148 THE EARLY HISTOEY OF [CHAP. III. 



public advantages that will be derived from the 

 general diffusion of a spirit of experimental investiga- 

 tion and improvement among the higher ranks of 

 society. When the rich shall take pleasure in contem- 

 plating and encouraging such mechanical improvements 

 as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable 

 companion good morals, will revive; rational economy 

 will become fashionable ; industry and ingenuity will 

 be honoured and rewarded ; and the pursuits of all the 

 various classes of society will then tend to promote the 

 public prosperity.' 



On the 1 3th of January Sir J. Hippesley read to the 

 managers a letter proposed to be sent to every proprietor 

 and subscriber. It stated that the charter had been 

 approved, and would be sealed the next seal day ; that 

 temporary accommodation for lectures was completed ; 

 and that Mr. Professor Grarnett would lecture early in 

 February ; that the subscribers' rooms, containing the 

 periodical scientific publications, foreign and domestic, 

 would be opened at the same time. All subscribers 

 were requested to pay their subscriptions immediately 

 to Professor Grarnett, or to Mr. Webster, the clerk of 

 the Institution, or to one of the six bankers of the 

 Institution. 



At the end of the month Mr. Webster was ordered 

 to prepare plans for a new lecture room. When an 

 old man he thus spoke of his work : ' After nearly 

 forty years the theatre of the Royal Institution is 

 pronounced to be the most perfect room of the kind in 

 the kingdom for possessing the properties of allowing 

 the lecturer to be well heard and seen by the audience, 



