Women more or less respectably dressed are often objects of suspicion to public librarians; they are also a class infinitely more difficult to deal with than men, for, whilst the receptivity of their cloaks is infinite, their 'feelings' have to be considered. Whether guilty or innocent, the suspected party is bound to create a 'scene,' probably hysterics--and what is a public librarian, or, indeed, any other man, to do under such circumstances? Libri was unquestionably the most accomplished and wholesale book-thief that ever lived. As Inspector-General of French Libraries under Louis Philippe, he had special facilities for helping himself--his known thefts have been valued at L20,000. We mention him here because his collections were sold at Sotheby's in 1860. One of the most interesting illustrations of this man's depredations was exposed in 1868, when Lord Ashburnham issued a translation of the Pentateuch from a Latin MS. which had been purchased by a previous holder of the title from Libri, who sold it under the condition that it was not to be published for twenty years. It had been stolen in 1847 from the Lyons Library, and the clause in the agreement, therefore, is easily understood. Libri evidently was not one of those whom Jules Janin describes as 'people who don't think it thieving to steal a book unless you sell it afterwards.' Unfortunately, education has knocked all the virtue out of charms and incantation. Madame de Genlis is said to have fenced the greater part of her library with the following lines: 'Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis; Dismas, et Gesmas, media est Divina Potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix infima Gesmas. Nos et res nostras conservet Summa Potestas!-- Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.' Quite a long chapter could be made up of the doggerel rhymes frequently made use of in bygone days in which the prospective thief was warned off under penalties of a prison, or even of a worse end. Here is one: 'Si quisquis furetur This little Libellum Per Phoebum, per Jovem, I'll kill him--I'll fell him-- In ventrem illius I'll stick my scalpellum, And teach him to steal My little Libellum.' And here is another: 'Qui ce livre volera, Pro suis criminibus Au gibet il dansera, Pedibus pendentibus.'