=Mechanics’ Institute and Artisans’ Library.=--The success of Dr. Birkbeck’s popular institution in London led to the formation of a Mechanics’ Institution in Birmingham, in 1825, and the establishment of an Artisan’s Library. From various causes this society was not successful, but it was one of the first attempts to reach the masses of the people with literary and scientific teaching, and numerous classes were well taught and gave valuable help to the young men of that day. One of the most remarkable results of the Mechanics’ Institution, and one of the causes, unfortunately, of its failure, was one of the first of Industrial Exhibitions of manufactures and processes in 1840, and followed by a second which was financially a failure. In 1841 another “Institution” on a somewhat different plan was established under the patronage of Lord John Manners and the “Young England” party as the “Athenic Institute” for mental, moral, and physical improvement, combined with rational amusements--athletic and others. In 1843 the Polytechnic Institution followed and was carried on successfully till 1853 on rather broader lines than the Mechanics’ Institution, but it attracted rather the middle than the humbler classes, and finally failed, to be followed by the Midland Institute as previously described. In 1850 an important society was founded in Birmingham to advocate the establishment of “free, secular, and compulsory” education, and this developed into the “National Public School Association,” and in 1867 into the “National Education League,” which was the most important factor in the education of the country by the agitation which resulted in the Elementary Education Act of 1870. In 1852-53 another attempt was made to form a Literary and Scientific Institution, to take up the work which the Mechanics’ Institution and the Polytechnic Institution had failed to accomplish. The first public help given was by one of the first public readings of the Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, which produced for the three readings, £227. 19s. 9d., and continued the interest and help which Dickens had given as President of the Polytechnic Institution some years before. From this date the Midland Institute has most successfully provided for all classes, by its literature and science classes, its public lectures, and its musical and archæological sections, and has become one of the most successful of all similar institutions.