One of the oldest and most respectable institutions in Shanghai is undoubtedly the Shanghai Library. Originally founded, we believe, by the gift to the community of the library of a fellovtownsman, on his departare from China, has, amidst many vicissitudes, contrived to exist to the present. We are glad therefore to learn that there is some probability of the Iustitution finding a home, on sufficiently ensy terms, in connection with the now building for the local branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, That Body, in whose care the Wylie Library has been placed, likewise possesses of its own a considerable and valuable stock of books, so the juxtaposition of theShanghai Library will add considerably to the facilities for reference to books enjoyed by the community. It is perhaps unfortunate that the latter Library should have degenerated so much as it has, into a depository for novels; but circumstances difficult to control seem to have led to this end. In spite of the attempts of the Committee to keep up to the mark the stock of standard works of reference, the expenses to which the Library has been hitherto put, have reduced the amount of money available to a min-imam. We understand that the proposed arrangement, while sufficient care has been taken to preserve intact the resources of the Institution, will reduce this expenditure so considerably, that a mach larger sum will be left in the hands of the Committee for the purpose of purchasing books. Whether a reduction in the rate of subscription would increase the number of contri-bating members; or whether, in such a case, the expenses of the Library would not be increased out of proportion, are, we understand, moot points; but no question can exist as to the desirableness of increasing the number of really gree works. The division of the Lirary into two classes, one the purely circulating, the other for standard works, would bean improvement. Wo believe that accommodation sufficient for such a purpose can be had in the new building, and hope that in some form or other the Committee will see the advisability of extending the basis of the Institution. It may be too soon to hope for the establishment of a public museum; the class of men necessary to form and keep it going hardly yet exist, amongst our comparatively limited community. Men not only eager after science, but possessed of a considerable amount of leisure for its cultivation, ave necessary before anything on a sufficiently large scale can be rendered effective. The will is perhaps not wanting, but leisure is a scarce thing in a community like ours, to which time is essentially money. There is no similar reason to prevent such a disposition of the libraries as would render them useful to the student or to the curious in mutters Chinese; and the interest thus excited may at some fatare period bear its fruits by encouraging a taste for what we see around us, but of which, for wont of a preceptor, the importance does not at once strike us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.