ballot, and two negatives shall exelude. Of Receipts and Expenditures. A sufficient sum shall be invested in the publick funds, as a provision for the permanency and stability of the Institution. All monies not permanently invested, and not wanted for defraying the current expenses of the Institution, shall, from time to time, be invested by the managers in floating publick securities. The annual income of the Institution shall be applied by the managers in discharging rents, taxes, salaries, wages, repairs, the purchase of foreign and domestick journals, periodical and other new publications, for the use of the reading-room. The surplus income shall be applied, at the discretion of the managers, to the improvement and augmentation of the library, and apparatus for philosophical experiments. Of Sub-Committees. The managers have power to appoint as many committees as they shall think proper for the purpose of scientifick and experimental investigations, and to admit into such committees any persons, whether proprietors, subscribers, or not, and to allow such committees to hold their meetings in the house of the Institution. The president, the managers, visitors, and secretary, have a right to attend all such committees whenever they think proper. These committees are occasionally to report their progress to the managers. Of the Transfer and Devise of Proprietors' Shares. Any proprietor desirous of transferring his right in the Institution, shall notify the same in writing to the managers, stating the name Vol. IV. No. 7. Ww and residence of the person to whom he is desirous of transferring the same, and such person (unless he be the legitimate son of such proprietor, in which case he may be admitted without delay) shall be balloted for at the next meeting of managers; and if such person should not be approved by twothirds of the managers present, the proprietor shall be entitled, at his option, to propose another person for admission, or to claim from the funds of the Institution such sum as may then be fixed in the Bylaws as the qualification of a proprietor. On the decease of a proprietor, his executors or administrators may nominate such person as is appointed in the will of the said deceased proprietor, or in default of such appointment, or in case of the decease of the person so appointed, such other person as they may think proper, to be balloted for by the managers (excepting the legitimate son of such deceased proprietor, who is entitled to admission without ballot) and such nomination shall be referred by the managers to the solicitor of the Institution to examine into its legal propriety, who, on making a written report to the managers, shall receive one guinea as his fee, from the proprietor on his admission; and in case such person, reported by the solicitor as legally nominated, shall not be elected, the executors or administrators of such deceased proprietor shall, at their option, either propose another person for admission, or claim, from the fund of the Institution, such sum as may then be fixed in the By-laws as the qualification of a proprietor. The Library. The library is open from eight o'clock in the morning till eleven at night, with the exceptions as before stated. The books belonging to the library are under the care and custody of the librarian. No person shall take down any of the books in the library, but a note containing the name of the person applying, and the title of the book, must be given to the librarian or the attendant, who will 'supply him with the book required. No person shall take away any book belonging to the library. A manuscript catalogue of the library is kept on the table. Of the House of the Institution. The temporary house of the institution, till the managers can procure a larger and more convenient one, is in the Old Jewry; but it is expected that the corporation of London will grant them cither the whole, or a great part of the ground on which Blackwell Hall stands. In that case, a new house will be erected, containing every desirable accommodation suitable for an establishment of such magnitude. It will be necessary to enter into a brief explanation of the internal economy of the house, and to give an account of the publications which are found on the tables of the institution; and also a short description of the library. On entering the house, which was erected in 1677 by Sir Robert Clayton, is a large and spacious hall, the great staircase in which is finely painted, by Sir James Thornhill, with several subjects from the story of Hercules, as detailed by the Mythologists. On the top of the stair-case is a copy of Guido's picture of the Rape of Dejanira. Behind the hall is the newspaper-room, which contains three tables, on which are laid all the London daily newspapers, viz. the Times, Post, Chronicle, Herald, Ledger, Press, Oracle, Morning Advertiser, Courier, Sun, Star, Traveller, Globe, Statesman, and Pilot; the London Gazette; Cobbet's and Redhead-Yorke's weekly papers; Lloyd's List, the Packet List, the Shipping List, and the London Price Current. In each table are drawers, in which the clerk of the Institution regularly files the papers every evening after the house is closed, and at the end of the month they are removed and preserved to be bound in volumes. On these tables are also found Gazetteers, Directories, and other books of reference. There are also the votes and all the reports of the various committees, printed by order of the House of Commons, which are presented to the Institution by one of the managers a member of the House of Commons. Round this room is hung a collection of Arrowsmith's Maps, neatly fitted up on canvas and spring-rollers. On each end of this room is another smaller room; that on the left is used for reading the reviews, magazines, the principal periodical publications, popular pamphlets, and modern books. In this room are found the Reviews, the Monthly, Gentleman's, European, Philosophical, and Botanical Magazines; the Athenæum, the Literary Panorama; Censura Literaria; Repertory of Arts; Naval Chronicle; the Monthly Mirror; Lists of the Army and Navy; Sowerby's English Botany; Nicholson's Journal; Flower's Political Review; the Medical Journal; &c. The room on the right contains the foreign papers and journals; on the table is Le Moniteur, le Publiciste, the Hamburg Correspondenten; the Manheim, Franc fort, and Leyden Journals; the Magazin Encyclopedique; Archives Litteraire; Journal de Physique; Mercure de France; Bibliothique Commerciale; Journal de la Litterature de France; Journal de la Litterature Etrangere; Annales des Arts et Manufactures; La Revue; Annales de Museum d'Histoire Naturelle; L'Esprit des Journaux; and the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung There are also several modern French publications to be found in this room. The library is arranged on the first floor, and is contained in five handsome rooms. It consists of nearly ten thousand volumes, selected with great care; about one half of which are in folio and quarto. In the fine arts, in natu ral history, in bibliography, in parliamentary history, in topography, and the history and antiquities of Great Britain, this library is extremely rich. Here may be found the valuable collection of books made by the deceased Marquis of Lansdown, gelating to the French revolution, also a large Collection of Tracts, having reference to the Political and Commercial Affairs of these Kingdoms, in upwards of three hundred volumes. The library, including a good collection of maps, cost nearly 9000/. and considering that it comprises many works of great and increasing value, scarcity, and utility, this sum cannot be thought disproportionate to the extent and importance of the acquisition. The establishment of the Institution, at present, consists of the principal librarian, Professor Porson, who has apartments in the house; the clerk, Mr. J. Savage, who has also the domestick management of the Institution; two sub-librarians; porter, bookbinder, and two female servants. The funds of the Institution arise from the payment of seventyfive guineas by each of the proprietors, and of twenty-five guineas, lately advanced to thirty-five guin eas, by the life-subscribers. The total expense of repairs, alterations, furniture, and various necessary accommodations, have been about 3,8001. The total receipts are about 78,000l. which with the interest, will make nearly 82,000l. The temporary committee of managers, on the commencement of their duties, appointed two subcommittees; the one for the purpose of obtaining temporary accommodations; the other for that of superintending and directing the formation of the library. The diligence and success of these subcommittees will be best understood by an examination of the house of the Institution, and of the library. The state of the house and the accommodations given to the proprietors and subscribers, will speak sufficiently for the one; and the value and utility of the books selected for the library, will speak the industry, talents, and attention, paid by the other to the accomplishment of an object so truly desirable in the metropolis. May 1, 1807. For the Anthology. ORIGINAL LETTERS From an AMERICAN TRAVELLER IN EUROPE to his friends in this country. DEAR SIR, LETTER SEVENTH. Naples, Dec. 18th, 1804. The Governour of a Swiss city proposed to me to take a letter to his friend at Jamaica, and even at Naples, where they have so much connection with the United States, they subjected a vessel from Salem to a quarantine of forty days, although she left America when there were two feet of snow on the ground, and this simply because they have heard that America is subject to contagious diseases. Wherever our frigates have appeared, the character of the nation has immediately been raised, our citizens are treated with more respect, and more correct notions are entertained of our importance as a nation. I AVAIL myself of an opportunity, offered by the sailing of the United States frigate John Adams, to assure you of my continued recollection and regard. I can scarcely describe the emotions of pride and pleasure, which I felt in seeing, upon my arrival here, the streamers of a ship of war of my own country fluttering in the breeze. An American, who has never left his own shore, can form no idea of the contemptuous opinion, which all the European nations entertain of our country. Indeed I may add, that he never truly understands how insignificant we really are, until he has compared our establishments, force, means, and publick spirit, with those of other nations. It is true, that Europeans in general undervalue, and degrade us below what we merit. Though we know, that this proceeds from profound ignerance of our country, an ignorance which pervades even the literary men of Europe, yet we cannot avoid feeling vexed at the very humble opinion, which they entertain of us. The Europeans confound all America, Southern and Northern, and the Islands of the Gulf of Mexico, They think it the same country, and if you are presented to them as a citizen of Lima, Boston, or Jamaica, they receive you simply as an inhabitant of the new world, and a being several ages behind the meanest European in civilization and improvement. Those who stay at home, and hear only the ridiculous puffings of ourselves in our grations and publick speeches, may believe, that we are dreaded abroad, as much as we are puffed at home; but those who encounter the thousand mortifications, which American travellers experience, will return infinitely humbled as to our national consequence, and will use more moderate and modest expressions when speaking of our power and importance, than they had been formerly accustomed to do. stead of believing, that we are the wisest, freest, bravest, happiest, greatest people on earth, they will think some as free, most as wise, and almost all as happy, brave, and great, as the much boasted people of the United States. Will our people, so long accustomed to falsehood and flattery, bear to be told this truth? Will they not be In disposed to stone the man, who shall assure them, that we are a century behind ALL the European nations in every branch of learning? That even the poor Swiss are as proud, and as happy, as we are? That although crushed by the overgrown and irresistible force of their ambitious neighbour, they are as brave, and that they opposed to usurpation double the force, which the United States could ever raise during the most critical part of our revolutionary war? So long, then, as degraded Holland possesses a navy, which could annihilate all the maritime force, which the United States could create in two years; so long as Switzerland, or even the half of Lombardy, furnish more regular and better organised troops than this vast nation; so long as every literary academy of every city in Europe can produce more learned men, than this extensive republick, let us in the name of modesty and decorum, forbear to boast of our power or our knowledge, until we have made a little better use of the means, which God and nature have given us for the improvement of both. Before I give you a more detailed description of this city, let me sketch out the few objects which attracted my attention on the road from Rome to this place. No country on earth, I presume, is more wretched than that part of the campania which you traverse in leaving Rome for this city. From Rome to Terracina, a country of seventy miles in extent, all subject to the Pope, you pass through a vast desert, inhabited only by buffaloes or birds of the ocean, who seek their food in these deserted marshes. A solitary hut, or a collection of houses, which they call a village, now and then occur, to add horrour to the most melancholy scenery. Poverty, famine, and disease are strongly marked in the dresses and upon the countenances of the inhabitants. There are, however, one or two villages, more elevated above the fatal exhalations of the marshes, where the inhabitants drag out a less miserable existence. The sides of the road are lined with the ruins of proud mausolea, or prouder villas, or the grand remains of ancient aqueducts, whose noble and yet unimpaired arches, extending as far as the eye can reach, form a grand, and at the same time beautiful perspective. The first considerable village, about thirty miles from Rome, is Velletri, situated on rising ground, which is better cultivated than the greater part of this wretched country. It is interesting to antiquarians, as having been the reputed birth-place or residence of four emperours-Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Otho. They pretend, that the remains of the palace of the last are still extant. Whatever may have been its former grandeur, it certainly has nothing imperial in its present appearance. On descending from Velletri, you enter the famous Pontine marshes. These extensive morasses are now among the most disgusting and useless, though they were formerly esteemed among the finest parts of Italy. Julius Cæsar began the stupendous work of draining them, which was completed by Augustus. At one period they were encompassed or covered by twenty-three populous towns and villages. Now not even a trace of these towns and villages is to be met with, and not a single edifice is to be seen, except a few publick houses, erected by the pope, for the protection and accommodation of travellers. These marshes are forty miles in extent, and so sunk |
