I 233 3 
AN ACT 
TO INCORPORATE A SOCIETY FOR THE PROMO-, 
TION OF USEFC'L ARTS, 
Passed April 2nd, 1804. 
HEREAS the institution of a society, caU 
culated to promote, collect and preserve the know¬ 
ledge of useful arts, is intimately connected with the 
public welfare and prosperity ; Therefore, 
Se it enacted hy the people of the state of JSFew^ 
Tork, represented in senate and assembly, That all 
such persons who shall, at the time of the passing 
of this act, be members of the society for the pro¬ 
motion of agriculture, arts and manufactures, and 
such other persons who shall from time to time be¬ 
come members of the society hereby intended to 
be incorporated, and shall within ten months after 
the passing of this act, signify their intention ia 
writing, subscribed by them respectively, to Sam¬ 
uel L. Mitchell or Benjamin De Witt, the present 
secretaries of the said society, to become members 
of the society hereby intended to be incorporated, 
and shall pay to either of them two dollars for the 
use of the said society, shall be, and hereby are, 
constituted a body corporate and politic by the 
name of “ the Society for the promotion of Useful 
Arts that by that name the said society shall 
have perpetual succession ; and that the said so¬ 
ciety and their successors shall be capable in law 
to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer 
