We regret deeply to notice the death of the Rev.
Septimus Hansard, rector of Bethnal Green. His immediate charge was a district containing only ten thousand people ; but until the passing of the Parish Councils Bill, he remained Chairman of the Vestry of the whole parish, with its population of one hundred and thirty-two thousand people. Possessed of con- siderable private means, dauntless pluck—which, in the early days of his ministry, was urgently required—and a fund of breezy eloquence, Mr. Hansard threw himself with his whole heart among his poor people, and speedily acquired, especially over the really rough lot among them, an exceptional influ- ence. His sympathy was never wanting, even when a sufferer belonged to that strange borderland between poverty and crime; his energetic reproofs never stung ; and as his purse was never closed, he attracted from men quite inaccessible to more conventional ministers, something like devotion. He could, of course, have found far pleasanter surroundings, and for some family reasons they were needed, but he would not quit his poor people, and he toiled among them for thirty years, intent to leave the world a little better than he found it. He was a Broad Churchman in opinions, having learned
his creed with A. Kingsley, at Eversley ; but it was his bright personality which gave him his strength, and made him the delight alike of his parishioners and his friends.
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