fruit. One was that a number of free libraries should form a syndicate, and get Mr. Quaritch to sell them at a low figure the hopelessly imperfect copies of famous books that came into his possession and were not good enough for collectors, so that each member of the syndicate would get a leaf or two of fine printing, illustration, or what not, for a trifling sum. There could be no great vandalism in breaking up such very imperfect copies. Failing the adoption of this scheme, there ought to be exhibitions of facsimiles. The reproductions of books shown in the King's Library at the British Museum, now to be purchased for a moderate sum, would form an admirable exhibition, and with the advance and cheapening of the arts of reproduction, additional facilities will be made possible. The romantic interest attaching to facsimiles doubtless falls short of that inspired by the originals, but the difference is in reality so slight, that even an expert could not safely assert the most recent specimens produced to be copies by merely looking at them through the glass of a show-case. And if the facsimiles could be printed on imitation-antique paper, the illusion would be further heightened.
The question of photographic reproductions which this question starts is one of increasing importance. It concerns not only the "vulgarisation" (in the French sense) of rare and handsome books, but in their preservation. This applies with especial force to manuscripts, which are outside the scope of the present work; but every large
