When Father Nugent took the paper in hands, the readers had such confidence in it that, from being merely a local paper, we were able before long to make it a leading Catholic organ for the whole country.

The reverend father was chaplain of the Liverpool Borough jail.  He was respected by all classes, Protestant as well as Catholic, not only for what he did for the unfortunate creatures who came under his ministrations, but as a public-spirited citizen and benefactor of the town.  It would be wrong if I did not pay a high tribute to the splendid service done by him in Liverpool towards elevating the condition of our own people.  I would be ungrateful, too, if I failed to recognise the great educational work he did in giving opportunities for culture to many Liverpool Irishmen, myself among the number, which afterwards aided their advancement in the battle of life.  That is why I never regretted that I gave Father Nugent, when conducting the “Catholic Times” for him, three of the best years of my life.  I never regretted my experiences in connection with that paper, particularly in the reporting department, for they were often very pleasant ones.  Among these was my having been introduced to the great Archbishop MacHale, when I went to St. Nicholas’s to report his sermon.

I have many vivid remembrances arising out of my connection with the “Catholic Times.”

It was during the time I was in charge of it that we started the Irish national organisation on this side of the Channel—­the Home Rule Confederation of Great Britain, formed at our first annual convention held in Manchester, at which I was elected as the first General Secretary of the organisation.

I was at the same time secretary of the Liverpool Catholic Club, and in that capacity I assisted in entertaining the Canadian Papal Zouaves when passing through Liverpool on their way home, after their gallant but unsuccessful struggle to uphold the power of the Pope against the revolutionaries.

In the same way it became my duty as secretary of the club to organise the Catholic vote in Liverpool on the occasion of the first School Board Election.  The Irish and those of Irish extraction in Liverpool being reckoned as about one-third of the population, the Catholic body is correspondingly numerous.  We surprised both friend and foe in the results.  There were fifteen members to be elected, and we asked our people to give three votes for each of our five candidates.  They were not only elected, but the votes actually given for them—­on the cumulative principle—­could have elected eight out of the fifteen members of the Board.