INTRODUCTION
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creature that remained to me upon earth. She was a mother to me in my childhood, and all through life she was doubly dear for her meekly-borne sufferings. She, whose earthly lot was one of uninterrupted trial and labour, has now gone to eternal rest. God be praised for his mercy in bringing me here by such an accident to lighten the burden of her last moments.' My father was then in England on a lecturing tour with the late William Bede Dalley.
The letters were given to me at Faulconbridge early in the eighties by my Aunt Maria, and it was her wish, and my father's also, that I should publish them after his death. He was the youngest of his family, and the last to die. And now I will leave the letters to speak for themselves.
