MA8 ~ ; INSTITUTIO 1 N. 
Tool, or upwards, are hereditary patrons \ and thofe fiib- 
.icribing ; 5 pi. or upwards, patrons for life . Each of the 
‘patrons has authority to introduce or recommend one 
jfcientifie or. literary perfon to the library every day. 
Therepofitory, containing the models of various cu¬ 
rious and ufeful machines and productions of the arts, is 
extremely interefting. This promifes to become a highly 
valuable branch of the Inftitution, and the managers at 
refent occupy themfelves with increafmg the colieftion 
y every means which the laws of the Inlfitution permit 
them to employ. 
The funds of the Inftitution arife from the payments 
made by the proprietors and fubferibers; which lalt are 
.divided into two claflqs, thofe for life, and thofe paying 
an annual fum. The proprietors originally paid the fum 
of fifty guineas for each fltare, which has been lince gra¬ 
dually increafed till it has reached two hundred, and the 
stumber of proprietors limited to four hundred. The 
whole of the property of the Inftitution is veiled folely 
‘in the proprietors, who each have right of perfonal ad- 
smiifion to the lectures and the reading-rooms, and alfo 
one transferable ticket, annually renew ed, which admits 
the bearer to the lectures and public experiments, and to 
.the repofitory, but not to the reading-rooms. The life 
rand annual fubferibers have perfonal ad million to the 
Inftitution in the fame manner as the proprietors. 
Dr. Davy, the celebrated profeflbr of chemiftry, reads 
lectures on phiiofophical chemiftry three days in the week 
to crowded audiences. Dr. Davy is the author of fume 
elaborate papers in the Phiiofophical Tranfaftions ; and 
)ie has made himfelf particularly celebrated by the de- 
compofing of the alkalies, and difeovering feveral new 
metals; for an account of which difeoveries, fee the ar¬ 
ticle Mineralogy. 
It was alfo thought advifeable to have leftures deli¬ 
vered upon fubjefts more generally attractive: “ To af¬ 
ford fatisfaftion to all by ore feries of lubjefts, (fays Dr. 
Davy,) was impofiible: numerous courfes were confe- 
quently eftabliffied, in the rotation of which it was con¬ 
ceived the moil different tallies might be gratified. Sci¬ 
ence, literature, and even the fine arts , (fays the profeffor 
of chemiftry fomewhat contemptuoufly,) were alternately 
made the fubjefts of illuftration.” Lciiure on the Plan for 
improving the R . I . Mar. 1S10. 
Of the Plan here referred to, it appears that leftures 
upon the fine arts are to form no part; and indeed the 
brilliant chemical difeoveries of Dr. Davy feern to have 
abforbed every other confideration in the contemplation 
of the managers, and to have turned the R. I. into one 
vaft laboratory. Of the importance of thefe difeoveries 
vv£ are fully fenfible; yet the applaufe that followed Dr. 
Crotch’s lectures on mufic, and Mr. Landfeer’s on en¬ 
graving, might have induced the managers to have con¬ 
tinued them, and not fo foon to have relinquilhed their 
declared objeft, of “ converting the frivolous part of the 
metropolis into fomething better.” 
Previous, however, to the avowed intention of difeard- 
ing the fine arts altogether from the R. I. Mr. Landfeer 
had been fnddenly difmified, in the midft of a courfe of 
leftures oh engraving, in confequence of his having de¬ 
livered the following opinions; “ i. That the talents of 
fir Robert Strange, Woollett, Vivares, Bartolozzi, and 
Tome other engravers, who flourilhed in this country 
about thirty years ago, Were the real caufes of the com¬ 
merce for prints turning in favour of this country; and 
that the European commerce for prints mult, and would, 
have turned in favour of England, if no fuch perlons as 
the Meil'rs. Boydells had ever exifted. 2. That, but for 
the ignorant fuperintendance of fuch perfons, it would 
-probably‘have remained fo.” In the ftate of thfe public 
inind at that time, (about the year 1895,) when nothing 
was talked about but the patriotic alderman who had 
converted the import trade of prints into an export trade, 
&c, See. the firft of thefe pofitions was not likely to find a 
/K&dy admiffion; and the fecqnd Itill lefs fo. It will not 
be expefted that we fliould enter into tlie difpute; - Mr. 
Landfeer has publifhed the Leftures which he was not 
permitted to deliver, with a preface and notes, fo that 
the points are at ilfue between that gentlemen and the 
friends of the Boydells. We (hall only add that the lec¬ 
tures, laying all controverfy on,t of the queltian, contain 
a great deal of information delivered in very elegant 
language. 
Whatever may be thought of the conduft: of the ma¬ 
nagers in- this particular, their general Plan for improving 
the Inftitution is deferving of approbation and applaufe. 
The grand feature of this plan is the entire abrogation 
of hereditary property in the concern. The hereditary pro¬ 
prietors (i. e. the original fubferibers or their heirs’or 
nominees) have the intire government and management 
of the affairs; and it is well obferved, that, though “ the 
income of the Royal Inftitution is derived now wholly 
from, the contributions of life and annual fubferibers, yet 
they have no fliare in the government, and no concern 
with the property. Life-fubfcribers cannot be expefted 
to pay confiderable fums for the benefit of an eftablilh- 
ment in which they have no direction ; and annual fub¬ 
feribers will confider only the quantity of amufement or 
information, or other advantages, which they may receive 
within the year, and their number will be continually 
fiuftuating. The power of fale, and the hereditary nature 
of the proprietors’ fhares, deftroy all fources of income from 
this part of the body, by inviting and encouraging fpe- 
culation in the fale of fhares; and fuppofing a conftant 
transfer of fhares, and a real or imaginary increafe of the 
value of the property, perfons who have been proprietors 
may, for many years, have benefited by all the advantages 
and privileges of the Royal Inftitution, and, inftead of 
having-afforded it fupport, may actually have profited in. 
a pecuniary way by the concern. The perfons in whom 
the government of the Royal Inftitution is veiled, ought, 
it is obvious, to be either encouragers of ufeful public 
objects, lovers or patrons of fcience and the ufeful arts, 
or fcientific men; but property which can be transferred 
by fale, is likely to go to the higheft bidder; and a tafte 
for encouraging fcience and ufeful public objefts may 
not be hereditary; and in confequence, in the courfe of 
years, as the conftitution now exifts, the eftablifhmenC 
may hereafter belong to men who can neither underftand 
jts objefts, eftimate its ufes, or properly apply its means. 
Science can be exalted and. promoted only by patronage 
and by facrifices; it will not bear to be trafficked with 
It cannot be expefted that liberal perfons will afford 
fupport to a phiiofophical eftabliffiment, the bafis of 
which may be commercial advantage; or that the difinter- 
efted perfon will contribute to a fund, which interefted 
perfons may have the power of (peculating upon as a mat¬ 
ter of bufinefs. 
“ Whoever will call his eye over the lift of proprietors 
of the Royal Inftitution, will inftantly perceive that thofe 
who co-operated in its formation were influenced, not by 
the narrow view of perfonal advantages, but by the defire 
of promoting the interefts of fcience and of their country. 
A plan therefore having for its ohjeft the extending the 
ufes and exalting the views of the eftabliffiment, and ren¬ 
dering it permanent on a liberal and firm bafis, can hardly 
fail to be confidered with indulgence; but in the promo¬ 
tion of this objeft the intereft of no clafs of the proprie¬ 
tors ought to be r.eglefted, and in the new arrangements 
no principles ought to be adopted that cannot be confi¬ 
dered as equitable and juft by all parties concerned. 
“The firft propofition is, that a correft valuation fhall 
be made of the property of the Inftitution, fo as to afeer- 
tain the amount of each individual’s intereft. The fecond, 
that an aft of parliament be applied for, to amend the 
Charter of the Royal inftitution, the bafis of which fhall 
he the convertion of that body, from a private property, 
into a public eftabliffiment. The third, that l'uch pro¬ 
prietors as fliall agree to the amendment of the charter, 
giving up the transferable anil hereditary power over their 
„ J/iares, 
