sts). I have
had painful experience of the fact in the following manner. Numbers of
volumes in their libraries have had a few leaves removed, and in many
others whole sections torn out. I suppose it served their purpose thus
to use the wisdom of greater men and that they thus economised their own
time by tearing out portions to suit their purpose. The hardship to the
trade is this: their books are purchased in good faith as perfect, and
when resold the buyer is quick to claim damage if found defective, while
the seller has no redress."

Among the careless destroyers of books still at work should be classed
Government officials. Cart-loads of interesting documents, bound and
unbound, have been sold at various times as waste-paper,[1] when modern
red-tape thought them but rubbish. Some of them have been rescued and
resold at high prices, but some have been lost for ever.

[1] Nell Gwyn's private Housekeeping Book was among them, containing
most curious particulars of what was necessary in the time of Charles I
for a princely household. Fortunately it was among the rescued, and is
now in a private library.

In 1854 a very interesting series of blue books was commenced by the
authorities of the Patent Office, of course paid for out of the national
purse. Beginning with the year 1617 the particulars of every important
patent were printed from the original specifications and fac-simile
drawings made, where necessary, for the elucidation of the text. A
very moderate price was charged for each, only indeed the prime cost
of production. The general public, of course, cared little for such
literature, but those interested in the origin and progress of any
particular art, cared much, and many sets of Patents were purchased by
those engaged in research. But the great bulk of the stock was, to some
extent, inconvenient, and so when a removal to other offices, in 1879,
became necessary, the question arose as to what could be done with them.
These blue-books, which had cost the nation many thousands of pounds,
were positively sold to the paper mills as wastepaper, and nearly 100
tons weight were carted away at about L3 per ton. It is difficult to
believe, although positively true, that so great an act of vandalism
could have been perpetrated, even in a Government office. It is true
that no demand existed for some of them, but it is equally true that
in numerous cases, especially in the early specifications of the
steam engine