heart's best affections were sweet proofs of the power of the domestic circles in New England at that period. The infinitely precious influences of the Holy Spirit may be expected to attend our system of common-school instruction, with all the domestic and social blessings consequent thereon, if the Word of God and the regenerating truths of the Gospel be taught, but never without them, never under the rule of the exclusion of the Scriptures. When that ungodly power of irreligious prepossession is granted by popular vote to the despotism of our rulers, our piety and our independence will have ceased, and we shall be a mockery and contempt throughout the world. - "What, my dear cousin," exclaimed my beloved wife, in one of her affectionate letters to her dearest relative in Europe, "what can be more beautiful than a united, happy family; and what a foreshadowing of that home in heaven, where all is love and joy unending, unalloyed! I am so glad you are so happy in your loved ones." The writer proceeds with warm expressions of affectionate sympathy in their uninterrupted friendship and love, and delight in the continuance of the happiness of those so dear to her, and in the assurance of their reciprocal attachment, and then refers to some possible mistaken impressions that might have been received in regard to the discipline and education of a family. "In one of your letters, dear cousin, I thought you seemed to have received some erroneous impressions of my habit of imparting knowledge and instruction to my servants, as if the habit were a singularity and weakness, and an uncalledfor stretch of benevolence. This could never be! "I was led to it by reflecting on the neglect, almost universal, of Christian families to provide their servants, whom God had committed to their care, with spiritual and mental food for the elevation of their immortal natures. In many cases servants are left entirely uninstructed and unguarded, as if they were not responsible beings. This is especially the case with Roman Catholic servants, who are left to the entire dominion of their priests, who keep them in ignorance of the Bible, and of the Lord Jesus Christ their only Saviour." Concerning an impression that seemed to have been entertained as to the kind of reading and information with which my dear wife endeavored to instruct her household, she says: "The supposed fiction and poetry that some would have me drop, dear cousin, are such books as would make important spiritual and historical truths attractive, - such books, for example, as those volumes of 'Hebrew Heroes,' by A. L. O. E., and biographies of eminently happy and useful Christian men, women, and children in their pilgrimage through an earthly life of mutual enjoyments and trials, blessings and duties; creating a taste for something higher and better than the mass of dime novels now flooding the country, and with which the servants are abundantly supplied, and consequently, for want of better reading and instruction, are in many cases allured and corrupted both in morals and manners. "I have learned recently, to my great gratification, in perusing the large 'Memorial Ancestral Volume of the Wetmore Family,' that some of my good ancestors in early days were in the habit of rearing and instructing their servants in the principles of the Gospel, and by those teachings were instrumental in making their lives good and useful here on earth, and preparing them for the life to come in heaven. I think I may have inherited the desire from them to be thus useful, and hope I may be as successful in my own efforts for such results. "For I feel happy in so laboring, and I think their example worth following. The good and gifted Aunt Whittlesey, my grandfather's halfsister, and Fred. Chauncey's grandmother, was an example, and her household was esteemed a model Christian home, and she was treated by the servants with the greatest deference and respect. I wish you could see the volume to which I have. referred; for it dates far back, and gives a most interesting account of Colonial times, and of the early settlers in the Connecticut Colony." In the same volume (pages 320 to 324) there is a record of the life of Judge William Wetmore, of Middletown, Conn., who, with his wife and four children, emigrated to Ohio in June, 1804: "The Indians were then very numerous in that section of the country; but Judge Wetmore's conscientious dealings with them made them his faithful friends. It was his practice always to have the Indians, in a trade, name their own terms. If the terms suited, he would conclude the bargain; if not, he would not; never allowing himself to banter with them. In this way he retained their confidence, and avoided the charge of cheating poor Indian.' As might be expected, he enjoyed their friendship and esteem; so much so that they considered it a crime to steal from him. "At the commencement of our war with England in 1812, a British officer, in the disguise of an Indian, came to the chief of the Indian village situated on Lake Pleasant, not far from the resi dence of Judge Wetmore, and proposed to the chief to join the English, and for such services they would restore all the land that the American Government had bought from them, to which they assented. But when they were told it was necessary for them to massacre Judge Wetmore and other Americans in the neighborhood, the chief and his warriors refused, saying that he had been good to poor Indian.' Up to the time of his death he was a general counsellor in matters of the law, especially for the poor, although he never appeared at the bar as an advocate. His counsel was always gratis, and was in effect generally for his clients to keep out of the law and settle amicably. "He was much respected in Northern Ohio, and like his brother Seth, was truly conscientious, never pursuing the wrong when he knew the right. Among other enterprises the Judge was engaged in was that of distilling. On a certain Sunday morning he was observed by his family to be reading a tract with much apparent interest. After dinner he returned to a perusal of the same, and at supper-time his assiduity in perusing the tract was explained. Soon after sitting down at the tea-table the Judge said, 'Boys!' addressing his sons, 'what sort of a sheep-pen will the |