ort
which such an institution as suggested requires. In 1882 a special fund
was started for the purpose of giving aid to women left with children,
and about L380 was subscribed thereto, while the ordinary income was
only L680. The special fund can hardly be said as yet to have got into
working order, but when the cost of proving the property of the
recipients, with the necessary expenses of office rent, salaries, &c.,
have been deducted from the ordinary income, the amount left to be
distributed among the persons deemed by the officials deserving of
assistance is small indeed, the expenses reaching about L330 per year.
In 1880 it cost L329 18s. 4d. to give away food, cash, and clothing,
&c., valued at L386 16s. 6d., an apparent anomally which would not be so
glaring if the kind-hearted and charitable would only increase the
income of the Society, or re-organise it upon a wider basis.--For
statistics of poverty and the poor see "_Pauperism_" and "_Poor Rates_."

~Charitable Trusts.~--See "_Philanthropical Institutions_," &c.

~Chartism.~--Following the great Reform movement of 1832, in which
Birmingham led the van, came years of bad harvests, bad trade, and
bitter distress. The great Chartist movement, though not supported by
the leaders of the local Liberal party, was taken up with a warmth
almost unequalled in any other town in the Kingdom, meetings being held
daily and nightly for months in succession, Feargus O'Connor, Henry
Vincent, and many other "orators of the fiery tongue," taking part. On
the 13th of August, 1838, a monstre demonstration took place on Holloway
Head, at which it was reckoned there were over 100,000 persons present,
and a petition in favour of "The Charter" was adopted that received the
signatures of 95,000 people in a few days. The Chartist "National
Convention" met here May 13, 1839, and noisy assemblages almost daily
affrighted the respectable townsmen out of their propriety. It was
advised that the people should abstain from all exciseable articles, and
"run for gold" upon the savings banks--very good advice when given by
Attwood in 1832, but shockingly wicked in 1839 when given to people who
could have had but little in the savings or any other banks. This, and
the meetings which ensued, so alarmed the magistrates for the safety of
property that, in addition to swearing in hundreds of special
constables, they sent to London for a body of police. These arrived on
July 4, and unfortunately at