132 PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



mining to pursue, in the spirit of cordial union and co-operation, those objects 

 only that are calculated to bind men together, and to still the warring ele- 

 ments of interest and passion into peace." 



The Honourable Poulett Thomson, and Lord Francis Egerton have 

 likewise transmitted liberal donations: the latter states, in his letter, 

 that he " considers this Institution of a class which he should hope 

 to see very generally established in the towns and districts of the 

 country which can afford the means of supporting them ; for he is 

 confident that were the means exist, the expediency of that esta- 

 blishment must be coexistent." 



A committee, composed of individuals of different shades in poli- 

 tical sentiments, was appointed to select newspapers, periodicals, 

 and books, adapted to the taste of the subscribers ; and in three 

 weeks after the directors were impowered to commence their opera- 

 tions for opening the library and news-room, " the Athenaeum rose 

 into sudden and permanent existence, like one of those tall luxu- 

 riant palms of southern climates, which fix their roots firmly in the 

 ground, and then spring up rapidly to spread abroad the refreshing, 

 shade of their branches, and to increase the comfort and the happi- 

 ness of all around them." 



The greatest care has been taken in selecting such works for the 

 library, (which already consists of 3,000 volumes), as are calculated 

 to be perused with advantage by the members. In alluding to the 

 introduction of the classics and foreign literature, it is observed — 



" It will be a source of pleasure to the directors to introduce these works 

 into the library, if the subscribers should wish to follow out within these 

 walls the classical pursuits of their early youth, or the more important study 

 of the French, German, and Italian languages. "When the dry introduction 

 to the ancient languages is once mastered, there are many rich and rare gems 

 to be found in the dark evergreen groves of Athenian and Roman Hterature, 

 many brief sententious precepts and descriptions of high actions and high 

 passions, which will be remembered amidst the busy scenes of the world, and 

 will afford a solace and a support, far inferior, indeed, to the animating and 

 glowing words of the Holy Scriptures, but still valuable at times even in the 

 practical affairs of life. But may not many of the other boasted advantages 

 of classical learning, the power of literary criticism, and the knowledge of 

 the grammatical niceties ot language, be derived more easily and more profi- 

 tably from the study of French, German, or Italian ? To commercial men 

 in Manchester, as their trade extends with the continent, a knowledge of 

 these living languages is daily becoming more indispensable." 



The address then alludes to the vast and rapid improvements 

 which have taken place in Lancashire — to the facility for transmit- 

 ting passengers and merchandize by means of rail-roads and canals, 

 which now intersect the country — to the gigantic increase, during 

 the last fifty years, of the cotton trade, at the present time annually 

 exporting manufactured goods to the amount of £33,000,000, forty 

 times greater than in 1 785, and employing, in Manchester and its 

 neighbourhood, a population of 300,000 — a state of prosperity attri- 

 butable to the original inventions of that eminent individual Mr. 

 Watt, whose literary acquirements and amiability of character is. 

 thus descanted upon— 



