This venerable clergyman, who but recently retired from the incumbency of Longford, Tasmania, died at his residence, St. Leonards, Tasmania, on Thursday, 25th May 1876, in his 65th year. Although his career in India and in this colony has been one characterised by suffering from weak health, his death was rather unexpected.

The Rev. Alfred Stackhouse graduated at Oxford University as Master or Arts, and was appointed a chaplain in the Bombay Presidency. The hot climate was too trying on his constitution, and in 1838 he came to Tasmania on sick leave, and officiated for a few months at Longford for the present Archdeacon Davies.

He returned to Bombay, but the state of his health compelled him to resign, and he again came to this colony about the year 1840. He was first appointed to the incumbency of Perth, which he occupied for several years, and then was transferred to Longford, where he labored until last October, when he proceeded to Sydney in the hope that change of climate would benefit his health. He returned at the close of the year, and continued his parochial labors up to the end of March, when he retired on a pension, and went to reside at St. Leonards. The Rev. Alfred Stackhouse was a Christian of the Church of England without guile, and with all those old English and old world prejudices working strong within a rather frail body. He was the soul of honor, with a heroic self-denying spirit, yet gentle as a woman; and, had he been favored with robust health, might have been a power in the land. As it was, his career has been a long and useful one, and his decease is mourned as a calamity by very many of those he encouraged and comforted.

He was the author of various works in his time, the chief of which was "Eight Lectures on the Signs of the Times; with an appendix." - This was published as an octavo volume of 265 pages, in 1849, by 'Henry Dowling, Brisbane Street,' and goes to prove that the Rev. Mr. Stackhouse preceded Dr. Cumming as the interpreter of figurative prophecies in proof that 'The Kingdom of God draweth nigh.' He had been moved by reading two valuable works - "The Signs of the Times in the East: A Warning to the West," by the Rev. E. Bickersteth; and "Abdiel's Essays," by the Rev. J. W. Brooks; the former published in 1845, and the 4th edition of the latter in 1843.

In his preface to the "Eight Lectures," the reverend gentleman refers to the "appendix in connection with the different signs described in his lectures, and he trusts that by observing the events which are taking place in the affairs of the church and of the world, those who are enabled to 'discern the signs of the times' thus far, will continue to observe upon the same principle their more complete manifestation."

The appendix occupies 84 pages of the 265, and it is in smaller and closer type than the lectures, which are full of quotations from churchmen, statesmen, and other authorities. The appendix deals with wars and rumors of wars, abstract of the last report of' the British and Foreign Bible Society; 1847-8; ditto of the report of the Religious Tract Society, East and West African Missions, Ceylon, Madras. China, and New Zealand Missions; Signs of the Times in Turkey, State of the Jews in Europe, Roman Catholic Relief Bill, Romanism in America, Sabbath Desecration, Heathenism in London, Revolution in Paris in 1848.

Here is one of the alarming announcements in this terrible appendix, quoted from a Hobart Town paper: - "The arrival of the barque "Senator" in the bay yesterday brings news to the 20th June, 1848. We regret to have to state the general aspect of affairs was anything but encouraging, and was still laboring under much depression; yet an improvement was anxiously looked for. The internal state of England was unsettled, the Chartists busy, and the five points of their Magna Charta were gaining additional adherents."

This was clearly another 'sign of the times' to be deeply deplored at that day. In a note to 'The Preface' to the Eight Lectures, the author remarks - "While the appendix has been going through the press, the signs of the times have been manifested to an extent which has startled even those who were looking for such things. An earthquake in New Zealand brought the warning close to our own doors. Pestilences in divers places have again attracted our attention, and the progress of Popery in England and in the British colonies has shown that, whatever may be the political state of Italy, ample means are found for the propagation of that apostacy in other places. In July last Romish cathedral was opened in Lambeth parish, in the immediate neighborhood of the Archbishop of Canterbury, with all the pomp of the ancient days of Papal ascendancy. 'For the first time,' says the "Morning Herald," since the year 1658, there were seen clustered together in that neighborhood foreign archbishops and bishops, some 300 or 400 priests, monks in their white gowns and hoods, friars of various orders, and all wearing rich robes or poor habiliments, indicative either of the high rank to which they have attained in the church, or of the poverty to which they have devoted themselves."

Under the head of 'the falling away' may be noticed a startling fact which has been made known within a few months. A clergyman officiated as curate to Dr. Hook at Leeds, from January 1847, until June 1848, while both himself and his wife were in communion with the Romish apostacy. In June, 1848, he left his curacy, and wrote to say that he together with his wife had been received at Birmingham into the Church of Rome; but on referring to the Roman Catholic directory for 1847, Dr. Hook found to his great surprise that they were therein named as converts, so that this clergyman was actually a Papist at the time when he engaged himself as curate for the Church of England at Leeds.

This extract shows us much of the simplicity, the strength, and the prejudices in the mind of the earnest clergyman, who has just passed peacefully away, without witnessing those latter day manifestations of the second coming of our Lord on earth, as we could place before our readers were we to publish his whole "Eight Lectures" and the lengthy appendix to boot.

He kept a record of all modern earthquakes in Syria, Zante, Mount Ararat, America, St. Domingo, West Indies, and New Zealand. The utterances of Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, and the Bishops in the House of Lords were curiously brought up in his lectures in support of his own view of 'the signs of the times.' Nevertheless, he was a sincerely pious, honest, large hearted Christian, who would have been a counterpart of Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield' had he been placed in some secluded part of England, and not had his loving nature disturbed by coming into contact with British and British-Indian politicians, camps, wars, and rumors of wars during his residence in India.

The Rev. Alfred Stackhouse leaves a widow and four sons and a daughter to mourn their loss. His remains were interred at St. Leonards at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.