=20. Constitution of Committees.=--The portions of the Acts already quoted make it plain that in Scotland the library committees shall be independent bodies, with power to provide everything necessary, without requiring the sanction of the local authorities, or doing more than from time to time reporting their proceedings. In Ireland, under Section 12 of the principal Act, “the general management, regulation and control of such libraries and museums, etc., shall be, as to any borough, vested in and exercised by the council or board, and as to any town, in and by the town commissioners, _or such committee as they respectively may from time to time appoint, who may from time to time purchase and provide the necessary fuel, books, appoint and dismiss officers, make rules_,” etc. This approximates closely to the English law, which differs from that of the Scottish in leaving the power of appointing an independent or semi-independent library committee in the discretion of the local authority. The English Act has already been quoted in the previous section, and it now remains to give reasons why every Public Library Committee should be independent of the control of the local authority, save for certain purposes. The fact that, in Scotland, the hybrid composition of the committee is regarded as a reason for making it practically independent of the local authority offers a strong argument in favour of a similar course being pursued in England and Ireland. A mixed committee is entitled to act without the special sanction of the local authority, if only for the reason that all its members cannot take part in the ratifying proceedings of the council or board. It seems illogical to invite capable citizens who are not members of the council to pass certain resolutions and then submit them for confirmation to a council on which they have no vote or voice. Furthermore, a committee of any kind appointed to administer an Act, like the Public Libraries Act, which lays down clearly what may be done and how much may be expended, does not require the same kind of oversight and control as an ordinary committee appointed for some municipal purpose with comparatively unlimited powers of expenditure. No committee appointed for an educational purpose should be subject to the delays and difficulties caused by having to submit all its proceedings for confirmation by a superior authority. All these arguments furnish reasons why local authorities in England and Ireland should follow Scotland in giving Public Library Committees a complete or partial delegation of powers under the Public Libraries Acts.