h School, there are four schools
supported out of King Edward VI.'s foundation, where reading, writing, and
arithmetic, are taught.

The funds on which these magnificent ecclesiastical establishments are
supported, arise from lands in the neighbourhood which originally produced
only 21 pounds a year, and were part of the estates of the Guild of the "Holy
Cross." After being occupied first as fields and then as gardens, the rise
of manufactures and extension of the town of Birmingham, converted a great
portion into building land. The present revenue amounts to about 11,000
pounds per annum, and are likely to be still further increased.

Twenty years ago, school lands which are now leased for terms of years, and
covered with buildings, were occupied as suburban gardens at trifling rents.
Eventually the Birmingham Free School will enjoy an income equal to the wants
of a university as well as a school. Meagre accounts of the income and
expenditure of this noble foundation are published annually, under the
regulations of an Act of Parliament passed in 1828; but no report of the
number of scholars, or the sort of education communicated, is attached to
this balance sheet. It would be very useful; and we hope that the self-
elected corporation, who have the management, will see the propriety of
supplying it.

Birmingham also possesses a chartered college, "Queen's College," similar to
that at Durham; first established as a medical school by the exertions of the
present dean, Mr. Sands Cox, since liberally endowed by the Rev. Dr.
Warneford to the extent of many thousand pounds, and placed in a position to
afford the courses in law, physic, and divinity, required for taking a degree
at the University of London. Also a Blue Coat School, and School for the
Blind.

In a picturesque point of view there are few towns more uninviting than
Birmingham; for the houses are built of brick toned down to a grimy red by
smoke, in long streets crossing each other at right angles,--and the few
modern stone buildings and blocks of houses seem as pert and as much out of
place as the few idle dandies who are occasionally met among the crowds of
busy mechanics and anxious manufacturers. What neatness--cleanliness--can do
for the streets, bell-pulls, and door-knockers, has been done; the foot-
pavements are, for the most part flagged, although some of the round pebble
corn-creating footways still remain in the back streets. One suburb,
Edgb