10 



The issues of embossed books to the blind have been 773 volumes 

 during the year. This is a feature of the Libraries which all must look 

 upon with sympathy and pleasure, as opening to an unfortunate class of 

 our fellow creatures a source of delight hitherto sealed up from them. 



A great demand has arisen for the circulation of niusical books, a 

 class which was added about two years ago. The Operas, Oratorios, 

 &c , of the best composers are greatly sought after for the purpose 

 of copying. The circulation of this department during the year has 

 been 2,028 volumes. 



During the year, fifty-three books have been lost or injured whilst in 

 the hands of borrowers, forty-eight of which have been replaced by 

 the defaulters, and the remaining five by the guarantees. 



It may be interesting to state the ages of the 8,649 readers using the 

 Libraries. 4,303 are between fourteen and twenty-one years, 2,834 

 between twenty-one and thirty-five, 1,150 between thirty-five and fifty, 

 and 362 above fifty years. 



The instances which are continually coming to light of the special 

 usefulness of these Lending Libraries, are interesting in the highest 

 degree, but would be too long for insertion here. The opportunities 

 given to working men of perfecting themselves in the studies belonging 

 to their own occupations by access to the best books, have proved in 

 many cases most valuable. Very recently the Superintendent reports that 

 a labouring man, who has obtained all his education by means of these 

 Libraries, has gained one of the prizes offered by a London publisher 

 for an essay on the education of the working classes, and that the same 

 man has recently been appointed manager of a chemical manufactory ; a 

 promotion due, according to his own statement, to the advantages hence 

 derived. Grateful testimonies are continually received from the sick 

 and bedridden, and from the unemployed in seasons of commercial 

 stagnation, of the blessings conveyed by the books taken out. 



The following statement of a Clergyman as to the class of books 

 read by the people in his district is worthy of notice : — " T was," says 

 he, " surprised and delighted to find, in making a round of evening 

 visits to the working people with whom I am connected, to meet so 

 many reading books from the Lending Libraries ; and my astonishment 

 was the more on looking at the thoughtful and instructive character of 

 the works, which I found them both reading and studying." 



Testimonies of this character are an ample reward for any labour 

 and anxiety in the management of institutions like these, and present 

 the strongest encouragement to future efforts. 



