BOOK III. Chapter XIX. The Law Libraries at Origin of the Library of the The early Librarians of the Advocates Library. The first scheme for the Advocates Library was restricted within professional limits. Many law-books were given, and sums for purchases were from time to time granted by votes of the Faculty. But, for a long period, the fund thus accruing was merely occasional, and of indefinite amount. In 1700, the collection narrowly escaped destruction by fire. It was then removed to the ground-floor of the Parliament House. By the Act of the 8th of Queen Anne, the privilege of receiving a copy of every book entered at Stationers' Hall, was conferred upon it. Even before this enactment it had become more general in its character than had been originally contemplated. Valuable books, in other classes than Law, were both presented and purchased. To the collection of the materials and documents of Scottish history, special attention had been wisely given, almost from the beginning. Thus, Sir James Balfour's collection was purchased in 1698; that of Sir Robert Sibbald, (only a part of which is historical,) in 1723; that of the eminent historian, Dr. Robert Wodrow,-more important than either of the preceding, was acquired shortly after his death, in 1734. The first very notable Librarian was Thomas Ruddiman. Both in his day, and in that of his more eminent successor, the salary of the office was a very scanty one. But the duties in no wise interfered with other avocations. They were both honourable and pleasant. Ruddiman filled this post for nearly twenty years. his resignation, in December 1751, "the Faculty," writes David Hume, "chose me their Librarian, an On .... .... BOOK III. Chapter XIX. The Law Libraries at Edinburgh. account of his election. office from which I received little or no emolument, but which gave me the command of a large Library." The Minutes of the Faculty record that "some member proposed that a dignified member of their own body, Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, should be named to that office, .... but the majority declared for Mr. David Hume." The contest, in truth, was a keen and angry one. The Historian has himself depicted it in very lively colours in his Correspondence. "The President," he says, "and the Dean of Faculty, his son, who used to rule absolutely in this body formed an aversion to David Hume's this project, because it had not come from them. .... The bigots joined them..... Then came the violent cry of 'Deism,' 'Atheism,' and 'Scepticism.' 'Twas represented that my election would be giving the sanction of the greatest and most learned body in this country to my profane and irreligious principles. What is more extraordinary, the cry of Religion could not hinder the Ladies from being violently my partizans, and I owe my success in great measure to their solicitations. One has broken off all commerce with her lover, because he voted against me! And W. Lockhart, in a speech to the Faculty said 'there was no walking the streets, nor even enjoying one's own fireside,' on account of their importunate zeal. The Town says that even his bed was not safe for him, though his wife was cousin -german to my antagonist..... Such, dear Doctor, is the triumph of your friend; yet, amidst all this greatness and glory, even though master of 30,000 volumes, and possessing the smiles of a hundred fair ones; in this very pinnacle of human .... BOOK III. Chapter XIX. The Law Libraries at Edinburgh. grandeur and felicity, I cast a favourable regard on you,'" &c.1 Hume had for his assistant-librarian Walter Goodall, the worshipper of Queen Mary, who gave him some amusement as well as trouble. ("Walter was seldom sober," is Lord Hailes' suggestive note on poor Goodall.) One day, we are told by the Historian's latest biographer, Mr. Burton, at a time when Goodall was busied with his "Vindication" of Mary, he chanced to fall asleep, with his head resting on his MS.,-an accident which some may think typical of the fate awaiting his readers, and in that position was observed by Hume who roared in his ear that Mary was and had killed her husband. Poor Goodall started from his slumber, in doubt whether he was dreaming, or had heard a real voice. But, almost before his eyes were well open, he sprang upon Hume, and thrust him to the farther end of the Library, exclaiming that he was some base Presbyterian, bent on murdering the Queen's fame as his forbears had murdered her person.2 Very early in Hume's librarianship a curious difficulty occurred respecting the admission of certain improper books. "This day, 27 June 1754," say the Minutes, "Mr. James Burnet [afterwards Lord Monboddo,] and Sir David Dalrymple, [afterwards Lord Hailes,] Curators of the Library, having gone through some accounts of books lately bought, and finding therein the three following French books, Les Contes de La Fontaine, L'Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules, and 1 Burton, Life and Correspondence of David Hume, i, 372. 2 Ibid. i. 374. BOOK III. Chapter XIX. The Law Libraries at Edinburgh. L'Ecumoire, they ordain that the said books be struck out of the Catalogue of the Library, and removed from the shelves, as indecent books, unworthy of a place in a learned Library. And, to prevent the like abuses in Exclusion of time to come, they appoint that after this no books shall be bought for the Library without the authority of a meeting of Curators, in time of Session, or of two of them, in Vacation." On this transaction, Mr. Burton makes some observations which are worth quoting: "It involves," he says, "no approval of the licentious features of French literature to prove this resolution of the Curators preeminently absurd. A public Library, purged of every book of which any portion might offend the taste of a well-regulated mind of the present day, would unfortunately be very barren in the most brilliant departments of the literature of other days and other languages. It would be wrong in the guardians of a Public Library to advance to the dignity of its shelves, those loathsome books written for the promotion of vice, of which though they be published by no eminent bookseller, exhibited on no respectable counter, advertised in no newspaper, too many have found their way by secret avenues into the heart of Society, where they corrupt its life-blood. But if Greece, Rome, and France, -if our own ancestors,-had a freer tone in their literature than we have, we must yet admit their works to our Libraries, if we would have these institutions depositaries of the genius of all times and all places. The Faculty are probably no less virtuous than they were in 1754, yet they have now on their shelves the books on moral grounds. . BOOK III. Chapter XIX. The Law Libraries at Management and growth of the Library. brilliant edition of all La Fontaine's Works, published at Amsterdam in 1762, so that the expurgatory zeal of the Curators had only put their constituents to the expense of replacing the condemned book. L'Ecumoire may also still be found in the Advocates Library, along with the other still more censurable works of its author, Crébillon." Two years afterwards, the question was debated, whether or not the Curators had a right to order books to be sold. "Seeing," it was argued, "that as one Curator succeeds another yearly, and different men have different tastes, the Library might by that means happen to suffer considerably." And, in accordance with this view, it was formally declared that the Curators had no right so to dispose of books.1 It is curious to notice that this Library is very deficient in the early editions of Hume's own works; as it also is in the literature of the controversies with which the name of his predecessor is bound up." Amongst the successors of Ruddiman and Hume as Library-keeper to the Faculty, Adam Ferguson and David Irving are prominent. The general supervision of the Library has, I believe, always lain with five Curators, one of whom retires annually by rotation. Its growth during the last century was very gradual. Pennant, at his visit in 1769, was told that it contained "above 30,000 volumes," which, as we have seen, was about the number mentioned by Hume in 1752. Towards the close of the century, we have the old story 1 Burton, ut supra, i, 396, 2 Ibid. 3 Tour in Scotland (Pinkerton's Collection, iii, 24). |