Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Life Of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Creator: Edward Miner Gallaudet (author)
Date: 1888
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2

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148  

I have taken the liberty to convey to your hands, through Mr. Macaulay, a ten-pound bank note, as a small token of my admiration of your admirable institution, to be disposed of in such a way as your judgment shall direct for its benefit.

149  

Adieu, my dear sir. May it please Him without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, nothing is successful, to shower down His blessings on you, and on the great work you have, by so much labor, such perilous voyages, and such great difficulties, accomplished; and may many of your pupils thank you in Heaven for having been the favored instrument of bringing them thither.

150  

I remain with sincere esteem,
Your very faithful and obliged,
H. MORE.

151  

Letter from Zachary Macaulay, Esq.

152  

LONDON, 7th November, 1818.

153  

MY DEAR SIR: -- I immediately forwarded your letter to Miss More. I have not heard from her since -- indeed, there has scarcely been time: but I can not doubt that she will readily accede to your wish of having her likeness to adorn the library commenced by her donation. She has, of late, been suffering from severe attacks of illness, which have produced a considerable prostration of her strength; but her mind, amidst the infirmities of sickness and age, retains all its pristine vigor, and she labors to employ her remaining hours in elevating the views and aims of all around her, from earth to heaven.

154  

The luminous account you gave me of the superiority of the French mode of instructing the deaf and dumb over the English, you will already have seen in the pages of the Christian Observer.

155  

I should have been glad to have seen the specimen of American typography which you have sent me; but it was conveyed to me through the post-office, with a charge of £4 5s. on the cover. I have hesitated to pay this and the packet is still unopened. Whatever is put up in the form of a letter, if it comes by the packet, pays the full packet postage of 8s. 8d. per oz., and if by a merchant ship, half the packet postage, besides the inland postage. I have, of late, had many such parcels addressed me from America, which I have been obliged to decline receiving, on account of the enormous expense attending them. Some of my American friends also choose to address their letters to me by name, as editor of the C. O. This alone forms a reason against my receiving them. It would be a formal acknowledgment of a fact, which I have never acknowledged except to some private friends, and which, indeed, is not known at all to vast multitudes in this country, and only surmised even by the religious world generally.

156  

I thank you for your kind inquiries respecting my son Thomas Babington. He is now in good health, and prosecuting his studies with ardor at the University of Cambridge. God has been pleased to endow him with very considerable powers of mind, and with a very strong desire for knowledge. My prayer -- and indeed I am thankful to say, my hope is that they may be sanctified and made subservient to His glory.

157  

. . . . I have, of late, been much occupied with the congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. You will wonder at this. But the slave trade was my object. I have strong hopes that something effectual may be done, before the sovereigns separate, for that cause. I framed an address on the subject, which was put into their hands, and has been well received. The Emperor of Russia read it, he said, with the most entire satisfaction. He perfectly approved of the proposal to make slave trading piracy, and would do all in his power to effect this object. He gave copies of the address, with his own hand, to the kings and ministers assembled. "It was not to be endured," he said, "that Portugal should continue to resist the united wishes of Europe, by retaining the trade for a single day after other nations had abandoned it. As for the miscreants who should continue it, after it had been universally reprobated, their only proper designation and punishment were those of pirates. I take shame to myself," he added, "before God, that we should have left this great work unfinished at Vienna. I now see that we were guilty of a great and criminal omission, which must not be repeated. When I consider what I owe to the kindness of Providence in rescuing me and my people from the hand of the oppressor, I should be the most ungrateful of men if I did not labor, with all my might, to liberate those who groan under a worse oppression, and especially our wretched fellow-creatures in Africa." This was said to a friend. Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington are cordially co-operating with him.

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The emperor spoke to the same friend, on the subject of the Peace Societies. He said "he could disapprove of no society which had for its object to hasten the happy time, which he firmly believed would come, when nations should have war no more. The great thing to be done, however, was rather to cure the passions which lead to war, than to declaim against war itself. He hoped to be able to induce the governments of Europe to concur in some plan of arbitrating their differences, which might supersede an appeal to arms; it was impossible, however, to effect this suddenly."

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