PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 95 



Public Libraries in Canada. By James Bain, Jr., Esy. 



(Read December 11, 1897.) 



There was a time, shortly after the discovery of printing, when it was possible 

 for a man like Casaubon to say that he knew the contents, more or less thoroughly, 

 of every printed book. But the limits of human endurance were speedily passed, 

 and to-day the enormous mass of literature taxes the ingenuity of the librarian to 

 mould it into organized form. Each successive generation adds its own stratum, 

 and the whole forms the storehouse from which the new generation draws its inspira- 

 tion and facts. This is especially true of the scientific worker, dependent on the 

 accumulation of minute facts, recorded by long series of patient observers. It is 

 for this reason, therefore, that I bring before you an institution devoted to science, 

 a paper on the " Libraries of the Dominion." 



The art of printing was introduced into the infant colonies at a very early period. 

 In Halifax the Ga::ctte was published in 1756, the first-born of a numerous progeny, 

 and was followed by the Quebec Gazette in 1764. In 1779 a number of the officers 

 stationed at Quebec and of the leading merchants undertook the formation of a 

 subscription library. The Governor, General Haldimand, took an active part in the 

 work, and ordered, on behalf O'f the subscribers, £500 worth of books from London. 

 The selection was entrusted to Richard Cumberland, dramatist, and an interesting 

 letter from the Governor, addressed to him, describing the literary wants of the town 

 and the class of books to be sent, is now in the public archives, Ottawa. The books 

 arrived in due course, and, while no catalogue survives, I think it would not 

 be difificult to name a large proportion of them. The book world in which Dr. 

 Johnson moved was yet a small one. A room for their reception was granted in 

 the bishop's palace, and as late as 1806 we learn from " Lambert's Travels " that it 

 was the only library in Canada. Removed several times, it slowly increased, until 

 in 1822 it numbered 4,000 volumes. The list of subscribers having become very 

 much reduced, it was leased to the Quebec Literary Association in 1843. In 1854 

 a portion of it was burned with the Parliament Building, where it was then cjuar- 

 tered; and finally, in 1866, the entire library, consisting of 6,999 volumes, was sold, 

 subject to conditions, to the Literary and Historical Society for the nominal sum 

 of $500. 



Naturally, on the organization of each of the provinces, libraries were established 

 in connection with the Legislatures. In Upper Canada the small library in the Par- 

 liament Building was destroyed by the Americans, and the one by which it was 

 replaced by the lire of 1824, so that, when the two libraries of Upper and Lower 

 Canada were united in 1841, there appears to have been little left of the early fugitive 

 literature of the province. At the end of the past year the legislative libraries of the 

 Dominion numbered nine, and contained 48,834 pamphlets and ,309.395 volumes. 

 By far the most important of these is the library of the House at Ottawa. Originally 

 established on the union of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, it 

 was successively removed with the seat of government from Kingston to Montreal, 

 to Quebec, to Toronto, again to Quebec, and finally to Ottawa— a wandering life, 

 which efifectually prevented its attaining large proportions. 



The unfortunate fires in Montreal and Quebec still further injured it, robbing 

 it of much that was very valuable, and which could not be replaced. On the 

 federation of the different provinces, in 1867, the library of the two provinces only 

 passed into the hands of the Federal Government. The beautiful building in which 

 it is placed behind the House of Parliament presents a prominent feature in the 

 magnificent pi'e of buildings which crown the heights overlooking the Ottawa 

 River, and from the windows the spectator gazes across the rocky gorge and the 



