Free town libraries, their formation, management, and history; in Britain, France, Germany & America. Together with brief notices of book-collectors, and of the respective places of deposit of their surviving collections

Front matter

z

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY b\

CHAPTER II. . The Founder of the Cottonian Lihrary

The Personal and Public Life of Sir Robert Cotton. — His Political Writings and Political Persecutions. — Sources and Growth of the Cottonian Library. — ^Review of some recent Aspersions on the Character of the Founder. — The Successors of Sir Robert Cotton. — History of the Cottonian Library, until its Union with the Manuscript Library of Harley, and with Museum and the Miscellaneous Collections of Sloane.

Chapter III

The Collectors and Angmentors of the Old Royal and Fnblic Library at St. James'.

Life of Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I, and virtual Founder of the ' Royal Library.' — Its Augmentors and its Librarians. — Acquisition of the Library of the Theyers. — Incorporation with the Collections of Cotton and Sloane.

CHAPTER IV. The Collector of the Arnndelian MSS

Political Exile under Elizabeth, and under James. — Life of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. — The Consolations of Connoisseurship. — Vicissitudes of the Arundel Museum. — The gifts of Henry Howard to the Royal Society.

Chapter V

The Collector of the Harleian Manuscripts. The Harley Family. — Parliamentary and Official Carter of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. -^The Party Conflicts under Queen Anne. — Robert Harley and Jonathan Swift. — The Relations between Politicians and Writers in the Age of Anne.— Harley and the Court of St. Germains. — Did ' Harley promote a Plot to restore the Pretender ? — History of the Harleian Library. — The Life and Correspondence of Humphrey Wanley.

CHAPTER VI. The Founders of the Sloane Museum

Flemish Exiles in England. — The Adventures, Mercantile Enterprises, and Vicissitudes of the Courtens. — The Career of William Courten as a Collector. — The Life and Travels of Sir Hans Sloane. — His Intercourse with Courten. — His Influence on Medical Science. — History of the Sloane Museum and Library, and of their ultimate Acquisition by the Public.

Book The Second.— The Organizers, Jnd Early Augmentors

1753— 1829.

CHAPTER I. Introductory

The Early Trustees and Officers. — The Helpers in the Foundation and Increase of the British Museum. — Main Epochs in the Growth of the Natural History Collections.

CHAPTER II. A Group of Classical Archaeologists and Explorers

Sir William HAMILTo^ and his Pursuits in Italy. — The Institute of Egypt and its Acquisitions at Alexandria. — The Townley Marbles, Medals, and Drawings ; and their Collector. — Lord Elgin and his Researches at Athens. — The Collections and the Writings of Richard Payne Knight.

Chapter III

The Collectors of the Cracherode, lansdowne, Bumey, and Egerton Libraries and appendant Collections.

The Life and Collections of Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode. — William Petty, first Marquess of Lansdowne, and his Library of Manuscripts. — The Literary Life and Collections of Dr. Charles Burney. — The Life, Character, and Testamentary Foundations of Francis Heniry Egerton, Ninth and last Earl of Bridgewater.

CHAPTER IV, The ' King's Library ;' its Collector and its Donor

Notices of the Literary Tastes and Acquirements of King George the Third. — History of his Library and of its transfer to the British Nation, byGEOROE the Fourth.

BOOK THE THIRI).— LATER AUGMENTORS

AND BENEFACTORS.

1829 — 1870.

Chapter I

The Founder of the Banksian Museum and Library. The Life, Travels, and Social Influence of Sir Joseph Banks. — The Royal Society under his Presidency. — His Collections, and their gradual Acquisition by the Trustees of the British Museum. — Francis Hargrave and his Juridical MSS. — Notices of some other contemporaneous accessions.

CHAPTER II. The Founder of the Grenville Library

The Grenvilles and their Influence on the Political Aspect or the Georgian Reigns. — The Public and Literary Life of the Right Honourable Thomas Grenville. — History of the Grenville Library.

CHAPTER III. Another Group of Archaeologists and Explorers

The Libraries of the East. — The Monasteries of the Nitrian Desert, and their Explorers. — Wilham Cureton and his Labours on the MSS. of Nitria, and in other Departments of Oriental Literature. — The Researches in the Levant of Sir Charles Fellows, of Mr. Layard, and of Mr. Charles Newton. — Other conspicuous Augmentors of the Collection of Antiquities.

CHAPTER IV. Benefactors of Recent Days

Notices of some Contributors to the Natural History Collections. — The Duke of Blacas and his Museum of Greek and Roman Antiquities. — Hugh Cuming and his Travels and Collections in South America. — John Rutter Chorley, and his Collection of Spanish Plays and Spanish Poetry. — George Witt and his Collections illustrative of the History of Obscure Superstitions. — The Ethnographical Museum of Henry Christy, and its History. — Colonial Archaeologists and British Consuls. — The History of the Woodhouse Collection, and of its transmittal to the British Museum. — Lord Napier and the acquisition of the Abyssinian MSS. added in 1868.

[With lithographic Illustrations.)

The Projects for the Severance and Partial Dispersion of the Collections which at present form ' The British Museum,' and the Plans for their re-combination and re-arrangement.

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FREE TOWN LIBRARIES.

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PREPACK.

The primary purpose of this Volume is to serve as a Handbook for Promoters and Managers of Free Town Libraries ; especially of such Libraries as may hereafter be established under the ' Libraries Acts.' Its secondary purpose is to compare British experience in that matter with Foreign, and particularly with American, experience.

Eighteen years have now passed since the enactment of the first Libraries Act of the United Kingdom. Under that Act, and its followers, more than thirty Free Town Libraries have already been successfully established. They have been formed under circumstances of much diversity. Probably, the experience of each of them has something or other vphich may be usefully applied to the working of like institutions in other places.

In many European countries Free Libraries, under municipal control, are much older institutions than Town Libraries, of any kind, are in Britain. Sometimes, the Continental Town Libraries of early foundation have fallen into a state of comparative neglect and inefficiency, — arising from inadequate means of maintenance, and from minor causes. But there is still much, both in their history and in their methods of working, which may be found highly vi PEEFACE.

instructive. This volume will be seen to contain conclusive evidence, on the other hand, that knowledge of what has been done, of late years, in the matter of increasing the number and improving the management of Popular Libraries, both in Britain and in America, has been already turned to good account in several countries of Continental Europe.

It may also deserve remark, that the circumstance which more, immediately attracted Continental attention to recent British and American legislation about Popular Libraries was the request made through the British Foreign Office, in 1849, for information (to be laid before Parliament,) concerning the history and management of Public Libraries generally, in various foreign States. There is evidence that the information so obtained — between the years 1849 and 1853 — was eventually productive of good to the givers, as well as to the receivers.

Those Returns of 1849-52 contain, as respects several countries of Europe, the latest official and general accounts of Foreign Libraries which have been anywhere published, in any language. No book of reference, as yet published, — in any language,— gives from year to year systematic information on that subject. Liquirers have to seek it by a, multitude of indirect channels, and the search is attended by much needless difficulty.

In relation to matters of trade, the Foreign Office, it is well known, has conferred an inestimable benefit on the Public at large by instituting, and publishing, the periodical repoi-ts of our Secretaries of Legation. Perhaps, it may not be thought an unreasonable presumption to hope that, some day or other, a public boon which has widely diffused knowledge about the growth, from year to year, of Foreign Trade and trading establishments, may be so enlarged as

PREFACE. vii

also to communicate knowledge about the progress of Foreign Libraries, Museums, and other establishments of an educational sort.

Meanwhile, writers who are necessarily devoid of official facilities, — however willing they may be to incur unremitting toil for the furtherance of their inquiries, — can, in some cases, give only approximations to full and exact knowledge, in lieu of such knowledge itself. Claiming credit for an earnest endeavour to attain to precise accuracy, they must also ask indulgence for occasional and inevitable shortcomings.

In what concerns the extension of the benefits of Free Public Libraries, supported by rates, to rural districts as well as to large towns, both the United States of America and the British American Provinces are, it is believed, much in advance of any European country whatever. Under the influence of that belief, — but also in the earnest hope that ere long its grounds may be taken away, — some notices of the character and results of recent American and Canadian legislation about Township and District Libraries have been included in this volume, and they have been drawn up with considerable fulness of detail.

For a preliminary remark or two upon the 'Brief Notices of Collectors,' the Reader is referred to the closing paragraphs of Book in.

CORRECTIONS.

Page 15, Omit the note in margin.

„ 119, ■) For ' rirst Liverpool Consulting Library,' read ' Liverpool

and 120, 5 Fi-ee Libraries.' Page 151, line 8 from bottom, for ' ever ' read ' even.'

[For Corrections to the ' Notices of Collbctoes,' see page 363.]

BOOK THE FIRST. FBEi: TOWN LIBRARIES, AT EOME

CHAPTBE I.

JWEE LIBBABIE8 IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, AND TEE LEGISLATION CONCERNING TSEM. WITH AN IN- TRODUCTORT GLANCE AT EARLIER TOWN AND PARISH LIBRARIES.

PAGE

Early efforts to extend the ad/vantages of Libraries — Glance at the rela-- tive dates of the earlier Town Lih-aries of France, Germany, and Britain — The Library founded by Whittington and Carpenter at the Guildhall of London, and its destruction by the Lord Protector Somerset — Other dealings of English Reformers with old Libraries — Thomas Cromwell's Injunction of Sept. 1537 — Thomas Bray, and the Parish Libraries of the Eighteenth Century — History of the Public lAbra/ries' Acts of 1850-1866 . . 1

CHAPTER II.

TOWN COUNCILS, PAROCHIAL VESTRIES, AND OTHER LOCAL BOARDS; AND THEIR DUTIES IN TOWNS OR PARISHES IN WHICH A FREE LIBRARY IS PROPOSED TO BE ESTABLISHED UNDER ONE OR OTHER OF THE LIBRARIES ACTS.

Functions and Composition of Town Councils — Changes in the Legislature affecting Corporations — Preliminaries necessary to the adop-

CONTENTS.

PA&B

Hon of one or other of the existing lAhra/ries' Acts — The Public Meeting under the Act of 1866 — Expediency or inexpediency of endeavouring to establish a Free Library before the call of the Public Meeti/ng — Appointment of the Library Committee — Indirect results of recent Permissive Legislation — Choice and Qiialification of Libraries — Expenditwre — Levy of the Maximwm Rate ■ 22

CHAPTEE III.

THE PLANNING, FORMING, ORGANIZING, AND WORKING, OF A FRFE TOWN LIBRARY.

Buildings for a Free Town Library — Structural RegvArevnents — Warmth and Ventilation — Shelving of Boole Rooms — Purchase amd Choice of Books — Internal Arra/ngements amd Manipulations — Classification and Catalogues — Regulation of Public Access —

, Arrangements for Borromng . . . .35

CHAPTEE IV.

HISTORY OF FREE LIBRARIES ESTABLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN ON THE PRINCIPLE OF A LIBRARY RATE.

1850-1868.

The Free Libraries of Manchester and Salford and their Founders — The Liverpool Libraries and Sir William, Brown — Birkenhead — Birmingham and its Libraries — The Free Town Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge — Southampton and the Hartley Library — Other Libraries, supportedby Rate in the South and West of England— Causes of the Rejection of the Libraries Act in certain Towns — General Results of the Acts of 1850-1866 — Need of further Parliamentary and Administrative Encouragement . 61

Tabtjlar View of the Peincipal Tkee Town Libeaeies of Geeat Beitain, established ruDEB THE Libeaeies Acts, 1850-1866 .... To face page 192

Examples op the Details op Feee Libeaey

ExPENDITtTEE . .

Examples op Book ptjechases poe Feee Libeaeies and their Cost . . . I" To face page 193

Examples op Classification and op Catalogues

CONTENTS. xi

Chapter I. Tse Town, Communal, And Popular Libbabies Of

FRANCE.

PAGE

The Town Library of Lyons — That ofTroyes — Synchronism of Serinequin's gift to Troyes, and of the gifts of Sen/ry Du Bouchet and of Cardinal Mazzarini to Paris — Alternation of periods of neglect with those of increase and improved management — Svmvmary View of the number, extent, and income of the French Town and CoTwmunal Libraries, based on the Official Statistics collected in 1855-57 — Classified examples of the statistical details — Need of new efforts to extend the benefits of Public Libraries to all classes of the population — Formaticm of Popular Libraries in the several districts of Paris^And of Primary School Libraries throughout France . . . . . .193

Chapter II. The Town Libbabies And Populab Libbabies Of Gebmant

German Town Libraries of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries — Influence of the Beformation on Educational efforts of all hinds — The Statistics of the Town Libraries, published by Petzholdt in 1853, and in subsequent years — Examples and Tabular Summary — History of the Town Library of Hamburgh — and of that of Breslau — and of Augsbu/rgh — and of Nuremberg — The Popular Libraries of recent formation .... 224

Tables .... To face pa^es 226 and 227

Chapter III. Notes On The Town Libbabies Of Some Otheb Continental States

§ 1. SWITZEELAND .... 240 xii CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Intbobuctoby

PAGE

Foundation, in 1700, of the first Town Library of the American Colonies, and its eventual conversion into a Proprietary Library — The Loganian Library at Philadelphia — The Collegiate and School Libraries of the United States — The use of many of the School Collections as Township and Parish Libraries — The State Libraries at the Seats of Government and their Free Accessibility as Consulting Collections — Return, in recent years, to the action of Municipalities for the maintenance of Free Toimi Libraries. . 269

Chapter II. History Of The Free City Library Of Boston

Municipal Proceedings in 1847-49— ^r. Edward Everett's G-ift of 1849 — The Report on the proposed Free City Library of July 1852 — Gift of Mr. Joshua Bates— Proposed Union of the Boston Athencemn with the City Library, and its failure — Erection and Cost of the new Building — The Second Gift of Mr. Bates — Gifts of the Bowditch and Parlcei' Collections — And that of the 'Prince Library' at the Old South Church — Statistics of the Formation and Worhing of the City Library — Its Regulations and their results — Tlie Regulation as to the Provision of Boohs required by readers, but not yet added to the Library — Deductions from, the experience of the Boston Library ..... liSO

Chapter III

MINOR TOWN AND DISTRICT LIBRARIES OF MASSA- CHUSETTS . . . . . .302

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

HISTORY OF THE A8T0R FREE LIBRARY QF THE CITY OF NEW YORE; WITH SOME NOTICE OF ITS FOUNDER.

The Founder cmd his American career— The Will of 1839— Preliminary sieps towa/i-ds the creation of the Astor Library in tlie Founde^ lifetime — Incorporation of the Astor Trustees — The Library Building — The BmIc Purchases in various parts of Europe of Dr. Cogswell — The Lmrm-y Regulations and method of working— The Statistics and Results . . . 309

Chapter V

DISTRICT, TOWNSHIP, AND OTHER FREELY-ACCESSIBLE LIBRARIES IN THE UNITED STATES.

General View of Free Town Libraries within the Urdted States in 1859 — Origination of the system of Free District Libraries for ' School- Districts' — District^ Libraries of the State of New York — Causes of the recent Decline of the District Idbra/ries of thai State — Establishment and growth of those of Indiana — and of Ohio — and of Wisconsin — The Apprentices^ Libraries of Boston and of Philadelphioi^-Practical Ded/uctions . . . 325

Chapter VI. The Free Libraries Of British America

The Canada Edmcation Reports of 1849 and 1850 — Plan of the Township and School-Section Free Lihrajries of Upper Canada, — School and Library Act of 1850 — Methods adopted for supply of Boohs to the Canadian Libraries — The County Meetings of 1853 — Tlie Authorized Catalogue of Free Library Books — Modifications of pZaii introd/uced into the Township Library System of New Brunswick— Statistics of the Canadian Free Libraries — Tlieir general Cha/racter and Educational Results . . . 344

XIV CONTENTS.

Book The Fourth. Brief Notices Of Collectors

PASE

and op the bespective places op deposit op thbie

stjeviving collections . . . • [3]

Geneeai, Index . . . . [225]

Book The First. Free Town Libbabies, At Home

Ohapteb I. Free Libraries in Great Britain and Ireland, AND THE Legislation concerning them. With

AN introductory GLANCE AT EARLIER TOWN AND

Parish Libraries.

II. Town Councils, Parochial Vestries and other Local Boards, and their duties in Towns or Parishes in which a Free Library is proposed to be established under one or other of the Libraries Acts.

III. The Planning, Forming, Organizing, and Working

of a Free Town Library.

IV. History op Free Libraries established in Great

Britain on the principle op a Library Rate. 1850-1868.

Chapter I

VUE^ LIBBABIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IBELAND, AND TEE LEGISLATION CONCERNING THEM. WITH AN IN- TRODUCTORT GLANCE AT EAULIER TOWN AND PARISH LIBRARIES.

Early efforts to extend the advcmtages of Libraries — Glomce at the relative dates of the earlier Town Libraries of Eramce, Germany, amd Britain — The Library fovmded by WhiMvngton and Ca/rpenter at the Guildhall of London, and Us destmetion by the Lord Protector Somerset — Other dealings of English Reformers with old Libraries — Thomas Cromwell's Injunction of Sept. 1537 — Thomas Bray, and the Parish Libraries of the Eighteenth Centwry — History of the Public Libraries' Acts of 1850-1866.

Pbom the days of English feudal barons and of English bqoj, j cloistered monks, we have instances, — here and there, — of a '""'p'" ^•

' . . ' 1418—1866.

strong love of books and of the pleasing toils of collectorship, combined vrith a generous desire to diffuse that love toetekteofar and wide, and to extend a collector's pleasures, at least in some measure, to persons whose path in life debarred them from all share in his willing toils. It would not be difficult to cite certain conspicuous instances, even in the so-called ' Dark Ages,' of a liberal zeal of this sort, which looked beneath as well as around. A few such are to be found among the barons ; many such among the monks.

SPECT.

In the 'Scriptorium the monk of noble blood, and the monk of peasant blood, toiled side by side ; and it was not always the man of lowly origin who was first to think of contrivances by which something of the stores of knowledge laid up in books might be made to spread even into the cottage of the labourer. But in those days suph fw-looking and onward-looking cares were, necessarily, exceptional. They were so amongst those to whom literature was already becoming a profession ; as well as amongst those to whom it was, and could be, nothing more than a relaxation.

If from castle and convent we turn aside to glance at what was going on amidst the burghers of the growing towns, — keeping still within the mediaeval times, — we meet but very sparsely with examples of the establishment of libraries, having any wider aim than a merely professional one. Both in the fifteenth and in the fourteenth centuries we have many instances in which parish-priests founded libraries expressly for the use of their successors in the cure of souls ; and sometimes with the help of the ancillary eablttowh benefactions of nobles and also of burghers. Even the

LiBBARIES 1 • 1 fY» 1

OP Gee- thirteenth century afiords one or two such examples. But

instances of the foundation of libraries, for the use of the

townsmen generally, are very rare in any country untU we

come down to the days of the Reformation. Henry

See imfler Neidhart's pubUc coUcction at XJlm (about 1435), Conrad

these names ^^ > I T n ■

severally, in KuHNHOFER s puolic collcction at Nuremberg (1445), foiilLe"^ ""' Lewis Von Marburg's public collection at Frankfort (1484), are notable among those of the exceptions to this rule which occur in Germany, but the earliest of them is, of the fifteenth century. The Town Library of Aix is a r^7cE,°' ®*^^' ™-°^^ notable exception in France. It is of the same century, indeed, but earlier by many years than any of the

EARLY FOUNDERS OF LIBRARIES IN ENGLAND. 3

German Town Libraries ; having been established in 1418, and that not by the beneficence of any individual townsman but by the corporate action of the Town Council itself. Italy possessed noble libraries at an earlier date than either Germany or France, but they are usually State Libraries — whether regal or republican — rather than Town Libraries ; or else they are (1) University Libraries, founded more especially for the use of the Professors ; or (3) Cathedral Libraries, used only by the members of the Chapter, and, permissively, by others of the Clergy. Among the rare exceptions— as far, at least, as regards the founder's intention, though not, it seems, as regards the practical fact— 'the choice collection of books formed by Guarnerio, pastor of the little town of St. Daniel in the Friuli ought perhaps to be reckoned. His MS. library, in its entirety, was so noble an one that Bessarion (himself a prince amongst the renaissance collectors) calls it " the finest in Italy, if not in the world;" and this in the days of Thomas of Sarzana (Pope Nicholas V), of Frederick, Duke of Ur- ^nd o^ bino, and of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. It guaeneeio appears to have been the liberal founder's purpose to make ^^os"^^* this treasure a library for his townsmen at large, although in practice (and by gross neglect) it remained for several generations only a buried treasure in the Church of St. Michael.

Eneland, at this period — as at periods lone subsequent ^^kly — had very little to boast of, in respect to Libraries of any op libiu.- kind. There had been some good beginnings. Eminent ehgland" among the beginners were Richard D'Aungerville, Bishop of Durham* (1333-1345) and Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester (1414-1446),t but the seed

* See Memows of lAhranies, Vol. I, pp. 377 — 384.

•j" Ibid., p. 588, and Macbat, Awnals of the Bodleian Iiibra/ry, Introd.

4 TEEE TOWN LIBEARIES, AT HOME.

had been sown in a field destined soon to be overrun by conflicting armies, engaged in civil and almost interminable wars.

Nearly contemporaneous with the benefactions of Humphrey Plantagbnet to the University of Oxford, was a smaller but pregnant gift of books made by John Carthetown penter, a famous Town Clerk of London; and, in several LiBEARY AT ^r^vs, R pubHc benefactor to his fellow-citizens. And a42i-60). ]xere we have the first distinct expression of the wish of an Englishman that the books from which he had derived mental culture and enjoyment in his lifetime should be made to promote the education of the " common people" after his death. But this was, for the most part, to be done indirectly and, as it were, at second-hand. " I direct," says Carpenter, in his last Will, " that if any good or rare books should be found among the residue of my goods, which, by the discretion of Masters William Lich- Ms. (trans- FIELD and Reginald Pecock,* may seem necessary for the ^Litalry* Common Library at Guildhall, for the profit of the students there, and [of] those discoursing to the Common People, I will and bequeath that those books be [there] placed by my Executors."

The reader perceives that two pre-existing facts are, or seem to be, implied by these remarkable words. It is plain that there was already a ' Common^ or ' Town Library.' It is probable that, in connection with this Library, addresses or lectures were wont to be delivered " to the Common People." If this last-named fact, or probable fact, be really so. Sir Thomas Gresham's noble but unfortunate institution of the next century was not so much a novel experiment as it was the revival of an ancient foun-

* Afterwards Bishop of CMcliester, and author of the famous preref ormation work The Repressor of the Clergy.

THE ANCIENT LIBRARY AT GUILDHALL, LONDON. 5

dation. The virtual ruin of Gresham's College is one of the many stains which rest upon the fame of the London Corporation, — as far as concerns not alone its relations with learning, but also the fidelity of its trusteeship to departed benefactors. The reproach belongs, more especially, to the City Corporators of the last century. It is possible that they were only treading — too accurately — in the steps of their fifteenth century predecessors.

Be that as it may, the ' Common Library' at Guildhall, to which John Carpenter was a benefactor, has a curious history. Its history begins with a name which was once on the tongues of all Londoners, and it ends with a name which was once a household word — either for love or for hate — to nearly all Englishmen. Both names are weU-remembered still. Each of them is, in its degree, typical of a social revolution. Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, rose from a very lowly origin to an influence on the State affairs of England, by dint of a far-extended foreign trade. Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, fell from a more than vice-regal throne to a scaflFold, by dint of that o'er- vaulting ambition which, in his case, marred a great cause as well as an eminent man. Somerset, in 1B50, destroyed the library which Whittington, in 1420, had founded. There is great obscurity over the minor circumstances both of the foundation and of the destruction ; but none at all over the main facts.*

Sir Richard Whittington had committed the oversight destetjo- — possibly the trusteeship — of his Public Library to Eran- public irciscan Monks. There is an obvious probability that this GmiDHAi.r arrangement contributed to its ruin. The Lord Protector =^'^'"'^^0-

O ^ TECTOK So-

Somerset's ideas of reformation were not imlike those meeset.

* Comp. the additions, by Stevens, to Dngdale's Monasticon, vol. vi, p. 1520 ; and Strype's edition of Stowe's Swrvey, vol. i, p. 43, and p. 130.

which have obtained among some very modern reformers (now, it may perhaps be thought, miscalled ' liberals') in relation, more particularly, to Church affairs. He, and they, set about removing the neglects and abuses, which, in some measure or other, the efflux of time is quite sure to bring with it in the best of institutions, by destroying the institution altogether. Somerset effected both the disestablishment and the disendowment of the Guildhall Library, in a speedy fashion, such as no modern ' liberal' could surpass. He sent to the Guildhall four waggons,, to carry off its books; just as he had, only a little while before, sent forty waggons to carry off the stones and timber of the time-honoured Church of St. Mary-le-Strand, in order to promote the Reformation, — and to employ the stones and timber in building Somerset House.

As far as relates to the immediate interests of learning, it may be said, with entire accuracy, that Somerset's dealings with the Guildhall Library are but a fair sample of what was done in respect to Libraries throughout the length and breadth of England, by his co-workers, and also by his followers, during no short period of time. The German Reformers did far otherwise. In Germany, many good Libraries — such as have been active civilising agents for more than three centuries, and are so still — date their origin expressly from the Reformation movement. Concerning the substantial benefits and blessings which, by many channels, have accrued to both countries from thatgreat uprising comparatively few Englishmen stand, in these days, in any doubt. But that is no reason for blinking the truth about its drawbacks. The most prominent among the secular leaders of the English Reformation, as well as a few among clerical leaders, were far more notable

EAELY ATTEMPTS AT PARISH LIBRARIES. 7

for greed than for godliness. Many times, and in many places, they pulled down more of good than they destroyed of evil. The trail they left, over a large breadth of the land, was the trail of the spoiler. Literature owes very little to the best among the Tudor sovereigns, or the Tudor statesmen. It owes very much to institutions and to men that, to . the best of Tudor power and influence, were trodden down by all of them. For both the neglect of literature and the enmity to . the Church of England — • glorious as being alike, for many centuries, the great patron and the main well-spring of our learning — ^which marked the policy of Henry marked also that of Elizabeth. The suppression of the Monasteries offered a splendid opportunity for the establishment, at small cost, and with a noble ground-work, of free Public Libraries in every English county. Not one such was established, in any one county or town, by any Tudor prince or statesman. Nor can the omission be ascribed to the lack of admonition or entreaty. The measure was urged again and again, as one pregnant with good for the times to come. It was advocated by Church dignitaries, and by laic antiquaries. It was urged upon Henry, upon Edward, and upon Elizabeth; and always urged in vain.*