such influence or did more to advance the intelligence and culture of the people, and, as John Bright once said of Cobden “it was not until we had lost him that we knew how much we loved him.”  The sincerity and honesty of purpose right through his life, and exhibited in all his actions, won the highest esteem of even those who differed from him, and the announcement of his sudden death (Nov. 30, 1876) was felt as a blow by men of all creeds or politics who had ever known him or heard him.  To him the world owes the formation of the first Shakesperian Library—­to have witnessed its destruction would indeed have been bitter agony to the man who (in October, 1866) had been chosen to deliver the inaugural address at the opening of the Free Reference Library, to which he, with friends, made such an addition.  As a preacher, he was gifted with remarkable powers; as a lecturer, he was unsurpassed; in social matters, he was the friend of all, with ever-open hand to those in need; as a politician, though keen at repartee and a hard hitter, he was straightforward, and no time-server; and in the word of his favourite author, “Take him all in all, we ne’er shall look on his like again.”—­See “Statues,” &c.

W.  D. Long.—­The Rev. Wm Duncan Long (who died at Godalming, April 12, 1878), according to the Record, was “a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.”  In our local records he is noted as being distinguished for hard work among the poor of St. Bartholomew’s, of which parish he was minister for many years prior to 1851.

Thomas Swann.—­The Rev. Thomas Swann, who came here in January 1829, after a few years’ sojourn in India, served the Cannon Street body for 28 years, during which time he baptised 966 persons, admitting into membership a total of 1,233.  Mr. Swann had an attack of apoplexy, while in Glasgow, on Sunday, March 7, 1857, and died two days afterwards.  His remains were brought to Birmingham, and were followed to the grave (March 16) by a large concourse of persons, a number of ministers taking part in the funeral service.

W.  L. Giles.—­The Rev. W. Leese Giles, who filled the pulpit in Cannon Street from Oct., 1863, to July, 1872, was peculiarly successful in his ministrations, especially among the young.

Lewis Chapman.—­The Rev. Lewis Chapman (taken to his fathers Oct. 2, 1877, at the age of 81), after performing the duties and functions of Rabbi to the local Jewish community for more than forty-five years, was, from his amiability and benevolence, characterised by many Gentile friends as “an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”