PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. VO 



certain charges which the Parliament have allowed from time to 

 time upon it, an income of £25,490. yearly. 



Mr. Cooper proposes to avail himself of a portion of this fund, 

 to carry his design into execution ; and then points out the eligi- 

 bility, as far as regards the Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and the other 

 official residences of the lawyers, of the site of the Rolls' Chapel, 

 in Chancery Lane, for the erection of an edifice, to be adapted in 

 every respect to the deposit and preservation of all the public 

 records of the kingdom, now dispersed about in different parts of 

 the metropolis- 

 After having given further details of Mr. C.'s plan, the lecturer 

 drew the attention of the society to the fact that, in the northern 

 metropolis of our sister kingdom, a magnificent edifice has been 

 lately raised for the same purpose that we are contemplating. It 

 is called the General Register House, and cost the nation £37,643. 

 It is erected in the New Town, at the head of Prince's Street, 

 and is a great ornament to that splendid city. 



This building contains not only all the Parliamentary and 

 Judicial records of Scotland, but the voluminous records of land 

 rights, of the immense extent of which last some notion may be 

 formed when it is stated, that the index to one particular species 

 of instrument, comprising a period only of twenty years, which 

 has lately been printed, forms 3,500 pages in folio. 



The lecturer then expatiated on the value and absolute neces- 

 sity of copious indexes ; and concluded with some remarks on 

 the qualifications necessary for the individuals who should under- 

 take the office of deciphering, and judiciously arranging, matters 

 of such vast moment, in whatever point we view them. 



1835, January 1st. — Mr. Owen's Lecture on the Consump- 

 tion of Smoke. 



On this evening Mr. Owen read a paper on the consumption 

 of smoke by means of combustion in which, after dwelling on the 

 importance of the subject as it regarded public comfort, &c., he 

 explained the phenomenon of combustion and then showed the 

 application of its principles to the consumption of smoke. 

 Several plans were explained, which had been introduced for 

 this purpose, and the paper was concluded by referring to the 

 combustion of smoke as connected with the use of coal tar for 

 fuel on board steam vessels. 



The lecturer illustrated his observations^by several exceedingly 

 neat and ingenious diagrams. 



