We deeply regret to have to record the death on
Tuesday of Dr. John Oakley, Dean of Manchester, at the age of 56. He was one of those clergymen who are at least as much philan- thropists as divines, and his sympathy with the labouring classes was one of the most powerful impulses of his life, not only while he worked at Hoxton, but during his tenure of the Deaneries of Carlisle and of Manchester. The late Dean was always a Liberal, and followed Mr. Gladstone even in his cam- paign for Irish Home-rule, as well is in his earlier policy for Ireland. Amongst Anglican clergymen, influence like his, which popularises the Church, and identifies it rather with the masses than with the classes, is of the highest value, and yet there was absolutely nothing of the demagogue about Dean Oakley. His noble, eager, and active spirit was always engaged in trying to make men more humble-minded, as well as more useful and happy.
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