CHAPTER IV.

LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC AND ARTISTIC SOCIETIES.

BY SAM: TIMMINS.

The Chapter II., on “Education,” has included the more active and valuable societies which have developed into important organizations for the full and regular teaching of Literature, Science, and Art, but it has been thought desirable to give a brief summary of the local societies which for nearly a century have assisted in creating the demand which the larger institutions have been established to supply. Birmingham has not been so remarkable as some other towns for its societies formed of lovers of literature and science, and it is certainly remarkable, and almost reprehensible, that so large a centre has never had a definite Literary Society or Literary Club, associating all, and they are many, who are lovers of books in all departments, and not merely of literature of a scientific, technical, and practical kind. Such a society, or such a club, should certainly exist in a great Midland town, as in Manchester, Liverpool, and other places.

=The Lunar Society= of the last century, which included among its members or visitors, Priestley, Boulton, Watt, Darwin, Withering, Keir, Galton, Sir Joseph Banks, Smeaton, Edgeworth, Day, Wedgwood, Baskerville, was founded about 1765, and as the houses of the members were distant from each other, and the roads dark and sometimes dangerous at night, the meetings were held at “full moon,” hence “The Lunatics” or “Lunar Society” derived its name. Its objects were social and scientific rather than literary and it has left no literary memorials of its meetings.

=Debating Societies.=--Among the earliest of the societies, common in later days, and which were the more needful when newspapers were few, were the Debating Societies, the first of which, the “Robin Hood Free Debating Society,” was a tavern-society, founded in 1774, and was followed in the same year by another, and probably a rival, or seceded body, as a “Society for the Encouragement of Free and Candid Disputation,” but both soon discussed themselves out of existence. In 1789 a “Society for Free Debate” was formed, and like the others it discussed social, moral, and political questions, so that in 1792 the magistrates interfered, on the ground that the recent riots should discourage public discussions of dangerous subjects.

=Philosophical Institution.=--At the close of the century, about the year 1794, a Philosophic and Artistic Society was proposed, and in 1800 the first steps were taken to found the Birmingham Philosophical Institution, which was so successful that, in 1813, a suitable building, with a lecture room for two hundred hearers, a news room, a museum, and other necessary rooms, were erected, and were opened by a lecture by Rev. J. Corrie, a friend and biographer of Priestley, in October, 1814. This society flourished for many years, with lectures from eminent men, a good library and museum, and was finally succeeded by the Midland Institute on a much larger and more popular scale. One of its notable practical uses was the erection of Mr. Follett Osler’s first Anemometer, and excellent Clock for public convenience. For many years papers were read and discussed by members, and published in Transactions in which meteorological, industrial, and scientific facts of historic importance have been preserved.

=Society of Arts and Exhibitions.=--In April, 1814, the “artists and amateurs,” proposed to form a society, and to hold an annual exhibition of pictures, and the promoters secured as honorary members, Benjamin West, Sir J. Soane, J. M. W. Turner, John Flaxman, and Richard Westmacott. The first exhibition was held in the “Academy of Arts,”--a building still remaining in Union Passage--and proved very attractive. In 1821, the Artistic Society proposed to expand and to form a Society of Arts, and in 1822, the site of the present large building (then temporary) was secured, and replaced, in 1827, by a permanent building, chiefly from the liberality of Sir Robert Lawley, who gave a large number of casts from antique, and in that year the first great exhibition of pictures was held. As a proof of the necessity of such an exhibition and of such a Society, it will be worth while to quote the remarks of Catherine Hutton, the daughter of the historian, herself a woman of good sense and good taste, since she predicted that the proposed society would “die a natural death,” that the “genius of the artists of Birmingham was more calculated to paint tea boards than pictures,” and that the proposed rooms would soon “serve for a Methodist Meeting House.” For more than sixty years since that prophecy, the rooms have been used, with one interval, caused by quarrels, for a series of exhibitions of paintings and drawings, not only in autumn, but in spring exhibitions too, which secure some of the best pictures by the foremost artists of the day.

=School of Medicine and Surgery.=--In 1828, the School of Medicine and Surgery was begun in Snow Hill, by the late W. Sands Cox, and was finally expanded into the Queen’s College, which has been fully described, but the “Society” side of this and other similar institutions, was originally a series of meetings of members, and not any sort of college or school.

=Mechanics’ Institute and Artisans’ Library.=--The success of Dr. Birkbeck’s popular institution in London led to the formation of a Mechanics’ Institution in Birmingham, in 1825, and the establishment of an Artisan’s Library. From various causes this society was not successful, but it was one of the first attempts to reach the masses of the people with literary and scientific teaching, and numerous classes were well taught and gave valuable help to the young men of that day. One of the most remarkable results of the Mechanics’ Institution, and one of the causes, unfortunately, of its failure, was one of the first of Industrial Exhibitions of manufactures and processes in 1840, and followed by a second which was financially a failure. In 1841 another “Institution” on a somewhat different plan was established under the patronage of Lord John Manners and the “Young England” party as the “Athenic Institute” for mental, moral, and physical improvement, combined with rational amusements--athletic and others. In 1843 the Polytechnic Institution followed and was carried on successfully till 1853 on rather broader lines than the Mechanics’ Institution, but it attracted rather the middle than the humbler classes, and finally failed, to be followed by the Midland Institute as previously described.

In 1850 an important society was founded in Birmingham to advocate the establishment of “free, secular, and compulsory” education, and this developed into the “National Public School Association,” and in 1867 into the “National Education League,” which was the most important factor in the education of the country by the agitation which resulted in the Elementary Education Act of 1870.

In 1852-53 another attempt was made to form a Literary and Scientific Institution, to take up the work which the Mechanics’ Institution and the Polytechnic Institution had failed to accomplish. The first public help given was by one of the first public readings of the Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, which produced for the three readings, £227. 19s. 9d., and continued the interest and help which Dickens had given as President of the Polytechnic Institution some years before. From this date the Midland Institute has most successfully provided for all classes, by its literature and science classes, its public lectures, and its musical and archæological sections, and has become one of the most successful of all similar institutions.

=Magazines and Pamphlets.=--So early as 1764 a “Birmingham Register and Entertaining Museum” had been published on the lines of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and ten years later a “Medical Miscellany” appeared which, however, did not live long, and no similar serial appeared till 1817. During the whole of this period, and especially just before or after the riots in 1791, the town was deluged with pamphlets, chiefly on political subjects, and great feuds arose. The pupils of the famous “Hazelwood School” issued the “Hazelwood Magazine,” often illustrated with etchings and lithographs from 1822 to 1830, and the pupils of King Edward’s School have from time to time had a “Magazine” of their own. This example was followed by the “Proprietary School” on two or three occasions. “The Oscotian” in 1828 reached 3 vols., and was resumed later, and is still issued. For several years, _circa_ 1830, several Magazines devoted to the drama were published, and were useful in their day.

=Newspapers.=--The pamphlets of the last century were superseded by the newspaper press; Birmingham, which had a “Journal” in 1731, and a “Gazette” in 1741; had its first “Daily Press” in 1855, when the taxes on knowledge were repealed, and “Daily Post” in 1857, and “Daily Gazette” in 1862. In 1869, an attempt was made to establish a Midland “Illustrated News,” which continued for some two years. In the same year the first halfpenny evening paper appeared, the “Daily Mail,” and in 1871, the “Birmingham Morning News” was established, with the late George Dawson as its first editor.

=Magazines.=--Magazine literature has often been attempted since 1764, but not successfully. In 1876, the “Birmingham Examiner,” a weekly newspaper of politics and literature was tried for some months, and about the same time the “Medical Review,” the “Midland Naturalist,” and the “Central Literary Magazine,” were founded and flourish still. An illustrated Magazine, “Mid-England” appeared in 1879, but failed to secure the “Midland” readers; and the “Midland Antiquary,” devoted to archæology, genealogy, and heraldry, since 1879.

=Debating Societies= have been numerous, and have generally held their ground, and helped to train some of the best speakers and debaters of our day. The Birmingham Debating Society was founded in 1846, and amalgamated with the Edgbaston Society in 1855. Parliamentary Debating Societies--“echoes” of the House of Commons--have been tried two or three times but without success, although flourishing for some years. The Central Literary Association has been one of the most long-lived and popular of debating societies, and its Magazine has also been a marked success. In 1856 an Amateur Dramatic Club was formed, and many very excellent performances were given. A Dramatic Club, holding winter meetings, has been established since for the reading of papers, and the celebration of the Shakespeare Anniversary; and “Our Shakespeare Club” has met for more than thirty years as a social rather than literary club, whose chief work was to found the Shakespeare Memorial Library. A Graduates Club was founded by the late Dr. C. Badham for social meetings of University Graduates; a Clef Club has recently been opened for lovers of music; the Historical Society, at Mason College, has been merged into the Philosophical Society, which meets in the same building; the Natural History and Microscopical Society has many and devoted members; the Law Society has its learned discussions; the Medical Institute has its Library and Meetings; the students of the Midland Institute and of Mason College have their respective societies and magazines; the Archæological section of the Institute has its meetings, excursions, and transactions; the Natural History Society its numerous members, and its excursions and magazine,--all being social as well as scientific, and helping to raise the standard of taste and knowledge among all classes of the town.