The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-14 00:00:00

SPORTING.

BETTING AT MANCHESTER.—Tunsp.ty.
AYLESBURY STEEPLE CHASE.
3to 1 spat Marla Day.
Even on liriti'b Yeoman and Vain hope.
LIVERPOOL STEPLE CHASE.
7 to 1 mat The Youngrun (t)
Sto 1 Knight of Owynne (t)
10 to 1 The Oaks (t)
DERBY.
10 to 1 eget Mr. W. Edward. as Bolingbroke (t)
Hto 1 Duke of Bachmend'a °Mine Callum (t)
18 to 1 Mr. Metelant's The Italian (t)
10 to 1 Mr. Pedlerit Sweetheart
$0 to 1 Mr. Graonck's Tho Nigger (t 33 to 1)
1,000 to 78 Yew Tree (t)
1,000 to SO TM Swede
CHESTER CUP.
1.000 to IS apt Mr. St. George's Whim Colt (t).
1,000 to 9 apt nab or the following :
Boc-Flanter, Donut, gad Mart Tapley (t).

A SHIP ON FIRE.—VENTNOR, TUZISDAY.—A reed
passed here this morning on fire. She was evidently trying
M make Shanklin Bay. I hare since learned the following
patinalen ..—She is &Dotal% galliot, laden with turpentine,
and bout& from NIA! Orlon,* to Lymingion. The pilot rah
her ashore at Shanklin, where she is lying on the rands, and
is being rapidly consumed. The whole of the crew are safe.

• RAGGED SCHOOL LlBlLiftlee.---Mr. J. Imray, in
his evidence before the Committee on Public Libraries, maid :
I have taken lately the sup. tinter denim of a ragged school
in:the Idaryleb me district, and in connexion with that school
we have centbhtheel a small library and reading room, and
theses that have attended have attended with great regularity,
and read the books with the greatest quietness and attention;
the room is open every evening but one in the week. There
have been 100 there ; at this season generally only 20 or 30,
of from 16 n. 30 or 3.5 years of age. We throw it open to
anybody, without restriction; gcaerally those that attend
the library are the same that attend the school. The school-
master acts as librarian. We have a room that can conveni-
ently hold 160. The people appear ti enjoy reading the
books they have there,and it they had mere books they would
enjoy it still more. Since the mecca of emigration have been
provided for those classes, and many have gone from that
school, the inclination amongst them for reading works which
will give them informatiou regarding the countries to which
they toned to go has been very groat. A great number of
those mime persons who frequent the ragged school library
had been in the habit of reading before. but they had read
the bad cheap publications which are circulated in tiionsauds
among those classes. I mty say that among those clerics
there is perhaps a greater amount of reading than amunget
the better classes in London, but it is reeding of the worst
description. The institution of good libraries would with-
draw the population, and especially the most dangerous part
of the populetion, from bad reading, to which they at present
apply themselves, and not enly from worse reading, but tram
won. pundits. Moat of those classes have no homes to go
to, and no raional pursuits of any kind, acid therefore they
take to immoral penults. The book. in the library are not
above 150 yet. The people conduct themselves in the read-
ing.room with the greatest order and quietness, although
many of them ere persona who would, under any othe r cir-
cumstances, be most noisy and rude in their conduct. I have
known men of from 20 to 30 who, when they came, smoked
the it pipes in the schoolroom, overturned the forms and did
ail kinds of miscl.iet, end now they are perfectly quiet del or.
derly, and they dress better ; instead of regs,they come with
whole clothes ( hough of the poorest kind still), end they
sit down in the library with the greatest quietness and detto-
rum, and read the books. We have malty pupils above the
age of 20; I have seen as many as 60 men, men having wives
and families. Of the:bad description of books 1 spoke of,
many are published in London. They are little books, per-
baps selling at • half penny each ; many of them periodicals,
containing horrible stoner, %Ph muck of the nurvelloin and
a good deal of the disgusting in them ; one sort of b oks
which seem to be sought for very much by that class are me.
moire of notorious rogues, and extracts from the " Newgiste
Calendar," all of which, I think have the wont tendency;
perhaps a worse tendency than books positively indecent or
immoral. Trend-dons from foreign needs, I think,
are perused by a rather higher clam. 0. books con.
meted with the principles of socialism there are a
few, but I do not think many. The institution ••••
sound libraries Is Very d. grime t? lead in. m &war
nom those various deviations from one proper bath in
point of reading to which you have adverted ; it I. desirable
" in the highest degree. Another great object is, that a library
' being provided, containing good books, is a tern..tati, n to
many to learn to read, and afterwards to come arid read;
' they see that their friends who come to the library evince the
possession of informeion which they themselves do net pos-
y sew, and they naturally feel sedum to re ad ; they come to
the school and learn to read, and then they frequent the
I library. They system of itioeming literati a could be adopted
in towns. There might be libraries itinerating from district
,• to district in London. Fur instance, in certain districts in
' London where there are now f rigged schools, it
, would be a very great advantage if the lehrary of one selool
were transmitted to another for a time, exchanging from the
one to the other. if a better class of books were sold at the
same price, they would supersede the b..d books, bu not at
• first; a taste for cod works requires to be Una. d he fore
I they can he apireciated. Amongst there people such works
• as the Penny Magazine and Chambers' Journal are much
liked. When they have read books of that class, they prefer
• them to the date of books I have spoken of ; so much so,
• that I d s not think they would ever return to the lower
class of hooks, alter having read the other hooka. Works of
I fiction Ido not think are more attractive than popular works
I of science. It is impossible for this dm to make a small
r su%scriptisia in aid of the Medi for the library, lam afraid;
!bey are too poor for that; we have to provide them almost
I with everything in order to attract them to the school ; we
guar are
,ntho teyo utl y
were obliged,ry role
e makeanti them
. nothing,hutll
butimitt we
ey
I ere obliged occasionally to give them entertainment,—
supper or a tea-party. At We when the system ro+
unmans...
metare with the greatest cone cay, politeneis, and quietness,
r I The persons I describe are not in regular employment.
I Many lit hem are persona selling things in the street. They
are rather the class you meet he the street selling vegetables,
' oranges, and such things as those. There are portions of
these schools appropriated to wemen, and a large number
attend. My opinion is, that in ell these cases, IV) far from
' making them pay anything, we ought to do everything to
attract them at first; draw them to the school, and then in-
struct them afterwards. I have bestowed some attention to
I the construction of public libraries. I have wade several
drawings, c ineideriog the subject as to the cons.ruction and
arraugtment. The estimate for a fair public library for a
t country town must depend very much upon its eaten.. For
' a town that has a population of 10,000 inhabitants I should
soy that for the mere building and shelving to hold the
books, for 1,0001. a very good building might he put up in a
I country district. I include in that plenty of room for boles,
and also accommodation far reading. The only thing from
I which I can draw any analogy Is the cost of churches, which
1 have seen built in Scotland, in country districts, capable
I of containing a congregation of 1,200, well built and well
• seated for 1,6001. For 1,0001. you might build a public
library to accommodate a population of I think 20,000 or
- more, if the construction were carefully studied with a view
I to economy and simplicity. It may be assumed, without
material error, that a square foot of wall surface can ac-
commodate ten average volumes, allowing for decide g and
r fittings; a tier of shelves may extend six feet six inches
in height without requiring a ladder to reach the upper
, shelves; one foot rix inches may be left vacant below to
r avoid stooping ; and in the cue of successive tiers, one foot
in height may be allowed for galleries and their fittings;
so that each tier would occupy in all seven feet six inches
in height, five feet of that being available fur books. A
room, 60 feet square and 30 feet high, lighted entirely from
, above, so that all the wall unlace may he available for
shelving, might be fitted with three galleries entirely Our-
, rounding the interior, so as to provide four tiers of convenient
shelving. The total surface for book accommodation would
thus be 4,000 square feet, which would contain 40,000
volumes, without any projec'ing presses or partitions. Ac-
, cess might be given to the galleries by steircases at the
, angles of the room; further, a width of five feet railed off
around the room would be a passage for the
the lib:try, and a central area of forty feetpqaussa square
r.egttables,
t wo(
auld
be left for a reading-room, capable of accommodating
hundred o
resladlOwningwitshixtespenicefeefotr
an catalogue,
catalogue,
sh
reader. I have little doubt that such a room with all
its fittings, and with some additional accommodation for the
servants of the library, could be plainly coreeructed in the
country for 1,0001. or 1,2001. And I imagine that an ar-
rangement, like that which I have briefly indicated, would,
, in point of appearance, be in no way objectionable ; for while
it is extremely simile and capable of being decorated, ft
would, I think, have a better effect than such a disposition
of the shelves in separate chambers, or in provers projecting
from the wall., as necessarily conceals mere then half of the
books from any tingle point of view. The warming. lighting
and ventilation, and even the fire-proofing of mach a room
, might be simply and economically effected. To be upon the
fire proof principle I am afraid would come to more money;
but I think that with proper arrangements in the original
, construction, the fire-proofing would not add very materially
to the expense. Ido not see any advantage in making the
. building of iron, but I think the furniture might be made of
iron, and the shelving might be made of iron with great ad-
i vantage. It would be more expensive in the first instance
than wood, but it would soon repay itself by freedom from
. had spent all his lite (sixty tour years) in Morpeth, had
danger, sod
there would wmoviunldgbethneomsdantgeorr orfTreirw.hrtyttvilea;!°g iron
. StoriT-eeenco.—A very respectable old man, who
. lately occasion to visit a neigh oaring town. In detailing
en his return the wonders he had seen, he mentioned, as a
r remarkable fact, that he had actually seen several men
- employed in sweeping the streets I This was something
, perfectly novel.—Newcastle Journal.

NAVAL.
Meet yt aid% Goliite4
oaballtAlXT, Nov. IL
overeilor ber OW Owe. daid tin lab sit, son.
nerd on tie in* et Mimi a the Mot, elo J. IL Whereat,
Dor, CLC.S. :—Aassiii el the W. Ur T. e.
7. DOMonnoMAN. .C. 13.,
be to
le arra of tin Int.• Moira of tbe dl*o,l to
Nara of ,btee ; Aida of the ebte. Rea. Sir c". 4
L 0.11.. to be 'WM the whin; The-Abehel of the Id, Kr
ft.- D. tor ILCJL, to be mamba tho Tbe4inbol
al* Wan, C. J. W.llennie. to be vioreintriof lei ;Mee.
&Weal et the Am thmaes, to bo nrairkel d the ebb e;
lber-Airba rti the IA LC. Cosour,
Mir E
te re.
sembel albs Mee; 11111111101 et tbe Whim Mr E. T. Tur-
bot, ML. le be ememblbri dim id; lear-Aaeirel
etimitullee. Mean% Mbe emembeiml et tbe wider; Cept. M.
F. P. Miesmar, C. B.I• be nermiliml M Me Mee
lbe we+....w.r+tiwbw Immo dm is the rusk of
*We reer.eimbd.•ifs moms le Sr losilse Gam( le
of
the Lt eloonment. leee. Immo re tisk pm As. :
Nand Cod. T. Thee s Mired CieL W. L tem

Artuaum sm. a
'7bro fonconli MrAim bon Wm SIMS sift SitiM do ICS W.,
insequipt si WO Erik uf 211111411.11.1 1. Pala,
Dirty LCIL : et theW.V. Owzi. In be
01 die WNW ; cot iir Dour, Lea. se be
et the Ilia
AM the milmostissed Mew bes boa ale presseed to Ow Task
of sub* sesonftlirml, Or Irma prepped la the Lmidos
AMIM se iNrownitsiniogidrog ummse is his hall-mr,
via : listired S. C.