Literary and Scientific Institutions. IN a former number we stated that it was our intention to give a series of articles on Young Men's societies and Mutual Improvement classes, interspersed with hints calculated to promote their efficient working, and notices of books adapted for their circulation. At the same time we attempted to demonstrate some of their advantages, in an intellectual point of view; and in our following number, their moral bearings and interests were more fully exhibited. Owing, however, to circumstances over which we had no control, the articles in this course were omitted during the succeeding months; and in resuming them, it seemed necessary to say a word by way of explanation. We beg to assure our readers that this omission will not occur again, and that it is the intention of the conductors of the "Student" to render this journal more than ever efficient as the organ of the young men's societies and literary and scientific institutions of the United Kingdom. In following out this general design, it will be one part of our plan to give, monthly, as full an account as our space and materials will allow, of the several metropolitan and provincial institutions; another, to examine and point out the distinctive features and peculiar advantages of each; another, to publish such of their laws and regulations as may appear suitable to guide others in forming similar associations, or to require animadversion from their improper tendency; and lastly, to notice the current proceedings of each institution as it comes under review. In addition to this, our "Review" department will be conducted with especial reference to the requirements of the library of the Institute or mutual improvement class, not less than of the private bookshelf; and in this, as in all other matters, it will be our constant endeavour to deserve our title of THE YOUNG MEN'S MAGAZINE. The subject we have selected for the present notice is THE LONDON INSTITUTION. Like many others of the most successful and excellent establishments of the Metropolis, that of the London Institution, originated in the meritorious and energetic efforts of several leading merchants and bankers of the city. Their first public meeting was held May 23rd, 1805, at the London Tavern, Sir Francis Baring, Bart. and M.P., in the chair. It was then resolved to establish, on a liberal and extensive scale, in some central situation in the city, an Institution, to comprise, I. A LIBRARY, to contain works of intrinsic value. II. LECTURES, for the diffusion of useful knowledge. III. READING ROOMS, for the daily papers, periodical publications, interesting pamphlets, and foreign journals. The proposed Institution was to consist of a limited number of proprietors, and life and annual subscribers; the interest of the proprietors being " equal, permanent, transferable, and hereditary, and extending to the absolute property of the whole establishment." The proprietors were also to be entitled to such extraordinary privileges as might be consistent with general convenience, and to have the exclusive right of management. The qualification of a proprietor was fixed at 75 guineas, and that of a life subscriber at 20 guineas. The subscription being opened, it was with the greatest difficulty that many of those present could approach the table to enter their names. In less than four days the subscription had reached £50,000; and the number of proprietors was 650. A second meeting was then held; and at the close of the fifth day the subscription amounted to £60,000. It was then agreed to petition the King for a charter of incorporation; and twenty-one managers were appointed to prepare the outlines of a plan for the establishment. Spacious premises in the Old Jewry were now engaged for the temporary use of the members, and opened in January 1806, with a library of 10,000 volumes, and a commodious suite of reading rooms well supplied with the English and foreign journals, newspapers, maps, &c. By the Spring, the number of proprietors had increased to 950, and the value of property to nearly £80,000. The charter was granted at the commencement of the following year, allowing the Institution £2000 per annum to be held in mortmain. At Christmas, 1811, other premises were engaged in King's Arms Yard, Coleman Street, and the large library of 12,000 volumes removed in less than four days. This building being found inconvenient, the present site in Moorfields was shortly after obtained; the Corporation granting the freehold for £1500, and a wider frontage being desired, afterwards presenting the Institution with land equivalent to one-half the original purchase. The managers, having issued proposals for a plan, found themselves perplexed with fifteen paper schemes, not one of which was available for their purpose. They therefre wisely resolved to turn architects themselves, and having remodelled the least faulty of the mass, the first stone of the present splendid edifice was laid Nov. 4th, 1815, by Samuel Birch, Esq., the Lord Mayor. On April 21st, 1819, the Institution was re-opened by an inaugural oration "On the Advantages which Science and Commerce derive from each other," by Charles Butler, Esq., the Counsel of the Institution. THE MANSION, which now forms a very ornamental feature in that part of the Metropolis, is situated in the north side of Finsbury Circus, and is built of brick, faced with Portland stone. Its total cost exceeded £31,000. The frontage is 102 feet 6 inches, exclusive of the side doors, which are 15 feet each. The height is nearly 60 feet to the apex of the pediment. The house comprises a basement story within a sunken area, a ground floor, and two stories above, consisting of a library and gallery, each lighted by nine windows. The principal feature of the edifice, in the exterior, is an elegant portico in the centre, about 35 feet broad; the wings being finished with an attic ballustrade. The order is Corinthian, being a modification of the celebrated example taken from the temple of Vesta at Tivoli. On the ground-floor, the portico is supported by two solid pillars, and as many Doric columns. The hall is supported by 8 Ionic columns of Bath stone, and separated by glazed doors from a very handsome and spacious staircase, with branching flights of stone steps, and lighted from a painted window in the back walls. The principal apartment occupies the whole of the first floor, and may be considered one of the finest rooms in England, being 97 feet in length, by 42 in width, and 28 in height. Its interior shape is an octagonal parallelogram, with four small apartments at the angles. A light, but substantial, gallery extends completely round the room; and the walls are richly papered with a massive assemblage of 30,000 volumes. THE LIBRARY. In forming an English Metropolitan library, the first object was a proper supply of British history, literature, and biography, with English antiquities and topography. These were from the first carefully selected, and copiously supplied. The collection in the latter class is considered to be the best in England. Next is the department of general history, antiquities, and to pography. Next, voyages and travels, in which are contained nearly all the best and most interesting narratives, illustrated by large and numerous atlases, maps, and charts. Next is a costly collection of works on the fine arts, with a good supply of the larger scientific works, particularly those relating to mathematics. And the history of science and literature is copiously illustrated by a large body of memoirs and transactions of nearly all the academies and learned societies, both British and foreign. For the student of continental literature, there are the principal authors of France, Italy, and Spain. For the politician and general reader, a long catalogue of periodicals, parliamentary documents, pamphlets, and records. In philosophy, criticism, and the classics, a rich assortment, both originals and translations, in the principal languages of Europe. In bibliography, most of the best writers, with a very useful collection of catalogues, and rare and valuable editions from the early printers of Germany, Italy, and France. Theology, medicine, and law, are, comparatively, unrepresented. Students of these subjects are referred to the libraries of Sion college, the Royal colleges of physicians and surgeons, and the Inns of court. A doubtful resource for the non-professional, or inexperienced inquirer! We question whether one in a thousand of the subscribers to this Institution would think of having recourse to these sources for information; or if he did, would be able to gain admittance. And while cherishing a becoming admiration for the liberality bestowed on other departments, we cannot but express our conviction, that by the framers of a popular collection, theology especially ought to be regarded as something more than a subject for professional study, and should be at least as fully represented as the dilettanti sciences of antiquities and bibliography. THE LECTURES have always formed a very attractive feature of the London Institution, and at the time of their introduction excited general attention. The cost of the theatre and the various apartments attached to it was £5,100; the fittings of the laboratory £500. The LECTURE-HALL is entered from the central flight of stairs, through a handsome octangular vestibule with double doors. In shape it is nearly semicircular, the inner curve measuring 117 feet 4 inches, and the chord 62 feet 9 inches, the area being sufficient to contain nearly seven hundred auditors. The hall is well adapted for hearing, and is lighted and ventilated by a large circular lantern in the roof, which can be darkened in the day time for the exhibition of any illustrations requiring the exclusion of light, by letting down a false ceiling below the window. On the right of the lecture table is the LABORATORY, a large quadrangular apartment, completely fitted with chemical furnaces and apparatus of the most approved construction. On the left is the APPARATUS ROOM, which is fitted up with glass-cases containing the instruments used in illustrating the sciences of mechanics, electricity, galvanism, hydrostatics, hydraulics, heat and light, pneumatics, optics, and astronomy, ranged in systematic order. Behind are a fireplace and portable furnace: and above is an opening between the columns to receive transparencies, or a screen for the exhibition of phantasmagoria. The number of lectures delivered amounted, at the close of 1835, to one hundred courses, comprising upwards of eight hundred and thirty separate lectures, being an average of more than fifty each season. These had cost the institution £7400. Taking the same average for the last ten years, we shall have a total of nearly 1400 lectures, at an expense of £12,500. The subjects of lectures for the ensuing month will be found, with other notices, on the next page. In concluding this sketch, we beg to express a hope that the details into which we have entered will not prove uninteresting to the general reader, and that the rise and progress of the London Institution will be taken as the ground for encouragement, and pleasing matter for contemplation, by the members and managers of similar, though it may be less extensive, establishments. CITY OF LONDON INSTITUTION. THIS Institution, situated in Aldersgate-street, was formed by some gentlemen numbers, we believe, about a thousand members. A life member Half-yearly member Twenty guineas. One guinea. It possesses a library, a reading-room, classes for instruction in languages, and classes for mutual improvement. During the months of November and December, lectures have been delivered on the music of various nations, by Mr. C. E. Horn, and on some of the subordinate characters in the plays of Shakespeare, by Mr. C. Cowden Clarke. LECTURES FOR JANUARY. It is our intention to present our readers with monthly lists of LECTURES to be delivered in the various literary and scientific institutions, or before the Bembers of young men's societies, in the metropolis and its suburbs. Our lists will at first be necessarily imperfect. But we hope, with the kindly aid of members and secretaries, to render them every succeeding month more complete, and in time extremely valuable as a general medium for publishing the transactions of such institutions, and thus bringing them in their most attractive form, before the public eye. Communications on the subject are respectfully invited. We shall also feel extremely obliged to secretaries and dhers for prospectuses, and any information regarding the institutions with which they are connected. Lectures will be delivered during the present month at the LONDON INSTITUTION, “On the Physiology of the External Senses," by R. D. Grainger, Esq., on Monday evenings at seven o'clock. January 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th. And "On the Microscope and its Revelations," by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., on Thursday evenings.-January 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th. AT CROSBY HALL, Bishopsgate-street Within, "On the Drama,” by B. H. Smart, Esq.-January 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd. AT THE CITY OF LONDON INSTITUTION, Aldersgate-street, "Play of Henry VIII., Measure for Measure," by C. Cowden Clark, Esq.-January 7th. The Early Closing Movement. WE especially invite our readers to aid us in the preparation of this most important department of our journal. We would wish to organise a body of contributors, so that every month we may have authentic information from every provincial town in the kingdom. We shall be happy to receive communications from gentlemen who would perhaps be disposed to become regular correspondents. Ryde, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1845. GENTLEMEN-AS good example is at all times worthy of being followed, and, moreover, good example often stimulates others, I am happy in being able to show that Ryde is not backward in the "Early Closing System." We have all agreed to shut at seven in the evening, while I have the testimony of all the masters as being quite as beneficial for their interests, besides the extra advantage it gives for the assistants. Perhaps you would not object to give the notice in the Student, which valuable periodical I take in, and read with relish and pleasure the great good which it has been the means of promoting. I am gentlemen, your obedient servant, W. H. WILLY. 19, High-street. [We are extremely happy to give publicity to the following address, issued by the Exeter Association for obtaining an abridgment of the hours of labour.] For several years past the attention of the public has been drawn, by means of the press, to the desirable object which this Association has in view. Public meetings have been held in the metropolis and elsewhere, and intense interest on the subject is manifest. Associations are now formed in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Hull, Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and many other provincial towns, for the purpose of carrying into systematic operation, measures not unreasonable or unjust, but humane and benevolent. The prolonged hours during which the assistants in shops are confined, and there obliged to labour and inhale an unhealthy and contaminated atmosphere, have aroused the attention, and excited the sympathy of some of the greatest philanthropists of the day, and foremost amongst these is the Right Honourable Lord Ashley, patron of the London Association. The public are earnestly, but in the most respectful manner, solicited to give their approval to the contemplated arrangements sought for in the prospectus of this Association. They can encourage those shops who are willing to shorten the hours of labour; by so doing they will give opportunities for rational recreation and mental improvement, to a numerous, but not unimportant portion of the community, who will appreciate and acknowledge the kindness shown them with gratitude. Moreover, the public who thus render their support, will enjoy the satisfaction and delight resulting from a conviction that they are sanctioning a system which will tend to promote the health and happiness of their fellow creatures. The female portion of the public in particular, is appealed to. Let them abandon the practice of shopping at night, and the object sought for by this Association is gained. The employers are respectfully requested to relieve themselves and their assistants by giving their countenance and support to an object which will give dissatisfaction to none, but benefit to all. Their aid and influence will assist materially in the efforts made by this Association : humanity and justice demand this of them, which their good sense and best feelings will acknowledge and approve. Again, the employers, by giving the evenings to their assistants, would save it for themselves, and thus secure opportunities for mental culture, which elevate and dignify the character; they would also have time for repose in the bosom of their own families from the toils of business, a considerable expense would be saved in gas, while the profits would be undiminished by the customers coming early. Several employers having expressed their willingness to accede to the proposals in the annexed prospectus, all of them are solicited to aid the Association. The assistants, more particularly, are now called on to enrol their names as members of an Association instituted for their well-being, physically, morally, and intellectually. The boon sought will afford them time for physical recreation, moral and intellectual cultivation. R. CLARENCE HALSE, Secretary pro tem. |