the charter of the Royal Institu. tion, the basis of which shall be the conversion of that body from a private property into a public establishment.

The third, that such proprietors as shall agree to the ar ndment of the charter, giving up the transferable and hereditary power over their shares, shall be the first members, and founders of the establishment; and shall each have the power of naming a person of their family, who shall be admitted to the privileges of a life subscriber, or shall have the privilege of adinitting one person to the lectures, collections, and library of reference, when attending in person.

The fourth, that such proprie. tors as do not desire to belong to the new corporation, shall receive the value of their shares.

The fifth, that a subscription shall be opened (as a loan, for the discharge of which means will be immediately stated) for raising a fund, by which such proprietors may be paid off.

The sixth, that new members be admitted by ballot, a certificate in their favour being signed by at least four members, and that they do either pay fifty guineas as a composition, or four guineas annually.

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to become members, they, like the life subscribers, must take the same steps with respect to form as new members.

The ninth, that the patrons of the library shall retain all their present privileges for life; and that the hereditary patrons shall receive a compensation for giving up their right of inheritance, by having the privilege of naming, each, a patron for life.

In the new corporation it is pro. posed, that the members shall be elected upon the same footing as the members of the Royal Society, and the Society of Antiquaries, having neither the power of sale nor of gift, in which case the title of "Member of the Royal Institution" will become honorary. The objects of the Institution will continue as at present, but en. larged and refined, the promotion and diffusion of experimentai science and its application to the purposes of life. The members, it is conceived, may have weekly meetings, either as a body or in committees, for the purpose of communicating or investigating any new facts in science, arts, or manufactures. The lectures of the Institution connected with all subjects of natural philosophy, che mistry and experimental science, will be a constant source of inte. rest and information to the mem. bers. The researches carried on in their laboratories for discovery, will be honourable to them as a body; and they will all be partakers in the great work of promoting experimental knowledge, the progress of which is so intimately con nected with the perfection of our manufactures

manufactures and with our na. tional wealth and happiness.

The more immediate personal privileges of the members will be, First, That of electing, annually, a council of managers, consisting of a president, secretary, and fifteen ordinary members; and a committee of visiters, consisting of a treasurer and fifteen ordinary members. The president and managers to conduct the affairs of the Institution, and the visiters to examine and report as to the conduct; eight of the managers and eight visiters to change every year.

Second, The members will have the use of the library, colles. tion of minerals, and collection of models.

Third, The members may give their opinion on, and ask the ad. vice of, the body, and report on any matter connected with the In. stitution or its objects, at any of the public meetings. Fourth,

The members will have a right of sending to the Institution any specimens of minerals or substances likely to be useful in arts or manufactures, with a request that they may be examined, and, if necessary, analyzed and reported upon, and their probable applications stated.

Fifth, The members will have the right of proposing new useful investigations to committees appointed by the managers.

When discoveries are made in the laboratories of the Institution, connected with the advancement of general science, abstracts or no tices of them shall be published in the journals, which shall appear at least quarterly, and which shall contain a general account of all in ventions, useful projects, or new

scientific facts, brought forward in any part of the world; but as it will be greatly for the advantage of the establishment, that it should be connected with the Royal Society, which, from the era of its foundation, has uniformly patrónized all plans for promoting and promulgating natural knowledge; it is proposed that a full and circumstantial detail of every advance made in science in the Royal In. stitution shall be presented to the Royal Society, to be inserted in the publications of that body, the inestimable records of the progress of English science.

It is conceived that in an esta blishment, offering to its members so many advantages, and so worthy of patronage on account of its objects, there would be no want of funds: the common laws of mortality would assist in their sup port. And, when it is honourable to belong to a body, candidates will be never wanting.-The great landed and mineral proprietors of the country would be anxious to support an establishment which af. forded them the means of estimat. ing the uses of the productions of their estates, and scientific men would cheerfully co-operate in assisting a scheme affording them the means of pursuing useful investiga. tions, and which would connect together theoretical and practical knowledge.

The admission of one hundred new members at the composition, would, there is every reason to believe, afford a fund fully adequate to buy off the disposable shares of the property. And it may be computed, that if the number of members equalled from six hun. dred to seven hundred, ample funds

would

the Encouragement of Arts, Ma. nufactures, and Commerce, humbly submitting to their consideration, whether they may be deemed wor. thy of reward.

The great utility of this article in instructing the children of the poor, particularly in the art of writing, has been amply proved in several respectable charity-schools at Bury St. Edmunds, also in many private families for the last nine months.

This invention occasions great saving in writing-paper, pens, ink, and labour in teaching.

In making use of these slates, the slate pencil is recommended to be placed in a quill, and to be held exactly after the manner of a pen, by which means the hand is made pliant, preparatory to the use of that instrument on paper.

Small slates without capitals, which are the sort recommended to schools in general, are sold for fifteen shillings the dozen, by one of which all the children in a family may learn to write, and with care it will last for ages. Small slates, with capital letters, are sold at one guinca the dozen. They may be procured on my account from Messrs. Champante and Whitrow, stationers, Jewry-street, Aldgate; and Messrs. W. and C. Child, Lower Thames.street.

The method I recommend in

making use of my small slate, with the two addition sums engraved upon it, is to cut off with the pen. cil the three lower lines for the first sum, then four lines, then fire, &c. by which means the two sums answer the purpose of many; I have proved this slate to be of great use in schools. The large

slate,

slate, with the first four rules of arithmetic engraved upon it, I recommend as a useful article in private families, as by it children may be exercised in those rules with very little trouble.

cut

An addition sum may be upon a slate, to do for the purpose of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, by set ting the lines at a considerable distance from each other, and making the upper lines the largest numbers for subtracting, but it makes rather a complex article, and examples for children cannot be too plain.

I have prepared some slates with designs engraved upon them for learning to draw from, but I do not consider this as a very impor tant article.

I should have been happy to have attended personally upon the Society, but through confinement in business and my small means, I have taken the liberty to send the slates by a friend.

I am, Sir, your humble servant,
THOS. WARREN, Jun.

Bury St. Edmunds,
Jan. 4th, 1809.
To C. TAYLOR, M.D. SEC.

Certificates were received from Mr. John Powell, of Islington, and sixty other respectable persons, stating that they think Mr. War. ren's invention is likely to prove of considerable public utility.

The Thanks of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. were voted to Mr. S. Roberts, Chairman of a Committee ap. pointed at Sheffield for encou raging the Sweeping of Chim

neys without the use of Climbing-boys. [From the Transactions of the Society.]

The Society, anxious to relieve the sufferings of humanity, have attended with much pleasure to the endeavours of the inhabitants of Sheffield, and co-operated with them in their attempts to supersede the necessity of employing climbingboys; they have, therefore, im. mediately on receiving the following communication, ordered it to be inserted in their volume, and an explanatory engraving of the machinery employed to be annexed.

The original drawings are preserved in the Society's repository.

The former communications, made by the Society of Arts, &c. on the subject of sweeping chimneys by machinery, may be found in the twenty-third and twentyfifth volumes of their Transactions.

SIR,

IN making this statement to the Society instituted for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. respecting an object which has frequently en gaged their attention, the committee who make it are actuated by a desire of putting the Society and the public in possession of all that information which they have obtained from extensive experience, thereby enabling the Society to form a more accurate and just estimate of the degree of probability that there is of final success, than they otherwise might be able to do. As the committee mean not to found any claim to reward, they have only been anxious to convey the information in the most conve nient and ready way, without, per

haps,

haps, exactly observing the forms prescribed by the Society. The sane considerations which have so frequently pressed themselves upon the notice of the Society, respecting boys employed by chimneysweepers as climbers, operated on the minds of many individuals in this town, and upwards of two years ago gave rise to a general meeting, which appointed a committee for the purpose of endeavouring to improve their situation, and of superseding the necessity of employing them at all, by substi. tuting machines for that purpose. This committee procured by snbscription a sum, which, though not large, has hitherto served to defray those expenses necessarily in. curred in the prosecution of the object for the attainment of which they were appointed. The committee then procured one of the machines from Mr. Smart, and en. gaged a clever, active man to undertake the working of it (having first offered it to all the regular sweepers, who refused it). The committee then endeavoured, by pub. lic and private application, to induce as many of the inhabitants as they could to encourage the use of the machine; in which endeavour they were as successful as could have been reasonably ex. pected. As all the regular chimney-sweepers have endeavoured by every means in their power to impede the use of the machine, the committee found it necessary to procure a boy to assist the man with the machine, and in cases where necessity required it, to go up the chimney, because the regular chimney-sweepers refused to suffer their boys to complete the sweeping of those chimneys where

the machine had failed. The brush procured from Mr. Smart being found rather difficult to work, and liable to be out of order, the com. mittee made, and caused to be made, many experiments for the purpose of improving it. Those of which they have sent drawings seems to them the most simple, the most easy to work, the most durable, and the most efficacious of any which they have tried or seen. The result of all the experience which the committee have now had is, that though probably nine-tenths of the chimneys in this town, as they now are, might be swept with the machines, yet that not one in ten of those will voluntarily be permitted to be swept by them, however much the committee may exert themselves, because it prebably will always take up some more time in the operation, and there is some risk in the first in. stance that the chimney may not admit of being swept by the ma chine, and because the ordering of it is generally left to servants, indifferent to the object, and inimical to new experiments, which might cause them more trouble. It is very possible, by stating striking and recent cases of oppression and suffering, to arouse humanity to expressions of sorrow and com. miseration, but not often to great and continued efforts to assist, especially if it require any sacri fices, however trivial. It there. fore follows. that, unless the me thod of sweeping chimneys with machines can be rendered less expensive and less inconvenient thas by boys, (a thing not to be expected,) the practice will never voluntarily become so extensively adopted as to diminish, in any con. siderable

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