Illinois, 14; New Hampshire, 13; Ohio, 9; Maine, 8; Vermont,
Connecticut, and Wisconsin, 4 each; Indiana, 3; Iowa and Texas, 1 each.
In the number of volumes they rank as follows (in round numbers):
Massachusetts, 920,000; Ohio, 144,000; Illinois, 77,000; New Hampshire,
52,000; Maine, 34,000; Indiana, 26,000; Vermont, 16,000; Connecticut,
15,000; Texas, 10,000; Wisconsin, 6000; Iowa, 1000. The aggregate number
of volumes in these libraries is 1,300,000, and their annual aggregate
circulation is 4,735,000 volumes. It is noticeable that no one of these
libraries is in New York, Pennsylvania, or any of the Middle States. The
representatives from those States in this Conference may be able to
account for this hiatus in the statistics of the Bureau of Education.

In this brief sketch of the statistics of our American public libraries
we have not found much evidence of popular objections to their inception
and organization. In England, however, where the questions of national
schools, secular schools, and parochial schools are still mooted, the
idea of levying a general tax for the support of a library free to all,
and furnished with books adapted to the capacities of all classes, was
not in harmony with the traditions and public policy of that people. In
1848, the same year that the Legislature of Massachusetts, at the
suggestion of Josiah Quincy, Mayor of Boston, passed an act authorizing
the city of Boston to maintain a public library, Mr. William Ewart,
member of Parliament, moved in the House of Commons for a committee of
inquiry respecting libraries. Such a committee was raised, and Mr. Ewart
was appointed chairman. Much evidence was taken; a report was made; and
in February, 1850, a bill was introduced into the House of Commons
enabling town councils to establish public libraries and museums. "Our
younger brethren, the people of the United States," says the report,
"have already anticipated us in the formation of libraries entirely open
to the public." The bill proposed limited the rate of taxation to one
halfpenny in the pound; required the affirmative vote of two thirds of
the rate-payers; restricted its operation to towns which had at least
ten thousand inhabitants; and provided that the money so raised should
be expended only in building and contingent expenses. This bill, meagre
indeed compared with the later enactments of Parliament, met persistent
opposition from the conservative benches. An ex-Chancellor of the