Exchequer objected because it did not give sufficient powers to form a
library; and he should object to it more strongly if it did. Who was to
select the books? Was every publication that issued from the press to be
procured? or was there to be a censorship introduced? Another member
claimed that the bill would enable a few persons to tax the general body
of rate-payers for their own benefit, and the library would degenerate
into a political club. Col. Sibthorp thought that, however excellent
food for the mind might be, food for the body was more needed by the
people. "I do not like reading at all," he said, "and hated it when I
was at Oxford." Lord John Manners said he could not support the bill,
because it would impose an additional tax upon the agricultural
interest. Mr. Spooner feared these institutions might be converted into
normal schools of agitation. Sir Roundell Palmer--since the Lord
Chancellor of England--was most apprehensive that the moment the
compulsory principle was introduced, a positive check would be imposed
upon the voluntary, self-supporting desire which existed among the
people. A division being taken on the bill, there were 118 ayes and 101
noes. The bill passed the House of Commons in July, and the House of
Lords, without opposition, in August, 1850.

The Manchester, Liverpool, and Bolton free libraries were immediately
organized under this act, the cost of the books being defrayed by public
subscription. In 1853 similar legislation was extended to Scotland and
Ireland. In July, 1855, the new libraries having gone into operation
with the most encouraging results, a new and more liberal library act
was passed, by a vote of three to one, which raised the rate of taxation
from a halfpenny to a penny in the pound, and allowed the income to be
expended for books. Its provisions were made to include towns, boroughs,
parishes, and districts having a population of 5000 inhabitants, and
permitted two adjoining parishes, having an aggregate population of five
thousand, to unite in the establishment of a library.

In 1866 the library act was again improved by removing the limit of
population required, and reducing the two-thirds vote on the acceptance
of the library tax to a bare majority vote. Provision was also made for
cases in which the overseers of parishes refused or neglected to call a
meeting of the rate-payers to vote on the question. Any ten rate-payers
could secure the calling of such a meeting