BOOK III.

To Langholm and to Westerkirk, both in the county University and of Dumfries, Mr. Telford bequeathed £2000 sterling, in

Chapter XX.

Town Libraries

ed by Telford, in

etc.

of Scotland. equal partition, the interest of which is annually exLibraries found-pended in the purchase of books. At Cupar, in FifeDumfriesshire, shire, there is a Library, said to contain about 4000 volumes, part of which was bequeathed by Dr. Gray in 1797. Many of these small Libraries afford excellent opportunities for the application of the Public Libraries Act. That a town or parish possesses a collection of old books, which needs supplementing by new ones, is an obvious and excellent reason for levying a Library rate. But, in practice, two obstacles are found to impede the introduction of the Act; the one, that a quiet business-like attempt to introduce a rate presents no wide field for municipal eloquence; the other, that even those who are favourable to a measure which is at once efficient and simple, are not infrequently apt to undervalue the doings of a bygone generation, and like to begin every thing anew.

But the soundness of the principle will doubtless, in time, overcome these obstacles. The Act of the 17th and 18th Vict. c. 64 (1854) differs in its machinery, and in one point, at least, differs advantageously, from the English Act heretofore described. In Scotland, a poll may be demanded by any five qualified voters, which poll must be taken within two days of the meeting at which it shall have been demanded. Possibly, some of the details may need improvement, but the right groundwork is there.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LIBRARY OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN,
AND SOME OF THE OTHER IRISH LIBRARIES.

When Archbishop Ussher's Library was brought over
into Ireland, the Usurper and his Son ... would not
bestow it upon the College, ...but gave out that they
would reserve it for a new College or Hall that they
intended to build and endow. But it proved that as
those were not times, so were they not persons capable
of any such noble and pious work, so that this Library
lay in the Castle of Dublin unbestowed and unemployed,
all the remaining time of Cromwell's usurpation.
Many of the books and most of the best manuscripts
were stolen away.

PARR, Life of Ussher (1686), 102.

As soon as it was known that Ussher's... Library was to be disposed of, the King of Denmark and Cardinal Mazarin became competitors for the purchase,... but the Protector issued an arbitrary order to the Executors that they must not sell the books without his permission. We can scarcely conceive a more unjustifiable act of tyranny than this; it was an act of direct robbery.

ELRINGTON, Life of Ussher (1848), p. 303.

On the shelves of our bookcases, the most pugnacious disputants and the bitterest foes rest peacefully, side by

BOOK III.

Chapter XXI.

Irish Libraries.

BOOK 11I.

side. But the walls of a modern Library no more sufIrish Libraries. fice to keep out the strife of party spirit, than did in

Chapter XXI.

old times those of a monastery, albeit sacred to “Our Lady of Charity;" or, in more recent times, those of a Cathedral, though dedicated to the meek disciple "whom Jesus loved." On Irish ground, especially, we find the lava of the old volcanoes yet warm underfoot. The writer who has to tell, in 1850, the same story which his predecessor told in 1680, keeps his wrath as fierce as though he had just mingled in the fight, or even,-in order, perhaps, that he may escape all suspicion of half-heartedness in his theme,-gives a keener edge to his blade, or a more jagged barb to his shaft. Of this the reader has a curious example in the prefixed paragraphs from two of the biographers of Archbishop Ussher.

Of necessity, the story of Trinity College is, from
first to last, a story of conflict. Founded in stormy times,
it has always been an advanced post of the Church
militant. But the special annals of the College Library
frequently present incidents which call to mind its sin-
gular origin. Armies have repeatedly scattered Libra-
ries to the winds. The spear has often been lifted
"against the Muse's bower," notwithstanding that
"The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tow'r
Went to the ground: and the repeated air

Of sad Electra's poet had the pow'r

To save th' Athenian walls from ruin bare."

But at Dublin an army commemorated its victory by the foundation of a Library.

The battle of Kinsale was won on the Christmas Eve

BOOK III.

Chapter XXI.

Parr's account of

the foundation of

Trinity College

Library.

of 1601. The earliest mention of the Library in the Registers of Trinity College occurs in the Audit ac- Irish Libraries. counts of the year 1605. But we know that Ussher and Dr. Challoner were despatched to London to purchase books, before the Midsummer of 1603; and Dr. Richard Parr, the chaplain and biographer of the Archbishop, has told us, on the Prelate's own authority, how the money entrusted to them for the purpose was obtained. His words are these: "That Army," [the Army, namely, that had defeated the Irish insurgents and their Spanish allies,] "resolved to do some worthy Act that might be a memorial of the gallantry of military men, and of that due respect which they had for true religion and learning. To promote which they raised amongst themselves.. eighteen hundred pounds to buy books, to furnish the Library of the University of Dublin, ... and it was resolved by the benefactors that Dr. Challoner and Mr. J. Ussher should have the said £1800 paid into their hands, to procure such books as they should judge most necessary to the Library, and most useful for the advancement of learning.. Coming into England for that purpose, they met Sir T. Bodley there, buying books for his new erected Library at Oxford; so that they began a correspondence, helping each other to procure the choicest and best books."1

...

...

...

brary of Arch

At an early period of his life, Archbishop Ussher be- The private Ligan to collect that private Library, the ultimate fate of bishop Ussher. which has, with so much pertinacity, been made the

1 Parr, Life of Ussher (1686), 10.

BOOK III. Chapter XXI.

foundation of a calumny against the greatest man in Irish Libraries. the long line of the. supreme rulers of England. The Primate's Correspondence abounds with passages which testify his zeal as a collector, and we have the positive assertion of his contemporary biographer that in the time of his prosperity he intended to bestow it on the College of Dublin. "But," adds Dr. Richard Parr, "when it pleased God to lay that great affliction upon him in the loss of all he had except his books, it is not to be wondered at, if he left those as a portion to his only daughter, who had... hitherto had nothing from him. ... This Library cost the Primate many thousand pounds.'

As it had been one of the chief delights of his happier years, so in adversity his Library proved to the Archbishop the occasion, more than once, of those afflictions which cut him most to the heart. Under circumstances now, perhaps, not to be ascertained with precision, it was seized during the Civil Wars by the order, or with the sanction, of the Parliament. That it was not sold is said to have been the consequence of the intervention of Selden. The evidence, however, of any Parliamentary intention to sell it is very doubtful. A year or two later than the date assigned to this incident, on Ussher's journey to Lady Stradling's house Part of Ussher's at St. Donates from Cardiff, (whither he had retired on Library pillaged his parting from Charles I. at Oxford), he brought

in Wales.

many chests of books along with him. But the Welchmen waylaid him, and "fell to plundering and breaking open my Lord Primate's chests of books, ransacking all his MSS. and papers, and not content with this,

...