reviously
made to _The Farmers' Club_, and a workable scheme was matured.

THE GUILLE LIBRARY,

for so the Committee decided to name the undertaking, consequently
commenced its useful career in 1856. The collection of books was
divided into five sections, which were placed in separate cases, and
located at convenient distances about the island--where they were
taken charge of by friends--the largest being reserved for the town.
The intention was to exchange these cases in rotation, and so
establish a circulating library in the most comprehensive sense of the
term. But this was, in reality, never carried out, for after the
volumes had been read in their respective stations, they were returned
to their places, and left to slumber unused, until Mr. Guille once
more came to the island in 1867, with the intention of remaining
permanently, and he then had them all brought to town and arranged in
one central _depot_.

Mr. Guille also opened a branch Reading-room and Library at St.
Martin's, in the hope of being able thereby to draw the young men of
the parish from the degrading attractions of the public house. For
three years he kept this comfortable room open, while in winter and
summer neither rain nor storm prevented him from being present there
every evening to personally superintend the undertaking. Ultimately,
however, he found the strain too much for his health, and he
discontinued the branch so as to concentrate more attention upon the
central establishment in town.

For five-and-twenty years, from 1856 to 1881, Mr. Guille worked
steadily and unostentatiously at the benevolent enterprise which he
had inaugurated. Death removed several of his early coadjutors, and
for many years he bore all the financial burdens and toiled on
single-handed and alone. What was still more discouraging was that he
unfortunately had to encounter for a very long time an almost
incredible amount of mental supineness on the part of those whom he
was so disinterestedly seeking to benefit. It was not as though any
desire for knowledge existed among the mass of the Guernsey people,
and he only had to assume the pleasant duty of satisfying that desire.
Such a desire did not exist. Many of the people not only never had
read any books but they flatly declined to begin. Mr. Guille felt that
this deplorable attitude ought to be combatted, and he therefore
persevered in the thankless and difficult task of trying in the first
place to create the w