grees into its present capaciousness, a numerous congregation
has gathered and grown in it; poor schools and other pious
institutions have grown up in connection with it, and, moreover,
equally at your expense and that of your brethren, and, as I have
reason to know, at much inconvenience, the Oratory has relieved the
other clergy of Birmingham all this while by constantly doing the
duty in the poor-house and gaol of Birmingham.

"More recently still, the mission and the poor school at Smethwick
owe their existence to the Oratory. And all this while the founder
and father of these religious works has added to his other
solicitudes the toil of frequent preaching, of attendance in the
confessional, and other parochial duties.

"I have read on this day of its publication the seventh part of the
Apologia, and the touching allusion in it to the devotedness of the
Catholic clergy to the poor in seasons of pestilence reminds me that
when the cholera raged so dreadfully at Bilston, and the two priests
of the town were no longer equal to the number of cases to which they
were hurried day and night, I asked you to lend me two fathers to
supply the place of other priests whom I wished to send as a further
aid. But you and Father St. John preferred to take the place of
danger which I had destined for others, and remained at Bilston till
the worst was over.

"The fourth work which I would notice is one more widely known. I
refer to the school for the education of the higher classes, which at
the solicitation of many friends you have founded and attached to the
Oratory. Surely after reading this bare enumeration of work done, no
man will venture to say that Dr. Newman is leading a comparatively
inactive life in the service of the Church.

"To spare, my dear Dr. Newman, any further pressure on those feelings
with which I have already taken so large a liberty, I will only add
one word more for my own satisfaction. During our long intercourse
there is only one subject on which, after the first experience, I
have measured my words with some caution, and that has been where
questions bearing on ecclesiastical duty have arisen. I found some
little caution necessary, because you were always so prompt and ready
to go even beyond the slightest intimation of my wish or desires.

"That God may bless you with health, life, and all the spiritual
good which you desire, you and your brethren of the Oratory, is
the earnest prayer now and often