has been £55,000, the remaining £23,000 being the expenditure on the
branch libraries. The present annual cost is £9,372, of which £3,372
goes for interest and sinking fund, so that an addition must soon be
made to the 1d. rate, which produces £6,454. The power to increase the
rate is given in the last Act of Parliament obtained by the Corporation.
At the end of 1882 the Reference Library contained 50,000 volumes. The
number of books in the Central Lending Library was 21,394, while the
branch lending libraries contained--Constitution Hill, 7,815; Deritend,
8,295; Gosta Green, 8,274; and Adderley Park, 3,122. The aggregate of
all the libraries was 98,900 volumes. The issues of books during 1882
were as follows:--Reference Library, 202,179; Central Lending Library,
186,988; Constitution Hill, 73,705; Deriteud, 70,218; Gosta Green,
56,160; Adderley Park, 8,497; total, 597,747; giving a daily average of
2,127 issues. These figures are exclusive of the Sunday issues at the
Reference Library, which numbered 25,095. The average number of readers
in the Reference Library on Sundays has been 545; and the average
attendance at all the libraries shows something like 55,000 readers per
week, 133 different weekly and monthly periodicals being put on the
tables for their use, besides the books. At a meeting of the School
Board, June 4, 1875, permission was given to use the several infants'
schoolrooms connected with the Board Schools, as evening reading rooms
in connection with the libraries.

_The Shakespeare Memorial Library_, though to all intents and purposes
part and parcel of the Reference Library, has a separate and distinct
history. Mr. Sam. Timmins, who is generally credited with having (in
1858) first suggested the formation of a library, which should consist
solely of Shakespeare's works, and Shakespeareana of all possible kinds,
said, at the tercentenary meeting, that the idea originated with George
Dawson, but perhaps the honour should be divided, as their mutual