THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 229 



Humphrey Minchin, P. Le Hunte, and Luke White 

 were also remarkable for the number of meetings 

 which they attended, and for their close attention to 

 the business of the Society. 



In November 1812, Robert Shaw was elected a 

 vice-president in the room of General Vallancey, and 

 in December 1812, William Hogan, junior, York 

 street, " a student of Trinity College," was elected a 

 member of the Society, this being the only instance, up 

 to this period, of the admission of anyone so described. 

 At the same time, Peter Brophy, who was proposed by 

 John Boardman and seconded by the Rev. Dr. Hand- 

 cock, was rejected. 



Professor Von Feinagle was permitted, in February 

 1813, to deliver before the Society two lectures ex- 

 plaining his system, and its applicability to all branches 

 of education and science. Gregor Von Feinagle, born 

 in Baden in 1785, became a public lecturer in a new 

 system of mnemonics and methodics, for which he 

 was much ridiculed on the continent, both in the 

 press and on the stage. He came to this country in 

 1 8 1 1 , and soon after superintended a school in 

 Mountjoy square, Dublin, which was conducted on 

 his principles. The New Art of Memory, edited by 

 J. Millard, appeared in 1812. Von Feinagle died in 

 1819 in Dublin, and there is a bust of him in the 

 reception-room, Leinster House. 



Richard Lovell Edgeworth (father of Maria Edge- 

 worth), who appears to have been a mechanical genius, 

 conducted in 1815, in the yard of Leinster House, 

 public experiments as to an invention of his with 

 regard to wheeled carriages. 1 The committee to 

 which the matter was referred was of opinion that 

 the apparatus invented by Edgeworth was adequate to 

 1 Memoirs, vol. ii. 



