"The admission of the Public is entirely unrestricted" to the Royal Library at Stuttgart.

"The results of the practice of lending are not injurious. The

"Books are lent; on permission from books are punctually returned;

the Board of Direction."-Ib., 376.

and, setting aside the unavoidable

On the average 5000 volumes have been wear, any serious damage is of very

lent yearly, during the last ten years."

Ib., 376.

To the University Library of Tübingen, "admission is also unrestricted."

"Books are lent

Ib., 377.

"No disadvantage has hitherto arisen from the free admission of the Public" to the University Li

1. to Professors and Tutors of the Uni- brary of Tübingen.3

versity and to other Functionaries resident in Tübingen;

2. to Students and other inhabitants of Tübingen, on the guarantee of a Uni

versity Tutor;

3. to other persons belonging to Wirtemberg, by permission from the Library Commission;

4. to Foreigners, with the sanction of the Ministry of Public Instruction."

"The loan of books from the Li

brary has not been attended by injurious consequences; but few books are returned in really bad condition; and actual loss is extremely

1 App. 1850, 375.

2 Ibid., 376.

3 Ibid., 377.

+ Ibid.

Vol. II.

65

BOOK IV.

Chapter V. Public Access.

Recent evidence taken by the

The evidence which has thus been collected, from no narrow field of inquiry, is plainly on the side of free accessibility, as the broad and general rule. It by no means follows that every Public Library, indiscriminately, whatever its character or contents, should be open without any sort of introduction or voucher of character. But, as respects ordinary Town Libraries, there is, I think, no room for hesitation.

Of late years, there have been not a few complaints. in Paris, of the abuse of the unrestricted access to the Imperial Library. The recent Commission made careful inquiry on this point. Many of the Officers whom they examined were adverse to unrestricted admission. These witnesses complained that, under that system, the LiCommission of brary became the habitual resort of loungers; that persons of a degree of ignorance scarcely conceivable came frequently, to waste the time of Officers and Attendants: that frivolous and even infamous books were often asked for; that valuable books were sometimes mutilated and leaves torn from them, to save the trouble of making extracts; and the like.

Inquiry into the Imperial Library at

Paris.

Other witnesses contended, from an opposite point of view, that it is difficult to change the settled customs of a country; and that to throw away that honourable renown for liberality, which had been so long the pride of the public establishments of France, would be to lose caste amongst nations. In France, said they, Equality is Law. An establishment maintained by the State must be free to every body. 'Would you', they asked, 'exclude from our collections a Foreigner, possibly a man of learning, - because, newly arrived in

BOOK IV.

Chapter V.

Paris, he has no acquaintance of whom to ask a letter of recommendation? Would you oblige an author, hav- Public Access. ing immediate occasion to verify a quotation or to trace a fact to wait several days, in order to get his voucher in due form?' Finally, they observed that the thefts and mutilations are not, usually, the crimes of the ignorant multitude. They are known to be commonly committed by a certain class of 'hangers-on' of literature, who would rarely be at a loss to provide themselves with letters of recommendation.

After much debate, a majority of the Commission resolved to uphold the rule of free admission, but to recommend certain new regulations as to the economy of the Reading-Rooms, which belong to the subjectmatter of our next chapter.

In like manner, the question of Lending was raised before the Commission and amply discussed. On one side were marshalled the old objections as to the protracted absence of books wanted; occasional losses; obstruction of cataloguing; impeded service of the Reading-Rooms. On the other side, it was alleged that undue detention and loss were not the necessary results of Lending, but of the absence of due restriction and regulation; that if proper checks were established, and enforced, the abuses would cease; and that, in fact, they had already, by improvements in that direction, been very markedly diminished.

On this point, therefore, the Commission, by a majority, reported its opinion that "the practice of Lending may be continued under proper guarantee; that is

Evidence on
Lending.

BOOK IV.

Chapter V.

to say, with the permission of the Minister of Public Public Access. Instruction, or of the Chief Officer of the Library, and under the personal responsibility of the latter, whose duty it should be to secure, in every case, the punetual return of the books lent within the period prescribed. I do not believe that on either of these important points the Commission could have arrived at a wiser determination.

1 Rapport... de la Commission chargée d'examiner les modifications à introduire dans l'organisation de la Bibliothèque Impériale, (27 Mars, 1858), § v, vi.