THE succession of Dr. Stoughton to the ministry of the Church brings us exactly to the middle of our century of history. In October, 1843, the recognition service was held. Dr. Stoughton, in his letter accepting the invitation, had feelingly referred to the difficulty of following Dr. Vaughan, “one whose eminence in the Christian world might well provoke, in connection with myself, humiliating comparisons.” But, indeed, the Church had been guided to one of the very few men who might fittingly continue the work of Dr. Vaughan. As a historian of those periods of English history in which Nonconformists are especially interested, Dr. Stoughton stands unsurpassed among Englishmen; and such is the fairness and moderation of his writings that Church of England lecturers have repeatedly made appeal to them as models of impartial and accurate statement. Indeed, Dr. Stoughton’s literary industry has been immense. The Religious Tract Society has largely benefited by admirably written accounts of the great Reformers and religious heroes of Christendom, while Dr. Stoughton’s editorship of the _Evangelical Magazine_ was conspicuously successful in making that organ a power among the Churches. But it was in no partial or half-hearted way that he threw himself into his ministerial work at Kensington. Our readers must turn to his own inimitable narrative in “Congregationalism in the Court Suburb” for the delightful reminiscences he gives of his own ministry, and the people associated with it. Our concern is with the growth of the Church life; and to this end we must pursue our examination of the records, which are henceforth admirably kept.