THE LONDON LIBRARY.
Tun Fourteenth Report of the Committee of the London Library, circulated amongst the subscribers, has in due course come into our hands; and it calls our attention to some apparently increasing breaches of the rules for preserving order. The institution is peculiar of its kind. Although a private association, with private property, it is so decidedly identified with the resident literature of London, and is so valuable to the most active part of that community, that it possesses a public interest, and justifies a certain degree of public guardianship. There is no 'other library which presents the same facilities and resources for use. We attach no importance to a slight falling-off in the subscriptions ; for although it is very desirable that the annual funds from that source should be kept up, yet to a certain extent it may be said that the members who remain are the richer for the departure of their fellows. The London Library as it stands is now really a fine property. There are larger collections of 'books elsewhere, but there is, we are convinced, throughout the whole world none that has, with reference to its numbers, been selected with a more concentrated power of intellect for purposes of practical utility in literature and in all the inquiries that -literature snbserves. This handsome collection of books, from the most ancient to the newest, remains the property of those subscribers who keep up their sub- scriptions. Their share in its actual value is the greater, and the circulation of the books amongst them ought to be more rapid.
Here, however, we come to one of those breaches of rule which seriously impair the utility of the institution for the general body of the subscribers. Members are unpnnctual in many things, and unpunctuality is a fatal sin where any kind of combined move- mentis to be effected. Perhaps the worst offence against punc- tuality is in the neglect to return books. The improved plan of collecting them by means of a messenger works well, but members must themselves assist in working this machinery. Another practice is excessively reprehensible ; it is that of writ- ing marginal notes in books the property of the library. Such marks are of no use to the body of subscribers ; if they were accumulated they would seriously load the face of the page ; and at any rate.they damage the value of the book as a piece of
roper only by enforcing the rules that the ,shareholders in this institution can maintain its full utility. It was established with considerable expense of trouble and time to some of the most emi- nent men amongst us; and a respect for the founders, as well as for fellow members, ought to inspire every shareholder with a sense of duty as well as self-interest in assisting to carry out the rules. The collection combines the advantages of a learned library with a circulating library ; giving solid and valuable books, old as well as new, and permitting the subscriber to have them at his private residence. It is singular of its kind in this metropolis. If we were by any misfortune to be deprived of it, it could with great difficulty be replaced. At the same time, a very moderate at- tention to reasonable and proper \regulation is all that -is re- quisite to preserve the institution in its full utility and respecta- bility.
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