sorry, because I was always in hot water with my Church every time we had a _séance_. I think, or rather, I should say, _he_ thought, that people should not make a religion of it, and only use it for scientific experiments. He did not believe in the "communion with the dead" through _that_ medium--if for no other reason, that, as a spirit is supposed to know all things, the spirits that came were always just as illiterate as their invokers. They dropped their _h_'s in exactly the same place where he or she did, and used exactly the same expression, and were just or rather more vulgar, especially the joking spirits. We had an excellent example of that, when a doctor, whom I will not name, provided us with a splendid specimen for clairvoyant treatment, and the soul of an Italian doctor presented himself and spoke through the medium, who was evidently unaware that Richard and I could speak anything else but English; and upon being asked certain questions, he spoke a little broken English, with two or three words of very bad Portuguese. We looked at each other, and we talked to him in Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish; but he knew none of the three, which an Italian spirit certainly would have done. His coming to was a splendid bit of acting, and we had to pay our guinea for the medical advice therein. This night, of which I write, Richard made the following speech:-- From _The Spiritualist_, December 13, 1878. "THE BRITISH NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPIRITUALISTS. "_The Debate on Captain Burton's Paper._ "The usual fortnightly meeting of the British National Association of Spiritualists was held at 38, Great Russell Street, on Monday evening, the 2nd instant. The chair was taken by Mr. Desmond Fitz-Gerald, M.S.Tel.E., and the rooms were crowded to excess, the paper to be read being by the renowned traveller, Captain R. F. Burton.