SOCIETY OF ARTS.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 1852.

THE rapid increase which, during the last few years has taken place in the business of the Society of Arts, has rendered it necessary for the Council to make a complete change in the mode of publishing the Society's weekly proceedings, which have, in fact, hitherto contained little more than a condensed account of the papers read at the weekly meetings, and such routine business as from time to time came before the Society. As, however, from the greatly enlarged range of subjects which at present occupy the attention of the Society, and from the many important inquiries which its members are prosecuting, the mere weekly transactions evidently constitute but a small part of the useful labours of the Society, it has been deemed necessary by the Council, to adopt such changes in the weekly publication of the Society, as should render it not merely a record of the proceedings at the Wednesday Evening Meetings, but, in fact, a regular and systematic Journal of the various great and interesting undertakings which the Society is, at present, actively carrying on.

Ever since the Council determined to discontinue the publication of a yearly volume of Transactions, the want of a Journal has been felt and acknowledged, and it has been evident that the printed weekly proceedings did not sufficiently meet this requirement, neither serving as a register of the various important subjects brought before the Society, nor yet even as a means of making the members themselves conversant with the numerous investigations and inquiries carried out by the Committees of the Society. In determining to publish an extended weekly journal, the Council are guided by the fact that while such a paper will prove a more satisfactory means of communicating to the members, and also to the public at large, the proceedings of the Standing Committees, of the Colonial and Foreign Committees, and of the Provincial Institutes Committee, it will, at the same time, also become a means of materially assisting those Committees in the

various important matters under their consideration. In no department of the Society's labours, will the new Journal be more useful, than in connection with the General Union of Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics' Institutes just formed, and which already numbers 225 institutions in all parts of the Empire, including, in the whole, upwards of 90,000 members. It will be obvious that the Journal will supply a medium of communication with the members of these Institutions, and will offer facilities in the way of correspondence between them and the Society of Arts, far beyond any mere system of correspondence by letter. This, whilst it will diminish the labour of the Committees of the Society, will, it is hoped, at the same time, greatly increase their power of usefulness.

It is only necessary at present further to state, that the Journal will be conducted by the Secretary, under the immediate control of the Council; that, under proper regulations, its pages will be open to contributions on all subjects connected with the progress of human industry, and the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce; and that, as far as may be found to be practicable, it will, in addition to the proceedings of the Society of Arts, and the Institutions in Union with it, contain brief notices of the proceedings of other similar societies, and, in general, of all matters of scientific or technical interest. The Council, however, will only consider themselves responsible for as much as is signed by their Secretary by order.

FIRST ORDINARY MEETING,

Wednesday, November 24th, 1852.

The first ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday, the 24th instant, H. Cole, Esq., C. B., in the chair; the following gentlemen were elected members:

Bennock, Francis, Wood-street, Cheapside.
Brown, Robert Charles, 14, Buckingham-street, Adelphi.
Hutton, James, 60, Burton crescent.

Raimondi, Willoughby, 22, Surrey-street, Strand.

and one hundred and thirty-four new members were proposed.

The Secretary announced that two hundred and thirty-one institutions had joined the new Union.