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280 £8,400, in 1860 £12,600, and now £25,000; by the expiration of this century it will be at least £50,000. The earliest existing statutes are dated October 20, 1676, one of the most comical being that the assistant masters were not to marry. The head master's salary in 1676 was fixed at £68 15s., with a house and land; in 1738 he was allowed £20 in lieu of the house, in 1788 the salary was increased to £150; in 1726 to £200; in 1816 to £400: and now it is about £1,200. The second master at first received £34 6s. 8d.; in 1874 he received £300. The first school was the old Guildhall of the Holy Cross, which was pulled down at the commencement of the 18th century, a new school being erected in 1707, and removed in 1833, to make way for the present edifice, which was erected in 1840, from the designs of Mr. Barry, at a cost of £67,000. The school has a frontage of 174 feet, with a depth of 125 feet, being 60 feet high. The "schoolroom" proper is 120 feet, by 30 feet and 45 feet high. In the last century the governors "set up" branch schools in Shut Lane, Dudley Street, Freeman Street, London 'Prentice Street, and other localities; and in 1838 elementary schools were erected in Gem Street, Edward Street, and Meriden Street, as preparatory adjuncts to the New Street School. Extensive changes have lately been made in the government and management of the Grammar School, which can no longer be called a "Free School." Formerly the governors were self-elected, but by the new scheme, which was approved by the Queen in Council, March 26, 1878, the number is limited to twenty-one, eight of them being appointed by the Town Council, one by the school teachers, one each by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and the remaining nine to be chosen by the Governors themselves. The first meeting of the new Board of Governors was held May 15, 1878. The New Street School is divided into a High School for boys, a High School for girls, and a Middle School, the other schools being respectively called Grammar Schools. The fees now payable at the Five Ways School (formerly the Proprietary School), and at the new schools at Camp Hill and Albert Road, Aston are 2s. 6d. on admission, and £3 annually; to the High Schools the entrance fee is 10s., and the tuition fees £9 per annum; to the Middle Schools, 5s., and £6 per annum. The number of children in all the schools is about 2,000, and the fees amount to about £4,000 per annum. There are a number of foundation scholarships, which entitle the successful competitors from the Grammar Schools to tree tuition at the High Schools, and ten exhibitions arising out of the Milward's, and Joanna Lench's Trusts, for the Universities, besides yearly class prizes of considerable value.

Masons Scientific College.—The foundation of this College, situated in Edmund Street, opposite the Free Library, was laid on the 23rd February, 1875, by Sir Josiah Mason, the founder, who in that manner celebrated his 80th birthday; and it was opened October 1,1880. The College, which is estimated to have cost £100,000, was built entirely by the founder who also endowed it with an income of about £3,700 per annum, with the intention of providing instruction in mathematics, abstract and applied; physics, mathematical and experimental; chemistry, theoretical, practical, and applied; the natural sciences, geology, metallurgy and mineralogy; botany, zoology and physiology; English, French and German, to which have since been added Greek, Latin, English literature, civil and mechanical engineering; the chemistry, geology, theory and practice of coal mining, &c. The entire management is in the hands of eleven trustees, five of whom are appointed by the Town Council, and there is no restriction on their powers, save that they must be laymen and