but continued to fail. He resigned his post in May, 1864, and retired to Pleasant Valley, New York, where he died September 4, 1864. THOMAS COTTERILL. 1779-1823. MR. COTTERILL was a clergyman of the Church of England, of excellent reputation and of precious memory. He was the second son of a wool-stapler, residing at Cannock, Eng., where he was born, December 1, 1779. He pursued his elementary studies at the grammar-school in Birmingham, and his collegiate course at St. John's College, Cambridge University. Here his most intimate companion and dearest friend was Henry Martyn. Their friendship began before their conversion. Together they attended the ministrations of Charles Simeon, at Trinity Church, and about the same time they experienced the saving grace of the Gospel. Mr. Cotterill graduated in 1801, and, a year and a half afterwards, was ordained to the curacy of Tutbury. He devoted himself to the spiritual interests of his charge, particularly the children of the operatives, whom he taught to sing. In July, 1805, he obtained the Perpetual Curacy of Lane End, a populous village in the Staffordshire Potteries. He found his charge quite ignorant and careless, but soon began to see the most cheering results of his unwearying exertions for their good. He married in 1808, and continued his godly labors at Lane End, adding thereto the care of a small school, until 1817, when he obtained the Perpetual Curacy of St. Paul's, Sheffield. In his new charge, his labors were no less assiduous, and the results no less happy. Several hours daily were devoted to his pupils, and all the remaining hours that he could command were given to his parochial duties. After a min istry of six years, during which he greatly endeared himself, not only to his parishioners, but to the whole town, as a laborious, faithful, and affectionate pastor, and as an eloquent, public-spirited, and self-sacrificing advocate of the truth and of every good work, he yielded to the ravages of disease, and died December 29, 1823, in great peace and full assurance of hope. He left a wife and five children to mourn his loss. Such was the grief at his departure, that the whole parish put on mourning apparel on the occasion. He was a man of great purity of character, sweetness of temper, and unbounded charity, combined with strength of understanding and soundness of principle. He was thoroughly evangelical, and full of zeal for the conversion of sinners, at home and abroad. Soon after his removal to Lane End, he compiled a book of 170 hymns for the use of his parishioners. Seven editions were issued before his removal to Sheffield. At the latter place he found James Montgomery, an old resident, and eight years his senior. They were kindred spirits, and speedily became warmly attached to each other. Montgomery assisted him in the preparation of a new and enlarged edition (1819) of his Hymn-Book. "Good Mr. Cotterill and I bestowed a great deal of labor and care," said Montgomery, "on the compilation of that book,-clipping, interlining, and remodeling hymns of all sorts, as we thought we could correct the sentiment, or improve the expression." And yet Montgomery could not bear to have any such liberty taken with his own hymns! The book contained 150 Psalms and 367 Hymns. Great opposition was made, by the non-evangelical portion of the congregation, to the introduction of the new book. It was carried to the Consistory Court, and settled by the mediation of the Archbishop. Cotterill and Montgomery revised it under the supervision of his Grace, and the opposition subsided. The hymns, in the new edition, were reduced to 146, and the book was adopted by the Sheffield churches and others in the neighborhood. The edition of 1819 contained about fifty of Mont gomery's Psalms and Hymns, and thirty-two from Cotterill's pen. It is worthy of remark, that Montgomery's wellknown hymn, "Friend after friend departs,” etc., was written on the occasion of Mr. Cotterill's decease. The following stanzas fairly exhibit Cotterill's style: "Lord! cause thy face on us to shine, Give us thy peace, and seal us thine; O King of Salem, Prince of peace! On whom thy church and people call; Oh! may we one communion be, WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800. FOR many precious lyrics, the Christian world is indebted to William Cowper, the author of "The Task," and one of the most gifted of the British poets. His father, the Rev. John Cowper, D.D., chaplain to George II., was the son of Spencer Cowper, one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and the nephew of William, the first Earl Cowper and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. The poet's father had, also, a second brother, Ashley, and an only sister, Judith. Ashley Cowper had three daughters, one of whom, Theodora Jane, but for her father's dissent, would have been the poet's wife. Another daughter, Harriet, married Sir Robert Hesketh, and is the "Lady Hesketh" of the poet's correspondence. His father's sister, Judith, married Col. Martin Madan, and was the mother of the Rev. Martin Madan, of London, whose collection of Hymns (1760) was quite popular among the Evangelicals of that period. Her daughter, Miss Madan, an endeared correspondent of the poet, married her cousin, Major William Cowper, the only son of her uncle William. William Cowper, the poet, was born, November 15, 1731, at Great Berkhampstead, of which parish his father was the highly-respected Rector. His mother was Anne, daughter of Roger Donne, Esq., of Ludham Hall, Norfolkshire, and was a descendant, by four separate lines, of Henry III. This fact gives force to those memorable lines that were inspired in after years by a sight of his excellent mother's portrait: "My boast is not that I deduce my birth From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth; She was born in 1703, and died in 1737, when William was only six years old: a lovely, Christian woman, "in early years bereft of life, The best of mothers, and the kindest wife; Who neither knew nor practiced any art, Secure in all she wished-her husband's heart." At his mother's death, he was sent to Dr. Pitman's school, in the hamlet of Market Street, eight or ten miles northeast from home. Here he remained two years, when, on account of an alarming affection of his eyes, he was placed under the care of an eminent female oculist in London. In his tenth year, he was sent to Westminster school, "When Nichol swung the birch and twined the bays." During his pupilage here of eight years, he gained that perfection in Greek, that, in later days, made him so skil ful an interpreter of Homer. But his spiritual training was sadly neglected in a school, where he was taught "much mythologic stuff, But sound religion sparingly enough": No nourishment to feed his growing mind, He was destined for the law, with ample promise, through family connections, of brilliant success. Accordingly, in 1749, he was articled to Mr. Chapman, a solicitor, and became a member of his household. Edward Thurlow, afterwards Lord Chancellor, was his associate in study at Lincoln's Inn. Much of his spare time and the most of his Sundays he spent, with Thurlow, at his uncle Ashley Cowper's, in Southampton Row, in the society of his fair cousins. Three years later he took chambers in the Middle Temple, and, June 14, 1754, was admitted to the bar. In 1756, he was deprived of his father by death. Appointed Commissioner of Bankrupts, in 1759, he purchased Chambers in the Inner Temple. Twelve years he spent among the Templars, whom he describes as "citizen courtiers,"--"beaux, wits, poets, critics, and every character in the gay world." He seems to have led all this while an idle sort of life, contributing now and then a brief article to a magazine, occasionally composing for amusement a few verses in the form of a translation or as an ode on some fanciful subject, but giving no great attention to his profession. The reading clerkship, and the clerkship of the Committees, of the House of Lords, became vacant in 1763. They were at the disposal of his cousin, Major William Cowper, and were offered to the barrister. He accepted them at once; but, on reflection, was so overpowered by extreme and morbid diffidence, as to relinquish the two offices in favor of the less lucrative clerkship of the journals. It was necessary for him to pass an examination, for which he began preparation, but even this overcame him; his reason was overthrown, and several suicidal attempts, happily frustrated, compelled his removal, December 7, 1763, to the |