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244 plunderers. [See "Masshouse 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 1S4S 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 worship:—

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 noblemen 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 mediæval 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, Nechells, 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, Harboure, was founded by the Passionist Fathers, and opened Feb 6, 1877.

St. Michae'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 worship erected here after the sack and demolition of the church and convent in Masshouse 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