to all the opportunity, by judiciously conducted examinations, of measuring their strength, discerning their short-comings, and obtaining at length the just rewards of persevering study. In the course of the present year a beginning has been made in founding a Working Man's College in the City of London: and the encouragement which the undertaking has already received may be regarded as an earnest of its ultimate, and we hope, early success. The movement originated with the Metropolitan Evening Classes, whose meetings were held, first in Crosby Hall and afterwards in Sussex Hall, and who succeeded in the present year in obtaining, at the Society's examinations, 15 first-class certificates, and 4 first-class and 1 second-class prizes. Hitherto, the metropolitan candidates at the Society's examinations have been few in number, compared with other places; and in the present year there have been 176 candidates at Glasgow and 75 at Leeds, whilst the metropolitan candidates were only 61. The Council have been always mindful that the intelligent instruction of those who are engaged in manual labour conduces to advance the skill, refine the taste, and enlarge the faculties of the working man. The education, not alone of the head, but also of the hand, eye, and taste of our artisans and mechanics is needful for their advancement, and the Council would gladly encourage any agency for stimulating and testing that practical skill and dexterity so necessary to the success of the artisan and mechanic. With this view, the Council welcomed the efforts of the Company of Painters' Stainers of the City of London to promote, by public exhibitions of the works of artisans in decorative arts, as well as by instruction in classes and by lectures, the knowledge, skill, and taste of the workmen employed in those handicrafts. The Council, at the request of the Company, associated three gentlemen eminently qualified for that duty with the judges named by the company, and voted a contribution of ten guineas to the fund formed for offering prizes to the successful competitors in marbling, in graining, and in decoration in oil or distemper. An exhibition was held in Painters' Hall, on the 1st of June last, which was open to foreign and native workmen, but the result does not appear to have realised the expectations of the company. The object is full of importance, and at the last Conference between the Council and the representatives of the Institutions in Union with the Society, it was unanimously resolved: In most of the Continental States, institutions for industrial instruction are found to supply a knowledge of the principles of those sciences which are of daily application to the practical business of life, and to familiarise the student with the raw materials of production, with the agents, whether mechanical or chemical, by which the raw material is converted into the finished product, and with the arts of design by which a purer and more cultivated taste is diffused. Freedom of commercial intercourse has taught our countrymen that we possess no monopoly of inventive genius or practical skill, and that if we would maintain our position in the van of manufacturing industry we must secure for our countrymen at least equal advantages to those enjoyed by their foreign rivals. The report presented by the Council at the last Annual General Meeting in June, contained a narrative of their proceedings in relation to Artistic Copyright during the last session of Parliament, when a bill for the protection of copyright in works of art was read a second time in the House of Commons; but it was found impossible to proceed further with the measure by reason of the pressure of public business. The bill was originally framed under the directions of the committee appointed by the Council in the Session of 1857-8, of which committee Sir Charles Eastlake, President of the Royal Academy, is chairman; and was introduced into the House of Commons by Lord Westbury, then her Majesty's Attorney-General, who manifested a deep interest in the measure, and devoted a large amount of valuable time to the revision and improvement of the Bill which had been framed by the committee. The chief object of the Bill was to secure for every artist during his life, and for a limited period after his death, a copyright in such works of Fine Art as he shall have designed and executed, whether pictures, sculptures, architectural designs, engravings, or photographs, and thus to confer on artists similar protection in the enjoyment of their works to that which is given. to authors by an Act of the present reign. The Bill for amending the law of copyright in books, and affording greater encouragement to the production of literary works of lasting benefit, when originally introduced into the House of Commons in 1837, contained clauses for the protection of the arts of painting and engraving, but the measure was ultimately confined to literary productions; and the amendment of the laws reThat as competitive exhibitions of works of skilled lating to painting, engraving, and sculpture, was labour have a powerful tendency to encourage improve- deferred for separate consideration. The Council ment in manufacturing industry, and at the same time to believe that the further attention which has been promote mental cultivation, it is desirable that such ex-given to the subject has served to strengthen the hibitions should be held in connexion with the principal conviction that an artist has some property in the provincial Institutes, wherever practicable, as well as in the Metropolis, and that Schools of Science and Art be spe- creations of his own mind and the productions of cially invited to co-operate therein." his own skill and labour; and that it ought no longer to continue the law of this country that from the moment the conceptions of the artist are embodied on the canvass or sculptured in the marble, they cease to belong to their author, and may be pilfered by men who, when they cannot even imitate, can at least disfigure works which a lofty genius may have inspired. The Council look with much confidence for a continuance of the valuable services of Lord Westbury in the promotion of the measure, and trust he will be induced to introduce a bill into the House of Lords in the present session, and by his able advocacy, to ensure for artists that right to the enjoyment of the creations of their minds, which is the natural and undisputed reward of the rudest industry; and thus to recognise our obligations to men whose just claims to distinction are oftentimes disregarded, although their labours have provided some of the highest and purest pleasures. The extent and character of the exclusive rights which ought to be conferred on the authors of useful inventions, and the means whereby such rights should be acquired and preserved, will naturally be subjects of controversy, especially in an age characterised like our own by industrial operations of great magnitude and by almost uninterrupted progress. Letters patent, for inventions, owed their existence to the Royal Prerogative, and their operation was limited to fourteen years by the statute of Monopolies passed in the reign of James the First. Extensive changes in the manner of obtaining letters patent, and some in their operation, when obtained, were made by the Act for amending the law for granting patents for inventions, passed in 1852. That statute was preceded by a very extensive inquiry undertaken by the Society and conducted by a Committee of their body appointed on the 31st day of January, 1849, for promoting the legislative recognition of the rights of inventors. The Committee considered, and made known by their reports, the principles of jurisprudence which ought, in their opinion, to govern the rights of inventors; but as their object was to afford simpler and cheaper means of obtaining rights already recognised, and of enforcing them when obtained, the reforms which they suggested were directed to methods of procedure rather than to alterations in the rights conferred on inventors by our patent laws. The legislation of 1852 has not been satisfactory, and the Society's Committee reported on certain features of that legislation, which appeared to them calculated to be unnecessary and troublesome, and likely to occasion failure in the administration of the patent laws. Dissatisfaction with the operation of those laws, as well as objections entertained to the methods of obtaining patents and of enforcing them when obtained, have led to investigations by a joint Committee of the British Association for the Ad-! vancement of Science and the National Association of Social Science. It will be the duty of the Council to consider any remedial measures which may be proposed and to afford any aid it can give to the task of simplifying and rendering more adequate for its objects the present system of patent law. Some persons eminent in law, legislation, and science, entertain the opinion that no exclusive advantages ought to be conferred on the authors of useful inventions, and the views of the late Mr. Brunel have been often cited in support of that opinion. It would, however, seem that the reasoning by which that opinion is supported is for the most part based on the imperfect character of our system of patent laws, rather than on a denial of the claims of the authors of useful inventions to be suitably rewarded. Useful inventions contribute to the wealth and power of the nation, and the people which benefits by the intellect, skill, and labour of inventors, ought surely to recognise their claims on the commonwealth. The improvement of the Metropolis, by affording a complete system of sewerage, and an ample supply of pure water; by diminishing atmospheric impurities; by embanking the river; and by facilitating locomotion within and between the se veral quarters of the wide area of the London of our day, has frequently cccupied the attention of the Society, and been forced upon the notice of the public by papers and discussions in this room, In a single decade 400,000 persons have been added to the population of the Metropolis. Its thoroughfares are thronged, not only by its own population thus increased, and by the numerous passengers who daily arrive at and leave the termini of its various railways, but by the countless productions which are either consumed within its borders, or constitute its exports and imports. The magnitude of its commerce is attested by its railways, its docks, and its shipping, and it may suffice to state here that in the year 1860, nearly 20,000 vessels, of an aggregate tonnage exceeding five millions of tons, entered inwards or cleared outwards to or from our Colonies and foreign countries, and upwards of 27,000 vessels, of an aggregate tonnage exceeding four millions of tons, entered or left with cargoes from or for places within the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding the great rapidity with which long journeys by sea or land may now be performed, so that a traveller may reach Dublin from London in 12 hours; London from Geneva in 26 hours; and Liverpool from New York in eight or nine days; it requires now as much time to cross the Metropolis, whether from north to south, or east to west, as when the journey from Dublin to London occupied three days; from Geneva to London six days; and from Liverpool to New York six weeks or two months. The thoroughfares and means of locomotion which sufficed for 1851, are wholly unequal to been supplied by the United States with 85 the wants of 1861, and to provide adequate ac-pounds. commodation for the transit of the metropolitan The actual weight of cotton imported into traffic, involves questions which have hitherto re-this country, from all parts of the world, was, in ceived no satisfactory solution. In a few years 1859, 1,225 millions of pounds, and the quantity districts have been added to the metropolis which annually grown in India is estimated by Dr. would of themselves constitute large cities, and Forbes Watson at upwards of 2,400 millions of this extension proceeds in an accelerated ratio. pounds, or double the average consumption of this Meanwhile, considerable progress has been country. He stated that in one province alone, made in the construction of subways, which were Berar (where the quality of the cotton grown is regarded as visionary in 1851, when a discussion second to none in India), a supply could be furtook place in this room on a proposal for com- nished to this country equal to one-third of our bining, with the embankment of the Thames, a entire consumption; and that Indian cotton can terraced highway with a railway arcade and be grown at a rate varying from 14d. to li̟d. a tunnels for water, sewage and gas. What prac-pound, and delivered in England at 4d. per pound, tical difficulties might prevent the completion of notwithstanding the present imperfect means for such an undertaking, I know not; but whether the transit of cotton from the interior to Bombay. regarded for its combinations, its grandeur, or its In the Address which I delivered from this usefulness, such a work would rank with those chair, in the year 1859, I ventured to anticipate structures which, more than aught besides, even a time when, by means of increased intelligence in their ruins, testify to the greatness and power and capital, directed to the cultivation of the of the Roman Empire. cotton plant in India, and improved communications with the interior of that country, we should receive from our own dependency, in large measure, a raw product of vast importance to our manufacturing community and the well-being of our population, thus cheapening a material supplied to Europe to a great extent by the United States, and in that country the product of slave labour. In a subsequent address, I intimated that it was impossible to exaggerate the importance of the subject, inasmuch as millions of hands are engaged in, or dependent on, our cotton manufactures, and to them a stoppage in the supply of raw cotton would be equiva lent to a food famine. The casualties to our commercial marine, and to the men engaged in our fisheries during the last two years, have been unusually large, and it is satisfactory to find, that by carefully watching the movements of the barometer, and by a patient collection and classification of observations relating to the force and direction of the winds, the science of meteorology has acquired an utility and is gradually acquiring an accuracy which will confer on its deductions increased practical value in the navigation of our coasts. There are few subjects to which the Council has more perseveringly directed the attention of our manufacturers than the importance of lessening the dependence of this country on the Ame- No one could have anticipated that the aprican States for a supply of raw cotton. Two prehensions then expressed would be so soon papers of much interest were, at the request of realised, but we must regard with anxious the Council, read by Dr. Forbes Watson; one forebodings the present condition and future in the Session of 1858-9, on the "Growth of prospects of the manufacturers and artisans of Cotton in India," and one in the Session of Lancashire, where many mills have been either 1859-60, on the "Chief Fibre-Yielding Plants stopped or are working short time on account of of India." The last paper is especially valuable the scanty supply and increased price of raw for its large amount of information and its nume- cotton. We are naturally reminded, when conrous illustrations, furnished at the expense of the sidering this question, of the deplorable specIndian Government, but at present my chief at- tacle exhibited on the other side of the Atlantic, tention will be given to the first, which describes where men of our own blood and language the capabilities of our Indian Empire for the are engaged in mortal conflict, and that growth of cotton. great Republic which, but yesterday, conAt the recent meeting of the British Associa-stituted the United States of America, is rent tion, it was said by a Manchester capitalist that asunder by a fratricidal war. To us it is not a capital of 200 millions is embarked in our cotton manufactories, and that four millions of people are in some way or other dependent on the trade in cotton. That the value of our cotton goods yearly manufactured is 80 millions, of which the portion exported is equal to 55 millions. That the cost of the raw material we consume is 40 millions, and that of every 100 pounds of raw cotton consumed, we have given to judge the actors in this unnatural strife, but we must unite with every class of our countrymen in lamenting the suffering, devastation, rancorous hatred, and internecine fury which this war of brother with brother has called forth, and will inevitably perpetuate, whatever may be the proximate issue of the conflict. If we turn our eyes from the western to the eastern horizon, we find China, with four hundred millions, and Japan, with forty millions of inhabitants, opened to the general commerce of the world, in great measure by the energy and enterprise, seconded by the valour and diplomacy of our countrymen. The present amount of our trade with China, and the recent extension of that trade, exceed the expectations of the most sanguine minds, and confirm in the fullest manner the representations which have been made to us of the great activity, industrial habits, and strong commercial instincts of that remarkable people. started into existence, and bids fair, at no distant period, to rival Australia. The gold' fields of British Columbia will assuredly attract an active, energetic population, whilst its position on the shores of the Pacific must confer on the Colony great importance as a naval station. The noble Earl who presided with so much ability at the last Anniversary Dinner of the Society, mentioned, on that occasion, as a fact within his own knowledge, that between the year 1847, when he went to Canada as GovernorGeneral of the North American provinces, and 1855 when he left the country, the revenue and trade of those provinces had quadrupled. It has been for some years the aim of the Council to collect and diffuse accurate information with respect to the products and resources In Australia the population has more than douof our colonies and dependencies, whether peo- bled in ten years, whilst the aggregate revenue pled by men of our own race and language, the has risen from a million and a quarter to six prosperous founders of industrious and intelli-millions a year, and the imports and exports have gent communities, by whom the arts and domestic habits of their fatherland are preserved and extended, as in America, Australasia, and Southern Africa; or whether, as in India, Ceylon, and other of our dependencies, inhabited by races differing from our own in language, modes of thought, habits, and almost all the qualities which constitute national life. I may point with some satisfaction to many valuable papers read at our weekly meetings, in which the attention of our members has been directed to colonial subjects, as well as to the papers recently inserted in the Journal from the pen of Mr. P. L. Simmonds, on the British Colonies and the International Exhibition of 1862. increased from eight millions in 1850, to 47 millions in 1858; and it is computed that the gold obtained from Australia in ten years, has exceeded in value a hundred millions sterling. Our colonies and dependencies, including India, will be well represented at the forthcoming Exhibition, as all, with the exception of the Cape, have entered with ardour into the industrial and artistic rivalry which the undertaking has enlisted. The Council authorise me to announce that the following papers will be read before Christmas at our evening meetings: the Year 1861." By Blanchard Jerrold. December 4.-"On the Building for the International The aggregate population of our colonies and Exhibition of 1862." By Capt. William C. Phillpotts, R.E. dependencies is there stated at 195 millions; Traveller's Point of View." By Thomas Baker, SecreDecember 11.-" On Railway Management, from the their import and export trade at 176 millions; tary to the Royal Indian Army Sanitary Commission. their revenue at 44 millions, and the amount of December 18.- -"On the Improvements and Progress their imports from the mother country at 46 mil-in Dyeing and Calico Printing since 1851." By F. Crace lions, being nearly one-third of our total exports to all countries. The most remarkable characteristic of our recent colonial history is the rapid growth of those valuable possessions from infancy to manhood; from settlements, ruled by an administrative department in the mother country, to commonwealths, possessing native legislatures, and entrusted with the organisation of their Executive Governments. Their growth in population, trade, and material wealth has but few parallels. Thus, in South Africa, the export of wool has increased from six millions of pounds in 1851 to 24 millions in 1859; and of wine, from 250,000 gallons in 1852, to nearly 800,000 in 1859. In North America our colonial population has increased from 2 millions in 1851, to 4 millions in 1859, and the imports from a sum less than 5 millions in 1850, to more than 9 millions in 1859. On the Western shores of North America, a province known as British Columbia, has recently Calvert, F.R.S. In former addresses from this place I indicated the important service the members might render to the Society by introducing amongst us active, ardent, and intelligent men, willing to co-operate with the Council in increasing the influence of a Society which includes many agencies for promoting the well-being of the community. But we do not appeal to our members alone. Our Board of Examiners and our Committees undertake duties of a laborious character, and contribute in various ways and different degrees to the usefulness of the Society. In a career which now embraces the labours of more than a century, the Society has witnessed many vicissitudes, but although some of its original functions have been undertaken by kindred societies, yours is the only chartered body which seeks to promote manufactures and commerce by enlisting in their service science and art. By your union with mechanics' and other Institutions, and by the encouragement you have afforded to the systematic instruction of adults, you have length-evening, but also for the admirable manner in which he ened your cords and strengthened your stakes. The number of your members has doubled in the last ten, and quadrupled in the last fifteen years. The last Session witnessed the election of 648 new members, and the Council has had this evening the gratification of notifying the proposal of 306 candidates for election, being nearly thrice the number ever submitted for election at a single sitting. These are proofs that the Society continues to enjoy the sympathy, confidence, and esteem of the (public, and they deserve the grateful acknowledgments of the Council. Increased influence brings increased responsibility as well to societies as to individuals, and we shall be judged hereafter not by the extent of our means of usefulness, but by the manner in which those means have been employed. May it be our constant endeavour to overcome prejudice, secure improvements, advance physical science, and promote social ameliorations. The employment of science in advancing the arts which minister to man's necessities is the cha. racteristic of our age, and when we regard the rapid stimulus thus given to the industrial progress of the nation, we may, in the language of Bacon, say, "No doubt the sovereignty of man lieth hid in knowledge wherein many things are reserved which kings with their treasure cannot buy, nor with their force command." The Chairman then presented the Medals awarded by the Council at the close of the last Session, as follows: To Dr. Edward Smith, F.R.S., for his two papers, "Re cent Experimental Inquiries into the Nature and Action of Alcohols as Food," and "On the Uses of Tea in the Healthy System." The Society's Silver Medal. To A. K. Isbister, for his paper "On the Hudson's Bay Territories; their Trade, Productions, and Resources; with Suggestions for the Establishment and Economical Administration of a Crown Colony on the Red River and Saskatchewan." The Society's Silver Medal. To Alexander Redgrave, for his paper "On the Progress of the Textile Manufactures of Great Britain." The Society's Silver Medal. To Dr. Milligan, for his paper "On Tasmania; its Character, Products, and Resources." The Society's Silver Medal. To Charles Ledger, for "The Introduction of the Alpaca into the Australian Colonies." The Society's Silver Medal. To F. Joubert, for "The Application of Photography to the production of Images on Glass, which can be burnt in." The Society's Silver Medal. Dr. MEEKINS said he should venture to propose a vote of thanks to Sir Thomas Phillips for the very able and eloquent address which they had listened to with so much pleasure. Everyone who knew how that gentleman had laboured as Chairman of the Council of the Society, must, he was sure, feel that any thanks they could vote would very inadequately express the feelings which they entertained towards him, for the manner in which he had always discharged the important duties of his position. Mr. WILLIAM HAWES begged to second the vote of thanks which had been proposed to the chairman, not only for the very able address they had heard from him that It had discharged the duties of chairman of the Society. place, but also as regarded commerce, for he believed it was |