The Royal Agricultural Society, Earl Powis in the chair, held
its annual meeting on Wednesday. From the report, we learn that its funds are in a flourishing state. Lord Feversham stated that the Prince Consort would probably consent to become President next year, and Lord Powis announced that the Society's exhibition for 1862 will be held in London. In 1851, he said, her Majesty was graciously pleased to let the council have their meeting in the Home Park, Windsor, and it had been thought advisable to have their meet- ing in London, to which persons from all parts of Europe would then be attracted. Her Majesty has now consented to allow the Society to have its exhibition in the Regent's Park, and the council has just concluded the arrangements on the subject with the Commissioner of Woods and Forests. The site is an extremely eligible one, and will give ample room for the show and the multitudes who will probably attend.
The annual festival of the Royal Medical Benevolent College was held at Willis's Rooms yesterday week, Lord Chelmsford in the chair. The college, of which the Queen is the patron and Lord Chelmsford has been recently elected 'president, was founded about nine years ago by members of the medical profession as an asylum for Chose of their brethren who, from ill-health, want of professional success, or other adverse influences, have sunk into poverty, and for the widows of medical men in reduced circumstances. With it is combined a school, devoted in part to the gratuitous education of orphans of medical men. The purposes are—first, to maintain an asylum for one hun- dred pensioners, who must be duly qualified medical men, or their widows, not under fifty years of age, possessing incomes of not more than sixty pounds a year; secondly, to provide a school, in which a liberal education will be given to two hundred boys, sons of duly qualified medical men, forty of whom (the foundation sholars) will be educated, boarded, clothed, and maintained entirely at the expense of the institution, while the remainder will be charged at the lowest practicable rate; and, thirdly, to provide annuities, or occasional pecu- niary assistance, to duly qualified medical men in distressed circum- stances, or to their families, when they can be granted without detri- ment to the asylum or school, which are regarded as the principal objects of the college. The institution, which is still in its infancy, was projected in 1851, and a suitable site having been obtained for it near 'Epsom Downs, it was opened in June, 1855 by the Prince Con- sort, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, and was shortly afterwards occupied by the pensioners and scholars who had been elected. The portion of the building destined for the school was in May last so far completed as to accommodate one hundred and fifty boys, but only five pensioners' houses, containing twenty residences, had been then built. There are resident in the college twenty pensioners, being aged medical men or their widows, each of whom is provided with three comfortably famished rooms, an allowance of coals, and a pen. sion of fifteen pounds a year ; also one hundred and fifty boys, sons of medical men, forty of whom, being the foundation scholars, are educated and maintained at the expense of the institution. The annual meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on Monday, the Bishop of Bath and Wells in the chair, was chiefly taken up with condemnation of the practice of vivisection, a subject on which the chairman delivered a learned speech, showing how the eminent men of the past had given up the practice of vivi- section as cruel and useless. This practice at present prevails to a painful extent in France, and the society is collecting a special fund for the purpose of defraying any expenses that may attend its humane efforts to put an end to this abominable practice. Halifax was the scene on Tuesday of a Sunday school fête or jubilee. The meeting was held in the Manufacturers' Piece Hall, wherein, it is said, 36,000 persons assembled. Occupying the area of the hall were 27,561 Sunday school teachers, scholars, and experi- enced vocalists. In addition, there were 2500 spectators holding half-crown tickets, 4600 one shilling ditto, and 1500 at sixpence— making a total of 36,161 persons present—the population of Halifax within about 1000. Eighty-seven schools were present from all parts of the extensive parish of Halifax, and even so far as Holmfirth, 16 miles distant. Of this number, 23 belonged to the Independent denomination, 18 to the Wesleyan Methodist, 13 to the Methodists Free Church, 10 to the Methodist New Connexion, 8 to the Primi- tive Methodist, 7 to the Baptist, and 8 " various," including the Halifax Ragged School, the Halifax Union Workhouse School, &c. Almost any number of schools might have been obtained to take part in the commemoration. The object of the committee of management was to make the assembly of scholars select—in other words, to collect the seniors out of the numerous schools. The Sunday schools of the Church of England took no part in the affair, nor have they since the Jubilee of 1831. The hymns were four in number, and were sung to the tunes of "Jubilee," " St. George," " Dismission," and " Wareham." In addition to these, Handers "Hallelujah Chorus" was sung with marvellous precision and force. The pro- ceeds will amount to about 8001., which sum, less expenses, will be divided among the various schools for the purchase of books. The report of the Molyneux Asylum for Blind Women at Dublin has just been issued. There are four thousand blind women in Ire- land, and nearly as many of the other sex. Dr. Wilde, the oculist, states that there is a greater proportion of blind in Ireland than in any other country of Europe except Norway. • It appears from the Poor Law inquiry now in progress that there are one thousand seven hundred blind paupers in the Irish workhouses.
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