Transcriber’s note

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Hyphenation has been standardized.

Page numbers in the List of Illustrations reflect the position of the illustration in the original text, but the links point to the current position of illustrations.

In the Index “Selborne, Roundell Palmer, Earl of, 19” was out of alpha order and was moved. Page number references in the index are as published in the original publication and have not been checked for accuracy in this eBook.

Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:

List of Illustrations:
“Library of The South-Western” “Library of The South-Eastern”
Page 5: “rom a railway company” “from a railway company”
Page 8: “working mens’ institution” “working men’s institution”
Page 27: “to find Wolverhamption” “to find Wolverhampton”
Page 38: “could not even seen” “could not even see”
Page 70: “provided in the childrens’” “provided in the children’s”
Page 71: “greater volume to more” “greater volume of more”
Page 87: “Stockton to Middlesborough” “Stockton to Middlesbrough”
Page 101: “free course of lectures” “free courses of lectures”
Page 177: “of interchange, are manifest” “of interchange, is manifest”
Page 202: “ran as follow:—” “ran as follows:—”
Page 216: “University of Winconsin” “University of Wisconsin”
Page 219: “ten subject set” “ten subjects set”
Page 224: “his own bibliogapher” “his own bibliographer”
Page 227: “take the expect advice” “take the expert advice”
Page 232: “appeciating good fiction” “appreciating good fiction”
Page 241: “Gloucester Public Libary” “Gloucester Public Library”
Page 242: “of Library Act, 161, 22” “of Library Act, 16, 22”
Page 247: “Sir JOSEPH BBOODBANK” “Sir JOSEPH BROODBANK”
Footnote 43:
“voluntary organizattions” “voluntary organizations”