_Ridduck's Trust_, for putting poor boys out apprentice, was devised in
1728, the property consisting of a farm at Winson Green. By direction of
the Court of Chancery, the income is now divided, L70 to Gem Street Free
Industrial School, and L20 to the British School, Severn Street. The
Trustees include the Mayor, the Rectors of St. Martin's, St. Philip's,
St. Thomas's, St. George's, several Nonconformist ministers, and the
Registrar of the Society of Friends.

_Preaching Sermons_.--By Salusbury's Charity, 1726, the Rectors of St.
Martin's and St. Philip's are entitled to the sum of 15s to preach
sermons once a year for the benefit of the Blue Coat School--Ingram's
Charity, 1818, consisting of the yearly interest of L500 4 per cent.
India Stock, was intended to insure the preaching of an annual sermon on
the subject of kindness to animals (especially to the horse) by a local
clergyman of the Established Church, but the Governors of King Edward's
School, who are the trustees, have obtained the sanction of the Charity
Commissioner to a scheme under which sermons on kindness to animals may
take the form of one or more free lectures on the kind treatment of
animals, and especially of the horse, to be delivered in any place of
public worship, or other building or room approved by the trustees, and
not necessarily, as heretofore, by a clergyman of the Established
Church, and in a church.

_Scripture Reading_.--In 1858 Admiral Duff left a sum of money, which
brings in about L45 per year, for the maintenance of a Scripture Reader
for the town of Birmingham. The trustee of this land is the Mayor for
the time being, and the Scripture Reader may be heard of at the Town
Clerk's office.

_The Whittingham Charity_, distributed at St. James's, Ashted, in March,
furnishes gifts to about eighty poor people (principally widows), who
receive blankets, sheets, quilts, flannel, &c., in addition to bread and
coal.

~Philosophical Society.~--A society with this name was formed in 1794
for the promulgation of scientific principles among mechanics. Its
meetings were held in an old warehouse in the Coach Yard, and from the
fact that many workmen from the Eagle Foundry attended the lectures,
delivered mainly by Mr. Thomas Clarke, the members acquired the name of
"the cast-iron philosophers." Another society was formed in 1800, for
the diffusion of scientific knowledge amongst the middle and higher
classes, and by the year 1814 it was possess