ON THE

ORIGIN AND VICISSITUDES

OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART,

AND THEIR INFLUENCE

ON

THE PRESENT STATE OF SOCIETY.

A

DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED ON THE OPENING

OF THE

LIVERPOOL ROYAL INSTITUTION,

25th NOVEMBER, 1817.

By WILLIAM ROSCOE, Esq.

LIVERPOOL:

PRINTED BY HARRIS AND CO.

AND SOLD BY CADELL AND DAVIS, LONDON.

MDCCCXVII.

ΤΟ

THE PROPRIETORS

OF THE

LIVERPOOL ROYAL INSTITUTION,

THE

FOLLOWING DISCOURSE,

PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF

THEIR COMMITTEE,

IS

MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

LIVERPOOL ROYAL INSTITUTION.

COMMITTEE ROOM, 26TH NOVEMBER, 1817.

TO WILLIAM ROSCOE, Esq. Chairman of the Committee..

Dear Sir,

We solicit the favour of your consenting to publish the Discourse, which we had yesterday the gratification of hearing you deliver, on the opening of this Institution.

A DISCOURSE, &c.

THE opening of this Institution, which was intended to have taken place on the thirteenth of this month, has been postponed to the present day, in consequence of one of those unexpected and awful events which suddenly call off the attention of a people from their usual avocations, and render them for a time insensible to every thing but the calamity they have experienced*-a calamity which has, in the present instance, blighted the public hope, and carried grief and consternation into the bosom of every private family. Even at this moment, when the first shock of this great national loss is over

The death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte.

B