11 



gain information in the several trades in whicli they are engaged. 

 Reid, on the Construction of the Steam Engine, lent 54 times ; Prac- 

 tical Treatise on Mast Making and the Rigging of Ships, 21 ; Clock 

 and Watch Making, 14 ; Shipbuilding, 14 ; Masonry and Stone Cut- 

 ting, 8 ; Spencer's Treatise on Music, 21 times. 



History and Biography have been very popular and are becoming 

 increasingly so. In History, Macaulay's England takes the lead, 

 having been issued 130 times. Gibbon's Rome is next in point of 

 popularity, the earlier volumes having been lent 36 times ; Hume 

 and Smollett's England, 33 ; Lamartine's History of the Girondists, 

 33 ; Moore's History of Ireland, 25. Under the head Ecclesiastical 

 History may be mentioned Davie's History of the Inquisition, lent 64 

 times, and D'Aubigne's Reformation, 27 times. 



Biography.— The several Lives of Bonaparte, 141, Wellington, 

 126, Nelson, 91 ; Dickens's Life of Gnmaldi,-80 ; Campbell's British 

 Admirals, 33, and Lives of Extraordinary Men, 30 times. 



Topography and Antiquities. — Land we live in, lent 41 times ; 

 Syers's History of Everton, 27, and Smith's Streets of London, 24 

 times. 



Geography, Voya(4es, and Travels may be said to rank next 

 in point of popularity to History and Biography. Dickens's American 

 Notes, lent 76 times ; Dana's Two Years before the Mast, 73 ; Sor- 

 row's Bible in Spain, 46, and Ruxton's Mexico,. 33 times. 



Miscellaneous Literature. — Hood's Own, 41 ; Roby's Tra- 

 ditions of Lancashire, 33 ; Chambers's Journal and Tracts, Eliza Cook's 

 Journal, Household Words, and the Leisure Hour, have each had a 

 very large circulation. 



Jurisprudence, Law, and Politics. — Works in this class have 

 been lent on an average four times each; the very few works in the Libra- 

 ries under this head will account for the smaUness of the circulation ; 

 the same remark will apply to Commerce and Education, in the latter 

 class Haddon's Bookkeeping has been lent 41 times. 



Poetry and the Drama. — Burns's Poetical Works, 70 times ; 

 Shakespeare 65, Moore 54, Scott 51, Byron 43, Hood's Poems, 54, 

 and Eliza Cooke's 25 times. 



Novels and Romances. — Sir Walter Scott's, the number of times 

 of the volumes lent 1,398, Midshipman Easy 168 times, Rattlin the 



