GUPPY — TRINIDAD PUBLIC LIBRARY. 417 
indeed, was the condition of things, that the committee had 
to pay for the transcription of the catalogue, instead of 
that work being done by the Librarian. Even then the 
work of superintendence and of correction of the press de- 
volved upon the gentleman I have already referred to, 
and it is to his labor that we are principally indebted for 
the due performance of the task. No proper manuscript 
catalogue of the books of the Library, however, exists up 
to the present day. In 1862 Mr. Thomas F. Stuart 
brought this important point under the notice of the com- 
mittee, and it was decided that such a catalogue should be 
made. In 1867 I served on the committee; and brought 
forward at the suggestion of several gentlemen, interested 
in the Library, some propositions for the improvement of 
the Library. Ofthesesome were rejected, namely, a pro- 
position that the books should be arranged according to 
subjects and have press marks affixed, and another for 
regulating the mode of issuing books to subscribers. Tut 
that relating to the compilation of a manuscript catalogue 
was agreed to by the committee, and also a recommenda- 
tion that cases should be provided for pamphlets. No 
steps have been taken to carry out these decisions. Any 
general catalogue of the Library must be alphabetical in 
the order of the author’s names, but this would not pre- 
clude the compilation of classified catalogues if the means 
are available. 
A point of detail which ought to bo referred to, is the 
due stamping of the books, a matter which it will be more 
necessary to look to when the usefulness of the Library 
shall have increased. Every book should be stamped with 
a neat stamp, and preferably with red ink, at the begin- 
ning and at the end, and every plate and map therein 
should also be stamped. 
