Manchester Memoirs^ Vol. I. (1905). 3 



James Watt was busy with his new double-acting 

 engine, but he had doubts about the profit of it, and sent 

 his son to the foundry at Warrington of John Wilkinson 

 (who was a brother-in-law of Priestley) to learn book- 

 keeping and business routine, and this son, James Watt, 

 Junior, became one of the Honorary Secretaries of this 

 Society. 



The first practical steamboat had been placed by 

 Jonathan Hulls on the Severn, the first of all steamboats. 



It was in these busy times that a number of sincere 

 men of Manchester, Warrington, Bolton, and the neigh- 

 bourhood, mere day-dreamers, idealists and truth hunters, 

 who wanted to know the inner meaning of things, bound 

 together by this common object, met and founded this 

 Society. 



The first volume of the memoirs is characteristic of 

 the desires and aims of our founders. After reading it 

 through, I nearly unconsciously repeated to myself the 

 lines of Browning's " Fra Lippo." 



You've seen the world 

 — The beauty and the wonder and the power, 

 The shapes of things, their colours, lights and shades, 

 Changes, surprises, — and God made it all ! 



# * « * 



This world's no blot for us, 

 Nor blank ; it means intensely, and means good : 

 To find its meaning is my meat and drink. 



The laws and regulations of the Society enacted that 

 there should be two Presidents, four Vice-Presidents 

 and two Secretaries ; the subjects of conversation may 

 comprehend Natural Philosophy, Theoretical and Experi- 

 mental Chemistry, Polite Literature, Civil Law, General 

 Politics, Commerce and the Arts, but that Religion, the 

 Practical Branches of Physic, and British Politics be 

 deemed prohibited, and that the chairman shall deliver 



