nch of special education. By consenting at your request to
become the President of this Institute I hope it may be in my
power to benefit the good work, and that our joint exertions,
aided, I trust, by the continued liberality of the City and
Guilds of London, may prove to be an example to the rest of the
country to train the intelligence of industrial communities, so
that, with the increasing competition of the world, England may
retain her proud pre-eminence as a manufacturing nation."

After this address, the ceremony of laying the foundation stone was
completed. A medal to commemorate the event had previously been struck
at the Royal Mint.

It is stated in the Times of October 20th, 1888, that "in the last ten
years several of the Companies, in conjunction with the City
Corporation, have together given something like a quarter of a million
to the City Guilds of London Institute--the amount including gifts of
L46,000 from the Goldsmiths, of L43,000 from the Drapers, of L37,000
from the Clothworkers, of L34,000 from the Fishmongers, of L22,000 from
the Mercers, of L10,000 from the Grocers, and of L11,000 from the City
Corporation. Besides this, to mention the more salient examples, the
Drapers have given some L60,000 to the People's Palace, the Goldsmiths
have promised an annuity of L2,500, equivalent to a capital sum of
L85,000, to the New Cross Technical Institute, the Mercers propose to
devote L60,000 to the establishment of an agricultural college in
Wiltshire, and the Shipwrights' Company is taking the lead in a movement
for the formation of a college of shipbuilding in connection with a
Technical Institute at the East-end."

Besides all this, the people of South London are preparing to establish
three Technical Institutes, with the help of the Charity Commissioners;
and, if possible, to secure the Albert Palace for a Battersea Institute.
A similar movement has begun in North London. These local Technical
Schools are independent of the City Guilds of London Institute at
Kensington, but the impulse was given by its establishment.

THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS.

_August 3rd, 1881._

The seventh meeting of the International Medical Congress was formally
opened by the Prince of Wales, on the 3rd of August, 1881. It was the
first time the Congress had been held in England. The great room of St.
James's Hall was nearly filled, 3000 members being present. No lady
practiti