ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

The Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society was held in the Savings' Bank Committee Room, Polytechnic Hall, Falmouth, December 27th, 1852.

Sir C. Lemon, Bart., M.P., the President, having taken the chair, the Committee's Report for 1852 was read by the Secretary, after which the following resolutions were unanimously adopted :—

Resolved,―That the Report now read be received, and printed in the Society's forthcoming Report.

Resolved, That the following gentlemen be elected Vice-presidents of the Society in place of those now leaving office:— Sir W. Molesworth, Bart., M.P.

Joseph Carne, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.

Sir Colman Rashleigh, Bart.

T. S. Bolitho, Esq.

Resolved, That the following gentlemen be elected members of the Committee:

Falmouth, J. Barclay, Esq.

F. C. Bullmore, Esq.

Rev. W. J. Coope, M.A.

T. H. Tilly, Esq.

Redruth and Gwennap,-Richard Bain, Esq.

St. Austell,-Joseph Morcom, Esq.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be given to those Ladies and Gentlemen who acted as Judges at the late exhibition.

Resolved,―That the thanks of the Society be given to the Gentlemen who kindly lent specimens of the Fine Arts, Natural History, &c., to the late exhibition.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be given to those Members and friends who have made donations to the Society during the past year, and to those Gentlemen who have kindly assisted in obtaining donations from Mines.

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be given to those Gentlemen who acted as a Committee of Arrangement at the last exhibition.

Resolved,―That the Premium offered by Capt. Richards in conjunction with the Society stand as follows in the list of Premiums for 1853, as suggested by him :

A Premium of Six Pounds for the best method of pulverizing silver, tin, and other ores, to supersede the use of stamping, &c.

On leaving the chair, a vote of thanks was passed to Sir Charles Lemon, for his kindness in presiding, and for his untiring attention to the welfare of the Society.

LIST OF BOOKS, &c.

Presented to the Society during the past year.

Meteorological Observations at Hobart-town, Van Diemen's Land. By order of the Government.

Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, vol. 1, part 3, to vol. 3, part 5.-From the Society.

Introductory Lectures given at the School of Mines, London.By Robert Hunt, Esq.

Remarks on the City Smoke Prevention Act.-By W. Keld Whytehead, C.E.-By the Author.

Lectures on the Great Exhibition, given before the Society of Arts, London.-From the Society.

Records of the School of Mines, part 1, vol. 1.-From the Directors.

Quarterly Journal of Chemical Society, vol. 5, part 2.-From the Society.

Silliman's American Journal of Science, 1852.-From the Editors. The Artizan, 1852.-By the Editor.

Journal of the Franklin Institution of Pensylvania, July, 1851, to April, 1852.-From the Institution.

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. From the Society.

Notices of the Meetings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, part 2, July, 1851, to July, 1852, and List of Members and

Report of Visitors, 1851.-From the Institution.

Address to the Members of the British Association, 1852, by Colonel Edward Sabine, R.A.-From the Author.

The Musical Times, 1852.-From the Proprietors.

COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

THE operations of your Society during the past year, the twentieth of its existence, continue to exhibit the same practical character which has marked the preceding ones. The annual exhibition, in its display of mechanical inventions and improvements, its specimens of natural history, and its interesting fine arts department, presented so much which has been common to most of your anniversaries that your committee have no choice but to echo the observations and congratulations of former reports, or direct your attention to features which call for comment only from their novelty or their bearing on the financial position of the institution. In adopting the latter alternative, they beg first to congratulate the members on the satisfactory working of the new regulations in the section of Fine Arts. As was expected, the certainty of having all the expenses attendant on the carriage of their pictures defrayed by the Society, and the hope of a sale for their best productions, as prizes for the Art Union which has been formed in connexion with your exhibition, were found to have greater influence with professional artists than the comparatively small prizes which your committee have yet been able to offer. Through these arrangements, the number of pictures exhibited in the gallery of the hall was much larger than on any former occasion, and your committee were relieved from the responsibility of adjudicating where differences of style, subject, and treatment very frequently perplexed the judgment, and rendered the award almost of necessity a matter of individual taste, from the absence of definite points of comparison. Much of this success has undoubtedly been due to the co-operation of the Art Union of Cornwall, through which a sale for pictures to the amount