an account as possible of his flock, so that in the aggregate there is probably a great loss in point of accuracy. The London Catholics are devoting a quarter of a million to the erection of a cathedral; here are some collateral facts. In the parish of Canning Town in East London there are about 6,000 nominal Catholics; 5,000 of these never come near the church. I was dining with F. Hazel the day the form to be filled arrived, and saw him write it. We measured the church and found that, filling the doorsteps and arch ledges, it would not contain more than 400: certainly not a thousand, mostly children, came to Mass on Sundays, and Easter confessions were proportionate. A question was asked, How many of your youths (15-21) attend their duties? About 5 percent, was the answer. The income of the parish was deplorable; the vast territory it embraces is full of poor Irish families who live less religiously and not more virtuously than pagans.
At Barking there are more than 200 children in the schools, and the number is not at all complete, and there are not more than fifty adults who attend church; at Grays there is the same condition. A few years ago a zealous priest, F. Gordon Thompson, determined to start a mission in a neglected part of East London—Bow Common; his aim was necessarily small, he could only hope to take care of the children of nominal Catholics. In the first three streets he visited he found 120 such children, and could go no
