GUPPY — TRrSTDAD PUBLIC LIBRARY. 423 
Of the working of Public Libraries in the W est Indies, 
I have been able to glean but scanty information. The 
Public Library and Museum of St. Lucia was entirely a 
government establishment, and some years ago it was pro- 
posed to hand it over to subscribers, a step which was 
severely criticised, as it had previously been working fairly, 
and it was rightly deemed, that to vest it in private per- 
sons would prove a fatal- blow. I have not heard any- 
thing of it, or if it still exists. The Public Library and 
Museum of Grenada was founded on the same plan as that 
of St. Lucia, but I have no details of its working. The 
Library at Barbados is not, I believe, of the utility it 
* should be, owing to the want of liberal regulations. It 
was established by Act of the Legislature, but I am unac- 
quainted with its precise constitution. ✓ 
The reading room at Dominica is a private concern, but 
the regulations are very liberally construed, and the insti- 
tution is of much use, considering its very limited resources, 
to the small community of that Island. 
We have already seen in the growth and decay of hu- 
man institutions, such as churches, hospitals and schools, 
the necessity for some mode of rendering them perma- 
nently responsible to, and amenable to, the will of the 
country. The only mode of securing that end is by placing 
them under the control of the State, which is the guardian 
of the interests of the people. 
The people have a *very great interest in the mainten- 
ance of a Public Library as a means of education, and a 
necessary supplement to the training they receive at the 
public schools. The superiority of American ^farmers is 
attributable to the subscription libraries, which are found 
everywhere in the United States, and which are publicly 
and gratuitously open as Libraries of reference. In Eng- 
