ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 55 



heuded in his plan, and how directly it was designed to bear upon 

 the development of the useful arts, may be judged from the subjects 

 embraced in the closing paragraph, which was in these words, 

 "All new agricultural experiments, new methods of improving the 

 breed of animals, new facts in chemistry, in the assaying of ores, 

 and in distillation. All mechanical inventions which tend to the 

 saving of labor, any new art, trade or manufacture that may bo 

 thought of or suggested, and especially all experiments that let 

 light into the world, that increase the power of man over matter, 

 and multiply the conveniences of life." 



His suggestion led to the establishment of a society in Philadel- 

 phia in the course of the following year, which in 1769, in combi- 

 nation with another body called the Junta, was formed into the 

 American Philosophical Society, an institution which is still in ex- 

 istence. But Franklin's suggestion produced other fruit. A copy 

 of his pamphlet found its way to England, and fell into the hands of 

 one William Shipley, a drawing master of London, who was so im- 

 pressed with it that he resolved, by his own efforts, to establish a 

 similar society in England. Though following the humble occupa- 

 tion of a teacher of drawing, he had aristocratic connections and 

 influence sufficient to induce twelve gentlemen, several of them men 

 of rank, to unite with him, in the formation of a society of which 

 he became the secretary. This was the beginning of the London 

 Society of Arts, now a powerful institution which, under the presi- 

 dency of Prince Albert, brought about, after six years of unwea- 

 ried effort, the great international exhibition in London, at the 

 Crystal Palace, in 185L The first meeting in 1754, was held at a 

 London coffee house, when an address to the public was adopted in 

 which the idea \vn.sjirst unfolded of stimulating the industrial arts 

 by the offering of rewards and premiums. In this address, which 

 was probabl}^ the production of Shipley himself, the public were 

 informed that the society had been constituted for the encourage- 

 ment of arts, manufactures and commerce, and would bestow re- 

 wards, from time to time, for such productions, inventions and 

 improvements as might tend to the employment of the poor, to the 

 increase of trade, and to the riches and power of the nation, and 

 that to make a beginning they had concluded to offer three prizes, 

 £30 for any one who would grow madder in England, a most pre- 

 cious root for dyers and calico printers, X30 for the discovery and 

 working, in Great Britain, of cobalt, a metal very difficult to re- 

 duce from its ores, the oxide of which imparts a rich blue to the 

 glaze of porcelain and stone ware, and X15 in smaller prizes for 

 the best drawings by boys and girls, under the age of fourteen years. 



