On May 31, 1887, an amendment practically forbidding all loans came before the House. In vain Professor Freeman declared that a book is not an idol but a tool which must wear out sooner or later. To no purpose Bodley’s Librarian proved that of 460,000 printed volumes in the collection only 460 had been lent out, and of these only one had been lost. The amendment forbidding the practice of lending was carried by 106 votes to 60.
Personally I am not dissatisfied with this proceeding. It is retrograde legislation befitting the days when books were chained to the desks. It suffers from a fatal symptom—the weakness of extreme measures. And the inevitable result in the near future will be a strong reaction: Convocation will presently be compelled to adopt some palliation for the evil created by its own folly.
The next move added meanness to inertness. I do not blame Mr. E. B. Nicholson, Bodley’s Librarian, because he probably had orders to write the following choice specimen:—
30/3/1887.
“Dear Sir Richard Burton,
“I have received two vols. of four (read six) ‘Supplemental Nights’ with a subscription form. If a Bodleian MS. is to be copied for any volume, I must stipulate that that volume be supplied to us gratis. Either my leave or that of the Curators is required for the purpose of copying for publication, and I have no doubt that they would make the same stipulation. I feel sure you would in any case not propose to charge us for such a volume, but until I hear from you I am in a difficulty as to how to reply to the subscription form I have received.
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) E. B. Nicholson,
Librarian.”
The able and energetic papers, two printed and one published by Mr. H. W. Chandler, of Pembroke College, Oxford, clearly prove the following facts:—