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BOOK III.

Chapter XXII.

ries of London.

closely allied as may have been their respective purThe Minor Libra- suits. At this moment, Dublin affords a striking illustration of such a tendency, in the reception given to the Act of Parliament which was noticed towards the close of the last chapter. Another, though less potent, cause may, perhaps, be detected in the fact, that the custody of Libraries has been for ages assigned in this country to persons selected for all sorts of admirable reasons, except that of their proven acquaintance with the economy of Libraries,—a science no more to be acquired without special and hard labour, than are other sciences. A librarian has duties, not less important and greatly more difficult than are the safe-keeping and the convenient accessibility of his books. And if he be unable to project his mind into the distant future, in the interest of his Library, the chances run greatly against its proper growth and aggrandizement. The future official guardians of our public collections will do better in their choice of Librarians, to think of points like these, than to imitate Mr. Pelham's amiable anxiety for the "reward of suffering merit," or that of other eminent persons, in more recent days, for the requital of clerical labours, or the public recognition of literary eminence. It will also be worth while to bear in mind that even a very large city may be better off with three well-filled and thoroughly efficient Public Libraries, than with thirty mediocre ones.

The oldest of those London Libraries which have yet to be described is that of SION COLLEGE. The primary object of this foundation was to provide a “College for

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a Corporation of all the Ministers.... and Curates with

BOOK III.

Chapter XXII.

in London and Suburbs, and also to make an alms- The Minor Libra

....

house for twenty persons ..." Its founder was Dr. John White, Rector of St. Dunstans in the West, who desired, he said, "that the said corporation ... should maintain truth in doctrine, and love in communing together; and by his executor, John Simpson, also a London clergyman, the Library was built above the Almshouses, (at the suggestion, it is said, of a casual bystander, who looked on at their erection,) and furnished with his own Collection by way of beginning. The College dates from 1630, when it received a charter from King Charles I.; the Library from a period about five years later.

During the temporary eclipse of Bishops and Chapters, the Library of Old St.-Paul's Cathedral was removed from its proper habitation, and taken, at first to Camden House, and then to Sion College. A portion of it was doubtless restored, to perish (as I have elsewhere mentioned) in the great fire. But from the number of works of the sixteenth, and of the earlier part of the seventeenth centuries, which Sion Library yet contains (many of them of extreme rarity,) it seems probable that another portion was kept. The College itself suffered in that great calamity, but only very partially.

ries of London.

Sion College Li

brary.

to Sion College Library.

Dr. Daniel Mills, who was President of the College in 1670, was a considerable benefactor. A few years afterwards, during the hubbub of the so-called 'Popish Early accessions Plot, a very curious collection of books which had been seized in a house of the Jesuits at Clerkenwell, was sent hither. In 1682, George, Earl of Berkeley, gave several thousand volumes of books, comprising, it is said, one

BOOK III.

half of the Library which had been collected by his The Minor Libra- uncle, Sir Robert Cooke. Then followed the Copy-pri

Chapter XXII.

ries of London.

vilege granted by the Statute of Queen Anne, which continued to be a chief source of augmentation to the Library for a hundred and thirty years (until 1836), when it was replaced by the compensation money granted by Augmentation by the Statute of King William IV. The annual amount of this payment from the Consolidated Fund was fixed at £363. 15s. The total number of printed volumes was, in 1848, about 35,500 and of MSS., 387. The former have now (1858) increased to nearly 50,000 volumes.

Copy-right Tax.

Sion College Library is easy of access, and is increasingly used for literary purposes. The attendance of the Fellows of the College, who are the "Rector, Vicars, Curates, and Lecturers of the Churches, within the city of London, and the adjacent district," is not registered. Under certain regulations, they have the privilege of borrowing books from the Library, both for their own use and that of their friends. Each of them has also the right to introduce, by note, readers within the Library; such notes being valid for twelve months. The Librarian has also the discretionary power of admitting to the Reading Room (which is capable of accomodating 200 readers at one time,) all persons whom he may deem qualified. The number of readers, other than fellows, who frequent the Library is stated to range from 300 to 400 in a year.

"

1

1 Stowe, Survey of London, by Strype, i, 155-156; Twenty ninth Report of the Commissioners for inquiring Concerning Charities (1835), pp. 458-466; Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee on Pub. Libraries (1849), i, 59-64; Papers relating to Public Libraries (1849), 6-15; MS. Correspondence (Rev. Thomas Pelham Dale, and others).

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BOOK III.

Chapter XXII.

ries of London.

Dr. Williams'

Library.

The Library founded, in 1716, by Dr. Daniel Williams, a Presbyterian Divine of considerable eminence The Minor Librain his day, is for the older Nonconformist denominations what the Sion College Library is for the London Clergy of the established Church. By his will, Dr. Williams be- (Red Cross Str.) queathed his Library to Trustees for the use of the Public; together with a sum of about £1500 for the purchase of ground and erection of a building. The Trustees bought a piece of ground (in Red Cross Street, Cripplegate,) for £450, but the balance being found inadequate to the completion of the building, the Trustees snbscribed liberally amongst themselves. The Library was opened

in 1729.

Dr. Bates.

Dr. Williams was a man of large acquirements and had gathered a valuable library. At the death of his The Library of friend Dr. William Bates (memorable as a prominent member of the Savoy Conference in 1660, as the valued friend of Archbishop Tillotson, and as the availing intercessor for Bishop Crewe, when he had been excepted in the Act of Indemnity at the Revolution), Dr. Williams purchased his books, and this collection now forms not the least curious portion of the Red Cross Street Library. Whether the "large number of romances,' which some worthy people of that day marvelled to hear had been found in the Library of a learned and grave Nonconformist Divine, was preserved by Dr. Williams and by his Trustees, I do not know; but I hope it remains intact. It seems somewhat bold in Dr. Bates' biographer to tell us that the romances of that day (the day, be it remembered, of Charles II.)" abounded in heroic sentiments of honour and virtue," but there can be

BOOK III.

Chapter XXII.

ries of London.

no sort of doubt that they rank amongst the useful maThe Minor Libra- terials of our literary history. Nor is it uninteresting to note that Bates had followed the founder of Sion College in the Rectory of St.-Dunstan's before the separation.

fortunes of Dr.

The career of Dr. Daniel Williams had also been a Character and varied one, although he was but at the threshold of his Daniel Williams. professional life, when the Nonconformists were ejected. He had never held a church-benefice, but his ministerial labours had been carried on in Welsh and Irish villages, as well as in London and Dublin. At one time he was the confidential adviser of King William in the settlement of Ireland; at another, the frequent correspondent of Harley, respecting the settlement, more troublesome still, of the Protestant succession. At an earlier period than either, his manly estimate of the worth of royal declarations for liberty of conscience, to be bought at the price of admitting a royal "dispensing power," had importantly contributed to the creation of that weight of opinion which ultimately drove James II. into a disgraceful exile. The comprehensiveness of view which such a career was likely to occasion is illustrated in the wide diversity of those charitable and public objects to which he devoted the bulk of his fortune. They extened to the New England Colonies, and to the French Refugees, as well as to all parts of the United Kingdom, and embraced the wants of the body as well as Diversity of Dr. those of the mind and soul. The large scope of the duties thus entailed upon the Trustees necessitated a resort to the direction of the Court of Chancery, and it is

Williams' bequests.

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