books as were not obtained in the ordinary way. "The number of books or parts of books, now received is more than three times as great as it was in 1835, and I am of opinion that we now receive nearly all that we can legally claim. Several books are claimed and received which are not ultimately placed in the Library, such as children's books, school books, the inferior class of novels, and insignificant publications of various kinds. All such books are stored and preserved, and lists kept of them; although it must be admitted that for want of room they are not very easily accessible. We have hitherto been obliged to store them in large chests and boxes: but I have it in contemplation to have them arranged in a better way." These accounts of the practical working of this enactment, reviewed on the whole, tend, I submit, rather BOOK I. Chapter II. Effect of the preceding evi dence on the practical work enhancing the objections to its principle. to enhance than to lessen the weight of the objectioning of the Act have taken to its principle. Whether the burden lie on authors or on publishers, or partly on the one class, and partly on the other,-it is undeniably a tax levied on one portion of the community for the benefit, not of that portion, nor even (under the present regulations of the great majority of the Libraries concerned) of the whole, but of another portion of the community. The case of the British Museum is clearly exceptional. There, authors and publishers will be the first to admit that, at all events, they receive a liberal return for the tax which is levied upon them. Over and above their proper share in the general advantages of that noble and national repository of the monuments and the implements of BOOK I. Chapter II. human knowledge, they now derive their special advantage in the keeping up of a Museum, so to speak, of their own craft, where all its productions are stored in an unbroken series, admirably arranged, and instantly accessible. Were all the Libraries which share in the privilege in question open to the Public-of right not by favour-the objection would lose part of its force, although it might still, I think, be shewn, conclusively, that it would be both the most economical and the most equitable course to provide at the national expense for a national benefit. But the University Libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin are not National Libraries. The first-named and last-named of the three do not, it seems, even hold themselves bound to the decent acknowledgment of the favour which the Legislature has conferred upon them, by keeping an intelligible and accessible record of what they receive and how they appropriate their receipts. Whilst of the six Libraries which, as we have seen, are now endowed with grants charged on the Consolidated Fund for purchasing the books to which they were formerly entitled, only two-those of Sion College in London, and of the University of St. Andrews-can, with any propriety, be said to be open, even under restriction, to the Public. Of the five which still receive books, the British Museum is the only one to which admission is matter of right, not of favour, although the regulations of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, and those of the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, are, it would seem, in practice construed in a liberal spirit. NECESSITY OF MODIFICATIONS. 601 BOOK I. Chapter II. difications in the present law. Whilst the enactment continues in force, it ought undoubtedly to be strictly carried out. If, after mature consideration, it should appear to the Legislature desirable Necessity of mothat the three University Libraries and the Advocates Library should continue to possess the right, a reasonable compensation should be made for it to the pubblishers at the public charge, and the Libraries should be put on as good footing for its enforcement as that which is afforded to the British Museum. In some minor points the law, as applicable to the Museum itself, is open to improvement, and amongst these is the want of effective means for its application to India and the Colonies. But one new condition at least, I think, ought to be imposed on the Trustees of the Museum-that of publishing (at less than cost price) a descriptive list British Museum both accurate and full-of every book, pamphlet, map, a list of all pubor piece of music-with their respective dates-which lications receiv shall have been received. To this list every bona fide publisher who is thus taxed should be entitled gratuitously, and it should appear at least once a month. Such a periodical-supposing the Act to be as vigorously enforced in future as it has been by Mr. Panizzi during the last three or four years-would be a better “Publisher's Circular" than has yet existed, and the preparation, in course of time, of suitable Indexes to it, to be similarly accessible, would afford an admirable substitute for that so-called "London Catalogue of books", the dearness of which is only equalled by the clumsiness of its plan, and the slovenliness of its execution. Not only to booksellers, but to authors and to students, should be required to issue ed under Copy right Law. 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. 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, 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 BOOK I. Chapter III. Extent to which existing Libra ries have pro fited by gifts. |