Opening of the Birmingham Central Free Library, 1865. The Central Free Library (the second institution of this kind established, under Mr. Ewarts Act, by the Corporation of Birmingham) was opened to the public...by Mr. H. Wiggin, the Mayor...the new Free Library...is an edifice of the Ionic style,...handsome and commodious in the interior...the Mayor...[said that this] great central library, which was devoted to literature and art, and would, in addition to the lending-library of 14,000 books, contain a reference-room, where the best and rarest books of reference would be found, to be used in the building. It would be the right of every householder in the town to use the library; and this he hoped they would do. His Worship then called on Lord Stanley, who made a very sensible and thoughtful speech on the benefits of such provision for the mental improvement and rational amusement of the working classes. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.