Number of scholars, 3,370
males, 653 females--total, 4,023; average attendance, 2,510 males, 510
females--total 3,080. The total number admitted since the men's school
commenced in 1845, and the women's in 1848, had been 40,350. In
connection with the school there are a number of organisations of great
utility, such as sick societies, building societies, savings' funds,
libraries, excursions clubs, &c. In the savings' fund the balance in
hand reached L14,000, while over L18,000 had been paid into the building
societies. There are a dozen other "adult schools" in the town which
have sprung from Severn Street.

_Spring Hill College_.--For the education and training of Independent
ministers, was first opened in 1838, in the mansion of Mr. George Storer
Mansfield, at Spring Hill, that gentleman giving certain landed property
towards its future support. The present edifice, near Moseley, to which
the old name was given, was opened in June, 1857, the cost of the
building, &c., nearly L18,000, being raised by voluntary contributions.
It has room for 36 students.

_Sunday Schools_.--Sunday classes for the teaching of the Catechism,
&c., date from a very early period of Church history, but Sunday Schools
as they are now known seem to have been locally organised about a
hundred years ago, the Sunday after Michaelmas Day in 1784 being marked
as a red-letter-day on account of there being twenty-four schools then
opened, though the course of instruction went no further than teaching
the children to read. In 1789 some young men formed the "Sunday Society"
as an addition thereto, the object being to teach writing and arithmetic
to boys and youths of the artisan class. In 1796 the society was
extended, other classes being formed, lectures delivered, &c., and it
was then called the "Brotherly Society." Mr. James Luckcock and Mr.
Thos. Carpenter were the leaders, and this is claimed to have been the
origin of Mechanics' Institutes. The Unitarians date their Sunday
Schools from 1787: the Baptists and Methodists from 1795. Deritend
Sunday School was opened by Mr. Palmer in 1808, with but six scholars;
in a month they were so numerous that part had to be taught in the
street. The first prizes given to the children were new Boulton pennies.
On Emancipation Day (August 1, 1838) there was a procession of over
3,000 scholars from the Baptist Sunday Schools. In 1812 the Birmingham
Sunday School Union was organised. The medallists of this town s