------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+--------- | Total |Proportion | | | | |number of |of Letters,| | | | | Letters, |&c., to | No. of | No. of | No. of | No. of | &c., |population,|Telegraph|Money-Order| Boxes |Officers |delivered |or number | Offices.| Offices. | for |employed. | during |of letters | | |Letters.| | the | to each | | | | | year. |individual.| | | | ------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+--------- 1866 |13,023,200| 39·46 | 9 | 9 | 60 | 162 ------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+--------- 1885-6|30,983,625| 72·05 | 33 | 78 | 233 | 868 ------+----------+-----------+---------+-----------+--------+--------- In 1871 (the year after the Telegraphs were transferred to the Post Office), the number of Telegraph Messages dealt with was 1,081,825, and in 1885-6, 3,111,662. The number of Parcels dealt with in 1885-6 was 2,492,689. =Gifts for public purposes.=--“More than princely, _civic_ munificence” was a happy phrase of Professor Max Müller on the occasion of the opening of the Mason Science College, and it is certain that in proportion as the feeling of citizenship in any community becomes strong it will manifest itself in the establishment or assistance of institutions for public purposes. Birmingham has never been without examples of this kind. The earliest of the existing charities of the town is-- =Lench’s Trust=, originated by a feoffment, 11th March, 1525, by William Lench, of lands in and near Birmingham to trustees. With this trust many other smaller gifts have been incorporated, and the income of the whole is now applied to the maintenance of four sets of almshouses for aged women, in Conybere Street, Hospital Street, Ladywood Road, and Ravenhurst Street. The total number of inmates is 178, and each of them has a house and four shillings a week. The income of this charity has grown with the growth of the town like that of the Grammar School (see p. 26.) In 1839 it was £758, in 1886 it is £3,085. The next endowment in order of time was that of the Free Grammar School (see p. 26) to which has since been added one half of the endowment of Milward’s Charity (A.D. 1684). Then came-- =Fentham’s Charity= (A.D. 1712), part of the revenue of which is appropriated to the maintenance of certain boys in the Blue Coat School, distinguished by a dark green dress.