[BurPeze] MODERN PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THEIR METHODS 5 
whole year; in 1832 the visits had increased to 46,800; and in 1894 the 
number of readers was over 200,000. 
In 1845 an Act “ for encouraging the establishment of museums in 
large towns” was passed. Although the Act made no provision for 
books, the town of Warrington in 1848 established a library of reference, 
free to the public on certain days and within certain hours, and a 
lending library, which could be used only by subscribing members. 
Salford followed the next year. Warrington was therefore the 
first English city to establish a municipally-controlled and rate- 
supported free library, though it was a long way from the free library 
of the present day. 
The first Public Libraries Act of the United Kingdom was passed 
in 1850. This Act was the product of a Select Committee of the 
House of Commons. The Committee examined a large number of 
witnesses, one of the most important being Mr. Edward Edwards," 
whose name is associated with that of William Ewart, as founders of 
the English free library system. Mr. Edwards, in his evidence before 
the Committee, established the fact that in that year (1850), although 
there were some 250 public libraries on the Continent “ easily acces- 
sible to the poor as well as to the rich, to the foreigner as well as to the 
native ”; and over 100 in the United States, most of them entirely open 
to the public; there was “only one free library in Great Britain equally 
accessible with these numerous libraries abroad, the library founded by 
Humphrey Chetham in the borough of Manchester.” 
The Public Libraries Act of 1850 allowed the establishment of 
libraries and museums of art and science, together or separately, but 
applied only to municipal boroughs in England. “The mayor, on the 
request of a town council, was to ascertain whether the Act should be 
adopted by a poll of the burgesses, but a two-thirds majority was 
required for adoption.” No provision was made, however, for buying 
books or specimens. These were left to the random generosity of 
some townsman or other. 
Several amending acts followed in the next few years, extending 
the operation of the Act of 1850 to Ireland and Scotland; providing 
for a penny rate in the pound; for the purchase of books and speci- 
mens; the addition of news-rooms, etc. These latter provisions were 
embodied in the Act of 1855, which repealed the 1850 Act, and 
remained the principal Act for England and Wales until 1892. 
The effect of these Library Acts was felt immediately throughout 
England. Evwart’s first Act (1850) had been passed only about two 
months when the city of Norwich adopted its provisions by a vote 



1 See ‘‘ Edward Edwards, the chief pioneer of Municipal Public Libraries,” 
by Thomas Greenwood. London, 1902, pp. 246. 
