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Chandler, M.A.. + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + + body { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + } + + .booktitle { + letter-spacing:3px; + } + + .footnote { + font-size:0.9em; + margin-right:10%; + margin-left:10%; + } + + .footnote .label { + position:absolute; + right:84%; + text-align:right; + } + + .fnanchor { + vertical-align:super; + font-size:.8em; + text-decoration: + none; + } + + .h1 { + font-size:2em; + margin:.67em 0; + } + + .h1, .h2, .h3, .h4, .h5 { + font-weight:bolder; + text-align:center; + text-indent:0; + } + + h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 { + text-align:center; + } + + .h2 { + font-size:1.5em; + margin:.75em 0; + } + + .h3 { + font-size:1.17em; + margin:.83em 0; + } + + .h4 { + margin:1.12em 0 ; + } + + .h5 { + font-size:.83em; + margin:1.5em 0 ; + } + + h5 { + margin-bottom:1%; + margin-top:1%; + } + + hr.chapter { + margin-top:6em; + margin-bottom:4em; + } + + hr.tb { + margin:2em 25%; + width:50%; + } + + p { + text-align:justify; + margin-top:.75em; + margin-bottom:.75em; + text-indent:0; + } + + p.author { + text-align:right; + margin-right:10%; + } + + p.spacer { + margin-top:2em; + margin-bottom:3em; + } + + .pagenum { +/* visibility:hidden; remove comment out to hide page numbers */ + position:absolute; + right:2%; + font-size:75%; + color:gray; + background-color:inherit; + text-align:right; + text-indent:0; + font-style:normal; + font-weight:normal; + font-variant:normal; + } + + .smcap { + font-variant:small-caps; + } + + </style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Remarks on the practice and policy of +lending Bodleian printed books and manuscripts, by Henry W. Chandler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Remarks on the practice and policy of lending Bodleian printed books and manuscripts + +Author: Henry W. Chandler + +Release Date: October 26, 2011 [EBook #37850] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REMARKS ON LENDING BODLEIAN BOOKS *** + + + + +Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Matthew Wheaton and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div> + +<h1 class="booktitle">REMARKS ON THE PRACTICE AND POLICY OF LENDING BODLEIAN PRINTED BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS.</h1> + +<p class="h3">BY</p> + +<p class="h2">HENRY W. CHANDLER, M.A.</p> + +<p class="h4">FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD;<br /> +WAYNFLETE PROFESSOR OF MORAL AND METAPHYSICAL PHILOSOPHY,<br /> +AND A CURATOR OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4">Oxford:<br /> +B. H. BLACKWELL,<br /> +50 <span class="smcap">AND</span> 51, BROAD STREET.<br /> +1887</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<span class="pagenum">[iii]</span> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + +<p>The present 'Remarks' are a reprint, with many +omissions and additions, of two privately printed +papers which were communicated to the Curators +last year. From November, 1884, for about twelve +months, I did very little more than watch attentively +the way in which Bodleian business is +transacted, to me at once a novelty and a surprise. +For some purposes writing is preferable +to talking, and accordingly in November, 1885, +I printed a memorandum containing many gentle +hints—<span title="phônanta sunetoisin">φωνᾶντα συνετοῖσιν</span>—which I faintly hoped +might eventually prove beneficial to the Library. +Next came a Memorandum 'on the Classed Catalogue,' +a thing which some Curators look on as a +most valuable work, and others as an interminable +and wasteful absurdity. This was followed by a +paper 'on the Bodleian Coins and Medals', with +some observations on the proposal to transfer the +collection to the Ashmolean Museum. As far as +could be seen, all this expenditure of ink and +money did no harm, and no good. In May, 1886, +a committee was appointed to draw up regulations +for loans of books; and in June the Curators received +a paper 'on the lending of Bodleian Books +and Manuscripts,' as also Bishop Barlow's Argument +against lending them, then for the first time<span class="pagenum">[iv]</span> +printed as a whole; and in both the illegality of +the borrowers' list was pointed out, and very +broad hints given, not only that the present loan +statute is defective, but why, and in what manner +it is so. If these hints, facts, and arguments had +been addressed to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, +they could not have produced less visible effect; +and it was wonderfully amusing to find, that more +than half my brethren could not for the life of +them see what to everybody else was plain as a +pikestaff; so on we went in the well-beaten path, +steady as old Time himself, looking neither to +the right hand nor to the left, and, what is more +remarkable, never for one moment looking ahead. +Finally, at the beginning of October, came a paper +on 'Book-lending as practised at the Bodleian'; +and this proved to be the last straw; for on +October 30th, partly by words and partly by that +silence which gives consent, it was plainly intimated +that these papers were unwelcome. One +friend, and only one, had a good word to say for +them; so far as they contained collection of facts +he approved of them, but no further. As my little +experiment failed so lamentably, I am hardly likely +to repeat it, or to put so severe a strain on the good +nature and patience of my colleagues as ever again +to trouble them with a scrap of printed paper. +This puts me into a sort of quandary. I abhor +pen and ink, and should like to hold my tongue +and spare my pocket; but that is impossible as +things are. I cannot stand by and see men who<span class="pagenum">[v]</span> +know no better trying (with the best possible intentions) +to get the Bodleian on to an inclined +plane, down which it must rapidly slide to perdition, +without loudly protesting against their acts. +What then is to be done? Private feelings must +be respected, yet not so as to impede the performance +of a duty to the Library and to the +University. The atmosphere of a meeting is not +conducive to calm and rational discussion; I cannot +make speeches; the board does not relish +either facts or arguments in print. Only one +course remains then; whenever there is anything +to be said about the Bodleian or its management +(and there is much that ought to be, and must +be said sooner or later), it shall no longer be +privately printed and given away to unwilling +recipients, but published and sold. In this way +all parties will be satisfied: those who are interested +in the Library can buy; those who are not, can +protect themselves against annoyance. So much +by way of explanation.</p> + +<p>When at length the board determined to apply +for a new statute, and did in November what anybody +but ourselves would have done in June, the +hope was expressed that the statute would be +introduced at once, and then pushed through +Congregation and Convocation as rapidly as possible +in the present term; whereupon somebody +observed, that it would be just as well not to +hurry the business; and this seems to have been +the view adopted by Council.<span class="pagenum">[vi]</span></p> + +<p>If Convocation could only seize the full significance +and incalculable value to present and future +generations of a library of reference, a library, that +is, where, at all lawful times, every book deposited +in it should always be forthcoming in a moment, +it would at once see that from such a library no +lending whatever ought to be permitted, simply +because lending and deposit are practical contradictories; +and if Convocation could plainly see +this, it would make very short work of any statute +which legalized loans. There is no denying, however, +that in the present day the public mind, as +it is playfully called, and the University mind as +well, is in a wonderfully flabby condition. Nobody +seems to be thoroughly convinced of the unquestionable +truth, that every possible plan in this +world is open to objections more or less serious, +and so they go hunting about for a scheme that +shall embrace all good and exclude all evil; such +people are emphatically limp and unpractical. All +that is offered to our choice here below is a +lesser evil, and experience has proved over and +over again, that it is a lesser evil never to lend +a book out of such a library as the Bodleian, than +it is to lend one. But if the University in its +inscrutable wisdom should choose to do the wrong +thing, there are more ways than one of doing it,—</p> + +<p><span title="esthloi men gar haplôs, pantodapôs de kakoi."> +ἐσθλοὶ +μὲν +γὰρ +ἁπλῶς, +παντοδαπῶς +δὲ +κακοί.</span> +</p> + +<p>It might, for instance, confine the actual granting +of a loan to Convocation. If an application for +a book were made, the University might impose<span class="pagenum">[vii]</span> +on the Curators the duty of stating in writing their +reasons for advocating the loan, and Convocation +might determine to lend, if it judged those reasons +to be sound. This would be an approximation to +what was the law (though not by any means the +practice) prior to 1873; nor could it be described +as a retrograde step, unless the reformation of a +bad habit is necessarily a step backwards.</p> + +<p>If, however, the University resolves to copy the +practice of foreign libraries, it might be wise, first, +to appoint a small committee to discover and report +what that practice really is. If, like a mob of +monkeys, we are determined to imitate, it is just as +well that our imitation should be a good one, and +not a caricature.</p> + +<p>In either, or indeed in any, case some effectual +provision should be made for enforcing the statute; +it ought no longer to be possible for the Curators +to act with impunity as they have been in the habit +of acting for almost a quarter of a century.</p> + +<p>A good many of my friends are strong party +men of a more or less rabid type, and I hope +that they are well informed when they tell me that +this purely literary question about the Bodleian is +not going to be turned into one of those faction +fights, which occasionally disturb and disgrace this +place; but that each man will judge for himself, and +vote accordingly, without divesting himself of what +little reason he may happen to possess, and blindly +following a leader, who may know and care less about +the matter than he does himself. I hope that it<span class="pagenum">[viii]</span> +will be so, yet I have my doubts; for this vile spirit +of faction clings like the robe of Nessus to all who +have ever been weak enough, or wicked enough, +to yield to its temptations; and one side is just +as bad as the other. Whether Convocation can be +got to see the real question in these unlearned and +vulgar times may be questionable; at any rate, I +should have felt myself a traitor to Bodley, to +Oxford, and to learning itself, if I had not done +what little I could to prevent an act, which, if perpetrated, +must end, sooner or later, in the irreparable +damage, or the complete destruction of a library +intended by its founder to be a perpetual help to +all true scholars, an inexhaustible treasure-house of +learning to last as long as England itself.</p> + +<p class="author"> +H. W. C.</p> +<br /> +<p><i>Oxford,<br /> +Jan. 15th, 1887.</i></p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<span class="pagenum">[3]</span> + +<h2><i>Remarks on the Practice and Policy of lending +Bodleian Printed Books and Manuscripts.</i></h2> + +<p>Before offering any remarks on the policy of lending +books out of the Bodleian Library it may be well to give +a brief account of the practice of lending, so far as it +has been sanctioned there. From the foundation of the +Library down to 1873, though practised, it cannot be said +to have been sanctioned at all, except as regards certain +books given on the condition that they should be lent.</p> + +<p>On the 20th of June, 1610, a complete Bodleian Statute +was promulgated and confirmed in Convocation (Appendix +Statutorum, p. 5 sqq. ed. 1763). This statute was drawn +up by Sir Thomas Bodley himself, and the eighth section +of it—'de Libris extra Bibliothecam non ferendis, aut +ullo modo commodandis'—fully expresses his firm and +rooted detestation of book-lending. Bodley's own words, +of which the Latin statute is a literal translation, run +thus:—</p> + +<p>"And sith the sundry Examples of former Ages, as +well in this University, as in other Places of the Realm, +have taught us over-often, that the frequent Loan of +Books, hath bin a principal occasion of the Ruin and +Destruction of many famous Libraries; It is therefore +ordered and decreed to be observed as a Statute of irrevocable +Force, that for no Regard, Pretence, or Cause, +there shall at any time, any Volume, either of these +that are chained, or of others unchained, be given or lent, +to any Person or Persons, of whatsoever State or Calling, +upon any kind of Caution, or offer of Security, for his +faithful Restitution; and that no such Book or Volume +shall at any time, by any whatsoever, be carried forth +of the Library, for any longer space, or other uses, and<span class="pagenum">[4]</span> +Purposes, than if need so require, to be sold away for +altogether, as being superfluous or unprofitable; or changed +for some other of a better Edition; or being over-worn +to be new bound again, and immediately returned, from +whence it was removed. For the Execution whereof +in every Particular, there shall no Man intermeddle, but +the Keeper himself alone, who is also to proceed with +the Knowledge, Liking, and Direction of those Publick +Overseers, whose Authority we will notify in other Statutes +ensuing<a id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Reliquiæ Bodleianæ, p. 27.</p></div> + +<p>This statute has the great merit of being so plain and +clear, that no one could mistake its meaning. It was +further fenced about by the statute 'de materia indispensabili,' +Tit. X.§11.5, as explained in 'Barlow's Argument,' +p. 6. It was not totally and absolutely impossible +to borrow a book from the Bodleian, but it was only +Convocation, moved to the act in a solemn and specified +way, that could by any legal means lend it. From 1610 +to 1856, then, such was the law which everybody in the +University was bound to obey, and, as far as I can discover, +everybody did obey it, with the few exceptions that will +presently be mentioned.</p> + +<p>In 1624 William, Bishop of Lincoln, wished to borrow +a book, but was denied<a id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>. In 1628 Sir Thomas Roe gave +twenty-nine manuscripts, and "proposed that his books +should be permitted to be lent out for purposes of printing, +on proper security being given; a proposition which was +accepted by Convocation<a id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>." In 1629 the Earl of Pembroke +presented the Barocci Collection, and "he was willing +that the MSS. should, if necessary, be allowed to be +borrowed." Borrowed accordingly they were, and one +at least suffered irreparable injury in very early days<a id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>. +In 1634 we were presented with Sir Kenelm Digby's +splendid manuscripts: "the donor stipulated that they +should not be strictly confined to use within the walls +<span class="pagenum">[5]</span>of the Library;" but afterwards left the University to +treat them as it pleased<a id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>; so that they fell under the +general Bodleian Statute.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Barlow's Argument, p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Barlow, p. 10; Macray, Annals, p. 55.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 59.</p></div> + +<p>Between 1635 and 1640 came Laud's magnificent donations. +He "directs in his letter of gift, that none +of the books shall on any account be taken out of the +Library 'nisi solum ut typis mandentur, et sic publici +et juris et utilitatis fiant,' upon sufficient security, to +be approved by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors; the +MS. in such cases being immediately after printing restored +to its place in the Library<a id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>." This stipulation of Laud +should be carefully borne in mind, because it will be +found that of late years the Curators have not observed +the terms of the gift. Doubtless they did not know +what Laud's directions were; yet men who undertake +the office of trustees are bound to know their duties. +In 1636 the University refused leave to Laud himself, +who wished to borrow Rob. Hare's MS. <i>Liber Privilegiorum +Universitatis</i><a id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>. In 1645 Charles I, in ignorance of our +statutes, applied for a book and was refused; in 1654 +Cromwell wanted a book for the Portuguese Ambassador, +and was likewise refused<a id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>; and it is much to the credit +of both, that they not only acquiesced, but expressed +their approval of the Bodleian rule.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Barlow's Argument, p. 9.</p></div> + +<p>On August 29, 1654, a grace was passed in Convocation, +which permitted Selden to borrow MSS. from the collections +of Barocci, Roe, and Digby, provided he did not +have more than three at a time, and that he gave bond +in £100 (not £1000 as Hearne states<a id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>) for the return +of each of them within a year<a id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>. Barlow<a id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> declares that +this was illegal and null; and it may be observed in passing +that the whole history of the Selden bequest needs fresh +investigation. This same year that grand scholar's books +began to arrive in Oxford, and his executors stipulated, +<span class="pagenum">[6]</span>as a condition of the gift, that no book from his collection +should hereafter be lent to any person upon any condition +whatsoever. This also must by no means be forgotten, +because we shall by and by see the Curators again and +again strangely oblivious of the conditions on which the +University received these invaluable books.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Barlow's Argument, p. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Argument, p. 8.</p></div> + +<p>At the Visitation on Nov. 8, 1686, it was ordered that +notice be given that 'nullus in posterum quemlibet librum +aut volumen extra Bibliothecam asportet,' and that monition +be sent to every College and Hall for the return of +any books taken out within three days<a id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 109.</p></div> + +<p>In 1789 a lazy and incompetent Librarian, John Price, +is said to have lent the Rector of Lincoln a copy of Cook's +Voyages, presented to the Library by George III, telling +him that the longer he kept it the better, 'for if it +was known to be in the Library, he (Price) should be +perpetually plagued with enquiries after it<a id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>.' What the +Curators were about to permit such irregularities it is +difficult to imagine; at any rate here you had eight picked +men—Dr. Joseph Chapman, President of Trinity, Vice-Chancellor; +the two Proctors; Dr. Randolph, Professor of +Divinity, and afterwards successively Bishop of Oxford and +of Bangor; Dr. Vansittart, Professor of Civil Law; Dr. +Vivian, Professor of Medicine; Dr. Blayney, Professor +of Hebrew; William Jackson, Professor of Greek and +afterwards Bishop of Oxford:—they are men, citizens, +members of a learned corporation, trustees; they have +solemnly sworn by everything which they profess to hold +sacred, that they will faithfully observe the statutes; and +what was required of them? As much sense of duty as +you expect and commonly find in a watcher or a gamekeeper; +yet, till they were roused by the public protest +of Dr. Beddowes, they seem to have shewed no trace or +feeling of responsibility at all.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 198.</p></div> + +<p>Down to the year 1856 the Bodleian Curators were +eight in number, namely, the Vice-Chancellor, the two +<span class="pagenum">[7]</span>Proctors, and the Regius Professors of Divinity, Hebrew, +Greek, Medicine, and Civil Law. Eight is rather a large +number, and the larger any board is the weaker becomes +the sense of personal responsibility. No man feels that +he is answerable for anything, because he is sunk and +extinguished in a majority or a minority; and yet, without +a keen sense of personal responsibility, all business is +laxly and badly done, even when it is done at all. The +artificial privacy of our proceedings is also an evil. In +theory all our meetings are public, so far at least as +Convocation is concerned; in fact, they are private; yet, +if the University always knew not only what is done, +but who it is that does it; if our acts were duly published, +as they ought to be, in the University Gazette, probably +both board and University would be the better for it, +and it is certain that the affairs of the Library would be +none the worse.</p> + +<p>If Bodley argued that men who teach a subject are +necessarily acquainted with its literature, and are consequently +the fittest guardians and directors of a library, +he argued very badly, and in ignorance of facts. Ability +to teach a subject is one thing; knowledge of the literature +of that subject—such knowledge as is required in the +superintendents of a library—is a totally different thing. +The two may be indeed united, but very rarely are so. +A man, for instance, may be a finished Latin scholar +without ever having heard of Coster's Donatus, and without +being able to offer an opinion on that or on any of +the other editions in which Dutch libraries glory. Probably +not one man in fifty who reads the sentence which +I have just written will have the very remotest idea of +its true meaning; and if he has not, it will not follow +that he is a dunce, or that he is a poor Latinist; all +that follows is that he has much to learn before he is +fit to take any part in the management of a large library. +What is wanted, what in fact is necessary, is that sort +of knowledge which the Italian government proposes to +give to all employed in the libraries under its control.<span class="pagenum">[8]</span> +In Rome and in Florence a course of bibliographical +instruction and examination has lately been instituted. +The syllabus of the course, which is a very good one, +lies before me, and in it the subject is divided into six +parts: 1. Paleografia, 2. Bibliologia, 3. Bibliografia, 4. Biblioteconomia, +5. Amministrazione, 6. Lingue. The knowledge +required is neither recondite nor profound, yet I shudder +to think what the result would be were we Curators to +submit ourselves to the tender mercies of this Italian +board. To speak for myself, I should have faced such +an examination without the least trepidation some twenty +years ago; but now, though I have been trying to brush +up faded knowledge, I would not stake a single sixpence +on a favorable issue; and to judge from all I have seen +and heard during the last two years, I suspect that, though +a few might perhaps scramble through, the great majority +of us would emerge from the ordeal more completely +plucked than was the unhappy bird, which Diogenes introduced +to the astonished disciples with the words 'Here +is Plato's man!'</p> + +<p>In 1856 the University, probably suspecting that the +board as originally constituted was not the best that +could be devised, yet timidly shrinking from a radical +and salutary reform, endeavoured to improve matters by +a measure which, if it remedied one defect, unquestionably +increased another. It made a board already too large, +still larger by the addition of five members elected by +Congregation. In the course of thirty years fourteen +different men have been so elected. That all were properly +qualified to discharge the duties of their office no one +will assert who knows what those qualifications are. Why +they were chosen the University best knows. If Congregation +would but remember what a unique and priceless +treasure it possesses in this noble library, if it only knew +how easy it is for rashness and ignorance to damage and +to ruin it, how difficult it is even for knowledge to preserve +it, ability and willingness to serve it would be the +indispensable and the only qualifications demanded, and<span class="pagenum">[9]</span> +neither age nor rank, dignity, nor above all party, would +be for one moment taken into account. It may be remarked +that all the thirteen Curators very rarely attend +a meeting: in the course of the last two years such a +thing has happened once only; but a board, the members +of which attend intermittently, is apt to show signs of +discontinuity in its proceedings; and a firm, consistent +policy is as necessary in the management of a library as +it is in any other affair of life. What is wanted in +Curators is common sense, business capacity, and a special +knowledge of books. No one would dream of appointing +any man an inspector of locomotives on a railway, +unless he were thoroughly acquainted with the structure +and working of a locomotive, and capable, at a push, of +driving it himself: a large library is as complex as a +locomotive, and quite as difficult to manage effectively. +Experts, who are not so numerous as might be supposed, +will back me in this assertion; but Convocation must not +be astonished if it is hotly and contemptuously denied.</p> + +<p>The minutes of the Curators' Meetings begin on March +20, 1793, and, with a break of some four years when there +are none (from Nov. 26, 1849, to May 27, 1854), they +continue to the present time.</p> + +<p>On Dec. 7, 1803, four printed books were allowed to go +out of the Library 'for the use of the Clarendon Press, +to be returned when done with,' contrary to statute so +far as appears; and there was a somewhat similar transaction +on June 2, 1815.</p> + +<p>On Nov. 27, 1841, the sum of £500 was paid for the +Sanscrit MSS. of Prof. H. H. Wilson, who 'stipulated that +the Boden Professor of Sanscrit for the time being should +be allowed the privilege of borrowing MSS. (not more +than two volumes at one time), giving for them a receipt, +and engagement for their safe return.'</p> + +<p>In 1850 came the Government Commission. The Commissioners +have a good deal to say about the Bodleian, +which will be found in their Report made in 1852, p. 115 +sqq. I do not quote their remarks for a reason which<span class="pagenum">[10]</span> +appears to me valid. There were seven Commissioners +all told, and although they were very eminent persons, +there was not one amongst them, so far as I can discover, +who had any special knowledge of libraries, or of the +best way of managing them. Moreover, I myself heard +one of those seven Commissioners say, more than once +in the course of conversation, that he should think it +no particular misfortune if the Bodleian and its contents +were totally destroyed. Nor do I feel called upon to +incur the expense of reproducing <i>in extenso</i> the evidence +on which the Commissioners based their recommendations. +It may be sufficient to say that the following witnesses +were in favour of the lending system, some with restrictions +and some with hardly any:—the Rev. R. W. Browne; the +Rev. R. Walker; the Rev. B. Jowett; the Rev. W. H. +Cox; E. A. Freeman, Esq.; the Rev. H. Wall; the Rev. +R. Congreve; Sir E. Head; N. S. Maskelyne, Esq.; and +the Rev. J. Griffiths. It is not very easy to say whether +Prof. H. H. Wilson and Dr. Greenhill did or did not +belong to the lending party; but if they did, they proposed +such restrictions as would materially lessen the evil. Prof. +H. H. Vaughan (a most wordy person) wished to confine +the right of borrowing to the Professors. Against lending +were H. E. Strickland, Esq.; Prof. W. F. Donkin; the +Rev. R. Scott; Travers Twiss, Esq.; Dr. Macbride; the +Rev. E. S. Ffoulkes; and Dr. Phillimore: and I hope +nobody will be offended if I say that knowledge of books +and the way to use them is, as might be expected, very +much more conspicuous in those who oppose lending than +in those who advocate it. The Rev. R. W. Browne observes, +that 'probably manuscripts and such books as are unable +to be replaced should not be lent, because it would be +quite worth the while of those who wished to consult +them to visit the Library for that purpose.' It is not +often that one meets with so cogent a piece of reasoning, +and Mr. Browne's 'because' proves that he had studied +Logic with considerable benefit; he also thinks that the +system in the Public Library at Cambridge 'works well.'<span class="pagenum">[11]</span> +Another witness tells us that 'the experience of the Cambridge +University Library, and of many foreign libraries, +shews that this [i. e. lending under certain restrictions] +can be done without danger, and with small loss compared +to the immense benefit obtained by it.' Sir Edmund +Head also admires the Göttingen and Cambridge plan, +and avers that experience has proved that the risk of loss +and damage is groundless. How different are these airy +speculations from the hard facts of Mr. Bradshaw the +Cambridge Librarian, of the Librarian of the Advocates' +Library at Edinburgh, and of Mr. Panizzi (see below, +p. 50 sqq.); but then these gentlemen had the immense +and perhaps unfair advantage of knowing what they were +talking about.</p> + +<p>In 1853 a Report and Evidence upon the recommendations +of H. M.'s Commissioners was presented to the Heads of +Houses. "The Committee think that the opportunity +at present allowed for lending books in <i>special cases</i>, by +permission of Convocation, is sufficient to meet extreme +cases; and that it is unnecessary to give power to the +Curators to lend books from the Library."</p> + +<p>Dr. Pusey's evidence (p. 172) is that of a man who +knows something of books, and he points out how very +fallacious is Sir E. Head's reference to the Göttingen +Library, which is altogether of a different character from +the Bodleian. "In 1825 it consisted almost entirely of +modern books, and whatever accessions it may since have +had, it cannot, like the Bodleian, have any large proportion +of books, which, if lost, could not be replaced." Dr. Pusey +is strongly against lending Bodleian books; but how little +of principle there was in his objection will be seen further +on, where we shall find him more than once advocating +loans. The Rev. C. Marriott is also, on very sensible +grounds, against lending; yet it should in common fairness +be known that he borrowed a most valuable manuscript +out of Oriel College Library, and died with it in his +possession. It was nearly sent to Africa by his executors, +and was at last, together with other books, actually <i>given</i><span class="pagenum">[12]</span> +(in all innocence of course) to Bradfield College, from +which establishment Oriel at last retrieved it; so that +in his case, as in that of Dr. Pusey, excellent principles +were joined to very loose practice.</p> + +<p>Dr. Bandinel, Bodley's Librarian, gives evidence which +is short and sweet. "However weighty some reasons may +appear, the evidence materially preponderates against +lending books out of the Library. I need only quote +one great authority, that of Niebuhr," which he does; +the passage is given below, p. 49. Dr. Bandinel also +adds, "I have had a long conversation with the Librarian +of the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, who stated, that +upon comparing the books in that Library with their +different Catalogues previous to the formation of a new +Catalogue, it was found that owing to the practice of +lending books from the Library they had lost upwards +of 6000, indeed very near 7000 works." Evidence, p. 325; +an instructive comment on the lending system.</p> + +<p>About this time, however, 'University Reform,' the +true meaning of which most of us here know, was in +the air, and on May 22, 1856, the old Library Statutes +were abolished and an entirely new one enacted. Bodley's +own statute against letting books go out of the Library +was of course abrogated. That Convocation still retained +the right to lend is beyond question; but did anybody +else, Curators or Librarian, acquire the right to +do so? That the University did not intend to convey +any such right seems perfectly clear; for the 11th clause +of the new statute (which is identical with the present +statute, Tit. XX. iii. § 11, paragraphs 1 to 6) is headed +"De libris extra Bibliothecam ad tempus detinendis, <i>aut +etiam</i> efferendis." Now whoever says '<i>or even</i> to have them +taken out,' and then proceeds to order whither they shall be +taken, namely to the Camera, forbids by implication their +removal from the Library on any other terms, or to any +other place than those expressly mentioned. That the +University, whatever its intentions may have been, did +not as a matter of fact convey the right to any one is<span class="pagenum">[13]</span> +obvious from the statute itself; and as the Curators never +at any time possessed the right of lending books, it is +equally plain that they could not acquire it without an +express commission from the University. That the Curators +themselves were of this opinion is clear from a resolution +of theirs arrived at on Oct. 29, 1859, more than three +years after the statute was passed. I should say that +in the interval no loan was sanctioned by Convocation, +or, so far as appears, even applied for. On Oct. 29, 1859, +nine Curators being present, 'The Vice-Chancellor mentioned +the desire of the Rev. Mr. —— to be allowed +to have books out of the Bodleian Library for the purposes +of study by Grace of Convocation. The Curators resolved:—That +it was not expedient that such a proposition +should be made to Convocation.' The Curators, or a +majority of them, did not dream of arrogating to themselves +the power of lending, and they, as well as the +applicant, assume as self-evident that books could not be +borrowed. Books could be sent to the Camera; they +could not go elsewhere without the sanction of Convocation. +The new statute then did not make lending +(except by Convocation) lawful, nor was there any intention +to make it lawful.</p> + +<p>That same year, on Nov. 8, a Curator gave notice +that he would move:—'That Books and MSS. be taken +out of the Bodleian Library under special conditions with +consent of the Curators;' that is, according to my view +of the case, he gave notice of a motion to take by force +and illegally a power which the University had not +given; but it does not appear by the minutes that any +such motion was actually made.</p> + +<p>On Oct. 25, 1860, 'leave was granted by Convocation for +the lending two Laud Manuscripts, 561 and 563, being +copies of the <i>Historia Hierosoylmitana</i>, by Albert of +Aix, to the French Government<a id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>.' Of this loan there is, +I believe, no trace in the minutes, but it is one more +<span class="pagenum">[14]</span>proof that the Curators, or a majority of them, did not +believe either in their right or in their power to lend +books. Whether Convocation lent these two Laudian +manuscripts under bond duly approved, and for the purposes +of publication, Mr. Macray does not state; but it +looks very much as if the University was just as ignorant +of its obligations as the Curators of a later date were of +theirs.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Macray, Annals, p. 295.</p></div> + +<p>On Feb. 4, 1862, a man applied for a printed book, +which he wanted for a law case in which he was engaged; +the result was this:—"Resolved—That, there being nothing +in the present statutes to forbid the exercise of the discretion +of the Curators in such a case, the book in question +be lent, under such securities and with such precautions as +the Librarian may deem necessary." Let any man read the +eleventh and twelfth sections of the present Bodleian +Statute (identical, so far as the present question is concerned, +with that of 1856), and he will see that no discretion +is left to the Curators at all; there is no hint, however +faint, of "such a case." In 1862, Feb. 4, the Curators +assume that they have a power to lend books; on Nov. 7 +of the same year they go a step further, for they leave it +'to the discretion of the Librarian to lend, if he shall deem +fit, a certain MS. to the Belgian Government.' Having +themselves no power to lend, they authorise the Librarian +to lend if he chooses.</p> + +<p>In 1863, Feb. 17, notice was given of the following +motion:—'That on application from the Professors teaching +at the Museum the Bodley Librarian be empowered to lend, +for a limited time, any books bearing on the subjects there +taught that are wanted by the Students at the Museum; +the books to be returned at the end of each term:' and +on March 17 of the same year this motion was carried +with certain alterations, 'and it was resolved that it should +be referred to the Council with a view on their approval +of obtaining the sanction of Convocation'; in other words, +the Curators acknowledged that Convocation could lend, +and that they themselves could not lawfully do so.<span class="pagenum">[15]</span></p> + +<p>In 1859 the Curators, or a majority of them, are clear +that they have no power to lend: in 1862 they assume +that they have the power, moreover they exercise it, and +they authorise the Librarian to lend a MS. to the Belgian +Government; yet on Feb. 16, 1864, they appear to disclaim +this power, for they resolve, 'That it be proposed to Convocation +to lend three Icelandic MSS.—to the Icelandic +Society in Copenhagen at the request of the Danish +Minister.' They either had the power to lend, or they +had not: if they had, this application to Convocation was +unnecessary; if they had not, they had been occupied for +some time in the not very dignified employment of ignoring +a statute which it was their peculiar duty to observe.</p> + +<p>On April 20, 1864, Dr. Pusey most inconsistently moves +that a Syriac MS. be lent; and on May 11 lent it was.</p> + +<p>In 1865, March 11, a foreigner has leave 'to borrow +Arabian MSS., provided the application for the use thereof +be made through the Saxon Minister, and a bond for £50 +entered into for the safe return.'</p> + +<p>On June 3, 'the use of Manuscripts 169—187 was +granted on the application of Lord John Russell to the +French Government for the use of the Imprimerie of Paris +[<i>sic</i>] for two months.'</p> + +<p>In 1866 the Curators lent manuscripts to the University +Library of Göttingen; and in 1868, Jan. 31, 'it was +resolved to lend MS. Selden B. 31 to the Prussian +Government.' Ye Gods and Goddesses! We only got +Selden's books at all by consenting to the condition that +they never should be lent under any circumstances whatever; +and here we have five Curators, 'all honorable +men,' quietly sending off one of Selden's manuscripts to +Germany. On March 21st of the same year, three Curators +send off another of Selden's MSS. to London. In 1868 an +application for the loan of four Hebrew manuscripts was +granted, and apparently they went to a private house. +On Feb. 9, 1869, two Curators, one being Dr. Pusey, 'were +requested to act in the matter of the loan of Hebrew MSS. +<span class="pagenum">[16]</span>to Mr. —— of —— College, Cambridge.' On April 17 of +the same year a Laudian MS. was lent to Mr. ——; +there is not a syllable in the minutes about a bond, +though that was absolutely necessary, nor any statement +that the book was required for the purpose of publication; +Laud's stipulations are quietly, and no doubt +ignorantly broken under the presidency of the Vice-Chancellor. +From this time loans are perpetually being made; +and at least six manuscripts other than those mentioned +above were lent this year. At one meeting (May +22) the whole business was the granting of loans. In +1870 fifteen MSS. at least were lent, including one of +Douce's—poor fellow! he little dreamt of the fate in +store for his lovely books. One MS. out of the archives +was sent to Philadelphia! In 1871 some thirty manuscripts +were lent; many to private hands; others to Berlin, +Cambridge, and Philadelphia. Not content with these +exploits, the Curators positively sent the 39th volume +of the Camden Society's publications to Rouen! In +1872 nearly thirty manuscripts were lent: one 'subject +to the approval of the Librarian,' thus granting to him +concurrent authority with themselves. These books went +some to private persons; others to Cambridge, London, +Leyden, Berlin, Munster, Leipzic, Kiel, Philadelphia, and +elsewhere. The manuscript sent to Munster was an old +English book of Laud's; there was no bond, nor is there +any hint that it was lent for publication. Besides manuscripts +they lent printed books, amongst the rest Tyndale's +New Testament of 1534! This portentous act was perpetrated +on May 25th, 1872; and the same day there appears +this entry on the minutes: 'In reference to applications +for loans during the Long Vacation, it was agreed, on +the suggestion of the Librarian, that he be empowered +in urgent cases, with the assent of two Curators, to grant +loans during the Long Vacation'; an utterly illegal resolution +not rescinded till 1886.</p> + +<p>For ten years, ever since 1862, the Curators had been +lending, on their own authority, and without a shadow +of statutable right, manuscripts and printed books to<span class="pagenum">[17]</span> +persons in Oxford and other parts of England, as well +as to foreign countries: will it be believed that on +Feb. 8, 1873, the Librarian was asked to state his opinion +as to 'the lending of books out of the Library under +proper restrictions;' and that on Feb. 28 of the same +year, 'it was agreed that the Curators should proceed +by statute to take power to order the lending out of +books under certain restrictions'? Why this was the +very thing they had been doing for years past; and +now by agreeing 'to proceed by statute' they plainly +declare their opinion that for all those years they had +been doing something for which they had no statutable +warrant. However, they drew up a draft statute which +was laid before Council, and Council promptly 'struck +out the proposal to lend books out of the Library;' +whereupon on March 8th, 1873, one of the Curators moved +'that Council be requested to insert a provision that books +be lent out from evening to morning. This was agreed +to'. On which resolution I shall make no remark, for +fear my pen might run away with me; but most people +will be able to supply that comment which I refrain +from making.</p> + +<p>This very year 1873 they lent the York Missal, unless +in the judgment of the Librarian 'too valuable to be +lent out of the Library': there is a touch of modesty +in this which disarms me, otherwise I could say something +very true, but very unpleasant. The same year +an application was made for one of the Douce MSS., +but 'by reason of regulations as to Douce MSS. this +was refused.' What regulations these were it would be +interesting to know, for I cannot discover that there are +at present any regulations, at all events in writing.</p> + +<p>At length the Curators obtained their desire. On +March 25, 1873, a form of statute was proposed by one +Head of a House and seconded by another, and on +May 2, 1873, it was carried without a division in the +following shape: (Tit. XX. iii. § 11. 10.) Liceat Curatoribus, +sicut mos fuit, libros impressos et manuscriptos,<span class="pagenum">[18]</span> +scientiæ causa, viris doctis sive Academicis sive externis +mutuari: that is to say, <i>Let it be lawful for the Curators, +as the custom has been, to borrow books printed and manuscript +in the interest of knowledge for learned men, whether +Members of the University or not</i>. A board of grave +and learned men—<i>viri variis doctrinis et literis imbuti</i>, +as the statute says—wish to do openly, what they had +been in the habit of doing, as it would appear, unknown +to Council, and against its wishes (for it 'struck out +the proposal to lend books out of the Library'): there +is something droll in that, but it is nothing to what +came of it. They petition for leave to <i>lend</i>, walk off +perfectly contented with a permission to <i>borrow</i>, and nobody +sees the joke! 'Reform' seems not only to have +impaired our knowledge of Latin, but to have diminished +our sense of the ridiculous—a most dolorous result. That +Convocation intended by this strangely worded statute to +convey to the Curators the power to <i>lend</i> books is beyond +question; it is equally beyond question that it conveyed +the power to <i>borrow</i> them, for in good Latin and in +our statute Latin alike, <i>mutuari</i> means not to lend, but +to borrow, as every Latin Dictionary from the Hortus +Vocabulorum down to Lewis and Short testifies; and +as to our statute Latin we find: quantum magister ... +potest de cista de Guildeforde mutuari (Anstey, p. 99); +quod magister regens mutuari possit quadraginta solidos +(<i>ibid.</i> p. 132); de eadem mutuari poterit ad usum suum +proprium.... quinque marcas (<i>ibid.</i> p. 338). As <i>mutuari</i> +is correctly used in the barbarous language of our old +statutes, so is it in the more polished Latinity of the +Laudian code, in which the word occurs once, and I +think only once, and as the devil of mischief will have +it, in the Bodleian Statute itself, where 'e cista D. Thomæ +Bodley mutuari' means 'to borrow from Sir Thomas +Bodley's chest'. The meaning of the word then is clear +beyond dispute, and what it means in one part of the +statutes it must mean in another. There is plenty of +barbarous Latin in our statute book, but in every case<span class="pagenum">[19]</span> +it is justified or excused by long usage, or by the fact +that other learned bodies have constantly used the same +or similar language; but the statute of 1873 is probably +the only one either in ancient or modern times, where +without necessity, without precedent, and without warning, +a word which means and always has meant one thing +is used under the erroneous impression that it means +another, and that not by schoolboys, but by their elders. +A statute, however, means what it plainly says: with +the intentions of a legislative body we have no concern +except in so far as they are clearly expressed, and every +prudent judge knows what grave evils spring from neglect +of this principle of interpretation. (See Dwarris On +Statutes, p. 580 sqq.)</p> + +<p>Whether this statute really gives the power to lend +may be disputed. On the one hand it may be said, +that those who borrow a book <i>for</i> learned men may do +what they like with it, and may therefore lend it. At +first sight this seems probable and reasonable, but the +more it is thought of the less probable does it appear. +On the other hand it may be said, that since the statute +does not plainly and expressly give the Curators the +power to lend, they have no power to do so at all. Be +that as it may, no such scruples troubled the minds of +the Curators; every one seems to have been completely +mesmerised, and this singular statute was straightway put +in practice after a fashion; for on June 23, 1873, 'an +application from Professor —— was considered, asking +for loan of such books or MSS. as he might require, +at the discretion of the Librarian, under the provisions of +§11, ch. 10 of the Bodleian amended statute, during the +present vacation. Mr. —— and Mr. —— made similar +applications. It was agreed to accede to the request in the +case of the three applicants respectively'; that is to say, +within a few days of the passing of the statute it is broken. +The Curators do not agree to borrow books for the applicants, +the only thing the statute allowed them to +do; the statute says not one word about the discretion<span class="pagenum">[20]</span> +of the Librarian, nor does it allow the Curators in this +case to leave anything to it: in the buying of books +(Stat. XX. iii. § 4, 4) they may leave much to his +discretion, but nowhere else is any such permission given: +so the Curators took it. They did not do what the statute +says they may do, and they did do what no statute permits +them to do; and as they began that day, so have they +continued to this moment. No change is made in the +minutes. Before as well as after the passing of this statute +the form always is 'applications for loans,' or some equivalent +phrase. In 1873 a dozen MSS. or more, besides +printed books, including the Hereford Missal! were lent +exactly as before, some to private persons, some to libraries, +and they went to Leeds, Cambridge, Utrecht, Kiel, +Berlin, &c.</p> + +<p>In 1874 more than twenty MSS. were lent to Jena, +Cambridge, Marburg, Vienna (two of the Junius collection +were sent there), and to private hands. In 1875 MSS. +were sent to St. Petersburg, Bonn, Vienna, Paris, Cambridge, +Edinburgh, Konigsberg, Heidelberg, and some to +private houses; three printed books also were lent, without +a shadow of reason so far as can be seen, to a gentleman +residing in the Temple.</p> + +<p>On Oct. 30 two of the sub-librarians applied 'for the +privilege of taking books out of the Library. Their application +was agreed to upon the terms stated in the minutes +of June 23, 1873, in the case of a similar application +from others.'</p> + +<p>And here it should be noticed that all the loans do +not by any means necessarily appear in the minutes. Owing +to the illegal resolution of the Curators of May 25, 1872, +(see above, p. 16,) no loans during the Long Vacation are +there entered. Moreover, at some time unknown to me +the Librarian was quietly permitted to let certain persons +borrow books at his discretion, and there at last grew up, +it is to be presumed, with the knowledge of the Curators, +what the Library officials call the Borrowers' List, and what +after a time appears in the minutes as 'the privileged<span class="pagenum">[21]</span> +list.' As every one can see, there is nothing whatever in +the statute to justify all this.</p> + +<p>I do not for one moment mean to charge the Curators +with doing anything which they thought to be improper +or beyond their discretion; but I do most distinctly charge +them with having in fact exceeded their statutable powers, +and with taking the law into their own hands, all, I doubt +not, with the best and most innocent intentions. Unfortunately +some of the most mischievous acts in the world +have been done with the best and purest intentions. Like +all other members of the University the Curators have +promised to observe the statutes, and the Vice-Chancellor +and Proctors have not only done that, but have solemnly +pledged themselves to see that the statutes are observed, +and are moreover armed with power to enforce them. +If statutes are absurd, it is clearly the duty of those +who control legislation in this place to get them abolished +or amended without delay; if they are not absurd, all +are bound to obey them. As regards the Bodleian +there is a special order (XX. iii. § 12. 3) directing the +Curators what to do with an imperfect statute, and how +to do it; but it is one thing to make a statute; it +is a very different thing to get people to obey it. No +one who sees the ease with which statutes are made +and unmade, can doubt, that if those of the Bodleian +are defective in any respect, it needs but a word from +one or two members of Council to have all defects +remedied. If the Curators want fresh powers, or more +discretion, and greater latitude of action than they are +at present allowed, they have but to ask and obtain; +but I protest most vehemently against the usurpation +of powers not granted by the University as a thing +<i>pessimi exempli</i>. If the Bodleian Curators are to do +exactly as they like, the University might just as well +spare itself the trouble of legislation. If the University +deliberately chooses to have its statutes nullified, there +is, I suppose, no help for it; yet I cannot but suspect +that the University has no knowledge—at all events no<span class="pagenum">[22]</span> +clear and distinct knowledge—of the way in which we +have dealt with the statutes which were intended to +mark out our duties. The secret growth of 'the borrowers' +list' is as singular a thing as is to be found +in the history of the Bodleian. The Curators and the +Curators alone have, by a statute of their own devising, +a right to borrow; yet the late Librarian assumed to +himself the right of naming persons who are to have the +privilege of borrowing, and the Curators quietly allowed +it, without, as I believe, the faintest suspicion that they +were doing what was wrong.</p> + +<p>In 1876 eleven MSS. went some to private persons, others +to Augsburg, Paris, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Cambridge: +the book sent to Augsburg without bond, and without +guarantee for publication, was one of Laud's Greek MSS. +On June 24 an application 'from Mr. —— for use of +books at home during Vacation' was 'assented to.' In +1877 some fourteen or fifteen MSS. were sent to +Heidelberg, Paris, Cambridge, London, Rome, Copenhagen, +Munich, Marburg, besides printed books: the +book sent to Munich was one of Laud's, again in total +defiance of all his stipulations.</p> + +<p>In 1878 a dozen MSS., or more, went to different people, +to Bonn, to Pesth, Leyden, and Rostock, besides printed +books: one book with illuminations was refused, 'as being +one of a class not lent out.' I have before observed that +I know of no written rules at all. On Oct. 26 of this +year the Curators surpassed themselves, for there was an +application 'from the Rev. ——, Fellow of —— College, +for permission to borrow works from the Library to be +taken to his rooms. In this matter it was agreed that +power to act on the clause 10, § 11 of the Bodleian +Statute <i>be delegated</i> by the Curators to the Librarian.' +There were ten Curators present on this memorable occasion. +The Curators are themselves delegates, and if they had the +right to delegate to the Librarian the power which the +University delegated to them, then what is sauce for the +goose is sauce for the gander: if the Curators <i>mero motu</i><span class="pagenum">[23]</span> +may delegate their powers, the Librarian may with equal +right and equal reason delegate his, and so on <i>in infinitum</i>, +to the utter ruin of all sense of responsibility.</p> + +<p>It would be tedious to enumerate all the loans; suffice +it to say that they have gone on year after year; and +from this point I shall only mention a few notable cases.</p> + +<p>On May 31, 1879, 'the request of Professor —— to +borrow printed books from the Library was granted.' Considering +that only seven months before, the Curators had +resolved 'to delegate' their lending powers to the Librarian, +it is strange that they did not refer the applicant straight +to that official.</p> + +<p>In 1880, June 11, a Selden MS. was ordered to Paris; +ten Curators were present, and it is to be presumed that +not one of them knew, what he was bound to know, +namely, the special stipulation made with respect to all +Selden's books.</p> + +<p>On Oct. 29, 1880, the Junior Proctor gave notice of +the following motion:—'That in the case of MSS. sent +out on loan to persons resident within the United Kingdom, +a pecuniary bond shall be executed by the person +to whom such MS. is lent, of such value as shall be +determined from time to time by the Curators, unless +the MS. is sent for use only within the precincts of the +British Museum, or some other approved Public Library.' +On Nov. 27 this motion was made and lost.</p> + +<p>In 1881, June 4, 'an application from —— for the +use of books dealing with the subject of Biblical Chronology +at his own house appeared to the Curators to +fall under the provisions of the Statute XX. iii. § 11, +10; the Librarian exercising discretion as to the number +of volumes issued.' On Oct. 26, 1878, not three years +before, the Curators formally 'delegated' their powers +to the Librarian; on May 31, 1879, they assume that +they possess what they have 'delegated'; and here they +do the same thing, and all this without any formal and +solemn resumption by them of their 'delegated' powers. +<span class="pagenum">[24]</span>On Oct. 29, 1881, it was reported that Professor —— of +Cambridge had not returned a manuscript borrowed <i>four +years</i> before, and the Vice-Chancellor was requested to +communicate with the Professor in the matter. The +manuscript never has been, and in all probability never +will be restored, and our only consolation must be the +fact that it was a transcript of another manuscript in +the Bodleian, not on that account necessarily of little +value, for a transcript may, and sometimes does, become +of inestimable value; why it does so, all acquainted with +books know.</p> + +<p>In 1882, Feb. 11, a Laudian MS. was ordered to Heidelberg, +and a Selden MS. to St. Petersburg. On Dec. 2, +1882, 'it was agreed that Mr. ——, Fellow of —— +be one of the persons privileged to take out books. +It was agreed that the Librarians be allowed to take +out books and MSS. for their own use.'</p> + +<p>In 1883, Jan. 27, the Librarian suggested 'that all +Fellows and ex-Fellows of Colleges should be entitled +to have books out of the Library'; the suggestion was +not adopted. On the same day, 'Mr. —— (—— +College) and Dr. —— were placed on the list of +persons specially entitled.' On March 3 of the same +year, 'Dr. Frankfurter's application to be placed on the +privileged list of borrowers was assented to.' There we +have it at last, in black and white—<i>the privileged list +of borrowers</i>, as unstatutable and as illegal a thing as +could well be permitted. The words '<i>let it be lawful for +the Curators to borrow books for learned men</i>,' (always +supposing the Latin not to be downright nonsense,) cannot +convey to the Curators the power to let other people +borrow books; for if they could, then any words may +have any meaning, which comes to the same thing as +saying that they have no meaning at all. Yet it is on +these words, and on these words alone, that the 'borrowers' +list' has been made to depend; though how educated +men can have extracted from this statute any meaning +whatever which would justify, or even seem, in the most +distant way, to justify the act of conveying to others<span class="pagenum">[25]</span> +the power to borrow books from the library is one of the +most astonishing things that I ever met with in the whole +course of my life. But it will be said that the Bodleian +Curators for thirteen years understood <i>mutuari</i> to mean +'lend', and therefore they might institute a 'borrowers' +list'. It is an astonishing, not to say staggering, fact +that they did so understand it, yet the borrowers' list is +none the less illegal. Nay, I have heard a Curator in +his place maintain, that as there could be no doubt what +the University intended when it passed this statute, <i>mutuari</i> +in this place must mean 'lend'. Much as I admired +the boldness of the assertion, I was unable to commend +either the law or the logic of it; the consequences which +would at once follow from the position, that if the intentions +of a legislative body are clear it matters not how +it expresses them, are too palpably absurd to find acceptance +with ordinary minds. However, let it be supposed, +that instead of <i>mutuari</i> the word actually used were +<i>commodare</i>. You are still no better off. The University +on this hypothesis gives to the Curators as a board the +power of lending a specific book to a specific person, +and that is all. It does not give the Curators the power +to invest any person or persons with the right or privilege +of borrowing books, still less does it convey the power +of creating a class of persons who have such a right or +privilege. This is not only clear to plain common sense, +but, as I am advised, is plain as a matter of law; and +I am further assured that, if any book is damaged or +lost in consequence of the Curators persisting in such +a course, they become themselves personally liable to the +University.</p> + +<p>This illegal borrowers' list comprises at this moment +(subtracting one dead man and double entries) one hundred +and eleven persons, besides the Clarendon Press. Among +these persons are two ladies, who can have no conceivable +right to be where they are, for even those whose tolerant +Latinity suffers them to take <i>mutuari</i> for <i>commodare</i> will +hardly maintain that '<i>viris doctis</i>' covers learned women.<span class="pagenum">[26]</span> +It includes too non-residents and foreigners; and I am +informed that manuscripts have been sent for the use of +one of these persons more than a hundred miles as the crow +flies. Books are sent by post, and Bodleian money is +spent to pay for carriage. The finances of the Library, +however, deserve a paper all to themselves, and some day +they shall have one.</p> + +<p>On May 26, 1883, 'an application from Dr. Leumann +to be placed on the privileged list was agreed to.' On +Oct. 20, of the same year, two persons were 'placed on +the privileged list of readers;' and on Nov. 24, another +'was placed on the privileged list;' and from that moment +to the present no other formula is employed in the minutes.</p> + +<p>In 1885, Oct. 31, the Librarian applied 'for authority +to decline requests for loans of Selden MSS. and books, +and of Laud's MSS. (except for purposes of publication), +without referring the application to the Curators, as being +contrary to the terms of the respective donations. This +was agreed to.' It was, and to my great astonishment it +passed without any remark whatever.</p> + +<p>In 1886, March 13, 'Liceat Curatoribus' was ruled +to mean 'the consent of a majority of Curators;' that +is to say, the illegal resolution of May 25, 1872, was +silently rescinded. On May 15 of the same year a committee +of four was appointed to consider the practice of +loans. At a meeting on June 19, another name was +added to the borrowers' list. Every Curator knew that +the legality of their practice with respect to loans, and +especially with respect to the borrowers' list, had been +openly challenged; notwithstanding this, and in spite of +protest then and there made, the chairman put the name +to the vote, and a majority actually voted for it. This +proceeding was, in my opinion (and not in mine only), +irregular and improper to say the least of it, but it was +highly characteristic. After waiting to see whether the +Vice-Chancellor or any other Curator would call attention +to the charge brought against the board, and finding, as +I was sure would be the case, that no one shewed any<span class="pagenum">[27]</span> +disposition to do so, I gave notice of a motion for the +next statutable meeting:—<i>That the borrowers' list be +abolished as illegal; that all books in the hands of borrowers +be at once recalled as having been illegally lent; +and that for the future the Statute XX. iii. § 11. 10 be +faithfully observed.</i></p> + +<p>On June 28 it was agreed (I being silent for an obvious +reason) that during the Vacation all the Curators in Oxford +should meet every fortnight in the Library at 2 p.m. +solely to consider applications for loans. During the +Vacation six such meetings were summoned. On July 10, +three Curators met and refused an application; on Aug. 21, +and on Sept. 11, only two were present, and of course +declined to act; on Sept. 25, and Oct. 9, I, who attended +all the meetings, found myself alone; on Oct. 23, there +were six of us, and business was adjourned on the ground +that the whole question of loans would be debated on +Oct. 30. Accordingly, on Oct. 30, <i>all</i> the Curators made +their appearance, a thing I never saw before, though they +were not all present during the whole of the proceedings. +The motion to abolish the borrowers' list was duly made +and seconded; then, after some confused talk, which could +not be dignified by the name of a debate, an amendment +was moved, 'That the consideration of the regulations +under which books <i>be lent</i> be referred to a committee'; +and this was carried, all the Curators being present. An +instruction to the committee was also moved, 'To consider +what alteration is required in the statute with regard to +the borrowing of books'; which was also carried. Next +we considered the report of the committee on loans, and +returned it in a somewhat mangled condition to the reconsideration +of those who drew it up. After that, applications +for loans numbered 1 to 16 were discussed, +and <i>all</i> were refused. This exhausted the agenda paper, +and should, I apprehend, have finished the business of the +day. However, an application for the loan of manuscripts +<i>not</i> on the agenda paper was considered, and the board, +which up to that moment had refused all applications,<span class="pagenum">[28]</span> +including one from Sir Richard Burton, granted the loan +of <i>seventeen</i> manuscripts to <i>one</i> man. In self-defence, +let me say that I always vote against all loans when +there is a division.</p> + +<p>On Nov. 8 the loan committee recommended that Council +be asked to propose amendments in Stat. Tit. XX. sect. iii. +§ 11, and thought that 'the farther consideration of the rules +framed by them and amended at the Curators' meeting on +Oct. 30 should for the present be postponed.' On Nov. 25, +ten Curators being present, this recommendation was considered. +One of the Curators thought that while there was +'no harm' in applying for a new statute, yet that it was +'a waste of time' and 'a little ridiculous': another wished +to move an amendment and have the new statute in <i>English</i>, +but some of us saw (though no one said so) that such an +amendment would be a highly comic confession on the +part of the <i>viri variis doctrinis et literis imbuti</i>; and +accordingly it was not pressed. Then the same Curator +proposed that <i>commodare</i> should be substituted for <i>mutuari</i>, +and that <i>sicut mos fuit</i> should be struck out. Four voted +for this amendment, which was lost. Even had it been +carried, it would still have been unlawful to lend books +to women, for, as was pointed out at the time, <i>vir</i> means +<i>a man</i>; but the minority was in no mood to be affected +by philological facts. The original recommendation was +then passed.</p> + +<p>The board having thus expressed its opinion that a +new statute was necessary to enable it to lend books had, +it might be thought, asserted that the existing statute +does not enable it to do so; accordingly we at once turned +our attention to applications for loans. The first article +applied for was not a book at all, but an inscribed bronze +vessel; and it was observed that we have no statutable right, +in other words no power whatever, to lend such a thing; +whereupon some one remarked that it might be done, <i>because +it is not forbidden</i>, an argument, which (if valid) +would lead to some startling conclusions.</p> + +<p>However, that a decree of Convocation to authorise the<span class="pagenum">[29]</span> +loan of this vessel should be asked for was duly moved +and seconded; then the Curator, who wished to patch +the Bodleian Latin statute with a bit of English, moved +as an amendment 'that the Curators lend it', quite ignoring +the fact that they had no statutable power to do so. +For this amendment three Curators voted, one abstained, +and the rest voted against it: finally the original motion +was carried. After that, two loans of books were refused +and three were granted.</p> + +<p>In applying for a decree to enable them to lend this +vessel the Curators turned over a new leaf. The whole +Bodleian statute consists of ten octavo pages, eleven lines +and four words: it can be read out aloud in thirty +minutes, and by eye alone in half that time: there is, +therefore, no excuse whatever for not knowing its contents, +and still less for not obeying it. It is not my purpose +at the present moment to point out how often, and in +how many ways, we drive a coach and four through statutes +intended to control our actions; but to complete the +subject of loans, and dismissing the practice of book-lending +from further consideration, it may be noted that the +Stat. XX. iii. § 11. 9 allows the Curators under specified +conditions to place certain prints and drawings either in +the Radcliffe or in the Taylor Building; but with this +exception, if exception it be, no power is anywhere given +to them to lend any picture, coin, antiquity, or other +object belonging to the library. Nevertheless I find the +following entries in the minutes:—</p> + +<p>On April 26, 1865, 'it was agreed to lend "Miniatures" +to the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education +to be exhibited in the South Kensington Museum.'</p> + +<p>On Oct. 28, 1865, 'the Curators sanction the loan of +such Pictures as may be desired for the National Exhibition +of Portraits at Kensington in 1866.'</p> + +<p>On Dec. 12, 1865, 'that the loan of the Pictures according +to the list sent, save that of Sir Thomas Bodley, be granted +to South Kensington Museum Exhibition of National +Portraits.'<span class="pagenum">[30]</span></p> + +<p>On March 8, 1867, 'a letter from the Secretary of the +Earl of Derby was read asking for the loan of eighteen +Pictures for exhibition at Kensington. This was acceded +to.'</p> + +<p>On Jan. 31, 1868, 'it was resolved ... to lend to the +Leeds Exhibition the Portraits they wish of Yorkshire +Worthies.'</p> + +<p>On Feb. 5, 1870, 'an application from Mr. Cosmo Innis, +of the General Register house, Edinburgh, for the loan +of the old map of Britain of the 14th century, which +hangs on the wall of the Library, to be traced in facsimile, +under the care of Sir Henry James, for the 2nd volume +of the National MSS. of Scotland, was granted.'</p> + +<p>On Feb. 14, 1874, 'an application from the South +Kensington Museum was read, asking for the loan of +remarkable specimens of Book-binding for next year's +International Exhibition. In this matter it was agreed +that the Museum should be invited to send a person +to Oxford to inspect, and that it should be left to the +discretion of the Librarian to decide upon lending any +specimen required.'</p> + +<p>On April 28, 1877, 'an application from Mr. Blades +[<i>sic</i>] on behalf of Caxton memorial committee for the +loan of certain early printed books to a Public Exhibition +at South Kensington was considered and granted.'</p> + +<p>On May 26, 1877, application 'for Bibles to be sent +to the Caxton Exhibition. This was granted, and the +Librarian was directed to take such measures as might +be necessary to ensure secure transmission.'</p> + +<p>On May 11, 1878, permission was given to lend the +Selden Portrait to the Nottingham Art Exhibition; and +an application from the Bath and West of England Agricultural +Society for works of art, &c. for their approaching +meeting at Oxford, was considered. This was left to +the Librarian's discretion.</p> + +<p>On Nov. 13, 1880, Wyngarde's Plan of London 'to be +granted under a bond' to Mr. Wheatley.</p> + +<p>On April 29, 1882, the Portrait of Sam. Butler was lent +to the Worcestershire Exhibition of Fine Arts.<span class="pagenum">[31]</span></p> + +<p>On Feb. 2, 1884, Drake's Chair was lent to the Mayor of +Plymouth.</p> + +<p>On May 2, 1885, 'the Librarian presented applications +from the Exhibition of Inventions now being held for +the loan of certain MSS.; certain early printed books; +certain works on music. It was agreed that the Librarian +be empowered to lend out of the above as required, as +he may think well, to the Exhibition.'</p> + +<p>At this last meeting I was present, and the following is +a verbatim copy of my note written the same day:—</p> + +<p>'An Exhibition of Inventions (I have not got the name +correctly) applied for the loan of certain MSS. and books +from Bodleian: 5 MSS. Liturgies: 3 Bodley MSS. 515, +775, 842: Gough, Missal 336: an Ashmole book, and +2 English.—I objected, but the loan was carried, except +as to 775 Bodley.' I have lately been informed that one +of the books sent up to be stared at by the mob of sightseers +was a Selden book: this I neither knew nor could +have known at the time, or it should have been stopped, +if protesting could have stopped it.</p> + +<p>In every one of these cases the Curators, with the most +perfect innocence, took upon themselves to do what they +had not a shadow of right to do. If the University is +content to have its property so dealt with that in case +of damage or loss its only remedy would be to mulct +the Curators, there is nothing more to be said; but it +is just as well that the University should know what has +been done in the past, and what would have been done +in the future, had not a protest been made against the +practice; and even now, though the board as a board has +seemingly condemned its former doings, it still contains +a stubborn and impenitent minority. If the University +wishes its statutes to be obeyed, it should ordain substantial +pecuniary fines for breaches of them; if it does not care +whether they are obeyed or not, it is a pity that it wastes +its time in enacting them.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[32]</span></p> + +<p>And now as to the policy of lending the printed books +and manuscripts of the Bodleian. The question is not +whether it is a good or a bad thing to lend books, nor +whether it is a good thing for this or that library to do +so; it is simply whether it is right to lend Bodleian books. +It may be argued that it is right to do so—</p> + +<p>1. Because books are made to be used, and they will +be very much more used if they are lent than if they +are not; moreover it is generally more convenient to +read in one's own room than it is in a public place. +Some men cannot read, certainly cannot read and think +in a library, or in the midst of company; I cannot myself, +and all that I have ever been able to do in such places +is to make extracts, verify references and the like; +but to read a book as I should in my own room is to +me, and probably to many people, impossible. If you +go to a public institution you must go when it is open; +you must sit still; you must not whistle or make a noise; +you must not smoke; you cannot lie down and read on +your back; you cannot throw the book aside, go for a +walk, and resume your perusal; you cannot read quietly +over the fire of an evening; you cannot read in the small +hours of the night, and so on <i>ad infinitum</i>. Yet all this +you can do if you are allowed to borrow the books. +You can then treat them exactly as if they were your +own. It is clear that this argument may be expanded +in a multitude of ways, and no one is so destitute of +imagination as not to be able to fill up the details to +suit his own particular case and fancy.</p> + +<p>The answer to it is very simple. You cannot by any +device or contrivance combine the advantages of private +and of public property. He who wishes to use the books +of a public library must submit to many personal inconveniences; +and the man who is unwilling to deny +himself for the general good is the very last person in +the community to whom any favour ought to be shown, +and of all people he least deserves the favour of borrowing. +He who has ever been foolish enough to lend his own books<span class="pagenum">[33]</span> +freely, learns by almost unvaried experience that hardly +one man in twenty can be trusted: your book comes +back (when it comes back at all) more damaged by a +month's outing than the owner would occasion in fifty +years. The book of a public library is even less regarded, +as a rule, than that belonging to a friend; for +the friend may have a sharp tongue, and a knack of using +it, whereas a librarian is an official; even if he ever has +time to look through the books when they are returned, +his censure is disregarded, and after all accidents will +happen, and the book might possibly have been equally +damaged had it never left the library walls. It is really +astonishing how few men there are in the present day +who know how to use a book without doing it real and +often serious damage. Over and over again have I seen +men who would be very angry to be called boors deliberately +break the back of a book. Over and over again, +both in libraries and in private rooms, have I seen the +headband broken, simply because people did not know +how to take a book off a shelf. Again and again I have +seen men of education (but grossly ignorant for all that +of the ways of books) play such pranks with my own +volumes as made me shudder. The horrid trick of turning +a leaf by wetting a finger I have seen practised in this +seat of learning over and over again by Graduates, by +Professors, by Heads of Houses; and years ago I saw +that same nasty trick played <i>pro pudor!</i> in the sacred +precincts of the Bodleian itself <i>on a manuscript</i>, which +will bear to its last moment the impression of the dirty +thumb (and it <i>was</i> dirty) that perpetrated the uncleanly +act. Often and often you see a man sitting close over +the fire with a well-bound volume; a few such experiments +will ruin the binding of any book; if it is his +own, well and good, though even so the act is that of a +barbarian: but suppose it a Bodleian book, what then? +Why in that case the binding bills will be higher than +ever, to say nothing about the ruin of the book itself. +A man who knows how to handle a book will use a<span class="pagenum">[34]</span> +volume habitually for years and leave no trace of wear +and tear behind him; but the average man, even though +he may be a Master of Arts, is, not unfrequently, totally +unfit to have the use of any books in good condition, +even in a library, much less out of one.</p> + +<p>The scholars and readers of former days seem to have +been far more careful in their habits than men are now. +Look at the books of the great collectors—Grolier, the +Maioli, Selden, De Thou, the Colberts, and the like. These +men read their books; and Grolier and Thomas Maioli +certainly lent them: yet even after all these years, though +time and neglect may have ruined the magnificent bindings—bindings +such as few, if any, modern collectors ever +indulge in—the books themselves are internally spotless. +I have myself scores of volumes, many of them three +or four hundred years old, clean and pure as the day +they were issued from the press; they have most certainly +been used and read, but used by men of clean +hands and decent habits. In the present day books +are so common and so cheap, and modern readers too +frequently so unrefined, that they get into a vile habit +of misusing them, and to such persons—that is, to the +great majority—the books of a public library cannot +be safely trusted except under the very strictest supervision. +The slovenly practice of placing one open book +on another, a practice sternly forbidden in many foreign +libraries, may be seen in full swing both at the Camera +and in the Bodleian; and no one seems to be aware how +ruinous it is, or to have the least suspicion that he who +knows how to handle books never treats them so. Treated +in a cleanly and decent manner, there is not the least +reason why a book printed on good paper should not +last for twenty centuries or more; treated as they are too +often treated here in Oxford, they will hardly last as +many months.</p> + +<p>By lending the books as we illegally do, we are perceptibly +hastening the destruction of a library intended +by its founder and benefactors to be a blessing for generations +of scholars yet unborn.<span class="pagenum">[35]</span></p> + +<p>2. Books are to be lent, and what is more ought to +be sent out of Oxford, because it is an immense convenience +to students at a distance to have Bodleian treasures +close at hand. Not a doubt about it; vastly convenient. +Suppose I am studying Greek sculpture, it would be very +convenient to get all the master-pieces sent from the +various galleries of Europe to London or Oxford. It +would not only be a convenience, but a joy and a delight, +to have over the Venus of Melos. Instead of sitting for +hours together, as I used to do, in the Louvre, it would +be much more convenient to go down to the New Schools +and gaze on that glorious and divine being. Does any one +suddenly scent an absurdity in the supposition? Why so +do I, but the absurdity is in the whole argument, not in +the particular application of it. Some people who have +not a gift for seeing the point of things will ride off by +saying that the Venus is a majestic beauty, and that the +expense of her carriage and insurance would be enormous. +Such an objection is pointless, because it evades the question +of convenience; but let us take a case where weight +will not oppress us. Say you study Greek gems; would +it not be very convenient to have some of the best from +Naples, from Paris, from Rome, and from Vienna, sent +here to the Bodleian, where you could study them at +your leisure? They are more portable than books, far +less liable to damage, and hardly more valuable. Do +you think that any guardian of such treasures would be +so foolish as to listen to your request? Would any +nation, city, or even University, permit it?</p> + +<p>The cases, it will be said, are not parallel. Gems, +coins, medals, statuettes, are too valuable to be lent; the +books and manuscripts which the Bodleian Curators lend +are comparatively valueless. I am by no means sure of +that fact. I have before now tapped at a friend's door, +and receiving no answer entered his room to leave a message +or what not, and have more than once seen lying on his +table an eleventh-century Bodleian manuscript of a certain +classic author, a book of inestimable value, the <i>codex<span class="pagenum">[36]</span> +archetypus</i> of every other copy now in existence. Any +stranger could have entered that room, and any enterprising +literary thief—a not uncommon and particularly detestable +animal—might have slipped this priceless book into his +pocket. I am by no means sure that very valuable manuscripts +have not been, in spite of remonstrance, lent out +within the last two years; but it is beyond all dispute +that not so very long ago the thing was done, and any +man or any body of men who will allow one such thing +to be done are quite capable of allowing a dozen to be +done.</p> + +<p>Let it, however, be granted, for the purposes of the +present argument, that we now, having a clearer perception +of our responsibilities, only allow comparatively worthless +manuscripts to be sent to France, to Germany, Russia, +or India; for our manuscripts, be it observed, travel as +far afield as Bombay. Now what makes a book or manuscript +comparatively worthless? It is so, either because +it is one of many copies, or because it is a poor and +faulty copy. If it is one of many, why in the name of +all that is absurd should we be asked to send our goods +away (at our expense and risk let it be remembered) when +<i>ex hypothesi</i> there are many other copies in existence? +why cannot the foreign student go to some one of those +copies? why should we be called on to gratify his laziness +or consult his convenience? If the copy be a poor one, +he who asks for the loan of it must be a noodle, for +who cares for the readings of a confessedly inferior book? +Is it not clear as day that the man who at Rome, or Heidelberg, +or Bombay, asks for the loan of a manuscript, +believes it to be a good and valuable copy? moreover, +if he believes so, is it not in the highest degree probable +that his judgment is correct, seeing that his attention +is in a special manner concentrated on the matter? And +if it be a good and valuable copy, what becomes of the +plea that we only lend comparatively worthless books? +Have we any common sense amongst us? I really confess +that there are times when I come to the conclusion that<span class="pagenum">[37]</span> +we have none; for if we had, how could we be deceived +by pretexts so flimsy and fallacious? All the manuscripts +which we now lend are most certainly valuable, and their +loss or damage would be irreparable; all talk of comparative +worth or worthlessness is futile, and is merely +used as so much dust thrown in the eyes of those who +(I am sorry to say it, but it must be said) ought to have +a higher conception of their duties.</p> + +<p>3. Some maintain that MSS. and books should be +lent out because 'more work' will be done by that device. +It is difficult to see why. It is inferred, in fact, that +'more work' will be done, because it is more convenient +to work at home than it is in a library. A partial answer +to this fallacious plea has been already given, but I cannot +pass over the particular form of it without a protest. +The cant that is talked now-a-days about 'work' is +enough to make one sick. As far as my experience extends, +the very notion of work, as opposed to fidgetty pottering, +is not possessed by fifty men in the place; the very +conception of thoroughness and comprehension is gone; +and as to learning, why the thing has almost vanished; +of 'science' we have enough and to spare, but what in +the world has become of all our knowledge? Briefly, +at the present moment and in this place, all this wretched +pretence of 'work' is arrant imposture. A few, and only +a few, know what it means, and they would never dream +of talking about it.</p> + +<p>But I have heard this argument about 'more work' +put in another form, and it obviously is a theme on which +endless variations may be composed. Suppose, it is said, +a very poor scholar, anxious to give the world a critical +edition of some book, and further suppose that there is +a valuable manuscript at St. Petersburg, another at Stockholm, +another in Paris, another in Oxford, and so on; +let the poor scholar live where you like, say in Giessen, +and suppose him to be totally unable to defray the expense +of a journey to these several places, and to have no means +of paying for collations made by others, and no confidence<span class="pagenum">[38]</span> +in their correctness, even if he could pay for them; would +it not be an advantage to literature that all these manuscripts +should be sent to Giessen for the use of the +poor scholar aforesaid; and would it not be a dead loss +to the world of letters, if, by refusing so to lend them, +you prevented the poor scholar from constructing a critical +and admirable text of the author in whom he is interested? +This purely hypothetical case I have heard put in all +seriousness, and used as a knock-me-down sort of argument; +yet it must occur to any one with a grain of common +sense that it is only too easy to 'suppose' anything; +that it would not require the imaginative powers of a baby +to go one step further, and suppose the poor, the ardent +and the ripe scholar to have just money enough or pluck +enough to carry him to the places which he wishes to +visit, (I note parenthetically that a real student, a man +to read of whose exploits warms one's heart, Cosma de +Körös, started on his extraordinary expedition to the +East with 100 florins and a walking-stick, for being what +he was, he dispensed with luggage,) or you might suppose +brains enough in his neighbourhood to perceive that so +deserving a creature of the pure imagination might fairly +enough be helped or—but it is needless and foolish to +dream with one's eyes open, and practical men generally +object to discuss purely hypothetical cases. Yes, my +excellent but fanciful friend will say, this is all very +well, but <i>if</i> there were such a case, what would you do? +Well, to speak for myself, I should prefer to wait till the +poor scholar's exchequer was in a more flourishing condition, +or why should I not take a turn at 'supposing' +myself? and perform the very easy trick of imagining +a more ripe scholar, a more enthusiastic student, endowed +not only with brains, but blessed with means to gratify +his whims, and then, without the least violence, I might +suppose the result to be a much more correct, a much +more critical edition than my friend's phantom scholar +could ever by any possibility concoct. But to return +to the region of reality; I answer that not even in<span class="pagenum">[39]</span> +the case supposed, or in any case would I lend out +manuscripts, and this for more reasons than I have +patience to write down. One remark may, however, be +made. We are constantly requested to send manuscripts +abroad 'for collation,' and we not unfrequently send +them. Will any one be good enough to mention to +me a single collation of a Greek or Latin classic made +by any scholar by profession of any manuscript of fair +length—say, if you like, 300 pages of octavo print—which +is faithful, or which can be depended on? Even if it +were a defensible practice to send manuscripts abroad for +collation, it can never be a defensible practice to expose +them to all the risks they necessarily run, and after all +reap as a net result collations not worth the paper they +are written on.</p> + +<p>I hope that these considerations may satisfy my imaginative +friend that there is not that force in his argument +which he supposes; but if he is still unconvinced, let +us agree to consider the case of the poor scholar when +it actually occurs on its merits, and let it be conceded +as a thing not impossible, that should all the supposed +conditions exist, we might for once in a way move Convocation +to lend a manuscript for the use of so singular +and so deserving a character; how does that justify us +in sending manuscripts abroad when no such conditions +exist? The most I have ever yet heard pleaded on behalf +of these foreign students was, not that they could not +afford to come to Oxford, but merely that it was much +more convenient to have a book sent out to Hungary or +Russia, than it was for the Hungarian or Russian to visit +us. I dare say it was more convenient to him, but it +has already been observed that he who wishes to use +public property must and ought to submit to not a few +personal inconveniences. It would, too, be interesting to +know whether, supposing any of us possessed a very +valuable book of our own, we should be ready and willing +to lend it as freely as we lend these books which are not +ours. I will answer for myself that I certainly should<span class="pagenum">[40]</span> +not, and that it would be grossly inconsistent in me to +lend University property when I decline under precisely +similar circumstances to lend my own.</p> + +<p>4. Again, it is argued that since foreign libraries are +willing to lend to us we ought to reciprocate their liberality: +we ought, it is said, to be as liberal as France or Germany +are. To the end of time men will be the dupes of +phrases and the slaves of words, yet it is a little strange +that we, who fancy ourselves in some respects raised +above the mob, should see any force in this singular perversion +of language. Who does not detect the hollow +and worthless nature of that 'liberality' which lends, +not what is its own, but what is another's? In what +possible sense, except an illusory and fallacious one, can +the Bodleian Curators credit themselves with the virtue of +'liberality' when they hand over, not their own property, +not anything which they collectively set great store on, +not anything which it would grieve them deeply to lose, +but something not their own? Such liberality seems to +me to be as cheap as it is worthless; as easy as it is +unreal. But, it will be objected, that the University empowers +them so to lend, and that it would be 'illiberal' in +them to accept loans from others and refuse themselves to +lend. As to the powers given by the University, I have +already said something; the rest of the plea may be +sufficiently answered by a single line from Hamlet—</p> + +<p> +"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."<br /> +</p> + +<p>Sound, wholesome advice to all, whether taken as Polonius +intended it, or as I now use it. It would be mean and +shabby to borrow if you refuse to lend, for it would be +conniving at a vice which you decline to commit. Would +it not be more rational to argue that all lending out of +Bodleian books being bad, we therefore decline to benefit +(if benefit it be) by a practice which we disapprove of +in principle? To argue simply, as I have heard some do, +that because foreign libraries are willing to lend us books, +<i>therefore</i> we ought to be willing to lend them books, is, +as an argument, about as valid as it would be to say,<span class="pagenum">[41]</span> +'My friend X has signified his willingness to lend me +his banjo, and therefore I am bound to lend him my +Erard's piano, if he asks for it': not every one would see +the force of such reasoning. If the lending of books from +such a library as the Bodleian be, as I maintain it is, +bad in principle, it can never become right because other +libraries are willing to be loose in their practice.</p> + +<p>But suppose we look a little more closely into this +alleged 'liberality' of foreign countries, where lending +in some form or other is the rule rather than the exception. +And here let it be observed that 'library' though +one word covers things as different as chalk is from cheese. +Libraries differ not merely in quantity, in the number +of volumes which they contain: they also differ enormously +in quality and value. The University Library of Göttingen +some forty years ago was estimated to contain +350,000 volumes. The Grenville Library (now part of +the British Museum) consists in round numbers of 20,000 +volumes, each of which cost on an average <i>two pounds, +fourteen shillings</i>; and this small but most choice collection +would in the present day probably sell for a sum +almost sufficient to purchase the whole of the Göttingen +350,000 volumes. The Bodleian is equalled and even +far surpassed in point of numbers by other libraries, but +for quality and real value there are not in all the world +a dozen that could, or by any competent person would, +be compared with it, and this fact makes all the difference +when lending is in question. You might lend and lose +half the books at Göttingen, and still be able without +very much trouble or expense to replace them to the +satisfaction of that University. By losing a single half-dozen +of some of our Bodleian books, you might seriously +maim and cripple a large department; and as to replacing +the half-dozen, you might just as well try to replace the +coal in our coal pits. I have seen it stated that all the +great libraries of Europe lend, except the Vatican and +the British Museum: even Mr. Panizzi, forgetting for +the moment what he well knew, says, 'In all libraries on<span class="pagenum">[42]</span> +the Continent they lend books, but here [i.e. at the +British Museum] I hope they will never lend them: it +is quite right not to lend them' (Report on British +Museum, 1850, p. 230). And even if all do lend (and +all do not), it would no more follow that they ought to +do so, than it follows that no man should do right, +because all men are sinners. Why are we to follow a +foreign fashion? Why are we to follow a multitude to +do evil? We are quite strong enough to act properly, +if we only had the infinitesimal amount of courage needful. +Even if it were true that every great library in Europe +does a foolish thing, why should we, with the true spirit +of slavish imitation, be equally foolish?</p> + +<p>Amongst the libraries, which may be with more or less +justice compared with the Bodleian, are the National +Library of Paris; the British Museum; the Vatican; +the Royal Library of Munich; the Imperial Library of +St. Petersburg; the Imperial Library at Vienna; the +Ambrosian at Milan. Thirty odd years ago only <i>two</i> +of these ever lent a book, and then hardly in the sense +in which any one in Oxford would understand that phrase. +At this very moment, the British Museum, the second or +third largest and finest library in the world, does not +lend; the Vatican does not lend; the Ambrosian library, +great in printed books, greater in manuscripts, does not +lend; the Escurial, famed for its Arabic manuscripts, never +lends, not even within the limits of Spain; the Municipal +Library of Ravenna, a name well known to all students +of Aristophanes for its famous codex, never lends; nor +does the Angelica at Rome: and there are more libraries +of which this is true. Few, however, would believe till +they have tried the experiment, how difficult it is for +a private person to get really trustworthy information +as to the practices of foreign libraries.</p> + +<p>Again, all foreign libraries that practise lending lend under +restrictions unknown to us in Oxford. At the Bodleian +there are no written rules at all, and, as far as I know, +there never have been any. The present Librarian rightly<span class="pagenum">[43]</span> +felt that such a state of things ought not to be allowed; +he accordingly drew up a draft set of regulations; it +was at his request that the committee mentioned above, +p. 26, was appointed, and but for his sense of duty the +board would possibly never have perceived that rules were +requisite. The Italian government controls some 33 libraries, +and the rules for loans fill 83 paragraphs and 18 pages +quarto. Without the special leave of the Minister of +Instruction, no government librarian in Italy can lend manuscripts, +printed books of the 15th century, very rare +editions, books with autographs of celebrated men or with +important notes, books printed on vellum, books with +plates of much value, or the chief value of which consists +in the engravings, expensive works, works in many volumes, +coast surveys, maps, atlases, books finely bound or otherwise +valuable, old music. In other words, <i>no librarian +can lend any manuscript whatever, or any valuable printed +book, without special leave</i>. The restrictions on loans to +foreign countries are also numerous.</p> + +<p>The National Library of Paris, the largest in the whole +world, also lends, but never in the wild fashion sanctioned +in this place. Here are the very words of the 'Règlement,' +Art. 115: 'Peuvent seuls être prêtés dans le département +des imprimés, les doubles qui ne font pas partie de la +réserve, pourvu, en outre, qu'il ne s'agisse ni de livres +particulièrement précieux, ni de dictionnaires, ni de journaux, +ni de morceaux ou partitions de musique, ni de +volumes appartenant à de grandes collections ou contenant +des figures hors texte.</p> + +<p>'Ne peuvent pas non plus être prêtés les romans, ni les +pièces du théâtre moderne, ni les ouvrages de littérature +frivole. Le conservateur apprécie en premier ressort les +circonstances qui permettent ou non de prêter un livre.'</p> + +<p>Art. 116: 'Peuvent seuls être prêtés dans le département +des manuscrits, les volumes qui ne sont pas particulièrement +précieux par leur rareté, leur antiquité, les autographes +ou les miniatures qu'ils contiennent, ou par toute autre circonstance +dont le conservateur est juge en premier ressort.'<span class="pagenum">[44]</span></p> + +<p>This library then <i>never lends anything but duplicates</i>, +and only such duplicates as are <i>not</i> part of the reserve, +i.e. part of the more valuable section of the library, and +not even such duplicates if they are specially valuable.</p> + +<p>The libraries of Germany and Switzerland have rules +substantially the same as those adopted in France and +Italy; and it is the same with Belgium when they lend +at all. In the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Art. 41 +of the 'Règlement' runs thus: 'Dans la section des imprimés, +les ouvrages d'un usage journalier, les livres rares, +de luxe ou à figures, les éditions du XV^e siècle, les livres +sur vélin ou sur grand papier, ceux dont les reliures sont +précieuses ou remarquables, les collections ou parties de +collection considérable <i>ne sont jamais prêtés au dehors</i>.'</p> + +<p>As to the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, the +Director writes under date Dec. 11, 1886: 'la Bibliothèque +Impèriale n'a pas le droit, d'après la loi, de prêter ses +manuscrits aux personnes particulières, que sur la demande +des autorités compètents, et pour les personnes hors des +limites de la Russie, que par l'entremise du ministère +des affaires étrangères avec l'autorisation de Sa Majesté. +En même temps je crois devoir ajouter, que les manuscrits +les plus précieux ne sortent jamais de la Bibliothèque, dans +aucun cas, de même que les codes dont s'occupent les +savants du pays.'</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to do in any of these foreign +countries what is done in Oxford. Expensive illustrated +works are, as I have heard, had out of the library, and +are then used to illustrate lectures—a short and easy +method of bringing books to ruin.</p> + +<p>To trust to discretion alone, whether it be the discretion +of a librarian or of a board, is to lean on a broken reed; +and in most foreign libraries that discovery has long since +been made: it is high time that we made it too, if we +are foolish enough to sanction the practice of lending.</p> + +<p>When it is said then that <i>all</i> great foreign libraries +lend, let it always be remembered, in the first place, +that strictly speaking all do not lend; and, in the second<span class="pagenum">[45]</span> +place, that those which lend restrict the practice in +a way never dreamt of here.</p> + +<p>Such then are the arguments for lending: they may be +stated in other terms, and they may be indefinitely varied +in shape, but when reduced to their ultimate forms they +simply come to this—that by lending books out the utility +of the library is increased, the convenience of readers is +consulted, the progress of learning is facilitated, and international +courtesy is promoted—all very good things in +themselves and much to be desired, but, as always in +this world, we have to balance good with evil, and to +take that course which involves the least inconvenience +on the whole.</p> + +<p>I confess that it rather depresses me to have to argue +the question at all, and if the <i>genius loci</i> affected all minds +as it affects mine, the very faintest suspicion of degrading +and vulgarising such an institution as the Bodleian would +be enough, and more than enough, to settle the matter; +and surely it is a degradation of that noble library to +look on it, as some seem to do, as a sort of enlarged +and diversified Mudie's. Our books may be all over +Oxford, nay, all over Europe; they may be in Germany, +in France, in India, in Russia, in London, at Cambridge, +and heaven only knows where. What is all this but the +first step towards turning the Bodleian into a vast and +vulgar circulating library? I must say again, as I have +said elsewhere, that the Bodleian Library is absolutely +unlike any other library in the world; it is in its way +peerless and unique; it was founded and augmented by +learned men for learned men; it was never meant for +the motley crew which in the present day crams the Camera +and the Library itself. It is sad to one who can remember +what the Bodleian was even thirty years ago to see such +rapid decline, such manifest tokens of disregard for all +that once rendered the place a sacred spot. But this is +to wander from my immediate business, and what I conceive +to be the abuse, I might even say the gross abuse of +the Bodleian, for which the Curators are directly responsible, +must be matter for some other paper.<span class="pagenum">[46]</span></p> + +<p>It seems to be the notion of some people in this University +that the Bodleian Library is a fit place for readers +of any and of every kind. They have not knowledge enough +of books or of libraries to see that a library suitable only +to scholars of a high class is not a library adapted to +learners and schoolboys.</p> + +<p>Any one beginning microscopic work will find all, and +more than all, his wants satisfied for a long time to come +by a five guinea instrument, and he is not unlikely to +damage even that. Suppose that, instead of such an instrument, +you gave him at once a two hundred pound +microscope by Smith and Beck, or Ross, what would +happen? He would be utterly bewildered by the complexity +of it, utterly unable to use it as it should be +used, and he would most certainly before long so damage +it as to render it useless to all who could make a proper +use of it. Between a first-rate microscope by Ross and +a three or five guinea instrument the difference is much less +than is the difference between the Bodleian and a library +fit for undergraduates, or generally for the unlearned. By +introducing undergraduates, schoolboys, and girls into such +a library as the Bodleian, you in fact degrade the library +to base uses, and render it <i>pro tanto</i> inconvenient, to use +a very mild term, to all who are fit to benefit by it, +and who were intended by the founder to have the advantage +of it.</p> + +<p>'What my experience has taught me,' says a most learned +bibliographer (1. R. 121)<a id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>, 'is, that it ought never to be +attempted to use, as a popular library, the large libraries +intended in the first instance for a superior class of readers;' +and he adds further, that 'on every occasion, when it has +been tried, the greatest part of the riches accumulated +in the old library have been rendered useless.'</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Report from the Select Committee on Public Libraries, ordered by the +House of Commons to be printed 23 July, 1849, quoted by pages as 1. R. +A second volume ordered to be printed 1 August, 1850, is quoted also by +pages as 2. R. These Blue books contain an immense amount of information +on all the libraries of Europe, and although the information +is some forty years old, it is still indispensable to all who wish to acquaint +themselves with the subject. The evidence also given is of the most +varied kind, and very instructive.<span class="pagenum">[47]</span></p></div> + +<p>If it is in any sense useful to lend books out of the +library, it is far more useful, all things considered, not +to lend them.</p> + +<p>Every man of the least intelligence can see the difference +between a library of reference and one from which books +are lent. A library of reference, or a library of deposit, +is one where books are to be perpetually preserved as +carefully as may be for the convenience of scholars and +students, and for the promotion of sound and solid +learning; and lending any book from such a library is +obviously inconsistent with the very purpose for which +it is founded. 'I think,' says the Solicitor-General for +Scotland, speaking of the Advocates' Library, 'that (lending +books out) is quite inconsistent with the proper preservation +of a great library' (1. R. 95).<a id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> And another very able +witness, Mr. Colles, one of the library committee of the +Royal Dublin Society, gives it as the result of his experience +that no lending should be allowed in such a +library. 'I speak,' he says, 'against the interest of my +own family when I say this: but I think that the public +use of the library would be increased by not lending.' +And again, 'The two (i. e. libraries of reference and of +circulation) ought to be separated, just as banks of issue +should be separated from banks of deposit. I wish to +be understood on this point: an individual painter or +sculptor might be greatly benefited by borrowing out a +capital picture from the National Gallery, or the Torso, +Venus, or Portland Vase from the British Museum; but +such a loan would by no means benefit artists in general, +or advance the ultimate interests of painting or sculpture. +This holds good equally with regard to valuable books.' +(1. R. 185.)</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See note 15, p. 46.</p></div> + +<p>This question as to the expediency of lending books +out of such libraries as the British Museum or the +<span class="pagenum">[48]</span>Bodleian has been hotly debated both at home and abroad +for the last eighty years or more, and I wish I had +space to detail the arguments that have been used, not by +men ignorant of books and eager only to consult their own +convenience, or to obtain credit for a spurious liberality; +but by those who really and truly knew all the ins and +outs of the matter they were talking about, and who were +quite as anxious to promote learning as we are ourselves. +Take, for instance, the late Mr. Thomas Watts, keeper of +printed books in the British Museum, one of the very rarest +of men, a librarian who thoroughly knew his business, at +all events so far as printed books were concerned, and +quite unequalled as regards all questions of organisation +and administration. He carries impartiality almost to +excess, for he says, speaking of lending, 'It would, perhaps, +be expedient to examine the subject more closely before +a final determination was come to on either side; for +while the Bodleian Library is strictly non-circulating, +the books are freely lent out to the members of the +University from the University Library of Cambridge, +and yet any material difference in the condition of the +two libraries to the disadvantage of that of Cambridge, +is certainly not a matter of public notoriety.' This +statement appeared in 1867, and Mr. Watts evidently +did not know that lending had been practised by the +Bodleian Curators ever since 1862 (see above, p. 14); +nor was he seemingly aware of the facts detailed by +Mr. Bradshaw, or of such gross abuses as that which Mr. +Bradshaw told a friend of my own. He said that on a +certain occasion a graduate had a dinner party, and that +he borrowed from the University Library certain expensive +illustrated works to be laid on the table to amuse his +guests; Bradshaw was powerless, though indignant at an +act so disgraceful. Carefully however as Mr. Watts holds +the balance, it seems unquestionable that he himself +condemned the practice of lending from such libraries as +the British Museum or the Bodleian; for after writing a +column or more, in which he shows every disposition to<span class="pagenum">[49]</span> +lend books where it is possible to do so without causing +more harm than good, he considers Mr. Spedding's proposal +to lend a book wanted by a reader in London to the British +Museum library—the very thing in fact which we now +are in the habit of doing, he then says; "By this ingenious +arrangement some of the advantages proposed by +the lending system would certainly be afforded, under +safeguards not now obtainable; but there would still remain +the strong objection that a reader wishing to examine +a particular book known to be in a particular library +might be subjected to a disappointment which he is now +in no hazard of. This objection is tersely stated in a +passage from a letter by Niebuhr, which was quoted by +the Commissioners for examining into the University of +Oxford. 'It is lamentable,' writes Niebuhr from the +University of Bonn, 'that I am here much worse off +for books than I was at Rome, where I was sure to find +whatever was in the library, because no books were lent +out; here I find that just the book which I most want +is always lent out.' There are few libraries from which +books are lent of which stories are not current respecting +the abuse of the privilege, of volumes kept for years by +persons too high or too venerable to be questioned. The +rules of such institutions are often laxly observed by +those from whom we should least expect such disregard. +In Walter Scott's correspondence with Southey there is a +passage in which he recommends him not to show publicly +a book which he had sent him, because it belongs to +the Advocate's Library, and it is forbidden for those books +to be sent out of Scotland."</p> + +<p>The opinion then of one of the most accomplished +librarians that ever lived is, on the whole, adverse to the +system of lending. I believe it to be quite impossible +for a man of his enormous knowledge of the subject +to come to any other conclusion than that at which he +arrived: the less a man knows about books and libraries, +the more inclined he is to the pernicious system of lending; +the more he knows about them, the less inclined<span class="pagenum">[50]</span> +he is to countenance anything of the kind; such at least +has been my experience.</p> + +<p>The late Mr. Henry Bradshaw of Cambridge was a +most learned librarian and an accomplished bibliographer. +He has not, so far as I am aware, expressed in print his +plain opinion of the lending system; but no one can read +his paper on the Cambridge University Library, (The +University Library, ... by Henry Bradshaw, Librarian of +the University, Camb. 1881. 8vo.,) without seeing that he +bitterly regretted the practice which prevails and has long +prevailed in that place. The Bodleian has a history, a +noble and honourable history: the Cambridge University +Library has none, at all events none that is not disgraceful. +'One reason,' he says (p. 6), 'for the dearth of materials in +the Library for its own history is to be found in the circumstance +that the Library is really scattered over the +whole country.' And again, 'We have often heard of the +principal benefactors to the Bodleian Library having been +induced to bequeath their own libraries to the University +of Oxford from seeing the careful way in which the +bequests of their predecessors have been housed and kept +together. The coincidence at Cambridge is too striking to +be accidental, where we find that only two such bequests +are on record': this statement he subsequently corrects +into 'three' instead of two: and again, 'It is probable that +by drawing attention to the fact that none of the great +collectors of the last two hundred years have thought fit +to leave their books to our University Library, we may be +pointing to a lesson which our successors may profit by, +even though we are too indifferent to pay any attention to +it ourselves.'</p> + +<p>The inference plainly to be drawn from these and +other passages is that the writer strongly disapproved +of the practice which he was obliged officially to countenance. +From 1600 down to the last ten or fifteen +years the history of the Bodleian Library has been on +the whole a history of which every true scholar, and +every genuine lover of books may be proud; the history<span class="pagenum">[51]</span> +of the Cambridge Library for the corresponding period has +been an almost unbroken record of disgraceful carelessness, +and the root of all the evil has been the practice of +lending, as will be clear to any one who will take the +trouble to read Mr. Bradshaw's paper. There has been, +as there always must be, where such a practice is allowed, +wholesale robbery. In 1772 the library was inspected +and 'a large number of rare books were reported to be +missing.' (p. 28.) The latest previous inspection had +been in 1748, when 902 volumes were reported as missing +from the old library alone ... the loss was the result +of that wholesale pillage spoken of before. It is very +singular that the very same year that the inspection shewed +such serious losses to have happened from unrestricted +access, the University should have made fresh orders +(the basis of those now in use), permitting more fully this +same freedom of access. The <i>Cicero de Officiis</i> printed +in 1465 on vellum, a Salisbury Breviary printed in 1483 +on vellum (the only known copy of the first edition), +the Salisbury <i>Directorium Sacerdotum</i> printed by Caxton +(the only known copy), are three instances out of many +scores of such books which might be mentioned as purloined +during the latter half of the eighteenth century, +simply from this total disregard of all care for the preservation +of the books. Even manuscripts were lent out +on ordinary tickets; and it was seemingly only owing to +the strong remonstrances of Mr. Kerrich, the principal +Librarian of the day, that a grace was passed in 1809, +requiring that no manuscript whatever should be borrowed, +except with the permission of the Senate, and on +a bond given for the same to the Librarian. "We have +the ticket, but we cannot get the book back," Mr. Kerrich +says: "and to this day the book in question has never +been returned." (p. 28.) Such are the disgraceful acts +of men bred at an English University, compared with whom +the common pickpocket appears positively respectable.</p> + +<p>Mr. Panizzi, principal Librarian of the British Museum, +a man whose knowledge of libraries and of books has<span class="pagenum">[52]</span> +rarely been equalled, was asked, 'Are you of opinion +that there should be in all countries libraries of two sorts, +namely, libraries of deposit, and libraries devoted to general +reading and the circulation of books?' answered, 'That +is another question. I think the question of lending books +is a very difficult question to answer. I have enquired +in all countries, and, as far as experience goes, I find that, +in spite of all the precautions taken, of the regulations, +and of everything which is done, books disappear; they +are stolen or spoiled.' (2. R. 62.) And again: 'I do +not think that lending can well be adopted without +great risk of losing books; the question is whether there +might not be remedies; I think from all experience +I never found that librarians had succeeded in preventing +stealing.' He also tells a very instructive story of some +rare books stolen from the library at Wolfenbüttel, and +be it noted that Panizzi and Watts knew more of their +profession than a whole army of ordinary librarians. Let +no one fancy for one moment that a congress of librarians +is necessarily a congress of men really acquainted with +either bibliography or with books; it may, perhaps, on +some occasions include one or more who answer to that +description, but in general it does not do so. 'La bibliographie,' +says Richou, 'est une science exacte qui demande +une préparation assez longue et que la pratique développe. +Les bibliothécaires improvisés en ignorent jusqu'à l'existence +et se préoccupent peu de l'acquérir. Il ne faut +pas chercher ailleurs la cause de la mauvaise administration +d'un grand nombre de bibliothèques publiques, car le +mal est commun.' (<i>Traité de l'Administration des Bibliothèques +publiques</i>, p. 82.)</p> + +<p>The opinion expressed by Mr. Watts and Mr. Panizzi, +and implied by Mr. Bradshaw, is, I am convinced, the +opinion of all men who are acquainted with this question +in its length, breadth, and depth.</p> + +<p>How comes it then, some one may ask, that foreign +librarians do not speak out against the practice? Because +it is not in general the habit of foreign officials to have<span class="pagenum">[53]</span> +opinions of their own, and still less to express them, if +they have them, when such opinions are not fashionable, +or not likely to advance those who utter them: and this +goes a long way towards explaining the answers given to +questions put by the English Government nearly forty +years ago to the custodians of libraries where (though +under many restrictions) lending was, and is practised. +The general tenor of the answers is that books do not +suffer more than might be expected, that losses are comparatively +rare, that when loss is suffered the books can +generally be replaced, and that when they cannot their +value can almost always be recovered from the borrower. +Such, I say, is the general tenor of the answers, but few +who know anything about circulating libraries will accept +such answers as satisfactory. Before the outbreak of the +Thirty Years' War the Germans printed splendid books, +and not unfrequently bound them grandly; but for the +last two hundred years few German librarians, unless +trained in France or England, have known what a really +fine book is, or whether it is in what a Frenchman would +call good condition. In other words, when they say that +books lent are not much damaged, it must be always +remembered that notions of damage are relative, and +most German librarians are in all probability like an +old friend of my own, who holds that no book is in +really ill condition, provided the readable part of it is +still legible: the title may be torn or gone; 'I don't +want to read the title,' says he: the covers may be broken +or destroyed; 'Cannot you read an unbound book?' he +asks; and so on. There is this difference, however; my +friend does know when a book really is in good condition. +Moreover, there are, or at least there were, some foreign +librarians who have dared to tell the truth. Thus (see +2. R. 161-171), from the returns made by eighteen +libraries in Belgium, we learn that the library of Antwerp +(19,148 vols.) never lent; that no manuscripts were ever +lent from that of Bruges; that manuscripts and rare books +were never lent from the library of Malines; that valuable<span class="pagenum">[54]</span> +books were never lent from the library of Louvain; that +no manuscripts or valuable books were ever lent from +the library of Mons; and that such books and manuscripts +were never lent from any of the University libraries. +Nevertheless, some lending there was from some libraries; +and it was asserted that little damage was done the books. +Very different is the answer of the Librarian of Tournay +(2. R. 163): 'Cette coutume a des inconvénients assez +graves: impossibilité pour certains lecteurs de consulter +les ouvrages dont ils ont besoin: rentré tardive des livres +prêtés; perte ou détérioration des volumes.' The Librarian +of Nassau (2. R. 299), very unlike most of his brethren, says, +'das Verleihen der Bücher asserhalb der Anstalt hat +allerdings die nachtheilige Folge dass dieselben in kurzer +Zeit, im Aussern wie im Innern stark mitgenommen +werden. Die Einbände werden verstossen und schäbig +und der Druck durch Schnupfer und Raucher oft aufs +Unangenehmste beschmutzt,' with more to the same effect. +Even at the Royal Library of Berlin it is admitted that +'die Bücher und Einbände werden dadurch mehr beschädight +und verdorben' (2. R. 304); and at the University +Library, 'die Abnutzung durch die Studirenden ist sehr +stark' (2. R. 305). The answer from the University +Library at Bonn is, 'Nachtheilige Folge beim Verleihen +der Bücher waren troz der sorgfältigsten Ueberwachung +nicht immer zu vermeiden. Manche Bände kamen beschmutzt +auch verstümmelt zurück.' There are very similar +answers from a few other libraries both of Germany and +Italy. Common sense and a little experience will tell any +one to which class of testimony credence should be given.</p> + +<p>As to replacing a lost or damaged book, the thing is +by no means so easy as it looks. What is common to-day +may be rare a year hence, and quite unprocurable on any +terms in two years time. 'Then,' says Ignoramus, 'it will +be reprinted, and you may buy that'; but the man who +talks so wildly cannot be argued with, because he does +not know the elements of the subject of which he is +speaking. Suppose you lose the 19th edition of the<span class="pagenum">[55]</span> +<i>Christian Year</i>, you do not replace the book by purchasing +the 100th edition, as all experts know. 'Buy another +copy of the 19th then', says Ignoramus; but it may be +that you have to pay a very high price for it, and it +sometimes happens that you cannot get it at all. 'If you +do not get the book, you can recover its value.' Even +supposing that you can—and here in Oxford we have no +machinery by which we can recover a farthing—how is +a man who wants to see a particular book benefited by +being told that he cannot see the book because it has +been lent and lost, but that the Library has received +compensation? Well might Panizzi say that the question +of lending is a very difficult question; it is so difficult +that a volume would hardly contain an enumeration of +all its complexities.</p> + +<p>Consider the case of books, printed and manuscript, lent +out to those on the borrowers' list, a list, be it observed, +which, according to the lawyers, has not the least statutable +warrant. In the first place, you have not the least assurance +or guarantee that any one of them knows how to use a +book without damaging it, and, as I have already said, +it is an almost uniform and invariable experience, that +borrowers of books do damage them. All book-lovers +know this so well, that they make very sure of their +man before they intrust a valuable or well-bound book +to him, but we at the Bodleian do not. Pixerécourt, a +great collector, was so convinced of this fact that he +inscribed over his library door these sadly true lines—</p> + +<p> +Tel est le triste sort de tout livre prêté<br /> +Souvent il est perdu, toujours il est gâté.<br /> +</p> + +<p>How unfit some at least on the borrowers' list are to +be intrusted with books, how little notion they have of +taking care of them, is clear from many facts which might +be mentioned. In the library itself you may see almost +any day abundant proof of the unfitness of those admitted +to enjoy the privileges which are allowed them. On +May 19th, 1885, a Curator came into my room and said, +<span class="pagenum">[56]</span>'I was walking through the Bodleian looking for —— +when I saw a sight which made me sick.' 'You may see +many such sights there,' said I; 'what was it?' 'I saw +a bevy of women with an illuminated MS., and they +were turning over the leaves, all looking at it.' On +Friday, August 21st, 1885, I myself counted at one desk +at the Selden end <i>sixty-four</i> volumes, all had out by one +reader; on the table was a MS. open, and on it two or +three books; another was open on the floor, and so on. +On April 22nd, 1886, I saw on a desk also at the Selden +end three (I believe four) Sanscrit MSS. They were +open and kept so by books placed on them, sundry +printed books also open one on the other, and in my +note written the same day I find the observation that it +was 'a miserable spectacle of untidiness and reckless disregard +for precious volumes.' It would be easy to add +more, for from the first I have kept notes of all that +I see in the library, and of much that I hear about it—this, +however, is enough to show what may be expected +when people carry off books home. There no prying eye +will see them, no one is likely to come suddenly round +a corner and observe their proceedings. Things are really +bad enough <i>in</i> the library as it is; and they are as bad +or worse in the Camera, where books are most shamefully +ill-used. I have notes of some things which I have +observed there, and of a conversation which I had with a +person of sharp eyes and wits. One Curator alone can do +very little; if all would, even it were only occasionally, do +what I do habitually (Tit. XX. iii. § 12, 2), it would be +far easier than it now is to put a stop to some rather +serious abuses. Let it be distinctly understood that in +saying all this I do not blame any person or persons +whatever, except the readers. In the British Museum +Reading-room a man placed where the officials sit could, +with a machine-gun, comfortably pick off every reader +in less than a minute, because he could rake every desk; +the Bodleian is so picturesque and so peculiar in its +construction, that Argus himself would be completely +non-plussed, if ordered to keep his eyes on the readers,<span class="pagenum">[57]</span> +for even this highly-endowed being had not the dragon-fly +power of seeing round corners; and from the Librarian's +seat you might discharge a Gatling gun straight up 'Duke +Humphrey,' with no other result than the downfall of +a little dust, and the smashing of the west window; as +to hitting a reader, you might as well try to shoot the +Invisible Girl. At the Camera there is just the same +difficulty, which will hardly be overcome till the laws +of nature are reformed, and light condescends to travel +in convenient curves. The regular officials have quite +enough to do, if they attend only to their necessary work, +which pins them down to one spot, and totally precludes +them from exercising (even if they possessed it) the saintly +privilege of bilocation. To come back to the point: +books are badly used in the library itself. Now I ask +any man of common sense, whether it is possible that +books treated so vilely in the library itself will be better +treated in a private house?</p> + +<p>I am not going to tell any tales, but this I may say, +that before I became a Curator I have seen Bodleian +books (once a very rare book) in strange places, and +under circumstances by no means conducive to their preservation. +The thing must be so: it is as much as +the most vigilant officer can do to prevent damage being +done under his very eyes, and it stands to reason that no +mercy will be shown a book as soon as it is fairly out of +the building.</p> + +<p>Again, when a man borrows a book from the Bodleian, +you have not the least assurance that he will not in his +turn lend it. This I know has happened with one book +at least belonging to another library in Oxford. Sir +Walter Scott had, perhaps, as much conscience as it is +possible for a literary man to have, yet he lends Southey +a book borrowed from the Advocates' Library (see above, +p. 49) contrary to rule; and what Scott would do, Scott's +inferior in character and morals would most certainly not +scruple to do.</p> + +<p>When a book is lent out to any one on the borrowers'<span class="pagenum">[58]</span> +list no contract is entered into, either verbally or in writing, +that the book shall be returned at any specified time, +nor in fact that it shall ever be returned at all. Are +the Curators quite sure that they have any legal power +to compel a return under such circumstances?</p> + +<p>Unless a book is carefully collated when it is returned, +it will always be impossible to say with truth that it +has been returned intact; and if every book is to be +collated on its restoration to the library, we shall have +no small increase of work, and increase of work always +means, as we well know, increased expense.</p> + +<p>The lending of books to private houses then involves +the very probable, and in many cases the absolutely certain, +damage of the book, and its possible total loss without +the least remedy, and without the slightest recompense or +penalty. A manuscript was lent to the late Professor +----, and it is hardly necessary to say that it has never +been returned, and this is, I fancy, at least the second +instance within a very few years of total loss, for which +neither the public nor the University ever received one +atom of benefit.</p> + +<p>Even if the Bodleian were not one of the two great +reference libraries of this country, if it were merely a +large and fine library of no very great national importance, +there would still be no excuse for borrowing from it; for +there is no town of its size that contains so many books +as Oxford. In every College there is a library, which is +not unfrequently full of fine books—Christ Church, All +Souls', St. John's, Worcester, Merton, Corpus, Oriel, +Magdalen and Queen's are all remarkable; and if we count +in manuscripts there is hardly a single College without +its gems and rarities. Nor is there the slightest difficulty +in making a proper use of all these treasures. Any one +really fit to use a College book is always permitted to +do so, nor is there in general any objection to lending +if the borrower is known to be trustworthy: the fault, +if any, is rather the other way. 'But,' says some borrower, +'the book that I want is in no College library, and it is<span class="pagenum">[59]</span> +in the Bodleian.' Is it not plain to every man of sense, +that the book which is in no College library, and is in +the Bodleian, is just the book which ought not to be +lent, under any conceivable circumstances? Lending even +from College libraries has been the cause of innumerable +losses—in fact, nothing in Euclid is more true than the +proposition, that sooner or later <span class="smcap">A BOOK LENT IS A BOOK +LOST</span>.</p> + +<p>Of the losses which the library at Cambridge has +sustained, something has been said above (p. 51). All +libraries, however carefully kept, are exposed to occasional +and exceptional depredations. Paulus, the celebrated +German professor, stole one manuscript at least from the +Bodleian; the thefts in German, Russian, Italian, and +French libraries are only too notorious. Are we to give +additional facilities by lending books out? Even when +lent to the greatest scholars, and presumably to careful +men, books are by no means safe. Every one knows +how, not so long ago, two or more of the most ancient +manuscripts of Jornandes were destroyed while in the +hands of Mommsen. Fire invaded his rooms; the professor +escaped unharmed (of course he did), but the manuscripts +were destroyed. Literature and scholarship gained nothing +by this loan, though all future generations have lost +much. Had common sense been the ruling principle of +the libraries from which Mommsen obtained these manuscripts, +they would have been safe at this moment. The +convenience, perhaps the laziness, of an individual was +consulted, and the world has lost what can never be +replaced.</p> + +<p>Mr. Watts, whom I have already quoted, says in speaking +of lending, 'The testimony of Molbech, the librarian of +the Royal Library of Copenhagen, where lending is permitted, +is to the effect, not only that the risk is greater, +as must of course be the case where books are removed +from supervision and control, but that in practice great +damage is found to ensue.' If we are told, as very likely +we shall be told, that no such damage occurs here, I am<span class="pagenum">[60]</span> +somewhat at a loss to answer; perhaps it will be enough +to observe that different men unavoidably have different +ideas of what constitutes damage, and that what is not +always immediately discovered may hereafter be detected +when it is too late to assign the blame to the real offender.</p> + +<p>Under the present system of administration, for which +the Curators are responsible, the actual, and, it may be, +the unavoidable wear and tear of books in the library +itself, even in the choicer portions of it, is great enough +to deter any man in the future from acting as Douce +did in the past. The way in which very precious volumes +are knocked about is plain enough to any one who visits +the interior of the library as constantly as I do, and as +all Curators are by statute empowered and even ordered +to do. Readers are impatient, sometimes unreasonable; +immense numbers of books can only be reached by means +of ladders; the whole establishment is undermanned, and +though the small staff does its best to protect the books, +they are notwithstanding much bumped about. One consequence +of this rough usage is that the standard of carefulness, +as it may be called, is very naturally lowered, and +as a further consequence the estimate of what constitutes +damage is lowered in proportion.</p> + +<p>There are many readers, or there certainly have been +readers in the library, who have not hesitated to make marks +in printed books and manuscripts. The man who will do +such a thing as this in the library, will not hesitate to +do it when he gets the book into his own possession. +Now all avoidable wear and tear is so much real loss to +the library, and detracts in that proportion from its utility. +It may be useful to A or B to borrow books from the +Bodleian, but it cannot be useful to the University or to +future generations that the life of any book should be +carelessly or needlessly abridged.</p> + +<p>It will be admitted that no book can be in two places +at the same time; if a volume is in the rooms of Mr. X +or Mr. Y, it cannot at that moment be produced in the +Bodleian should a reader happen to want it. One of<span class="pagenum">[61]</span> +the great advantages of such a library as the Bodleian, +if it were properly administered, is that a visitor is sure to +find the book which he comes to consult. This is perfectly +well understood by such men as Mr. Watts (see above, +p. 49); it was brought home to the mind of Niebuhr, +and it has been one of the reasons why all lending has +up to the present moment been most rigidly forbidden at +the British Museum. In a library like the Bodleian, +where the practice of lending prevails as it now does, a +man may put himself to great inconvenience in order to +visit it; he may even travel from Berlin, and when he +arrives he may find that all his trouble has been in vain; +the very book he wants is out: at the British Museum, +where up to the present time knowledge and common +sense have prevailed, every man is sure that he can at +once get any book whatever that he finds in the catalogue. +It is a thousand pities to destroy this confidence; one of +the great uses of a library like ours disappears when +things are so ill managed, and I believe that there are +in the Bodleian men who could tell of some grievous disappointments +caused by our modern laxity. I know very +well that we shall be told that such cases are few and +trivial: be it so. Who does not see that as the present +practice extends, as extend it must, one of the great +advantages of a grand library will at last vanish? Nothing +can be more strictly useful to all real students than the +absolute certainty of obtaining at once any book that +can be found in the catalogue.</p> + +<p>No limit seems to be placed on the borrower's powers; +he may, for anything that appears to the contrary, have +any number of books or manuscripts out. Now when +we see the practice of more than one reader <i>in</i> the library, +we may form a pretty shrewd guess of what men will +do in the way of borrowing. I am well within the mark +when I say that at least <i>one hundred</i> volumes have been +ere now allowed out to one reader at a time.</p> + +<p>The present Librarian has been trying, I believe, to +check this morbid appetite for superfluous volumes; but +it is not always an easy thing to root out a bad habit.<span class="pagenum">[62]</span></p> + +<p>Any one who examines the slips in the various parts +of the Bodleian, as I habitually do, will be struck by two +things; the immense number of volumes had out by the +same reader or readers, and the length of time that volumes +are allowed to remain off the shelves; and this is in +great measure the fault of a system for which we are +answerable. What takes place in the library will undoubtedly +sooner or later take place out of it. A borrower +is not, so far as I know, limited as to the number of +volumes he may have out; neither is he limited as to +the time he may keep them out. The present Librarian +informed me that when he came into office he found +that one book had been out of the library for <i>nine</i> years, +and that others had been off the shelves for very long +periods of time. And such things must happen, if you +sanction this wretched system of lending. It is perfectly +easy to do what constant experience has shown to entail +on the whole the minimum of evil; it is easy to keep +your books within the library as they do at the British +Museum; but if you once lend, there is no drawing of +lines possible. Altogether there are about one hundred +and eleven persons on the borrowers' list already. It is +said that the Curators can refuse any application if they +choose; of course they can, but as a matter of fact no +application ever has been refused, and every name +added will make it more and more difficult, more and +more invidious to refuse any one. Every Oxford resident +is potentially on the list, and he may be actually on it +whenever he likes. What is this but the beginning, and +something more than the beginning, of that wretched +system which Mr. Bradshaw speaks of above? (p. 50.) +The dissolution of our magnificent library is already insidiously +begun; and why is all this gratuitous and +irreparable mischief to be done? why is that vast storehouse +intended for the use and benefit of generation after +generation of scholars to be scattered and at last destroyed? +Simply to gratify the vulgar, selfish convenience of this +or that individual regardless of the general good. The<span class="pagenum">[63]</span> +whole is to be sacrificed for a part, and for what a part! +The present Librarian has been trying to do something +to check this disastrous and ruinous practice, but the +Curators are responsible for it, not the Librarian.</p> + +<p>Manuscripts and printed books when lent out of Oxford +are as a rule not lent to private houses but deposited in +some library. What happens abroad I do not know, though +I confess to having my suspicions. If a manuscript were +lent to some one in a Cathedral town, it would be deposited +in the Cathedral library; and we comfort ourselves with +the belief that in such a place it would be secure, and that +it would not on any account be removed from that library +elsewhere. An acquaintance of my own, a very safe man, +has had a Bodleian manuscript of great value out for some +years, and it is lent not to him directly, but to a library +where alone he is to use it. It may be that this arrangement +is actually carried out, and I do not know that it is not, +yet I would bet five pounds to a penny that if I went +to his house I should find the Bodleian book kicking about +in his study, where, in fact, though exposed to a thousand +risks of damage and even destruction, it is really safer than +in the library where we suppose it to be. For one Cathedral +library I can answer: a book would hardly be safer there +than it would be on a public and unwatched book-stall, +and such I have no doubt whatever is the case with more +than half the places to which we send books for safe custody. +There is as little conscience about books in this stupid +and wicked world as there is about umbrellas, and one of +the most important and most useful functions of a body +like the Curators of the Bodleian is to set up a high +standard in such matters. It is our duty as trustees to +take lofty ground, and to be sensitive where the world is +listless and careless; and even if we do not really feel +exactly as we ought, we are bound, like Gertrude, to +'assume a virtue though we have it not'; it is very +laudable hypocrisy if the real article cannot be had. Yet +I hope that it can, and that upon consideration we may +all see that the convenience of a few is not for a moment<span class="pagenum">[64]</span> +to be compared with the convenience of many, and that +we shall awake to the fact that we, of all people, ought +not to countenance in any way whatever any practice +which may tend in the remotest degree to damage the +only institution in Oxford of which any rational being +can in the present day be justly proud.</p> + +<p>Lending of books has many more evil consequences, +proximate and remote, than I have enumerated; but there +is one which at the risk of being tedious must be mentioned. +The glorious part of the Bodleian, the part contributed +by Bodley himself, by Laud, by Selden, Pembroke, +Digby, Roe, Rawlinson, &c., consists largely of gifts. Every +man who knows anything at all about books, every one +who loves them, is perfectly well aware that very few +men will bequeath their libraries to an institution which +emulates the American or the English circulating and +commercial establishment. Barlow knew this, Bradshaw +knew it (see above, p. 50); every one knows it, who has +the least acquaintance with the habits and peculiarities +of collectors. The Bodleian has to my certain knowledge +already lost very rare books indeed which it might have +had, but for this penny-wise and pound-foolish policy. +Neither Rawlinson nor Douce would ever have been such +fools as to leave us what they did, could they have foreseen +how little sense of our duties and of our interests +we have shown. Bodley over and over again, and in the +strongest terms, forbad the lending of his books; Selden's +executors only delivered his books to us on the express +condition that they never should under any circumstances +be lent; Laud stipulated that his books should not be +lent, except for one particular purpose and in one particular +way. The Bodleian is what it is, because till +quite recent times we adhered to the rule of common +sense, not to say to that of common honesty, and it is +ever to be regretted that we departed from a course +which was at once safe and honourable. There will +be no more Douces, no more Rawlinsons, until we have +returned to better ways and proved the sincerity of our<span class="pagenum">[65]</span> +repentance. I have heard it maintained that the days +of great benefactors are over, that in some way not +explained men's characters and habits have changed. I +cannot admit this; men are now what they always were, +and collectors in all ages are singularly alike. Only let +us be as prudent, as worldly wise, and, I will add, as +honest as our predecessors were, and there is no reason +why the munificent benefactors of the past should not +be rivalled by equally munificent benefactors in the future. +Mr. Bradshaw (above, p. 50) is decidedly of opinion that +carelessness with regard to books prevents benefactions, +and that care attracts them. Barlow is of the same mind, +and indeed the thing is too obvious to be insisted on. +It is only those who know little or nothing of the feelings +which actuate the real lovers of books who doubt about +such very simple facts as these.</p> + +<p>To conclude this part of the subject; the arguments +against the lending of books out of such a library as +the Bodleian may be briefly summed up thus: lending +is bad, because books are necessarily exposed to needless +and certain risks of damage and of downright loss; because +one of the great ends served by a large library is defeated, +in that no man can be certain of obtaining a book known +to be in it; because lending leads sooner or later to the +destruction of a library; because it dries up the great +sources from which large numbers of the most valuable +books are derived; because it is disapproved of by all +those who have the largest and widest experience of books +and their management; because, finally, it is in violation +of the express directions of Bodley, of Selden, of Laud +and others, and almost certainly contrary to the wishes +of all our great benefactors, even though they may not +have said as much. Reason and authority are equally +against it; and the cause of learning and of literature +can never be permanently served by a practice which tends +to destroy that without which learning and literature alike +are impossible: whatever advantages may seem to attend +it, are more than counterbalanced by disadvantages so<span class="pagenum">[66]</span> +great, that none but those who recklessly sacrifice the +future to the present, the interests of generations yet to +come, to the selfishness of the generation that now is, +can regard it with any favour or even with common +patience. We have by the sturdy honesty of our predecessors +received a vast treasure which they carefully +preserved intact; we are its guardians and trustees, and +we are bound in honour and honesty to hand on to our +successors, undiminished and unimpaired, what we have +received only as a trust, not as a something which we +may spend or destroy at our pleasure. Any wilful act +of ours which tends, however remotely, to damage the +Bodleian Library is not only a scandalous breach of duty, +but a crime against learning itself, in which I for one will +have no part or share.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h5"> +BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.<br /> +</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Remarks on the practice and policy of +lending Bodleian printed books and manuscripts, by Henry W. 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