erected a superb meeting house in Cherry Street, at the expense of L1,200.  This was opened, July 7, by John Wesley, the chief priest, whose extensive knowledge and unblemished manners give us a tolerable picture of apostolic purity, who believed as if he were to be saved by faith, and who laboured as if he were to be saved by works.”  The note made by Wesley, who was in his 80th year, respecting the opening of Cherry Street Chapel, has been preserved.  He says:—­“July 6th, 1782.  I came to Birmingham, and preached once more in the old dreary preaching-house.  The next day I opened the new house at eight, and it contained the people well, but not in the evening, many more then constrained to go away.  In the middle of the sermon a huge noise was heard, caused by the breaking of a bench on which some people stood.  None of them were hurt; yet it occasioned a general panic at first, but in a few minutes all was quiet.”  Four years after the opening, Wesley preached in the chapel again, and found great prosperity.  “At first,” he wrote, “the preaching-house would not near contain the congregation.  Afterwards I administered the Lord’s Supper to about 500 communicants.”  Old as he then was, the apostle of Methodism came here a time or two after that, his last visit being in 1790.  Many talented men have since served the Wesleyan body in this town, and the society holds a strong position among our Dissenting brethren.  The minutes of the Wesleyan Conference last issued give the following statistics of the Birmingham and Shrewsbury District:—­Church members, 18,875; on trial for membership, l,537; members of junior classes, 2,143; number of ministerial class leaders, 72; lay class leaders, 1,269; local or lay preachers, 769 (the largest number in any district except Nottingham and Derby, which has 798).  There are 40 circuits in the district, of which 27 report an increase of membership, and 13 a decrease.—­See “Places of Worship.”

Methodism, Primitive.—­The origin of the Primitive Methodist Connexion dates from 1808, and it sprung solely from the custom (introduced by Lorenzo Dow, from America, in the previous year) of holding “camp meetings,” which the Wesleyan Conference decided to be “highly improper in England, even if allowable in America, and likely to be productive of considerable mischief,” expelling the preachers who conducted them.  A new society was the result, and the first service in this town was held in Moor Sreet, in the open air, near to the Public Office, in the summer of 1824.  The first “lovefeast” took place, March 6, 1825, and the first “camp meeting,” a few months later.  A circuit was formed, the first minister being the Rev. T. Nelson, and in 1826, a chapel was opened in Bordesley Street, others following in due course of time, as the Primitives increased in number.  The Birmingham circuit contains about 800 members, with over 2,000 Sunday School scholars, and 250 teachers.—­ See “Places of Worship.”