them, after the Arabian Nights, appear to
have been Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, and
the Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders.

The historical works most favoured have
been those most dealing in adventure and
excitement. Histories of Napoleon have been
somewhat more in demand than even the
Arabian Nights. Lives of Wellington and
Nelson, were respectively, about half as much
in request, but very popular, slightly more
popular indeed than that very well read book
of amusement, "Gulliver's Travels." Narratives
of the Battle of Waterloo were in yet
greater demand, though still in less request
than accounts of Napoleon. Next in
popularity to the lives of Napoleon—and there is
one man in Manchester who has even read
Alison's history straight through—is a volume
entitled "Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea."
That volume was issued two hundred and
fifteen times in six months. Almost equally
popular was Mr. Cumming's account of his
hunting adventures among lions and
hippopotamuses in South Africa. Less in request,
but much demanded—next, in fact, in the
order of popularity among books of this class—
have been Macaulay's History, Layard's
Nineveh, and Dana's Two Years before the
Mast.

Mr. Edwards has framed tables showing
for each month in the past year, the amount
of the demand for books in each section of the
library; such tables, when they extend over
many years, will yield curious results, but
the fluctuations in the attendance on a Free
Library, among a somewhat mobile population,
would of course mislead us, if, without
taking them into account, we speculated on
the tables of a single year. Perhaps we
may safely infer the experience of the first
year to be true of all in these respects. That
more books are borrowed in winter than in
summer, in in-door than in out-of-door
weather; and most in October and November,
when the weather makes men least inclined
to go abroad. That the disposition to read
philosophy is greater in November, least in
May; and that there is a revived demand for
it in the dog-days, when the heat also begets
a disposition for metaphysics, which otherwise
is in most favour through the foggy months.
That tales of battle, shipwreck, and adventure
are demanded most when there are firesides
to read them by, and that the decrease
of demand for them in the summer, is more
rapid than the decrease of demand for poetry
and fiction. That the summer want of
scientific books falls to one half of what it was in
winter, while the want of pleasure books
diminishes only by a fourth. The diminution
of demand for books in summer receives
some check in July. The weather out of
doors is, in that month, often hotter than we
like; and it is for this reason, perhaps, that
July appears to be, of all summer months,
very decidedly the one in which most books
are read. Some of these generalisations may
be justified by future tables.

We dwell now upon one or two more practical
facts before quitting the subject. One
of them is that establishers of lending libraries
must calculate upon the spending of a
portion of their yearly means, not in the
buying of new books, but in the replacing of
books that are worn out. Manchester
experience has proved that proper care is taken by
the people of the works freely entrusted to
their hands.

Here we interpolate the very noticeable
fact, that out of more than seventy-seven
thousand volumes which have been issued
during the last year from the Manchester
Lending Library, only three have been lost.
Another proof of the trustworthiness of
English working men. But, with the best usage,
a work cannot be read successively by fifty
people, without needing to be rebound; and
after it has been rebound, fifty more readers
fairly wear it out. Of books in much request,
therefore, new copies will have to be
put into circulation once in about every two
years. This necessity further shows the
importance of securing to a free library, by rate
or otherwise, the support of a fixed annual
income.

There remains only one small matter of
detail to which, for the sake of others who
are forming libraries of the same character,
we wish to call attention. For the working of
the Manchester Free Library, it is arranged
that every reader having been recommended
by two burgesses who become surety for his
right use of the books, is admitted, and that
he needs no re-admission until he shall
have allowed six months to elapse without
availing himself of his privilege. The last
clause of this regulation is found inconvenient
in practice. It is thought that it would be
better if those who have taken the trouble to
obtain the right of reading, were to report
themselves as attached still to the Institution,
by applying every half year for a renewal of
their privilege. There would be no need of
fresh vouchers; the trouble to each reader
would be insignificant; and a real working
list of the reading part of the population
would then be always in existence.

BLANK BABIES IN PARIS.

Having already described the Foundling
Hospital of London,* it may be useful, for
comparison, to describe the sister establishment
in Paris.

The Foundlings of Paris are an ancient
community. For upwards of four hundred
years, they have been the object of legislative
enactments. Their earliest protectors
were the clergy; and it was to the Bishop of
Paris and the Chapter of Notre Dame that

* "Received a Blank Child." Vol. ii., p. 49.