Genre:

Reportage

Subjects:

Mineralogy, Politics, Religion, Societies

    Reports that it was recently stated in the House of Commons that 'The [City] Philosophical Society, established in 1808, for the discussion of political and philosophical subjects, applied for a license [sic] at the Quarter sessions of London, on the 14th of April. The magistrates required a list of the subjects it wanted to discuss, and definitions of what its title or constitution would allow to introduce. The society refused to comply with this condition, and its meetings were in consequence suspended'. Later continues: 'in one part of the country a mineralogical society had been refused a license, because the magistrates were of the opinion that the study of mineralogy had a blasphemous tendency (hear, hear! and a laugh)'. (323)