CHETHAM’S hospital, or, as it is more properly termed, “College,” was founded by Charter in the year 1665, by Humphrey Chetham, a Manchester citizen and tradesman, who had, during his lifetime, brought up, fed, and educated fourteen boys of Manchester and Salford.  He paid a heavy fine to Charles I. for persisting in his refusal of a baronetcy, and in 1634 was appointed Sheriff of his county.  By his will Chetham directed that the number of boys he had previously provided for should be augmented by the addition of one from Droylsden, two from Crumpsall, four from Turton, and ten from Bolton; and left the sum of 7000 pounds to be devoted to their instruction and maintenance, from six to fourteen years of age, and for their apprenticeship afterwards to some trade.  The funds having since increased, 80 boys are now received, in the following proportions, from the several places mentioned in the founder’s will, viz.:—­Manchester, 28; Salford, 12; Droylsden, 6; Crumpsall, 4; Bolton, 20; Turton, 10.  They are clothed, fed, boarded, lodged, and instructed in reading, writing, grammar, and arithmetic.  The boys are selected by the Feoffees in annual meeting at Easter, within six days before the Monday in which week an application must be sent in to the Governor, accompanied by a printed note of recommendation, signed by the overseers and churchwardens of the place in which the candidate resides.

The college library is situated in the same old building in which accommodation is found for the College, and is a fine collection of upwards of 25,000 volumes.  The germ of this library consisted of the books bequeathed by Humphrey Chetham, many of them of great scarcity and value.  The collection contains comparatively few volumes of modern date.  The library is open to the use of the public without charge or restriction, and a small, but convenient, reading-room is provided for their accommodation.  Books are not allowed to be removed from the premises, and every reader is obliged to make an entry of each volume he wishes to obtain.  Notwithstanding the immense population of Manchester and Salford, this valuable institution is comparatively little used, the number of readers averaging less than twenty per day.

Swinton school.—­In connexion with the Workhouse an Industrial House and School has been erected at Swinton, five miles from the City, which affords so admirable an example for imitation by all manufacturing or crowded communities, that we are glad to be able to extract the main facts concerning it from a graphic description in the first volume of Dickens’s Household Words:—­