Excerpt from The Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom: A Brief Account of Its Origin and Progress; Prepared, Under the Direction of the Council In October, 1820, in "accidental conversation," a "person" who can be identified as Thomas Burgess, then Bishop of St. Davids, afterwards of Salisbury, suggested to another the advantages which might be expected from the institution of a Society of Literature, somewhat resembling the French Academy of Belles Lettres. The suggestion was communicated to Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, and by him to King George the Fourth, who had but recently ascended the throne. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.