35 



discourtesy, we may fairly beg the Librarian to remember 

 that, whilst it is his duty to take all reasonable care of our 

 great Library, it is also his duty to render its treasures 

 accessible to students, We may even go so far as to sug- 

 gest that, instead of raising obstacles in the way of students 

 who may wish to enter the Reading-Room habitually, he 

 should preserve to them the facilities for study accorded 

 to them by Sir Antonio Panizzi, and even endeavour to 

 enlarge those facilities. 



The latest measures for the worse government of the . 

 Reading-Room have been, to require all readers to pro- 

 vide themselves with new tickets of admission ; to exclude 

 from the Reading-Room all persons (however well known 

 to the librarians) who have neglected to get new cards of 

 of entrance; to order that all such newly-granted tickets 

 be renewed every six months ; and to command the porters 

 to refuse admission to the Reading-Room to every student 

 who, though duly provided with a new ticket, cannot ex- 

 hibit it on each occasion of seeking entrance. 



The Librarian's defence of his order for this incessant 

 showing of tickets is scarcely less absurd than the order 

 itself. He has a theory that thieves find their way into 

 the Reading-room under cover of tickets to which they 

 are not entitled. Granted in the first instance to fit per- 

 sons, these cards have been lost, and, falling into the 

 hands of wrongful owners, have enabled the book-thieves 

 and book-tearers to pass themselves off as students, and 

 enter the room of study. If readers would take proper 

 care of their tickets, thieves and other despoilers would 

 not get possession of them, and the Chief Librarian would 

 be relieved of the painful task of vainly hunting delinquents 

 whom he is not smart enough to catch. By compelling 

 readers to show their tickets once or five times a day, the 



