5 uth April. How close together lie the sources of joy and sorrow is beautifully denoted in one of the finest of Longfellow's shorter poems, telling of the two angels, one of life and one of death, who passed over his village the same night. In the great church of the Madeleine at Paris one may often sce a wedding and a funeral going on in different chapels at the same time. In large cities such sharp contrasts must constantly occur and form matter, for the moralist; but in a small country town, which Shanghai is as far as its white population is concerned, we do not often see so sharp a contrast as that presented here on Saturday afternoon and yesterday morning. On Saturday Afternoon Shanghai was en fete at the marriage of two of its most popular young residents, and participate ed most thoroughly' in their joy and most sincerely wished them health, happiness, "and—properity. Yesterday morning the same Shang. hai most sadly and reverentially paid its last tribute to one of its noblest, best-loved, and most respected citizens.
Many of the same people, as must occur in a small community, were engaged in both these ceremonies, nor is there anything incongruous in this. It was well-known that no-one would have been more anxious that the marriage ceremony should go off well than the late Sir Nicholas Hannen himself, for he was a man of the widest sympathies, and a personal friend of the bride and bridegroom. It was certain that could he have been asked, he would have been the last to wish that the marriage cere-many, so long looked forward to, should be postponed, or shorn of any of its splendour. The white flowers with which the Cathedral was beautifully decorated on Saturday were in no sense inappropriate on Sunday. Bethany itself is said to mean the House of Sorrow as well as the House of Song, and our feelings are not so narrow or so shallow that we cannot as truly rejoice with those that do rejoice as we weep with those that weep.
We have said something of Sir Nicholas already, but everyone who knew him can add something appre-dative to what we have written about him, The long procession yesterday and the crowds that filled the Cathedral and lined the streets, as well the representation in the procession of all the nationalities that make up our motley population, showed the high esteem in which Sir Nicholas was held, and the sympathy that is universally felt for those most kindhearted of ladies, Lady and Miss Hannen, whose future has been so suddenly and cruelly clouded. As to the social qualities of the husband and father they have lost we need
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.