The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-02-07 00:00:00

BRIDPORT AND LITERARY SCIENTIFIC
INSTITUTE.

In accordance with previous public announcement,
Charles John Plumptre, Esq., Barrister at Law, of
London, and one of the Honorary Secretaries of the
Metropolitan Public Society, of which the Right
Honoanble the Lord Brougham, is the President,
attended a meeting at the ball of the Bridport
Literary and Scientific Institute, on Tuesday even.
ing last, for the purpose of delivering an address on
the objects aimed at by the above society, and of
giving some readings from English authors in illus-
tration of the manner in which the society conduct
its operations, for the amusement and the enlighten-
ment of the industrious classed' of the community.
The Rev. HRNKY RAWLIIMON was called to the
chair, and introduced his friend, Mr. Plumptre, to
the favourable notice of the audience. Mr. Plump-
tre bad been known to him for a considerable time,
and he could assure those who had assembled to
welcome him to Bridport, that he was qualified to
instruct and guide them in respect of the interesting
object which he had at heart. That was, the forma-
tion of auxiliary reading societies in all the cities
and towns of England. in connection with the
London Public Reading Society, under the presidency
of Lord Brougham, one of the greatest men, and
most sincere and useful philanthropists of the age in
which we lived.
Mr. Pixitrrez then Cams forward amid much
cheering, and thanked the audience for their Toy
kind and cor dal reception of him that night. He
trusted that it augured well, and was a good and
favourable omen for the establishment ot a Public
Reading Society in Bridport. He then explained
the aim and purposes of the original London, and of
the other Auxiliary Public Reading Societies, and
appealed to the ladies and gentlemen of Bridport to
lose no time in organising the formation of a
similar society in their own town. He could
assure them that its influence for the promotios
of a large amount of good especially to the
humbler and less educated Classes of the com-
munity at large, had wrought well, and it was
thought, by many of the most distinguished men
of the time, that it was a movement capable of ac-
complishing very beneficial results to all classes of
the people. The idea of such public reading societies,
which could not be attended with any great ex-
pense in any place where they were established,
was first broached in • public manner by the Rev.
Mr. Brookfield, of London, one of Her Majesty's
Inspectors of Schools, who, not very long ago,
delivered • lecture on the subject at the Kensington
Museum. That reverend gentleman suggested the
formation in eveoonsiderable town, and, if possi•
ble. in every village, of small societies for the de'
livery of public readings to working people, in halls
the use of which could be procured free, or at a chew
rate, and in parochial schoolrooms, and other con-
venient places. The object of these societies was not
to instruct, so much as to amnia those classes of the
community, who, day by day, gained a subsistence
for themselves, their wives, and children, by the
meat of their brow, in that noblest of all earthly oc-
cupations, labouring to support themselves and their
families. It was believed that, especially during the
long nights of winter, when, of course, these
would be particularly desirable and be most useful,
a provision could at comparatively little trouble and
cost in money be made for those who were too tired
out by the arduous occupations of their daily
labour, to read books for themselves. The plan has
been found to work well in the metropolis, also in
Birmingham. at Ipswich, at Bodmin, at Falmouth,
Peurybn, at Tynemoutb. and at several other plains
in the United Kingdom, and might he not venture to
hope that he, as one of the honorary secretaries of
the London Society, might boon be able to add the
public Reading Society of Bridport to the number
already existing.
In illustration of the manner in which the readings
are conducted, Mr. Plumptre then read the following
selections :—"The Lady Clara Vere de Vera," by
Tennyson; "The Song of the Shirt," by Hood;
"The Old Clock on the Stairs," by Longfellow;
"The Jackdaw of Rheims," by Barham • "The
Blacksmith." by Long.fellaw ,• "Th. Bridge of
Sighs," by Hood ; "My Lord Tom Noddy, by
Barham.