Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Has Leeds, with all her advantages, drawn from the principles of knowledge – Leeds, whose very existence depends on the improvements of science – returned to philosophy anything commensurate with the benefits she has derived? What discoveries has she made? Of what extent and importance are the improvements which she has effected? The examination will not probably be creditable to her exertions. Yet in Leeds and its neighbourhood knowledge is diffused, activity apparent, and mental energy existing, in an equal, if not a greater degree, than in most other towns. But it is to be regretted that this energy, activity, and information have been too exclusively devoted to the acquisition of wealth; and that the philosophical acquirements of individuals have been too generally confined to themselves. Grateful to science for her favours, we now meet to return our quota to her stock; anxious for the propagation, no less than the attainment of knowledge, we hope individually to collect information from experiment and observation, and produce this information for general discussion.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

Has Leeds, with all her advantages, drawn from the principles of Knowledge, – Leeds, whose very existence depends on the improvements of Science, returned to Philosophy, any thing commensurate with the benefits, she has derived? What discoveries has she made? Of what extent and importance are the improvements, which she has effected? The examination will not probably be creditable to her exertions. Yet, in Leeds and its neighbourhood, Knowledge is diffused, activity apparent, and mental energy existing, in an equal, if not a greater degree, than in most other towns. But it is to be regretted that this energy, activity, and information, have been too exclusively devoted to the acquisition of wealth; and that the philosophical acquirements of individuals have been too generally confined to themselves. Grateful to Science for her favours, we now meet to return our quota to her stock; anxious for the propagation, no less than the attainment of Knowledge, we hope individually to collect information from experiment and observation, and produce this information for general discussion.

171 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Baines, Edward (1774–1848) (7), Nonconformist editor and proprietor of the Leeds Mercury, politician, author of historical and geographic reference works ·
• Benjamin Gott (3) ·
• 📌Leeds City Museum (2), established 1819, reopened 2008, housing in Cuthbert Brodrick's old Mechanics' Institute on Millennium Square ·
• Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (2) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Marshall, John (1765-1845) (2), Leeds-born businessman and politician ·
• Robert Dennis Chantrell (1) ·
• Self-interest (2) ·
• Thackrah, Charles (1795-1833) (1), Leeds-born surgeon ·

All tags.

Similar

• 26 September 1835: The (Whig) Leeds Mercury reports the attempt of its proprietor and editor, Edward Baines Jnr, to qualify for the electoral register on the basis of shares in accommodation for the dead
• 9 November 1840: The end of the horse trade at the Leeds winter fair
• 26 July 1827: Amid Nonconformist protests at a new church rate, payable by all Leeds to build temples for the Church of England, a Farnley man says organs are a waste of money
• 3 September 1810: Mr Jackson, Dewsbury druggist, gets drunk while visiting a prisoner at Rothwell
• 4 October 1831: The end of a 33-week strike by weavers at Gott’s, Leeds
• 3 April 1852: Brickfield workers from Wortley (Leeds) bring Henry Denny, curator of the Leeds Museum, some huge “unchristian” bones
• 15 October 1838: Apologies from “imprisoned” Huddersfield workers are read to the great Chartist rally on Peep Green (Hartshead Moor), accusing middle-class radicals of betrayal
• 13 February 1796: Marshall and the Benyons’ linen factory at Leeds burns down with the loss of eight lives
• 20 September 1819: Flags and fasces at a procession from Briggate to Hunslet Moor to protest the Peterloo Massacre
• 11 January 1906: Joseph Wright, Oxford professor of comparative philology and ex-donkey-boy for a Shipley quarry, discusses self-interest at the opening of Windhill Library