as to be available to every class and every trade, and so admirable in its 

 organization that there is no apprentice or artizan so poor but can, if 

 he has ability and industry, work his way to the highest branches of his 

 trade or profession. 



The Nautical School has been opened in the buildings belonging to the 

 old Koyal Institution. It has started under favourable auspices, equipped 

 efficiently in every department, and with an excellent teaching staflf ; 

 already over one hundred students are entered upon the Register, and 

 there is every prospect of its advantages being readily appreciated by our 



seafaring population. WILLIAM B. FORWOOD, 



Chairman. 



REFERENCE LIBRARY. 

 The Reference Library, through the medium of the Brown Reading 

 Room for popular reading and the Picton Reading Room for reading of 

 a more studious character, maintains unimpaired its great hold on 

 public favour. There are few sights more calculated to impress the 

 imagination than the Brown Reading Room, crowded as it often is with 

 more than 500 men standing round the newspapers of the day or seated 

 enjoying the contents of volumes of the illustrated periodicals or the 

 works of the best writers of English prose fiction. And if we take, in 

 conjunction with this, the 150 to 200 students who may often be seen in the 

 adjoining Picton Reading Room absorbed in works of a more thoughtful 

 kind, the sight is still more impressive, and well calculated to illustrate 

 the important work which this Library is engaged in. The Brown 

 Reading Room being assigned for the perusal of popular literature, is by 

 far the best-attended room. Here are found tlie principal London, 

 local, and provincial papers ; magazines of a varied and entertaining 

 character : the principal trade, county, and city and town directories to 

 which there is unrestricted access ; and for those who desire light 

 literature, there is available a selection of the works of the best novelists. 

 The statistics of issues and attendances of this part'of the Library are as 

 follows : — 



Visitors to the Newspapers (computed on the basis 



of periodical counts) ... ... ... ... 271,333 



Monthly and Weekly Magazine? issued ... ... 248,350 



Illustrated Papers issued in volumes (as the Graphic. 



Illustrated London News, Punch, &c.) ... ... 11 7, IDG 



Directories ... ... ... ... ... ... 82,214: 



Specifications of Patents fur Invention? ... ... 13,4:10 



Volumes of Prose Fiction 187,165 



