The Globe . THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1574, 6 March 1879, Page 2

The Globe . THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1879.

The officors of tho good ship Executive havo not lately been working together with that unanimity which Government supporters consider desirable. The captain finds his understrappers uncommonly insubordinate. Macandrew tho mate, and Ballance tho boatswain, aro beginning to think that ho is a little too much of a martinet, and thoy havo been retiring into the forecastle, consulting and casting furious looks aft to where their gallant commander sits sipping his grog in tho state cabin. They possibly think that his general idea of running the ship closo in land and just shaving tho rocks, whilo ho boasts loudly that his new systom of navigation, if properly understood, would be of everlasting benefit to tho whole human race, is not a system which stands the tost of time—that it is dreadfully risky and may possibly end in a general smash-up. So these insubordinate officers think it time that they should assert themselves more fully. Why, for instance, should the skipper object to a friend of theirs getting the pursorship ? True, the place is a sinecure and the pay high, but is not the lucky recipient a friend of theirs, and what more should thoir chief require ! Thoy havo enough occasionally to put up with in all conscience ! they have to sit in the state cabin and listen for hours to the skipper's dreary platitudes ! thoy have to undergo the most dreadful anxiety when he comes on deck and in wild, though certainly polished, tones, issues the most contradictory orders, and, while telling tho sailors how much he loves them, ordors them —for thoir good, as he says—to steer duo north by south. No—there must be a sot-off to all this anxiety, and their skipper must humour their little whims, and allow them to smuggle an occasional friend into a snug billet. And, if the worst comes to tho worst, what of it ? They will steer tho ship themselves!, which will go all the more easily for a erotehetty old captain boing shoved over tho side. Thoy will send thoir skipper adrift, like tho "Bounty" crow sent Captain Bligh, in a small boat, to found, in a secluded islo, a race of men without guile, and educated in the purest principles of philanthropy. And so Macandrew, tho mate, and Ballance, tho boatswain, swore they would have their own way —and thoy got it.

The committee who sway the destinies of the Public Library have, no doubt, of late been exerting themselves considerably to put matters there into a more satisfactory condition than have hitherto obtained. Whatever causes may have led to the present state of affairs, the fact remains that all is not as it should be. The matter of catalogues, to take one oxamplo, has been greatly neglected. There is absolutely no cataloguo at all for the reference library, and the circulating library only possesses one, which is so tinkered and cobbled that its intricacies are almost unassailable. In explanation of the latter fact we have hoard it asserted that there is such a constant influx of books that it is almost impossible to do anything satisfactory in the way of cataloguing. But that is absurd; the same argument would apply to all circulating libraries, and with very much more cogency to the enormous libraries existing in largo cities. In point of fact, the whole affair is one merely of system, and if a system sufficiently comprohousivo does not exist, it must be mado. However, wo will pass over the gonoral management of the Library, because we believe that, now a rogular librarian has been appointed, a new state of affairs will bo developed. But there is one point to which wo would wish to draw the attention of the Committee. It appears to us that contemporary history is a subject which is, considering its importance, shamefully neglected. There is a fair, though rather small, collection of standard works on the history of the past, giving l us narratives of events that took place up to about the early part of the present century. But we cannot see that the Committee have oxertod themselves properly to keep the public an courant with the great events which have lately, and are "now, taking place. It is next to impossible for an enquirer to post himself up properly re such events as the Italian Campaign, the war of 1866, the Franco-Prussian War, the Commune, and the numerous other great national movements that have convulsed Europe and America within the last twenty years. A student can with a certain amount of ease, gain minute information about Alcibiades, Pericles, and other distinguished, though rather musty old fogies. But Moltko, Bismarck, Napoleon 111., and such contemporary celebrities aro hid in an impenetrable gloom. There is, we aro aware, difficulty in obtaining books on recent evonts, but great exertions should bo mado in that direction for groat modern national movements must bo of absording interest to all eager and enquiring minds. But one other point, bearing in the same direction. Wo Jiavo colonial papers filed and bound, to which it is possible to refer. But surely ono English paper at least should bo bound up and mado safo from injury, so that any one by turning to that record could rofrosh bis momory. Wo livo in an out

of the way corner of tlio globe, and above all things it is desirable that we should not isolato ourselves, but kcop our minds open io the views and events that arc passing elsewhere.