Mr. Mann’s formula proving utterly untrustworthy, the question arises, are there any data on which a substantially correct notion of the number of Dissenting sittings in 1801 may be arrived at? To the writer, it appears that there are. Thus, from the statistics of the different Wesleyan bodies appended to Mr. Mann’s report, it would appear that the old and new Connections in 1801 had at least 100,000 members. It would further appear, that for every member the Wesleyans have about four sittings, so that in 1801 the Wesleyans must have had at least 400,000 sittings. The next question is, what proportion did the Wesleyans bear to the aggregate Nonconformity of 1801? At present, the Wesleyan sects have about 11/24ths of the entire number of Dissenting sittings; but their ratio of progress has confessedly been double that of their fellow Nonconformists. Mr. Mann’s process of calculating from dates, unsatisfactory as it is in other respects, may, perhaps, be allowed to decide how much of the entire Dissenting accommodation of 1801 was possessed by the Wesleyan bodies. According to table 17, the old and new Connections had between them only 165,000 sittings, out of the 881,240. It has been shown, however, that they had, in reality, not less than 400,000; and, raising the sittings belonging to the other sects in the same proportion, we get a total of 2,136,339. This result receives complete corroboration from Mr. Mann’s own returns. First of all, it is clear that meeting-houses which have remained in existence half a century must be buildings of some importance. Dissenting places of worship are of two classes—those which have regular congregations and a regular ministry attached to them, and those which are merely temporary preaching stations. The number of these latter will surprise the reader. Mr. Edward Baines, in his evidence before the Churchrates Committee, estimated that no fewer than 7,360 of the 19,000 which he supposed belonged to “the three denominations” were of this description. The total number of mere preaching stations, however, may be easily ascertained. It may be safely assumed that all places which have a regular ministry are opened both on Sunday mornings and on Sunday afternoons or evenings. The total number of this class in 1851 was only 10,583; so that each would _represent_ an average of 462 sittings. Now, as the number of Dissenting places of worship which date back to 1801 cannot be less, even if calculated on Mr. Mann’s principle, than 3900, the number of sittings in that year must have been upwards of 1,800,000. But it would be a great fallacy to suppose that even first-class Dissenting congregations are exempt from the tendency to decay and disappear. If Nottingham may be taken as a fair example, it would seem that not two-thirds of the regularly organised congregations existing in 1801 survive to this day. The total number of sittings at the