ease be provided for thirty readers. The restoration of the library is now under the consideration of the trustees; and it certainly might form the nucleus of a good local library for Westminster.

These, with the British Museum and the Lambeth Palace library, constitute the entire public provision for the intellectual nurture and delectation of more than two millions of souls! How far they are adapted for that purpose, we leave our readers to determine.

Connected with the deaneries and chapters of our cathedrals, there is an ancient set of libraries commonly called cathedral libraries. Of these there are thirty-four in England and six in Ireland. Their basis is theological; to some of them additions. are annually made; and attention is being given to their restoration and improvement. In several, a moderate freedom of access is conceded to the public. The number of volumes in each ranges from 4,000 to 11,000. These, if the sanction of those who preside over them could be obtained, would form excellent nuclei of provincial libraries for the ancient cities of our land.

Parochial libraries once prevailed to a considerable extent throughout this country. Evidence has been collected of the existence of 163 such libraries in England and Wales, and 16 in Scotland. They were generally designed for the use of the clergy. Their foundation was, in the first instance, due to individual benevolence; but subsequently, and principally, to the efforts of Dr. Bray and his associates,' at the beginning and in the middle of the last century. They have, in most cases, been suffered to go to dilapidation. In Beccles, Suffolk, however, the books have been rescued from neglect and danger, deposited in a room, and made the germ of a town library. This laudable example is commended to the imitation of others who possess the perishing wreck of a public parish library.

We have done. A multitude of reflections and practical suggestions come thronging upon us; but, however important they may seem, we impose a rigorous restraint on ourselves, and conclude this, we trust not valueless, article without further comment. The facts we have massed may be safely left to produce their proper practical effect upon the minds of our intelligent readers, and act as a powerful stimulus to benevolent activity on behalf of the myriads of our untaught. The exertions of the British people may do much towards supplying the deficiency we have pointed out; and what they have already accomplished clearly proves, that they need only to be apprised of their duty honestly and earnestly to set about its perform

deterioration from the want of suitable depôts of books, easy of access. Nor can it be denied, that the same privation must have acted detrimentally on the great body of the people.

With a view of establishing the fact of the immense superiority of foreign libraries over our own-in respect to their numbers, the vastness of the literary wealth they enshrine, their entire accessibility to applicants from among every class of the community, and the extent to which they are allowed to circulate beyond the walls of the institution-we will, in the most compendious form possible, present some comparative statements of the principal Continental and British libraries. From the evidence laid before the committee, which is said to embody the nearest approximation to truth that can be attained, it appears that France contains 186 public libraries, 109 of which comprehend 10,000 volumes or upwards each; Belgium, 14; the Prussian States, 53, or 44 possessing above 10,000 volumes; Austria, with Lombardy and Venice, 49; Saxony, 9; Bavaria, 18; Denmark, 5; Tuscany, 10; Hanover, 5; Naples and Sicily, 8 Papal States, 16; Portugal, 7; Spain, 27, or 17 comprising 10,000 volumes; Switzerland, 13; Russian Empire, 12; whilst Great Britain and Ireland possess only 34 such depositories of learning, the large majority of which, moreover, are accessible only to privileged individuals or corporations, and ought not properly to be included under such a category.

Upon further inspection of the tabular statements it is discoverable that out of a total of 458 libraries in the European States, there are 53 that are distinguished as LENDING libraries; but of this goodly number, thus standing out in bold and honorable relief, not one is to be found in our so much belauded country. In these 53 libraries alone, in the year 1848, there were more than seven millions of volumes, independent of manuscripts, which are thus rendered eminently serviceable to the inhabitants of the several towns, cities, and neighbourhoods in which they are deposited. In a statistical list, exhibiting 330 towns or cities throughout Europe, that are enriched by the possession of town, university, cathedral, communal, gymnasium, or public libraries, the keenest scrutiny can detect no more than eleven places lying within the boundaries of these favoured isles of ours, whilst the chief of the literary stores belonging even to these are placed under the most exclusive regulations.

If from countries we descend to particular towns and cities, we find the contrast between our own and foreign lands no less discouraging and humiliating. In the following table are re presented the number of libraries in some of the principal capitals and other distinguished places in Europe-the aggregate

that between him and the Levantines there could be no particular ground of quarrel. He was not there to thwart them in any of their speculations-did not stand in their way, or they in his-and had, in fact, no object but to observe their manners and customs himself.

Eschewing the quarter of Alexandria appropriated to the Franks, he pitched his tent among the native Christians—not precisely because he preferred them to the Muslims, but because among the latter it would be difficult to find a family which would receive a Frank into its bosom. Many of the Levantines themselves would have shrunk from him as a heretic; but Sitt Madoula, the widow of an Italian physician, had, at all events, profited so far by her connexion with one European, as to be able to tolerate the company of another. Her son Iskender had made still further advances in the track of civilization; and was rather proud than otherwise-as well he might be-of associating with a Frank from the far West, who had come to Egypt expressly for the purpose of studying the character of its inhabitants, and reporting on the subject to Europe.

Still it was only by slow degrees, and as he gained more and more familiarity with the language, that Mr. St. John really found himself at home among the Levantines; and no doubt there still continue many traits in their character, manners, and customs, down to which even his assiduous and protracted scrutiny did not enable him to descend. However, his volume is one of the most charming and instructive we have ever read on any portion of the Levant. To the careless observer his sprightliness and vivacity may, at first sight, conceal his philosophy; but a greater familiarity with the volume will, unquestionably, show that, beneath the surface of an easy and gossiping narrative, there lies a mine of good sense and profound observation. What we are most pleased with is, the absence of bigotry. Whatever religion or sect the writer has to speak of, he does so without bitterness or injustice; thinking it no part of his duty, as a traveller, unfairly to disparage or exalt any sect or party.

When a writer's philosophy is not contained in formal dissertation, but lies scattered through his pages like a vein of gold running through a mountain-now appearing and glittering on the surface, and now descending and hiding itself in its depths-it would be a weary task to give the reader a correct idea of it. We shall, therefore, not make the attempt. The book is small and cheap, and in all respects calculated to become popular; so that the instruction it contains may be said to be within the reach of every one. We shall undertake the more agreeable task of skimming along its surface, and selecting some

first sight may strike us as being redeeming exceptions to the rule, yield up their solitary glory on the slightest examination. The valuable libraries for which they are distinguished are in no sense entitled to the designation of 'public'-so that the above representation is fallaciously favourable to those ancient towns; the books bear no sort of profitable relation to the inhabitants at all, except it be the relation which the ensepulchred dead bear to the living men who continually wander about the precincts of their tombs. The books are solely appropriated to the use of the literati, and students connected. with the universities. They repose, from year to year, upon their stately shelves, in solemn and unruffled quietude, unquestioned by the eager lips and eyes of the outside multitude. Speaking of the Cambridge libraries, the Rev. J. J. Smith, librarian at Caius College, remarked that they were confined to the respective bodies in the University. There have recently been some enlargements and improvements introduced into the regulations, whereby the restrictions hitherto existing have been relaxed, involving a more extended admission of readers. The University for the most part consists of three degrees-masters of arts, bachelors of arts, and under-graduates. For a long time, the masters of arts only had access to the books. After a certain time, those non-resident in the University, and those resident too, had the privilege of taking out of the building ten volumes each. Some years afterwards, the bachelors of arts, the second degree, had the same privilege allowed to them within other limits-five books, for instance, was the number allowed to be taken out; and just within this month (May 1849), they have conceded to the under-graduates the privilege of having books out at the recommendation of the college tutors.' The same witness, referring to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, stated that their system is much more restricted. For example, no master of arts even, belonging to the University, either resident or nonresident, can take any book out. He must use them in the building, from which they are never suffered to be removed. No under-graduate is even suffered to read the books in the Bodleian collection. Thus, in these famous seats of learning, to whose stores of erudition every British author is compelled gratuitously to supply a copy of all the works he publishes, the members of the republic of letters are excluded from all participation in the advantages they have created and sustained.

The following list exhibits the principal libraries of the several European capitals, arranged in the order of their respective magnitudes. Those before which an asterisk appears, are lending libraries :

It may be interesting to our readers, whilst treating upon these magnificent institutions, to put them in possession of a few curious particulars relative to their privileges, their antiquity, the causes that have contributed to their progressive increase, and the munificent funds that have been appropriated to their sustentation and enlargement.

The majority of the libraries specified above are entitled, by law, to a copy of every book published within the States to which they respectively belong. This privilege is enjoyed by the national libraries of Paris and Madrid; the royal libraries of Munich, Berlin, Copenhagen, Vienna, Naples, Brussels, and the Hague; the Brera Library at Milan; the Magliabecchian at Florence; the Ducal Library at Parma; together with the library of the British Museum. Exclusive of England, the practice prevails nowhere to so great an extent as in Lombardy and Venice, and in Parma-two of the worst governed countries in Europe. In Belgium and France, three copies are exacted; in Austria, Denmark, Naples, and Geneva, two copies; in Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Holland, Tuscany, Sardinia, Portugal, Hungary, Bohemia, and the United States, only one copy. In several of the Swiss cantons, copies were formerly exacted, but when the censorship of the press was abolished, that exaction ceased.

In France, according to Monsieur Guizot, the bookseller is