l accommodate 1,500.--The Museum
Concert Hall was opened Dec. 20, 1863, and will hold about 1,000
people.--A very large building intended for use as a Concert Hall, &c.,
will soon be opened in Snow Hill, to be conducted on temperance
principles.--A series of popular Monday evening concerts was commenced
in the Town Hall, Nov. 12, 1844, and was continued for nearly two
years.--Twopenny weekly "Concerts for the People" were started at the
Music Hall, Broad Street (now Prince of Wales' Theatre), March 25, 1847,
but they did not take well.--Threepenny Saturday evening concerts in
Town Hall, were begun in November, 1879.

~Conferences and Congresses~ of all sorts of people have been held here
from time to time, and a few dates are here annexed:--A Conference of
Wesleyan ministers took place in 1836, in 1844, 1854, 1865, and 1879,
being the 136th meeting of that body. Four hundred Congregational
ministers met in Congress Oct. 5, 1862. A Social Science Congress was
held Sept. 30, 1868. A Trades Union Conference Aug. 23, 1869. National
Education League Conference, Oct. 12, 1869. National Republican
Conference, May 12, 1873. Conference on Sanitary Reform, Jan. 14, 1875.
A Co-operative Societies Conference, July 3, 1875. A Conference of
Christians in Needless Alley, Oct. 27, 1875. The Midland Counties'
Church Defence Associations met in the Exchange, Jan. 18, 1876, and on
the 9th of Feb. the advocates for disestablishing and disendowing the
Church said their say in the Masonic Hall, resolutions in favour of
sharing the loaves and fishes being enthusiastically carried by the good
people who covet not their neighbours' goods. A Domestic Economy
Congress was held July 17, 1877. A Church Conference held sittings Nov.
7, 1877. The friends of International Arbitration met in the Town Hall,
May 2, 1878, when 800 delegates were present, but the swords are not yet
beaten into ploughshares. How to lessen the output of coal was discussed
March 5, 1878, by a Conference of Miners, who not being then able to
settle the question, met again June 17, 1879, to calmly consider the
advisableness of laying idle all the coalpits in the country for a time,
as the best remedy they could find for the continued reduction of wages.
The 18th Annual Conference of the British Association of Gas Managers
was held here June 14, 1881, when about 500 of those gentlemen attended.
A considerable amount of gassy talk anent the wonderful future naturally
arose, and a