his return to England he set to work to found a similar establishment, and the Reformatory Home, as it may justly be called, at Stoke Prior, near Bromsgrove, where about sixty young outcasts are clothed, fed, and educated, is one of the last works of his benevolent life.
On the spring morning of the 14th of May, 1859, that purified and waiting spirit heard the whisper among the flowers of its earthly home, "Come up higher!" and serene at the sudden call, it went up higher to join the holy fellowships for which it had been fitted, and which might well be the happier for its presence and communion. Although the people of Birmingham knew and revered the manner of man they had in Joseph Sturge, they know not the depth of that sentiment of reverence and esteem they had entertained for him until the sudden news ran through the streets and lanes and into the humblest cottages and garrets of the poor, "Joseph Sturge is dead!!"
Never since the town had a being and a name had a death so moved the population. It seemed to touch all classes and political parties with the same sympathy and sorrow. The press, the pulpits of all denominations, and public men testified to this sentiment. As the Rev. John Angell James said in his sermon: "The lengthened cortége, the closed shops, the crowded streets, the long procession of respectable men, the mixture of ministers
