first ascertained that the prosecution which was proceeding was against him personally, and would not devolve on his successor at St Margaret's.

He had always maintained that his gift was the being in a position to start a work, and get it into a working order, and that this ought to be accomplished in seven years, and it is interesting to note that this is the time he served at St Stephen's, Devonport, St James-the-Less, Stanley Road, St Margaret's, Prince's Road, Liverpool.

From 1876 until 1889 he only took occasional duty, feeling, even in those days, at times some slight intimation of that affection of the heart which was eventually the cause of his sudden decease on July 28th last. It was, no doubt, brought on by the arduous, self-denying, and almost ceaseless strain of work in the early portion of his ministerial life.

In 1879 he purchased a small house in the London Road, Brighton, and became attached to the church of St Bartholomew, in that town, as one of the staff of clergy. Here again he was unremitting in his efforts to promote the spiritual and temporal good of others, and most liberal in his pecuniary assistance.

Though ever most interested in the present, he was, nevertheless, never forgetful of the past; and to the very last kept in close touch with those who had been his colleagues in his various spheres of work.

He was, indeed, as one of his old curates says, "the truest and dearest of friends, and the best of chiefs."-The Church Times, 6 August 1897.

GEORGE SWINDELLS M.A.

Mr George Swindells, who died on the 23rd of September aged 77, at his residence Pott Hall, Shrigley near Macclesfield, was the second son of the late Mr Martin Swindells, of Pott Hall, Shrigley. Mr George Swindells was born in Manchester and originally intended to adopt the bar as a profession, having been admitted a student of the Inner Temple 25 April 1843. He took his B.A. degree in 1844. The somewhat sudden death of his father altered his plans, as Mr Swindells senior on his deathbed expressed a wish that his son should carry on his business of cotton spinning. This he did so successfully that

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at the time of his death his firm carried on two large mills and employed above five hundred operatives. Mr. Swindells took a leading part in the public life of his district, where his name was a household word among old and young for sympathy, kindly courtesy, and true goodness. He was elected a member of the first Local Board of Health for Bollington on 11 October 1862. He was subsequently elected chairman and continued in that post until March 1896 when he resigned owing to failing health. He was also for 20 years Chairman of the Bollington Conservative Association. He was a staunch Churchman and was for many years Churchwarden of Pott Shrigley Church, where he was also at one time teacher in the Sunday Schools and later Superintendent. He was buried at Pott Shrigley on September 28th, amidst every token of sympathy and regret.

REV FRANCIS JACOX B.A.

The Rev Francis Jacox died on the fifth of February last at his residence 27 Blenheim Road, St John's Wood, aged 70. He was the son of Mr Francis Littlewood Jacox, at one time engaged as a ribbon mannfacturer at Coventry, who died in the year 1862. Mr Jacox took his degree at St John's in 1847 and was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Peterborough in the same year and Priest in 1848. He was for a short time curate of Wellingborough but gave up his clerical duties for purely literary work. After the death of his father he lived a very retired life with his mother Mrs Mary Jacox and his sister Miss Mary Janet Jacox at 27 Blenheim Road. The former died in 1871, the latter in 1893. During part of the year Mr Jacox lived in a small cottage at Charlwood in Surrey. He was of somewhat eccentric habits, living almost altogether by himself and avoiding those who lived with him. Latterly his household consisted of but one old housekeeper who often did not see him for days, leaving his meals outside his study or bedroom door. Oddly enough although otherwise fond of country life he detested the song and sounds of birds. He kept a long pole in his bedroom with which he used to frighten away the starlings, which gathered about the eaves and gutters of his cottage, by protruding it through the open window as he lay in bed in the morning. The song of nightingales drove him to London while it lasted.

His whole life was given up to the compilation and writing of his books, of which the best known are Shakespeare Diversions a Medley of Motley wear; From Dogberry to Hamlet, Shakespeare Diversions, 2nd series. Among his other published works were Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts, two series; Cues from all Quarters; Bible Music; Aspects of Authorship or Book Marks and Book Markers; Traits of Character and Notes of Incident in Bible Story; At Nightfall and Midnight; Scripture Proverbs, illustrated, annotated and applied; Side Lights on Scripture Texts. Many of these have had a great sale, and their profits may have gone to swell Mr Jacox's private fortune, doubtless also increased by accumulations. He was always charitably inclined. During the years 1889 to 1892 he founded no less than eight perpetual pensions. varying in value from twenty to thirty guineas a year, in connexion with "The Printers Pension, Almshouse, and Orphan Asylum Corporation." By his will he left practically his whole estate in charities. His personalty was of the value of £104,466. After a few small legacies, he left £1,000 to Charing Cross Hospital, £1,050 to the Middlesex Hospital, and £3,000 to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, to endow beds in these institutions to be called "Francis Jacox beds," and the residue he bequeathed to the Railway Benevolent Institution of 133 Seymour Street, Euston Square, for the purpose of founding as many perpetual pensions of £30 per annum as the residue would permit, in extension of those already founded by him in that Institution, to be called "Francis Jacox Annuities."

ALEXANDER WADE GILL.

Alexander Wade Gill was born at Castletown in the Isle of Man on March 17, 1879. He was the third son of His Honour Deemster Gill, and was educated at Pocklington under Rev C. F. Hutton, himself once a Johnian and the son of a former Manx vicar. Gill was entered at the College early in August, and in October he was elected to one of the vacant Dowman Exhibitions limited to Pocklington School. He passed the whole of the Previous Examination in October, and began reading for the Historical Tripos, attending Mr Heitland's lectures in College and others outside. His time of residence only lasted a few weeks and he was a man of delicate reserve, at all times slow to make advances, while a recent illness

prevented him from taking part in the athletics of the College. Thus at the time of his death he was not well-known to many men, though he possessed in his old schoolfellows a few fast friends.

Those of us who were brought into contact with him in connexion with his work, took the impression of a gentle nature, most helpful to friends and capable of infinite unselfishness. That he possessed good abilities was evident from the beginning, and notwithstanding a want of constitutional vigour the results of which were always manifest, if he had lived, he would not only have had much quiet influence, but would have done good work. The University as well as the College is the poorer for his death. Those who only saw him once would not discover that he was sensitive to the humour of things, and was a happy caricaturist of what struck his fancy, drawing in pen and ink with considerable spirit and much delicacy of detail. And this hiding of his talents must have been generally characteristic of him. The best of him was not for chance acquaintances, but to his friends his friendship was a thing of price.

Some two or three weeks before coming into residence he had an attack of pleurisy from which he appeared to have recovered, though he was still to be careful of himself. On the morning of Sunday, October 31, he fainted at the Early Celebration, and was advised to nurse himself for a day or two, but he appeared to have taken no harm, and no one thought that an illness was impending. On the following Sunday another attack of pleurisy declared itself and, although there was no cause for alarm, it was thought well to communicate with his friends. On the Monday he was so much worse that his father was telegraphed for, although after a consultation the doctors were disposed to think that there were good grounds for hope. On the Monday night he seemed much better, but about one o'clock on Tuesday morning there was a sudden change, and he passed away peacefully in sleep.

Those who were present at the memorial service on Wednesday afternoon will not easily-or indeed willingly-forget the scene. Almost the whole College came to pay the last honour to one whom they scarcely knew, but who was one of their own body and of their own generation, and who was therefore united to them by ties that were real and vital.

The presence of many who are not in Communion with the Church of England bore eloquent testimony to the power of a common loss, to heal our unhappy divisions. The College owes a great debt of gratitude to those who thus witnessed in the presence of death to the principle of Collegiate unity.

After the Service the body was borne in silence to the great gate, followed by the Choir and the whole congregation, and taken away to be buried in the Isle of Man. Among the flowers which covered the coffin were wreaths from the Manxmen in Cambridge, the old Pocklingtonians in Cambridge, and one bearing the inscription :-" From the fellow-undergraduates of Mr Gill's staircase."

JAMES JOSEPH SYLVESTER.

J. R. T.

We take the following from the Revue Générale des Sciences pures et appliquées, 15 September 1897, pp. 599-600.

Les travaux de Sylvester témoignent au plus haut degré d'un esprit original et inventif; ils ont particulièrement porté sur l'Algèbre et la Théorie des nombres. L'illustre mathématicien était peu au courant des travaux modernes sur l'Analyse et la Théorie des fonctions, et il n'eut jamais de goût pour l'érudition. Son imagination, extraordinairement puissante, était toujours en travail, et il lui était bien difficile de lire un ouvrage de mathématiques dans le seul but de savoir ce qu'il contenait. La bonne volonté ne lui manquait pas, cependant; je me rapelle que, dans un de se voyages à Paris, il y a environ dix ans, il vint me demander si, en six sémaines, il pourrait apprendre la Théorie des fonctions elliptiques. Sur ma réponse affirmative, il me pria de lui désigner un jeune géomètre qui voulût bien, plusieurs fois par semaine, lui donner des leçons. Celles-ci commencèrent, mais, dès la seconde, les réciproquants et les matrices vinrent faire concurrence aux fonctions elliptiques; quelques leçons continuèrent, où le jeune professeur fut initié aux dernières recherches de Sylvester, et on en resta la.

Sylvester était un artiste et un enthousiaste. Quand il avait été frappé par la beauté d'une question, il en poursuivait sans relâche la solution, risquant quelquefois de perdre ainsi beaucoup de temps. Il manquait de cette sérénité dans les choix des sujets, qui empêche souvent les efforts prématurés et stériles.