importance of their formation claims the attention of the parochial clergy and resident proprietary of all our large villages. By their establishment much of the frivolous and unprincipled cheap publications, which now circulate weekly among our rural populations, might be replaced by sound and healthy literature. In some instances, where tried, village libraries have been less popular than they deserve, from their having too many works of a religious character on their shelves. These libraries should contain literature of the best quality intermingled with books of instruction and amusement; and the supporters of the church or chapel might be left to supply the books that are exclusively religious. The necessity for the introduction of works of amusement is painfully urgent when we recollect the wants of the class whom we wish to reach. The laborer and the industrious mechanic require a something that will keep their mental faculties from being mastered by the drowsiness which rest from physical labor induces. The pipe and the glass are resorted to by those whose pleasures extend not beyond the senses; and the "free and easy," the excitement of the tenpin ground, and the social converse of the tap-room, are the means adopted to kill time by numbers of young men, who have really no other place of resort. Those whose duty it is to watch over the young men of our villages should provide the means for social intercourse, independent of the evils of the public house, and associate with those means such other objects as should attract the uneducated from the vices and follies to which, through ignorance and neglect, they are in a great measure liable. Village libraries might be made useful means for moral and religious improvement of the people, by teaching them household economy, sanitary laws, ventilation, and such common things as have a mere material existence, yet tend to promote their welfare.

VILLAGE LIBRARIES.

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There is, however, considerable difficulty in sustaining the interest in a village library. The novelty at the commencement causes continual demand for books, but, when the readers have "had the pick" of the library, the demand begins to languish. A fresh supply of books is needed, and here it is that the Itinerating Library system is so valuable. Books are by this means kept in constant circulation in small towns and large villages. Those books which have been read and become old in one district are draughted off to another where they had not been read and were still new. Constant attraction would thus be kept up, and the books be brought home to the firesides of nearly every village in the county. The plan requires considerable judgment to carry out, but if a man of energy and ability were paid to devote his time to the superintendence of itinerating libraries, say, for East Suffolk, we feel assured that immense benefit would be conferred upon the population within reach of their influence.

East Suffolk might be divided into 20 districts, and, commencing with 1,000 volumes-depot and committee at Ipswich each station should be supplied with 50 volumes, to remain there six months. A period of five years would thus elapse before the whole of the original set of volumes were perused. West Suffolk might be divided in the same manner, with depot and committee meetings at Bury St. Edmund's. The plan has been extensively worked in Scotland, and we especially invite the attention of the clergy and gentry of this county to the advantages of the system.

Paid lectures are unfrequent even at the large Institutions. This is attributable generally to the low financial condition of the Institutes, although, in some cases, the ease with which gratuitous lectures of an interesting character have been obtained has prevented the Committees from seeking the services of professional lecturers. This fact points to the desirability of an organization

for the purpose of obtaining the class of lectures most in demand, viz., gratuitous ones; to lay under contribution all the talent and knowledge that surround us; and to induce the well-informed to engage, by means of lectures, the attention of others. Certain residents in all districts, as ministers of religion and medical men, are capable of giving information of vital importance to the community on the moral and social duties and obligations, and the laws and conditions of health and disease. If gentlemen of such education and attainments were from time to time to prepare themselves to address the members of Mechanics' Institutes, the popular teachers of the people would be increased almost without limit, and, by the interchange of services, an almost uninterrupted succession of lectures could be given.

It is a matter of regret that the young men connected with Mechanics' Institutions are not encouraged to give more aid in lecturing and teaching. We cannot afford to spare any efforts which the members can do for themselves, and what has been done at Yoxford, where essays have been read and discussed for the purpose of stimulating the members in the acquisition of knowledge, could be done in connection with every institute in the county.

This picture of the Literary Institutions of Suffolk brings facts of a dismal character into view, such as should not belong to a district justly proud of being the birth-place of Wolsey, of Gainsborough, and of Crabbe; whose earth was made sacred by the ashes of Rowland Taylor; the soil on which were reared Robert Bloomfield and Mrs. Trimmer, and to which George Borrow and Agnes Strickland still cling; from which Bacon first went to harangue the Commoners of England; in which the mighty Milton received his mental and moral training, and first lisped forth the numbers from which evolved his sublime and holy song;

Ech Cavendish sailed to circumnavigate the nd the philanthropist, Clarkson, aroused the the enormous evil of slavery. To a county the educational benevolence of Sir Robert from whose pulpits have sounded the eloWhately, the scholar-like accuracy of Trench James Rose, and the learning of Evanson and to such a district the reproach of scarcity of poverty of Literary Institutions should not , and it is earnestly hoped that the inhabiasten to wipe off this reproach.

CHAPTER X.

RATES AND RATING.

ESTIMATED by a monetary standard, there are few questions that will take precedence of that of Rates and Rating. The annual amount gathered in Suffolk for poor's-rate, highway rate, paving and lighting rate, church rate, and county and borough rate, average about £250,000 per annum. If to this amount we add the sums applied by local authorities to local purposes, but raised under a different system of taxation, such as dock and harbour dues, turnpike tolls, and fees received by magistrates' clerks and others, in the local administration of justice, the sums annually disposed of by local authorities in the county of Suffolk do not, probably, fall much short of £400,000 sterling. A sum so enormously large left to the administration of local bodies, is of itself sufficient to justify an examination into the manner in which such rates are levied.

The poor's-rate is the heaviest of our local burdens, being six times as much as the county rate, and three times as much as the land tax. It increased greatly during the last quarter of the eighteenth and the first quarter of the nineteenth centuries. During the three years ending 1750, the amount collected averaged £28,063 per annum ; in 1803, it amounted to £124,658; in 1823, to £259,748; and in 1833, to £266,167, but was greatly reduced a few years afterwards by the operation of the Poor Law Amendment Act. As the poor's-rate