The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-09-10 00:00:00

THE tIVERPOOL STANDARD.

mittee. The adoption of a' site beyond the fort
would involve the transfer of the population em-
ployed in shipbuildin,ct &c., without the parlia-
mentary boundary to Bootle. This fact is well
worthy of serious reflection.
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EVERY age and every locality have their own
particular hobby or mania; and we, in Liverpool;
have not been witholit our share in the general lot.
We have had hobbies of various descriptions, all of
them expensive—sanatory hobbies and Roscoe club
hobbies—and we are now, it would appear, about
to mount a Public Library hobby. Ws are to have
presented to us the property of the Royal Institu-
tion, with its library, museum, &c., upon the con-
dition that we maintain them in complete efficiency
for the benefit of the public for ever; and our
acceptance of this offer is assumed to he a step
which will confer," incalculable benefits" upon our
working classes, and advance greatly their moral
and. social improvement. At the risk of being pro-
notinced behind the times, though we by no means
deny that very great benefits will accrue from Mr.
Picton's measure, we venture to express our scep-
ticism as to the results anticipated by the advocates
of the proceeding.
We deny, in the first place, the assumption that
any public library, containing books of reference.
or standard literature, will he extensively resorted
to by the working classes. Manchester possesses,
in its Cheetham Hospital, a most valuable library;
yet its reading room rarely contains above three or
foul individuals, and these are habitues, of the
bookworm class. It is true that the hours of
attendance are not, adapted for the convenience of
the working classes. The same objection, however,
does not apply to other classes ; and that they do
not avail themselves of the facilities thus afforded
them for mental improvement is an unfortunate
fact. The taste of the present age is not for stand-
ard literature. The newsroom is preferred to the
library. Light reading attracts the million, whilst
really improving and instructive works are neglected.
Of course, this perversion of the public taste is no
reason why no effort should he made to provide a
superior description of mental food for our popula-
tion. It has something to do, however, with the
question of cost. We are about to entail upon
ourselves an expenditure of six hundred a year;
and it is proper that we should be aware of the fact
that we are doing this, at the public cost, to accom-
modate, almost entirely, classes capable of paying
for the reading which they require.
On principle, we object to public bodies provid-
ing what ought to be furnished for the people out
of their own resources. If we are to educate gratis,
and provide libraries at the public cost, we shall be
called next to take upon ourselves the charge of our
dispensaries and hospitals. When we do this,
however, we trust that it will not be left to any
independent body to dictate to the Council, as in
the case of our adoption of the Royal Institution,
what is efficiency of management. Mr. Picton, and
, the other parties to this contract will, if we mistake
not, discover before long that, in admitting the
proprietors of the institution to the possession of a
controlling power in its direction, they have intro-
duced an element of future.troublc and increase of
expenditure.