OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1232, 14 September 1911, Page 5

OBITUARY.

THE LATE PRIMATE OF ALL ' IRELAND. - By Telegraph—Pres3 Associatlon-Oopyrlght London, September 12. Tho Most Rev. Dr. Alexander, late Anglican Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, is dead. Ho resigned towards tho end of last y«ar. Dr. Alexander was born on April 13, JB2l, and was therefore 87 years old. He was appointed Bishop of Derry and R-ap-hoo ill 1867, prior to tho Disestablishment of the Irish Church, and became Archbishop of Armagh in 1896. Dr. Aloxander has been called (says the "Guardian") our poet-Primate, and justly so; for his thoughts not only arranged themselves in poetic form, but were spoken with a richness and sweetness of voice which in itself would have transformed the driest prose into poetry. As a preacher and speaker the Primato was never dull, for ho could not bo dull; but he had little logical power, and rarely pressed homo nn argnment to its proper conclusion. Dr. Alexander could sway a multitude. The beaming face, the twinkling eye, the commanding figure, the musical tones, tho graceful diction, tho historical references, and tho transparent wariufh and enthusiasm of the man all told, and gave his words a weight which they did not always possess in cold print. The Primate was a man of many part?, for he was alikq distinguished in tho realms of poetry, literature, and orator}-. He was Bampton Lecturer in IS7C. Ho was Select Preacher at Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, and even in advanced old ago his lit— terary instincts and literary activity never failed him. Ho was tho last of the preDisqstablishmont Irish prelates, and was a Bishop for forty-three years—just about one-half of his life. From his undergraduate days ho was a poet of tho sanctuary, and if his sacred verse is less familiar than that of his wife, it is yet instinct with literary beauty. Few prelates have racro splendidly adorped the great position of head of the Church of Ireland.