the world. He was received abroad with honours very rarely given to a private citizen of the United States. He was received, although a private citizen, as if he was the legal representative of the American Union. After he left England he made up his mind to certain fashions, and he followed a rule of his own through Italy, Egypt, India, China and Japan, and what is more, through California, through his own State of Illinois, through all the North. Up to the present hour, from the time he left England, General Grant turns the wineglass upside down. (Loud cheers.) His example is inspiriting; and the youth of America look to this general. After all the temptations he has seen, after the trials he has been through, he is likely to know what is the best thing for him when he needs a cool head under terrible stress of work. He turns his wineglass upside down at every public dinner, and refuses wine; he makes no speech, but points to the glass upside down, and shakes his head. He is a total abstainer. It were disloyalty to the ideas of the best portion of American society were I not to speak of one bright conspicuous star now at the head of civil life in the United States. (Hear, hear.) You will allow me to go to the State of Ohio, the mother of Presidents. Women, there, educated in the Christian church, resolved to do something to limit the temptation of their children by intemperance. One of them was the wife of the Governor of the State. In process of time that Governor was translated to the Presidential chair. Drunkenness was only too common in certain fashionable circles in Washington. From the great first President down to the last, intoxicating liquors had been put upon the social board in the White House. This woman was a Christian before she went into the White House; she resolved to be one after entering it. She was a woman before, and she did not cease to be a woman when she found herself acting as wife of a President. She was a mother before, and she was a mother afterwards. One evening there was an unusual amount of wine and stronger liquors consumed at an enter

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tainment, not under the roof of the White House, but at which many political dignitaries were present. A scene of coarse merriment and carousal followed, which greatly disgusted both the President and his wife. She said to her husband, "To-morrow night I am to give an entertainment. You know what we have seen. What if I leave all the wine off the table?" "Why, you will disgust the foreign ambassadors, and our Secretary of State, Mr. Evarts. Nevertheless, if you wish to try the experiment," said President Hayes, now is a good time, for everybody is disgusted with what we saw last night. If you wish to try it, I have no great objection, for I must say you have a great deal of influence with this Administration." (Laughter and cheers.) And she did it, and succeeded, and it is the fashion in the White House to-day. (Cheers.) The Secretary, Mr. Evarts, did protest. He did say to this brave and beautiful woman, whose portrait is to be put in the Executive Mansion as a permanent memorial of what she has done there: " The Foreign Ministers will be disgusted." "Mr. Evarts," said the President's wife, "wherever you are the representative of the United States, you will do as you please; but I must follow my convictions, and when I entertain, the wineglass must be turned upside down." She was severely criticised for a week and a day, for a month, and a year. In the last conversation I had with President Hayes-and I have not had many opportunities of conversing with him-I ventured to congratulate him on what had been accomplished in his household. "Yes," said he, with emphasis, and with a look as if he was not ready to make any apology, "we have turned a sharp corner on that matter in Washington, and I hope it is turned once for all." There is hope that the new President's wife will follow the fashion. And so on the social heights in America, on the summit of fashion, the wineglass has, in the face of all the world, and for the first time in history, been turned upside down, and America is not ashamed of that, neither do we propose to apologise for it or go back to the old ways. (Cheers.)

I

Passing Events.

--

AT the meeting of both Houses of the Convocation of Canterbury, recently held, the differences of opinion on Church matters were warmly expressed. Petitions had been presented to the Primate, signed on the one hand by the Dean of St. Paul's, and some thousands of clergy and others; and on the other by Bishop Perry and those associated with him in opposition. In an address to both the assembled Houses, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke upon the disputes which have occupied the attention of the law courts; and touching upon the position of the divided parties in the Church at the present time, urged that "it was time the clergy left these matters relating to the outworks of the ecclesiastical system merely, and took up the work entrusted to their hands by the Apostles."

FROM a Parliamentary Paper just issued, the late election in the two divisions of the County of Durham cost the various candidates on the whole a total of £40,199 13s. 34d.

A NEW asteroid of the 11th magnitude has been discovered. It is the

220th of the group of small planets having their orbits between those of Mars and Jupiter.

THE House of Commons cannot be accused of having been impatient on matters relating to Ireland. During

the last few weeks some correspondents of the papers have been curious to count up that various Irish members have delivered an aggregate of as many as from 800 to 1,000 speeches.

A REMARKABLE letter has been going the round of the papers as having been sent by Tuhiata, a New Zealand murderer, to the Governor of New Zealand. It is dated December 23rd, 1880, and says, "Go, this letter of mine to the Governor. Friend, greeting, I have heard that I am to be put to death on Wednesday, and I am willing to die on that day, but I have a word to say to you: Let my bad companions, your children, beer, rum, and other spirits die with me.

Let those persons, beer, rum and other spirits die with me; they led me to commit wrong, and now let us die together one death on the day that I am to die; it will not be right that they survive that day, but I and my bad companions should die together, lest they should remain to lead people to death; but as I am to die let spirits die also; do not leave any of its kind in the world; let it be destroyed from the face of the earth lest it should remain to cause trouble to man; man would then be answerable for his own troubles. If it was destroyed it would be well; man would then seek his own. troubles; then it would be well there would be no cause (for trouble). That is all. From Tuhiata." To close these few words on the subject of lyle's temperance appeal to "free and Temperance, we add Thomas Carindependent voters." "No man oppresses thee, O free and independent franchiser; but does not this stupid pewter-pot oppress thee? No son of Adam can bid thee come or go; but this absurd pot of heavy wet, this can and does! Thou art the thrall, not of Cedric the Saxon, but of thy own brutal appetites and this scoured dish of liquor; and thou protest of thy liberty? Thou entire blockhead!"

IN answer to Marshal Moltke's apology in defence of war, to which we alluded in our last number, M. Steinheil, a Frenchman, says, rightly, "By God's will all men are brethren, and the grand duty of nations consists not in exhausting each other under the crushing burden of an armed peace, or meanwhile killing one another on fields of battle; but, on the contrary, nations, like individuals, are called upon to mutual love and reciprocal advancement. War to evil under all its forms and in all its manifestations."

Lieutenant and Commander De Hoghton, of Her Majesty's ship "Beagle," has been giving a valuable testimony as to the value of the Wesleyan missions being carried on by the Rev. George Brown, in New Britain, New Ireland, and Duke of York's group. "At all these stations (some twenty-nine in number) the

native teachers introduced by Mr. Brown can converse freely with the natives in their own language. I have, I believe, seen the whole of the teachers; and as far as I can judge they are a most respectable and worthy body of men. I have heard them conduct service and preach to a church full of natives, who outwardly certainly listened to what was said; and amongst their number is an old New Britain chief, who is, I believe,

a

sincere convert to Christianity. These men, living as they do and associating with the natives, are a constant example to them of a better life than their own. The natives see the clean, well-built, roomy houses of the teacher. They see he has but one wife, who is treated as his equal, the man doing the hard work and the woman attending to the domestic duties. They see them leading an industrious, quiet, orderly life, and in all respects better than their own; and they see and know they worship one Being unknown to them."

THE recent departure of Thomas Carlyle, at a very advanced age, reminds us that time eventually terminates the longest lives. There was something very impressive about the annual visit of this renowned writer and thinker to the grave of his departed wife. The visit involved a journey from Chelsea to the Highlands of Scotland, to mourn light gone out of him." With this friend of John Stuart Mill there was evidently a craving for another sphere of existence.

"the

SINCE we last wrote, Methodist obituary has contained the names of T. Pennington, John Thomas, and Robert Jackson, all names with which we were familiar in our younger days, and all of them worthy to be mentioned as having in their various spheres served their generation well. Let those who still live, not forget to be "followers of them who through faith and patience now inherit the promises." Nearly sixty years ago Robert Jackson travelled in the circuit from which we write. The writer is not sufficiently old to have had any knowledge of him; but there are those still living who well remem

ber his early ministry and who speak of him with pleasure.

Ir would be ungrateful of us not to be concerned at the failure of Dr. Punshon's health; not only because of his connection with the Local Preachers' Association as an honorary member, but because of that cosmopolitan generosity of disposition which actuates him so remarkably. We sincerely hope that his return from the Continent will be speedy, and that when he returns he will do so quite convalescent. Every effort should be made to increase the missionary funds, that the missionary committee, and especially the secretaries, may be relieved from undue anxiety.

SOME of the correspondents of the Methodist Recorder write as if there was no resource for the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion to rely upon whereby apparent difficulties may be surmounted. We have pointed out before, and say again, that the unpaid principle needs to be increasingly cultivated and encouraged. Mr. John Field, who represented the Local Preachers of America at the Local Preachers' meeting held in York last year, spoke of the hearty co-operation of Local Preachers and Episcopal Methodist ministers in America, and that sentiment is reciprocated by the Local Preachers of England. When aggression is spoken of, the great metropolis is always brought to mind. It was only the other day that a superintendent minister said to the writer," When my son was in the country he had plenty of work as a Local Preacher, but since he has been residing in London he has not one appointment in six months." The Local Preacher to whom this observation referred, is a member of a firm of solicitors. If the Local Preachers are going to be thus neglected, it must be expected that they will either mark out a course of usefulness for themselves, or seek other associations where they can be employed. It is not to be expected that young men whose hearts God hath touched with a burning love for their fellow men, can remain altogether idle.

A VERY few more weeks will close the accounts of the Local Preachers' Association for the year. The President has marked out a successful course for himself. His untired exertion is bringing material aid. Indeed, he has already collected nearly £200. It will readily be believed that the monthly statement regularly supplied by him, is the result of great labour, self-denial, and expense. Let others catch his spirit, and the Association will go on swimmingly.

Then let the burthen'd heart be free,
The tears of sorrow all be shed,
And parents calmly bend to see

The mournful beauty of the dead;
Thrice happy-that their infant bears

To heaven no darkening stains of sin; And only breathed life's morning airs, Before its evening storms begin.

Farewell! I shall not soon forget!

Although thy heart hath ceased to beat, My memory warmly treasures yet Thy features calm and mildly sweet; But no, that look is not the last,

We yet may meet where seraphs dwell, Where love no more deplores the past, Nor breathes that withering word-fare well.

Poetry.

ON SEEING A DECEASED INFANT.
BY W. O. B. PEABODY, AN AMERICAN AUTHOR.
And this is death! how cold and still,
And yet how lovely it appears;
Too cold to let the gazer smile,
But far too beautiful for tears.
The sparkling eye no more is bright,
The cheek hath lost its rose-like red;
And yet it is with strange delight

I stand and gaze upon the dead.

But when I see the fair wide brow,
Half shaded by the silken hair,
That never looked so fair as now,
When life and health were laughing there.
I wonder not that grief should swell

So wildly upward in the breast,
And that strong passion should rebel
That need not, cannot be suppressed.

I wonder not that parents' eyes
In gazing thus grow cold and dim,
That burning tears and aching sighs

Are blended with the funeral hymn;
The spirit hath an earthly part,

That weeps when earthly pleasure flies, And heaven would scorn the frozen heart, That melts not when the infant dies.

And yet why mourn? that deep repose
Shall never more be broke by pain;
Those lips no more in sighs unclose,

Those eyes shall never weep again.
For think not that the blushing flower
Shall wither in the churchyard sod,
'Twas made to gild an angel's bower

Within the paradise of God.

Once more I gaze-and swift and far
The clouds of death and sorrow fly,
I see thee like a new-born star

Move up thy pathway in the sky
The star hath rays serene and bright,

But cold and pale compared with thine; For thy orb shines with heavenly light, With beams unfailing and divine.

Index Rerum; or a Ready Reference Register. By JOHN TODD, author of The Student's Manual," &c. Edited, with additions, by C. NEIL, M.A., author of "The Expositor's Commentary, St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans." London: Charles Higham, 27A, Farringdon Street, E.C. 1881.

THIS is a book for a student, and a working student too. The author says in his introduction: "Should any one procure this book with the expectation that it will supersede labour and study, he will deservedly be disappointed. No plans or inventions can ever do that."

The book is a large quarto post of fine cream wove paper, containing one hundred and forty-four leaves, ruled throughout, and nicely bound in Morocco cloth, lettered with double alphabets.

*First.—Here is one page entitled, No. 1, List of note books.

Second.-Four pages, No. 2, List of books read.

Third.-Four pages, No. 3, List of books to be read.

Fourth.-Four pages, No. 4. List of texts and themes for discourses. Fifth.-Index to topics and themes. Two pages.

A more complete apparatus for the young preacher to use we never saw. It is not at all unlikely that when he opens on page six he may feel himself rebuked, for the compiler says:

"Read nothing which is not worth remembering, and which you may not wish hereafter to review." Few of us can say that we have not read anything not worth remembering. He goes on to say further: "Have your Index at hand; and, when you meet with anything of interest, just note it down,"

We should say to the young preacher, get this book if you mean to be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," rightly dividing the words of truth."

Miscellaneous.

REMARKABLE FROSTS.

FROST FAIR, held on the Thames from January 31st to February 6th, 1814, with a copper-plate engraving. London: Published November 18th, 1814, by R. S. Kirby, 11, London House Yard, St. Paul's.

We are informed that large quantities of ice had floated up the river on Sunday, January 30th, and on the return of the tide it came down again in such masses, that at London Bridge the arches were not wide enough to enable it to pass; in consequence of which it completely choked up the Thames between London and Blackfriars Bridges. Before the tide could return it became wedged so close together that it was immovable, and on Monday morning, the 31st, several persons crossed the river, and their example was followed by a multitude of men and boys, that reached in a continuous line from Queen Street Stairs to Bankside.

As the frost continued and the ice became stronger, there was a complete path or grand street from Bankside to Queen Street and Queenhithe, with a board nailed on a flagstaff, calling it the 'New City Road." Each person that passed paid the waterman a penny to go down a plank upon the ice.

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There was another principal path from Bridge Street side of Blackfriars Bridge to the centre arch of London Bridge, in a serpentine or

zigzag direction; these two paths carried persons as thick as they could walk. There were also paths from other stairs, but not so fully attended; in these there were about thirty booths, hoisting the flags of all nations, and painted with Cherokee taste, erected for the sale of porter, spirits, gingerbread, and other eatables.

Most of the booths had some sort of entertainment besides eating and drinking; some with a fiddler, dancing; others at skittles, &c., and all with fires. In the principal paths were a great many shops and stalls for the sale of all sorts of toys, trinkets, gingerbread, &c.

There were several printing presses, both for letter-press and copper-plate printing, which found plenty of customers to buy their labours in prose and verse.

One of these printers addressed the spectators in the following terms:

"Friends, now is your time to support the freedom of the press. Can the press have greater liberty? Here you find it working in the middle of the Thames, and if you encourage us by buying our impressions, we will keep it going in the true spirit of liberty during the frost."

One of the articles printed and sold contained the following lines:

"Behold the River Thames is frozen o'er, Which lately ships of mighty burden

bore;