134 DUDLEY.

Dudley has recently supported and brought to a most suocessful issue an Industrial Exhibition, which was in every way an honour and a credit to the town. And lastly, it now enjoys the luxury of a Mayor and Corporation, and a bench of Magistrates. The town was incorporated in 1864, and all political and religious parties for once coalesced in unanimously electing Frederick Smith, Esq., of the Priory, to be their first Mayor, a compliment which he duly acknowledged by entertaining on his picturesque grounds in front of the old Hall the 4,000 school children of the town and their teachers, who in the presence of some 30,000 spectators heartily wished "success to their first Mayor." Job Taylor, Esq., is the Mayor for the present year.

On October 17,1867, the magnificent fountain presented to the town by the Earl of Dudley, at a cost of £3,000, was opened amidst great rejoicing and festivity in the Marketplace of the borough. This beautiful work of art, unsurpassed by anything of the kind in England, was the production of Mr. Forsyth, the sculptor. There was a general holiday, the shops being closed, bells ringing, processions, addresses, luncheons, dinners, and bands of music, being in the programme.

This town is likewise richly endowed with free and other schools, affording great facilities for all classes to procure education for their children. So far, however, as I can hear, they are free only in name. Their turn will come by-and-bye, when all things educational must be overhauled. Nevertheless it should be added that the free grammar school of the town is a much more liberal institution, and carried out more in accordance with the views of the founder, than that of Kidderminster and most other establishments of the kind in the county. There is a Blue-coat School, and many other charity schools, both of Church and dissent. Notwithstanding these agencies, the schoolmaster will yet have much to do before he eradicates the superstitions and fooleries still in vogue among the lower orders. It is not.