associations voluntarily formed by a number of individuals for promoting knowledge, industry, or virtue. They may therefore be divided into three classes; societies for promoting science and literature, societies for encouraging and promoting arts and manufactures, and societies for diffusing religion and morality and relieving distress. Societies belonging to the first class extend their attention to all the sciences and literature in general, or devote it to one particular science. The same observation may be applied to those which are instituted for improving arts and manufactures. Those of the third class are established, either with a view to prevent crimes, as the Philanthropic Society; for the diffusion of the Christian religion among unenlightened nations, as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; or for introducing arts and civilization, along with a knowledge of the Christian religion, as the Sierra Leone company.
The honour of planning and instituting societies for those valuable purposes is due to modern times. A literary association is said to have been formed in the reign of Charlemagne (see Academy); but the plan seems to have been rude and defective. Several others were instituted in Italy in the 16th century; but from the accounts which we have seen of them, they seem to have been far inferior to those which are most flourishing at present. The most enlarged idea of literary societies seems to have originated with the great Lord Bacon, the father of modern philosophy, who recommended to the reigning prince to institute societies of learned men, who should give to the world from time to time a regular account of their researches and discoveries. It was the idea of this great philosopher, that the learned world should be united, as it were, into one immense republic; which, though consisting of many detached states, should hold a strict union and preserve a mutual intelligence with each other, in every thing that regards the common interest. The want of this union and intelligence he laments as one of the chief obstacles to the advancement of science; and, justly considering the institution of public societies, in the different countries of Europe, under the auspices of the sovereign, to be the best remedy for that defect, he has given, in his fanciful work, the New Atlantis, the delineation of a philosophical society on the most extended plan, for the improvement of all arts and sciences; a work which, though written in the language, and tinged with the colouring of romance, is full of the noblest philosophic views. The plan of Lord Bacon, which met with little attention from the age in which he lived, was destined to produce its effect in a period not very distant. The scheme of a philosophical college by Cowley is acknowledged to have had a powerful influence in procuring the establishment of the Royal Society of London by charter from Charles II.; and Cowley's plan is manifestly copied in almost all its parts from that in the New Atlantis. The institution of the Royal Society of London was soon followed by the establishment of the Royal Academy. religious demy of Sciences at Paris; and these two have served as models to the philosophical academies of highest reputation in the other kingdoms of Europe.
The experience of ages has shown, that improvements of a public nature are best carried on by societies of liberal and ingenious men, uniting their labours without regard to nation, sect, or party, in one grand pursuit alike interesting to all, whereby mutual prejudices are worn off, and a humane philosophical spirit is cherished. Men united together, and frequently meeting for the purpose of advancing the sciences, the arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, may oftentimes suggest such hints to one another as may be improved to important ends; and such societies, by being the repositories of the observations and discoveries of the learned and ingenious, may from time to time furnish the world with useful publications which might otherwise be lost: for men of ingenuity and modesty may not choose to risk their reputation, by sending abroad unpatronized what a learned society might judge richly worth the public eye; or perhaps their circumstances being straitened, they may not be able to defray the expense of publication. Societies instituted for promoting knowledge may also be of eminent service, by exciting a spirit of emulation, and by kindling those sparks of genius which otherwise might for ever have been concealed; and if, when possessed of funds sufficient for the purpose, they reward the exertions of the industrious and enterprising with pecuniary premiums or honorary medals, many important experiments and useful discoveries will be made, from which the public may reap the highest advantages.
Eminent instances of the beneficial effects of such institutions we have in the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, the Royal Society, and the Society instituted for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in London, and many others of a similar kind. Hereby a spirit of discovery and improvement has been excited among the ingenious in almost every nation; knowledge of various kinds, and greatly useful to mankind, has taken place of the dry and uninteresting speculations of schoolmen; and bold and erroneous hypotheses has been obliged to give way to demonstrative experiment. In short, since the establishment of these societies, solid learning and philosophy have more increased than they had done for many centuries before.
As to those societies established for promoting industry, religion and morality, and relieving distress, the design is laudable and excellent, and presents a beautiful picture of the philanthropy of modern times. We are happy to find, from the minutes of some of these societies, that their beneficial effects are already conspicuous.
We will now give some account of the most eminent societies; arranging them under the three classes into which we have divided them: I. Religious and Humane Societies. II. Societies for Promoting Science and Literature. III. Societies for Encouraging Arts, Manufactures, &c.
I. RELIGIOUS AND HUMANE SOCIETIES.
1. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was instituted by King William III. in 1701, in order to secure a maintenance for an orthodox clergy, and to make other provisions for propagating the gospel in the plantations, colonies, and factories beyond the seas. To that end he incorporated the archbishops, several of the bishops, and others of the nobility, gentry, and clergy, to the number of 90, into one body, which, by the name of The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was to plead and be implicated; to have perpetual succession, with privilege to purchase 2000l. a-year inheritance, and estates for lives or years, with other goods and chattels to any value. By its charter the society is authorized to use a common seal; and to meet annually on the third Friday in February for the purpose of choosing a president, vice-president, and officers for the year ensuing; and on the third Friday in every month, or oftener if there should be occasion, to transact business, and to depute persons to take subscriptions, and collect money contributed for the purposes aforesaid; and of all moneys received and laid out, it is obliged to give account yearly to the lord-chancellor or keeper, the lord-chief-justice of the King's-bench, the lord-chief-justice of the Common-pleas, or to any two of these magistrates. Of this society there is a standing committee at St Paul's chapter-house, to prepare matters for the monthly meeting, which is held at St Martin's library.
Before the incorporation of the society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, there had been formed, for the promoting of Christian knowledge both at home and in the colonies, a voluntary association of persons of rank and respectability, who in March 1699 began to hold stated meetings in London for that purpose, regulating themselves by the laws of the land and the canons of the church; and when the new society was formed, they had already transmitted to America and the West Indies 800l. worth of Bibles, Books of Common Prayer, and treatises of practical religion, besides securing a tolerable maintenance to several clergymen on that continent. This association still fulfils under the denomination of The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and has been productive of much good in the cities of London and Westminster; but upon the formation of the new society, into which all its original members were incorporated by name, the care which the voluntary association had taken of the colonies devolved of course upon the incorporated society; of which incorporation we believe the object has been sometimes mistaken, and the labours of its missionaries grossly misrepresented. It has by many been supposed that the society was incorporated for the sole purpose of converting the savage Americans; and it has been much blamed for sending missionaries into provinces where, in the common language of the complainers, a gospel-ministry was already established. But an impartial view of the rise and progress of the American provinces, now become independent states, will show the folly and injustice of those complaints.
The English colonies in North America were in the last century formed and first peopled by religious men; who, made uneasy at home by their intolerant brethren, left the old world to enjoy in peace that first and chief prerogative of man, the free worship of God according to his own conscience. At one time Puritans were driven across the Atlantic by the episcopal church; at another, Churchmen were forced away by the presbyterians, just as the revolutions of state threw the civil power into the hands of the one or the other party; and not a few members of the CHURCH OF ROME were chafed to the wilds of America by the united exertions of both. It has been often observed, that people persecuted for their religion become for the most part enthusiastically attached to it; and the conduct of those colonists was in perfect harmony with this observation. Their zeal, inflamed by their violent removal to the other hemisphere, kept religion alive and active among themselves; but their poverty disabled them from supplying fuel to the flame, by making provision for a ministry to instruct their offspring. The consequence was, that the new Christian commonwealth, without the kindly assistance of its mother-country, would have been, in the words of the Roman historian, Res unius estatis. Against this danger a timely aid was to be provided by the society; which, as it consisted not of fanatical members, would not intrude the important business of the mission to fanatical preachers, who, though always ready for such spiritual enterprises, are never qualified to carry them on with success.
It was therefore thought fit to assign a decent maintenance for clergymen of the church of England, who might preach the gospel to their brethren in America: and though those missionaries in general carefully avoided the conduct of those of Rome, whose principal aim is to reduce all churches under submission to the papal tyranny; yet so lately as 1765, did some of the colonies, in which the puritanic spirit of the last century characterized the church established by law, raise a hideous outcry against the society for sending a mission into their quarters, though only for the service of the dispersed members of the Episcopal church residing among them, and for the conversion of those men whom their rigid fanaticism had prejudiced against Christianity itself.
Indeed the commodity called FREETHINKING, as Bishop Warburton expresses it, was at an early period imported by the opulent and fashionable colonists. The celebrated Berkeley, who had resided some years in Rhode Island, and at his return was called upon to preach the anniversary sermon before the society, informs us, that the island where he lived was inhabited by an English colony, consisting chiefly of sectaries of many different denominations; that several of the better sort of the inhabitants of towns were accustomed to assemble themselves regularly on the Lord's day for the performance of divine worship; but that most of those who were dispersed through the colony rivalled some well-bred people of other countries, in a thorough indifference for all that is sacred, being equally careless of outward worship and of inward principles. He adds, that the missionaries had done, and were continuing to do, good service in bringing those planters to a serious sense of religion. "I speak it knowingly (says he), that the ministers of the gospel, in those provinces which go by the name of New England, sent and supported at the expense of the society, have, by their sobriety of manners, discreet behaviour, and a competent degree of useful knowledge, shown themselves worthy of the choice of those who sent them." We have the honour to be acquainted with some of the missionaries sent at a later period, and have reason to believe that, down to the era of the American revolution, they had the same virtues, and were doing the same good services, which procured to their predecessors this honourable testimony from one of the greatest and the best of men. Surely such a mission deserved not to be evil spoken of by sectaries of any denomination who believe in Christ; especially as the very charter of incorporation affirms as a reason for missionaries being sent to the colonies, "that by reason of their poverty those colonies were destitute and unprovided of a MAINTENANCE for ministers and the public worship of God."
The society, however, was incorporated for other purposes than this. It was obliged by its charter to attempt the conversion of the native Americans and the negro slaves; and we have reason to believe, that, as soon as the spiritual wants of the colonists were decently supplied, it was not inattentive to these glorious objects. Its success indeed in either pursuit has not been to great as could be wished; but it would be rash and unfair to attribute this failure to the president, vice-president, or other officers of the corporation at home. An erroneous notion, that the being baptized is insufficient with a state of slavery, rendered the selfish colonists for a long time averse from the conversion of their negroes, and made them throw every obstacle in the way of all who made the attempt; while the difficulties of the Indian mission are such as hardly any clergyman educated in a Protestant country can be supposed able to surmount.
He who hopes successfully to preach the gospel among a tribe of savage wanderers, must have an ardent zeal and unrestrained diligence; appetites subdued to all the distresses of want; and a mind superior to all the terrors of mortality. These qualities and habits may be acquired in the church of Rome by him who from infancy has been trained up in the severities of some of the monastic orders, and afterwards sent to the college de propaganda fide to be instructed in the languages, and inured to the manners and customs, of the barbarous nations whose conversion he is destined to attempt. But in the reformed churches of Britain there are no monastic orders, nor any college de propaganda fide; and yet without the regular preparation, which is to be looked for in such institutions alone, it is not in nature, whatever grace may effect, for any man cheerfully, and at the same time soberly, to undergo all the accumulated distresses ever ready to overtake a faithful missionary among savage idolaters. A fanatic zealot will indeed undertake it, though he is totally unqualified for every sober and important work; and a man of ruined fortunes may be pressed into the service, though the impotency of his mind has thrown him unable to bear either poverty or riches. The failure of the society therefore in its attempts to convert the American Indians may be attributed, we think, in the first instance, to the want of a college de propaganda for training up young men for the American mission.
Perhaps another cause of this failure may be found in the conduct of the missionaries, who, it is to be presumed, have not always employed in a proper manner even the scanty qualifications which they actually possessed. The gospel, plain and simple as it is, and fitted in its nature for what it was ordained to effect, cannot be apprehended but by an intellect somewhat raised above that of a savage. Such of the missionaries therefore as began their work with preaching to savage and brutal men, certainly set out at the wrong end; for to make the gospel understood, and much more to propa- gate and establish it, those savages should have been first taught the necessary arts of civil life, which, while they improve every bodily accommodation, tend at the same time to enlarge and enlighten the understanding. For want of this previous culture, we doubt not, it hath happened that such of the savages as have been baptized into the faith have so seldom persevered themselves, or been able in any degree to propagate among their tribes the Christianity which they had been taught, and that successive missions have always found it necessary to begin anew the work of conversion.
To one or other of these causes, or to both, may justly be attributed the little progress which reformed Christianity has made among the Indians of North America; and not to any want of zeal, attention, or liberality, in the directors of the society at home. During the dependence of the United States on the mother-country, great part of the society's funds was properly expended in keeping alive a just sense of religion among the Christian colonists from Europe, who had surely the first claims upon this best of charities; but now that America has separated herself from Great Britain, and shown that she is able to maintain her independence, and to make ample provision for a regular clergy of her own, the members of the corporation must feel themselves at liberty to bestow greater attention, and to expend more money than they could formerly do, on the conversion of such Indians as have any intercourse with the settlements which we still possess. To a body so respectable, we presume not to offer advice; but we cannot help thinking, with Bishop Berkeley, that the most successful missionaries would be children of Indians, educated in a considerable number together from the age of ten or twelve in a college de propaganda fide, where they should be in no danger of losing their mother-tongue while they were acquiring a competent knowledge of religion, morality, history, practical mathematics, and agriculture. "If there were a yearly supply (says he) of a dozen such missionaries sent abroad into their respective countries, after they had received the degree of master of arts, and been admitted into holy orders, it is hardly to be doubted but that in a little time the world would see good and great effects of their mission."
2. Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, was instituted in the beginning of the eighteenth century. At that period the condition of the Scotch Highlanders was truly deplorable. Shut up in desolate islands by tempestuous seas, or dispersed over a wide extent of country, intersected by high mountains, rapid rivers, and arms of the sea, without bridges or highways, by which any communication could be kept open either with remote or neighbouring districts, they lived in small detached companies in hamlets or solitary huts. Being thus secluded from intercourse with the more civilized part of the island, they could not enjoy the advantages of trade and manufactures. As their soil was barren and their climate severe, in agriculture no pro-
(A) Even so late as the year 1758, not fewer than 175 parishes, within the bounds of 39 presbyteries, had no parochial school. We are sorry to add, that even in the present enlightened and benevolent age the complaint is not entirely removed.
(B) The feudal system was at length abolished in the year 1748 by the jurisdiction act. ledge in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and in foreign parts of the world." Copies of these proposals, with subscription papers, were distributed through the kingdom; and the contributions having soon amounted to £1000, her majesty Queen Anne encouraged this infant society by her royal proclamation, and at the same time issued letters patent under the great seal of Scotland for erecting certain of the subscribers into a corporation; the first nomination of whom was lodged with the lords of council and secession.
This corporation held its first meeting on Thursday 2nd November 1709. It was attended by several of the nobility, fourteen of the lords of secession, many gentlemen of rank, together with most of the ministers of the city of Edinburgh and neighbourhood. A president, secretary, and treasurer, with a committee of fifteen directors, were appointed for the dispatch of business. At their second meeting in January 1710, a scheme of management was formed and approved; in which it was proposed, 1. To erect and maintain schools in such places of Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands, as should be found to need them most; in which schools all persons whatsoever should be taught by fit and well qualified schoolmasters, appointed by the society, to read the Holy Scriptures and other pious books; as also to write, and to understand the common rules of arithmetic, with such other things as should be thought suitable to their circumstances. 2. That the schoolmasters should be particularly careful to instruct their scholars in the principles of the Christian reformed religion; and for that end should be obliged to catechise them at least twice a week, and to pray publicly with them twice a day. 3. That not only such as were unable to pay should be taught gratis, but that those whose circumstances required it, should have such farther encouragement as the society should think fit in a consistency with their patent. 4. To name some prudent persons, ministers and others, to be overseers of those schools, who should take care that the schoolmasters do their duty, and that the instructions to be given from time to time by the society or their committee be punctually observed; which overseers should make their report to the society quarterly or half-yearly at farthest. 5. To give suitable encouragement to such ministers or catechists as should be willing to contribute their assistance towards the farther instruction of the scholars remote from church, by not only catechising, but preaching to them; which ministers or catechists should take the same care of the other inhabitants as of the scholars. 6. To extend their endeavours for the advancement of the Christian religion to heathen nations; and for that end to give encouragement to ministers to preach the gospel among them.
Having thus formed a plan, they immediately proceeded to establish schools in the most useful and economical manner; and as the capital continued to accumulate, the interest was faithfully applied, and the utility of the institution was more extensively diffused.
Until the year 1738 the attention of the society had been wholly directed to the establishment of schools; but their capital being then considerably augmented, they began to extend their views of utility much farther. The grand object of all public associations ought certainly to be the promoting of religion and morality. It must, however, be evident to every man of reflection, that these can neither be propagated nor preserved among a people without agriculture, unaccustomed to commerce and manufactures, and consequently without labour or exertion. Languor and debility of mind must always be the companions of idleness. While the Highlanders roved about with arms in their hands, the latent vigour of their minds must often have been called forth into action; but when their arms were taken away, and themselves confined to a domestic life, where there was nothing to rouse their minds, they must have sunk into indolence and inactivity. All attempts therefore to instruct them in religion and morality, without introducing among them some of the necessary arts of life, would probably have been unavailing. The society accordingly resolved to adopt what appeared to them the most effectual methods of introducing industry among the Highlanders. But as their patent did not extend far enough, they applied to his majesty George II. for an enlargement of their powers; and accordingly obtained a second patent, by which they are empowered, "besides fulfilling the purposes of their original patent, to cause such of the children as they shall think fit to be bred to husbandry and housewifery, to trades and manufactures, or in such manual occupations as the society shall think proper."
The objects of this second patent the society have not failed to pursue; and though many obstructions and discouragements to their efforts occurred among a rude and barbarous people, yet their perseverance, and the obvious utility of their plans, at length so far overcame the reluctance of the inhabitants, that not fewer than 94 schools of industry in various parts of the Highlands and Islands are now upon their establishment, at which are educated 2360 scholars.
The society, while anxiously endeavouring to diffuse a spirit of industry through the Highlands, were still equally solicitous to promote the knowledge of the Christian religion. As the English language had been the only channel by which knowledge was conveyed to them (a language which, being not used in conversation, was in all respects foreign to them), it was judged requisite that they should have the Scriptures in their vernacular tongue. The society therefore first appointed a translation of the New Testament to be made into Gaelic; A translation was accordingly undertaken by the Rev. Mr Stewart minister of Killin in Perthshire, and printed in 1767, which is said to be executed with much fidelity. Of this work many thousand copies have been distributed in the Highlands. The greater part of the Old Testament has also been translated by the Rev. Dr Smith of Campbellton and others, but chiefly by the Rev. Dr Stewart of Lufts, by the appointment and at the expense of the society: and as soon as the remaining part can be got ready, the whole will be sold at a low price as the poor may without difficulty afford. This plan the society have judiciously chosen, in order to prevent discontent and murmuring; effects which the diffusion of the Scriptures ought never to produce; but which could not possibly have been prevented, had the distribution been gratuitous, and of course partial.
For some years past the funds of the society have rapidly pidly accumulated, from the very liberal donations of several individuals.
Lady Glenorchy - L. 5,000 By a person unknown - 10,000 Lord Van Vryhouven of Holland - 20,000 Mrs Gray of Teasles - 3,500
In consequence of these great additions to their stock, infusions have been thrown out that the society have become so wealthy as to be at a loss for proper objects on which to bestow their increased revenue. If such an opinion be seriously entertained by any one, we must beg him to remember, that the society have erected and endowed not fewer than 323 schools for religion, the first principles of literature and industry, at the annual expense of £214l. 10s. sterling; and that at these seminaries are educated from 14,000 to 15,000 children; who, but for the means of instruction thus obtained, would in all probability be bred up in ignorance and idleness: That they employ 12 missionary ministers and catechists in remote parts of the Highlands and islands, or among the ignorant Highlanders settled in the great towns of Scotland, at the annual expense of £96l.; That they bestow a bursary or pension of £15l. per annum on each of six students of divinity having the Gaelic language: That they employ two missionary ministers and one schoolmaster among the Oneida and Stockbridge Indians of North America (being the destination of certain legacies bequeathed to them for that purpose), at the annual expense of £40l. Such is their fixed scheme of annual expenditure, amounting in all to £740l. 10s. sterling—a sum it will be acknowledged of very considerable magnitude. The whole of their incidental expenses arising from the Gaelic translation of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; from annuities which they have to pay, in consequence of sums left them as residuary legatees; from land and house taxes; from enabling candidates for the office of schoolmaster to come to Edinburgh for examination; from furnishing books to poor scholars in their various schools; and from removing schoolmasters from one station to another, is generally about £875l., which added to the former sum makes the whole annual expense amount to £461l. 10s.
If it be inquired at what expense, in the management of it, this extensive and complicated charity is annually conducted, we are authorised to say, that the treasurer, bookholder, and clerk, are allowed each £2l. per annum, the same salaries which were annexed to these offices from the commencement of the society. The head or officer is allowed £2l. per annum. No salary whatever is enjoyed by any of the other officers of the society. The secretary, comptroller, accountant, and librarian, although subjected, some of them especially, to no small expense of time and labour, have no pecuniary recompense or emolument. Theirs are labours of love, for which they seek and expect no other reward than the conscientiousness of endeavouring to promote the best interests of mankind. The whole amount of the expense of managing the business of the society, including the above salaries, and coals, candle, stationary ware, postage, and other incidents, exceeds not at an average £11l. per annum. From this statement it appears, that hitherto at least the directors have been at no loss for important objects within the proper sphere of their institution on which to bestow their increased funds. They have, it is true, the disposal of very considerable sums for promoting the objects of the institution; but they are so far from accumulating wealth, that every year their expenditure, notwithstanding the late increase of their capital, exceeds rather than falls short of their income. They have depended upon a kind Providence and a generous public to refund these anticipations of their revenue, and hitherto they have never been disappointed.
Thus has the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge proceeded for almost a century. It was founded by the pious exertions of a few private individuals, whose names are unknown to the world; and its funds, by faithful and judicious management, as well as by generous contributions, have now become of such magnitude, as to excite the hope that they will be productive of the most valuable effects. The benefits arising from public societies, it is well known, depend entirely upon the management of their directors. If so, the advantages which have accrued from this society entitle it to the praise and gratitude of the nation. While eager to increase the number of schools, the society have not been inattentive to their prosperity. In the year 1771 Mr Lewis Drummond, a gentleman in whom they placed great confidence, was commissioned by them to visit their schools, and to make an exact report of their state and circumstances. Again, in the year 1790, a commission was granted to the Rev. Dr Kemp, one of the ministers of Edinburgh and secretary to the society, to visit all the schools on their establishment. This laborious and gratuitous task he accomplished in the course of four summers with much ability and care, and highly to the satisfaction of the society. At his return he communicated a variety of important information respecting the state of the Highlands and Islands, and the means necessary for their improvement in religion, literature, and industry; an abstract of which was published by the society in appendices to the anniversary sermons preached before them in the years 1789, 90, 91, and 92.
The following table will exhibit at a glance the funds, establishment, and expenditure, of the society, from a few years after its commencement to the present time.
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(C) It is well known, that the number of Roman Catholics in the Highlands is considerable; but it must give much pleasure to the Protestant reader to be informed, that the ancient malignant spirit of Popery has in that district given place to mildness and liberality. This is chiefly owing to the gentleman who superintends the priests in that quarter, whose mind is enlightened by science and learning. So far from being hostile to the views of the society, he recommended to his clergy to promote them. They accordingly received the secretary with much politeness; exhorted the people to send their children to the Protestant schools to be instructed in literature, to be taught to read the Scriptures in their own language, and to be made acquainted with those great principles of religion in which all Christians are agreed. What a blest reformation! Where the number of scholars is not mentioned, the defect may be supplied by taking an average from those years where a computation has been made. Where the capital is not mentioned, it may easily be made out by considering the salaries as the interest.
| A.D. | Capital | Schools | Scholars | |------|---------|---------|----------| | 1713 | | 12 | | | 1715 | L. 6,177| 25 | | | 1719 | 8,168 | 48 | | | 1727 | 9,131 | 78 | 2757 | | 1732 | 13,318 | 109 | | | 1742 | 19,287 | 128 | | | 1753 | 24,328 | 152 | | | 1758 | 28,413 | 176 | 6,409 | | 1781 | 34,000 | 180 | 7,000 |
Salaries
| | | | | |-------|---------|---------|----------| | 1793 | 3,080 | 307 | 12,913 | | 1794 | 3,214 | 323 | 14,370 |
Hitherto we have taken no notice of the corresponding board which was established at London so early as the year 1729, to receive subscriptions and lay out sums. That board indeed remained long inactive; but in 1773 its members began to co-operate more cordially with their brethren in Scotland. Since that period an annual sermon has been preached in recommendation of the charity; and the preacher is now selected without any regard to the religious denomination to which he belongs; sometimes from the church of England, sometimes from the church of Scotland, and sometimes from lectaries of different persuasions. The meetings of the correspondent board have been attended by many of the nobility and gentry, who have made great exertions to promote the views of the society. From its present flourishing state therefore from the indefatigable exertion and laudable zeal of the managers, and from the countenance and support which they have received from persons of the first rank and respectability in the nation, the benevolent mind may look forward with much confidence and satisfaction to a period not very distant, when its beneficial effects shall be felt not only in the Highlands, but shall be communicated to the rest of the nation. We have been thus particular in our account of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, because we have had access to the most authentic sources of information, and because we know it to be an institution calculated to enlighten and improve a considerable part of the British nation.
3. Society of the Sons of the Clergy, was incorporated by King Charles II. in 1678, by the name of The Governors of the Charity for Relief of the Poor Widows and Children of Clergymen. This society is under the direction and management of a president and vice-president, three treasurers, and a court of assistants composed of forty members. Several hundreds of widows and children of the clergy have annually received considerable relief from this useful charity.
4. Society for the Sons of the Clergy of the Established Church of Scotland, was instituted at Edinburgh in February 1790, and was constituted a body corporate by his majesty's royal charter in 1792. The society, after several meetings, are of opinion, that the period in which the families of clergymen feel most urgently the need both of friends and of pecuniary aid, is that which commences with the introduction of the sons either to an university or to business, and terminates with their establishment in their respective professions; that many of the ministers of this church, living at great distances from the seats either of universities or of business, possess incomes which, in the present state of the country, are inadequate to the purposes of procuring for their sons either the literary or professional education which might enable them to come forward with credit and success in the world; that the sons of clergymen, from domestic tuition and example, have in general very advantageous means of receiving in their early years the impressions of virtue and honour, together with the rudiments of liberal knowledge; and that of course the public interest may be promoted, by enabling this class of young men to obtain their share in the respectable situations of life. The views of the society have been limited to the sons only of clergymen; as they are of opinion, that within the limits which they have fixed, the field of beneficence will be still very extensive, and the claims for aid as many and as great as their funds can be supposed able to answer, at least for many years to come. If the society shall ever be in a situation to undertake more than the aids which will be necessary in bringing forward the sons of the clergy, it may then be considered in what manner the daughters also may become sharers in its bounty.
A society of the same nature, and having the same objects in view, was instituted at Glasgow we think the year before; and both societies, we know, have in many cases proved highly beneficial in promoting the views for which they were instituted.
5. Royal Humane Society, was instituted in London in 1774, for the recovery of persons drowned or otherwise suffocated. We have already given some account of societies instituted in other countries with the same views, and have also copied the directions of this society for the recovery of life, for which see the article DROWNING. We have therefore only to state, that the plan of this society is so adverse to any private interested views, that it acquires its founders of all forbid motives. For the medical practitioners accept no pecuniary recompense for the time which they devote to a difficult and tedious process; for the anxiety which they feel while the event is doubtful; for the mortification which they too often undergo, when death, in spite of all their efforts, at last carries off their prey; nor for the insults to which they willingly expose themselves from vulgar incredulity. Their sole reward is in the holy joy of doing good. Of an institution thus free in its origin from the taintion of ambitious views, and in its plan renouncing self-interest in every shape, philanthropy must be the only basis. The good intention therefore of the society is proved by its constitution; the wisdom and utility of the undertaking are proved by its success: not fewer than 3000 fellow-creatures having since its commencement been (1794) restored to the community by its timely and indefatigable exertions. For it is to be observed, that the benefit of this society is by no means confined to the two cases of drowning and suffocation. Its timely succours have routed the lethargy of opium taken in immoderate and repeated doses; they have rescued the wretched victims of intoxication; rekindled the life extinguished by the sudden stroke of lightning; recovered the apoplectic; restored life to the infant that had lost it in the birth; they have proved efficacious efficacious in cases of accidental smothering and of suffocation by noxious damps; in instances in which the tenderest of the infant body or the debility of old age greatly lessened the previous probability of succels: in much that no species of death seems to be placed beyond the reach of this society's affluence, where the mischief had gone no farther than an obstruction of the movements of the animal machine without any damage of the organs themselves. In consequence of every necessary affluence afforded by this society, similar institutions have been established at Algiers, Lisbon, Philadelphia, Boston, Jamaica, Dublin, Leith, Glasgow, Paisley, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Gloucester, Shropshire, Northamptonshire, Lancaster, Bristol, Whitehaven, Norwich, Exeter, Kent, and Newcastle. The society has published an 8vo volume with plates, containing of cases, correspondence, and a variety of interesting matter relating to the object of this benevolent institution.
6. The Philanthropic Society, was instituted in September 1758. It aims at the prevention of crimes, by removing out of the way of evil counsel, and evil company, those children who are, in the present state of things, destined to ruin. It proposes to educate and instruct in some useful trade or occupation the children of convicts or other infant poor who are engaged in vagrant or criminal courses; thus to break the chain of those pernicious confederacies, deprive the wicked of successors, the goals of inhabitants, justice of its victims, and by all these means add citizens to society. This institution is not only calculated to decrease vice and infamy, but to increase useful industry; so that those children who would otherwise succeed to their parents hereditary crimes, and become the next race of beggars and thieves, will now be taught to supply by honest means their own wants and the wants of others.
To carry into effect these desirable purposes, it is the first business of the society to select from prisons, and from the haunts of vice, profligacy, and beggary, such objects as appear most likely to become obnoxious to the laws, or prejudicial to the community; and, in the execution of this duty, the affluence of the magistrates, the clergy, and all who are interested in the promotion of good morals and good government, is most earnestly requested. For the employment of the children, several houses are supported, at Cambridge Heath, near Hackney, in each of which a master-workman is placed for the purpose of teaching the children some useful trade. The trades already established are those of a printer, carpenter, shoemaker, and taylor. The girls are at present educated as menial servants.
In the year 1791 not fewer than 70 children were under the protection of this society, among whom were many who have been guilty of various felonies, burglaries, and other crimes. Yet, singular as it may appear, in less than two years those very children became no less remarkable for industry, activity, decency, and obedience, than they formerly were for the contrary vices. Such are the grounds on which the Philanthropic Society now claims the attention and solicits the patronage of the public. If we regard humanity and religion, this institution opens an asylum to the most forlorn and subject of the human race; it befriends the most friendless; it saves from the certain and fatal consequences of infamy and vicious courses orphans and deserted children. If we regard national prosperity and the public welfare, it is calculated to increase industry; and it directs that industry into the most useful and necessary channels. If we regard self-interest, its immediate object is to protect our persons from assault and murder, our property from depredation, and our peaceful habitations from the desperate fury of midnight incendiaries.
One guinea per annum constitutes a member of the society; and £10. at one payment a member for life. A life-subscription, or an annual payment of at least two guineas, is a necessary qualification for being elected into the committee.
II. SOCIETIES FOR PROMOTING SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.
1. The Royal Society of London is an academy or body of persons of eminent learning, instituted by Charles II. for the promoting of natural knowledge. The origin of this society is traced by Dr Sprat, its earliest historian, no farther back than to "some space after the end of the civil wars" in the 17th century. The scene of the first meetings of the learned men who laid the foundation of it, is by him fixed in the university of Oxford at the lodgings of Dr Wilkins warden of Wadham college. But Dr Birch, on the authority of Dr Wallis, one of its earliest and most considerable members, affirms it an earlier origin. According to him, certain worthy persons residing in London about the year 1645, being "inquisitive into natural and the new and experimental philosophy, agreed to meet weekly on a certain day, to discourse upon such subjects, and were known by the title of The Invisible or Philosophical College." In the years 1648 and 1649, the company who formed these meetings was divided, part retiring to Oxford and part remaining in London; but they continued the same pursuits as when united, corresponding with each other, and giving a mutual account of their respective discoveries. About the year 1659 the greater part of the Oxford society returned to London, and again uniting with their fellow-labourers, met once, if not twice, a-week at Gresham college, during term time, till they were scattered by the public dilapidations of that year, and the place of their meeting made a quarter for soldiers. On the restoration 1660 their meetings were revived, and attended by a greater concourse of men eminent for their rank and learning. They were at last taken notice of by the king, who having himself a considerable taste for physical science, was pleased to grant them an ample charter, dated the 13th of July 1662, and afterwards a second dated 15th April 1663, by which they were erected into a corporation, consisting of a president, council, and fellows, for promoting natural knowledge; and to give their investigations, against which strange prejudices were entertained, every possible support, he sometimes honoured their meetings with his presence.
Their manner of electing fellows is by balloting. Their council are in number 21, including the president, vice-president, treasurer, and two secretaries; 11 of which are continued for the next year, and 10 more added to them; all chosen on St Andrew's day. Each member at his admission subscribes an engagement that he will endeavour to promote the good of the society; from which he may be freed at any time, by signifying to the president that he desires to withdraw. The charges have been different at different times, and were