My Lords and Gentlemen, I contend that it is a discredit, that, in the largest and richest Parish in the Metropolis, and in the United Kingdom, there is not only not a vestige of a free public News Room, but that St. Marylebone lags behind the poor Parish of St. John’s Westminster, where for upwards of three years, the NEWS ROOM has been a source of great attraction. Should you visit this News Room, in Great Smith Street, the silence, order, and evident interest of some two hundred readers, must strike you. The conduct of the frequenters of this Reading Room is very praiseworthy. I was told of one who came from Highgate, and open as it is to all comers, in all grades of life, it is pleasant to notice the influence of the judicious instruction to the librarian, which Mr. Stuart Dalton first introduced at Liverpool, viz., “That all persons, however ill-dressed or poor, who are cleanly, shall be treated as gentlemen.” Yet the good ship “Westminster,” is in danger of being cast away, of splitting on the dangerous rock, parsimony; she is on a lea-shore with breakers ahead; signals of distress are flying, and St. Marylebone will come to the rescue. Yes! this great and important parish will make an effort to preserve so admirable a vessel. Let her not founder, when _you could save_, let her not go down when you could prevent. I drop the figure and tell you plainly, that the force of your example in adopting Mr. Ewart’s Act, is _much needed_ by the Smith Street Institution, which looks to you for encouragement and sympathy. And not only St. Margaret, but other Metropolitan Parishes will follow the lead of St. Marylebone. London, too, will wake from its long lethargic slumber, and, undismayed by the defeat of 1855, will anxiously watch how you deal with this question. Lord Mayor Carter will not imitate his predecessors in frustrating the intentions of the Legislature; {11} and although an enthusiast in Rifle Brigades will find time to summon a meeting as to the policy of firing a shot at Ignorance, directly St. Marylebone carries the Act, and affirms that KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE THE PORTION OF ALL! The working of the Libraries Act in Manchester, has given great satisfaction. Artists, authors, surgeons, chemists, lawyers, clerks in, and out of orders, and artizans frequent the Reading Room. So in Marylebone the Public Library would benefit not one alone, but ALL classes. Such an Institution would do something to diminish that ISOLATION of class, which the dying TALFOURD rightly said was the bane of England. Gentlemen, it is miserable policy in this free country to allow a dangerous class, utterly uninformed, to grow up in your very midst: “A savage Horde, among the civilized, A SERVILE BAND among the LORDLY FREE.”