building through an open window. I see by the Catholic Directory there
are at the time I now write thirty-nine churches and chapels in
Liverpool. The schools have increased in a like proportion.

The progress in numbers, wealth and influence of the Irish people may
be pretty well marked by the gradual increase in the number of churches
and schools, which have been built for the most part by the Irish and
their descendants. All honour to the noble-hearted, hard-handed toilers
who have contributed to such work, and greater glory still to the humble
men who, after a hard week's work in a ship's hold at the docks, or
perhaps in the "jigger loft" of a warehouse eight stories high, turn
out every Sunday morning to act as "collectors," and go in pairs from
door to door, one with the book and the other with the bag in hand, to
raise the means of erecting the noble churches and schools that
everywhere meet our view in Liverpool to-day.

With regard to the social position our people occupy in Liverpool, there
have been many Irishmen who have come well to the front in the race of
life, some of whom have occupied the foremost positions in connection
with the public life of the town. On the other hand; a large number of
our fellow-countrymen in Liverpool are by no means in that enviable
condition. Many of them have set out from Ireland, intending to go to
America, but, their little means failing them, have been obliged to
remain in Liverpool. Here they considered themselves fortunate if they
met someone from the same part of the country as themselves to give them
a helping hand, for it is a fine trait in the Irish character--and
"over here in England" the trait has not been lost--that, however poor,
they are always ready to befriend what seems to them a still poorer
neighbour. Those who have lived here some time are glad to see someone
from their "own place," and, amid the squalor of an English city, the