Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1914 — 100,000 VOLUMES OF RECORDS [ARTICLE]

100,000 VOLUMES OF RECORDS

House of Commons in London Hat - Unique Collection of - Blue Books. London.—To many people the House of Commons library would present the spectacle of shelves laden with good looking books but never a book to read. The collection of official reeprds is' the most complete of Its kind, with the exception of that in the British museum. The dusting jtione of the 100,000 volumes occupies nearly six weeks. All the latest blue books and the legislative enactments of every selfgoverning colony are being added to the miles of shelves and catalogued in readiness for the first unexpected query. The Federated Malay states, for Instance, may cable at any moment for the words used by statesmen a century ago on colonial expansion. In many respects the House of Commons -library is unique. It contains all the parliamentary journals from 1547, the earliest records being in manuscript. There Is the original death warrant of Charles I. and the journal from which Cromwell tore a page of proceedings. Not a single novel finds a place In the collection —not a paragraph of fiction in the million pages of official doings!