SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9124, 4 August 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF BISHOP WILBERFORCE.

A lady, tin enthusiastic teetotaller, was airing her theories on the non iseof all intoxicating drinks. " But, my dear madam," argued Wilberforce, "you must admit they are all the gift of Cod and to be used with moderation." " Would you say that," said the lady, with marked emphasis o> the, *to her, dreadful monosyllable, "ol fin?" " Yes," was the reply, " if it was good gin." Here is one of innumerable instances of his pleasant way of doing things. He was finishing up a hard (lay's work of preach and confirming by taking refreshment, at a country house, surrounded by numerous guests, when he happened to catch sight of a young married lady, cheaply but very gracefully dressed, seated at the furthest end of the room. He asked who she was, and on being told that she was the wife of a poor curate in the neighbourhood, he made his way to her as soon as he entered the drawing-room and drew tier into conversation. " What do you do to help your husband "I teach in the schools, my lord." "Anything else?" " Yes, I help him to look after the sick and poor." Anything else?" Yes, I make my own clothes and mend his." Any tiling else ?" " Yes, I get up his linen and iron his neckties." Wilberforce said nothing at the time, but he made special inquiries as to both the parson and his wife, and a week or two after a letter arrived from him addressed to the lady. My dear M rs. The living of is vacant, and from what I hear of you and your good husband, I think it is just the place for you. Will you ask him to do me the favour to accept it, and tell him from me he is indebted to you for it? Yours faithfuly, S. 0." At the Queen's request he reviewed the " Early Years of the Prince Consort " in the Quarterly Review, in which ho judiciously regarded it less from a purely literary point of view than, as he put it, "as a cry from her heart for her people's sympathy." The anonymous character of this contribution was, however, so well kept that it is amusing to find him saying, " The review in the Quarterly exactly (sic) described my view." His character ripened with years, and be seems to have had presentiments that the end was at hand. The tenderness and seriousness of his journal and letters become more marked towards the close, though these qualities had never been wholly absent. His Lust Lavington sermon was from the words, " Peace I leave with you." His last words to an aged member of the rector's family, " Good-bye ! remember my peace I give unto you," and to the rector himself, a comparatively young man, " Good-bye, dear old fellow, God bless you !" The dear old lady said on parting, lam afraid you will be tried with your confirmations." To which he answered, " Who knows whether my Master wants me to finish them ?" A month later he wrote " I feel that the end is near, and yet I never felt better." And it was near indeed. On July 19, 1874, a fated Saturday, he was riding with Lord Granville, enjoying his brilliant conversation, and mounted on a favourite mare belonging to Lord Granville. He observed, " With such a horse and with such scenery I could ride on for ev—" He fell before the sentence was « niched.