The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-14 00:00:00

ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE
OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
In announcing to the friends of the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge the suspension of the operations of the Society
which has for twenty years successfully laboured in the pro-
motion of that object, the Committee feel it necessary to wake
a short statement in explanation of their motives.
The Society was founded in 1826. It owes its establish-
ment to Lord Brougham, whose personal exertions first
brought the Committee together, and who has continued in
the office of chairman throughout its existence, and not only
in the office, but in the unremitting performance of its
duties. The Society owes to Lord Brougham, among other
things, the first treatise which was published, the Prelimi-
nary Treatise of the Library of Useful Knowledge, the value
of which, as a statement of " The Objects, Advantages, and
Pleasures of Science," is well known.
The political circumstances of the time had, much influence
in producing its formation. It could not be otherwise at a
period when the opinion that there was danger to religion
and to Government in the spread of knowledge was avowed
by many, acted on by more, and generally supposed, whether
justly or not, to be at least not discouraged by those at the
bead of the State.
It needed an energetic combination, both of well known
names and of working power, to create an effective opposition
to a principle now exploded, and which never could have
been true except upon suppositions anything but advanta
genus to the religion and the Government in support of which
it was brought forward. If this fear of knowledge still ex-
. isled, the Committee would hold it necessary t 3 continue
their active operations. But it does not now exist : all par-
ties at this day appeal to the reason of the people at large,
desire them to instruct themselves, and offer them the means
The advocates of knowledge are more powerful than their'
opponents ever were, and those opponents have disappeared.
At its commencement the Society determined, with obvious
,prudence, to avoid the great subjects of religion and govern-
ment, on which it was impossible to touch without provoking
angry discussion. At a time when the spirit which produced
the events of 1828, 1829, and 1832 was struggling with those
who, not very long before, had tried to subdue it by force;
when religious disqualification arid political exclusion occu-
pied the daily attention of the press; and when the friends
of education were th emselves divided on the best way of ad-
justing these and other matters of legislation—any inter-
ference with theology- or politics would have endangered the
existence of a union which demanded the most cordial co-
operation from all who wished well to the cause. That the
Society took an appearance of political colour from the fact
that almost all its original supporters were of one party in
politics, is perfectly true; but it is as true that if the Com-
mittee had waited to commence operations until both
parties had been ready to act together. the work would
have been yet to begin ; and the good which so many of
the Society's old opponents admit that it has done, would
have been left undone. But the Committee remember
with great satisfaction, that this impossibility of com-
bining different views in support of a great object ex-
tended only to politics. From the commencement, the
Society consisted of men of almost every religious per-
suasion. The harmony in which they have worked to-
gether is sufficient proof that there is nothing in differ-
ence (3!.. dcc:rinal creed which need prevent successful
association, when the object is good and the points of
dispute are avoided.
It is, however, worth notice, that the attacks which
were made upon the tendency of the Society were
almost wholly directed against its supposed effitct
on religion, and very little indeed against
its presumed political consequences. Few cried
sedition. but a great many cried infidelity ; and this,
though this Society mainly consisted of members .ef
that party which had been long charged by those very
oilements with a design to bring about a revolution.
To all these attacks the Society has offered but on e
reply—a steady perseverance in the course which com -
mon sense pointed out as the proper method of gaining;

its otject.
The opinions, or, as the result has shown, the preju-
dices, which were to be overcome, were twofold. Beside
the feeling that knowledge is dangetous, there existed
a notion that taste for the results of accurate thought
and patient research was not very widely spread, which
was combined, on the part of publishers and booksellers.
with a fear that cheap books would ruin them. When the
decided success with which the Society's first efforts
were attended drew the attention of the trade, there was
an alarm which, if good sense had not gained a hearing
sooner than has happened in other cares, would have
ended in an appicatton to Parliament for protection--a
measure actually propo-ed, and no doubt diseussed The
same rational feeling which prevented so childish a pro-
position
from being listened to, suggested the propriety
of meeting the Society with its own weapons ; and the
Committee has the greatest pleasure in avowing that
while the adoption of this determination on the part
..f the trade is one of the best proofs that the
Society has gained its end, its success is one of
the main causes of the present address, and of
the resolution which it announces. The cause which was
to be promoted may now be safely left to the spirit
which the example of the Society has awakened among
those whose bitAines it is, for their own sakes, to pro-
mote knowledge among the people, and who have now
come to see that it is both their business and their in-
terest. There ' are many publishers who will be the
worthy successors of the Society, and who were its best
os
nrnichnt
eg at
1
friends from the moment they became its rivals. And
even though there' may not always be found in the trade
of arty one large city such men as Mr. Charles Knight in
London, or Messrs. Chambers in Edinburgh. who add
to the usual motives of commercial men a sincere per-
sonal interest in the progress of knowledge and the
power of able writers, yet the Committee feel very sure
that never again will the maxims of the bookselling busi-
ness be one of the producing causes of such a Society as.
that over which they preside. And the members et
that trade, or the more candid among them, will
admit, as some have admitted, that the exertions of the
Society have greatly widened the field of their labour
and of their profits.
When the Committee was first constituted, and daring '
the time previous, every attempt to publish cheap hooks
had been accompanied by a deterioration either of print
or of matter. One of the facts which the Society de-
sired to establish, and has established, is that a work
need not be bad because it is cheap. It is not for the
Committee to give any opinion on the details of the
treatises they have published : but they may allow
themselves a word on the character of the opposition
to which they have always more or less been subject.
Some organs of the periodical press, as well as indi-
vidual writers, have frequently sneered at the works
of the Society in the bulk ; but no one has ever
ventured to take the state of English literature as it w as
in 1826, and treatise to treatise, and book to book to
show that its efforts were needless. Should any pers on
he found hardy enough to make the attempt, it is )1C•
exaggeration to say that he must choose his instances
out of works averaging from ten to twenty times the
prices at which those of the Society were produced.
Neither will the Committee, while dwelling upon
the good which they know, and which all know, has
been done, make any claim to an exclutlive species
of merit. They will rather describe their own
association as a necessary incident of the time
in which they live. A spirit was awakened of
which they have been the instrfitnents —s,
spirit which led to the successive fwEridation (if
University College, King's College, and the University
of London, and which had previously established the
Mechanics' Institutes ; which overthrew the laws ex-
cluding Roman Catholic and Protestant Dissenters from
the public service ; which reformed the representation
in spite of the utmost efforts of wealth and power ; which
broke the chain of slavery throughout the British em-
pire, and is still at work in forwarding the best interesr,s
of' the whole human race. But the acknowledgment thu s
made diminishes nothing of any claim which the Society '
may have upon public gratitude. There is hardly and
good, hardly even a discovery in science, of which it
may not be said that it did come when it must have come,
it not
siesixo
of
:far:till:ea
wotani
time,
el: atnhdo,uthen i
tfrosimi 0
uanother.used, But
as theregrai prde
regards
those who are thtehrfiirrsmt teir)iste.e that what ought to be done
canAb::::l,7:s oitnlLt..on7pelvaiidnenthtetihrastucncoetsso,
iiislyoifntedni,mid
booksellt ra, but other public
lhodies, had become imi-
tators
mtaat,;nrsport:ntchiepiesooeniez‘s.ligi,tns .e.rxaerteixonample, and that the
rapidly becoming completely triumphs awn'etrethhemrended was
feeling in the minds of several inembers of thearC)-oc:taa-
mittee that the work was done, and that the Society
should, after completing its existing engagements wi 03
;hp public, pronounce its own labours at an end. Win 1-
11-0 *ell A Society should have a permanent existent se
0 a bookolifrig porporation, in competition with privet le
lirneicloee,xiiirstewnlcipetifioerr lat
particularshou i d e°.
is,ibij:hr,,,,i thsteaol,f,e.
lastao ce :01
nI el). a dr‘
until that object was
eutna.:tt‘le: of :pinion.
18, i .:"ti gained,itt,intht there were
ewrmeeirwgenasnaynsnelr)iviuosusd differ''
"1-.
end o f
tliai:tiTppli,„-sann,,:` . f his general intention to retire. It is %
n bringyinag
pthrit..v.
qatue 'ttl'.:inert°inh'butte:inaedssiffit:utihte whie b
h uld be taken to begin nothing
ew
ehaart,
roeneeeyp
of
particular titchuel a
several
emrae i rather
I was proper to contemp.latie
f eve existence was converted into
an indefigaie term °- ge I .„
ore, b the circumstances at-
that of whether it was
neTwhteheanuceet:ttbeirrewenasidiu."ll "
possz „
wy
which will be de1000217
always considered is J', in
tefiding the, p413,1icp,4;02 of theesentityo.gralpthsibcaml Dmictbieonmareyn,':
' - *a. barni- nhfln9-
works,- another,.:: -f--dee‘
-tirielir:d
during
one point, vvriditierent y
id
self entitled to follow successful .ttts.:i ‘ted from a private
itdes,' rofits. The saws
published under their
obtained from the successful works.
4 Pli -ed in the way
Jtmil'asnsneeds. :ril'Bh4eutlattt;httee::S:olci:rlietnyiY will,l.
'iii?"6
hadPeCs''ltiglthha"et lilt:1'0h"; t(n)lruid avoid
theo "
:individual, have by this
that prudence pointyisaclupeinriattltite)lnidetioleobe, mailniach6e;rintootuu'illatlttr()p.
pended in trying to promote e
chance of profit ; in such at-
which afforded little or no .
e:ahltbr,
ulk,v.suNf-
uehtendian fr:e4l,yinegxs:
time produced nsid:tll3l4iblew.(
d Money had ee pended on many en-
ublic has heard nothing ; and on
deavous, of which the p
mtemorptgtsagmea.uy valuable copyrights have been sold of