Afterwards were read, in a loud voice, the conditions and contracts made and entered into between her most Serene Majesty the Queen of England, and the States General, relative to the succours and assistance against the inquisitors and felons of Spain, which she had sent the United Provinces, under command of the most noble Lord Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; who, then, with raised hand, and supported by Count Maurice and the son of Don Antonio, King of Portugal, swore solemnly to observe what had been agreed and decided; as, on the other hand, the States swore equally to render him all obedience and subjection, as well in political as military affairs '. This done, they departed and dined with his Excellency, where also my Lord the Treasurer stayed and dined. At night bonfires were lighted in several parts of the town. The inhabitants marched under arms, and with flags flying through the town, rejoicing that it had pleased God to send so noble, wise, and prudent a governor to their defence and assistance. 26. My Lord the Treasurer went as far as Schevelinghe, and the same night Mr. Grof departed for England. At the supper-table discourse turned on the rashness of the French, and it was remarked that Julius Cæsar mentioned this as an hereditary vice in them; for in several places in his Commentaries, speaking of the French, he says, "Levitas quæ maxime illi hominum generi est innata; in consilijs capiendis sunt mobiles," &c. How true this is they well prove. 27.-Mons'. Gutry, ambassador of the King of Navarre, came into Holland to his Excellency at the Hague, meaning to pass from thence into Germany. At three o'clock in the afternoon his Excellency walked out with the great nobles who at present honour this court, namely, the Prince Elector of Cologne, the Prince of Portugal, Count Maurice, Count Hollar, Count William, and several others, without reckoning the English nobility. My lord the Treasurer entertained at supper General Norris and Mr. William Knollys. 28.-His Excellency sent one of his halberdiers for my Lord Treasurer at two o'clock in the afternoon. The Count de Meurs came from Utrecht to the Hague. My Lord Treasurer supped with General Norris. His Excellency walked in the park during the morning. My Lord Treasurer remained, from immediately after dinner till six o'clock, in council. February 1.-The members of the States General, who had been elected and received into his Excellency's council of state, took the oaths; and the same day, at night, the secretaries took their oaths. 2. Mr. Edward Norris's man departed for England with my Lord Treasurer's letters. Sir Thomas Cecill, governor of the Brill, came to his Excellency at the Hague. Mr. Willoughby was buried in the church. 1 We now learn that Leicester assumed the office of governor of the Low Countries on the 31st January, and which, it is well known, excited the Queen's displeasure. The Earl relied on Davison to effect his reconciliation, and that statesman's correspond. ence on the subject is extremely curious. " He commanded the English foot. February 3.-His Excellency sent this morning for my Lord Treasurer, to receive his oath, which he took in the council of war. 5.-General Norris left for Utrecht. Mr. Davison, the ambassador, went to the Brill to embark for England'. The Auditor of Accounts left for England the same day. 6. Mr. Lester, Vice-Treasurer of my Lord Hoddilston, went with Mr. Warcum to Utrecht and Guelderland, to pay the English companies. 11.-Sir Philip Sydney went to his government at Flushing, accompanied by Mr. Knollys, who was appointed governor of Ostend. The same day, at night, my lord the Treasurer accompanied the abovementioned as far as Zealand, having much to do there. Certain news arrived, that some officers and a number of soldiers at Grave had conspired with the Spaniards, to whom they meant to deliver up the place; but their treason being discovered, they were hanged and quartered. 12-The next day in the morning, two Spaniards, taken in the said town, where they had gone for the execution of the above design, were brought here before his Excellency. Sir Robert Germain sent one of his people to view this house, saying his master wished to buy it. 13.-One hundred and fifty horse passed muster previous to being sent, according to report, to join Captain Schink. Passports granted to some of my master's company, by Sir John Norris. Philip Joanes, 26 Nov. Mr. Hudlestone, 3 December, with Peter Joanes, his man. Mr. Pigeon, 2 Januarie Francis Day, 7. Mr. Pymme, at the same time, but dated in February for two monthes. Mr. Peacocke, the surgeon, 13th January, for two monthes. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. ATTENTION has been recently called to the libraries usually termed "public," by an article in the last number of the "Westminster Review," where the shameful state in which many of them are allowed to remain, and the no less disgraceful obstacles that exist to their contents being consulted, are exposed with considerable force and justice. As the subject is one of great 1 Davison was appointed ambassador to the Low Countries, in August, 1585, and was afterwards governor of Flushing; but, at his particular request, he was at length allowed to return to England. The Queen's warrant for his recall was dated on the 24th April, 1586, but he arrived in London on the 13th of February preceding, which agrees with the assertion, that he left for the Brill, thence to embark for this country, on the 5th of that month. importance, we purpose devoting a few papers to the statement of facts that tend in a powerful degree to prove the necessity of measures, by which these invaluable repositories of science and learning may be rescued from the custody to which they are now intrusted, or that the system at present observed be wholly and radically changed. It is requisite, in the first place, to notice the circumstance, that, with but one or two exceptions, every library in the kingdom is private property; and although we are among the first to contend that there is a wide distinction between the property of an individual and of a corporate body, those bodies but rarely admit the difference; and they consequently deem themselves fully justified in exercising the same rights over the libraries which belong to them, as a man would over the books in his own house. If their conduct be viewed with reference to its legality, it will be found that they have undoubted authority to exclude whom they please from admission; but if the members of those corporations continue impervious to the light of knowledge, which is every day extending itself even to the most illiterate of mankind; if they are deaf to the remonstrances, and indifferent to the wants, of those who wish to profit by the accumulated stores of wisdom which they so effectually conceal; if the guardians of the sources of intellectual improvement continue impenetrable to those enlarged and liberal views, of which the first and most valuable result is to place information within the reach of all who will avail themselves of it; a question will arise that the legislature must one day discuss, because the feeling is advancing with gigantic strides in England, which will no longer tolerate bonded corn, or bonded libraries; nor will the people continue to submit to contemplate the walls of the many storehouses of knowledge which are at once the ornament and the shame of our country. We are distinguished among nations for enterprize in the discovery of science: shall we then remain the solitary exception where libraries are impenetrable, and fees amounting to prohibitions are demanded for access to what are absurdly called public records? Our present business is, however, with the former; but it must not be imagined that we are indifferent to the scandalous regulations which exist with respect to the latter on the contrary, it is our intention to lay before our readers facts connected with the subject, which must excite the immediate interference either of government or of parliament. It is not a utopian idea to suppose that the system now observed with respect to the libraries of colleges and corporations will in a very few years undergo a material alteration; and as every thing would be useless, short of rendering them so far the property of the public, as that all who wish for admission may obtain it, some observations will be submitted on the most de sirable plan of rendering the volumes in question serviceable to the community. If the prospect can be entertained that the legislature will at a future period cause every library, excepting those in the hands of individuals, to become useful to the world at large, the first object should be to render that in the British Museum as perfect as the contents of the other libraries in the kingdom would admit, and, of course, to place in it all MSS.; thus making it a concentration of unique volumes, whether printed or in manuscript. The duplicates in that library ought, of course, to be added to the general stock; and from that stock the Bodleian might be rendered the second best. The third library in extent should be at Cambridge; and whatever books remained after the formation of the three grand libraries, might be distributed to make lesser ones in the principal cities. The obstacles to an arrangement which would confer invaluable advantages upon literature, we are well aware, are numerous; but they would derive their importance much more from the persons by whom they would be urged, than from their own merits. The invasion of private property would be one of the loudest complaints; and next to that, the interference which must be necessary with the wills of the donors of many of the collections that would be dispersed but these are all that are worthy of attention, and we shall therefore proceed to discuss them. Whilst it seems to be a sufficient answer to the objection of " private property," and that insuperable barrier to every improvement in this country, "vested rights," to reply, that by forming three perfect, instead of five hundred imperfect libraries, the convenience of the present possessors would be increased, and their privileges extended, it must be remembered, that there are certain principles to which every species of property is subject. It is a maxim that is universally acknowledged in all governments, and constantly acted upon in our own, that private rights must be in subservience to the public good. Let a road be necessary, and the lands of every proprietor in the neighbourhood are invaded; let it be requisite to form docks, and not only is private property sacrificed, but the most venerable church in the metropolis disappears, and the dust of illustrious and insignificant persons is alike disturbed. We may be told that those whose homes and houses have been removed received compensation adequate to their loss: but what could justify the outrage on public decency and public morals, in the desecration of churches, and the rooting up the resting places of the dead? Nothing, excepting the motive in which it originated-the public advantage. If this be a sufficient defence, and we are fully persuaded that it is so, of actions which not only involved personal property, but outraged feelings that even savages hold in reverence, is not the same argument irresistible? does it not gain overwhelming strength when applied to a measure which would only so far encroach on private rights, as it would extend them; which would only invade private property, to render that property more accessible and more useful to its possessors, whilst it would admit to the benefits of it the present, as well as all future generations; still more, which would have for its sole and ennobling motive, the improvement of the moral condition of man, by unlocking, and judiciously distributing, those stores of wisdom, from which the effect of existing systems, and that littleness of mind which ignorance and bigotry never fail to engender, have combined to exclude him? Fortunately the corporations possessed of libraries are formed of men of education, and chiefly of clergymen and in despite of the repeated assertions of others, nay, in despite of our own experience, that in most cases where the custodes of libraries are clergymen the difficulty of access has been greater, and the state of the collections infinitely worse, than when they have been intrusted to illiterate laymen, we will not libel so respectable a body as to suppose that they would object to an arrangement so beneficial to mankind. It is to the priesthood of the darker ages that we are indebted for the preservation of the learning of the ancients, and it would be monstrous to imagine that the best educated portion of the community-that class which is termed par excellence the learned-whose sacred duties, and in most cases personal characters, insure the respect of society, would throw obstacles in the way of the advancement of knowledge, and thus prove themselves inferior to their predecessors. There is another argument that might be adduced, besides the public good, which would almost of itself justify a change in the regulations of libraries, namely, that the present possessors have morally forfeited all right to them, by having suffered them to become comparatively useless; and have thus defeated the sole object with which they were formed. If, however, a trifling sacrifice of the exclusive rights which these corporations enjoy be necessary for the attainment of such universal good, let those persons remember that they will thereby evince their loyalty, as well as their liberality; for they will only follow the example of their sovereign, who, with a disinterestedness above all eulogy, has given his own personal library for the use of his subjects. This act has never received the praise that it deserves; for the disposition which it displays on the part of the monarch to increase the knowledge of his people is likely to have a beneficial effect on those who have in most instances the power to remedy the abuses of which we complain, and who are more likely to be influenced by the royal wishes than by any other inducement. |