ficiency, unless assisted by God's grace to walk worthy of so high a calling."

After his ordination, he writes to his mother :

"I cannot but feel and know how weak and imperfect is the instrument; but it is a comfort to be assured that our sufficiency is not of ourselves."

In the summer of 1847 he accepted the college living of Cholderton, Wiltshire, where he succeeded Thomas Mozley. A new church was in process of erection, and he took up the threads of all the parish work with enthusiasm. The nearest post town was Marlborough, distant from Cholderton nine miles. An altogether unlikely place, one would say, for a young man in the prime of life, one of the foremost scholars of his year, to select deliberately as his permanent home. No such thought crossed his mind. His simple and healthy nature could make itself not only contented, but happy, anywhere. The superintending the completion of the material church, and the holding together and building up of a congregation of faithful parishioners, to occupy and worship therein, formed his principal occupation and interest in these first years. The death of his brother Bruce proved a heavy trial, and resulted in the breaking up of his mother's home and her going to live with him at Cholderton.

While the new church was building, Fraser had a long controversy with the squire of the parish about the family pew question. It had its amusing side, and the story well illustrates the now nearly forgotten difficulties of uprooting the boxed-up pew system. "The squire, as his ultimatum," writes Fraser, "does not want-or at least press for-a square seat, but he can't bear people 'breathing on his back' or 'knocking him with their books' (so he says), and therefore he must have the whole or part of his seat parallel to the wall, so that he may have no one behind him. Then he is peremptory about a door. This is what he demands, and nothing short of this will keep him from going to law-'or else,' he added, just on leaving the room, 'I may think whether it will be best worth my while to spend my money in a lawsuit, or in building a place of worship for myself, where I can be free from these annoyances. This,' he said, giving a significant look at

'deserves the consideration of some parties. It has been done elsewhere.'""

In the end all terminated happily, and we find him writing to Mrs. Mozley :—

"The allotment of seats in the new church is made; and, as you might expect, does not escape uncensured. Mr. Paxton of course grumbles, though

we have given him exactly what he asked for. But, after one or two angry notes, he will let the matter rest where it does for peace and quiet. And the Miss Knatchbulls consider the offer of the front row of the chancel seats as good as telling them to go to some other church. I find it best to listen to no murmurs, and trust they will subside soon."

His next undertaking was the erection of a schoolhouse. All kinds of obstacles blocked his path, not the least being difficulties with the squire. Eventually, however, he conquered them all; and when the school was completed, the joyful occasion was celebrated by a parish dinner, at which "every soul in the parish seems to have been present, babies included!"

Next came his employment on commissions connected with education at home and in America, which gave him a mastery of, and an insight into, the education question, and the condition of the poor, such as no man who had not gone through a similar training could possibly have gained. He was appointed an Assistant Commissioner in 1858, and his biographer says of his reports:-"It has happened to me to spend a considerable part of my life in the preparation of reports of this kind, and the perusal of those prepared by others. I may, there

fore, claim to be no bad judge of such documents, and have no hesitation in saying that these reports of Fraser are superb-I had almost said uniquepieces of work."

After more than twelve years of happy life at Cholderton, Fraser accepted the college benefice of Ufton, eight miles from Reading, in 1860. It is a purely agricultural parish, of considerable size, but few inhabitants. It is instructive to mark the contrast of his way of taking hold of his work in this his second cure. At Cholderton in his early days he was shy, timid, cautious; at Ufton he laid hold with a firm, masterful hand, and became at once not only pastor in the fullest sense of his own parish, but the leading member of the Board of Guardians. "You see, sir, he was rather more than a parson—he was a little king amongst us," said a poor woman to Mr. Cornish, his successor.

The attention of Mr. Cornish was once drawn to "the dreadful things" which the boys, during Dr. Fraser's incumbency, chalked on the door of the village school. Here is one of "the dreadful things" :

"Mr. Fraser is a very good man ;

He tries to teach us all he can

Reading, writing, and 'rithmetic

And when he thinks right, he gives us the stick."

According to report, corporal punishment by the parson was not strictly confined to the village schoolboys. He was specially severe on any word or act that might tend to bring disgrace on the parish. "I've a great mind to break this stick over your back," were his first words to an elderly man who had been guilty of an act of impropriety.

Fraser's passion for order and tidiness rather strengthened as he grew older, and his eye was keen to note anything amiss or out of order. "In walking round with me on his annual visit," Mr. Cornish writes, "no sign of neglect would he allow, in garden, stable, house, or cottage. 'A little more paint, my friend, on this door.' 'There is a loose tile in your roof, which you had better have seen to.' 'The ivy will be growing into your roof unless you have it cut.' The impress of this quality still seems to remain in the parish, which is a model of neatness and order, such as can rarely be seen even in this favoured part of England, which looked to Mr. Emerson 'as if it had all been brushed and combed every morning on getting up."