Throughout the latter months of 1867 and into the new year Hodgson wrote several letters to the Reverend Mr. D. Fitzgerald asking for improvements in the mode of public worship being conducted at St. Paul's Church. In one letter he cited the "utter absence of young men belonging to the middle or working classes"3 as a clear indication that all needs were not being met at the Parish Church. He stressed that changes were needed to accommodate restless elements within the congregation. He supported his assertion with a number of individual cases that he knew of where young people had left the church for other Protestant denominations. He surmised that these were due in great part to the zeal with which these denominations practised their faith. He went so far as to offer a number of suggestions on alterations to the services which could remedy the situation. These included the introduction of new services at times convenient for working people, and the introduction of popular revival hymns. He continued by saying: / have no doubt that by God's blessings these services would be attended with great success and with most beneficial results, that they would attract many who never go any where at all, those have wandered from us, because they would be an evidence that there is life and energy still within us, they would be an inroad upon the stiff unbending- ness of our ordinary Sunday Services, they would be a well directed blow against the odious pew system, and its consequent exclusion of God's poor from his house...4 In a letter written a few days later he emphasized that "it is a fact beyond dispute that our services as we have them, so far from attracting, repel the poorer classes...The problem to be solved is how to get them back again."6 The Reverend Mr. Fitzgerald 's reply was a political one. He informed Mr. Hodgson that he would lay the matter before the Vestry and Churchwardens of St. Paul's church to get their input prior to bringing the concerns and suggested alterations in the mode of worship to the attention of the congregation. In this way he attempted to head off the reform movement by delaying tactics, arguing "it appears I have no right without consulting thiir wishes to make any alteration in the time or manner of conducting the accustomed services of our Church."6 3. Hodgson , E.J. Letter to the Reverend D. Fitzgerald , November 30th, 1867. St. Peter 's Cathedral Archives. 4. Ibid. 5. Hodgson , E.J. Letter to the Reverend D. Fitzgerald , December 3rd, 1867. St. Peter 's Cathedral Archives. 6. Fitzgerald, D. Letter to E.J. Hodgson , December 7th, 1867. St Peter's Cathedral Archives.