1797.) 
to have been exhanfted. 
7. New members to be admitted by ballot. 
The foregoing plan is calculated for 
any ~fcale of numbers. Two people 
clubing their means will double the ftock 
of literature to each, and many of thofe 
focieties, now the moft flourifhin’g, had 
not’more than h:.jf a dozen of members 
at the outfer. You will obferve, that 
thofe focieties are, in general, ettablithed 
in the mo populous and induftrious parts 
of ‘this country; and my information 
bears, that they have had a very falutary 
influence upon the conduct of thofe who 
have become members of them; that, in 
place of fpending their evenings at an 
alehoufe, they are now generally to be 
found at home, reading with their fami- 
lies fome book of amuiement or infiruc- 
tion, and that their orderly condué& 
forms a marked contrait to that of the 
general run of tradefmen. ; 
In the management of thefe fccieties, 
every member feels himfelf equally in- 
terefted. In no inftance J have heard of 
have the upper ranks interfered farther 
than as fubfcribing as individuals, or oc- 
cafionally making donations of books ; 
and, in any new difirict, into which the 
focieties have been introduced, nothing 
more, I believe, has been done than ge- 
nerally making known the plan, and that 
fimilar focieties had been fuccefsfully ef- 
tablifhed in other parts. 
Although I am {fatisfied that the pro- 
cefs of the plan of inftru€tion depends 
- upon its continuing altogether the work 
of the people, yet I can fee much be- 
nefit to arite from a few fecondary foci- 
eties of the more opulent, taking upon 
- themfelves the trouble and expence of 
— oo 


! 
| 
dividuals, in their natural 
publifhing, from time to time, reports of 
the progrefs made in different parts of the 
country, and alfo occafionally ufing other 
means to roufe the public mind to the 
purfuit of knowledge. 
_It may not be neceffary to trouble your 
readers with any longer differtation upon 
the happinefs to be immediately pro- 
duced to individuals, or the general ad- 
vantages.to be derived by mankind from 
a diffufion of knowledge. I may, how- 
ever, with propriety, 
them, that the individual, advancing 
daily in the fcale of rational beings, will 
become every day more fenfible of an 
independent and: inexhauftible ftore of 
happinefs refling within himfelf; and 
that the combined efforts of fuch in- 
progrefs, 
Cannot fail to lead, day after day, to 
_ Monrary Mag. XXIII. 
State of Book Societies in Scotland, 
till the amount of the funds shall appear 
briefly remind. 
id 
improvements beneficial and import- 
ant to the fpecies at large.. In con- 
cluding, may not I afk, what a ftep to- 
wards fuch a ftate of fociety, fhould nor 
we of this ifland have made, were but 
every perfon a member of one of thofe 
reading clubs, the fimple and eafy con- _ 
ftruétion of which we have juft been con 
templating ? _ 
I am, fir, your’s, 
A CITIZEN OF GLASGOW. 
Glafgow, O. 2. 
Lift of Societies referred to above.. 
‘ 

Glafgow -— — 4 
ts ( Andertiown -_— T 
ie = | Brownfield ened aes ~ 
1-2 J Mr. Gillefpie’s Cotton Mills x 
ee See: 1 Budgetown — — 3 
ee a? | Gorvals — aon 3h 
ae | Tradeftown _ _— 2 
~ Tollcrois — — I 
§ Pollockfhaws — E 
s r Langlean —_— — x 
Minkland aes — I 
Aidrie — — yo 
{ Miners at Leadhills — I 
eg Kirkintellock .— r , 
3 9 Campfie _ —_ £ 
Ps } Alexandria upon Leven r 
56 Cordale, Printfield of W. Stir- 
56 | ling and fons — . 
R Dumbarton —- I 
o z J Paifley ee 10 
uv . 
234 Bridge of Johnfton x 
3 5 f Barhead —— tr 
Om Falicirl cones E 
(p Kilmarnock ao b 
Finnick oe r 
S Galftown pease E 
Pet Irvine —— z 
§ a4 Kilwinning — Zk 
5 | Largs. , nae x 
Catrine’ — ba 
ie Muirkirk —_ I 
Campbelltown Argylesthire 1 
_ Rothfay Cotton Mills, Bute 2 
Perth —- i 
Dundee wee r 
i 
An excellent communication from 
Liverpool was given in the Scots’ Chro- 
nicle, for areading fociety, inftituted then 
among the labouring people. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; 
VERY valuable periodical work, 
publithed at Lima, in Peru, has 
lately falleninto my hands. It is enti- 
tled Mercurio Purvand (Peruvian Mer- 
cury) and has appeared in numbers, pub- 
Oo lifhed 



