extra-prelatic work, and considering his advanced age his effort last Saturday was really wonderful.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Bishop's health should have failed as it did when he went for his summer holiday to Spennithorne, in Wensleydale. There he suffered much pain, and was unable to sleep at nights, making little progress with his Ephesians, which was still his chief holiday work. The local medical man, however, inspired him with confidence, and he describes him in his text-book as a "wise, quiet, thoughtful man of a former age."

The following entry in his text-book is interest

24th August.—A weary day. Barabbas wild and utterly unhistorical. Think of Pilate and Caiaphas.

I forbear comment.

Under the wise and thoughtful doctor's care the Bishop made some progress, and was able to enjoy the last few days of his holiday and enter on his work again.

On his return to Bishop Auckland he invited the members of the North of England Primitive Methodist Preachers' Association to visit the Castle. "Addressing the members in the Chapel, the Bishop expressed the pleasure he felt in meeting them in a place so full of the records of the Christian heroism of their common ancestors. In such circumstances they were made to feel that they were in very deed one family. But their thoughts were carried a little further, for they could not help feeling a desire for more of that outward unity without which they could never make a true impression upon the world. It was not for

him to say how this unity would be brought about, but there were two things about which he felt quite sure. The first was that it was not God's will that they should for ever continue to be divided as they were unhappily at the present, for though in His infinite wisdom God might bring blessing out of their divisions, yet it was not such a state of things as would convince the world. The second point was that it was quite clear that no scheme of man, no scheme of man's wisdom, would ever bring back their lost blessing. This would be the work of the Divine Spirit as they unweariedly prayed to Him to fulfil His will. Meanwhile, he could say at least this much, that the end would be brought about sooner as they strove to understand each other better, and as they endeavoured not only to speak but to live the truth in love. His hope was that these feelings might be encouraged by their meeting in that unique chapel. His Lordship then called upon the Rev. R. Fenwick to read the first sixteen verses of 4th Ephesians, and, after a period of silent prayer, the Bishop pronounced the benediction. The company were next entertained to tea by Mrs. Westcott; and the Rev. R. Fenwick having expressed the acknowledgments of the company for their reception, an adjournment was made to the lawn, where a photograph was taken of those assembled."

My father's health was sufficiently restored to enable him to preside over the Diocesan Conference at Stockton in the following October. A Report of the Conference says that he "opened the proceedings by one of the ablest and most suggestive addresses he has ever delivered since he came to Durham."

In November the Bishop fulfilled several engagements in London. One of these was the delivery of

a sermon under the auspices of the Church Army at St. Mary at Hill, Eastcheap, on "The Deserving Unemployed and how to help them." In the course of this address he said :

The problem of the unemployed in the next generation is pressed on our serious study; but the problem which is before us now is humbler and simpler, and yet vast enough to perplex the most sagacious. A fortnight ago I had the privilege of discussing a fragment of the question in a conference between men representative of capital and labour, and nothing came out more clearly than the necessity of determining a definite policy before the time of action has come. We must consider our aim, and the course which we intend to follow, and the grounds of our confidence while there is opportunity for calm reflection. So it is also with regard to the distress by which we are always encompassed. We must have a policy and know the ground of the hope with which it inspires us, and while we must deal with men individually, we must remember we cannot deal with them rightly if we deal with them as if they were alone. We are severally members of a body. As to deserving unemployed and how to help them, I assume that it is our duty and our desire to help them; but help is of many kinds. There is material help, moral help, and spiritual help, and all three forms of help are necessary. The Church Army offers all in wise and effective harmony. It has a policy which is wise and effective. The material help is so administered as to develop selfrespect, to discipline and encourage the feeble and the broken-hearted. The moral help is supplied by the natural intercourse of an ordered family, to which the destitute and the wanderer are introduced. The spiritual help is offered simply and directly in every case; for I read joyfully that at the free meals a short, bright Gospel service is given to revive hope.

The Bishop also pointed out in the course of this sermon that multitudes of those who are called the VOL. II

richer and busier classes are in reality both poor and unemployed. "Are not those poor whose feelings are atrophied? Are not those unemployed whose power of devotion and service find no exercise?" This striking address led The Spectator to discourse on "the rich poor" and "the busy unemployed." It penetrated even further, and led to an invitation to the Bishop to preside at a Demonstration of the Unemployed in Trafalgar Square. This invitation the Bishop declined, stating in his reply to the Secretary of the Society for the Promotion of Social Concord, from whom it emanated: "I could not offer an opinion on your particular scheme without more particular information. In any case, I cannot but think that such a scheme could not be profitably discussed at a mass meeting."

About the same time the Bishop addressed the following letter to the editor of the North-Eastern Daily Gazette:

Sir-It is unnecessary to dwell on the comparative failure of special funds raised for the relief of the unemployed in periods of exceptional distress under the management of committees formed at the time. Experience shows that the larger part of such funds fall to those who are chronically unemployed either from moral or from physical incapacity, and not to those who suffer from temporary causes. It appears also that the distress itself is sometimes exaggerated by men who habitually depend on the casual benevolence of others, and so use the opportunity for their own advantage. There are even cases in which the distribution of the relief is made to serve private ends. On the other hand, special funds, which under the same circumstances have been placed at the disposal of the Guardians of the Poor to be distributed through their own officers, have fulfilled their object admirably so far as they have reached; but this method of administering relief offends a natural sentiment, and is un

It seemed,

popular with the class which it is desired to assist. therefore, to some who were familiar with the problems of poor relief in Durham and on the Tyneside, that it would be desirable, at a time when there is no pressure of distress, to consider whether it would not be possible to combine the popularity of the "public" fund with the effectiveness of administration secured by the officers of the poor law. With this view a Conference was held at Auckland on 25th and 26th October, when, after full discussion, the subjoined Resolutions were unanimously adopted. They furnish an outline of procedure which, while it uses to the full the special knowledge of those who are in the largest sense guardians of the poor, both in the establishment and in the distribution of the special relief fund, yet by the method of distribution sharply distinguishes this relief from the relief provided by the Poor Law, to which the chronically unemployed are rightly left. The Resolutions are published in the hope that they may lead to a careful consideration of the subject in the district, so that if, unhappily, another period of distress come upon us, a general policy may have been adopted in the great centres of population by which it can be dealt with effectively. Those gentlemen to whose names an asterisk is prefixed were unable to attend the Conference, but expressed afterwards their approval of the Resolutions.Yours faithfuly, B. F. DUNELM.

AUCKLAND CASTLE, 23rd November 1895.

COPY OF RESOLUTIONS

It was resolved :—

I. That where exceptional distress exists, or is said to exist, it is desirable that all efforts to relieve it should be made in concert with the Guardians; and that any body which may already have been formed, or may be formed, to relieve it should co-operate with them.

II. That with a view to such co-operation it is desirable that a permanent representative committee of men and women should be formed in each Union on the lines of the