88 .VOTES A XI) ILLUSTRATIONS. 



NOTE E. 



The Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts has published three volumes of its 

 Transactions at the expense of the state, containing a great body of useful information, 

 relative to the husbandry and manufactures of the country. The Academy of Arts, princi- 

 pally for want of a suitable place to exhibit its collections, has not prospered in proportion 

 to its importance. If the application to the corporation of the city to assign spacious 

 apartments for this institution, and the Literary and Philosophical, and Historical Socie- 

 ties, shall succeed, (and, from the invariable public spirit displayed by that body, there is 

 every reason to believe it will,) and if the plan for establishing professorships in paintinc, 

 sculpture, engraving, architecture, &c. shall also be carried into effect, there can be no 

 doubt but that (notwithstanding the unpropitious state of things for the cultivation of the 

 arts and sciences) this useful establishment will flourish. The New-York Historical 

 Society was established, in imitation of a similar institution in Massachusetts, for the pur- 

 pose of collecting materials for illustrating the natural, civil, ecclesiastical, literary, and medi- 

 cal history of America. The Massachusetts society has published ten volumes of interest- 

 ing matter ; that of New- York, beside publishing two volumes, has made a rare, invaluable, 

 and extensive collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, medals, &c. 

 worth at least ten thousand dollars, for which it is greatly indebted to the indefatigable 

 exertions of John Pintard, Esq. the Rev. Timothy Alden, and Dr. John W. Francis. 

 The legislature of the state, deeply impressed with the importance and merits of this 

 establishment, and under the influence of a magnanimous policy, conferred upon it last 

 year a donation of twelve thousand dollars, which will insure its permanent usefulness. 

 The congress of the United States have also directed the public documents to be sent 

 gratuitously to the several Historical Societies, and the legislature of New- York have 

 made a similar arrangement respecting this institution. 



NOTE F. 



The agency of Dr. Franklin, in projecting and arranging the American Philosophical 

 Society, will be seen by the following interesting document, with which I have been 

 favoured by Cadwallader D. Colden, Esq. the distinguished grandson of the late Dr. 



