286 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V. 



attracted to a very great degree. The debts were 

 discharged and near 3,000. invested.' 



' The additions that have been made to the Institu- 

 tion by the library of reference, the mineralogical 

 collection (which, by the assistance and exertions of 

 the Professor of Chemistry, has been made at an 

 expense which bears no comparison to its use and 

 value), the laboratory, the seat of his interesting and 

 extraordinary discoveries, the increased variety of 

 the lectures far exceeding anything in contemplation 

 on the forming of the Institution, have frustrated 

 every attempt to keep the scale of expenditure within 

 the average amount of income. 



'The annual expenditure, including 1,055. for 

 professors and lectures, is 3,2951. To meet this there 

 is 133. dividends, and life and annual subscriptions 

 of not more than 2,000. It is for the interest of the 

 proprietors that some early and decisive measures 

 should be taken for the preservation of their here- 

 ditary property, either by new modelling the con- 

 stitution, so as to make their life and annual subscrip- 

 tions more productive, or by reducing the expenditure, 

 or by the proprietors and life members paying some 

 annual sum. The proprietors now enjoy much greater 

 advantages than they originally had from the libraries, 

 collections, lectures, and laboratory, and from that in 

 which all Englishmen, and particularly the proprietors 

 of the Eoyal Institution, must glory, that in our 

 laboratory those discoveries have been made, and are 

 now making, which excite the surprise and admiration 

 of the scientific in every part of the civilised world. 



