PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, In the Old Affembly-Rooms, Groat-Market.

The numerous focieties for the promotion of literature and philofophy which have been formed in different parts of Europe in the courfe of the two laft centuries, have not only been the means of diffufing knowledge more extenfively, but have contributed to produce a greater number of important difcoveries than have been effected in any other equal space of time. The progrefs that has been made in phyfics and the belles lettres, owes its rapidity, if not its origin, to the encouragement which thefe focieties have given to fuch purfuits, and to the emulation which has been excited between different academical bodies, as well as among the individual members of fuch inflitutions. The collecting and publishing the more important communications which have been delivered to them, have faved from oblivion many very valuable discoveries or improvements in the arts, and much ufeful information in the various branches of fcience.

It is obvious that Newcastle is a fituation peculiarly well adapted for a literary inftitution, not only as it poffeffes extraordinary advantages for the cultivation of mineral knowledge, in the investigation of its two great natural exports, coal and lead, with their various accompanying ftrata and matrices, offering fo wide a field for the application of mechanical inven

tions to the working of the mines and the conveyance of their products; but alfo as it affords peculiar advantages for chemical inveftigation, for the eftablishment and improvement of the various manufactures and arts which depend upon the plenty and cheapnefs of fuel, and the facility of receiving and tranfmitting their feveral materials and products, by an extenfive commercial intercourfe; and confequently as this very intercourfe furnifles the curious enquirer with the opportunity of carrying on an extenfive literary correfpondence, and of collecting from every country its important or interefting productions. The ample field, too, which is here ftill open to the refearches of the antiquary and hiftorian, must be obvious to every reader of the former part of this work.

Thefe, and other circumstances having been stated at confiderable length, in a paper printed and circulated in December, 1792, under the title of "Speculations on a Literary Society," a meeting was held at the Affembly Rooms, January 24, 1793; where a committee was appointed to prepare a plan for the formation and government of fuch a fociety: which being prefented to a more general meeting, at the Difpenfary, February 7, (the Rev. Edward Moifes, M. A. in the chair) was unanimoufly approved; and John Widdrington, Efq. was elected the fi-ft prefident.

The fociety continued to meet in the Governors'Hall of the Difpenfary, till the adoption of Mr. Moifes' propofal for the establishment of a general library; when it became neceffary to engage apart. ments for their exclufive ufe. Thefe were at firft taken in St. Nicholas' church-yard; but the Old Affembly-rooms in the Groat-market falling vacant, O o

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the fociety removed thither in 1798; and are likely to continue in apartments which afford them fuch fuitable and convenient accommodation.

On the death of Mr. Widdrington, in 1798, Sir J. E. Swinburne, bart. was elected prefident, who continues to fill that office with great advantage to the fociety.

This fociety is compofed of the following claffes, viz. 1. Ordinary members, who fubfcribe one guinea annually; to whom is confined the whole management of the bufinefs of the fociety, and the election of officers and members. 2. Honorary members, who refide at a distance, and correfpond with the fociety, but are not liable to any expence. 3. Honorary members, with the privileges of ordinary ones. Only four of this defcription are allowed at one time. The intention of the fociety in inftituting this clafs was for the laudable purpose of encouraging the exertions of deferving perfons who discover a taste for literature, but whofe circumftances render it inconvenient to incur the expence of the ordinary contribution. Of this laft clafs there are at present three members of the first clafs, about three hundred; of the fecond, upwards of one hundred and eighty. ---To this number another new clafs was inftituted, in the year 1799, under the denomination of reading members, who do not attend the meetings of the fociety, but have the use of the library; to which class ladies are eligible.

The fociety is governed by a prefident, four viceprefidents, two fecretaries, and a committee of eight; all chofen annually out of the clafs of ordinary members. To these are entrusted the expenditure of the funds, the ordering of books, and the domeftic economy of the inftitution.

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The general meetings of the fociety are held in the evening of the firft Tuesday of every month. The fubjects for their converfation and investigation comprehend the mathematics, natural philofophy and hiftory, chemistry, polite literature, antiquities, civil hiftory, biography, queftions of general law and policy, commerce, and the arts; but religion, the practical branches of law and phyfic, British politics, and indeed all politics of the day, are fubjects directly prohibited by a very strong claufe in their regulations.

A large and valuable library is already collected, and the funds for increafing it are fo confiderable, that it may be expected, in a few years, to comprehend every work of importance on the various fubjects which come within the plan of the fociety. Amongst the books lately added to the library is that learned and extenfive work, the Encyclopedie Me. thodique, now publishing in Paris, 238 volumes of which are just finished. Befides the ordinary funds for the purchase of books, many interefting works have been prefented to the fociety. The magazines, reviews, and most periodical publications of merit, lie on the reading table, for the ufe of the members who daily refort thither. The librarian attends fix hours every day, (Sunday excepted) viz. from twelve till three o'clock in the afternoon, and again from fix to nine in the evening.

The cabinet of the fociety contains many curiofities, both of nature and art, from different quarters of the globe; to particularize which would greatly exceed our limits; fufficice it to mention a few.---A rich variety of foffil and mineral productions, with a curious collection of gold, filver, quick filver, and' lead ores and fpars. A fection of the ftrata of the

low

low main coal of St. Anthony's colliery, which is 135 fathoms and one quarter in depth; and a fection of the ftrata fouth of the main dike in Montagu main colliery; with fpecimens of each, methodically arranged alfo fections of trata in Denton and Pontop Pike collieries, with fpecimens. A large collection of fpecimens of the feveral hard and foft coals in the counties of Nottingham and Derby, and of the ftrata accompanying them. Alfo a fection of ftrata met with in working the lead mines of Alton Moor and Dufton Fell, in the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, to the depth of 241 fathom I foot, with a large collection of fpecimens, illuftrative of the products of the lead-mine diftricts. Several specimens of cloth made by the natives of the South Sea iflands from the bark of trees, with their dreffes, implements of war, &c. A collection of coins, medals, &c. &c.

The purchase of a philofophical and chemical apparatus, and the collection of a cabinet of natural hiftory, are also in contemplation. The completion of thefe objects cannot fail to have the most beneficial effects on the minds of the rifing generation; for whofe benefit, in the mean time, the fociety has always fhewn itself ready to forward any plans for public inftruction, particularly by the encouragement of lecturers in chemistry and experimental philofophy.

Although, in fome important refpects, this excellent inftitution has not had all the fuccefs which its members might reafonably have expected, particularly, through the multiplied engagements of feveral of the most eminent coal-viewers and others concerned in the coal-trade, having prevented them from

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