THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY.
TT is human, we suppose, to think others happier than our- selves ; and for that reason we must not be too hard on the Curators of the Bodleian Library. But it is hardly possible to imagine a stranger craze than that which has possessed them for the last fourteen years. They are the guardians of one of the great libraries of the world, and it might be -supposed that, in its own way, no position could be more respon- sible or more agreeable. No other University has such a library ; the only collections that can come into competi- tion with it belong not to corporations, but to great States. Yet the Curators of Bodley's Library are not content. Their cry is, Oh, that we were as Mr. Mudie !' their ambition is to be like Messrs. Cawthorne and Hutt. They do not care to have the charge of a great library ; the object of their ambition is to keep a Circulating Library. What is perhaps stranger, they have contrived for the last fourteen years to get their own way. They have really placed Sir Thomas Bodley's magnificent foundation on a level with the useful institutions we have named. The list of borrowers, no doubt, is a small one,—only a hundred and eleven ; but the principle is saved, and the Curators of Bodley's Library may talk of " Our customers " as proudly as Mr. Mudie himself. Once get placed on this list, and the choicest treasures of the collection may be transferred to your own home, and exposed without let or hindrance to the chances of the domestic hearth or the domestic inkstand.
Things have a way of passing unnoticed at Oxford. The residents have enough to do to inform themselves of the con- tents of the last examination statute, and, unless it bore on the schools, the easiest thing in the world would be to keep it dark that a revolution had been accomplished. Possibly if something startling had happened—if a manuscript had been worried by a tutor's dog, or an editio princeps had had a candlestick upset upon it—some protest would have been raised. As it was, the change in the practice with regard to the books seems to have excited no attention until Professor Chandler thought of denouncing it in a pamphlet, with the title, "Remarks on the Practice and Policy of Lending Bodleian Printed Books and Manuscripts." This pamphlet, amusing and incisive as it is, is not the only service Professor Chandler has rendered to the Bodleian. As one of the Curators, he has pointed out to his brethren that they have probably exceeded their legal powers, and that if they wish to put themselves right, they had better apply to Convocation for a new statute. Whether this will propose not only to indemnify the Curators for the past, but also to allow them to do the same thing in the future, we do not know ; but whatever may be the form into which it is thrown, its introduction will necessarily raise the whole question. Whether Bodleian printed books and manuscripts shall still be lent, or the better practice which prevailed down to thirty years ago be reverted to, is the issue which Con- vocation will have to decide. We trust that it will show itself as zealous in putting down a mischievous innovation as it sometimes has been in resisting a useful reform.
The question really lies within a very small compass. There are two reasons why the books and manuscripts in the Bodleian should not be lent out, and the moment these have been stated the controversy is at an end. The first, and most important, is the safety of the objects lent. A library such as Bodley's is exposed to risks from which the ordinary circulating library is wholly exempt. All the copies of the last new novel might disappear from the shelves in Museum Street, and no one except the proprietor of the library be any the worse for it. They could be at once replaced by a message to the publishers. It is the glory of a really great library that many of its treasures have no counterpart, and that many more have no counterpart that is attainable. So long as they are con- sulted in the library, and, potentially at least, beneath the eye of the Librarian, they are safe. The conditions under which they are used are simple enough, but they are chosen with a single eye to the security of the treasures which the readers wish to consult. But when once a book or a manuscript has been lent, it shares for the time all the risks—and necessarily the far greater risks—of an ordinary private library. The chances of loss, of destruction, of mutilation, of injury in a variety of ways, are indefinitely multiplied. And the object lent may be one which cannot be replaced if once it is lost, or repaired if once it is damaged. If it is a manuscript, this is certain to be true ; and even if it is a book, it will not impro- bably be true. It may be said, no doubt, that these are only risks. If the pitcher which goes often to the well is broken in the end, it makes a great many journeys first. But this is no argument at all where, as in this case, the breakage when it comes can never be made good, and when there is no need that the journey to the well should ever have been made.
The second objection to the lending system is that it is fatal to the constant and universal usefulness of the Bodleian. The few great libraries of the world ought to have this common
feature, that their contents should always be accessible to every scholar who wants to consult them. It is altogether impossible that they should fulfil this end if the books are allowed to leave the library. The moment that this is permitted, an element of uncertainty is introduced which makes the library useless to the very class for which it was specially designed. Once let it be known that you can never count upon finding the contents of a great library in their proper places, and who will be at the trouble and expense of making a long journey to settle this or that point $ A scholar comes from Berlin to Oxford merely to consult a particular manuscript in the Bodleian ; and when he gets there, he is told that this manuscript was sent on loan to Vienna or Rome only last week. It may be answered that when once the system is understood, no such difficulty can arise. The Berlin scholar will know that the manuscript he wants may be at Vienna or at Rome, and instead of going all the way to Oxford to see it, he applies for the loan of it after Vienna or Rome has had its turn. But, at this rate, to how many will the manuscript be of use in the course of the year I And what is to become of the English scholars who may want to consult it in the interval A lending library is a most useful adjunct to a great public library, but it must be nothing more than an adjunct. The two embody irreconcilable ideas, and nothing but confusion can follow from any attempt to combine them.
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