Thomas H Webb letter

Address: Camden, Maine. To Joseph Hume. Thanks him for his 'kind attention to my inquiries relative to the important subject of Postal Reform'; sends him a copy of a pamphlet issued by 'our Free [sic] Postage Association, wherein you will find an extract from one of your letters to me, and in an Appendix the statistics by you kindly funished'; offers to send extra copies should Hume or Mr Rowland Hill desire any. Webb mentions 'another subject or project designed for the public good. I mean a "People's Library". Altho' we abound in Charitable, Literary, and Scientific Institutions, we have nothing of this description. We have Athenaeums, Social Libraries, Circulating Do., Mercantile Do., Apprentices' Do., Historical Do., but not one People's Library... The great mass of the community, the People, emphatically so called, have no right of admission to any of these places...'.
Autograph, with signature. A note in another hand states that the letter was received on 27 August and a reply made on 28 August; initialled: 'D'.

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