42 



OUR COLUMNS. 



October, 1891. 



the annual meeting in 1 840, for Bedford at this time was rapidly increasing, the popu- 

 lation numbering 9,000 at least. In 1845 the tide seemed once more inclined to flow, 

 and in the following year the annual subscribers amounted to 174, a number which had 

 not been recorded since 1840 ; but in the year 1847 a decrease was again reported, which, 

 though followed in the year ending July, 1848 by a slight addition, fell in 1849 to 150, 

 a number smaller by 18 than any that had been registered since the Society moved into 

 the Bedford Rooms. From this time forward the Institution never recovered lost ground. 

 Year by year, till 1854, the subscribers gradually fell away, though the Committee tried 

 their utmost to induce a reluctant public to join, or at all events not to desert, the 

 establishment. Fines were remitted and subsequently abolished, entrance fees were no 

 longer demanded, but it availed nothing. The year 1854 marks the time when the 

 number of members, already reduced to less than 150, commenced to diminish byleaj)sand 

 bounds; at the close of the succeeding year only 124 remained, and the falling off 

 continued till 1861, when there were scarcely 100 names on the books. 



CAUSES OF DECLINE. 



The cause or causes of this at first gradual then accelerated falling off in the prosperity 

 of an Institution which could boast of possessing one of the best general collections of 

 books in any English county town, and which was managed by an energetic Committee 

 that included a fair proportion of literary and scientific men, ever anxious to guage and 

 satisfy the requirements of the members, is a j^roblem at first sight difficult to solve. 

 The minute books, which necessarily reveal the inner working of the establishment, afford 

 no clue, but bear testimony to the unwearied devotion, displayed through a long course 

 of years, of the 13 members of the Council, assisted by the best of hon. secretaries, the 

 Rev. Edmond Riland Williamson, M.A., who filled this office for 11 years alone, and 

 afterwards, till the amalgamation, in conjunction with the late Mr. Bradford Rudge. 

 Its decline cannot be traced to any defects due to mismanagement, but must be attributed 

 to the operation of external causes. When we recall the fact that when the Library was 

 founded in 1830 the population of Bedford was under 7,000 at the most, that in 1841 

 it had increased to more than 9,000, and in 1851, when the downward tendency was 

 very marked, it was 11,700, and when the institution had practically collapsed, it 

 was nearly 13,400, — it is clear that at no time did the numbers keep pace with the rapid 

 influx of strangers to the town, who came here mainly for its educational advantages. 

 On the contrary, after the year 1848, as the population increased the subscribers fell 

 away in a far greater ratio. This apparently paradoxical circumstance may, I think, be 

 explained, first of all, by supposing that the Library, excellent as it was, did not offer 

 sufficient attractions to that large number of people of the middle class which prefers 

 light to more solid literary food. But there was a still more sufficient reason than this. 

 In 1846 the Bedford Literary and Scientific Institute was founded through the efforts of 

 a few energetic individuals, and rapidly became a yery flourishing institution. It 

 met a want which the Bedford General Library did not supply, viz., a collection of 

 popular modern books and newspapers, accessible to those who could not pay a large 

 annual subscription. Besides these advantages, it provided frequent musical entertain- 

 ments, soirees (held under distinguished patronage), literary and scientific lectures by men 

 of mark, classes for mutual improvement, and other advantages. These attractions 

 naturally tended to draw off many subscribers from the older Institution, even from a class 

 which could well afford to pay an annual guinea, but preferred to belong to a society 

 that offered at less than half that sum a more congenial bill of fare. The truth must 



