Ml I.IHRAHIW. 



Mann, who .1.. I in 17U. i. .aid to b* the mot* easily aaoMtibl* of 

 any m li.Uod. but UM apniMant for admiwion it required to produoe 

 vuttclwr of ku iMpcrUbility. An Act of Parliament WM pasnd in 

 liit authorising it* transtsr-to uw building to Iw erected in 

 Dublin M * National Uallery and Muavum. The libraries uf the Royal 

 Hibsrnun Academy, the Publiu Society, and the King's Inns, or 

 Inn* >' Court, ru the most prominent remaining collections ! the 

 liuh c*|uuL The library of St. Patrick'i College, Maynooth, u ruing 

 into importance, and thot* of the new Queen's College* in various 

 parts of Ireland will in ton* ease* (onn now literary centre* of 

 extensive districts. 



Of Ue libraries of America, in general, Mr. Rhees' ' Manual of 

 Public Librarie*,' auiiJ a Urge quantity of uninteresting particular! 



,Tuticant institutions, contain* Mine striking xtatUticn. There 

 at* now. it appear*, twenty-five libraries in the United State* v.hicli 

 oonUin each more than aO.QOO volume!, the whole number in tin 

 twenty-fire being U71',u'J, or litUe abort of a million. The State 



* York contain* us of thew ; the SUte of Massachusetts 

 five ; and there are also five in the district of Columbia, or Waah- 

 UWton and the country immediately adjoining. In the libraries' 

 of UM United State* the proportion of foreign book* is in general 

 uuail. Uf all the librarie* from which report* have been received 

 l.y Mr. Kheet, the one that ha* the largeat collection in French 

 ha* 41100 volume* ; the largwtt oullecUon in German 6000 ; and the 

 largest in Spanish, which i* in California, 96. It ia probable, how- 

 ever, from thi* statement, that Mr. Khees ha* reoeived no report 

 from maw of the principal librarie* of the great cities. The history of 

 HUM of Uwee prevent* many point* of interest. The library at Harvard 

 (.'ullage, at Cambridge, near Boston, which wa for more titan two 

 hundred year* the largwt and moit valuable in the United State*, wait 

 founded in 1688, and received the benefaction* of tome of the early 

 contributor* to the Bodleian, Sir Kenclm Digby included. It had 

 inereaaed to 8000 volume*, of which a catalogue had been published, 

 when it WM totally destroyed by a fire in 1 7ii4. The legislature of 

 Ma*** hiimtli wa* then in ration at Harvard Hall, and voted imme- 

 diately 2000L to erect a new building. Subscription* soon flowed in 

 to rtinrtst-r the library, and Thomas HolIU, of London, signalised him- 

 amlf by hi* liberality, which wa* continued by members of hi* family 

 till the donation* amounted to 6000t, currency of Massachusetts. 

 Among the Kngliah donor* to the collection occurs the name of 

 Mr Thoma* Unnvilte, who gave Ml/, in 1816. The only fixed income 

 of the library to thi* day, U what i* called the HolIU and Sbapleigh 

 Fund, amounting to about 450 dollar* a year, but the <! h< 

 made up by munificent though irregular donation*. The library 

 counted in ISiS, when Mr. Guild's ' Librarian'* Manual ' wa* published, 

 76,000 volume* in the main library, placed in a building c- Ui 

 Hill. If other collection* were included, such a* the University 

 Medical Library of 2000 volume*, kept ome mile* off at the Medical 

 College in Barton, the taUl would amount to 116,000, and if the 

 society librarie* of the student* were added, the whole would be 

 128,000. The librarie* of Yale College, at Newbaven in Connecticut, 

 and of Brown Univenity, at Providence in lihodo Island, number 

 respectively M.WMI and SS'iuii volume*. The collection of the Library 

 Company at Philadelphia, i* especially interesting a* being that into 

 which we few book* have grown which were originally brought 

 togaitar in 1731, by a few youth*, chiefly artificer*, at the suggestion 

 uf Benjamin Frauklm. It occupies in 1860 a separate building, erected 

 to lung ago a* 1789, and of which Mr. Guild remark*, " the atyle of 

 architecture i* of course somewhat antique." The edifice i* adorned, 

 over the principal door, with a statue of Franklin, executed in Italy by 

 Lauaritu, and the first specimen of sculpture, of life size, ever imported 

 into the United States. It contain* I;H,IHI volumes, and with it is kept 

 under the same roof the collection of Mr. Logan, Franklin's early patron, 

 amounting to 1 U.UOO volumes more. Washington, a* the official 

 of the United Slate*, is the place at which some of its moat important 

 libraries are assembled. The library of Congr*** ha* been twiee 

 destroyed by fire, once by the British army in 1814, a* an act of yen 

 sjtanni for wo destruction by the American* of the House of Assembly 

 of Upper Canada; and the second time by accident on the 24th of 

 beasmber, 1851. Fortunately on the former occasion only 8000 

 volume* perished, in the latter but 20,000 volume* were saved out of 

 (5,000. The library has in consequence been rebuilt entirely of iron, 

 door, roof, pillars, staircases, and shelve*. The collection was esti- 

 mated in la is to amount to 63,000 volume*. Of the State libraries of 

 Aurrica, that of New York, kept at Albany, and amounting in 

 1858 to 62,000 volumes, i* the most extensive. The Axtor Library, 

 already mentioned, was opened at New York in 1854, with 

 volume*, chiefly collected by Dr. Cogswell, the librarian, in three vinils 

 to Europe in preceding years ; and in 1855, Mr. Willi&iu Aitor, the 

 on of UM founder, declared his intention of building, at hi* own 

 xpeaw, another gallery by the side of the former, to contain an 

 additional 1 00,000 volume*. The Boston Athonoum, a proprietary 

 library, which had ben founded in 1806, on the plan, it wa* laid, of 

 UM Ix*don Institution, had, in ISiS, attained to a position surpassing 

 that of Ha prototype, if the number of book* be correctly stated at 

 70,000. Tbia wa* the leading library of Boston till the l.^mUture of 

 MassackuMUa authorised Uie levying of late* for the formation of an 

 entirely free library. Mr. Bat*, a native of Barton, but carrying on 



LIBRA 



business a* a merchant in London, wrote in 1852 to offer a donation of 

 60,000 dollars toward* the purchase of books ; and in 1 855, as soon as he 

 received information that the building was actually oommenotd, he sent a 

 donation of another .''".'"'" il-llir* forthesamo purpose. Other citisena 



lions of books, son i IH.IUHI doll ,-. >V ; and on 



the 1st of January, 1 s.'ib, the new building wa* opened ill, 



i lies, and sVntoa teund itaelf in possession of a public 1 

 of 05,000 volume*. An American banker in London, Mr. Ueorge Pea- 

 o institutions in tin- I'niux! rising 



public libraries. 'ThoPcaboily Institute 'oi Manvers.and ' the 1'eabody 

 Institute'' uf Baltimore. Tin- piinci|ial del. it ( the present groat 

 movement in America, ii tl.- a. It ia evident 



from the spirit that ha* shown -4 its iiierch.int , 



it will soon be in possession of several libraries of the third, ami pto 

 Kibly uf r niie "i the .-> i ; but there is as yet no in<li 



of it's being speedily c-:,.!..-,., .1 ,..;;, ,.n.- of thu first, a gi 

 collection. Amid the difficulties presented by the rivalry <<t <hll, rent 

 states, the most feasible plan of effecting this great object, an object 

 more important to the scholarship and intellectual progress of i In- 

 country , thnn the foundation of an additional twenty thousand common 

 school libraries, appealed to be that advocated by Professor .li--.. 

 applying to the formation of Mich a library jurt of the funds of ilie 

 Smithsoiiian Institute, fouinltxi by Congress at Washington from ttie 

 bequest of Mr. Smithsou, an Englishman. The scheme was saui-. 

 by Congress, but its actual execution seems to have depended on 

 the personal influence of the Professor, and it was at once aliaml >mtl 

 when by the proceedings of another IWc- or he was compelled to 

 resign. The Smithsonian library, now a cH 

 volumes, has forfeited, at the request of its own officers, tlu- i 

 receiving a copy of all books published in America IT thu 



future to lie confined almost entirely to works of science. In A 

 a* in Europe, the failure or success of projects of great pn\<lii < 

 once seems to be often viewed with imlUIcrcuce by the great 1 

 the public, and to dcjicud almo.-i entirely on tho presence or absence 

 of [articular individuals of some force of character. 



In I'pncr Canada a system with regard to public libraries has been 

 introduced analogous to that prevailing in Kn.nl.-unl with regard to 

 national schools. It" a fund be raised by a corporation for the i.- 

 tinu of a library, it may apply to the council of publ; u, and 



select books from a list sanctioned by the council, to the \ 

 money raised. The council in return sends back not only these books, 

 but a number of other volumes of equal lumicy \.ilue selected by the 



I Thi.- M.-tti-m. which is that of tlr 



i* considered by many Americans superior to that which prevail* in 

 the United States. Three hundred and twenty six libraries in i 

 Canada have been founded on this plan, in connection ''' 

 otherwise. The largest libraries in the country arc one ni 

 volumes at Hamilton, and on* of 7000 at the University ofToioiito. The 

 library of the Legislature, at present at Toronto, is an excelli -m 

 tion, of which a good catalogue has been published. The collections 

 in Lower Canada are of a ditlcrcnt cast, the most important being thoso 

 of the old Jesuit colleges. The largest library in the British Colonies 

 is probably the Public Library of the Cape of (Jood Hope, at 

 Tnun. of more than 30,000 volumes. 



In Australia, the new hi >rary at .Melbourne, which already contains 

 25,000 volume*, is i also for the number of its readers, which 



in last year amounted to i"7,<'i>. more than half the number o. 

 in tho same period at the British Museum. Tin -c i..et- in the recent 

 history of libraries in the colonies and oil's) iring of Kugland, are 

 remarkable in a high degree, and there u quite enough to just . 

 inference we have drawn that a new era in the history of lib: 

 approaching. 



A brief notice of the beat sourc.i- of information on the subject 

 will conclude this article. On the history of individual libraries, 

 a whole library has been written. The mere >k <>n the 



subject, with references to notices in other books, till up live hundred 

 and forty octavo page* in Vagel's ' Literatur oH'cnllichcr liibliothcki n,' 

 a valuable i which i- intended as a guide to all the 



printed information in existence on the public and corporation 1. 

 in Kurope, and also on the private libraries, no small n 

 which have subsequently become a portion of public ones. The 

 volume was published in Leipzig in 1840, and in th i Mr. 



PeUholdt commenced the issue of his bibliographical pi. 

 ' Amseiger fur Literatur der UibliothekwiHseuschaft,' which in addition 

 to the title*, contain* abort critical notices of catalogues, i 

 and other books relating to libiarie-. It is ith Herman 



diligence, but whether from the deoruess oi I - -. or fiom 



tome other cause, U not quite so full on t' 1 ne <>i 



the subject as might bo desirable. Another periodical, the Sei .. 



< .uimami. pubU*he<l at Leipzig also sine 



libraries, aud copies of their regulations, and also contain < t it i 

 a chronicle of libraricx, in . "cordwl the deaths and promotions 



in the little "bibliothecal ' 'world, a branch of information which is 

 also kept in vie.v >;. M.. ; years ago tir 



publish.-d in Kuglaud a book called the ' Km y. 



Typographical Anecdote,' by a pi inter of the name . y, aud 



though the compiler did little moie in many cases tl 

 in order of date, cuttings from the uuws|mpi r- ,,n<l maguiuc.-s relating 



