Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham Part 38

_Christian Brethren_.--Their head meeting-house is at the Central Hall, Great Charles Street, other meetings being held in Bearwood Road, Birchfield Road, Green Lanes, King Street, (Balsall Heath), New John Street, Wenman Street, (opened in June, 1870), and at Aston and Erdington.

_Christadelphians_ meet at the Temperance Hall, Temple Street.

_Church of the Saviour_, Edward Street.--Built for George Dawson on his leaving the Baptists, the first turf being turned on the site July 14, 1846, and the opening taking place Aug. 8, 1847.

_Congregational_.--How the Independents sprang from the Presbyterians, and the Congregationalists from them, is hardly matter of local history, though Carr's Line Chapel has sheltered them all in rotation. The first building was put up in 1747-48, and, with occasional repairs lasted full fifty years, being rebuilt in 1802, when the congregation numbered nearly 900. Soon after the advent of the Rev. John Angell James, it became necessary to provide accommodation for at least 2,000, and in 1819 the chapel was again rebuilt in the form so well known to the present generation. The rapidity with which this was accomplished was so startling that the record inscribed on the last late affixed to the roof is worth quoting, as well on account of its being somewhat of a novel innovation upon the usual custom of foundation-stone memorial stone, and first-stone laying and fixing:--

"Memoranda. On the 30th day of July, 1819, the first stone of this building was laid by the Rev. John Angell James, the minister. On the 30th day of October, in the same year, this the last slate was laid by Henry Leneve Holland, the builder, in the presence of Stedman Thomas Whitwell, the Architect.--_Laus Deo_."

In 1875-76 the chapel was enlarged, refronted, and in many ways strengthened and improved, at a cost of nearly 5,000, and it now has seats for 2,250 persons.--Ebenezer Chapel, Steelhouse Lane, which will seat 1,200, was opened Dec. 9, 1818. Its first pastor, the Rev. Jehoida Brewer, was the first to be buried there.--The first stone of Highbury Chapel, which seats 1,300, was laid May 1, 1844, and it was opened by Dr. Raffles in the following October.--Palmer Street Chapel was erected in 1845.--The first stone of the Congregational Church in Francis Road was laid Sept. 11, 1855, the opening taking place Oct. 8, 1856.--The first stone of the Moseley Road building was laid July 30, 1861, and of that in the Lozells, March 17, 1862.--The chapel at Small Heath was commenced Sept. 19, 1867, and opened June 21, 1868; that at Saltley was began June 30, 1868, and opened Jan. 26, 1869.--The chapel in Park Road, Aston, was began Oct. 7, 1873; the church on Soho Hill, which cost 15,000, was commenced April 9, 1878, and opened July 16, 1879.--The memorial-stones of the church at Sutton Coldfield, which cost 5,500, and will seat 640, were laid July 14, 1879, the opening taking place April 5, 1880; the Westminster Road (Birchfield) Church was commenced Oct. 21, 1878, was opened Sept. 23, 1879, cost 5,500, and will seat 900; both of these buildings have spires 100ft. high.--The foundation-stone of a chapel at Solihull, to accommodate 420, was laid May 23, 1883.--Besides the above, there is the Tabernacle Chapel, Parade, chapels in Bordesley Street, Gooch Street, and St. Andrew's Road, and others at Ac.o.c.k's Green, Erdington, Handsworth, Olton, Yardley, &c.

_Disciples of Christ_ erected a chapel in Charles Henry Street in 1864; in Geach Street in 1865; in Great Francis Street in 1873.

_Free Christian Church_, Fazeley Street--Schoolrooms were opened here in 1865 by the Birmingham Free Christian Society, which were enlarged in 1868 at a cost of about 800. Funds to build a church were gathered in succeeding years and the present edifice was opened April 1, 1877, the cost being 1,300.

_Jews_.--The Hebrew Synagogue in Blucher Street was erected in 1856, at a cost of 10,000.

_Methodists_.--The Primitive Methodists for some time after their first appearance here held, their meetings in the open air or in hired rooms, the first chapel they used being that in Bordesley Street (opened March 16, 1823, by the Wesleyans) which they entered upon in 1826. Other chapels they had at various times in Allison Street, Balloon Street, Inge Street, &c. Gooch Street Chapel was erected by them at a cost of over 2,000 (the first stone being laid August 23, 1852) and is now their princ.i.p.al place of wors.h.i.+p, their services being also conducted in Chapels and Mission Rooms in Aston New Town, Garrison Lane, Long Acre, Lord Street, Morville Street, Wells Street, Whitmore Street, The Cape, Selly Oak, Perry Barr, Sparkbrook, and Stirchley Street.--_The Methodist New Connexion_ have chapels in Heath Street, Kyrwick's Lane, Ladywood Lane, Moseley Street, and Unett Street--The first stone of a chapel for the _Methodist New Congregational_ body was placed July 13, 1873, in Icknield Street West.--The _Methodist Reformers_ commenced to build a chapel in Bishop Street, November 15, 1852.--The _Methodist Free Church_ has places of wors.h.i.+p in Bath Street, Cuckoo Road, Muntz Street, Rocky Lane, and at Washwood Heath.

_New Church_.--The denomination of professing Christians, who style themselves the "New Church," sometimes known as "The New Jerusalem Church," and more commonly as "Swedenborgians," as early as 1774 had a meeting room in Great Charles Street, from whence they removed to a larger one in Temple Row. Here they remained until 1791, when they took possession of Zion Chapel, Newhall Street, the ceremony of consecration taking place on the 19 of June. This event was of more than usual interest, inasmuch as this edifice was the first ever erected in the world for New Church wors.h.i.+p. The rioters of 1791, who professed to support the National Church by demolis.h.i.+ng the Dissenting places of wors.h.i.+p, paid Zion Chapel a visit and threatened to burn it, but the eloquence of the minister, the Rev. J. Proud, aided by a judicious distribution of what cash he had in his pocket, prevailed over their burning desires, and they carried their torches elsewhere. On the 10th of March, 1793, however, another incendiary attempt was made to suppress the New Church, but the fire was put out before much damage was done.

What fire and popular enmity could not do, however, was accomplished by a financial crisis, and the congregation had to leave their Zion, and put up with a less pretentious place of wors.h.i.+p opposite the Wharf in Newhall Street. Here they remained till 1830, when they removed to Summer Lane, where a commodious church, large schools, and minister's house had been erected for them. In 1875 the congregation removed to their present location in Wretham Road, where a handsome church has been built, at a cost of nearly 8,000, to accommodate 500 persons, with schools in the rear for as many children. The old chapel in Summer Lane has been turned into a Clubhouse, and the schools attached to it made over to the School Board. The New Church's new church, like many other modern-built places for Dissenting wors.h.i.+p, has tower and spire, the height being 116ft.

_Presbyterians_.--It took a long time for all the nice distinctive differences of dissenting belief to manifest themselves before the public got used to Unitarianism, Congregationalism, and all the other isms into which Nonconformity has divided itself. When Birmingham was as a city of refuge for the many clergymen who would not accept the Act of Uniformity, it was deemed right to issue unto them licenses for preaching, and before the first Baptist chapel, or the New Meeting, or the Old Meeting, or the old Old Meeting (erected in 1689), were built, we find (1672) that one Samuel Willis, styling himself a minister of the Presbyterian persuasion, applied for preaching licenses for the school-house, and for the houses of John Wall, and Joseph Robinson, and Samuel Taylor, and Samuel Dooley, and John Hunt, all the same being in Birmingham; and William Fincher, another "minister of the Presbyterian persuasion," asked for licenses to preach in the house of Richard Yarnald, in Birmingham, his own house, and in the houses of Thomas Gisboon, William Wheeley, John Pemberton, and Richard Careless, in Birmingham, and in the house of Mrs. Yarrington, on Bowdswell Heath. In Bradford's map (1751) Carr's Lane chapel is put as a "Presbiterian chapel," the New Meeting Street building close by being called "Presbiterian Meeting." It was of this "Presbiterian Chapel" in Carr's Lane that Hutton wrote when he said it _was_ the road to heaven, but that its surroundings indicated a very different route. Perhaps it was due to these surroundings that the attendants at Carr's Lane came by degrees to be called Independents and the New Meeting Street folks Unitarians, for both after a time ceased to be known as Presbyterians.

The Scotch Church, or, as it is sometimes styled, the Presbyterian Church of England, is not a large body in Birmingham, having but three places of wors.h.i.+p. The first Presbytery held in this town was on July 6, 1847; the foundation-stone of the Church in Broad Street was laid July 24, 1848; the Church at Camp Hill was opened June 3, 1869; and the one in New John Street West was began July 4, 1856, and opened June 19, 1857.

_Salvation Army_.--The invasion of Birmingham by the soldiers of the Salvation Army was accomplished in the autumn of 1882, the General (Mr.

Booth) putting in an appearance March 18, 1883. They have several rendezvous in the town, one of the princ.i.p.al being in Farm Street, from whence the "soldiers" frequently sally out, with drums beating and colours flying, much to their own glorification and other people's annoyance.

_Unitarians_.--The building known for generations as the Old Meeting, is believed to have been the first Dissenting place of wors.h.i.+p erected in Birmingham; and, as its first register dates from 1689, the chapel most likely was built in the previous year. It was doubtless but a small building, as in about ten years (1699) a "Lower Meeting House" was founded in Meeting House Yard, nearly opposite Rea Street. The premises occupied here were gutted in the riots of 1715, and the owner promised the mob that it should no more be used as a chapel, but when calmer he repented and services were held until the New Meeting House in Moor Street was opened. The rioters in 1715 partly destroyed the old Meeting and those of 1791 did so completely, as well as the New Meeting, which (began in 1730) was opened in 1732. For a time the congregations united and met at the Amphitheatre in Livery Street, the members of Old Meeting taking possession of their re-erected chapel, October 4, 1795. New Meeting being re-opened April 22, 1802. The last-named building remained in the possession of the Unitarians until 1861, when it was sold to the Roman Catholics. The last services in Old Meeting took place March 19, 1882, the chapel and graveyard, comprising an area of 2,760 square yards, being sold to the L. & N. W. R. Co., for the purpose of enlarging the Central Station. The price paid by the Railway Company was 32,250, of which 2,000 was for the minister and 250 towards the expense of removing to private vaults the remains of a few persons whose friends wished that course. A portion of Witton Cemetery was laid out for the reception of the remainder, where graves and vaults have been made in relative positions to those in the old graveyard, the tombstones being similarly placed. A new church has been erected in Bristol Street for the congregation, with Sunday Schools, &c., 7,000 being the sum given for the site.--In 1839, Hurst Street Chapel was built for the Unitarian Domestic Mission. May 1, same year, the first stone was laid of the Newhall Hill Chapel, which was opened July 10, 1840.--The Church of the Messiah, Broad Street, was commenced Aug. 12, 1860, and opened Jan. 1, 1862. This church, which cost 10,000 and will seat nearly 1,000 is built over a ca.n.a.l, one of the strangest sites ever chosen for a place of wors.h.i.+p. In connection with this church, there is a chapel in Lawrence Street.

_Welsh Chapels_.--The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists meet in the little chapel, bottom of Hockley Hill, and also in Granville Street, near Bath Row.--The Welsh Congregationalists (Independents) a.s.semble at Wheeler Street Chapel, opened May 1, 1839.

_Wesleyans_.--The first Wesleyan Chapel in Birmingham was opened by John Wesley, March 21, 1764, the building having been previously a theatre.

Cherry Street Chapel, opened July 7, 1782, was rebuilt in 1823.-- Bradford Street Chapel was opened in 1786, Belmont Row in 1789, and Bath Street in 1839.--In 1825, a chapel was built in Martin Street, which was converted into a school on the opening (Nov. 10, 1864) of the present edifice, which cost 6,200.--Newtown Row Chapel was built in 1837 and Great Hampton Street and Unett Street Chapels in 1838, the latter being enlarged in 1844.--Branston Street Chapel was opened April 18, and Moseley Road, May 1, 1853.--The Bristol Road Chapel was opened January 18, 1854, and that in King Edward's Road, January 18, 1859.--The first stones were laid for the chapels in Villa Street April 21, 1864, Handsworth Oct. 21, 1872, Selley Oak Oct. 2, 1876, Peel Street, August 30, 1877, Cuckoo Road, June 10, 1878, Nech.e.l.ls Park Road Oct. 25, 1880, Mansfield Road Feb. 19, 1883. Besides the above there are chapels in Coventry Road, Inge Street, Knutsford Street, Lichfield Road, Lord Street, New John Street, Monument Road, and Warwick Road, as well as mission rooms in several parts of the town and suburbs. Ac.o.c.k's Green, Erdington. Harborne, King's Heath, Northfield, Quinton, &c. have also Wesleyan Chapels.--_The Wesleyan Reformers_ meet in Floodgate Street, and in Upper Trinity Street.

_Miscellaneous_.--Lady Huntingdon's followers opened a chapel in King Street in 1785, and another in Peck Lane in 1842 (both sites being cleared in 1851), and a third in Gooch Street, Oct. 26th, 1851.--The believers in Joannah Southcote also had chosen spots wherein to pray for their leader, while the imposture lasted.--The celebrated Edward Irving opened Mount Zion Chapel, March 24th, 1824. "G.o.d's Free Church," in Hope Street, was "established" June 4th. 1854.--Zoar Chapel was the name given to a meeting-room in Cambridge Street, where a few undenominational Christians met between 1830 and 1840. It was afterwards used as a schoolroom in connection with Winfield's factory.--Wrottesley Street Chapel was originally built as a Jewish Synagogue, at a cost of about 2,000. After they left it was used for a variety of purposes, until acquired by William Murphy, the Anti-Catholic lecturer. It was sold by his executors, Aug. 2nd, 1877, and realised 645, less than the cost of the bricks and mortar, though the lease had 73 years to run.

~Places of Wors.h.i.+p.~--_Roman Catholics_.--From the days of Queen Mary, down to the last years of James II.'s reign, there does not appear to have been any regular meeting-place for the Catholic Inhabitants of Birmingham. In 1687, a church (dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen and St.

Francis) was built somewhere near the site of the present St.

Bartholomew's but it was destroyed in the following year, and the very foundation-stones torn up and appropriated by Protestant plunderers.

[See "_Ma.s.shouse Lane_."]

It was a hundred years before the next church, St. Peter's, near Broad Street, was erected, and the Catholic community has increased but slowly until the last thirty years or so. In 1848 there were only seven priests in Birmingham, and but seventy in the whole diocese. There are now twenty-nine in this town, and about 200 in the district, the number of churches having increased, in the same period, from 70 to 123, with 150 schools and 17,000 scholars. The following are local places of wors.h.i.+p:--

_Cathedral of St. Chad_,--A chapel dedicated to St. Chad (who was about the only saint the kingdom of Mercia could boast of), was opened in Bath Street, Dec. 17, 1809. When His Holiness the Pope blessed his Catholic children hereabouts with a Bishop the insignificant chapel gave place to a Cathedral, which, built after the designs of Pugin, cost no less than 60,000. The consecration was performed (July 14, 1838) by the Right Rev. Doctor (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman, the district bishop, in the presence of a large number of English n.o.blemen and foreign ecclesiastical dignitaries, and with all the imposing ceremonies customary to Catholic celebrations of this nature. The adjoining houses detract much from the outside appearance of this reproduction of medieval architecture, but the magnificence of the interior decorations, the elaborate carvings, and the costly accessories appertaining to the services of the Romish Church more than compensate therefor. Pugin's plans have not even yet been fully carried out, the second spire, that on the north tower (150ft. high), being added in 1856, the largest he designed still waiting completion. Five of a peal of eight bells were hung in 1848, and the remainder in 1877, the peculiar and locally-rare ceremony of "blessing the bells" being performed by Bishop Ullathorne, March 22nd, 1877.

_Oratory_, Hagley Road--Founded by the Fathers of the Order of St.

Philip Neri, otherwise called Oratorians. The Father Superior is the Rev. Dr.J. H. Newman (born in 1801), once a clergyman of the Church of England, the author of the celebrated "Tract XC.," now His Eminence Cardinal Newman.

_St. Anne's_, Alcester Street.--In 1851, some buildings and premises originally used as a distillery were here taken on a lease by the Superior of the Oratory, and opened in the following year as a Mission-Church in connection with the Congregation of the Fathers in Hagley Road. In course of time the property was purchased, along with some adjacent land, for the sum of 4,500, and a new church has been erected, at a cost of 6,000. The foundation-stone was laid Sept. 10th, 1883, and the opening ceremony took place in July, 1884, the old chapel and buildings being turned into schools for about 1,500 children.

_St. Catherine of Sienna_, Horse Fair.--The first stone was laid Aug.

23, 1869, and the church was opened in July following.

_St. Joseph's_, Nech.e.l.ls, was built in 1850, in connection with the Roman Catholic Cemetery.

_St. Mary's_, Hunter's Lane, was opened July 28, 1847.

_St. Mary's Retreat_, Harborne, was founded by the Pa.s.sionist Fathers, and opened Feb. 6, 1877.

_St. Michael's_, Moor Street, was formerly the Unitarian New Meeting, being purchased, remodelled, and consecrated in 1861.

_St. Patrick's,_ Dudley Road, was erected in 1862.

_St. Peter's_, Broad Street, built in 1786, and enlarged in 1798, was the first Catholic place of wors.h.i.+p erected here after the sack and demolition of the church and convent in Ma.s.shouse Lane. With a lively recollection of the treatment dealt out to their brethren in 1688, the founders of St. Peter's trusted as little as possible to the tender mercies of their fellow-townsmen, but protected themselves by so arranging their church that nothing but blank walls should face the streets, and with the exception of a doorway the walls remained unpierced for nearly seventy years. The church has lately been much enlarged, and the long-standing rebuke no more exists.

In addition to the above, there are the Convents of "The Sisters of the Holy Child," in Hagley Road; "Sisters of Notre Dame," in the Crescent; "Little Sisters of the Poor," at Harborne; "Our Lady of Mercy," at Handsworth; and others connected with St. Anne's and St. Chad's, besides churches at Erdington, &c.

~Police.~--Though the Court Leet provided for the appointment of constables, no regular body of police or watchmen appear to have existed even a hundred years ago. In February, 1786, the magistrates employed men to nightly patrol the streets, but it could not have been a permanent arrangement, as we read that the patrol was "resumed" in _October, 1793_, and later on, in March, 1801, the magistrates "solicited" the inhabitants' consent to a re-appointment of the night-watch. After a time the Commissioners of the Streets kept regular watchmen in their employ--the "Charleys" occasionally read of as finding sport for the "young bloods" of the time--but when serious work was required the Justices appear to have depended on their powers of swearing-in special constables. The introduction of a police force proper dates from the riotous time of 1839 [See "_Chartism_"], for immediately after those troublous days Lord John Russell introduced a Bill to the House of Commons granting special powers for enforcing a rate to maintain a police force here, under the command of a Commissioner to be appointed by the Government. The force thus sought to be raised, though paid for by the people of Birmingham, were to be available for the whole of the counties of Warwick, Worcester and Stafford.

Coercive measures were pa.s.sed at that period even quicker than Government can manage to get them through now a-days, and notwithstanding Mr. Thos. Attwood's telling Little Lord John that he was "throwing a lighted torch into a magazine of gunpowder" and that if he pa.s.sed that Bill he would never be allowed to pa.s.s another, the Act was pushed through on the 13th of August, there being a majority of thirteen in favour of his Lords.h.i.+p's policy of policeing the Brums into politeness. The dreaded police force was soon organised under Mr.

Commissioner Burges (who was paid the small salary of 900 a year), and became not only tolerated but valued. It was not till some years after, and then in the teeth of much opposition, that the Corporation succeeded in getting into their own hands the power of providing our local guardians of the peace. Mr. Inspector Stephens was the first Chief Superintendent, and in March, 1860, his place was filled by the promotion of Mr. George Glossop. In April, 1876, the latter retired on an allowance of 400 a year, and Major Bond was chosen (June 2nd). The Major's term of office was short as he resigned in Dec. 1881. Mr.

Farndale being appointed in his stead. In May, 1852, the force consisted of 327, men and officers included. Additions have been made from time to time, notably 50 in August, 1875, and so early in 1883, the total rank and file now being 550, equal to one officer for every 700 of population. February 8, 1876, the unpopular Public-house Inspectors were appointed, but two years' experience showed they were not wanted, and they were relegated to their more useful duties of looking after thieves and pickpockets, instead of poking their noses into private business. In 1868, 200 was expended in the purchase of guns, pistols, and swords for the police and officers at the Gaol. The Watch Committee, in May, 1877, improved the uniform by supplying the men with "spiked" helmets, doubtless to please the Major, who liked to see his men look smart, though the military appearance of the force has been greatly improved since by the said spikes being silvered and burnished.

~Political Union.~--See "_Reform Leagues_."

~Polling Districts.~--The sixteen wards of the borough are divided into 131 polling districts.

~Polytechnic.~--This was one of the many local literary, scientific, and educational inst.i.tutions which have been replaced by our Midland Inst.i.tute, Free Libraries, &c. It was founded in April, and opened in October, 1843, and at the close of its first year there were the names of very nearly 500 members on the books, the rates of subscription being 6s. per quarter for partic.i.p.ation in all the benefits of the inst.i.tution, including the lectures, library, cla.s.ses, baths, &c. With the "People's Instruction Society," the "Athenic Inst.i.tute," the "Carr's Lane Brotherly Society" (said to have been the first Mechanics'

Inst.i.tution in Britain), the Polytechnic, in its day, did good work.

~Poor Law and Poor Rates.~--Local history does not throw much light upon the system adopted by our early progenitors in their dealings with the poor, but if the merciless laws were strictly carried out, the wandering beggars, at all events must have had hard lives of it. By an act pa.s.sed in the reign of Henry VIII., it was ordered that vagrants should be taken to a market town, or other convenient place and there to be tied to the tail of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips until the body should be b.l.o.o.d.y by reason of the punishment. Queen Elizabeth so far mitigated the punishment that the unfortunates were only to be stripped from the waist upwards to receive their whipping, men and women, maids and mothers, suffering alike in the open street or market-place, the practice being, after so using them, to conduct them to the boundary of the parish and pa.s.s them on to the next place for another dose, and it was not until 1791 that flogging of women was forbidden. The resident or native poor were possibly treated a little better, though they were made to work for their bread in every possible case. By the new Poor Act of 1783, which authorised the erection of a Workhouse, it was also provided that the "Guardians of the Poor" should form a Board consisting of 106 members, and the election of the first Board (July 15th, 1783), seems to have been almost as exciting as a modern election. In one sense of the word they were guardians indeed, for they seem to have tried their inventive faculties in all ways to find work for the inmates of the House, even to hiring them out, or setting them to make worsted and thread. The Guardians would also seem to have long had great freedom allowed them in the spending of the rates, as we read it was not an uncommon thing for one of them if he met a poor person badly off for clothes to give an order on the Workhouse for a fresh "rig out." In 1873 the Board was reduced to sixty in number (the first election taking place on the 4th of April), with the usual local result that a proper political balance was struck of 40 Liberals to 20 Conservatives. The Workhouse, Parish Offices, Children's Homes, &c., will be noted elsewhere. Poor law management in the borough is greatly complicated from the fact of its comprising two different parishes, and part of a third. The Parish of Birmingham works under a special local Act, while Edgbaston forms part of King's Norton Union, and the Aston portion of the town belongs to the Aston Union, necessitating three different rates and three sets of collectors, &c. If a poor man in Moseley Road needs a.s.sistance he must see the relieving officer at the Parish Offices in the centre of the town if he lives on one side of Highgite Lane he must find the relieving officer at King's Heith; but if he happens to be on the other side he will have to go to Gravelly Hill or Erdington. Not long ago to obtain a visit from the medical officer for his sick wife, a man had to go backwards and forwards more than twenty miles. The earliest record we have found of the cost of relieving the poor of the parish is of the date of 1673 in which year the sum of 309 was thus expended. In 1773 the amount was 6,378, but the pressure on the rates varied considerably about then, as in 1786 it required 11,132, while in 1796 the figures rose to 24,050.

According to Hutton, out of about 8,000 houses only 3,000 were a.s.sessed to the poor rates in 1780, the inhabitants of the remaining number being too poor to pay them. Another note shows up the peculiar incidence of taxation of the time, as it is said that in 1790 there were nearly 2000 houses under 5 rental and 8,000 others under 10, none of them being a.s.sessed, such small tenancies being first rated in 1792. The rates then appear to have been levied at the uniform figure of 6d. in the on all houses above 6 yearly value, the ratepayers being called upon as the money was required--in and about 1798, the collector making his appearance sixteen or eighteen times in the course of the year. The Guardians were not so chary in the matter of out-relief as they are at present, for in 1795 there were at one period 2,427 families (representing over 6,000 persons, old and young) receiving out-relief.

What this system (and bad trade) led to at the close of the long war is shown in the returns for 1816-17, when 36 poor rates were levied in the twelvemonth. By various Acts of Parliament, the Overseers have now to collect other rates, but the proportion required for the poor is thus shown:--

Rate Amount Paid to Cost of In and Other Parochial Year in collected Corporation Out Relief Expenditure s.d.

1851 4 0 78,796 39,573 17,824 21,399 1861 3 8 85,986 36,443 34,685 14,878 1871 3 2 116,268 44,293 37,104 34,871 1881 4 8 193,458 107,520 42,880 48,058

The amounts paid over to the Corporation include the borough rate and the sums required by the School Board, the Free Libraries, and the District Drainage Board. In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the Corporation. The poor-rates are levied half-yearly, and in 1848,1862, and 1868 they amounted to 5s. per year, the lowest during the last forty years being 3s. in 1860; 1870, 1871, and 1872 being the next lowest, 3s.

2d. per year. The number of persons receiving relief may be gathered from the following figures:--

Highest Lowest Year. No. daily No. daily 1876 7,687 7,058 1877 8,240 7,377 1878 8,877 7,242 1879 14,651 8,829 1880 13,195 7,598 1881 11,064 7,188 1882 9,658 7,462 1883 8,347 7,630