The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First ProfessorsJones, Bence
History
The Royal Institution: Its Founder and First Professors
Jones, Bence
Davy, Humphry, Sir, 1778-1829; Royal Institution of Great Britain; Rumford, Benjamin, Graf von, 1753-1814; Young, Thomas, 1773-1829
The draft of this report was read by Mr. Bernard to the managers, and
they referred it to a sub-committee, who approved it. The Committee of
Visitors was then introduced, consisting of Lord Berkeley, Dr. Glasse,
Mr. Hammersley, who considered and approved it.
Mr. Dibden was requested to read his opening lecture on Literature on
January 13. He began with a short statement of Davy’s great discovery
and of his illness. Probably Davy was at this time ill in bed; for the
managers did not buy him a sofa, for which they paid three guineas,
until January 25.
On February 22 Mr. Davy attended the meeting of managers at their
request, and said he would commence his course of lectures on
Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at two, and those on
Geology on Wednesday evening, March 16, at eight.
At the end of the previous year Mr. Bernard had reported that Mr.
Coleridge would give in the ensuing session five courses of five
lectures each on the Distinguished English Poets, in illustration of
the general principles of poetry arranged under the following heads:
1. Shakespear. 2. Spencer and Allegorical Poetry. 3. Milton. 4. Dryden
and Pope, and the fifth course Modern Poetry. These lectures were to
begin immediately, one or two weekly, as might be convenient, for a
compliment of 140_l._, of which 60_l._ was proposed to be paid in
advance.
In February Mr. Bernard paid Mr. Coleridge 40_l._ in advance. The
lectures were still delayed.
At the end of April Mr. Bernard reported that Mr. Coleridge had
offered gratuitously to give a lecture on Education on Tuesday, May 3,
proposing it to be twice the length of his other lectures.[30]
On June 13 the steward, Mr. Savage, laid before the managers the
following letter from Mr. Coleridge:
DEAR SIR,--Painful as it is to me, almost to anguish, yet I find my
health in such a state as to make it almost death to me to give any
further lectures. I beg that you would acquaint the managers that,
instead of expecting any remuneration, I shall as soon as I can
repay the sum I have received. I am, indeed, more likely to repay
it by my executors than myself. If I could quit my bedroom, I would
have hazarded everything rather than not have come, but I have
such violent fits of sickness and diarrhœa that it is literally
impossible.
S. T. COLERIDGE.
‘Ordered,--That Mr. Coleridge’s lectures be discontinued, and that Mr.
Savage make out an account of the number of lectures that Mr. Coleridge
has given, in order that a proportional payment may be made.’
On June 20, 2,000_l._ being wanted for the payment of the tradesmen’s
bills and salaries, the managers and visitors subscribed it as a loan
without interest. The tradesmen were paid to December 1806.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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