might have prevented his misfortunes.

Four dreary weeks of imprisonment passed away, when, about the beginning of November, Theodore wrote to his European workmen at Gaffat, that he had tortured Mr. Stern long enough, and that if they approved of it they should come to Gondar to bring about a reconciliation. The King, however, had no sooner expressed this wish than he was again seized with the idea that Stern had papers unfavourable to him. Every article he possessed was once more seized and carried off to the King; and that the anger of his Majesty had again been excited was inferred from the fact that in the evening the prisoner was given in charge of severer guards, and tied hands and feet. Next day Mr. Stern was summoned to appear before the King, whom he found attended by his whole army and a host of priests and scribes. The European workmen and the missionaries were present, and not a hundred yards from him Mr. Stern saw Rosenthal in chains. Before any accusations were made, the prisoners were deprived of all defence or hope by a verdict of death being pronounced on all who spoke, wrote, or offended the King. Mr. Stern admits that there was one offensive statement in his book, viz-his reference to the pedigree of Theodore. He had also stated in his diary having passed a place where 700 or 800 skulls were bleaching in the sun; and that their owners had been murdered in cold blood. Rosenthal had likewise written to a relative in London about the King's private life. Deaf to all pleadings of Mr. Stern, Theodore ordered both him and Mr. Rosenthal to be led off to prison.

After a few days of dreadful suspense, on the 4th of December they were again brought before the King. His Majesty, on their arrival, was engaged in administering justice, and for two hours they had to stand close to the criminals who were undergoing the punishment of a whip, made of hippopotamus hide, about five feet in length. On being summoned nearer, Theodore ironically asked, "Are you now afraid?" He then peremptorily inquired why they had insulted him? Mr. Stern replied that their object had not been to insult him, nor had they written a single word in the language of his country; but if they had done wrong, they humbly craved the royal pardon. The answer was their being stripped, and sent back to prison to await execution. And now another dreary period of suspense set in, although they were respited from immediate death. They heard on all sides that their lives had been in imminent peril, and that on the day the King had them stripped, the knives to cut off their hands and feet were lying close to the spot where they stood, and that the deed was only prevented by the remonstrances and intercession of the head of the monks.

After fifteen days of trouble and exhausting anxiety, one rainy morning the door of the tented prison was lifted, and Flad, Samuel—a convert of Bishop Gobat's, but a sly informer there is good reason to suspect-and several of the Bishop's and King's people entered. Mr. Stern was bent almost double by his chains, and he was allowed to receive a royal message, contrary to custom, in a recumbent position. The message simply referred to the value of certain silks

which the King had received as a present. Upon Mr. Stern giving the valuation, he was told that Flad was going to Europe with letters to procure machines and one or two gunpowder makers, and that on his return Mr. Stern should be allowed to leave Abyssinia loaded with presents. Affairs seemed assuming a more favourable aspect. They were allowed to have a servant and some clothing; they were also allowed two Bibles, a solace which they had not enjoyed for six long and trying weeks. Two or three days after the silk valuation, Mr. Stern complied with a request from the King to write to his friends to ensure the success of Flad's mission. The Europeans at Gaffat remonstrated with the King against Mr. Stern's further detention, but the tyrant suddenly changed his mind, and Captain Cameron, his European servants, and all the missionaries, together with Mr. Stern and Mr. Rosenthal, were put in fetters and placed in a common prison within the royal enclosure. This was in January, 1864.

The subsequent sufferings of the unhappy captives would form a book of horrors stranger than the most improbable fiction. In a letter, dated August, 1865, Mr. Stern details some of them. "One evening about sunset the King came galloping over the plain and bustled up to the prison. Addressing Stern, he said, 'Dog! Falasha! scoundrel !-tell me the name of the man who reviled my ancestors, or I'll tear the secret from your stout heart?' Ere the missionary could reply he was blinded with buffets, whilst at the same time several fellows twisted round his arms hard coarse ropes formed of the

fibres of the Doloussa tree. Rosenthal simultaneously experienced a similar treatment. His poor wife, thinking that the last moments of all had come, rushed into the arms of Captain Cameron. Captain Cameron, who believed that all were about to be butchered, said, 'Stern, we shall soon be in heaven.' Mrs. Rosenthal, under a shower of blows, was driven with her babe, first into one tent and then into another, whilst all the other prisoners were thrown on the ground and pinioned. Generally," says Mr. Stern, "criminals under torture are only tied around the upper parts of the arm, but the white miscreants were deemed unworthy of such leniency. From the shoulder down to the wrists the cords were rolled fiendishly tight round the unresisting limb. This still being regarded as insufficient, the swollen, throbbing hands were bound together behind the back, and then other ropes were fastened across the chest, and that, too, with a force which caused the miserable sufferers to agonize for breath. Writhing and quivering in every nerve, we lay in contortious heavings on the hard, bare ground. Some prayed, others groaned; there, one in excruciating torments leaped about; there, another in desperate frenzy knocked his reclining head on a loose stone, as if determined to end by suicide his career of suffering. All the time Stern was urged to confess, and no confession being forthcoming, another rope round the chest was added to his tortures. This torture lasted about three quarters of an hour, and still there was no sign that the tyrant would relent in his cruelty. At last, fearing that his victims would succumb beneath a

protracted torture, he ordered the ropes to be removed."

This is a specimen of the afflictions which the captives have endured. They have been examined and reexamined. At one time they have been promised their liberty, and their chains have been actually knocked off; but when they had started on their journey, they have been seized, led back to prison, and subjected to more horrible tortures than before. might fill our pages with extracts from letters which have been received by relatives of the imprisoned ones descriptive of their sufferings in the fortress of Magdala, but what we have already given must suffice.

We

While our Government were preparing to demand by force of arms that the tyrant Theodore should deliver up his captives, a rebellion was springing up in his own dominions, which has since become general all over Abyssinia. Part of the prisoners are at Debra Tabor, about seventy miles to the south east of Gondar, and part are at Magdala, and communication between the two places is

most difficult. Theodore has only communicated with Magdala three times during the last four months, and even then he was obliged to employ a servant of one of the native prisoners in order that he might not be recognised. The tyrant is now quite desperate, and spares neither male nor female if any of the rebels happen to fall into his hands. The rebels, on the other hand, imitate the practice of their late master. The carnage which takes place daily in the royal camp from famine, pestilence, and the sword, is quite terrifying; 2,500 men who had intended to run away were butchered like sheep, and 295 chiefs were starved to death, after they had had their arms and feet cut off. Ladies of noble families were tortured to death, and the poor creatures breathed their last under the most frightful agony. Some one told the King that if he persisted in keeping the prisoners England would be compelled to fight him. them come," he said, "and call me a woman if I do not beat them."

"Let

DR. HAMILTON was the common property of the Church, claimed and loved by all while he lived, and now that he is gone mourned by all. That he was an honest, earnest-minded Presbyterian we do not doubt, but his catholicity overflowed all the bounds of sect and party, and recognised, "not grudgingly," all the faithful as one with him in Christ; while his singularly Christ-like spirit drew to him, as very friends, many who knew him only by

Dr. James Hamilton, born Nov. 27, 1814, was the eldest son of Dr. William Hamilton, well known as a leading

*We are indebted to "The Weekly Review," and to a paper by Mr. Peter Bayne in the "Christian World," for almost all the materials of this sketch.

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minister of the Evangelical party in the Church of Scotland, at Strathblane, Stirlingshire. His father died at the beginning of the disruption contro versy, in 1835. He was a man of singular conscientiousness, earnest and affectionate as a preacher, but, as his son notices, in his biography of his cousin, somewhat over conscientious as to the losing of time, so that he was always, when at home, buried in his studies. It was rather, from his mother than his father that he inherited his peculiar genius. In the book referred to, the following vivid picture is given of the manse:-" In that manse the animating presence was a 'house-mother,' who filled every corner with her kindly, cheerful influence; but somewhat awfully enshrined in his studious sanctuary, sat, with brief interval, the livelong day, the Rev. William Hamilton, D.D.; august in an altitude of six feet two, with raven locks brushed down on his high brow, with the darkest of eyes, flashing terrible disdain on all shabbiness, as well as indignation at all sin. He was an object of weary respect to 'moderate' and temporizing co-presbyters, and to some of the more jovial spirits amongst his own parishioners was so formidable, that, rather than encounter him, they would escape from his approach by a retreat more rapid than dignified. At the same time, his affections were so warm, his heart so tender, his standard of Christian attainment so lofty, his spirituality of mind was in such grand harmony with his intellectual majesty, his whole nature was so noble, that it was with an admiring, uplooking affection that he was beloved by those who sufficiently knew him." The family is an old Scottish family-the Hamiltons of

Stonehouse, and claims kindred with Patrick Hamilton, and first of the Scottish martyrs. James, who was the eldest son, was born in the town of Paisley, as he mentions in a footnote in the Life of James Wilson, of Woodville, playfully claiming for himself, as well as for Mr. Wilson, the distinction of being born, in a town whose intelligence, piety, and social life gained for it from Rowland Hill the appellation of "The Paradise of Scotland." From his biography of his father we learn that, when eight months old, he had a narrow escapefor his life, and it might be truly said he was saved by the prayer of faith. The doctor had informed them that the child could not survive above a few hours. The story is very simply and. beautifully told in the journal of his father:-"Since my dear child's decease was so near, I rejoiced that I had received warning of its approach ;. requested the surgeon to withdraw, and fell on my knees, with my wife by my side, by the bed of our infant. cried to God that we would not contend with Him-that our child and ourselves were wholly His; that we gave our infant as a free, willing offering; that we were thankful that He had given us warning of His pleasure, and were glad, since such was His holy will, to have the privilege of surrendering voluntarily such a child into His hands. Again and again I cried, "Father, glorify thy name.' My ambition was that His name should beglorified. And, like a God of infinite grace, He speedily glorified His blessed name far beyond all that we could expect. He guided the skill of the surgeon in another way, by bleeding, to preserve our infant; and within forty-five minutes after He had

I

enabled my wife and myself to surrender our infant into His hands, we saw decided symptoms of the abatement of inflammatory attack." We do not remember a more striking instance of Christian submission to the will of God. To that submission may not the Church have owed him who was so much honoured as an instrument for good?

Of his early life we know little, but we may be sure that he was always of a cheerful, loving, and gentle temperament; and we are all but certain that he was one of those brought early under religious impressions. He evidently enjoyed many a ramble through the Campsie hills, and other beautiful spots not very far from the manse of Strathblane. He entered the University of Glasgow at the early age of about fourteen, and was a student, we believe, for eleven years. He was well known among his fellow-students, and attracted around him several of the most distinguished of them.

Though noted for his spirit and humour, he always showed a decidedly religious character, and associated himself with every good work. He gave much attention to the study of chemistry and botany, which stood him in such good stead in after life. He spent several of the last years of his stadent life in Edinburgh. An old friend thus describes him during this part of his career:-"It was in the winter of 1887 that, when thronging into the divinity hall of Edinburgh, I first became acquainted with James Hamilton. Along with his gifted friend, James Halley, he had come from Glasgow to study under Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Welsh, who were then at the height of their fame and influence. He came with a high

personal and academic reputation. He was known to be a most amiable and accomplished student, who had in Glasgow highly distinguished himself, and been loaded with honours. Soon were his fellow-students in Edinburgh made aware of what an accession their ranks had gained. In the different classes and societies which he joined, James Hamilton almost unconsciously displayed his fine intellectual powers, and vast stores of acquired knowledge. To a fancy rich and exuberant almost beyond parallel, he united a knowledge of books and a varied erudition extremely rare in one so young. The fine library left him by his father he had admirably used, and the advantages of college study he had, with an industry equal to his genius, turned to the very best account. He appeared among his Edinburgh contemporaries as a student of singular parts and acquirements, wonderfully ripe in mind for his years, deeply versed in evangelic doctrine, and full of fervent but healthy piety. The enthusiasm of Chalmers and the philosophical acuteness of Welsh were alike enjoyed by his large heart and well-exercised mind."

Dr. Hamilton, after being for three months a missionary in Dr. Candlish's congregation, began his ministerial career as assistant in the small parish of Abernyte, in Perthshire. He removed to Edinburgh in 1840, where he was inducted to the pastoral charge of Roxburgh Chapel. At this time he was not much known or heard of in the Scottish metropolis. Strangely enough, Regent Square, or rather, the congregation which Regent Square represents, have taken two men out of comparative obscurity, who afterwards obtained world-wide fame