incalculable, if bank depositors among the working classes became the rule, instead of the rare exception. About this time--the era of the Free Trade agitation--there was great distress in the manufacturing districts, and Huddersfield, like the rest of the West Riding towns, was heavily visited. In the neighbourhood where Mr. Sikes resided, the population was chiefly engaged in the weaving of fancy waistcoatings, and that trade was almost suspended. "Privation and suffering," says Mr. Sikes, "prevailed on every hand, and was frequently borne with silent and noble heroism." He seems to have entered freely into discussion with working men as to the various remedies for such a state of things, and in this practical way to have penetrated into their thoughts, and to have got at their wants, wishes, and feelings. And for such objects as Mr. Sikes had in view, the end amply justified the means. There seemed to him only one remedy, to which they might possibly be assisted, but which they themselves must adopt; whatever was suggested, Mr. Sikes's thoughts would always recur to the comparative comfort of those who had to some extent lived for the future--who had had the wisdom in their better times to remember that rainy days must come at some time or other; that "Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary;" and that the difference between those who had a little store laid by and those who had none, was the difference between hopeful expectancy and comfort, and helpless misery and want.