The Magazine. The new arrangement for conducting the Magazine by hon. editors had been so far successful that the circulation for 1865 had risen 370 a month over that of 1864; and the loss upon it on the year 1865 was only £23 18s.

A public tea meeting was held in the Schoolroom, Chapel Walk, after which there was a public meeting in Norfolk Street Chapel, the President, Mr. Thomas Cole, in the chair. He said: "he considered it to be an honour to belong to such a society as the present; the objects commending themselves to every man's conscience. It was their duty to relieve the wants of their old Local Preachers, who had for many years proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ." The meeting was afterwards addressed by Bros. Chamberlain, Lawton, Unwin, Nelstrop, Pell, Bowron, Wade the 2nd, and others; and although it was but briefly reported, it was a most effective meeting, the collection amounting to £20, and several honorary members added.

This was the third meeting held at Sheffield. From the first Sheffield has done nobly, and the meeting for this year has been held there.

CHAPTER XXI.-ANNUAL MEETING HELD AT YORK. 1867.

BROTHER DAVID HILL, of York, President.

THE Committee met in the Vestry of New Street Wesleyan Chapel, on Saturday evening, June 1st. On Sunday, June 2nd, the brethren occupied thirty-six chapels, and about forty-six sermons were delivered. A love-feast also was held in New Street Chapel in the afternoon. In most of these chapels collections were made for the Association.

On Monday morning the brethren met for business, about sixty being present. The Report showed 1,686 benefit and 409 hon. members, total 2,095; being 12 increase of benefit, and 28 increase of hon. members. The subscriptions this year from benefit members amounted to £951 12s. 6d. ; increase £1 16s. 10d. Through an increase in free subscriptions the Treasurer was enabled to invest £300, bringing the property of the Association up to £4,868 3s. 6d. The income exceeded the expenditure by £186 7s. 8d. This favourable state of the funds was unquestionably owing to the efforts made to realise the £2,000.

Bro. David Hill, of York, was unanimously chosen President, and Bro. John Carter re-elected Treasurer, and Bro. Thos. Chamberlain, Windsor, Hon. Secretary.

The Magazine was one subject for conversation on the afternoon of Monday. There was the old Methodist scruple respecting tales in religious periodicals; but Mark Guy Pearce's "Daniel Quorm" has put an end to those scruples for ever. The loss on the Magazine the year, 1866, was £22 3s. 2d.

A travelling agent had been employed, as an experiment, the last year.

Some brethren had cherished most extravagant expectations from this step, and talked largely about raising £20,000; but, alas! these great expectations came to an end. Paid travelling agents are not to the taste

of the Methodist people.

On the Monday evening the superintendent of the circuit preached, and the Lord's Supper was celebrated.

A memorial to the House of Commons was sent from this meeting to close all public-houses and beershops on the Lord's Day.

A tea and public meeting was held on the Tuesday evening, David Hill, the President, presiding. It was addressed by Bros. Chamberlain, Nelstrop, Benson, Bowron, Wade 1st and 2nd, Madder, Towne, W. B. Carter, and Cuthbertson. Bro. Bowron came out on this occasion in one of his most telling speeches. A lengthened report of this York meeting will be found in pages 214-218, Magazine 1867.

IN MEMORIAM.

BROTHER DAVID HILL.

PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION, 1867.

BROTHER DAVID HILL was born January 30, 1809, and died August 22, 1876, aged sixty-seven years six months and twenty-three days.

Mr. Hill, from the high character he bore among his brethren, and the position he occupied in the city of York, was elected to the office of President unanimously. On taking the chair he said: "He was much obliged for the confidence reposed in him He could only say that York was glad of the meeting of the Association, and would always rejoice in its prosperity."

On Tuesday evening, June 4th, a public meeting was held, and the President, Mr. Hill, in the chair. His speech was a short one, but much to the point. Among other remarks, he said: "It is not necessary that a man be very learned in order to be a useful and successful preacher; but he must have good sense, true piety, and feel himself called of the Holy Ghost. Local Preachers must be men of good repute. It is fortyfour years to-day since I was apprenticed, and thirty-seven since I was loosed. I am glad that the Local Preachers' Association' is now holding its meeting here, and that I have the privilege of being present. The brethren have come to the right place in coming to York. They must go where the money is, and I expect we shall have three or four five-pound notes on the plate this evening." The collection was a good one, amounting to £26 16s. 9d.

From all that we can learn respecting Mr. Hill, he was a modest, retiring man, his own real worth carrying him to the front, those who knew him best esteeming him the most. At the time he held the office of President, he was an Alderman of York; and although he never served as mayor, yet he acted in his turn as city magistrate, was treasurer of

the York Dispensary, director of two of the city companies, one of the charity trustees, &c. But above all, he was one of us, and at the time of his death was the oldest Local Preacher on the York plan.

Although Mr. Hill did not take so active a part in our Association as others we have noticed, yet he was in every way worthy of the position he occupied among the number of our Presidents.

MODERN LITERATURE: "THAT BEAUTIFUL WRETCH!"* "THE Illustrated London News" is the oldest and most successful of our pictorial weekly papers; and, although the "Graphic" has of late years won for itself a vast amount of public patronage, and some cheaper papers also sell by thousands, yet this, the eldest of the illustrated papers, is still the favourite: its sale is enormous, and it is said to yield its proprietor a princely income.

This year it has issued a holiday number of some fifty folio pages; and, except for advertisements, which occasionally intrude into the letter-press, it is filled with a tale with the above whimsical title, and is illustrated by some forty-four pictures, which are intended to show the course of the story, or to exhibit the scenery described, or to depict the fashionable attire of the present day. There is also a large engraving, entitled, "A Greek Play," given with the number.

Now, I have read several of the tales of fashionable life, which are said to be the delight of the higher classes, and to my mind they are essentially vulgar and empty; and some of them so full of the worst aspects of evil in social life, that they are but a little better than the old indecencies of Holywell Street, most of which have been put down by the strong arm of the law. But, I thought, surely the "Illustrated London News," which may be said to stand at the head of one department of modern literature, will, for its own credit sake, give us something different and greatly better than this, so-called, mental food for high society.

Accordingly I expected to find in its holiday number a story with s purpose, a tale from which some important social truths may be easily and pleasantly learned. I did not expect to find in William Black another Sir Walter Scott or a Charles Dickens or a William Thackeray; but I did expect to find in him a teacher of the people, whose lessons should be, at least, worth remembering. For I am one of those who believe it possible to make works of the imagination to be lessons of truth, morality, and godliness. The most exquisitely beautiful tale that I have ever read fell from the lips of One who spake as never man spake,

"That Beautiful Wretch !" A Brighton Story. By WILLIAM BLACK. Holiday Number of the "Illustrated London News." June, 1881.

and it begins thus: "A certain man had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living." Our readers will find this Eastern story in Luke xv. 11 to 32. Heaven alone can tell us how many trembling souls have learned from this story to rely upon the tender mercy of God, our heavenly Father. Of course I did not expect to find any such noble lesson as this in modern literature; but again I say I did hope to find in this holiday number some food for thought, and some indications of the way in which men and women may walk uprightly without the teacher parading in gown and bands in a gothic building.

These are some of the things I found. The picture of "The Greek Play" shows a part of the stone seats of the auditorium of a theatre. On the front seat is the figure of a female, a wreath of olive leaves encircles her head, and in ber hand is an immense peacock feather fan, painted almost black; her figure is large, awkward, gaunt and bony, and her limbs are like those of a gladiator; she is clad in a white garment, which, to English eyes, looks like a night-shirt with the sleeves cut off; but is supposed to represent a Grecian garment of ceremony. Other figures of women and men are behind, mostly clad in the same fashion, and their faces and figures do not certainly give us any idea of the celebrated beauty of the Greeks.

The strange title of the number, "That Beautiful Wretch,” is said to have been given to the heroine by a kind old relation, a famous Admiral in the British Navy; "and that partly because she was a pretty and winning child, and partly because she was in the habit of saying surprisingly irreverent things." A more unlikely title to be given to a favourite little relative by a kindly and gentlemanly sailor it is almost impossible to conceive. The title-page shows us the "Beautiful Wretch" depicted as a tall girl, with great length of limb, in a tight dress, as narrow as a corn-sack, right down to her heels. How in this dress she could get through the mixture of high grasses, ferns, gorse and brambles shown in the picture, is a puzzle for any observer. But during this stroll the Wretch makes the acquaintance of a wandering girl, called Singing Sall, a character introduced apparently without any object, except to make the reader ask, whoever met with, or heard of such a girl?

"The Wretch" is really named Ann Beresford, and is the daughter of the late Sir Beresford, K.C.B., of the Indian service. Lady Beresford survives, and has, besides Ann, or Nan, four other daughters and a son, the youngest daughter being fifteen years old, and the eldest being married and living in India. Lady Beresford is thus described: "An elderly, sallow-faced, weak-looking woman. She had a nervous system that she worshipped as a sort of fetish; and in turn the obliging divinity relieved her from many of the cares and troubles of this wearyful world. For how could she submit to any discomfort or privation; or how could she receive objectionable visitors, or investigate cases of harrowing dis

tress, or remonstrate with careless livery stable-keepers, or call to account extortionate milliners, when this precious nervous system had to be considered? Lady Beresford turned away from these things, and ordered round her Bath-chair, and was taken out to the end of the pier, that she might be soothed by the music and the sea air." The author does not tell us who bore the "cares and troubles of this wearyful world" which Lady Beresford thus escaped; and so a difficulty is suggested by himself which he has not answered.

The hero of the tale is a naval officer named King, the second son of an old English gentleman who resides in one of the ancient mansions which characterise Old England. The eldest son is described as one who, in the sowing of his wild oats, had done his best to impoverish his father and disgrace his name. He marries at last a lady of more than questionable reputation, brings her to the old house at home, where the pair are kindly received, and both drink themselves drunken in their room the first night. The young bride then goes wandering about the house in search of more brandy. Eventually this eldest son disinherits himself in favour of the second son, out of regard for the reputation of the old name, the mansion, and all the belongings of an old country family. If any one can believe that such would be the conduct of such a character, let him believe it.

The young ladies Beresford go for a continental tour, leaving their mother, brother, and youngest sister at home; but without any one to take care of them except a waiting-maid; and this is said to be the fashionable way for young ladies to go to " Lucerne, and then over the Splugen, when it is cool enough, into Italy." This affords Captain Frank King a nice opportunity to meet with and make himself useful to the young ladies, and especially to Nan, who is now seventeen years old, and whom he has previously met at a ball; which ball requires three long chapters for its description, and for little dialogues, of which the following is a specimen: "Mamma," said Nan to Lady Beresford, "don't you think I've done enough? England can't expect you to do more than your duty, even with all those flags overhead. Come away, and I will get you some tea; though what would be better for you still would be some B and S." 66 Nan, how dare you!" said her mother angrily, and glancing round at the same time. "You may use such expressions if you like when you are with your brother. Pray, don't disgrace the whole family when you are elsewhere." "Mamma, dear," said Nan contritely, "it is madness; pure madness. The excitement of my first ball has got into my brain." "Into your what? said her mother, with a smile. Nan, and Nan alone, could pacify her in a second. Such talk serves to remind one of the two dashing fashionable ladies in the "Vicar of Wakefield," and that is all.

The continental tour of the three Misses Beresford and Captain King of course requires several chapters of description and common-place con