T. Townend, and S. Walker, Esqrs.-The regulations for the management of the Asylum, which have been sanctioned by the Court of Chancery, provide that the Institution shall afford such instruction to the indigent blind, of both sexes, capaple of employment, as will enable them to provide, either wholly or in part, for their own subsistence, and afford an asylum to the impotent and aged blind. The fund in the Court of Chancery, arising from Mr. Henshaw's bequest, is to remain in the names of the Trustees for the time being, under Mr. Henshaw's will; but the income arising therefrom is to be paid over by them as received, to the treasurer of the Charity; and the additional income, required to support the expenditure, will be raised by annual subscriptions, donations, or otherwise, as may be deemed expedient. The land, buildings, and furniture, required for the establishment, are vested in the thirteen Trustees already named, who will henceforth be elected by ballot, by the annual subscribers of one guinea or upwards, and donors in any one year of ten guineas or upwards; the annual subscribers of two guineas or upwards, and Donors in any one year of ten guineas or upwards, are alone eligible as Trustees. A new election of Trustees, to be made in like manner, takes place whenever the number is reduced by death, resignation, or otherwise, to seven, (or oftener, if required,) at a general meeting of the Board of Management. The Trustees for the time being, under Mr. Henshaw's will, together with the Trustees of the land, building, and furniture, and all Annual Subscribers of two guineas or upwards, and donors in any one year of twenty guineas or upwards, form a Board of Management, to whom the whole direction and control of the Institution is entrusted: they have power, from time to time, to make alterations in, and additions to, the rules of the Institution, not inconsistent with the fundamental regulations of the Charity. The Board of Management meet at four stated times in the year, viz: in some day in the first week of the months of February, May, August, and November, and at other times, on special occasions. The General Board in February is considered the Annual Board, at which a President, a Treasurer, two or more Deputy-Treasurers, and Two Auditors, are chosen out of the Board of Management, one of which Auditors may be appointed by the Trustees under Mr. Henshaw's will, and the other by the remaining Members of the Board of Management. A Weekly Board, consisting of at least three members of the General Board of Management, meet once a week at the Asylum. Letters are to be transmitted every Monday to seven subscribers, in the order in which they stand in the alphabetical list, requesting their attendance at the following weekly board, to take upon them the offices of Inspectors and House Visitors for the ensuing week; their duty being to visit the Asylum and School, to inspect the conduct of all persons employed in the Establishment, and of all the inmates; to inquire into the circumstances of the persons applying for admission, when necessary, and into any other incidental affairs, and to report the result, either personally or in writing, to the weekly board. Any subscriber, applying for admission of a blind person, may receive from the Secretary printed papers of questions and engagements, to which answers, in writing, will be required, properly attested; and when filled up the paper is to be returned to the Secretary, by whom it will be laid before the weekly board, for examination, their report being submitted for confirmation to the general board, by whose order alone the names are to be placed on the list of candidates. The election will then be by majority of votes, given by the Members of the Board of Management, at some special

meeting to be called for that purpose; every subscriber of two guineas or upwards, and any donor in any one year of twenty guineas or upwards, having one vote for every candidate, and every Trustee under Mr. Henshaw's will having one vote for every candidate, in his capacity as Trustee, in addition to the vote he may be entitled to as a subscriber. Where any donation, or annual subscription, is received from any public company, or mercantile or other firm, the privileges conferred thereby may be exercised by any member or partner of the company or firm.

THE JUBILEE OR LADIES' FEMALE CHARITY SCHOOL was founded in 1806, until which period the town possessed no institution for the gratuitous education, nor any one for the maintenance, of destitute females. In 1809, ten girls were admitted into the school, then situated in Broughton-lane. This number was shortly after increased to fourteen. In 1810, the inhabitants, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the reign of his Majesty George III., contributed funds for the erection of the present building, in Ducie-road, on a plot of land presented by Lord Ducie. In 1811, the structure was finished, when six more children were admitted. In 1812, four more were added, making in all twenty-four. In 1815, the number was increased to thirty, and afterwards to thirty-two; at which numb it remained until March, 1832, when a splendid legacy of £10,766 16s. 10d. from the late Mrs. Frances Hall enabled the Committee to add to the conveniences of the present structure, and to raise the number of girls to forty. With a part of this money they built a sub-ward, and an additional dormitory, by which the Charity will be enabled to accommodate fifty children, whenever its funds warrant such an increase. The institution is under the direction of a Committee of twenty ladies, and an assistant Committee of the like number of gentlemen; upon the former devolves the appointment of a Matron, the formation of the necessary regulations for the internal management of the house and the general inspection of the institution: the latter take upon themselves the financial department of the institution, and give their assistance whenever required by the Ladies' Committee. The benefits of the Charity are extended to all children who have lived three months in Manchester, Salford, or within a distance of three miles, and who are from ten to twelve years of age. Candidates for admission are previously examined by the medical officers of the Charity, and it is necessary that they should be reported free from imperfections in their limbs and eyes-from sores-from scrofulous and infectious disorders-not deformed, nor subject to fits, and having passed through the small or cow pox. If, after admission, it shall appear that any disqualification existed at the time, or that the children are subject to any of the above-named disorders, they may be dismissed by the Committee from the School. It is necessary also that the marriage of their parents should be duly verified. When the number of candidates exceeds the vacancies, the election is made by ballot. At a suitable age the children are put out as domestic servants, a preference being given to subscribers to the Charity. The girls thus obtained are found so valuable that the applications for them far exceed the supply afforded by the Charity.

PART VI.

AGRICULTURE, THE COAL FIELD, &c.

Within the last twenty years agriculture, in the vicinity of Manchester, has made a rapid advance, particularly on the lands lying south-west and north-west of the town. In these districts the farmers form a respectable class of society; many of them are liberal in their views, and desirous of making any improvements that hold out a reasonable prospect of success. In general the peasantry are active and industrious. The size of farms varies, some containing upwards of 150 acres of the customary measure,* others not more than ten acres. About WORSLEY, ASTLEY and TYLDESLEY, there may be one fifth of the land in tillage; the soil is generally of a strong clayey loam, which is both difficult and expensive to drain: some fields on the higher part of Worsley farm have latterly been very much improved, and are well worth the inspection of any person who is an occupier of strong soils. The farms in this district are chiefly devoted to the keep of milch cows; the milk is churned, (many farmers having availed themselves of the steam-engine to perform this process) and the butter and milk are conveyed to Manchester, where such products find a ready market.

From Worsley, through WINTON to BARTON, there is little land in tillage. The soil is excellent, and contains,

* Of seven yards to the rood.

+ Worsley is the property of the Trustees of the late Duke of Bridgwater,

U

in suitable quantities, almost all the requisites for a good crop. Some of the meadows will grow four or five tons of hay on the acre; wheat and oats, so far as they are the produce of this district, are generally of excellent quality. In FLIXTON, URMSTON, STREtford, Sale, Chorlton, NORTHEN, and adjacent townships, the soil is generally of a light loam, on substrata of silicious earth or gravel, and in some places it is of a peaty nature. The principal landed proprietors are Mr. Egerton, of Tatton Park, and Mr. Trafford, of Trafford. Urmston and Flixton have land inferior to none in the kingdom. This peculiar brown or hazel soil, as it is termed, is not so light and sandy as some before noticed; it contains a sufficiency of aluminous and calcareous earth, together with silica and vegetable mould in such proportions as to render it capable of producing most abundant crops. In the townships just alluded to there is more land in tillage than in the neighbourhood of Worsley. A greater breadth of it here is devoted to market gardening. The farmers sow the white Lisbon onions in autumn, send them to the Manchester market in spring, and will have the land cleared of the onion crop in sufficient time to plant potatos or other vegetables. Many of the farmers sow large quantities of onion seed in spring also: they are liberal with their seed, and consequently have many supernumeraries; these are plucked during the summer, sent to market, and by this management upwards of £150 is often raised from an acre of land. Early potatos, cabbages, peas and other vegetables, are cultivated to great extent, and almost every one farming, or rather gardening, in this way will manage to draw two or three crops from the same land; eighteen or twenty tons of potatos are often produced on an acre in one year. Some of the large farmers cultivate twenty or thirty

It is said that in the township of Sale there is now more land cultivated for onions than there was for potatos forty years ago.