in the course of the ten weeks which have since elapsed. It stands confessed that, as now constituted, the Committee of Management is an illegal usurpation, elected contrary to the laws, and acting in defiance of them.

Nay, so far has even their respect for appearances vanished, that the gentleman who in the balloting-list passed muster as one of "the working class," and was elected as such, has assumed in the subsequent official lists of the Society, the title of "Francis Place, jun. Esquire!”

The parties inculpated by this flagrant departure from the laws of the Institution are not only those who have usurped the seats designed for working mechanics, but all who promoted that usurpation, or who have since sanctioned it by acting with the individuals illegally elected, from the eloquent and enterprising president, down to the most silent and quiescent committee-man amongst them. We may be wrong in our notions, but it does appear to us, as if the case were one, with which no person of correct principles, and animated by a sincere friendship for the working classes, could possibly wish to be identified.

We had written thus far when we received the following Letter:-*

"London Mechanics' Institution, 29, Southampton. Buildings, Holborn, 25th Nov. 1824.

"SIR;-I am desired by the Committee, most respectfully to inform you, that the first stone of the New Theatre or Lecture-Room adjoining these premises will be laid by Dr. Birkbeck on Thursday next, the 2nd of December, at Three o'clock precisely, on which occasion they hope to be honoured with your company; and also at the first Anniversary Dinner of the Patrons and Members of the Institution, which will take place at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the same day at five o'clock punctually. The Dinner Tickets will be Six Shillings each; and should it not be convenient for you to attend, an answer to that effect will be esteemed a favour. I remain, Sir,

"Mr. Robertson."

"Your very obedient Servant,

"JAMES FREDERICK BLAKE, Hon. Sec."

The following Answer was returned :

"28, Bennet street, 29th Nov. 1824.

"SIR;-I regret that I cannot, in consistency with the opinions which I have pub licly expressed of the conduct of the Managers of the London Mechanics' Institution, and which to this hour remain wholly unchanged, accept of their invitation, to attend at the Jaying of the Foundation Stone of the New Lecture-Room, on the 2nd of December next, or at the subsequent Anniversary Dinner of the Patrons and Members of the Institution. "I have, at the same time, to express my sense of the polite terms in which the invi tation of the Committee has been conveyed. And remain, Sir,

"Your most obedient Servant,

"J. C. ROBERTSON,"

From the share which the Mechanic's Magazine had in originating and promoting the Establishment of the Mechanics' Institution, it must be obvious to every unprejudiced person, that, did its Editor consult only his personal inclination, and per

haps interest, he would do his best to hold the Institution up to the public, as answering every expectation that had ever been formed of it, and that nothing but a strong sense of the impossibility of doing so with sincerity and truth, can have induced him to adopt the course he has done, and to which he adheres with unfeigned reluctance. It has been said, that he has a private pique to gratify. But said by whom? By those who can make no other answer to the charges of misconduct which he has brought against them. If these charges were either so trivial, or so groundless as to occasion wonder, that any one could advance and persist in them, there might then be some reason for suspecting the existence of some improper feeling; but when they are such as regard the very existence and well-being of the Institution; when they have not once been denied, or attempted to be refuted; when they furnish of themselves so ample (too ample) a justification of the course the Editor has pursued; he feels that he needs be under no concern as to what exposed delinquency may choose to assert of his motives. This only he will say for himself; he loves right so much better than resentment, and prizes the interests of the working classes as involved in this Institution, so far beyond all personal or party considerations, that the Managers have never had that arrow in their quiver, which could provoke him to sacrifice either.

In neither of the events announced in the Secretary's letter, does the Editor perceive the smallest ground for congratulation.

The foundation stone which is (about to be laid he regards as but the foundation of a load of debt (for the proposed building is to be erected by means of borrowed money) which the prospects of the Institution do not warrant the Managers in contracting, which the members at large have never regularly and deliberately sanctioned, and which may tend to place the Institution in a state of dangerous subserviency to the individuals who may choose to constitute themselves its creditors.

The Anniversary which the Managers and their friends consider a fit subject for convivial celebration, brings to the Editor's mind only cause of sorrow for principles abandoned, laws and promises broken, and great interests lamentably sacrificed.

The Institution was founded for the benefit of the journeymen Mechanics of London chiefly, who showed, by the numbers in which they flocked to its first meetings, that they were fully sensible of the important benefits which it promised to procure for them; but so slowly and imperfectly have the plans laid down been followed, and so little has the year produced, suited to the wants and taste of the journeyman mechanic, that the number of this class now enrolled as members, has dwindled to a few hundreds, of whom a large proportion are new intrants, who, if we may judge from the past, have entered only to acquire that experience of empty professions, which has disappointed and driven away their predecessors. The number of members altogether is small, and certainly not more than one

half are of that class of persons for whose special benefit the Institution was founded.*

The Institution was established, too, on the condition that the mechanics themselves should have, in the proportion of two-thirds, the preponderance in the management of its affairs; but that condition, as we have seen, has been shamefully violated.

It was provided, also, that the Institution should rest on the principle of selfsupport and exertion. The Mechanics of London would have disdained to seek advantage from it on any other. But, though the rate of contribution to the London Mechanics' Institution is higher than to any similar Institution in the kingdom, it cannot (it is believed) be said, that one penny has yet been paid for lecturers or teachers. The Managers have proceeded on a system of begging for gratuitous instruction, wholly fnconsistent with that spirit of independence which breathed in the first resolutions of the Society, and, in our humble opinion, most injurious to the real interests of the working classes. Who can doubt that it is partly owing to an honourable repugnance to instruction on such terms, that so few mechanics are now to be found in the list of members?

The Institution, in short, has become a Mechanics' Institution only in name. It may possibly yet flourish as a school of science for persons of a higher order, but it is a sort of fraud on public credulity, to which the Editor of the Mechanic's Magazine would be ashamed to contribute, to call that any longer the London Mechanics' Institution, which, out of two or three hundred thousand London Mechanics, boasts of but two or three hundred on its roll,, which is governed by a Committee, but few of whom are of the class of London Mechanics, and which, in all its transactions, shows an utter want of that workmanlike energy and independence by which the Mechanics of London are so honourably distinguished.

Nov. 28, 1824.

* The Editor makes these statements, partly on the strength of what he has himself observed, and partly on the admissions of the Secretary of the Institution. Should the Managers dispute their accuracy, they have in their hands an easy means of rectifying them. Let them order a return to be made up from the books, of the number of working mechanics who were enrolled at the commencement of the Institution, and the number who are now enrolled; as also a return of the number of present members of this class, who were members a twelvemonth ago.

Museum, Register, Journal, & Gazette.

"A perfect education is an armour to a weak understanding; but we cannot cease to think, though we may not be perfectly educated."-From the Communications of a Correspondent.

ANTIQUITY OF THE STEAM-ENGINE.

Reference to Mr. Partington's Aecount of Hero's Steam Apparatus.

In the lower part of the vessel A (fig. 1) is concealed a furnace, employed to generate steam, which, passing along the bent tube B, is made to enter the hollow ball C, at the steam-tight joint D. The ball is also supported by the axis

G, upon which it revolves freely in a vertical direction.

Fig. 2 represents a horizontal view of the ball, from which the steam is seen to rush through the small bent tubes E F, when, striking against the air or any

other surrounding media, by its re-action it produces a rotatory motion. The arrows show the direction in which the ball revolves,

and which, it will be seen, is exactly the everse of that taken by the elastic vapour.

LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

We have at length the satisfaction to announce that the Institution (to use a common, but intelligible phrase) has commenced business. On Friday the 20th inst. the Members assembled in Dr. Lindsay's Chapel, Monkwellstreet, the use of which has been obtained on very favourable terms, to hear the Inaugural Address of the President, Dr. Birkbeck, and an Introductory Lecture, by Professor Millington, on the Elementary Principles of Mechanical Science. The Chapel was nearly filled. From a statement which was made at the close of the business of the evening, it appears that the number of persons who have given in their names as members, is nearly one thousand three hundred; and that of these, very nearly eleven hundred have paid their subscriptions. Dr. Birkbeck advanced to the chair, attended by Henry Brougham, esq. M. P. one of the Trustees, Professor Millington, Messrs. Martineau and M'William, Vice-Presidents, and several Members of the Committee, and was received with the warmest demonstrations of affectionate welcome. The worthy President then proceeded to deliver the following Address, which, in all its more prominent passages, was loudly cheered:

Address.

GENTLEMEN;—With feelings of exultation, unutterable, I rise to offer my warmest, heartfelt congratulations, on this momentous occasion. This hour is witness to hopes, long, ardently, and anxiously cherished by me, now rapidly realizing in the visible and effective existence of A MECHANICS' INSTITUTION in the emporium of the world.

Had you, Gentlemen, beheld the small number of artizans, who, in a large and flourishing city, were willing to accept the earliest invitation to enter the temple of science, this striking scene would be contemplated with gratitude and delight, still more lively and enthusiastic; with gratitude, arising from the permission to behold the extended impulsive operation of the growing appetite for knowledge, one of the noblest propensities of man; with delight, from perceiving that the mighty spirit of the age, which has been pervading the whole rational creation, has at length fructified the intellectual mass, and roused it from death-like slumber, to animation and activity. The inquiring spirit of the age has loudly demanded that the door of Science should be thrown open, and that its mysteries should be revealed to all mankind. This demand has been answered here as well as elsewhere, without reference to age, occupation, or condition; and, judging from the aspect of this thronged assembly, the result must be most auspicious to the progress of knowledge. “There is a time," the wisest of mortals has declared, "for all things ;" and the ardour with which the present project has been embraced, proves beyond the possibility of question, that this is the time for the universal diffusion of the blessings of knowledge. "There is a tide in the affairs of men," one of the most splendid examples of human genius has affirmed, “which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." The tide of knowledge, within a recent period, has been rapidly rolling on towards this elevation; and if we do not neglect the golden opportunity, we shall achieve that intellectual fortune, in which consists, alike individually and aggregately, the most substantial riches and the most substantial glory.

It is not my intention to place before you the vast and varied results of this projected union of science and art; or, in other words, of this combination of the discoveries of the philosophic mind, with the inventions of mechanic genius: the objects and the effects of this combination will be far more intelligibly and impressively depicted, by the liberal and enlightened Professor, to whom you will