It is difficult to believe that the Royal Institution of the present day was ever intended to resemble the picture given of it in this report.
In June the Earl of Winchester became the first president, and the King became the patron, and he allowed the Institution to be called Royal. At the last meeting in the month Count Rumford was authorised to carry into effect his proposition for a repository of models, and to employ such artisans as he might think necessary, paying according to his discretion for their services. He was instructed to procure such instruments and utensils as relate more immediately to the management of fire; and he was empowered to draw 500l. to fit up the house for their reception.
On July 6 he submitted to the managers a form of advertisement to be inserted in the public papers, in order to carry out the exhibition of models.
In September Count Rumford was requested to engage Dr. Garnett as lecturer and scientific secretary and Editor of the Journals, with lodgings in the house and 300l. emolument, with a prospect of a gradual increase to 500l., provided the funds of the Institution in future authorised this additional expenditure. A committee was formed to prepare a lecture room on the first floor for the next winter.
Mr. Webster was appointed clerk to the treasurer and secretary, as well as Clerk of the Works, and a long report from him was read to the managers by Count Rumford on the formation of an industrial school for mechanics at the Institution.
A letter written by Mr. Webster to Dr. Garnett in August 1800, and another in 1801 to a friend, give an explanation of this proposal.
Probably August 1800.
The original object of the Institution was certainly to disseminate knowledge in the most effectual way possible; and for this purpose, while the higher ranks of society were amused and instructed by lecturers on science and its too much neglected applications to the purposes of common life, it was conceived necessary to do somewhat in order to enlighten the minds of that class which had not enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, and yet whose improvement was necessarily connected with the progress of the useful arts.
This was always considered as an object of so much importance by Count Rumford, who has certainly had the greatest share in establishing the Institution, that he repeatedly declared to me when I first knew him that it was his intention to do everything in his power to establish a school for science under the auspices of the Institution and particularly calculated for working mechanics, a class of men whose deficiency in knowledge proves one of the greatest drawbacks to the progress of art. It was through the prospect of being employed in this way, which would have been as agreeable to my habits of thinking as useful to my interest, that I was induced to give up the school which I then kept and the other business in which I was engaged, and to accept of a situation and salary in the Institution by no means equivalent to what I should have considered myself as entitled to under other circumstances.
Later Mr. Webster wrote to a friend:
You have heard, no doubt, that I was employed as draftsman to the Royal Institution at its first formation, and was besides engaged by Count Rumford to take the management of a school for mechanics which he then proposed to establish. In order to overcome the scruples of some of the managers of the Institution on this subject, as well as to give a specimen of my abilities for conducting such an establishment, I addressed a paper to Count Rumford in August 1799, in which I gave him my opinion of the kind of school which would prove most useful to the public, and also entered into a detail of the plan which I proposed to follow. This paper, which the Count read at the meeting of the managers, was highly approved of, and I had then every reason to expect that something would be done which would be creditable to the Institution and useful to myself. I was induced in consequence to give up the school which I then had, and which promised to answer pretty well. But, after remaining some time in suspense, I found some reason to be apprehensive that those who are at the head of an Institution which professes to be a grand and national establishment were not altogether possessed of that liberality of sentiment and knowledge of the subject necessary for carrying into effect plans which can only be accomplished by those whose industry has made them acquainted with the arts and sciences taught. In short, I saw but little prospect of its being done in the way I wished, and I had no desire to engage in it otherwise. I am not certain that the plan has been entirely abandoned, but I think it is not likely to take place.