amount due to bankers on the General Fund was £863 13s. 6d; and the
amount standing to the credit of the Institute on the Repairs Account is
£440 12s. 2d. It is much to be regretted that there is a total debt on
the Institute, amounting to £19,000, the paying of interest on which
sadly retards its usefulness. Many munificent donations have been made
to the funds of the Institute from time to time, one being the sum of
£3,000, given by an anonymous donor in 186[**], "in memory of Arthur
Ryland." In August, same year, it was announced that the late Mr. Alfred
Wilkes had bequeathed the bulk of his estate, estimated at about
£100,000, in trust for his two sisters during their lives, with
reversion in equal shares to the General Hospital and the Midland
Institute, being a deferred benefaction of £50,000 to each.

~Midland Metropolis.~--Birmingham was so entitled because it was the
largest town, and has more inhabitants than any town in the centre of
England. To use a Yankeeism, it is "the hub" of the Kingdom; here is the
throbbing heart of all that is Liberal in the political life of Europe;
this is the workshop of the world, the birth-spot of the steam-engine,
and the home of mock jewellery. In all matters political, social, and
national, it takes the lead, and if London is the Metropolis of all that
is effete and aristocratic, Birmingham has the moving-power of all that
is progressive, recuperative and advancing. When Macaulay's New
Zealander sits sadly viewing the silent ruins of the once gigantic city
on the Thames, he will have the consolation of knowing that the
pulse-beats of his progenitors will still be found in the Mid-England
Metropolis, once known as the town of Burningsham or Birmingham.

~Mild Winters.~--The winter of 1658-9 was very mild, there being neither
snow or frost. In 1748 honeysuckles, in full bloom, were gathered near
Worcester, in February. In the first four months of 1779 there was not a