the Yard to their ship, the command, QUICK MARCH! was given to the marines, the band struck up some high-sounding martial air, and the soldiers marched back to their barracks again, followed by a freshly-gathered crowd who accompanied them to their quarters.

There were many places of worship in Chatham; all of them, except St. Mary's (the old parish church) and St. Bartholomew's (founded about 1078), more or less modern. The latter is exceedingly interesting, being the chapel originally attached to the Lepers' Hospital,* the first of many such hospitals afterwards founded in this country, and the existence of which speaks loudly of the prevalence of that foul disease in those times. The chapel itself is very small and plain, but has a great charm for the archæologist.†

We often repaired on Sunday afternoon to the venerable cathedral, where for many an age the men of Kent have gathered, which it is interesting to remember that Pepys visited, and where some able preacher is frequently, and some excellent music always, to be heard. One of the most remarkable personages there was the venerable Dr. Hawkins, the famous Provost of Oriel, whose long white hair and pale and delicate features arrested the attention of the visitor as the clergy entered in procession. He was born, it may be

* It appears that the endowments of the Hospital-which was founded in 1078 by Bishop Gundulph were small, and although aided by various donations, its income was scarcely sufficient to support the inmates, who therefore received assistance in the form of provisions from the Priory of Rochester. The oblations made at the altars of St. James and St. Giles in the cathedral were appropriated to the lepers, and they were likewise permitted to receive alms from those who had the honour of dining at the Archbishop's table on the day of his installation, and received as their perquisite on this occasion the cloth which covered the dining table. Although so dependent on charity, they constituted a distinct corporate body, had a common seal, and executed various deeds in a corporate capacity. Of the original hospital nothing now remains ; but four persons, who are styled "brethren," are supported by its revenues. †The eastern part of the chapel, which is more ancient than the rest, forms a circular apse, lit by three circular-headed windows, the centre light being the larger one. These are furnished with zigzag mouldings beautifully worked, and perfectly fresh. The walls are of rough flintwork. On the south side is a small sedilia, with two very early English columns with pointed arch, and caps and bases. There was also a small stoup for holy water, which has been removed and placed in another part.

"April 10 (1661). To Rochester, and there saw the cathedral, which is now fitting for use, and the organ, then a-tuning. Then away thence, observing the great doors of the church, as they say, covered with the skins of the Danes."-Pepys Memoirs and Diary.

remembered, about 1789, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School, whence he proceeded to St. John's College, Oxford, where he graduated in high honours in 1811. He was elected to a Fellowship at Oriel in 1813, appointed Tutor in 1819, and chosen Provost and appointed Canon of Rochester (an appointment annexed to the Provostship) in 1828, when he came to reside here. He was a great friend of Dr. Arnold of Rugby, and, when the latter became a candidate for the Head-Mastership there, predicted that, if elected, 'he would change the face of education throughout the public schools of England." Arnold, in the last year of his life, dedicated to Dr. Hawkins his "Lectures on Modern History." Dr. Hawkins is repeatedly mentioned by Stanley in his "Life of Dr. Arnold." He is the author of a remarkable book on Unauthorized Tradition (1819), was the Bampton Lecturer of 1840, and was appointed Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis in 1847, being the first to hold the chair. He had yet many years before him at

66

Rochester.

Close to the cathedral is the parish church of St. Nicholas. It cannot but strike one as a superfluous building until we remember the distinct purposes of the cathedral and the parish church: the one, the mother-church of the see, and school of sacred music-in which is maintained the ceaseless sacrifice of praise, similar to that in the Jewish Temple of old,* instituted by God Himself—and a place of

"Though the outward form of worship rendered to Almighty God under the Old Testament dispensation has been abrogated, the main ground upon which we must suppose temple worship to have been instituted namely, to keep alive in the minds of God's people a continual aspiration after their heavenly home-still remains. Though our religious light is in many respects much clearer than that which the Jews enjoyed, yet we . . . have as much need as they of some miniature and model of heavenly worship to be under our eyes continually, and to remind us of the occupations and pursuits in which we hope to pass our eternity. Churches closed from Sunday to Sunday, or opened only at intervals, however beneficial may be the influence of the services occasionally held in them, do not do this with sufficient emphasis; for heaven's temple is never closed, nor, although its blessed inhabitants are employed on God's errands in different parts of the universe, does its song of praise ever cease. But great central churches, where worship is never silent, where it is carried on with the unvarying regularity of the dawn and the nightfall, uninterrupted by the most startling events, whether of a public or private character, and changeless in its accents and features amid a world which is full of change, such churches as these do help to make an audible echo of the infinitely sweet and solemn worship which is carried on in God's heavenly temple, and are as fresh flowers to a captive in a dungeon,

retirement for devout and learned men, in which, together with daily attendance on Divine service, they may engage in studies calculated to promote the welfare of the Church,* and whence they may come forth, as occasion may require, to assist in the parochial work of the diocese; the other, a provision for the every-day needs of men. Up to 1421 the inhabitants of St. Nicholas' parish held their services in the nave of the cathedral; but in that year a separate church was erected for them, which was replaced by the present structure in 1624.

Sunday-schools are the nurseries of the Church, and there seemed to be no lack of Sunday-schools in Rochester and Chatham. The instruction given in them was doubtless mostly of an elementary character, yet it did honour to the teachers who so freely gave their time and labour to the work. But much it was hoped would result from the Sunday-School Institute and the Sunday-School Union then lately established (the first in connection with the Church of England, the other with the Nonconformist Churches) to advance the standard of teaching. A ragged school (with which I was afterwards associated) had also lately been opened on "the Brook," the early home of Charles Dickens, which had no doubt been a sweet and lovely place, such as described by Tennyson in his so-named poem, but was now the lowest part of Chatham and full of poor children.

It was interesting to learn that while the Vicar of St. or sweet chimes in a dreary night, mementoes amidst the darkness of this life of what is beautiful and holy. . . . If church worship, joyously and solemnly conducted, draws from us a single aspiration towards the bosom of our Father and our heavenly home, it has refreshed and braced us for our spiritual conflict, as a draught of pure morning air, coming to him from the far-off sea, or across the purple heather, refreshes the toil-worn artisan for the labours of the day."-Dean Goulburn.

* "Cathedral preferments have often been held by scholars and theologians who have done good service to the Church by standard works of religious or devotional literature, such as Patrick, Sherlock, Beveridge, Barrow, Hooker, Waterland, Wake, Pearson, Bull, Hammond, Cave, Comber, Prideaux, Stanhope; and, in our own days, Hook, Alford, Wordsworth, Milman, Waddington, Cook, and Robertson. There is activity enough in the English character, and restlessness enough in the present age, to secure the interests of progress, and to give us every wholesome reform, without aiming a blow at the quiet shelters which contemplative piety and learning might find in our cathedrals, which they have found there oftentimes heretofore, and which they may, by a judicious distribution of the patronage, and by a few obvious reforms, find there more freely in time to come."-Dean Goulburn.

Nicholas, the Rev. W. Conway,* and Miss Conway, had lately erected at Brompton (near the Dockyard) the church of which we have spoken, there had just come to reside in Chatham the great Church Missionary Schön, of whom Livingstone said to Archbishop Sumner, "This man's name, your grace, will live generations after mine has been forgotten."+

Sunday evenings were not well observed in Chatham.' For though the churches and chapels seemed well attended, the streets were thronged with sailors and soldiers, the innumerable public-houses were all open, and disorder, noise, and tumult were the result. Few sailors or soldiers attended a place of worship in the evening. Something less formal and more freely social than either church or chapel afforded -though of a quiet and religious character-was perhaps needed; but nothing of the kind was provided.

The year 1848, during the whole of which the fate of Franklin and his crews occupied the attention of the nation, gradually passed away. Two vessels-the steamer Vivid and the Mars (already mentioned)—were launched at Chatham, and the Diamond, a 28-gun frigate, at Sheerness, where also the Satellite was broken up. "The year will be memorable," said Charles Knight in 1864, "for the universal upheaving of the Continental kingdoms in an earthquake of which the tremblings have not yet passed away." But England, and England alone, maintained her tranquillity (except during the Chartist agitation, which subsided after April), though, as we have seen, there was disquiet in our Dockyards.

Afterwards Rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and Canon of Westminster Abbey.

†The French Institute conferred upon him their gold medal for his Haussa Grammar and Dictionary, but England gave him no public recognition until a later period. "I felt so ashamed," says the eminent Orientalist Dr. Cust, "at the neglect shown to this great scholar by his native and adopted country, that I prevailed on three great religious societies (the Bible Society, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Church Missionary Society), whom he had served, to memorialize the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, and I forwarded it with a letter of my own detailing all that had been done; and we were successful. In a special assembly, the degree was conferred upon Dr. Benson, the Primate, 'causa honoris,' on account of his high station, and on Dr. Schön, ‘honoris causa,' as a small acknowledgment of all his labours, all his knowledge, and all his devotion."

"Popular History of England."

CHAPTER VIII.

STIRRING EVENTS.—INAUGURATION OF DOCKYARD REFORM.

E

ARLY in 1849 the anxiously-looked-for orders for the reduction and rearrangement of the Dockyard Establishments were issued. In a series of sections and paragraphs thereafter known as "Mr. Ward's Minutes (to the substance of which a world-wide publicity was given by such newspapers as reproduced them from the Bluebooks), great changes were introduced, embracing a reduction in the numbers of workmen and their superintending officers; rearranging the hours of labour and the mode of muster; and prescribing rules for ensuring a proper check on the official demands for stores and a due control over their expenditure; a regular audit of the wages; and, very especially, a thorough co-operation amongst the officers of the several departments; with other matters forming part of the system of improved economical management which the Board of Admiralty desired to see enforced in the Dockyards.*

* "My Lords," says the leading Minute, "are perfectly well aware that improved economy depe ds much less upon the written rules laid down by the Board of Admiralty than upon the spirit in which those rules are carried out by the superintendents and the principal officers of the Dockyards. But after a very searching inquiry they have thought it advisable to lay down certain new regulations which seem to them calculated to remedy obvious defects, and to give a regular and uniform action to all the parts of the existing system of management. They trust that you"-my Lords are addressing the Superintendents-"will use wisely the authority thus confided to you, and impress upon the minds of all under you the fact that the only way to disarm the jealousy with which the growing expenditure of the naval yards is viewed is to satisfy Parliament and the country that these great national establishments are conducted with the same regard to economy, the same honest desire to make promotion depend upon merit, and the same scrupulous attention to those minute