. for Manchester, to get his
Committee and overhaul the Schools of Design throughout the kingdom.

Certain changes were effected. The school, no longer able to pay the high
rent required by the Royal Institution, was removed to its present site in
Brown Street, placed under the management of Mr. Hammersley, who had
previously been a successful teacher at Nottingham, and freed from the
meddling of incompetent authorities. And now pupils anxiously crowd to
receive instruction, and annually display practical evidence of the
advantages they are enjoying.

The Manchester Mechanics' Institution was one of the pioneers in the movement
which led to the Great Exhibition. In 1831, was held its first Polytechnic
Exhibition for the purpose of showing the connexion between natural
productions, science, and manufactures. Subsequent Exhibitions were carried
out with great effect as a means of instruction and education, and with such
success as to pay off a heavy debt which had previously cramped the
usefulness of the Institution.

There are also several other institutions of the same class, amongst others
Salford, Ancoats, and Miles Platting Auxiliary Mechanics' Institutes.

The Athenaeum constitutes a kind of literary club for the middle classes, who
are provided with a good library and reading-room in a very handsome
building.

The Manchester Library contains 10,000 volumes, the Manchester Subscription
Library, established 1765, has the most extensive collection of books in the
city.

A Concert Hall in Peter Street, exclusively used for the purposes indicated
by its name, is supported by 600 subscribers at five guineas each.

The Chetham Society has been founded for the purpose of publishing ancient
MSS. and scarce works connected with the history of Lancashire.

The Exchange has upwards of two thousand subscribers.

By way of helping the body as well as the mind, in 1846 the inhabitants of
Manchester formed by subscription three public parks, called Queen's Park,
Peel's Park, and Philip's Park, in three different parts of the suburbs.

* * * * *

THE FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL was founded by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, in the
early part of the sixteenth century. It was originally founded for the
purpose of furnishing simple and elementary instruction to the poor. This
design is sufficiently proved by the language of the foundation deed, which
describes those sought to be benefited as persons who had been long in
ignor