11 



and the best implements, utensils, and machinery employed in the 

 common purposes of life, or in the useful arts ; such an arrangement, 

 with respect to Proprietary Shares, did not seem ill adapted to a 

 concern which was intended to be partly commercial, and partly 

 philosophical. 



But this idea, from the reasons that have been already stated, 

 being found impracticable, and new and more exalted objects having 

 arisen from this foundation, and the Royal Institution having 

 fortunately taken the form of a Body for promoting Experimental 

 Science, and for diffusing every Species of Philosophical Knowledge : 

 a form which the philosophers of our elder school would have con- 

 templated with pleasure ; and having become an establishment, 

 though upon a diminutive scale, such as they often looked for and 

 desired ; it is obvious, that the Principles upon which its Funds are 

 to be raised, and its Members elected, will require considerable 

 alteration. 



The Members of the Body, it is obvious, ought to be either 

 Patrons of Science, Encouragers of useful Public Objects, or 

 Scientific and Literary Men ; and to belong to the Body, ought to be 

 regarded as a species of scientific honour. But if a Member of the 

 Royal Institution can transfer his Share and his Privileges by Sale, 

 all idea of honorary distinction must necessarily cease ; his successor 

 may be not the most proper man, but the best bidder. 



From the hereditary nature of the proprietorship, an infant even 

 may become a governor of the Royal Institution, and it is needless 

 to dwell upon the ludicrous nature of the claim of an infant, to what 

 is intended to be applicable only to persons in some measure dis- 

 tinguished, either by their ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, or 

 their zeal for the patronage or the promotion of knowledge. 



In the progress of the Royal Institution towards its scientific 

 form, no inconsiderable difficulties, even with respect to finance, 

 have arisen from the saleable nature of the shares, in cases of the 

 decease of a proprietor, they have often necessarily been disposed of, 

 and there has usually been a price in the market below the price of 

 the establishment, a circumstance which has deprived the Institution 

 of a source of income. Though this has happened in a few instances 

 only, and though it is scarcely possible to find a more dignified 

 assemblage of names collected from the different ranks of life, than 

 those which adorn our Proprietary List, yet still the circumstance of 

 sale has tended to render the Institution unpopular, to diminish the 

 public interest in it, and to lessen the desire of persons to contribute 

 to it, by life or annual subscriptions. 



On the new plan it is proposed upon a compensation, which after 

 long discussion has been regarded as the most equitable, to do away 

 entirely the saleable and hereditary right, so as to leave no vestiges 

 of them in the Constitution of the Body : and to elect new Members, 

 properly recommended, only by general ballot. 



