‘If the support of scientific men is to be obtained, something must be done to give the Institution more the form of a public establishment than of private and hereditary property. The managers have no doubt that the friends of science will come forward when the Institution interests the country at large, and they believe the body of proprietors will make any sacrifice of personal interest and advantage to erect a public, national, and permanent establishment devoted to the cultivation of science and to the promotion of every improvement in agriculture, manufactures, and the useful arts of life that may be conducive to the happiness and prosperity of the British Empire. The important researches which have distinguished the laboratory of the Royal Institution, are not only honourable to the proprietors but to the kingdom at large. ‘The managers trust that an active co-operation of the proprietors in increasing the number of life and annual subscribers, and a moderate annual subscription for the transferable ticket of each proprietor, will be adequate to secure the stability and prosperity of the Institution, and to continue and extend its influence by the promotion of science and literature, and by the supply of innocent and useful sources of intellectual pleasure.’ The visitors made their report to the proprietors, April 18, thus: ‘The circumstances attending our present situation seem to call for much consideration and reflection, and it would become our duty to state what reasonable expectation could be entertained of more income or less expenditure. But the managers have done this, and therefore we forward their report. ‘Upon inspection there seems no deficiency of anything which could contribute to the success or general utility of the Institution, and our financial state alone leads us to concur in the necessity of resorting to new measures for the support of so valuable an establishment. ‘The visitors heartily concur with the managers in their recommendations.’ In May a committee of the proprietors, with the managers and visitors, was appointed to consider the general state of the affairs of the Institution. The first step was to request Mr. Davy to prepare a plan for the future management of the Institution, and every member of the committee was asked to lay before the committee in writing his ideas or plan. One proposal was to put an annual tax on the transferable tickets; another to get a new charter; another to get an Act of Parliament; and another to shut the Institution at six o’clock daily. By the end of the year the joint committee had formed a plan which was in the following year proposed to Parliament. The whole of the stock possessed by the Institution, amounting to 4,058_l._, was sold; the managers and visitors were paid their loan of 100_l._ each without interest, and the bills of 1807 and 1808 were paid.