to compass my
desire. There is my friend _C_, who is of the same opinion as myself,
and he is willing to subscribe his quota to the scheme. We hope you will
be willing to subscribe your mite, but if not, we intend to force you to
do so, for, as you know, all private interests must give way to the
public good.'

'Perhaps so,' replies _B_,'but then, you see, I have my own opinions on
the subject, and I do not believe that your method of supplying
literature is the best method. Of course I may be wrong, but then I am
logically entitled to the same freedom of thought and action as you
yourself are. If you are entitled to have your views about a "Free"
Library and to act upon them, I am equally entitled to the same liberty,
so long as I don't interfere with you. I don't compel you to pay for my
church, my theatre, or my club; why should you compel me to pay for your
library? For my own part I don't want other people to keep me in
literature, and I don't want to keep other people. I refuse therefore to
pay the subscription.'

'Very well,' rejoins _A_, 'if that is the case I shall proceed to make
you pay; and as I happen to represent a numerical majority the task will
be an easy one.'

'But are we not man and man,' says _B_,'and have not I the same right to
spend my earnings in my own way as you have to spend yours in your way?
Why should I be compelled to spend as you spend? Don't you see that you
are claiming more for yourself than you are allowing to me, and are
supplementing your own liberty by robbing me of mine? Is this the way
you promote the public good? Is this your boasted free library? I tell
you it is founded upon theft and upon the violation of the most sacred
thing in this world--the liberty of your fellow man. It is the
embodiment of a gross injustice, and only realises the selfish purpose
of a cowardly and dishonest majority.'

'We have heard all this before,' replies _A_, 'but such considerations
must all give way before the public good. We are stronger than you are,
and we have decided once and for all that you shall pay for a "Free"
Library; don't make unnecessary resistance, or we shall have to proceed
to extremities.'

And, after all, the so-called Free Library is not really free--only so
in name. If the penny or twopenny rate gave even the shabbiest
accommodation to anything like a fair proportion of its compulsory
subscribers, there would not be standing room, and the ordinary
subscription librari