 
 much and would do much, but to unify and strengthen the 
 work done it was necessary to have a permissive measure 
 passed by the Houses of Parliament, in order to make 
 the whole scheme possible. The House of Commons 
 has had many such men as William Ewart, but none 
 with a keener instinct, and a more earnest desire to give 
 his support and active help to measures for benefiting 
 the community. His concentration was commendable. 
 Instead of trying to excite an interest in a long series of 
 wearisome questions, he gave his attention to a carefully 
 selected few. More imitators of this course, in the House 
 of Commons, would earn the gratitude of members, and, 
 in some cases, gain converts. The House of Commons 
 has all through its history been misjudged by outsiders. 
 In Ewart's time, as now, it was made up of many varying 
 and opposing elements. In the thirties and on to the 
 sixties a rich member, with a safe and comfortable seat, 
 could afford to take things easy. Ewart resisted this
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. 17 
 
 temptation. The nation owes a vast debt to the Ewart 
 type of legislator. He was practical, attentive, experi- 
 enced, conciliatory, with an attractive personality, such as 
 could not fail to win supporters. These are the qualities 
 which he brought to bear upon his share of the great 
 task of securing the passing into law of the first of the 
 Libraries Acts, which, whatever the enemies of public 
 libraries may say, have played a great, and are destined 
 to play a still greater, part in national education and 
 wholesome recreation for the people. 
 
 Joseph Brotherton (1783-1857) was essentially a man 
 of the people, and he was proud of being the son 
 of a Lancashire manufacturer. Class distinctions ruled 
 supreme in those days. But his simplicity of disposition, 
 enabled the representative of Salford to make a very definite 
 position for himself in the nation's legislature. He be- 
 longed to the type to which Cobden and Bright belonged,, 
 and he was a useful adherent of this school. He was the 
 typical lay preacher and citizen-representative combined! 
 in one person. A quiet force, untiring energy and sus- 
 tained zeal were his by natural bent of character. His 
 Nonconformist training and sympathies added lustre to 
 his homely qualities. He belonged to a strict sect, but 
 the narrowness of a religious coterie did not affect his 
 broader outlook upon things as they concerned the nation 
 as a whole. He carried conviction when he spoke, and in, 
 what is termed for the want of a better phrase, "lobby- 
 ing " he must have rendered a special and material service. 
 His scrupulous honesty, and his unflagging interest in 
 whatever subject he took in hand, were so transparent that 
 he commanded respect, and this was at a time when men 
 and boroughs were bought openly without anybody ap- 
 pearing to suffer. There were few men in the House of 
 Commons, of his time, who were in touch with the masses 
 of the workers in manual occupations, but out of these few 
 Brotherton was one. He knew the Lancashire operative 
 from a long experience. Nowhere in the country were there 
 more readers, more hard-headed men with an honest desire 
 
 2
 
 18 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 for knowledge, than in the thickly populated districts around 
 Manchester. The place of Salford in the history of the 
 museum and public library movement is important, and 
 Salford gave Brotherton to the House of Commons, 
 and backed up his enthusiasm for libraries for the people 
 with liberal gifts. The Lancashire freeholder of the time 
 could appreciate simple-minded earnestness when he 
 discovered it, and in Brotherton he realised this gift, 
 for he was returned for twenty-four successive years 
 from 1832 to 1857 as Salford's representative. " My 
 riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but 
 in the fewness of my wants," was a saying of Joseph 
 Brotherton, which has been engraved upon his statue at 
 Salford. Among Edwards' correspondence there is not a 
 single letter from Brotherton, and the references to him 
 in the diaries are few and scant, but there is no doubt 
 about his help having been of material importance. There 
 is an interesting link, in name at least, in the fact that the 
 pamphlet entitled " Public Spirit illustrated in the Life 
 and Designs of Dr. Bray," the founder of parochial 
 libraries, was printed in 1746 for one J. Brotherton. The 
 nation has never realised what it owes to spontaneous 
 and unsparing labour, undertaken with the expectation of 
 no other reward than the consciousness of good service 
 rendered to some noble cause. Love of a cause counts 
 for much, and this dear old Empire of ours is fortunate 
 beyond estimation in the number of men and women who 
 have given of their best unstintingly, for the welfare of the 
 community. 
 
 Each of the three men described as associates was able 
 to take a different part in originating a great movement, 
 without asking or interfering with the part played by his 
 colleagues. Each possessed his own special equipment 
 for the work. Less has been heard in the past of Edwards 
 than has been heard of Ewart and Brotherton. This may 
 be owing to Edwards having been a paid public servant 
 at the time of the passing of the Museums Act of 1845 
 and the Libraries Act of 1850, and it was very possibly
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. ig 
 
 thought unnecessary to bracket such an official defin- 
 itely with Ewart and Brotherton, as disinterested workers 
 in a public movement. This was not an unreasonable 
 view to take. Members of Parliament are habitually dis- 
 inclined to give full prominence to the source from whence 
 their information is derived. Everything which is likely 
 to be of use to them is gathered up, with a net having a 
 small mesh, from the painful researches of some intelli- 
 gent official, and only reappears as original matter, the 
 coinage of the member's own brain. Only a limited experi- 
 ence of the average representative is required to illustrate 
 this tendency on the part of members of Parliament, and 
 indeed of all kinds of public speakers who base their remarks 
 on the hard work of some invisible helper. A brilliant 
 speech in the House and telling work in committee are 
 often made a possibility by the labours of the man who 
 drew up and studied the brief, but the actual author of the 
 brief is rarely ever heard of and much less known. There 
 was nothing in Edwards' life and station which could give 
 him, even for a day, the commanding public position of 
 his two friends. They had from the first a more influen- 
 tial and a larger public. The man who wields the pen 
 works, if there is worth in his work, for the generations 
 who follow. The glamour of the platform is not for him, 
 and he does not covet the possession. More often than 
 not he is poor. Outside the successful manufacturers of 
 fiction, the man of letters in the concrete produces books 
 which are not likely to pay author and publisher in any 
 profuse way. Edwards' work was essentially of this 
 nature. It is more than probable that his early pamphlets 
 of 1836 and later dates were issued solely at his own cost. 
 His lot was not an uncommon one, and has presented 
 itself at every period of the history of all great movements 
 which have struck deep into the well-being of the people. 
 The race of unrewarded student-authors is not yet at an 
 end, and it will be a sorry day for the nation if it ever 
 becomes extinct, even at the sacrifice of a small ransom to 
 ensure its longevity.
 
 20 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Edwards' own claim as to his position as chief pioneer 
 of the movement is made in the preface of the incompleted 
 second edition of the Memoirs of Libraries. Those in the 
 library world who received copies of the first volume of 
 this work, printed in 1885, and issued for presentation by 
 the present writer in the autumn of 1901, will notice the 
 following : 
 
 . . . An enormous amount of new information concerning even the 
 oldest Libraries of Europe, and . . . of America, is now available. And, 
 in addition, more than one hundred new Libraries have, in our own 
 countryalone Colonial as well as Metropolitan, been founded. Four- 
 fifths at least of these . . . are the results of those " Public Libraries 
 Acts " of 1850, and subsequent years, down to the year of present pub- 
 lication . . . which had their first inception, origin, and real authorship, 
 in the labours (of 1847, 1848, and 1849) of the present Writer and in 
 his evidence before Parliamentary Committees. . . - 1 
 
 Then a little farther on in the same preface : 
 
 The substance of that " Statistical View " was again given, verbally, 
 to a Select Committee Of the House of Commons Upon Public Lib- 
 raries, during the writer's five or six several examinations before it in the 
 Sessions of 1849 and 1850. That Committee was appointed, in the 
 first-named Session, on the motion ... of Mr. William Ewart, and at the 
 solicitation of the present writer, who drew up in English, French, and 
 German (at Mr. E wart's request) those " Questions on Public Libraries " 
 which, through the medium of the Foreign Office, were presented at 
 every Court throughout the world, to which any British Envoy was 
 accredited. The results were published in several " Appendices " to the 
 various Reports of the Committee from 1849 to 1852 inclusive. 1 
 
 Then once again in the preface : 
 
 The "Library Returns" of 1849-52 . . . contain, that is, in the 
 year 1885 the latest official and general accounts of the progress, 
 and condition, of many Foreign Libraries, which have been anywhere 
 published (in any language) or in any form whatsoever. They were 
 obtained, after some difficulty, by Mr. William Ewart, M.P. (at the 
 instance, and solicitation, of the present writer), through our Ambas- 
 sadors and Consuls abroad, and were transmitted to the Foreign Office. 1 
 
 Never once does Edwards in his diaries make a strong 
 claim for his share in securing the passing of the Act of 
 
 1 The preface was printed twice, and in the second instance varied 
 slightly from the first, but the general purport is the same.
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. 21 
 
 1850. The entries are simple and matter-of-fact. He 
 was modest and self-forgetful. No man ever yet accom- 
 plished any real work for the public good who did not sink 
 self in the task which he had at heart. The true patriot 
 is ever content to remain in seclusion if the end for which 
 he has laboured is gained or furthered even but a little. 
 
 It is appropriate, therefore, that his claim to be the chief 
 pioneer of the modern public library movement should be 
 preferred on his behalf, even at this distant date, and when 
 the movement has spread with such encouraging rapidity 
 in all parts of the country. 
 
 There are twenty-seven diaries existing which cover 
 the years ranging from 1844 to 1884. The gaps are 
 considerable, and there is only one for the seventies, 
 and this for 1870. The entries throughout are full and 
 interesting, but unfortunately there is not much of a 
 really biographical nature available for use. All diaries 
 which are not written in the first instance for publication 
 contain items of a purely personal nature. These are 
 useful as an index to character and in giving a full in- 
 sight into a man's true self; but they do not carry the 
 searcher far in his linking together, of a long chain, of bio- 
 graphical facts. Several things are conclusively proved 
 by the diaries. First, the man's intensely religious spirit, 
 which he carried throughout his life. He began life as a 
 Nonconformist, as already mentioned, and ended it as an 
 earnest Episcopalian, with bitter regrets that his early 
 training had been in the folds of dissent. To this early 
 training in dissent, however, he owed whatever of true 
 spirituality there was in his inner religious life. It is not 
 said that he did not add to this in later years, but the 
 groundwork and basis of his faith were laid by the minis- 
 tration of Dr. Thomas Binney (1798-1874) of the old King's 
 Weigh House Chapel in the heart of the city of London. 
 There was a depth and an earnestness in Dr. Binney's 
 teaching which struck a chord in Edwards' soul that was 
 resonant to the very end of his life. It was a case of mind 
 answering unto mind, and heart unto heart. One of the
 
 22 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 earliest entries in the diary for 1844 is f a " solemn and 
 impressive" sermon of the divine named, and amongst 
 the entries in the latest diaries are those where he records 
 the reading of sermons from the same source. Dr. Binney 
 was a born preacher, and had an especial influence in his 
 day upon the minds of young and thoughtful men. His 
 discourses breathed the spirit of the true teacher. His 
 influence was of the nature that grew the more he was 
 known and heard. Wise in his choice of language, 
 earnest in tone, intense in his loyalty to the realities which 
 constituted the inner life, with a firm belief in the character- 
 forming influences of things spiritual, he could not fail to 
 impress deeply a young man of Edwards' mould and lean- 
 ings. Why Edwards lamented his early religious train- 
 ing is not made very clear. He could have passed 
 through his change in religious views without reproach- 
 ing the faith and order to which he at one time belonged, 
 and to which he undoubtedly owed the foundations of the 
 intensely religious fervour that was part of his nature. 
 He was so scrupulously honest with himself in other 
 directions, that it i* a pity that he did not realise the fact 
 indicated. Among the correspondence are many letters 
 from Dr. Binney, covering a long stretch of years. 
 Throughout them there is a kindly, sympathetic tone. " I 
 shall deem myself happy," said this teacher, in the middle 
 of 1838, " if I ever have an opportunity of doing you any 
 service." The same spirit animates every letter of Dr. 
 Binney to Edwards. Says Edwards on i6th May, 1847, 
 " Heard a most magnificent sermon from Mr. Binney. . . . 
 Without being able to subscribe to all his theology, I carry 
 away impressions from Binney's discourses such as I 
 never experience elsewhere." 
 
 Another mind which had a far-reaching influence on 
 Edwards was that of William Johnson Fox (1786-1864), 
 the preacher and radical. The work of this earnest reformer 
 is almost forgotten except by the older politicians of to-day. 
 He was in his full vigour in the forties and preached and 
 lectured regularly at South Place Chapel and Institute,
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. 23 
 
 Finsbury. His work is another example of the transient 
 nature of the spoken word. Art and literature are the two 
 things in life which have permanence. The impassioned 
 utterances of the orator pass away with his age. Fox 
 was one of the soul-inspiring group of the Anti-corn Law 
 agitation, and ranked next to Cobden and Bright. Edwards 
 rarely missed a Sunday morning at South Place, and re- 
 cords with a fine glow the subject of Fox's discourse. 
 Fox was a reformer of the purest brand. He combined 
 with a striking personality, a warmth and an enthusiasm 
 of disposition. He was a leader of men and used his 
 power rightly and with discretion. As a member of 
 Parliament he was distinctly useful in bringing about 
 those early reform bills so vital in their influence upon 
 all that has since followed in their train. If Fox was 
 announced to speak, and Edwards could be present to 
 hear him, he was sure to be there. The strong democratic 
 sympathy in Edwards' mind, which prevailed in his early 
 manhood, was of Fox's cultivation, if not of his actual 
 planting. It is somewhat inconsistent that Edwards 
 should have so completely hurled out of his mind all 
 respect for what he looked upon as extreme politics, 
 though as regards libraries his ideas were not only 
 democratic, but, for the period in which he lived, almost 
 socialistic. Changes in religious and political opinions 
 come to most men. The lapse of years scarcely leaves 
 any one untouched in this respect. But it is possible 
 to make a change and still carry with it a respect for 
 whatever is good and true in the party or the views thus 
 discarded. Edwards need not have spoken and written 
 so strongly against the political and religious bodies with 
 which in his early years he had sympathy. He owed 
 more to these sections than he would perhaps have been 
 willing to acknowledge. That both Binney and Fox 
 should have had considerable influence on Edwards' 
 mind seems perhaps a contradiction. One may have 
 been a corrective of the other. The spiritual in the 
 teaching of Binney may have served to modify the ethical
 
 24 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 and political in Fox's discourses. The mind that cannot 
 sift from the written or spoken thought what the judgment 
 and mature reflection can accept, is a mind which has 
 only partially progressed on the road to a trustworthy 
 formation of opinions. 
 
 Another thing made clear in his diaries is the minute 
 way in which he recorded his income and expenditure. 
 With the exception of the last, every diary contains a full 
 statement of each year's cash account. This is all the 
 more commendable in him, as he had some small extra- 
 vagances which must now and again have been a sore 
 trial to him. He liked to be well dressed, and had a 
 weakness for frilled shirts long after they had ceased to 
 be fashionable. He loved a good dinner and never 
 hesitated to stay at the best hotel : and notes his gifts 
 to the attendants. A few pence spent in postage is duly 
 entered, and be the outlay small or considerable, all is 
 recorded. This habit must, in itself, have saved him 
 from foolishly running into debt, and there is an indica- 
 tion that he had a weakness in this direction, but one 
 which was kept manifestly under restraint. When- 
 ever he had money he paid it away with a free hand. 
 Another habit clearly shown is that of his voracious 
 appetite for reading. He read all and everything pretty 
 nearly which came in his way. It is books, books, from 
 the first page of the diaries to the end. He was a veri- 
 table Macaulay on a smaller scale in this respect. His 
 retentiveness for what he read never forsook him. His 
 laborious industry in whatever he undertook was marvel- 
 lous. No matter what was the subject upon which he 
 had to write he searched every possible source for facts 
 and information, and stored these in note-books, or on 
 slips of paper for reference. Piles of these still exist, 
 and heaps must have been destroyed during the lapse of 
 years. 
 
 He was of a forgiving disposition, loved children, and 
 was grateful to those who helped him and ministered 
 to him. He lived his life, chequered as it was, like an
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS. 25 
 
 anchorite of bygone days. His mother, sisters and 
 himself all through their lives transformed reticence into 
 a fine art. His loneliness saddened his life, drove him 
 within himself, and caused him to draw the fullest comfort 
 from his Bible and books of devotion. These he perused 
 and marked with a devoutness that displayed his religious 
 spirit, although it must be acknowledged that formalism 
 played an important part in this feeling. 
 
 He was a man of strong contrasts, and this makes his 
 life well worth careful study. Breadth in religious and 
 political views in early life was followed by narrowness in 
 later years. Arrogance and dictatorial tendencies gave 
 place afterwards to a bearing which was almost servile. 
 Pride and haughtiness of spirit in youth became humbled 
 and chastened at the last. Quarrelsome with his best 
 friends, he was tenderness itself to his mother and sisters. 
 Loving children and Mother Nature with a beautiful 
 intensity ; yet raspy and dogmatical. Utterly fearless in 
 the expression of his opinion, but not always willing to 
 .listen to the opinions of others. Honest to a high degree 
 .in purpose and motive himself, and yet sometimes declin- 
 ing to see these qualities in others. Sweet and tender in 
 the references to his wife after her death : and possibly 
 not altogether happy during her lifetime. Longing for 
 human sympathy : yet living his life alone. Shadowed 
 and saddened by limited means ; but too proud to make 
 his needs known. A strong man with great ideas ; but 
 with some of the best in him strangled by a giant which 
 ,he could not subdue until it was too late for the subjuga- 
 tion to be of service to him. One aspiration, one thought, 
 one longing remains unclouded and unchanged to the end, 
 and that was his love for libraries, and for their universal 
 extension in every direction. In that and what he did 
 for these institutions, his work will live long in the years 
 to come. 
 
 On the 2ist November, 1847, he lost his father after a 
 very brief illness. The entry in his diary reads :
 
 26 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 To I(dol) L(ane) about 12. Found dear F(ather) quite sensible he 
 recognised me and pressed my hand, but was too ill to speak more 
 than a word or two at a time, and these only in reply to a question 
 as to his feeling pains or thirst, etc. I remained in his room 
 except for an hour or two from noon till 25 minutes before 12 at 
 night, when he, very peacefully, expired : and most truly in his case 
 it may be said, in the sure and certain hope of a joyful resurrection 
 exchanging his last Sabbath on earth for an eternal Sabbath in 
 Heaven. May my own departure, and the departure of all I love, in 
 God's good time, be as happy as was his. My dearest mother bore up 
 with great fortitude and resignation, which nothing could have given 
 her but the firm faith in the blessed realities of the world to come. 
 Dear Charlotte too was, happily, sustained. Dear Elizabeth is con- 
 fined to her bed with severe illness. . . . 
 
 All that a son could do was done by him. He at once 
 took upon himself the funeral arrangements, and did his 
 best to unravel the somewhat tangled condition in which 
 his father's affairs were left. The estate was valued for 
 probate at something under "300. His mother and 
 sisters, Charlotte and Elizabeth Margaret, became his 
 tender care. Whatever roughness there was in his bear- 
 ing towards others, to his mother and sisters there was 
 always tenderness and kindly solicitude. And this he 
 retained to the end of his life, as will be seen. The brightest 
 beam in this man's personal character is his love for the 
 near and dear relatives named. It shines clear all through 
 his life, and never became dimmed.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS ON LIBRARY AND EDUCATIONAL 
 QUESTIONS, AND HIS EVIDENCE BEFORE THE 
 PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON THE BRITISH 
 MUSEUM, 1836. 
 
 In two particulars, more especially, our great National Museum 
 stands distinguished among institutions of its kind. The collections 
 which compose it extend over a wider range than that covered by 
 any other public establishment having a like purpose. And . . . 
 those collections are also far more conspicuously indebted to the 
 liberality of individual benefactors. 
 
 Lives of the Founders of the British Museum. 
 
 IT was ordered by Parliament on 27th March, 1835, that a 
 Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the condi- 
 tion, management and affairs of the British Museum. On 
 this committee were Mr. Hawes, Mr. Ewart, Lord Stanley, 
 Lord John Russell, Lord Dalmeny and others. The blue 
 book containing the report of the committee extends to 
 over six hundred pages, and this, with the report of the 
 following year, must ever be an important link in the 
 development and general history of this great national 
 institution. Edwards was not called before the committee 
 of 1835, but he embodied his views of the evidence given 
 before it in a pamphlet of remarkable ability, addressed to 
 Mr. Benjamin (afterwards Sir Benjamin) Hawes (1797- 
 1862), M.P. for Lambeth, and Under-Secretary for War. 
 The appointment of the committee was mainly due to the 
 efforts of Mr. Hawes, but what chiefly led up to it were 
 some complaints respecting the administration which 
 were made by a discharged servant. 1 This, however, 
 occupied but a small part of the inquiry. 
 
 On i4th December, 1835, Mr. B. Hawes wrote to 
 Edwards : 
 
 1 Pagan's Life of Sir A. Panizzi, vol. i., p. 151. 
 (27)
 
 28 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 I have only just finished reading your very valuable paper on the 
 Museum. I hope you will be able to give evidence on the subject if the 
 committee is revived, which I do not doubt will be the case. It will 
 afford me great pleasure to see you some morning if you can favour me 
 with a call. When I get the evidence out I hope you will be able to read 
 it and give me your opinion on it. Your MS. I presume I may keep 
 for the present, and I must say you are only the third person who has 
 rendered me any essential service. Indeed I fear when the evidence 
 comes out it will shew how much I stood in need of assistance. . . . 
 
 On a8th December, 1835, Mr. Hawes wrote to Edwards 
 to ask, " Does the evening suit you when we could discuss 
 the question over a cup of tea ? " It is clear from this that 
 they must have gone minutely over the ground traversed 
 in the pamphlet, before it was issued to the public. 
 
 This pamphlet, entitled " Remarks on the ' Minutes of 
 Evidence ' taken before the Select Committee on the British 
 Museum," is dated i5th February, 1836, and must have 
 come as a surprise to the British Museum authorities. 
 Its author was, so far as can be traced to-day, unknown, 
 and seems to have burst suddenly into some prominence. 
 To the members of the committee the criticisms of the 
 evidence given before them in 1835 must have been some- 
 what startling. Even on the part of a practised hand it 
 would have been a bold step, but to come from an unknown 
 stripling it must have been doubly so. The letter fills 
 seventy-six pages of an octavo pamphlet. He leads off 
 by saying that " an enquiry into the condition, manage- 
 ment and affairs of the British Museum has been long 
 called for. Loud and frequent have been the complaints 
 of its narrow accessibility, of the extremely imperfect 
 state of its collections of its want of adaptation to the 
 progressive changes of science in various departments ; 
 and in [general of an inaction which is alleged to have 
 characterised its management of late years, notwith- 
 standing a very observable increase of the just demands 
 of the public upon it." This is a courageous beginning, 
 and he supports his views with a long extract from the 
 Memoir of Sir Humphry Davy by his brother Dr. John 
 Davy, which had then recently been published. This
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 29 
 
 extract is decidedly adverse to the then management ot 
 the Museum. 
 
 " Our national establishment, the British Museum," 
 said Sir Humphry, " is unworthy of a great people. . . . 
 In every part of the metropolis people are crying out for 
 knowledge ; they are searching for her even in corners 
 and bye ways : and such is their desire for her, that 
 they are disposed to seize her by illegitimate means, 
 if they cannot obtain her by fair and just ones." Sir 
 Humphry was in his day one of the official trustees, and 
 he pressed upon the notice of his colleagues certain 
 necessary changes. 
 
 " It is so much easier to complain than to point out 
 means of improvement," remarks Edwards; and hence 
 the reason for the committee continuing their inquiry 
 during another year. The evidence given in 1835 "taken 
 altogether prove incontestably that whatever may be our 
 other claims to the distinction we have not the shadow 
 of pretension to be considered the first nation of Europe 
 in respect to the condition, organisation or management 
 of our literary and scientific establishments". With the 
 evidence of Sir Henry Ellis (1777-1869), then the chief 
 of the Museum, he is merciless, and indeed no public 
 official ever laid himself open to criticism to a greater 
 extent than did the one just named. His answers were 
 lame, incomplete land in some instances foolish. With 
 the public who might visit the Museum he was unsym- 
 pathetic. " The vulgar class would crowd into the 
 Museum," if that institution were open during the public 
 holidays of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide. Other 
 answers are quoted where references were made to 
 sailors from the dockyards who might bring undesirable 
 companions with them, and when pressed, he said he 
 had not traced whether they came from the dockyards, 
 but people coming at such (holiday) times "would be 
 of a very low description ". 
 
 Some of the under-officials gave replies of a directly 
 opposite nature to similar questions, and Edwards remarks
 
 30 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 that " it is worthy of observation that in this instance 
 precisely as we descend the scale of official authority, we 
 seem to find a more catholic perception of the objects of 
 the Museum. A dread of the inroad of the vulgar class 
 (meaning apparently the manual labour classes in general) 
 does not seem to dwell in any breast of less dignity than 
 that of a principal librarian." 
 
 Here is the germ of the first principle enunciated by 
 Edwards unrestricted access of the public to their own 
 literary, artistic and scientific collections, in the institutions 
 supported out of public monies. 
 
 " The chief object of the Museum," said the Keeper of 
 the Department of Natural History, " was to stimulate 
 the exertions of the unlearned." Edwards enlarged upon 
 this and urges that the same end would be most " effectu- 
 ally attained by interesting the many in the pursuits of the 
 few ". 
 
 All through the pamphlet Edwards is warm in his 
 praise of the urbanity and readiness on the part of the 
 general officials to afford all the information in their power, 
 compatible with existing regulations and circumstances. 
 
 He says that as a frequent visitor of the Museum he 
 had always found that the attendants sought to make the 
 Museum useful. 
 
 The Museum Library, urged the Rev. J. Forshall (Q. 
 1288), was a library of research and not a library of educa- 
 tion. Edwards said that he differed from this view, but 
 impeached his theory rather than the effects of that theory. 
 "However extensively it may become the means of 
 diffusing knowledge, it can never be the less able to help 
 those who aim at extending knowledge." 
 
 He then proceeds to review the leading features of the 
 condition and management of each of the existing four 
 departments of the Museum, and begins with the library. 
 This he divides under four heads : (i) Accessibility ; (2) 
 Supply of books ; (3) State of catalogues ; and (4) De- 
 partment of organisation. He attacks the 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. 
 time then in vogue throughout the year. The evidence
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 31 
 
 given upon this point is surveyed at length. He advocated 
 the opening of the library during the evening, and pressed 
 this with a vigour characteristic of him. It required 
 more than fifty years to achieve this end even in a modi- 
 fied form, but it is satisfactory to note that Edwards was 
 among the first to suggest the evening opening during 
 the winter months. That it was not a great success when 
 tried is not to the point, for it must not be forgotten that, 
 in the interval, good reference libraries in various parts of 
 the metropolis, which were open in the evening, had been 
 established. Sir Henry Ellis had a good deal to say about 
 the convenience of " men of research ". " The main pur- 
 pose of a national library is to assist research and to aid 
 those who were more professionally devoted to knowledge." 
 Edwards deals sarcastically with Ellis' sneer, which comes 
 in this section, that circulating libraries would provide 
 most of the books which merchants' clerks would want : 
 
 It is not merely to open the library to persons who, from the en- 
 grossing nature of their engagements of business, are at present utterly 
 excluded from it, but it is also that the library may be made ... a 
 direct agent in some degree in the work of national education. Let 
 not any one be alarmed lest something very theoretical or very revolu- 
 tionary should be proposed. I merely suggest that the library should 
 be opened to a class of men quite shut out from it by its present 
 regulations I mean schoolmasters. 
 
 The reader will remember that it is the year 1836 which 
 is under review. He urged the construction of a separate 
 room to be open daily from 6 until n P.M., throughout 
 the year, during which hours readers could be furnished 
 with such books as they may have previously requisi- 
 tioned by notice in writing. 
 
 He then deals with the supply of books and begins by 
 calling attention to the then " exceedingly defective state " 
 of the library in this department, and suggests remedies 
 for supplying these defects. " That it is of national impor- 
 tance," he urges, " there should be public libraries, wherein 
 a copy of every published book may be found, will hardly 
 be denied." The copyright law of that time, which con-
 
 32 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 ferred upon eleven libraries the right of receiving copies 
 of new books, is dealt with by him, and he carefully 
 surveys the working of that part of the Act. The whole 
 history of British copyright law is of so complex a nature 
 that it is not possible to enter upon it here. But it is 
 obvious that Edwards had familiarised himself with the 
 various Acts and had formed definite, and, for the time,, 
 advanced opinions upon the question. 
 
 The question of catalogues is, he says, the most impor- 
 tant topic as far as the library of the Museum is concerned. 
 He quotes the maxim that " as are the catalogues of a 
 library, so will be its utility". 
 
 The story of the catalogues of the British Museum 
 Library is a long one. Its full history has yet to be 
 written, and now that the catalogue is completed, possibly 
 the details of its conception and compilation will be 
 written. When this is done, and if justice is rendered, 
 Edwards will be entitled to recognition, if only for his 
 invaluable practical suggestions. Many pages in this 
 pamphlet are devoted to the catalogue question. The 
 criticisms were clear and definite, and, if on no other 
 ground, Edwards earned the gratitude of all users and 
 lovers of the British Museum Library for the persistency 
 with which he pressed this matter forward. The battle 
 of the catalogues is not, however, for present discussion. 
 
 Departmental Organisation is next treated. Edwards' 
 attack on the miserable salaries paid at the Museum at 
 that time must have cheered not a few hearts among the 
 officials. The principal librarian had then 500 a year. 
 As joint secretary to the Society of Antiquaries he re- 
 ceived 150 guineas a year, and Sir Henry Ellis added 
 that this outside position and emoluments enabled him 
 to be principal librarian of the British Museum. The 
 Rev. Mr. Baber, who criticised Edwards' pamphlet, had 
 440 a year. He was a very able man, and probably in 
 his heart did not greatly differ from Edwards respecting 
 the deficiencies of the collection. He had himself been 
 to Germany to buy the Moll Library. At that time he
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 33 
 
 held a living in Cambridgeshire of the gross value of 
 "900 a year. These particulars are given to show the 
 nature of the abuses that Edwards felt it his duty to 
 attack. He asks, " Ought not the salary of the keeper of 
 a department in the British Museum to be made sufficient 
 in itself? " without supplementing it by outside appoint- 
 ments. Edwards pressed this home with a fulness which 
 can scarcely have failed to help on the betterment in 
 stipends which followed not very long afterwards. It 
 should be kept in mind that the apparently inadequate 
 salaries of the Museum officers were largely supplemented 
 by the apartments which they enjoyed rent free in Montague 
 House. He sums up his pamphlet by reiterating that he 
 has tried to show : 
 
 i. That as respects accessibility, a large number of persons highly 
 fit to make good use of a great public library are by the present 
 regulations entirely excluded from it, and that it is quite possible so 
 to alter those regulations, as to remove this evil without creating any 
 other. 2. That as respects supply of books, there are very serious 
 deficiencies, which certainly ought to be, and may be, lessened : and 
 that there is a law which, because it imposes a partial tax, and does 
 not attain its avowed object ought immediately to be reconsidered. 
 3. That as regards state of catalogues, there are at present, such 
 serious defects, as greatly to impair the usefulness of the library: 
 defects which indicate neglect on the part of the governing body, and 
 call loudly for immediate and efficient reformation; and 4. That as 
 regards Departmental Organisation, there is need for more efficient 
 responsibility, of better division of labour, and of increase in the 
 salaries of the officers and assistants. 
 
 He then goes on to discuss the two departments ot 
 Antiquities and Natural History, and the general consti- 
 tution of the Museum government. In the first he said 
 " were huddled together zoology, botany and mineralogy, 
 with their immediate subdivisions, all in a single depart- 
 ment, with a single head, yet presenting the while many 
 of the evils of utter isolation. In the second, the exten- 
 sive collections of ancient marbles, of coins and medals, 
 and of prints, have again but one responsible keeper." 
 Everywhere, he argued, there was great want of effective 
 
 3
 
 34 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 assistants and of division of labour ; very imperfect and 
 unequal collections ; extremely defective classification 
 and description ; and a general absence of anything like 
 harmony of purpose in the whole. And all this notwith- 
 standing the expenditure of nearly a million and a quarter 
 of the public money in addition to the bequests and 
 benefactions. " Surely this need not last for ever ? " he 
 passionately asks, and refers to his " Heads of Inquiry" 
 which forms a long appendix to his letter. Before reaching 
 this appendix, he turns to the question whether it was 
 desirable to open the Museum collections on Sundays. 
 He does not argue the subject with any personal relish. 
 But he was compelled to look at it, as so many people 
 have been compelled to look at it, on the ground of public 
 utility and from the standpoint of those having little 
 leisure. Idleness, listlessness, drunkenness and other 
 vices were more apparent then than now, and called 
 imperatively for some antidote. " How may that day, 
 which when made the especial day of man's better part, 
 of his mind and soul ... be rescued from the stain of 
 ministering to vice and crime ? " The day ministered 
 to these evils, he argued, because it is a day without 
 employment. He proceeds to look at the question in a 
 dispassionate and reasonable way. 
 
 The whole of the appendix is about two-thirds as long 
 as the main letter. His suggestions for improvements are 
 put forward clearly and logically. " The utmost possible 
 realisation of the great national purposes for which the 
 British Museum was originally founded " is what he 
 promises to keep strictly in view. He takes under survey 
 the following : 
 
 The Departments respectively of i. Manuscripts; 2. Printed Books ; 
 3. Antiquities ; 4. Natural History ; 5. Of the Reading Room ; 6. 
 Museum publications; 7. Buildings; 8. General Accommodation of 
 the public ; 9. Of the Government of the Museum in its I. Depart- 
 mental Organisation ; II. Managing or Directing Board ; III. Ultimate 
 Control ; 10. Of the Means by which Government both legislative 
 and executive may best promote the objects of the Museum ; n. Of 
 suggested improvements in general.
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 35 
 
 His discussion of these points is very pertinent and 
 minute. All through he displays a grasp of the question 
 in all its bearings which is marvellous, and his sugges- 
 tions have a practical bearing. It should not be overlooked 
 that this appeal for our great national institution was 
 written sixty-six years ago. Further, that most of the 
 improvements which he then suggested have been effected. 
 It is not claimed that his pamphlet led to the changes 
 being made, but it is reasonable to suppose that his 
 suggestions in that direction, put forward in the way they 
 came before the public, were influential forces among those 
 which led to the alterations being ultimately made. The 
 pamphlet was certainly the precursor of Panizzi's memor- 
 able report of 1845, which caused the grant for purchases 
 to be raised to "10,000. 
 
 " Is it expedient that the officers be interdicted from 
 forming private collections of objects similar to those 
 under their respective charge ? " he asks. This was a 
 minor point, but one of importance. In a postscript to the 
 Appendix, which Edwards apparently added in 1839, he 
 quotes the report of the Select Committee reappointed in 
 July, 1836, which embodied much that he had put forward. 
 
 The division of departments he presses home with per- 
 sistency. Now that this has been done, the public have 
 little conception of the confusion and incompleteness that 
 existed before this was effected. 
 
 Only a limited portion of the entire pamphlet has been 
 reviewed, but it will serve to illustrate the scope and 
 character of Edwards' appeal on behalf of this great 
 national institution. As being his first-known written 
 effort on behalf of public libraries, it is interesting. It 
 represents some of the foundation of his later work. He 
 strikes out with all the vigour of youth, and it was a 
 bold step on his part to criticise so vigorously the adminis- 
 tration of the British Museum. The present generation 
 live in the midst of library and museum advantages. It 
 should not be forgotten how these facilities have been 
 won, nor who have helped to secure them. This is why
 
 36 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 so much space has been devoted to this letter of 1836, 
 and the appendix dated from Niton, Isle of Wight, in 
 1839. 
 
 Even at this early date Edwards was an industrious 
 pamphleteer. His next pamphlet is a sixteen-page octavo, 
 entitled " Remarks on the Ministerial Plan of a Central 
 University Examining Board," dated zgth February, 1836. 
 The agitation for a Central University for London is of 
 old standing, and it was many years before it became 
 an accomplished object. The treatment by the British 
 Government of educational questions and all matters 
 affecting them, through a long period of years, is not by 
 any means exhilarating reading. An early sentence in 
 this pamphlet refers to this difficulty in obtaining atten- 
 tion to educational questions. " The Government had," 
 he says, " for the time being indeed, occasionally rendered 
 a reluctant assistance, when it had been, as it were, 
 compelled to do so : but the question with it was never, 
 ' how may the interests of science be most promoted,' 
 but ' with how small a concession to public opinion, can 
 we escape for the present,' never, ' in what way can we 
 best advance the education of the people,' but ' with how 
 little can we satisfy this or that other body of men '." The 
 Government in power in 1836 had after nearly five years 
 of petitioning come forward with a larger scheme than 
 had been suggested by the petitioners. But in the midst 
 of much expectation that had been raised, the Government 
 was accused of tergiversation and direct breach of engage- 
 ment in substituting the general charter for the particular 
 one. The governing body of the London University 
 were up in arms. If the granting of degrees to all and 
 sundry who satisfied the examiners became an established 
 practice, the very props of the State would surely fall. 
 Dissenters would be among the first to secure these 
 degrees, and anything then might happen to imperil the 
 best interests of the State. The struggle was intense. 
 Feeling among educationists ran high ; and Edwards' 
 pamphlet was a temperate and powerful appeal for the
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 37 
 
 general charter. Brought up in a liberal, religious faith, 
 his sympathies were on those grounds for the larger 
 charter. Not a word, however, of bitterness appears at 
 the exclusiveness then existing. He argues from the 
 standpoint of public utility, and the general good of the 
 entire community. The charge against the Government 
 of breach of faith was paltry. In the spring of 1836 Lord 
 John Russell, in the course of his speech in support of 
 the motion, stated that the late Government and Lord 
 Brougham were earnestly occupied in considering first, 
 whether it was possible to obtain the consent of the 
 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge that Protestant 
 Dissenters might study and take their degrees in them ; 
 secondly, whether a charter given to the University of 
 London should enable Protestant Dissenters to take their 
 degrees there ; and thirdly, whether any other and larger 
 plan might be devised to meet the difficulties which 
 presented themselves on this question, and to facilitate 
 the entrance of Dissenters for the obtaining of degrees, 
 either into the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or 
 other places. 
 
 The whole question at issue is here in a nutshell. It 
 may be ancient history now, but the state of educational 
 affairs in 1836, and Edwards' part in them, is being 
 discussed. The governors of the London University had 
 stated that they desired no exclusive privileges, but all 
 the same an influential section fought vigorously for the 
 particular charter. Edwards probes this fact in the 
 pamphlet. " To talk," he says, " of an unfair and in- 
 discriminate and unlimited issue of degrees because the 
 Examining Board would have had to receive candidates 
 from all parts of the Kingdom without limitation, was 
 an absurdity." He looks at this statement that the 
 tendency would be in the direction of the granting of 
 indiscriminate and unlimited degrees, and then says the 
 real question was " whether the proposed central uni- 
 versity board, open to all," (the italics are his) "would 
 or would not have been a greater public benefit, than
 
 38 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 the grant of a degree-conferring charter to the London 
 University or College in particular, or to that and a 
 certain number of other colleges in particular, and to 
 them only ". Was the door to the earning of degrees 
 to be kept narrow as it then was, or was it to be made 
 wider, was the question. The supposed dangers of the 
 Examining Board being too easily satisfied were puerile. 
 What ail true friends of education desired with regard 
 to diplomas was that degrees should truly represent 
 certain positive acquirements, or general ability, and 
 should be obtainable by all, without exception, possessed 
 of those requirements or that ability in what way soever 
 attained. "To require more than this," said Edwards, 
 " is quite as absurd as it is tyrannical. It is as injurious 
 to the persons and places favoured, as to those excluded. 
 For so long as a factitious advantage ... is allowed to 
 form part of a qualification for a degree, that factitious 
 advantage is ... a deduction from the real knowledge 
 represented or intended to be represented by that degree." 
 " May not this too be asserted solely on the ground, 
 that every man ought to have within his reach the means 
 of obtaining a degree, if he have acquired the knowledge 
 a degree professes to represent, whether the place wherein 
 he acquired that knowledge shall have been a cloistered 
 college, a populous city, or a secluded village ? " 
 
 This is the keynote which rings through all Edwards' 
 work. A vigorous Conservative in later life, never once 
 does he falter in his grasp of the principle that education 
 and library facilities are not the exclusive prerogative of 
 the rich, but the birthright of the many. 
 
 "The great curse," says Edwards, "of this country is 
 bit-by-bit legislation an everlasting attempt to mutilate 
 every great principle or public interest, in order to adapt 
 it to what are supposed to be the particular interests of 
 this or that body, this or that little party of men an 
 attempt not infrequently made in so clumsy a manner as 
 really to satisfy nobody : the public at large, however, 
 always paying the expense." How many workers in
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 39 
 
 movements for the public good have said this ? And yet, 
 much could be put forward in favour of this slow and 
 piecemeal legislation. There are many interests repre- 
 sented in the nation, and it is only fair that these varied 
 and conflicting interests should be taken into account. 
 But in its treatment of questions affecting national educa- 
 tion, Parliament has always been more or less indifferent. 
 The supposed interests or privileges of the few have in 
 far too many instances been placed against the welfare 
 of the whole nation. In the closing sentence -of the 
 pamphlet proper, Edwards says that this narrow view of 
 education, taken by the country's representatives, has 
 " struck at the very root of the energies which require 
 the freest and the fullest culture, in order to fit them to 
 conflict with the evil results of that very influence as 
 discovered in the concerns of everyday life ". 
 
 A change took place in 1836 when the London Uni- 
 versity received a charter as University College, and at 
 the same time by another charter London University 
 was established not a building for teaching, but a body 
 of persons empowered to examine candidates and confer 
 degrees. Edwards' part in the struggle may not have 
 been a large one, but at all events his pamphlet, as 
 the work of an earnest young man, with unbounded 
 enthusiasm for the widening and improving of educa- 
 tional facilities in every direction, cannot have failed in 
 proving more influential than it is possible at the present 
 time to gauge. 
 
 On nth February, 1836, Parliament ordered that a 
 second Select Committee on the affairs of the British 
 Museum be appointed. On 2nd June, 1836, Edward 
 Edwards was examined. Before him there had been some 
 forty-eight witnesses. The present occasion is not for the 
 purpose of surveying the history of this great national 
 institution, though the whole evidence given before the 
 committee is of a deeply interesting nature. 
 
 In the interim between the committee of 1835 and that 
 of the following year, Edwards had printed and issued
 
 4 o EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 his letter addressed to Mr. Hawes which has already 
 been described. 
 
 As a direct result of this pamphlet he was on 2nd June, 
 1836, called before the committee, and on the 2oth of the 
 same month there is a letter from Hawes asking Edwards 
 to call upon him. Edwards gave in his pamphlet, as has 
 been already seen, a statement of the deficiencies of the 
 library. The previous witness at the inquiry, the Rev. 
 H. H. Baber, had referred to the pamphlet, and questioned 
 some of the statements made. Edwards stated that there 
 were none of Goethe's works in the Museum Library 
 later than 1819, except the Correspondence with Zelter, 
 and this was admitted. Other works of German litera- 
 ture had been purchased for the library, but were not 
 catalogued. Wieland's works were referred to, and the 
 witness gave a list of the books of this writer which were 
 in the library. Edwards in the pamphlet further stated 
 that there was no edition of Crevier's Histoire des 
 Empereurs except Mill's translation. In the King's 
 catalogue, said the witness, he would have found an entry 
 of the splendid edition of that work, printed in 1756. 
 " These errors," it was suggested to the witness, " natu- 
 rally arise from the imperfect state of the catalogue ?" 
 " No," was the answer, " from the haste with which Mr. 
 Edwards probably wrote his book. The King's catalogue 
 is perfect. It was printed before 1820 and these works 
 existed in it before that time." The witness admitted that 
 the catalogues were in a confused and imperfect state. 
 
 Mr. Edwards said, with regard to Mr. Baber's evidence, 
 that he instanced in his pamphlet about sixteen German 
 authors of considerable note whose works were not in the 
 British Museum Library, and of these sixteen, two only 
 were referred to by Mr. Baber. He stated that he had 
 prepared four lists as examples of deficiencies in the 
 Museum Library, and these lists he then handed to the 
 committee. The first is a list of German books, and deals 
 with the works of twenty-one German authors, and included 
 Goethe, Kant, Fichte, Niebuhr, Heine and others. The
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 41 
 
 second list dealt with French literature. Of the works of 
 Guizot and Comte all were wanting. The third list dealt 
 with books published on the continent dealing with history, 
 and embraces a number of important books. Of fifty- 
 three books in this category, published in three months, 
 four only were in the Museum. List IV. was of books on 
 architecture. Some are indicated as being in the King's 
 Library. Questioned (Q. 4739) as to how he obtained his 
 dates on the third list, he said that he compiled lists from 
 Quarterly Reviews of all the principal books published on 
 the continent, and then compared these with the alpha- 
 betical catalogues : first those of the general series of 
 books, and secondly, those of the royal library. Question 
 4742 was, " Assuming Mr. Baber's statement to be a cor- 
 rect statement, can you account for your error in any 
 way ? " His answer was : " The errors which have been 
 stated are two. The first relates to the works of Goethe. 
 I think Mr. Baber's correction will only apply to a series 
 of twenty volumes, published at Tubingen in 1819, and that 
 all the works of that author since that date are really not 
 in the Museum at present, or, at least, not in the cata- 
 logues. The second example, that of Wieland, would 
 appear to be an error, arising from the circumstance of 
 having several catalogues to look at under the same 
 alphabetical arrangement." 
 
 The next answer is a rather important one, and turns 
 so materially on the question of cataloguing, according to 
 the methods then adopted at the Museum, and the delay in 
 obtaining books, that it had better be given as it stands 
 in the blue book : 
 
 There is a great uncertainty as to that point, which increases the 
 trouble of searching the catalogues. As mention has been made . . . 
 by Mr. Baber of an intention to place in the reading-room a transcript 
 of the alphabetical catalogues, I wish to make a general remark or two 
 upon them. I doubt not those catalogues will be revised, but it is 
 important that some easily intelligible plan should be followed in that 
 revision. It seems to me that the great difficulties of research in the 
 reading-room of the British Museum are two-fold, and arise, first, from 
 the want of classed catalogues : and secondly, from the defects of the
 
 42 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 present alphabetical catalogues, both in plan and actual condition. As. 
 to the first, the difficulties occasioned by the want of a general classed 
 catalogue, they have, I think, been already so fully and convincingly 
 stated to the Committee by former witnesses, that it would be wasting 
 its time to go over them again : but having myself experienced the 
 extreme want of such a catalogue during the last two years, I would 
 make one remark in further illustration of the subject, and in reference 
 to a work which has been already alluded to this morning, Watt's 
 Bibliotheca Britannica. I think a statement of the nature of the alter- 
 native to which a reader resorts in the absence of a classed catalogue,, 
 will show the necessity of some immediate improvement. Suppose a 
 person should want to know what books there are in the British Museum 
 on the subject of " Tithes," the only course he can at present pursue, is 
 to take Watt's fourth volume, and turning to " Tithes," thence extract all 
 the titles of books given. Suppose there be 20 titles, he must then,, 
 by the help of certain numerals affixed to those titles, have recourse to 
 Vols. I. and II. to find, one by one, the names of the authors of those 
 20 works : having made a list of them, he may then refer to the alpha- 
 betical catalogues of the general series of books in the Museum, having 
 probably to consult a separate volume for every book, and then make a 
 second and similar reference to the catalogue of the Royal Library. 
 With respect to such books as are not found in either, there will be no 
 certainty whether or not they are in the Museum, without reference 
 to the yearly addenda lists, of which there are seven or eight, because 
 some works given in those lists, are not to be found in the general cata- 
 logues. I have myself written for books which had been two or three 
 years in the Museum at the time of application without obtaining them : 
 because their titles were not in the general catalogues, although I have 
 afterwards, in searching the yearly lists for other purposes, casually 
 found such titles in them ; this was, I remember, the case among others,, 
 with' Sir F. Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, 
 received in the library in 1832, but which I could not get in 1835. 
 With one general classed catalogue, such accidents as these would not 
 be likely to occur. The difficulty of reference is further increased by 
 the want of a clear arrangement of those works in the library of the 
 British Museum which are anonymous. 
 
 The methods of entering anonymous works were next 
 inquired into, and he pointed out defects. Mr. Baber 
 had said that two French books stated by Edwards as not 
 being in the library, were there. Said Edwards, " I can 
 only account for that in the same way. I used the best 
 research that I could, and I had no doubt till this morning 
 of the correctness of all those statements. But there is 
 very great difficulty. I devoted several mornings to it, and
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 43 
 
 I think I must have consulted from 45 to 50 volumes of 
 catalogue." " You are a German scholar ? " he was asked. 
 " I am a reader of German," he answered, and a question 
 turned on that branch of literature. Then there was a 
 question as to how long he had frequented the reading- 
 room : and he said for above two years he had visited it 
 almost daily. In 1836, at the time of this evidence, he was 
 twenty-three years of age. This gives a full half-century of 
 the closest touch and liveliest activity in connection with 
 public libraries, from then till the time of his death. 
 
 He was then asked, " Have you generally found facili- 
 ties in obtaining what you wanted ? " He replied, " As 
 far as the present regulations permit of facilities being 
 afforded, and as far as the officers and attendants are con- 
 cerned, I have met with every facility : but I certainly do 
 think, that in respect of the regulations, much greater 
 facilities might be afforded to readers ". 
 
 Question 4752 is important as showing what was then 
 forming itself in Edwards' mind as to accessibility in 
 libraries. 
 
 He was asked to state some of his views on this point 
 and said : 
 
 It appears to me, that chiefly in three respects the facilities for 
 readers might be increased without any difficulty. In the first place, 
 the present hours are very inconvenient, they are very confined, and 
 necessarily have the effect of shutting out many persons altogether. 
 I have been enabled for some time to frequent the Museum, in the 
 present hours, but I cannot expect to do so constantly for a much 
 longer period, and unless the hours are extended, I shall be precluded 
 from continuing to consult the Museum. It seems to me, that it would 
 not be difficult to increase the time, both in the morning and in the 
 evening, by opening the Museum at eight o'clock instead often, and 
 by extending the time in the evening, probably till eight o'clock, pro- 
 vided an increased number of attendants were furnished. I would 
 also say that I cordially concur in the recommendation of Sir Harris 
 Nicolas, for the establishment of an evening reading-room. I think 
 that would open the Museum to many persons who are quite precluded 
 from it at present, persons who would make a very good use of it, not 
 only for themselves, but for the public ; and that view has been sup- 
 ported by some petitions, especially a petition from schoolmasters, 
 already presented to the House, praying for extension of hours. The
 
 44 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 second respect in which it appears to me that the facilities might be 
 increased, would be by a better provision for furnishing to the Museum, 
 foreign literature regularly, and a better provision for collecting all the 
 works of English authors. With respect to foreign books, it should not 
 be done merely on the casual mention of a particular work, but it 
 should be done, I conceive, as a matter of course. The third respect, 
 in which I would suggest that the facilities might be increased, is with 
 reference to catalogues. I think it would be a great convenience, if a 
 classed catalogue were immediately furnished to the reading-room, to 
 such an extent as the progress already made in the work which was 
 described to the Committee by the last witness, will permit of, together 
 with an alphabetical index of the authors' names. 
 
 This would be more useful, he argued, than the bare 
 alphabetical catalogue : and he added that he had lost many 
 days in useless searches for want of such a catalogue. 
 He urged also that the yearly addenda lists should be 
 published for sale. The answers following referred to the 
 limited space for readers available in the reading-room 
 then existing, and he suggested the attendance of a 
 librarian in the reading-room to give assistance to readers 
 when desired. " Would it not be considered rather below 
 the situation of a gentleman of sufficient eminence to fill 
 the situation of librarian, if he were compelled to give 
 attendance in the reading-room ? " And he replied that he 
 did not think it should be so considered, and that it was a 
 frequent practice on the continent, and it was so in the 
 Museum itself formerly. A question applying to the cata- 
 loguing of manuscripts followed. He then put in a list 
 of books, published during seven months, whose authors' 
 names came under the first three letters of the alphabet, 
 and within those limitations he found forty-eight works 
 wanting in the Museum, and two questions were based 
 on this defect. He then put in a list of books giving the 
 deficiencies in the library of German books of history, 
 and referred to in Thirlwall's History of Greece, the 
 first volume of which had just then been issued. The 
 last of his answers displays the man's literary spirit, 
 and it is important as showing the wide grasp and alert 
 intelligence which he displayed at this early date. The
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 45 
 
 chairman asked him if he had any further observations to 
 offer. 
 
 With reference to the printed books, I believe the three points 
 already enumerated, viz., extension of hours and provision of evening 
 reading-room ; publication in faculties of a general classed catalogue 
 of the whole collection ; and better supply of foreign literature ; to- 
 gether with a revision of the clause in the copyright act, will embrace 
 the chief improvements to be desired. I think it would contribute to the 
 security of the books, if, in the new buildings, provision were made of a 
 distinct room in which to deposit books retained in use by the readers, 
 instead of allowing them to remain in the reading-rooms as at present. 
 I would add that I think the establishment of one or more additional 
 libraries in the metropolis a subject highly deserving the consideration 
 of the Committee. There exist more than one endowed foundation, 
 such as that of Archbishop Tenison's library, in St. Martin's-in-the- 
 Fields, which might be made the basis of such branch libraries ; and 
 I think that such a disposition of the duplicates of the British Museum, 
 as would aid this object, would be far more advantageous to the public, 
 than the continuance of the present practice of selling them. With 
 reference to the manuscripts, I think it desirable that in addition to a 
 general classed catalogue, the importance of which was so much and 
 deservedly insisted on by former witnesses, there should be published 
 separately a more fully descriptive catalogue of that portion of them 
 which relate to English History ; it might be such a catalogue as was 
 suggested by Mr. Planta in 1801, for the public records in the Museum. 
 With reference to the present department of antiquities, I think a sub- 
 division of it would increase its usefulness, and that the marbles, prints, 
 and coins, should each have a separate and responsible keeper ; that 
 distinct catalogues of each should be printed for sale, that of the 
 marbles being more descriptive than is that portion of the present 
 synopsis devoted to the antiquities, and at least equally so with the 
 catalogues of the sculpture galleries of Munich and Dresden. ... It 
 is also highly desirable that selections from the coins and medals 
 should be formed to illustrate history and the progress of the medallic 
 art, and be exhibited openly without restriction. I would add, with 
 regard to the library, that as next in importance to the capacity of 
 supplying the wants of the enquirer from its own stores, is that of 
 indicating to him where such wants as itself cannot supply may be 
 met ; so catalogues of other collections in this country, and elsewhere, 
 especially those of manuscripts, would be highly useful ; a catalogue, 
 for instance, of the Cecil Papers, preserved at Hatfield, would be of 
 great value to any one enquiring at the British Museum into the history 
 of the reigns of Elizabeth or of James I. It might sometimes spare 
 him useless labour in a wrong direction, and knowing what he wanted, 
 he might, if the object were important enough, obtain access to those
 
 46 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 papers. As Lord Salisbury permitted a catalogue to be made for the 
 Commissioners on the Public Records, he would no doubt, if applied 
 to, permit one to be made for the British Museum ; and so with regard 
 to the libraries of the Houses of Parliament, etc. Of the curious 
 collection of English Tracts discovered in 1832, and destroyed by the 
 fire of 1835, not even the contents are now known, no duplicate 
 catalogue having been preserved. In the same points of view, I think 
 it would be highly worthy of the Trustees of the British Museum to 
 endeavour to collect information as to the materials for British history, 
 etc., contained in foreign libraries and archives, and that the corre- 
 spondence so kept up between such institutions and the Museum might 
 reasonably be expected to bring with it other and not less direct 
 advantages, and might facilitate an object so much to be desired as 
 the general and regular interchange of the literary productions of this 
 country and of the Continent. In conclusion, I would beg leave to 
 press on the attention of the Committee, the importance of larger 
 annual grants for the purposes of the British Museum, if those 
 purposes are to be attained on a scale at all commensurate with the 
 wants and with the means of this country. 
 
 With regard to the report of the committee, and its 
 bearing upon the work of the Museum since that date, 
 the present treatise does not propose to deal. The 
 inquiries of 1835 and 1836 led him, it may be supposed, 
 to give further thought to the history of the British 
 Museum and its work, and formed the germ in his mind 
 for his book published in 1870 on the Lives of the Founders 
 of the British Museum. 
 
 Edwards' letter addressed to Sir Martin Archer Shee, on 
 the reform of the Royal Academy, consisted of forty-four 
 pages, and is dated from Niton, 2oth January, 1839. The 
 writer of it deems it " but justice to an institution which 
 has too often been exposed to covert and indirect attack, 
 that any suggestions for its improvement, from however 
 humble a quarter, should be submitted to its president 
 before the attention of the public is asked for them ". 
 He opens by deploring the tone of the controversial 
 publications of the president in his defence of the Royal 
 Academy as well as in the proceedings of that body. A 
 much lower ground had, he claims, been taken in its 
 defence than was necessary. It had been urged, on behalf 
 of the Royal Academy, that those responsible for that
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 47 
 
 institution had honestly endeavoured to carry out its 
 purposes, and that those funds, which had come into 
 their hands, had been employed for the express purposes 
 it was intended they should be used. Another limited 
 number desired the abolition of the Academy's privileges. 
 With neither party had he any sympathy. The gravamen 
 of the whole charge preferred by public opinion was that 
 the Academy had been unprogressive, and inadequate to 
 the wants of the time, and this was the true and only 
 valuable question which Edwards desired to discuss. 
 
 Sir M. A. Shee had written a letter to Mr. Hume 
 respecting his efforts to obtain free admission for the 
 public during a certain period. Edwards says that, had 
 he entered into a calm and dispassionate consideration of 
 the whole question, he would have written differently. 
 He warmly defends Mr. Hume. That gentleman at least 
 deserved to have the credit for right motives. He says : 
 " I am free to confess that as the humblest of those who co- 
 operated with Mr. Hume in that original committee which, 
 after the labour of many months, led to the proceedings 
 at the Freemasons' Tavern in May, 1837, I always deeply 
 regretted that the application for gratuitous admission to 
 the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, including as it 
 must needs do the entire question of the constitution and 
 results of that establishment, was not kept entirely dis- 
 tinct, from those other applications which related to 
 institutions of a clearly public and fully recognised 
 nature ". The committee in question advocated free 
 admission to all public monuments in national edifices. 
 " Gratuitous admission to our cathedrals for example," he 
 said, " is one on which the friends of education and of 
 the fine arts are of one mind." The same could not be 
 said with regard to the Academy. That institution 
 depended almost entirely on the revenue derived from 
 admission fees. Why had not the Academy sought to ob- 
 tain larger powers ? Had they done this, zealous friends 
 would have gathered around them, instead of being made 
 suspicious by " apparent willingness to put up with a
 
 48 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 continued uncertain and irresponsible character ". It was 
 for the Academy to come forward and propose the 
 modifications in its laws and regulations necessitated by 
 the altered circumstances which had arisen since its 
 foundation. Then he proceeds with his suggestions. 
 " The name attached to them," he says, " can add 
 nothing to their value, unless it arise from the circum- 
 stance that although deriving from the productions of art 
 the enjoyments I most prize, I have no claim to the 
 appellation of an artist. ... If my earnest efforts to 
 understand the history and present state of the Academy 
 have been at all successful, I am warranted in entertaining 
 a confident hope that you will agree with me in tracing, 
 to one and the same cause, as well as the defects . . . 
 the incautious combination in one body of men ... of 
 several distinct functions, the union of which has been 
 found incompatible with the due discharge of each." 
 The three main functions he described as an assembly 
 of honour in the arts ; a chief school of instruction in 
 the arts ; and a directing body for the chief exhibitions 
 of current productions in the arts. He urged the non- 
 continuance of these three functions. He would dissever 
 the third of these functions from the other two. The ex- 
 hibition he proposed to leave to the management of an 
 elective and renewable body chosen by the whole of the 
 exhibitors of a certain standing. These several points he 
 discusses at length. His observations cover more than 
 three-fourths of the pamphlet. In these he traverses 
 some of his ground again, but emphasises the leading 
 points: The limitation of number; duration of office; 
 removal of the exclusiveness of spirit ; the question of 
 engraving ; the Parliamentary inquiries of the eighteenth 
 century ; removal of pecuniary dependence on the exhibi- 
 tion ; academy as a school of instruction ; lectures ; aca- 
 demy as a public exhibition ; benevolent fund ; finances of 
 the academy. These and other questions he surveys in his 
 observations, and surveys them critically and with skilful 
 marshalling of facts. The last sentence in the pamphlet
 
 EARLY PAMPHLETS, ETC. 49 
 
 is, " Believing that the Royal Academy, when invested 
 with the powers, privileges and responsibilities of a 
 national institution will be found to discharge its impor- 
 tant functions worthily and zealously, I cannot but 
 earnestly hope that no suggestions, either of a false pride 
 or of a false economy, will be suffered to impede the 
 progress of such reforms as are indispensably necessary 
 to the maintenance of that high character ". 
 
 Truly this was no ordinary young man. His very bold- 
 ness must have produced some dismay in certain quarters. 
 What was the immediate result of his pamphlet cannot 
 now be said. That it created more than a passing interest 
 is certain.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WORK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM 1839-1850, AND HIS 
 ADVOCACY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN 1847 AND 1848. 
 
 They (public libraries) may be governed without noise : used with- 
 out favour : maintained and improved without claptrap appeals to 
 public benevolence, or compulsory recourse to ephemeral excite- 
 ments. Their truest work will lie in helping to educate the educators : 
 and in facilitating the placing of rate-supported free schools, side by 
 side with rate-supported free libraries, throughout the country. 
 The best fruits of that work will not be seen until those who have 
 striven earnestly to initiate and to carry into effect the legislation 
 which alone has made such institutions possible in England, shall 
 have been long in their graves. 
 
 Memoirs of Libraries. 
 
 THE following letters between Edwards and Mr. Panizzi, 
 written previously to the former's appointment as assistant 
 in the library of the British Museum, have never before 
 been printed, and serve the useful purpose of illustrating 
 what were the immediate circumstances which led up to 
 Edwards being appointed an assistant in the department 
 of the printed books. They also serve to show the cordial 
 relations which at that time prevailed between Edwards 
 and Panizzi. Mr. Panizzi had succeeded Mr. Baber as 
 Keeper of Printed Books in 1837. 
 
 On 5th September, 1838, Mr. Edwards sent to Mr. 
 Panizzi an eight-page foolscap letter addressed from Niton. 
 The letter begins : " During the not very long period that 
 has elapsed since you became the head of the Printed Book 
 department in the British Museum, there have been so 
 many indications of an anxious desire to give the greatest 
 possible extension to the public usefulness of that depart- 
 ment, that I feel assured I need make no apology for 
 troubling you with two or three remarks pointing out 
 what appear to me to be further possible means of 
 
 (50)
 
 AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 1839-1850. 51 
 
 advancing that object ". Then he proceeds for the re- 
 mainder of the closely written pages to put forward his 
 views of what improvements can be made. 
 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. Panizzi replied on i4th Sep- 
 tember, 1838 : 
 
 Your very valuable letter of the 5th inst. reached me only late the 
 night before last and I beg to return you my best thanks for the 
 interest it displays for an institution to which I am proud to belong, 
 and for the justice you are pleased to render to my anxious desire to 
 give greater possible extension to the public usefulness of the library 
 of printed books in this establishment. Since the opening of the new 
 library several alterations have taken place in the way of experiment 
 which, it is hoped, will be found worthy of being definitely adopted, 
 probably with some modifications, and tend to the comfort and 
 advantage of the readers. It would be too long and not very easy to 
 explain them all to you in writing ; and on the other hand they affect 
 in some cases the points on which you suggest changes, so that we 
 cannot enter into an examination of these suggestions without a 
 thorough acquaintance on your part with what has been already done. 
 I trust therefore that you will not take this as an answer to your letter, 
 but merely as a letter of thanks. The value of the observations 
 themselves must be the subject of a verbal and amicable discussion so 
 soon as you find it convenient to call here and which I hope will be 
 immediately on your coming to town. We then will go over all the 
 important topics alluded to in your letter, and I shall probably tell you 
 on the spot and with all means of explanation at hand what I think of 
 them, and what reasons I have for so thinking. Depend upon it every 
 alteration which may appear feasible shall be gladly adopted. In the 
 hope that you will have the kindness to accede to my request. 
 
 The next letter is from Edwards to Panizzi, dated 8th 
 October, 1838, written from Niton, and reads : 
 
 The perusal of the papers concerning the Library of the British 
 Museum which you were so kind as to lend me (and especially of that 
 which you intended for the Commons' report) have afforded me so much 
 pleasure and satisfaction, that I will not wait until my return to town 
 to thank you for them, but prefer rather to trouble you with another 
 letter. It shall not, however, be quite so tedious as my last, much of 
 which I should in truth have spared you had I then known what you have 
 done and are now doing at the Museum. I regret very greatly that 
 your paper on the foreign libraries was not printed entire l and unaltered 
 as it most certainly ought to have been in the Commons' papers. 
 
 1 The italics are Edwards'.
 
 52 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 And although I cannot but still differ from you on a point or two (with 
 the fullest sense however of the deference due to your judgment and 
 experience), yet I must in honesty add that in my own opinion the 
 suggestions contained in that paper which the committee did not print 
 are for all practical purposes of substantial improvement, far more than 
 worth the whole of what they did print from other witnesses, on the 
 same subjects. I have said that I cannot but (at present) continue to 
 differ from you on a point or two of opinion I will not now trouble 
 you with my observations upon them, but will hope for another oppor- 
 tunity of enjoying the pleasure of your conversation. But in the 
 meantime there is a matter personal to myself, in connection with the 
 Museum, which I am induced to take this occasion of mentioning to 
 you on account of the fear you expressed the other day that you were 
 about to be deprived of the services of Mr. Watts in your department. 
 Since I have become better acquainted with the Museum, I have often 
 felt that nothing would give me greater pleasure than to find honourable 
 employment in its service, but it is only within the last few days that 
 circumstances have occurred which make me free to offer myself to 
 your notice as desirous of filling the situation of assistant in your de- 
 partment whenever a vacancy may occur should you have no candidate 
 better qualified. The employment is one which would eminently 
 please me and I trust I need scarcely assure you that my best energies 
 and unbroken exertions should be used to discharge it to your fullest 
 satisfaction, should you think fit to honour me with your recommenda- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Panizzi replied on i3th- October to say that Mr. 
 Watts had made arrangements to reassume his duties at 
 the British Museum, and that consequently no place was 
 vacant. Mr. Panizzi followed by saying that had Mr. 
 Watts' determination been different he should have felt 
 sincere pleasure in doing what little he could to ass'ist 
 Mr. Edwards' success in obtaining an appointment. 
 
 At the end of January, 1839, Edwards was appointed a 
 supernumerary assistant at the British Museum Library, 
 and remained in that capacity until 1850. This appears 
 to have been his first appointment of any kind, so far as 
 can be ascertained. His work during that period was 
 largely bestowed upon the Thomason collection of pam- 
 phlets on the great Civil War. His appointment at the 
 Museum was largely a result of the prominence into which 
 he had come on account of the Hawes pamphlet and his 
 evidence of 1836. With a temper kept within manageable
 
 AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 1839-1850. 53 
 
 limits, and an exercise of tact needful in all public positions, 
 and in none more so than in cases where the work is under 
 the control of chiefs, who are themselves responsible to 
 higher heads, the appointment might have been for life, 
 and have afforded opportunity for prominent and material 
 advancement. Throughout the years at the British 
 Museum the late George Bullen was his friend, and the 
 friendship lasted long after Edwards' appointment came 
 to an abrupt termination in 1850. Parry was also a 
 warm friend of Edwards during their years together 
 at the Museum. As the years progressed acerbities 
 frequently displayed themselves between Edwards and 
 Panizzi. Into the cause of these, or the relative degree 
 of blame to be attached to either, it is not necessary at 
 this distant date to enter. Edwards occupied a very sub- 
 ordinate position, and Panizzi a far more prominent one, 
 which later gave him, through the influence of several great 
 statesmen, the coveted position of chief of the Museum. 
 There must have been true worth in Panizzi to draw to 
 him the strong friendship of Palmerston and Gladstone. 
 The shrewd Italian was not without faults of temper. 
 But he held a place of trust in which a display of this 
 weakness of disposition did not show itself so con- 
 spicuously as in the case of Edwards, who was more 
 liable to be marked for this defect than a superior who 
 came less frequently in contact with the public. But 
 there was little of the spirit of compromise and concilia- 
 tion in Edwards' character. The wonder is, looking back 
 upon affairs at such a remote time, that Edwards remained 
 for over ten years at the Museum. On the one hand, it 
 is a tribute to the forbearance of Panizzi, and on the 
 other it is no less a tribute to the real usefulness of 
 Edwards as a servant in this national institution. Both 
 men accomplished work of no mean order : the one for 
 the British Museum at a difficult transition stage in its 
 history, and the other for libraries in the larger area of 
 the nation's life. It is significant that neither of them 
 carried into their public work any of the personal animus
 
 54 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 which they felt towards each other. There is not an 
 angry note in any reference to Panizzi in the Lives of the 
 Founders of the British Museum. There is, on the 
 contrary, a clear recognition of his claims to the credit of 
 the meritorious work accomplished. Pages 542-3 of the 
 book just named may well remain as Edwards' tribute to 
 his chief. He defended Panizzi's appointment with zeal, 
 and it is evident that Edwards held in high estimation 
 his ability. Edwards displays the same spirit towards 
 Thomas Watts, who was, long prior to the time when 
 Edwards wrote his book on the Museum, the most 
 powerful of Edwards' critics, and one who turned a strong 
 searchlight upon Edwards' statistics prepared for the 
 Parliamentary commissions of 1849-50. It was an uphill 
 task to bring about an adequate improvement in the 
 British Museum. Parliament has dealt with a somewhat 
 niggardly hand in most of its dealings with the British 
 Museum. In the efforts to bring this national institution 
 up to the level which it has since attained, the names of 
 Baber, Panizzi, Watts and Edwards must ever be remem- 
 bered. Other equally important names of later date 
 could be quoted. The multitude of present users of the 
 British Museum Library little realise all the thought and 
 labour which were involved in bringing the library to its 
 existing splendid condition both in structure and contents. 
 There are many references in Edwards' diaries to his 
 days at the British Museum, but it is not necessary to 
 quote them, as their gist is contained in the foregoing 
 remarks. One regrets, on looking over these records, that 
 Edwards alone was responsible for the conditions which 
 made it impossible for him to remain at the British 
 Museum. Ewart did not like Panizzi, and this topic, no 
 doubt, was discussed with Edwards during their many 
 conferences in 1848-50. Panizzi had to pay the penalty 
 for his misfortune in being a foreigner, and the blemishes 
 in his personal bearing were sometimes magnified. In 
 commerce, literature, and in other departments of life 
 Britain has benefited from the service of those who have
 
 AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 1839-1850. 55 
 
 become her naturalised citizens. It is only fair to 
 Edwards to say that on the score of nationality he had 
 not the slightest prejudice. Could he have carried with 
 him during the years 1839-50 the same largeness of view 
 which is evidenced in the Lives of the Founders of the 
 British Museum, there would in all probability have 
 been a more successful career in the service of the State 
 to chronicle. It is impossible on reading his diaries not 
 to feel the throes and throbs of the strain that must at 
 times have existed. The British Museum is so absolutely 
 unique as a national institution, in whatever aspect it 
 may be viewed, that the wish will be shared by many 
 that Edwards' life-long labours could have been retained 
 in its development and administration. A long roll of 
 names known in literature and skilled librarianship is 
 associated with the great structure at Bloomsbury. Ed- 
 wards' name would not have gone down in library history 
 as a mere museum " supernumerary," now a title happily 
 abolished, and as occupying a subordinate place in the 
 work of the great catalogue, could he have acquired that 
 quietness of spirit and harmonious working with others 
 so essential in such a post as he filled. One reference in 
 the entry in his diary for 24th April, 1846, may be quoted. 
 He says, "... Read part of Panizzi's Memoir on the 
 state of the library, especially with regard to its deficiencies 
 and the means and cost of supplying them. I may fairly 
 claim the credit of having taken the first steps towards a 
 systematic display of the serious deficiencies in the library 
 ten years ago in my evidence before the committee of the 
 House of Commons." 
 
 Here his years at the British Museum must be left. 
 Much more might be said, but there would be no gain to 
 the reader in ploughing over a field of thorns and thistles 
 such as those years present to the student. 
 
 Beginning with the middle of 1845 there are in his 
 diaries many references to his work at home, in his leisure, 
 on the British Librarian, and there must have been 
 a large accumulation of manuscript for the proposed revival
 
 5 6 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 of this periodical. A bibliography of the monastic lib- 
 raries represents a good part of his labour, and there were 
 threats of litigation respecting this matter : and the dispute 
 between himself and the publisher who contemplated a 
 reissue of Lowndes' serial was ultimately submitted to 
 arbitration. Oldys' British Librarian of 1737, from which 
 the title was derived, is full of interesting details of 
 books and libraries. Lowndes' British Librarian was 
 issued from 1839 to 1842. The contemplated republica- 
 tion in 1845 does not seem to have been realised. 
 
 Edwards' paper on " Public Libraries in London and 
 Paris," contributed to the British Quarterly Review of 
 August, 1847, fill 8 some forty-two pages. His immediate 
 purpose, he states, is to give a rapid summary of the his- 
 tory and existing condition of public libraries in the 
 metropolis. His references to the Dr. Tenison and Dr. 
 Williams' libraries are only brief, but this was inevitable 
 considering the ground which he desired to cover. Then 
 he passes at once to the British Museum, noting specially 
 the early gifts. The fidelity with which he notices the 
 gifts is very marked. In this respect he looked upon 
 himself as a kind of " old mortality ". He waxes eloquent 
 on the Grenville bequest, especially of old and rare Bibles, 
 about which he gives brief but very clear particulars. 
 He is proud of the collection of pamphlets. He quotes 
 the elder Disraeli's remark, that "wherever pamphlets 
 abound there is freedom," and the presence of the huge 
 collection of these publications, at the time Edwards wrote 
 this paper, was a certain sign of the freedom which then 
 existed, and still exists, in the freest country in the world. 
 Referring to one period he says that " there is no more 
 useful appliance than a full and impartial collection of the 
 fleeting publications which appeared from day to day in 
 the very eddy of the strife, and the poorest and feeblest 
 of which could not fail to bear something of the shape and 
 impress of the time ". Carlyle had, about that time, 
 poured scorn upon the " rubbish mountains of the British
 
 ADVOCACY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN 1847-1848. 57 
 
 Museum," but to these rubbish mountains the Chelsea 
 sage was himself greatly indebted, as Edwards pointed 
 out on a later occasion. Edwards says of Carlyle, in the 
 paper now under consideration, that he was " a cele- 
 brated writer whose genius and other high qualities are 
 disfigured by a perverse affectation of superciliousness 
 manifestly foreign to the natural bent of his mind ". 
 The lover of libraries will be grateful to Edwards for 
 his defence of the British Museum collection of pam- 
 phlets. There is not only interest, but often much 
 importance attaching to pamphlets, and this was especi- 
 ally so in the case of the pamphlets named in this 
 article by Edwards. Nowadays the review and magazine 
 writer has taken the place of the pamphleteer of former 
 days ; but the pamphlet holds a material place in the 
 economy of literature. Edwards points out, in this 
 article, the deficiencies of the British Museum Library of 
 that time, especially in the departments of continental 
 literature. The government of the day would be aided in 
 coming to a decision, to amend the grant to the Museum, 
 by Edwards' appeal for greater generosity to this national 
 institution. He then surveys the use which was made 
 of the reading-room. He defends the open access to 
 the shelves in the reading-room, and points with some 
 pride to this accommodation, which would be increased 
 as opportunity might offer. Then he turns to the cata- 
 logue and argues for an improved catalogue with zeal 
 and practicability. The British Museum Library could 
 scarcely under any conditions have become a lending 
 library, and now in all probability never will. In this 
 paper in the British Quarterly Review he again hopes 
 to see the time when an evening reading-room will be 
 possible. All his references to the British Museum Library 
 are not only free from ultra-criticism, but are distinctly 
 appreciative of its great work. He refers next to Sion 
 College Library, and then passes under review the libraries 
 of Paris, if a space of less than three pages can be called 
 a review. But probably his editor had pulled him up.
 
 5 8 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 On 2oth March, 1848, he read a paper before the 
 Statistical Society of London giving " A Statistical View 
 of the Principal Public Libraries in Europe and the 
 United States of North America". Within a compass 
 of thirty-one pages Edward Edwards gives a mass of 
 statistics and details which show that he had a masterly 
 grasp of library statistics in their reasonable aspect, and 
 of all that comes within the range of library economics. 
 
 He begins in this paper by stating that in very few 
 branches of statistical inquiry was it more difficult to 
 arrive at well-grounded and precise results, than on the 
 question of public libraries. " Yet an accurate computa- 
 tion of the extent of the public libraries in the several 
 States of Europe, and of the amounts expended in their 
 maintenance and enlargement (compared with the popu- 
 lation and resources of the respective countries), ought 
 undoubtedly to enter, as a subsidiary element, into any 
 estimate of the educational condition of such States." 
 
 He wished to confine himself to such libraries as were 
 really open to the public at large, or to such as derived 
 their support, either wholly or in part, from public sources, 
 and to such as contained 10,000 volumes and upwards. 
 The number of public libraries in Europe contained within 
 these limits he believed to be 383, and he gives a series, 
 of long tables to show how these were distributed. These 
 statistics he elaborated with a minuteness which had 
 never before that time been equalled nor attempted since, 
 save as regards the libraries of the United Kingdom and 
 the United States. 
 
 He gives a number of figures relating to the British 
 Museum. The effect of the Select Committee of 1835-36,. 
 especially in the amount spent for the purchase of new 
 books, chiefly of foreign literature, is indicated. His own 
 evidence before that committee had much to do in bringing 
 this about, but he does not say so. A careful analysis 
 follows, of the expenditure for new books and manuscripts 
 in connection with the Bodleian Library. A number of 
 pages are then devoted to the public libraries of Europe..
 
 ADVOCACY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN 1847-1848. 59 
 
 He is careful to give his authority for these figures, and 
 his list of these authorities extends to nearly three pages. 
 The statements respecting British and Irish libraries are 
 made, he says, " either from personal knowledge or from 
 the best answers I could obtain to careful inquiries ". 
 The term " Public Library,'' as it appears in the returns 
 given in this paper, must not be interpreted too liberally. 
 He includes the Birmingham " Public Library " founded 
 in 1779, and the New Public Library founded in 1796, and 
 also the Bristol Library founded in 1772. These libraries 
 and the libraries in the university towns given in the 
 tables were, as the reader will not require to be told, open 
 mainly to subscribers or university students. They were 
 not accessible, as the term is now understood, except of 
 course in the case of the British Museum, the Bodleian 
 and other national libraries. The returns are more than 
 instructive. They formed the basis of much of Edwards' 
 evidence before the Parliamentary committees. The latter 
 part of the paper refers to the public libraries in the United 
 States of America. The paper ends with a careful index 
 of cities named in the returns. The entire paper shows 
 the result of a self-imposed task. These various papers 
 illustrate how the subject was beginning to take definite 
 form in the mind of Edwards. They represent the foun- 
 dation of his work. The superstructure which followed 
 was worthy of the foundation, and the foundation was 
 quite capable of carrying the building which followed. 
 
 Edward Edwards' letter of 1848 to the Earl of Ellesmere 
 on the " Paucity of Libraries freely open to the Public in 
 the British Empire " consists of thirty-eight printed pages, 
 and is dated loth April, 1848, and was written from 14 
 Westbourne Park Road, Bayswater. The Bridgwater 
 family have been benefactors to literature and to art. As 
 a member of that family the then Earl of Ellesmere ren- 
 dered good service to the cause of education. He was one 
 of the commissioners for inquiry into the constitution and 
 management of the British Museum, and it is in this capa-
 
 60 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 city that Mr. Edwards addresses him. He begins by ex- 
 pressing a desire to elucidate not only the position of the 
 Museum Library, but other libraries in London, public or 
 partially public. He proposes primarily to confine him- 
 self to a statistical view of the provision of libraries then 
 existing. He does not desire to rely solely on the argument 
 from comparison between London and other large cities. 
 The utility of public libraries being unquestioned, such a 
 comparison of their paucity in London will aid him to 
 place their existing deficiency in a more salient and prac- 
 tical point of view. London, he said, then possessed four 
 libraries of a somewhat public character. These were the 
 British Museum Library, Sion College, the Dr. Williams' 
 and Archbishop Tenison's. He then goes minutely into 
 the sources of income of each of these libraries, the num- 
 ber of volumes and some other details. None of them 
 were lending libraries under any circumstances whatever. 
 That is, as compared with to-day, there was not in all the 
 metropolis in 1848 a public lending library. Sunday- 
 school and working men's institute libraries existed, but 
 the latter were subscription libraries. The reader should 
 fix that fact clearly in mind. It is the starting-point of 
 the public library movement. Edwards emphasised the 
 statement in clear language. 
 
 He goes on to state that Paris possessed seven libraries 
 which were public in the strictest sense of the term, and 
 then enumerates them and gives statistics respecting them. 
 London had at the date named 476,500 books accessible 
 to the public for reference, and Paris had 1,354,000. Berlin 
 had two public libraries and Florence six, and he especially 
 notes that the books of the Royal Library, Berlin, were 
 lent out under proper precautions. He surveys other cities 
 in a similar way. Dresden had four, and the Royal Library 
 in that city was a lending library, as also was the Royal 
 Library of Munich. The criticisms respecting these 
 figures, which appeared in the Athenceum at a later date, 
 will be dealt with in a succeeding chapter. 
 
 He notes that the private libraries in the metropolis pro-
 
 ADVOCACY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN 1847-1848. 61 
 
 bably surpassed those of every other country. The dupli- 
 cates in the British Museum then amounted to at least 
 52,000, and the greater portion of these duplicates could 
 not, he forcibly argued, be more usefully employed than 
 in the formation of a metropolitan public lending library. 
 A list follows of the continental lending libraries, and a 
 longer list of foreign libraries ranked in numerical order 
 of volumes. He traces the origin and the progressive 
 increase of these libraries. Many pages are devoted to 
 these details, and London is shown at a considerable 
 disadvantage. In summing up this portion of his argu- 
 ment, he says : 
 
 London, with its population of two millions, ought surely to possess 
 other libraries, somewhat different in character, and with different 
 aims. That in such a country as this, there should be one great 
 national storehouse . . . But in addition to this, libraries in different 
 quarters ... on a humbler scale, very freely accessible, and aiming 
 at more immediate and educational utility are much to be desired. 
 
 He proceeds to answer, in advance, some of his critics 
 who might think that, if the libraries of corporations and 
 learned societies were included in the estimate, London 
 would assume a higher place than it takes in the list. 
 He glides over this point rather hurriedly, and in fact did 
 not give to it the attention which it deserved. But it may 
 be said that the libraries were proprietary, inasmuch as 
 they were only available to members. 
 
 Then he turns to some of the large provincial cities 
 and begins with Dublin, following with Edinburgh, Man- 
 chester and other places. Among all the libraries of the 
 country, Manchester took, he said, the first place in having 
 in the Chetham Library the most easily accessible library 
 in Great Britain. That will ever be a proud claim. 
 Birmingham had no library which could be called public 
 in the sense in which he applied the term, and Liverpool 
 was in precisely the same condition. He contrasts 
 Hamburg with Liverpool, and the former city had great 
 book advantages according to his showing. France and 
 Prussia and other countries are then placed under review.
 
 62 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 A total of thirty libraries for the United Kingdom was 
 enumerated. Of these, twenty were university libraries, 
 whilst some others had but doubtful claim to be considered 
 public at all, so that the remaining number was meagre 
 in the extreme. Some of these, he said, professedly 
 excluded all works on theology and politics. Then he 
 says : 
 
 A very different spirit must preside over the management and 
 collection of public libraries such as may really promote education in 
 its fullest sense, and aid in the preparation of the great masses of the 
 population, for the wise and prudent exercise of their rights, and for 
 the honest and conscientious discharge of their duties. 
 
 He follows with a list of the university libraries, and 
 he hopes that his facts will merit the attention of the 
 commission. As a humble citizen he is grateful to 
 Parliament for its liberality (sic) to the British Museum. 
 But he entertains "a strong conviction that it will not be 
 for the honour of Parliament or the advantage of the 
 country that its liberality should stop there. Those great 
 provincial towns, which are the centres of our manu- 
 factures and commerce, might well claim a share in it. 
 This immense metropolis needs other libraries than that 
 of the Museum. . . ." 
 
 Then there is a personal note. Since his remarks were 
 first submitted to Lord Ellesmere, he had the satisfaction 
 of seeing that Mr. Ewart had introduced his motion for a 
 Select Committee. This letter to Lord Ellesmere and 
 Edwards' paper before the Statistical Society were among 
 the direct causes which led to that committee being 
 appointed. 
 
 Other questions are dealt with in the pamphlet, such as 
 the books acquired under the Copyright Act, and the 
 national interchange of books. " A great boon," he says, 
 " would be conferred on society, if facilities were . . . 
 afforded for the formation of libraries of humbler aims 
 and extent, in such of the smaller towns, and even of the 
 villages, as are yet without them." He then proceeds 
 to gather up his arguments.
 
 ADVOCACY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN 1847-1848. 63 
 
 In the attempt to extend libraries throughout the country upon 
 whatever system, there will doubtless be some opposition to be over- 
 come, and more indifference to be transformed into sympathy and 
 co-operation. But the ground once broken, co-workers will soon be 
 met with. A measure which should at once invite voluntary sub- 
 scriptions, confer the power of levying a library rate by consent of a 
 certain proportion of rate-payers in any district, and also provide for 
 some amount of parliamentary aid at the outset, would probably be 
 that best calculated to attain the object in view. ... A public provision 
 of schools, without a public provision of libraries, would evince small 
 regret for logical sequences. . . . Those who can read will never be 
 without reading of some sort. ... To place good literature within 
 everybody's reach is certainly the best way to counteract the empty 
 frivolity, the crude scepticism and the low morality of a portion ... of 
 the current popular literature of the day. ... To make books of the 
 highest order freely and easily accessible throughout the length and 
 breadth of the land, were surely to give no mean furtherance to the 
 efforts of the schoolmaster, and of the Christian minister, to pro- 
 duce under God's blessing a tranquil, a cultivated and a religious 
 people. 
 
 Such was the programme of this pioneer for the people's 
 universities. There is an appendix giving an appropriate 
 tabular view of libraries containing 10,000 volumes and 
 over, accessible to the public in the seven States of Europe. 
 The closing pages of the pamphlet are devoted to the 
 form of petition to the House of Commons in favour of 
 the Parliamentary inquiry. 
 
 In 1848, during the time of the Chartist troubles, Mr. 
 Panizzi asked Edwards if he would be sworn in as a special 
 constable. An attack on the Museum was threatened, 
 and the officials were sworn in as special constables. His 
 sympathies were then with the Chartists. He writes of 
 disgraceful proclamations against them, and on this he 
 says : " I resolved, immediately waiving all minor dis- 
 agreement, to sign the petition for ' The Charter,' as my 
 humble and individual protest against this nefarious pro- 
 ceeding". Sad to say even this old sympathy did not 
 remain, for, in 1876, he added this note to that entry in 
 the diary, " I look at this entry after some twenty-eight 
 years with very different convictions re Chartists". 
 
 On 25th June of the same year he went to hear Emerson's
 
 64 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 lecture on "The Superlative in Manners and Literature,"" 
 of which he remarks, " A very ingenious inculcation of the 
 virtues and value for us of the merely positive, the quiet 
 and the measured in manner and language, over the 
 extreme and the extravagant. But accompanied with a 
 vindication of the superlative in the oriental literatures 
 and amongst the eastern peoples especially the Persians 
 as represented by their poet Hafiz." At a later date, and 
 probably at the same time as the note just quoted about 
 the Chartists, he added this remark, to the reference to the 
 quiet and the measured in manner and language, " An 
 excellent lesson, and one never by any more needed, than 
 by the writer of this diary. E.E.". Poor man ! he keenly 
 felt the trouble that his turbulent disposition had caused 
 him all through life.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DIGEST OF THE EVIDENCE OF EDWARDS BEFORE THE 
 PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES OF 1849 AND 1850. 
 
 But, besides the Libraries for the learned, and for those who 
 aspire to become learned, other collections are needed for readers- 
 of a class to whom such an ambition is unknown. And, in this 
 
 [nose wnu woricea ai u wiin many snortcomings naa me one 
 merit which often repairs defect, and ekes out small means, they 
 persevered, in spite of obstacles. 
 
 Libraries and Founders of Libraries. 
 
 THESE Parliamentary inquiries must ever stand out as 
 the charter of the public library movement. They may 
 be ancient history now, but it is necessary for the sake of 
 completeness to look closely at Edwards' place in the 
 work of the committees. It may never again be necessary 
 to tell the story, but the reader is asked to kindly bear 
 with the recording of it on the present occasion. The 
 first letter from William Ewart to Edwards, among the 
 correspondence in the Manchester Reference Library, is 
 dated ist February, 1838, and is about some foreign 
 returns respecting institutions of art. During the same 
 month Ewart asks for Edwards' help in using some can- 
 vassing cards. Exactly what these were is not clear. 
 The correspondence was continued at intervals, and on 
 2jrd August, 1848, Ewart wrote to Edwards : 
 
 Observing that you have made a valuable contribution to the 
 Statistical Journal on the subject of public libraries, and having 
 myself made motions on the same subject several years ago in the 
 House of Commons, I am induced to write to you respecting it. ... 
 I believe that libraries freely open to the nation (as on the continent) 
 would have a considerable effect on our national character. . . . Before 
 such a committee, evidence might be given ... of the best mode of 
 
 5 (65)
 
 66 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 instituting, maintaining and affecting the formation of libraries. . . . 
 I apprehend that enough could be supplied to justify enquiry ? Sub- 
 mitting these ideas to your consideration. 
 
 On 28th August, 1848, Edwards enters in his diary, 
 " Letter from Mr. Ewart, M.P., about public libraries. . . . 
 Desirability of a Select Committee. . . . Wrote to Mr. 
 Ewart warmly approving his idea of a Select Committee." 
 On 4th September, " Letter from Mr. Ewart approving 
 return from . . . Marsh's Library, Dublin ". . . . On 
 yth September, " Letter from Mr. Ewart on proposed com- 
 mittee". On 28th September, " Wrote to Mr. Ewart . . . 
 making suggestions as to lending libraries, etc.". 
 
 On 5th October, 1848, Ewart wrote : 
 
 . . . Your circular . . . appears to me at once comprehensive and 
 precise. ... It is very desirable that the municipalities should form 
 libraries for the inhabitants. ... I have your letter to Lord Ellesmere 
 and shall duly attend to the subject of lending libraries. . . . The 
 outline which you propose of your evidence will be very serviceable, 
 and will guide me in other cases as well as in your own. ... I shall 
 be fixed in town . . . when I shall hope to have the pleasure of seeing 
 you. 
 
 On 25th December, 1848, Edwards enters, " Wrote to 
 Ewart offering to call on him either on Sunday or on 
 Monday next". For ist February, 1849, ne enters, 
 " Letter from Ewart telling me he had to-day given notice 
 of motion for Select Committee on libraries". On 2nd 
 February, " Wrote to Ewart enclosing copies of papers on 
 public libraries . . . and sending him recent letters . . . 
 promising to call at nine ". On 3rd February, " Letters 
 from Ewart, the first asking me to send copies of pam- 
 iphlets on libraries to various M.P.'s, the second ... to 
 proposed interview on Monday at nine ". On 5th February, 
 " Called on Mr. Ewart at nine o'clock. Conferred with 
 him about sending copies of pamphlets which he wishes 
 me to reprint . . . about getting up petitions to House 
 of Commons, etc. . . . Drew up petitions on libraries 
 for ... institution, and wrote Ewart thereon enclosing 
 copy." On 6th February, " Mr. Hume called on me and
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 67 
 
 spoke about desirability of evidence and suggestions on 
 libraries. . . ." 
 
 On yth February, 1849, from Ewart : 
 
 . . . Lord John Russell shakes his head at the Committee . . . sees 
 no object for it. ... I must see after the Returns moved for last session 
 at your suggestion. . . . Would it not be well to draw up a series of 
 questions, and lithograph them for the purpose ? . . . The petition 
 you have sketched is a very good one. ... I am afraid I shall have 
 to trouble you with frequent letters as the subject opens on us. 
 
 On 8th February he enters, " Letters from Ewart (two) 
 stating progress in House of Commons ". On gth Febru- 
 ary, " Letter from Ewart desiring me to reprint pamphlet ". 
 On 1 5th February, " . . . to House of Commons desiring 
 to see Hume and Ewart". On i8th February, " Worked 
 on circular queries about foreign libraries ". On igth 
 February, " Wrote Ewart with queries enclosing . . ." 
 
 On 2oth February, 1849, Ewart wrote, " I am much 
 obliged by your unwearied co-operation," and a little 
 while afterwards, " You will perhaps be so good as draw 
 up an outline of interrogations . . ." 
 
 On 2ist February Edwards enters, "Wrote notes for 
 examination before Ewart's committee on libraries, . . . 
 also began preparation of ' Tabular View ' for reprint. 
 Wrote letters to accompany pamphlet to the following by 
 desire of Ewart." Then follow the names of Gladstone, 
 Disraeli, Villiers and others. The intervening days were 
 occupied in very much the same way. 
 
 On loth March, " Letters from Ewart (two) ". On nth 
 March, "Wrote to Mr. Ewart giving him . . . and appoint- 
 ing to call on him on Tuesday next at nine ". On i2th 
 March, " Wrote notes for Ewart about libraries of Birming- 
 ham and Dublin ". On i3th March, " Called on Ewart and 
 had long conference with him about explanatory statement 
 on introducing his motion and on formation of Committee". 
 On i4th March, " Letter from Ewart telling me I am on 
 Speaker's list for to-morrow". On i5th March, "Met 
 Ewart who took me to Speaker's gallery he was hesita- 
 ting whether to bring on his notice, or not, but I advised
 
 68 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 him to do so, unless it were certain the delay would not 
 exceed a fortnight ". On igth March, " Letter from Ewart 
 asking me to draw up interrogations, etc., and giving his 
 rough notes of ' plan of campaign ' ; replied, proposing to 
 call on him at nine to-morrow ". On 2oth March, " Called 
 on Ewart who read to me his proposed committee list as 
 far as it is settled gave me a cheque for expenses of re- 
 printing pamphlet .15." On 22nd March, " Ewart sent 
 me letters and documents from Glasgow. . . . Wrote Mr. 
 George Dawson (Birmingham), asking him to give evi- 
 dence before Mr. Ewart's committee . . . M. Guizot with 
 copy of pamphlets (at Ewart's desire)." On 24th March, 
 " Letter from Ewart with list of committee nominated 
 yesterday (and from others about library matters) ". On 
 25th March, " Wrote . . . also to Ewart with outline of 
 questions for MM. Guizot and Van de Weyer". A few 
 days are passed here, but on each he heard from or wrote to 
 Ewart. On 3oth March, " Letters from Ewart. Wrote 
 Sir H. Verney, Mr. Kershaw, Mr. Thicknesse and Mr. C. 
 Knight with copies of pamphlet." On 3ist March, 
 " Letters to-day (three) from Mr. Ewart apprising me of 
 proceedings of Libraries Committee yesterday, and their 
 adjournment to Thursday, igth April, also enclosing 
 letters from Rev. W. Brown, of Edinburgh, and a Memoir 
 on Itinerating Libraries. . . . Evening, wrote Ewart 
 answering these letters, advising app(licatio)n to Abp. 
 Whately for evidence suggesting lithography of general 
 questions." On Sunday, ist April, he enters, " Very 
 unwell and tired so at home all day ". 
 
 On 3rd April Ewart wrote that he was going out of 
 town for the Easter recess, and asked, " Would it be agree- 
 able to you to come ... on Good Friday and pass the 
 day with me at a cottage I have in Buckinghamshire ? 
 You can take an early dinner with me and my children, 
 and we can afterwards confabulate. Bring the papers if 
 you come." Then from Elstead Lodge, Godalming, 
 " Will you come out here next Saturday and stay till 
 Monday ? We can then talk over the library question.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 69 
 
 . . . On reconsidering the subject and the advice which 
 you have been so good as supply, I think it might be 
 most advisable ... to get a well-signed petition . . . 
 which we could present in a body. Then the fact would 
 get into the papers and excite public attention." 
 
 For 6th April he enters, " Left town at eleven by Great 
 Western Railway for Slough, and thence (Ewart sending 
 his carriage for me) to Pickeridge. I had a very delightful 
 ramble with him the day being beautiful. Dined with 
 him and his children, and had pleasant chat, with instruc- 
 tive allusions to Panizzi's Liverpool career, introduced 
 quite unexpectedly by him a propos of my conjecture as 
 to influence used with Sir G. Grey to obstruct Ewart's 
 committee. We went over draft questions for foreign 
 witnesses together. ..." On xoth April, " Letter from 
 Ewart. . . . Revised draft of questions to be put to 
 witnesses . . . respecting foreign libraries beginning 
 with Guizot on those of France." On nth April, " Wrote 
 Ewart sending him revised copy of questions. . . . Wrote 
 Ewart enclosing three other copies of questions. Letter 
 from him with letters from ..." On i2th, i3th, i4th, 
 1 6th April, entries similarly full. Every day he heard 
 from Ewart. On iyth April, "Letter from Ewart 
 wishing to see me to-morrow. Evening, completed draft 
 of questions and prepared notes for examination, also 
 revising Tables for the Appendix, etc., till i o'clock A.M." 
 
 All through 1849 and through a good part of 1850 it is 
 the same record. Pages by the score could be filled with 
 copies of the entries from the diaries. They all tell 
 the same story. Early and late he toiled for these com- 
 mittees. Ewart pelted him with questions, consulted 
 him upon every detail, and followed closely, so far as can 
 be seen, the advice given by Edwards. Their chats in 
 the long walks taken together in lovely Surrey are recorded 
 by Edwards in his diaries, intermingled with all his en- 
 thusiasm for the country. It was in these interviews and 
 correspondence that the whole subject was threshed out. 
 The anvils upon which were forged the public library
 
 70 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 movement one destined to spread itself over the whole 
 Empire were Edwards' writing-table and Ewart's study. 
 Every detail was discussed between them, and in numerous 
 instances it is plain that Edwards was the suggester, and 
 Ewart, with the quick practical mind of an active public 
 man, the executor, instant to see what was possible and 
 what was not possible. 
 
 In the Report of the Select Committee of 1849, extend- 
 ing to nearly twelve pages of the blue book, there is at the 
 end the record that " The thanks of the Committee are 
 especially due to Mr. Edwards of the British Museum, who 
 has not only devoted a large portion of his time to the 
 subject, but supplied to the Committee the result of his 
 inquiries and his experience during many years ". The 
 eulogy is not extravagant. Edwards being at the time a 
 public servant in receipt of a salary is probably the reason 
 for the scanty reference to him in the report. 
 
 Edwards was examined by the committee on igth April, 
 1849. In reply to the preliminary questions, he said that 
 he had been an assistant in the department of printed books 
 at the British Museum between ten and eleven years. 
 Had he given attention to the subject and published 
 articles upon libraries ? Yes, he had given attention to 
 the subject during many years, and had published articles 
 upon the subject. He found great difficulty in making 
 statistical comparisons. Asked, had he found it easy to 
 acquire accurate data for making comparisons between 
 libraries (Q. 8), he said : 
 
 It is a matter of very considerable difficulty indeed : there are few 
 subjects upon which looser and vaguer statements are to be found, even 
 in statistical works of great repute, than upon that matter. In fact the 
 difficulty is still greater with respect to English libraries than with respect 
 to foreign ; very little attention has been bestowed upon the statistics of 
 libraries, either home or foreign, in this country, and I think there are but 
 two ways in which anything like accurate information can be obtained, 
 namely, either by practical familiarity with the libraries themselves, 
 which it has not been in my power to attain to any great degree, or by 
 correspondence, which latter I have carried on to a considerable extent. 
 It is upon that I base most of the results at which I have arrived.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 71 
 
 He would define the term " Public," as applied to libra- 
 ries in reference to this inquiry, as " embracing, first of 
 all, libraries deriving their support from public funds, either 
 wholly or in part ; and I would further extend it to such 
 libraries as are made accessible to the public to a greater 
 or less degree ". 
 
 The result of his comparison between the libraries of 
 the continent and those which then existed in this country 
 was " That nearly every European State is in a far higher 
 position, both as to the number and extent of libraries; 
 accessible to the public, and, generally, as respects the 
 accessibility of such libraries as do exist. There are some 
 exceptions, but, speaking generally, in both those respects, 
 almost every European State is in a far higher position 
 than this country." 
 
 The difficulties that English authors experienced in 
 having access to works of reference were dealt with 
 pointedly. He began with the well-known instance of 
 Gibbon, who said that he had constantly found the greatest 
 difficulty in consulting books, from the want of a good 
 public library. Gibbon complained of the need to send 
 for books from abroad, and sometimes this had to be done 
 to verify a single citation, and stated that he was often in 
 a much better position when residing in Switzerland and 
 in France, than when residing in this country. 
 
 The library world may be grateful to Gibbon for the 
 statement of this fact. It set some of the men from the 
 universities thinking that there might be after all some- 
 thing in the plea that libraries were needed. 
 
 Edwards referred next to Roscoe when at work on his 
 Life of Lorenzo de' Medici and his Life of Leo the Tenth, 
 Even in a town like Liverpool there was no great public 
 library to which he could have access for the purpose of 
 consulting Italian authorities. A reference in the Curio- 
 sities of Literature was mentioned, where the elder Disraeli 
 said that it was often necessary at the British Museum to 
 wait for some days before a book could be obtained. 
 Comparisons were made as to the advantage possessed
 
 72 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 by foreign authors, as against English writers, in having 
 access to libraries, and Edwards said that there was no 
 doubt about English literature having suffered from the dis- 
 advantage. The number of libraries in France was next 
 referred to, and he mentioned 107 libraries with an aggre- 
 gate of 4,000,000 volumes open to the public. Some of 
 these he had himself seen used by persons of rank, and he 
 could state that, even in the libraries in small provincial 
 towns, works of rarity and great value were often to be 
 found. Belgium, Prussia, Austria, Saxony, Bavaria, 
 Denmark and Tuscany were next dealt with in the order 
 here given. The basis of his replies were the statistics 
 previously prepared for his paper for the Statistical Society. 
 Then he dealt with the libraries in Paris, and gave a 
 list of those to which he desired to call the attention of 
 the committee. In reply to the question (45) as to whether 
 those he enumerated were lending libraries, he said that 
 all except one were such, and in reply as to how he would 
 define a lending library, he replied that he would define such 
 a library as one where " the books . . . are to be borrowed, 
 not as a matter of favour, but as a matter of right upon 
 complying with certain recognised conditions ". In Paris, 
 he said, it was upon a recommendation or introduction 
 vouching for the reputability of the party applying to 
 borrow books. Asked as to what libraries in England it 
 would be possible for a student or reader to enter and ask 
 for a book for use in the library, and be supplied without 
 stating who he was, he said that he believed there was 
 only one such, the Chetham Library at Manchester. 
 Marsh's library in Dublin, he said, was in practice just as 
 accessible. But evidently in his mind the Humphrey 
 Chetham Library was the one library in all the United 
 Kingdom permitting its books to be used by any one in the 
 library without let or hindrance. All honour to the Chet- 
 ham Library for occupying this distinction. It is probable, 
 however, that in this reply Edwards overlooked the Stir- 
 ling Library at Glasgow, which was an endowed library, 
 freely accessible for reference purposes to any inquirer.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 73 
 
 The committee again turned to the continental libraries. 
 Particulars of the libraries in Milan, Munich, Copenhagen, 
 Florence and other cities were given, and he handed to 
 the committee his general list of the public libraries in 
 Europe. He had, he said, given his authorities, and only 
 claimed to put it forward as an approximate list. He had, 
 he continued, "addressed circulars with questions to the 
 librarians as well as to literary friends, and had obtained 
 answers from a great many of them ". He named as 
 lending libraries (Q. 91), six in Paris, three each in 
 Dresden and Copenhagen, and the royal libraries in 
 Brussels, Munich and Vienna, and one in Milan. A 
 certain social position or some introduction satisfactory 
 to the librarian was required on the part of borrowers. 
 
 Some dozen questions followed respecting the public 
 libraries in the United States. As to the measure of ac- 
 cessibility in these, he said that a great many of them, 
 although being corporate property, were made practically 
 as accessible as if they were public property. As to the 
 number of lending libraries among them, he said that the 
 university libraries were generally lending libraries to 
 those belonging to the universities, and libraries belonging 
 to societies were usually lending libraries to members of 
 those societies. 
 
 The State libraries were, he said, lending libraries "for 
 all persons bringing satisfactory introductions ". Very 
 great attention was given, he said, to the maintenance and 
 improvement of those libraries by the Legislature of the 
 United States. The Astor, Smithsonian and Harvard 
 Libraries were next mentioned. " Do you think that if 
 libraries were accessible and made a matter of public in- 
 terest many persons would be induced to bequeath books 
 to such public libraries ? " (Q. 101.) " I think," he said, 
 <( there is very great evidence of that in what has been 
 done, both for the British Museum and for the Bodleian 
 Library." The origin of some of the libraries in the United 
 States was inquired about. In his answer he referred to 
 legislative grants of the particular states. Congress passed
 
 74 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 a vote for the Congress Library. Then in conjunction 
 with this part of the subject he was asked what libraries 
 on the continent as well as the United States were sup- 
 ported by the State : what by vote of constitutional 
 assembly, and what by municipalities. His reply referred 
 to Paris only, and was to the effect that for the four chief 
 libraries of Paris the cost was some 23,555 yearly. 
 The amount of State or municipal support given to the 
 provincial libraries in Belgium, and those of Munich, 
 Berlin and other cities, was next surveyed, and in reply 
 he said that as a general rule " they were supported by 
 municipal and in some instances by communal funds ". 
 
 An important question was number 112. "Do they 
 ever levy a rate upon a town for the support of a public 
 library ? " The reply was, " That obtains in many of the 
 German states, I believe : but I have not information to 
 enable me to state precisely to what extent ". How many 
 known instances were there of any foreign lending libraries 
 having ceased to be so in consequence of the abuse of the 
 privilege ? 
 
 I do not know any instance of that kind : I know that very great 
 complaint has been made in several cities of such abuses, but I think 
 they have occurred in consequence of inadequate regulations, and might 
 have been obviated by better management. 
 
 The privileges of borrowing were not open to the 
 humblest class. As to the use of the continental libraries 
 by the middle and working classes 
 
 I believe in France they are to a considerable extent : there are 
 libraries in France of every grade and class : in Paris itself each of the 
 libraries, I believe, may be said to have a distinct class of visitors : one 
 sort of visitors resort to one library, and one to another. The Ste 
 Genevieve Library in particular has been noticed for the considerable 
 number of persons of the humbler classes who frequent it : the fact of 
 its being open in the evening is calculated to produce that result. 
 
 Maps drawn up by the witness showing the relative 
 position of the libraries in continental cities were then 
 handed in to the committee. As to who were responsible 
 for the safe custody of the books in the public libraries,
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 75 
 
 the librarian, he said, was usually responsible. There were 
 regulations laid down which imposed upon the borrower 
 the condition of returning books within a specified period, 
 and if not returned the value must be paid. Registers 
 were kept of the names and addresses of borrowers, and it 
 was the duty of the librarian, upon failure of the return of 
 any book within a specified period, to apply to the borrower. 
 The depositing of securities was required in several cases, 
 but he looked upon this as being the exception rather than 
 the rule. In Paris there were aggravated cases, and books 
 had been unreturned for years, but this he affirmed was 
 owing to the insufficiency of the regulations. 
 
 A question from Mr. Brotherton (Q. 126) elicited the 
 reply that the libraries in the capital cities of most of the 
 European states belonged to the State. In the provincial 
 towns the libraries were the property of the municipality. 
 Mr. Ewart, the chairman of the committee, asked how far 
 the libraries submitted to the inspection of the Minister of 
 Public Instruction. 
 
 With respect to France, the usual practice is that reports are 
 periodically addressed to the Minister of Public Instruction, and super- 
 vision is exercised over the provincial libraries, by inspectors. In 
 France there are inspectors-general of libraries who make occasional 
 visits to the provincial libraries and report to the Minister of Public 
 Instruction. 
 
 In this it was admitted by the witness that there was a 
 more centralised system than would be probably compatible 
 with the usages of this country. A reference followed as 
 to how many libraries in France had been the result of 
 private foundations : he said that a great number had 
 resulted from the dissolution of the monastic establish- 
 ments. 
 
 The committee then turned (Q. 130) from the foreign 
 libraries to the libraries of our own country. He replied : 
 
 In respect to this country, there is great difficulty in drawing the 
 line with precision as to what is really a publicly accessible library, 
 and what is only accessible as a matter of mere grace and favour : 
 therefore I have included some in my estimate, the admission to
 
 76 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 which is only to be considered as a favour, but is practically accorded 
 to some considerable extent. With that prefatory observation, I find 
 about thirty-three libraries, more or less publicly accessible in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, with an aggregate of 1,771,493 volumes of printed 
 books. 
 
 He presented a list of these libraries. For the sake of 
 completeness, and to show from what a foundation the 
 modern public library movement has grown, the libraries 
 are named, without the statistics, in the order in which he 
 enumerated them : 
 
 Aberdeen : King's College and Marischal College Libraries . 2 
 
 Armagh : Primate Robinson's Library i 
 
 Cambridge : Public Library, Queen's College and Trinity College 
 
 Libraries, Catherine's Hall and Christ's College . . 5 
 
 Dublin : Trinity College, Marsh's Library, Dublin Society and 
 
 Royal Irish Academy, King's Inns Library .... 5 
 
 Edinburgh : Library of Faculty of Advocates, University Library, 
 
 Library of Writers to Signet 3 
 
 Glasgow : University Library, Hunterian Museum Library and 
 
 Stirling's Library ........ 3 
 
 London : British Museum Library, Sion College Library, Dr. 
 Williams' Library and Archbishop Tenison's Library, Lam- 
 beth Palace Library 5 
 
 Manchester: Chetham Library i 
 
 Oxford : Bodleian Library, All Saints' College, Christ's Church 
 College, Radcliffe Library, Ashmolean Library, Queen's 
 College, Oriel College and Wadham College ... 8 
 
 St. Andrew's University Library, and the Warrington Public 
 
 Library 2 
 
 Asked (Q. 131) if he could assign any reason for the 
 comparative fewness of public libraries in this country as 
 compared with many other countries. The reply was im- 
 portant and is given in full : 
 
 I think one reason which may be assigned is, that while in foreign 
 countries the libraries of monastic foundation were generally appro- 
 priated to the public use, in this country they were for the most part 
 destroyed, or injured to a very considerable extent. Proofs of that 
 will be found in Leland's Collectanea. Perambulating England a 
 few years after the dissolution of monasteries, he frequently speaks 
 of the destruction of valuable books ; he says, in reference to one town 
 he visited, the bakers' ovens were still supplied with monastic books. 
 That, however, will account for the fact only in a limited degree.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 77 
 
 Another reason of the fewness of public libraries in this country ha& 
 been the isolation of such bequests or foundations of libraries as have 
 occurred. They have been left without any sort of general control or 
 supervision, and for want of that, I think, they have not been so fruitful 
 in leading to imitation, as they would have been if brought under some 
 more direct administration. In proof of that statement I would instance 
 the foundation of the Cotton Library. For the first sixty years after 
 the institution of the Cotton Library for public use, there was but one 
 addition made to it, by Major Arthur Edwards. That was the only 
 instance during sixty years. During that time the Cotton Library 
 was very ill cared for ; it was ill-lodged, several times moved, dilapi- 
 dated, and very much injured by fire on one occasion, and suffered 
 greatly from want of attention and good management ; but, on the 
 Cotton Library being incorporated with the British Museum, during 
 the next sixty years following that incorporation, there were not less 
 than eight or nine important collections bequeathed or presented in 
 addition to that collection. 
 
 Some further questions were based on the encourage- 
 ment which is given to donors of books if there is a 
 proper place for the keeping of such books, and especially 
 where there is a responsible control in perpetuity. This 
 is a vital principle attaching to public libraries under the 
 Acts, and was thus foreshadowed in one trend of the 
 Parliamentary inquiry. " You think," he was asked, " that 
 one of the advantages of a library which is well known 
 to be public, is that it invites public contributions ? '* 
 " Yes," he replied, " I think experience shows that to 
 a remarkable extent." Question 140 sought to get deeper 
 down to the cause of the comparatively small number of 
 public libraries in this country. He assigned as a reason, 
 the scant attention which had been bestowed on the part 
 of the Government. It was only, he pointed out, within 
 a very few years that Parliamentary grants in aid of 
 education and literature had been up to that time at all 
 prominent in the estimates. The Parliamentary grants 
 to the British Museum were, in a succeeding answer, 
 carefully outlined by the witness. This fact may cheer the 
 educationist, that the British Museum had at that early 
 day the largest amount of public money voted for it of 
 any library in the world then existing. The committee
 
 78 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 then turned to the degree of accessibility in libraries, and 
 he was asked how he would classify them. His reply 
 was : 
 
 First, I would take those which are gratuitously and unrestrictedly 
 accessible to the public : secondly, those which are gratuitously 
 accessible of right, but only on the production of some special re- 
 commendation : thirdly, those that are the property of corporate or 
 proprietary bodies, admission to which is given on certain conditions 
 as a matter of favour. 
 
 Again, he gave the credit of being the only free library in 
 the United Kingdom and Ireland, to the Chetham Library 
 at Manchester, and this, he said, was unrestrictedly acces- 
 sible. The only formality which was necessary was the 
 writing of the name and address in a register book. The 
 libraries in the United Kingdom accessible of right, on the 
 production of some sort of recommendation or introduction, 
 he gave as ten or at most eleven. These were accessible 
 on the production of a recommendation from some person 
 of standing, as at the British Museum. Twenty or twenty- 
 one other libraries, he said, were accessible as a matter of 
 grace or favour, such as college libraries and libraries of 
 that description. Questions were asked about legal and 
 medical libraries, and after these had been disposed of, the 
 library of Sion College, Dr. Williams' and Archbishop 
 Tenison's Libraries were taken in review. Maps of Lon- 
 don, Edinburgh and Dublin were put in showing the 
 public libraries in these cities. Details were given of the 
 number of volumes to every hundred inhabitants in Paris, 
 Berlin and other cities, showing London at a disadvan- 
 tage. The part of London immediately around the British 
 Museum was best supplied, and next to that the City. 
 The Guildhall Library, he said, was very easily accessible, 
 to such persons as desired to consult the books. Now it 
 may be said, by way of parenthesis, that the library is open 
 to all who desire to use the books. Questions were asked 
 if any public library existed in Marylebone, Finsbury, 
 Southwark or Pimlico, and to each question he had to 
 answer, " None at all ". Questions about Edinburgh and
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 79 
 
 Dublin followed, and full reference was made to Marsh's 
 Library in the latter city. From 1713, the date of the 
 foundation, to 1828, some 1,200 volumes were lost, and this 
 he attributed to the defective management in the library. 
 The books were unstamped, and readers were permitted to 
 go to the presses and take the books down. The committee 
 wished to press home the fact as to whether the general 
 public could be trusted to have unrestricted access to a 
 library. The case of Marsh's Library helped in clearing 
 up this point. It was not the freedom of access which 
 was responsible for the losses, but the defective control. 
 Up to 1828 there had been unrestricted admission, and 
 then this was changed. Some other libraries were next 
 discussed, Glasgow was then reviewed and questions were 
 asked about other libraries in Scotland. 
 
 Then came what the lawyers call a leading question, in 
 number 281. How many of the libraries which you have 
 named are lending libraries ? His reply was : 
 
 None at all, with the single exception of the library I have mentioned 
 already as existing at Armagh ; there are no free lending libraries in 
 Great Britain of any kind. The university libraries, except that 
 of Trinity College, Dublin, are lending libraries to the members ; the 
 Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh has been, by special 
 favour, in certain cases, a lending library, but not of right. 
 
 The library at Armagh was founded by Primate Robin- 
 son, contained about 12,000 volumes, and was liberally 
 endowed. Other questions with regard to the libraries of 
 the Universities of Aberdeen, St. Andrews, Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow were asked, and then the committee ad- 
 journed until the 24th April, when Edwards was again 
 under examination. 
 
 In the beginning of that day's evidence, the witness put 
 in a statement of the number of members of, and volumes 
 in, the libraries of several Mechanics' Institutions in 
 Lancashire and Cheshire. In some of these libraries, 
 during the winter season, the whole of the books had 
 been in circulation, and not a volume left in the library. 
 This he quoted from the Rev. William Brown's pamphlet
 
 8o EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 relative to itinerating libraries in East Lothian. The 
 pamphlet, said the witness, had attracted more attention 
 on the continent than in England. It was translated 
 into French and German, and was even circulated in St. 
 Petersburgh. The attempt to form these travelling libraries 
 began in 1816, and was carried on up to the death of the 
 originator about 1839. This attempt to form libraries 
 was of an interesting nature, and Edwards quoted some 
 passages from its pages. These early attempts to provide 
 reading for the people are historic in the library movement, 
 especially in view of the recent great extension of travelling 
 libraries in America. 
 
 Questions 313 and 314 referred to the cathedral libraries. 
 Then a slight departure was made from the immediate 
 purpose of the inquiry. Edwards had said that he 
 considered that education was inferior in England to 
 what it was abroad, in relation to a certain class of the 
 population. He said that he thought one great cause of 
 the deficiency was " the want of means on the part of 
 large numbers of the population to defray the cost of 
 schooling for their children even where there is a desire 
 to do it. Another cause is the extreme duration of the 
 hours of labour, and the extremely early age at which 
 young persons are forced to do something towards gaining 
 a livelihood ; and another, the great deficiency of good 
 schools and of properly trained schoolmasters. I think 
 all those are causes tending very much, of necessity, to 
 abridge educational facilities, and ought to be remedied." 
 
 In answer to a question shortly afterwards put, he 
 said : 
 
 In addition to the positive want of schooling on the part of large 
 numbers of the population who are now growing up, those who do get 
 some partial education, habitually neglect to improve what they get, 
 from the want of cultivating a taste for reading. I think that is one 
 great cause, and unless good books are made accessible, it is very likely 
 to continue to be a cause, even where education, by Sunday schools, 
 and other efforts of that kind, has been brought within the reach of 
 considerable numbers of the population, why the good effect has not 
 been continued in after life.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 81 
 
 Here comes his statement as to elementary education 
 being one of the main pillars of the public library move- 
 ment. Asked, if in his opinion, as education increases, 
 the facilities for obtaining books ought to be increased 
 in proportion also, his answer was "Yes," and this he 
 strengthened in the next reply. Those who knew how 
 to read would get bad books instead of good books to read 
 if the better literature were not provided. Some features 
 of education in Scotland followed. The state of education 
 in East Lothian he considered superior to that of a great 
 many continental states, and this he attributed to the 
 
 wise and provident foresight of preceding generations, who had taken 
 legislative measures to bring schools almost over the length and breadth 
 of two-thirds of Scotland, making efforts to secure their permanence,, 
 and not committing them merely to the chances and hazards of volun- 
 tary effort, and occasional local subscriptions, but really providing themi 
 by legislative measures. 
 
 It would be useful if that reply could be rubbed at the 
 present moment into some of our legislators at West- 
 minster. Did he think that libraries superadded to such 
 a scholastic system would be of great use in Scotland ? 
 " Of great importance, and I do not believe a more prudent 
 or a more wise subsidiary measure could be taken with 
 reference to education, than to connect with schools, lend- 
 ing libraries of a good kind." 
 
 Inquiries about parochial libraries followed, and he 
 gave some interesting particulars in reply to the questions 
 respecting these libraries. There was at one time a con- 
 siderable number of these parochial libraries. Their 
 history is a very interesting one, and the subject should 
 be better known. The report of Lord Brougham's Com- 
 mission to inquire into public charities says little of 
 these libraries. Institute libraries in villages and village 
 libraries were next inquired into. " Now that books 
 are so cheap (Q. 341), would not they be of easy estab- 
 lishment, and very desirable for the rural population ? " 
 " Highly desirable, I think," said the witness. Congre- 
 gational libraries in connection with churches and chapels- 
 
 6
 
 82 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 were discussed. Of Sunday-school libraries there were a 
 considerable number, and attended with very good results. 
 He was asked by the chairman, "by what means" he 
 thought " the formation of new public libraries might best 
 be promoted ". The first means he could recommend 
 would be an extension of the Museums Act. The object 
 of this Act, he said, " was to levy a rate for the establish- 
 ment of museums, proceeding upon a requisition or resolu- 
 tion of a definite proportion of the ratepayers, . . . such 
 rate not to exceed a halfpenny in the pound upon the 
 rental of the district". Had the Act been extensively 
 taken advantage of? 
 
 I fear that it has not been largely taken advantage of, and I would 
 attribute that to the circumstance that no provision has been made for 
 bringing a Parliamentary grant in aid of local contribution, as is done 
 in educational matters, but everything has been made to depend upon 
 local effort. I can cite one instance of its being acted on with refer- 
 ence also to a library. In Warrington there is now a museum and 
 library, partly supported by a halfpenny rate, levied by the town 
 council under the Museums Act, which produces about 80 per annum, 
 and partly by annual subscriptions, which are already promised to the 
 extent of about 70. There is also a fund subscribed for the erection 
 of a building at some future opportunity, and in the meantime interest 
 upon so much as is paid up, about ^250, is applied towards the pay- 
 ment of rent for a temporary building. That library was originally a 
 private subscription library, founded in 1760. 
 
 The Museums Act did not authorise the levying of a 
 rate for the formation of a public library, and the library 
 could not have been assisted except from the fact that it 
 was part of a museum. Sir H. Verney asked if he thought 
 it desirable to extend that power to other districts where 
 town councils did not exist. " Highly desirable," said 
 the witness, "and that otherwise very little good can be 
 done." Asked as to what bodies he would entrust with 
 such power, he said : 
 
 I think the best principle would be to take the circumscription of 
 the Parliamentary boroughs generally, and give a power to a certain 
 proportion of the ratepayers in every such Parliamentary borough. I 
 think the principle should be the expressed consent of a definite pro- 
 portion of the ratepayers, and that there should be a similar power to
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 83 
 
 that given to Town Councils by the Museums Act. The principle 
 might also be extended to parishes, or poor law unions ; or the circum- 
 scriptions of the public health bill might be taken. 
 
 Had he turned his attention to the expediency of a grant 
 being made by Parliament, to assist in the formation of 
 libraries, as is done in the case of schools of design ? "I 
 think that very important ; the principle upon which the 
 grants of the Privy Council for education are made would 
 be an excellent principle to be extended to libraries ; 
 namely, that in any district where a certain amount of 
 local contribution was raised, for the purpose of founding 
 a library, a Parliamentary grant should be given in aid." 
 
 A trifling grant would suffice, and would do a great deal 
 of good. The point was pressed home by several questions. 
 A small grant, he thought, 
 
 would be of very great service indeed, and would be found to be a 
 powerful stimulus to local effort. He thought another means by 
 which libraries might be encouraged, would be by promoting national 
 interchanges of books. 
 
 The public library world is still looking for that small 
 grant, and rural libraries in many districts cannot be 
 established without some such help. He thought that 
 if local libraries were established, great accessions would 
 be made to those libraries by donations. Do you approve 
 (Q. 363) of the principle of that part of the Copyright Act 
 which directs the compulsory delivery, by authors or pub- 
 lishers, of copies of every book published within the United 
 Kingdom for the benefit of certain libraries ? 
 
 The Legislature having repeatedly affirmed the principle that books 
 should be contributed by authors and publishers in aid of public 
 libraries, it may, perhaps, be thought undesirable to re-open the 
 question, but I must say, that in my individual opinion, such enact- 
 ments are based upon a bad principle ; I think the growth and increase 
 of public libraries is a national object, and ought to be met by national 
 funds, and that no tax ought to be levied upon a section of the public 
 for the benefit of the whole of the public. 
 
 He emphasised this by saying that least of all upon 
 the producers of books would he levy this tax. It used
 
 84 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 to be eleven copies of every book and still stands at five. 
 It is an oppressive tax, he urged, especially as some con- 
 siderable portion of the books so exacted go to libraries 
 which are not public. This injustice upon publishers 
 exists at this day. Questions on the origin of the Copy- 
 right Act followed, and he gave two answers embodying 
 in a brief form the history of the Act. Further questions 
 were asked as to which libraries the books exacted by the 
 Copyright Act were sent. The libraries to which these 
 books were sent should involve the right of free access by 
 the public. 
 
 A library which accepts a Treasury grant of that nature does most 
 unquestionably make itself a public library, and ought to be considered 
 as a public library, and to be responsible for being such in practice. 
 
 Questions on this head applying to some of the Scotch 
 libraries were asked. Later on he said, " I think it highly 
 desirable that there should be public depositories of all books 
 which appear in the United Kingdom, but that being a 
 national object it ought to be done at the national ex- 
 pense." He was then asked a question bearing on the 
 annual value of books published in the United Kingdom, 
 and put in a return showing this for the previous ten years. 
 Question 389 asked if there were any fiscal arrangements 
 which he deemed to be impediments to the formation of 
 public libraries, he answered : 
 
 1 think there are many, and I will instance as the first of those, the 
 import duty upon foreign books. I believe that to be a most unwise 
 and impolitic tax. It has been considerably reduced, in relation to 
 certain classes of books, but it is still an oppressive duty, and one 
 which operates materially to the enhancement of the price of foreign 
 books; it amounted in 1841 to 8,500. I believe it now amounts to 
 a considerable sum, so that it still operates greatly to increase the price 
 of foreign books. The present duty has been computed to be equiva- 
 lent to an ad valorem tax of twelve per cent, on the average. In na 
 other country, so far as I am aware, has so heavy a tax been levied 
 upon foreign books. 
 
 Other questions dealing with import taxes upon books 
 and advertisements in different countries followed.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 85 
 
 In reply to the question (403), can you offer any sug- 
 gestion with regard to the increased utility of existing 
 libraries ? he said : 
 
 I think the step which lies at the threshold of all improvement in 
 this respect is an entire revision of the conditions on which the Trea- 
 sury grants are accorded, requiring that accessibility should be made 
 an indispensable condition of such grants, and that the libraries re- 
 ceiving them should be placed under some definite supervision and 
 responsibility. I think it would be very desirable also that any 
 existing libraries, which are disposed to place themselves under the 
 inspection, for example, of the Committee of Council on Education, 
 which is perhaps the body most analogous to that Ministry of|Public 
 Instruction, which I hope we shall have some day, should be enabled 
 to do so ; and in case of their own resources being deficient, that they 
 should obtain some grants under the Committee of Council in aid of 
 those resources. I think by that means great improvements would in 
 time be effected. But I believe, looking at the difficulties which some 
 of the best of the few libraries which do exist in this country are in, 
 from inadequate resources, that at present no improvement of any 
 important amount can be hoped for, except upon the condition of 
 Parliamentary aid being extended to them, in cases where public utility 
 is clearly seen to be promoted by those existing institutions. I think, 
 too, such aid should especially be afforded, with regard to the pre- 
 paration of catalogues, upon which the utility of libraries entirely de- 
 pends, scarcely any of the existing libraries having now any resources 
 at all by means of which catalogues can be printed and published : and 
 unless catalogues are printed and published the libraries themselves 
 can never be of great public utility. 
 
 The remainder of his answer referred to the catalogues 
 of Aberdeen and other university libraries. He said he 
 would make the preparation and printing of catalogues a 
 great State object. Two questions followed respecting 
 the catalogue of the books in the library of the British 
 Museum. 
 
 Did he think the present system of requiring recommen- 
 dations before granting admission to the use of libraries 
 necessary ? "I was strongly of that opinion formerly, but 
 upon thinking of the matter more closely, and making a 
 comparison of the results of what occurs here, and what 
 occurs abroad, I am inclined to change that opinion, and 
 to think that the system is not really necessary, though
 
 86 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 probably if very free accessibility were granted a revision 
 of the existing regulations, and some considerable modifica- 
 tion of them would become necessary." 
 
 Questions as to the injury which had resulted from un- 
 restricted admission were put, and later he described his 
 interpretation of unrestricted accessibility to mean the 
 absence of any formality of recommendation or introduc- 
 tion, so that any one can go into the library and call for 
 books without producing any warrant or ticket. This, as 
 he explained, would involve a reading-room. 
 
 Yes. I conceive that, although practical experience shows great 
 injuries to have resulted, in some instances, from unrestricted access 
 . . . such injury has arisen from the want of good regulations: for 
 instance, persons have been allowed to help themselves to books 
 from the library. 
 
 He thought that there would be no difficulty whatever 
 in the granting of such free access in the large provincial 
 towns, but had some doubts as to whether it would be 
 practicable in London. Questions followed as to the 
 accessibility of catalogues in the continental libraries. 
 He was asked as to the time taken before a book could 
 be served in the great continental libraries. In the 
 National Library of Paris he received books within half 
 an hour of applying for them, but not always. The printed 
 catalogues of that library he described as being far from 
 perfect or adequate. As to the British Museum he observed 
 that all men of letters would, he believed, acknowledge 
 that the accessibility was never so great, and the service 
 of the establishment was never in such order, as it then 
 was. He was asked if he was of the same way of thinking 
 as Dr. Pertz of the Berlin Library, that there is no greater 
 waste of money than to print a full catalogue of a library. 
 He said : " I would listen to everything which fell from 
 him with great respect, but at the same time I would feel 
 no hesitation in confuting that opinion ". Asked if he 
 thought it desirable that books should be lent out, he 
 answered that he thought it very desirable, and that no 
 greater boon than the institution of lending libraries could
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 87 
 
 be conferred upon men of letters and students. Any in- 
 jurious results which had arisen could be obviated by 
 better regulations. By these he meant with respect to the 
 period for which books were to be lent, and by insisting 
 upon some voucher for the respectability of all persons 
 applying to borrow books. A reasonable amount of wear 
 and tear must be of course admitted. 
 
 Did he think (Q. 441) that persons seeking to borrow 
 books should be called on to show their inability to con- 
 sult them in the library itself? He replied : 
 
 I have heard that advocated as one means of checking abuse, but 
 I do not think it would be expedient, especially with reference to per- 
 sons who are engaged in literary tasks of considerable extent and 
 duration. It is most important to allow them to have books in their 
 own studies at home, and I think they ought not to be called on to 
 show that they are absolutely incapacitated from coming to the 
 library, because they cannot, in the library, use books to the same 
 advantage as at their own homes. 
 
 In the next question he was asked if he thought that the 
 practice of lending should be restricted to such books as 
 are possessed in duplicate by the respective libraries, and 
 answered that he thought that ought to be so with regard 
 to the great libraries then existing, but hoped to see new 
 lending libraries established especially directed to that 
 object. 
 
 The number of duplicates and triplicates in the British 
 Museum was inquired into. 
 
 Was he of opinion that libraries ought to be open during 
 the evenings, particularly in a country like our own where 
 the day is devoted to labour ? 
 
 I think it would be a measure of great expediency and of great 
 benefit, and that it would enable the working classes of the population 
 to get access to the public libraries, who, unless some such change is 
 introduced, must continue to be debarred from access to them : and I 
 think it would also, in many cases, be of great advantage to professional 
 men, and even to men whose profession is literature. 
 
 He could not give one instance in England of the 
 application of that principle to any considerable library.
 
 88 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 It was desirable to enlarge this part of his evidence. He 
 thought that it would be of the greatest value that there 
 should be accessibility during the evening to public 
 libraries. 
 
 I believe, even apart from the direct instruction which may in that 
 way be brought within the reach of the people, the means of rational 
 amusement, which would by that means be opened to them, would be 
 exceedingly important. I believe the want of some provision, from the 
 public resources, of amusements of a rational and improving character, 
 has led to the introduction, to a large extent in our towns, of brutalising 
 and demoralising amusements. In my opinion, something ought to 
 have been done long before to obviate that evil, and the necessity that 
 something of the kind should now be done is very urgent. 
 
 All friends of the public library movement should note 
 the emphasis with which this part of his evidence was put 
 forward. The heart of the movement lies in the facts 
 here stated, and no other witness examined, so fully and 
 clearly placed these needs of the people before the 
 committee. 
 
 In the way of definite supervision and responsibility in 
 the management of public libraries, he said : " I think the 
 most desirable thing, and a thing I am not hopeless of 
 seeing in England, will be a department specially charged 
 with public instruction, dealing with all the relations of 
 Government to public education : then I think the super- 
 vision of libraries would naturally be one of the attributions 
 of that department". 
 
 Friends of education are still looking, after a lapse of 
 fifty years, for that department of public instruction. 
 Perhaps in another fifty years the nation may succeed 
 in securing it, and then possibly we shall not have the 
 contemptible farce of a minister in the House of Commons 
 poking weak jokes at some aspects of educational matters. 
 
 Mr. Edwards said that he did not refer to pecuniary 
 responsibility, but rather to a sort of periodical inspection 
 as to the condition of libraries, with the power of revising 
 their regulations, and making recommendations, with a 
 view to increase their public usefulness. He was of 
 opinion that increased interest on the part of the public,
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 89 
 
 and an increase of the contributions, would accrue from 
 the making public of the accounts and the general working 
 of public libraries. 
 
 Just before the close of that day's examination he handed 
 in his "Approximate Statistical View of the Principal 
 Public Libraries of Europe and of the United States of 
 America". This is printed in the appendix to the blue 
 book and covers fifty pages. The statistics are a wide 
 elaboration of the tables prepared for his paper read before 
 the Statistical Society. The enormous amount of labour 
 represented by these statistics can only be known by those 
 who have attempted a similar task. The additional notes 
 and figures given in the blue book add value to these tables. 
 They were accompanied by explanatory letters and a full 
 list of his authorities. The insight shown by him into 
 the whole subject, and the broad grasp of every detail, are 
 matters of wonder to-day, if this evidence of his is carefully 
 perused. The library world will yet see carried into effect 
 some of the practical suggestions made by Edwards in 
 1849. Truly was he a prophet with prophetic vision. 
 
 In his diary for that memorable day he makes the 
 simple entry, " Gave evidence from half-past twelve till after 
 three ". It would weary the reader to give the entries until 
 he was next called. There was not a day when he was not 
 at work. The revising of the proofs of the evidence was 
 Edwards' work. On 5th June he enters, " At twelve 
 attended committee on libraries and was examined at 
 considerable length satisfactorily I think, in the main ; 
 but not at all so on the important point of catalogues . . . 
 which I must try to mend ". 
 
 On 5th June, 1849, Edwards was further examined. 
 The time occupied in obtaining books at the British 
 Museum was gone into minutely.* Some angry readers 
 had been airing their grievances in the newspapers. 
 
 Other details connected with the British Museum were 
 gone into, and occupy four pages of the report, but for 
 the present purpose it is not necessary to call attention 
 to them here. Fuller particulars of the rules and regula-
 
 go EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 tions respecting access in vogue in continental libraries 
 followed. He had, since his previous examination, been 
 collecting information respecting the parochial libraries 
 founded by Dr. Bray and the " Associates of Dr. Bray," 
 between 1704 and 1807. The most complete details ever 
 gathered respecting these libraries were given by Edwards- 
 in the return which he then presented. The statistics fill 
 six pages. Then he gave a little history of the origin of 
 the movement to establish these libraries. A table of the 
 cathedral libraries in England and Ireland was also 
 presented. A series of questions ranging from 3353 to 
 3378 followed respecting catalogues. He insisted that 
 it was upon the catalogue the utility of the library 
 depended, and that for this reason the catalogues of 
 public libraries should invariably be printed. Did he 
 think that catalogues of public libraries should be alpha- 
 betical or classified ? 
 
 That is a question to which I have given much study for many 
 years, and the result of the best consideration which I have been able 
 to give to it is a most decided opinion that classified catalogues are 
 far preferable to alphabetical ; and with the permission of the Com- 
 mittee, I would enumerate some of the reasons why classified catalogues 
 appear preferable to alphabetical ones. In the first place there is the 
 obvious advantage of presenting a great many books, upon the same 
 subject, to the reader who consults them. It is true that many persons 
 may find it more easy to use an alphabetical catalogue than a classified 
 catalogue, with the principle of the construction of which they have no 
 special acquaintance ; but I think that the purposes of an alphabetical 
 catalogue can be better answered by supplying the classified catalogue 
 with an alphabetical index of authors' names, than you can answer the 
 purposes of a classified catalogue by putting a classed index to an 
 alphabetical one. There is a general notion that classification involves 
 great difficulty in the preparation of a catalogue ; but the difficulties 
 that attach to any system even of alphabetical catalogues are very 
 great, so that it is only a choice between difficulties. I think, too, that 
 in respect to classification, very much might be done, even by what 
 may be termed mechanical arrangements, to simplify the use of such 
 catalogues. 
 
 He believed that the catalogue was the eye of the library. 
 Would it not facilitate the preparation of the catalogue if 
 the books were placed before the compositor under a glass
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. gi 
 
 case, and the compositor were to set up the title in print in 
 the library itself? " I am afraid that idea could not be prac- 
 tically carried out to any great extent, because, in order 
 to catalogue books, it is not enough to see the title-page. 
 A great deal of bibliographical knowledge is requisite to 
 catalogue a large number of books. A man must refer 
 not only to the book itself, but to many others. For 
 instance, all early books require a great deal of research, 
 and merely mechanically copying the title would not 
 answer the purpose. In fact, many books have no title- 
 page at all. A mechanical arrangement of that kind 
 might be useful, but I do not think it could supersede the 
 necessity of literary, scientific and bibliographical know- 
 ledge on the part of the persons employed." 
 
 Reference was made to the City Library of Bristol and 
 an old library at Norwich. Then the import duty on 
 foreign books was taken more fully into review. Question 
 3387 was : Have you any suggestion to offer with respect 
 to the formation of new public libraries ? 
 
 I think, generally speaking, advantage ought to be taken, wherever 
 it is possible, of existing libraries, as the foundation or nucleus upon 
 which larger collections might be based ; but in answering the question 
 I would divide what I have to say with regard to different classes of 
 libraries. I think, first of all, there are the libraries that we need in the 
 capital cities ; next to these are the libraries that are needed in 
 provincial towns ; and then there are the village libraries, the formation 
 of which ought to be encouraged in rural parishes. Those seem to 
 me to be three classes of libraries which ought to be separately looked 
 at. With respect to London it is of the highest importance that there 
 should be at least two new libraries founded, strictly of a public kind, 
 and such as should keep pace with the progress of literature, in addition 
 to the library of the British Museum, and that they might with great 
 advantage be adapted to a different class of readers, so as in some 
 degree to draw away from the reading-room at the British Museum 
 certain of what I may ventur.e to term, in a literary sense, the less 
 important class of readers. . . . With regard to provincial towns, 
 particular attention ought to be paid to the literature of the locality, 
 a sort of topographical character ought to be given to them. Most 
 of our great towns have no libraries at all that can in any proper sense 
 be termed public, so that what has to be done there is entirely from 
 the beginning. It would also be important that the claims of country 
 parishes should not be overlooked ; an entirely different class of
 
 9 2 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 libraries is needed there from those which are required in the great 
 towns, and I think the plan which has been already suggested of 
 itinerating libraries eminently deserves the consideration of the Com- 
 mittee ; the adoption of that plan has certainly done great good in 
 Scotland, and I think it would be worth trying whether it could not 
 be brought into operation in England. 
 
 Particulars were given of the probable cost of a library 
 say of 20,000 to 30,000 volumes. He estimated the cost 
 of a library of good character of that magnitude at IDS. to 
 I2S. a volume. The import duty upon books then existing 
 must be kept in mind in comparing this with existing 
 average prices. Some tables and returns referring to the 
 British Museum were presented by the witness. Special 
 libraries for particular districts were then reviewed. He 
 subsequently addressed a long letter, dated 23rd June, 
 1849, fr m 5 Cunningham Place, St. John's Wood, which 
 entered at length into the question of catalogues, both as 
 it applied to the compilation of the catalogues and the 
 printing of them. 
 
 On i3th June, 1849, he " called on Ewart who read me 
 an outline of proposed report ". On the i8th he was at the 
 House of Commons, "... saw Brotherton who spoke to 
 me about Salford Library ". His evenings at this time 
 were occupied with the correction of the proofs of the 
 evidence. The days bristle with his activities for this 
 report. On yth and i4th June he breakfasts with Ewart 
 and discusses report. " I proposed," he says, " two or three 
 additional clauses which he asked me to draw up and send 
 him." Like entries follow. On 6th August, " Very 
 unwell ". For yth August, " Letter from Ewart acknow- 
 ledging pamphlets and speaking very confusedly about 
 Report. . . ." On 2gth August he left for a little holiday, 
 and on 3ist August he is at Niton, and has a " long and 
 delightful ramble ". Truly Niton should become the Mecca 
 of the library world. 
 
 The September, October and November diary is full of 
 entries of a like character to those already quoted.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. gj. 
 
 On igth December, 1849, Ewart wrote, " ... I quite 
 agree both as to the dignity and policy of a brief notice 
 only of our assailants. They cannot cross our trenches. 
 Our position is too good and we can overlook their sharp- 
 shooting. . . . You have most generously (given) time 
 and profit in a manner which ought not to be forgotten." 
 There are still existing some fifty-five letters, during 1849, 
 from Ewart to Edwards. 
 
 The year 1850 opens with, on 2nd January, a " letter from 
 Ewart asking me to come to Elstead ". On 5th January he 
 is with Ewart at Elstead, and records, li pleasant confabula- 
 tion with Ewart on libraries and politics. Read 'Verificator' 
 on journey down. . . ." On the following day, which was 
 Sunday, there was " a long and very pleasant ramble 
 through deep snow. In evening, chat with Ewart 
 de omnibus rebtis, etc." There was a trouble about the 
 foreign returns, and the diary shows it at this time. On 
 25th January he lends Modern Painters to Miss Ewart,. 
 and for the day following he enters, " Letter in Athenceum 
 to-day signed ' C.' . . . and praising ' Verificator ' as one 
 who ' deals in facts ! ' He may be said to deal in facts as 
 gipsies are said to deal in children, first stealing and then 
 disfiguring them to make them pass for their own." The 
 stress and strain of his life at that time comes out rather 
 pathetically. 
 
 A second Parliamentary Select Committee was appointed 
 on i4th February, 1850, to report on the best means of ex- 
 tending the establishment of libraries freely open to the 
 public, especially in large towns. The last paragraph of 
 the report of this committee endorses the statement of the 
 committee of the previous year, that this country is still 
 greatly in want of libraries freely accessible to the public, 
 and would derive great benefit from their establishment. 
 Edwards was the first witness examined, and this was on 
 yth March. For that day he enters, " Note from Ewart as 
 to attendance in committee-room, etc. sent him rough 
 draft of some questions as to i (statistics, broad results only) 
 and 2 (catalogues) in event of attack on these points to
 
 94 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 House of Commons . . . when I underwent a long exa- 
 mination chiefly from Lord Seymour who had evidently 
 been both prompted and drilled very illiberal and paltry 
 questions were put as to salary, as to enquiries at Foreign 
 libraries, etc., but, I think, no real damage to main ques- 
 tion at issue ". 
 
 He was, he said, appointed to his position at the British 
 Museum at the end of January, 1839, specially to be em- 
 ployed on the new catalogue of printed books. His remu- 
 neration in 1850 was 164 per annum and a fraction. "It 
 requires," he said, " some calculation to tell the precise 
 sum." A number of questions were asked respecting the 
 British Museum, and much light was thrown on the manner 
 and methods there in operation. Take the evidence on the 
 whole, the British Museum showed out well in the inquiry. 
 Some defects were acknowledged. The average cost per 
 volume of books was inquired into, and some of the answers 
 to questions in the inquiry of 1849 were again traversed 
 in order to elicit additional information. He thought that 
 he had known the British Museum Library as a reader from 
 1833 or 1834. The evening opening of the library at 
 Bloomsbury, and a great variety of other issues affecting 
 the library, were surveyed. The use which the witness 
 had himself made of the National Library of Paris was 
 inquired about. The losses in the French libraries had 
 evidently disturbed the minds of some of the members of 
 the committee. The statement had been made that out 
 of 250,000 volumes in the library at Rouen above 200,000 
 had been carried away. The witness entirely doubted the 
 statement. 
 
 The measure of accessibility in German libraries was 
 again traversed, and the use of national libraries by women, 
 for the purpose of consulting the books, was referred to. 
 It was asked whether the mutilation of books was not 
 more to be dreaded than the abstraction of books. In 
 reply he said : 
 
 No doubt of it, and the subject requires great care and caution. At 
 the same time I would say, that where the attendance of readers is
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 95 
 
 numerous I think it operates as a sort of mutual police, and that where 
 there are many persons present injury or depredation to the books is, 
 perhaps, less likely to happen than where the access is restricted to a 
 few. I believe we have found that with our art collections : that the 
 greater the number of persons who are allowed to come to them, the 
 less the injury which is done. 
 
 He held to the opinion that the reading-room of the 
 British Museum was very accessible. He further stated 
 that a vast number of the popular works of the day were 
 written or compiled in the reading-room of the British 
 Museum. Many other questions respecting this national 
 library were put to the witness. The number of prohibited 
 books in the libraries of Italy was inquired into. He said 
 that a large proportion would not be accessible to the 
 people, though the library might be accessible. 
 
 In my humble judgment the only force of a statement like that 
 which has been referred to, just lies in the strong contrast which there 
 is between the highly civilised and the highly intellectual condition of 
 this country in most respects, and its comparative paucity of public 
 collections of books freely open to all the world. 
 
 Let the croakers who think that every country is better 
 than our own rub that into their understanding. Prohibited 
 books in the libraries of Italy included a great number of 
 the best works of all countries, and were only allowed to 
 be read by licence. Mr. Ewart asked whether he thought 
 that the very advancement in the condition of the people 
 of this country would be an additional reason for their 
 having more books instead of fewer, and that they have 
 fewer whereas they ought to have more according to their 
 intellectual state. " Precisely," said Mr. Edwards, "and 
 J think that very superiority of condition which we may 
 without arrogance claim in many respects which is con- 
 fessedly allowed to us, is a reason why we should be in a 
 better position than we are with respect to Public Lib- 
 raries." 
 
 Some other questions respecting continental libraries 
 .finished that day's sitting. 
 
 There were several interesting questions at the end of
 
 9 6 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 that day's sitting. Mr. M. Milnes asked (Q. 362) : Have 
 you any objection to state what has been your principal 
 object in taking so much pains in the investigation of 
 libraries . . . ? 
 
 I have for many years contemplated a work upon the economy of 
 public libraries. I began to collect the statistics of libraries as far 
 back as 1835, and I have since, at intervals, continued my inquiries by 
 getting the best information which I could from official documents and 
 other sources. 
 
 Have you therefore collected all those materials with so 
 much labour and diligence solely for the purpose of placing 
 this subject as fairly as you could before the public ? 
 
 Decidedly ; and also in the hope that, humble as my station is, I 
 might do something to advance what I believe to be an important 
 public question, namely, a better provision of libraries for public use 
 in this country. 
 
 Mr. Ewart said : Perhaps you are aware that ten 
 years ago I called the attention of Parliament to this 
 subject ? Yes. (Q. 365) And that Mr. Panizzi gave 
 some very valuable information upon it ? Yes. The 
 next question and answer (366) are given together. Con- 
 tinuing, the Chairman said : 
 
 And the year before last I gave notice of a motion upon the sub- 
 ject ; and then by chance seeing an advertisement of a pamphlet 
 written by you upon it, not having the pleasure of knowing you, I 
 wrote to you and asked you if you could supply me with information, 
 which you very readily did. Is not that the origin, in fact, of a great 
 part of the inquiry and the evidence laid before the Committee ? 
 With one exception, that it was not an advertisement which you saw, 
 but you had done me the honour to read a paper which had been 
 published in 1848 in the transactions of the Statistical Society. 
 
 Then the last question (367) referring to this point and 
 put by Mr. Milnes was : " Therefore in all the information 
 which you have collected upon this subject, and for which 
 we owe you so much in this Committee, you have had no 
 other object in view except that of benefiting the public ? " 
 Edwards answered " I hope not, and believe not ". 
 
 The committee sat again four days afterwards. The 
 bearing of the circular letter of Edwards to the foreign
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. 97 
 
 libraries asking for information was inquired about. 
 The questions asked may be given here : 
 
 i. How many Libraries accessible to the public are there at ? 
 
 2. What are their proper designations ? 3. When were they respectively 
 founded ? 4. Under what regulations or restrictions are they publicly 
 accessible? 5. How many persons have frequented them respectively, 
 for the purposes of study, during the last twelve months ? 6. By 
 what funds are they supported, and what is the amount of their en- 
 dowment, if any ? 7. Who are the present librarians ? 8. What is 
 the present number of volumes in each : distinguishing printed books 
 from MSS., and also distinguishing the number of tracts or pamphlets, 
 as nearly as the same may be known ? 9. What is the average annual 
 increase in the number of volumes ? 10. Are books lent out from the 
 library: and, if so, under what regulations? n. What is the total 
 number of volumes so lent out during the last year ? 12. Is there 
 reason to believe that this privilege is abused, and that books are lost, 
 or are wantonly injured ? 13. Do any printed catalogues, either alpha- 
 betical or classed, of the contents of any of these libraries exist ? If not, 
 is it intended or desired to print any such : and if any, on what plan ? 
 
 That represented the main part of his examination on 
 that day. Other witnesses were examined. On the 2ist 
 March he was again called in and examined. Questions 
 had arisen with regard to the accuracy of some of Mr. 
 Edwards' statistics. He said on the day named, " No one 
 is more conscious than I am that they contain many 
 mistakes and many omissions ; but it is utterly incorrect 
 to say that they were carelessly compiled; they were 
 compiled with very great pains and labour : that is within 
 the knowledge of many persons who did me the favour to 
 assist me in the preparation of them ". Before the tables 
 themselves he placed this prefatory note : " I cannot hope 
 that I have not committed many errors : those, however, 
 who are best acquainted with the difficulties which beset 
 enquiries of this nature will regard these errors with some 
 indulgence ; and for any information tending to their 
 correction I shall at all times be very thankful ". He 
 further said in connection with this point : 
 
 I think it is fair that it should be borne in mind that I thus expressed 
 my conviction of the comparative imperfection of those statistics at 
 the very outset of this enquiry ; and the evidence that has been adduced 
 
 7
 
 98 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 this year is confirmatory of that remark of mine, showing how very 
 conflicting the statements are which appear to be authoritative, and 
 to come from quarters upon which it might be expected that reliance 
 could be placed. 
 
 This question as to the reliability of his statistics was 
 evidently one which had disturbed the minds of some of 
 the committee. The chairman said that although perfect 
 accuracy may be exceedingly desirable in statistics of 
 this nature, it is scarcely attainable, and that it is as 
 desirable to make as great an approximation to accuracy 
 as possible. Mr. Edwards had, in framing his tables, 
 endeavoured rather to understate than to overstate the 
 number of the books, and when he had conflicting state- 
 ments before him he was in many cases rather inclined 
 to take the lower statement in point of numbers than the 
 higher. 
 
 A number of further questions were asked him respect- 
 ing certain details given in previous evidence, Lord 
 Seymour being especially anxious to find the weak places 
 in Mr. Edwards' figures. The title given to his tables 
 was "Approximate Tabular View of the Number of 
 Libraries containing 10,000 Volumes or upwards, access- 
 ible to the Public in the several States of Europe ". 
 
 Questions followed on the international exchanges of 
 scientific and literary works, and his examination closed 
 with the general impression created in his answers 
 respecting the working of the British Museum. The 
 general tendency of his evidence was, he claimed, favour- 
 able to the British Museum. 
 
 The appendix contains a copy of a letter from Edwards 
 to Ewart, dealing again with the degree of reliability attach- 
 ing to his statistics. The letter covers seven pages, and 
 he surveys the details given for the various countries 
 with additional information. The supplementary returns 
 and particulars cover a large area, and the general trend 
 of them is to show that he had understated rather than 
 overstated the number of individual libraries falling within 
 his statement, and the aggregate number of books in the 
 several libraries.
 
 DIGEST OF EVIDENCE BEFORE COMMITTEES. gg 
 
 The fact should be noticed here, that the greater com- 
 parative accessibility and number of continental public 
 libraries, which Edwards so persistently urges, must have 
 been used as a kind of argumentative lever rather than as 
 a matter of strict fact. It is very extraordinary that the 
 continent should have been found by Edwards to swarm 
 with freely accessible libraries in 1849, while, as a matter of 
 fact, there are hardly any at the present time, save royal 
 and university libraries, which are in many cases by no 
 means open to all. 
 
 The excitement in the whole library world over these 
 Parliamentary inquiries was considerable. In the Sera- 
 peum of i5th January, 1850, a letter appeared addressed 
 to the editor, extending to eleven pages. To take even a 
 reasonable view of it, the article is a spiteful attack on 
 Ewart, Edwards and the committee. One sentence reads 
 as follows : 
 
 ... Mr. Ewart was the one who set the task. Now, so far as I 
 am aware, this individual was not driven to this work by any particular 
 vocation or special knowledge of libraries ; I do not believe that he 
 had, at that time, ever seen any other large library, but he is a Radical, 
 that is to say, one who knows everything and therefore must naturally 
 improve everything. He has already instituted other Committees, or 
 at least taken part in the same, . . . and therefore must do the same 
 with regard to the Museum and Libraries. As I am advised, he is a 
 remarkable fellow, who really knows as much about collections of 
 books as about statesmanship, and that is nothing whatever but he 
 keeps an amanuensis (of course of the same political colour), who 
 foists on him the task and materials, and inspires Mr. Ewart just as 
 well for the salvation of the inhabitants of Birmingham in their need 
 for libraries, as for all other statesmanlike ideas. 
 
 Edwards is the amanuensis referred to, and is further 
 spoken of as the " 56o-times interrogated Edwards," and 
 is described as the " great unknown," and that " he merely 
 occupied the position of a temporary worker at the British 
 Museum, paid by the week ". Other pretty phrases are 
 used. 
 
 It is not necessary to quote more of the article in this 
 present instance. Ewart and Edwards attributed it to 
 Panizzi's influence. In the same publication for i5th
 
 ioo EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 May, a reply from Mr. Ewart is printed in English, and 
 is a clear and dignified answer to the several charges. 
 No new movement ever yet was without enemies, and 
 the agitation for the passing of the Library Act was by 
 no means an exception to the rule. 
 
 " VERIFICATOR" AND EDWARDS. 
 
 In the issue of ist September, 1849, the Athenaeum 
 printed the first of a series of three notices on the Report 
 of the Select Committee. Five columns are devoted 
 to the first of the articles. " This is one of the best 
 blue books connected with literature that Parliament has 
 given to the public for a very long time," is the verdict 
 of the writer of the review. " The Report abounds in 
 sensible recommendations. . . . There are few traces of 
 hurry . . . and the witnesses are generally ' up ' to the 
 mark' on the several points on which it was thought that 
 their evidence would be found of public service." This 
 is useful testimony. The maps given in the blue book 
 had evidently struck dismay into the writer's mind. The 
 point that Edwards had repeatedly emphasised, that no 
 country was richer than England in private collections, 
 and none was so poor in those which belong to the public, 
 is pushed home by the writer of the article. " Our 
 libraries are unequal, not only to the wants of the public 
 generally, but to the wants (and that is worse) of the 
 great teachers of the public, our literary men. . . . 
 When libraries such as the committee recommend shall 
 be as they should as numerous as barracks and 
 union workhouses throughout the land we shall be glad 
 to see the hours of access extended to the evenings, 
 and the system introduced of lending books liberally yet 
 cautiously." These few extracts will serve to show 
 the character of the whole of the three articles. The 
 Athenceum rendered signal service to the movement 
 for the establishing of public libraries by its able and 
 sympathetic review. 
 
 The second notice prints a good part of the evidence
 
 "VERIFICATOR" AND EDWARDS. 101 
 
 given before the committee by M. Guizot, who was at one 
 time Minister of Public Instruction in France, and more 
 lately an Ambassador to London. He described minutely 
 the working of the public libraries in Paris and the 
 provincial libraries of his country. M. Guizot's evidence 
 throughout was deeply interesting. His view was that even 
 books which chanced to be stolen from a lending library 
 were not morally quite lost. They would be likely to 
 confer good upon the one who neglected to return the 
 book. British librarians to-day are not likely to take so 
 generous a view of borrowers who do not return the books 
 belonging to the library. In the third article the evidence 
 of Edwards is quoted in which he referred to the delay 
 at the British Museum in making the new publications 
 accessible to the public. 
 
 In the same journal a letter appeared on 2yth October, 
 1849, signed " P.S.W. ". The writer of the letter calls at- 
 tention to some of the defects of the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 of Paris. He says that he is slavish enough to prefer the 
 restrictions of the British Museum to the freedom of the 
 Bibliotheque. The letter is to the point throughout, and 
 gives very neatly the other side to the full-coloured 
 picture of Mr. Edwards. 
 
 On iyth November, the first letter signed " Verificator " 
 appeared. These letters were written by the late Thomas 
 Watts, who was then employed in the British Museum 
 Library, and later became Keeper of the Printed Books. 
 He begins his criticism by saying that the statements, 
 made before the committee, had received a good deal of 
 publicity in the press, and he was induced to believe that 
 some researches he had made had tended to show him 
 that they were not deserving of the credit which they had 
 received. He first attacks the maps supplied by " Mr. 
 Edward Edwards of the British Museum, the first and 
 most frequent witness before the committee ". The Paris 
 map shows a number of proprietary libraries, but in the 
 map of London the libraries of a corresponding character 
 were not shown. This was manifestly not only unfair, 
 but laid Edwards open to the charge of not putting forth
 
 102 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 his case with strict regard to accuracy. Mr. Watts fired 
 his heaviest gun first. Edwards suffered, as so many 
 enthusiasts suffer, from the tendency to prove too much 
 from statistics. His case was strong without there 
 being the necessity for adding to it the burden of the 
 mountain of figures which were put forward in Edwards' 
 " Approximate View of the Principal Public Libraries 
 of Europe and the United States of America ". His 
 line of fortifications was too long, and " Verificator " had 
 ample ground for the vigorous and well-aimed attack 
 which he made upon it. Edwards' main statement was 
 that London and the large towns of the provinces were 
 shockingly behind the capitals of the continent, and the 
 provincial cities and towns, in the provision of public 
 libraries freely accessible to the public. The statement 
 was unquestionably true. That the use actually made of 
 this book provision of the continent was not as con- 
 siderable and as universal as it might have been, was 
 barely touched upon by Edwards. His array of statistics 
 in the "Approximate View" is enough to send dismay into 
 the mind of even a confirmed statistician. It is the 
 statistics which "Verificator" criticises. To the main 
 lines of Edwards' evidence, as given before the committee, 
 Thomas Watts scarcely refers. With the public of that day 
 it must have seemed a case of the doctors differing. Both 
 disputants were engaged at the British Museum, and it is 
 impossible to rid one's mind of the feeling that there was 
 a degree of captiousness about the onslaught of " Verifi- 
 cator" which did not go down to the heart of the question. 
 It is not necessary to traverse the whole argument, and to 
 some it may seem a rousing up of dry bones which cannot 
 serve any useful purpose. But there is no doubt that 
 " Verificator's " attacks told powerfully in a certain direc- 
 tion. Edwards himself felt the force of them keenly. Mr. 
 Watts did not touch a worthy note in his side of the 
 argument. Edwards' term was " approximate " in these 
 statistics which were given as an appendix in the Parlia- 
 mentary Report, and do not affect in the least degree the 
 main avenues of Edwards' evidence. Make the witness
 
 "VERIFICATOR" AND EDWARDS. 103 
 
 appear untrustworthy is a plan as old as the very existence 
 of the Law Courts, but while it may be pardonable for the 
 holder of a brief to adopt this case in doing the best for 
 his client, the method can scarcely be defended on the 
 same lines when it attaches to such a vast and important 
 subject as was then before the country. Thomas Watts' 
 microscopic criticisms were no contribution to the discus- 
 sion of the subject " Should there, or should there not, be 
 a provision of public libraries in the country on municipal 
 lines ? " He unwisely passes over the universal absence 
 of freely accessible libraries. It does not require a genius 
 to pelt at a range of figures referring to libraries. The 
 statistics of any dozen libraries in the universe could 
 be riddled into nothingness. There was something 
 constructive about nine-tenths of Edwards' evidence 
 before the committee. There is nothing constructive 
 about Thomas Watts' fourteen columns of grape-shot. 
 Here is one sentence from the first letter as a sample of 
 others. 
 
 It may be deemed a pardonable blunder that the city of Mentz is 
 assigned to Hesse Cassel instead of Hesse Darmstadt, but it is some- 
 what singular that Mr. Edwards did not detect in time for his second 
 edition that the famous convent of Alcoba^a in Portugal is not, as he 
 represents it, situated in Spain, and that Vich in Catalonia belongs to 
 Spain, not, as he represents, to France. The errors in his next branch 
 of information, the date at which the libraries were founded, are still 
 more serious or rather still more ludicrous for we find it stated in 
 both editions, with the most perfect gravity, that " the oldest of the 
 great libraries of printed books is probably that of Vienna, which dates 
 from 1440," when most 6f his readers probably remember what Mr. 
 Edwards, with his frequent publications on the subject, has so un- 
 accountably forgotten, that the earliest printed book with a date was 
 issued in 1457, and the earliest without one, probably not more than 
 seven years previously. 
 
 Poor Edwards ! The nation was practically bookless 
 so far as accessibility to the public was concerned, and the 
 weight of this fact is overlooked, and he is told that he 
 has put a place in Spain which he should have placed in 
 Portugal. Furthermore he is charged with giving the 
 date of the foundation of a library of books as prior to the 
 invention of printing, as if that had anything to do with
 
 104 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 later collections. What was the exact purport of these 
 columns of criticism is not now known. Some book pub- 
 lished about that time gave the population of London as 
 1,900,000. Mr. Watts complained that Mr. Edwards 
 " quietly sets it down at two millions ". Let everything 
 by all means be whipped into strict accuracy. But in 
 discussing the features and qualities of a large edifice, it 
 would not display any marked distinction by complaining 
 that the panes of glass, in the small window of a cellar, 
 were out of proportion. The last article in 1849 of" Verifi- 
 cator" dealt chiefly with catalogues, but here there is no 
 occasion to follow him. 
 
 The correspondence was continued through the early 
 part of 1850. The only reply of Edwards' that appears 
 occupies less than two columns in the issue for 2gth Decem- 
 ber, 1849, an d is dated from 5 Cunningham Place, St. John's 
 Wood. It is not a strong reply. He had clearly followed 
 the line of argument adopted by his opponent. " It must 
 have been," says Edwards, " intensely painful to him to 
 have had to bestow so much time and labour on trivial 
 matters and incidental personalities having so remote a 
 bearing on those public objects and aims." He said that he 
 was preparing a new edition of his "Approximate View," 
 and in this there should be an answer to the charges of 
 inaccuracies made by " Verificator ". A long time followed 
 before this became possible. Motives must not be looked 
 into, but Edwards may have been desirous not to jeopardise 
 his position at the British Museum. Thomas Watts was 
 promoted later to be Keeper of the Printed Books. He 
 deserved an earlier promotion, for he was an extraordinary 
 and original man. Let it be noted with satisfaction that 
 Edwards did not seem to have cherished any grudge 
 against Mr. Watts. In every reference which he makes 
 to him, in his writings afterwards, the tone and remarks 
 are always of a kindly and appreciative nature. With all 
 his asperities Edwards was of a forgiving disposition. 
 Some of the letters of Thomas Watts in the years prior 
 to the inquiry are interesting reading. 
 
 Mr. Robert Cowtan, a fellow-worker at the British
 
 "LIBRARIES AND THE PEOPLE." 105 
 
 Museum, wrote to Edwards on 2ist September, 1849, "... 
 There are those at the present day who can and do appreciate 
 your disinterested and indefatigable labours in the great 
 and glorious cause of popular education . . . but it is the 
 future generations who are now being brought under cul- 
 ture . . . who will have the greater cause to thank you ". 
 
 EDWARDS' " LIBRARIES AND THE PEOPLE ". 
 
 The paper on this subject appeared in the British 
 Quarterly Review of ist February, 1850. This was a few 
 months before the vote in the House of Commons, and 
 being printed in such an influential magazine it could not 
 fail to have carried great weight with legislators, and in 
 preparing the way for the struggle in Parliament. 
 
 It occupies some twenty pages. The writer of it has 
 satisfaction in noting that the review in which his paper 
 was printed was, if he did not mistake, the first among 
 the literary journals of this country to call attention to 
 public libraries and to the comparative view of the acces- 
 sibility of books, both to the scholar and to the people in 
 different countries. 
 
 He refers to some of the evidence given before the 
 commission by M. Guizot and others. Again he drives 
 home the fact that no country was so rich as the United 
 Kingdom in private libraries, and that no country in 
 Europe was worse supplied with public libraries. His 
 own statistics presented to the commission are mentioned, 
 and then in a footnote, in which he says : 
 
 These statistical tables have been attacked with much more asperity 
 than force, in some anonymous letters. . . . The critic deals rather in 
 assertions than proofs : and in correcting trivial errors and oversights 
 has committed grave mistakes of his own. The principal features and 
 broad results of the "Approximate Statistical View of Public Libraries 
 in Europe and America," remain unimpeached. . . . 
 
 His survey of the monastic libraries is sympathetic, as 
 it always was. At that time books were being issued in 
 Great Britain, Germany and France at the rate of some 
 twenty thousand annually. " When persons," he says, 
 41 unaccustomed to the sight of a great library visit one
 
 io6 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 for the first time, they not unfrequently inquire : ' Are all 
 these books read ? ' Nor is it always easy to convince 
 them that the books which no human being, at least in 
 these days, would ever dream of reading, are precisely 
 those which it is most important that a great national 
 library should possess, or that the more extensive such a 
 library is, the larger will be the proportion borne by mere 
 ' books of reference ' to the aggregate numbers, and the 
 larger also its proportion of 'trash'." For educational 
 libraries " selection will be far more important than mere 
 numbers ". Newspapers were then beginning to take a 
 large place in the reading of the people. In America, he 
 remarked that the reading of newspapers incited to other 
 reading, but in this country they superseded it. Were Mr. 
 Edwards now alive he would probably have to reverse this 
 view for the respective countries. Even were Parliamentary 
 aid obtained, the people would require to depend mainly on 
 their own exertions. Salford, Warrington and Glasgow 
 were doing fairly well in the way of voluntary gifts of 
 money for books. Church and parochial libraries, he 
 notices a little farther on, often contain rare and valu- 
 able books, but such libraries were circumstanced some- 
 what as was the man who was rich in lace ruffles 
 and had no shirt. He closes his paper with a powerful 
 appeal for the removal of the duty on the importation, 
 of foreign books. The last sentence in the article is : 
 
 We trust that Mr. Ewart will not allow the coming session to elapse 
 without urging upon Parliament the entire removal of these obnoxious 
 imposts. To him the country is already under deep obligation for 
 untiring efforts to amend the laws, to diffuse education and culture, 
 and to promote in various ways the social and economical well-being 
 of the people. In respect to measures of this practical nature, few 
 men in Parliament have done so much. And the time, we hope, is 
 rapidly approaching when labours such as these will hold a far higher 
 place in public opinion, than the most brilliant gladiatorial displays 
 in the cause of party schemes and party interests. We wish to see a 
 larger portion of our libraries really public, and brought into a nearer 
 and more healthy relation to the people. We desire, also, to witness 
 vigorous efforts, like that at Salford, on the part of the people them- 
 selves, to form new libraries on a sound and permanent basis. 
 
 Modest man, he says nothing of his own efforts I
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 
 
 The management of these libraries has been made wholly inde- 
 pendent of sect, party or clique in religion or in politics. Their 
 permanence has been made in like manner independent of charitable 
 gifts, or of fluctuating subscriptions. 
 
 Memoirs of Libraries. 
 
 A VERY influential Local Committee had been formed in 
 Manchester for the purpose of establishing a public library 
 and adopting the new Public Libraries Act. Subscriptions 
 to the amount of nearly 13,000 had been raised, and 
 with this sum the new library was to be organised. 
 Edwards was selected as librarian and adviser to the 
 committee, and he aided materially in securing the adop- 
 tion of the Act, almost unanimously, in 1852. He was 
 naturally very proud of securing the appointment of first 
 public librarian at Manchester, not only because his 
 position at the British Museum had been determined, but 
 doubtless because such a post would give him an oppor- 
 tunity of carrying some of his ideas into practice. It was 
 in May, 1850, that he received his last cheque from the 
 British Museum, consequently he was free to take up 
 another appointment. On the i8th of May he made this 
 entry in his diary, " Breakfasted with Mr. Ewart who 
 spoke to me very kindly on Museum matters offering to 
 talk with Sir R. H. Inglis thereon. He also offered me 
 a cheque for 30 which I gratefully declined at least at 
 present. He spoke to me as to the difficulty of rendering 
 me any efficient assistance as to new employment in his 
 position as an independent member of Parliament^ but 
 assured me he would gladly do anything that might fall 
 within his power." The friendship at this time of George 
 
 (107)
 
 io8 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Bullen of the British Museum was helpful to his dis- 
 turbed mind. The same may be said of the goodwill 
 of Robert Cowtan, who was also at the Museum. Bullen 
 seems to have realised that Edwards' continuance at 
 the British Museum was undesirable in the interest of 
 his own mental comfort and prospects. Interviews and 
 correspondence with Ewart were constant. The Parlia- 
 mentary Committee had not yet finished its work, and 
 Edwards was busy in preparation for his final examination. 
 On i5th June, 1850, he was on his way to a friend's 
 house and records that he " met Ewart who gave me 
 note enclosing cheque for "50 to defray printing and 
 other expenses which I have incurred in the course of 
 libraries committee ". He lost not a moment's time in 
 paying away a good part of this cheque on his mother's 
 behalf. On 2oth March, 1849, he had received from Mr. 
 Ewart 15 towards the expense of reprinting his pamphlet 
 on "Paucity of Libraries". In the autumn of 1850 he 
 had spent all his money and was in need of more for 
 household expenses. Some expected remittances due for 
 contributions to the Atlas newspaper on the British 
 Museum, National Gallery, etc., had not come to hand, 
 and he with great reluctance applied to Ewart, who sent 
 him on 26th September, 1850, "15 as a loan. These 
 three payments, making a total of 80, are all that can 
 be traced of money received from Ewart or other wealthy 
 friends of the library movement, for the ceaseless labour 
 and endless time and thought he had devoted to the work 
 of promoting the establishment of municipal public 
 libraries. Naturally he could not afford to give his labour 
 to the cause, as could Ewart and others. The first 15 
 which he received was practically all paid away at once 
 by Edwards for printing and postage, and 65 thus 
 remains as the sum total of the pecuniary reward given 
 him for unrivalled services in an important public cause. 
 He did not receive anything for expenses as a witness 
 before the committees. On page xix of the 1849 report 
 a list is given of those who received payment, and the
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 109 
 
 amount in each case. No list is given for 1850. He so 
 scrupulously enters in his diary his income and expendi- 
 ture, that it is reasonable to suppose he would have 
 entered any sum received as a witness. Government 
 servants can scarcely be compensated for giving informa- 
 tion in a Government inquiry, and, apart from this, inquiries 
 at the Treasury have not led to the discovery of any 
 payment to him as a witness. 
 
 Often he had to battle with poverty, and yet he was too 
 proud to ask for adequate recompense for honest and de- 
 voted labour freely given to a great cause ; resting content 
 to see his labour credited to, or appropriated by others, 
 and going forth chiefly as the work of the political heads 
 of the movement. Whether to deplore Edwards' unneces- 
 sary modesty, or censure Ewart for resting content to be 
 served by Edwards on such inadequate terms, must be 
 left to the judgment of the individual reader. The postages 
 alone upon the correspondence, pamphlets and books sent 
 to Ewart and others must have been no small item and 
 could not have been covered by the 15 named. No man 
 was ever more willing to spend his own scanty earnings, 
 or even to be exploited for the good of the commonwealth, 
 than was Edwards ; but, after all, he was not called upon 
 to undertake intense mental labour, and give help of 
 measureless value, largely to enhance the reputation of a 
 rich man who took a prominent place in public life. True, 
 during most of the time that Edwards was helping Ewart, 
 he was an assistant at the British Museum, and received for 
 his labour the princely stipend of 164 and a fraction a year. 
 
 The writer has searched every available record for de- 
 tails of some evidence of public recognition or generosity 
 towards this man who prepared the brief for public libra- 
 ries, but beyond the sum of So already mentioned, there 
 is no trace of any kind of adequate reward. 
 
 On istjuly, 1850, Ewart first spoke to Edwards about the 
 prospects of a librarianship at Manchester, and from this 
 date there are frequent references in his letters and diaries 
 to the opening likely to present itself there. At the end
 
 no EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 of the same month he called upon Brotherton, who received 
 him very kindly, and " promised to give his zealous sup- 
 port to my application for the librarianship at Manchester,". 
 On agth July he enters quietly in his diary, " Libraries Bill 
 passed this night, forty-nine against fifteen ". On the 
 same day he wrote to Binney, W. J. Fox, Kershaw, the 
 member for Stockport, and to Ewart, asking for testi- 
 monials for his Manchester candidature, and it is clear from 
 this that there must have been some talk about Manchester 
 being likely to adopt the Acts very soon after the passing 
 of the library law. Each of these wrote, and the letters 
 are among the papers and correspondence discovered by 
 the writer, and as they have never before, to his knowledge, 
 been given in print, they are here quoted : 
 
 Ewart's letter is dated, "Folkestone, 3ist December, 
 1850 " : 
 
 It gives me both very great pleasure and very sincere gratification to 
 bear my testimony to your fitness to fill the place of Librarian to a Public 
 Library. I believe that there are few persons in England so well ac- 
 quainted with the management, regulation and contents of all existing 
 libraries. I know indeed that your attention has for many years been 
 devoted to this important subject. And I am the more disposed (per- 
 haps the more competent) to speak on it, because I was most 
 materially assisted, as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on 
 Public Libraries, by your extensive experience and unremitting zeal. 
 I will only add that all I have known of your private character is in 
 every respect favourable. Sincerely wishing you success, etc. 
 
 There is a postscript. " I observe with satisfaction that 
 there is an article in the American Almanac, for the coming 
 year, on your ' View of Public Libraries '." 
 
 Dr. Binney wrote from Glasgow on 23rd August : 
 
 I greatly regret not having been able to write to you before 
 I left London and still more so, that my constant movements in the 
 highlands interfered with my previous purpose. I was anxious to 
 express my wishes for your success in respect to the Manchester 
 Librarianship. I should be glad for your own sake to hear of your 
 obtaining an office so congenial with your tastes and habits, and for 
 the duties of which your employment in the British Museum must 
 have peculiarly qualified you : while for the sake of the projected 
 Institution itself, I wish you may succeed, as I think you may be of
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. in 
 
 great use, from your knowledge and experience, in connexion with a 
 library in the course of formation. If it was in my power to forward 
 your object, I should give my assistance with the greatest alacrity, as 
 I feel that I could do so with entire confidence ; and, indeed, I would 
 add, that if you thought this note could be used by you to the least 
 effect, it is quite at your service for that purpose. 
 
 James Kershaw wrote from the House of Commons on 
 3ist July : 
 
 I beg to say how much gratified I am by the information that you are 
 a candidate for the office of Librarian to the new library about to be 
 established by the Town Council of Manchester. I entertain a high 
 opinion of your qualifications for such a post ; and it will give me 
 .great satisfaction to find that you are elected to the office. 
 
 William J. Fox's letter is dated 3oth July : 
 
 From my personal knowledge of Edward Edwards, Esq., and of 
 his services, I am strongly convinced that he would be a most valuable 
 acquisition, as librarian to the new Library about to be established at 
 Manchester, or to any similar Institution. 
 
 A delightful week was spent in August of 1850 by his wife 
 and himself at Kenilworth and the neighbourhood. The 
 holiday was enjoyable to both, and Edwards must have 
 enjoyed himself like a boy fresh from school, as they had 
 several boy relatives with them part of the time, and went 
 -on nutting and blackberrying expeditions with them. In 
 the middle of the month named, he went to Manchester to 
 help on his candidature for the appointment as librarian. 
 He immediately went to see the projected library, and 
 found it " a capable site but in a dense neighbourhood". 
 After this brief visit to Manchester he returned to Kenil- 
 worth, and records several nutting and blackberry expedi- 
 tions with some boys. Happy the man who can become 
 or remain a boy ! On 2yth December, 1850, he went 
 again to Manchester at the invitation of the Mayor, Mr. 
 John Potter, to help him with the preliminaries in the 
 formation of the library. The appointment of librarian 
 had not then been made. 
 
 On the following day he records that he was out before 
 ten o'clock and obtained the plans of Campfield Library 
 from the borough surveyor. During the day he had
 
 ii2 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 interviews with the Mayor and the Bishop of Manchester 
 on library matters, and in the evening he dined with Mr. 
 John Potter, the Mayor. The three last days of 1850 
 were busy days to Edwards in Cottonopolis. On ist 
 January, 1850, he had 45. 4d. in his purse, and at the 
 end of that year, 16 los. gd. to carry forward to 1851. 
 He had expended for " my dear mother and sisters 
 for the year" a very considerable sum. On New Year's 
 Day, 1 85 1, he dined again with the Mayor. A week later 
 he writes, " Attended public meeting at Campfield (Hall 
 of Science), to organise the Manchester Free Library : 
 Mayor presided and the meeting went off spiritedly ". 
 On loth January, at the meeting of the Town's Committee, 
 Edward R. Langworthy proposed, and the Bishop of Man- 
 chester seconded, the appointment of Edwards as librarian 
 at a salary of 200 a year. There were other motions, one 
 that "100 and one that "50 more than this sum should be 
 paid, but both were lost. Two days later was Sunday, and 
 Edwards enters in his diary, " To church at Bowdon (a 
 noble old church, looking all the more beautiful for its 
 Christmas decorations) when I repeated my grateful 
 thanks to Almighty God for bringing me thus far into 
 a new sphere of labour praying that in it I and mine 
 may have His Divine blessing, and that I may have 
 strength to perform my new duties as in His sight ". 
 
 Truly this man, with all his failings, had a devout mind. 
 His appointment at the British Museum had come to 
 an abrupt ending, but Manchester, the first of the great 
 new family of municipal libraries, which he had done so 
 much to bring into existence, had opened its arms to re- 
 ceive him. Every minute detail had to be seen to by 
 himself, and he and the committee, whose efforts he was 
 to direct, had no model which they could follow. The 
 library stationery forms, shelving, heating, furniture, 
 everything had to be thought out by him. The buying 
 of the books was a huge task. All that the compilation 
 of the catalogue meant at this time, when so much of the 
 work was simply a groping in the dark, is only known at
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 113 
 
 this day to the immediate chiefs of the Manchester Public 
 Library. The turmoil of bringing into form and shape 
 the first municipal public library appears very plainly in 
 Edwards' diaries at this period. Only the merest fraction 
 of these entries can be quoted. Readers belonging to the 
 library world can fill in a good deal for themselves. There 
 was no mould out of which the parent institution came, 
 no precedents to be followed and no model to copy. 
 Everything had to be patiently hammered out bit by bit : 
 woven with as much care as Manchester bestowed on 
 some of its choice textiles. This was, perhaps, not the 
 best task which could have fallen to the lot of Ed wards r 
 but he settled honestly to the work. Several men are still 
 alive who shared some of the labours of those days, and 
 they remember Edwards and his part in the task with 
 more than a kindly interest. Mr. William James Paul 
 was secretary of the Working Men's Committee, which 
 collected money to the extent of 800, and had much to do 
 in educating public opinion upon the question. He says, 
 in a letter to the writer, " I was closely connected with him 
 from the time of his engagement to his retiring, and a 
 more hard-working, amiable gentleman I never knew". 
 Mr. John Chadfield was under Edwards for three years as 
 a boy in the library, and " always found him a courteous 
 gentleman ". Alderman Harry Rawson, a Manchester 
 worthy, and Mr. John King, " jun.," now over eighty, were 
 members of the committee during part of the period 
 covered by Edwards' librarianship. Mr. Benjamin Chad- 
 wick was another of Edwards' library boys. These several 
 gentlemen are still living, and all look back along the years, 
 and rejoice, that they had some part in the establishing of 
 the public library, then an entirely new municipal institu- 
 tion. One of these gentlemen tells a story of how a boy 
 assistant was carrying an armful of books in the Man- 
 chester Library with his cap on. The librarian threatened 
 to box the lad's ears if he 'did not take off his cap. A boy 
 with his cap on in a library could not, evidently, in Edwards' 
 estimation, be respectful to the books. 
 
 8
 
 ii 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 William Ewart wrote from Folkestone on i3th January, 
 1851 : 
 
 I heartily congratulate you and rejoice in your success. Make the 
 most of Manchester. It is a rising place. Be content to rise with it. 
 " Spartam nactus es, hanc exornia." 
 
 My brother had been putting in a word for you at the new Liverpool 
 Library. But the salary there will be only 100. I must say that you 
 and I have great reason to rejoice at the result of our exertions. Have 
 we not planted for posterity ? An honest boast may, in such a case, 
 be pardoned. 
 
 I hear of a Library and Museum being formed at Winchester. But 
 not a word in consequence of the 50 copies of the Act I lately sent to 
 the Mayors of as many Municipalities. No new Returns. I will write 
 or speak of them in Town : whither I go for the season to-morrow. 
 But theological animosity will obstruct public business and public 
 good. 
 
 The book buying was a serious task, and later some 
 time was spent, by Edwards and James Crossley, upon 
 this business. He records the receipt of one letter from 
 a firm of Manchester booksellers, whose name he gives, 
 of which he says, "These gentlemen had thought fit to 
 write me a letter on the strength of former transactions 
 on my own account, and for my own literary purposes, in 
 which, after promise of zeal for the library interests, they 
 offered me in addition a discount for myself". Edwards 
 replied that price and good condition were the only 
 recommendations that would influence purchases. 
 
 A librarian has just as much right as any other citizen 
 to have political opinions, but it is not a wise proceeding 
 to give expression to them to the members of a library 
 committee. Very early in those days Edwards talked 
 politics with the Mayor, and Mr. Potter called him " a 
 radical of the Cobden school ". Later he drew up some 
 electioneering literature at the suggestion of the Mayor. 
 This is mentioned in order to urge upon librarians the 
 wisdom of not mixing with politics. A librarian should 
 not know any public politics ; he is the servant of all 
 parties. The Bishop of Manchester was a regular at- 
 tendant at the meetings of the Library Committee, and
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 115 
 
 had ideas of his own, which he expressed, as to how the 
 catalogue should be prepared. His plan was to write the 
 book titles at once in MS. volumes, thus avoiding the 
 use of slips altogether and adopting one alphabetical 
 arrangement, without indexes, but with copious cross- 
 references. The book sub-committee had to thresh out 
 the question, and, as it was a thorny one, some soreness 
 was left in the mind of the librarian. 
 
 Some very matter-of-fact letters referring to library 
 matters had occasionally been written by Edwards on 
 Sundays during these busy days. In 1876 he adds this 
 note in red ink to one of the entries of that period " I 
 look now in retrospect on these repeated entries of 
 correspondence, etc., on Sundays, with the sincerest sorrow 
 and compunction. It seemed at the time to have very 
 plausible excuse, but it had really none whatever. It 
 was altogether wrong and utterly condemnable." He 
 had a tender conscience. During 1852 he had frequent 
 consultations with Sir John Potter, for knighthood had 
 come to the Mayor, about the opening ceremony, and he 
 conferred with him about an advance in his salary to 
 "300, but the Mayor was afraid that nothing could be 
 done. Manchester never has been half liberal enough in 
 the remuneration given to the chiefs of its library staff. 
 On 2oth August, 1852, he records, "... Visited each 
 polling-place thrice to-day and made up returns. At four 
 with Sir John Potter to Town Hall. Final aggregate 
 return thus. For, 3962. Against, 40." Manchester had 
 thus by an early adoption of the Act of 1850 started a 
 little craft on its way which was destined to become a 
 great fleet. A Library Committee appointed by the town 
 council was forthwith appointed. All the work up to 
 this, already described, had been done by the Town's 
 Committee. On 6th September, 1852, Edwards makes 
 the simple entry, " Free Library first opened to the public 
 for reading . . . there was necessarily great crowding 
 and noise : but on the whole the demeanour of the visitors 
 was exemplary". Next day he sent collections of papers
 
 n6 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 and documents about libraries to one correspondent at 
 Oxford, and to another inquirer who had written to him 
 for information. These early years bristle with such 
 inquiries. They must have been a severe tax upon his 
 time and patience. Then, soon after the opening, he 
 took three weeks' holiday, part of which he spent in the 
 Isle of Wight, at Niton, and other places. It is worthy 
 of note that there was only six weeks between the opening 
 of the Manchester Free Library and that of Liverpool. 
 
 In 1854 he seriously felt the pinching caused by his small 
 salary, and in the autumn of that year Potter hinted to him 
 that, to use Edwards' words " it would be better for me 
 to seek to obtain something better ". At the end of that 
 year his cash in hand to carry over for the following year 
 was 8s. The present writer would like to inscribe these 
 sentences about Edwards' agonising days and nights, 
 caused by insufficient' salary, in such a prominent way, 
 that every member of a public library committee would be 
 bound to read them. 
 
 On 22nd March, 1854, Ewart wrote: 
 
 . . . You must excuse me for referring (I know you will take it as 
 it is meant) to a passage in the Manchester Library report. I gave 
 notice of a motion for a Select Committee before I had the advantage 
 of seeing your pamphlet on the question. Indeed, in the preceding 
 session ; and, on the estimates, several sessions before. I think that 
 from your report it would seem that these proceedings had been the 
 consequence of your work which in truth I read afterwards. I men- 
 tion this for the sake of exactness. 
 
 On 24th March there is this entry in his diary : " Wrote 
 Ewart with suggestions on his amended Libraries Bill, 
 on proposed digest of the foreign returns, and correcting 
 his misapprehension on a point incidental to Committee 
 of 1849 ". 
 
 Ewart wrote on 2yth March, 1854 : 
 
 . . . You will, I think, find the essential part of the amendments 
 you suggest embodied in the new bill. I had left the amount of the 
 leviable rate unlimited. Sir B. Hall thought it safe to limit it to a 
 penny, so therefore it stands at present. Still, the extension to a penny 
 will suit many places. . . . There will, I daresay, be an opposition
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 117 
 
 (verbal only) to the bill. But I trust it will be purely, or mainly, 
 Sibthorpian. Sibthorpe intends to propose that we should give a 
 power to purchase Punch. So at least he has hinted. ... In what 
 I said about an incidental point, I meant that the idea was long in my 
 mind, and indeed expressed in motions recorded in Hansard long 
 previous to any intimation alunde. Any light you can throw on the 
 establishment or proposed establishment of new libraries will aid me 
 much. The Times in a recent article coldly hints that we have not 
 succeeded. 
 
 In the first and second reports by Edwards there does 
 not seem to be any remark bearing particularly on the 
 committee of 1849. Other entries in the diaries about 
 this time are 25th February (1854) : " Drew up address 
 to the Burgesses of Birmingham on proposed poll for 
 introduction of Library Act into that town . . ." 
 
 3<Dth March : " Revised draft Petition for Amendment 
 of Libraries Act. Drew up some notes on Free Libraries, 
 and wrote Mr. Wright, of Stockport, Mr. Gradwell, of 
 Ormskirk, Mr. Leader, of Sheffield, and Mr. Tovey, of 
 Bristol." On 25th October, 1854, Ewart wrote : " . . . It 
 must be a great satisfaction to you to witness the result 
 of your many labours on this subject". 
 
 On 22nd April, 1855, Dr. Binney preached in Manchester 
 " a most impressive sermon. . . . May God in His infinite 
 mercy bless to me this word of instruction lead me in 
 humble penitence to seek mercy through Jesus Christ and 
 by the mercy of His atonement, and bring me and all those 
 who are dear to me into humble submission to His Divine 
 will and into devout preparedness for all that may be 
 within His providence concerning us." In 1855, he sent 
 35 i2S. to his mother, and he had 2S. ud. in hand for 
 the new year. During 1855 there are in his diaries, during 
 the last six months, frequent references to his Memoirs of 
 Libraries, which he had then begun. In the following 
 year there was another fruitless application for an increase 
 of salary. It must, however, be remembered that the 
 movement was a new one at this time, and the library 
 had some enemies in the town council, who were ready 
 to pounce upon any weak spot in its administration, so
 
 n8 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 that it is not improbable that they would have resisted an 
 increase of the librarian's stipend. Visits were made to 
 the library by leaders of local opinion in other districts, 
 and information was freely given as to methods and 
 results by Edwards, so that he and his library became 
 the veritable schoolmaster and schoolhouse of the public 
 library movement. During 1856, and the year following, 
 he catalogued the library of Lord Willoughby de Broke, 
 at Compton Verney, for which work he received over two 
 hundred pounds. On 5th August, 1857, he spent part of 
 his holiday in Devon. He writes in his diary " Had a 
 delightful walk from Torquay by the cliffs towards Babba- 
 combe, but the pleasure was interrupted by a fall over the 
 cliff, occasioned by my own awkwardness (I was reaching 
 over to pluck a wildflower), and which might have lost me 
 my life. The brushwood saved me under God's good 
 providence, and I have to be grateful for preservation in 
 the greatest peril of the kind I have yet met with. May 
 the life thus graciously preserved be amended and the 
 lesson be turned to the right account." On i4th Decem- 
 ber he attended a meeting of the Library Committee which 
 he describes as " a most pitiable exhibition of crass 
 ignorance and puerile vanity ". The catalogue was the 
 source of trouble. A neighbouring proprietary library 
 had produced a catalogue on the cheap, which Edwards 
 says " was a disgrace to all concerned in it ". Both the 
 compilation and the printing were poor. Some of the 
 committee desired to follow the same lines for the catalogue 
 of the Reference Library, and it is certain that the librarian 
 resisted it with vigour. It is not a wise thing for a librarian 
 to tell his committee that they do not know anything of 
 books or practical library administration. Such a state- 
 ment might be true in some cases, but the librarian should 
 lock the knowledge in his own heart, and refuse to let it 
 be drawn from him on any pretext. The first librarian of 
 the first municipal library under the Act of 1850 overlooked 
 this prudent course, and suffered in consequence. It was 
 openly said in committee that the librarian was habitually
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. ng 
 
 disrespectful, and, if he taunted the members with igno- 
 rance, any other committee would probably have said the 
 same thing. Alderman Harry Rawson, who was for very 
 many years a member of the committee, says, in a letter 
 to the writer dated aist September, 1901 : 
 
 When in 1856 I first became a member of the Committee of the 
 Manchester Free Libraries Edwards was the chief Librarian. Of his 
 unique knowledge and great abilities, my colleagues and myself had 
 a high opinion. But, unfortunately, we differed on certain matters of 
 administration. No doubt we may have been probably were 
 somewhat too exacting ; and he was hardly as ready to fall into our 
 views as he might have been. He was proudly defiant, and we 
 perhaps needlessly impatient, not making sufficient and reasonable 
 allowance for his peculiarities of temperament and disposition. Poor 
 fellow, he deserved a better fate than an old age of indigence and 
 neglect. 
 
 On Qth June, 1858, Edwards makes this entry in his 
 diary, " The (Town) Council to-day had the almost in- 
 conceivable fatuity and folly to pass this resolution on 
 the motion of. ... Resolved that . . . the committee be 
 requested to procure an analysis of the number of readers 
 in the several libraries with their occupations and pecuniary 
 resources so far as may be found practicable." This 
 illustrates some of the spirit then prevailing. Edwards' 
 view is shown by his words, " The incomparable Dogberry 
 who proposed and carried this resolution was very nearly 
 foisted on the libraries committee by ... in November 
 last ". The various indiscretions and disagreements 
 culminated in an open rupture between committee and 
 librarian, and in the end Edwards was asked to resign. 
 On gth July, 1858, he received a copy of the resolution 
 passed by the committee, that he be " again recommended 
 to resign his office as librarian," and on 6th October the 
 council resolved, " that the appointment of Mr. Edwards 
 as chief librarian be, and the same is hereby, cancelled, 
 and that he be paid such sum, as shall be equivalent to any 
 notice, to which under the circumstances he may be legally 
 entitled". Later he received "125 in addition to the 
 salary due. Before the end of that month Sir John Potter
 
 120 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 died, and Mr. R. W. Smiles was appointed chief librarian. 
 Edwards made visits to the branches to take leave of the 
 staff, and received some kindly words. One member of 
 the committee, who had not always been friendly to 
 Edwards, said that he would at any time travel 100 miles 
 to serve him. His successor, Mr. R. W. Smiles, wrote 
 on 6th October, 1859, as follows : 
 
 I was very sorry to learn the other day, on my return to the Library, 
 that I had missed your visit ; and my regret has been aggravated by 
 the receipt of your favour of the 3oth ult., from which I may reason- 
 ably doubt whether I shall have the pleasure of seeing you at all, for 
 an indefinite time. I am sure that I should have realised both enjoy- 
 ment and profit from a little conversation with you on divers matters : 
 and I should certainly have liked, on the occasion of your leaving 
 Manchester, to have uttered my humble, yet very fervent, " God bless 
 and prosper you ". It would have become me also, as a citizen of 
 Manchester, to express my grateful sense of the inestimable value and 
 importance of the public services you have rendered to the community. 
 Will you allow me to assure you that the traces left here of your 
 labours, and the spirit which inspired them, have deeply impressed 
 me with this feeling of the gratitude due to you ? I must be pardoned 
 for the lapsus of speaking of " traces " of your labours. I should 
 rather speak of the great monument of them which you have reared, 
 and speak of the " traces " of your " spirit," as many, and distinct, and 
 of such a character as to excite feelings of honourable envy in my 
 own mind. I cannot doubt that many very many besides myself, 
 are ready to accord you the " niche " here to which you are so well en- 
 titled, and which very very few men could have so thoroughly earned. 
 
 You should not have troubled me by expression of thanks, etc., I 
 should have been greatly grieved if I could have thought it possible 
 that you would hesitate to command any little facilities we could afford 
 you in your literary labours. You, more than any living man, know 
 the character, contents, and value of these tomes by which I am sur- 
 rounded, and it would be an unworthy and barbarous thing to obstruct 
 you, of all men, from the freest possible use of them compatible (alas 
 for the necessary qualification !) with the character and objects of the 
 Institution. Rely upon all of us here doing most cheerfully (as literary 
 hacks or otherwise) anything we may at any time have it in our power 
 to do for you. 
 
 The plan of the catalogue is at length settled, it is to be on the 
 model of the list (modestly so-called) just out, of the books of reference 
 in the Reading-Room of the British Museum with this difference that 
 we shall have six alphabetical groups and six indices of subjects. I 
 can afford to say to you that I am gratified by this result for various
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 121 
 
 reasons, and among others that it is favourable to rapidity of prepara- 
 tion for the press. Again and most cordially expressing my desire for 
 the best happiness of you and yours, and thanking you for the mag- 
 nanimous kindness which I have received at your hands for the last 
 twelve months. 1 
 
 The reports of the library during Edwards' librarianship 
 are models of what such reports should be. The first is 
 dated 3oth June, 1851, and is signed by Edwards. It 
 -extends to twelve pages, and opens with a record of 
 various lists of books which had been sent out to book- 
 sellers. These lists cover a wide ground, and are drawn 
 up in a way which shows their practical utility. Ac- 
 companying the report is Edwards' draft-list of books 
 proposed for purchase. This is printed on one side only, 
 and various bibliographical particulars, such as size and 
 date of publication, are given, with blank columns for 
 prices and condition. The list covers over 280 pages, 
 and embodies the various sections of literature. It is a 
 masterpiece of bibliographical knowledge. The second 
 report is dated igth October, 1854. It is in two parts, a 
 public report, and a special report for the committee, on 
 the preparation and printing of a classed catalogue. The 
 committee content themselves with this paragraph, to 
 which a page is devoted : 
 
 The Free Public Library Committee report : Your Committee have 
 received the annexed Report (and Appendix) of the working of the 
 Library during the past year, prepared by Mr. Edwards, the principal 
 librarian, and which your Committee have much pleasure in submitting 
 for the information of the Council. 
 
 The library world might well return to first principles 
 in the matter of reports. In most of such documents 
 there is far too little of the librarian and too much of the 
 committee. The question of library reports is a very 
 important one, and the Manchester Libraries Committee 
 would render good service by republishing the reports of 
 Edwards, or such parts of them as will be helpful to 
 present-day librarianship. The third report covers forty, 
 
 1 The original letter is in the possession of Dr. Garnett, C.B.
 
 122 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 the fourth over sixty and the fifth forty pages. The 
 reports are in terse and polished English. The two chief 
 librarians who succeeded Edwards benefited largely in 
 the preparation of the catalogue of the reference books by 
 the work of their predecessor. It is only fair to Edwards 
 to record that, in 1861, the then chairman of the Libraries 
 Committee, Alderman John King, jun., was the prime 
 mover in an attempt to have Edwards back to finish the 
 catalogue. He had an interview in London with Mr. 
 King, and Edwards expressed his entire willingness to 
 accede, and also the great satisfaction which he would feel 
 in undertaking the task. Mr. King did not succeed in 
 carrying the proposition, but it is pleasing to note that all 
 the members of the committee, who were members when 
 Edwards was librarian, voted for his being engaged to- 
 complete the catalogue. The business men of the com- 
 mittee had allowed their desire for economy to get the 
 better of their judgment. The catalogue, instead of costing 
 all told a modest sum, was run up, Edwards says, to 
 upwards of 1,600, and is a monument of what to avoid 
 in cataloguing reference books. In the report printed for 
 private circulation at the end of 1857, Edwards says : 
 
 . . . Against such "cheapness" I most respectfully protest as- 
 illusive. From the windows at which I write this letter, I periodically 
 see a practical illustration of " economy," falsely so-called, which, 
 humble as it is, thrusts itself into my mind as elucidatory of the topic 
 in hand. One of our most constant visitors at Campfield fair-time 
 is " cheapjack ". No man can possibly preach "economy" more 
 zealously than he does. He boasts that he undersells everybody. 
 He decorates the subject with all the artifices of practised oratory. 
 If he spoke from well-conned notes he could not speak more glibly ; 
 and his invariable theme is " cheapness ". But, though his success 
 has been great, it is, I am told, short-lived. His knives are attaining 
 an unfortunate reputation for not cutting ; his crockery succumbs to 
 the slightest casualties ; and his customers are getting convinced that 
 to buy a better article at a fair price is the true economy. I hope we 
 shall not at this stage of the business be induced to deal with " cheap- 
 jack ". . . . I should be willing to undertake the preparation of the 
 MSS. and correction of the proofs at the rate of 2 per sheet, and if 
 the committee should be pleased to entrust me with this duty, it 
 would be my most earnest study to discharge it to their satisfaction.
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 123 
 
 The first part of this extract is a very homely thrust 
 against the economic tendencies of the committee. The 
 latter part is indicative that the librarian was willing to 
 give up the whole of his leisure to the task. At the close 
 of his appointment, Edwards entered into a partnership 
 with a Manchester firm of booksellers and printers, but 
 the partnership did not last long. 
 
 In 1865 Edwards was a candidate for the chief librarian- 
 ship of the Guildhall Library. Lord Macclesfield then wrote 
 to him from Shirburn Castle, Tetsworth, i3th February, 
 1865: 
 
 Dear Mr. Edwards, As I hear you are a candidate for the office of 
 Librarian to the Corporation of London, I trust you may succeed in 
 obtaining a post for which your Bibliographical knowledge and literary 
 experience so well fit you. I have great pleasure in speaking highly of 
 your qualifications, as the.manner in which you carried out the arrange- 
 ment and cataloguing of my library gave proof of your ability and 
 perseverance. 
 
 Mr. James Crossley also wrote from Manchester on the 
 same date : 
 
 I wish you every success in your application for the Librarianship 
 to the City of London. I hope, that in addition to your testimonials, 
 you will be able to interest some of the influential persons, with whom 
 the appointment rests, in your cause, for testimonials, etc., as I well 
 know, however strong they may be, will not carry a candidate through 
 without some one on the election committee strenuously to back them. 
 I enclose my testimonial, which I have great pleasure in sending. I 
 have not addressed it, as I do not know exactly who are the electors. 
 Probably this will not matter. I am much obliged by your Synoptical 
 View of the Records, and am glad to see you turning your attention in 
 that direction. ... I shall be glad to hear how you are going on in 
 reference to this application. 
 
 Among the remaining books acquired by the writer, 
 which belonged to Edwards, there is a copy of Heber's 
 Life of Jeremy Taylor, published 1824, in two volumes. 
 On the title-page Edwards has written the following 
 note : " This book, with many others, now in my 
 possession, and much valued by me, and which, I hope, 
 may one day (after my death) pass on to a Free Town
 
 i2 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Library, . . . came from the Library of my late friend, 
 James Crossley. To him it came from the Rev. John 
 Mitford, a true book-lover." 
 
 There is also in the book the following note made by 
 Edwards: "N.B. That this book is so nicely bound 
 (as I love to see books : for, most truly 
 
 . . . That book doth share the glory 
 
 That, in gold clasps, locks in the golden Story,) 
 
 is due not to 'James Crossley ' but to his old acquaintance, 
 ' John Mitford '. Crossley cared nothing whatever for 
 the ' condition ' of his books, provided the ' Edition ' was 
 the right thing : did not even care whether they were 
 dirty or clean. He possessed about thirty thousand 
 volumes, but possessed scarcely sixty book-shelves. Most 
 of his books were arranged, warehouse-fashion, i.e., in 
 rows upon the floors of various rooms, between two of 
 which you passed (when going either to dinner or to bed) 
 as between two files of soldiers. Mitford, on the other 
 hand, patronised the binder, and made his ancillas learn 
 how to use ' dusters '. E.E." 
 
 Whilst reference is being made to Manchester, one of 
 several letters written to Edwards by Mr. William E. A. 
 Axon, LL.D., will suitably find a place. Mr. Axon has been 
 a friend of public libraries for a long term of years, and has 
 rendered yeoman service to the extension and develop- 
 ment of these institutions. On i3th October, 1867, he 
 wrote : 
 
 . . . Permit me to say . . . that I was not aware until I received 
 your letter that to you we were indebted for the suggestion of Free 
 Libraries to Mr. Ewart. For this information I return my warmest 
 thanks. . . . Personally I owe you a deep debt of gratitude. What 
 little knowledge I possess has been almost wholly acquired by the use 
 of our Free Library, which placed within my reach those aids to study 
 and research which but for these institutions would be quite inaccessible 
 to poor students like myself, and I am endeavouring to show my sense 
 of the benefit conferred upon me, in a way which I think will meet with 
 your approval by advocating the establishment of these libraries 
 throughout the land.
 
 WORK AT MANCHESTER, 1851-1858. 125 
 
 There were few obituary notices at the time of Edwards' 
 death. The fullest and best of those which appeared was 
 in the Manchester Guardian of 25th February, 1886, 
 written, it is understood, by Mr. W. E. A. Axon. The 
 Manchester library world has a warm , appreciation of 
 Edwards. In no part of the country has his memory 
 been kept so fresh as it has in that enterprising city. 
 
 The tribute paid by Mr. W. R. Credland, in his book, 
 The Manchester Public Free Libraries, is excellent. 
 Under date of 3rd March, 1902, Mr. J. Taylor Kay wrote 
 to the present writer as follows : 
 
 ... I loved the man. I was a youthful assistant of his, when the 
 Manchester Free Library Committee did not properly appreciate him, 
 in 1858. I left in 1860 to become librarian of the Manchester 
 Athenaeum. I went back, nth August, 1863 (the day R. W. Smiles 
 resigned the librarianship), to be the Hulme Branch librarian, and 
 acting secretary to the Libraries Committee. ... I have always 
 associated his (Edwards') likeness, ' in my mind's eye,' with that of 
 Lord Macaulay as engraved in the library editions of the ' Miscel- 
 laneous Works '. There is a great similarity in the expression of the 
 face, and they were similarly built, being broad shouldered. ' He was 
 very kind to me he wos,' to quote poor Joe in Bleak House. I was a 
 short, thin, pale, delicate office lad, and had been a persistent user of 
 the library when he suggested my being an assistant, an offer which I 
 enthusiastically accepted. 
 
 One of the first to strike a high note for Edwards' true 
 place in the public library movement was Mr. John J. 
 Ogle, in his book, The Free Library, and again in a paper 
 read by him before the Library Association at the Man- 
 chester meeting of 1899.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 
 
 Every man who enters on this calling (of librarianship) may give 
 a powerful impulse to its elevation. It will never open for him 
 a path to wealth or to popular fame. It is, and is likely to be, 
 eminently exposed to social indifference and misconception. But, 
 as a means of permanent usefulness, it presents opportunities which 
 are surpassed only by those of the pulpit or the press. 
 
 Memoirs of Libraries. 
 
 THE difficulties which surrounded the administration of 
 the early public libraries were numerous and intricate. 
 The then existing libraries afforded little help in the way 
 of garnered experience. The introduction alone of the 
 policy of lending of books for home reading added a new 
 feature, vast in its possibilities, and requiring thought and 
 attention to detail in every direction. When organisations 
 are in full operation, and require only to keep pace with 
 development as the process of evolution makes it necessary, 
 it is easy to lose sight of the early struggles to transform 
 crudeness into workable forms. Doubts and obscurities 
 enveloped the most elementary details of library practice 
 in its early stages, and in all parts of the work Edwards 
 was a pioneer. This fact may be stated with pardonable 
 repetition. In nearly every method for improving the 
 practical equipment of libraries Edwards proved himself 
 to be a far-sighted and extraordinarily successful pioneer. 
 Not only did he lead the way in the great question of 
 making libraries of all kinds more accessible, but he 
 anticipated in a very remarkable manner many of the 
 methods which are now being advocated as the most 
 desirable in advanced library practice. 
 
 Chief among these methods is systematic classification, 
 a subject upon which Edwards not only held the most 
 
 (126)
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 127 
 
 advanced opinions of his time, but was also the most 
 competent judge of its absolute necessity in a library, by 
 reason of his unique knowledge of systems. He was the 
 first in this country to collect, tabulate and compare the 
 various proposals made for the systematic classification of 
 human knowledge. His labours in this direction, as con- 
 tained in his Comparative Table of the Principal Schemes 
 which have been Proposed for the Classification of Human 
 Knowledge, published in 1855, in his Memoirs of Libraries, 
 vol. ii., pp. 761-831, and Free Town Libraries and his 
 remarks upon this important subject are marked by the 
 most painstaking industry and research. His views on 
 the subject of systematic classification were far in advance 
 of the general opinion in the municipal library circles of 
 his day, and, indeed, also in advance of the prevailing 
 opinion held by a majority of the public librarians at the 
 present time. His paper entitled " Notes on the Classifi- 
 cation of Human Knowledge," etc., read on nth March, 
 1858, before the Historic Society of Lancashire and 
 Cheshire, and published in the Transactions for the session 
 1857-58, put forward his well-defined ideas upon the 
 subject. Edwards must have had this type of librarian, 
 past and present, in mind when he says in his recapitulatory 
 chapter of Memoirs of Libraries, p. 1066: 
 
 It might, indeed, have been added that, if one thinks deliberately, 
 the platitudes on this section of our subject, which are so often heard 
 from the lips of amateur or half-educated librarians their faces the 
 while beaming with self-complacency are simply ludicrous. For a 
 librarian to say that he prefers not to classify his books, is much as 
 though a cutler were to say that he liked steel best when unpolished ; 
 or a sculptor that, for his part, he thought marble was seen to most 
 advantage in the block. 
 
 In further support of his belief in the absolute necessity 
 for minute and systematic classification in public muni- 
 cipal libraries, Edwards devised a scheme of his own which 
 was used at Manchester, Bolton and elsewhere, and also, 
 in its broader divisions, forms the system of classification 
 adopted for statistical and other purposes in a number of
 
 128 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 libraries at the present time. This scheme is printed in 
 the second volume of the Memoirs of Libraries, and is a 
 practical system which is even now, among the abundance 
 of minute methods in existence, well worth study. Its value 
 as a classification method applicable to municipal libraries 
 requiring a scheme for shelving, cataloguing and charging 
 or recording books, is marred by a somewhat pedantic 
 notation, made up of a mixture of Roman and Arabic 
 numerals, the alphabet and certain literary symbols. Thus, 
 to express the subdivision of his Class III. History, 
 representing " Ecclesiastical History of England gener- 
 ally " he uses this notation : III. 7, f i, or III. 7 f i 
 which is practically useless, save for printing in a catalogue. 
 The scheme has, however, been recently reprinted by 
 Mr. James Duff Brown, librarian of the Finsbury Public 
 Libraries, in his Manual of Library Classification (p. 51, 
 1898), in a form which makes it of practical value for public 
 municipal libraries. Mr. Brown has set out the principal 
 headings and subdivisions, and printed them in conjunc- 
 tion with a simple notation which makes the classification 
 easy to apply and use. The books on the " Ecclesiastical 
 History of England generally, "for example, are represented 
 by the simple symbol C. 7-5, which can be spoken or 
 written, and so used for any library purposes. This sim- 
 plification of the notation of Edwards' scheme of classifi- 
 cation undoubtedly adds to its usefulness, and renders it 
 capable of being adopted in any kind of library. 
 
 The principal theories of Edwards, in regard to the class- 
 ification of books, are so intimately connected with hi& 
 writings on the subject of cataloguing, that it is impossible 
 to quote them without repetition, and some of his chief 
 statements on the general subject may with advantage be 
 here reproduced from the Memoirs of Libraries (vol. ii.) 
 and Free Town Libraries. 
 
 There is no matter connected with the administration of a Public 
 Library which can vie, in point of importance, with the character and 
 the condition of its catalogues. However liberal its accessibility, 
 however able its chief, however numerous and well-trained its staff.
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 129 
 
 however large and well-selected its store of books, it will fall lament- 
 ably short of the true standard of a good Library, if its catalogues be 
 not (i) well constructed, (2) well kept up with the growth of the collec- 
 tion, and (3) thoroughly at the command of its frequenters. The first 
 point involves the multifarious questions as to the preferability of classi- 
 fied or of alphabetical catalogues, and as to the relative merits of the 
 various schemes which have been proposed for constructing catalogues 
 of either sort ; the other two points entail a discussion of that much 
 controverted question whether the catalogues on whatever plan con- 
 structed of Libraries which are necessarily in astate of constant growth 
 should be kept up in manuscript or in print. That questions such as 
 these are neither trivial, nor very easy of solution, those will best know 
 who have tried to work them out in practice. But, as Mr. Carlyle has 
 said (after his manner,) " A Library is not worth anything without a 
 Catalogue : it is a Polyphemus without any eye in his head, and you 
 must front the difficulties, whatever they may be, of making proper 
 catalogues ". 
 
 But, if there is to be any hope of general agreement as to what sort 
 of catalogues may reasonably be termed " proper," we must try to set 
 out with some clear and definite conceptions of the purposes which 
 such catalogues are intended to subserve. During the last eight years 
 more space has been devoted to this subject in periodical literature, 
 both British and American, than was so devoted during the preceding 
 eighty. Any one whose curiosity may induce him to ' read up ' the 
 discussion, will meet very frequently with a new phrase that of 
 " finding-catalogue " which, at the first blush, looks like a definition, 
 but on closer scrutiny will probably be found of small help in the 
 inquiry. In one sense, indeed, all catalogues must be " finding " 
 catalogues, or they are worthless, but the character of the catalogue 
 which, (in that sense), merits the name will depend on the object of 
 the search. For a Librarian who has in hand the stock-taking of a Lib- 
 rary, a mere list of the " press-marks," or symbols, whether figures 
 or letters, or a combination of both, which fix the local habitation 
 of each book on the shelves, is a " finding-catalogue ". For a reader 
 who wants the known book of a known author, the briefest and most 
 skeleton-like of indexes, so that it be arranged according to authors' 
 names, is a " finding-catalogue ". Even to a reader who seeks a par- 
 ticular book by an unknown author, a very brief and meagre catalogue 
 will prove a finding one always under two conditions : the first, that 
 he is already acquainted with the precise words with which the title 
 begins ; and the second, that the catalogue he has recourse to is 
 arranged according to the beginning of the title, and according to 
 nothing else. But to a student who resorts to a Library in order to 
 gain all the assistance it can afford him upon some specific subject of 
 inquiry, no catalogue will give what he seeks unless it be full, accurate, 
 and classified under heads.
 
 130 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 In proceeding to discuss the various methods by which these several 
 requirements may best be met, I pass over, for the present, those mere 
 lists or " inventories " which are necessary to the internal arrangement 
 and safe custody of a Library, and restrict the term " Catalogues " to 
 such as are needed for the use of the Public. 
 
 Catalogues of books, then, may be drawn up, either, in the first 
 place, according to the topics treated of in the works which have to be 
 catalogued, such topics being arranged in a single alphabetical series 
 for example : AARAU ABACUS ABBEY ABBOT ABEL 
 ABELARD ABERDEEN ABINGDON ABJURATION, and so 
 forth, as in the well-known Bibliotheca Britannica of Watt ; or, secondly, 
 they may be framed in accordance with some systematic classification 
 of their subjects as, for instance, THEOLOGY PHILOSOPHY- 
 JURISPRUDENCE HISTORY LITERATURE each of these 
 classes being divided, and subdivided, into its several branches and 
 sections ; or, thirdly, they may follow an alphabetical arrangement, 
 according to the names of the authors, when known, without any 
 regard to the subjects treated of: the anonymous works following as 
 a separate series, arranged according to topics (as in the above-men- 
 tioned work of Watt), or according to the first word of the title, other 
 than a mere article or preposition (as in the excellent Dictionnaire dcs 
 Anonymes of the learned Librarian of Napoleon, M. Barbier) ; or, 
 finally, they may be drawn up in one alphabetical series which shall 
 include both the names of authors and the headings selected, whether 
 according to either of the principles above named or to some other, 
 for anonymous works, and of this kind of Catalogue there are many 
 examples, some of which I shall have to notice hereafter. . . . 
 
 Catalogues on this plan (an alphabet of authors, titles and subjects) 
 certainly add to the merit of making the important distinction I have 
 advocated, the other merit at least as respects certain students of 
 requiring no previous acquaintance with systems of Classification. 
 But these merits have to be weighed against grave defects. Of neces- 
 sity, such catalogues must deal rather with the phraseology of title- 
 pages than with the real subject-matter of books, and therefore fail to 
 bring under one view all, or any near approximation to all, the books 
 they contain on any given topic. In some cases one word will have 
 several distinct significations, and then the reader's search is embar- 
 rassed with matter foreign to his purpose ; in others, one theme is 
 expressible by several synonymous or convertible terms, and then all 
 these must be turned to, before he can be certain that he has the 
 information of which he is in quest. . . . 
 
 The waste of time and the uncertainty of result that cannot but 
 attend the use, for purposes of study, of catalogues thus constructed, 
 will become still more clearly apparent, if we glance, for a moment, 
 at topics which have been treated in many languages and by writers 
 of very various periods : especially if some of these writers have been
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 131 
 
 subtle schoolmen, or hair-splitting controversialists. Turn either 
 to the work of Watt, or to any extensive catalogue on a similar plan, 
 and look at the headings ALTAR EUCHARIST HOST MASS 
 REAL PRESENCE SACRAMENT SACRIFICE, etc. How 
 many titles will be met with under one or other of these words which 
 might, with equal propriety, have been put under any or all of the rest. 
 And yet other, more vague and general headings must also be examined, 
 before the reader can attain a clear conviction that he is fully in posses- 
 sion of the object of his search. . . . 
 
 Should any further proof be needed that this alphabetical method is 
 far less adapted to the main body of a Catalogue, than to its auxiliary 
 Index, I think it will be afforded, conclusively, if the reader will once 
 more turn to the book just quoted (Watt's Bibliotheca), and glance at 
 the article " Rome ". The attempt to do more than glance at that 
 formidable array of serried columns would be almost as alarming as to 
 be doomed to read up the controversy on the " Power of the Keys," 
 or that on the " Notes of the Church ". This mass of titles is broken 
 up into twelve divisions, and thirty-six subdivisions : and thus a result 
 is ingeniously attained which at once sacrifices alphabetical uniformity, 
 and fails to realise systematic classification. . . . 
 
 Whether the Catalogue to be undertaken be alphabetical or classed : 
 whether it aim at the utmost fulness of information, or at the greatest 
 possible brevity, the difficulties which are inseparable from the task 
 will soon become apparent. Even a mere sale-catalogue, if the vendors 
 are to be honestly dealt with, must proceed upon some sort of plan, 
 framed with a view to meet these difficulties, or so many of them, at 
 least, as obstruct a truthful description, how brief soever, of the books 
 in hand. For the Catalogue of a Library, if intended in any degree to 
 subserve study, there must also be a careful identification of Author- 
 ship. No such Catalogue deserves the name unless the reader of it be 
 able to find, either in the body of the work, or in the Index, (i,) all that 
 the Library possesses of the known books of a known author, at one 
 view; as well as (2,) all that it possesses, by whomsoever written, on a 
 known and definite subject. 
 
 The main difficulties that lie in the way of the identification of Author- 
 ship are obviously referrible to three groups of causes : (i) Variations, 
 errors, and ambiguities in the naming or describing of an author, in 
 books the authorship of which is not designedly concealed ; (2) the 
 intentional suppression of the author's name ; (3) the assumption 
 of feigned names, and the false ascription of books to persons who 
 were not the writers of them, whether for purposes of deception, or 
 merely from ignorance. Memoirs of Libraries (vol. ii.). 
 
 The difficulties which attend the choice between the almost infinite 
 varieties of systems of classification which have been proposed are 
 many, but they have been commonly exaggerated. It is too little 
 remembered that any really ' classified ' catalogue however defective
 
 i 3 2 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 and assailable its theoretical ' system ' cannot, in the nature of 
 things, fail to assist and facilitate the researches of a really working 
 reader and student, in a much greater degree and measure, than can 
 the best conceivable catalogue arranged according to Authors' names. 
 To know the names of all the consultable authors who have treated of 
 a subject is to possess already much of the knowledge which the work- 
 ing student comes to the Library expressly in order to gather. He 
 wants a Catalogue to tell him what authors to read. And he wants 
 not a few books, the authors of which are now known to no mortal. 
 Above all things else, he does not want to consult if the Library be a 
 large one a hundred, or a hundred and fifty, volumes of catalogue : 
 or to turn over and over if it be but a small one the eight hundred 
 or a thousand pages which may intervene between the authors under 
 ' A ' and the authors under ' Z '. For an Index, on the other 
 hand, the alphabetical arrangement of Authors' names is admirable. 
 For a secondary and ancillary full catalogue if accompanying another 
 catalogue, of what nature or ' system ' soever, provided it be really a 
 Catalogue of the Subjects treated of in books it is an excellent help. 
 But it is not, and cannot be, a good principle of construction for 
 the sole and independent Catalogue of any Library which aims at an 
 object in any degree higher than that of reading for mere pastime, or 
 for the acquisition of the humblest rudiments of learning. 
 
 This would be a strictly true assertion even were the catalogue of 
 Authors kept as it uniformly ought to be under a separate alpha- 
 betical order, wholly apart from the alphabetically (but severally) 
 arranged Headings of anonymous books and of polyonymous books. 
 It can never help a searcher for the known book of a known author 
 to have, in one alphabet of titles, a multitude of the 'headings' 
 necessarily chosen for the entry of anonymous works jumbled up with 
 the names of authors. For other searchers than those who are seeking 
 for known books, the alphabet of authors is plainly an obstacle, not a 
 help. The clumsiest and worst of all the existing systems of cata- 
 loguing books according to the nature and subject-matter of the book 
 were the compiler of a Catalogue so unfortunate as to select it from 
 the rest would, at the least, bring under the searcher's eye, at the 
 sole cost and labour of consulting one volume instead of consulting a 
 hundred volumes or a thousand pages between A and Z the titles 
 of perhaps a hundred books, either treating of one and the same 
 subject, or else relating to, and bearing upon, that subject, more or 
 less closely. This advantage alone would far more than compensate 
 the real toiler at a tough subject of inquiry for half a score of contingent 
 but minor disadvantages, did they really exist. And it is very far, 
 indeed, from standing alone. 
 
 The very disadvantages and uncertainties (be they what they may in 
 degree) alleged to attend upon Classified Catalogues involve, at every 
 step, some addition or other to previous knowledge, on the part of the
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 133 
 
 searcher. If he be led, by the occasionally doubtful partitions and 
 severances of a subject, to turn, now and then, from one class, group, 
 or section of such a Catalogue to another class, group, or section, he 
 acquires, by the very process, some piece of knowledge which he had 
 not before. Whilst all that a man acquires by having to lift perhaps 
 a hundred volumes of Catalogues ' A,' ' B,' ' C,' ' D,' etc., and to 
 turn them over from page to page, is a wearied body and a jaded 
 mind. Free Town Libraries (pp. 52-54). [The italics are in his book.] 
 
 From these extracts it will be manifest that Edwards 
 had little, if any, sympathy with the alphabetical arrange- 
 ment of titles and authors' names as in some catalogues. 
 With a complete grasp of the whole subject, and a piercing 
 insight into the manifest requirements which a catalogue 
 should endeavour to satisfy, he dismisses at once the 
 claims set up for any kind of alphabetical catalogue which 
 is not accompanied by a systematic classification and all 
 necessary indexes and other guides. The hold which has 
 been obtained by the "dictionary catalogue," as evolved 
 from the practice of one of Edwards' successors at Man- 
 chester, the late Dr. Crestadoro, and carried up to a certain 
 point of efficiency and thoroughness by the industry and 
 talent of certain American librarians, is to be accounted 
 for by the facility which its form offers for blindfold 
 compilation, and the ease with which it is possible to 
 conceal in a wilderness of alphabet a limited acquaintance 
 with history, geography and subject relationships. It is 
 impossible to approve of any catalogue which does not 
 answer every variety of question which can be put to it, 
 and Edwards was quick to see that a mere alphabetical 
 author catalogue, which might satisfy the scholar or special 
 bibliographer, would be absolutely useless to perhaps 
 90 per cent, of the frequenters of public libraries. In 
 the whole of his writings on this subject he has anticipated, 
 to a very close degree, the principal features of the recent 
 movement in favour of systematically classed and anno- 
 tated catalogues of books, provided with all necessary 
 indexes and other practical aids to research. Although 
 a scholar himself, he sweeps aside the claims of the 
 pedantic student working along narrow lines, to receive
 
 i 34 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 a monopoly of consideration, and boldly attacks the theory 
 which many eminent men like De Morgan, Jevons and some 
 of the officers of the British Museum ably held, that author 
 and title catalogues in alphabetical order are all-sufficient 
 for every purpose. As he points out himself, when 
 speaking of the alphabetical author catalogue, " Many a 
 reader has spent whole days in book-hunting which ought 
 to have been spent in book-reading " ; and every one who 
 has had the misfortune to rely upon author-alphabetical 
 " finding-lists," of the nature above indicated, will recognise 
 and appreciate the breadth of mind and practical sagacity 
 of Edwards, whose knowledge and sympathies rise above 
 any natural prejudices and convictions he may have been 
 inclined to hold by virtue of his position as a State official. 
 The remarkable faculty which he possessed of subor- 
 dinating his own natural inclinations to what he thought 
 to be the general good, is shown throughout the bulk of 
 his writings on library matters. His personal predilections 
 and training should have made him an advocate on the 
 side of those selfish recluses who wish to have libraries 
 strictly preserved for their own use, and who hold in 
 contempt the aspirations of the poor in the direction of 
 culture and literary study. His political leanings towards 
 exclusiveness would also, one is bound to think, almost 
 inevitably predispose him to oppose any movement tending 
 to throw the wealth of libraries into the common pos- 
 session of the proletariat. His very pronounced tendency 
 in the direction of theological and mystical studies, and 
 his attributes as a kind of nineteenth-century monkish 
 scholar, all combine to mark him out as the very man to 
 cry out, with might and main, against any invasion of 
 libraries by the multitude. Yet, such was the liberal- 
 minded and thoroughly public-spirited nature of the man, 
 that he presents, in the most extraordinary juxtaposition, 
 qualities which combine the essentially selfish character- 
 istics of the monk with the alert progressive spirit of the 
 most advanced librarian. His books abound with passages 
 in which he urges the importance of allowing the utmost
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 135 
 
 freedom to readers in libraries, and he even advocates the 
 policy of allowing them to have direct access to the book- 
 shelves, in a manner similar to what has always been 
 the practice in the reading-room of the British Museum. 
 He recommends this policy, not as an experiment to be 
 tried by the less timid managers of public libraries, but as 
 a course which should form an integral part of the organ- 
 isation of every municipal library. These views are only 
 now becoming recognised as vital to the success and 
 completeness of our libraries ; but when Edwards first 
 enunciated them, his was as a voice crying in the wilder- 
 ness. When Edwards organised the Manchester Public 
 Libraries in 1851-58, he introduced a number of forms and 
 regulations which have served as models for many of his 
 successors, and he was one of the first to make a stand 
 against any rules which struck against public rights. In 
 his Free Town Libraries, commenting on the doubtful 
 practices of augmenting funds by means of a charge for 
 borrowers' tickets, and the establishment of subscription 
 departments, he says : 
 
 Lending Department. In one or two of the smaller towns, for 
 example, a payment for borrowers' ' tickets ' has been established. 
 This, at best, is an evasion of the intention of the Legislature, even if 
 it be granted that it may, technically, be regarded as just escaping the 
 precise censure due to the open violation of an Act of Parliament. In 
 one or two others, and in one or two of those which were among the 
 earliest to levy a Library Rate, a combination has been effected of a 
 ' Subscription Library ' with a ' Free Library '. At Bolton such a 
 combination has subsisted for many years. It is less plainly and 
 obviously an evasion of the spirit of the Libraries Act than is the 
 practice of claiming a shilling on the issue of a ticket for the use of 
 the Circulating Department of a Free Town Library, but it partakes, 
 undeniably, of the essential nature of such an evasion. It is a union 
 of things which conflict as well as differ. This union of the subscription 
 principle with the rating principle, as far as regards the Town Library 
 of Bolton, was so framed at the outset as to increase its objectionable 
 character. The worst conceivable classification of men (under any 
 circumstances whatever) in relation to mental culture, or to any 
 appliance or appendage of that, is certainly the breeches'-pocket 
 classification. Yet the framers of the subscription arrangement at 
 Bolton were not content with divaricating the readers at the ' Free
 
 136 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Library' as far as concerns the Circulating branch of it, into a 
 ' First Class,' consisting of subscription paying borrowers, and a 
 ' Second Class,' consisting of non-subscribers : they must needs have 
 three classes, graduated entirely by the breeches'-pocket scale : namely, 
 I. Borrowers of books, who could afford to pay a guinea a year ; II. 
 Borrowers of books v/ho could afford to pay only ten shillings a year ; 
 III. Borrowers of books who could afford to pay directly or indirectly 
 only their share of the Library Rate. The borrowing privileges of 
 each class were made more or less ample, in proportion, exactly on the 
 principle which gives to a First-class railway traveller very soft cushions ; 
 to the Second-class traveller very hard cushions ; and to the Third-class 
 traveller no cushions at all. Free Town Libraries (pp. 58-59). 
 
 As regards the imposition of a charge for tickets or 
 application forms, it is sad to have to chronicle the fact 
 that, in spite of Edwards' vigorous protest, there are still 
 public municipal libraries which persist in making readers 
 pay before they can use the lending library, notwith- 
 standing the very plain declaration of the Public Libraries 
 Act of 1892, and certain judicial decisions against the 
 practice, which have been obtained, both in England and 
 Scotland. In this, as in other important respects, some 
 few libraries have altered but little since 1852, and the 
 fact must be attributed, in a measure, to the circumstance 
 that the teaching of Edwards has never reached the 
 majority of British librarians. When it is considered 
 that only 850 copies of the Memoirs of Libraries were 
 printed, and that most of these found their way into 
 the hands of private collectors and libraries, in the United 
 Kingdom, the Continent and United States, it is not 
 remarkable that only a few of the newer generation of 
 librarians should have knowledge both of the man and 
 his advanced ideas. As regards the rank and file of 
 librarians, both in Britain and America, it must be re- 
 luctantly confessed that complete ignorance of Edwards' 
 practical work on behalf of libraries is the ruling con- 
 dition. His Free Town Libraries was also a book which 
 reached but a few professional men, and it has only been 
 within the past few years, when remainders of this work, 
 and of the Memoirs, were put upon the market, that some
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 137 
 
 of the more recently established public libraries were able 
 to secure copies at all. Another reason for the absence 
 of knowledge of Edwards' teaching is to be found in the 
 fact that comparatively few modern librarians would ever 
 dream of looking for inspiration, stimulus and practical 
 suggestion from books on library economy dated 1859 and 
 1869 respectively. Yet, advanced ideas and theories are 
 to be found in plenty by any casual seeker, and it will be 
 seen from what has been previously stated as regards 
 Edwards' professional achievements, that his thoughts 
 and writings touched very closely some of the most 
 important departments of modern library administration. 
 
 The same practical common-sense which Edwards 
 brought to bear upon the problems connected with public 
 .access, classification, cataloguing and other branches of 
 library work, he also carried to the consideration of library 
 buildings and questions connected with their technical 
 equipment. But on these points his opinions, though 
 sound and sensible, are not quite abreast of the remarkable 
 developments in library architecture since his time, nor 
 has he anticipated to any extent the improvements in 
 labour-saving devices and apparatus which have been 
 introduced by highly trained mechanical specialists. 
 
 If every Library in this country on which the public has any fair 
 claim, could be brought distinctly under public view, by a precise and 
 periodical statement, comprising at least these three particulars : (i.) 
 what it is; (2.) what it has; and (3.) what it does; a long train of 
 improvements would inevitably follow. But the systematic inspection 
 of Public Libraries to be effective must be national. 
 
 This occurs on page 565 of the Memoirs of Libraries. 
 The same idea was advanced at the 1849 inquiry, and the 
 library world is still waiting for that systematic inspection. 
 The present writer is convinced that there will never be a 
 full measure of health and vitality in libraries generally 
 until some central control of this nature is established. 
 The largest and best of the public libraries do not need it, 
 but would welcome it to secure the welfare of the library 
 .body politic. But there is a class of libraries, and it is to
 
 138 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 be feared that it is not a small one, which seriously need 1 
 to have light from the outside brought to bear upon their 
 administration. Such libraries are managed in a narrow, 
 illiberal manner, with rules which hamper rather than help 
 the public. The staff is selected without regard to con- 
 siderations of suitability, training or merit, and every 
 method adopted is of the tamest and least efficient kind.. 
 Only national and systematic inspection can alter thi 
 state of affairs. His Majesty's Inspectors of Public Schools- 
 perform an efficient and salutary work without curbing; 
 local aspirations, and similar inspectors of public libraries 
 would be able to carry out an equally useful task in; 
 connection with the municipal libraries. But it is plain 
 that no form of public Government inspection would be 
 agreeable to existing library authorities, unless accom- 
 panied by some kind of substantial State aid. The present 
 writer must own to being very much in favour of this- 
 suggestion of Edwards. To-day the library world is not 
 within measurable distance of its being carried into effect, 
 The best part of fifty years has passed since Edwards- 
 made the suggestion, and it has not yet been seriously 
 considered. Edwards in this matter is half a century ini 
 advance of current library opinion. The suggestion was 
 a far-sighted one, and all credit must be accorded to- 
 Edwards for putting it forward. There should be no 
 necessity for undue interference, and this is the last 
 thing which would be likely to happen. The municipal 
 authorities would prevent any such calamity, and would 
 doubtless obtain an inspection which would secure the 
 best interests of the individual institutions. 
 
 Some day it is hoped that there will be found a new source 
 of income. Such a tax as the dog tax might be utilised, 
 as in some parts of America, and the local library might be 
 permitted to receive the tax, providing that its work passed 
 the critical survey of a Government inspector. There is 
 a natural disinclination in the minds of many people to 
 multiply the number of Government officials. But there 
 ought not to be any fear that a limited number of in-
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIANSHIP. 139 
 
 specters of public libraries would be an aggravation of 
 the tendency towards officialism. The need for some 
 such inspection as that indicated is very pressing in many 
 cases. Such an expert would know beforehand much of 
 the inner working of every public library in his division. 
 He would stand between the library and the contributing 
 public, and decide whether or not the fullest measure of 
 usefulness was being extracted from the library. He 
 would ascertain if the library was in close and effectual 
 touch with the educational work of the district, and if the 
 institution was a due and important factor in ministering 
 to the welfare of the local public. In a word, such inspec- 
 tion would speedily determine if the work done was robust 
 or otherwise. The whole subject is an increasingly im- 
 portant one, and should be brought constantly before the 
 profession, as it is probably more important now than 
 when Edwards first broached it. 
 
 He says, in Free Town Libraries : " The day will come 
 when in Britain we shall have courses of bibliography and 
 of bibliothecal-economy for the training of librarians, as 
 well as courses of chemistry or of physiology for the 
 training of physicians ". The importance of this sugges- 
 tion will be appreciated by librarians. Such a school, it is 
 hoped, is within measurable distance of being established. 
 
 The use of scientific methods of library classification 
 and cataloguing, the gathering together of local literature 
 of every description, was first advocated by him, as will 
 be seen : 
 
 Everything that is procurable, whether printed or MS., that bears 
 on the history and antiquities, the fauna and flora, the trade and politics, 
 the worthies and notabilities, and, generally, on the local affairs of 
 whatever kind, of the parish, town and country in which the Library 
 may be placed, and of the adjacent district, should be carefully collected. 
 ... If the town or district have any great staple trade, every book and 
 pamphlet relating to that trade . . . should be procured. ... It will 
 be well to fix upon some main subjects of a general kind in which the 
 Library shall be especially well provided. What this subject or these 
 subjects shall be, must, of course, depend upon circumstances which 
 will vary in different places. Memoirs (pp. 573-574).
 
 I 4 o EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 The libraries which he advocated as the best depositories 
 where gifts of books could be stored and taken care of in 
 perpetuity were municipal libraries, and "those Libraries 
 will certainly be likeliest to have a fair share of such 
 accessions, as combine evident care of the books they 
 already possess with a wise liberality in the arrangements 
 for access and profitable use " (Memoirs, p. 606). 
 
 Following closely upon this in the Memoirs is the ques- 
 tion of the distribution to public libraries of selections from 
 the publications of State Papers and books. Allied with 
 this is the subject of international exchanges of books. 
 Edwards had strong views that this plan of exchange with 
 foreign Governments was not only practicable, but would 
 tend to considerable benefit. 
 
 To sum up, the following are the features which 
 Edwards advocated : 
 
 I. Unrestricted access on the part of the public to 
 
 their own libraries, and artistic and scientific 
 
 collections in all institutions supported out of 
 
 public moneys. 
 
 II. Evening opening of the British Museum Library. 
 
 III. Sunday opening of Public Libraries and Museums. 
 
 IV. Lending Libraries. 
 
 V. Systematic and national inspection of Public 
 
 Libraries. 
 
 VI. Collections of local literature and everything apply- 
 ing to the district where the library is situated. 
 VII. The best agencies for taking care of gifts of books, 
 
 etc., in perpetuity were Public Libraries. 
 VIII. The distribution to Public Libraries of Parliament- 
 ary papers and books and documents printed 
 at the public expense. 
 IX. The systematic teaching of Bibliography. 
 
 There is probably no librarian of any country, nor of any 
 period, who can be compared to Edward Edwards for 
 comprehensive grasp of both the literary and the theo- 
 retical sides of librarianship. He was deeply versed in
 
 EDWARDS AND PRESENT-DAY LIBRARIAN SHIP. 141 
 
 everything relating to bibliography and the history ot 
 literary effort, while his knowledge of the libraries of his 
 time was probably unique. But, apart from this, he added 
 to the many gifts of a versatile mind a genuine sympathy 
 with the true seeker after the knowledge stored in books, 
 whether he came clad in broadcloth or fustian. It is so 
 seldom that such a union of admirable qualities is found 
 centred in a single individual, that Edwards may be re- 
 garded as one of these rare phenomena which Nature 
 occasionally produces a heaven-born theoretical lib- 
 rarian and a man of letters.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HIS LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 
 
 The familiar words, " He being dead yet speaketh," are ob- 
 viously true of all men who have led (under human limitations) 
 earnest and noble lives. But their full significance never comes 
 out, save when the web of life and of character has been woven of 
 mingled threads, good and ill together, with the darker skein some- 
 what more than commonly visible. 
 
 Exmouth and its Neighbourhood. 
 
 EDWARDS put good work in whatever he undertook. 
 However much he was in need of money, he never did 
 anything slovenly. His industry in his work was stupen- 
 dous. The length of time occupied in the preparation of 
 some of his books would startle many a modern maker of 
 books. Directly he had a subject upon which he was to 
 write, whether it was the Memoirs, or his article on the 
 " Post-office " for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he began 
 collecting data and notes with a profusion that knew no 
 limit and no weariness. To the library world he sets an 
 example in this respect, worthy of imitation. No trouble 
 was too great for him to take for the verification of a fact, or 
 to give fulness to a statement. His note-books, common- 
 place books, guard books full of memoranda, which it has 
 been possible to collect, reveal the tireless industry of the 
 man. 
 
 He had the true spirit of the man of letters, and was 
 no mere book-maker. No sooner was an edition published 
 of one of his important books than he began to think 
 how he could improve it for a new edition. The printer 
 could never tire him with revises, and upon the printer, 
 all through his work, he was as merciless as an author 
 could be. He lived in an atmosphere of book-lore. A book 
 was to him something more than quires of printed paper 
 
 (142)
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. r 4 3 
 
 Abound within two stout boards, but he was the last man 
 in the world to call a book a book simply because it had 
 the semblance of one. There is not one of his books 
 which shows the marks of undue hurry. Fulness is 
 everywhere writ large. In fact, some of his work was too 
 full, and would have been all the better for wise and 
 liberal pruning. He erred on the side of redundancy. 
 It has been already said that he would never have made 
 a great historian. His leanings and his antipathies were 
 too marked to admit of his taking an impartial view of a 
 subject requiring an exquisite poise of judgment. He 
 lacked in a rather marked' way this mental balance. And 
 yet, as already stated, he never allowed what happened at 
 the British Museum or at Manchester to warp his sense 
 of justice, or lead him to write an angry word. Once he 
 loses this quality, and that in the Preface of the first vol- 
 ume of the second edition of his Memoirs of Libraries, 
 which will be mentioned presently. 
 
 His range of literary vision covered many fields of 
 literature, and he could have concentrated his powers 
 upon several, and probably have achieved eminence. A 
 professor's chair of literature was shut out from him on 
 account of his faults of temper. Coleridge received from 
 Josiah Wedgwood and his brother a recognition of his 
 literary talent, which was capable of producing good work, 
 and they paid him an annuity of 150 a year, as a kind 
 of endowment of his poetic faculty. Could this have been 
 done for poor Edwards we might have had greater literary 
 work from him. It may be argued that the plan did not 
 turn out to Coleridge's benefit. The successful writer of 
 ephemeral literature has his financial reward in his day 
 and generation, but often his death means the eclipse of 
 his literary renown. The greater writers who have done 
 their work, and still do their work in much weariness of 
 mind and body, often in an atmosphere of pecuniary 
 difficulties, achieve posthumous fame as a reward. Most 
 writers would be quite willing to die poor if they could be 
 perfectly sure of reaching this coveted distinction.
 
 i 4 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 In the humble estimation of the writer, the work of 
 Edwards which will live is, first and foremost, his genuine 
 enthusiasm for establishing public libraries in as accessible 
 a form as it was possible to make them ; his Free Town 
 Libraries, as the first history of these municipal institu- 
 tions ; some sections of his Memoirs of Libraries ; and 
 his book of the Monastery of Hyde. His writings are 
 mentioned in the order in which they appeared. 
 
 His Napoleon Medals (17 x 10^ inches, 167 pages) and 
 The Great Seals of England (16 x io inches), both pub- 
 lished in 1837, are productions indicating a very close 
 acquaintance with his subject. The historical and bio- 
 graphical notices are concise and clear. Some of them, 
 it may be said, give a perfect little biography. He begins 
 his introductory remarks to the second named book by 
 saying that " the Great Seals of England have never yet 
 (1837) been given to the English public in a complete 
 and easily accessible form ". Considering that he was 
 quite a young man at this time, it would be interesting, 
 were it now possible, to find out where he had gleaned 
 all this information respecting medals and coins. The 
 more it is looked at, the more does it become a little 
 treasury of numismatic knowledge. The hope may be 
 expressed that in one of the library or scientific journals 
 a capable hand will give an analysis of Edwards' work 
 on these subjects. 
 
 In 1837 there was published by D. Walther, anony- 
 mously, New South Wales : Its Present State and Future 
 Prospects. The book passed as the work of James 
 Macarthur, but it is not unfair to say that there is as 
 much, if not more, of Edwards' work as of the gentleman 
 named. Edwards is not acknowledged in the preface. 
 His diaries at the time the book was in course of prepara- 
 tion are full of references to the progress of the book. The 
 book occupies 344 pages. The historical part is mainly 
 Edwards', and this is full of his cherished side-notes 
 and references. Some other parts of the book dealing 
 with Government documents and statistics do not always
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 145 
 
 contain these side reierences. " The New South Wales 
 people are woefully ignorant of the history of their colony," 
 remarked a Sydney merchant recently to the present 
 writer. But it may be doubted whether the ignorance 
 of the history of our colonies is not as dense in Great 
 Britain as it is anywhere. Edwards rescued what would 
 have been a bald jumble of statistics and official documents, 
 and turned it into a record of the colony, possessing the 
 qualities of interest and some literary merit. He would 
 be twenty-five at the time the book appeared. The style 
 is concise and not flowery. The history and resources ot 
 New South Wales are traversed with care and skill. The 
 intimate knowledge of the colonist Macarthur was supple- 
 mented by the youthful freshness of mind which Edwards- 
 brought to the preparation of the book. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. Edwards published a treatise on The Fine 
 Arts in England, their State and Prospects Considered 
 Relatively to National Education. Part I. treats on " The 
 Administrative Economy of the Fine Arts of England ". 
 To what extent the State should interfere, or can usually 
 interfere for the promotion of education and for the en- 
 couragement of the fine arts, was then a question begin- 
 ning to be pressed upon the public attention. A wide 
 diversity of opinion existed with regard to it, but Edwards 
 must ever be regarded as one of the pioneers who educated 
 public opinion on these subjects. His instincts and sym- 
 pathies in educational matters were distinctly on the 
 popular side. It was at this period that the poverty of 
 England in the matter of public libraries began to press 
 itself vigorously upon his mind and attention. He set 
 himself voluntarily the task of pursuing an elaborate 
 statistical investigation of the subject. 
 
 The book consists of some 374 pages, and is divided 
 into twelve chapters. Of these, the most important are, 
 " On the Foundation of Schools of Design," another, 
 " On the Maintenance and Management of Public Galleries 
 and Museums," and a third, " On the Encouragement of 
 Historical Painting and Sculpture by the State ". This 
 
 IO
 
 146 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 book is important as being the first literary effort of an 
 ambitious nature to bear his name. In the preface he 
 says : 
 
 The author having been long convinced that the principle of non- 
 intervention on the part of the Government, however sound in commerce , 
 has limits in respect to the Fine Arts, and to Public Education, carried 
 beyond which it becomes a serious evil, naturally felt a deep interest 
 in the proceedings of the Committee appointed by the House of Com- 
 mons on the motion of Mr. Ewart " to inquire into the best means of 
 extending a knowledge of the Arts and of the Principles of Design 
 among the people of this country ; and also into the constitution , 
 management and effects of Institutions connected with the Arts". 
 
 This was the committeeof 1836 of which Ewart was chair- 
 man. Edwards possessed a good knowledge of art, and he 
 had some clear views upon artistic subjects. Whether he 
 adopted the wisest course to give effect to these views, by 
 means of a subscription organisation for the distribution 
 of pictures, is a question upon which opinions will differ. 
 To Edwards the most important result was that the Times 
 devoted two special articles upon this book. The first 
 appeared on 3rd September, 1840, and occupied some two 
 and a half columns, and the second followed on the i4th 
 of the same month and ran to the length of one and three- 
 quarter columns. Both articles are headed in prominent 
 type, " Edwards on the Fine Arts in England " and 
 " Edwards on the Fine Arts " respectively, and are given 
 good positions, and printed as " From a Correspondent ". 
 This was not a bad beginning for a new writer, and Parry 
 might well congratulate Edwards on securing these notices 
 in the leading journal. The writer of the articles did not 
 agree with Edwards in many of the statements made, 
 but the whole question is discussed in a way that must 
 have been flattering to the writer of the book. The critic 
 leads off by saying : " This little book contains a good 
 deal of thought and information upon an important subject 
 regarding which the country has been hitherto both careless 
 and ignorant ". Edwards pleaded for a higher public esti- 
 mate to be placed on art, and the Times writer supports
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 147 
 
 that claim. This critic says that the " study of the fine 
 arts has been with us until lately almost a disgrace. Men 
 following art or letters as a profession are still looked upon 
 with a kind of pity." Throughout these articles Edwards 
 is constantly quoted. Edwards argued for art to be brought 
 within the reach of the multitude, and his critic took the 
 view that it was the gentlemen of that date who required 
 means of artistic education. This alone illustrates how 
 far we have travelled since that time, and this improvement 
 is largely due to men of thej Edwards stamp. The writer 
 closes his over four column criticism by saying : 
 
 He (Edwards) desires that in our public buildings now in progress 
 painters should be employed, deploring the absence of their works in 
 our churches, and in many other places where they would be appropriate 
 and useful. We only mention the heads of the subjects on which he 
 touches, but perhaps these remarks may draw attention to his book, 
 which may bring the public and the Government to think upon matters 
 which they have treated hitherto with such neglect. 
 
 The writer was in sympathy with Edwards, but urged 
 that he would have to begin his art education of the people 
 at the higher grades of society. The careful student will 
 see the channel out of which art for the people received 
 its impetus sixty years ago. 
 
 Manchester Worthies and their Foundations, published 
 in 1855, was his next attempt at a book. It only extends, 
 all told, to eighty-eight pages, and he goes over similar 
 ground to that covered in an article he contributed to the 
 British Quarterly Review, early in 1854. Edwards was in 
 love with Humphrey Chetham, a Manchester worthy of the 
 finest strain. The immediate purpose of this little effort 
 was to give Edwards an opportunity of expressing his 
 unbounded admiration for the Chetham Library and its 
 founder. Portions of the chapters had appeared in two 
 magazines, and these he elaborated. The almost monastic 
 character of the library struck a sympathetic chord in the 
 mind of the writer of the little book under discussion. 
 Edwards was among the first of librarians, if not the very 
 first, to appreciate the importance of the Chetham Library.
 
 148 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 It will have been already seen how glowingly he refers to 
 it in his evidence before the Parliamentary Committees, 
 as the first public library in this country open without let 
 or hindrance to those who desired to use the books. He 
 points out the defects of the library and how much it had 
 been starved for the benefit of the school known in the 
 trust under the name of Hospital. He urged that the 
 Chetham Library would fulfil a greater purpose if it were 
 brought under the administration of the then amended 
 Public Libraries Act of 1855. Edwards wished to see the 
 library linked to the municipal libraries of Manchester, 
 and he marshals his brief with skill. The feoffees smiled 
 then as they would now over any such scheme to gather 
 them into a large net. The little book forms pleasant 
 reading, and his list of some of the great treasures in the 
 library formed the basis of further inquiry into what the 
 library contained. Between Thomas Jones, the librarian 
 of the Chetham Library, and Edwards there was a warm 
 friendship begun at the time of the Parliamentary inquiry, 
 and continued and strengthened during the life of the latter 
 in Manchester. Thomas Jones stands out prominently 
 among the librarians of the Chetham Library. 
 
 His article on " Libraries," in the eighth edition of the 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica, covers sixty pages, and the 
 thirteenth volume in which it was printed was issued in 
 1857. The whole of it is very much in the Edwards 
 style. He begins by treating of the collection of books 
 by legal exaction,. by donation, and by international ex- 
 change. Each section is a little treatise on the point 
 with which he deals with at the moment. His chapter 
 on the " Internal Regulation and Financial Economy of 
 Libraries " is one of the most interesting sections, and 
 illustrates how absorbed his mind was becoming in the 
 question of library economy. The second section of his 
 contribution is upon the history of libraries. Probably no 
 brief history of libraries gives a more succinct account of 
 libraries than does Edwards in this chapter. The final 
 corrections of his proofs of the contribution are in the
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 149 
 
 hands of the present writer, and are one of many evidences 
 of his thoroughness. These chapters in the reference 
 book in which they appeared formed the basis of the first 
 edition of his Memoirs of Libraries. 
 
 Edwards' contributions to the eighth edition of the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica were varied and numerous. 
 To vol. xiii., the article on " Libraries," on the " History 
 of Libraries " already mentioned; to vol. xvi., article on 
 "Newspapers," extending to 25 pages; vol. xviii., 
 " Police," occupying 26 pages ; " Post-Office,'' 25 pages ; 
 vol. xix., " Savings Banks," 18 pages ; vol. xxi., " Tea and 
 Tea Trade," 12 pages; "Charles Alexis M. Clerel de 
 Tocqueville," 5 cols. ; " Ant. L. Claude Destutt de 
 Tracy," 3 cols. ; " Trade Museums and Trade Schools," 
 8 cols. ; " Weaving," 14 pages ; " Wool and Wool Trade," 
 "Woollen and Worsted Manufactures," 21 pages. A 
 reference to any one of these articles will show how 
 comprehensive was his range of reading to have enabled 
 him to write upon subjects so diverse as tea, and the 
 wool trade, and written, too, not in the strain of the 
 newspaper writer, but with a singular grip of the whole 
 question. It may be said that his article on weaving 
 gives information, even at this date, not by any means 
 universally known among those who have spent a lifetime 
 in that trade. It is probable that the list of contributions 
 quoted is not exhaustive. Of the nine editions of this 
 great work the eighth is by many looked upon as the 
 best. Many of the articles were treatises on their parti- 
 cular subject. Several of those by Edwards may be so 
 designated. 
 
 So many references have been made on the present 
 occasion to his chief book on libraries that it will suffice 
 to epitomise here the contents of the work. 
 
 Memoirs of Libraries : Including a Handbook of Library 
 Economy. London, 1859. 2 vols. Illustrated, 1041 pp., 
 with sixty-eight pages of introductory matter. 
 
 The paging runs through both volumes continuously. 
 Book I. gives an account of the Libraries of the Ancients,
 
 ISO EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 including Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc., with a chapter on 
 their destruction and dispersion. Book II. deals with the 
 Libraries of the Middle Ages, chiefly Monastic, with an 
 account of their economy, and their dispersion at the dis- 
 solution of Monasteries. There is also a chapter on Libra- 
 ries formed by the royal, noble and other families during 
 the Middle Ages. Book III. gives an account of the Modern 
 Libraries of Great Britain and Ireland, including the British 
 Museum, Bodleian Library, the University and other Lib- 
 raries of Oxford and Cambridge ; Chetham's Library, 
 Manchester ; the Cathedral Libraries of England; Lambeth 
 Palace and Inns of Court Libraries in London ; Municipal 
 Libraries of Norwich, Bristol and Leicester ; the Parochial 
 Libraries of England ; and the history and working of the 
 Public Libraries Acts, 1850-1855, chiefly in Manchester 
 and Liverpool. This ends the first volume. 
 
 The subject of British Libraries is continued in the 
 second volume with descriptions of the Advocates' and 
 Signet Libraries of Edinburgh and the University Libraries 
 of Scotland, Trinity College, Dublin, and other Irish 
 Libraries. Minor Libraries of London, and dispersed and 
 existing British Private Libraries. Book IV. describes 
 the Principal Libraries of the United States, including 
 subscription, proprietary, Congressional, State, school and 
 town, with a chapter on the Smithsonian Institution at 
 Washington. Book V. is devoted to the Modern Libraries 
 of Continental Europe, and leads off with the Imperial 
 Library of France (now the Bibliotheque Nationale), 
 minor Parisian Libraries, and the Provincial Libraries 
 of France. Then follow the Libraries of Italy, Austria 
 and Germany, Poland, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, 
 Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, Russia, Spain and 
 Portugal. In the case of every country the principal 
 libraries of every town are fully described. 
 
 The second part of the book commences at page 569, 
 and is devoted to the Economy of Libraries. Book I., on 
 Book Collecting, deals with the copy-tax question, gifts, 
 Public Documents, International Exchanges, Purchases.
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 151 
 
 Book II. deals with Buildings, including plans and views 
 of existing libraries, hints on planning and information on 
 fittings and furniture. Book III., on Classification and 
 Catalogues, is very important, and contains the celebrated 
 historical account and tables of Classification Schemes, 
 issued separately at Manchester in 1855, the question of 
 printed versus manuscript catalogues, with remarks on 
 catalogue compilation, etc. Book IV., Internal Adminis- 
 tration and Public Service, reviews important questions 
 like librarianship, committees, finance, bookbinding, public 
 access, regulations of reading-rooms and lending libraries, 
 and various other matters. The whole is concluded by a 
 general index. 
 
 This is at once the most elaborate, complete and 
 scholarly work on the subject of libraries in general ever 
 written, and it represents an immense amount of labour 
 and research. Though much of the information is now 
 out of date, and many methods described have been super- 
 seded or improved, it still remains a veritable quarry from 
 which every succeeding writer on libraries must be content 
 to gather material. 
 
 Chapters of the Biographical History of the French 
 Academy : With an Appendix Relating to the Unpublished 
 Monastic Chronicle, entitled " Liber de Hyda " . 176 pp. 
 1864. 
 
 This is one of the least known of Edwards' books, but is 
 one of the best. On this side of the channel, as he begins 
 his books by pointing out, there are very hazy conceptions, 
 except among the most learned, of all that is inferred in 
 France by being a member of the French Academy. A 
 celebrated French writer had, just before Edwards wrote, 
 described a membership of the French Academy as being 
 the " noblest reward which in our days can crown a 
 glorious and independent life ". Possibly it was this 
 saying of Count de Montalembert which led Edwards to 
 look into the history of the Academy. He displays a 
 keen grasp of the literary qualities of some of the past 
 holders of the coveted chairs of the Academy.
 
 152 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Literary and historical fame has often gathered around 
 the Academy, and some of the most noted battles over 
 election or expulsion, between 1629-1683, are surveyed by 
 Edwards with considerable skill. Within a compass of 
 118 pages he gives a literary panorama, and one free 
 from the terrible prolixity which has spoiled some of his 
 other work. It was not a case of one volume being 
 arranged between himself and publisher, and the work 
 growing into two ponderous volumes. One of the 
 best, if not the best chapter in the book, is chapter x., 
 dealing with the election of De Tocqueville, and that 
 writer's work on North America. Writing of this book 
 Edwards says : " Much of the book has a like home 
 applicability. There are keen censures in it, which con- 
 sist simply in putting facts under the light, but the facts 
 so lighted up are by no means exclusively of American 
 growth." He finishes that part of his book with reference 
 to the claims of the candidates of 1863. All through he 
 shows his acquaintance with French literature. The 
 interests of literature in France, he says, are the interests 
 of remote readers all over the world. Whether that 
 position will be maintained in the future is doubtful. A 
 detailed account of the Book of Hyde looks singularly out 
 of place in this record of the French Academy, but it fills 
 forty-six pages of the book. In 1861-62 he was at work on 
 Lord Macclesfield's Library, and then discovered the Hyde 
 manuscript. It was a fortunate find, and it was natural 
 for Edwards to try and make the most of this discovery in 
 the literary world. The only way to do this was to publish 
 a synopsis of the MS. at the earliest possible date. His 
 record of the French Academy afforded this opportunity, 
 and hence this is the apparent reason why there is in one 
 book of 176 pages two totally dissimilar subjects intro- 
 duced. The parallel pages of Asser, the Saxon Chronicle 
 and the Book of Hyde Abbey, in Edwards' abstract show 
 in clear form the value of the Macclesfield MS. This 
 treatise called the attention of scholars in a special way 
 to the manuscript, and prepared the way for Edwards
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 153 
 
 being engaged by the Master of the Rolls to edit the work 
 for the Government series of historical books. 
 
 Libraries and Founders of Libraries. 507 pp. 1864. 
 
 The work is divided into twelve chapters with full 
 appendices. About thirty pages, chiefly in the introductory 
 chapters, are from his article on libraries in the Encyclo- 
 pedia Britannica. These chapters deal with the ancient 
 and mediaeval libraries. Chapter v. is concerning the 
 libraries of some famous authors of various periods. 
 Forty pages are devoted to these, and they are among 
 the best in the book. Chapters vi. and vii. treat of libraries 
 of some celebrated monarchs, and the old Royal Library 
 of the Kings of England. The History of the State Paper 
 Office and the Public Records of the Realm give details 
 and information not commonly met with. Chapters x. 
 and the two following are devoted to the Macclesfield 
 Library at Shirburn Castle, the Marlborough Library at 
 Blenheim Palace, and the Spencer Library then atAlthorp 
 and now at Manchester. Edwards' reference to Dibdin's 
 work is so good that it is worthy of a place here. 
 
 It is impossible to write about the Spencer Library and 
 scarcely possible to visit it without incurring obligation to Dr. 
 Dibdin. His well-known books have had the curious fortune to keep 
 their price, without keeping their reputation. They are lustily abused, 
 and eagerly bought. Nor is the cause far to seek. Want of method, 
 fantastic raptures about trifles, indiscriminate emphasis, inattention to 
 minute accuracy, petty but provoking affectations in style, and weari- 
 some repetitions of pointless anecdotes, are drawbacks which need 
 very eminent merits to countervail them. That Dibdin had eminent 
 merits is certain. But his works bring high prices chiefly because 
 they are very decorative, and of small impressions. The author's 
 acquaintance with books was large, and his love for them real. As a 
 writer, he had powers which under due restraint might have become 
 considerable. He had a highly cultivated taste in the arts of design. 
 He had much industry. He had seen a good deal of the world, under 
 varied aspects. But his mind seems always to have lacked the power 
 of graduation. Much as he had mixed with society, his writings 
 evince plainly that he could as little mark degrees in his estimates of 
 men, as he could mark them in his estimates of books. The petty, 
 the conventional, and the merely external qualities of both, so engrossed 
 his attention, that the vital and intrinsic qualities usually escaped him.
 
 i 5 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 When he had to catalogue a library, magnificent in condition and 
 binding, abounding in rarities, and affording ample means for artistic 
 illustration, he did his work to the delight of the book-loving reader 
 as well as to his own. When he attempted to guide other men, not 
 in collecting fine books, but in choosing instructive and elevating ones, 
 he showed plainly that he had been so busy about type and colophon, 
 uncropped margins and morocco bindings, copies with proof plates and 
 copies on vellum, as to allow the spirit of the author and the essence of 
 the book to evaporate under his manipulations. In like manner, when 
 you read his Reminiscences of the men with whom he had mixed in life, 
 you are left in considerable doubt whether or not he quite understood the 
 difference between two men, both of whom were " Roxburghians," and 
 editors of black-letter rarities Walter Scott and Joseph Haslewood. 
 But, be that as it may, Dibdin's services to the Spencer Library are 
 eminent and enduring. He loved the master, and he loved the task. 
 He has sometimes described books inaccurately. He has more 
 frequently described them with tiresome and frivolous garrulity. But, 
 in the main, his work was honestly and zealously done. With a little 
 more method, and a good deal more of plainness, conciseness, and pro- 
 portion, his Catalogues would have been perfect models. As it is, the 
 Bibliotheca Spenceriana, the Aedes Althorpiance, and the Descriptive 
 Catalogue of the Cassano-Serra Library, constitute a more valuable 
 contribution to bibliographical knowledge, in the technical sense of that 
 term, than has been made by the aggregate labours of any three among 
 other English bibliographers who could be named. Those works 
 have made Lord Spencer's fame as a collector, and the merits of his 
 library, matters of ordinary knowledge to all lovers of books through- 
 out Europe, America, and Australia. They have made the paths 
 smoother for all future labourers in the rugged bibliographic field. 
 They have both gratified and spread a wise taste for fine printing. 
 And the faults which attach to them are precisely such as are wont 
 to be most keenly censured by people who, in like circumstances, would 
 have been incapable of doing so well. In other ways, too, Dibdin 
 rendered good service in his day. 
 
 The list of known Catalogues of English Monastic 
 Libraries and the Synoptical View of the Public Records 
 are fine pieces of work. When it is possible to gather up 
 in one volume the best from Edwards' books on libraries, 
 the Libraries and Founders of Libraries will have a promi- 
 nent place. 
 
 Synoptical Tables of the Records of the Realm (13x8 
 inches, 44 pp.), 1865. His opening words are, " The 
 long-continued researches of the most accomplished and
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 155 
 
 laborious of our legal Antiquaries have failed to establish 
 the dates when the varied functions of the primitive 
 Curia Regis, or, it may more distinctively be called, the 
 Aula Regia, were, for administrative purposes, first sub- 
 divided into those four or five branches, out of which 
 grew, in process of time, the five principal Courts of the 
 Realm ". He then traces the several Record Departments 
 of State, and shows how the preservation of historical 
 documents ultimately became an important office of State, 
 with a -Master of the Rolls as chief. His Synoptical 
 Tables were historically useful at the time they were 
 published. Truly this man was a breaker-up of unworked 
 ground. 
 
 Liber Monasterii de Hyda : Comprising a Chronicle of 
 the Affairs of England, from the Settlement of the Saxons 
 to the Reign of King Cnut : and a Chartulary of the Abbey 
 of Hyde, in Hampshire. A.D. 455-1023. Edited by Edward 
 Edwards, and published under the direction of the Master 
 of the Rolls, 1866. 
 
 As a piece of historical work, indicative of Edwards' 
 ability in this direction, the Liber Monasterii de Hyda 
 ranks high by virtue of its own and its editor's merits. 
 He was at work cataloguing the library of the Earl of 
 Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire, when he 
 discovered this Macclesfield MS., a large volume on 
 vellum. Some of the pages have richly illuminated 
 borders. How it came into the family of the nobleman 
 named is not known, but it must have been a day of 
 great elation to Edwards when the book came into his 
 hands. This book of the Hyde monastery at Winchester 
 is a valuable addition to our knowledge of the Saxon 
 period. 
 
 The book covers some 582 pages. The introduction 
 extends to ninety-eight pages, and the appendix to the 
 introduction to sixteen pages. Then follows the book, 
 the first part of which is written in Latin and the 
 latter part in Saxon. Throughout there are full and 
 carefully made references by Edwards, and marginal
 
 156 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 notes. The work would not have been entrusted to 
 Edwards by the Master of the Rolls without the quali- 
 fications of the editor being fully known. The book 
 proves the scholarship of Edwards. His knowledge of 
 Latin and Anglo-Saxon must have been considerable. 
 The introduction is a most interesting piece of reading, 
 and it may be doubted whether Edwards ever produced a 
 better piece of literature. In some of his books, and 
 particularly in the second edition of the Memoirs of 
 Libraries, the monastic habit of introducing long par- 
 entheses had taken possession of him. His sentences in 
 these are long, and often involved, and require a second 
 reading to make clear. In the introduction to the Book 
 of Hyde this peculiarity is absent. The style is clear 
 and crisp. As a general example of this concise style, 
 the following sentence may be quoted. It is from the 
 *' Introduction," p. 33, and refers to the abbots of New 
 Minster: 
 
 It (Hyde Abbey) was now (A.D. 903-968) scarcely remembered as the 
 once venerated sleeping- place of a mighty king, (Alfred) who was some 
 day to burst his bonds and restore the ancient monarchy of Britain. 
 But by the contemporaries of Ethelgar's youth, Glastonbury was still 
 fondly venerated as the sacred fane which Joseph of Arimathea had 
 founded ; and by the contemporaries of his manhood as the pattern 
 monastery of England, snatched by Dunstan from secular and criminal 
 hands, and moulded into a true exemplar of Benedictine holiness. At 
 Glastonbury at first, as it seems, under Dunstan's own eye, and always 
 under the immediate inspiration which he had breathed into its schools 
 and offices Ethelgar learnt to be an austere, laborious, and am- 
 bitious, but also a benevolent and a charitable monk. The training 
 which Dunstan had begun at Glastonbury, Ethelwold completed at 
 Abingdon. Ethelwold had ruled the see of Winchester but a short 
 time, when he began his vigorous reform at New Minster. When the 
 time and the preliminary measures seemed to him ripe for completion, 
 he put the Abingdon men into the stalls of the refractory canons, and 
 left to the new abbot, Ethelgar, the practical working out of the Bene- 
 dictine system. Ethelwold's zeal had clothed itself in an amplitude 
 of Christian firmness, but the Christian meekness had been much to 
 seek. Ethelgar was gentle as well as resolute. The soft hand was 
 now to be felt as well as the steel glove. The woes of the expelled
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 157 
 
 clergy and their families could touch him, though they had failed 
 to touch the bishop. In the resolve that performance should follow 
 profession, and that monastic revenue should entail monastic duty, 
 both were at one. 
 
 Edwards all through his introduction caught well the 
 spirit of the times covered by the Book of Hyde. He re- 
 velled in this dive into old English history. Hyde Abbey 
 was practically founded by Alfred, although his long- 
 cherished desire to found a new monastery which should 
 pre-eminently be a place of education, was frustrated by 
 the death of that ruler. The reader does not require to 
 be told that the Saxon Chronicles are scanty with regard 
 to this period. Edwards links up all that is recorded in 
 the Book of Hyde, and passes the whole through a dis- 
 criminating intellect. It is to be regretted that this long 
 chapter of introduction was not reprinted as it stands, 
 during the year of the Alfred millenary. It would have 
 formed a useful contribution to the literature of the Alfred 
 age, and the kingships which followed, and especially of 
 the vast part which the monasteries filled, in the economy 
 of learning and religious influence. " Next after its pre- 
 eminent function as a place of perpetual prayer and praise, 
 Alfred desired above all things that this New Monastery 
 should be a seat of learning," says Edwards, and Hyde 
 Abbey through various vicissitudes performed these func- 
 tions. Of the desecration of Alfred's tomb in 1788, and 
 numerous other details which are introduced, this is not 
 the place to refer. Everything is touched with the sympa- 
 thetic hand of a painstaking historical student. Monkish 
 annalists are not strong in dates, and the Book of Hyde 
 is a striking example of this, as Edwards repeatedly points 
 out in his introduction and notes. The more Edwards' 
 literary work is taken in its concrete form, the more satis- 
 factory does it seem. This is the most scholarly of all 
 his writings. 
 
 Exmouth and its Neighbourhood, Ancient and Modern ; 
 Being Notices Historical, Biographical, and Descriptive^
 
 158 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 of a Corner of South Devon. Published anonymously 
 in 1868. 362 pp. 
 
 Exactly what caused this book to be written is not clear. 
 A relative of his wife's had some connection with the 
 Rolle's estate in Devon. Merely a pot-boiler the book 
 certainly was not, and the research which it involved was 
 the immediate cause of his desire to undertake a more 
 ambitious Life of Ralegh. A good part of the book 
 is taken up with Ralegh. The title he gave to the 
 book is not a happy one. It is too suggestive of 
 the conventional guide-book, and a guide-book in 
 this sense Edwards certainly did not mean it to 
 be. It gives a charming sketch of Ralegh, and for 
 interest and delightful reading it is doubtful whether 
 Edwards has produced anything better. Chapters v., vi. 
 and vii. are the best in the book. The parts descriptive 
 of the scenery of that part of Devon are written with a 
 skill which grows upon the reader as he proceeds. It is 
 a history of the southern part of that county which 
 will ever be attractive to lovers of British scenery, and 
 especially for Ralegh's association with it. Ralegh was a 
 great Englishman reared in a county which has turned 
 out some of England's best men. Edwards quickly caught 
 the Devonian spirit. He visited most of the parts made 
 famous by Ralegh's connection with them, and gave to this 
 little book, issued without any name, some of his best 
 work. The touch was a light one throughout, but this 
 adds to its charm. 
 
 His pamphlet, published in 1868, on "Diocesan Regis- 
 tries and Historical Searchers," is very characteristic of 
 the man. It was a correspondence between himself, the 
 Bishop of Salisbury and the Bishop's Registrar and the 
 Registrar of the Chapter. He was then making searches 
 for his Ralegh book and had been to Salisbury. Some 
 difficulties had presented themselves as to his making 
 searches, and a claim of a guinea was made upon him for 
 official services. This charge he resisted on principle, and 
 defended it in the local county court. He printed the
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 159 
 
 whole correspondence with his comments". . He lost the 
 case and had to pay, but there is little doubt about 
 Edwards having been rather badly served. The trouble 
 may possibly have been of his own causing, but he furthered 
 the reasonable demand on the part of historical writers, 
 that they should be unharassed in their access to the 
 Diocesan Records. In his pamphlet he said that he had 
 journeyed more than two thousand four hundred miles in 
 search of Ralegh documents. 
 
 The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh. 2 vols. 1868. Pp. 
 723-530, rendered service to the student of English 
 history. The second volume gives his letters, collected 
 for the first time by Edwards. The Regius Professor of 
 Modern History at Oxford, at the time the book was 
 published, described it as a " monument of patient and 
 persevering research, marked by a sound historical dis- 
 crimination ". The first volume of Ralegh is a solid piece 
 of work. It will never rank as a great history, as his 
 methods of treatment would alone prevent this, but every 
 page of it proves the care with which he handled his 
 material, and the patient skill with which he developed his 
 record. His picture of one of the giants of the Elizabethan 
 age is a powerful one. He leads up to the cruel ending 
 of all Ralegh's greatness by a series of pictures which 
 are graphic and, at times, impressive. There are portions, 
 which, if the reader did not know who was the writer of 
 the book, he might think that he was reading some work 
 of the author of the Conquest of England. That period of 
 English history will ever have a charm for most readers. 
 It was a great age because the men and the women in it 
 were great by every test which can be applied to them, 
 taking into account the period and the circumstances 
 under which they lived. Some of them were roaming 
 buccaneers of the high seas, but in this respect they were 
 no better and no worse than the fortune-seekers of other 
 leading nations, and the standard of international honour 
 was then not as great as is now the case. Ralegh's share, 
 in these gold and colony-seeking expeditions, is drawn
 
 160 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 with care and precision. Edwards was saturated with 
 his subject, and had a great admiration for Ralegh. He 
 lived wholly in the Ralegh spirit during the time he was 
 at work on the book, as is evidenced from his diaries. Read 
 where one may in the work it is interesting, and any 
 student of the period would turn naturally to Edwards' 
 book for reference. The second volume is almost wholly 
 occupied with the letters. Edwards was probably the first 
 to use, in a collective form, the rich collection of manu- 
 script letters at Hatfield House. Lord Salisbury gave 
 every assistance for this to be done, and Edwards gratefully 
 inscribes the second volume to that statesman. The late 
 Lady Salisbury, it is gathered from entries in Edwards' 
 diaries, rendered aid in making copies of some of the 
 letters for the author of the book. The index to the 
 letters is a capital piece of work. If all historians would 
 give in so full a form an index to the letters quoted as 
 Edwards has done, it would be a gain to the student. 
 Librarians will perhaps turn to the list of contents of the 
 second volume to see what is meant. If the work in its 
 entirety is not a distinguished history, it deserves to rank 
 highly as a careful piece of historical writing. 
 
 Free Town Libraries: Their .Formation, Manage- 
 ment, and History ; in Britain, France, Germany, and 
 America. Together with Brief Notices of Book Collectors, 
 and of the Respective Places of Deposit of their Sur- 
 viving Collections. London, 1869. xvi + 372 and (262) 
 
 PP- 
 
 . Book I. deals with early Free Libraries in Great Britain 
 and the Legislation passed up to 1866 ; the duties of Local 
 Authorities ; the planning, formation and organisation of 
 the Free Libraries ; and the actual practice in towns like 
 Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Birmingham, 
 Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton, etc. Book II. describes 
 the Town, Communal and Popular Libraries of France, 
 Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium ; their constitution, 
 management and limitations. Book III. gives similar his- 
 torical and practical information about the State, Town,
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 161 
 
 Endowed and other Public Libraries in the United States 
 and Canada. A whole chapter is devoted to the work of the 
 Boston Public Library. Book IV. is devoted to notices of 
 celebrated Book Collectors, occupying 224 pages, with a 
 separate pagination. Under the name of each collector is 
 given the libraries or other places where the collection is 
 deposited, with notes on the libraries and nature of the 
 collections, arranged alphabetically under the name of the 
 Collectors. 
 
 Lives of the Founders of the British Museum : with 
 Notices of its Chief Augmenters and other Benefactors, 1570- 
 1870. London, 1870. Triibner & Co. Illustrated, xii + 
 780 pp. 
 
 Lives and historical and critical notices of Sir Robert 
 Cotton, founder of the Cottonian Library; Henry Prince 
 of- Wales, founder of the " Royal Library " at St. James's ; 
 Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, collector of the Arundel 
 MSS. ; Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, collector of the 
 Harleian MSS. ; Sir Hans Sloane, and other founders and 
 collectors whose collections formed the nucleus of the 
 present British Museum. Book II. deals with other organ- 
 isers and augmenters, and gives an account of Montagu 
 House and such collectors of archaeological specimens as 
 Sir William Hamilton and the Earl of Elgin, whose 
 " Elgin Marbles " form an important item of the Greek 
 sculpture galleries. Notices of Cracherode, the Marquess 
 of Lansdowne, Dr. Charles Burney, Francis Hargrave and 
 the ninth Earl of Bridgewater are also included. Book II. 
 concludes with an account of the " King's Library " formed 
 by George III. and the collections of Sir Joseph Banks, 
 The concluding Book (No. III.) deals with the internal 
 arrangements and economy of the Museum under the 
 management of librarians like Joseph Planta, Sir Henry 
 Ellis, and Sir Antonio Panizzi, including an account of 
 the evolution and adoption of the plans for the great 
 circular reading-room and other parts of the present build- 
 ing. A chapter is devoted to the work of archaeological 
 collectors like Fellows, Layard and Newton, and another 
 
 II
 
 l6z EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 to the founder of the Grenville Library, Thomas Gren- 
 ville. The conclusion of the book consists of chapters on 
 miscellaneous bequestsand collections of antiquities, books, 
 ethnography, etc., and the proposals made for separating 
 the Art and Natural History Collections from the Books 
 and Antiquities, since carried out by the formation of the 
 new museum buildings at South Kensington. 
 
 Dr. Garnett, in his appreciative sketch of Edwards in 
 the Dictionary of National Biography, says of this book : 
 " By his Lives of the Founders of the British Museum he 
 made himself the historian of the national library, and 
 although his work must be supplemented and may possibly 
 be superseded by others, it is likely to remain the ground- 
 work of every future history ". 
 
 It will be seen from the chronological table in the 
 appendix what is embodied in the Carte manuscripts. 
 The labour appertaining to them represented a solidly 
 large task. Edwards worked for six years in the Bodleian 
 Library, and the results of his labours are contained in 
 thirty-five large foolscap folio volumes. He brought to 
 bear upon the work considerable familiarity with historical 
 studies and with old records. In this, as in all his work, 
 he desired to be thorough. The dates, however, in it 
 have not always been correctly given, as has been pointed 
 out by Gardiner and others. It was due to the kindly 
 feeling of the late Rev. H. O. Coxe, M.A., librarian at 
 the time, that the work was placed in his hands. 
 Edwards was never on the regular staff of the Bodleian 
 in the acknowledged sense of the term. He was merely 
 engaged for a specific piece of work, and his calendar slips 
 were paid for, according to number, so that his position 
 was one entirely of a temporary nature. When this work 
 -was finished they were obliged to say that they could not 
 afford to keep him for anything else. All librarians will 
 at once see that a period of six years occupied in the 
 cataloguing of manuscripts, no matter how voluminous, 
 was a question for the grave consideration of those respon- 
 sible for the administration of that library. In the case
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 163 
 
 of the Carte MSS. a gross sum of 1,320 had been ex- 
 pended. Edwards wished to do supplementary work 
 in connexion with his calendar, and had the library 
 authorities at the time been better off, they might have 
 let him do so. But there was a financial deficit in 
 1882, the year after the death of the Rev. H. O. Coxe, 
 and a new librarian had been appointed. The successor 
 to Mr. Coxe, who remains the chief librarian at the 
 present time, had no other alternative than to bring the 
 calendaring of these papers to a conclusion. Edwards 
 writes on page 13 in the preface of the first volume of the 
 second edition of Memoirs of Libraries as if he had been 
 arbitrarily dismissed from a post which was his by right of 
 a tenure extending over a term of years. This was not the 
 case, and it is only just to Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, M.A., 
 Bodley's librarian, that the exact facts should be known. 
 That Edwards laboured at his task strenuously is readily 
 granted, but the results were such as to cause the calendar 
 to remain in manuscript, in which form, however, it is still 
 available for reference in the reading-room. The revision 
 of it would involve so much further labour in reducing it 
 to a correct state for printing, that high authorities have 
 reported against this being undertaken. A much more 
 succinct calendar would have sufficed. That Edwards 
 felt acutely the snapping of the Oxford link, in his life, is 
 patent from his diaries and correspondence at the time. 
 The loss of the income which he had derived from Bodley's 
 was a serious blow to him, and placed him, so far as ways 
 and means were concerned, in an awkward position. The 
 outlook was dark for the old man, and no wonder that 
 stubborn depression should have taken possession of his 
 soul. He loved Oxford. Its colleges, its libraries, and 
 its river and fields soothed him, and curbed the turbulence 
 of his restless temper. But the end of his sojourn by the 
 Isis was to come, and the manner of its coming left behind 
 a wounded spirit and a sense of having been wronged. 
 But that he suffered from the inevitable has been made 
 clear.
 
 164 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 During all his Oxford days the Rev. Charles Plummer, 
 M. A., of Corpus Christi College, was his friend. Some work 
 in the library of that college was given Edwards to do at 
 the time thathe was engaged at the Bodleian. To Mr. Plum- 
 mer, more than to any one, is due the pension of 80 a year 
 granted to Edwards on 23rd August, 1883, in recognition 
 of his valuable services to the cause of literature. There 
 is a pardonable irony in the publication of the list printed 
 by Edwards in the second edition of Memoirs of Libraries 
 of the pensions granted by the Crown during that official 
 year. Edwards' amount is the least. One gentleman, 
 because he was the son of his father who was a poet, had 
 a larger sum, and one gentleman who had rendered service 
 to English philology received nearly double the amount 
 granted to Edwards. There are other anomalies in the 
 list. But whoever yet saw a pension list in which there 
 were not anomalies? In 1876 there was a memorial for 
 a pension for Edwards addressed to Lord Beaconsfield, 
 supported by the Mayor of Manchester, and the Chair- 
 man of the Public Libraries Committee in that city, and 
 also by the Provost and Scholars of Queen's College, 
 Oxford. There was no hope of success, and the matter 
 dropped. It was not a light task to induce Edwards to 
 give his consent for another attempt to be made. With 
 the efforts in 1876 he had nothing whatever to do. No 
 man ever tried less than did Edwards to fix his mainten- 
 ance on the public purse. He was no parasite of the 
 Treasury. The Rev. Charles Plummer in 1882 saw a 
 possibility of reaching the ear of Mr. Gladstone, through 
 one of the Premier's sons who owned Corpus Christi as 
 his Alma Mater. A petition was prepared, and when 
 supported by men like Sir Edward A. Bond, and aided by 
 powerful public bodies, it brought about the desired end. 
 This was not the only kindness conferred upon Edwards by 
 Mr. Plummer. He admired the old man for the services 
 he had rendered to literature, and in the spread of useful 
 knowledge. The pension was honestly and laboriously 
 earned, and this cannot be said of all the claims upon
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 165 
 
 the Civil List which are granted. Edwards inscribes the 
 second edition of his Memoirs of Libraries to Mr. Plummer 
 "with feelings of true regard and esteem". Could he 
 have had the entire pension for his own purposes, it would 
 have sufficed to make him comfortable, but the require- 
 ments of his sister, and the extent of his postage and 
 printing account, on behalf of the second edition of 
 Memoirs of Libraries, made serious inroads on the modest 
 income. 
 
 Edwards' " Letters of a Hampshire Conservative (loyal 
 to the Church and to the Queen)," contributed in 1884 to 
 Isle of Wight newspapers, covered a number of columns 
 in those papers. There is much sound sense in several 
 of them, and those on Public Schools, Public Libraries, 
 Public Parks and Charities, under the control of the City 
 Corporation, are the best of the series. But they are 
 often spoiled by narrowness and incomplete vision. 
 
 Handbook to the Literature of General Biography. Part 
 I. 1885. 250 copies printed. 
 
 Edwards collaborated with the Rev. Charles Hole, B.A., 
 in the preparation of this fragment. To it he contributed 
 the chapters on "Biography : its Aims and its Varieties". 
 This is divided into chapters, and runs to nearly fifty 
 pages. The biographical part proper comprises thirty- 
 two pages, and Edwards' initial appears to most of the 
 annotations. The work was to have been completed in 
 eight parts, but it could not be carried out. For a long 
 number of years Edwards had a plan for a work on the 
 lines of this handbook, and offered it to several publishers, 
 but without success. He had much of the true biographical 
 spirit with a trustworthy critical view. One of the last 
 letters written by Edwards, which are still in existence, is 
 one addressed to the Rev. Charles Hole, B.A., dated yth 
 December, 1885, about this handbook. It is written from 
 The Manse, Niton. 
 
 I thank you very gratefully for the kindness of your letter of the 
 25th ulto., and beg you to present also my best thanks to Mrs. Hole, 
 for her kind remembrance of me after so many years. You happily
 
 166 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 enjoy domestic blessings of which I have been deprived for nine years, 
 having lost my dear wife at the close of 1876 after a union of almost 
 thirty-three years. I have felt my bereavement very deeply. When 
 I left Oxford (in 1883) my health was quite broken down, but the 
 change to this milder climate has, by God's blessing, been very bene- 
 ficial to me, and though far from being well, I have much reason to be 
 grateful for the measure of strength still granted to me at a very 
 advanced age. As to our little Handbook only this first part has 
 been worked off in an impression of 250 copies and I can scarcely 
 hope to be enabled to continue it, without your effective co-operation. 
 But I had no thought of your incurring any part of the risk of publication. 
 The literary plan of the work is so much your own, that it would be 
 utterly unwarrantable to put my name to it without yours, and of my 
 share of the labour you speak much too generously. . . . 
 
 The following are extracts from a letter dated 3rd 
 January, 1902, from the Rev. Charles Hole, B.A. , to the 
 present writer : 
 
 . . . This correspondence with you has awakened very welcome 
 memories of the distant past, otherwise almost faded by lapse of time. 
 I have a very distinct and vivid recollection of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards. 
 They came to Shanklin while I was curate there, and I quickly made 
 their acquaintance, drawn towards Mr. Edwards by his literary taste 
 and conversation. They were visitors at that pretty spot I think 
 for a whole season [this would be in 1862] if not for two seasons. 
 Their sitting-room loaded with books and papers in every corner. 
 His figure and face are quite before my mind's eye ; of fair height and 
 well formed ; a very kindly expression of countenance, conversation 
 ever interesting and welcome. I gathered that he had held some post 
 at the British Museum, but I never knew exactly what. . . . Accord- 
 ing to my recollection Mr. Edwards, after I parted from him, received 
 an appointment to catalogue a nobleman's library. I do not re- 
 member ever having seen a photograph or a portrait of him. . . . 
 Mr. Edwards used to attend the Rev. Mr. Southouse's Church, the 
 little country Church on the Ventnor Road, and appreciated his 
 ministry, which I think suited Mr. Edwards' cast of mind very much, 
 plain and simple yet full of life and stimulus. ... A serious religious 
 tone, not over demonstrative, is what I recollect in Mr. Edwards. 
 You will have gathered, from all I have said, how welcome his memory 
 is still to me, and how much I valued, as I still do value, men of his 
 stamp. . . . 
 
 The Second Edition of Memoirs of Libraries. 
 Whatever estimate he may have formed regarding his 
 other work, the Memoirs of Libraries was his favourite
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 167 
 
 book. There was to the end an apparent consciousness 
 that he would be remembered by this book. The first 
 edition represents a mountain of labour, but for the second 
 edition he had, from the beginning, planned a long series 
 of radical changes in its general scheme and scope. The 
 book was the child of his middle life, when he was in his 
 forty-seventh year, and the second edition was to be the 
 outcome of his mature years, when a stage in the ladder 
 of life had been reached, after which it would be scarcely 
 possible to undertake any large task. There will be few 
 writers, or lovers of books, librarians or general readers, 
 who cannot enter to some extent with sympathy into the 
 old man's intense longing to leave behind him this work 
 in as complete a state as his fulness of years, and fresh 
 library gleanings from every source, would have enabled 
 him to do. " This do, and let me then die," he may be 
 imagined as saying to himself. The mediaeval monk, 
 labouring in the dim light of the waning day at his work 
 of illumination, could not have been more eager to finish 
 his task before the light departed, than was Edwards to 
 complete his last work before the lamp of life was extin- 
 guished. The whole aspect of this brave struggle against 
 poverty, old age and ill health, as it can now be viewed, 
 is pathetic in the extreme. 
 
 In his diary for 8th June, 1859, one leaf only of which 
 has been found, there occurs this entry : 
 
 Letter from ... as to proposed arragt. abt. Mems. of Libs, sug- 
 gested by my letter of i6th ulto. They decline my present offer 
 respecting 2nd Edit, but express a willingness " to treat with you 
 for your share of the remaining stock, or rather to pay you a sum of 
 money as a compensation for any claim you may have on this edi- 
 tion " : stipulating, however, in any arrangement that we may now 
 make for the option of publishg. a new edition " should it be considered 
 expedient to have one, either upon the terms of the present Edn., or 
 such other terms as we may mutually agree upon ". 
 
 This was very early in the day for thoughts with regard 
 to a new edition, seeing that the first one was only issued' 
 in January of the same year. The mental juvenility of
 
 168 . EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 the author aided him to outstrip the publisher in the 
 demand for the book. It may be stated, that so far as can 
 be judged from the correspondence now available, he 
 seems to have been treated with forbearance and con- 
 sideration by his several publishers. Disputes and differ- 
 ences between author and publisher are as old as the hills. 
 Where one book is successful there are twenty which are 
 not successful. But every author has an overwhelming 
 conviction that his book is that successful one in the 
 whole twenty, or at least that it ought to be, and he 
 probably lays the blame on the publisher if it does not 
 meet with the sale which, he estimates, should follow a 
 proper distribution of announcements of the work. The 
 majority of libraries ought to have upon their shelves 
 every book dealing with libraries and library administra- 
 tion. But while a good number take this view, a very 
 great many do not, and those who take the negative view 
 are in the majority, and both the author and publisher 
 of books such as Edwards' must suffer in consequence. 
 Between 1859 and 1877 Edwards never lost hold of the 
 need and the possibility for a second edition. He was 
 overburdened with the thought that he owed to the public 
 the issue of this second edition. Some doubt had been 
 thrown on the lack of accuracy in various groups of 
 statistics, and he was sensitive that this cast a reflection 
 upon his claim for careful research and discrimination in 
 putting forward his figures. Edwards had a naturally 
 feverish desire to improve a good book, the best ever 
 written upon libraries, by careful revision, and this was 
 his ruling feeling. Among his papers is a rough draft 
 of a letter dated 1877, in which the following passages 
 occur : 
 
 It will not, I daresay, much surprise you to be told that (in spite of 
 all past discouragements on your part), very few years of the eighteen 
 that have elapsed since Memoirs of Librs. was first published, have 
 gone by without bringing some considerable progress in my pre- 
 paration for a new edition, and I now venture to trouble you with one 
 letter more on that subject. You know well that there is no vanity in
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 169 
 
 my saying that, with all the many and grievous defects, these vols. 
 were, and remain, the book on this special subject. But years are 
 rapidly passing by, and it would be a matter of most painful regret to 
 me to leave the book at my departure with all its blemish. ... I have 
 now given solely to it the hard work of seven consecutive months equal 
 perhaps to nine or ten months of ordinary working hours and I have 
 made it substantially a new book. I now ask of you, on the old ac- 
 quaintance and correspondence of 27 yrs., a patient and not a 
 hurried consdn. of, and answer to, my present proposal. More than 
 1000 pp. (a thousand) are now prepd. for the printer, and of these almost 
 the half is substantially new. ... I venture to hope you have, still in 
 spite of all our petty differences and . . . misunderstandings, ... a 
 measure of good feeling and goodwill towards me as a patient toiler 
 in a somewhat rugged field, and as one whom you well know not to 
 have aimed at merely personal and selfish ends. Had I thought only, 
 or mainly of these, I shd. have been a richer man, in the manner of 
 living, and a much poorer one in the end. . . . You will hardly need 
 to be told that to give my whole time . . . has enforced upon me many 
 sacrifices, many personal privations. But the years are passing rapidly. 
 And though I am still able (D. V.) to work at need for eight or even for 
 nine hours at a stretch without any break I have yet had my admo- 
 ntns. how timely it is becoming that I should think of gathering up 
 my poor sheaves. ... I regret my hasty brusquerie with you in '70, 
 and I regret it the more because I now think I may very possibly have 
 misunderstood your motives in taking the course which at that time so 
 much pained me. It may perhaps not be an obtrusion ... to add that 
 of late I have had much worry and much affliction. And they lead me 
 to think somewhat differently on many matters than I have thought 
 heretofore. 
 
 The publishers of the first edition offered the unsold 
 copies on special terms, and Edwards hoped that if the 
 very worst came he would be able to buy up the remaining 
 stock of the first edition, and so clear the path for the 
 new issue. Where the money was to come for this was 
 not clear, but did an author ever yet take into his considera- 
 tion such a frivolous detail ? The heart of the publishers' 
 case lies in their offer to sell the balance of copies. And 
 the heart of Edwards' position was that a way would be 
 found for him to do so by some means or other. In his 
 first prospectus, dated Oxford, 7th August, 1882, he states 
 that " a small number of copies (first edition) remains 
 still in print, and for the purchase of these the author is
 
 170 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 in treaty with the publishers ; with the intention of selling" 
 that 'remainder' in the Colonies. . . ." The subscription 
 to the new edition was to be paid only upon the actual de- 
 livery of each volume, and the first volume he hoped would 
 be ready for issue in June, 1883. In April, 1883, Edwards 
 offered a well-known firm of publishers the MS. free of all 
 charge or honorarium whatever for authorship. This was 
 declined on the ground of the existing copies of the first 
 edition. He offered it to an Oxford firm on the same terms,, 
 with a promised contribution of 25 towards the cost of 
 the engravings. This was also declined upon the same 
 grounds. He tried more than one London printer, but 
 was unsuccessful in meeting with any one who would take 
 the risk of publishing the book, especially in face of a 
 public announcement of the publishers of the first edition,, 
 that copies still remained on sale. At this stage it will be 
 opportune to introduce a few extracts from correspondence 
 about this new edition. The Library Association met in 
 London in 1877. Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, M.A.,tookan 
 active part in the arrangements for that meeting. To 
 him Edwards wrote on 24th September, 1877 : 
 
 I have thought it to be the least obtrusive way of replying to that 
 obliging card of invitation for Oct. 4, from the Lord Mayor for 
 which I am indebted to your own kindly remembrance of my name 
 to ask of you the additional favour of placing before his Lordship, at 
 a befitting time, and in company with such other notes as the occasion 
 may bring, the note which accompanies this letter. It is so much 
 my conviction that you must have found, long ere this, your heap of 
 correspondence, about the Conference, of dimensions somewhat trying, 
 that I forbore to trouble you with any letter of thanks on receiving 
 your kindly proffer, almost a fortnight ago, of the communication from 
 time to time of such printed matter on this subject as may accrue. 
 That will, indeed, be to me a special and most welcome kindness, of 
 which, should life and health be spared to me, I may hope some day 
 to shew, though not to acquit, my sense of indebtedness. The one 
 hope in merely business matters, which amidst many difficulties and 
 obstructions I still nourish, although the years are so rapidly passing 
 on, is that I may yet be enabled to republish Memoirs of Libraries, 
 freed and purged from some of the many blemishes, acerbities, and 
 ignorances which have long made me ashamed of the book in its present 
 form, as well as supplied with some share of useful and needful additions
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 171 
 
 and other improvements. As yet, I have failed to make satisfactory 
 arrangements as to republication, but I suppose the time I have already 
 devoted to preparatory labours towards that end would, in the aggre- 
 gate, amount to more than two years of tolerably sedulous endeavour. 
 My excuse for troubling you with this mention of a circumstance 
 so personal, is that it will serve to shew, better than other words could 
 do, how much your kindly proffered communication as to the Con- 
 ference transactions will if, as I have said, life be spared to me prove 
 of real use and value to, etc. 
 
 On ist March, 1882, the late John Plant of Salford 
 Museum and Library wrote : " It is so many years ago since 
 we saw each other, and the changes in men and things have 
 been so incessant as well as radical, that I may be under- 
 stood in the right sense when I say that I had fallen into 
 the habit of thinking of you as one whom I had once 
 known, but who was no longer in the flesh. It is a pleasure 
 to hear from you again, all the greater because it is a sur- 
 prise, and to learn also that you are in harness working 
 for the love of work, and I hope deriving all the pleasure 
 which good work often brings the worker. . . ." 
 
 On gth August, 1880, Alderman Henry William Newton, 
 the Chairman of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Public Libraries 
 Committee, wrote to ask Edward Edwards to be present 
 at the inaugural ceremony in connection with the opening 
 of the Public Libraries in that town, since promoted to be 
 a city. He was also asked to deliver an address. In 
 January, 1882, Edwards sent thirty volumes as a present for 
 the library, and in a letter sent at the time to the librarian, 
 he said : " I am myself a novel reader, and shall hope, if life 
 and health be vouchsafed to me, to send by-and-by a few 
 books of that sort. . . ." In October there was a further 
 acknowledgment for some eighteen volumes. 
 
 Edwards wrote from Niton on Easter Monday, 1884, 
 to Dr. Richard Garnett : 
 
 My truly grateful thanks wait upon you for the welcome gift of 
 the number of Library Chronicle, containing your excellent article on 
 good John Dury, who is a very old acquaintance of mine. Our 
 intimacy began in B. M., in years long bygone, and was revived in 
 late years at " Bodley," during my long labour on the " Carte Papers ".
 
 172 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 I respect the man himself, though each passing year makes me less and 
 less an admirer of his political associates. . . . Good John Keble was 
 far from being a man of very widespread historical "research," but 
 he was a very keen reader of the human heart as, I venture to think, 
 all truly great " Poets " must needs be and his view of Charles I. 
 and of his " times," however incongruous with the " modern spirit," 
 and however much it may be sneered at for the passing moment, 
 seems to me to give one proof, the more, that the recluse poet often 
 has a far truer insight into the inner life of past times, than the accom- 
 plished and busy "researcher" into historical archives. There seems 
 to be a great temptation, now-a-days, in the eagerness of new " dis- 
 coveries " to throw into the background old, but most weighty testi- 
 mony, because of its familiarity. Dury was better, in many respects, 
 than a goodly number of the men with whom he lived, and with whom 
 he worked. . . . The " Prosps." which waits upon you by book post is 
 incomplete. It comes provisionally to be followed by a better copy 
 by-and-by. 
 
 On 5th April, 1884, he wrote from Sea View Cottage, 
 Niton, to Dr. Garnett : 
 
 There being a prospect of my residing, for a few days only (D.V.), 
 very near to town in May life and health being granted to me it is 
 my wish then to profit by an intimation Mr. Bond was kind enough 
 to make (in a letter of last autumn), that there were some documents- 
 and minutes, relating to the early history of B. M., which he would be 
 able to communicate. Knowing that his leisure for reading, and still 
 more for writing letters which are at all avoidable to be extremely 
 restricted, I refrain from troubling him to write in order to make an 
 appointment for so favouring me at some time entirely suitable to 
 himself. It has occurred to me that your kindness and goodwill to 
 my forthcoming book may induce you to mention the subject at some 
 leisure moment, and to convey an intimation to me. And, indeed, there 
 is another reason why I should seek an intermediacy in the matter. 
 It is likely that there is now a black mark against my humble name, 
 in Mr. Bond's memory, on account of a hasty and regrettable ex- 
 pression of mine on my receipt of the reply of the trustees to my 
 last " Memorial " on the subject of my book. I regret the unwise and 
 petulant words I used. Disappointment at the refusal of a loan, even 
 of the recent Catalogues, and at the reference for consultation of them 
 to the " Town Liby. of Portsmouth," was a little sharpened by his 
 letter having gone the round of the island (literally) (it bearing the 
 address " Nilton " in lieu of " Niton "), and coming to me after, as it 
 seemed, having been opened. Had I been wise enough to delay my 
 acknowledgment of that letter till next day, my irritability would have 
 evaporated. Forgive this obtrusion of my small concerns.
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 173 
 
 This cottage is almost on the spot where my old cottage of 1838- 
 1839 stood, and where I wrote Economy of the Fine Arts in England 
 (printed in 1840). 
 
 P.S. I am as you probably know extremely poor, and I am 5^ miles 
 (I say it gratefully, not complainingly) from the nearest railway. To 
 go to and return from Portsmouth costs me about twelve to fourteen 
 shillings. A journey to Southampton last summer (on acct. of 
 Memoirs) did actually cost me i i6s. as I went by road (thirty-four 
 miles), and by a wherry having accidentally missed the steamer 
 (twenty-four miles). I got, in addition, a drenching from the rough 
 sea ; and, as you will imagine, have not repeated the experiment. The 
 loan of some of the most recent pubns. of the Museum would have 
 rendered me yeoman service, in completing that section of my forth- 
 coming volume, and would have cost the trustees nothing but the 
 carriage. There wd. have been no risk, as I have already a policy of 
 insurance . . . amply covering all possible loss on that score. 
 
 Mr. Charles W. Sutton, M.A., chief librarian, Man- 
 chester, wrote on gth February, 1882 :"...! am very glad 
 to hear that you are engaged on a new edition of your valu- 
 able Memoirs of Libraries. I often turn to the old edition, 
 andtoyourFr^ Town Libraries, but never without renewed 
 and increased respect for your enlightened and indefati- 
 gable labours for the spread of education and the encourage- 
 ment of learning." On 4th December, 1884, Edwards 
 wrote to Mr. Sutton as follows : 
 
 Can you help me, at a pinch, with one or two more subscriptions 
 by adding a word from yourself to a prospectus or two. . . . The case 
 stands thus : The book is at press at last, but I am bound to the 
 printer for a "minimum " of 140 subs, (he wants 150 at least) having 
 yet somewhat less than " 130 ". I am very poor, and the responsibility 
 tells upon me severely, having, in my poverty, expended more than 
 .50 on ... prospectuses, circulation of them, stationery, etc. . . . 
 I also expended more than 100 on books. 
 
 On the following day Mr. Sutton wrote that it was 
 gratifying to hear from "the man whom I, in common 
 with other librarians, look up to as the real founder of 
 Free Libraries ". On gth December, 1884, Mr. Edwards 
 wrote : 
 
 My most cordial thanks wait upon you for the kindness of your 
 personal subscription, and for your kind promise to help my canvass. 
 The book is now at press. . . . The French part of vol. iii was re-written
 
 i 7 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 thoroughly, from new information, as far back as in 1876-77, and 
 needed only the supplementary matter down to 1884. I venture to 
 anticipate some success, specially for that narrative : seeing that the 
 plainest acct. of the strange fortunes and vicissitudes of the " Natl. 
 Liby." in particular, is almost a romance in prose with some strange 
 41 biographies" interwoven. On the strength of your kindness, I ven- 
 ture to trouble you with a few more " Prospectuses". I have also to 
 thank you very sincerely for the interesting paper lucid and impres- 
 sive enclosed with your letter. I had not had previously the pleasure 
 of reading it. 
 
 On 2oth July, 1885, the following letter was sent to Mr. 
 Sutton. (5'3o A.M. appears under the date.) 
 
 The preliminary (merely prelimy. viz. Purchase of Books : 
 Transcriptn. of documents at B. M. and at Bodley; Printing of 
 " Prosps." and Advertisements ; Postage ; Raily. Parcels ; and Sta- 
 tionery of all kinds) of Memrs. of Libs, had cost me, already, upwards 
 of 150 (One hundred and fifty pounds) before the printing of the book 
 {which printing began on loth Dec., 1884) had reached 16 pages. 
 The result is that I am, almost literally, pauperized, and am in serious 
 difficulty with my landlord here (where I am, and always have been, 
 " only a Lodger " tho' now, happily, an enfranchised one, at least in 
 title). My present difficulties are so serious that I venture though 
 reluctantly to ask of you the great favour and kindness of payment, 
 beforehand, of your personal subscription, as far as concerning the 
 first volume only which I am now able to promise shall reach your 
 hands" D.V." in the course of October. Both " General Introduction," 
 and " Text," are at present in the Press, and even the " Preface " is 
 in type, but I am very anxious to bring up the subject-matter to the 
 Midsummer of 1885, as far as it may be possible to do so. Any 
 Statistics that you can yourself furnish me with in advance of your 
 own Septr. Report, will be also esteemed a high favour. Your recom- 
 mendation to other Librans. to do the like will be an increased favour 
 to me, and a great advantage to the book. . . . 
 
 On ist September, 1883, Edwards wrote to Mr. Peter 
 Cowell, chief librarian of the Liverpool Public Libraries : 
 
 My grateful thanks wait upon you for the kind expressions in your 
 obliging letter of Augt. 30, very welcome to a veteran, now but 
 " lingering " on the stage of human affairs. By book-parcel I send 
 four copies of my Prosps., etc. I may, perhaps, be pardoned for 
 somewhat over-eagerly desiring that I may obtain subscribers enough 
 to the intended new Edn. of Memrs. of Librs.to warrant me in 
 venturing to print. I have worked on the revision and addns. under 
 sore discouragements. When I left Queen's Coll. Libry. in Oxford,
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 175 
 
 after the completion of my catalogue and re-arrangement there, I 
 took a brief vacn. at Grasmere and in Scotland. I then returned to 
 -work on Memoirs in Oxford (June, or July, 1876) and worked on, to 
 the best of my power, until April, 1877, without earning one single 
 sixpence for daily bread. Long before the Christmas of 1876, I was 
 become so poor that I had to work with a lead pencil on the blank 
 pages of a big book, for sheer inability to spare money for paper, pens, 
 and ink. When, at length, I was forced to work upon the Cain, of 
 the " Carte Papers " in the Bodn., I had been more than eleven months 
 without . . . the least remunerative employment striving to find a 
 publisher. P.S. Forgive the garrulity of an old man, over-intent 
 upon his own small concerns. 
 
 On 29th April, 1884, Alderman James Hibbert, then 
 Vice-chairman of the Preston Public Library Committee 
 wrote : 
 
 ... I shall have much pleasure in making a little practical acknow- 
 ledgment of indebtedness to you in the use I have made of your 
 publications to establish the Free Library upon an adequate footing 
 here, and to further the movement elsewhere. In very truth I should 
 long ago have placed myself in communication with you : asking 
 permission to use your well hewn quarries as freely as I have done. 
 But until I saw your new prospectus of the Memoirs of Libraries I 
 believed, never hearing or seeing your name, that you were no longer 
 a sublunary being. Let me hasten to repair my involuntary omission 
 by forwarding you a copy of my Notes on Free Libraries and Museums 
 not certainly with any expectation that you will find anything in 
 the contents with which you are not intimately acquainted, even where 
 the material is not wholly your own. I do not know any whose initia- 
 tory labours in creating public opinion in favour of Free Libraries are 
 at all equal to yours, and I have never been able to understand how it 
 is that they have fallen more than is just " to dumb forgetfulness a 
 prey ". I hope, however, that the new edition of your book will bring 
 you your deserts. Pray put my name down as a subscriber. 
 
 His correspondence with the Rev. William Dunn 
 Macray, M.A., Ducklington Rectory, Witney, the author 
 of Annals of the Bodleian Library, presents several items 
 of interest. On 4th April, 1884, that gentleman wrote 
 that his first report on the Danish archives was then in 
 print. Later on, " I am looking for the second edition of 
 Memoirs. But I heard to-day an evil report which I hope is 
 not true that . . . have interposed an unexpected difficulty 
 and object to your reprinting any portion of your former
 
 176 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 edition until that is completely sold out. It will be a loss 
 to literature if this should be the case. . . ." On igth 
 July, 1884, Mr. Macray wrote : " I wish I could help you 
 with your opus magnum, but I am quite unable. . . . 
 Your work is distinctly your own : you are master of its 
 subject : and certainly the first instalment, complete in 
 itself, ought to be sure of publication. Upon the success 
 of that the remainder could depend ; and I am sure the 
 success will be deserved." 
 
 On i3th July, 1885, Edwards wrote : 
 
 ... I have been writing very arduously on my book, and am now 
 in a condition to promise to my subscribers the publication of vol. i. 
 (D.V.) in October. The preliminary expenses indispensable books 
 and transcripts of documents : printing of prospectuses in several 
 forms ; advts. ; stationery ; postages and parcels exceed 150 (one 
 hundred and fifty pounds) and I paid the first of a series of Bills ot 
 Exchange for the printing paper, on Saturday, 4th inst., so that I am 
 quite impoverished. It would be a welcome favour and a Christian 
 charity too, if you would imitate the example voluntarily set by your 
 acquaintances, . . . both of whom have paid their subns. to " vol. i." 
 in advance. (They are the only two, in addition to one ether subscriber, 
 who have as yet done so.) The printing goes on steadily and I have 
 the pleasure to send you a specimen proof herewith. P.S. I begin 
 work on Memoirs at 5 A.M., sometimes at 430, as I did last summer 
 grateful for the capability of doing so. Enclosure by book post. 
 
 On 2ist July, 1885, to the same : 
 
 My very grateful thanks wait upon you for your very welcome 
 cheque for vol. i. of Memoirs of Libraries, which I believe I may 
 promise for some day in Oct. (D.V.) next and also for your correc- 
 tion of what is certainly an error. Vol. i. is to include London and 
 Oxford, as you rightly infer from former Prosps. Hence my inquiries 
 about Bodley. If there is, or should presently be anything in print 
 about recent matters, communication will deeply oblige. . . . Much 
 of vol. iii. has been already rewritten. I have renewed my old 
 habit of sitting down to writing table about 5 A.M., but have to leave 
 off early. I cannot work " all round the dial " as once of yore. 
 
 P.S. My poor 600 or 700 books the remnant of very nearly 5,000 l 
 volumes more than 4/5 of wh. have had to be converted into "bread 
 
 1 This seems a large number, but it is not likely that there were 
 many of intrinsic value. He gathered as opportunity occurred, and 
 there may have been gifts of books from the several noblemen whose 
 libraries he catalogued.
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 177 
 
 and cheese" all bear or are in course of receiving the enclosed label, 
 and I have made a will to like purpose " creditors" permitting. 
 
 To Mr. Spencer George Perceval, Henbury, Bristol, 
 Edwards wrote on 2yth October, 1884, acknowledging 
 subscription to the second edition : 
 
 ... I have thought that my original . . . prospectus of Feb. 1882 
 might possibly be interesting enough to form part of your gift (D.V.) 
 to South Kensington Museum. ... I may add (as your eye will fall 
 upon a little " footnote " in the prospectus of 1882 referring to a Civill 
 List pension, that the proposition was renewed in May, 1883, and was; 
 again refused by me. My answer was this : " To apply would, if the 
 favour were granted, take away half the solace, and all the grace " of 
 the Royal Bounty. At that moment I was absolutely without any 
 remunerative employment whatsoever. The application was then 
 made to Mr. Gladstone, without my co-operation. He delayed his 
 answer until August. I had then only a very small employment 
 for Encyclopedia Britannica ; was in utter poverty and in failing; 
 health. . . . 
 
 There are other letters and copies of letters from? 
 Edwards in the possession of the writer, but they alt 
 tell very much the same story. Edwards was evi- 
 dently cheered during this trying period by the cordiality 
 of many of his correspondents. He derived pleasure and 
 aid from the letters of Mr. Falconer Madan, M.A., sub- 
 librarian at the Bodleian Library, Mr. W. H. Allnutt, 
 and others known in the library world. The printing of 
 the book was finally stopped in January, 1886, and Edwards 
 died on the following yth February. All through 1885 
 there was turmoil over the book. Mr. G. A. Brannon, of 
 Newport, Isle of Wight, the printer of the second edition, 
 has supplied the writer with every detail in connection 
 with this book. A wealthy author could not have been better 
 treated than was Edwards by his printer. He was in full 
 sympathy with the earnest enthusiasm of the old man 
 over his book, and gave time and thought to the work 
 which, even under the most hopeful circumstances, could 
 not have been repaid. There remains in his mind no resent- 
 ment, nor did he at the time blame Mr. Edwards. The 
 debt at the last was a considerable one, as may be gathered,. 
 
 12
 
 178 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 and until the present writer traced the sheets of the first vol- 
 ume of the second edition, they had scarcely been disturbed 
 since they were packed away in 1886. The excitement of 
 those days must have weighed heavily on the aging and 
 wearied spirit of the old man. The position was an excep- 
 tionally peculiar one, and it would be impossible to distribute 
 blame in any one quarter. Creation in her birth-pangs pro- 
 duces life. The fragment of Edwards' second edition of 
 his Memoirs of Libraries, printed in 1885, of which it was 
 possible for the present writer to present 497 copies to 
 librarians and others interested in library work, was pro- 
 duced with much tribulation on the part of Edwards and his 
 printer. The world of books and writers has its martyrs 
 as well as the field of battle. In the roll of the former 
 Edwards' name deserves a place. The whole of the 
 existing MS. for the second edition of Memoirs of Lib- 
 raries is in all probability in the possession of the present 
 writer. What it may be possible to do with this in the 
 future cannot for the moment be decided. A kindly 
 paragraph in the Athenceum respecting this fragment, 
 referred, naturally, to the absence of an index as being 
 tantalising. The view is shared wholly by the one 
 responsible for its issue. But it seemed to him that the 
 most reverent way of treating the fragment was to issue 
 it exactly as it left the hands of Edwards, under the pecu- 
 liar circumstances which have been indicated. Should 
 it be found practicable to issue one or more volumes, the 
 absence of the index to the first volume can be then repaired. 
 Among the last words which Edwards wrote in the 
 first edition of Memoirs of Libraries are these on page 
 1069 : " Here, for the present, at all events, I close a task 
 which has been the occasional employment and the chief 
 delight of some of the best years of my life. The difficulties 
 under which it may, at times, have been pursued will form 
 no excuse for the shortcomings of performance ; nor indeed 
 can they claim to have been other than the usual incidents 
 of a protracted task. At some such times, I have ventured 
 to indulge the hope that, whatever its defects, certain things
 
 LITERARY AND OTHER WORK. 179 
 
 in this book may, perhaps, be a source of help and 
 encouragement to future librarians when the writer shall 
 have passed away. And I would fain hope so still." The 
 words will find a response in the heart and brain of many 
 librarians. 
 
 The following letter will serve to show upon what 
 terms he was with the Lord Willoughby de Broke 
 family : 
 
 Kineton House, Warwick, ist October, 1882. Dear Mr. Edwards, 
 I am quite shocked and distressed at looking at the date of your note. 
 The evil habit of procrastination. Before thanking you for your kind 
 letter, I thought I would mention your wish to my son ; and then 
 circumstances interposed which prevented my seeing him for a few 
 days, and then he went away from home for a few days. But in his 
 absence I have seen his wife and that is the same thing. She is sure 
 that he will gladly accede to your request that his name should appear 
 as a subscriber to your valuable work, and she will tell him that it is 
 so, for I am going to Yorkshire to-morrow for a fortnight, and so can 
 no longer delay writing to you. You ask me if I remember you. How 
 can I ever forget those old days and all belonging to them, and the 
 great and friendly interest you took not only in your valuable work, 
 but in our surroundings. I have had heavy and great sorrows since, 
 and am even now mourning for my second daughter . . . who was 
 taken from us early this year ; but those who precede us to our real 
 Home above, draw us gently from thinking too much of this world. 
 With my kind regards and apologies for not having written before, 
 Believe me, yours very sincerely, G. Willoughby de Broke.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE HOMELY SIDE AND LIFE AMONG HIS BOOKS. 
 
 Of this unweariable man the hours of mere recreation and of 
 comparative idleness seem to have continued, throughout life,, 
 hardly less fruitful in results of some sort than the hours of deliber- 
 ate and strenuous labour. 
 
 Life of Ralegh. 
 
 BURIED deep down among the papers acquired by the 
 present writer were two letters which were evidently much 
 treasured by Edwards. These were the first and last 
 letters received from his wife, and are characteristic in 
 more ways than one. The first is dated i3th March, 
 1835, an d reads : 
 
 Miss Hayward presents her compliments to Mr. Edwards, and 
 returns his book with many thanks. Miss Hayward has just received 
 the other two volumes, and will return them in less than a fortnight, 
 and hopes she shall not intrude upon Mr. Edwards' kindness by keep- 
 ing them so long. 28 South Bank, Regent's Park. 
 
 Then follows the other and last. 
 
 8th June, 1876. My dear Edward, I received your letter from 
 Grasmere last evening. I was not surprised to hear of your locality. 
 I hope you will enjoy your old haunts once again. I am glad you 
 have seen some one about your deafness, but it will no doubt take some 
 time before you receive any benefit from it. It has now been of such 
 long standing. 
 
 I am not able to tell you much good news of self and ailments : I 
 bore up all last week against them, but yesterday I was so very ill I 
 sent for Ballard. Perhaps you would like to write to him about charge, 
 etc. I shall make myself out better as soon as I am able, but I 
 have been very, very ill, I can assure you. I enclose you a slip : it 
 was sent to me in a few lines from my sister remembering to have 
 heard me mention the name in connection with the B(ritish) M(useum). 
 The weather has been very cold and dreary for the last few days. I 
 hope you may find it improve soon. I have no news of any sort 
 
 (i 80)
 
 HOMELY SIDE. 181 
 
 to tell you. I should like to get a change if I could, but in my 
 present state I should only be a nuisance to any one. We go on 
 in much the same rambling manner as usual, but I do not want much 
 attention, I am happy to say. If you would like the Standard sent, I 
 will send it to you. I do not know if the direction you sent is sufficient. 
 I cannot remember if there ought to be any county added to Grasmere 
 if so you must tell me in your next letter. Of course you will visit all 
 your old haunts. Has there been much alteration made in the place ? I 
 will let you know how I am going on, and will keep Ballard as little time 
 as I can. You must excuse this scrawl but 1 am too ill to write much. 
 
 God bless you. Yours very affectionately, M. F. Edwards. 
 
 Does the Church-yard look as it used, or the Church ? 
 
 Edwards' endorsement of the letters just quoted is, 
 " This is the last letter, I think, that I ever received from 
 Margaretta, and I have just been reading the first one of very 
 nearly forty-two years earlier date. Oxford, 2nd January, 
 1877." She died on 3oth December, 1876, at the age of 
 seventy-four. On the monument in Lawford Churchyard, 
 near Manningtree, there is, on one side, this inscription : 
 " Margaretta Frances Edwards for nearly 33 years the 
 wife of Edward Edwards of Iffley Road, Oxford, Born in 
 London, April 7, 1803, Died at Hampstead, Dec. 30, 1876. 
 Buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, aet. 74. Her life was 
 chequered with sore trials. She is deeply lamented : 
 But with the grief that is brightened by faith in Christ. 
 Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, with Thee is the 
 fountain of life. In Thy light shall we see light." 
 
 Both for the grave at Lawford and the one in Kensal 
 Green Cemetery Edwards paid for flowers to the last. 
 Among his papers are receipts and letters showing this. 
 
 The marriage took place by license on nth June, 1844, 
 in the parish of St. Pancras, London. On the last page 
 of the last diary, 1884, he has made a border round the 
 date of her death, 3oth December, and written " My dear 
 wife". He often mentions the reading of some book 
 aloud to her. She took long walks with him, and clearly 
 shared a good deal of his life. Beyond this there is no 
 need to penetrate or to surmise. 
 
 His private album has been carefully preserved among
 
 182 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 his belongings. In this he has written, "With one ex- 
 ception only . . . this album is exclusively confined to 
 portraits of relatives and friends of its owner, and to views 
 of places at which he has lived or visited frequently ". 
 Three photographic portraits have been found which were 
 thought to be pictures of Edwards at different periods of 
 life, and it was hoped that one at least would be identified 
 as his portrait by some survivor who knew him. But 
 unfortunately this has not been found possible, and it is 
 doubtful, as these three are not of him, whether a portrait 
 of him is in existence. Messrs. A. & C. Black, the pub- 
 lishers, wrote asking him to send a photograph of himself 
 for their album of contributors to the Encyclopedia Britan- 
 nica, but he never sent one. He seems to have shrunk 
 from the ordeal of sitting for his portrait, and his modesty 
 in this direction is indicative of the man's nature. On 
 5th August, 1873, he wrote from Queen's College, Oxford, 
 to Dr. Crestadoro, then chief librarian at Manchester : 
 
 I am in receipt of your favour of the 315! ult. Your request is a 
 flattering one, but it is, entirely, out of my power to comply with it. 
 I have never sat for a photograph, and it was only in the days of 
 youthful vanity that I ever sat for a portrait of any kind. The last 
 occasion is, I think, about thirty-five years distant. You will probably 
 think it a " crotchet," but nevertheless I have always entertained a 
 strong dislike to photography for portraiture. I yield to none in 
 admiration of it for buildings and for many other like purposes, but I 
 do venture to think, that in order to have a " portrait " worthy the 
 name, you must first catch your painter. 
 
 He was very comfortable in his last lodgings in Oxford, 
 from which address so much of his early correspondence 
 referring to the second edition of the Memoirs of Libraries 
 was dated. He always remembered the birthdays of the 
 daughter of Mrs. Chapman in whose house he lived. In 
 1878 he gave her Tristram's Bible Places, which is inscribed 
 " With the giver's best wishes ; and also with the earnest 
 hope that, as years roll on, this small book may, in its 
 degree, tend to promote her thorough familiarity with, and 
 her deep reverence for, the greatest, the best, and the most
 
 HOMELY SIDE. 183 
 
 enduring of all books". On the occasion of the following 
 birthday he presented a copy of the Christian Year, and im- 
 mediately after he had settled at Niton, some other books. 
 Those with whom he lived still remember him with kind- 
 ness and esteem. Some letters on both sides are in the 
 writer's hands, and they show that he was not by any means 
 difficult to live with, nor always in one unending state of 
 quarrelsomeness. It is a fair test of any man's character 
 to observe what was his standard of home life, and Edwards 
 emerges from this test as well as most men, including 
 those who are not engaged in engrossing literary researches. 
 He wrote to his former landlady on zoth September, 1883 : 
 " I shall wait upon you at the beginning of next month, 
 when a very small something will be due to me from Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty, whom may God preserve and 
 bless. Hitherto it is I that have had the happiness of 
 making sundry small and humble payments to Her 
 Majesty's income from time to time." This is a playful 
 reference to the income tax, which he paid during his 
 palmy Oxford days, when he was receiving about "300 a 
 year. On i7th November, 1883, he wrote: 
 
 Please to give to your Elfrida my kindest regards, and to ask her to 
 look upon the little volume which comes to her, by book post, as only 
 an earnest of something gayer and more attractive if all be well with 
 me by and bye. ... I am writing to you after correcting, for the 
 printer, forty columns of closely printed matter, and, therefore, as you 
 will easily believe, with a very tired hand, but I do not like to lose this 
 post. . . . With very kindest wishes. 
 
 On yth October, 1885 : 
 
 . . . My poverty deprives me of the gratification of visiting Oxford, for 
 the present, and of seeing you again : but I trust to have the pleasure of 
 hearing of your welfare and prosperity. ... I hope that you had both 
 (of your boys) with you for awhile in the summer to cheer you amidst 
 your labours and anxieties. 
 
 There are many letters referring to his votes for hospitals 
 and asylums. To the Wanstead Orphan Asylum he seems 
 to have been a subscriber for many years. When he took an 
 interest in a case it was not a desultory attention which he
 
 184 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 gave to it. The Ear and Throat Infirmary ; Emigration 
 Home for Destitute Little Girls ; Night Refuge and Home 
 for Deserving Men, Women and Children ; and others were 
 among those receiving his monetary aid. His correspon- 
 dence in connection with these charitable gifts of his 
 must have been considerable, judging by the number of 
 letters recovered, which cover only a few years. During 
 his residence at Wimbledon, he came to know intimately 
 a family where there were two little girls. He sent a small 
 present to one of them, and she wrote back: ". . . This 
 lace collarette is indeed beautiful, and will be only worn 
 upon very special occasions, when I will not fail at the 
 same time to think gratefully of the good and kind gentle- 
 man who gave it to me. I am sure if you had any little 
 girls beside you they would love you very much. In 
 return I have nothing to send you beyond my thanks, but 
 if you will kindly accept the two photographs herewith of 
 myself and sister, you will give us all much pleasure." 
 Dr. Henry Hemsted and Mr. Henry A. Dowse, now living, 
 nephews of Mrs. Edwards, were at the Blue Coat School 
 when Edwards was engaged at the British Museum. On 
 numerous occasions he would call for them at the school 
 and take them on the top of an omnibus to his house, and 
 for walks in the park. Both gentlemen retain a very 
 kindly recollection of him. They never, as boys, were 
 afraid to ask him questions. He was always delighted 
 to give them information, and gave it in such a way as 
 pleased the boys. A man who is loved by boys is usually 
 a man worth knowing. With Dr. Hemsted he had a long 
 and interesting correspondence continued well on to the 
 end of the seventies. It is to him he inscribed the 
 Handbook to the Literature of General Biography. 
 
 Edwards was a painstaking reader, and his reading 
 covered a vast and varied field of literature. He was 
 evidently an omnivorous reader, and had a retentive 
 memory for all that was noteworthy in the books he read. 
 The faculty of being able to rapidly discriminate what is 
 worth reading, and what can be left unread in any book,
 
 HOMELY SIDE. 185 
 
 is of very slow acquirement, and there are not many who 
 can hope to attain a safe standard in this kind of swift 
 appreciation. But it is worth striving for, as will be owned 
 by all book-lovers, especially at the present moment, when 
 the multiplication of books makes the need for cultivating 
 the faculty more urgent than ever. The bookish spirit 
 of Edwards was part of the man, and his markings of 
 approved passages and annotations, and his criticisms, 
 reveal his inner life more than perhaps anything else could 
 possibly have done. His better self is shown, and his 
 intensely religious mind displays itself throughout the 
 notes which he wrote in his books of devotion. His 
 Bible contains his autograph and the words, " Sandgate, 
 25th April, 1861 (St. Mark's Day) ". Pencil marks show 
 the number of chapters in the aggregate of the books of 
 the Old Testament, and the number of chapters forming 
 the New Testament. The first chapter of Genesis bears 
 the dates, " Oxf. Dec. 1875, and Niton, Advent Sunday 
 1884 ". To some passages he has appended the Tyn- 
 dale or the Coverdale rendering. The dates here given 
 are entered at the head of the first chapter of Matthew. 
 "V(irginia) W(ater) Surrey, 26 March 1880. Colwell, 
 I.W. 3 October 1880. Oxf. 6 Nov. 1881. Oxf. 14 May 
 1882. Oxford i J any. 1883. Oxford n June 1883. Niton 
 8 Dec. '83. Niton 20 Feb. '84. Niton 16 July '84. Niton 
 21 Feb. '85." There are about three hundred and fifty 
 notes and entries in his Bible, and these reveal the devout 
 spirit of the man. Next to his Bible the book nearest to 
 his heart and soul was Keble's Christian Year : Thoughts 
 in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays Throughout the 
 Year. His copy was the edition of 1863, and he has 
 written in pencil on the title-page some notes on the 120 
 editions which the book had passed through up to 1884. 
 He inscribes it " To my dear Wife For New Year's Day 
 1864. Blenheim, Oxon. 30 Dec. 1863. E. E." This book 
 was the companion of his days and nights, and must have 
 been a source of great comfort to the lonely old man. It 
 is packed with additions in the shape of transcripts from
 
 i86 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 other poets, entries of the different dates on which he read 
 the various poems, quotations and comments of his own. 
 He seems to have used the Christian Year as a kind of 
 composite confessional album, birthday book, and private 
 diary, in which are recorded his wanderings, hopes, fears, 
 and the consolation which he found in times of stress and 
 trial. Lovers of the Christian Year will know the intensely 
 soothing spirit that prevails throughout the book. This 
 was one of the ends and purposes of the work, especially 
 for those who felt the need of spiritual comfort and solace 
 from the Book of Common Prayer. At the end of the 
 book there are these original verses by Edwards : " Lines 
 written in a copy of the Christian Year although very 
 unworthy presented at Christmas, to a near Relative, 
 now lamented ". 
 
 O may the precious blessings, 
 
 Of all true Christian Years, 
 The constant love of all we love ; 
 
 Freedom from earthborn fears : 
 
 And, chief, that crowning mercy 
 
 Of our holy Christmastide 
 The love of Him who came to save : 
 
 The Faith in Him who died 
 
 That we might live, as ransomed ones, 
 
 Cleansed from all sinful stain 
 Be yours and mine, through weal or woe : 
 
 In health, and joy ; in grief and pain. 
 
 May these be our's, whilst yet we cross 
 
 The troubled Sea of Time ; 
 May these be our's, until, at length, 
 
 We reach the heavenly clime. 
 
 Faith, then, her sight shall yield, and we 
 Above shall meet, to part no more 
 
 But sing, for aye, redeeming love, 
 Upon the blissful shore. E, 
 
 It is clear from this that Edwards would not have made 
 a reputation in poetry. The lines were written about 
 1863.
 
 HOMELY SIDE. 187 
 
 He has carefully entered in the margin the dates upon 
 which the saints' days fall. Beginning with St. Andrew's 
 Day on 3oth November and ending with All Saints' Day 
 on ist November, sixteen dates are given in careful order. 
 He seemed to have these dates off by heart. Some of his 
 letters, inscriptions in his books, the entries in his Bible, 
 Prayer-book and Christian Year are full of this evidence. 
 A certain passage would be read on " St. Simon's Day ". 
 The last date upon which any quotations are copied is 
 1882. He had not left any more space in the ample 
 margins for additional verses. On several occasions 
 throughout the book he has corrected the printer in his 
 pointing. If there was a semicolon instead of a comma 
 he set the matter right in his own copy. His readings of 
 the poems throughout the year are systematically entered. 
 Several times there appears this remark, "Read with a 
 specially grateful heart". One of these is dated yth 
 December, 1884. To the poem for the fourth Sunday 
 in Advent, he has written at the end of it, " Read in 
 much pain, but with comfort and gratitude," at Ventnor, 
 22nd December, 1878, and again, 24th December. This 
 poem he seems to have read for the last time on 2oth 
 December, 1885, after his exposure on St. Catherine's 
 Down. Against the poem headed "The Holy Innocents" 
 he has entered these dates : Ventnor, 28th December, 1878,. 
 Oxford, 1879, Manningtree, '1880, Oxford, 1881, Oxford, 
 1882, Niton, 1883, Niton, 1884, Niton, 1885. In each 
 case 28th December is added. This list of dates illus- 
 trates the system which prevails throughout the book. 
 The last date written in the book is 24th January, 1886, and 
 this is against the poem for the third Sunday after Epiphany, 
 and must have been entered between two and three weeks 
 before his death. The poem for Easter Day is carefully 
 marked and various passages are underlined. One entry at 
 this reads, "Niton i3th April 1884, (6*40. A.M., before Holy 
 Communion)". There are also two entries showing that 
 the poem was referred to at Virginia Water, i3th April, 
 1879, and again at the same place, z8th March, 1880.
 
 i88 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 To the poem for the fourth Sunday after Easter there 
 are many additions, some of them being lines or sentences 
 of his own, which he was, perhaps, of opinion, would have 
 been better. The fourth line in the third verse reads, 
 " Where still He shines on Abraham's race ". Edwards in 
 the margin gives as an alternative reading the words 
 " sheds peculiar grace," evidently regarding them as an im- 
 provement. Another poem has written against it, " Ventnor, 
 I.W., 2oth July, 1879, day of a memorably surging and 
 billowing sea, little like its usual aspect at this time of 
 year ". On page 201 a text is quoted, " And seekest thou 
 great things for thyself ? seek them not". This he has 
 underlined, and added, " Stretford, Sept. 1858". This 
 was the time of his troubles at Manchester. He was 
 at Shirburn in August, 1861, and has entered in the 
 margin the place and date just named with the text, 
 " There are not found that returned to give glory to God, 
 save this stranger". He gave several copies of this book 
 as presents. In one of these he wrote : 
 
 Some of the notes in this volume have been inserted in the hope 
 that, some day, when the hand that now writes them shall have long 
 lain at rest (in God's good and gracious time), they may be found of 
 some use educationally, for those who are as yet unthought of. This 
 precious and most lovable book of John Keble has, over and above 
 its grand and noble devotional uses, also its valuable, say rather its 
 invaluable, uses for the right training of children, to be good subjects, 
 as well as good Christians. The receiver of the volume will (D.V.) 
 understand well what is here meant, in the years to come at present 
 the notes may seem somewhat out of place. E. E. 
 
 His copy of the Lyra Apostolica is marked in a similar 
 way to his beloved Keble, and his Prayer-book has also 
 in it very many entries. A few of his notes on the books 
 he read from time to time, which are scattered throughout 
 the diaries, may be given without appending the dates. 
 " Began Memoirs of Sir Powell Button an instructive 
 portraiture of a man more remarkable for innate energy 
 and force of will than for mental power, though in that 
 respect not ill endowed. Finished Stoughton's very in-
 
 LIFE AMONG HIS BOOKS. 189- 
 
 teresting Memorials of the Puritans, entitled very appro- 
 priately Spiritual Heroes, which many of them truly 
 were." He must have never been without a book near 
 at hand. During the excitement of the Parliamentary 
 Committee of 1849 he enters, "Walked with intention to 
 go to Hampstead, but met with a tumble and forced to 
 return, spoiling Lamartine's speech on the Single chamber 
 question, which I was reading when . I fell returned 
 covered with clay ". Dear man, this is not likely to 
 have been the only accident of the same nature. The 
 following will serve to show how omnivorous was his 
 reading. 
 
 Read Wordsworth's ever fresh and beautiful White Doe of Rylston f 
 and Ode on Immortality, of which I never tire. 
 
 Delightful walk towards . . . reading Carlyle's Latter Day Pam- 
 phlets, a melancholy affair (and then gives the best part of a page of 
 his diary to a criticism). 
 
 Read part of Froude's Bunyan, differing widely from much of his 
 criticism, it is impossible not to admire and enjoy the skill of the narra- 
 tive part. 
 
 Began " Currer Bell," clever, racy and rough. Read on my ramble 
 Washington Irving's Life of Goldsmith, a pleasantly written book, but 
 wanting the geniality and charm of Forster's. 
 
 Continued Life of Robespierre, which I have read with pleasure. 
 Although containing little that is new it is the best and most coherent 
 narrative of that instructive career which I have seen. 
 
 Began Browning's new poem Christmas Eve and Easter Day a vein 
 of true poetry in it, but sadly embedded in shale and rubbish. Great 
 thoughts are there nevertheless and sometimes grandly clothed. 
 
 Read a small portion of Longfellow's admirable translation of the 
 Inferno comparing it with the original. It is the closest and I think, 
 the truest of the translations into English. 
 
 Looked at Warburton's Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers? 
 a book containing a few interesting letters and a great many amusing 
 anecdotes, but wretchedly edited as if with a pitchfork. 
 
 Continued Memoirs of Lord Clone urry, a rich storehouse of informa- 
 tion on history of Ireland since '95, very vigorously written. 
 
 Read Margaret Maitland (Passages in the Life of) a very simple, 
 homely and sterling story of Scotch manse life in its best aspect 
 earnest and true-hearted. 
 
 Read also Carlyle's Downing Street, better, much better, than the 
 crude trash about prisons, but still rather declamatory about the neces- 
 sity of getting a wise government than indicating how to set about it.
 
 igo EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Finished Leigh Hunt's Autobiography : 3 vols. His books very 
 pleasant and genial but he certainly gets too courtly and too apt to 
 apologise for some of the sayings and doings of his youth. 
 
 Read Marsh's Mordaunt Hall, a disjointed, slipshod affair. Continued 
 Life of Robespierre, although containing little that is new it is the best 
 and most coherent narrative of that instructive career which I have 
 seen. 
 
 Continued Curzon's Visits to the Levant Monasteries. The book 
 is lively and graphic, but gives no indication of a mind above 
 mediocrity in grasp or range. But the author's perceptive faculties 
 greatly transcend his reflective ones. 
 
 Finished Mrs. Oliphant's Life of Edward Irving, in speaking of 
 whom as saint and martyr I do not think his excellent biographer one 
 whit over-rates the man, whatever the temporary errors of the theo- 
 logian or the priest. 
 
 Continued the Memoir of Lacordaire, an interesting and yet a very 
 poor biography. Not even a clear account of his actual relations with 
 Rome can be obtained from the book which is much more like a 
 vague eulogy than a " Life ". 
 
 Continued Froude's History of England. I think it a very able work, 
 but with too many documents thrust into the text instead of being woven 
 into the narrative, and too great a preference of facts which he has 
 himself disinterred. 
 
 Read De Quincey's Autobiographical Sketches as always with 
 pleasure, but with increased regret at the excessive carelessness and 
 breathless haste shewn in nearly every chapter of them : the " errata " 
 would be a curious appendix to them. 
 
 Continued Sharon Turner's England (Middle Ages) very vague 
 and unsatisfactory on many grave points, but still a book worth reading. 
 The worst thing perhaps and one of the most obvious, an entire want 
 of careful revision ; almost the printers seem to have been left to them- 
 selves ; the way in which authorities are cited too, is eminently loose 
 and inaccurate. 
 
 Read whilst walking Life and Letters of Southey. The autobio- 
 graphical sketch of his boyhood very characteristic, and very full of 
 twaddle. ... In reading some of the letters of the trend of Southey's 
 life, I was strongly reminded of the early and college correspondence 
 of a very different man W. E. Channing. Both indulged day dreams 
 of community of property, abolition of human selfishness, etc., but 
 how different the awakening. 
 
 Continued Life of Heylyn and that of Hugh Miller. Lives more 
 diversified than these, can scarcely be imagined, but both of them have, 
 in common, the charm of strongly marked individuality and force of 
 character. The one essentially a man of action though thrown among 
 books, having the best culture, but not always making the noblest use 
 of it yet the gentleman and the cavalier always visible beneath the
 
 LIFE AMONG HIS BOOKS. 191 
 
 cassock. The other born in lowly life with the humblest education, 
 almost that can be imagined : essentially a man of books ; the poet as 
 clearly seen beneath the garb of a mechanic, as was seen eventually 
 by all the world of readers, the man of keen scientific insight, marvel- 
 lously endowed as an observer of God's glorious works of creation, 
 and ever seeing above the works and seeing with bowed head and 
 bended knee the Almighty and all-beneficent Creator. 
 
 In the evening continued Kinglake's Crimea aloud. The first vol. is 
 almost and wholly devoted to the " Causes of the war ". The story is 
 told with very great ability, but in the judgment passed on two eminent 
 actors in the strife Nicholas and Napoleon the scales are held very 
 unequally. The writer is compelled to admit both cunning and false- 
 hood on the part of Nicholas, but yet is found constantly arguing on 
 the assumption that his apparent and avowed objects were his real 
 objects ; whilst in dealing with Napoleon he almost always attributes 
 even right and wise actions to corrupt and mean motives ; he bases 
 his reiterated assertions that the justifiable objects of England might 
 have been obtained without war on the assumption that the proffered 
 co-operation of Austria and Prussia was trustworthy, and on the further 
 assumption I must venture to think a most foolish one that a war 
 postponed in 1853 would have been a war avoided. He can never 
 discuss the Emperor Napoleon's share in the business with any sem- 
 blance of historical calmness, and thus in his anxiety to deal out telling 
 blows he forgets that some blows hurt the giver more than the receiver. 
 
 These are representative examples of the notes scattered 
 through his diaries. He had the common antipathy 
 against publishers and booksellers which most authors 
 cherish. A poor estimate of both pervaded his mind. 
 Among the copy prepared for the Handbook to the Litera- 
 ture of General Biography, which was only printed in 
 part, there is a note about The Peerage of England . . . 
 by Arthur Collins, in which he states : 
 
 Arthur Collins (1682-1760) began life as a bookseller. But he was 
 a marvellous contrast to the thriving and the thriven booksellers of 
 this latter part of the nineteenth century. Most of them probably, 
 one may say with utmost charity (the charity of truth) unclean 
 twentieths of them deal in books as other men deal in cheese or in 
 bacon, with just as much of regard for the product, so that it be made 
 "saleable," with small thought or trouble. The greatest book upon 
 the greatest of themes will, as far as the booksellers' influence over it 
 may extend, be spoiled or " scamped," if in that scamped and mauled 
 state it can be made to bring in quicker profits, than if prepared
 
 iQ2 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 conscientiously and thoroughly. The utmost success attained in the 
 book-selling trade is often very often no security whatever that the 
 eminent publisher's name at the foot of the title gives warrant that the 
 Author has had fair play in being enabled and encouraged, to do his 
 powers at their best without check or hamper from the tradesman. 
 Collins loved Literature far better than he loved money. And in that 
 capacity as in his capacity of Author he never stinted pains. His 
 works are models in their kind. Sir Egerton Brydges' edition of his 
 chief work is admirable. It surpasses, immensely, any subsequent 
 " Peerage," whether bearing the name of " Burke," or " Lodge," 
 or " Foster ". It is no demand of the Public that confines a Peerage 
 nowadays to a single volume. It is a mere bookselling trick : just as 
 the enormous use in our day of very small print, is no public require- 
 ment, but a joint " trick " and a detestable one of booksellers and 
 of printers, who prefer a very little additional profit, to the comfort and 
 the eyesight of that large proportion of their customers and readers 
 who are either aged or advancing towards age. 
 
 Booksellers and publishers must find the attacks now 
 and again made upon them quite refreshing to read. 
 
 Several of his commonplace books have been preserved, 
 and they contain many notes and annotations. Some of 
 these are not always in good taste. The one now quoted 
 gives an example of a number of proofs where he allows 
 his politics and religion to run away with him. 
 
 Brownlow North (B.A., Oxon.), Records and Recollections. By the 
 Rev. Kenneth Moody-Stuart, M.A. Published 1878. Inscription, " To 
 my dear Sister, from Edward Edwards, of Niton, April 1884 (G(ood) 
 F(riday)) for Christmas, 1884 (in anticipation of one more meeting 
 God in His gracious Divine Providence, permitting). 
 
 On the page containing the title of book and inscription, 
 as above, and also on the first page of preface, Edwards 
 writes as follows : 
 
 I have always regarded the gift of a book, whether the present be 
 made to a beloved relative (as now), or to one of those " little children " 
 to whom (and, the more especially, that in the course of Divine Pro- 
 vidence, I have never had the great blessing of enjoying the love 
 of any child of my very own, I delight to give books that may (D.V.) 
 be enjoyed, and be profited by, when the hand of the giver shall have 
 long lain at rest, and cold, in the grave) as a testimony of approval 
 of its contents.
 
 LIFE AMONG HIS BOOKS. 193 
 
 That he was a lover of children is shown by this extract. 
 The stroke of a child's hand, the playful lisp of a child's 
 voice, the sound of merry children's voices around the 
 table, leave their impression upon many a life. Those 
 who have experienced these privileges will realise how deep 
 was this man's sense of loneliness. He then continues : 
 
 But, in this instance, I can only approve, partially, of these Records 
 and Recollections of Brownlow North, although I have read the 
 volume with a deep interest. Most of it I read during a solitary 
 walk (to Chale) on the most solemn day of the whole " Christian 
 Year," and also the most Blessed of all its holy-days, save only one. 
 I love the man's Christian Spirit of self-sacrifice. But I do not love 
 his " Presbyteriani sm ". Everyday that I live, I become more deeply 
 attached to " my dear Mother," the Church of England, as by Law 
 Established : though I had not the blessing of being born, or baptized,, 
 in its Communion. 
 
 The Church was, at first, " Congregational, " that, by the agitation 
 of the lowest strata of Society, the mass, above, of Corruption, Idolatry 
 and Mental Servitude, might be broken up : it was then ' Synodal,' 
 that the tendency of Separate bodies to Heresy, and to Schism, might 
 be counteracted : it was, then, ' Episcopal,' that in times of difficulty 
 and of peril the whole Church might act in concert and decisively : 
 it became ' Papal,' that it might (under God's Divine Providence) 
 oppose a (strong and) Visible Unity to the (Savage) Armies of Mahomet, 
 and to the Barbarians of the North. It then became under like 
 Divine Providence, ' Monastic,' that Learning, Art, Piety (the 
 ' Civilities ' and the blessed solaces of our troubled life) might be 
 preserved in (almost) impregnable Retreats, amidst the deluge of 
 ignorance, and of armed oppression : . . . then ' Protestant,' that the 
 Soul might be emancipated from many errors, superstitions, despotisms : 
 then, again, ' partially reformed ' even in the bosom of the Papacy, 
 lest " Protestant Emancipation " should hurry the whole of Christen- 
 dom into precipitate and radical innovations, into ruinous changes, and 
 into fatal Infidelity that " infidelity," which is now so rife amongst 
 us, and which so easily assumes the masque of a " Philosophy " falsely 
 so-called : even damnable heresies, . . . ' denying the Lord that 
 bought us ' (2 Peter ii. i). 
 
 The good author of this volume and also its better " Subject " 
 Brownlow North himself wd. have done well to have pondered these 
 "aspects of Church History," before magnifying that narrow " Pres- 
 byterianism " so tenderly : which (only two hundred and forty years 
 ago) ruined for a while our grand Anglican Church, and, for only a 
 season also, destroyed even our Civil and Secular liberties. 
 
 Since that most Holy-Day (April nth, this year) on which I read 
 
 13
 
 IQ4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 great part of this vol., after reading the " Divine Service " of course, and 
 also Canon Liddon's Divinity of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, I have 
 read Brownlow North over again, with increased regard for the memory 
 of a good Christian man and also with increased regret that he ever did 
 anything, or said anything, to weaken that glorious and venerable Church 
 into which it was his happiness to be enrolled from his birth ; although 
 for many years he was a disgrace to it. I devoutly and humbly pray God 
 that no Gladstones nor other destructive radical traitors may ever be 
 permitted to rob that Church, or, in any way, to weaken it ! 
 
 On the last page of the book the following is written 
 by Edward Edwards : 
 
 There's scarce a page within this touching book 
 But gives much cause for earnest thought to One 
 Taught by his Summer spent, his Autumn gone, 
 That " Life " is like a tale of morning grass 
 Withered at Eve ! 
 
 There are other lines which follow, and .his note is 
 " Copied out after a solitary walk on the beach before 
 sunrise. Sunday, 9 Nov. 1884." 
 
 In a volume of " Poetry of the Year," with coloured 
 illustrations, given to his sister in 1878, he has written : 
 
 I hope that the intrinsic worth of the few additional " passages," on 
 the Seasons, will prevent them from being looked upon as disfigure- 
 ments of the pages, despite the scrawling hand which, nowadays, 
 waits upon tried and tired eyes (like to your's). They are written in 
 pencil, because the paper will not bear ink without blotting, as the 
 title-page opposite shows too plainly. 
 
 The additions are from Matthew Arnold, Wordsworth, 
 Talfourd, Bern. Barton, Bowles, D. M. Moir and Dean 
 Alford. 
 
 In Sir Walter Scott's Biographical Memoirs there occur 
 a few interesting notes. A reference to the late Queen 
 causes him to write, " Her charms of character and her 
 ' personal goodness ' are of more importance than her 
 personal charms as we all gratefully feel under the rule of 
 Queen Victoria". On one of the blank title-pages of 
 this book he has written : 
 
 N.B. It is much to be wished that the religious character of many 
 of the " subjects " of these Memoirs, had been in better harmony, with
 
 LIFE AMONG HIS BOOKS. 195 
 
 their eminent literary or historical character. They have to be read 
 many of them with a constant thought of those unhappy educational 
 influences so hostile to the Religion of the Gospel of our Blessed Lord 
 which marked, in a sadly pre-eminent degree, the eighteenth century 
 an age, conspicuous for dreary Formalism, on the one hand, and for 
 shallow scepticism on the other. But every life-career that is told in 
 these volumes, is, on one ground or other, an eminently instructive 
 life. And the incidents of each and of all are told, with exquisite grace 
 and with generous sympathy by a man of almost unexampled 
 genius, of a most loving and noble spirit, and gifted with a power 
 of lucid narration to which very few English writers have in any age 
 approached. His gifts as Poet, or as Novelist, are not, I think, a whit 
 more marvellous than are his gifts as a Biographer : And to read him 
 is to love him. 1 
 
 He loved Scott intensely. For light casual reading he 
 was fond of some of Mrs. Oliphant's. Readers were never 
 more in need of reliable finger-posts to lead them to the 
 best and most wholesome streams of thought than in these 
 days. Whether there was about Edwards enough self- 
 forgetfulness to have filled a great place in this way may 
 be doubtful, but he could have rendered a useful service in 
 this direction. 
 
 His book-plate was of a simple character. Round it 
 are the words " Rustic Quiet, Prayer and Worship, Friend- 
 ship, Books ". Near the middle of the plate appears his 
 monogram and a stag or antelope. Search has been 
 made at the College of Arms, and the only connection 
 found is that in 1728 there was a grant of arms to Thomas 
 Edwards, of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, of which the crest 
 was a stag under an oak tree. In the arms of the Edwards' 
 families the crest which has most affinity to the one he 
 used is said to belong to a family connected with Cornwall, 
 Devon and Shropshire. On the envelopes of a few of his 
 letters a seal is used upon which this motto appears, with 
 the stag or antelope. " Omnis fortuna ferendo ^ peranda 
 est " (Every fortune is to be overcome by enduring). The 
 use of the crest and motto indicates his belief that he was 
 of gentle ancestry. 
 
 1 Many words are underlined in the original.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 HIS MOTHER AND SISTERS AT MANNINGTREE. 
 
 ... It must be worth while to ascertain something about the ex- 
 traction, as well as the immediate parentage, of a conspicuous man, 
 were it only for the chance that incidental light may so be thrown 
 on some dark problem or other in his own career. And the in- 
 fluence upon the ordinary events of life, of blood-alliance and family 
 connection, is one of too obvious a sort to need insisting on. 
 
 Life of Ralegh. 
 
 AFTER the death of Edwards' father in 1847 his mother 
 and sisters lived at several addresses in London. He 
 helped the elder sister Charlotte with the necessary fees 
 to pass through some of the classes of a normal training 
 school for teachers. The family took up their residence 
 in Manningtree, Essex, in May, 1851, and opened a girls' 
 school. It appears likely that their brother's loss of his 
 British Museum appointment and salary had something 
 to do with the rapid maturing of plans. The school, so 
 far as pupils were concerned, was never very large. The 
 first house in which they lived is still shown, and here a 
 brass plate duly announced that the Misses Edwards kept 
 a preparatory school for young ladies. There were three 
 or four changes of residence during their life at Mistley, 
 which is part of Manningtree, although it possesses a 
 separate local administration. The writer possesses a 
 long series of letters from the sisters to the brother, cover- 
 ing a period ranging from 1854 to 1885, and these are all 
 dated from Manningtree. They reveal the warm affection 
 which must have existed between Edwards and his mother 
 and sisters. The correspondence is of a simple family 
 nature, but the trend of it throughout is that of a close 
 and mutually helpful family love. They tell of the un- 
 stinting monetary help which Edwards gave to them, as 
 
 (196)
 
 MANNINGTREE. 197 
 
 long as the mother and sister Charlotte lived (for both 
 died in 1864), and to Elizabeth up to the last weeks of his 
 own life : even though his income during a long stretch 
 of years was of a very limited nature. All honour to this 
 man who gave bountifully of his affection, and unsparingly 
 of his means, to those near and dear to him. The nobil- 
 ity of this side of his character is as clear as letters and 
 personal accounts can make it. A brave heart battled 
 within him, but he was carried along at times like a piece 
 of floating wreck driven hither and thither by the force of 
 the waves. But all through, those in the nest in the little 
 Essex town had the wealth of his love poured upon them, 
 their memory was cherished, after they were gone, up to 
 the end of his days. Homely virtues must ever take a 
 large place in the estimation of the worth of every man or 
 woman, whether they take part in actions which set great 
 forces moving, or merely occupy a humble place at the 
 great table of life where gather the millions of humanity. 
 This, man emerges from the test of living up to the highest 
 and purest of the domestic virtues, with conspicuous 
 honour, if the letters which passed between his family and 
 himself and were never written for publication reveal 
 anything. They breathe a spirit which is alike creditable 
 and honourable to all concerned. On 3oth August, 1851, 
 he made his first visit to Manningtree. He was then en- 
 gaged in buying books in London for the Manchester Lib- 
 rary. He says in his diary, " Found my dear mother in 
 pretty good health and spirits . . . prospects of school 
 not good ". His stay on that occasion was short. In the 
 autumn of the following year he made his second visit. It 
 was during these visits that he became known among the 
 girls in the school as the " wonderful brother ". This 
 arose from the sisters constantly speaking about him and 
 quoting him to the girls in the school. In August, 1854, 
 he was again at Manningtree, and " with my dear mother 
 nearly all day. Read to her out of Chalmers' noble 
 discourses on religion." At the end of that year one of 
 the sisters writes : " We were quite glad dear Edward that
 
 ig8 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 you escaped safely from that noisy meeting. We never 
 read or heard of such work. It was enough to frighten 
 any one out of their wits. I suppose there were no ladies 
 present." There is reason to think that the meeting to 
 which reference is here made was a meeting to promote 
 the adoption of the Public Library Act. The meetings 
 for the promotion of the library movement in those days 
 were as a rule noisy enough in all conscience. The letter 
 finishes with this sentence : " Our school money this 
 quarter is every shilling owing, so we do not know what 
 will be the consequence, .bread and provisions generally, 
 being so dear, make such a great difference, it is quite a 
 serious thing". On z8th April, 1856, they write, "We 
 found no difficulty in reading your kind letter, and dear 
 mother says that although her eyes are old, she can always 
 read your writing without trouble ". And a little later the 
 mother had instructed the writer of the letter to tell him 
 that " she is much grieved to find that you write so late 
 at night. We are sure it is likely to injure your health 
 and that sooner or later you will feel it." He was with 
 them in August, 1856, and the reports of the prospects in 
 the little school were not encouraging. There is some- 
 thing inexpressibly sad when ladies of refinement are left 
 to earn a living. There were few years for a considerable 
 period that he was not at Manningtree in the autumn. 
 At thejvery end of 1859, " We are anxious dear Edward to 
 know whether you have been successful through the 
 advertisement or in any other way". It was nearing 
 Christmas, and the letter finishes with, " We all wish you 
 may enjoy a pleasant Christmas. I know you will not 
 forget us in our solitariness. We shall have a very dull 
 one or rather none at all." On i5th May, 1860, " Dear 
 mama was very pleased to receive your beautiful letter. 
 God grant that in due time it may be answered." A month 
 later, " We are very sorry to hear that you have had so 
 much hurry and fatigue with your Edinburgh work," and 
 again about the same date, " We feel grieved dear Edward 
 to think you apply so closely and trust it will not injure
 
 MANNINGTREE. igg 
 
 your health. I should think it must make it pleasant to 
 have children in the house, particularly as you were always 
 fond of children." In October, " We have to thank you 
 for the newspaper. We saw a long account of the 
 meeting of the Science Congress at Glasgow. It must 
 have been a splendid gathering. Lord Brougham must 
 be a remarkable man indeed. We saw your name in the 
 list. Mama spied it out." Edwards had contributed a 
 paper on libraries to the Congress. In the last letter in 
 1860 : 
 
 Dear mother sends her most affectionate love and thanks for your 
 very kind letter and remittance. She wishes me to say that she takes 
 it exceedingly kind in your sending what you have, and so early in the 
 week too. She wishes she could write a few loving words to you on 
 your birthday, but that is not in her power in her weak state, but you 
 know dear Edward that you have her best wishes and prayers, in which 
 we both most cordially unite. 
 
 In September, 1862, he says in his diary: "... Had 
 much grave and some cheerful talk with my beloved 
 mother, who sat up in her room for two hours or so, and 
 spoke far more easily and cheerily than I could have 
 hoped. She is sadly worn, but her dear face is but little 
 altered in features or expression." On the following day 
 he enters, " Had a solemn and most touching interview 
 with my beloved mother concluding with earnest prayer 
 with her and with my sisters. May God in His great 
 mercy grant that the impressions thus produced on my 
 mind may not be transient, and that the supplications 
 thus humbly offered in the name of the one Great 
 Mediator may in His good time and way be answered." 
 A few days later he is back in the Isle of Wight, and 
 enters in his diary on a Sunday : " Attended the Holy 
 Communion. At the beginning with sad stony indifference, 
 but afterwards with impressions which I earnestly pray 
 may not be merely transient. On leaving church had a 
 long, quiet and meditative walk. . . . The day a splendid 
 and impressively Sabbatical one." His financial help to 
 his family that year amounted to over forty-one pounds.
 
 200 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Then in June, 1863, " Our beloved mother sends her 
 warmest love to you and desires me to tell you that she 
 had very great pleasure in reading your letter, it is the 
 only thing that she can read now, and it is such a comfort 
 to her that she can do that ". Shortly afterwards, " Dear 
 mother often expresses her regret that you are so far off. 
 She says it would be such a comfort to her to see you 
 often. ... I am quite sorry dear Edward that you have 
 been all this time alone. It must be so dull for you, and 
 I don't know how you manage so long without your wife, 
 and I am surprised she likes to be away so much." On 
 zoth June, 1863, " Our beloved mother sends her warmest 
 love and thanks to you for your very kind letter, etc., . . . 
 dear mother says she hopes when you make another remove 
 you will not pitch your tent so far from Manningtree ". In 
 September, 1863, he is at Manningtree, and " spent 
 much of the day afterwards with my mother who had 
 some grave, earnest and touching conversation with me at 
 times when she was able to speak with me. . . . Promised 
 to do all I could for my sisters for her sake as well as for 
 theirs. ..." On the i8th " took a hurried tearful farewell 
 of my mother and sisters ". There were premonitions that 
 the end was coming for the mother. On this page of the 
 diary there is written some years later these words : 
 
 This was the last farewell in life. I did not see my beloved mother's 
 face again until I saw it in the solemn calmness of death on the 25th 
 January, 1864, the day after her departure. In my great grief I had 
 then the happy consciousness that I could not remember to have seen 
 that dear face with any expression other than that of love : and the 
 firm conviction that by God's grace and through the sole merits of our 
 blessed Lord's atonement, I shall hereafter have the inexpressible 
 happiness of seeing it again in a better world. 
 
 The letters during the mother's last illness are very 
 pathetic. He was then at Shanklin. He received the 
 note that she was dying on the Sunday morning, and there 
 being no boat he could not start for Manningtree on that 
 day. At five on the Monday morning he was on his way. 
 He remained some days with his sisters. At the end of
 
 MANNINGTREE. 201 
 
 the same year the elder sister died unexpectedly, and he 
 went forthwith to share the sorrow with his remainin-g 
 sister, Elizabeth Margaret. His income during 1864 
 was jS 155., made up of 28 155. from the Duke of 
 Marlborough for the report upon the Blenheim Library, 
 and two items of 25 each from his publishers. Of this 
 he sent "45 is. 3^. to his mother and sisters. Fortu- 
 .nately he had, what was to him, a considerable sum left 
 over from the previous year. At the end of his diary for 
 that year there is a little sketch plan of the grave where 
 his mother and sister were buried. Dr. Merivale, the 
 historian of Rome and translator of Homer, better known 
 as Dean Merivale, was then the rector of Lawford Church, 
 which is about two miles from Manningtree. It was 
 said at Manningtree that Edwards was much like Dr. 
 Merivale in appearance. Edwards did not greatly admire 
 .him as a preacher, for of one sermon he says, " Dr. 
 Merivale preached, scholarly and coldly ". It may be 
 doubted whether any one could visit Lawford Church 
 without being struck with the rural beauty of its sur- 
 roundings. Situated in the midst of fields, and looking 
 like a huge park, on all sides of which there are belts of 
 fine trees, it is the very ideal of a place in which to rest 
 when one is done with work. The river Stour, winding 
 on its course with numerous little boats on its surface, 
 and the little town of Manningtree in the distance, lend 
 completeness to the scene. Edwards, himself an anchorite, 
 must have felt the glamour of this haven of rest in an 
 especial way. It must have filled his soul, and it is no 
 wonder that he should have several times, during 1864, 
 .passionately expressed in his diary the wish that he 
 should be buried in the same grave as his mother and 
 sister in the Lawford Churchyard. 
 
 The remaining sister lived on alone at Manningtree. 
 In August, 1866, Edwards was with her, and visited Law- 
 ford Church. He enters in his diary : " Found the grave 
 of my loved mother and sister very neglected. If God 
 shall in His Almighty wisdom bless my present efforts,
 
 202 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 I hope to remedy this, and to place to them some poor 
 memorial stone." He was then engaged upon his Life 
 of Ralegh, for which he was to receive one hundred and 
 fifty guineas, increased to a larger sum at a later date. 
 He attended the service, and " Mr. Merivale preached in 
 his usual perfunctory and lifeless style ". On gth March,, 
 1867, Elizabeth writes : 
 
 I return you many thanks for your remittance. ... I am very glad 
 to hear you are making such satisfactory progress with your Life of 
 Ralegh, and hope you will reap a rich reward. It must be a work of 
 great labour. ... I anticipate another Sabbath alone to-morrow. 
 Pray for me my dear brother that I may submit to my Heavenly 
 Father's will in being thus afflicted, but I sometimes .think it hard to 
 be left here to drag on such a dull life. . . . What do you think of Mr.. 
 Binney's hymn ? 
 
 The hymn, of which a written copy was enclosed in the: 
 letter, was Dr. Binney's " Eternal Light, eternal Light ".. 
 Then on 3oth June, " I am rejoiced to hear that you are; 
 daily gaining strength, and trust you will continue to do/ 
 so. ... Many thanks dear for your remittance for which. 
 I am thankful. The want of what you have before so 
 regularly supplied makes it doubly welcome." Two- 
 months later : 
 
 It grieves me to be any additional anxiety to you, though I know 
 what you do for me, you do ungrudgingly. . . . Are you seeking to* 
 obtain a librarianship ? I do trust you will be able to meet with a. 
 permanency. It would be such a relief to you and to all of us. Is. 
 your book ready yet ? . . . I enjoyed reading your Devonshire book.. 
 It is very interesting. (In October), Your letter has grieved me very 
 much. I do trust you will not give way to despondency. The Lord 1 
 never has forsaken those that put their trust in Him. These trials are 
 hard, very hard to bear, and especially I think when poverty and 
 sickness go together, and being so solitary I cannot but think it falls, 
 more heavily upon me. . . . My dear brother you speak of affliction 
 souring the temper. I trust that will not be the case with us, by God's, 
 help it shall not sour mine though I have something to bear. . . . 
 
 In the summer ot 1867 he took her to Felixstowe and 
 Dovercourt, as she had been failing in health. One of 
 the sweetest things in English literature is Charles
 
 MANNINGTREE. 203 
 
 Lamb's loving care of his sister Mary. Edwards' care 
 of his sister Elizabeth may be classed with that record 
 of brotherly devotion. A little later she writes, " I am 
 glad to hear what you say about the Weigh House Chapel, 
 though I may never see the old place again, nor ever hear 
 Mr. Binney's voice again ". In the following year (1868) 
 he was in a weak state of health, and there are many 
 blanks in his diary. On 4th October, 1873, she wrote : 
 
 ... I thank you most sincerely for what you have sent me now, as 
 well as in all times past. All I have to give you in return is my warmest 
 love and affection, but you will have your reward from Him who knows 
 all about it. When you write tell me how you are, and if you are 
 relieved at all, of your deafness. I am anxious often to hear of you 
 more frequently, but I know you are wearied with pen work, and I 
 have so little to write about that would interest you. . . . 
 
 The last of the sisters received for a number of years 
 an annuity of 20 from one of the London trade guilds, 
 secured for her through the influence of a London cousin. 
 
 Edwards visited her on 23rd December, 1880, and 
 spent that Christmas with her. (At the end of 1876 his 
 wife had died.) The entries in his diary respecting these 
 days which they spent together are so sweet and whole- 
 some that they may well be given in full : 
 
 Had the happiness to find my dear sister fairly well and cheerful. 
 Had a long talk together, and earnest humble prayer together in 
 gratitude of heart for the long desired and now graciously permitted 
 meeting. On Christmas Day prayed, read and conversed with my 
 dear Elizabeth. Then walked of necessity alone, and with very sacred 
 memories, to Lawford. Prayed at the dear grave, which I trust, by 
 God's gracious memory may, long before 1881 be out, if life and health 
 be vouchsafed to me, have its due and loving memorial. ... In the 
 evening had much reading from Holy Scripture aloud, with Milton's 
 and Keble's hymns, the former from memory. . . . (Two days later), 
 after prayer as usual read to my dear sister, my old London acquaint- 
 ance Daniel Moore's fine sermon on the " Life to come " (from a vol. 
 which I had given to our beloved mother as long ago as 1848). . . . Left 
 my sister with gratitude for the almost four days which we have been 
 permitted to spend together in peace and love. God be blessed for 
 countless mercies to both of us. At Oxford spent a quiet evening 
 in deep gratitude for a blessed visit and a safe return.
 
 204 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 This was probably as peaceful and as happy a time as 
 he had during the rest of his life. He was no stranger 
 all through his life to disappointment and trouble. The 
 common lot of humanity lies very much in that direction, 
 and Edwards had his full share. On New Year's Day of 
 1881 the sister writes : " I felt dreary after you left, but I 
 have kept myself employed and strive hard against it. 
 The little time we had together, was to me a very happy 
 time, and I shall often think of it with delight and thank- 
 fulness. In God's good providence I trust we may meet 
 again at a more genial season." Then there comes a 
 sisterly touch. " Your praise of the pudding and cake 
 made me feel quite proud. I wish you could have taken 
 with you three times as much." Most men are mortal 
 and care for toothsome pudding and cake. He loved trees 
 and all natural things. In the grounds at Mistley the 
 woodman's axe had been at work. She writes some three 
 days after the previous letter: "The existence of the poor 
 trees would be as everlasting as the hills if it were 
 possible, ere you would permit them to be cut down, and 
 rightly too. The park here has been much 'spoiled by 
 their destruction, and one can scarcely forgive." Numer- 
 ous are the letters at this time, all breathing an affectionate 
 tone between them. The sister was ailing most of the 
 year, and indeed during a good part of the remainder of 
 her life. She was shown neighbourly kindness by some 
 members of the Congregational Church which she attended, 
 and its ministers, and it is fitting that there should be 
 mentioned Mr. and Mrs. George Fenter, and Mr. and Mrs. 
 John Carter and the daughters of the two families. Two 
 out of these three girls were scholars in the school of 
 the Misses Edwards. In April of the year named Mr. 
 Carter had written to her brother about the sister's state 
 of health. In reply to this, Edwards wrote : 
 
 12 Iffley Road, Oxford, 3rd April, 1881. The note you had the 
 kindness to write to me on Friday, came to my hand last evening. I 
 write of course to my sister, by the post which will bring you this 
 brief acknowledgment of an attention for which I_feel greatly indebted
 
 MANNINGTREE. 205 
 
 to you, and for which be pleased to accept my cordial thanks. It must 
 be superfluous to say how grateful I shall be if, by God's mercy, you 
 are able by and bye to send me a line to tell of my dear Sister's im- 
 provement a blessing and mercy for which I humbly and heartily pray. 
 
 On a later occasion he called at their cottage and 
 thanked them both in grave and dignified terms for all the 
 kindness they had shown to his sister. Elizabeth suf- 
 fered from attacks of small extravagances, just as did 
 her brother. They are called small extravagances, for 
 the means of neither one nor the other admitted of more, 
 but in both cases they were taxes upon the slender avail- 
 able resources. Elizabeth would send for the doctor on 
 the least occasion. She had a weakness for physic, and 
 while she had some ailments, particularly rheumatism, 
 there were times in the estimation of those who knew her 
 when she did not require medical advice, though she would 
 have it. Unpaid doctors' bills are unmistakably evident. 
 On one occasion Elizabeth was in a neighbour's house. 
 
 " There goes Dr. ," and she forthwith jumped up and 
 
 had an interview with him in the cottage where she 
 happened to be at the time. Dear soul ! She tried her 
 friends in this way, but to her last days she received a 
 kindness which must have been the very marrow of her 
 life, and she was deeply grateful for the thoughtful care 
 of a few true friends. On 2oth December, 1881, she 
 wrote : " My dearly loved brother. Accept my loving 
 thanks for your very kind letter and enclosure. Also for 
 the beautiful book . . . you supply me so well with valu- 
 able books. ... I feel very thankful you bear so calmly 
 and patiently your sad infirmity. In all trials there are 
 alleviations and your eyes continuing so well is a great 
 blessing as you have often said." 
 
 It was not until 1882 that he was able to have the long 
 desired monument erected. The inscription reads : 
 
 " Sacred to the memory of Charlotte Edwards, Widow of Anthony 
 Turner Edwards. Born at Hull lyth Aug. 1783, Died at Mistley, 
 24th Jan. 1864, act. 81 ; also of Charlotte Edwards, Daughter of the 
 above named, Born at Writtle i3th June 1814, Died at Manningtree,
 
 206 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 22nd Dec. 1864, aet. 51. (On the side nearest the church this is 
 found) : They lived, throughout life, together, and in love together, 
 they bore many temporal losses and severe afflictions, in the same 
 year they were laid to their brief rest, beneath. They both died in full 
 assurance of a blissful Reunion through the atoning sacrifice of " Our 
 Blessed Lord Jesus Christ" Mediator, Saviour, Redeemer of sinners. 
 " The Resurrection and the Life Am I : believe and die no more." 
 
 Inside Lawford Church there is on the wall which is 
 nearest the monument outside in the graveyard a beauti- 
 ful white marble tablet, bearing this inscription : " Sacred 
 to the dear and Honoured Memories of Charlotte Edwards 
 (1783-1864): of Charlotte Edwards (1814-1864) : and of 
 Margaretta Frances Edwards (1803-1876)". Then follow 
 a text and some lines of poetry. In May, 1882, he was 
 at Manningtree and the two had another refreshing few 
 days together. At the end of that year she writes : " I fear 
 you are suffering much in your health, and it grieves me 
 much to think that I cause you so much anxiety as well 
 as expense. Accept my best and loving thanks for again 
 so generously ministering to my wants. I trust you will 
 never tax your strength another year as you have this. 
 ... I do not think of my trials as being greater than 
 yours, for I am sure your deprivation of hearing must be 
 great indeed, and it is scarcely ever from my thoughts." 
 In the spring of 1883 : "... As to yourself you must have 
 some relaxation ... at your time of life it grieves me, 
 as I have so often said, that you work so hard, and the 
 remuneration so slow in coming. ... I have scores of 
 your letters which every now and then I read." On i7th 
 July, 1883 : " Your most long and sympathising letter my 
 dearest brother made me very grateful to you. I shall 
 never forgive myself for having been the cause of adding 
 to your troubles and anxieties. I would rather have con- 
 tinued suffering. ... I hope you will believe . . . that 
 I am living as frugally as possible . . . and deny myself 
 many comforts. . . . Many times a day my poor prayers 
 go up for you that Divine strength may be imparted to 
 you, and help and comfort in all times of weakness and 
 depression." He was now dependent on his pension of
 
 MANNINGTREE. 207 
 
 eighty pounds a year, and from the tone of the letters it 
 is evident he had expressed deep regret that he could not 
 do more for her. He was too poor to go to Manningtree 
 for the Christmas, and indeed never saw his sister again 
 so far as the available records show. She writes : "I 
 -daresay like myself you had a very quiet Christmas. It 
 may be wrong to feel so, but I am always glad when it 
 has passed. It brings sad reflections as this month does. 
 .. . . But I trust we can both, humbly yet confidently 
 anticipate a blessed reunion." She had sent him some 
 little things of her own working, and hopes he would wear 
 out many more of them. The tone of the letters during 
 1884 and the next year is that of deep despondency. The 
 last letter written from Manningtree on 23rd December, 
 1885, only a few weeks before the death of her brother, may 
 be given in full : 
 
 Manningtree, 23rd December, 1885. My dearly loved Brother, 
 'Ever since my last letter to you I have been afraid you might not think 
 it so kind as it ought to have been, therefore I felt I must send you a 
 few lines to assure you I had no intention of giving you pain. When- 
 ever it may be possible to you, I feel assured you will, as in years past, 
 assist me in my pecuniary troubles. It must have seemed to you a 
 most selfish letter, and when I wrote it I was very depressed with one 
 worry after another. I never purchase any Cards, but please accept 
 those I have enclosed. The one entitled " A Benediction " was sent to 
 me by a dear old Lady, and the lines will express my prayer for you. 
 ... I have been going to tell you, what perhaps you will think rather 
 strange, when feeling low and rather melancholy, I often find solace 
 in reading some of Cowper's Letters, I can enter a little into his state 
 of mind, I can remember that even when a child I used at times to feel 
 depressed, and never if I remember rightly, was full of spirit as (I 
 think) children should be. I shall think of you much to-morrow, as you 
 will of me I doubt not in our loneliness. I have an invitation to dine 
 with a friend, but it is doubtful whether I shall be well enough to go. 
 
 With truest love, ever, my dearest brother, your affectionate sister, 
 E. M. Edwards. 
 
 The sister lived on, with all her ailments, up to April, 
 1897, when she died and is buried in Lawford churchyard. 
 To the last she never ceased to speak affectionately 
 of her brother, and often said that sooner or later the
 
 208 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 work he had done would be recognised. He had some 
 plans for her to live with him during his sojourn at Niton, 
 but it never became possible for him to carry the wish 
 into effect. Edwards sent numerous books to his sisters 
 as presents. Many of these were from his own collection, 
 and in all cases were written in by himself. Among 
 others there are : 
 
 Tucker's Memoir of the Life and Episcopate of George Augustus 
 Selwyn, D.D. In two vols. Inscription, " To my beloved Sister, 
 Elizabeth Margaret Edwards, with the affectionate regards of the giver, 
 and with every loving wish appropriate to the blessed and glorious 
 ' Church Festival ' of Easter. 12 Iflfley Road, Oxford, Eastertide, 1883." 
 Underneath the two verses which face the dedicatory notice there 
 are lines marking portions of the little poem, and underneath this, 
 by Edwards : " Warriors and also workers of the true type of the 
 Holy Church, as by law established, in England ". Other books 
 are : Tower Church Sermons, edited by T. Binney, 1852. Inscription, 
 " Charlotte Edwards, from her affec. brother Edward Edwards. Old 
 Trafford, I4th November, 1852." 
 
 The Gospel in Ezekiel, by Thomas Guthrie, D.D., 1856. Inscrip* 
 tion, " To my dearest Mother, with the affectionate and dutiful remem- 
 brances of E. E. Manningtree, 2gth August, 1856." 
 
 Life of John Coleridge Patteson, by Charlotte Mary Yonge, 1874. 
 Inscription, " To my dear Sister, with the love and affectionate remem- 
 brances of Edward Edwards. Manningtree, igth October, 1877." 
 
 Catharine and Craufurd Tait, by the Rev. Wm. Benham, B.D., 1879. 
 Inscription, " For my dear Sister, Elizabeth Margaret Edwards, with 
 brotherly remembrances, and all loving wishes for the New Year, 1880. 
 Oxford." 
 
 Life Mosaic, by Frances Ridley Havergal, 1880. Inscription, ' To 
 my dear Sister, with affectionate remembrances of Years that are 
 gone ; and with loving wishes for the New Year now beginning. 
 Edward Edwards. Oxford, New Year's Day, 1881." 
 
 Biographical Memoirs, by Sir Walter Scott. Two volumes in one. 
 Published 1830. Inscription, " To my dearly loved Sister, Elizabeth 
 Margaret Edwards, with the affectionate wishes, the earnest prayers, 
 and the brotherly love of E. E. Sea View, Niton, Whitsuntide, 1885." 
 Selections from the Poems of Robert Southey, LL.D. Published 1831.. 
 Inscription, " To my dearly loved Sister, E. M. E., with gratitude of 
 heart for her graciously vouchsafed measure of improved health, and 
 with truest love and kindest wishes. Niton, Whitsuntide, 1885." 
 
 The following is a draft copy in Edwards' writing of a 
 letter to Bullen, dated May, 1866 :
 
 MANNINGTREE. 209 
 
 . . . For many years although I have constantly worked most 
 laboriously my income has been precarious in the extreme. In the 
 course of Providence a dearly loved mother and sisters have been in 
 great measure dependent on me, and on their account only, I have 
 spent nearly 700. Of late years this has been during a hard fight 
 not only with poverty but with long illness. How disheartening and 
 depressing such circumstances are in their influence upon that other 
 inevitable fight with the daily pen work, I hope you will never know. 
 
 Life presents to all many trials and afflictions, but 
 possibly the hardest of all for anybody to bear is that of 
 insufficiency of income to meet expenditure.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 
 
 Estimate his (Ralegh's) faults and his errors as we may, his 
 life's work was fully done. That life proved itself a nobly productive 
 one. 
 
 Exmouth and its Neighbourhood. 
 
 THE quaint and beautiful old-fashioned village of Niton is 
 situated a few miles west ofVentnor in the Isle of Wight, 
 and is sheltered by the adjoining Down and cliffs, quite 
 away from the ordinary beat of the tourist. Cottages 
 nestling in rustic beauty are everywhere to be found. 
 Roads wind in and out, and are at times dark from the 
 overhanging foliage, even with the sun overhead. Ed- 
 wards loved Niton from his first acquaintance with the 
 district as a young man, and to this place he went after 
 the close of his work at Oxford. The quiet and seclusion 
 of the village must have appealed to him. Its rural 
 beauty was a source of delight to him, and the rich 
 masses of foliage abounding everywhere would give some 
 repose to his restless spirit. The St. Catherine's Down 
 and the cliffs afforded a large area for the ceaseless peram- 
 bulations, which were his chief recreation. The old church 
 of Niton nestles among trees, and roses cover the posts of 
 its gate during their days of bloom. A brook with its 
 rippling waters runs down by the hedge close to the 
 churchyard. The house where he resided is screened by 
 a high hedge of euonymus, which grows everywhere in 
 the Isle of Wight, and hides the house from the road, and 
 there is also a restful grass plot upon which he could look 
 as he sat at work, or gazed from his bedroom. At the 
 back there is nothing but gardens and shingle between the 
 house and the sea. Built round two sides of the house 
 
 (210)
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 211 
 
 is a verandah providing shelter from sun and rain. Alto- 
 gether the village and his place of residence presented a 
 bookman's ideal retreat, but there is no doubt that he 
 suffered at Niton from the lack of access to books. Edwards 
 had snug rooms, and in these he must have felt that, after 
 so much tossing about and unrest of soul, a haven had at 
 last been found where he might spend his days over his 
 beloved library work, and his evenings among his books. 
 If only money matters had cleared up a little, and the 
 needs of his sister had been less pressing, his last years 
 might have been happier. Out of his pension of So he 
 had to lodge, keep and dress himself, find money for some 
 printing, and continue his contributions to Manningtree. 
 This was not a lavish sum for a man who had some 
 aristocratic notions, and Edwards cherished not a few, 
 and would have thought it sacrilege to curb them one 
 iota. He always dined at five o'clock, habitually dressed 
 for dinner in a velvet waistcoat, and donned a flower in 
 his coat. He wore frilled shirts in these days, quite in 
 the style of an old English gentleman, and had evidently 
 not spared outlay on his personal outfit while in Oxford. 
 While grace was said, or as he said it for himself, he 
 would stand by his chair in a grave and dignified way. 
 He would have done this had the Lord Chancellor in all 
 his robes of office been present, and he would probably 
 have done it had there been but a crust of bread and 
 cheese upon which to dine. These habits were relics of 
 bygone days, when a certain courtly manner was cultivated, 
 and give a clue to a good deal that had passed in his life. 
 Edwards was a rigid upholder of these formalities. The 
 testimony of all who knew him, and can now bear witness 
 to his manners, was that at all times, and under all cir- 
 cumstances, he was a gentleman ; an old-fashioned English 
 gentleman, some have said, with a quiet, dignified air, very 
 shy and reserved. He would have made a good nineteenth- 
 century Niccolo de' Niccoli had he possessed the wealth 
 of the Florentine scholar. Ed wards talked little of himself, 
 and bore his poverty in secret as long as it was possible
 
 212 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 to hide it from those around him, but when it could no 
 longer be concealed, it was with the utmost mental agony 
 that he was driven to make confession. 
 
 In the absence of an authentic portrait, the following 
 description of his appearance, as given by those who 
 remembered him, may have some little interest. 
 
 He is described by those who knew him at Niton as 
 being above middle size, but neither stout nor slender. 
 His head was bald at the top, and the hair, perfectly white, 
 was bushy round the lower part of the head, and he had 
 long whiskers. He had a florid complexion, and must 
 have had a remarkably strong constitution. He had the 
 scholar's stoop, and always wore a frock coat and a silk hat, 
 with neckties of a blue or green colour. A blue necktie 
 was possibly to harmonise with cold steel-blue eyes. 
 The frock coat and the silk hat ultimately turned very 
 shabby, and became a mark for the fun of the village 
 boys. As one of the boys, now a grown-up man, said to 
 the writer : "I was no better than the rest, and the old 
 man used to scurry away from us as fast as he could. 
 But he always took our fun in a dignified way." During 
 these days at Niton, it is said, he would often sing himself 
 to sleep with the hymn " Abide with me ". He lived almost 
 wholly alone. His deafness had increased, and he is still 
 remembered in Niton as a peculiar old man, fond of 
 wandering about the roads, and over the Down by him- 
 self. He would walk all alone to many distant places, 
 and during these rambles he talked incessantly to himself. 
 In several of the shops in the village, where he would 
 occasionally go for small purchases, he would joke with 
 those in the shop and make compliments to the ladies. 
 
 Edwards felt that he had touched in his zeal for libraries 
 the core of one great public need. He rarely ever spoke of 
 his work. At Niton some were sure that there was distinc- 
 tion attaching to him, but they did not find out what it 
 was during his few years of residence there. As he 
 worked in his sitting-room, which was crowded with his 
 books and papers, he would draw down the blind should
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 213 
 
 there be any one at work in the garden in front ot his 
 window. He could not bear to be observed. For one 
 year there must have been possibly a peacefulness and 
 rest such as he probably had not known for many 
 years. Gaunt poverty did not stalk across his path so 
 nakedly as it did in the later stages. But ultimately his 
 payments for board and lodging with his landlady, although 
 not large, could not be kept up, and when the September 
 quarter of 1883 was reached, she modified the terms, 
 charging but the modest sum of one pound a week. He 
 signalised this event by writing to her the following 
 letter: 
 
 agth Sep. '83. (" S. Michael and all Angels.") It is my wish 
 with your permission to mark " S. Michl' day" with some little 
 humble token of my regard for you on our entering to-day into a 
 sort of different relation to each other (D.V.). Will you accept this 
 small volume ? The book (in a somewhat different sized form) was, 
 for many years, the delight of my dear lost wife a loss which makes 
 loneliness so sad, and the more sad because stony-hearted people who 
 could a little relieve it, and easily, won't and her copy of the book, 
 since her death has been my almost daily companion. To many 
 thousands of better people than either of us, it has been an almost 
 priceless consolation in days of sorrow. For you I hope, and pray 
 that many days of comfort and by God's mercy days of health and 
 strength are yet in store. With kindest wishes. 
 
 The book mentioned above was the Christian Year. 
 The word "loneliness" is underlined twice, and "could" 
 and " won't " italicised. It was during his stay in her 
 house that he was found by Mrs. Dunford, his landlady, 
 pasting in his books a leaflet bearing the printed inscription 
 given below. He hastened to inform her that this bequest 
 was only to take effect after her debt was paid. The leaflet 
 is six inches by four, and printed in two colours. It reads : 
 
 Except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that build it : 
 except the Lord keep the town, the watchman waketh but in vain. 
 Bequeathed to the Mayor and Corporation of . . . , Isle of Wight, 
 as a very Humble but Most Willingly Offered Nucleus (in anticipation 
 and hope), of their future Free Town Library, to be hereafter (as Testa- 
 tor humbly trusts) supported by a Library Rate, under the " Public
 
 2i 4 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 Libraries Acts," 1866, seqq. : with the earnest prayers for its speedy 
 foundation, steady growth, and permanent usefulness (D.V.), of 
 Edward Edwards. Sea View, Niton, 188 . . . . 
 
 It is singular that there is not one single adoption of 
 the Acts in the Isle of Wight up to the present date. 
 
 He was made as happy and as comfortable as possible 
 in his lodgings, but nothing ever seems to have drawn him 
 out of his shell of reserve. Upon one topic he would launch 
 out into invective, and that was when anything called forth 
 an expression of his political convictions. A great question 
 of national importance was then beginning to loom very 
 large on the horizon, and Edwards held very pronounced 
 views upon the subject, and was ever ready to express 
 these opinions. He never forgave the Premier, whom he 
 held responsible, for making his pension but "80 a year. 
 Often was he drawn gently by the arm away when his 
 disputations with other visitors in the house would be- 
 come troublesome. He became alienated from some of 
 the working men of the village who held different political 
 views from his own. It was balm to a disappointed spirit 
 to thunder forth his likes and dislikes. The time came 
 when he could not pay his bills, and had run several 
 quarters into arrears. Several times he had been told 
 that it would be necessary for him to make room for 
 other guests, but on he remained. The whole of the 
 house had been let for some months, and it became im- 
 possible for him to stay longer. He reads in his Bible, 
 Revelation vii., and underlines in red ink verses four- 
 teen, sixteen and seventeen. The words " They shall 
 hunger no more, neither thirst any more," touch him, and 
 he dates them aoth July, 1885, 9.30 A.M. It is likely that 
 he had not actually hungered and thirsted up to then, 
 although he had certainly pinched himself. The outlook 
 was unpromising. On that same day the Rev. John 
 Harrison, then the Baptist minister in Niton, met him 
 near the manse gate, looking very wearied and distressed. 
 He scarcely knew Edwards, but stopped him and asked if 
 he could be of service to him. Then came a pathetic
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 215 
 
 story that he had nowhere to lay his head, and it was 
 already eventide, and pleaded to be taken in, or shelter 
 found for him. Niton is only a small place, and lodgings 
 could not be had for him, and Mr. and Mrs. Harrison ar- 
 ranged to take him into their house until the end of the 
 season. A cosy bed sitting-room was prepared for him, 
 and everything was done to minister to his comfort that 
 could be done. The manse stands raised above the road, 
 and a high hedge hides the lower part of the house from 
 the road. He loved its seclusion and revelled in its 
 garden. It was here that Mrs. Harrison wrote her book 
 Mackay of Uganda, a worthy record of her brother's pioneer 
 work in that new British territory. One evening in the 
 third week in August, says this good lady, " I was in the 
 drawing-room and had my infant in my arms. Mr. Edwards 
 came in from the garden and saw us, as he passed the 
 door on his way to supper in the dining-room. The old 
 man looked astonished and then came forward and spoke 
 to me. Then he knelt down on one knee and blessed the 
 child in quite a patriarchal way, that he might become a 
 great man and be an influence for good in the world." 
 
 Why Edwards did not make known the extreme poverty 
 from which he suffered, and which clouded his last days, 
 is hard to understand! There was one relative at least 
 who would have helped him gladly. But while letters 
 passed between them, none ever gave the least indication 
 of the straits in which he lived at Niton. To no one does 
 he appear to have appealed. A little would have sufficed 
 to lift him out of his slough of despair. The merest few 
 pounds which a stockbroker can make in as many minutes 
 would have paid all his debts and lightened his heart. 
 But, too proud to make his needs known, either to relative 
 or the charitable, he wore out his hope, till despair laid its 
 icy grasp upon his soul. These were dark days for him. 
 Possibly a hundred pounds would have paid every one of 
 his debts, and left a small fund in hand. Whatever may 
 be the number of those able and willing to help the 
 deserving, it is impossible for them to go about with open
 
 2i6 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 purse in hand to grant the necessary succour. Everybody 
 knows what would be the ultimate result of such indis- 
 criminate charity. But here the reader is face to face 
 with Edwards' circumstances. A sister needing monetary 
 help, and receiving it to the last of his days, and to the 
 utmost of his means, often to his own impoverishment. 
 A liberal expenditure in printing and postages. And to 
 these must be added the considerable sum for which he 
 was in debt to his landlady, and some other small debts. 
 Some few subscriptions were paid him in advance for the 
 second edition of Memoirs of Libraries. There is trace 
 of four cases where he, in his poverty, asked for prepay- 
 ment. In two of these instances the friend to whom he 
 wrote paid for several copies. The people at Niton knew 
 of his pension, and naturally asked why he could not 
 maintain himself upon the sum granted. They knew 
 nothing of his contributions to his sister. Even his 
 landlady was not told. Of the liabilities for printing she 
 knew nothing. The old man's joy at the prospect of 
 setting everything right when his book was out was like 
 the joy of a child anticipating the gift of a marvellous toy. 
 But this hope was to be dashed away from him. Nature 
 is as pitiless as iron in her methods. She spares not 
 any one, and the weak and the sensitive suffer most from 
 the blast of her storms. Darkness at last drew around 
 this troubled old man, battered and worn in life's fierce 
 struggle, and he was beginning to see the hopelessness 
 of an impossible future before him. He had reached 
 absolutely the end of his resources, and all avenues 
 seemed closed to him for such help as his great pride 
 would enable him to accept. Life had become a burden, 
 hope, that stay of the heart and soul, had flown, and even 
 that sweet consolation which aforetimes he derived from 
 Keble's Christian Year had now lost some of its power. 
 Despair had enveloped him like a mighty fog, and he saw 
 no turning, and no escape. Thus have others of the 
 world's benefactors gone to their rest. Nature claims 
 their work as her own, and the worker must take his
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 217 
 
 chance in the storm and stress of life. The long story 
 of the world's truest and best men and women is naught 
 but a record of broken hearts, disappointed hopes, and an 
 eternal battling with the rude shocks of life. 
 
 This busy life of ours is full of such martyrs to the 
 commonweal, and every hermit spirit will go out to 
 Edwards in his terrible loneliness, torn to pieces with the 
 thought that he had been neglected, and that the world 
 had not dealt kindly with him. The fate of nearly all 
 true souls who carry the burdens of humanity on their 
 hearts is that their personality becomes absolutely merged 
 in their work. No true labourer in the great field of public 
 usefulness wishes it otherwise. 
 
 In a letter to the present writer received from the Rev. G. 
 W. Jeudwine, M.A., Rector of Niton at the time, under date 
 of 2ist June, 1901, he says : " Edwards was very shy and 
 avoided society at Niton, and I had little intercourse with 
 him. I had known him before when he was engaged in re- 
 arranging the library at Queen's College, Oxford. I under- 
 stood that he was engaged in some literary work which was 
 to be a magnum opus, but was long in coming off, and 
 that disappointment about this preyed upon his mind. . . ." 
 Out of the furnace comes the pure gold. Mother earth 
 hides her methods and secrets. The diamond sparkles as 
 it is worn, but there is still ignorance of how it is formed. 
 All the strivings under the sun will not alter Nature's 
 methods. Humanity has to bow to the yoke and yield with- 
 out question to her relentless forces. That is pretty theory 
 where it does not touch the individual, but the individual 
 whom the experience has touched on a raw place, is often 
 none the worse if he can manage to scramble through into 
 a place of safety. 
 
 A crisis in the life of this anchorite has now to be chron- 
 icled, which is full of pathetic interest, though pitiful in 
 the extreme. His monetary troubles, the weakness of old 
 age, acute disappointment at the tardy fruition of his 
 labours on his book and other depressing circumstances 
 all tended to -encourage counsels of despair, and it is
 
 2i8 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 probable that with these promptings he took the step 
 which nearly resulted in a tragedy. 
 
 The days and nights were getting cold, and he had a 
 fire constantly in his room, which he kept so closely that 
 there was some difficulty in getting him out of it when it 
 had to be tidied. One day early in November, 1885, 
 Edwards said to Mr. and Mrs. Harrison " I am going to 
 Freshwater and may not be back for several days ". 
 Nothing was thought of this at the time, as he had often 
 gone away on the top of one of the coaches, and remained 
 away a few days. For some days afterwards nothing 
 more was heard of him, till word was brought that he had 
 been found in a perishing condition on St. Catherine's 
 Down, and was being brought home in a cart. By-and-by 
 the cart drew near, and in it, covered with clean straw to 
 screen him from the curious eyes of the children on their 
 way to school, was Edward Edwards, utterly broken down, 
 with eyes looking wild and streaming with tears, but 
 conscious of all that was going on around him. They 
 lifted him out as gently as if he had been a monarch, 
 dressed in purple and fine linen, and put him to bed at 
 once. There he lay for a full fortnight, nursed with the 
 tenderest care, fed and tended like a child, and during night 
 and day his nurses had to apply all necessary remedies to 
 restore animation to his almost frozen limbs. Edward 
 Edwards had been found in what is known as the Round 
 Tower on the Down. He had been out on the Down with- 
 out food for three nights and days in inclement weather, 
 and a bitterly cold winter was that of 1885-6. The Round 
 Tower is roofless, and in it he was found, lying on the 
 ground, by a shepherd who was taking provender for the 
 sheep. His hands were stained with dirt, and he had 
 manifestly gripped the earth in an agony of spirit, while 
 crying for death to come and release him from his misery 
 and troubles. During the night the sheep on the Down) 
 make for the Round Tower for shelter, and Edwards had 
 been kept warm by them, as his clothes showed. They 
 had evidently kept him warm enough to preserve his life.
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 219 
 
 He must have suffered much during that time of exposure, 
 and he was brought back more dead than alive. His 
 hands and feet were in a terrible condition with the frost, 
 and two of his fingers were gashed to the bone. He got 
 over this awful exposure much better than was expected. 
 During this time he was as docile as a child ; and was by- 
 and-by able to get up again and resume his work. " As 
 I saw you and your wife and children I felt that I could 
 not live, and paced the Down and slept under the stars," 
 was nearly all that he said of this sad experience. A bill 
 for a comparatively few pounds had become due on the 
 day he went to the Down, and this he could not meet. 
 The absorbing needs of a very young family made it 
 necessary to form some plan with regard to their lodger, 
 and Mr. Harrison arranged with Mrs. Wheeler of St. 
 Catherine's Lodge, almost immediately opposite the 
 manse, to take the old man in and board and lodge 
 him. For the expense the kindly Baptist minister and 
 his wife undertook to be responsible. 
 
 For two weeks Edwards was in Mrs. Wheeler's house, 
 attended to and cared for as an honoured guest by herself 
 and companion, Miss Drayson. During most of that fort- 
 night Edwards worked in his sitting-room, and his table 
 was constantly covered with papers. 
 
 On the Saturday night, 6th February, Edwards had a 
 simple dinner at five o'clock, and Dr. Holman, his medical 
 attendant (now deceased), called during the progress of the 
 meal. " I cannot see him," said Edwards. " He should 
 call upon a gentleman at a time when he is not dining," 
 and he would not see the doctor. He complained of his 
 feet hurting him, and about nine o'clock on that Saturday 
 night his landlady brought basin and towels, and bathed 
 his feet, and as she left the room he stood up by his 
 arm-chair, which was near the fire, and with a gratitude 
 in his eyes which is remembered to-day, said, " I am 
 much obliged to you very ". These were his last words 
 spoken to any one. He went almost immediately to 
 his bedroom. On the Sunday morning about half-past
 
 220 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 seven his hot water was taken up to his room. He did 
 not answer the knock, but was distinctly heard to cough. 
 When nine o'clock came, and he had not come downstairs, 
 the two women began to be concerned. Mrs. Wheeler 
 went into the room, and Edward Edwards was found lying 
 on his back quite dead, with his hands folded across his 
 breast, and the placid calm of death on his face. 
 
 He was almost penniless, and the kindness of a few 
 neighbours provided him with decent burial. Rumours 
 spread in the village that Edwards had taken poison, but 
 of this there is not one shred of evidence. During -his 
 exposure on the Down or afterwards, there was not, says 
 Mr. Harrison, one jot of evidence that Edwards had 
 attempted self-destruction. Edwards' own words, already 
 given, show his state of mind. He wished to lie down 
 and die. In order to aid in clearing up these misconcep- 
 tions Mr. Harrison referred to Edwards' death in a sermon, 
 and preached from the text " A broken and a contrite 
 heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise". There is no 
 doubt that the intense cold, at the time of the exposure, 
 had affected Edwards' heart, and the registrar's entry of 
 death gives debility and atrophy of heart as the cause of 
 death. 
 
 On roth February, 1886, Edward Edwards was buried 
 in the churchyard of Niton. The three ladies previously 
 named, Dr. Hemsted and his sister (relatives on the wife's 
 side), and the late Dr. Jollirfe were present at the funeral. 
 Mr. Harrison had taken cold in looking after Edwards' 
 affairs, and was not able to be present. Dr. Jolliffe was a 
 retired naval medical man, and had a kindly regard for 
 Edwards. A few obituary notices appeared in literary 
 and other journals at the time, but beyond this no special 
 notice was taken of his death, and the grave remained 
 unmarked from 1886 till 1902, when a granite monument 
 was erected. This was inaugurated on the -jth of February, 
 1902, the sixteenth anniversary after his death, in the 
 presence of a number of librarians and many villagers. 
 The inscription on the monument is as follows :
 
 LAST YEARS AND DEATH. 221 
 
 "Cinis non finis " (on the Urn). In Memory of Edward Edwards. 
 Born in London Dec. 14, 1812. Died at Niton Feb. 7, 1886. Man 
 of Letters and Founder (with William Ewart and Joseph Brotherton) 
 of Municipal Public Libraries. This Monument has been placed over 
 his grave in recognition of his work on behalf of Public Libraries 
 by Thomas Greenwood. Inaugurated on Feb. 7, 1902, by Richard 
 Garnett, Charles W. Button, William E. A. Axon, John J. Ogle. 
 
 Thus ends the life-record of one who grudged neither 
 labour, time, nor self-sacrifice on behalf of an educational 
 movement, which he helped to inaugurate, and, by his 
 splendid talents, energy and knowledge, carried to a 
 triumphant conclusion. It has been interesting to survey 
 his long life, from the days of his fiery enthusiasm in the 
 cause of public libraries, to those of his pathetic old age, 
 when, in spite of crushing difficulties, he still laboured at 
 his beloved cause, as long as he could use a pen. While 
 all kinds of minor lights have come before the public view 
 as benefactors, deserving of applause for their work on 
 behalf of libraries and librarianship, Edwards, who towered 
 above everybody in the magnitude of his contributions to 
 the cause, has not received the recognition which was his 
 just due. A considerable amount of this seeming neglect 
 was doubtless due to the general ignorance of Edwards' 
 whereabouts and personality, which was owing partly to his 
 own retiring disposition and the public belief, which had be- 
 come fixed, that Mr. Ewart was the sole father of the library 
 movement. Again, up to 1886 only about 130 towns had 
 adopted the Libraries Acts, and of these a considerable 
 number had not been organised, so that there was not a 
 very large constituency likely to be interested in the public 
 library movement. Indeed, the subscription, university 
 and professional libraries looked down in those days 
 upon the municipal library with no very kindly feeling, 
 and, till the public library movement grew in strength 
 and influence, there were very few who had any sym- 
 pathy for, or interest in, Edward Edwards as a pioneer 
 of this important work. There is no doubt that he 
 received a good deal of encouragement and kindness
 
 222 EDWARD EDWARDS. 
 
 from librarians of all kinds while he was at work on the 
 new edition of his Memoirs, but as no one knew of the 
 straits to which he had been reduced, the apparent apathy 
 on this head is pardonable. Viewed as a man he was 
 not a success, and his career is a striking example of how 
 persistently a man may stand in the path of his own ad- 
 vancement. His efforts on behalf of libraries will bear 
 fruit through countless years to come, and generations of 
 readers unborn will have cause to bless his name.
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL NOTE of Edward Edwards' chief Labours and 
 Writings on the History, Organisation, Diffusion and Improvement, 
 of Libraries, Public and Private and other subjects. Many of these 
 entries are given as Edwards recorded them in his several prospectuses 
 of his Memoirs of Libraries. In these cases the items have been 
 given as he left them. 
 
 1836. A Letter to Mr. Hawes, M.P. (afterwards Sir Benjamin Hawes, 
 
 Under-Secretary for the Colonies), on the Management and 
 Affairs of the British Museum. Second edition. Niton, 
 January, 1839. Originally printed in 1836. 8vo. 
 
 ,, Remarks on the Ministerial Plan of a Central University 
 Examining Board. 8vo. 
 
 ,, June. Evidence respecting Deficiencies in British Museum 
 Library, and respecting desired improvements in its Cata- 
 logues ; given before the Select Committee above named, 
 upon its reappointment in Session of 1836. Printed in App. 
 to the Committee's Report. 
 
 The Great Seals of England. Engraved by the process of 
 Achille Collas. With a Preface, Historical and Juridical. 
 
 1836. Fol. 
 
 1837. New South Wales : its State and Prospects. [Written in Con- 
 
 junction with the late James Macarthur, of Camden, N.S.W.] 
 
 1837. 8vo. 
 
 The Napoleon Medals. With 40 Plates, engraved by the process 
 
 of Achille Collas. 1837. Fol. 
 
 ,, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medals of France, contained in 
 the " Medal Room " of the British Museum, with the de- 
 ficiencies noted. Margate, Nov., 1837. 8vo. 
 
 1839. Feb. to April. Preparation (under direction of the late Sir A. 
 Panizzi, and in conjunction with the late J. Winter Jones, 
 Thomas Watts, and J. Humffreys Parry) of the " Rules of 
 Compilation" for an Alphabetical Catalogue of the Printed 
 Books in the British Museum. Printed by J. B. Nichols 
 & Son. Lond., 1841. Fol. 
 
 .,, Letter to Sir Martin Archer Shee, on the Reform of the Royal 
 Academy, pp. 44. 
 
 (223)
 
 224 APPENDICES. 
 
 1840. Revision of the press of the Article " Academies," and of other, 
 
 but minor, Articles in the Catalogue above named. 
 The Fine Arts in England, their state and prospects considered 
 relatively to National Education. Willesden, 1840. 8vo. 
 
 1841-1844. A complete " Catalogue of the Thomason Collection ot 
 Civil War Tracts (King's Pamphlets) in the British Museum ". 
 MS. This catalogue embraces more than 54,000 separate 
 titles and references. It has not been printed separately, but 
 all the articles are incorporated in the General Printed Cata- 
 logue of the Library. 
 
 1843. A Letter on the Present Position of the Question of National 
 Education. 1843. 8vo. 
 
 1845. Feb. 28 to Oct. 15. Continuation of the Class " Theology" in 
 the late Wm. Thomas Lowndes' British Librarian (after that 
 Author's decease). 8vo. Lond. : Edw. Lumley. 1847. 
 
 1847. Feb. "Public Libraries in London and Paris"; in British 
 
 Quarterly Review, vol. vi., pp. 72-114. 8vo. Lond., Aug. r 
 1847. 
 
 Aug. " Statistical View of Public Libraries " ; Europe and 
 America ; read to the Statistical Society of London, March 
 2Oth, 1848 ; printed in its Journal. 8vo. Lond., Aug., 
 1848. 
 
 Sept. Reprint of the above (with some additions ; including 
 suggestions for building within the British Museum Quad- 
 rangle, in order to an extension of the Library). 8vo. Lond. : 
 Savill & Edwards. For private circulation. 
 
 Letter to the Rev. Thomas Binney on the Present Position of the 
 Education Question. 
 
 1848. Statistical View of Public Libraries. Second edition : in 
 
 Naumann's Serapeum. 8vo. Leipsic. 
 
 April 10. A Letter to the Earl of Ellesmere on the Paucity of 
 Libraries freely open to the Public in the British Empire. 
 8vo. Lond. For private circulation. 
 
 Oct. 9. Circular Letter to the Librarians of England and Wales 
 for additional information, in view of an intended Select 
 Committee of the House of Commons, " on Public Libraries," 
 to be moved for in the following Session (1849). 
 
 1849. Feb. 13 and 23. Evidence (on British Museum Catalogues, 
 
 and on the nature, extent and value of the great Collection 
 of King's Pamphlets, presented by George III.) given before 
 the Royal Commission (Earl of Ellesmere's) on the British 
 Museum. 
 
 April 19 and 24 ; and June 5 following. Evidence on the great 
 need of" Free Town Libraries " in England, given before the 
 Select Committee, of which the late William Ewart, M.P. 
 for Dumfries (formerly for Liverpool), was Chairman.
 
 APPENDICES. 225 
 
 1849, June 25. " A Letter to William Ewart, M.P., on the Impor- 
 
 tance of Printing and Publishing the Catalogues of Public 
 Libraries." Printed in Appendix to Report of Select Com- 
 mittee on Public Libraries. Fol. 
 
 Aug. Statistical View of Public Libraries in Europe and 
 America. Third edition with large additions. Fol. London : 
 Hansard. 
 
 1850, Feb. "Libraries, and the People." In British .Quarterly 
 
 Review, vol. xi., pp. 61-80. 8vo. Lond. : Savill & Ed- 
 wards. 
 
 March 7, n and 21. Further Evidence (on Defective Provision 
 of Public Libraries, freely accessible in the British Empire) 
 before Select Committee on Public Libraries. Session II. 
 
 Sept. Report (written in conjunction with Mr. John Plant) to 
 Edward Ryley Langworthy, Mayor of Salford (afterwards 
 M.P. for that Borough), on the means of improving the Free 
 Library at the Peel Park in Salford. MS. 
 
 October and November. Catalogue of the Parochial Library at 
 Whitchurch, Hants, founded by Dr. Bray's Trustees. MS. 
 
 Public Libraries in Europe and in America. With Remarks 
 on the Comparative Budgets of France, and of Britain, re- 
 spectively, so far as relates to the public support of Schools, 
 Museums, and Libraries, in the financial year 1849-1850, and 
 in several previous years ; and also with a lithographed dia- 
 gram, exhibiting, approximately, the extent of the National 
 provision of Public Libraries, in the several States of Europe ; 
 together with Plans of the chief Capital Cities, showing the 
 respective Sites of the Libraries accessible to the Public. 
 Third edition. 1850. The first edition was printed in 
 London, 1847. The second edition at Leipsic, 1850. Fol. 
 
 1851, Draft Lists of Books. Suggested for the Manchester Free 
 
 Library. March, 1851. 410. 
 
 Jan., to 1852, August. Formation and Organisation of the first 
 "Free Library" in Britain, founded under " Ewart's Act" 
 by a municipal rate. 
 
 1852, August 14. " An Address to the Burgesses of Manchester " 
 
 (on the Adoption of the Library Rate). (Drawn up and 
 circulated to the extent of 10,000 copies, by the desire and 
 at the cost of the late Sir John Potter, afterwards M.P. for 
 that city.) 
 
 1853, March 3. Evidence on the working of the Public Libraries 
 
 Act, and on the claim of Free Town Libraries to the receipt, 
 gratuitously, of all Publications printed at the public charge 
 (whether for Parliament, or for Government Departments) : 
 given before the " Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons (Mr. TufnelPs) on Distribution of Parliamentary- 
 
 15
 
 226 APPENDICES. 
 
 Papers ". Printed in Appendix to Committee's Report, pp. 
 64-89. Fol. 
 
 1853, Oct. 6. First Annual Report to the Council of the City of Man- 
 
 chester on the working of its Free Public Libraries. 8vo. 
 Manchester : Cave & Sever. 
 
 ,, Oct. 6. Three Reports on the Formation, Arrangement, and 
 first year's working of the Manchester Free Libraries. With 
 Suggestions for the Improvement of the " Public Libraries 
 Act ". 8vo. Manchester : Cave & Sever. 
 
 1854, March. " Humphrey Chatham, and his Library at Man- 
 
 chester " ; in the New York Literary Gazette (July and Sept.). 
 ,, Oct. 19. Second Annual Report to the City Council of Man- 
 chester. (As above.) 
 
 1855, Jan. Report to the Committee of the St. Helens (Lancashire) 
 
 Free Library, on the Formation of their Collections for 
 Reference and for Lending ; with copious Book-lists sub- 
 joined. MS. 
 
 ,, Aug. 4. Special Report to the City Council of Manchester on a 
 Classed Catalogue for their City Library. Fol. Manchester : 
 Cave & Sever. For private circulation. 
 
 ,, Aug. 10. Manchester Worthies and their Foundations. ( I. 
 Thomas La Warre, and the Old Church ; II. Hugh Old- 
 ham, and his Grammar-school; III. Humphrey Chetham, 
 and his Library; IV. William Hulme, and his Exhibitions 
 at Brasenose College, Oxford.) 8vo. Manchester : James 
 Gait & Co. 
 
 Sept. Third Annual Report. (As above.) 8vo. Manchester : 
 Cave & Sever. 
 
 Oct. 8. A Comparative Table of the Principal Schemes which 
 have been proposed for the Classification of Human Know- 
 ledge . . . with reference especially to the Arrangement and 
 Cataloguing of Libraries. Fol. Manchester : Charles Simms. 
 Printed for private circulation. 
 
 1856, Oct. 31. Fourth Annual Report. (As above.) 
 
 Nov. Catalogue of the ancient Library at Compton-Verney, 
 Warwickshire, belonging to the Right Hon. the Lord 
 Willoughby de Broke. MS. 
 
 ,, Dec. 24. A Letter to Sir John Potter on the proposed Catalogue 
 of the " Free Library " of Manchester, and on the lately 
 printed Catalogue of the " Portico Library " in that City. 
 With Specimens. Fol. Manchester : John Harrison & 
 Son. For private circulation. 
 
 1857, March n. " Notes on the Classification of Human Know- 
 
 ledge " ; read to the Historic Society of Lancashire and 
 Cheshire, and printed in their Transactions, vol. x., pp. 
 61-96. 8vo. Liverpool : T. Brakell.
 
 APPENDICES. 227 
 
 1857, June- Articles : " Libraries," in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 
 
 vol. xiii., pp. 373-434- Eighth edition. 410. Edinburgh : 
 A. & C. Black. (Two articles : I. Libraries (Formation 
 and Classification of) ; II. Libraries (History of), founded on 
 an article in the previous and seventh edition (1836) of that 
 Encyclopedia, written by the late James Brown, LL.D., 
 Advocate ; but almost entirely by me rewritten in 1857.) 
 
 1858, Jan. 30. Fifth Annual Report. (As above.) 
 
 ,, Dec. Report to Sir Francis Crossley, Bart., M.P., on the pro- 
 posed Formation of a " Workpeople's Library " at Deane- 
 Clough Mills, Halifax, Yorkshire. MS. 
 
 1859, Memoirs of Libraries: Including a Handbook of Library 
 
 Economy. 1859. 2 vols. 8vo. With 8 steel plates ; 36 
 woodcuts ; 16 lithographic plates ; and 4 illustrations in 
 chromo-lithography. 483. 
 
 1860, July 10, to 1863, Sept. 25. Catalogue of the Library of the 
 
 Right Hon. Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, sixth 
 Earlof Macclesfield, at Shirburn Castle, Oxon. 6 vols. Folio. 
 MS. With printed Titles, printed Preface and printed 
 Synoptical Groupings of the Contents. Lond. : J. E. Adlard, 
 1862-3. 
 
 Sept. Articles on " Newspapers," " Police," " Post Office," 
 " Savings Bank," " Tea and the Tea Trade," " Trade 
 Museums," " Woollen and Worsted Manufacture " in the 
 Encyclopadia Britannica, vols. xvi., xviii. and xxi. 410. 
 Edinb. : A. & C. Black. 
 
 Paper on Libraries contributed to the Social Science Congress 
 at Glasgow. 
 
 1864. February. Report to His Grace the Duke of Marlborough, 
 
 K.G., on a proposed rearrangement and re-cataloguing of the 
 " Sunderland Library " then at Blenheim ; and on the classi- 
 fication of the " Marlborough MSS. " and " Sunderland 
 MSS.," still preserved at Blenheim. MS. 
 
 ,, Chapters of the History of the French Academy, etc. 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Libraries and Founders of Libraries. 8vo. i8s. 
 
 1865. Dec. 14. Synoptical Tables of the Public Records of the Realm. 
 
 With a Historical Preface. Fol. Lond.: J. E. Adlard. 
 
 1866. Liber Monasterii de Hyda; comprising a Chronicle of the 
 
 Affairs of England from the Settlement of the Saxons to 
 Kanute: and a Chartulary ; A.D. 455-1023. Edited by the 
 Authority of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's 
 Treasury, under the Direction of the Master of the Rolls. 
 8vo. IDS. 6d. 
 
 1867. Commons, parks and open spaces near London : their history 
 
 . . . 1867 (still in MS.) in the Guildhall Library. 
 
 1868. Diocesan Registries and Historical Searchers; A Correspon-
 
 228 APPENDICES. 
 
 dence with the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Salisbury ; with 
 his Lordship 1 s Registrar and with the Registrar of the Chapter. 
 24 pages. 8vo. Lond. : Clay, Son & Co. 
 
 1868. The Life of Sir Walter Ralegh; based on Contemporary Docu- 
 
 ments preserved in the Rolls House, the Privy Council Office, 
 Hatfield House, the British Museum and other Manuscript 
 Repositories, British and Foreign. Together with his Letters, 
 now first collected (and chiefly from the Marquess of Salis- 
 bury's Library at Hatfield). 2 vols. 8vo. With Portrait 
 from Lord Bath's Collection : engraved by Jeens. 323. 
 Exmouth and its Neighbourhood, Ancient and Modern; being 
 Notices, Historical, Biographical and Descriptive, of a Corner 
 of South Devon. [Anonymous.] Printed at Exmouth, 1868. 
 Crown 8vo. 55. 
 
 1869. Free Town Libraries, their Formation, Management and 
 
 History, in Britain, France, Germany and America ; Together 
 with Brief Notices of some Famous Book Collectors and of 
 the respective places of deposit especially when in Town 
 Libraries (ancient or modern) of their surviving Collections. 
 1869. 8vo. 2is. 
 
 ,, July, August. Calendar of part of the Trevor (Diplomatic) MSS. 
 preserved at Hampden House, Bucks. MS. 
 
 1870. March. A Catalogue of the Free Library of the Borough of 
 
 Doncaster. 8vo. . Leeds: J. Y. Knight & Co. 1870. 
 
 June 27, to 1876, April. A Classified Catalogue of the Library 
 of Queen's College, Oxford. (I. Theology; II. History, 
 Philosophy and Literature of Ancient Greece; III. Do. of 
 Ancient Rome ; IV. Latin Literature of the Revival ; V. 
 History, Philosophy and Literature of Modern Continental 
 Europe; VI. Do. of the United Kingdom; VII. Political 
 Economy and Sociology; VIII. Arts and Sciences; IX. 
 Polygraphic Collections.) MS. 
 
 Lives of the Founders of the British Museum ; (viz.: Sir Robert 
 (Bruce) Cotton ; Henry Stuart Prince of Wales ; Thomas 
 Howard, Earl of Arundel, K.G. ; Robert Harley, Earl of 
 Oxford and Mortimer, K.G. ; William Courten (the Fleming) ; 
 and Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., M.D., President of the Royal 
 Society.) With Notices of its chief Augmentors, etc. 1570 
 to 1870. 2 vols. 1870. 8vo. 363. A few large paper 
 copies at 4. 45. 
 
 1872, March 6. A Report to the Ven. the Provost of Queen's College, 
 Oxford, on a plan of printing the catalogue, whilst in progress. 
 With printed examples and specimens of the Catalogue 
 proposed. 
 
 Lithographic Diagrams, showing the new and classified arrange- 
 ments of the College Libraries (upper and lower). (With
 
 APPENDICES. 229 
 
 printed Tables of the Classification which 1 had adopted 
 upon an entirely novel plan.) 
 
 1873. A Scheme of the Classification adopted in the Rearrangement 
 
 of the Library of Queen's College, Oxford (1870 to 1876). 
 With printed Specimens of the Catalogue in the form sub- 
 mitted and recommended to the Ven. the Provost (the late 
 Archdeacon Jackson, D.D.). Oxford, 1873. Privately printed. 
 
 1874, January 10. Second Report to the Ven. the Provost of Queen's 
 
 College, Oxford, on the progress of the new Catalogue ; and 
 on the plan of classification and shelf arrangement pursued 
 in reorganising the Library. 
 
 1877, May. Report to the Curators of the Bodleian Libiary, Oxford, 
 on a proposed Calendar of the " Carte Manuscripts," belong- 
 ing to the University (and comprising : I. The Correspon- 
 dence, political collections and State Papers of the two 
 Dukes of Ormond, successively Lords Lieutenants of Ireland ; 
 II. Correspondence, State Papers and political collections of 
 the family of Hastings (Earls of Huntingdon) ; III. Corres- 
 pondence, State Papers and political collections of the family 
 of Wharton (Lords Wharton ; Earls and Dukes of Wharton) ; 
 IV. Correspondence and political and juridical papers of Sir 
 John Davys (Attorney-General in Ireland, and author of 
 Nosce Teipsum) ; V. Correspondence and State Papers of Sir 
 William Fitzwilliam (Ancestor of the Lords Fitzwilliam), 
 Lord Deputy of Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; 
 VI. Collections of State Papers, relating as well to the 
 history of the British Empire, as to the history of France and 
 of Spain, made in France by Thomas Carte (the historian), 
 early in the eighteenth century; VII. Literary Correspon- 
 dence and Literary and Miscellaneous Papers of (a) Samuel 
 Carte, M.A., Vicar of Clifton, Warwickshire, and Master of 
 the Free School in Leicester; of (b) Samuel Carte, jun., 
 LL.B., of Symond's Inn, a distinguished antiquary; of (c) 
 John Carte, LL.B., Vicar of Tachbroke, Warwickshire, etc.; 
 and of (d) Thomas Carte, the historian.) 
 
 ,, May, to 1880, February. A Chronological Catalogue of the 
 historical, economical and political collections of books and 
 tracts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 
 (Arranged as to the archaic and historical works, and where 
 practicable in the order of time, of the latest of the events 
 narrated in each of them respectively, and as to the politico- 
 economic works in the order of time of their composition 
 respectively ; or, if that be undiscoverable according to the 
 dates of first publication.) MS. 
 
 June, to 1882, August. A Calendar of the Carte Manuscripts 
 (above named), contained in the Bodleian Library (Latin,
 
 23 o APPENDICES. 
 
 English, French, Spanish, Italian and German ; from the 
 eleventh to the eighteenth century) ; arranged chronologically. 
 1881, February 5. Report to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, 
 on the progress of the above-named Calendar of Carte MSS., 
 and more especially on that portion of it which contains the 
 Ormond Papers (dr. 1638 to dr. 1710), relating to the History 
 and especially to the great Land Settlement (1660-66) of 
 Ireland. 
 
 1884. Letters of a Hampshire Conservative (loyal to Church and 
 
 Queen), addressed to the Editor of the Isle of Wight Adver- 
 tiser, on certain points of the " London Government (rather 
 'Mis-Government') Bill". Niton, May and June, 1884. 
 Printed for private circulation only, in its separate shape. 
 Nos. i to 4. 8vo. 
 
 ,, " Researches for Manuscripts in the Levant, and more especially 
 in the Monasteries of Mount Athos " : Giovanni Aurispa to 
 Spyridion Lambros (A.D. 1425 to 1880). Printed in The 
 Library Chronicle for May, June and July, 1884, vol. i., 
 Nos. 3, 4 and 5. Royal 8vo. 
 
 1884-5. Articles in ninth edition Encyclopaedia Britannica, " News- 
 papers," " Post Office ". 
 
 1885. Handbook to the Literature of General Biography. Written 
 
 in conjunction with the Rev. Charles Hole, B.A., with intro- 
 duction by Edwards. The first part only issued. 
 ,, Memoirs of Libraries of Museums ; and of Archives ; (public and 
 private), and of some of their chief founders, collectors, 
 keepers, and benefactors. Second edition, revised, continued 
 to 1885, and (in great part) re-written. Vol. i. only printed, 
 and this left incomplete.
 
 ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE INAUGURATION OF 
 THE "EDWARD EDWARDS" MEMORIAL. 
 
 ADDRESS BY DR. RICHARD GARNETT, C.B. 
 
 AT the instance of one among ourselves we are met to-day to enjoy 
 a pleasure long deferred, and to fulfil a duty long delayed. The 
 gratification with which we find ourselves here is inseparable from 
 the consciousness that we are well and honourably employed. Of 
 this, therefore, I need say nothing: but, rather for the sake of those 
 at a distance whom these words may reach than of ourselves to whom 
 I can state little that is not already well known, I comply with the 
 invitation which I have received to say a few words. 
 
 " Honour to whom honour." This is an important precept whether 
 regarded in the abstract or in its practical influence upon mankind. 
 In the abstract, the due reward of desert is an injunction of natural 
 justice. Practically, the same law, sometimes apparently evaded, but 
 in the long run infallible, which ordains that where there is no work 
 there shall be no pay, equally prescribes that where there is no pay 
 there shall be no work. It is only by honouring the benefactors of 
 humanity, especially when circumstances have deprived them of material 
 recompense, that society insures that the stream of benefaction shall 
 be kept up. This is a duty not always ill performed. When we think 
 of the great movements and beneficent inventions which have done 
 so much for our country during the last century, we find that they 
 generally occur to our minds in connection with some one eminent 
 man. We associate Stephenson with railways, Wheatstone with tele- 
 graphs, Darwin with natural history, Wakefield with colonisation, 
 Rowland Hill with cheap postage, Cobden with free trade. In the 
 majority of cases, these distinguished men and others like them would 
 feel themselves sufficiently rewarded by the success of their inventions 
 or ideas, and the connexion of their names with these, even did no 
 substantial advantage to themselves ensue. But hard is the fate of 
 the benefactor of mankind who reaps neither profit during his life 
 nor honour after his death. If this were the general rule benefactions 
 would cease, and mankind at large would be the chief sufferers. It is, 
 therefore, useful to the community, as well as gratifying to individual 
 feeling, to seek out instances of such unintentional injustice or negli- 
 gence, and to endeavour to repair them. In a certain measure, unjust 
 
 (230
 
 232 APPENDICES. 
 
 neglect has been the lot of him whom we are now assembled to honour, 
 and it is the consciousness of this that brings us here. 
 
 If we cast our eyes over Great Britain at present, we behold it 
 covered with free libraries, the property of the various municipalities, 
 supported by funds derived from all classes of the community, open 
 impartially to all these classes, filled with books available for use 
 either in the building or at the homes of the ratepayers, ably organised, 
 efficiently officered, and, with whatever drawbacks, in the main vehicles 
 of invaluable knowledge, inspiring ideas, and healthy mental recrea- 
 tion. Fifty years ago, there was hardly one. Whence the change ? 
 Doubtless, if one looks to the very bottom of things, to the community's 
 conviction of its necessity. But who awoke that conviction ? Ideas 
 must incarnate themselves in persons, or they remain ineffectual. I 
 do not for a moment overlook the fact that the Free Library movement, 
 important as it was, was but a minor feature of that great general 
 movement for the elevation of the people by means of education which 
 had been progressing in one shape or another ever since Robert Raikes 
 established Sunday Schools, and which had been aided from various 
 motives, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, by men of 
 the most dissimilar character and of the most dissimilar classes. Doubt- 
 less most of these men would have agreed that the wide dissemination 
 of books was a good thing, and important steps had already been taken 
 to promote it by the diffusion of cheap publications by the Useful 
 Knowledge Society, and the well-selected libraries of mechanics' in- 
 stitutes. But these were private undertakings, and although we might 
 probably find expressions of opinion that the matter was one for the 
 community at large, I hardly think that we shall find any systematic 
 attempt to bring this principle into practical operation until between 
 1840 and 1850, when it is brought forward and, with a rapidity most 
 unusual in the case of great reforms, realised under the guidance of 
 two Lancashire members of the House of Commons, William Ewart 
 and Joseph Brotherton, whose participation in this great work we 
 record this day, and of him whom we are more especially met to 
 honour, Edward Edwards. 
 
 The circumstances which made Mr. Edwards, in an especial degree, 
 the apostle of Free Libraries, and the history of his life in general, 
 are well known to us here, and will become known to the public upon 
 the publication of the comprehensive memoir of him prepared by Mr. 
 Greenwood, which is already in the press. I need not, therefore, 
 dwell upon these circumstances at any length. I may claim for the 
 British Museum the credit of first directing his attention to the subject, 
 not, however, by its excellences, but by its deficiencies. The par- 
 ticulars of Edwards' early education are obscure, but we find him in 
 London at the age of twenty-three with a considerable amount of 
 knowledge and an ambition to make himself useful to his fellow-men 
 in some department of literature, art, or politics. He naturally
 
 APPENDICES. 233 
 
 resorted to the library of the British Museum as the chief repertory 
 and arsenal of knowledge, and found it in that pre-Panizzian era 
 lamentably behind the times. The accidental coincidence of the 
 appointment of a committee of inquiry into the general administration 
 of the Museum gave him the opportunity of stating his views both as 
 a witness and as the author of a pamphlet. This procured him the 
 notice of many eminent public men, gave his mind that bent towards 
 library matters which it otherwise would not have received, and 
 induced him to seek an appointment in the library of the British 
 Museum. This engagement proved, indeed, satisfactory neither to 
 him nor to the Institution, but its very failure proved instru- 
 mental in directing him to a wider field of usefulness. Finding 
 himself, from whatever cause, disqualified from taking a conspicuous 
 place at the Museum, he, as Emerson says of the man whom social 
 defects throw upon himself for companionship, and who profits by 
 meditation and introspection, " mended his shell with pearl ". He 
 took up the question of libraries generally, and especially devoted 
 himself to showing how lamentably, in respect of facilities provided 
 by libraries for the education of the bulk of the people, England was 
 behind most continental countries. If in preparing his statistics he 
 was guilty of many errata, this is comparatively immaterial, the one 
 unpardonable erratum would have been to have left the matter alone. 
 He was fortunate in exciting the attention and gaining the sympathy 
 of one of the most useful members that ever sat in Parliament, William 
 Ewart, then representing a Scotch constituency, but a Liverpool man 
 and formerly member for Liverpool, whom, along with Joseph 
 Brotherton, member for Salford, we are also honouring to-day. Mr. 
 Ewart procured the committee on public libraries which prepared the 
 way for the Free Public Libraries Act of 1850, which he drew up, 
 introduced, and actually got passed into law the same session, 
 an achievement which in these days I fear we should think almost 
 incredible for a private member. Edwards appears as the leading 
 and moving spirit, alike in the proceedings of the committee and in 
 its copious appendixes. It is as much his epic as the report of the 
 British Museum Commission of 1848-50 is Panizzi's. 
 
 I think that we are fully justified in awarding to Edwards the 
 leading part in the inauguration of that Free Library movement in 
 which we are all so deeply interested, which has accomplished so 
 much for the country already, and which is destined to accomplish 
 so much more. But it is not to be inferred that his coadjutors were 
 ciphers. In my connexion with public business I have occasionally 
 been reminded of a circus procession I once chanced to see entering 
 a provincial town. The Queen of Beauty towered enthroned upon 
 a car drawn to all appearance by two elephants, two buffaloes and two 
 dromedaries. But the six stately quadrupeds were in reality drawing 
 nothing ; all the work was in fact being done by a little, quiet, patient,
 
 234 APPENDICES. 
 
 insignificant horse in the shafts. Many an august body is thus con- 
 ducted, but such was not the case with the undertakings in which Mr. 
 William Ewart interested himself. His correspondence with Edwards, 
 of which Mr. Greenwood's memoir affords examples, shows conclusively 
 his ardent interest, his unflagging industry, and his responsibility for 
 every detail. When we turn to Mr. Ewart's own biography we must 
 feel astonishment at the amount and importance of the useful work 
 performed by him. What he did for the advancement of knowledge 
 in 1850 he had already done for the advancement of art in 1836, when 
 a report drafted by him led to the establishment of schools of design. 
 Civil Service examinations, the permission of unattached students at 
 the universities, the annual ministerial statement on the progress of 
 education, all took their origin from his suggestions. With regard 
 to Joseph Brotherton it is hardly necessary to say anything. No one 
 who knew him could imagine his co-operating otherwise than actively 
 and usefully in any undertaking in which he might be interested. I 
 cannot claim to have enjoyed Mr. Brotherton's acquaintance, but 
 I well remember the opinion entertained of him in Manchester and 
 Salford, and the universal respect entertained by men of every form 
 of opinion for a member of a small unpopular sect, and a representa- 
 tive of political views which many then deemed extreme. Manchester 
 and Salford only reflected the opinion of Parliament. Seldom has 
 any one, beginning public life under such disadvantages, obtained 
 such personal influence within the House of Commons as Joseph 
 Brotherton. 
 
 Edwards' services did not go unrewarded. He obtained the chief 
 librarianship of the first important free library established under Mr. 
 Ewart's Act, the library at Manchester. The salary was, indeed, 
 grievously inadequate, but although the public had been taught the 
 value of libraries they had yet to learn the value of librarians. Never- 
 theless, the opportunity of his life seemed to have come to him. Alas ! 
 it had not. There was something in the man's nature which dis- 
 qualified him for harmonious co-operation with superior authorities.. 
 His seven years' service at Manchester, though full of useful work 
 and highly honourable to him in many respects, terminated in his 
 enforced resignation. From this time he lived the life of an author, 
 and of a librarian undertaking special tasks with no binding official 
 tie. In the former capacity he accomplished important things.. His 
 Memoirs of Libraries and Founders and Benefactors of the British 
 Museum are standard works, and his other literary performances have 
 value. His library work as cataloguer and calendarer was chiefly per- 
 formed at Oxford. For many years he supported himself gallantly and 
 honourably by his sole exertions ; but when at last his library services 
 were no longer required, and the fields of authorship were occupied 
 by younger men, and he had nothing to rely upon but a most pitiful 
 pittance of a pension, he found himself confronted by the dread of
 
 APPENDICES. 235 
 
 want and the actual presence of debt, most galling to his independent 
 spirit. For this, let me say, his profession bears no blame. Had his 
 position been known, aid would have been instantly forthcoming, 
 tendered in a manner which, far from humiliating, would have 
 honoured him. It had been actually proposed that he should preside 
 over the first conference of the Library Association, and although his 
 deafness and other circumstances rendered the proposal inexpedient, 
 it showed that the Free Libraries did not forget to whom they were in 
 a measure indebted for their existence. But he was living in this remote 
 village, beyond which little respecting his circumstances could trans- 
 pire, and so it came to pass that one winter's night, alone and despairing, 
 he almost perished in the snow, not far from the spot where we are now 
 standing. Yet he rallied, and closed his eyes in peace ; and we are here 
 to-day discharging a duty towards his memory ; in so far as we are 
 librarians honouring our profession, andin any case honouring ourselves. 
 Some of the reflections thus aroused are too obvious to be dwelt upon ; 
 others too serious; in either case I pass them by. Yet I cannot 
 forbear remarking that many years have passed since it has been 
 possible to erect a memorial to Edward Edwards, and that if the pos- 
 sible has become the actual, and if this quiet churchyard no longer 
 affords an illustration of the too true proverb that " everybody's 
 business is nobody's business," we owe this to one of whom, as he is 
 now among us, I will make no particular mention, but through whose 
 disinterested exertion it is that the Preacher's saying, so often appli- 
 cable, is applicable no longer to Free Libraries and their founder : 
 " There was found a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered 
 the city ; yet no man remembered that same poor man ". 
 
 MR. WILLIAM E. A. AXON, LL.D., F.R.S.L. 
 (of Manchester). 
 
 IN proposing the toast of " The Memory of Edward Edwards " 
 there is the satisfaction of knowing that those whom I address 
 appreciate his worth so truly that there is no need to elaborate his 
 claims to grateful remembrance. We do not honour him as a " fault- 
 less monster," though his failings were not such as would embarrass 
 even a Puritan biographer. We recognise in him the qualities of 
 the pioneer, clearing the way and making the path smoother for 
 those who follow. Edward Edwards was a man to whom there 
 came the inspiration of a great thought, and who devoted himself to 
 its realisation with all the energy and enthusiasm of his nature. At a 
 time when the provision for popular education was scanty and imperfect, 
 Edwards was impressed by the waste of talent that lay sterile for lack 
 of culture and opportunity. Then there came to him the thought of 
 bringing the fruits of learning and the inspiration of genius to the homes 
 of the people. By the institution of public libraries, freely accessible
 
 236 APPENDICES. 
 
 to all, he desired to bring not only the wealthy and the learned, but 
 also the masses of the nation under the influence of the best teaching 
 of all ages. The precepts of Religion, the speculations of " Divine 
 Philosophy," History's long record, the " fairy tales of Science," the 
 weighty thoughts of the Statesman and Economist, the varied glories 
 of the Arts, the myriad inventions of " men, the workers, ever 
 reaping something new," the travellers' tales of far-off and wondrous 
 lands, the parables of the novelist and the dramatist, the song of the 
 poet in short, all that Learning and all that Literature can give for 
 recreation, for reproof and for inspiration this he desired to make the 
 heritage of the whole English people. It was a lofty thought, and not 
 easy of accomplishment, yet much of it was realised in his lifetime. 
 Few men without the advantages of patronage, position or fortune 
 have made so great an impression upon the age as Edward Edwards. 
 He has enlarged the possibilities of thousands of poor students, and 
 has brought into myriads of cottage homes the moulding influences 
 of the great minds of all time. This generation is reaping where 
 he sowed, and the end of the harvest is still far off nay, is increasing 
 in richness year by year. We all honour and appreciate the pious 
 feeling which has led our friend and colleague, Mr. Thomas Green- 
 wood, to place a memorial over the resting-place of Edward Edwards. 
 It is fitting and appropriate that this should be done, and that pilgrims 
 from far and near standing by the grave of the pioneer of the free 
 library movement should see the memorial erected by one who has 
 inherited the love of literature and the enthusiasm of humanity which 
 animated Edward Edwards. But there are in reality many other 
 Edwards' monuments. The great municipal collections of Man- 
 chester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield and other large 
 towns, the marvellous development in this direction which London 
 has witnessed in recent years, the noble library benefactions of Mr. 
 Andrew Carnegie and Mr. J. Passmore Edwards, the hundreds of free 
 libraries that have come into existence, east, west, north and south, 
 though they do not bear his name are not less the fruits, direct and 
 indirect, of his labour. The free libraries have given the possibility 
 of wider culture, exacter knowledge, purer pleasures, loftier ideals, 
 and greater usefulness to those who avail themselves rightly of the 
 proffered opportunities. Hundreds and thousands have seized the 
 boon, and it is the resulting gain to the community from these better 
 and brighter lives that gives us the strongest cause for cherishing and 
 honouring the memory of Edward Edwards. 
 
 MR. CHARLES W. BUTTON, M.A. (Chief Librarian, 
 Manchester Public Libraries). 
 
 A FEW words are expected from me on this interesting occasion, on 
 account of my having for so many years held a position that was filled
 
 APPENDICES. 237 
 
 by him whose memory we are met to honour. Edward Edwards had 
 retired from the Manchester Free Library seven years before I entered 
 it as a junior assistant. He left Manchester and did not return to it, 
 and I never had the opportunity of meeting him, although in his later 
 years I not infrequently exchanged letters with him. One of my first 
 duties on entering the Free Library was to arrange a mass of official 
 correspondence which Edwards had left behind him, and I well re- 
 member being astonished at is copiousness and diversity. But it was 
 only in after years, when I had become accustomed to the evidences 
 of Edwards' operations everywhere around me, that I was able to 
 appreciate, I dare hardly say fully appreciate, the amount of work 
 which he got through in connection with the establishment and early 
 years of that institution. He had, as we know by his numerous writ- 
 ings, long been drawing attention to England's paucity of educational 
 facilities, especially in regard to public libraries ; he had inspired Par- 
 liamentary action and had foreseen the result of the measure which 
 at his instigation was introduced by Mr. Ewart and backed by Mr. 
 Brotherton. When he became librarian of the first library to be 
 established under the provisions of that legislative measure, he was 
 obliged to accept a salary miserably out of proportion to his deserts ; 
 but poverty was ever the badge of the librarian tribe. He laid down 
 schemes and drew up rules which have been followed by all subsequent 
 town libraries. He compiled a wonderful list of books to be acquired, 
 and he purchased the volumes wisely and economically. These books 
 he then classified and catalogued in a way that proved him to be as 
 great a master in practical librarianship as he was in the literary 
 advocacy of libraries. The success of the library was immediate and 
 has been lasting, and its novelty brought inquiries from many quarters, 
 far and near, and Edwards' correspondence must have taken up no in- 
 considerable portion of his time ; but his enthusiasm and willingness 
 to spare no trouble in extending the benefits of libraries doubtless 
 lightened his task. Amidst these engrossing official duties he found 
 time to work at his monumental Memoirs of Libraries, and to write 
 sundry smaller contributions. Edwards is said to have been a proud 
 man, who did not always find it possible to forget that he was in 
 mental endowments and professional attainments a little above certain 
 town councillors who were placed in authority over him. Friction not 
 unnaturally was the result. He was probably rather too scornful of 
 their attempts to teach him his business. It is pleasant to know that 
 by his assistants and personal friends he was regarded as one of the 
 most chivalrous and warm-hearted of mortals ; and that the few sur- 
 vivors of those who knew him intimately look with cordial approval 
 upon the proceedings in which we are engaged to-day. It should not 
 be forgotten that the first Public Libraries Act did not fully satisfy 
 Edwards. In its passage through Parliament it had suffered changes 
 that were in his eyes objectionable. Some defects which he pointed
 
 238 APPENDICES. 
 
 out in 1853 were subsequently remedied, but one of them still remains, 
 namely, the limit of the library rate. He suggested " the omission of 
 the limit affixed to the rate, leaving it to be settled by Town Councils, 
 according to the circumstances of each town, at their own discretion 
 and upon their ordinary responsibility ". There must now be few 
 people who would say that Edwards was not right. I shall attempt no 
 eulogy of Edward Edwards as the pioneer of rate-supported libraries, 
 as the historian of libraries, or as a man of letters ; nor try to define 
 his place among the educational reformers of the nineteenth century. 
 It must be enough for me to express the delight I have taken in follow- 
 ing the pious labours of our friend Mr. Greenwood, and my satisfaction 
 in being permitted to play a small part in the ceremonies of this day, 
 which in more senses than one we may call a memorable day. 
 
 MR. JOHN J. OGLE (Director of Technical Instruction, 
 Bootle). 
 
 THE generous instincts of Mr. Thomas Greenwood have put within 
 our reach an occasion of happy pilgrimage to the shrine of one of 
 the illustrious dead, whose monument stands in every town in Great or 
 in Greater Britain possessed of a municipal public library. Yet there 
 was no reason why the mosses should creep over the soil of Edwards' 
 grave for lack of stone whereto to cling. The memorial to-day un- 
 veiled may safely be left to the keeping of posterity. May it never 
 need the attentions of an Old Mortality of the future to clear away 
 the encrusting vegetation ! May it be a sacred place of pilgrimage 
 for book-lovers of unborn generations, a shrine of gratitude to the 
 father of municipal public libraries, and the discoverer of that bene- 
 ficent profession, the municipal librarian. 
 
 Notwithstanding the now popular cry " things not words " in the 
 educational world, the word which stands for spirit and life must 
 continue to be accounted for in educating our youth. Laboratories 
 let us have by all means, kindergartens and workshops, school 
 journeys and surveys, but the educational institute is incomplete 
 without the library. Edwards pre-eminently took the educational 
 view of the public library he was not led away by the thought of 
 its recreative function, important as that function is. The recreative 
 must be tolerated for the advantage of the educational uses. The 
 many must be pleased after a wholesome fashion that students, few 
 or many, in obscurity or in the light, poor as well as rich, may have 
 books wherewith to make of them scholars for the public good. 
 Twenty years before the date of Forster's Elementary Education Act, 
 Edwards and Ewart had scored a victory for popular education, the 
 full significance of which, in the history of British Education, has not 
 yet been realised by his compatriots.
 
 APPENDICES. 239 
 
 But this was not all : the public library being won, it was necessary 
 that some one should show the way to build and furnish and administer 
 it. This Edwards did at Manchester. In the midst of distressing 
 discouragements he laboured on, and left the fruit of his experience 
 for others' use in the practical part of his great work, Memoirs of 
 Libraries. This surely was work enough for one, but Edwards was 
 a scholar as well as a practical man, and ever hungry for work. He 
 took the history of libraries |for his province, and collected with un- 
 daunted industry the materials for the first part of his Memoirs of 
 Libraries from a field of reading of vast extent. Every later worker in 
 this field must be greatly indebted to Edwards. How keenly every lib- 
 rarian regrets that he did not live to complete his revision of this work ! 
 After all, the great achievement of Edwards from the national or 
 international point of view was that he not only did more than any 
 other man for the municipalisation of the public library, but he set the 
 pattern of the well-founded and well-governed town library ; he real- 
 ised its educational importance, he made possible the correlation of 
 the public library with the different parts of our public educational 
 system ; he made the use of books, other than school text-books, an 
 integral part of the training of every educated citizen. As an educator 
 Edward Edwards deserves to rank with Comenius, Froebel, Herbart 
 and Horace Mann. Like these he worked assiduously in the planting 
 and fostering of a fruitful idea. 
 
 I cannot claim to have known Edwards in the flesh, but I have 
 spent hours among his papers ; I have dipped into his diary, his 
 note-books, his huge commonplace books ; I have perused many ot 
 his friends' letters to him, and seen the reflection of his heart and 
 purpose, his character and feeling, in a more intimate way than any 
 reader of his published writings alone. And by these experiences I 
 claim to have had some contact with the soul and spirit of Edward 
 Edwards. He was not a perfect being ; but his ideas were noble, his 
 affections were pure, his disinterestedness was exalted, his foresight 
 was considerable, his work was sound. He builded not of hay and 
 stubble, but of enduring brass ; he sacrificed not to popular applause, 
 but to conscience, to duty, to God. 
 
 Speaking as one of the younger generation, I add my pebble of praise 
 to the cairn of his memory. Before I sit down may I be permitted to add 
 a note of admiration for the generous work on behalf of the same cause 
 as Edwards', which for many years has characterised our host of to- 
 day. Since the publication of the first edition of Public Libraries in the 
 year of Edwards' decease until now, Mr. Thomas Greenwood's labours, 
 generosity, zeal and sacrifice have been unremitting and exemplary. 
 
 The Rev. William Sells, the present Rector of Niton, and the Rev. 
 R. Allen Davis, Congregational Minister, Ventnor, took part in the 
 simple service held at the grave.
 
 2 4 o APPENDICES. 
 
 The following letter has been received by Mr. Greenwood : 
 
 " 68 ALBERT HALL MANSIONS, S.W. , 
 
 " 2snd February, 1902. 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " I have been unavoidably prevented, by much correspondence, 
 from writing sooner to you to say with what great interest I and my 
 sister read the account in the Times of the monument erected by you 
 at Niton, in the Isle of Wight, to Mr. Edward Edwards, and the most 
 well-described and well-merited details of his life, devoted to the cause 
 of Public Libraries, as well as of our father's constant work with the 
 same end in the House of Commons. If we are ever again near 
 Niton we shall certainly go to see the memorial. 
 
 " I remain, Dear Sir, 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " MARY A. EWART." 
 [The italics are Miss Ewarts'.]
 
 INDEX. 
 
 [Compiled by Mr. JAMES DUFF BROWN, Borough Librarian, Finsbury 
 Public Libraries.] 
 
 ABBOTT, Edwin, 9. 
 Edwin A. , 9. 
 Alfred the Great, 156-57. 
 Allnutt, A. H. H. , 177. 
 Alphabetical catalogues, 133. 
 American libraries, 73. 
 Anti-Corn Law League, 23. 
 Armorial bearings of Edwards 
 
 family, 195. 
 
 Art Union of London, 13. 
 AthencBum, 60, 93, 100. 
 Atlas, contributions to, 108. 
 Axon, W. E. A., 124, 221, 235. 
 Baber, Rev. H. H., 32, 40, 50, 54. 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, 164. 
 Berlin libraries, 60. 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, 101. 
 Binney, Thomas, 7, 21, 23, no, 117, 
 
 202, 203, 224. 
 Biographical sketch of Edwards, 
 
 7-25, passim. 
 Biography, Literature of General, 
 
 165, 184, 191, 230. 
 Birmingham libraries, 59, 117. 
 Birth of Edwards, 7. 
 Black, A. and C., 182. 
 Blenheim Library, 153, 201, 227. 
 Bodleian Library, 58, 164, 229-30. 
 Bolton "Subscription" Library, 135. 
 Bond, Sir E. A., 164, 172. 
 Book collectors, brief notices of, 160. 
 Book-plate, Edwards', 195. 
 Books, Edwards' notes on, 185-191, 
 
 208. 
 Borrowers' tickets, illegal charges for, 
 
 Brannon, G. A. , printer, 177. 
 Bray, Dr., 18, 90, 225. 
 Bristol Library, 59. 
 British Librarian, 55, 224. 
 British libraries, table, 76. 
 
 British Museum, catalogue rules, 
 223. 
 
 Committee, 8. 
 
 Cottonian Library, 77. 
 
 Edwards a reader in, 8. 
 
 foreign literature, deficiencies, 9. 
 
 Grenville Bequest, 56. 
 
 letter to Hawes on, 223. 
 
 open access to shelves, 57. 
 
 Parliamentary Inquiry, 1835, 27- 
 
 35- 22 .3- 
 
 accessibility, 29. 
 
 officers' salaries, 30, 32. 
 
 book supply and deficiencies ,. 
 
 3i- 
 
 catalogues, 32. 
 
 organisation, 32. 
 
 antiquities, dept., 33. 
 
 natural history, 33. 
 
 Sunday opening, 34. 
 
 Parliamentary Inquiry, 1836, 39- 
 
 46, 223. 
 
 foreign literature in, 40-41. 
 
 cataloguing, Edwards' criti- 
 cisms, 41. 
 
 accessibility, 43. 
 
 Thomason Civil War Pamphlets, 
 
 52, 224. 
 British Museum, Lives of the 
 
 Founders, 46, 54, 55, 161, 228, 234. 
 British Quarterly Kevie-w, 56, 105, 
 
 147, 224, 225. 
 Brotherton, Jos., M.P. , 14; (notice 
 
 of), 17, no, 221, 232-39. 
 Brougham, Lord, 37, 199. 
 
 Brown, Jas. Duff, 128. 
 
 Brown, W., Itinerating Libraries , 
 
 68,79. 
 
 Browning, Robt., 189. 
 Bullen, George, 53, 107, 208. 
 Campfield Library, HI. 
 
 (241) 16
 
 2 4 2 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Carlyle, Thos. , 56; (on catalogues) 
 
 129, 189. 
 
 Carte MSS., 164, 229-30. 
 Carter, Mr. John, 204. 
 Cataloguing, (British Museum) 32, 
 
 41 ; 85, 90 (classified) : 122 
 
 (cheapness) ; 128-134 (principles). 
 Cecil Papers, 45, 160, 228. 
 Chadficld, Benj., 113. 
 Chadfield, John, 113. 
 Chapman, Mrs., 182. 
 Chapters . . . French Academy, 151, 
 
 227. 
 
 Chartist agitation, 63. 
 Chttham Library, 60, 72, 78, 147, 
 
 226. 
 
 Christian Year, 183, 185, 213, 216. 
 Circular letter re libraries, 96-97, 224. 
 Classification (systematic], 126. 
 
 (principles), 128-134. 
 
 tables, 226. 
 Coins, French, 8. 
 Coleridge, S. T., 143. 
 Collas, Achille, 223. 
 
 College Library arrangements, 228. 
 
 Collins, Arthur, Peerage of England, 
 191. 
 
 Commonplace books, 192. 
 
 Comparative Tables . . . Classifica- 
 tion, 127, 226. 
 
 Compton Verney Library catalogue, 
 118, 226. 
 
 Copyright Act, 83. 
 
 Corpus Christi College catalogue, 
 229. 
 
 Cottonian Library, 77, 161. 
 
 Cowell, Peter, 174. 
 
 Cowtan, Robert, 104, 108. 
 
 Coxe, Rev. H. O., 164. 
 
 Credland, W. R., 125. 
 
 Crestadoro, Dr., 133, 182. 
 
 Crossley, Sir Francis, 227. 
 
 Crossley, Jas. , 114, 123. 
 
 Dalmeny, Lord, 27. 
 
 Dante, Longfellow's trrnslation, 189. 
 
 Davis, Rev. R. Allen, 239. 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphry, on British 
 Museum, 28-29. 
 
 Death of Edwards, 219-220. 
 
 Degrees, university, 37. 
 
 De Quincey, Thos., 190. 
 
 Descriptive Catalogue of the Medals 
 of France, 8, 223. 
 
 Devonshire, 158. 
 
 Diaries of Kdwards, 21 and Preface. 
 
 Dibdin, Thos. F., 153. 
 
 Diocesan Registries, 158, 227. 
 
 Disraeli, Isaac, 71. 
 
 Donations to libraries, 56, 77, 140. 
 
 Doncaster Free Library, catalogue, 
 
 228. 
 
 Dovercourt, 202. 
 Dowse, Henry A., 184. 
 Drayson, Miss, 219. 
 Dunford, Mrs., 213. 
 Dury, or Durie, John, 171. 
 Ear and Throat Infirmary, 184. 
 Education, 36, 80, 224. 
 Edwards, Anthony T., 7, 25, 26. 
 
 Mrs. A. T., 7, 26, 197-201, 205. 
 
 Charlotte, 7, 26, 196, 201. 205. 
 Edwards, Edward, armorial bearings, 
 
 195- 
 
 Art Union, Hon. Sec., 13. 
 
 associates, 8-25. 
 
 Bible, entries, 7, 25, 185. 
 
 birth, 7. 
 
 book-plate, 195. 
 
 British Museum employ^, 50-55. 
 
 evidence, 39-46, 224. 
 
 pamphlet, 27-35, 22 3- 
 
 cash statements, 24, 215-216. 
 
 character, 1-6, 14, 24-26 and 
 
 passim. 
 
 children, love for, 24, 192-93. 
 
 Christian Year marginalia, 185- 
 
 188. 
 
 Church of England sympathies, 
 
 7. I92-93- 
 
 classification scheme, 127-34, 226. 
 
 commonplace books, 192. 
 
 correspondence, passim. 
 
 death, 219-20. 
 
 diaries, preface, 21. 
 
 Ewart and Edwards, 108, passim. 
 
 friends, 8-25. 
 
 godfather to E. Abbott's children, 
 
 9- 
 
 habits, 211. 
 
 letters, 5, passim. 
 
 library of books, 176. 
 spirit, 14. 
 
 work, summary, 140. 
 
 Literary Union, editor, n. 
 
 literary work, 142-79, 223-30. 
 
 Manchester work, 107-25. 
 
 marginalia in books, 185-91. 
 
 marriage, 14, 181. 
 
 memory, 24. 
 
 monument, 220-21. 
 
 Niton, residences at, 36, 46, 50, 
 
 92, 116, 165, 171, 172, 183, 
 
 2IO-2O. 
 
 Nonconformist training, 7.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Edwards, Edward, numismatic 
 studies, 8-9. 
 
 Oxford work, 162-64, 182, 217, 
 
 228-29. 
 
 pension, 164, 211. 
 
 pioneer of municipal libraries, 20, 
 
 63. 
 
 political views, 214. 
 
 portrait, 182, 212. 
 
 professional work, summary, 140. 
 
 Public Libraries Inquiry, evidence, 
 
 65-106. 
 
 reading, record of his, 189-91. 
 
 works, 142-79, 223-30. 
 Edwards, Mrs. Edward, 14, in, 180, 
 
 181, 206. 
 
 Elizabeth M., 26, 196-209. 
 Ellesmere, Earl of, letter to, 59, 62, 
 
 224. 
 
 Ellis, Sir Henry, 29, 32, 161. 
 Emerson, R. W. , 63. 
 Emigration Home for Girls, 184. 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica articles, 
 
 148. 153. 
 Espinasse, F., 13. 
 
 European libraries, 58, 60, 72, 73, 99. 
 Ewart, Mary A., 240. 
 
 Wm., M.P., 14 (notice of), 15, 
 
 20, 27, 65-106, 107, no, 116, 
 124, 1^6, 221, 225, 232-40. 
 
 Exmouth and its Neighbourhood, 157, 
 202, 228. 
 
 Felixstowe, 202. 
 
 Fenter, Mr. G., 204. 
 
 Finding catalogues, 129. 
 
 Fine Arts in England, 145, 173, 224. 
 
 Fox, Wm. ]., 22, 23, in. 
 
 Free Town Libraries, 128, 135, 136, 
 139, 144, 160, 173, 228. 
 
 French Academy, Biographical His- 
 tory, 151, 227. 
 
 French libraries, 72, 94. 
 
 Froude's History of England, 190. 
 
 Garnett, Richard, 121, 162, 171, 
 172, 221, 231 and Preface. 
 
 German libraries, 60, 74, 94. 
 
 Gibbon, E., 71. 
 
 Gifts to libraries, 56, 77, 140. 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 164, 177, 214. 
 
 Godwin, George, n. 
 
 Goethe's Works in British Museum, 
 40. 
 
 Government inspection of libraries, 
 
 137- 
 
 Gowing, Thos. S., 13. 
 Grants to libraries, 88. 
 Grasmere, 180. 
 
 Great Seals of England, 144, 223. 
 Guildhall librarianship, 123. 
 Guizot, 68, 69, 101. 
 Halifax, Deane Clough Mills Lib- 
 rary, 227. 
 
 Hampden House MSS., 228. . : 
 Handbook to the Literature of General 
 
 Biography, 165, 184, 191, 230, 
 Harrison, Rev. John, 214, 218, 220. 
 Mrs., 215. 
 
 Hatfield House Library, 45, 160, 228. 
 Hawes, Sir Benj. , 27, 28, 223. 
 Hayward, Henry, 13. 
 Margaretta Frances, 14, 180-81. 
 Hemsted, Dr. Henry, 184, 220. 
 Heylyn, Peter, 190-91. 
 Hibbert, Jas., 175. 
 Hole, Rev. C., 165. 
 Holman, Dr. , 219. 
 Houghton, Lord, 96. 
 Hume, Joseph, M. P. , 13, 47. 
 Hunt, Leigh, 190. 
 Hyde, Book of the Monastery of, 
 
 144, 151, 155, 227. 
 Imray, John, engraver, 13. 
 Inscriptions in books, 182, 185, 191, 
 
 208. 
 
 Inspection of libraries, 137. 
 Irish libraries, 79. 
 Irving, Edward, 190. 
 Isle of Wight Library, 213. 
 Itinerating libraries, 68, 80. 
 Jeudwine, Rev. G. W., 217. 
 Jolliffe, Dr., 220. 
 Jones, J. Winter, 223. 
 Kay, I. Taylor, 125. 
 Keble, John, 172, 185, 188. 
 Kenilworth, in. 
 Kensal Green Cemetery, 181. 
 Kershaw, Jas., in. 
 King, John, 113, 122. 
 Kinglake, A. W., Crimea, 191. 
 King's Weigh House Chapel, 7, 21, 
 
 203. 
 
 Lancashire Readers, 17. 
 Lawford Churchyard, 181, 201. 
 Lending libraries, 72, 79, 87, 135. 
 Letter on . . . National Education, 
 
 224. 
 Letter to Mr. Haiues on British 
 
 Museum, 223. 
 Letter to Sir Martin Archer Shee, 
 
 46, 223. 
 Letter to the Earl of Ellesmere, 59, 
 
 224. 
 Letter to the Rev. Thos, Binitev, 
 
 224.
 
 244 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Letters of a Hampshire Conservative, 
 
 165, 230. 
 
 Liber de Hyda, 144, 151, 155, 227. 
 Librarians, training of, 139. 
 Libraries and Founders of Libraries, 
 
 153, 22 7- 
 
 Libraries and the People, 105, 225. 
 " Libraries," article Ency. Brit., 148, 
 
 227. 
 Libraries, paper. Social Science 
 
 Congress, 199, 227. 
 Libraries, Public, Inquiries (1849-50), 
 
 65-106. 
 
 Library Association, 170. 
 Library Chronicle^ 171, 230. 
 Library rate, 74. 
 
 reports, 121. 
 
 Life of Sir Walter Ralegh, 159, 227. 
 Lines in the Christian Year, 186. 
 Literary and Scientific Institution, 8. 
 Literary Union, n. 
 Lives of the Founders of British 
 Museum, 46, 54, 55, 161, 228, 234. 
 Local collections, 91, 139. 
 London libraries, 60, 78. 
 
 University, 36. 
 
 Lowndes' British Librarian, 56, 224. 
 
 Lyra Apostolica, 188. 
 
 Macarthur, James, 13, 144, 223. 
 
 Macclesfield, Lord, 123, 152 ; (Lib- 
 rary), 153, 155, 227. 
 
 Macray, Rev. W. D., 175. 
 
 Madan, Falconer, 177. 
 
 Management of Popular Institutions, 
 n. 
 
 Manchester, Bishop of, 114. 
 
 Manchester Guardian, 125. 
 
 Manchester libraries, 60. 
 
 public libraries, 107-125, 148, 
 225, 226-27, 237. 
 
 Manchester Worthies, 147, 226. 
 Manningtree, 181, 106-209. 
 Maps of libraries, 74. 
 Marginalia on books, 185-191. 
 Marlborough Library, 153, 201, 227. 
 Marriage of Edwards, 14, 181. 
 Marsh's Library, 72, 79. 
 Martin's Handbook of Biography, 7. 
 Mechanics' Institutions, 79. 
 Medals, French, 8, 223. 
 Memoirs of Libraries, ist ed., 3, 5, 
 96, 127, 128, 136. 144, 149, 227, 
 
 234- 
 
 Memoirs of Libraries, 2nd ed., 20, 
 143, 156, 163, 164, 166-179; (account 
 of its design and history), 178 ; 
 (presentation copies), 216, 230. 
 
 Merivale, Dean, 201. 
 
 Miller, Hugh, 190-91. 
 
 Milnes, Monckton, 96. 
 
 Mistley, 204. 
 
 Mitford, John, 124. 
 
 Moll Library, 32. 
 
 Monastic libraries, 154. 
 
 Montalembert, Count de, 151. 
 
 Monument at Niton, 220-21, 231. 
 
 Municipal libraries. See Public 
 
 Libraries. 
 
 Museums Act of 1845, 18, 82. 
 Napoleon Medals, 144, 223. 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne libraries, 171. 
 New South Wales, 144, 223. 
 " Newspapers," article in Ency. Brit., 
 
 149, 227, 230. 
 Newton, Henry W., 171. . 
 New York Literary Gazette, 226. 
 Nicholson, E. W. B., 163, 170. 
 Night Refuge, 184. 
 Niton, 36, 46, 50, 92, 116, 165, 171, 
 
 172, 183, 210-20. 
 North, Brownlow, Records, 192. 
 Notes on the Classification of -Human 
 
 Knowledge, 127, 226. 
 Numismatic studies, 8-9. 
 Obituary notices of Edwards, 125, 
 
 220. 
 
 Ogle, John J., 125, 221, 238. 
 Oldys' British Librarian, 56. 
 Oliphant, Mrs., 189, 195. 
 Open access to shelves, 57, 135. 
 Ormond papers, 229-30. 
 Oxford life of Edwards, 162-64, 182, 
 
 217, 228-29. 
 Panizzi, Sir A., 50, 51, 53, 54-5, 69, 
 
 99 ; (Serapeum), 161, 223. 
 Paris libraries, 57, 60, 74, 78. 
 Parks near London, 227. 
 Parliament, members of, their obliga- 
 tions, 19. 
 Parliamentary Inquiry on British 
 
 Museum (1835), 27. 
 
 (1836), 39. 
 
 Parochial libraries, 81, 90. 
 Parry, John H., 10, 53, 223. 
 Paucity of Libraries, letter, 59, 
 
 224. 
 
 Paul, Wm. J., 113. 
 Peerages, Edwards on printed, 191. 
 Perceval, Spencer G. , 177. 
 Philological School, 9. 
 Plant, John, 171, 225. 
 lanta, J., 45, 161. 
 3 lummer, Rev. Chas., 164-65. 
 Poem by Edwards, 186.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 245 
 
 " Police," article in Ency. Brit., 149, 
 
 227. 
 
 Portico Library, Manchester, 226. 
 Portrait of Edwards, 182, 212. 
 " Post Office," article in Ency. Brit., 
 
 149, 227, 230. 
 Potter, Sir John, in, 114, 115, 119, 
 
 225, 226. 
 
 Public libraries, accessibility of, 86- 
 88, 135- 
 
 (1850), no, 117. 
 
 catalogues, 85, 90, 122, 128- 
 
 34- 
 classification, 126, 127-34, 226. 
 
 Government inspection, 137. 
 
 Parliamentary Inquiry (1849- 
 
 50), 65-106, 224. 
 
 policy of, 1-2. 
 
 rules, 135. 
 
 State Papers, gifts, 140. 
 
 in Europe and America, 225. 
 
 in London and Paris, 56, 
 
 224. 
 Publishers, Edwards' opinion of, 
 
 191. 
 
 Pye, John, engraver, 13. 
 Queen's College, Oxford, 217, 228- 
 
 29. 
 Ralegh, Life of Sir Walter, 158, 
 
 228. 
 
 Rate for libraries, 74. 
 Rawson, Harry, 113, 119. 
 Records of the Realm, 154, 227. 
 Remarks on Evidence . . . British 
 
 Museum, 27-35. 
 
 Central University Examin- 
 ing Board, 36, 223. 
 Reports, library, 121, 225-27 (Man- 
 chester). 
 Researches for MSS. in the Levant, 
 
 230. 
 
 Roscoe, Thos., 71. 
 Rouen Library, losses, 94. 
 Royal Academy, letter on, 46, 223. 
 Rules and regulations, library, 135. 
 Russell, Lord John, 27, 37. 
 St. Catherine's Down, 210, 218-19. 
 
 Lodge, 219. 
 
 St. Helen's Library report, 226. 
 
 Salford, 17-18, 225. 
 
 "Savings Banks," article in Ency. 
 
 Brit., 149, 227. 
 Saxons, 155. 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 194. 
 Scottish libraries, 79. 
 Sells, Rev. Wm., 239. 
 Serapeum, letters, 99-100. 
 
 Seymour, Lord, 94, 98. 
 
 Shee, Sir M. A., letter to, 46, 223. 
 
 Shirburn Castle Library catalogue, 
 153, 155. 227. 
 
 Sion College Library, 57, 60. 
 
 Smiles, R. W., 120. ' 
 
 Social Science Congress, Glasgow, 
 199, 227. 
 
 Society of Wranglers, 12. 
 
 Soul-Squeezers, 12. 
 
 South Place Chapel, 22. 
 
 Southey, Robert, 190. 
 
 Spencer Library, 153. 
 
 Stanley, Lord, 27. 
 
 State Papers, distribution to lib- 
 raries, 140, 225. 
 
 Statistical View of Public Libraries, 
 58, 89, 98, 224, 225. 
 
 Stirling's Library, 72. 
 
 Subscription depts. in public lib- 
 raries, 135. 
 
 Sunday opening of institutions, n. 
 
 Sunderland Library, 153, 201, 227. 
 
 Sutton, Chas. W., 173, 221, 236. 
 
 Synoptical Tables of the Records, 154, 
 227. 
 
 "Tea," article in Ency. Brit., 149, 
 227. 
 
 Tenison's Library, 45, 56, 60. 
 
 Thomason Civil War pamphlets, 
 52, 224. 
 
 Thoughts on Management of Institu- 
 tions, ii. 
 
 Times, 146. 
 
 ' ' Tocqueville," article in Ency. Brit., 
 
 149, IS 2 - 
 Torquay, 118. 
 "Trade Museums," article in Ency. 
 
 Brit., 149, 227. 
 Training of librarians, 139. 
 Trevor MSS., 228. 
 Turner, Sharon, History of England. 
 
 190. 
 
 United States libraries, 73. 
 University Examining Board, 36, 
 
 223. 
 
 University libraries, 62. 
 ' Verificator " letters, 93, 100. 
 W. (P.S.), letter in Athenceum, 101. 
 Wanstead Orphan Asylum, 183. 
 Watt (R. ), Bibliotheca Britannica, 
 
 42. 
 
 Watts, Thos., 52, 54, 101, 223. 
 'Weaving," article in Ency. Brit., 
 
 149. 
 
 Wedgwood, J., 143. 
 Wheeler, Mrs., 219, 220.
 
 246 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Whitchurch Parochial Library, 225. 
 Wife of Edwards, 14, in, 180181, 
 
 206. 
 
 Williams', Dr., Library, 56, 60. 
 Willoughby de Broke, Lord, letter, 
 
 179. 
 
 Willoughby de Broke, Lord, Library, 
 
 118, 226. 
 
 Wimbledon, residence at, 184. 
 1 ' Wool Trade," articles in Enty. 
 
 rit., 149, 227. 
 Wyon, E. W., 13. 
 
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