THE INDEPENDENT MINISTER. 217 



back upon her bed. Her disease was a broken heart. A week 

 ago her cottage was destroyed by fire, and her child (illegitimate) 

 burned to death in it. 



At sunset we found much such a company strolling on the 

 common opposite the town as that we saw promenading the walls 

 at Chester last Sunday night. The shaded walks about the 

 castle were also thick with happy-looking, grateful-looking, order- 

 ly men and women, boys and girls, superabundantly attended by 

 healthy, sturdily-tottering babies. 



In the evening C. called on the Independent clergyman. He 

 spoke highly of the spiritual character of the brethren, but he 

 evidently regarded them as rather wild and untractable abstrac- 

 tionists. They had drawn away several of the leading members 

 of his flock, and, in his observations upon them, he possibly 

 showed a little soreness on this account. He continued on terms 

 of friendly intercourse, however, with them. 



