Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, vol 1 | Page 8

of England attend to their
own business.' Now I have always found that those who labor at home
are those who labor abroad; [Hear, hear!] and those who say, 'Let us do
the work at home,' are those who do no work of good either at home or
abroad. [Hear, hear!] It was just so when the great missionary effort
came up in the United States. They said, 'We have a great territory here.
Let us send missionaries to our own territories. Why should we send
missionaries across the ocean?' But those who sent missionaries across
the ocean were those who sent missionaries in the United States; and
those who did not send missionaries across the ocean were those who
sent missionaries nowhere. [Hear, hear!] They who say, 'Charity begins
at home,' are generally those who have no charity; and when I see a
lady whose name is signed to this address, I am sure to find a lady who
is exercising her benevolence at home. Let me thank you for all the
interest you have manifested and for all the kindness which we have
received at your hands, which we shall ever remember, both with
gratitude to you and to God our Father."
The REV. C.M. BIRRELL afterwards made a few remarks in
proposing a vote of thanks to the ladies who had contributed the
testimonial which had been presented to the distinguished writer of
Uncle Tom's Cabin. He said it was most delightful to hear of the great
good which that remarkable volume had done, and, he humbly believed,
by God's special inspiration and guidance, was doing, in the United
States of America. It was not confined to the United States of America.
The volume was going forth over the whole earth, and great good was
resulting, directly and indirectly, by God's providence, from it. He was
told a few days ago, by a gentleman fully conversant with the facts, that
an edition of Uncle Tom, circulated in Belgium, had created an earnest

desire on the part of the people to read the Bible, so frequently quoted
in that beautiful work, and that in consequence of it a great run had
been made upon the Bible Society's depositories in that kingdom. [Hear,
hear!] The priests of the church of Rome, true to their instinct, in
endeavoring to maintain the position which they could not otherwise
hold, had published another edition, from which, they had entirely
excluded all reference to the word of God. [Hear, hear!] He had been
also told that at St. Petersburg an edition of Uncle Tom had been
translated into the Russian tongue, and that it was being distributed, by
command of the emperor, throughout the whole of that vast empire. It
was true that the circulation of the work there did not spring from a
special desire on the part of the emperor to give liberty to the people of
Russia, but because he wished to create a third power in the empire, to
act upon the nobles; he wished to cause them to set free their serfs, in
order that a third power might be created in the empire to serve as a
check upon them. But whatever was the cause, let us thank God, the
Author of all gifts, for what is done.
Sir GEORGE STEPHEN seconded the motion of thanks to the ladies,
observing that he had peculiar reasons for doing so. He supposed that
he was one of the oldest laborers in this cause. Thirty years ago he
found that the work of one lady was equal to that of fifty men; and now
we had the work of one lady which was equal to that of all the male sex.
[Applause.]
PUBLIC MEETING IN GLASGOW--APRIL 15.
THE REV. DR. WARDLAW was introduced by the chairman, and
spoke as follows:--
"The members of the Glasgow Ladies' New Antislavery Association
and the citizens of Glasgow, now assembled, hail with no ordinary
satisfaction, and with becoming gratitude to a kindly protecting
Providence, the safe arrival amongst them of Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe. They feel obliged by her accepting, with so much promptitude
and cordiality, the invitation addressed to her--an invitation intended to
express the favor they bore to her, and the honor in which they held her,
as the eminently gifted authoress of Uncle Tom's Cabin--a work of
humble name, but of high excellence and world-wide celebrity; a work
the felicity of whose conception is more than equalled by the admirable
tact of its execution, and the Christian benevolence of its design, by its

exquisite adaptation to its accomplishment; distinguished by the
singular variety and consistent discrimination of its characters; by the
purity of its religious and moral principles; by its racy humor, and its
touching pathos, and its effectively powerful appeals to the