er, of Preston, who had to retire through
ill health. He exchanged livings with the Rev. W. Watson, of
Ellerburne, in Yorkshire, who required a more active sphere, and
found it at St. Mary's. Mr. Watson afterwards found higher
preferment, and went to the South of England. Then came the Rev.
Robert Lamb, who worked most vigorously in the district. He is now
rector of St. Paul's, Manchester. His successor was the Rev. Henry
Robert Smith, who, after staying a while, retired to St. Paul's, at
Grange, where he still labours. The next incumbent was the Rev.
George Alker, who came to St. Mary's in December, 1857. He is still
at the church; but we dare say he would be willing to leave it for a
rectory, if one were offered, with 500 pounds a year. Mr. Alker is
an Irishman, and is about 42 years of age. He is rather tall; is
genteelly fashioned, has good features, wears an elegantly-trimmed
pair of whiskers, has pompous, odorous, Pall Mall appearance, is
grandiose and special, looks like a nineteenth century Numa
Pompilius, would have made a spicey Pontifex Maximus, ought to have
lived in Persia, where he might have worn velvet slippers and been
fanned with peacock feathers, would have been a rare general
director of either fire-eaters or fire worshippers; is inclined to
run when he walks alone, and to be stately, slow, regal, and precise
when, like Fadladeen, he is in charge of Lalla Rookh. Is a man of
determination, and never sleeps with his clothes on. Is a sharp
debater, a briskly-pompous, eloquent talker, has had a good deal of
trouble at time and time in putting on his kid gloves, which used to
fit so mortally tight that he couldn't stir his thumbs in them;
stands with a fine commanding air in the pulpit, as if about to
shoulder arms; preaches extempore; says "my brethren" more
frequently in his sermons than any minister we ever heard; has a
clear, keen intellect; is dexterous, courageous, impassioned,
imperious; has a lofty, threepence-halfpenny majesty about him; has
been a hard worker, a stiff fighter, and a stinging public lecturer.
After leaving Ireland, he took a curacy in Liverpool. In 1857 he
accepted a similar post at St. Peter's, Preston. Here he organised a
class of young men, 800 strong, and whilst here he set the town on
fire with anti-Popery denunciation; and of him it might, at that
time, have been said--

He comes from Erin's peaceful shore
Like fervid kettle bubbling o'er
With hot effusions--hot and weak