A little before midday yesterday the Rev.William Binnington Boyce, one of our oldest colonists, and one of the leading clergymen of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, died at his residence, Bowden, Toxteth Road, Glebe, at the venerable age of upwards of 84 years.

Born in 1804, when the century had but just begun. No small part of his career, prolonged as it was for more than the ordinary mortal span, was identified with the colony, of the higher life of which he was in so many respects a worthy representative. Ranging over a period of more than 43 years, he has been, with the exception of one rather lengthy interval, a resident in New South Wales, and many of those to whom his life-work was familiar will recognise in his passing away the removal of a noticeable landmark of the colony's development.

Mr. Boyce was born at Beverley, Yorkshire, Engand, on November 9 of the year just mentioned. He was twice married - in 1834, to Maria Bowden, daughter of James Bowden, merchant, of Hull; and in 1873 to the eldest daughter of the late Hon. George Allen. He leaves four children by his first wife, viz., Lady Allen, wife of the late Sir George Wigram Allen; Mrs. M'Arthur, wife of A. M'Arthur, M.P., England; Mrs. Stewart, of the Mount, Bathurst; and Mrs. Gibson, of St. Cloud, Paris.

The early career of the deceased gentleman was essentially that of an active missionary. As early as 1830 he was chosen by the British Conference to compile a grammar of the Kaffir language, his habits of study and application, even at the early age of 26 years, signalled him out as worthy to be entrusted with the preparation of this, the first work of its kind known. He proceeded to South Africa, where he laboured with characteristic energy for about 13 years, during which he saw a good deal of the rougher side of a zealous missionary's life. His wife and children accompanied him in most of his labours here, and shared the privations of his arduous life, as well as the honour of his missionary effort and successes.

Returning to England in 1843, he remained for two years in charge of a church at Bolton, but being in the meantime appointed General Superintendent of the Wesleyan Missions he left England for Sydney in 1845, arriving in January of the subsequent year. Some years later, when the local Wesleyan Church acquired the right of self-government, the zeal and capacity of the late Mr. Boyce recommended him to the unanimous acceptance of that body as the president of the first conference held in Australia.

When the University of Sydney was incorporated in 1850 a still more popular tribute was paid to his public and private worth in his appointment as one of the 16 original members of the Senate of that institution. His colleagues numbered amongst them such leading men as William Charles Wentworth, Sir Edward Deas-Thomson, Stuart Alexander Donaldson, Sir Charles Nicholson, and other well-known colonists, as well as representatives of the more important denominations. Mr. Boyce, who always took a true bibliophile's view in the collection of volumes of literature, was one of the committee appointed to form the present magnificent library of the Sydney University. He continued a member of the Senate until 1859, and some time after this severed his connection with the colony for a time, and proceeded to England. Here he received the important appointment of one of the general secretaryships for Foreign Missions, which he continued to hold for 18 years.

Returning to Sydney in 1876, he spent the last 13 years of his life in the city which had seen so much of his useful life's work, devoting himself in the evening of his years chiefly to literary pursuits, but always taking an active part in the service of his church, of which he regularly conducted the service in the chapel at Toxteth Park.

The demise of this venerable clergyman and respected citizen came almost suddenly. He had been ailing for a few days only, notwithstanding his advanced age. On the Thursday before his death he spent the day as usual in his study, and the same evening was passed in a vigorous discussion of the political situation with those around him. He rose yesterday morning according to his usual habit, and read his customary newspaper through with his ordinary keen interest in the passing events of the day. He was seated on his bed, having just put his newspaper aside, when his doctor made his call. Rising to meet him, he walked a little distance. At this point the deceased clergyman gave the first and only indication of real distress. The exertion caused him to fall down in a faint after proceeding a few steps only. He never recovered, and death ensued in the course of the morning, a little before 12 o'clock.

Of the noticeable personal characteristics of the Rev. Mr. Boyce it is unnecessary to tell those who enjoyed his acquaintance. Of late years particularly, he never failed to deeply impress those with whom he was brought into contact. An omnivorous reader, he was naturally a man of a very wide range of information. He was one of the old school of large library men, and in pursuance of this taste of his he collected in his time more than one valuable library.

His own private reading knew no limitations, and his intellectual curiosity was keen enough to familiarise him in this way with an astonishing variety of subjects. But although this was the case with regard to his general reading, he was at all times remarkable for the interest he took in every branch of theological learning, of which he was an enthusiastic student. While always keeping with strict fidelity to the old theological lines of the school in which he was trained, and ever a staunch believer in that evangelical system which he held and taught to the last, his range of reading carried him into the most distant fields of theological discussion, including the German literature and its various theories of religious and philosophical speculation, with which he was markedly familiar.

His public ministrations in his own chapel continued, as we have seen, up to the last. His discourses were always practical and to the point, and a striking characteristic of what he had to say, always pleasantly familiar to those who were privileged to hear him, was his habit of associating Christian truths with the actual facts, and practical experiences of the everyday life that lay about both the preacher and his congregation. He always continued loyal to the Church to which he belonged. Out of the pulpit, and in his capacity as a private citizen, he was equally distinguished by a large catholicity of spirit, evidenced by his zealous co-operation with such men as the late Dr. Polding and others in the Senate of the University and elsewhere.

Although a student and a clergyman, he was no mere man of books and letters; on the contrary, Mr. Boyce excelled as a man of business in a degree which few men, especially clergymen, could venture to emulate. An instance of the value that was placed on his talents in this direction is afforded by the appointment given him on his visit to England about 1860. As one of the secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society on him devolved to a large extent the business management of that large and complex institution, and his undeviating accuracy in all matters pertaining to business made his services especially serviceable in that capacity.

To the last he continued to take a vivid interest in the progress of Continental politics, on which he was exceptionally well informed: and he followed with similar care the course of our own political events, and the development of the land, education, and other public questions, up to the morning of his decease. He was eminently entertaining as a conversationalist at all times, but particularly so in the midst of the familiar circle of friends who were in the habit of collecting about him of late years, when he had become unable to go so much as formerly into society. To them his society and the charm of his conversation were never without their fascination; and his keen interst in affairs, as well as the wide range of information at his command, remained always a source of interest to the little band of friends who were in the habit of seeing and meeting with the deceased under such favouring circumstances.

A word-picture in Mr. Froude's "Oceans," sketched on the occasion of an evening spent with the late Mr. Boyce during the writer's visit to the colonies a few years ago, is vivid enough in its limning to give an idea of the personality of the man to those who did not know him. After describing the more prominent guests on the occasion referred to, Mr. Froude continues:- "The person whom I liked best was Lady Allen's father, a beautiful old clergyman of 82, who told me he had read all my books, that his disapproved deeply of much that he had found in them, but that he had formed, notwithstanding, a sort of regard for the writer. He followed me into the hall when he went away, and gave me his blessing. Few gifts have ever been bestowed on me in this world which I have valued more. Sir Wigram Allen, I regret to see, is since dead: the life and spirits which were flowing over so freely that night all now quenched and silent! He could not have had a better friend near him at the moment of departure than that venerable old man."

Little remains to be added respecting one who filled a place of his own during life. It is announced that there will be a short service to-morrow (Sunday) afternoon at the chapel, Toxteth Park, at 1.20 p.m., from which place the funeral of the deceased will proceed, and a special train will leave the mortuary station at 2.25 for Rookwood.

The following tribute to the memory of the deceased has been sent us by the Rev. J. H. Fletcher:-

"The name of the Rev. W. B. Boyce, who died yesterday at his residence at Toxteth, Glebe, at the advanced age of 84, has been little seen in public for many years past, and to the younger generation even of the ministers of the church which he long and ably served, was comparatively unknown. And yet if by any chance they found themselves in his study they would at once recognise a veteran thinker very unlike all their preconception of what a very old man is supposed to be. There was nothing old about him but his bodily prescence. His shrewdness, sagacity, and vivacious interest in all things, past and present, indicated a mind that had not stood still, and a man who was not content to be 'laudator temporis acte.'"

"There must be few surviving who remember him, as he was at the time of the founding of the Sydney University, of which he was one of the oldest fellows, and in whose history he took the deepest interest to the end of his days. But it was no common spectacle in those days - now nearly 40 years ago - to see a man who united in himself such decided, and one might almost say narrow denominationalism joined to such abroad and generous judgement which made him at home with men of every school of religious thought and always ready to do them reverence."

"He was then in the midst of his great work as general superintendent of Wesleyan Missions in Australia, and his name will ever be held in reverence by those who remember with what liberality of gift and labour, with what kindness of heart behind not a little brusqueness of manner, with what largeness of view and persistency of purpose he laid the foundation of the present Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia, now no longer dependent on the liberality of the English Missionary Society, but a self-supporting group of churches, with large powers of self-government, and an energetic missionary propaganda of its own."

"During a visit to New Zealand as one of an important deputation in connection with the new organisation of the Wesleyan Methodist Church nearly 40 years ago, he persisted, against the advice of the oldest missionaries, in going overland from Auckland to Wellington, the greater part of the journey being made on foot, and the road in some places climbing from the beach to precipitous cliffs, up which the traveller had to pull himself by ropes of green flax. He accomplished the journey safely, though he is said to have confessed at the end of it that he had been guilty of a sin of ignorance which to repeat would be a sin of presumption. But the incident may serve as one of many which showed the immense physical endurance with which he was gifted, and the unsparing manner in which he used it at the call of duty."

"This was in part the result of his missionary work in South Africa, where he showed a courage and energy scarcely less than heroic. To travel through Caffraria in a waggon with his wife and children 60 years ago was no holiday excursion - over the roughest of roads and through broad rivers, the roar of the lion sometimes mingling strangely with the mother's lullaby and the sounds of evening prayer. It was not easy to get him to talk of these adventurous days. Of nothing, perhaps, was he prouder than his great discovery of what he called the 'euphonic concord,' which not only crystallised the crabbed tongue of the Kaffirs into perfect grammatical order, but gave a key to open nearly all the languages of the African Continent south of the Equator. These languages are pervaded by an indescribable peculiarity called 'clicks,' which have no parallel in any European language. The tradition is that Mr. Boyce mounted horse and rode 60 miles, the very night of his discovery to deliver his 'Eureka' to his friend and fellow missionary, Rev. William Shaw."

"For many years he held office as one of the secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society of London, always distinguishing himself by his broad views of mission work, and his deep interest in British colonies. His later life has been spent in comparative seclusion in his house at Toxteth, always girt about with a mighty army of books and always ready to instruct or debate with you on almost any point of literature or philology, of philosophy or of divinity, past or present. He presented a collection of more than 2,000 volumes, principally Biblical criticism and theology, to the Wesleyan Theological Institution, Stanmore."

"He was a great admirer of the old theologians, and would certainly extinguish with a caustic sentence any young divine who ventured to speak lightly of them; yet he revelled in new books and moved abreast of the latest development of thought. Much of his enormous reading is put to use in two books on which he lavished much time and money in his later days - his survey of the so-called "Higher Criticism," which seeks to reconstruct the sacred records from the standpoint of a modern thinker, and his substantial "Introduction to the Study of History." In the first of these two books one is struck with the largeness of heart and generous judgement of the writer, whose satire was usually so keen and swift upon anything he disliked, who heartily disapproved of nearly all the writers that he criticised, and yet who resolutely maintained a certain judicial fairness in discussing them. In both these books one is impressed with the vast range of the author's reading in almost all directions. The only fault one is disposed to find is that we have not more of the author himself. Whenever he gives his own thoughts you seem at once to see the man himself, so rich in common-sense, so free from affectation of superior learning, and with an almost cynical pleasure in exploding a sham which would have gratified Carlyle."

"Mr. Frounde has left on record the pleasure he found in spending an evening with Mr. Boyce, and one regrets there was no Boswell to give us the conversation. No higher praise need be given to this venerable man than this - that he was not only a good, but also a strong man, whose piety was a fruitful vine twined round an intellect like an English oak. Few such men are given to Australia. Much of his work is now buried, but it is the burial of foundations on which fabrics of strength and use will long endure."