yearly. In these figures Sunday-school libraries, one of the
most constantly used kinds, are not included. Looking at the magnitude
of the numbers reported, and considering all that is omitted, we obtain
an inkling of the immense exchange of books among the people from these
public distribution points.

The existing public libraries, excluding all under 300 volumes, and all
in Sunday-schools of whatever size, may be considered as belonging to
six principal divisions. These, with the number of libraries and the
volumes in each, are as follows:

_Class._ _No. libraries._ _No. Volumes._

Educational 1,577 3,442,799
Professional 360 1,406,759
Historical 51 421,794
Government 122 1,562,597
Proprietary Public 1,109 3,228,555
Free Public 342 1,909,444
Miscellaneous 121 305,016
----- ----------
3,682 12,276,964

The "miscellaneous" class contains the libraries of secret and
benevolent societies, and some others difficult to arrange. On the whole
it might be better to class them with the proprietary public libraries.

Educational libraries are the oldest in the country, and the most
venerable of them is naturally that of the oldest educational
institution, Harvard University, which dates from 1638. Before the end
of that century three others had been started, and singularly enough,
all at about the same time: King William school at Annapolis, 1697,
King's Chapel Library at Boston, 1698, and Christ church at
Philadelphia, 1698. Yale and William and Mary Colleges began their
collections in 1700, and then proprietary libraries began their
existence. The Proprietors' Library in Pomfret, Conn., was founded in
1737, Redwood, in Newport, 1747, and the Library Society, Charleston, S.
C, 1748. Philadelphia was especially active at that early period,
establishing no less than five, the Library Company in 1731,
Carpenters', 1736, Four Monthly Meetings of Friends, 1742, Philosophical
Society, 1743, and Loganian, 1745. Fifty-one of these enterprises were
begun in the second half of the eighteenth century, but failure and
consolidation brought the number of living