BY J. LINWOOD PITTS.


In concluding the editorial duties connected with the issue of this
fourth volume of the "Guille-Allès Library Series," it seems to me
that the time is an opportune one for adding some short account of the
origin and foundation of the noble Institution from which the "Series"
takes its name. The Guille-Allès Library is proving such an immense
boon to our little insular community, that very naturally, many
inquiries are from time to time made--especially by strangers--as to
how its existence came about.

In order to answer these questions we must go as far back as the year
1834. At that time Mr. Guille--who is a Guernseyman by birth--was but
a boy of sixteen, and had been two years in America. He was serving
his apprenticeship with a well-known firm in New York, and he enjoyed
the privilege of access to a very extensive library in that city,
founded by a wealthy corporation known as _The General Society of
Mechanics and Tradesmen_. The pleasure and profit which he derived
from this source were so great, and made such a deep impression upon
his mind that, young as he was, he formed the resolution that if his
future life proved prosperous, and his position enabled him to do so,
he would one day found a similar institution in his own little native
island of Guernsey. Throughout the whole of his future career this
intention was present with him; and commencing at once,--in spite of
his then very limited means--to purchase books which should form a
nucleus for the anticipated collection, he began to lay the foundation
of the literary treasures which crowd the shelves of the Guille-Allès
Library to-day. At the age of twenty, when out of his apprenticeship,
he found himself the possessor of several hundreds of volumes of