ule, the admission is much less direct, and can only be gathered from
a careful analysis of the statistics. According to the Bristol Report
for last year, there were 416,418 borrowers during the twelve months
preceding December 31, 1889: of these 148,992 are described as having
'no occupation.' The Report of the Atkinson Free Library of Southport
informs us that out of the 1283 new borrowers who joined the library
last year, 536 are written down as of 'no occupation.' At the same town,
in the years 1887-8, there were 641 who, according to the report, were
without any occupation, out of a total of 1481. According to the annual
Report of the Leamington Free Public Library for 1888-9, 187 made a
return 'no occupation,' out of a total of 282 applicants. In the
Yarmouth Report for the same year, out of a total of 3085 new borrowers,
1044 are described as of 'no occupation'; the report for the previous
year states the proportion as follows:--Total of borrowers, 2813; 'no
occupation,' 1078; in the year before that the total was--3401; 'no
occupation,' 1368.

Some reports give a fuller analysis of the different classes of people
who use the libraries to which they refer. In the Wigan Report for last
year we are told that 13,336 people made use of the reference library in
that town during 1888-9. The largest items of this amount are given as
follows:--Solicitors, 1214; clergy, 903; clerks and book-keepers, 1521;
colliers, 961; schoolmasters and teachers, 801; architects and
surveyors, 418; engineers, 490; enginemen, 438. At Newcastle-on-Tyne,
last year, there were 11,620 persons used the reference library, and
only 3949 of these were of 'no occupation.' Yet, notwithstanding the
numerical weakness of the latter, they managed to consult nearly half
the books that were consulted during that year. The total number
consulted was 36,100; and 16,800 were used by people who had 'no
occupation.' And this is legislation for the Working Classes!

There is little doubt that at least forty-nine out of every fifty
working-men have no interest whatever in these institutions. For one
penny they can buy their favourite newspaper, which can be carried in
the pocket and read at any time; whereas if they wanted to see a paper
at a Free Library they would generally have to wait half an hour or an
hour in a stuffy room, without being allowed to speak during the time.
The following sensible remarks are from the pen of one who has risen to
an honourab