PROCEEDINGS OP PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 297 



utterly effaced by the interesting meetings he had witnessed during 

 a late visit to the scientific institutions in Cornwall. There he 

 found similar establishments in full operation, under the best aus- 

 pices, and with the best possible effects ; and he felt assured that, 

 in proportion as they were adopted and supported in the dense po- 

 pulation of this part of England, would they infuse that higher 

 tone of morality and intelligence which forms so striking a feature 

 in the corresponding classes of the community in the southern dis- 

 tricts to which he alluded. He then proceeded to repudi- 

 ate the charge brought against these societies of their having a 

 political and irreligious tendency. He was grieved to say, these 

 gratuitous falsehoods were but too commonly brought against insti- 

 tutions which had for their object the rational pursuits of more ex- 

 tended knowledge, whereby the humblest individual might be raised 

 in the- social scale of being — for nothing, he was persuaded, could 

 be more detrimental, he might almost add, more ultimately fatal to 

 religion, than any hint, more particularly if thrown out by those 

 of his own profession, that there could be no safe union between re- 

 ligion and the progress of mental cultivation and rational know- 

 ledge. This he well knew was the doctrine of darker ages, when 

 an over influential, and dangerously dominant and intolerant priest- 

 hood were aware, that it was only by keeping their flocks in intel- 

 lectual darkness that their influence could remain unshaken ; but 

 amongst us of a more enlightened age of religious freedom, whose 

 very claims and privileges depended so much on the acknowledged 

 right of liberty of judgment, and a more liberal spirit of inquiry, 

 such a sentiment ought not for a moment to be listened to. He 

 concluded by wishing success to the institution, and expressing his 

 earnest hope, that it, and every other similar institution, might be 

 strenuously supported by all who wished to see their country pros- 

 per, and more especially by christian ministers of all denominations, 

 whether of his own or other churches or persuasions, who might by 

 so doing incalculably advance the social and religious civilisation 

 and reformation of society at large. 



The several resolutions having been duly proposed and seconded, 

 the following officers for the ensuing year were then appointed : — 

 President — J. Brocklehurst, Esq., M.P. ; Vice-Presidents — Rev. 

 E. Stanley, Thomas Swan wick, Esq., M.D., and William Hopes, 

 Esq. ; Committee — R. Ragshaw, Esq., Messrs. Hulley, J. Sargent, 

 John Shatwell, R. Wilson, J. Thorley, jun., D. B. Curwen, Ben- 

 jamin Broome, G. Barton, J. Barber, C. Condron, J. Kelly, S. Hill, 

 G. Simpson, Thus. Smith, and W. Wardle. 



VOL. V. — NO. XVIII, 



2p 



