ople are and
will be readers. They are generally prepared to make a good use of books
of a higher order than those offered to them in so cheap and attractive
a form by our enterprising publishers. Now, either their energies will
be wasted in a desultory course of reading, by which they will gain only
a superficial knowledge of almost every conceivable subject, or they
must be furnished with the means, which they are so well prepared to use
to advantage, of going to the bottom of whatever subject interests them,
and having exhausted the wisdom of past generations, of adding to the
stock of general knowledge from the results of their own thoughts and
experience.

The necessity for the establishment of large collections of books,
freely open to the public--of institutions in which, as Ovid well
expresses it,

"Quaeque viri docto veteres cepere novique
Pectore, lecturis inspicienda patent"--

is, we imagine, unquestioned and unquestionable. The question now
arises, How are these libraries to be constituted? On this point it will
not be expected that we should dilate at length. At the present time the
best books on all subjects are to be purchased at a moderate rate; and
in the formation of new libraries, attention should first be paid to the
supply of works most generally in demand. It will neither be wise nor
just to the public to purchase, at the outset, rare and curious works:
when a sufficient supply of really useful and generally read
publications has been obtained, it will be quite time enough to think of
indulging the bibliomania. But there is one subject on which this taste
may advantageously be indulged--and that is, every town in which a
public library is established should take care to collect all works
relating to its local or municipal history. A selection of the best
books on bibliography should also be possessed by each. These are to the
librarian and the literary man what the compass is to the mariner, or
the tools of his trade to the artisan.

But we must hasten to a conclusion. As a pendent to the Report of the
Parliamentary Committee, Mr. Ewart brought forward a bill for the
establishment of libraries and museums in country towns. This bill has
now received the sanction of the legislature; its operation is, however,
limited to boroughs whose population exceeds 10,000; and before it can
be carried into effect, a public meeting of rate-payers must be called,
and the consent of two-thirds of tho