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In cold climates, and in certain circumstances, there is some show of reason in the occasional use of stimulants, but under the burning sky of Italy spirits must be evil spirits indeed; to poor invalids who are living from home to escape from death, it is surely burning the candle at both ends.

After one day's delay I passed by Bordigherra to Nice. I found the latter city beautifully situated by the sea, with a stately promenade bordered with trees, wide streets and squares. I stayed only a few hours, but saw enough to make a very favourable impression. It must be a truly agreeable residence, and seemed supplied with a very wellfurnished reading and news-room.

I then passed on to Cannes.

Lord Brougham's residence there had done much to make Cannes famous, and its own admirable site, beautiful sandy beach, lovely sea, and diversified neighbourhood, more.

The Americans are said to prefer Nice, the English, Cannes.

I took a walk through the city in the evening, and in the Grand Place the people were gathered in crowds to hear a succession of excellent music by a numerous band, and near them were two fountains sending up pleasant streams, at once musical and cool.

Cannes contains 10,000 inhabitants. Near it Napoleon landed on his escape from Elba in 1815. I knew a New Church lady friend, formerly of Argyle Square, lived somewhere there, and set myself first to find her out. I accomplished this, and had with her a very satisfactory and happy interview. I found she kept up her New Church literature. She showed me 66 Who are these New Church People?" and even the still more recent excellent work of Mr. Hancock, "The Cares of the World." This interview added very much to my pleasure in visiting Cannes.

I next set out to find the late Lord Brougham's seat, now inhabited by his brother. I found it about two miles from the centre of Cannes. It is finely situated, in grounds well laid out, and chiefly with avenues of orange-trees. They were laden with fruit. I was obligingly permitted to stroll about and sit at the front of the house as long as I

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pleased. It is an Italian villa, with a colonnade of Doric pillars in front. It was a fine abode for the retirement of the energetic aged statesman to whom his country owes so much. I enjoyed my quiet contemplations there, and on my return called at the church where he used to attend. It was open; they were making it ready for worship on the first Sunday in October; it is closed four months in summer. It is a handsome church called Trinity, somewhat similar in form, but not so lofty, as Argyle Square. I was shown the pew where Lord Brougham sat, and over it, on a marble tablet, is the following inscription :—

"The Right Honourable LORD BROUGHAM and Vaux,

Died at his residence here, May 7th, 1868."

This tablet, placed near the seat he was wont to occupy, commemorates his having laid the stone for the erection of the transepts in 1865, and his attendance at the service of this church from its opening in 1856.

The following verse is taken from his favourite hymn—

"I am the Way, the Truth, the Life;

No son of human race,

But such as I conduct and guide,
Shall see my Father's face."

(To be continued.)

REPRESENTATIVES IN CONFERENCE.
(To the Editor of the Intellectual Repository.)

I HOPE, Sir, that the "importance of having great questions ventilated fully through the whole pages," will be a sufficient inducement to you to keep the Repository open. "to such discussions, under certain regulations," without regard to the threat of "the commencement of some other periodical."

Will you permit me to refer to a few facts connected with one of the topics referred to by Mr. J. Robinson in the October number of the Repository?

Rule 3 of the General Conference provides that "Every recognized minister shall be entitled to a seat in the Conference, and shall become a member thereof on signing his name to the Declaration of Faith on the Conference Roll."

Mr. J. Robinson characterizes this rule as 66 unfortunate."

Fact I. This rule was not made by the ministers, for the "ministers" are "a small minority! . . . the Church having provided that the majority of members shall be representatives."

Fact II. There is no ministerial party in Conference. I know of no case in which the ministers and "representatives" have arrayed themselves against each other. In Conference the distinction is SUNK.

Take, for instance, the Baptism question, discussed at Manchester in 1875. Fifteen "ministers" were present. Of these, Messrs. Bayley, Bruce, Marsden, Potts, Ray, Tafel, Goyder, and Wilkins were understood to support the old Rule, while Messrs. Storry, Boys, Westall, Pilkington, Payten, Presland, and Ramage were opposed to it. This latter list would have been augmented by Messrs. Rendell, Hyde, and Thornton, had those gentlemen been able to attend Conference. I cite this particular case simply because it is the most recent. I feel sure that Mr. J. R. is too candid a man to deny this fact, but " unfortunately" some of the "many thoughtful New Churchmen

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who

are opposed to any ex officio members having seats in Conference," know very little about Conference, and have had their minds poisoned by incorrect and exaggerated statements about "priestly assumption," etc. No one who knows Conference can assert that there is either danger or desire of the erection of a system of priestly domination in the New Church through the medium of the Conference.

Fact III. The Rule providing that "ministers" shall be ex officio members of Conference secures a larger "lay" representation. If the ministers of Societies were not entitled to sit as "ministers," there is little doubt that they would be elected as representatives," and as a result fewer laymen would be sent to Conference. Take an illustra

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tion from the Minutes of 1876. The Societies at Birmingham, Clayton, Heywood, Kersley, Liverpool, Argyle Square, Palace Gardens, Radcliffe, Ramsbottom, sent 25 "representatives" to Conference. If their ministers had not been ex officio members, it may fairly be assumed that they would have been returned as representatives," and the proportion of "ministers" to laymen would have been as 9 to 16 instead of as 9 to 25. (I have quoted these special Societies because they were the only ones who, having recognized ministers, sent their full quota of representatives.) Again, in 1875, five Societies applied for the ordination of their leaders. Four of these leaders were at Conference as "representatives," the exception (Birmingham) was not owing to the Society not being willing to elect him. In 1876 these five gentlemen attended Conference as ministers, but were they less the real representatives of their respective Societies?

Fact IV. The "ministers" are not "purely personal voters." If this phrase means self-elected, or attending to support their personal interest (I do not know what else the expression can mean), the "ministers" are more completely representative men than the "representatives are, they having been nominated by their Societies and elected to their position by the Church in Conference.

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Fact V. Though the rules of Conference permit persons to sit as "ministers" after abandoning the work of the ministry, this right has seldom been exercised. My own very decided opinion is, that the present rule might judiciously be altered in that respect.

In conclusion, the only "purely personal" privilege that "ministers" have, is that of paying their own expenses to Conference-a privilege that I, for one, would willingly surrender. JOSEPH DEANS.

TALKS TO THE CHILDREN.

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Review.

Addresses delivered to the New Church Sunday

School, Camden Road, London. 170 pp., foolscap 8vo, 1s. 6d. London:
James Speirs, Bloomsbury Street.

HAVING served the purpose for which they were originally prepared, these admirable addresses are reproduced by Mr. Speirs in a most elegant little volume, in order that other children, besides those of the Camden Road Sunday School, may enjoy the advantage of their simple, but clear and forcible teaching. They fully deserve the wider audience thus provided, and are likely to win a cordial estimate, and to prove variously useful wherever they may be introduced. While emphatic in the distinctively New Church character of their teaching, they are so expressed as to have elicited a few lines of cordial approval from the Literary World; a gratifying proof, not only of the excellences of the work under consideration, but of the increasing readiness of the general public to receive with respect what the New Church has to communicate.

Where all is so good, the task of selection is difficult. The following extract, however, from Mr. Alfred J. Johnson's address, “Take Care of your Spiritual Bodies," will illustrate the character of the work :-" Our spiritual bodies want clothes to protect them from the weather; for that is what clothes are for, though What are these clothes? Well, they we are sometimes rather apt to forget it. are our opinions, our ideas of right and wrong, all that we believe about things of all kinds. These protect us in the stormis or temptations which we must pass through. Perhaps this is rather hard for you to understand, so we will take an example. Suppose a little boy is tempted to do wrong, to tell a lie, to take what does not belong to him, or to act unkindly or selfishly to a brother or sister. Well, he knows he would be doing wrong, he knows the Bible forbids him to act so, he wishes to tell the truth, he loves to be honest, he is fond of his brother All these ideas of his as to his duty, and what he ought to do, are so or sister. many garments wrapped round him, and they protect him in the storm which the evil spirits have raised, just as he would be protected by a greatcoat and umbrella in a storm of rain. God gives us the materials for our natural clothesthe flax, and the cotton, and the wool, and so on--but these we have to make into coats and dresses for ourselves. So he gives us the materials for our spiritual clothes, truths and knowledges of all kinds, and from these we make our spiritual clothes. We take that knowledge which we can best understand, and which best suits us in any given circumstances, and think over it and adopt it as our own; and thus we make clothes to fit our spirit, just as our natural clothes fit our bodies. You never see two people whose clothes are exactly alike, or exactly of the same size, and so you never see two people who have exactly the same opinions and beliefs. And we must take care of these spiritual clothes, and keep them tidy and clean. If we attend to them-and we attend to them best by wearing them -our spiritual garments, no matter how often we use them, will become fresher and newer, and will fit us better instead of wearing out and becoming shabby and old and ragged. Children's clothes, you know, are not so big as men's and women's, and they cannot make them for themselves; they are made for them by grown-up people. Just so, while you are children, your thoughts and your ideas about things are not so broad and so large as they will be by and by; and, moreover, you get them ready-made from your parents and teachers. As you grow older and begin to think for yourselves, you will grow out of these, and then you will make your own clothes; and mind then, that you do not become slaves of fashion. Don't believe things just because every one else does, but think for yourselves, and adopt such opinions and beliefs as will be of real use And try to keep to yourselves and others, and protect you in the storms of life. these garments as clean, and pure, and spotless as those the angels wear.'

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Miscellaneous.

The dedication and opening services of the New Church in Wretham Road, (pronounced "ret-ham"), Handsworth, took place on Wednesday morning, Nov. 22nd. Alocal paper, in noticing the proceedings, says: "Yesterday morning the dedication and opening service took place at the new Swedenborgian Church, Wretham Road, Handsworth. The work in connection with the church— which is henceforth to be the abode of the Swedenborgian body who have for so long worshipped in Summer Lanehas been in hand nearly two years; and the church, which has been designed by Mr. Thomas Naden, is an ornament to the district.

BIRMINGHAM.-The long projected in every state looking upward and asNew Church at Handsworth, respecting piring to nobler things and achievewhich we have from time to time during ments, and states of mind and heart, the last two years given so many particu- should say, "Arise, let us go hence." lars, has at last been completed. The Summer Lane Church, which was opened March 28, 1830, by the Rev. E. Madeley, was closed on Sunday, November 19th last, when the Rev. Robert R. Rodgers preached in it for the last time. The text selected was John xiv. 31, "Arise, let us go hence; "and in the course of his address, which has since been published by request, Mr. Rodgers, in reference to the literal application of the text to their then present circumstances, said they were assembled to take a farewell of that place of worship, which for the last forty-six years had been their spiritual home. In this place many of them had been brought with wondering eyes to be baptized; here they had made their first friendships, many of which are lasting ones; here many of them had been married, and to some grey hairs had come, and he was glad to think that to many of them this church was connected with the brightest and happiest side of their lives; and if some of them had not become wedded to the very discomforts of the old home, they would hardly have done themselves honour, and certainly would not have revealed a usual characteristic of man. While however they might perhaps go hence with some sense of sadness, on the other hand, he hoped there was no one who did not rejoice in the prospect of their assembling in the new and beautiful place of worship at Handsworth, where their uses might become much more enlarged than it was ever possible they should in the old church in Summer Lane. Mr. Rodgers, in regard to the higher application of the words of the Master, urged its importance as a half-persuasive, half-commanding exhortation to all, to never rest satisfied with present attainments, but always to strive after higher ones. The Lord, during His ministry on earth, was ever passing from scene to scene and from state to state, and so from everything that was effete and worn out, from everything that was behind, all should "press onward," and

It has a handsome stone front with tower and spire, being built of hard red stone, with Bath stone dressings, and in the decorated Gothic style. Internally there is an entrance lobby, on one side of which is a ladies' cloak room, and on the other the tower entrance. There are also nave, aisles, and chancel; the nave arcading is supported by handsome moulded iron columns, with finely-modelled floriated capitals; the arches are of Bath stone, and these, with the clerestory windows and the open-timbered roof, have a very good effect. The aisle windows are of Bath stone, each being different in design. The stone chancel arch is bold in design, very lofty, and springs from carved corbels; the wood moulding which encircles it is terminated at each side by carvings. The chancel is large and well proportioned, and at the east end is a very beautiful traceried window. In this and several other windows are very beautifully designed specimens of stained glass. A massive brass rail and brass standards separate the part intended for the Communion from the chancel. An organ chamber is provided at the west of the chancel, and adjoining this is the choir vestry. On the opposite side are two other vestries. Accommodation is provided for 600 per

sons.

The organ is a fine instrument, built expressly by Mr. Nicholson, of

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