Bibliothèque Nationale, and that of the British Museum), are supplied only with the principal books of reference, and standard works of general resort in the department of the arts and sciences, history and the classics. The visitor who requires to consult publications of a special nature, or of less importance, obtains the work demanded from the attendants, without being admitted to the great miscellaneous library; but in the reading-room he can refer to the classes of books just referred to without making any special application. These consist of Dictionaries and Grammars of all languages, Cyclopædias, the best editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, and of the principal classic authors in the various Modern Languages, the general treatises on the Arts and Sciences (and these should include the French, which are almost invariably the best written), the best works on Ancient and Modern History, the best Maps and Topographical works, the principal Travels and Voyages, the chief general Law books, such as Codes, Commentaries, &c., the Public Reports and Parliamentary Documents, and the Transactions of the learned Societies and Academies both native and foreign. Such a collection, with the addition perhaps of some few other volumes, and especially in the French language, the knowledge of which it is of so much importance to encourage, would comprise the greater part of that which the general public (including all classes) ought to have access to as means and matter of indispensable education; and it should include the principal books more immediately bearing on each trade and occupation of life, in which the working man might find materials and suggestions for his his practical improvement in his vocation. The lighter works, such as novels, plays, most light literature, periodicals, and pamphlets, as well as the greater portion of contemporary publications, the reader may be permitted to seek in one of those institutions where access to them may be secured at a small rate of subscription. But the advantages of the more solid library above described ought to be afforded at the expense of the community to every individual within its pale; and such a library-collected somewhat gradually, prudently, with proper judgment in the selection-would not require any considerable initial outlay (a very good beginning could be made for about £2000) and could be kept up at a very trifling expense.

*

Under the act last referred to, the borough may erect and keep up

* 13 & 14 Vict. c. 65, § 1, gives power to the mayor, upon the request of the town-council of any municipal borough, whose population exceeds 10,000, to ascertain whether the Act shall be adopted in that borough, by public notices and advertisements, calling on the burgesses to express their opinion by votes for or against its adoption. § 2 provides for the regulation of the voting by persons entitled to vote. § 3 enacts that only those whose names are on the burgess roll shall be so entitled, and that the adoption or non-adoption of the Act shall be determined by their votes, two-thirds of the votes given being required for its adoption; in case the Act shall be adopted by the borough, the town-council is empowered to purchase or take on rent "any lands or buildings for the purpose of forming public libraries or museums of art and science, or both, and to erect, alter, and extend any buildings for such purpose, and to maintain and keep the same in good repair;" and for that purpose, and to pay the principal and interest of any monies borrowed under the Act, to levy with and as part of the borough rate, or as separate borough rate, the necessary sums, provided that the sums so levied shall not

the necessary buildings; and as a borough rate of even a farthing in the pound should produce about £500 a-year in Dublin, the construction of a suitable building (even if it were necessary to erect one), as well as the maintenance of a library with a complete staff of attendants, may be secured at any time without causing even a perceptible increase in the taxation of the city. It remains only to obtain the nucleus of a collection of books, and to secure its progressive development-the act not giving any power to expend taxes in this manner-and that, it appears to us, may be also accomplished with much less difficulty than is commonly imagined.

Such a selection of books as that before described, including, as it does, only those which must be considered necessary for the community, omits almost the whole range of attractive light literature, the essays, travels, political, historical, and scientific works of the day, and all reviews, magazines, and literary periodicals; in fact, all that class of publications generally sought after from month to month, and for the opportunity of reading which most people are very willing to pay something. Nothing can be more reasonable than to make this section of a well selected public library pay for itself; and it appears to us that it might be enabled to do even more: at least to supply the few necessary additions to the other or free department, especially where the latter supports a staff which would be quite sufficient for both branches.

It is not enough to afford the artizan, occupied as he is throughout all the day, the opportunity of reading in a public library. He requires for himself and for his family something more. He should have access to a good Lending Library, from which, at a very moderate rate of subscription, he may bring to his own home, for the innocent amusement as well as the instruction of his wife, his sons, and his daughters, as well as himself, such publications as will enlarge his mind and theirs, and supply at least a portion of the education of which the middling classes are so generally in want. The literary food of those classes is unfortunately at present too much of the lowest description, and the libraries of the Mechanics' Institutes show an increasing tendency towards what is worthless, or worse, inundated as we are with cheap publications, generally empty, if not absolutely injurious. And yet there can be little doubt that if means or opportunity were allowed him, the artizan would often gladly seek and diligently make use of books of a really high order. We have heard mentioned one instance of the desire of knowledge among these classes,

in any one year exceed one halfpenny in the pound on the annual value of property in the borough. § 4 empowers the town-council, and any committee appointed by them (whether members of the council or not), to purchase and provide fuel, lighting, fixtures, and furniture, and to appoint and salary attendants, and to make rules. § 5 gives power to borrow, with consent of the Treasury, on security of rates under the Act. § 6 vests all property of such institutions in the towncouncil. § 7 enacts that admission shall be free of all charge. § 8 ordains that, in case of vote being adverse to the adoption of the Act, the burgesses shall not be called on to decide on it again for at least two years. § 9 saves museums already undertaken. §§ 10 & 11 reserve power of amendment, and entitle the Act the "Public Libraries Act, 1850."

remarkable enough to be preserved, and which may serve as an illustration of the necessity of attention to what it is really the duty of the municipality to provide for its population. A poor but intelligent artizan was employed some time ago to do some work in the shop of an eminent bookseller in this city. During an idle half hour, while waiting for orders, he chanced on Johnston's "Physical Atlas," then lately published, which was lying on one of the tables-a work now well known as one of extraordinary value, and whose great price (ten guineas) of course put it totally beyond the reach of a poor carpenter. But so diligently did he use his time, and so well was he able to appreciate the importance of the publication, that when his employer returned, he had already resolved to make an effort at least to compass the possession of it. He ascertained its price, and after making his calculations in his own mind, he proposed to be permitted to pay 3s. 6d. a week until the price should be completed, if the bookseller (who knew him well) would lay the book aside for him till then. It is needless to add that that gentleman at once acceded to his request, and with true liberality permitted the carpenter to take home his treasure that very day.

In France and Belgium, in the United States, in almost every part of Germany, most public libraries are also wholly, or in part, lending libraries. In Denmark even the University Library of Copenhagen (of 150,000 volumes) is a lending library. In Sweden the same principle is recognised as the leading feature of such an institution. In England and Scotland it is creeping also into recognition. In all these places the general experience of the system is favourable to it, and every where it is reported that no loss, or a loss nearly nominal, is the result. In Dublin we only know of one good lending library—that of the Dublin Society— and there the loans are confined necessarily to members only. In Cork, the Cork Library (to which the subscription is £1 a-year, and where there are above 800 subscribers) is a large and flourishing reading and lending library, and to its existence upon this plan is deservedly attributed much of the well known superiority of Cork over most other places in literary and general education.

In Dublin then we ought to have a free public library, consisting of what are ordinarily called "library works," into which every person of good character, whatever his means or station, should have free admission to read both by day and in the evening. We should also have a public lending library, at the smallest possible rate of subscription. This department could be carried on well at an expense not exceeding £500 a-year over and above the expenses of the necessary staff; and the latter expenses would be reduced to nought if the lending library were associated with a free reading library, supported at the public expense under the Public Libraries Act. The subscription therefore might very well be fixed so low as ten shillings per annum, at least for those classes to whom such an establishment would be of the greatest importance. The wealthier, and those who would subscribe rather for amusement, as a luxury, than for a higher motive, might be charged at the rate of £1 a-year, so as to interfere as little as possible with the ordinary circulating libraries, which be

*

sides by their conditions as well as their contents would continue largely to supply the idle classes of the community. It would be matter for arrangement by the library committee under what circumstances and subject to what restrictions (as deposit, security, greater or less length of time for each loan, &c.), books should be lent out; and there is abundant experience upon all these points. Suffice it here to say, that all the details are not only practicable, but easily so: all that is necessary to the success of such a library would be found to be a good beginning, supposing that, in a population of 350,000 of all classes, about 1000 or 1200 supporters might be counted on, and we may surely assume so much. A good beginning, however, must include the original establishment of a well-selected library of moderate dimensions in both departments. Much would of course be done towards this by donations of books in the first instance. It may be calculated-we need not here go through a process of suppositions that, in addition to these donations, a good nucleus of works in both departments might be secured at a cost not exceeding about £3000; for any private individual could form an admirable library in the course of a year for much less money. This sum would have to be raised then in the first instance, and the interest upon it would not be much less that £150 a-year. A sinking fund, to the amount of at least £100 a-year, should be set apart to reduce the principal; and if we diminish as yet, until the debt be paid off, the amount to be yearly expended in books to £350, we shall have an income of £600 a-year only required to secure to Dublin an adequate nucleus of a public library, whose usefulness and value would yearly increase in rapid progression, and of whose good effects upon the most valuable portion of our population it would be difficult to form any just estimate.

We shall not on this occasion dilate on those effects, nor on the various uses which might be made of such an institution, and which we are convinced would be made of it, by all classes of our working fellow-citizens. Not the literary man alone, but the humble shopkeeper and the hardworking artizan, would find in it comfort and improvement, and his family would be sure to bear its profitable fruits to a new generation. The library is as necessary in our times as the school or the college, and a public library in Dublin would be the true INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE, of which our working population is in need. [See Note, next page.]

In thus addressing ourselves to the wants of Dublin, we have not been neglectful of those of other cities, nor even of much smaller towns. Any example brings home the truth to the mind more powerfully than a volume of general essays. Let our remarks be applied by each reader, with such evident modifications as shall occur to him, to the necessities and the capacity of his own locality. Even the smallest town may have its little library, just as the poorest man may who makes anything beyond what his absolute wants require. And how very much may not each

*It would of course be best to avail ourselves of any existing collections capable of furnishing a nucleus, and there are some such in Dublin. There is even one establishment which, with ordinary good management, might effect the greater part of what we require; but we have thought it best to deal with the subject as if the undertaking were to be commenced altogether de novo.

educated individual add to his knowledge and his taste by the judicious expenditure of but a very few pounds in the year! It should be our desire to extend in every way the number of readers of wholesome and valuable works, and if we may not in a little locality open a thousand volumes to its inhabitants, we may perhaps secure at least five hundred, and if not five hundred, then let us seek to establish a nucleus of one hundred, be they but really the cream of ten times the number. No one can can guess what may be one day the fruit of the seed sown by any one of them.

[NOTE.-During the last two months there has been a great deal of discussion upon the proper application of a considerable sum of money most worthily subscribed to mark the recognition of WILLIAM DARGAN by his fellow-countrymen by some enduring memorial, and the committee to whom those subscriptions were intrusted have resolved to devote them to the erection (chiefly) of a suitable building for a National Gallery. No better or more worthy object could have been chosen; but the committee appear to have annexed to it the idea of a Museum of Industry, or of Art applied to Industry as well. This idea cannot be made to harmonize with that of a great collection of works of high Art, and for this, as well as for another reason, it will have in the end to be abandoned. That other reason is conclusive: that such a museum already exists in the Government Establishment in St. Stephen's Green, which is secured abundant support from the general resources of the State. If, however, in constructing a noble building for a National Gallery, its Hall were erected over another story, devoted to a free Public Library, such a union would hurt no principle of taste, and the greatest public want of Dublin would be supplied to those very classes whom it is Mr. Dargan's honour that he ever so sedulously exerts himself to elevate and improve. Little would be thus added to the cost of the whole building, and £1000 of the subscriptions devoted to the nucleus of a library collection (that above described as proper for a free library) would be speedily supplied by the many additional subscriptions so useful a design would be sure to attract from all quarters.]

ART. III.-NOTICES OF BOOKS. Museums, Libraries, and Picture Galleries, public and private; their Establishment, Formation, Arrangement, and Architectural Construction, to which is appended the Public Libraries Act, 1850," and remarks, &c.; with Illustrations. By JOHN W. PAPWORTH, F. R. I.B. A., and WYATT PAPWORTH. London, Chapman & Hall, 1853.

In the previous article allusion has been made to the existing facilities afforded by law to the construction of Public Museums, Libraries, and Galleries of Art, and the general scope and contents of the Act of 1850 have been noted (ante, p. 42.) The volume now before us is designed by the writers to be a practical commentary on the Act, and the Messrs. Papworth, architects of experience, (we shall not stop to criticize their own works or seek here to measure their particular claims to professional reputation), have endeavoured to explain the necessary preliminaries to the establishment of the public collections proposed to be encouraged, thinking it "a duty, perhaps a profitable duty, to lay before the public some account of the matters chiefly necessary for consideration, in so far as regards the establishment, formation, security, accommodation, and conduct of such