BY The middle of The nineteenth century it had come History of The to be obvious to many minds that if The advantages of Public Libraries were really to be popularized m Britain, some new machinery must be employed. Three hundred years had elapsed, since Bishop Bale’s lament that There was not in each English shire, at least one Library “ for The preservation of noble works, and preferment of good learning.” Another century passed on with all its mighty changes, but in this particular The most competent witness of that generation had still to note that “we in England are so defective of good Libraries, both ‘ among The gentlemen and in our greatest towns,’ that ‘Paris alone, I am persuaded, is able to show more than all The three nations of Great Britain.’” These, it will be remembered, are The words of John Evelyn.