8 Bailey, Inaugtiral Address. 



respects. He agrees that it is proper to prohibit the 

 import of French silks into this country, and those from 

 our possessions in India were also prohibited under very 

 severe penalties. 



The Laws of the Society were changed from time to 

 time, for in the volume for 1790 the prohibition of dis- 

 cussions on religion and politics is omitted from the 

 regulations. 



In the early years of the Society the papers on 

 general literature and the drama, and on antiquities, were 

 more frequent than at the present time. Dr. Ferrier in 

 1790 contributed a paper on " Sterne," in which he shows 

 that much of the jocularity and wit of " Tristam Shandy" 

 has been lifted from Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy"; 

 this is no very severe charge, for Shakespeare's great art 

 consisted in polishing the gems, the diamonds and precious 

 stones he found, and his new setting of them is his 

 contribution to the wealth of the world. Montaigne 

 claims that he only desires to have the reputation due to 

 the man who has found the string to bind together the 

 flowers that he has gathered from classic gardens and 

 which he presents to his friends as a pretty posy. 



As a Vice-President of the Library Association, I 

 have visited nearly every important Library in this 

 Kingdom. I desire to emphasize this, that in my opinion 

 ours is the best Scientific Library in the Provinces. Rich 

 by the productions of our own members, for we have the 

 records of the experiments of Dr. Dalton, Dr. Joule, 

 and Richard Roberts, Fairbairn, Professor Williamson, 

 Sir Henry Roscoe, William Sturgeon of the electro- 

 magnet, Dr. John Hopkinson, Professor Osborne Reynolds, 

 Dr. Schuster, Dr. Schunck, and other distinguished 

 history makers, for ever famous in the text-books and 

 records of science and mechanics, during the century and 



