SOME OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY. 
51 
secretary of the society, Mr. "Wilson presided at a meeting held in 
July, 1871, to consider the steps necessary to place the society on a 
sounder basis, and took an active part in carrying out the resolutions 
of the meeting. 
On the expiration of his lease of the Silkstone Collieries, Mr. Wilson 
opened a fresh pit in the neighbourhood, but the venture proved 
unsuccessful, and in 1842 he was elected, out of many candidates, 
auditor of the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, a post he held for 
34 3^ears. Here he displayed the same energy and breadth of view 
which he had shown in his own affairs. He was ever on the watch 
to prevent undue interference by railways or other competing 
systems, and convinced that canals filled a very important part in 
the communications of the country, but that owing to their isolated 
action they were falling into the power of railways, which thus 
acquired a monopoly, he was instrumental in forming an Associa- 
tion of Canals, to which he acted as secretary. For his services in 
this capacity he received a service of plate. He was also a director 
of the Goole Steam Shipping Company. 
Mr. Wilson was welcomed to Leeds by all friends of reform and 
education. He was immediately elected on the council of the Leeds 
Mechanics' Institution, which he attended most assiduously for many 
years, and he was president for two years. He was also for many 
years on the council of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 
of which he was joint secretary at the time of his death. He also 
took part in establishing the Yorkshire College of Science, the scheme 
for University extension, the local examinations by the Universities 
of Oxford and Cambridge, the examinations by the Society of Arts 
and the Department of Science and Art, and the Leeds Educational 
Council. It was while attending a meeting of the last body, four 
days before his death, that the first symptoms of his approaching end 
appeared. He also assisted in forming the Charitable Enquiry and 
Local Improvement Societies, and was many years an assiduous 
member of the council of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce. 
Mr. Wilson was a sound classical scholar, and a man of wide 
reading and information. He held very independent views, in many 
respects in advance of his time, and was totally unmoved by popular 
