10 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
The Belfast Library dates from 1883. With its branches it now 
contains about 35,000 volumes. 
Mr. J. J. Ogle, in his work on “The Free Library,” estimates 
that in 1897 there were no fewer than six or seven hundred free 
libraries established in 300 towns, parishes, or districts, under the 
Public Libraries Acts of the United Kingdom. These libraries then 
contained 5,000,000 volumes, and had an annual issue of from twenty- 
five to thirty millions. This estimate does not, of course, include 
the British Museum, the Bodleian, or other libraries not strictly 
coming within the class of municipal free libraries. The outstanding 
loans on free public library property, in England and Wales only, 
amounted to not less than £800,000, despite the fact of the very con- 
siderable gifts of buildings in every part of the country. “ But” 
adds Mr. Ogle “the end is not yet. The movement is yet young, 
and it is vigorous with the strength and activity of adolescence. The 
towns will yet show advances neither few nor small ; but the villages, 
the counties, have yet to reap the advantage the towns enjoy ; the 
metropolis has yet to do much to equal the provision of the larger 
provincial centres, whose libraries of twenty, thirty or forty years’ 
formation are one of the glories of this mercantile age.” 
EUROPEAN LIBRARIES. 
One would need the compass of a large volume within which to 
describe the many famous libraries of Europe, and it is hopeless to 
attempt even a partial sketch of this wide field. All that can be 
done here is to mention a few of the more famous and representative 
libraries. As a matter of fact the public libraries of Europe, outside 
of England, whether supported by municipalities or by the state, 
hardly come directly within the scope of this paper, for, with a few 
notable exceptions, they are in no sense modern, in architecture, 
methods, or in their relations to the community. On their shelves 
are found manuscripts, incunabula, rare editions and other priceless 
literary treasures, and in this respect the libraries of America can 
never hope to compete with them ; but in a majority of cases the 
libraries of Europe are still medieval in their methods. They have 
not adopted the democratic principles of English and American public 
libraries. They make no special effort to throw their stores of books 
open in the fullest possible sense to the public. 
Of the French libraries, the most important is, of course, the 
Bibliothéque Nationale, whose history runs back to the days of King 
John and Charles V. Although this great library is generally counted 
to be the largest in the world, the question is not without doubt. 
