Edwards was broad-minded enough not to pin his faith on libraries alone as an engine of intellectual progress; he took part as a pamphleteer in the warfare over London University in 1836, persistently maintained that libraries and schools were complementary to each other, and pointed out that libraries should fulfil a very definite function in promoting the intellectual life of all classes. His radical views on the extension of hours and the opening of the reading room in the evening, on branch libraries for the utilization of duplicate books, on improved catalogues, the better supply of foreign literature and materials for research, and on numerous points of administration at the British Museum, have been fulfilled in large part since his time; yet some still remain a counsel of perfection. His aid was enlisted by Ewart and Brotherton after he had published some long articles, packed with statistics, on the inadequacy and inaccessibility of the library resources of Great Britain and Ireland, and on the liberal provision enjoyed on the Continent, which had a great deal to do with making converts and securing votes when public library legislation was before Parliament. Edwards probably exaggerated his case, and painted too glowing a picture of the wealthy Continental libraries, at any rate in the freedom of access said to be enjoyed by every citizen. But his instances of British scholars put to undue expense and compelled to live abroad in order to have libraries of historical material at hand were relevant enough. Gibbon complained that he had the greatest difficulty in consulting books and had to obtain them from abroad at a heavy expense; he found himself better provided when living in Switzerland or France than in his own country. Buckle, later on, and, still later, Lecky and Acton had to seek their material in Continental libraries. One telling point Edwards made, that England was unrivalled in its private collections, though so poor in those open to the public--a state of things by no means wholly remedied yet.