SOCIETIES. 
the above vast sum has been distributed 
is most honourably explained by the secre- 
tary and other officers at the hall, and the 
register, exhibited at the same time, will 
show the very great advantages which the 
public derives from the institution. Ihe 
meetings of the society are held evety 
Wednesday, at seven o’clock in the even- 
ing, from October to June, and the various 
committees on other evenings during the 
session. Each member has the privilege, 
on any weekly meeting, of proposing a can- 
didate for admission, provided three mem- 
bers sign -the written instrument prescribed 
for that purpose. Peers of the realm, or 
lords of parliament, are ballotted for imme- 
diately upon being proposed, but the names 
of all others must be inserted in a list which 
the secretary suspends in the meeting room ; 
the person is then ballotted for, and if two 
thirds of the members present vote in his 
favour, he becomes a perpetual member 
on paying twenty guineas, or a subscribing 
member upon payment of any sum amount- 
ing to not less than two guineas per annum. 
Every member is admitted to participate 
in all the transactions of the society, and 
may attend and vote at the several com- 
mittees; besides which, he has the privi- 
lege, at the weekly meetings, of proposing 
two persons as auditors of the general ac- 
counts, and, by addressing a note to the 
registrar, of introducing his friends to ex- 
amine the numerous models, machines, and 
productions, in different branches of arts, 
manufactures, and commerce, for which 
rewards have been bestowed ; and to in- 
spect the magnificent series of moral and 
historical paintings, so happily contrived 
and completed by James Barry, Esq. 
which, with some valuable busts and sta- 
tues, decorate the great room. He has 
also the use of a valuable library, and is 
entitled to the annual volume of tlie So- 
ciety’s Transactions. 
Our limits will not permit us to give 
more than the heads of the subjects for 
which premiums are offered, as the ramifi- 
cations of each are very numerous, in order 
to render the operations of the society 
as useful as possible. They are for plant- 
ing and husbandry, containing fifty-seven 
classes; for discoveries and improvements 
in cliemistry, dying, and mineralogy, in 
twenty eight classes; for promoting the 
polite arts, including one class offered by 
the will of John Stock, Esq. for sculpture, 
twenty-two classes ; for encouraging and im- 
proving manufactures, six classes; for in- 
ventionti in mechanics, twelve classes ; ani 
to these are added premiums for tlie advan- 
tage of the British colonies, and the British 
settlements in the East Indies, in thirty- 
four classes. The premiums alluded to are 
medals of gold and silver, gold and silver 
pallets, and purses of ten, twenty, or thirty, 
&c. guineas. 
As the primary object of the society, in 
offering these rewards, i,s to rouse the ener- 
gy of individuals, and to give currency to 
tlieir inventions and improvements which 
appear to promise general benefit ; tlie so- 
ciety is careful to acquaint tlie candidates 
for them, “ that if tlie means by which the 
respective objects are effected do require 
an ejcpense or trouble too great for general 
purposes, the society will not consider 
itself as bound to give the offered reward ; 
hut though it thus reserves the power of 
giving, in all cases, such part only of any 
premium as the performance shall be ad- 
judged to deserve, or of withholding the 
whole, if there be no merit; yet the candi- 
dates may be assured, the society wi:l 
always judge liberally of their several 
claims.” The society requires that the 
subjects, offered for obtaining the premi- 
ums, should be delivered at tlieir house 
without the names of the inventors or im- 
provers, or any intimation by which they 
may he discovered, and tliat each subject 
thus offered shall liave some private mark 
affixed, which mark must appear upon tlia 
outside of a sealed paper, containing within 
the claimant’s name, and address, to be de- 
livered with the model, machine, &c, and 
they very properly refuse to perform tlieir 
part of this liberal compact, unless the can- 
didate literally complies with these judi- 
cious and necessary rules to preserve the 
strictest impartiality. 
The society open no papers except that cor- 
responding to the mark wliich obtains a pre- 
mium, unless it should in some case become 
necessary for the determination of the claim ; 
tlie remainder of the papers are returned 
with the articles they belong to, if inquired 
after by the mark within two years ; should 
they not be detjiandcd at the close of that 
period, they are publicly burnt, in the state 
in wliich they were sent, during the sitting 
of the society. The models that are consi- 
dered wortliy of a premium, or bounty, be- 
come the property of the Society, and when 
either is granted f or a machine, tl.e pat ty 
receiving it is expected to present the Insti- 
tution with a perfect model. As it cannot 
he expected that the funds of the society 
