The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-11 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, Anti', 11, um,

The Gold Cu.!), added to a Handicap of 20 sovs.
h ft, v.nd 5 only it 'declared. Two miles. (18 Subs.,
1 whom declare d.)
Lord Chesterfield na Mrs. eTtft. 5 yrs 11,t (Clark() 0 1
Mr. Arrowsnlith's Lr.dy Ilylda, 63 r, 11: t 91:, 0 2

3 to 1 on Mrs. A flue race from the distance
ended in a dead beat. Deciding heat, G to 5 on Mrs.
Taft, who won elsy by a lenw.h.

'The Marlton Plate of 501., for three yrs old, Bst 71b; four
yrs, llst alb; five yr,', 12at; six yrs and aged, 12sc .sih;
half-bred horses allowed 610 a, mares and geldings albs,
winners 51bs extra, if of the Tallyho, Grai,by, or
Copluw, 101bs extra. Gi auby Course. One mile-and-
half.
Mr. T. Parr's Chorister, 5 yr.,— (Mr. Scobell) I
Lord Clifden's Sagacity, 6 yrs (Mr. Clarke) 2
Lord Howth's The Fidler, 5 yrs (Mr. White) 3
Mr. Green na Polka, 5 yrs (Mr. Parkyns) 4
The following also ran.—Mr. Briggs n Young Sultan,
6 yrs (Mr. Elives), Mr. Tenbutr, nit Papa, 6 3r. (Mr.
Noel), and Mr o,,borne's (lilnuchte, 5 yrs (Mr. Brooke).
6 to 4 agst Sagacity, 2 to 1 agst The FAL:ler, aid
4to 1 apt Chorister. A good race with thane from the
distance. %Von by half a length.
rADVERTISEMENT.]—BETTENG.—Mr. John Moore,
the Sporting Publisher, St. Martin's lane (establislieu
1819), ccntinues to lay Tattersall's Odds against all
horses fur the Metropolitan Handicap, Newmarket
Handicap, Bath and Souiersethire Stakes, the 2,000
Guineas, and the Derby. Abergavenny and Metropo-
-1 ta-t Steeplechgtes. Country commissions faithfully at-
tended to on the remittance of a post- office order,
payable to John Moore, Charing-cross, London.

LITERATURE

ESSAYS. By firchibald Alison..

Va. I.

Several inestimable 1' oiu rues of a sitni;ar character
to the one just issued from the establishment of the
' Messrs. Blackwood, Edinburgh, have already adorned
the shelves of our public and private librarie:•,
I tending greatly to the enhancement of the repute of
! our contemporary literature in this manner. Much,
very much, of the genius of our greatest living
writers is expended for a considerable time anony-
' i mously in our various publications, in newspapers
and magazines, in periodicals, variously published
daily, weekly, monthiy, and quarterly. Until a re-
putation be formed by some substantial work to which
I the writer's name is affixed, a thousand, nay, a mil-
lion chances to one, but his very existence continues a
matter of obscurity, and whatever fame is
, acquired by his anonymous contributions attaches
I itself not to him individually, but the general cha-
racter of the periodical with which he happens to be
associated as a contributor. Even when celebrity has
been lung achieved by one or other of these contri-
buturs, the authorship of their respective effusions
remains a matter of mere conjecture with the unini-
tiated until such time as they are severally extracted
from the original publication, and re-issued in a sub-
stantial collection. This has been accomplished with
admirable success on divers occasions, in regard to the
contributions to the Edinburgh Review, by certain
eminent critical and historical essayists. Thus, for
example, we have witnessed the republication of the
collected essays of Francis Jeffrey, the essays of
Sydney Smith, the essa) s of Babington Ma-
caulay, and more recently we perceive
the announcement of a similar accumulation
of articles from the pen of Henry Rogers. With
Blackwood's Magazine, the lord paramount of all the
magazines, designated, in token of its pre-eminence,
by the distinctive appellation of Maga, it has been
altogether different. Hitherto its sole republications
have been (not critical, historical, or political essays,
masterly as many of that class of contributions have
unquestionably been), but conversational serials, such
as the immortal confabs of his Most Gracious Ma-
jesty King Christopher, and several renowned and
highly popular fictions. With these, however, it
must be borne in recollection that long before their
collective republication the authorship was sufficiently
notorious. Thus, before their appearance in the form
of volumes, everybody (that is to say, everybody at
all claiming to be considered as anybody) knew per-
fectly well that " My Cousin Nicholas" was penned by
Thomas Barham, that " Ten Thousand a Year" was
the work of Samuel Warren, " Caleb Stukely," of
Samuel Phillips, the "Memoirs of a Statesman," of
Dr. Croly, and the " Caxtons" of Sir Edward
Bulwer Lytton.. But with the political articles, the
critical papers, and the historical essays, it was other-
wise ; the personality of the writers remained shrouded

in an austere indistinctness. Not but that at inter-
vals it was impossible to avoid the recognition of the
master-hand of a great annalist in the rhetorical
graces of such contributions, and that on certain oc-
casions it was equally :impossible not to distinguish
his sonorous utterance in the thundering tones of
Blackwood. Yet up to the appearance of the adver-

tisement announcing the approach of the present
publication, the individuality of the contributor even
in those instances continued to be a matter of
dubious conviction. Ic is consequently with peculiar
pleasure that we hail the first volume of the collected
"Essays ; Political, Historical, and Miscellaneous,"
by Archibald Alison, the celebrated historian of
Europe. With two more additional volumes the ag-
gregated publication, under its present form, will be
completed. When we observe that the scale upon
which the present re-issue is planned tallies, in all
respects, with the library edition of the " History of
Europe," being a handsome demy octavo, numbering
upwards of 600 pages in each volume, it must be
sufficiently apparent that the form of publication is
worthy, in all respects, of the celebrity of the writer,
and of the high and brilliant reputation of the maga-
zine from which his contributions have been ex-
tracted. All we regret to observe is the non-
appearance of an engraved portrait of the Essayist
and Historian, as a frontispiece to the opening volume.
This omission, however, may possibly be rec-
tified before the issue of the volume des-
tined to bring the work to a conclusion.
Under any circumstances, however, the books will
not fail to be welcomed by all those who admire the
genius of Archibald Alison, and who respect the abi-
lity of Blackwood's Magazine. Having already from
month to month particularised the various characte-
ristics of the articles here brought together—articles
constituting the most remarkable of the political
essays inserted in Maga from 1831 to 1849 inclu..
sively—it only remains for us now to announce the ap-
pearance of a work so long and so eagerly anticipated.
The fact of its ultimate publication cannot fail by
any possibility to enhance and confirm the popularity
of the Historian and the Essayist.

that that standard work is passed under review in the
second contribution to ttn:e present instalment of the
Quarterly—the first article being dedicated to a con-
sideration of the genius and the career of Giacomo
Leopardi. This commemorative chapter is entitled
to the profound study of those who are intel-
lectuLdly ambitious.

THE 'WESTMINSTER REVIEW. No. Cl V.
THE FOREIGN QUARTERLY. No.
LXXXIX.
United together these two eminent periodicals
contrive every quarter to make a somewhat
goodly appearance—the articles of both con-
trasting agreeably with each other. Foremost
among those dedicated this month to the
maintenance of the reputation of the Westminster is
an acute and earnest criticism on the writings of the
late Lord Jeffrey, but more especially upo❑ his in.
genious and felicitous theory of beauty. Thole who
love the analytical writings of Alison will be de-
lighted with the effusion here particularised, an
effusion evidencing the utmost refinement of tact and
the utmost delizacy of perception. Another paper of
a curious but most fascinating character, suggested
by the labours of Major Rawlinson, in decyphering
and translating the Persian inscriptions at Behistan,
will be found embodied in a graceful and scholarly
contribution, entitled " Persian Cuneiform Inscrip-
tions." Mr. Samuel Elliot's volumes on . " The
Liberty of Rome " are subsequently passed
under review, obtaining their due meed of commen-
dation. At this period the work itself and its review
in the Westminster acquire a singular and prominent
importance. After this comes an entertaining paper
on the prospective " Industrial Exhibition of 1851,"
in which his Royal Highness the Prince Consort is
thus quaintly apostrophized:—
" Prince Albert!—royal artist,—prince amongst mere
chants,—universal patron of Europe's future metropolis,
—shunner of the ' Fields of Cloth of Gold,'—scorner of
Egliagton tournaments; HarounAlraschid of the universal
bazaar; 11 Bondocani of the revolutionary ruin, bidding
beauty rise and chasing away gloom and despair; genius
of the modern day; hero of the hundred embraces, and
hater ' of the hundred fights;' from the hearts of all
high-souled men will well up loyalty to this royal
progress !"
Thereupon follows a paper, " The Probate Courts,"
to which the attention of every legal reformer should
be sedulously directed. After a brief and, to our
thinking, somewhat insufficient reference to the me
trical writings of the late gifted Ebenezer Elliott, the
Corn .law Rhymer, the Westminster contains a copious
and laboriously careful estimate of the advantages
and disadvantages of the various routes marked
out in the narrow isthmus of Central America for
the junction of the two oceans, the Atlantic and the
Pacific. Last but not the least attractive among
the contributions will be found the paper dedicated
to the consideration of the present position of
the " Church of England," a position of late very
powerfully affected by the redoubtable case of Gor-
ham v. Phillpotts. Besides a plentiful assortment of
miscellaneous notices, the supplemental Quarterly
contains some very able though condensed criticisms
on the last romance of Hendrick Conscience, and on
the "Memoires de Philippe de Commynes." The re-
views will eminently repay a perusal by affording a
glimpse into the state of foreign literature.

FREEMASONS' QUARTERLY MAGA
ZINE AND REVIEW. No. I.

This is the first number of a new Masonicperiodi-
cal, intended to succeed the defunct Freemasons'
Quarterly (with the conductors of which the editor
of this magazine disclaims all connexion) as the organ
of the craft. Since the discontinuance of the Free-
masons' Quarterly Review the necessity for the exist-
ence of some such organ has been universally acknow-
ledged by the craft, and the present periodical appears
to us well calculated to meet the necessity.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE 'MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—It is a striking fact that a Government
which is in perfect possession of an adequate work-
ing majority on most of the important mesures which
are submitted to the consideration of Parliament
should, notwithstanding, hate been three times de-
feated, and almost on three successive nights. We
speak of three defeats; two were complete, and in the
third instance—that of the window-tax—the ma-
jority obtained by the Treasury was so small that the
division virtually resulted in a defeat. But with re-
gard to the assistant-surgeons employed in the navy,
and to the extension of the county court jurisdiction,
the Ministry has been left, as it well deserved to be,
in an absolute minority. As will be seen by our
Parliamentary report, the second reading of the
County Courts Extension Bill was carried yesterday
by a majority of 144 to 67, considerably more than
two to one. The majority was composed of the in-
dependent Members of the House, of the men who
felt themselves free to act according to their convic-
tions ; the minority, of the members of the Govern-
ment itself, and of those on whom the influence of the
Government, direct or indirect, could be brought to
bear. All the ingenuity of Mr. Tufoell, all the per-
suasive eloquence of the Home Secretary, all the
dim, mysterious denunciations of the Attorney-Ge-
neral, as to the evils that must result from the inter-
ference of laymen in the technical regions of the law,
were of no effect. But sixty-seven men, including
half-a-dozen Cabinet Ministers, could be found to file
off with Sir George Grey and Sir John Jervis, for
the purpose of inscribing their names as opponents to
the salutary changes in the administration of the law
contemplated by the proposed Bill. Of the Bill it-
self we need say very little. It is merely a propo-
sition to derive practical advantage from the result of
a successful experiment. The history of the esta-
blishment and of the successful working of the county
courts might furnish a standing precedent for cau-
tious legislation. There was, from first to last, no
rash dogmatising, no hasty and premature action. The
evils of dilatoriness and expense inseparable from the
old Westminster-hall system were acknowledged on all
sides ; but still the question remained, whether a
worse state of things might not be produced by an ab-
rupt departure from the old traditional forms of prac-
tice. Over and over again the matter was debated before
the final resolution was arrived at, and even then the
resolution was but to make an experiment upon minor
interests. Should this prove successful, then it would
be possible to advance with confidence upon a path
which time and experience—the two great elements
in all permanent reform—should have proved to be a
correct one. From 201., the jurisdiction of these new
courts would, in course of time, be naturally ex-
tended to higher amounts, should their working
give satisfaction and attract public confidence. We
have now had some years' experience of these new
tribunals, and even those who oppose any extension of
their jurisdiction are forced to confess that if the
public voice is to be accepted as any test of the policy
of such an extension, they are fairly beaten. It is a
fact that under the new system the payment of debts
which, with the old machinery, would have been
given up for lost by any prudent man, is every day
enforced. It is a fact that the mercantile and trading
classes of the country have confidence in the county
courts, and they evince it by daily resorting to
them for the establishment of their just claims. it is
a fact that the county courts have greatly tended to
discourage those Bedouins of society whose object it
was to live in idleness by fleecing the industrious
classes of the community. It is a fact that the suitors
themselves defray the expenses of these useful tribu-
nals; and it is also a fact that the costs of proceeding
before them will be lessened the more their jurisdic-
tion and their business are extended. Under these
circumstances, the. very reasonable proposition is
made to extend the jurisdiction of the county courts
from debts of 201. to debts of SOL; and in actions for
tort and slander from 51. to 201. And how is the
proposition met ? Certainly not by any fair and
direct arguments, which would suggest a probability
of the injurious working of the plan. Sir George
Grey is apprehensive, " that if no injurious
results follow from the adoption of that
course, the House might be called upon next
year to extend the jurisdiction of these tribu-
nals indefinitely." If, by "not injurious" the
Home Secretary means "beneficial," we do not
conceive that, in the House or out of it, there would
be two opinions upon, the subject. Mr. Henley,
ever great at an objection, is apprehensive that the
county courts, of which, nevertheless, he approves,
might become overwhelmed with business, should
their jurisdiction be extended—a strange admission
in favour of the policy of the change! The Attorney-
General, who is after all the leading counsel against
the Bill, certainly from feeling and possibly from
conviction, could produce no sounder arguments than
inuendoes and sarcasms respecting the proposed in-
crease in the salaries of the judges, and the alleged
methods in which petitions had been got up in fa-
vour of the Bill. "Besides," said he, " with such
an extended jurisdiction you would require a compe-
tent bar to watch, inform, and check the judge."
Why should there not be such a bar ? Surely these
county courts would prove the most valuable of all
schools to the junior members of the bar, and fit them
for appearing in due course of time with credit before
the superior courts. We can readily understand
that Sir John Jervis, as the representative of
the monopolists of practice, should object to its more
even distribution ; but it is quite refreshing to turn
from his narrow-minded and bigoted speech to the
manly, straightforward spirit, in which Mr. Cock-
burn met the question, and stood forward the advo-
cate of this, as of other useful changes in the law, and
its administration. The position of the Government,
after this rude check, cannot -but lower Lord John
and his Cabinet in public respect. The fault lies
mainly at the door of the First Minister himself. We
find him quite strong enough to carry any important
measures he may take in hand to a successful issue.
He can grapple with the Protectionists on one occa-
sion and with Mr. Cobden and his party upon
another ; on every great question he is supported by
an ample majority, and yet Lord John Russell
now stands before the country in the position of
a defeated Minister. How is this ? We believe
the truth will be found to be, that Lord
John, able as he is to carry through what-
ever he takes personally in hand, trusts too
much in affairs of less importance to the subordi-
nate heads of departments. How is it else that a man
in the position and with the experience of a Premier
of this country could for a moment allow himself to
be identified with Captain Berkeley's absurd escapade
the other night about the assistant-surgeons of the
navy ? How, again, could his eyes be so shut to the
condition of public feeling, and to the merits of the
case, as to oppose a proposition for the extension of
the jurisdiction of the county courts ? We can rea-
dily enough conceive how irritating it is to the head
of a Government to see measures which should have
been introduced by his own colleagues proposed and
carried through by independent Members of the
House. But an opposition to such measures, when
introduced, added to the preliminary neglect of not
introducing them, is merely cumulative impolicy. In
such a case as that of the African squadron Lord John
might still safely calculate for support upon a mass
of prejudice and ignorance out of 'doors. Upon such
a question as the one on which he was defeated yes-
terday he may rest assured that, with the exception of
two or three 'Queen's Counsel and a few half-shelved
barristers, there is not a man in the three kingdoms
who will not very heartily rejoice at the result of the
division*
UHRONICLE.—" Human life," said Jeremy
Taylor, "is like playing at tables : the luck is not in
our power, but the mode of playing the game is."
What is true of life in general is pre-eminently true
of politics. Accidents will happen in the best-regu-
lated Cabinets; but three such mishaps as those which
have befallen the present Government 'within three
successive days can hardly, by any stretch of charity,
be attributed to ill-luck. Lord John Russell is no
longer, as we formerly hinted, " one of these valetu-
dinarians in reputation, who, being conscious of
their weak part, avoid the least breath of air, and sup-
ply the want of stamina by care and circumspection"
—he is a kind of chartered libertine, who answers the
kindly voice of warning by a shout of vogue la galere,
and bids bolddefiance to the opinion of the world. Never
again should a Prime Minister spend his Easter holi-
days in Manchester. His Lordship has certainly lost,
in prudence, in tact, and in that fine art of divining
national impulses avid exigencies which constitutes
the better half of what is usually termed states-
manship, far more than he has gained in mechanical
knowledge. After summing up the Ministerial ex-
ploits of the Bth, 9th, and 10th of April, weare involun-
tarily struck by the reflection that they are of a cha-
racter commonly and popularly supposed peculiar to
the first. Surely it was very ill-advised, not to say
foolish, to oppose Captain Boldero's well-considered and
propular proposal on behalf of the assistant-surgeons
of the navy. Lord Duncan's motion for the repeal of
the window-tax was made in accordance with some
of the best financial heads of the empire; if the divi-
sion had taken place an hour later, he would have
obtained an actual as well as a virtual victory ;
and the whole Budget would have had to
be reconsidered on an entirely new basis.
Then came Mr. Fitzroy's Bill, which was notori-
ously introduced in obedience to a general call
front the classes most interested in securing cheap
and easy access to justice, and best qualified to pass
an opinion upon the efficiency of the means hitherto
adopted for providing it. Why, then, was such a
Bill opposed—eagerly, vehemently, and persever-
ingly—on behalf of the Government, by the Home
Secretary and the first law-officer of the Crown ?
If we turn to the report of yesterday's debate in the
hope of finding a solution of our difficulty, we are
sadly disappointed, for Sir George Grey's and Sir
John Jervis 's speeches do no contain a single argu-
ment of sufficient depth, breadth, or weight to sug-
gest so much as an apology for their suicidal and

most discreditable course. Sir George Grey appeared
to be haunted with the apprehension that, if the prin-
ciple of extension were acceded to, and worked well,
Mr. Fitzroy would come forward next year and
move that the jurisdiction of the county courts should
be indefinitely extended, and the salaries of the judges
as well as of the officers of the courts, increased as a
necessary consequence. In fact, the Home Secretary
is so completely wedded to the existing state of
things, that no experiment, be it ever so successful,
can induce him to risk a change of any sort. The
Attorney-General flew out into the most uncom-
promising denunciation of local courts in general.
In his opinion, locality is the most objectionable of
all imaginable elements or qualities in a tribunal.
A resident judge and a resident jury would naturally
end necessarily give rise to suspicions of partiality ;
and moreover, as " lawyers had known instances in
which plaintiff and defendant had sworn point-blank
against each other," the parties to a cause could
never be admitted to tell their own stories without
producing a fruitful crop of perjury. It had escaped
the learned gentleman's recollection altogether, that
a Devonshire or Somersetshire cause is tried by a
Devonshire or Somersetshire jury ; that a county
court judge cannot be resident in more than one
parish of his district, if in any, and that parties have
been allowed to give evidence in their own behalf,
not only in cases under 201., but in cases of every
amount before arbitrators and in the equity
courts, without producing any one of the
lamentable results deprecated by him. The only
earnest support given to the Government on this
occasion was—by Mr. S. Martin, who sagely stated
that, dear as law proceedings might be in West-
minster Hall, they were dearer under the Dutch law
in the Cape of Good Hope, and under the French law
in Canada—by Mr. Beckett Denison, who had cun-
ningly discovered a suspicious analogy between Mr.
Fitzroy's Bill and a Bill before the House " for
raising the summary jurisdiction over accused persons
from the age of 14 to the age of 16 "—and by Mr.
Henley, who feared that the unprotected local judges
would be overworked, and that trial by jury would
be eventually knocked up like his favourite sliding-
scale. On the other side, Mr. Christopher pointedly
urged that " the measure was called for from one end
of the country to the other, with the exception of cer-
tain legal persons in Westminster Hall." Mr. Clay
said that he would at least extend the jurisdiction of
these county courts up to the point beneath which it
was notorious that no sane man would sue in the su-
perior courts. Mr. Hume reminded the Attorney-
General that he had given no answer to
the question whether he would advise a client to bring
an action for 1001. in either of the superior courts ;
and Mr. Cockburn spoke a few daring truths regard-
ing juries, which would have sounded like downright
profanity in the mouth of a distinguished nisi prius
advocate of the olden time. "No man entertained a
more profound estimation of what trial by jury was
in criminal cases, and in civil cases no doubt a jury
might be had, in certain localities, to render a most
efficient and essential service. But if he regarded the
ordinary run of juries, as at the assizes in country
towns, be must own that many years' professional
experience had not raised his confidence in them, and
he thought that a single judge—a man of experi-
ence, education, and knowledge would decide
causes much better. IVhen gentleme❑ talked of the
importance of trial by jury, did they forget that in
the principal courts of this country—the courts
of equity—property in its masses, and in its most
important relations, was dealt with without the
intervention of a jury ? Besides, the Bill allowed
a person desiring it to call for the appointment
of " a jury "—for which as we stated yesterday,
they hardly ever do call. In a word, all the en-
lightened experience, all the improved notions,
all the advanced social and juridical philo-
sophy, and all the popular feeling, were in favour
of the Bill, which a liberal Government idly, reck-
lessly, and ingloriously lent all its energies to
throw out, after having been twice already discre•
dited in the face of the country within the week.
How or where, then, is all this to end ? The indi

vidual measures may be thought comparatively im-
material ; but it is obviously of the very highest mo-
ment that the official representatives of free-trade prin-
ciples should act with a reasonable degree of prudence,
and stand firm. An unscrupulous band, yclept the
" Country Party," are watching their opportunity for a
dash. Their longing desire at present is to bring about
a crisis—to create a period, however passing, of em-
barrassment, confusion, and distrust—during which
they may haply acquire a factitious value. We
have repeatedly warned Lord John Russell and his

colleagues against this particular danger. —Three
times, in as many days, have we endeavoured to im-
press upon them, that if they would only follow in
the wake of enlightened public opinion, and act upon
the broad recognised principles of justice and expe-
diency, they are safe. But, to judge from the results,
it is vain to try to teach foresight or sagacity to poli-
ticians who could be influenced, in times like the
present, by professional prejudices (naval and juri-
dical) of the pettiest sort, and by the oldest, narrowest,
and moat indefensible dogmas of finance.

PROPOSED LITERARY INSTITU-
TION FOR POPLAR AND LIMEIIOUSE.

A public meeting of the inhabitants of Poplar,
Limehouse, and Stepney, which was fully and most
respectably attended, was held last evening at the
Town-hall, Limehouse, for the purpose of considering
the propriety of adopting immediate measures for es-
tablishing a literary and scientific institution fur the
use of the inhabitants of that district, and for the
erection of a suitable building for that purpose.
The chair was taken by G. F. Young, Esq., MP.
On the platform we observed J. T. Fletcher, Esq.,
T. H. Bluck, Eq., J. B. Spence, Esq., T. Price,
Esq., Lieutenant Stone, Dr. Bain, Dr. Ellis, &c.
The CHAIRMAN said he felt the greatest pleasure
in being called upon to preside at a meeting which
had for its object a matter so congenial to his own
views. The importance of the extension of education
was too generally admitted to render any argument
necessary in support of such a proposition. But he
conceived there was a great error which some
parties fell into when speaking of education in
general. They were too apt to restrict the
period of education within their schoolboy days,
that the period of education ceased when they left
school, and that in setting out in life with the stock
of education they had then laid in, they had sufficient
to enable them to pilot their way through life. To his
mind, however, it was with the cessation of boyhood
and the commencement of manhood that the period of
real education commenced. It was, therefore, by
means of institution.; such as that it was proposed to
form that people could have an opportunity of edu-
cating themselves in a manner which would enable
them to act their part in a proper manner in the great
drama of life. It was not only the education given,
but it was the inculcation of sound principle and good
habits that made a' man a good member of society,
and it was always found that in districts where such
institutions were extensively taken advantage of,
where people were taught to reflect, and where they
gave up their leisure time to useful study, there
society was in an advanced and healthy and vigorous
state of action. It therefore became those who occu-
pied a position in life which put it in their power to
aid such institutions, to do all they could to promote
the extension. Such an opportunity now presented
itself, and he trusted it would be largely and liberally
taken advantage of.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BLUCK then moved the following resolution :
" That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that
an institution should be formed in the eastern portion
of the Tower Hamlets, for the acquirement of literary
and scientific information, combined with a large ball
for rational amusements and public meetings ; and it
is further their opinion that if such an institution be
founded on a liberal basis, there will be every proba-
bility of its permanent success." He should give the
institution, should they agree to establish it, all the
support he could, as he was satisfied it would be pro-
ductive of the best results.—(hear, hear.)
Mr. LEONARD seconded the resolution, which was
supported by Mr. Evans and Mr. Clay, who suggested
that the vacant space of ground in the vicinity of Mr.
Green's Sailors' Home should be purchased and laid
out as a public promenade, but the chairman having
stated that such a proposition was not within the
scope of the present meeting, he contented himself by
pointing out the usefulness of such institutions as that
proposed.
Mr. Thos. PRICE also supported the resolution. As
an evidence that such an institution was much needed
in this district, he might state that the population of
the parishes of Limehouse, Stepney, and Poplar, at
the census of 1841, was 115,000. He had no doubt
that, at the present time, the population amounted to
10,000 or 15,000 more, and that, by the time the
proposed building would be erected, it would reach
130,000.—(Hear.)
The resolution was like wise supported by Dr.
BOWKaTT and Dr. BROOKES, and after some remarks
from several gentlemen in the body of the meeting,
the Chairman put the resolution, which was cordially
adopted.

Slr. G. OFFER, jun., moved the second resolution,
which was—" That to obtain the necessary funds for
the erection of the building for the purposes of the
institution referred to in the preceding resolution,
500 shares shall be issued, at 101. each." lind it
been possible, he would have rather that there should
have been 5,000 shares, at U. each; but he believed
that the promoters of the institution had found it im-
possible so to generalise the matter. Lie would, how-
ever, recommend, that in the management of the in-
stitution no distinction should be made between the
shareholders and the subscribers—all should be con-
sidered equally eligible for any office in the manage-
ment of the institution, and that would prevent any
bad feeling arising in connexion with it. For the
information of the meeting, he might state that the
annual subscription to this institution was to be
10s. GI per annum, which would make it appear evi-
dent that there was nothing exclusive about it,

Mr. W. J. COTTON having seconM- the resolution,
Dr. BROOKES suggested that it should be in the
power of individuals to obtain half .shares, should they
think fit, as some might take half a share who would
not take a whole one.
The CHAIRMAN having stated that he had the au•
thority of the promoters of the institution to state that
they would act upon the suggestion of Dr. Brookes,
Mr. PELHAM said, he thought it would be better
at once to make the number of shares issued 1,000,
instead of 500, and the price of them 51. instead of
101., and he would accordingly move an amendment
to that effect.
Mr. ETANS seconded the amendment, and after
some conversation, the general feeling being that th.
lower the shares there would be the greater chance
of their being taken up, it was agreed to alter the
original
motion in terms of the amendment ; which
having been
put to the meeting, so amended, was
unanimously agreed to.
On the motion of Dr. BOWKDTT, seconded by the
Rev. Mr. STEPHENS, a committee was appointed to
carry out the foregoing resolutions ; after which, •
cordial vote of thanks was passed to the Chairman,
who having acknowledged the same, the meeting
separated.