LENCH'S TRUST.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of this place,
bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms houses, which are
those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the benefit of poor widows,
but chiefly for repairing the streets of Birmingham. Afterwards others
granted smaller donations for the same use, but all were included under
the name of Lench; and I believe did not unitedly amount, at that time,
to fifteen pounds per annum.

Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting of
gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.

All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever necessary
to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of this charity,
having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to pay attention to this
little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace; some of the lands were
lost for want of inspection; the rents ran in arrear, and were never
recovered; the streets were neglected, and the people complained.

Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for years,
and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for support, falls in
pieces by its own weight, and out of its very destruction rises a
remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of Chancery was obtained,
for vesting the property in other hands, consisting of twenty persons,
all of Birmingham, who have directed this valuable estate, now 227_l_.
5s. per annum, to useful purposes. The man who can guide his own private
concerns with success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of