418 PROCEEDINGS OP TUB SCIENIIPIC ASSOCIATION. 
A word or two should be said as to the classification of 
the books in the Library. The only classification now in 
use is that into I, English— II, French and other lan- 
' guages. I would recommend that this classification be 
made entirely subordinate to the classification into subjects 
of which many schemes will be found in Edward’s work . 
the one proposed by himself at p.p. 814-15 of his 2nd vol., 
with a few modifications, will probably be most suited to 
our Library. The economy and management of Libraries 
has been so ably treated by Edwards, that it is unnecessary 
for me to go at any length into the subject. But it will be 
well to bear in mind that our Library unites in several 
particulars the characters of a Town Library and those of 
a National Library. That it was the object of its founders 
' to make it so, appears clearly from the sources of revenue 
proposed for it. It was enacted that an annual grant of 
£300 a year should be made by the Government, and that 
the Borough Council of Port-of-Spain should contribute 
such sum as they thought fit. I have before alluded to 
the fact, that for several years the Town contributed £100 
a year, and that that grant had been withdrawn in 1862. 
The public nature of the funds by which the Library is 
supported is sufficient evidence that the Library is purely 
a public one. Nevertheless, from the first the practice of 
the Library has been, more and more, to restrict the uso 
of the Library to subscribers only, and at present the 
general impression is, that the Library is maintained en- 
tirely for their use ; but in fact the subscriptions are solely 
intended to confer the privilege of taking books out of the 
Library. The effect of the subscriptions upon the conduct 
and management of the Library seems to have been by no 
moans an umrdsed good, for we find that many subscri' 
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