BOOK 1, Chapter II. such a publication would be a great boon. The credit of the National Library would be concerned in its being drawn up and methodized in such a manner as would merit the praise of those who read books, as well as of those who deal in them.1 Since the observations in the text were written, there have been such extensive improvements in the annual indexes of the Publishers' Circular as, in a large measure, to supply the defects of the London Catalogue. CHAPTER III. GIFTS. 'An Englishman, a lover of Liberty, a citizen of the world, is desirous of having the honour to present nine cases of books... to the Public Library of Berne, as a small token of his unfeigned respect to... the brave, worthy, and free people of Switzerland.'.... The services of Thomas Hollis, though much devoted to his country, were no less extended to the whole Community of Mankind. ..... Books and other means of civilization were continually transmitted to spread English light and literature, and the love of English liberty along with them. Life of Hollis (249, 470). BOOK I. Chapter III. Gifts. existing Libra ries have pro ALTHOUGH nothing is more certain than that those who love books are usually very chary of parting with them, yet in all the great Libraries we find a very considerable number of volumes which have been acquired by gift. In the majority of cases the gift, indeed, is that of the dead; but, whether by presentation or by bequest, Extent to which this is a source of acquisition which cannot be overlooked, and one which will be found to be by no means independent of foresight and regulation. An injudicious rule, or some failure in courtesy, perhaps wholly unintentional, has more than once deprived a Library of a noble accession to its treasures. And on the other hand, a good system of arrangement or of fited by gifts. BOOK I. Chapter III. cataloguing; or a studious and prompt acknowledgment of small presents, have decided a hesitating or whimsical collector to secure his collection from all risk (as he hopes) of dispersion, by bequeathing it to the Public. Of the 540,000 printed volumes which are now in the British Museum, at least 218,000 have been either presented or bequeathed. And to this already goodly number would have been added, in all probability, two other fine collections of books-both of them rich in British topography and literature—had the very pardonable vanity, if vanity it need be termed, of their collectors been gratified by the attainment of what used to be called the 'blue ribbon of literature',--the Trusteeship of the British Museum. This was the ambition alike of Richard Gough, the author of the Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain, and of Francis Douce, the Illustrator of Shakespeare. Both men had made valuable additions to English literature, but neither of them was a Peer or a Placeman. Both fortunately bequeathed their Libraries to the Bodleian at Oxford, where they are worthily lodged, but of their comparative usefulness to the Public as they are, and as they might have been, not a word need be said. Since those days, it has become apparent that the dignity of the trusteeship is not diminished by its being shared with a distinguished geologist, or a great historian, and the roll is now graced by the names of Murchison, Milman, Hallam, and Macaulay, as well as by those of Dukes and Chancellors. To the true thorough-going collector, whose Library is the subject of his nightly dreams as well as of his daily quests, there are few more uneasy anticipations of the "ills to come", than those which beset him as to the eventual fate of his hobby when he shall have ceased to ride it. Many are the sales at which he has keenly contested and triumphantly secured some longcoveted rarity which had been the pride of a rival collection, but he is as loth to think of the scattering of his own as he is eager to profit by the dispersion of his neighbour's. The worthy Bishop Huet of Avranches in his amusing "Commentaries on his life and times" has told us in very moving terms of the regret with which he saw the fine Library of the President de Thou, which its owner had taken such pains to tie up strictly as an heirloom after the death of his son, disposed of by his heirs, "to the disgrace of literature, and on such low terms, that whereas 100,000 livres had been expended on the binding and ornament of the books, the whole collection did not bring in a third part of that sum." As it was afterwards, he adds, "sold by detail, a part of it came into my possession; and .... from this example I was led to be sensible of the certain destruction that awaited my Library, unless I should make careful provision for preventing it. Having long and attentively revolved this in my mind, it appeared to me the best plan for keeping ti entire to perpetuity, to present it to some stable society of persons bound to the rules of a religious life and also addicted to letters." Whilst he was pondering on these plans, and during a brief absence from Paris, their unfortunate 1 Memoirs, transl. by Aikin, ii, 355-358. BOOK I. Chapter III. Gifts. reliable source tion of Town Libraries. object experienced a grievous calamity in the sudden fall of the house in which the books were lodged. When rescued they were transferred to the College of the Jesuits, but the "perpetuity" extended only to something less than a century; although a portion of the collection has had the good fortune to be subsequently incorporated with the Imperial Library at Paris. Sometimes, accident or caprice; at other times, shrewd observation and clear judgment, will determine the destination of collections-as far as human foresight can determine such things at all-but those Libraries will certainly be likeliest to have a fair share of such accessions, as combine evident care of the books they already possess with a wise liberality in the arrangements for access and profitable use. Donations not a If, however, we revert to the ordinary circumstances for the forma of Town Libraries, such as those which are now in course of formation in the United Kingdom, we shall find that it will not be safe to place any great reliance on the acquisition of books by gift. Perhaps no case of this kind would seem more likely to elicit proof of the reliability or otherwise of donation, as the basis for a public collection of books, than the case of the Town Libraries recently established in several Lancashire towns, under one or other of the Library Acts. Great publicity was given to the foundation of these Libraries. Large money subscriptions were raised. All classes in the towns evinced their interest in the project, and cooporated in one way or other, towards its realization, with an oblivion of party influences and sectarian de |