The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-11 00:00:00

ESTABLISHMENT OF PEOPLE'S LIBRA-
RIES IN THE RURAL DISTRICTS. •

SPEECH OF LORD STANLEY, M.P.
HATFIELD (HERTS), WEDNESDAY.
A public meeting was held in the Riding-school at Hat
field-house this evening, at which Lord Stanley, M.P.,
who is at present the guest of the Marquis of Salisbury,
delivered a lecture in support of the establishment of a
people's library for the village of Hatfield and the surround-
ing districts. The attendance was numerous, and included
all the. principal gentry of the neighbourhood, amongst
whom the feeling is universally favourable to the object
for which the meeting was convened.
The Marquis of SALISBURY presided, and in opening the
proceedings said—Ladies and Gentlemen, the object for
which you are assembled is to promote an attempt which
is now being made in this county to improve upon the
system of popular education, and my noble friend near
me, Lord Stanley, has been kind enough to tender his
services towards the attainment of this great and
important object. The question of education is one
that, for a considerable period, has commanded the
growing attention of the country, and I believe that at
the present moment there are a sufficient number of
schools established to give the rudiments of education ie
most districts. Much good has consequently been the result,
inasmuch as [the elements of a truly religious education
have been imparted to many who would otherwise have
been left entirely destitute of them, and education without
religion would be worse than no education at all. (Hear,
hear.) But a link has been wanting in the chain. After
the children have quitted school, they have had no oppor-
tunity afforded them of improving upon the knowledge
they acquired there, and with the cessation of their attend-
ance at school has ceased the demand for education. All
who bear me are aware that of late years there has been A
great improvement in the ability and intelligence displayed
by the children who have passed through our schools ;
but it must be equally obvious, that after entering upon
the active duties of life, they have little opportunity,
especially in the rural districts, of cultivating their minds,
and that they then gradually relapse into that state of
ignorance the existence of which is a matter so much to be
deplored. To the subject of popular education the minds
of the most able of our statesmen and philanthropists have
long been directed, and many attempts have been made to
ensure its being carried out to the fullest extent. From
various causes, however, all these attempts have failed, and
no means have yet been adopted for continuing the educa-
tion of the population between the period of their leaving
school and their growth to manhood. Now, one mode
which has suggested itself to my noble friend, as a means
of furnishing that continued education to all who are in-
clined to improve themselves, is the establishment of free
libraries ; and at my request he has kindly consented to
appear before you on the present occasion for the purpose
of promoting such an institution in this neighbourhood
He has made the attempt with very great success in several
districts. He has assisted in establishing a large library
at Oldham, another at Preston, and a third at King's Lynn,
the town which has the honour of having him as its repre-
sentative in Parliament. I can only say that I thank him
for his presence here, and that I hope you will give your
warm and hearty support to the effort to form an institu-
tion of the sort in this county. This is the first instance
in which such an effort has been made in so purely a rural
district ; and in commencing at Hatfield I hope the move-
ment may spread throughout the whole country, and that
the example which you set to-night will be followed by
other districts ; and that my noble friend's exertions in the
cause will not fail to meet their due reward. I will not de-
tain you further than to introduce to you my noble friend
Lord Stanley. (Cheers.)
Lord STANLEY then came forward, and said—
Ladies and Gentleman,—You have heard the too flatter-
ing remarks of our chairman, Lord Salisbury, on my ap-
pearance here, and as there is nothing more disagreeable
to any one of ordinary delicacy than even the semblance of
interfering in matters which do not concern one, I think it
only courteous to you, and due to myself, before entering
on the general object which we have met in this room
to talk over, to state in half-a-dozen words why and
how I come to stand here to-night in the position of an
adviser in a county and part of England with which I have
no local connection. Lord Salisbury, always mindful of
the duties which property owes to society, and rightly
thinking that though Government may help in the work
of education, yet that work must in the main be carried
out by private efforts, had for some time past entertained
the design of endeavouring to supply the educational re-
quirements of this neighbourhood on a scale and by an
agency more extended and effective than had hitherto been
employed. I mean by the establishment of a free, or
nearly free, popular library. Now, such institutions are
comparatively new to the rural districts of England. Iu
Lancashire, however, and throughout the manufacturing
districts, whore the population is at once dense, enter-
prising, and wealthy, they have grown up and flou-
rished to a great degree within the last few years. I
have hail some little experience of such undertakings there;
and Lord Salisbury, therefore, did me the honour, when
this scheme was first mooted. of asking for such informa-
tion and counsel as I could offer upon some practical points.
I gave it to the best of my power ; and I was then requested
to repeat in public, and to a larger audience, that which I
bad previously stated in private to a few persons. Hence
this meeting, at which you will be pleased to remember
that I appear, not as being myself .an actor in the work on
which you are engaged, but merely as a witness to speak of
that which I have seen elsewhere, and merely by desire of
Lord Salisbury. and of those who are associated with him
in this undertaking. Now, having said so much, let us see,
first what has been done in England up to the present time
in the way of providing instruction for grown persons ;
next, what are the practical advantages to the public of
such institutions; thirdly, what are the difficulties to be
dealt with, and the probabilities of success in this particu-
lar case. It is, I fear, only too easy to show that,in regard
of public libraries, England is far more backward than
many countries whose state of civilisation is lower. I take
the leading nations of Europe. Of libraries of the larger
class, containing above 10,000 volumes each, and open with
more or less freedom to the public
France has 107, with 4,000,000 volumes.
Austria ... 48
Prussia 44
England ... 33
Of which 500,000 is in the single collection Of the Museum.
If I had included smaller collections of from 1,000 to 10,000
volumes, the result would have been much more unfavour-
able ; but of these it is almost impossible to obtain ac-
curate returns. A fairer test is the following, as it shows
the amount of accommodation actually afforded to the
Public in each country :
In Saxony, which stands at the head of the list, there
are for every 100 inhabitants
Denmark 412
Bavaria 339
Tuscany (not the most enlightened state in Europe) 261
Prussia
Austria 167
France
Belgium
England and United Kingdom
Or, in regard of this particular kind of educational provi-
sion, we have just one-eighth the accommodation of Saxony,
one-sixth that of Bavaria, one-third that of Austria, and
two-fifths that of France. In the United States the popu-
lation is scattered, distances are great, hooks are cheap,
most persons can afford to purchase on their own account,
yet already there are more than 100 libraries of 5,000
volumes and upwards, and scarcely a village without some-
thing of the kind on a smaller scale. Some steps, how-
ever, have been taken in England of late years. In 1819
a committee of the House of Commons was appointed,
which led to the passing of an act, authorising a local rate
for the maintenance of free libraries in corporate towns.
That act has been extended in the present session of Par-
liament, and so far as the Legislature is concerned every
populous parish might now provide itself out of public
funds with a free library. But that power is not, in the
present state of opinion among ratepayers, practically
available ; and for many years to come, in small and rural
communities at least, the promoters of such designs will
have to appeal to voluntary exertions only. Now. what
have those exertions done up to the present time? Except
as connected with mechanics' institutes, or institutions of
a similar kind under different names, there are very few
public libraries open to all classes. Of mechanics' insti-
tutes there aro in existence been 800 and 900—I say
in existence, but the existence of many is little
more than nominal. Some do their work well and
prosper ; some more or less assume a party charac-
ter, as is always likely to happen where lectures are
delivered ; but the majority live from hand to mouth,
have no considerable stock of books, nor accumulated capi-
tal ; are, therefore, obliged to lay themselves out for popu-
larity, and in so doing, though their existence is on the
whole better than nothing, they do not adequately fulfil
their functions of public instruction. That is, in few
words, the state of adult education in Great Britain. It is
not a satisfactory one, and it promises to you, and to all
who are minded to help in the work of reforming it, occu-
pation for some considerable period. That work will not
be complete, the educational requirements of the nation
will not be fully satisfied, until the literature of our lan-
guage, the written thoughts and recorded acts of every
great man who influences opinion at the present day, shall
have been brought within easy access—easy both as regards
local proximity and pecuniary cost—of every man and of
every woman who can read and write. At this point I may
be asked, and it is an inquiry which I do not seek to evade
by vague generalities or declamation, " Is there any real
necessity for, any practical 'utility in, such an educational
provision as you propose, and what are in definite terms the
benefits which you expect from it?" In answering that
inquiry 1 am not going into a general panegyric of educa-
tion against ignorance; that would be pedantry fit only for
a school exercise, and unworthy of a meeting assembled for
a practical object. Only this single remark I will make and
then pass on. I think we put education on a low and
unworthy ground when we treat it, which many do, as a
means of acquiring fortune or advancement in life. We
must all feel, if we reflect upon it (I am sure I do) that a
man's station in the world, the social position which he
occupies, forms a very small part of his real and true
existence. Society makes one man a peer, another a trades-
man, a third a labourer; but Cod made us all men ; and
what we mean, or ought to mean, by education, is the de-
velopment of those common human faculties which we
possess, and which, possessing them, we aro bound to cul-
tivate iu ourselves, and to help others to do the same. So
far, I apprehend, we should all agree. The real difficulty
which many sensible persons feel, the most plausible ex-
ception which is taken to such plans as we are now discus-
sing, turns, not on a doubt whether mental cultivation is
worth having, but on a doubt whether it can be attained
I am trying to deal fairly, and to give full
mainly, or in a great degree, by the reading of books. Bear
witness that
weight to any arguments that may be used in defence of
views contrary to my own. That is the real controversy
at issue. " How far are books, or the study of books,
valuable in forming character ?" That they aro not indis-
pensable, we all allow. Great characters have been formed
without them. The men who have been greatest in
action and thought have trained themselves with little
external aid ; and, on the other hand, we know men whose
book knowledge has been to them rather a hindrance than
a help, who seem to have lived upon the thoughts of-others
until they had become incapable of thinking on their own
account. But admitting such exceptions, and allowing
also that mere study without action cannot develop a com-
plete human character, there are circumstances in our na-
tional life and habits that render literary culture peculiarly
valuable to us. There is no fear of pedantry becoming na-
tigilgitied i glogiand, the Nth*, bent of our Mind!) is the