more than three hundred—many being of a very general character, and having no bearing whatever upon the Colonial Empire. These, it is needless to say, have since made way for others more suitable for so distinct a library. During that year, however, a small grant was set aside for the purchase of a few works, such as were absolutely necessary for purposes of reference as well as historically valuable, and never losing sight of the great importance of the question the Council have, by judicious and well-directed action, continued, and as circumstances permitted, increased the grant, by which means the chief works of note have been secured and the importance of the library has become firmly established and recognised. I have already stated that in 1873 the library contained about three hundred volumes, and in order to demonstrate its rapid growth from that time, it will be necessary to quote a few statistics which shall be of the briefest possible description. In 1881, or thirteen years after the foundation of the Institute, the first catalogue was printed, the library then containing 2,500 volumes. In 1886 a second catalogue upon a far more comprehensive scale was issued, the cost of publication having most liberally been defrayed by Mr. C. Washington Eves, and contained 7,291 entries, besides a catalogue of authors; whilst at the present time a new catalogue, to which I shall refer later on, is in course of preparation, which will contain the titles of over 20,000 volumes and pamphlets embracing every branch of Colonial literature. It will thus be seen that between the years 1881 and 1886 the rate of increase was about 1,000 volumes annually; whilst from 1886 to 1894 it has been more than double that number.
In the account of the progress of the library so far, I have chiefly referred to the acquisition of books by purchase, but the very substantial increase of recent years, is to a considerable extent attributable to the important and valuable donations from the various Governments of the Colonies and India and the Secretaries of State for those Departments, Societies, Universities, Chambers of Commerce, &c., in all parts of the Empire, as well as publishers, authors and Fellows of the Institute, residing both in Great Britain and the Colonies, who have all been actuated by one motive—the prosperity of the library of the Royal Colonial Institute. The Institute was first located in very modest quarters in Westminster, afterwards removing to two rooms in Suffolk-street, Pall Mall, which soon became too limited in extent, necessitating a further removal to rooms at
