The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-01-10 00:00:00

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S‘TURDAY, JANUARY •10:b, 1880.

FREE LIBRARIES.

Among the educational and social move-
ments which are doing so much to strengthen
the mental tone of England, the establish-
ment of free libraries in every populous
place seems to hold prominent part. It
•
was long ago recognized that immediately
the State commenced compulsorily instruct-
ing the children within its borders, people
-would not lung remain content with the
mere fae!'t that they could read, bat would
require something upon which to exercise
the newly-acquired power. This something
might be provided by public or by private
effort, but that it would have to be piovided
was generally seen. For a long time
Mechanics' Institutes were thought to fulfil
the needed conditions, and in the straggle to
establish these upon a firm and comprehen-
sive basis, much good has been done to the
intellectual life of the nation. The prophesies
of failure, were, of course, paraded at every
turn, bat although these institutions have
not fulfilled all the anticipations of their
most sanguine promoters, they have done so
io a su.fficient extent to show that Lord
Bron,gham, and those who aetc(l with him,
were endowed with much forethought and
deserving of great honour. Mechanics'
:ostitutes, however, adm;rable, as they have
been in inarky of their effects, fail to supply

the pc wrhit.is now to be ailed, and free
libraries alone can be depended upon as
means of placing before the whole body of
the people such an amount of instruction,
not only in the current affairs of the present
but the classical literature of the past, as
can be found in no other organisation. It
does not need an entry into the vexed
question of how far these should be sup-
ported by the public as a corporate body, to
be convinced of the advantage that must
accrue from the establishment of institutions
placing before every one who has a moment's
leisure and the least inclination, the oppor-
tunity of study. "Educate ! Educate!
Edu-
cate !" has been the cry of the last forty
years, and in their zeal to secure elementary.
instruction, some seem almost to have for-
gotten that a knowledge of "the three R's"
should not be the be-all-and-end-all of their
struggle. To teach the nation how to read,
and to make no effort to provide something
for it to mentally digest, would much
resemble showing a man the use of the knife
and fork, and refusing him the opportunity
of having a dinner. Even the poorest can
feel the satisfying influence of literature
upon the mind ; even the humblest can be
exalted by mental contact with those giants
of intellect who have consecrated their lives
Ito their work, and their work with their
lives. Those who cannot afford to purchase
a library of their own, those to whom an
unattainable luxury is the purchase of even
a few books, cheap as are the master-pieces
in these fortunate days, can still feel a strong
wish for cultivation, and this is a wish which
the wise among those who are better circum-
stanced will endeavour to gratify. In some
of our northen towns, where industry and
intelligence go hand in hand to build up
the mighty fortunes of a mighty nation, the
free libraries are an instructive sight at
those hours when the toilers in engine shed
and factory, by loom and by spindle, are
released from their daily labours. For in
these libraries are to be seen smart men and
delicate women, lustly lads and tender girls,
all of the artisan class, and all losing sight
of the troubles and the worries of a world
which to them too often seems but a
cheerless one, in those "fresh woods and
pastures new" which an inquiring mind can
ever discover in the world of books. The
moral effect of this in increased sobriety,
cleanliness, and intillegence, can be scarcely
computed ; with the spread of the movement
for the more final establishment of such
institutions that moral effect will be
broadened and deepened, and great are the
results that may fairly be expected.