Edward Edwards Reconsidered: (1) The Man Available to Purchase

On 3rd March, 1852, the House of Commons Select Committee on Parliamentary Papers took evidence from the Principal Librarian of the new Manchester Public Library, Mr. Edward Edwards. The Chairman gracefully gave way to another member of the committee, Mr. William Ewart, and he and Edwards exchanged questions and answers in the manner to which the Select Committee on Public Libraries had accustomed them three years earlier. Edwards gave a fairly detailed account of the progress of the Manchester Public Library during its first year. He also displayed some knowledge of the needs and service of two other Manchester libraries, the Portico Library in Mosley Street—still in being; and the long since defunct Mechanics' Institute whose austere building in Princess Street now accommodates the local College of Commerce. Edwards in 1852 was in his fortieth year and might have seemed to have reached the threshold of a promising and comfortable career after his stormy years in London. What had gone before and what was to come?