LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 281 



familiar to us, and highly esteemed in that town. The President for the current 

 year is Sir E. Eardley Wilmot, M. P. 



The Report concludes thus : — " Such then is your position as to the regular 

 action of the Institution. The classes more than ever satisfactorily conducted ; 

 the library gradually increasing, and its utility recognized ; and the lectures as 

 well in prospect as in retrospect, — for utility and interest, equal, or superior to 

 those of any former period. 



** Your Committee also consider the pecuniary affairs of the Institution to be in 

 a sound and healthy state. Enjoying a much larger income than usual from 

 subscriptions and check receipts during the past year, a small portion only has 

 been applied to the gradual reduction of the remaining debts outstanding, and the 

 remainder has been liberally, and they trust, judiciously expended in the purchase 

 of those intellectual adrantages to which they have adverted ; and this expenditure 

 has reacted, and if the anticipations of your Committee be not falsified by coming 

 events, will continue to react, by inducing the rapid increase of the list of Mem- 

 bers ; — so that the Mechanics' Institution of Birmingham may continue to 

 advance in prosperity, and to extend its useful action, — may take rank in the public 

 eye, amongst the most valuable establishments of the town, — and claim, from its 

 magnitude and importance, as well as from the excellence of its conduct, — the 

 admiration and the willing aid, as well as the cordial approbation of the inhabitants 

 of this town and neighbourhood, of every rank and of every shade of opinion; 

 taking its full share in the great work of the development of the powers of the 

 human mind, — urging on the approach of the period, when shall be realized the 

 aspirations of the purest and soundest philanthropy, — ' The same Education, and 



THE BEST, for ALL CLASSES.' " 



To our copy of the Report are appended some letters on the subject, which have 

 appeared in the Birmingham Journal, signed " W. H. S.," from which we present 

 the following extracts : — 



*' I hear and read assertions and statements of facts, produced to show that the 

 great bulk of the population, in the most civilized countries, are oppressed by 

 existing circumstances, deficient in those means of enjoyment, which ought, under 

 wise arrangements, to be attainable by every human being ; — that their condition 

 is, in short, far inferior to what it ought to be, speaking as philanthropists, — what it 

 might be, speaking as statists, and in reference to our national resources. I may- 

 be told that I am querulous and fanciful ; that the condition of the population 

 generally, of these kingdoms for instance, has, in fact, greatly improved during the 

 last half century ; that the working classes were never better, never so well taught, 

 fed, clothed, and housed, as at present. It may be so, and I believe it is so, but 

 the improvement is comparatively trivial, and the complaints continue. Men have 

 not their due, and they are, and ought to be, discontented. The prevalent dis- 

 content, in truth, properly considered, so far from being an evil to be deprecated, 

 is one of the most favourable signs of the times. ' How is it,' asks an able 

 periodical writer, * that the mechanic of the present day is at the same time better 

 off and more dissatisfied than were the operatives of past generations ? He has 

 more knowledge, more mind — he wants more. He believes that more is to be 

 had, and, eventually, he will have it. Very silly it is to lecture him out of his 

 craving. It is nature's provision for the progress of society. ***** 

 You cannot stay the change — why should you ?' " 



"These anticipations are now very generally entertained, and these opinions 

 indulged by the soundest and most reflective political economists. * * * The 

 degree and mode of physical amelioration to be desired varies according to the 

 varying impressions of the several individuals, but in the means all agree. Edu- 

 cation, Education, Education, is the universal cry. Education— full, free, 

 and equal, without distinction of class or caste." 



" * The people,' observes Mr. Chandos Leigh, * cannot know too much, but they 

 may easily know too little.'* There is is in this short sentence a terseness and a 



• The following is an extract of a letter from Chandos Leigh, Esq. to the Vice-President 

 of the Mechanics' Institution, dated "Stoneleigh Abbey, Dec. 16, 1834, 



" No man is more favourable to Mechanics' Institutions than myself, and I trust they will 

 be established throughout the kingdom. To use the beautiful language of Robert Hall : 

 'They are the expedients for forming a sound and virtuous population. If there be any 

 truth in the figure by which society is compared to a pyramid, it is on them its stability 

 chiefly depends. The elaborate ornaments at the top will be a wretched compensation for 



