undertook this duty he obtained some employment at the British Museum, and in 1839 he was appointed Lecturer in Classical Literature at King's College, London, when the present Archdeacon of Bath, the Venerable R. W. Browne, was Professor in the same department. But in none of his work was he more deeply interested than in that of the chaplaincy of the St. Giles's workhouse; and he delighted in bestowing upon it all the time he could spare from his work at the college. The religious services used to be held in the dining hall, as there was no chapel, and they must have offered but meagre opportunities for any development of ceremonial. But one of Mr. Brewer's first acts was to get together the boys and some of the men and women, and teach them to sing the Psalms to the Gregorian chants. The present chaplain to the workhouse, the Rev. John Swayne, states that Mr. Brewer is still remembered with pleasure and gratitude by some poor people whom he had under his charge forty years ago. The other day, says Mr. Swayne, the face and voice of one of them, whom Mr. Brewer prepared for confirmation, quite brightened up when asked if she remembered him; and she went on to tell how on alternate Sundays the school boys and girls went to his house during the preparation, and how kindly they were received. Another, who is now a servant in the church in Endell Street, recalled at once some little kindnesses he had shown her in an illness; and speaking of another suffering woman, now dead, on whom he bestowed great care, she said: Mr

Brewer thought a great deal of her, I believe,' and then added spontaneously: In fact, I think he did think a great deal of all his people.' By a great deal' Mr. Swayne understood this witness to mean 'very highly,' as though he saw the best in them, with eyes of sympathy, and not the worst. Such reminiscences, suddenly recalled after so long a time, afford a striking testimony to the devotion which Mr. Brewer must have bestowed upon this simple and often painful work. Perhaps his experience at this time deepened in his mind a sense, which was very characteristic of him, of the sacredness of common humanity, and gave a depth and solidity to his subsequent work as a scholar and man of letters.1

A scheme, however, was set on foot for erecting the church now adjoining the workhouse in Endell Street, its incumbency being united with the chaplaincy, and it was proposed that Mr. Brewer should be the first incumbent. He took great interest in the scheme, and it led him to the acquisition of one of his many accomplishments-that of a most remarkable knowledge of architecture. No doubt in this study he was partly influenced by his sympathy with the revival of ecclesiastical art and ceremonial; and he pursued it with a thoroughness characteristic of all his work. For some few years a good deal of his spare time was bestowed in measuring churches and other old buildings, and making careful models of them to scale. These models were made of card

In a volume published in 1855, entitled Lectures to Ladies on Practical Subjects, will be found a Lecture by Mr. Brewer on Workhouse Visiting.

board and the bark of the fir-tree, and were wonderfully accurate. But in the immediate purpose of his new study he was disappointed; a difference of opinion with the Rector of St. Giles's led to his declining the incumbency; and this involved his abandonment of the chaplaincy. His withdrawal from the workhouse marked the close for a while of his ministerial work. He had assisted Mr. Dodsworth, who was one of the leading clergymen of the High Church party, in his church in Albany Street, and he also officiated for a while at Ely Chapel, in Ely Place. But for some years he held no cure.

These years, however, were a period of great importance in the growth of his thoughts. About this time several leading members of the High Church party, and among them some of his best friends, joined the communion of the Church of Rome, and his mind deeply felt the strain which this defection occasioned. Like many others among the High Churchmen, he became attracted by a strong personal influence which had been making itself felt in opposition, though not in antagonism, to the Oxford school. He became warmly attached to the late Mr. Maurice, and entered with ardent sympathy into his general way of thought. He afterwards differed from him much in particulars; but he always had a high admiration of his genius; and he appreciated the aspect of truth which Mr. Maurice represented no less heartily than that which he had learned from Dr. Newman. Mr. Maurice became Professor of English Literature and Modern History

at King's College in 1840, the year after Mr. Brewer became Classical Lecturer, and for some twelve years they were in every sense colleagues. Mr. Brewer co-operated very earnestly and generously with Mr. Maurice in his labours on behalf of the artisan class, and ultimately succeeded him as head of the Working Men's College, in Great Ormond Street, after having bestowed invaluable labour in lecturing there for many years.

It was characteristic of him, throughout his life, thus to appreciate the various elements of truth by which the great movements of his age were animated; and there was a very generous feature in his mind which was exhibited on such occasions. His sympathy was always strongly evoked for causes or for men when they were struggling against misconception and were unpopular, while he seemed to be put upon his guard towards them as soon as they became successful. As long, for instance, as it was somewhat of a reproach, and rather against a man's interests, to be regarded as a Tractarian, Mr. Brewer held firmly to the party; but as soon as they became fashionable he began to be interested in the new Broad Church party, which was struggling into influence through obloquy. This seemed to be an inveterate habit in his mind; and he was consistently on the side of Cato against the divinities of the hour. No matter whether it was the Tractarians, or Mr. Maurice, or Bishop Colenso, or the Athanasian Creed, or the Irish Church, some warm sympathy was sure to be given by him to the

truth or the party which was being overridden under the predominant popular impulse. This temper of mind deserves the more to be dwelt upon, because it was probably connected with his power as an historian. It was peculiarly his gift to be able to enter-not so much with impartiality as with equal sympathy-into the views and feelings of the opposing parties whose struggles were worked out in history, and he was thus able to depict such struggles with their due lights and shades, and to exhibit reaction ever side by side with action. This was, indeed, a characteristic feature of Mr. Maurice's teaching; but the historical genius with which it was applied by Mr. Brewer was peculiarly his own.

At length a new sphere was opened to him, at once in his historical studies and in the Church. In 1857 he was appointed by the late Lord Romilly to the office of Reader at the Rolls Chapel, and he afterwards succeeded to the Preachership. The pulpit in which Bishop Butler's Sermons on Human Nature had been delivered was eminently suited to him. The movement of life towards the west had diminished the congregation of the chapel; but the select audience who attended were peculiarly capable of appreciating his thoughtful and scholarly sermons. They were for the most part meditative expositions of Scripture, characterised at once by the inductive method of interpretation which was most congenial to him, and frequently illuminated by his historical genius. It seemed to be always his main aim to penetrate into the true original meaning of the text he was considering, and he was