in the USA (In England he is largely forgotten). He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance and of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Municipal interests appealed strongly to him, and he was also for many years chairman of Spring Hill College, Birmingham. He was also an ardent abolitionist, and is portrayed in the huge canvass depicting Thomas Clarkson's opening address at the world's first Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, in the National Portrait Gallery, London. He was a contemporary of William Wilberforce and Charles Simeon. John Angell James was keenly involved in all missionary endeavours and a supporter of the London Missionary Society. His name frequently appears in the Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle. In 1817 it was James who handed Bibles to John Williams (of Erromanga) and Robert Moffat, in the commissioning service which sent them off to their fields of labour. His fellow student at Bogue's Academy, Robert Morrison, gave him a lifelong interest in missionary endeavours in China and he was the main instigator of an effort to send a million New Testaments to China. In the event they raised enough money for two million copies. In August 1859, at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone of The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, "Especially must I mention the name of that honoured father of all the Dissenting churches, the Rev. John Angell James, of Birmingham. There is no name I think just now that ought to be more venerated than his. We frequently exchange notes. I had a sweet letter from that eminent servant of God, in reply to one I had written asking him to come to this meeting. He said, 'I would have done so if I had been well enough, but I am unable to travel. My work is almost done, I cannot serve my Master much longer, but I can still do a little for Him. I preach perhaps once on the Sabbath, and I still continue to do what I can with my pen. What a mercy,' he adds 'to have been permitted to serve my Master so long.' I had written to him sometime before expressing my candid opinion concerning him, and my hearty respect; and he told me that I was mistaken in him. I am quite sure that I was not. I know that I could not think too highly of