291 

 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



COVENTRY MECHANICS' INSTITUTION. 



The eighth anniversary meeting of the friends and members of 

 the Coventry Mechanics' Institution, was held on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 

 at St. Mary's Hall. The Mayor having taken the chair, the busi- 

 ness of the evening commenced by Mr. Charles Bray reading the 

 Report, which contained the gratifying announcement of a conside- 

 rable increase in the funds of the Institution, and an accession of 

 upwards of 160 volumes to the library, the donations of liberal indivi- 

 duals, exclusive of works purchased by the committee. The pre- 

 mises now occupied by the Institution being inadequate for the ac- 

 commodation of the members, a building has been purchased admi- 

 rably adapted for the purpose ; consisting of a reading room, muse- 

 um, library, class rooms, laboratory, and a lecture room capable of 

 containing 600 persons. So great has been the zeal displayed to 

 effect this object, that the sum required (£1300.) has been chiefly 

 raised amongst the members. 



The resolution " that the Report be read and circulated" having 

 been proposed and seconded, James Simpson, Esq., Advocate, of 

 Edinburgh, after reading the second resolution, " That this meeting 

 highly approve of the principles upon which this institution is 

 founded, by which no party in religion or politics, is excluded from 

 the advantages it holds out," observed — " If there be a favoured 

 spot where the storm, yet raging without in an uneducated age, 

 may be hushed to a calm, it is that where the students of nature 

 congregate — where meet the worshippers of f divine philosophy, 

 effusive source of evidence and truth/ to drink of the pure fountain 

 at its source. Such is your noble Institution. Come you from the 

 very tug of party strife — here you are, calm and kindly. The 

 works and ways of a benevolent God are your contemplation. Can 

 these be approached with violence on the lips, or rancour in the 

 heart ? Can the eye be cast on the soft green that mantles nature, 

 fatigued with wastes of burning sands or boundless snow, without 

 feeling in the heart its sweetest inmate, brotherly love ? — without 

 opening the bosom to the dove of peace ? It were morally, religi- 

 ously impossible to renew the unholy war after the truce : good 

 feeling, even good taste, forbids the very thought. Thus will your 

 Institution tend to abate the party spirit you deprecate. Advance, 

 look not to the right or to the left, in your philosophical course. 

 Listen to the ravings of party discord as to the storm without when 

 all is safe, and calm, and warm within. You are labouring in a 

 glorious spring-tide. This is your reward, although it may not be 

 given to the youngest among you to see the harvest. Despond not 

 — despair not. Yours is a high privilege, even to aid in sowing the 



