252 The Library. Xtbrarp IRotes ant) IFlews. The Editor earnestly requests that librarians and others will send to him early and accurate information as to all local Library doings. The briefest record of facts and dates is all that is required. In course of time " Library Notes and News " will become of the utmost value to the historian of the Public Library movement, and it is therefore of the highest importance that every paragraph should be vouched for by local knowledge. Brief written paragraphs are better than newspaper cuttings. ASTON MANOR. A correspondent, having called the attention of Ouida to the action of the Aston Free Library Committee in excluding her novels, and the works of Fielding and Smollett, from the ending department, and having forwarded to her the correspondence and articles from the local press upon the subject, together with the speech of Mr. S. Fisher (the chairman of the Aston Local Board), who explained the absence of Ouida's novels to the limited finances at the disposal of the committee, and the desire to supply the library with English fiction before French writers were introduced, has received the following reply from the authoress : " Sir, I thank you for your communication. I am gratified to be excommunicated in company with Fielding and Smollett. I am more English than French by blood, but I do not suppose the wise chairman knew this. It is lamentable that such bigotry should exist. With compliments, yours, Ouida." BRIG-HTON. The Local Government Board Provisional Order Bill giving the Brighton Corporation extended powers to provide libraries and newsrooms in the Borough, has passed through the Committee stage in House of Commons, without opposition. BRISTOL. An account, with illustrations, of the Redland Free Library appeared in the Bristol Observer of June Qth. BROMLEY, KENT. Mr. John Harrison, sub-librarian of the Lewisham Public Libraries, and formerly chief assistant at the South Shields Public Library, has been appointed librarian of the public library about to be established at Bromley, Kent. CAMBORNE. On July 6th, the Local Board rescinded the resolu- tion passed at the last meeting that the Free Library Committee should consist of seven representatives of the Local Board and five from outside. CAMBRIDGE. The Athenaum says that the will of the late Professor Robertson Smith has just been proved. By it he leaves his Arabic and Syriac manuscript books, together with twenty early-printed or scarce books to be selected by the librarian, to the University Library, Cambridge. With this exception, the whole of his working library, which is very valuable, is left to Christ's College. A preliminary meeting has been held, at which it was agreed that there should be a memorial at Cambridge of the late professor, and it was suggested that this might be done by raising a fund for the maintenance and extension of his library
