Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/161

Rh proper building, and an Act of Incorporation was obtained in the following Parliamentary session. In December 1854, Charles Dickens gave three readings in the Town Hall in behalf of the building fund, whereby £227 13s. 9d. realised, the donations then amounting to £3,467. The foundation stone was laid by Prince Albert, on Nov. 22, 1855, and the contract for the first part of the building given to Messrs. Branston and Gwyther for €12,000. The lecture theatre was opened Oct. 13, 1857, when addresses were delivered by Lord Brougham, Lord Russell, and Lord Stanley, the latter delivering the prizes to the students who had attended the classes, which were first started in October, 1854, at the Philosophical Institute. In 1859, the portrait of David Cox was presented to the Institute, forming the first contribution to the Fine Art Gallery, which was built on portion of the land originally given to the Institute, the whole of the buildings being designed by Mr. E. M. Barry. The amount subscribed to the building fund was about £18,000, and the cost, including furniture au apparatus more than £16,000. Great extension has been made since then, on the Paradise Street side, and many thousands spent on the enlargement, branch classes being also held at several of the Board Schools to relieve the pressure on the Institute. In 1864, the members of the Institute numbered 660, and the students 830, with an income of £998; in January, 1974, there were 1,591 members, 73; family ticket Sellers 2,172 students, and an income of £2,580. At the end of 1833, the number of annual subscribers was 1,900, and lecture ticket-holders 838. In the Industrial Department there were 4,334 students: the Archaeological Section numbered 226 members, and the mus cal Section 183. 108 students attended the Laws of Health classes, 220 the Ladies classes, and 36 the classes for preparation for matriculation. The benefits derived from the establishment of the Midland Institute, and the amount of useful, practical, and scientific knowledge disseminated by means of its classes among the intelligent working men of the town and the rising generation, is incalculable. These classes, many of which are open at the low fee of 1d., and some others specially for females, now include the whole of the following subjects:— English language and literature, English history, French, German, Latin, Greek, and Spanish, algebra, geometry, mensuration, trignometrytrigonometry [sic], and arithmetic, music, drawing, writing, English grammar, and composition, botany, chemistry, experimental physics, practical mechanics, and metallurgy, elementary singing, physical geography, animal physiology, geology, practical plane and solid geometry, &c. The general position of the Institute with regard to finance was as follows: Gross receipts in General Department, £3,281 5s. 6d.; expenditure in this department (including £993 1s. 6d. deficiency at the close of the year 1882), £3,038 17s. 2d.; balance in favour of the General Department, £192 8s. 4d. Gross receipts in Industrial Department, £1,747 13s.; expenditure in this department, £3,173 7s. 10d.; deficiency, £1,425 14s. 10d., met by a transfer from the funds of the General Department. The total result of the year's operations in both departments left a deficiency of £1,233 6s. 6d. The amount due to bankers on the General Fund was £863 13s. 6d.; and the amount standing to the credit of the Institute on the Repairs Account is £140 12s. 2d. It is much to be regretted that there is a total debt on the Institute, amounting to £19,000, the paying of interest on which sadly retards its usefulness. Many munificent donations have been made to the funds of the Institute from time to time, one being the sum of £3,000, given by an anonymous donor in 186, "in memory of Arthur Ryland. In August, same year, it was announced that the late Mr. Alfred Wilkes had bequeathed the bulk of his estate,