and reverend gentlemen who have, from pulpit or platform, lectured and preached to the people in our town, or who have aided in the intellectual advancement and education of the rising generation of their time.  Church and Chapel alike have had their good men and true, and neither can claim a monopoly of talent, or boast much of their superiority in Christian fellowship or love of their kind.  Many shepherds have been taken from their so-called flocks whose places at the time it was thought could never be filled, but whose very names are now only to be found on their tombs, or mentioned in old magazines or newspapers.  Some few are here recalled as of interest from their position, peculiarities, &c.

John Angell James.—­A Wiltshire man was John Angell James, who, after a short course of itinerary preaching came to Birmingham, and for more than fifty years was the idolised minister of Carr’s Lane congregation.  He was a good man and eloquent, having a certain attractive way which endeared him to many.  He lived, and was loved by those who liked him, till he had reached the age of 74, dying Oct. 1, 1859, his remains being buried like those of a saint, under the pulpit from which he had so long preached.

Samuel Bache.—­Coming as a Christmas-box to his parents in 1804, and early trained for the pulpit, the Rev. Samuel Bache joined the Rev. John Kentish in his ministrations to the Unitarian flock in 1832, and remained with us until 1868.  Loved in his own community for faithfully preaching their peculiar doctrines, Mr. Bache proved himself a man of broad and enlightened sympathies; one who could appreciate and support anything and everything that tended to elevate the people in their amusements as well as in matters connected with education.

George Croft.—­The Lectureship of St. Martin’s in the first year of the present century was vested in Dr. George Croft, one of the good old sort of Church and King parsons, orthodox to the backbone, but from sundry peculiarities not particularly popular with the major portion of his parishioners.  He died in 1809.

George Dawson.—­Born in London, February 24, 1821, George Dawson studied at Glasgow for the Baptist ministry, and came to this town in 1844 to take the charge of Mount Zion chapel.  The cribbed and crabbed restraints of denominational church government failed, however, to satisfy his independent heart, and in little more than two years his connection with the Mount Zion congregation ceased (June 24, 1846).  The Church of the Saviour was soon after erected for him, and here he drew together worshippers of many shades of religious belief, and ministered unto them till his death.  As a lecturer he was known everywhere, and there are but few towns in the kingdom that he did not visit, while his tour in America, in the Autumn of 1874, was a great success.  His connection with the public institutions of this town is part of our modern history, and no man yet ever exercised