free libraries—in towns—in rural districts—influences of the best books.

it is difficult to point out a direct practical remedy for much that is injurious in our cheapest popular literature; and especially any remedy that could be supplied by the state. we cannot cure folly by enactments, however we may try to repress crime. "these things will be, and must be; but how they shall be least hurtful, how least enticing, herein consists the grave and governing wisdom of a state. to sequester out of the world into atlantic and utopian policies, which never can be drawn into use, will not mend our condition, but to ordain wisely as in this world of evil, in the midst whereof god hath placed us unavoidably."

this noble sentence, from milton's 'speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing,' suggests some remarks which, however painful to utter, no one who thinks honestly upon the subject of popular enlightenment can disguise. there is no "grave and governing wisdom" in the english state—there is no desire "to ordain wisely"—in any matter connected with the educational advancement of the people. the greatest discouragement in the first stage,—the most niggardly support in the second,—have been given to the education of the {304} young. with the exception of schools of design, which, however useful, have a very limited object, the education of the adult has been retarded by every possible legislative effort, direct or indirect. in 1849 a select committee of the house of commons, to inquire into "the best means of extending the establishment of libraries, freely open to the public, especially in large towns, in great britain and ireland," came to the unanimous resolution that "our present inferior position is unworthy of the power, the liberality, and the literature of the country." an act had been passed in 1845, by which town councils, in municipal boroughs having 10,000 inhabitants and upwards, in england and wales, were empowered to establish museums at their own discretion. in 1850, seconding the report of the committee of 1849, a bill was brought in "for enabling town councils to establish public libraries and museums," in towns of the like large population. the proposal was damaged by the device of requiring that a poll of the burgesses should first have been duly taken on the question, and that a rate of one halfpenny in the pound should be the maximum to be levied by a majority of votes. the consequence was obvious. those of the rate-payers who had the low shopkeeping jealousy of extending knowledge to those they presumed to call beneath them, rejected the proposition for establishing free libraries at birmingham and at exeter. in the mean time the difficulties have been surmounted in four great lancashire {305} towns, manchester, liverpool, salford, bolton, where 50,000l. have been raised, chiefly by voluntary subscription, for free libraries and museums; and 60,000 volumes have been purchased for the open and unrestricted use, in the libraries and at home, of every member of the community, from the highest to the humblest. the experiment has been completely successful. one of the most satisfactory results has been that, amidst the hardest worked population in the world—those who come from their factories with the honourable stain of labour on their hands and brows—the most exemplary care has been taken of the books borrowed. if free libraries are good for the greatest marts of industry, are they not good for the smaller? mr. ewart, the unwearied mover in this object, brings in a bill in the session of 1854, to extend the act of 1850 to towns of less population and to the metropolitan boroughs; and, further, to remedy a great defect in the former bill, that the money raised by the halfpenny rate might be applied to purchase books as well as to provide buildings. on the 5th of april the house of commons throws out this bill, under the most frivolous pretexts; the real object being to truckle to the prejudices of those who in all times have systematically opposed the progress of knowledge, when there is a chance of extending it to the people universally.

"milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

england hath need of thee."

it is in connexion with all we have said in the {306} preceding pages, about the character and tendency of cheap popular literature, that we have looked forward with hope to the general establishment of free libraries in town and country. mechanics' institutes, and literary and scientific institutions, valuable as they have been, do not embrace the class for which they were originally intended. according to returns prepared by dr. hudson, secretary of the manchester athen?um, in 1851, there were 720 such institutions, with 120,000 members, and they possessed 815,000 volumes of books. but the same zealous person honestly tells us that the majority of literary institutions comprise professional men, the higher shopkeepers, and the managers of large firms; that the clerk and the shopman will not go where they have a chance of being looked coldly on by their employers or superiors in service, and resort to mechanics' institutes, where their presence effectually drives out the fustian jackets. to remedy this was one of the especial objects of free libraries, where books should be liberally provided for all, whether for reference or home reading. a large majority of the borrowers of books from the manchester free library belong to the operative class. is it not of some importance that the warehousemen, packers, artisans, machinists, mill-hands male and female, assistants in shops male and female, dressmakers,—should have access to the standard works of english literature, and the current books of the modern press? is there no great beneficial effect {307} to be produced by the 77,232 volumes that in the first year were issued from the same manchester free library, comprising—in theology, 1130; philosophy, 845; history, 22,837; law, politics, and commerce, 839; sciences and arts, 4319; and general literature, including poetry, fiction, essays, and periodicals, 47,262? is it of no importance that, in the same period, 61,080 volumes have been used in the reference department? how long are those who are apt to think that

"the wealthiest man among us is the best,"

to influence the better thoughts, and control the higher impulses, of those who have no vain fears that knowledge, however widely extended, may produce evil to society? the object of the general diffusion of knowledge is not to render men discontented with their lot—to make the peasant yearn to become an artisan, or the artisan dream of the honours and riches of a profession—but to give the means of content to those who, for the most part, must necessarily remain in that station which requires great self-denial and great endurance; but which is capable of becoming not only a condition of comfort, but of enjoyment, through the exercise of these very virtues, in connexion with a desire for that improvement of the understanding which, to a large extent, is independent of rank and riches. it is a most fortunate circumstance, and one which seems especially ordained by him who wills the happiness of his creatures, {308} that the highest, and the purest, and the most lasting sources of enjoyment are the most accessible to all. the great distinction that has hitherto prevailed in the world is this,—that those who have the command of riches and of leisure have alone been able, in any considerable degree, to cultivate the tastes that open these common sources of enjoyment. the first desire of every man is, no doubt, to secure a sufficiency for the supply of the physical necessities of our nature; but in the equal dispensations of providence it is not any especial portion of the condition even of the humblest among us who labours with his hands to earn his daily bread, that his mind should be shut out from the gratifications which belong to the exercise of our observing and reflecting faculties. view the agricultural labourer as we have been too long accustomed to see him—a rude untutored hind. his most ordinary occupations place him amongst scenes highly favourable to the cultivation of some of the purest and most peaceful thoughts. the general introduction of agricultural machinery and agricultural chemistry has an inevitable tendency to demand a race of skilled labourers, instead of unintellectual serfs. but how do we deal with the labourer and his family? we educate the boys and girls up to a certain point; we give them the rudiments of knowledge; we are now asked to go further, and to teach them "common things," by which we understand, chiefly, the practical applications of science. but, once off the school-form, the rural {309} boy is to find his evening amusement in the beershop, and the girl to make her way to the next town, in search of some gaiety that ends fatally. home has no charms for these. books might be some attraction, but how are they to be got? there are books which well-meaning people will lend—but they are for the most part of an exclusively serious character. none of the fair features of knowledge are presented to them; no "perpetual feast of nectared sweets." they are offered the sunday sermon without the sunday holiday. it is clear that this system will not do; and the most sensible in the country have abandoned it. we have before us a catalogue of the 'windsor park library, under the patronage of his royal highness the ranger.' this park library, established by prince albert, is for the use of all those in the local employ of the crown. these comprise a population of about 300, of which 100 are subscribers to this library, at sixpence a quarter. it is self-governed, with the assistance of the curate of the park, who has the right of approval of the books given or purchased. here is an agricultural population of a mixed character—keepers, bailiffs, woodmen, ploughmen, and field and forest lads. this hard-working and comfortable population is not crammed with "harsh and crabbed" knowledge. there are good books in the library—divinity, history, biography, natural history—but there is abundance of poetry and fiction. the result is that the library is most popular; that it has a visible influence {310} on the families of the subscribers; that the population thus intellectually raised, in the power of happily employing their small leisure, are a consented home-keeping population. there are, no doubt, peculiar advantages in their position; but the intelligence which is thus cultivated amongst their dependants by the highest in the land would ultimately raise every rural population, if the obvious means were not too commonly neglected.

we have spoken strongly about the indifference of the state to the establishment of free libraries in populous towns. but even those who have most strenuously urged this measure have said nothing about such institutions in rural districts. we ask, why not? the necessity is as great, perhaps greater. a ready access to instructive books, and amusing books, is the desire which most naturally suggests itself to the young people who have left the schools which the state recognizes, however imperfectly. the desire cannot be gratified except through some occasional benevolence. thus the neglected mind first grows listless—then corrupt. dangerous excitement begins the career which ends in habitual degradation. there could be nothing easier that to make the national school a free library also. the room is vacant after the hours of work; the schoolmaster is the ready librarian. it would be the truest economy in parishes to provide such free libraries out of the ordinary rates, if parliament were to give them an enabling power. gratuitous vaccination, {311} preventive measures against contagion, are cheerfully paid for. why not a payment of the most limited amount—a farthing on each pound of rental—to keep the people sober, to render them domestic, to raise them gradually but surely to the capacity of discharging those labours with skill which have been formerly intrusted to mere animal power? it would be well, we think, to make the experiment.

in thus advocating the general establishment of free libraries, we believe that we are pointing out the only practicable course for counteracting the tendencies of cheap periodical literature. the principle which is now carried, as we have endeavoured to show, to a dangerous and ridiculous excess, is to give the greatest possible quantity at the lowest possible price. the principle is destructive to the employment of the highest class of literary labour. it involves the natural mediocrity or positive baseness of that quality which is not visible on the surface. the counteracting principle is to make the best books accessible to all; and not to imagine that the evil is not counteracted if those who have access to the best books prefer the entertaining to the severe. one of the most eminent cultivators of the highest knowledge, sir john herschel, has told us a great truth in this matter, which ought never to be forgotten. defending what he calls "the invaluable habit of resorting to books for pleasure," as the main desire of those who "have grown up in a want of instruction, {312} and in a carelessness of their own improvement," he says—"if we would generate a taste for reading, we must, as our only chance of success, begin by pleasing.... in the higher and better class of works of fiction and imagination, duly circulated, you possess all you require to strike your grappling-iron into their souls, and chain them, willing followers, to the car of advancing civilization."

we have said that cheap literature has got beyond its scurrilous, indecent, profane, and seditious stages. six years ago it exhibited every one of these qualities. we think it will not return to them. but there is an element of danger which, if not so revolting, is far more formidable. it is that element which has for its materials the disputes between labour and capital. there is ignorance on both sides of this question. there is indifference on the part of the state. a period of great and increasing commercial prosperity has softened down many of the coarser and fiercer aspects of these disputes; but in no case have they been reduced to an intelligible philosophy on the part of employers or of workmen. let the prosperity of trade be interrupted by war; let our markets be narrowed; let profits necessarily fall, and wages with them; and what lessons, we may ask, have been acquired of mutual dependence and mutual interests, of conciliation and of brotherhood, in the season which was favourable to instruction? political economy has been too long taught in a onesided {313} spirit; but, nevertheless, its great truths remain unaltered. are the people unwilling to search them out? practically, are they reluctant to apply them? they know, right well, that profits and wages are distinct matters; that one belongs to capital and the other to labour; that if they are to have both they must become capitalists. they try, upon the smallest, and therefore the most hazardous scale, to unite labour and capital by cooperation. they cannot try the principle upon a larger scale, through the evil agency of our laws of partnership. the legislature inquires into the matter, and there leaves it. the legislature complains that strikes are ruinous to all concerned, and does nothing to bring about that union—a union of feelings as well as interests—which would destroy strikes. the legislature says that the people have no economical or historical knowledge, and forbids free libraries. sixty years ago, burke calculated that there were eighty thousand readers in this country. if burke had lived in times when there are fourteen hundred thousand buyers of cheap weekly sheets, whose readers probably amount to five millions, would his great philosophical mind have said, as modern legislation says, do whatever you can to prevent this reading going in a right direction; you cannot stop reading, but you can keep the cheap literature debased, by denying the people access to the great original thinkers who would lift them out of their intellectual twilight into a brighter day? would edmund {314} burke have given such counsel? would he have shrunk from admitting the people to the safe and enduring equality of a participation in the common property of mind? he would have said, as he said in 1770—"all the solemn plausibilities of the world have lost their reverence and effect." he would now have added—build your future authority and your respect, not upon ignorance, but upon knowledge.

for the proper supply of such free libraries, we have a new class of books rising fast into importance—books of established value, carefully edited—the poets, the historians, the critical and philosophical writers. the great divines will not be neglected in this good work. there cannot be cheaper books of this class than mr. murray's 'british classics,' than mr. bohn's various series, than several collections of the poets now in course of publication. we rejoice to see well-printed books for the library appear at half the old prices; and to know that there is some chance of the eyes of a generation not prematurely perishing under the inflictions of a typography inferior to the ordinary newspaper. free libraries would create a large and certain demand for such works. with the majority, the fame of our great writers is little more than the scrolls upon their tombs. let our glorious literature no longer be, for the people,

"the monument of banish'd minds."