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 L3 annually; to the High Schools the entrance fee is
10s., and the tuition fees L9 per annum; to the Middle Schools, 5s., and
L3 per annum. The number of children in all the schools is about 2,000,
and the fees amount to about L4,000 per annum. There are a number of
foundation scholarships, which entitle the successful competitors from
the Grammar Schools to free tuition at the High Schools, and ten
exhibitions arising out of the Milward's, and Joanna Leuch's Trusts, for
the Universities, besides yearly class prizes of considerable value.

_Mason's 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 L100,000, was built entirely by
the founder who also endowed it with an income of about L3,700 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
mus