r sundry foreign
parts.

~Mecca.~--The late Mr. J.H. Chamberlain, shortly before his death, said
that he looked upon Birmingham, "perhaps with a foolish pride," as the
Holy City, the Mecca of England; where life was fuller of possibilities
of utility--happier, broader, wiser, and a thousand times better than it
was in any other town in the United Kingdom.

~Mechanical Engineers.~--The Institution of Mechanical Engineers was
organised in this town, in October 1847, but its headquarters were
removed to London, in 1877.

~Mechanics' Institute.~--The proposal to form a local institution of a
popular nature, for the encouragement of learning among our workers,
like unto others which had been established in several large places
elsewhere, was published in June, 1825, and several meetings were held
before December 27, when officers were chosen, and entry made of nearly
200 members, to start with, the subscription being 5/-per quarter. The
formal opening took place March 21, 1826, the members assembling in
Mount Zion Chapel, to hear an address from Mr. B. Cook, the
vice-president. The class-rooms, library, and reading-rooms, were at the
school attached to the Old Meeting House, and here the Institution, so
far as the conduct of classes, and the imparting of knowledge went,
thrived and prospered. Financially, however, though at one time there
were nearly 500 members, it was never successful, possibly through lack
of assistance that might have been expected from the manufacturers and
large employers, for, hide it as we may, with a few honourable
exceptions, that class, fifty years ago, preferred strong men to wise
ones, and rather set their banks against opening the doors of knowledge
to their workpeople, or their children. It was a dozen years before the
Institution was able to remove to a home of its own in Newhall Street,
but it rapidly got into a hopeless state of debt. To lessen this
incubus, and provide funds for some needed alterations, the committee
decided to hold an exhibition of "manufactures, the fine arts, and
objects illustrative of experimental philosophy, &c." The exhibition was
opened Dec. 19, 1839, and in all ways was a splendid success, a
fairly-large sum of money being realised. Unfortunately, a second
exhibition was held in the following years, when all the profits of the
former were not only lost, but so heavy an addition made to the debt,
that it may be said to have ruined the institution completely. Cre