But, excellently as this plan worked for a while, a new departure was eventually found to be necessary, and steps were taken to establish a college. After much thought and prayer, Chamber Hall, Bury, Lancashire (the birthplace of the _great_ Sir Robert Peel) was secured as the home of the college, and it was opened in October, 1866, with the Rev. Henry Dawson, who had been for more than thirty years the devoted and successful pastor of the Regular Baptist church, Westgate, Bradford, Yorkshire, as its president and theological tutor. Soon afterwards, the Rev. Dr. Evans was engaged as lecturer in Ecclesiastical History, and the Rev. James Webb as classical tutor. In Chamber Hall, the college was conducted successfully, though with some disadvantages, for more than seven years, when it was removed to handsome premises, which had in the meantime been erected in Brighton Grove, Rusholme, Manchester. The building in Brighton Grove, where the college has had its home for the last seventeen years, is the property of the college. It cost more than 11,000 pounds. Previously to the removal of the college from Bury, Dr. Evans died; and, about four years after the removal, in the year 1877, Mr. Dawson and Mr. Webb both resigned their respective posts, owing to the infirmities of age. Dr. Edward Parker was appointed president and theological tutor in place of Mr. Dawson, and the Rev. John Turner Marshall, M. A. (London) was appointed classical tutor in succession to Mr. Webb, positions which they both still hold. This college is the only one in England on Close Communion lines. It has had to struggle for its existence. Regular Baptists are comparatively poor, and Open Communionist friends have not looked kindly upon it. They have hindered it in more instances than they have helped it. Still all its needs have been supplied. It has gained for itself a respectable position among other colleges for the thoroughness of its educational training and the scholarship of its students. In the competitive examinations, last May, of the Non-conformist colleges of England and Wales a student of Manchester Baptist College came off first with honors, and another student stood fifth in the first division. What is more important, the College has fulfilled the expectations of its founders in conserving and advancing Regular Baptist principles. It has arrested the progress of Open Communionism in Regular Baptist churches. It has filled the pulpits of more than seventy churches, a large proportion of which were formerly filled by ministers of Open Communion sentiments. The College is, in a very eminent sense, the hope of the Regular Baptist cause in England. It has done a great work for that cause already. If it is still encouraged, as there is every reason to believe that it will be, by the same devoted generosity that its friends have extended to it hitherto, it will yet do still greater things. CHAPTER XV. LAST OF ENGLAND AND FIRST OF THE CONTINENT.