SUNT

SUNT BIBLIOTHECÆ DOMICILIA MUSARUM, SEDES APOLLINIS, AC HABITACULA ILLUSTRIUM ANIMARUM, IN QUIBUS DULCEM ANIMI CAPIUNT QUIETEM : DAPES ANIMARUM, QUIBUS SAPIENTIÆ INHIANTES ANIMÆ VESCUNTUR, DELECTAN TUR, SATIANTUR, PASCUNTUR.

I. G MEUSCHEN IN PREFAT. AD BARTHOLINUM DE LIBRIS LEGENDIS,

INTRODUCTORY PREFACE:

COMPRISING

HISTORICAL, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL, AND SCIENTIFIC, NOTICES

OF THE

LONDON INSTITUTION.

AFTER an interval of Twenty-two years since the first appearance of the Catalogue of the Library of this Establishment,— it is now re-produced to the Proprietors with very considerable improvements, and increased to almost double its original extent. The LONDON INSTITUTION itself, has been now Thirty years established; in which time many of its earliest supporters have deceased, and the circumstances attending its foundation are, perhaps, not very generally or accurately known to their successors. Some account, therefore, of the rise and history of the Library recorded in the following pages, appears to be a desirable and an appropriate introduction to the present volumes : not less as an honourable commemoration of the meritorious efforts of its original founders and constant supporters;-than as a short statement for the information of those who have succeeded them, and of others who may be also interested in the subject. In concisely treating of these particulars, they will be most clearly and conveniently related, under the separate divisions of an account of the Origin and Progress of the London Institution, in the different premises in which it has been seated: a Bibliographical notice of the Library belonging

b

to it and a sketch of its Scientific History, and of the various Courses of Lectures which have been delivered in its Theatre.Some remarks, illustrative of the advantages of a classed Catalogue like the present, will then conclude this Introduction.

I. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE LONDON INSTITUTION.

Like many others of the most successful and excellent establishments of the Metropolis, that of the LONDON INSTITUTION Originated in the meritorious and energetic efforts of several of the principal Merchants and Bankers of the City. Their first Public Meeting took place on Thursday, May 23rd, 1805, at the London Tavern, when Sir Francis Baring, Bart. and M. P., was placed in the chair, and the design of the proposed Institution was explained to the assembly by George Hibbert, Esq. in an excellent address: after which the following Resolutions were unanimously adopted.

"1. That is expedient to establish an Institution upon a liberal and extensive scale, in some central situation of the City of London, the object of which shall be to provide

I. A LIBRARY to contain Works of Intrinsic Value:

II. LECTURES for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge:

III. READING ROOMS for the Daily Papers, Periodical Publications, interesting Pamphlets, and Foreign Journals.

"2. That this Institution shall consist of a limited number of Proprietors, and of Life and Annual Subscribers.

"3. That the interest of the Proprietors shall be equal, permanent, transferable, and hereditary; and shall extend to the absolute property of the whole Establishment: they shall be also entitled to such extraordinary privileges as may be consistent with general convenience, and upon them shall devolve the exclusive right to the Management of the Institution.

"4. That the Life and Annual Subscribers shall have the same use of, and access to, the Institution, as the Proprietors.

"5. That the qualification of a Proprietor be fixed for the present at Seventy-five Guineas.

"6. That the Subscription for Life be for the present Twenty Guineas. 7. That Ladies shall be received as Subscribers to the Lectures, upon

such terms as may hereafter be determined.

a A few weeks before the meeting above-mentioned, another, comparatively private, and with little previous notice, was held at the George and Vulture Tavern, in George Yard, Lombard Street; at which nothing effectual was resolved upon. After this, Sir Francis Baring was invited to take the lead in the proposed association, and his name at once secured for it the attention and confidence which it so entirely deserved.