But in many other respects I have never ceased to feel the blessed results of those years at home. In the first place, we were all brought under the constant influence of our father and mother. He was a man of great strength of character, and of marvellous perseverance in all that he undertook. He was deeply interested in the improvement of prison discipline, and was one of the “Governors” of the “Refuge for the Destitute.” This he used to visit once a week with the utmost regularity, rising early so as to be able to complete his visit before his attendance at the Bank, and I have seldom seen a more affecting sight than when he used to ride off week after week in all weathers, even after the Lord had laid him so low by an attack of paralysis that he could not attempt to ride beyond a walking pace, and it was indeed unsafe for him to ride at all; but he was a man _tenax propositi_, and nothing would turn him from his purpose. It was his determination of character that made him a most valuable coadjutor with his brother-in-law, Sir T. F. Buxton, in the great anti-slavery struggle, as may be seen in the graphic account given in the Life of Sir Fowell of the great debate which virtually decided the question. Sir Fowell himself was a man of courageous determination; but it was my father that, during that debate, sat under the gallery of the House of Commons and upheld his hands by his decided and unwavering judgment. It was a great privilege for us boys to grow up under the influence of such a character. Once a week, on the day of his holiday from the Bank, he used habitually to visit the schoolroom, and hear us repeat what we had learned during the week; and every Sunday afternoon he used to read with us some good religious book. I fear sometimes one at least of his pupils greatly tried his patience by supineness and inattention, but there were not then the same interesting books for young people that there are now, and such books as Wilberforce’s “Practical View” or Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress” were not calculated to attract the attention of a set of boys whose hearts were set on cricket. Then my dearest mother was one of the most lovely women of the day. Beautiful in countenance, gentle in her manners, pure in her thoughts, and most loving in all her intercourse with her family, she exercised over us all a most sacred and refining influence, and one of the most abiding sorrows of my life has been that, when she was teaching me something, I was so negligent that I caused her to shed a tear.