taken up this question of a new and greatly needed building. Worcester will have, when the Victoria Institute is completed, a handsome continuation school for the use of the entire population. In all something like £10,000 has been contributed by public subscription. Worcester bids fair to surpass everything which has yet been done in the West of England and most of the Midland counties, and its action in this respect, should be an incentive to Bristol, Plymouth, and Wolverhampton to see whether a similar scheme is not possible for each of these places. The local press at Worcester deserve praise for the aid given in their columns to the movement.

TH

CHAPTER XI.

Public Libraries in the Eastern Counties.

HE work is developing but very slowly in the Eastern Counties. Lincoln has not a single Public Library in its whole extent. Norfolk has two only. Suffolk two, Essex three. The other counties, included in these brief notices under this chapter for the sake of simplification, are Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. In Kent and Surrey, in particular, the movement makes but very slow progress, and there is a considerable amount of work to be done before these counties are won over to the movement. Two new adoptions of the Acts are to be recorded.

BARKING (ESSEX).

Barking has the distinguished honour of being the first place in Essex to adopt the Acts. At the end of 1888, by a majority of four to one, and by means of voting papers, the question was settled. There were many earnest workers, and the great success in securing the adoption was owing to the excellent organization. The town was divided into districts and actively canvassed. Hence the reason why more than the average number of ratepayers voted. In March, 1889, a temporary reading-room, comfortably fitted up and furnished, was opened, and has been open on all week days from ten a.m. to eleven at night. With a moderate income there is every prospect of a useful work. Colchester and Chelmsford will now have to set their house in order, or they will be left behind in this movement. In both places, especially in the former town, the question has been discussed.

BRENTFORD.

A splendid organization brought about the adoption of the Acts here in the middle of last year. A strong committee was formed, and this body of workers had no intention of permitting the question to rest for lack of meetings and arousing public interest. The Acts were carried with enthusiasm, and in January, 1890,

the opening ceremony took place. The conversazione for this pleasing object was in every way successful. Mr. James Bigwood, M.P., performed the ceremony. Many liberal gifts of money and books flowed in, and the library is now in full operation.

Judging from the statistics which are contained in the report, it is safe to assert that the efforts of the committee, in behalf of the public, have been very highly appreciated. The appreciation of the inhabitants has been manifested in various ways: large donations of books have been made; many new borrowers have been enrolled; and continual streams of new readers show an intelligent interest in the work which has been inaugurated. In addition to the donations of books from residents in the town, the librarian has been successful in obtaining grants of books from the Master of the Rolls and the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. In each case the donation has consisted of works of exceptional value. A handsome donation has also been received from Mr. Leopold de Rothschild.

BRIGHTON.

Brighton has a local Act dating back to 1850, enabling them to levy a rate for library and other purposes. This was amended by another Act in 1876. The rate for the Pavilion, in which the library and museum are situated, is d., and produces about £1,310. For several years a local storm waged about the Public Library. The reference department was opened in 1873, and some of the more active spirits of the Town Council and among the residents had ever since that time been agitating for a lending section. This, however, did not become an established fact until October, 1889. Columns upon columns of matter appeared in the local press respecting the library, and the reports of several of the discussions in the Town Council as to whether there should be a lending library occupied as much as four columns of closely printed type. It is doubtful whether another town, except perhaps Warrington, could supply such an example of two opposite contending forces vigorously fighting the matter out to the bitter end at this celebrated watering-place, which bears the name of London-super-Mare. But the principle was worth fighting for, and praise is due to those members of the Town Council who championed in so able a manner the cause of the reading section of the Brighton people. An argument very frequently brought forward at watering-places, where it is sought to adopt the Acts, is that a Public Library would injure the private subscription libraries. This statement was advanced in Brighton, and in reply to it Mr. W. J. Smith, bookseller, North Street, and a member of the library committee, said: "I have sent down a contribution of 1,300 volumes to the library, and if it is once started and placed under proper management I shall do what I can for the library in the future. But the primary object must not be lost sight of: that is, the provision of literature. If we cannot dispense books in a building which we should like, we

must do with what accommodation we can get. The sum of £2,000 would purchase 16,000 volumes, reckoning them at 2s. 6d. a volume. This, with the books we have, would form a very serviceable library."

Mr. D. B. Friend, proprietor of a subscription library and bookseller, Western Road, is another member of the trade whose daily avocations do not narrow his opinions on the subject where the benefit of others besides himself is concerned. "Of course there are the subscribers to private libraries," he said, "who would take advantage of the opportunity to get their books for nothing, when they can afford to pay for them out of their own purse. But I don't anticipate that the establishment of a Public Lending Library would have any disastrous effects on private enterprise. I am decidedly in favour of the movement myself. What traders lose in one way they gain in another. The perusal of books leads to a desire for their acquisition, and this desire once implanted is not often eliminated. It grows by what it feeds on." On September 12, 1873, the building was opened to the public by the Mayor as a library, a picture gallery, and museum. The backbone of the collection was 3,000 volumes of the library of the late Rev. H. V. Elliott, and 7,000 volumes of the Library of the Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, presented by the proprietary. In the sixteen years which have elapsed since the opening many donations have been made, both large and small, and of very different value. From the day of opening till October, 1889, as already stated, this library was exclusively a reference library, not as containing only books of reference properly so-called, but from the fact that the public were privileged to read the books only in the library rooms and not to take them away to read at home. Within more recent years it was widely felt that this indiscriminate restriction of books to the library rooms was prejudicial to the interests of both library and readers. It was not only inconvenient to numerous habitual readers, but it deterred a large number of would-be readers, who would have been glad to take books away to read at home, from making use of the library at all; and it was also felt by those who were acquainted with the contents of the library and the wants of modern readers, that, if the reference library were to be transformed into a lending library with any prospect of success, it would be necessary to add to those contents, valuable indeed as they were, a large supply of modern literature, and especially wholesome fiction, in which the library of the past was sadly deficient.

Early in 1891 the committee issued their first report since the opening of the lending section. This report demonstrates that the institution was needed, and that it has at once proved of benefit and convenience to all classes of the inhabitants. Taken altogether, the report of the committee may be regarded as most gratifying. It amply justifies the prophecies of those who so persistently carried on the agitation year by year, and the public generally cannot fail to recognize and welcome an establishment possessed of so many striking advantages. At any rate this is

the opinion of the committee itself, for the report contains a suggestion that the library should be extended by the addition of a juvenile lending department, which, it is expected, would soon be an immense attraction.

CANTERBURY.

The library at Canterbury dates back to 1825, but it was not until 1858 that it was taken over by the Corporation. It is a museum and library combined, and hence the reason why the committee have not been able to provide the shelves with more than a very small number of volumes. In the early part of 1889 an offer was received from an old Canterbury resident, Dr. Beaney, of Melbourne, to build new premises for the Public Library, and to include in it a working-men's institute. In March, 1889, when the question was discussed in the Town Council, it was determined that a letter should be sent to Dr. Beaney suggesting that, as there was no need for another institute in Canterbury, the city would be much benefited, and his name brought into permanent connection with the place of his birth, if he would give them a new Town Hall. The entire letter sent to Melbourne was a piece of the coolest presumption that has been ever known in connection with such a proposal. A distinct offer was made for one thing to be done, and this offer is treated indifferently, and something of quite another character was put before the gentleman making the offer, and the offer was withdrawn, as it deserved to be. There is an old standing charge that the cathedral cities are, in their municipal and educational institutions, far behind other towns, and there is much truth in the statement. Canterbury, in its action over this offer to build a Public Library as a new home for the existing one, illustrates this point very clearly. The incident will serve as a useful lesson to other places, when there is an offer to build them a new Public Library, to accept it, and not spoil the intending donor's mind by foolishly suggesting something different. The Corporation evidently thought that a dwelling for their noble selves was of infinitely more importance than a suitable dwelling for books and museum objects. Beaney has since gone over to the majority, and has left by will £10,000 for a working-men's library. This amount, it is hoped, will be available for the extension of the Public Library, as the best means of attaining the end of the donor.

FOLKESTONE.

Dr.

Folkestone rejoices in a new building, which was opened by Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., in April, 1888. He remarked, in the course of his address, that when Lord John Russell introduced what was called the Municipal Corporations' Act it was said that it would be inefficient, and that the management of everybody by everybody was a cardinal and radical mistake. He (Sir Edward) thought, however, that they could look all round the municipal boroughs of England without seeing, except in one or two cases

-they, as human beings, did sometimes make mistakes-magnificent monuments of such popular institutions as the one they were opening that day. Who would have thought it possible fifty years ago that an effort of this kind would have been realized by a body of town councillors elected by the people? In order to erect the Public Library and Museum the sum of £6,500 was borrowed by the Town Council in 1888 at £3 15s. per cent. The amount required annually to meet the interest on, and the repayment of, the £6,500 borrowed is £364 11s. 4d. There therefore remains annually only about £117 to defray the cost of maintaining the building, providing newspapers and periodicals, and purchasing books for the library. The committee, however, foresaw this difficulty, and from the first recognized the almost utter impossibility of maintaining the town institutions of library and museum on the one rate; and, under these circumstances, the Town Council have sanctioned the collection of a voluntary rate of another penny in the pound. The building is a great attraction to Folkestone, and will be well used by visitors as well as residents. Every watering-place might do many worse things than imitate Folkestone, which is ahead of Margate, Ramsgate, Dover, Deal, and Hastings.

Folkestone has begun the plan of excluding all but ratepayers from the use of the lending library, and this in a town like Folkestone naturally prevented a great number of shop assistants from becoming borrowers. A few members of the committee have, it seems from the local press, been opposed to this privilege being granted to non-ratepayers but resident in the town. One of the members of the committee, who has opposed it, was willing to grant the extension if he could be convinced that there were enough books. Another member, a reverend gentleman, opposes it on different grounds. He is of opinion that the young people of the town should not be allowed that privilege, because they would indulge in works of fiction. The reverend gentleman assumes the tone of the preceptor. He takes upon himself the arduous task of guiding the youthful mind in the ways of virtue. He would limit their reading, so far as the library is concerned, to works of travel, biography, or the sciences. Splendid literature, no doubt, but unfortunately the minds of the community are not all constituted alike. All are not hard thinkers. One man may read "Locke on the Human Understanding" and consider it light, while another could not read ten lines of a biography, even though it were written by a Boswell. This member of the committee, who is, no doubt, well-meaning, ought to have found out by now that any attempt to prescribe bounds, or to define a particular branch of reading, has failed. It is perfectly right to withhold from a half-educated mind works which have a tendency to raise a morbid fancy, or debase the intellect in the slightest degree. But surely he does not class all fiction in that one category.

Many of these shop assistants are employed by large ratepayers, and it is a pity that in this case, as well as in some