One class of subjects alone is emphatically excluded. It is “provided always, that no lectures, or teaching, or examination, shall be permitted in the institution upon theology, or any question or subject in its nature purely theological, or upon any question which for the time being shall be the subject of party political controversy.” And this condition “the said Josiah Mason doth declare to be fundamental.” Similarly it is declared to be a fundamental condition that “no principal, vice-principal, professor, teacher, or other officer, servant, or assistant of the institution shall be required to make any declaration as to, or to submit to any test whatever of their religious or theological opinions, or be presumed to be qualified or disqualified by any such religious or theological opinions, but shall be appointed solely for their fitness to give the scientific or artistic instruction required from them.” The contrast with Queen’s College was complete.
Fees were to be paid by students, the admission of whom is subject to no limitation whatever in the popular classes.[25] The only limitation as regards the regular classes is that the Trustees are to give the preference, all other things being equal, to candidates who have been or are inmates of the Orphanage, to the extent of not more than one-fifth of the whole number of regular students, and thereafter to candidates born within the borough of Birmingham and Kidderminster, in the proportion of two Birmingham to one Kidderminster student. The original deed provided that no student not wholly dependent for a livelihood upon his own skill or labour, or depending upon the support of his parents or some other person, should be admitted to the college; and that students should not be under fourteen nor above twenty-five years of age. By the deed of variation, December 12, 1870, the limit of age was done away with, and the conditions above laid down were made to apply to the remission of fees. A preliminary examination for admission is imposed only upon students under the age of sixteen years.
In every line the deed breathes the spirit of modern Birmingham; it contains regulations directed to a clear aim, with absolute freedom to vary those regulations so as best, at any given time, to secure that aim by recognising new conditions; it excludes from its scheme no subject of useful learning; and it maintains the idea that secular instruction is of too high a dignity to be fettered, as regards either pupils or instructors, by theological or political considerations. In one provision not yet noticed it recognises with equal directness, the principle by which Birmingham has for long been pervaded, viz., that over all the great institutions of the town, popular control ought to be exercised. Until the death of the founder, the governing body was to consist of six trustees; but it was ordered that after his death the Town Council was to nominate five others. Vacancies in the Borough Trustees were to be filled up by the Town Council; those in the other six by the whole body. One single qualification is laid down as fundamental for the trusteeship. The holder must be a Protestant and a layman.
On October 1st, 1880, the College was formally opened, when a brilliant address was delivered in the Town Hall, by Professor Huxley, before a meeting attended by representatives of the Universities, and many leading scientific bodies, and presided over by the Mayor; and, in the evening of the same day took place the formal transfer of the building by the Founder to the Trustees. “Thus was completed a work which stands without parallel in the annals of modern education in England, the gift of a college, amply planned, nobly built, liberally endowed; the generous benefaction of one man, who looked for no reward but the consciousness that, by the foundation, others would have the means of acquiring knowledge denied by the poverty of his early life to himself; trusting that though unblessed with children of his own, he might, in the students of his college, leave behind him an intelligent, earnest, industrious, and truth loving and truth seeking progeny for many generations to come.” During the first year of work, 53 students attended: in 1884-85, 523, of whom 199 were in the evening classes.
During the session, 1882-3, the college began receiving a grant from the science and art department, in aid of the instruction of a limited number of teachers engaged in science teaching. During the same year, by arrangement with the School Board, the Council granted six Wright Memorial Scholarships, to enable scholars from Board Schools to go through a science course at Mason College.[26] These scholarships are tenable for three years, and relieve the scholars of the payment of all fees.
The Mason College Union, formed with the sanction of the council, was now opened.[27] The circumstances attending the admission of students from Queen’s College to certain classes will be found detailed in the section treating of that institution. The completion of the scheme necessitated the creation of a new Chair of Botany. In the early part of the session, the council constituted the Professors of the College an Academic Board, to act generally under the superintendence of the council in regulating and co-ordinating the various departments of the college; the chairmanship being held by the Professors in turn. In July, 1883, a department of Coal Mining and Colliery Management was established, and upwards of twenty students attended, principally young mining engineers, preparing for the government examination. During the year courses of lectures upon education, provided by Mr. George Dixon, were delivered by Professor Meiklejohn and Mr. H. Courthope Bowen. During 1884, the council were enabled to fill up a gap which they had often deplored by the creation of nine scholarships, as follows: Two entrance scholarships of £30 each; one of £30 for students of one year’s standing; two of £30 each for students of two years’ standing; two of £20 each, connected with the examinations of the University of London; and two technical scholarships of £30 each. Each of these is tenable for one year. In the following year, Messrs. Richard and George Tangye each created a scholarship of the annual value of £30. Free popular lectures for artisans were given throughout the winter, the tickets being distributed among about one hundred of the leading firms. So much were they valued, that it was found necessary to repeat each lecture.
One of the most important and interesting features of the college is its noble library. With this will always be connected the name of the late Dr. Heslop, its chief benefactor, indeed, it may be said, its maker. As early as 1882, out of its 4,869 volumes, he had contributed 3,130. On the 23rd February, 1886, the library contained 17,554 vols. The geological museum contained at the same date 19,115 specimens.
The Birmingham and Midland Institute is at present educating more than 4000 persons of both sexes and of all ranks; and this fact alone is sufficient to show its importance. The principle upon which it proceeds is one which at the time of its establishment was entirely novel, though it has since been adopted in other similar institutions. It has never professed to lay down a priori a course of instruction which it considers ought to be given; but, by supplying a want wherever such want has been made known, it has endeavoured to adapt itself constantly to requirements of the people which otherwise would never be satisfied. In the words of Mr. J. H. Chamberlain, “We have never made up our minds to teach any particular subject, unless we were convinced that there existed outside our walls a present readiness to study it. But, once convinced of such a desire, we have done whatever we could to meet it.”
The Institute had its origin, strangely enough, at a time of marked intellectual decadence in Birmingham. The existing societies, the Philosophical Institution, the Mechanics’ Institution, and the Polytechnic Institution, were dead or moribund. On June 10th, 1852, at the suggestion of Mr. Arthur Ryland, a few members of the first-named society met and appointed a committee which reported in January, 1853. On September 6th the Town Council gave a grant of the present site, and by an Act obtained in 1854 the Institute was incorporated. In this Act the objects of the Institute are defined to be the “diffusion and advancement of Science, Literature, and Art.” There were to be two departments, (a) General, to provide (1) Reading and News Rooms; (2) Libraries, Museums, a gallery of the fine arts, collection of mining records, and other collections for scientific purposes; (3) Lectures and meetings for discussion in the higher branches of knowledge, (b) Industrial, to provide (1) classes for elementary and progressive instruction in Mathematics and Practical Science, and such other subjects as may seem fit to the Council of the Institute; (2) laboratories, models, philosophical apparatus, and all other things necessary for the objects of the Institute.[28] The Institute was to be governed by a Council of twenty-five consisting of (1) Official Governors, a President, two Vice-presidents, and a Treasurer; the head master of King Edward’s Grammar School, the warden of Queen’s College, the chairmen of the Committee of the Birmingham Society of Arts, and of the government School of ornamental Art. (2) Borough Governors, the Mayor and four members of the Town Council, elected annually by that body; and (3) thirteen Elected Governors, viz: eleven members of the Institute, and two students of the Industrial Department. The President, the Vice-Presidents, and the thirteen, were to be chosen by the members of the Institute at the annual general meeting. Casual vacancies were to be filled up by the Council, which was to meet at least once a month. Not less than three of the thirteen were to be regarded as ineligible for re-election each year. Among the Presidents will be found the men most eminent in their various branches of knowledge.
A start was made in the beginning of 1854, the salary of a Science teacher for the first year having been guaranteed by the Science and Art department. Classes were opened in Chemistry, Physics, and Physiology, for both sexes, and were carried on in the room of the Philosophical Institute in Cannon Street, until 1857. On November 22nd, 1855, £10,000 having previously been subscribed to the building fund, the first stone of the new buildings was laid by the Prince Consort. Penny Scientific lectures were now started; and, in deference to a most remarkable expression of opinion on the part of the artisans themselves that they had not education sufficient to enable them to profit by the lectures as given, Penny Lectures on elementary Mathematics and Science were also given. In 1856 Mr. George Dawson and Mr. Sam: Timmins volunteered to conduct an English Literature class, which they continued for three years, and classes, also taught voluntarily, were established in Arithmetic, Latin, French, English History, Logic, Languages, and Thought.[29]