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Edwards the time undergoing thorough investigation from Mr. Hawes's committee; and, at a somewhat later date, on the reform of the Royal Academy. His attention was probably directed to the latter subject by the work he undertook in 1837, in connection with the patentees of the Collas system of engraving, on the great seals of England, and on the medals struck under the French Empire. His account of the latter extends from 1804 to 1810, but was never completed. He also about this time assisted Mr. W. Macarthur in his account of New South Wales, though his name did not appear in connection with the work. Meanwhile his pamphlet on the museum and the evidence he had given before the museum committee had attracted the attention of the authorities, and in 1839 he became a supernumerary assistant in the printed book department, for especial employment on the new catalogue ordered by the trustees. Edwards was one of the four coadjutors of in framing the ninety-one rules for the formation of this catalogue, the others being John Winter Jones, afterwards principal librarian; Thomas Watts, afterwards keeper of printed books; and Serjeant Parry, then, like Edwards, a supernumerary assistant. On the commencement of the catalogue Edwards was assigned to the duty of cataloguing the collection of civil war tracts, formed under Charles I and the Commonwealth by the bookseller Thomason, and containing more than thirty thousand separate pieces. These were entirely catalogued by him, and his titles are generally very good and full, sometimes perhaps almost superfluously minute. The task seems to have absorbed his energies for several years, or any other literary work which he may have produced was anonymous. About 1846 he began to devote great attention to the statistics of libraries, collected returns supplied by foreign librarians or excerpted by himself from foreign publications, and published the results in the 'Athenæum.' Unfortunately these statistics were frequently fallacious, and Mr. Watts, in a series of letters published in the 'Athenæum' under the signature 'Verificator,' easily showed that Edwards's assertions and conclusions were little to be relied on. They had served, however, to make him a popular authority, and he was able to render very valuable service to [q. v.], whose committee on free libraries in 1850 originated free library legislation in this country. It was natural that Edwards should be offered the librarianship of the first important free library established under Mr. Ewart's act, which he was the more disposed to accept as his engagement at the museum had from various causes ceased to be satisfactory to himself or the authorities. He accordingly became in 1850 the first librarian of the Manchester Free Library (opened 1852), and applied himself with much energy to the management and development of the institution. His project for a classified catalogue was published in 1855 in the form of a letter to Sir John Potter, chairman of the library committee. The relations of the librarian of a free library and his committee frequently require tact and forbearance on both sides, and this was certainly wanting on the part of Edwards, whose temper was naturally impatient of control, and who admits in the pamphlet already mentioned that he had been taxed both with indifference to economy and with an undue regard to his own reputation. His position grew more and more uneasy, and in 1858 he was compelled to resign. The rest of his life was voted to the literary labours which will chiefly contribute to preserve his name. In 1859 appeared his 'Memoirs of Libraries,' a work of great value, containing a general history of libraries from the earliest ages, continued and supplemented by his 'Libraries and their Founders,' 1806. By his 'Lives of the Founders of the British Museum' (1870) he made himself the historian of the national library, and although his work must be supplemented and may possibly be superseded by others, it is likely to remain the groundwork of every future history. It is in general accurate as well as painstaking, and evinces an impartiality creditable to the writer when the circumstances of his retirement from the museum are considered. Previous to the appearance of this important work he had written the article 'Libraries' in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' published (1869) a small book on 'Free Town Libraries;' written his 'Chapters on the Biographical History of the French Academy' (1864); edited the 'Liber Monasterii de Hyda' for the Rolls Series; and produced (1865) his biography of Sir Walter Raleigh. The second volume is particularly valuable, containing for the first time a complete edition of Raleigh's correspondence; the memoir also has considerable merit, but it appeared almost simultaneously with St. John's; and it was remarked with surprise that each biography appeared to be deficient in whatever gave interest to the other, and that the two would need to be blended to produce a really satisfactory work. After the publication of his history of the museum, Edwards accepted an engagement to catalogue the library of Queen's College, Oxford, which occupied him for several years. On the formation of the Library Association in 1877