59 



1801, when these rooms were opened, he de- 

 livered an address to the subscribers, which 

 marked his great anxiety to stimulate the mer- 

 cantile part of the town to the cultivation of the 

 arts and of literature. It is an eloquent appeal 

 to history, in proof of the fact that " commerce 

 "and literature have always gone hand in hand;" 

 and that " literature is indispensable to the hap- 

 " piness and prosperity, of a commercial town/'* 

 In May, 1802, Dr. Alderson distributed printed 

 proposals for establishing, by subscription, a 

 Commercial College at Hull. These proposals, 

 detailing the objects and plan of the projected 

 establishment, show at once the energy of mind 

 of our deceased associate, and his anxious desire 

 to promote the happiness and prosperity of the 

 town, by increasing the stock of knowledge of its 

 inhabitants. Had the scheme been carried into 

 effect, Hull might now have been in the posses- 

 sion of a museum of specimens of the raw mate- 

 rial and manufactured articles of commerce, ca- 

 pable of affording instruction and amusement to 

 the man of business, and offering a laudable 

 example for the imitation of other large mercan- 

 tile towns. The manner in which the concur- 

 rence of the public in the proposed measure was 



* See " An Address to the Subscribers to the Library at Hull, at the 

 " opening of the New Rooms on the first of July, 1801, from the Preei- 

 "dent;" p. 3. 



