gave me an opportunity of acquainting him that if he chose to dissolve the connexion, it should be on the terms expressed in the writings which we mutually signed when it was formed, in consequence of which I should be entitled to an annuity of £150 and then I would provide for myself, and to this he readily acceded. He told Dr. Price that he wished our separation to be amicable and I assured him that nothing should be wanting on my part to make it truly so. When I left him I asked him whether he had any fault to find with my conduct and he said none. His lordship's enemies have insinuated that he was not punctual in the payment of my annuity; but the contrary is true.' On leaving Lord Shelburne in 1780, Priestley went to reside near Birmingham and was soon invited to minister to a congregation of Unitarians in that town. A subscription library, on a very small scale, had been established there in the previous year, and Dr. Priestley was promptly invited to become a member of the committee of management. How small was the beginning of this now important library may be gathered from the statement authentically made, that " originally one box held all the books." For some years a single room sufficed for books and subscribers, and twenty years elapsed before the old part of the present library in Union Street was built in 1799, the necessary funds being raised by a tontine. The new portion of the building was erected in 1845 to accommodate the largely increased number both of books and proprietors. Of the original nineteen subscribers all were dissenters but one. Gradually, however, Churchmen joined the society, and helped to make it a success. The scheme was based on broad principles, to supply readers with books which few private persons could afford to buy. "The progress of the library," says Mr. Timmins in his excellent monograph on the centenary of the Birmingham Library, seems at first to have been slow, and its history obscure, but on the arrival of Dr. Priestley at Birmingham its real prosperity commenced. His experience of a similar library at Leeds, and his characteristic energy and enthusiasm, were given to the young institution. He not only wrote the various advertisements which appeared, but he drew up a code of laws on the principle adopted at Leeds, and the best testimony to their merit is that they have been substantially unchanged for a hundred years." The subscribers rapidly increased, each paying an entrance fee of one guinea, and an annual subscription of six shillings. The smallness of the subscription is the only possible explanation of the paltriness of the librarian's salary-ten pounds a year! This stinginess Dr. Priestley, after the generous treatment he received at Bowood, though but nominally as a librarian, ought not to have permitted. In one of the advertisements alluded to above Priestley's largeness of view comes out strikingly. After stating that the library is formed on the plan of one first established at Liverpool, and which had been adopted at Manchester, Leeds, and many other considerable towns in the kingdom, he adds: "The books are never to be sold or distributed; and from the nature of the institution the ... library must increase till it contains all the most valuable publications in the English language; and from the easy terms of admission it will be a treasure of knowledge both to the present and succeeding ages. . . . This institution can never answer the purpose of any party, civil or religious, but, on the contrary, may be expected to promote a spirit of liberality and friendship among all classes of men without distinction." Poor man! his hopes were not altogether realised when twelve years later a Birmingham mob destroyed his house and property. Let us hope that among those who hounded on the rioters, or those who, according to Mackintosh, "uttered language against him at which Laud would have shuddered and Sacheverel blushed," were to be found no members of the Birmingham Old Library. The Library committee, indeed, had not altogether escaped internal dissensions. A paper war of some bitterness arose in 1785 on the question of admitting works of controversy. Priestley was against the proposal, even to the exclusion of his own work on the Corruptions of Christianity, until the funds should be ample enough to provide all sides of any question. The battle raged for nearly three years, and in 1787 it was agreed to admit controversial books. Priestley withdrew from the committee in 1790, but continued to subscribe till he was driven, three years later, out of the town. At this time the library contained between 4,000 and 5,000 volumes. In 1793 also occurred a secession of several dissatisfied members, who formed a New Library which maintained a separate existence till 1860, when it was re-amalgamated with the Old. From that time to the present the progress of the Old Birmingham Library, though sometimes. chequered, has been, upon the whole, very prosperous. The one small box that in 1779 held all the books, has expanded into a large substantial building of two or three stories, one of which is a commodious reading-room, while the others are filled with books numbering from 40,000 to 50,000 volumes. The small band of 19 subscribers in 1779 is now represented by 1450 members. Books to the value of £400 or £500 are purchased annually, and our fellow member, Mr. C. E. Scarse, the present librarian, has a large field for the exercise of his talent and energy which he does not fail to cultivate. It will be gratifying to our readers to know that the Cathedral Library at Chichester has (since the death of Canon Ashwell) been placed under the care of the Rev. Chancellor Parish, a member of this Association. MARCH MONTHLY MEETING. THE fifth Monthly Meeting of the third year of the Association was held at the London Institution on Friday, March 5, 1880, at 8 p.m., Mr. W. H. OVERALL in the chair. The minutes of the previous meeting having been read and confirmed, the Chairman called on Mr. T. W. SHORE to read his paper on LIBRARIANS AND ANCIENT PARISH REGISTERS. Mr. SHORE said: Parish Registers are such extremely valuable books that the question of their safe custody is one to which this Association cannot be indifferent. Mr. Burn, in his "History of Parish Registers in England," has given much valuable information, Mr. Seton, of H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, has drawn attention to the subject in the January number of the Antiquary, and an article and correspondence on the same subject have lately appeared in the Standard. The present system of registration in England and Wales, under which a copy of the entry of each birth, marriage, and death, by the local registrars, is transmitted to the General Register Office at Somerset House, came into operation on the 1st July, 1837, and although the Acts and Ordinances under which Parish Registers were established, ordered that transcripts should be forwarded to the Bishop of the diocese to be handed down to posterity as part of the diocesan records, yet it is notorious that this duty was very often neglected. For example, Mr. Burn informs us that in that part of the diocese of Winton which comprises the county of Surrey there were, from 1597 to 1800, about 142 old parish churches, and there are only 20 duplicate registers for all these parishes between the above dates. The safe custody of the registers previous to 1837 is therefore a matter of very great importance, and the necessity of making some change can only be judged by those who have in various places inspected these records. In the majority of cases the parish church is not a fit place for the custody through several centuries of a valuable series of books. Even at the present day, when the key of the chest in which the registers are preserved is usually kept by the incumbent instead of the parish clerk, it is probable that in a majority of cases, damp, dust, and general neglect are only too surely accomplishing the work of destruction. The opposition of the clergy to the transfer of these registers to the custody of the Registrar General in 1837 when the registers of the Nonconformists were so transferred, formed a part of their general opposition to the Registration Acts, and we have in consequence a much less perfect set of registers in England and Wales than would otherwise have been the case. If some effort is not made by antiquaries, genealogists, associations such as this, and all who are interested in the preservation of precious books, it may safely be affirmed that as time goes on many of these registers will gradually disappear. Let the visitor at the country parsonage who doubts this, request his host to allow him to examine the oldest volumes of the register, and he will come to the opinion that Somerset House is a much more suitable place for these books than the church or the parsonage house. The Library Association of the United Kingdom may very well join in the attempt to stay this natural destruction of parish registers, and I would suggest that a general resolution or recommendation on the subject should be proposed, and, if carried, sent to the various newspapers for publication. A correspondent of the Standard, of January 12, 1880, gives an instance of care for ancient parochial registers which is worthy of all publicity it is that of the Vicar of Leigh, in Lancashire, who has for some time been publishing the ancient registers of that parish in his monthly parochial magazine. This plan affords an excellent opportunity of doing some really good work in connection with these ancient records to the incumbents of all except the most populous parishes, and with respect to these, I think the Library Association, while raising its voice on this question, may do something towards making known the existence of the Harleian Society, which has been established for the publication of unedited manuscripts relating to genealogy, &c., and which has already published the registers of several large city parishes and is now engaged upon others. In the course of the ensuing discussion, Mr. SHORE exhibited a folio book of 230 pages containing the accounts of the Guild of the Holy Ghost, near Basingstoke, from 1557 to 1654, which he had brought to light at the Hartley Institution.-Mr. C. WALFORD said that the parish register is a record of local history, and in many places the only one. The particulars preserved in them are often very interesting. For example, on the occasion of any great calamities, as fires or storms, a petition used to be made to the king, who issued a brief which was sent to each parish, and accounts of these, and of the collections made upon them, are entered in the parish register. As to the book of accounts, he remarked that at the dissolution of the guilds, though many of their records were destroyed, probably many others were put away to prevent inquiry as to property, and are still in existence in remote places.-Mr. OVERALL said that the subject was one of considerable importance, and worthy of the support of the Association. There had been some efforts made a few years since to have the registers deposited in some central place, but this did not meet with the sympathy of the custodians, who feared the loss of some fees. If there could be a well-defined plan settled by which every Public Library throughout the United Kingdom should become the depository of the registers of the district, it would meet with favour, and the legislature might be persuaded to pass some general measure to carry it into effect. A general index of names, too, would be a great desideratum. In many City parishes these interesting archives are most perfect. The registers of the parish of St. Matthew, Friday Street, commence in 1538, the year in which Lord Cromwell ordered that a register should be kept in every parish. The registers of St. Mary Aldermanbury; St. Mildred's, Poultry; All Hallows', Bread Street; Christ Church, and several others, begin in 1588; those of St. James', Garlick Hithe, are earlier-1535.-Mr. WELCH said that many London parish and ward books had been deposited in the Corporation Library; among them were the records of the Pie Powder Court of Bartholomew Fair, the Court Book of St. Martin-le-Grand, the Vestry Books of St. Mildred Poultry and other parishes. Some critical and explanatory remarks on Mr. Bailey's Paper on Catalogues of Transactions and Periodicals (see pp. 12-16), by Mr. T. W. NEWTON, joint-compiler of the catalogue of the Library of the Museum of Practical Geology; together with a reply by Mr. BAILEY, were read by the Secretary. ANSWERS TO QUERIES. SIZE NOTATION.-H. R. T. suggests that the word "size" should be restricted to indicating height, breadth, and thickness. But would it not be clearer to discontinue the use of this ambiguous word altogether, substituting "dimension," or "dimensions" in one of its meanings, and "form" in the other ?-JoT. LIBRARY LADDER.-Mr. J. G. Arnold, of 38, King William Street, is the maker of a handy folding ladder which seems to combine compactness with strength. The rails are of oak, and when the ladder is closed they shut into a groove in one of the sides. The price is 12s. 6d. for a length of seven feet.-C. W. BOOK TAG. Both in Ripon Minster Library, and in the University Library, Durham, I have made great use of Člements' Gam Tickets, manufactured by Clements and Newling, 96, Wood Street, London, chiefly, I believe, for drapers. What I use are plain, circular, and serrated at the edges, of three or four different sizes, the largest being about the size of a shilling. They very rarely fail to stick permanently, and in the case of books very much used I have known them wear out rather than come off.-J. T. F. NOTICES OF BOOKS. Catalogue of the Library at Chatsworth. [Compiled by Sir James P. Lacaita.] London, printed at the Chiswick Press, 1879. Four vols., 4to. Drawn up with great skill and care. The Duke of Devonshire has privately printed 250 copies of this sumptuous catalogue on small, and 50 copies on large paper. Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. [Compiled by B. R. Wheatley.] London, printed for the Society, 1879. Three vols., 8vo. The catalogue of a well-selected special library of over 31,000 volumes. The third volume consists entirely of an elaborate index of subjects, forming a useful manual of medical and surgical bibliography. List of Carthusians, 1800-1879. Edited by the Rev. Chancellor W. D. Parish. Lewes, Farncombe and Co., 1879. 8vo. A valuable accession to the department of modern English biography. This volume possesses special interest for the librarian from the fact that the compiler has appended a brief printed "author and subject" slip which can be detached for insertion in catalogues. London: TRÜBNER & CO., Ludgate Hill. Single Numbers, Threepence each. Annual Subscription, |