who are contending for the prizes of Oxford and Cambridge, and every distinction won and announced is hailed by the boys with a ringing cheer of pride and congratulation.
The Birmingham and Midland Institute is an admirable institution, that does credit to the public spirit of the town. As a building it mates well with the Town Hall, over against which it stands. It is to the instruction of the people in scientific and artistic industries what the Town Hall is to the culture and development of public sentiment and opinion. Here artisans, miners, and men of every mechanical business are taught the science and economy of their occupations, not as a theory merely, but as applied practically and technically to their trades and professions. The classes embrace chemistry as applied to various manufactures and agriculture, mechanics, metallurgy, mineralogy, geology, ventilation of mines, and mining engineering. The first stone of the Institute was laid by Prince Albert, in November, 1855, and the lecture theatre was opened by Lord Brougham in October, 1857. So it has been in operation only ten years; but within that period it has educed and trained up a working force of practical science of inestimable value to the town. It has founded a home School of Design and produced home artists who are already competing with those brought from France and Italy in drawing and modelling pat-
