and resolute purpose was the striking thing about the whole.  The men were all young,—­seemed at home, and interested in what they were doing.  Half-past nine, or thereabouts, came, and a bell announced that all instruction was over, and that evening prayers would close the work of the day.  Down-stairs I went, therefore, with those who stayed, into Lord Thurlow’s wine-cellar, which, as I said, is the chapel.

The arrangements for this religious service, if I understood the matter rightly, are in the hands of Mr. Hughes, the well-known biographer of Tom Brown at Rugby and at Oxford.  In an amusing speech about his connection with the College, Mr. Hughes gives an account of the way his services as a law professor were gradually dispensed with, and says, “Being a loose hand, they cast round to see what should be done with me.”  Then, he says, they gave him the charge of the common room of the College,—­and that he considers it his business to promote, in whatever way he can, the “common life,” or the communion, we may say, of the members who belong to different classes.  In this view, for instance, in the tea-room, where there is always tea for any one who wants it, he presides at a social party weekly;—­he had charge, when I was there, of the drill class, and, I think, at other seasons, conducted the cricket club, the gymnastics, or had an eye to them.  In such a relation as that, such a man would think of the union in worship as an essential feature in his plans.  And here I am tempted to say, that in a thousand things in England which seem a hopeful improvement on English lethargy, one catches sight of Dr. Arnold as being, behind all, the power that is moving.  Hodson, in the East-Indian army, seems so different from anybody else, that you wonder where he came from, till it proves he was one of Arnold’s boys.  Price’s Candle-Works, in London, and Spottiswoode’s Printing-House have been before us here, in all our studies for the Christian oversight of great workshops,—­and it turns out that it was Arnold who started the men who set these successes in order.  The Bishop of London would not thank me for intimating that he gained something from being Arnold’s successor; but I am sure Mr. Hughes would be pleased to think that Arnold’s spirit still lives and works in his cellar-chapel.

The chapel is but one of the recitation-rooms,—­and, like all the others, is fitted with the plainest unpainted tables and benches.  Two gentlemen read the lessons and a short form of prayer, prepared, I think, by Mr. Maurice himself,—­and so adapted to the place and the occasion.  Thirty or more of the students were present.

I dare not say that it was a piece of Working-Men’s College good-fellowship,—­but, led either by that or by English hospitality, one of the gentlemen who officiated, to whom I had introduced myself with no privilege but that of a “fellow-commoner” at the College, not only showed me every courtesy there, but afterwards offered me every service which could facilitate my objects in London.  This fact is worth repeating, because it shows, at least, what is possible in such an institution.