REGENT, SIERRA LEONE, WHERE SAMUEL CROWTHER WAS SCHOOLMASTER IN 1830. BISHOP CROWTHER: HIS LIFE AND WORK. If you are able to give insertion to this, to me, strangely interesting BOOK-HAWKING BY THE WEST LAKE. HE foregoing deeply interesting narrative cannot be better illustrated than by presenting with it a drawing by the Christian artist, Matthew Tai, who has taken so active a part in the good work it describes. Our readers will be glad to meet again the designer of the pictorial illustrations of the Parables in our last year's volume. Mr. G. E. Moule, in sending us the sketch engraved on the opposite page, adds the following note : The scene is the north-east corner of our pretty lake. In the background the steep and picturesque hills which gird the lake on all sides but the east, where it washes the foot of the city wall. A pagoda, or Buddhist relic tower, built eight centuries or more ago by the monk Paou-shuh, after whom it is called. It is a solid pile of brick forming a graceful polygonal spire, capped with an iron pole and spiral wire, the whole perhaps 150 feet high. Nearer to us, a causeway crossing the lake, linked together by three fine stone bridges, and planted on either side with weeping willows. Pleasure boats of the smaller kind plying or waiting for hire at the door of a boatman's cottage. In front, three of our Native brethren, with gospels and tracts, offering them for sale or explaining their contents. Pleasure-seekers, or perhaps pilgrims to the various shrines that fill every nook and valley of the picturesque shores, purchasing, listening, or reading. The artist Matthew, his dear young son John, and another Christian pupil, Kyi-doh, brother of one of the late ordained deacons and son of Stephen Dzing, are zealous evangelists in this way. OR four years the Mission school at Bathurst numbered among its young learners the Yoruba boy who, in the fourth year, was baptized by the name of Samuel Crowther. In 1826, the kind schoolmaster and mistress, Mr. and Mrs. Davey, to whose charge he had been committed, came over to England, and wishing to bring with them a young African for further education in this country, they chose Samuel for this purpose; and the boy, whose face in maturer years was to be so familiar amongst us, first set foot on English ground in that year, landing at Portsmouth on August 16th. He was only here for a few months, however, during which time he attended the parochial school in the Liverpool Road, Islington. Other arrangements were made for him, and he was sent back to Africa early in the following year. One of the earliest of the Society's agencies at Sierra Leone had been an Industrial Boarding-school, called the Christian Institution. In course of time the general establishment of schools in the towns and villages to some extent superseded this central school, and it was resolved to merge it into a College for the training of Native Teachers. In February, 1827, the Rev. C. L. F. Haensel arrived in the colony, commissioned to carry out this plan. An estate and buildings belonging to a previous governor chanced to be for sale. These were at once secured, and the Fourah Bay College was opened. Six of the most promising African youths were taken in as students; and the very first name on the list is that of Samuel Crowther. So rapidly did Samuel's mind now expand and his abilities become manifest, that in a very few months the scholar was promoted to be an assistant-teacher in the college. It was about this time that, in the retrospect of his strange career, he was led to call "the day of his captivity a blessed day, because it was the day which God had marked out for him to set out on his journey from the land of heathenism, superstition, and vice, to a place where the Gospel was preached." And a crowning earthly blessing was soon granted to him. In the year 1829 he married Asano, the very little girl who had learned to read with him at Bathurst, and who was now a baptized Christian named Susanna. Half a century has nearly elapsed since that marriage; if it please God to spare their lives another year, the golden wedding may be celebrated; and they have seen their childrens' children to the third generation. One son is now the Rev. Dandeson Coates Crowther (so named after a former C.M.S. Secretary), a faithful missionary under his father on the Niger; two other sons are in good positions as laymen; and three daughters have been happily married, two of them to excellent African clergymen. An addition from home to the teaching staff of the College set Crowther free from his duties there after a short period of service; and in the same year that he married he was appointed schoolmaster at Regent's Town. The missionary there was his old friend Mr. Weeks (afterwards Bishop of Sierra Leone), who writes in the same year, "I have now a good assistant in Samuel Crowther; he promises fair to be very useful. The Lord give him grace and keep him humble." In the Society's Annual Report for 1830, we find the following in the List of Mission Agents :-"Mountain District: Regent - Samuel Crowther, Schoolmaster; Susan Crowther, Schoolmistress." In 1832 he was transferred to Wellington, a village in the "River District"; and the school there is spoken of as doing well under his management. The year 1834 saw him back again at Fourah Bay, as a regularly appointed tutor, under the Rev. G. A. Kissling (afterwards Archdeacon Kissling, of New Zealand), who had succeeded Mr. Haensel in the Principalship. For nearly seven years he laboured faithfully in this responsible post, and among those who came under his instructions at the time were George Nicol and Thomas Maxwell, who were afterwards the second and third natives ordained to the ministry of the Church (Crowther himself being the first), and who both ultimately became Government Chaplains on the West Coast. Nicol also became the husband of one of his daughters. It was the custom-as it still is-for the Fourah Bay students to engage in Sunday-school teaching, and other works of Christian usefulness in the colony. The school in which Crowther taught was one attached to "Gibraltar Chapel," a building used for Divine worship, which was afterwards destroyed by fire. Mr. Kissling's Reports speak once and again of the zeal and diligence of the teachers in this Sundayschool, and mention that, in his absence, Samuel Crowther officiated as Superintendent. But a wider sphere of usefulness was soon to open out before him. In 1841 was projected and fitted out the celebrated Niger Expedition, to open up the great river to lawful commerce. We shall have more to say respecting it in a future chapter, and need only now mention that, on the Government granting permission to the Society to send with the Expedition two missionaries, with the view of ascertaining something of the languages and religious customs of the tribes on the river, the Rev. J. F. Schön and Samuel Crowther were appointed to this special work. Sad disappointment rested upon this first attempt to open up Central Africa to commerce and Christianity. Sickness prostrated almost the whole of the European crews, and the hand of death fell, within two months, upon 42 out of 150. But Mr. Schön and Mr. Crowther were both mercifully preserved; and their journals of the Expedition were afterwards published, and formed a deeply interesting volume. The time had now come, in the providence of God, for Samuel Crowther to be set apart for the higher and more sacred duties of the ministry. Fourah Bay had proved his ability as a teacher, and the Niger had witnessed his energy as a missionary-so much so that Mr. Schön had written from the river to the Society recommending him for ordination. The Committee accordingly summoned him to England, where he landed for the second time, September 3rd, 1842, bringing with him in manuscript a grammar and vocabulary in Yoruba, his mother-tongue, the work of his leisure hours while on board ship; and was placed at the Islington Church Missionary College under the Rev. C. F. Childe. Among his contemporaries at Islington it is interesting to notice the names of Henry Baker and James Hunter. The latter (afterwards Archdeacon Hunter), the well-known and enterprising missionary in NorthWest America, was ordained with him. It was on Trinity Sunday (June 11th), 1843, that the first on the goodly roll of Native African clergy received holy orders at the hands of the Bishop of London (Dr. Blomfield); and on the 1st October following, the young deacon was ordained a presbyter of the Church by the same bishop. In preaching the Society's Anniversary Sermon in 1844, Bishop Blomfield referred with much satisfaction to his share in an event so pregnant with hope for Africa : "What cause," he exclaimed, "for thanksgiving to Him who hath made of one blood all nations of men, is to be found in the thought that He has not only blessed the labourers of the Society, by bringing many of those neglected and persecuted people to the knowledge of a Saviour, but that, from among a race who were despised as incapable of intellectual exertion and acquirement, He has raised up men well qualified, even in point of knowledge, to communicate to others the saving truths which they have themselves embraced, and to become preachers of the Gospel to their brethren according to the flesh!" The ordination day was twenty-one years less one week after the poor frightened slave-boy was landed by H.M.S. Myrmidon at Sierra Leone. Truly we may perceive concerning him as Eli perceived concerning the little Hebrew boy who first bore the name of Samuel, that "the Lord had called the child!" EPITOME OF MISSIONARY NEWS. The 1st of May falling this year on Wednesday, the Anniversary of the Church Missionary Society will be on Tuesday, April 30th. The Annual Sermon will be on Monday, the 29th, when the Bishop of Cashel Dr. Maurice Day, will (D.V.) preach. The C.M.S. Committee are appealing for fresh funds for the Nyanza Mission, to carry on the work begun with so much promise in Uganda, and also to occupy Karagué and the island of Ukerewe. A sum of £10,000 is required at once, towards which a friend has given £4,000 anonymously. Fresh men also are needed, especially an engine-fitter. Later letters, to Oct. 12th, have been received from Lieut. Smith. He was still at Ukerewe. No news from Mr. Wilson in Uganda. Otherwise all well. Two long-tried friends of the C.M.S., the Rev. Joseph Fenn and General A. Clarke, have been taken to their rest since our last number went to press. Mr. Fenn was a missionary sixty years ago, being the fourth English clergyman (educated and ordained independently) to go out for the Society. He laboured nine years in Travancore. On his return home he was a valued member of the Committee for many years. He was the father of the Rev. C. C. Fenn, Secretary of the Society, and of the Rev. D. Fenn, Corresponding Secretary at Madras. General Clarke was also a much esteemed member of the Committee from 1858, and regular in attendance to the last. When an active Indian officer thirty years ago he took a great interest in missionary work. The Rev. E. C. Stuart was consecrated to the Bishopric of Waiapu at St. John's Church, Napier, New Zealand, on Sunday, December 9th. The Bishop of Christchurch, as Primate of New Zealand, officiated, assisted by the Bishops of Auckland and Wellington. The Bishop of Auckland preached from Acts xx. 28. Bishop Crowther, with the full concurrence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has appointed two of his Native clergy to the office of Archdeacon; viz., his son, the Rev. Dandeson C. Crowther, for the Lower Niger, and the Rev. Henry Johnson, who will be transferred from the Yoruba Mission, for the Upper Niger. The Henry Venn steamer, for the Niger Mission, was launched on January 23rd, at Renfrew, and sailed on February 5th for Africa. She is a paddle steamer, schooner-rigged; measures 120 feet in length, and 16 feet beam; draws about 3 feet 9 inches when full; and will steam at the rate of ten knots an hour. She is to be a "total abstinence ship," and the Church of England Temperance Society has presented medals to Bishop Crowther, Mr. Ashcroft (the C.M.S. Industrial Agent, who will take charge of her), and the crew. The Rev. W. Romaine, the oldest of Bishop Crowther's Native agents, who has been connected with the Mission since its commencement in 1857, and was ordained in 1869, died at Onitsha on Nov. 7th. The Bishop writes, "To his last breath our departed brother stedfastly placed his hope of salvation solely on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ." The Rev. Henry Johnson has sent a most interesting report of his journey up the Niger with Bishop Crowther last autumn. He describes the prospects of the Mission as very promising, especially at Brass, Onitsha, and Lokoja. At Brass, on Sunday, Nov. 4th, there were 480 persons at church, including King Ockiya and several other Christian chiefs; and two days after, the Bishop confirmed 58 persons. At Bida, 350 miles up the river, Mr. Johnson was received by Umoru, the Mohammedan King of Nupe, with great cordiality, as an Arabic scholar and as one who had seen the holy city of El Kuds (Jerusalem). From seven places invitations for teachers have been sent to Bishop Crowther; one of them being Yimaha, an important town on the Binue. At Bonny the bitter persecution continues, and one convert has been deliberately starved to death for refusing to partake of the idol sacrifices. On October 28th, at Otaki, New Zealand, the Bishop of Wellington admitted to deacon's orders Aroma Te Uaua, a native Maori, who will be stationed at Wanganui. The Bishop of Madras, in his fifth charge, delivered at Madras, on November 1st, estimates the number of Native Christians in his diocese, connected with the Church of England, to be 79,917, an increase of 65 per cent. in fifteen years. About three-fourths of these belong to the C.M.S. The Native Clergy have increased threefold in the same period. They now number 103, of whom 71 are C.M.S. During his episcopate, Bishop Gell has confirmed 25,541 Native Christians. The Rev. R. T. Dowbiggin sends a gratifying report of the educational work at Cotta, Ceylon. There are forty-four schools in the district, with 1,221 boys and 962 girls. The numbers have more than doubled in seven years. Sir C. Layard, K.C.M.G., in his Administrative Report for 1876, says, "It is a cheerful sign of progress that schools for females are now generally resorted to. I do not know a more gratifying sight than that which may be witnessed on any occasion of a collective exami-i nation of the girls educated in the C.M.S. schools at Cotta." Fourteen young people from these schools were baptized last year on their personal profession. One of them is the daughter of a devil-dancer, and is enduring much persecution for Christ's sake. THE CHURCH MISSIONARY GLEANER. VINEYARD WORK. APRIL, 1878. Thoughts for those Engaged in Christ's Service. BY THE REV. G. EVERARD, Vicar of St. Mark's, Wolverhampton. IV. THE SECRET OF STRENGTH. "When I am weak, then am I strong."-2 Cor. xii. 10. STRANGE paradox, yet constantly beneficial in the believer's walk. Not when my natural vigour is sufficient, not when I think I can do any thing and every thing, but when I see my own power gone, when I can do nothing of myself—then, looking off from self-looking up for Divine help-then " am I strong," for "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." We think we are too weak to do the Lord's work: the fact is we are too strong. We think of what we can do instead of what the Lord can do. Our strength is our weakness, and our weakness is our strength. I see this very plainly in the life of the Apostle. We have it in 1 Cor. xv. 10, "I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." So, too, is it in this passage in 2 Cor. xii. He had the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness," ver. 9. So he gloried in those things which manifested his powerlessness. And why? "That the power of Christ might rest upon him." So, too, in Col. i. 29. He did not strive and labour through his own natural energy and determination. He recognised a power working mightily in him and with him. "I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." If I would work successfully, I must cherish the same spirit. I must constantly remember my utter inability to do the least thing aright of myself. I have neither the will, the wisdom, the strength, nor the perseverance to labour in His vineyard. I have a mighty foe ever at hand to hinder me. I have to contend with sloth, deadness, love of praise, worldliness, and the fear of man, in my own heart. I have to work for souls in a world at enmity with God. But my sufficiency is of God. He chooses "the weak things to confound the mighty," that His may be all the glory. He hath promised me the almighty aid of His Holy Spirit. All power in heaven and in earth is in the hand of Christ, and He imparts it to all who rely solely upon Him. Therefore why should I doubt or fear? I shall go forth in the strength of the Lord. And in His strength will I labour on, and fulfil the work He hath given me to do. SKETCHES OF THE PUNJAB MISSION. BY THE AUTHOR OF "MORAVIAN LIFE IN THE BLACK FOREST," &c. IV. New Stations: Peshawar, Kangra, Multan. MRITSAR, the sacred city of the Sikhs, the religious metropolis of the Punjab, the emporium of commerce for North India, had been chosen as the great starting-point and centre of missionary work in the Punjab, and we shall have by-and-bye more to say about it; but for the present we must leave the work to progress there, while we turn to other scenes and places. On the 19th of December, 1853, a public meeting was held at PESHAWAR in favour of the immediate commencement of missionary labour in that town. The meeting was presided over by Major (afterwards Sir Herbert) Edwardes, who had so greatly distinguished himself in the Punjab war; and Captain James, the Deputy-Commissioner of Peshawar, moved the first resolution, which was cordially adopted, £3,000 being at once subscribed. Peshawar is an important city of about 60,000 inhabitants, next to Cabul the most important in Affghanistan. It stands at the mouth of the celebrated Khyber Pass, and is constantly visited by numbers of Affghans from beyond the mountains, and by people of all the neighbouring nations, especially in the cold weather, when caravans and strangers daily arrive. The result of this meeting was a memorial to the Church Missionary Society, signed by the chairman on behalf of “a number of residents and friends at Peshawar.” On receiving the memorial the Committee decided upon occupying Peshawar as one of their stations, and as pioneer they sent forth to the frontier the Rev. Robert Clark, to co-operate with Dr. Pfander, who had hitherto been labouring in Agra; and their hands were strengthened by the assistance of an earnest worker and liberal friend, Colonel Martin, who at this juncture retired from the public service to give himself up more entirely to the Lord's work. Six years later, on the 1st May, 1860, when the Indian Mutiny had come and gone, Sir Herbert Edwardes stood on the platform at the anniversary meeting of the Church Missionary Society in Exeter Hall, and said: "The outpost of Peshawar is one of the most difficult and arduous posts in India. But safety reigned there throughout the whole time of the Mutiny. Why? Because we honoured God from the very first in that place; because we established a Christian Mission there. And I can tell you that Dr. Pfander, one of the best and most able Christian missionaries who was ever sent forth, went down into the streets of Peshawar, where 60,000 heathen and Mohammedans met him face to face, and there he opened his Bible and preached to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not fear but that God would take care of His own. He did his duty; and I believe in my heart, and bear testimony to it this day, that at Peshawar we derived our safety from the presence of the Christian Mission like an ark amongst us." Our scene must now again shift, and while our pioneers are establishing the Mission at Peshawar, let us turn to the hilldistrict of KANGRA. Here, too, early in 1854, a Mission had been commenced. The Rev. J. N. Merk was at work, assisted by a European schoolmaster and three native teachers. The stood on the point of a hill between the two towns of Kangra Mission-house, a bungalow purchased from an English civilian, and Bhebana. At the latter place is a very ancient and famous Hindu temple, the resort of vast multitudes of pilgrims from various parts of the country twice in the year, and esteemed of such sanctity that Runjeet Singh, the last king of the Sikhs, when he was dying, directed, amongst his other acts of supposed merit, that the top should be covered with plates of gold,-which was actually done. Twenty miles off is another place of eminent Hindu sanctity, Jowala Mukhi, where a sacred flame of fire issues from the bituminous rock. There is a tradition that if a man cut out his tongue, and lay it on the idol's head in the temple here, he will not only go to heaven, but his tongue will grow again in four days' time. Instances of people cutting out their tongues in consequence have frequently occurred. A large number of villages and towns are thickly scattered about the rich and beautiful valley of Kangra, one of the most fertile spots in India, and here it was that Mr. Merk began to break up the fallow ground, and to sow abroad in it the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, by daily preaching in Kangra itself, and by missionary excursions to other places in the district. The people proved to be a simple, quiet race, very superstitious and credulous, but alive to kindness, and easily won by judicious and gentle treatment. The missionary's influence was the more readily felt from the fact that the Native priests were a most dissolute and immoral set, and not at all looked up to by the inhabitants of the country. Mr. Merk did not have long to wait for a first-fruit of his labours here. While on a preaching visit at the Jowala Mukhi mela, or fair, a respectable young Brahmin, formerly a schoolmaster of the place, came to his tent for some books. He had some knowledge of Christianity through intercourse with Native Christians, especially the earnest-minded, gentle-mannered Pastor Golaknath, of Jullunder. He now asked for further instruction in the Christian religion, and he was ultimately baptized on October 16th, 1864. The founding of yet another station, that of Multan, must be noticed. Its occupation was owing to the desire of the Rev. Thomas Fitzpatrick to spread missionary labour and influence as widely as possible. He had already, with his colleagues, preached and itinerated in all directions in the densely-populated country around Amritsar, but he felt that the Punjab was lying wide before him, and that everywhere was spiritual destitution. As soon as the arrival of a new missionary-the Rev. A. Strawbridge-at Amritsar set him free, he set out on a missionary tour to Multan, to ascertain its fitness for occupation. The European residents received him gladly; liberal aid was promised him; and hither he transferred himself, with the consent of the Parent Committee, in the beginning of 1856. As at Amritsar so at Multan, he exercised a beneficial and happy influence on all with whom he came in contact. The opportunities for usefulness at this time in a directly missionary point of view were small, but they were not neglected. "Perhaps," observed Mr. Fitzpatrick, "there is not another missionary in India without a colleague or a Native assistant, but this is my portion. I go to the city alone, and preach for a short time every second day. I feel it is a great cross to stand up alone before a very degraded, polluted people, who gainsay in their hearts every word that I say, or pity my folly." Eventually the health of himself and of Mrs. Fitzpatrick having severely suffered, he was compelled to return home. He had baptized two adults, "the first-fruits of a difficult mission carried on in difficult times." Whilst in England he was not idle, but occupied his resting-time in editing the works of Dr. Pfander in Persian and Hindustani. In 1863, his wife having died, he returned to the Punjab and his old missionary field, but only to become aware, through prostrating illness, that his constitution was now utterly unequal to the exigencies of the Indian climate. He bade a final farewell to India in 1864; the following year he married a second time, but ten years of mission work in India had exhausted health and vigour, and a short illness terminated his earthly career in February, 1866. He was not the first of the Punjab missionaries who had been called to a heavenly home. No less than five were already gone before him, all of whom had died in India; two at Peshawar, one at Multan, one at Amritsar, and another, belonging to the same station, at Dalhousie. These were years of trial in the Mission, but the Lord doeth what seemeth good in His sight. His ways are not as ours, and we know that what He does must be best. THE REV. W. T. SATTHIANÂDAN. EVERAL of our African clergy are well-known personally to large circles of friends in England; but not one of the ordained Natives of India connected with the C.M.S.-the number of whose names are about a hundred and twenty-has ever visited this country. By the time, however, that these lines appear, we hope that the respected clergyman and his excellent wife whose portraits we now present, will have landed on our shores. A few lines concerning them will therefore have a special interest for many of our readers. A year and a half ago there died, at Poonamalli, near Madras, an aged schoolmaster, William Cruickshanks, who had for more than a quarter of a century, although totally blind, laboured most earnestly as head-master of the C.M.S. high-class school at Palamcottah. His earnest and spiritual teaching had been instrumental in leading many of the young Hindus under his charge to embrace the Gospel. In season and out of season the good man sought, by all manner of innocent stratagems, to draw his pupils to study with him the Word of God; and not a few who are now bearing witness for Christ among their countrymen delight to dwell upon his happy influence over them. One of these is now the Rev. W. T. Satthianâdan. Mr. Satthianâdan had to endure the usual trial of a well-connected Hindu when he becomes a Christian. He had literally to give up all for Christ. But he was warmly welcomed by the Tinnevelly missionaries; and after pursuing his studies, first under the late Rev. J. Thomas, and then at Bishop Corrie's school at Madras, he was attached as an evangelist as the first Native clergyman of the C.M.S. in South India. She and her daughters have for some years carried on an extensive and successful work of female education in Madras, besides being devoted evangelists to their heathen sisters in the zenanas of that great city. The same Report gives the number of girls in her six schools as 444, and of the zenanas visited by her, with the assistance of some Christian women, as 50, comprising 105 lady pupils. "The Gospel," writes Mr. Satthianâdan, "is thus silently winning its way, and may, in God's good time, produce fruit in the conversion of many of the daughters of India." We are sure that Mr. and Mrs. Satthianâdan will meet with a hearty welcome when they come amongst us. THE REV. W. T. AND MRS. SATTHIANADAN, OF MADRAS. A HINT TO WORKING PARTIES. N a private letter dated Nov. 27th last, Archdeacon Kirkby writes from York Factory, Hudson's Bay : "My dear wife bids me thank you very much for sending such suitable and nice things. The garments were all good, and of a kind most suited to the wants of the people. One has no desire to find fault, neither would I dry up any stream of benevolence, for our needs are great; but it is just that which makes me feel very sorry to see what useless things are often sent. Old missionary magazines, railway guides, gardeners' chronicles, and all sorts of rubbish that one would be sorry to have to pay the freight for from London to Cornwall, much more a Voyage across the ocean! And unless you saw them, you would never believe how absurd some of the articles of clothing are. I often wish that I could give the dear working parties a few lessons in cutting out women and girls' clothing! Many of them do not appear to have the least idea of proportion or shape, others seem to think the more fantastical they can make the things the better." to the Itinerant Mission commenced by the Rev. T. G. Ragland. LEAVES FROM THE HISTORY OF A MISSIONARY His zeal and ability marked him out for the sacred ministry, and he was ordained by Bishop Dealtry in 1860. In 66 His first pastoral charge was in the Sivagasi district, North Tinnevelly, where he worked in company with his excellent brethren the Revs. J. Cornelius and V. Vedhanayagam. 1863 he was appointed to the Native congregation of Trinity Church, Madras, where, for the last fifteen years, he has laboured both as pastor and as missionary, and has been privileged to gather round him a band of educated Christian men and fellowworkers for Christ. From this last Annual Report, dated November 30th, 1877, it appears that the congregation numbers 366 souls, of whom 184 are communicants. Mrs. Satthianâdan is the only daughter of the late Rev. John Devasagayam, so well remembered still by the elders among us AUXILIARY. BY MISS E. J. WHATELY. CHAPTER XII. E have another 'auxiliary trouble,"" said Mrs. Weston to her husband, about a week after the occurrence last related, on his return from a two days' absence at a clerical conference. "You told me to open your letters while you were away, and here is one from Captain Austin, announcing his determination to retire from his honorary secretaryship. He had been such a help to us! I do not know what we shall do without him." "Mr. Heath gave me a hint of this a little while ago," said Mr. Weston; "I am very sorry it has come to pass at last." "And his cousin Mrs. Benson, who thinks very much of his opinion, has been persuaded, it seems, to follow in the same line. She writes that |