a library. Both these collections are of course Lending Libraries, and how extensively they are used will appear from the fact that the aggregate annual issue considerably exceeds the aggregate number of volumes which they contain. The Library of the American Oriental Society is deposited in the College Library building.

Next, in chronological order, of the Collegiate Libraries is [3.] Library that of Columbia College, in New York. It originated in the of Columbia bequest (about 1757) by Mr. Joseph Murray, of his library, College. with other property, amounting in the whole to £8000. Another collection of about 1500 volumes was bequeathed by Dr. Bristowe. Presents were also received from Lord Bute, and from the University of Oxford, so that the College possessed a considerable Library, when, in 1776, the authorities were directed to make ready "for the reception of troops." "The students were in consequence dispersed, the Library and apparatus were deposited in the City Hall, or elsewhere, and the College edifice was converted into a Military Hospital. Almost all the apparatus, and a large proportion of the books. belonging to the College, were wholly lost to it in consequence of this removal; and of the books recovered, 600 or 700 were so only after about thirty years, when they were found, with as many belonging to the New York Society Library, and some belonging to Trinity Church, in a room in St. Paul's Chapel, where, it seems, no one but the sexton had been aware of their existence, and neither he nor anybody else could tell how they had arrived there.” *

In 1792, a grant in aid of the restoration of the Library was obtained from the Legislature. In 1813, the library of Professor Kemp, and in 1838, that of Professor Moore, were purchased. It now contains upwards of 14,000 volumes. It is chiefly frequented by the officers of the College, and by students of the three higher classes.

[4.] Library of Brown University.

Brown University-first established at Warren, and thence removed to Providence-was incorporated in the year 1764. The first beginnings of the Library appear to date from 1768, when the Reverend Morgan Edwards, then in England, was authorized to make some small purchases. Eight years afterwards the College building was converted into a barrack and hospital; the students were dispersed, and the books removed; and it was not until after the conclusion of peace, in 1782, that the small library was restored and the College reörganized. Shortly afterwards a liberal subscription was raised for the purchase of books in England.

For many years the chief accessions were obtained by gift or by bequest. Of American donors, Mr. Nicholas Brown, of Providence, and the Rev. Isaac Backus, of Middleborough, were the chief. The former imported from England, expressly for the University, a valuable law library, and afterwards gave £100 to be expended in other purchases; the latter bequeathed a collection of books, the precise number of which is not recorded; but many of them were both valuable and rare. Amongst these is a copy of Roger Williams' famous treatise on "the bloody tenent," on the fly-leaf of which is written, in

* Moore, Historical Sketch of Columbia College, p. 62, as quoted by Jewett, Notices, &c., p. 94.

the author's hand, "For his honored and beloved Mr. John Clarke, an eminent witnes of Christ Jesus, ag'st ye bloodie doctrine of persecution," &c. Amongst the English donors the most noticeable appear to have been the Rev. William Richards (the historian of Lynn), and Granville Sharp.

Mr. Richards had long carried on a correspondence with American divines, and being a man of liberal principles, had made many inquiries as to the accessibility and unsectarian character of the College at Providence. It was stated to him that, "Although the Charter requires that the President shall for ever be a Baptist, it allows neither him, in his official character, nor any other officer of instruction, to inculcate any sectarian doctrine; it forbids all religious tests; and it requires that all denominations of Christians, behaving alike, shall be treated alike. This Charter is congenial with the whole of the civil government established here by the venerable Roger Williams, who allowed. . . no preeminence of one denomination over another, and none has ever been allowed unto this day." Gratified by this letter, Mr. Richards bequeathed to this College a collection of about thirteen hundred volumes of considerable value, and especially rich, it is stated, in the History and Antiquities of England and Wales. The name of Granville Sharp appears frequently in the list of donors from the year 1785 until the period of his death.

Hitherto the library had been very slenderly provided with the literature and the science of continental Europe. Between the years 1823 and 1845, however, many valuable presents of foreign books were acquired by the liberality of Mr. John Carter Brown, of the Rev. Thomas Carlile, and of the wife of President Wayland. At the sole cost of the first-named gentleman, and by the able instrumentality of Mr. Jewett, then Librarian of Brown University, upwards of 3000 volumes, well selected and well bound, were purchased in France, Germany, and Italy. Amongst them were entire collections of the standard writers of each of those countries; complete sets of the Mémoires del Institut de France, of the Mémoires sur l'Histoire de France, of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, and the Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek ; a long series of famous Galleries," including those of the Vatican, the Museo Borbonico, the Musée Royal, and the Musée Français; the great French work on Egypt; Canina's masterly work on Architecture; with many others of great value.

Nothing in the history of this institution is more worthy of praise and imitation than is the generous rivalry which has made the good deed of one benefactor a spur to the good intent of another. No sooner had Mr. Carter Brown interposed so effectively on behalf of the Foreign section of the Library, than other friends clubbed together to improve its English department, at the cost of a thousand pounds. In the following year a similar effort on behalf of the Theological department was originated by the Rev. Samuel Osgood, and by this means a fine serics of the Fathers of the Church, of the Councils, and of the best writers of the Reformation period were added to the Collection.

Besides these special efforts directed, and wisely directed, to certain particular classes of literature, a permanent fund of £5000 has been formed by subscription, the interest of which is annually expended in purchases; a new building has been erected with capacity to accommodate the growing library for a long time to come; and an excellent catalogue has been prepared

and printed. The number of volumes now exceeds 26,000, exclusively of about 7000 volumes which belong to two literary Societies formed by the students. The Library is extensively used, and is accessible for all literary and studious purposes under very liberal regulations.

[5.] Library of Dartmouth College.

Dartmouth College at Hanover (New Hampshire) was founded in 1769, and, by gradual accumulations, has become possessed of about 21,000 volumes, which belong, in nearly equal portions, to the Library of the College properly so called, to that of the Society of Students, designated the "Social Friends," and to that of another Society, called the "United Fraternity."

The other principal College Libraries of the United States-founded subsequently to the commencement of the present century-I can but briefly enumerate. Taking the chief of them only (in chronological order), they are as follows:

Of these Libraries, the collections at Burlington, Columbia, and Charlottesville, appear to be most noticeable for the care with which they have been selected. The first named is rich in the Greek and Roman classics, and in the literature of Spain and of Scandinavia: the greater portion of the fine library collected by the Hon. George P. Marsh, formerly Minister from the United States to Turkey, being here deposited. The Columbia Library was founded by an act of the Legislature, and receives an annual appropriation for books of £400. Professor Lieber has rendered great assistance in the selection of books, and the collection is said to be more valuable “than many of twice its size."* That at Charlottesville was originally formed and arranged by President Jefferson; enlarged by a legacy of President Madison, and by another · -comprising 3380 volumes of Mr. Christian Bohn. It occupies a fine circular building, erected in 1825, expressly for the Library, at a cost of £14,000.

There are many other collegiate libraries, of which no notice can here be taken, the numerical contents of which, however, are enumerated in our "Statistical Table."

*Jewett, ut supra, p. 155.

CHAPTER II.

OF PROPRIETARY AND SUBSCRIPTION LIBRARIES.

THE first establishment of proprietary libraries in the United States connects itself with the illustrious name of Franklin; and to narrate the rise in

other words than his own would be impertinent. "At the time," he says, "when I established myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good bookseller's [1.] Library shop in any of the Colonies to southward of Boston..... Those Company of who loved reading were obliged to send for their books from Philadelphia. England; the members of the Junto' [a sort of half convivial, half literary club, mainly of Franklin's foundation] had each a few. We had left the ale-house where we first met, and had hired a room to hold our club in. I proposed that we should all of us bring our books to that room, . . . . . and for some time this contented us . . . . But soon [in 1731] I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a subscription library. I drew up the proposals . . . and, by the help of my friends in the Junto,' procured fifty subscribers of forty shillings each to begin with, and ten shillings a-year for fifty years, the term our company was to continue. We afterwards [in 1742] obtained a charter, the company being increased to one hundred. This was the mother of all the North American Subscription Libraries now so numerous. It is become a great thing itself, and continually goes on increasing." "These libraries,” adds Franklin, "have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen in other countries, and perhaps have contributed, in some degree, to the stand so generally made throughout the Colonies in defence of their privileges."*

It is worth while to remark that, when Franklin took this step, no town in England possessed a subscription library. Liverpool appears to have been amongst the earliest towns which took action in this direction, and there no such library was formed until 1756.† Bristol did not possess one until 1772.‡ Nor is it less to the honour of Franklin, and of Philadelphia, that one of the first regulations which was made for the management of the Library, directed that it should be publicly and gratuitously accessible as a library of reference. The instructions to the first Librarian, Louis Timothee, expressly empower him to permit "any civil gentleman to peruse the books of the library in the library-room." The first donor to the infant Library was Peter Collinson, “Mer- · cer, in Gracious Street, London," and the second, William Rawle, of Philadelphia (who gave Spenser's works in six volumes). Franklin himself succeeded Timothee as Librarian for three months. In 1738, a piece of ground was granted to the society by John Penn; and, within little more than thirty years

* Autobiography (Sparks' Edition), p. 97.

† Brooke, Liverpool as it was... in the last century, p. 89.
Tovey, The Bristol City Library, p. 000.

of the establishment of the Library, it was stated in a report that "many other libraries, after our example and on our plan, have been erected in this and the neighbouring provinces, whereby useful knowledge has been more generally diffused in these remote corners of the earth.” *

In August, 1774, an order was made that the Librarian should "furnish the gentlemen who are to meet in Congress, in this city, with such books as they may have occasion for during their sitting, taking a receipt for them. A similar privilege was afterwards accorded to the legislature of Pennsylvania. In 1777, the Library was, for a time, converted into a military hospital. During the nine months of the British occupation of Philadelphia, the Library sustained no injury, except (as during the whole period of the war) from the non-importation of books. The funds which had accumulated in the interval were ex-pended, on the conclusion of peace, in a large accession of English and foreign literature. In instructing their agent as to the purchases they wished to make, the Committee write thus :- "We shall confide entirely in your judgment to procure us such books of modern publication as would be

proper for a public library, and though we would wish to mix the utile with the dulce, we should not think it expedient to add to our present stock anything in the novel way."

In 1789, a new building was erected for the reception of the books, and an inscription was placed on the corner-stone, which is worth quotation :

Be it remembered

in honour of the Philadelphia youth
(then chiefly artificers),

that in 1731, they cheerfully,
(at the instance of Benjamin Franklin,
one of their number),

instituted the PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY,
which, though small at first,

is become highly valuable and extensively useful,
and which the walls of this edifice

are now destined to contain and preserve;
the first stone of whose foundation

was here placed the 31st Aug., 1789.

...

The collection founded by Franklin had scarcely been arranged in its new habitation when the addition to it of the library of James Logan (the friend of William Penn, and the first president of the Pennsylvania Council) made an enlargement of the building necessary. This "collection of rare and valuable books, principally in the learned languages, and in the existing languages of the continent of Europe, . . . which, having formed it at considerable expense, he was anxious should descend to posterity, . . . Mr. Logan had endowed and vested in Trustees, for the use of the public for ever."+ The library thus bequeathed was enlarged by the brother and son of the founder. At the time of annexation it contained about 4000 volumes. Large additions have since been made by purchase (as well from the sale of the original building and site, as from the founder's endowment), and also by donation. In 1828, Mr. * Address presented to John Penn, 1763, quoted by Jewett, ut supra, p. 116. + Catalogue of the Loganian Library (Ibid. p. 121).