[ xv ] 



Under these circumstances, then, the Trustees may be absolved from the 

 charge of having caused any unnecessary delay or unreasonably disappointed 

 public expectation. 



On the 24th of May, 1859, when the Trustees last had the honour of 

 addressing you, the number of books on the shelves was 13,214. The number 

 this day is 27,240. 



Letters recently received, announce that 1800 may be expected to arrive 

 within the ensuing four months, so that at the close of this year the number 

 in the Library will reach, if not exceed, 29,000 volumes. 



Experience has shown that the classification and distribution of the different 

 departments of literature, as suggested by the Librarian, Mr. Tulk, has proved 

 alike convenient to the public and beneficial to individual students. 



The resources of the Library on any subject may be discovered at a glance, 

 and the wants and desires of all being ascertained, provision can be made to meet 

 the demands of any particular section of visitors, as far as the necessity for 

 maintaining the balance in favour of the general body of readers will allow ; 

 while the flexibility of the system will admit of the gradual expansion of the 

 arrangement without any material disturbance of the general plan. 



When the Catalogue, now in course of preparation for the Press, is printed, 

 it will form a guide-book of reference such as has long been required and often 

 demanded by the visitors, and it will show that a watchful circumspection has 

 been exercised, so that the various classes of literature should be respectably 

 represented. 



It is not proper to detain you, Sir, by particular allusion to any of the 

 works with which the Library has been enriched of late. You have had 

 opportunities of judging, during the frequent visits with which you have favored 

 us, of the merits of many which are costly and rare. You will have seen that 

 these have recommended themselves, not solely because they are scarce and 

 expensive, but because they possess a value admitted in all communities, and 

 because they are held in peculiar estimation here, consisting chiefly of the 

 productions of writers who have explored and illustrated those arts and sciences 

 which are calculated to draw forth and increase the natural wealth of our adopted 

 land, and to advance social improvement with the elevation and refinement of 

 principle and thought. 



You will be gratified, doubtless, to learn that the Trustees have received 

 many important Donations. Several private individuals have exercised a most 

 laudable generosity. 



The Governors General of India and Canada, and the Governments of 

 Switzerland, Belgium, and the United States of America, through the respective 

 Consuls of those nations, have contributed many useful works, some of which 

 are not to be procured through other channels. 



The Directors of the British and Foreign Bible Society, with a liberality 

 which has been thankfully acknowledged, presented 153 copies of the Sacred 



