Ovr Correspondent "Old Mortality lately supplied a very curious and interesting sketch of the history of the "Shanghai Library." This institution was founded as far.back as 1849. The original members have, it is needless to say, long ago departed, and indeed the wary names of many of these are clean forgotten, The Library unquestionably supplied a want, and has been long recognized as one of the respectable old odics linking the Shanghai of the Past to the Shanghai of the Present. It _has been frequently asserted that books were not in it that were specially required, and that its shelves were encumbored with volumes that nobody ever read. Rivalsovieties have arisen, and Book So-ictics and Book Clubs have been started to furnish a larger number of readable works than the funds of the elder body could purchase but these associations have, died out and the Library has remained. It has never perhaps been "popular" institution, but it has been highly valued by those members of the community who enjoy Books, and who find reference to standard sathors, as well as the hasty perusal of modern novels and books of travels, a mental necessity, The founders laid in a stock of valuable works, and the section devoted to history and biography is very rich and complete. During the past ten years it has had three homes, It found a habitation appears to have affected the fortunes of the Library rather unhappily, to judge from an advertisement which we lately printed, calling a meeting of subscribers to consider whether or no the Institution can be carried on! Several causes have combined to reduce the Library to this unlucky pass.
OF course, the gen- 'y, eral depression of the Settlement has to answer for a part of the disaster. Men are very naturally cutting off all small extraneous expenses, and a subscription to the Library is one of the first. minor luxuries they lop off. But the most formidable rival to the venerable institution in the Gniiomen Road is the recently opened Reading Room at the Club. The taste and good sense that have lately guided the members of that Society are conspicuously exhibited in the appointments of the new room and in the choice of the volumes that fill the shelves. The Reading Room is handsome and comfortable. The furniture is good and the situation well chosen. There can be little doubt that it will be soon one of the most popular places of resort in the Settlement. Still, we confess that it does not seem to us to supersede the necessity fora Lending Library. Ladies want books as well as gentlemen, and they cannot (until Mr. Mill's Doctrines prevail) become members of the Shanghai Club, Besides, though sound judg—ment and liberal expenditure characterized the present Club Committee, it will take them many years to collect such a good collection of standard works as the Library possesses.. This being the case, we think that it would be a mistake to allow the Library to fall, and we hope that at the general meeting some means to prop it up may be devised.
It may be premature to offer a sug- 1 gestion, but it seems to us that if the subscription of the Library need to be supplemented in order that the institution may be carried on, the Recreation Fund might with propriety be applied to. This benign power sprinkles its pleasant waters upon every languishing enterprise which has for its object the well-being of the Community at large, and we do not think the Trustees would grudge a few hundred dollars to the Library. Its loaded shelves of Class E., groaning under the weight of novels and romances, attest that the Library has at its command the means of recreating the mind and supplying that mental relaxation which all of us sometimes require. Some other plans may be proposed at the general meeting on Monday next, but we think that failing any new and comprehensive 'T scheme for reorganizing the Library, this mode of sustaining it may be considered. worth narrating. And truly some of the edicts which appear there are quaint, ake for instance the Gazette of the 23rd. The Board of Ceremonies has addressed the Throne, advising that His Majesty appoint Princes and high officers to search the persons and bedding (1) of the students, on {their entering the Examination Hall to "compete for the literary degree of The Emperor has, therefore, appointed twenty-two persons, including princes and high officials, to perform thus task. Amongst the, later I notice even the names of Tung-scun and Ching-ling, two chiefs of the Tsung-lo Yamun; and Tib-chun, chief of the Record Office in the Kwo-tsze-kwan, who was formerly super-intendant of the Imperial Arsenal at Tientsin, Fancy Princes of the Blood and Chiefs of the Foreign Oftice—Prinee Arthur and Mr, Hammond—appvinted inspectors of bedding.
It is thought likely that the Emperor will got back from his visit to the Imperial tombs, about the 17th April. At any rate ho is certain to be back befor 21st, as the examinations for Tsin-sze commence on the 23rd, and it is customary for the Emperor to not minate the examiners two days previously. There is considerable speculation amongs-the Chinese as to who will be appointed examiners, Paon-kenn and Maou he are two names £ have heard mentioned as likely; both are chiefs of departments—the first of the Han-lin-yuen and the second of the Board of Magistracy. During the winter we seldom heard the southern Chinese dialects spoken in the streets" or in the shops, but since the arrival of the first steamers at Tientsin, we now frequently hear them. I am told that the examinations wil bring to Peking from the provinces some twenty thousand people—students, their friends, and their servants.
In my letter of 4th February, 1 mentioned that an Edict had appeared in the Peking Gazette of the 1st idem, bent 4 meniorial from the Board of 'Cerem regarding errors and irregularities comm: ted last' year (1873) by the provincial literary examiners for the students competing for the degree of Keujin, in the ince of Chihli, in consequence of which King' (the President of the from their official; position on the part of the Government has since excited considerable attention and comment, amongst the higher officials in the metropolis and the provincial capitals where the examinations for Keujin are held; us men who are likely t" be appointed examiners could not avoid perceiving the precariousness of their offiial positions should they, even by pure accident or oversight, allow the minutest discrepancies to po their notice in the thousands of examination papers laid before them.
The result has been that -paon, Vice President of the yamun in the metropolis, Jized the throne on the sub us, and Inid. before His on_of eleven articles, ions for the better order-the bs on the 17th April, ung may return to Tientsin by the 23rd for a.time in the old Masonic Building in the Canton Road. Tt was next moved to the Club, and latterly it has,.been sharing quarters with the Royal Asiatic Society, in the eommodiays structure near the Lyceum Theatre. The removal from the Shanghai Club
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.