Christ Church, Oxford,
Oct. 12, 1883.

My dear Brethren,

The response which you have made to the appeal contained in my Pastoral Letter of last autumn, on behalf of Missions to British Mercantile Seamen in the ports of the Mediterranean and neighbouring seas, more than fulfils the hopes which I entertained when I wrote. On receiving my letter the Chaplains at Cannes summoned a meeting of the English residents and visitors for the 14th of December. General Sir Edward Ward, R.E., K.C.M.G., acted as chairman. The meeting was numerously attended. A resolution was unanimously carried, recognizing the duty of responding to the appeal; and at the close of the meeting a Committee was formed, "for the purpose of collecting money in support of the Bishop's Missions to Seamen, for such objects as the Bishop should himself select." Mr. Alfred Barton very kindly consented to serve as Hon. Secretary and Treasurer. The names of the Committee and the list of the subscribers will be found in the Appendix. Owing to engagements which detained me in Spain, to my great regret, I was unable to attend the meeting. The sum collected in the course of the season through the exertions of the Committee and of its Hon. Secretary amounts to £438 9s. 2d. A portion of an offertory, amounting to £8, has also been sent from [5/6] the church of St. Paul, and an offertory of £5 from the church of Holy Trinity. In addition to the sum paid to the account of the Gibraltar Fund, the congregation of Christ Church contributed £100 towards the Sailors' Home at Marseilles. The money raised at Cannes during last season for promoting the moral and spiritual welfare of British Mercantile Seamen in the diocese amounts altogether to the large sum of £551 9s. 2d.

Meetings at which I had the pleasure of presiding were also held for this object in the early spring at Algiers, Nice, and Mentone. At Algiers a Committee of English ladies was formed. The Rev. Edwyn Arkwright, who acted as Hon. Secretary, has paid to the account of the Fund £99 12s. The English congregation has also contributed £11 3s. 8d. through the offertory. The sums collected at Algiers amount in all to £110 15s. 8d. The offertory and the collection after the meeting at Nice together amounted to £173 17s.; at Mentone to £119 3s. 3d. The Rev. Canon Scarth, Hon. Secretary to St. Andrew's Waterside Church Mission, attended the meetings at Nice and Mentone, and greatly helped the cause by his zealous advocacy. Collections were also made last season in aid of Missions to the British Seamen of the diocese at Gibraltar, Malta, San Remo, Naples, Ajaccio, Malaga, Madeira, Oporto, Trinity Church in Rome, Smyrna, Bournabat, Galatz, Sulina, and Constantinople. Most heartily I thank you all for the prompt and liberal response which you have made to my appeal. My thanks are especially given to the Committees and the Secretaries for their exertions in collecting subscriptions, and to the Chaplains for the sermons [6/7] which they preached in support of the cause: as also to the Dean of Chester, the Incumbents of Bowdon, Mossley Hill, the Parish Church and St. Mark's Church at Reigate, Ferriby, the Parish Church of Hull, the Chaplains of Trinity Church at Nice, and of St. John's at Mentone, and the principal Trustee of Trinity Church in Rome, for allowing me to plead the cause before their congregations.

My appeal of last autumn was not confined to members of the diocese. Merchants and shipowners, whose vessels trade to foreign ports, were also solicited to give a helping hand. Nor were they solicited in vain. It was my privilege during the spring of last year to travel through Palestine in company with the Dean of Chester, two merchants of Liverpool, Mr. Christopher Bushell and Mr. Alexander Balfour, and two clergymen who hold benefices in Lancashire. During our tour the conversation sometimes turned on the neglected state of British mercantile seamen in foreign ports, and on the efforts being made in this diocese to further their moral and spiritual welfare. We spent a day at Port Said, and saw the good which was being done among the sailors there. Being interested in the subject, my companions invited me to visit Liverpool for the purpose of obtaining help from the merchants who trade with the ports of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. At their request I preached sermons in the Cathedral at Chester, at Bowdon, near Manchester, and at Mossley Hill, near Liverpool; and I said a few words at a meeting held at Liverpool, under the presidency of Mr. Bushell. After the meeting Mr. Bushell and Mr. Balfour took me to call upon some of the principal merchants, [7/8] who gave me a cordial welcome, and promised sums amounting altogether to about £1,200, to be spread over a period of five years. Though promised for five years only, their annual contribution of £240 not impossibly may be renewed at the expiration of the five years, if it be found, as I trust will be the case, that the contribution has produced good results.

At a like visit just paid to Hull, at the suggestion of Sir William Wright, late Director of the Hull Dock Company, two sermons were preached by me in aid of the Missions, on Sunday, September the 23rd, in the morning at Ferriby, seven miles from Hull, and in the evening at Hull itself, in its noble parish church. Liberal help has been promised by some of the micrchants: Messrs. Thomas Wilson and Company, for example, promise twentyfive guineas annually for the next five years. Mr. W. R. King, Director of the Dock Company, has kindly consented to represent the cause at Hull, to collect subscriptions, and to be the medium of communication between the merchants of Hull and myself.

The sum put at my disposal by the Committee at Cannes has enabled me to place an assistant Chaplain at Genoa, and to supply him with a boat for visiting the ships. At a meeting of the Committee, held at Cannes after my arrival there, it was resolved in accordance with my recommendation, that £150 should be spent in thus providing the Chaplain at Genoa with help. The clergyman who has been nominated to the post by the Rev. E. Bayley, the Chaplain, and has been approved by myself, has just entered upon his duties. About 15,000 British [8/9] seamen stop at Genoa each year. At an early hour on every Wednesday and Saturday the Chaplain is accustomed to go on board some British vessel, and to remain in harbour till there are no more ships to visit, or he is too much exhausted to visit more. About 800 ships were visited by him last year. Whenever there is need, he ministers to the sailors in hospital; and on every Sunday morning he holds a service on board one of the ships before he holds the service in the English Church on shore. In the spring of this year I accompanied him one Sunday morning, and gave a short address on board an English collier. The work among the seamen in harbour and among the residents on shore is too much for one clergyman. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the English community at Cannes may be able year by year to provide the Chaplain at Genoa with this assistance, which he so greatly needs and most undoubtedly deserves.

The sum raised at Algiers is devoted to the maintenance of a Chaplaincy for the British sailors at Carthagena. It has long been my wish to establish a Chaplaincy at this port, which is frequented on an average by 9,000 of our seamen year by year. Carthagena is not a mere port of call. The rich mines in the neighbourhood give employment to a large number of ships, sailing vessels as well as steamers, which often remain for a week or more in harbour. The Colonial and Continental Church Society has promised £25 ayear towards payment of the Chaplain's stipend, the Gibraltar Diocesan Fund giving £175. The Society for Missions to Seamen has placed the [9/10] Chaplaincy on its list, and will receive a monthly report of the work done amonsfst the sailors. Mr. Barringston, an English merchant living at Carthagena, has hitherto been accustomed to hold a service on Sundays on board one of the ships, and to visit any British sailors who may be in the hospital. On my way from Xeres to Algiers last spring, I stopped for a few hours at Carthagena, paid a visit to the port and hospital, and saw from personal inspection the need there is that a Chaplain should be stationed at this place. A reading-room is also much wanted for the sailors who go ashore.

The £240 provided by the merchants of Liverpool for the next five years has been employed as follows: £100 is devoted towards the maintenance of the Chaplaincy lately established at Odessa; £80 is promised to the Lay Reader, who this spring has been appointed to assist the Chaplain in his work among the sailors at Gibraltar. The English residents there supply a boat and part of the salary. In company with Captain the Hon. C. R. Fremantle, C.B., Colonel P. Ravenhill, C.B., Commanding Royal Engineer, and Archdeacon Govett, I called last winter upon the agents of the mercantile companies at Gibraltar, to consult with them about the moral and religious wants of the British sailors in port; and they of their own account offered to levy a tax upon each of their ships which entered the harbour. It is probable that the sum thus raised will be sufficient of itself eventually to maintain the Lay Readership, and that the £80 obtained from Liverpool will be available for other uses. Archdeacon Govett tells me in a letter dated Sept. the 14th, that the tax is regularly collected by the [10/11] ship-agents, and already amounts to £62. He adds, however, that the expenses of the Mission have been especially heavy this year, the new boat, with sailors and oars, having cost £60. It appears that the Reader has visited since he entered upon his duties in the spring of the year 580 ships and 45 hulks. His habit is to converse with the men on eoinof aboard, to distribute Bibles, tracts, and magazines, to see the Captains and the Mates, and, if possible, to obtain a promise from them that they will hold a Service with the men at sea. This promise has been given by many; and, as the sailors on their return to Gibraltar report, has been faithfully kept. 800 Bibles and Prayer-Books have been distributed by the Reader, and 60,000 other publications. The Reader rarely leaves a vessel without having held a Service on board. It is evident from the report which has been sent to me of the work which the Reader is doing, under the superintendence of the Chaplain, that though Gibraltar is chiefly a port of call, the ships stay there quite long enough for a great amount of good to be effected among the seamen by a zealous Chaplain or Reader. The contribution from Liverpool has also enabled me to make grants of £20 each to the Chaplains at Leghorn, Messina, and Palermo, towards defraying expenses incurred in visiting British vessels when in harbour. A reading-room is very much needed at Messina and at Palermo. At Leghorn the Scottish Presbyterians have established a "Bethel." No good, I am assured, would be done by establishing an Institute, or Reading-room, on ground already occupied by our Presbyterian brethren. An excellent Institute was erected a few years ago at Odessa.

[12] The appeal of my Letter was for assistance in supplying the spiritual wants of British sailors in foreign ports. Accordingly, whatever grants have been made from the funds contributed, have been given to pay the stipends of Chaplains or Readers. But funds are also needed for the establishment of Sailors' Institutes. It is of little avail for Chaplains or Readers to preach temperance and self-control to seamen aboard, unless we give them some shelter from the temptations to intemperance and vice by which they are beset on coming ashore. Institutes or Reading-rooms, conveniently situated, must be provided, if the Chaplains are to cope successfully with the harpies who are on the watch at every seaport to waylay the sailors and decoy them into dens of evil. We need not, indeed, provide in every harbour Sailors' Homes, such as exist at Gibraltar, Malta, Lisbon, Constantinople, and Marseilles. Such institutions, requiring bedrooms, kitchens, and a permanent staff of servants, would involve a yearly expenditure of money which it would be impossible to raise. Moreover, sailors at night are much safer on board their ships than on shore. At ports, such as Marseilles, where seamen often are discharged. Sailors' Homes are needed. Until they find a new ship the men must live on shore; and if there be no Sailors' Home to receive them, they are forced to enter lodging-houses of a low type. At such places the Sailors' Home is in a moral sense a harbour of refuge. It affords shelter from temptation; it is a defence against extortion; it provides the requisite machinery for the safe transmission of wages to wife or child at home. But at other ports all that is required is a room where the men [12/13] may procure a cup of tea or coffee, write a letter, read a book or newspaper, or enjoy some innocent game. The room must be in a conspicuous and accessible spot. It is found by experience that the amount of good done amongst the sailors ashore is directly proportioned to the accessibility and general fitness of the Home or Institute. Sailors are shy creatures, and will not make enquiries: in foreign countries, from ignorance of the language, they cannot. If they are to find their way to the Home or Institute, they should see it when they land. The Home or Institute may, or may not, be connected with religion. If there be no church within easy reach, the Chaplain should be able to use it on Sundays for a religious service, or for giving a lecture on weekdays. But as these Homes or Institutes are intended for sailors of all denominations, it is better that the service which the Chaplain holds should be given in the church, if it be within easy reach, or on board a ship.

At the meeting recently held in aid of these Missions I found that considerable difference of opinion prevailed respecting the comparative good effected by Chaplaincies and Institutes, some persons holding that Chaplains, others that Institutes, rendered best service. My own experience tells me that in places where nothing has been done for the welfare of the sailors our first care should be to supply the living agency. Appoint a Chaplain fitted for the special work, and he is sure to take care that an Institute is provided, if the port be one at which the sailors are accustomed to come ashore, and an Institute be needed. Where the sailors are not allowed by their captains to land, an Institute of [13/14] course is not wanted. The only way in such places of reaching the sailors is to send a Chaplain, supplying him with a boat. When, not long ago, I wrote to the Chaplain at Malaga, making enquiries about the establishment of a Sailors' Institute there, he replied:—

"I have done all that can be done about opening a room for seamen, but I am sorry to say to no purpose. All the Captains, and other persons interested, whom I have consulted, are of opinion that it would not answer, as the majority of the Captains never allow their crews to come ashore, the Consul having warned them against the very numerous land-sharks of Malaga."

The Chaplain here pays visits on Saturdays to all the English Captains and their officers, and invites them and their crews to church. A good many come. On Sept. the 16th, as many as eighty were present. But such visits involve an outlay of about £6 a-year, as a boat cannot be hired under two francs an hour. The emoluments of the Chaplaincy being small, the Chaplain cannot afford to spend more. But if he be provided with a boat, he promises to visit the ships every day, or every other day, and to hold Services on board one of them every Sunday afternoon. This would require an outlay of about £40 a-year, as he would have to hire a boat for at least three hours on Sundays, to go round and fetch the men, and afterwards take them back to their respective ships. Counting upon funds being available for this purpose, I have promised the Chaplain a grant of £30 from the Gibraltar Fund, the remaining £10 will probably be supplied by local contributions.

[15] At this moment the Gibraltar Fund has a balance of £1,335 13s. 6d. in hand. But of this balance little will remain at the close of the year, when all the grants which have been promised are paid. A grant of £175 a-year is promised to Carthagena, £100 to Odessa, £100 to Constantinople and the Danubian ports, £80 to Gibraltar, £70 to Syra, £30 each to Barcelona, Seville, Patras, Athens, and Malaga, and £20 each to Bilbao, Leghorn, Messina, and Palermo, £755 in all.

There is work enough to be done among the sailors at Constantinople, and in the ports of the Danube, to employ the energies of two Chaplains. One Chaplain now divides his time between the two fields of duty. Last year he performed ministerial duty at Galatz, at Tulcha, at Braila, and at Sulina on the Danube, and at Constantinople in the Memorial Church, in the British Hospital, in the Sailors' Home, on board the ships in port, at Haskeui, a suburb on the Golden Horn, and at Prinkipo, one of the islands in the Sea of Marmora. Though during his absence, Mr. Percy Sanderson, H.M. ConsulGeneral, unless called away by official duty, conducts service at Galatz, and Mr. Bigg-Wither at Sulina, the establishment of an additional Chaplaincy is a pressing need. But it would demand an outlay of £250. The requirements of this work were considered at a meeting held at Constantinople in the spring of this year, under the presidency of Mr. G. H. Wyndham, C.B., H.M. Chargé d'Affaires. The meeting was attended by Mr. Fawcett, H.M. Consul-General, his Excellency Hobart Pasha, his Excellency Wood Pasha, the Chaplain to the Memorial Church, and the Chaplain to [15/16] H.M. Embassy; and funds were raised in aid of the Mission.

Help also will be needed year by year to maintain the Sailors' Home at Marseilles. This Home, which I visited in the spring, appears to cost annually £1,000, of which £600 is secured in receipts from the inmates. There are no funds for supplying this deficit beyond the contributions from the congregations of the Diocese. These contributions fell in 1882 from 17,585 francs to 5,517 francs, so that the Committee was obliged to draw upon the Foundation account to the amount of 2,751 francs, reducing the sum available for building to 11,683 francs. The number of sailors, British, American, Swedish, and Norwegian, who used the Home in 1882 was 501; and these remained in the Home, on the average, ten days each, paying three francs a-day for board and lodging. The Sailors' Institute, or Reading-room, which the Home superseded in 1880, cost only £140 a-year; and yet fewer sailors used the Home in 1882 than used the Institute in 1879. Various reasons may be given for this: the Institute was in a better situation, more accessible, more in the public thoroughfare; the Institute provoked less antagonism; the Committee complain in the last Report of "the determined opposition" which the Home encounters "from the boarding-houses and their runners;" "every effort is made to decoy the men away; no sooner does a vessel arrive in port than it is boarded by one of these runners, who receives a handsome premium for every sailor he secures." The Institute, again, was a kind of club, in which all were on an equality, none paying anything, whereas in the Home there are two classes, [16/17] one paying as Inmates, the other non-paying as mere visitors. This last difficulty should be met by providing a separate room for the visitors, apart from the dining-room used by the inmates. The Home cannot succeed, unless opportunity be afforded for such as desire it to read and write In quiet. It will be necessary also, in some way or other, to reduce the cost of the establishment. The English communities wintering on the Riviera, on whom the Home mainly depends for its maintenance, will find it difficult to raise a sum of £400 year by year, unless, indeed, they are to confine their liberality to the support of this single Institution. It would, however, be a great misfortune if this Home were abandoned. So long as sailors continue to be dlschareed at Marseilles, there will be need of such an institution. "There is, perhaps, no town in Europe where sailors are exposed to greater moral dangers."

If all the enterprises which have now been started for the benefit of the British seamen In the Diocese are to be maintained, a sum of not less than £1,000 should be at the disposal of the Gibraltar Fund each year. Towards this sum the merchants of Liverpool supply £240 annually for five years. May I venture to express a hope that the congregations in the Diocese will raise the £760 needed to complete the amount named? Besides this £1,000, I am anxious that sufficient money may be provided to set on foot Reading-rooms at Genoa, Messina, Palermo, Carthagena, Galatz, and Sullna. The Chaplains at these places are desired to supply me with an estimate of the funds wanted to establish and to maintain such institutions. Local [17/18] help may be expected at each place. When once they are established, the English residents ought to maintain them without much help from outside. These wants of the Diocese I propose to bring before the Committee at Cannes at the beginning of the coming season.

It is to be hoped that this Committee, and the Committee formed at Algiers last spring, may continue their valuable services; and that Committees of like character may be appointed at other places. Where the number of permanent English residents is not sufficient to render the formation of a Committee practicable, individuals may feel disposed to make the religious wants of the sailors in the Diocese known, to collect subscriptions, and to communicate with me from time to time. Working parties, such as the English ladies at Cannes and Nice established last season, will, I hope, be established again at these and other places. Ladies who will not join a working party might help by contributing needlework, drawings, or paintings produced at their own homes. In what particular form aid may best be given, the Committee at each place would be most competent to decide. There is no winter healthresort in which the English visitors might not help in some way or other. They have generally at their disposal many a vacant hour which they could not turn to better account than by working in such way as their special gifts and opportunities suggest. They may be quite sure that money or time thus spent will bear good fruit. Those who have thus employed their unoccupied hours, when the season is over, and they start on their journey homewards, will have the pleasure of feeling that besides [18/19] securing health and personal enjoyment by their sojourn on the shores of the Mediterranean, they have done some work in their Master's service, by helping to advance morality, thrift, and godliness among their sea-faring countrymen. No class of the community is more neglected by our Church; and yet no class has greater need of the helps and supports which our Church can provide. Sailors of all men ought to live near to God. Sailors of all men ought to live in constant readiness for death. Think of the wrecks which yearly strew our coasts. Think of the souls perishing for lack of pastoral ministrations to fit them for the unseen world. The President of the Board of Trade, in a speech addressed on March the 8th of this year to a deputation from the Chamber of Shipping of the United Kingdom, stated these startling facts:—

"I have had the loss of life at sea taken out for the last six years, and I am sorry to say it is an increasing quantity. I have excluded loss of life from stranding and collision, because owners cannot be blamed for that; but from other causes of all kinds I find that the average during the five years from 1877 to 1881 was 368 vessels totally lost, and 1551 lives per annum. But in the last year—1882—that number increased; for it was 548 ships and 2883 lives; and if I add the lives lost in vessels which were not totally cast away, namely 235 ships, I get a grand total of 3118 lives lost at sea from foundering, casualties in the ships, defective machinery, explosion, over-loading, and so on in a single twelvemonth. Or, to put it in another way, of the total number of seamen employed, one in sixty met their death last year by drowning."

Now it is not in your power, though it may be in the power of others, to diminish these perils ot the sea. It is not in your power to succour our [19/20] sailors as they battle for life with the angry waves. But it is in your power to diminish the perils by which they are encompassed on shore. It is in your power to succour them in their conflicts with temptation. It is in your power to provide the means by which, if suddenly called to meet their God, they may not come unprepared into His presence.

During my last tour of visitation I held confirmations at Madrid, Oporto, Lisbon, Seville, Gibraltar, Algiers, Marseilles, Cannes, Nice, Mentone, Bordighera, Alassio, Rome, and Florence: 142 candidates, 56 young men, 86 young women, in all were confirmed. The largest number of candidates was supplied by Gibraltar, where 25 young men and 21 young women were confirmed. The English communities at Cordova, Xeres, Huelva, Rio Tinto, Malaga, Carthagena, Tangier, San Remo, Genoa, Bologna, Venice, Milan, and Baveno, I have also visited. At Xeres I consecrated an English cemetery. At Rome I consecrated an English church, under the name of Trinity Church. The property and patronage of this church, which we owe in the main to the great zeal and liberality of Dr. Gason, are legally conveyed to trustees. At Alassio I also consecrated a church. The property of this church is vested in the Bishop of London, the patronage in the Bishop of Gibraltar. A like arrangement has just been concluded in regard to the church built some years ago by Mrs. Fanshawe at Bordighera. The satisfactory settlement of the difficulties connected with the legal position and future destiny of this church is mainly due to the judgment and [20/21] perseverance of Canon Scarth, Hon. Secretary of St. Andrew's Waterside Church Mission, who being again obliged to go abroad for his health, acted as Chaplain last winter at Bordighera, and has accepted the permanent Chaplaincy now established there. The patronage of this church will eventually pass into the hands of the Diocesan. Such also is to be the future position of the new church now in building at the west end of San Remo. The memorial stone of this church was laid by me on April the 2nd. Mr. R. Norman Shaw, F.R.S., is the architect. The church is to be opened for Divine Service in this autumn or winter. Owinof to the growing popularity of San Remo as a winter resort, the existing accommodation had become inadequate to supply the wants of the English visitors, and a second church was necessary. Very earnestly I hope that sufficient funds may soon be contributed to pay off the debt, which was inevitable if the church was to be used for public service in the coming season. When completely finished the church will hold 450 people; all the sittings will be open and free. The offertory is to provide for all expenses. The money for the site has been advanced by a liberal supporter of the church, under an arrangement whereby the repayment of the money has been spread over a term of thirteen years. The Earl of Mulgrave will be the first Chaplain. Her Majesty's Minister, Sir John Drummond Hay, K.C.B., and the other English residents, are anxious to build a church at Tangier, where one is much needed, and have opened a list of subscriptions. English churches ought to be erected at Milan and Turin. At most of the churches which I visited [21/22] during my tour, I found large and devout congregations; but at one or two, here and there, I can hardly say that the service had reached that degree of excellence with which we should be content. Improvements in the structure of the church at Seville I ventured to suggest; and these I am glad to hear have been effected by the zealous clergyman recently appointed to the Chaplaincy there. It gave me no little pleasure to perceive, at the different ports which I visited, that increased attention is being paid to the wants of the English sailors. At Lisbon, Oporto, Gibraltar, Marseilles, and Carthagena laymen, with my license or approval, are actively engaged in visiting the ships, and in furthering the welfare of the British seamen. At Seville and Malaga, as well as at other sea-ports which I have already named, the British vessels are now regularly visited by the Chaplains.

The sailors at the port of Bilbao have lately been provided, through the energy of the Chaplain, with a good Institute. The Chaplain earnestly appeals for funds to clear off the debt incurred by the erection of the buildings. Evening services are held at the Institute in addition to the morning service held in the church at Portugalete, on the other side of the river Nervion, and the afternoon service held at Bilbao, nine miles up the river. Owing to the extent of the district to be traversed, and the large number of British sailors to be visited, there is need of a Reader to assist the Chaplain. In 1881 no less than 62,920 British sailors passed through the port of Bilbao, brought there to export the iron ore which the mines of the neighbourhood produce. From the account supplied by the Chaplain of his [22/23] work among the sailors in the port of Bilbao, I find that last year 583 visits were paid to ships, 97 to sailors ashore; 254 services and other meetings were held; 37 temperance members were enrolled.

During the month of November I paid a visit to Huelva and the mines of Rio Tinto. There are at Huelva about sixteen British residents, besides a large and shifting body of British seamen. On the evening of my arrival at Huelva I gave a short address to some seamen and others at a service held in the house of the Manager of the British Mining Company. The British cemetery I found in good order. A journey of four hours on a line belonging to the company brought me from Huelva to Rio Tinto, where there are about eighty British residents superintending thirteen thousand Spaniard and Portuguese workmen employed in the mines. The mines produce in the year a million tons of mineral ore. The ore contains 4 per cent copper, 48 sulphur, the residue being mostly iron. The Company consists of Scottish Presbyterians, who have secured the services of a Presbyterian Minister to act as Chaplain to the British colony. Schools are established by the Company for the children of the Spanish and Portuguese miners. The representatives of the Company took me over the mines, and shewed me great kindness and hospitality.

At Gibraltar an Association of LayHelpers has been formed by Archdeacon Govett, His Excellency the Governor being Patron, and the Bishop President, for visiting the sick and aged in their homes and in the Civil Hospital; for helping in the Cathedral Choir; for decorating the Cathedral, [23/24] and seeing that it be properly cleaned; for teaching at the Sunday-school; for conducting reading and working classes of young women; for distributing books among the school-children, their parents, seamen, patients at the hospital, and prisoners. The great object of the Association is to give system and permanence to efforts in the cause of temperance, charity, and religion; and to bind together in common Christian work the three classes of the community. Army, Navy, and Civilian.

The new English Church of All Saints, in Rome, is making steady progress. Funds to the amount of £1,000 are contributed on the average each year. But unless subscriptions can be raised at a quicker rate than this, we shall lose the room outside the Porta del Popolo before the new edifice is ready for Divine Service. Three English ladies residing in Rome have offered me £100 each towards the completion of the English church, on the condition that seven other persons will give £100 each towards this object. This fact I announced three months ago in the "Times," the "Standard," the "Morning Post," and the "Guardian;" but the public appeal brought no more than one five-pound note. The church is sunny, dry, and conveniently situated; and, as should be the case, seeing it is intended to represent the Church of England at Rome, it promises to be the finest English church on the Continent.

During the last few months the diocese has had many a great loss to deplore. The English community at Smyrna and Bournabat has been thrown into sorrow by the death of Mr. James Whittall, an influential, liberal, upright English merchant, [24/25] resident for more than thirty years in the pretty village of Bournabat, and trustee of the little English church, which his father, Mr. Charlton Whittall, built there at his sole cost. At my first visit to the East in 1875 I had the pleasure of spending some happy days with him and his family in their hospitable villa, picturesquely situated a few miles from Smyrna.

In my Pastoral Letter of 1878 I spoke of the loss which the English community at Cannes had sustained by the resignation of Canon Edward Fawcett Neville-Rolfe, for seventeen years Chaplain of Christ Church in that place. The zeal with which he had fulfilled every duty of his pastoral charge, the assiduity with which he had visited the sick, the affectionate interest he had taken in the younger members of his flock, the sympathy he had shewn in comforting the mourners, and in directing all who sought his advice in difficulties, had won the respect and love of countless hearts. Since he withdrew from his cure at Cannes, he had lived a retired and useful life at Bordighera, though prevented by his blindness from undertaking public duty. As the illness which caused his resignation grew upon him, the steady cheerfulness of his disposition shone forth with daily increasing lustre. The more his bodily powers decayed, so much the more seemed the inner graces of his patient, sunny, and sympathetic nature to be unfolded into blossom. His wide experience, calm judgment, and kindly heart, rendered him an invaluable counsellor in all matters affecting the English Church and congregation at Bordighera. Nothing pleased him more than a long walk with some little child, each in different ways a guide to [25/26] the other, and each feeling equal joy in the other's companionship. Dear as he was to the Enghsh colony at Bordighera, it was right that his body should rest in the cemetery at Cannes. Cannes was the field of his pastoral labours. Cannes was the earlier home of his affections. The many sorrowing relations and friends who on the afternoon of Easter Thursday were gathered together to pay their last tribute of affection and reverence to his memory at this spot, hallowed to most of us by many sad and solemn recollections, must have recognised in the brightness of the day and scene, in the glad Easter hymns, in the words of comfort spoken in the church and over the grave, symbols and pledges of that heavenly joy upon which his saintly spirit must have entered.

The English Church on the Continent has been deprived of a faithful representative by the unexpected death at Basle this autumn of the Rev. Lewis Maydwell Hogg. During the first fourteen years after his ordination, Mr. Hogg held ministerial charges in England at Cranford in Northamptonshire, and at Torquay. But latterly, owing to weakness of health, he was unable to take any permanent duty either at home or abroad. He fixed his residence at Cimiez, among the hills overhanging Nice, where from time to time I have enjoyed the pleasure of being his guest. During the summer months his custom was to travel, gathering information wherever he went respecting the churches of such countries as he visited, and making acquaintance with the clergy of the different communions. His last work on earth was a labour of love undertaken in June at the desire of [26/27] the Bishop of Lincoln, who was anxious to obtain information respecting the conflict between the clergy and the government in France on the subject of education. He entered into the work with the keenest interest, stopping at different places as he travelled by slow stages from Nice to England. His wide sympathies and great conversational powers made him a general favourite. Among English Churchmen none possessed larger or more intimate knowledge of the Continental Churches; and none have been more zealous in promoting friendly relations between foreign communions and our own, and in making them mutually known to one another. He took part in the Conference held at Bonn in 1875 between members of the Greek, Russian, Old Catholic, and Anglican Churches, under the presidency of Professor Von Döllinger. Moderation and sobriety were marked features of his mind. His tone and spirit may be gathered from the texts which he was wont to choose, when his health allowed him to preach. They were "By this shall all men know that ye are My Disciples, if ye have love one to another; " "In My Father's house are many mansions;" "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." A true son of the Church of England, he attached himself to no party. He zealously advocated the abolition of the gambling establishment at Monte Carlo. A year or two ago a forcible letter from his pen on this subject appeared in the "Times" Newspaper. One of the last communications which I received from him was written in support of the course which I felt it my duty to take last spring [27/28] in opposition to the proposed erection of an English Church at Monaco. In this and in other perplexing questions he helped me much by his counsels, as in earlier days he had helped my predecessors. Many a member of our Church at Nice and elsewhere will feel that they have lost in him a much valued counsellor and a most true friend. He was one who always saw what was best and brightest in human conduct and character. In whatever society or neighbourhood he moved, he was uniformly a centre of peace; and we doubt not is now enjoying that blessing which our Divine Master with His own lips pronounced: "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God."

The English community at Nice, and indeed our country generally, have suffered a signal bereavement by the death of Mr. Edward Cazalet, who, in the spring of this year, sank under an attack of typhoid fever at Constantinople, whither he had gone to confer with the Sultan on a project of constructing a railway along the valley of the Euphrates. Mr. Cazalet was Chairman of the Riviera Branch of the International Committee for suppressing the gaming-tables at Monte Carlo. At a large and stormy meeting held at Nice two years and a-half ago, which I attended, he delivered an able address in French on this important subject. One of his last acts before he left Nice for the East was to give a contribution in aid of Missions to British Seamen in the ports of the Mediterranean.

The Rev. F. Hildner, who had served as Chaplain at Syra for many years, having been appointed to the office by the Church Missionary Society, died [28/29] in the island last spring. The Greek Archbishop of Syra and Tenos (Methodios) very kindly placed the Cathedral of St. Nicolas at the disposal of Mr. Newton, Acting Chaplain to the British Legation at Athens, who, accompanied by the Archbishop and his clergy, and a vast concourse of Greeks, proceeded there, and read the burial-service. After the service the Archbishop delivered an address, and gave the benediction. This act of brotherly regard on the part of the Greek Archbishop will be appreciated by all who are anxious that the Churches of the Eastern and the Angrlican Communions should be brought into closer and more lovinof relations.

This summer has passed away the brave yet gentle spirit of General Sir W. Fenwick Williams, Bart., G.C.B., the hero of Kars. He was Governor of Gibraltar when I was installed in the Cathedral as Bishop. He gave me a most hearty welcome, and received me as guest at the "Convent" on my first and on all subsequent visits, while he remained Governor. After his retirement he spent a few winters at Cannes, where we often met. But latterly he was not strong enough to leave England. A week before his death I paid him a farewell visit in London. His character shewed how beautifully gentleness, modesty, refinement, and tenderness of heart blend with a manly and courageous nature.

When I wrote to you last autumn, the Church and country were in the gravest anxiety caused by the illness of our Chief Pastor, the Primate of All England. A hope was expressed by me that prayers would be offered by you all, in your own homes and in your churches, that it might please [29/30] God to prolong a life so valuable to his friends, so valuable to our Church, so valuable to the nation, so valuable to the whole Christian world. God has not answered our prayers as we wished them to be answered, having other and higher duty for His servant to fulfil in another and higher sphere. At the early dawn of Advent Sunday, after a long and trying illness, the Archbishop was taken to his rest. When the end came, all Englishmen at home, and over the seas, must have felt that an irreparable loss had befallen the Church and country. It is hardly too much to say that he had proved himself an ideal Primate. No Archbishop has ever done more to extend the range of our Church's influence at home and abroad. None can deny that the Church of England holds a higher place in general estimation than it held fourteen years ago, not only among our own people, but also among Christians of the West and the far-distant East. The correspondence which the late Archbishop had to conduct was not limited to the seventy Dioceses and more, foreign, colonial, continental, missionary, which acknowledged him as their Primate. It extended to the Episcopal Churches of America, to the Old Catholics, to the Reformed Churches on the Continent, and to the Churches of the Oriental Communion, whence reference not unfrequently was made to him for aid or counsel. No Archbishop has ever done more to promote fellowship between the Church of England and these historical Churches of the East. The last occasion on which I heard him speak in public was a meeting held last July in the Library of Lambeth Palace, on behalf of a Mission to the [30/31] Assyrian Christians of Kurdistan, when he delivered an address reveahng a wide and minute acquaintance with the different branches of the Eastern Church, and deepest interest in their welfare. At home no Archbishop has ever won more fully the confidence of the Christian laity. None has ever done more by the attitude which he assumed towards Nonconformity to lull the jealousies, and disarm the antagonisms, which our Church has at times provoked. No Archbishop was ever more respected for his wisdom, and at the same time more beloved for his goodness. None ever possessed in larger measure those features of character which Englishmen especially trust and honour. He combined in himself qualities which the exalted office requires, but which are rarely found united. Definite and staunch in his own convictions, which he was never backward to maintain and forward, he had a heart large enough to find a place for all good men in its affection and sympathies. He was Bishop of no party, but of the whole English people. As became the Primate of all England, he recognised goodness, he encouraged earnest work, he rewarded merit, wherever and by whomsoever shewn. While in his personal character the stronger and more manly excellences, resolution, justice, generosity, courage, masculine intelligence, were dominant, he possessed in no small measure many of the gentler graces, kindliness of heart, graciousness of manner, playfulness of humour, amiability of temper. There was no littleness in his nature. He made no enemies. He never lost a friend. He kindled in fellow labourers deepest loyalty, devotion, and reverence. As tutor of a famous College at Oxford, as Head Master of Rugby [31/32] School, as Dean of Carlisle Cathedral, as Bishop of London, and as occupant of Augustine's throne, he was unwearied in labour; and none could be associated with him in work without catching some measure of his untiring industry. On no occasions were his force of character and personal ascendency more conspicuous than when he was called upon to control the discordant elements of a large public assembly. The repeated attacks of dangerous illness through which he passed were results of no constitutional weakness, but of that self-denying zeal with which he devoted himself to the call of duty. From having been more than once on the point to die, the things of the unseen world had a reality for him which they can hardly have for those who have never looked death thus repeatedly in the face. The afflictions which visited his own home, while they won for him the condolence of all classes, from the Queen to the humblest peasant, enabled him to enter with true and living sympathy into the afflictions of others. Few books of late years have done more to make religion strike its roots deeply into the hearts of Englishmen than the volume of Family Memoirs, in which the bitter story of desolation and holy faith is told. A statesman as well as an ecclesiastic, he was able to discern the bent of the age, to recognise the various forces at work within and outside the Church, and to direct them in a practical, comprehensive, and masterly spirit. If at the present moment the Church retains a firm grasp on the affections of the country, if the chair of Canterbury stands higher in public regard than it ever stood before, if during his Primacy the attacks of Liberationists languished, and disestablishment was kept outside [32/33] the range of practical politics, this Is due to the fact that the policy which the Archbishop conceived, and which he consistently and fearlessly pursued, if unwelcome to a few, approved itself to the sober judgment of the nation at large. One great secret of his influence was his hopefulness. He always looked at the brighter side. He never lost heart or courage. He never desponded. He never believed In those crises and catastrophes, which alarmists are ever prophesying. So sanguine was his spirit, that men called him an optimist. The years during which he presided over our Church's councils were a time of much agitation and controversy. If the storms were securely weathered, this is attributable, under God, In no small degree to the strong manly sense, the far-seeing sagacity, the sobriety and moderation, the wide sympathies, the calm and tranquil hopefulness of the good and great Prelate, whom all our countrymen, whatever their class, whatever their party, whatever their Church, In one common and heart-felt sorrow a few months ago were mourning.

In addressing you, who are members of my own diocese, I perhaps may be permitted to say a few words on my personal relations with the late Archbishop. It has been my privilege to know him intimately from my earliest years, first as a boy, now forty years ago, in my father's house at Dunchurch, where he was a constant guest, then as a pupil at Rugby school, then as Chaplain at the examination of candidates for Holy Orders at Fulham or in London House, then as Commissary, when he invited me to quit Oxford and to help him In his work during those anxious months In which, shortly after his elevation to the Primacy, his life seemed to hang [33/34] in the balance. The same great qualities which were conspicuous in his public career, were conspicuous in his home circle. His words were marked by the same hopefulness, the same fairness and generosity, the same comprehensive charity, when spoken confidentially to intimate friends by the fireside, as they were when spoken in a public assembly. When I was summoned in the autumn to his bedside, at a time when he was supposed to be dying, he spoke with sorrow of the differences which divide Christians, but he added, "nothing can really separate those who have the love of Christ in their hearts." During the last nine years, before he was taken away, I had enjoyed the happiness of spending a portion of each summer with him, when my tour of visitation was ended. Imaofination cannot draw a more beautiful picture of domestic piety than met my eye daily at Lambeth or Addington. In the last letter which I received from him he writes, "I trust by God's blessing your Eastern tour is prospering, and that about June you will come to your rooms at Lambeth. All my old friends are dying or dead; so do not desert me. Stanley made a great gap. All blessing here and hereafter to you."

At the close of a paper of reminiscences, the last that came from the Archbishop's hand, occurs this sentence: "Meanwhile the Church and the world seem entering on totally new phases." The prophecy appears to be in very course of fulfilment. What is to be the exact nature of those phases none can tell. We may be entering upon changes to be made in storm and conflict. But whether we have storm or calm, we need not fear for the Church of [34/35] England, if only we cultivate that spirit of moderation, that sobriety of judgment, that breadth of view and sympathy, that manly trustfulness, which marked the character and public action of Archbishop Tait; and, to quote his own almost dying words, "cast our care on Him who cares ever for His Church and people."

During this autumn and the coming winter and spring, I propose to visit the English congregations in southern France, Italy, Sicily, Malta, at Constantinople, Odessa, and on the Lower Danube. Early notice should be given in your churches of my intention to hold confirmations wherever they are needed. Directions regarding this Service are given in the Appendix.

May God bless you in all your labours for His glory. And may He bring you safely through life's conflicts and life's sorrows to His eternal joy.

Believe me to be,

Your sincere friend and brother,

C. W. GIBRALTAR.

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