collections such as those of Grenville and of Thomason, which would be at once great boons to the student, and fitting tributes to the memory of public benefactors; the provision of a public lending library, and of an evening reading-room;-each and all of these are measures involving large outlay; but it will be money well spent, and productive of an ample return. Mr. Panizzi's closing words put this part of the question in a very just point of view: 'The expense,' he says, ' requisite for accomplishing what is here suggested; that is, for forming in a few years a public library containing from 600,000 to 700,000 printed volumes, giving the necessary means of information on all branches of human learning, from all countries, in all languages, properly arranged, substantially and well bound, minutely and fully catalogued, easily accessible and yet safely preserved, capable for some years to come of keeping pace with the increase of human knowledge, will no doubt be great, but so is the nation which is to bear it. What might be extravagant and preposterous to suggest in one country, may be looked upon not only as moderate, but indispensable, in another."* The library of Sion College was founded by the Rev. John Simpson, Rector of St. Olave, Hart-street, (who was the executor of Dr. Thomas White, the founder of the College,) and was first opened to the clergy of the city of London in the year 1631. But it did not become a public library (free to all persons producing a satisfactory recommendation, as at the British Museum) until after the commencement of the present century. It may therefore be ranked as the fourth library, for public use, in the metropolis, and it is the last to which that description strictly applies. The original collection scarcely amounted to 4000 volumes, but considerable additions were soon made by various benefactors, and many books are said to have been transferred to it, in 1647, from old St. Paul's Cathedral. More than one-third of the books were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. In 1679, a considerable collection of books, which had been seized from the Jesuits, were sent to Sion College, some of which are very curious, and are not to be found in the Museum Library. George, first Earl of Berkeley, presented half of the library of his uncle, Sir Robert Cooke, towards the close of the seventeenth century; and in the beginning of the eighteenth-by the Act 8 of Anne, c. 19-the College acquired the right of receiving a copy of every book printed in Great Britain, which right it * Panizzi, ut sup. p. 37. retained until 1836, when so much of that Act was repealed as related to Sion College, the Advocate's Library at Edinburgh, the Libraries of the four Scottish Universities, and the King's Inns' Library in Dublin. Sion College now receives 300l. a year from the Treasury, as a compensation for this loss, which sum is applied to the purchase of books, chiefly in theology and ecclesiastical history, and this money grant proves far more advantageous to the library than was its former privilege, the abolition of which has also relieved literature from an unwise and oppressive tax. This library contains an important collection of tracts on the Romanist controversy, formed by Bishop Gibson, and some minor collections. The total number of volumes (including the tract volumes) is about 27,000. A complete catalogue of them is in progress, both classed and alphabetical, on the principle of that by Reading, published in 1724, but modified, as to the classification, in accordance with the excellent system drawn up by the Rev. T. H. Horne, for the trustees of the British Museum. The four public libraries of London, the origin and present condition of which we have thus passed in review, contain in the aggregate about 397,000 volumes of printed books—viz. 1. British Museum Library 3. Dr. Williams' Library 4. Archbishop Tenison's Library Paris possesses five public libraries, to which admission is absolutely free, independently of those of the Institute, the University, and the two Chambers, to all of which persons satisfac torily recommended may obtain admission. These five libraries contain at least 1,300,000 volumes of printed books-viz. We give these numbers at the lowest estimate which can be formed of them, after a careful comparison of various official returns with the most recent books of repute on the public establishments and statistics of Paris. The sum granted for the maintenance and enlargement of the first four of these libraries, in the budget for 1846, was 23,1597. (555,823 francs).* About 12,000 volumes are stated, in a recent French publications to be annually added to the Royal Library alone. As in most of the great continental libraries, its books are permitted to be borrowed, as well as used in the reading-rooms. Of late, indeed, this practice has become matter of complaint with some of the literary men of Paris. M. Paul Lacroix, especially, in his clever and sarcastic-but somewhat inexact-pamphlet, entitled, "Réforme de la Bibliothèque du Roi," waxes loud and indignant in his denunciation of it. But we think that his condemnation is far too sweeping, and that, in this instance, the reform required is by no means the abolition of the lending system, but rather a better method of managing it, and certain additional restrictions to guard against its abuse. Several years ago, the officers of the library, in a joint letter to the then Minister of Public Instruction, whilst admitting the former existence of great abuse in this matter, add emphatically, the evil exists no longer. . . . . . If some persons have still betrayed our confidence, the mischief thence resulting has been rendered almost 'null.' At all events, it is clear the mischief has been much diminished. The average daily number of readers at the Royal Library is stated to be nearly 400; and of those at the Arsenal, Št. Genevieve, and Mazarine Libraries together, about 400 more. Of the great assiduity and urbanity of the librarians of the former, we can bear testimony from personal experience. But we regret to add, that we cannot extend our praise to its catalogues. In this most important point, it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that the Royal Library of Paris, although the greatest and finest library in the world, is far worse provided than the Library of the British Museum. The very extent of the Paris Library may, indeed, partly account for the inferiority; but, in this point of view, the question is simply one of expense. 'The catalogue,' says M. Paul Lacroix, has been for a century in preparation; it has been the favourite dream of some librarians; the invariable pretext of the greater number; everybody has had a hand in it, some doing, others doing over again, and many undoing; it has cost enormous sums, . . . . and the only result, as yet, has been a mass of titles piled up in cases, in alphabetical order, . . . . titles faulty, insignificant, and incomplete..... Yet as long as this catalogue, classed and methodized, remains unaccomplished, and, what is more, printed, NO. XI. .... .... *Budget de l'Exercice 1845, vol. i. p. 323. † Lazare, Dictionnaire des Rues de Paris, p. 71. I the library will be like an ocean, without a compass and without a pilot.'* We learn, however, with pleasure, that zealous efforts are now being made to accomplish this task in a manner adequate to its importance. We believe that it will be accomplished, too, without having recourse to the extreme measure, advocated by M. Lacroix, of absolutely closing the library for two years, in addition to the total abolition of the loan of books. The administration of the Royal Library of Paris has also had to contend with another great difficulty, in the shape of the multitudinous projects which have been formed-and, many of them, brought under discussion both in the government and in the chambers-for building a new library, and removing to it the vast collections of the present one. Architects, contractors, journalists, and meddlers of all kinds, have given ample expression to their several ideas on this subject, until it has become quite the fashion for the architectural tyro to make his debut in the exhibition with a 'Plan for a New Royal Library;' but only very lately has an energetic and authoritative voice been raised to preserve the present noble building, with its ample space, and its historical associations, and to show the wisdom of making all needful reparations, and such additions as may become requisite in course of time, instead of destroying it, and abandoning the site to the speculators in new lines of shops. The letters of Count de Laborde are admirably written, and will repay perusal even to the mere reader for amusement, abounding as they do with historical anecdote and felicitous illustration. But, on the whole, it cannot be doubted, that far more ample provision is made for the student in Paris than in London, even were the Bibliothèque Royale the only public library in the former capital. When to this are added four other extensive libraries, each possessing its distinctive recommendation, and to each of which there is the freest access, the comparison turns greatly indeed to our disadvantage. We trust, however, that the liberality of Parliament will not be limited to the improvement and extension of the British Museum, but that, at least, two additional public libraries will be established in different parts of the metropolis, under thoroughly responsible management. Experience justifies the belief, that if this were done, and done well, private munificence would soon come in aid of the grants which may be allotted from the public purse, for the furtherance of so truly public and national an object. *Réforme, &c. p. 91. 115 ART. IV. Thoughts on the Rule of Conscientious Subscription. By the Rev. F. D. MAURICE, A.M. 8vo. London. It is one of the effects of a highly advanced state of civilization, that it breaks up society, almost without end, into classes and groups. Each of these circles becomes a world in itself, and is often strangely ignorant of what is doing in its neighbour world. Science and art, wealth and poverty, professions, politics, religion --all contribute to segregate the great multitude after this manner; and these separate vortices, in which the great majority of men are ever floating their little round, are the never failing conservators of sectional prejudices and of bad passions. Protestant dissenters, for example, as the result of their peculiar principles and preferences, have their place considerably apart from the general community in this country. The usual consequence has followed. Multitudes who live all their days on the borders of dissent, know scarcely more of its real character than of the character of sects belonging to the most remote times, or to the most distant nations. What they know, or think they know, is purely from hearsay. Everything is seen through a distant, false, or distorted medium. Chance becomes their instructor. Nothing, accordingly, can be more preposterous than the misconceptions which generally ensue. We have reason to think that our pages pass into the hands of some readers of this description; and it is no more than justice towards such persons, to suppose that they do not wish to be deceived-that they desire to obtain trustworthy information on this subject. We therefore venture to solicit the candid attention of this class of persons, while we attempt to meet their wishes in this particular. It is by no means our intention to pronounce an unmixed eulogy on dissent. We wish to deal faithfully with its good, and not less so with the evil to which that good is incident. Our aim, in fact, will be twofold -to furnish information to those who need it, with regard to the real nature of the affair which comes before them under the name of dissent; and to stimulate dissenters themselves to the amendment of some things in respect to which it is only too manifest that they still fall somewhat short of perfection. We scarcely need say, that character belongs to classes no less than to individuals, and to religious sects no less than to tribes and nations. No sect has exclusive possession of the virtues. Every sect has its particular forms of weakness. Moreover, there is commonly a natural relationship between the truth maintained by any body of religionists, and the errors observable in their history. Improbable as it may seem, the former is often as parent to the latter. Every virtue has its neighbour vice. |