The name of the Rev. Dr. Williamson was mentioned elsewhere in the list of deaths that have recently occurred. The vows will be an occasion of sadness to many of his old friends. He was long a resident among us in Shanghai, and spent a numb of years in Chefuv. He arrived iv Chin with his excellent wife in 1855, accompanied by the Rev. Dr. John of Hankow and his wife. He was then connected with the London Mission; and was iwguished by great earnestness and activity in the prosecution of his Missionary work. In 1858 he was compelled to return home on account of health, but came back in five or six years as the agent of the Scotch Bible Society and in connection with the United Presbyterian Mission. He was then stationed in Chefve, and from that place travelled far and wide, waking most adventurous journeys into unknown and distant regions, furnished much valuable information about them, which was publ hed in two volumes of high meri Subsequent to a visit home it was arranged that he should settle in Shanghai, where he established the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese. He laboured incessantly for the promotion of its interests, and had his mind ever teeming with subjects bearing on the enlightenment of this people and which he hoped more fully to develop in the onward course of years, Little more need be said here. We shall miss our venerable looking friend in his valks about Shanghai, and in the frequent discussions we used to have as to the best means of doing good to China, He was a frequent writer in the North-China Daily News, and our readers ure indebted to him for many valuable suggestions in the line of things that were congenial to his pen. Bat the inner circle of his friends and acquaintances will most of all feel his loss and it will remain for some of them to depict his special characteristics in the field in which he was called to move, In the general circle he will be long remembered fur his sound common-sense, his toleration and sympathy, and his wide knowledge of North China. He was an admirable talker, and though he held strong and decided views, he was unassuming and never imperious in their expression. While serious as become his profession, ho had plenty of dry humour and dearly relished a harmless joke. The loss of his wife, who had shared and assisted his labours for so many years, was a blow from which he never quite recovered. He leaves one daughter, who is the wife of Mr. Paul H. King, of the Imperial Maritime Customs.
The following particulars respecting the death of Dr. Alexander Williamson at Chefoo will be read with interest by the many who regret his unexpected removal from us, He was attacked with fever, which brought on complications of such 'a nature that he gradually sank and died on the 28th August. The missionaries "f the China Inland Mission, English Baptist Mission, and American Presbyterian Missions wore constantly with him. Dr. and Mrs, Randle, of the China Inland Missi-n, at first did the entire nursing. Dr. Watson, of the English Baptist Mission, was frequently with him. Three days before his death he said toa medical friend, You know that for several years past I have been working well—in fact never better. Now I wish tu do three or four years' more work. Don't put any damper on that." A friend having lent him: Bellamy's Looking Backward" he was so charmed with it that he wished at once to translate it into Chinese. Until his illness prevented him from reading he was always adding to his vast store of scientific information for purposes of translation, and was lost and absorbed in the pleasure of his work. He daily contemplated the densg
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.