3 



justify the anticipations entertained by many of 

 us as to the future prosperity of our Institution, it 

 will only remain for us to consider whether any 

 improvement can be effected in the rules and 

 regulations by which the Society is governed. 

 As some judgment may be formed of the present 

 by the past, I propose to commence my investi- 

 gation by taking a slight retrospect of the different 

 Literary and Philosophical Societies which have, 

 within the last forty years, been formed in this 

 town, and hence to shew that, within that pe- 

 riod, there has been a sufficiency both of talent 

 to support such societies and inclination to ren- 

 der them respectable and useful, and that the 

 dissolution of those which have now ceased to 

 exist has been owing solely to a defect of judici- 

 ous regulations. 



The earliest association of a literary nature 

 in this town, of which I have been able to 

 obtain any authentic account, is one which 

 Tickell has mentioned in his History of Hull,* as 

 likely, at no distant period from the time when 

 he wrote, to make Hull distinguished by its 

 spirited cultivation of the liberal arts and belles 

 lettres. It was formed on the 19th June, 1792, 

 on which day, Dr Moyes, (whose lectures on 

 Natural Philosophy must be remembered with 

 pleasure by many gentlemen now present) 



* Page 920. 



