Priestley, and now numbers between thirty and forty thousand volumes. There is also a unique and interesting collection of books in a room adjoining the great Reference Library, which will afford much entertainment to the admirers of the great Warwickshire bard, as men of local ambition venture to call him. It is called The Shakespeare Memorial Library, and is designed to contain a complete collection of all the editions of Shakespeare's works, and of the books which have emanated from them. Very satisfactory progress has been made in the collection, and it promises to realize the best hopes of its founders. In a word, it is doubtful if any town of equal population in Great Britain or America has opened a larger or cheaper provision of books for its population, and no English town can show a larger muster-roll of readers per thousand of its inhabitants. Thus a large and broad basis has been laid on which to erect the structure of public opinion in Birmingham, and to increase its force and effect upon the country and its government.
I have interpolated the Town Hall and Free Libraries among the educational institutions of Birmingham, because they really occupy a middle place in the agencies of popular training and knowledge. As it is probable that a considerable number of American readers of these notes will
