The tables in the news-room are supplied with fortythree copies of the principal reviews and magazines in every department of literature and science. Six courses, making a total of thirty lectures, have been delivered in this institution during the year. The library contains about 5,000 volumes, of which 378 were added by purchase and donations during the past year. The total issue of books during the same time was 56,988. With reference to the library, the directors, in their last report, thus write : "It cannot have escaped the notice of any observer, how large a portion of the library consists of works of fiction. This is accounted for and defended upon the plea, that people who have been confined to business all the day, want some relaxation which does not require mental effort; but there is a certain degree of fallacy in this proposition, since it excludes from consideration the restoring effects of the mere change from one study to another. In making these observations, there is no intention of denying a value to the study of works of the imagination, amongst which may be classed some of the most splendid literary monuments of all ages and nations. But instead of invigorating the intellect, habitual novel-reading merely excites and enervates it; and whilst it indisposes, most effectually, the mind to severer studies, can hardly be said to prepare it for a renewal of the daily business of life." THE INCOME OF THE INSTITUTION HAS BEEN AS FOLLOWS:- Subscriptions Other sources Total 1746 18 21964 14 7 1841 7 0 2237 14 0 1860 15 2 02237 "The liabilities incurred in the past year amount to about £2,062; part of this will not occur again.— £1,625, or £1,650, the directors assume as the nett ex N penditure of the ensuing year, which will be covered by an average of about 825 members. "The nett outlay of 1841, namely, the gross total, deducting receipts from rent of rooms, admissions to lectures, fines on books, sales of newspapers, &c., has been about £1,737, and to meet it 1240 12 6 has been received from Subscribers. 200 0 0 being about the deficiency." Mr. S. E. Cottam is the honorary secretary. We conclude this part of our chapter by referring to one of the oldest and most valuable educational establishments possessed by Manchester, viz:— THE FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. This school is situate near the gate of Chetham Hospital, in Long Millgate. The new school-house has been recently erected, the old one alone becoming inadequate to the accommodation of the applicants for admission—a consequence of the increasing population of the town; and both schools are now numerously occupied. This institution is one whose exterior has nothing remarkable to commend it; but its internal advantages are great, and are prized by the community for whom they were designed. The school was founded by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, in the year 1520: and the original building remained in existence as late as the year 1776, when it was taken down, and the present old school erected on its site. The endowments of the school have increased so much in value, that the report of the "Commissioners appointed to inquire concerning Charities in England, for the Education of the Poor," stated the income (in the year 1825) to exceed £4,000. At that date little more than half that sum was annually expended, leaving a vast accumulating surplus. On an application being made to the Court of Chancery for power to appropriate the surplus to some useful purpose, permission CHETHAM LIBRARY. 187 was granted to expend £10,000 on a new school and house for the high master. The statute of the school provides for twelve exhibitions at Oxford and Cambridge. The value of these is now £60 each. Besides these, there are fifteen other exhibitions, founded by Hulme, of Kearsley. Boys educated here have also a claim, in rotation with other schools, to sixteen scholarships in Brazennose College, Oxon, and to an equal number in St. John's College, Cambridge: these vary in annual value from £18 to £26. The high master's salary is £600 per annum, with house rent and tax free. The present high master is the Rev. N. Germon, M. A. In this school are taught the classics, and the principal modern European languages, mathematics, writing, arithmetic, and modern. arts and sciences. This appears the most suitable place to introduce notices of the Libraries in Manchester. One deserving great attention is the CHETHAM LIBRARY. This is in the same building as the Chetham Hospital, and, as the name imports, owes its origin to the same worthy gentleman. It consists of probably twentyfive thousand volumes, with an annual provision for its augmentation. The inhabitants of the town are allowed free access to it, under certain regulations. It contains one of the best collections of books in the kingdom, and is very rich in old theology and antiquities. It also possesses many valuable MSS.-The catalogue, in three thick 8vo. volumes, may be purchased at the library. The following excellent notice of Chetham Library is so complete and interesting, that we believe its insertion will prove acceptable : "The existence in a town like Manchester of a library, containing twenty-five thousand volumes, to which the public have the privilege of free access, is a fact which, we have sometimes thought, ought from time to time, somewhat oftener at least than once in a 188 CHETHAM LIBRARY. generation, to be brought prominently under the notice of the community; that those who, from slender means, are unable sufficiently to gratify their love of reading-it may be, their thirst for knowledge-may become acquainted with this means of doing so, without cost to themselves. There are probably many strangers in Manchester, sojourners here a while, as there are doubtless many new comers now resident in the town, who may from these circumstances be unaware of the existence of this noble institution. That it is not more known may also be in some measure owing to its locality, in a part of the town, little frequented, of late years, except during the races at Kersal Moor. The secluded position, too, of the college or hospital, standing in a large area, apart from any buildings, and not fronting any street, tends still more to keep one of its chief treasures, its library, from the practical view of the community. We say practical, because we are quite aware that the building is visited by groups of people, chiefly from the country, and on holiday occasions, who go there merely to see a few sharks' teeth, lizards, bows and arrows, &c., stuck against the walls, and of which they are furnished with an unconsciously ludicrous description, or naming, by one of the scholars of Chetham's Hospital, or free school, which is in another portion of the same edifice. The probability is, that not one in a hundred of such visitors has the slightest idea that the vast number of books by which he sees himself surrounded, all carefully locked up in the cases, are accessible to him, or to any one; the only requirement and restriction being, that he shall enter his name in a book kept for the purpose, read the books in the library during the prescribed hours, and return each to the librarian before he quits the library. We have perhaps said enough to show that this library is not so well known, or at least made so extensively available, as it ought to be. "The Rev. J. Radcliffe's catalogue of the Chetham Library (1791) forms two thick octavo volumes, each |