Progress than that of the triple and quadruple ranks of rovers of former days; and, by the help of a few bushels of coals, we can vanquish the elements and play with calm and contrary winds or storms. And whilst drawing in its train thousands of travellers, it runs on railways with greater speed than the swiftest race-horse! '15 How can we estimate sufficiently services so rare and so great? This period was also the starting-point of chemical discoveries. Hitherto chemical science could scarcely be said to have existed. A few facts had been observed, but no attempts had been made to account for them. There were but few chemists. The names of Becker and Stahl were almost unknown, and little progress had really been made in elevating chemistry to the rank of an experimental science. The founder of this structure was Dr. Black, the instructor of Watt, who enriched the world with his experiments on the air, and on latent and fixed heat. Then came Cavendish, with his researches on the composition of water and on the force of attraction. Priestley, too, gave forth his discovery of oxygen, and Lavoisier generalised and systematised the whole of chemical science. The philosophy of meteorology also attracted attention. In 1773, the council of the Royal Society resolved to make daily observations at their house with the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, and wind gauge; and they entrusted the guidance of these observations to the Hon. Henry Cavendish. In 1780 the Royal Society left their secluded quarters in Crane Court, and went to Somerset House. The Society of Arts and Royal Academy. And the Arts kept pace with Science. As early as 1721 a proposal was made to establish a society to be called the 'Chamber of Arts,' for the preservation and improvement of useful knowledge and mechanical arts, inventions, and manufactures. In 1748 Benjamin Franklin published his proposal for the advancement of useful knowledge among the British plantations in America, by the formation of a society to be called the American Philosophical Society. In 1753, the still existing and flourishing 'Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufactures, and Commerce' was first established, the original address signifying the intention of the society to bestow rewards from time to time for such productions, inventions, or 1 Historical Eloge of James Watt, by M. Arago. CHAP. I.] GRESHAM COLLEGE. 6 15 improvements as shall tend to the employing of the poor, the increase of trade, and the riches and honours of the kingdom.' And this period was distinguished by the formation of Academies of Fine Arts in different countries. Of these that of St. Petersburg took the lead, the Empress Catherine having, in 1765, endowed it with a considerable revenue. The Venetian Senate followed by founding one in 1766, which took the name of Reale Academia delle Belle Arti.' A year after, the Elector Carl Theodor founded one in Dusseldorf; and, in 1768, the Royal Academy of Arts in London was established, with Sir Joshua Reynolds as president. In the same year, the Academy of San Carlo was established in Valencia by Charles III. One was established at Brussels in 1770. The Empress Maria Theresa founded one at Milan in 1775; the Landgraf Frederick II. established one at Cassel in the same year, and, four years later, another in Augsburg. Surely, then, this was a time of decided progress in everything that could stimulate and improve the productive industry both of this and of other countries. of the Royal Exchange and Gres ham College. Alas! that in the very midst of all this progress a piece of absolute Vandalism should have been perpetrated in the city of London. In 1768, Gresham College, including the old Foundation mansion of Sir Thomas Gresham and all its buildings, was sold to the Government to form a site for the Excise Office, for the miserable compensation of five hundred pounds a year. Sir Thomas Gresham was a great and an enlightened citizen. Largely engaged in financial and commercial operations, frequently charged by Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth with the negotiation of foreign loans, and even called to act as ambassador to the court of Spain and the Duchess of Parma, Sir Thomas had learned to regard trade more as a science than as a craft. He saw the need of an Exchange to serve as a shelter to the merchants, who then met twice a day in the open street, and made over certain property to the city for the purpose. But he was not content with this. He was anxious for the cultivation of the mind. He saw the advantage of education, and he bequeathed his splendid mansion in Bishopsgate Street for the purpose of a college, appropriating the revenue of the Royal Exchange building for its endowment. By his will, executed in 1575, he granted this property in one moiety to the mayor and commonalty and citizens of London, and one moiety to the Mercers' Company, in trust that with the revenue of the same the corporation of the city should provide for the endowment of four lectureships in the same college, viz. on Divinity, Astronomy, Music, and Geometry; and the Mercers' Company should also establish three lectureships, viz. Law, Physic, and Rhetoric. Sir Thomas evidently intended that the college should serve as a technical university for the mercantile classes, and he took every step to secure the utility and renown of such an institution. Gresham College. And for a time all went well. The professors were men of great distinction. The college, so nobly provided for, in the Sale of very heart of the city, did really become the seat of learning and liberal arts, and the resort of the most enlightened among the mercantile classes. It was there that the Royal Society had its rise, and for a lengthened period it possessed a large library and an excellent museum. But, unfortunately, a temporary diminution of income in consequence of the fire induced the corporation of the city and the Mercers' Company, in an evil moment, to commit the sacrilegious act of selling the edifice to the Government.16 Another small building was afterwards erected in Gresham Street, where lectures are still delivered; but the spirit is gone, and the trustees have allowed the college and lectures to fall far short of the original design. Can it be that whilst all educational institutions are acquiring new life and usefulness, this noble legacy of one of our merchant princes is to remain almost useless and purposeless? Would it not be worthy of an effort to rescue it from the slumber and ruin into which it has fallen? Let Gresham College be adapted to the exigencies of the age in which we live, and we shall show by our deeds that we value the munificent and princely endowments of one of our great and philanthropic citizens. 16 In 1853, Gresham House was purchased from the Government by the Gresham House Estate Company, limited, for upwards of 100,0007., and mercantile offices have been built on the ground, the present rental of which amounts to about 20,000l. per annum. Thus property, which was sold in 1768 for a rental representing a capital of about 10,000l., was disposed of in 1852 for more than 100,000l., and now with new buildings erected on it represents a capital of 400,000l.—a wonderful illustration of the increasing value of land in the city of London. Canal Navigation.-State of the Roads.-Postal Organisation.-Progress FOR the increase of the productive power of a state, nothing 1 Before the opening of the canal, 12s. the ton was paid from Liverpool to Manchester by the river navigation, and 40s. the ton by land carriage. The Duke's charge on his canal was limited by statute to 6s. See an able article on Aqueducts and Canals in the 73rd vol. of the Quarterly Review, 1844. were urged-precisely the same as those which, at a later time, were made against railways. Extend canal navigation, and you diminish the breed of horses, injure the coasting trade, and weaken the navy. To undertake such a work you will require to sink large sums of money, to destroy great quantities of land capable of producing corn and cattle, whilst the natural navigation of rivers will be neglected. The objectors did not understand that, by opening up the country, and by procuring outlets to our mineral resources, and inlets for foreign produce, fresh life would be given to established industries, new branches of internal trade would be opened, and the external would be largely promoted. But the error was speedily perceived, and the objectors were silenced. From 1760 to 1773, many were the acts passed for widening and improving roads and making of canals. Then it was that Lynne was joined to Northampton, the Shannon to Dublin, and the Forth to the Clyde. Then, too, by a grand system of canals, the ports of Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, and London were joined together. And we have it on the testimony of a committee of the House of Commons on the State of the Poor in Ireland in 1830, that the effect of opening lines of inland navigation, when formed upon scientific principles, and executed with due economy, has been, on the concurrence of all testimony, the extension of improved agriculture, the equalisation of prices of fuel and provisions in different districts, the diminishing the danger of scarcity in both of these necessaries of life, and advancing the general improvement of the condition of the people, by the creation of a new, vigorous, and continued demand for labour.' But still more illustrative of the hindrances which then existed to commerce and industry, was the singular deficiency in the means of personal communication. The time was not quite gone when, as in the days of Milton, a traveller State of the roads. O'er bog or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, It was only in 1763, after the Peace of Paris, that turnpike roads were extended to all parts of the kingdom. In 1766, Lord 2 In the first fourteen sessions of the reign of George III., 152 acts were passed for repairing the highways of different districts. |