of Glasgow made him Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Sprague says, "so highly was this latter honour then appreciated, that the Synod to which Mr. Alison belonged, made a formal acknowledgment of it to the University." In 1765 his former congregation at New London, who had remained without a Pastor since he left them, asked him to return and resume his labors among them; but this he declined. He was then three score years of age, and preferred ending his life in the performance of his present engagements. He died 28 November, 1779, two months after the hostile Legislature had abrogated the charter of his College and Academy. Had his energies and life been spared, his influential connection with the Institution would have disarmed the political enemies of the institution of much of the force of their attack, and indeed might have stayed the thought of abrogation until calmer and juster thoughts would have found their sway.
It was in 1755 that Dr. Alison made a journey to New England, John Bartram being his fellow traveler. Franklin had written 1 September, 1755, a letter[1] introducing them to his friend Jared Eliot:
I wrote to you yesterday, and now I write again. You will say, It can't rain, but it pours; for I not only send you manuscript, but living letters. The former may be short, but the latter will be longer and yet more agreeable. Mr. Bartram I believe you will find to be at least twenty folio pages, large paper well filled, on the subjects of botany, fossils, husbandry, and the first creation. This Mr. Alison is as many or more on agriculture, philosophy, your own Catholic divinity, and various other points of learning equally useful and engaging. Read them both. It will take you at least a week; and then answer, by sending me two of the like kind, or by coming yourself.
The testimonies of two of his pupils show him to have been a remarkable man in natural powers and trained gifts, and his influence in the College and Academy was greatly felt in its development, and in the faculty he was second only to William Smith in learning and force. The University owes very much in its early nurture to its second Rector, the faithful and diligent
- ↑ Bigelow, ii. 413.
