* KINGSLEY, REV. CHARLES, rector of Eversley, Haute, and canon of Middleham, was born at Holne Vicarage, Devonshire, on the 12th of June, 1819. His father, the Rev. Charles Kingsley, senior, is at present rector of Chelsea. The Kingeleys are an old Cheshire family (of Kingsley in Cheshire), tracing their descent from beforo the Con quest. They served with distinction ou the parliamentary side during the civil wars, and suffered in consequence ; and a younger branch of the family emigrated to America, and has left descendants there. After being educated at home till the age of fourteen, Mr. Kingsley became a pupil of the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, the son of the poet; from under whose care he removed to Magdalen College, Cambridge. Here he held a scholarship, and obtained distinction both in classics and mathematics; and took his B.A. degree, but did not proceed to that of M.A. For a time his intended profession was the law, but he ultimately decided for the church. He was appointed curate of Eversley, a moorland parish in Hampshire; and the rectory of this parish falling vacant in the second year of his curacy (1844), he was appointed to the living by the patron. In the same year he married the daughter of Pascoe Grenfell, Eeq., many years M.P. for Truro and Great Marlow ; another of whose daughters has since become the wife of another eminent man of letters of the present day, the historian and essayist, J. A. Froude. Omitting minor beginnings in periodicals and the like, Mr. Kingaley's first dietiuct appearances in literature were in a volume of 'Village-Sermons,' published in 1844, and in The Saint's Tragedy ; or, the True Story of Elizabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia, Saint of the Roman Calendar,' a drama in verse, pub lished in 1848. Both works attracted attention—the one as an original and thoughtful poem; the other as a novelty iu sermon-writing, from the Saxon plainness of the style, and the straitforward and bold, yet kindly and familiar, manner in which the preacher discussed topics of all kinds with his people. Those who know Mr. Kingsley as a parish
clergyman declared the sermons to be in this respect perfectly cha racteristic of the man in the pulpit, and 'in his intercourse with his parishioners. Mr. Kingsley, as a clergyman, belongs neither to the 'High' Church nor to the ' Low' Church, but to what has been called the Broad' Church party ; that is, his name is associated in theolo gical and ecclesiastical matters with those of Mr. Maurice, Archdeacon Hare, and others of the same order of thought. It was chiefly in association with Mr. Maurice that he bcgau that career of open con nection with the great social questions of the time in which, in conjunc tion with literary labour, the last six years of his life had been spent. Mr. Henry Mayhew's revelations of the state of the labouring classes in London were horrifying all minds, wheu Mr. Maurice, Mr. Kingsley, and others, conceiving it to be the special duty of the Church and of Christian clergymen to inquire into such things, arranged a series of meetings with the working men and some of the Chartist leaders of London, with a view to exchange ideas with them as to what was wrong and what ought to be done to rectify it. The result was the scheme of so-called Christian Socialism '—the plan of co-operative associations among the workmen themselves, without masters, seeming the most hopeful practical method of gradually raising the condition of the workmen; while both Mr. Maurice and Mr. Kingsley were careful to let their opinion be known that this or any other method would be eventually successful only in so far as it was an application to society of the true principle and ethics of the Christian religion. Capital was raised by the efforts of Mr. Maurice, Mr. Kingsley, and their friends; the money was lent at four per cent. to working men; and in this way several co-opdative associations were set up iu London, the most prosperous of which was one of working tailors.