11 SEPTEMBER 1886, Page 3

We regret to record the death of Mr. S. Morley,

in many ways the leading Nonconformist in the country. Though some- what narrow and Philistine, he probably owed much of his great influence to those qualities, which placed him in sympathy with those he swayed, and he used his position as he used his great income, almost exclusively for good. He was wrong, on his -own principles, as he afterwards saw, in the momentary support he gave to Mr. Bradlaugh, and wrong in the countenance he gave to the Pall Mall Gazette crusade; but those are the only mistakes we can recollect in his public life. His charity was on -an immense scale, yet unostentatious, and he was entirely free from any wish for social distinction, declining a peerage when it was pressed upon his acceptance. Always convinced, always energetic, and always a Liberal, he embodied the virtues of his -class, and with a little more width of mind might have played a considerable part in English politics. The Nonconformists lose in him a moderating force, and all manner of good enterprises a. judicious and most generous benefactor. It was a carious' illustration of the essential difference between this country and the Continent that the Congress of Trades' Unionists, just after denouncing capitalists, passed a unanimous vote of condolence with the family of a man who was one of the most conspicuous of capitalists. Such a Congress in France or Belgium would have congratulated the world on his decease.