membership of 13,000, and estimate the
value of their church property at over $2,000,000. Some of their
churches are very handsome. St. Paul's, at the northeast corner of
Fourth avenue and Twenty-second street, is a beautiful structure. It is
built of white marble, in the Romanesque style. The Rectory, adjoining
it, is of the same material. It is the gift of Daniel Drew to the
congregation. The spire is 210 feet high, and the church will seat 1300
persons.

The Jews are said to have come into New York with its early settlers, and
there seems to be good authority for this statement. Finding tolerance
and protection here, they have increased and multiplied rapidly, and are
now very numerous. They are immensely wealthy as a class, and make a
liberal provision for the unfortunate of their own creed. They have
twenty-seven synagogues, several of which are among the most prominent
buildings in the city. The Temple Emanuel, Fifth avenue and Forty-third
street, is one of the costliest and most beautiful religious edifices in
America. It is built of a light colored stone, with an elaborately
carved front, and from the north and south ends rise slender and graceful
towers, which give an air of lightness to the whole structure. The
Temple is said to have cost, including the site, about one million of
dollars.

The Roman Catholics are, in point of numbers, one of the strongest, if
not the strongest denomination in the city. In the early history of the
colony a law was enacted which required that every Roman Catholic priest
who should come into the city of his own free will, should be hanged
forthwith. This barbarous statute was never put in force, and one cannot
help smiling to think how times have changed since then for the people of
the Roman faith. Their first church occupied the site of the present St.
Peter's, in Barclay street, and was built in 1786. In 1815, they were
strong enough to erect St. Patrick's Cathedral, on the corner of Mott and
Prince streets. They have now forty churches in the city, and own a vast
amount of real estate. The city authorities, being frequently of this
faith, have made liberal grants to their church, and in this way have
excited no little hostility on the part of the Protestant churches, who
are, as a rule, opposed to secular grants to religious denominations.

The Roman Catholics of New York consist principally of the poorer
classes, though the church contains a large body of