never content with merely making a useful application of the current apprehension of it. His predecessor, Bishop Butler, said1 he had often wished that it had been the custom to lay before people nothing in matters of argument but premises, and leave them to draw conclusions themselves; which, though it could not be done in all cases, might in many.' Mr.. Brewer's modesty rendered this method very congenial to him; and his sermons not unfrequently seemed unconsciously constructed on some such plan. Discourses of this nature could not well be popular, but they were often deeply instructive. Sometimes, however, he would surrender himself to that current of sympathy with the struggles of human life which was ever flowing strongly within him, and would draw some vivid and touching picture of one of the great characters of the sacred history. It would not have been in accordance with the design of this volume to include any selection from his sermons, but a notice of his life and character would be wholly incomplete which did not afford some illustration of his deeper thoughts and feelings as a Christian preacher. At the end of this memoir, therefore, a sermon is printed 2 on The Character of David,' which exhibits a singularly beautiful combination of pious feeling, historic penetration, and almost poetic power of description.

But from about the time of his appointment to

Preface to the Sermons.

It appeared in the People's Magazine of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 1871, and is reprinted by permission.

this office at the Rolls Chapel the principal work of his life was divided between original historical studies at the Rolls Office, and lectures on history and literature at King's College, London. He was entrusted by the Master of the Rolls with the task of calendaring the papers in the Public Records relating to the reign of Henry VIII., and during the whole remainder of his life he devoted himself to this duty with an energy and a generosity to which justice can be done only by those who, from their own experience, are able to understand the immense labour as well as learning which it needed. A general description of the great national undertaking in which he bore this important part is given by Mr. Brewer himself in the first of the essays reprinted in this volume. But of his own work the best account which can be given in this brief memoir will be furnished by the following extract from the preface which Mr. James Gairdner has prefixed to the volume of Henry VIII.'s Papers just published. Mr. Gairdner succeeded him in the work, and was for many years his constant coadjutor and friend. He says:

'Since the appearance of the last volume of this Calendar the work has been carried on under peculiar disadvantages, owing to the death of its original editor, the Rev. J. S. Brewer, which occurred when the materials of the present volume had been nearly got ready for the press. The loss, under any circumstances, must have been a great one; but, differing as this Calendar does from all the others of the same series, and requiring very special conditions for

a

its successful execution, only those who are particularly interested in the work can appreciate the drawback to its future progress. To Mr. Brewer its whole plan was due—a design of considerable originality in its conception; and it was by his unflagging energy that the publication had been thus far completed in the face of obstacles which would certainly have cooled the ardour and worn out the spirit of any man less thoroughly intent on doing a good work entirely for its own sake. Historical students will not require to be informed of the remarkable and unique qualifications he possessed for a task which has now unavoidably fallen to less able hands. A man of extensive and varied reading, of careful and accurate thought, of altogether unusual breadth of view and fulness of information on every period of history and literature, especially the history and literature of his own country-he had been long familiar with historical MSS., both in the Public Record Office and elsewhere, when he was invited by the late Lord Romilly to take part in the work of cataloguing the National archives. The period assigned to him-the reign of Henry VIII.— was one which he at once perceived could only be treated satisfactorily on a larger and more comprehensive plan than that of the other Calendars; and, having submitted his scheme to the Master of the Rolls, he obtained authority to proceed with the work on the lines laid down by himself for its

execution.

'Of this scheme and the reasons which led to its

adoption, a detailed explanation is given by Mr. Brewer himself in the Preface to the first volume of the work. But it may not be unadvisable in this place to remind the reader of its principal features, and relate briefly the process by which it was carried out. The papers of the reign of Henry VIII., which were deposited in the Public Record Office at the time when Mr. Brewer began his labours, formed only a minute portion of a large collection, of which the greater part was divided between the British Museum and the State Paper Office. Originally, there cannot be a doubt, the whole of that collection was deposited in the Treasury of the Exchequer. But early in the seventeenth century a large portion of it was abstracted by Sir Robert Cotton, and went towards the formation of his celebrated library now in the British Museum. In more recent times other portions had been transferred from the Chapter House at Westminster to the Rolls House, and to the State Paper Office. Thus parts of the same correspondence were scattered in four different repositories, and sometimes even parts of the same letter were to be found in different localities. Soon after the commencement of Mr. Brewer's labours, it is true, the contents of the State Paper Office, the Chapter House at Westminster, and the Rolls House, were brought together in the new repository in Fetter Lane; but the task of reuniting a series which had been so dispersed, and introducing order where confusion had reigned so long, was at

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tended with difficulties which can only be appreciated by those who have attempted any similar labour.

Under the most favourable circumstances it would have been an exceedingly laborious matter; but as the majority of the letters written in Henry VIII.'s time bore no date of year, the chronology could only be ascertained from internal evidence by an elaborate and comprehensive study of the whole correspondence, long before any attempt was made to summarise their contents in a Calendar. Some years were accordingly spent in a preliminary arrangement of the documents in the Public Record Office; after which pretty full abstracts were taken of all those in the British Museum which appeared at all likely to belong to the early years of Henry VIII. We then proceeded to make similar abstracts of the arranged documents in the Record Office; and finally, after carefully weighing the evidences of chronological sequence in the case of undated letters, we arranged the whole of our abstracts in the order in which they were sent to press.

In this process of determining the chronology, however, it was found impossible to restrict ourselves even to the original letters and State papers in the Public Record Office and the British Museum. Contemporary letters of historical interest, derived from other and even from printed sources, supplied evidences which it would have been wrong to overlook, and notices of all such correspondence were accordingly included in the Calendar. For similar reasons it was likewise determined to include a far less in