We regret deeply to notice the death of Dr. Allon,
so long pastor of Union Chapel, Islington, who expired on Saturday morning rather suddenly. He was ill, but no immediate danger was apprehended, when his breathing suddenly became laboured, and he passed away. In him the Congregationalists lose one of the most eminent of their ministers, the only one in London, indeed, whose influence and repute rivalled that of Mr. Spurgeon. Like him, Dr. Allon was eminent as an administrator as well as a preacher, while he had a larger conception of a Church; and in founding, guiding, and defending the Congregational Union, he showed his impres- sion that, if the congregation is the best unit, it is not the final end of Christian organisation. Though entirely orthodox, he was a liberal theologian, holding at a very early period the view of Biblical inspiration now almost universally adopted ; and his management of the British Quarterly for twenty years marked the breadth of his sympathies as well as his wide range of knowledge. In politics he was a staunch Liberal, but was too true a constitutionalist to follow Mr. Gladstone in his acceptance of Home-rule, and resisted that revolutionary proposal as energetically as Mr. Spurgeon. He was, in truth, one of the great individualities of the Non- conformist world, which, with all its freedom, still throws them up so slowly, that each one as he departs leaves a perceptible and regrettable gap behind.
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