Nevertheless, efficient volunteers have been forthcoming: it is indeed surprising how many lecturers of a high order can be enlisted by a librarian who keeps his eyes open for ability and scholarship and no caprice for hiding the light under a bushel. It was the present writer’s duty to organize regular weekly lectures at the central and the two chief district libraries of a large London borough for several successive winters. By the exercise of some vigilance and diplomacy, first-class lecturers on a variety of subjects were secured, without a penny of expense to the borough. The quality of the lectures was witnessed by the attendance, which averaged well over two hundred--hundreds turned away on nights when there were bumper houses not being counted. There is another side to this question of voluntary lecturers, which may perhaps be urged by the Lecture Agency and the University Extension boards, that it is robbing the paid lecturer of his occupation. In the present condition of things the point hardly arises. There is no money for the professional lecturer, so that the amateur cannot be charged with blacklegging; but it will assuredly arise when lecture and other tutorial schemes are properly recognized and financed. When that time arrives, however, there will be such a demand for lecturers that the whole question will be seen to have different bearings. There will be courses of lectures running, or demanding to be run, at every library, including most of the branch establishments; there will be tutorial classes, reading circles, and other groups requiring teachers or at least competent leaders, going on concurrently. The library proper, that is the working collection of books, will have become, or be tending to become, the heart, the functional centre, of a complex organism; it will fall into its place as the analogue of the library in a big college. Thus there will be a wide and importunate demand for lecturers, and demand will create supply only if every possible source is utilized. There will not be a glut of trained lecturers, or even a sufficient supply. Rather, when all the lecturers empanelled by official and commercial agencies are in full employ, there will be keen competition for their spare moments. When public libraries were first mooted, it was prophesied that the bookseller would be deprived of a large part of his market, and every new public library is supposed to be a blow to the trade. The results are in direct contradiction. A better supply has created a keener demand. Access to books has stimulated a desire to possess books. The day of popular libraries was speedily followed by the day of the cheap edition. There are many more bookshops than ever there were before; and since there are more booksellers it may be safely concluded that, in spite of complaints of bad trade, the sale of books has largely increased. Even the commercial circulating library continues to flourish.