“No one, I am sure, has a better right to draw consolation from past services than yourself. Not only have you individually and directly effected a vast amount of good, but you have been the pioneer for us all. “Very affectionately yours, “ROWLAND HILL.” [_A fac-simile of this letter is given over-leaf._] In the earlier meetings of the Family Council, rules were sometimes laid down for their own guidance. Some of the brothers took too little heed to what they said before outsiders; and, when politics or religion was the subject of talk, forgot that they were schoolmasters, and spoke out with the freedom of men. The Council accordingly passed the following resolution: “It is our opinion that when anyone, by announcing an opinion, or by a mode of expression, has startled his hearers, that circumstance is a strong presumptive proof that he has done an injury to himself.” This is worthy of La Rochefoucauld himself, and yet it was but little acted on, it would seem, by some of the members. Rowland Hill, writing to one of his brothers about the time when this resolution was passed, says: “In making your own conduct conform to that which we all agree to be right, you exercise a degree of self-control which no other member of the family has ever evinced.” It was to this rule, I have no doubt, that he was referring. At another meeting of the Council, I find it recorded: “It is desirable to settle how far perfection of speculative opinion should be sacrificed to practical effect.” The question, I fear, remains unsettled to the present day. [Illustration: [FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER.]] [Illustration: [FAC-SIMILE OF LETTER.]]