University of Virginia Library

XVII. The Mission to England

Such in general was the spirit and the quality of the man who was selected to visit England in order to make the necessary choice of foreign professors. Jefferson offered him the mission by letter on November 23, 1823; but it was not until April 5, 1824, that he received a specific direction from the Board to leave for Europe to engage "characters of due degree of science, and of talents for instruction, and of correct habits and morals." The persons to he sought for and contracted with were to be the professors who were to occupy the chairs of mathematics, the ancient languages, anatomy and physiology, which should take in the history of the main theories of

medicine also, -physics, with astronomy added, and natural history, embracing botany, zoology, mineralogy, chemistry, and geology.

Gilmer was impowered to offer to each a fixed salary of a thousand dollars as the minimum, and fifteen hundred as the maximum, and also the tuition fees belonging to the chair to be filled. A guarantee was to be given that, during the first five years, the remuneration of the incumbent was not to be allowed to fall below twenty-five hundred dollars. Two thousand dollars was to be deposited in an English bank to enable Gilmer to make an advance of money to such of the professors as should need it before shutting up their homes in England; he himself was to receive fifteen hundred dollars to cover the expenses of his journey, and also to pay for his services in carrying out the mission; while a sum of six thousand dollars was to be appropriated for the purchase of apparatus for the use of the mathematical, chemical, physical, and astronomical classes. As the University was expected to be in a condition to receive students by February 1, 1825, it was hoped that he would be able to engage all the professors by the middle of November, 1824. His power of attorney was dated April 26, 1824. A letter of introduction from Jefferson to Richard Rush, the American minister in London, which accompanied this document, recommended him to Rush's good offices as the "best educated subject we have raised since the Revolution, highly qualified in all the important branches of sciences, particularly that of law . . . . His morals, his amiable temper, and his discretion, will do justice to any confidence you may place in him." Madison, in a supplementary letter, was equally complimentary. "He will quickly recommend himself," he said, "by his enlightened and accomplished mind, his pleasing disposition

and manners." "It is a sufficient testimonial of his merits," he added, "that he was selected for this mission"; and Rush was asked to bring him into communication with persons in England of the type of Sir James Mackintosh, who would be able to point out the scholars to be approached.

With numerous copies of the Rockfish Gap Report in his baggage, as Jefferson's gifts to his English correspondents, like Dugald Stewart and Major John Cartwright, and fortified with bills of exchange on Gowan and Marx of London, Gilmer set sail from New York on May 8, in the packet Cortez, which steered straight for Liverpool; but, buffeted by fierce headwinds in St. George's Channel, turned into the harbor of Holyhead, in Wales, from which town he travelled overland to the original port of destination, where he arrived twenty-nine days after dropping out of sight of Sandy Hook. Stopping at Hatton, after his departure from Liverpool, to talk with Dr. Parr, he was told that he was absent from home. During the first eight days of his sojourn in London, he was, against his will, left in a state of restive idleness by the crush of Mr. Rush's engagements; but at the end of that interval, was able to obtain from Lord Teignmouth and Mr. Brougham the letters which he needed for Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. He held personal interviews with these two distinguished Englishmen, both of whom he discovered to be very much interested in the objects of his mission; but Sir James Mackintosh was either too indolent, or too much absorbed in his political duties, to give any assistance. Lord Teignmouth's four letters were addressed to the highest dignitaries at Oxford and Cambridge, -among them, Dr. Edward Coplestone, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff, -while Brougham's three were to persons described

by him as "the fittest" at Cambridge and Edinburgh, one of whom was Dr. Martin Davy, master of Caius College, and a friend of Dr. Parr's. Brougham offered to introduce Gilmer to Davy in London; and was so solicitous for his success as to put him on "his guard against the various deceptions or rather exaggerations" which would be practiced upon him, should he let the purpose of his mission "be known to any but a very few."

Before leaving London, Gilmer signed a contract with Dr. Blaettermann, who, not expecting the appointment, had recently rented and furnished a large house.[58] It is to be noted that he was not guaranteed the salary of twenty-five hundred dollars which Gilmer had been authorized to offer; and it was even intimated to him that the fifteen hundred dollars which he was to receive at the outset, might, during the second year, be reduced to one thousand. No real ground of objection to Blaettermann seems to have been discovered; but as the terms extended to him were less liberal than those granted to the other professors, we can only infer that Gilmer's impression of the man was not of the most favorable nature in the beginning. He spoke with a distinct foreign accent, which may have aroused a feeling of prejudice against him. His salary was to begin to accrue from the day of his sailing; he was to receive, in addition, fifty dollars from every pupil who studied his courses only; thirty, if the pupil attended one other school; and twenty-five, if he attended two other schools. He bound

himself to follow no additional calling during the period of his engagement.

Gilmer set out from London for Cambridge on June 22, carrying with him such letters of introduction as he had been successful in obtaining; and on arriving there, found that the long vacation had begun, and that Dr. Davy was absent. He filled up the interval before the tatter's return with an endeavor to decide whether it would be wise to engage the scientific professors among the fellows of this University; and he finally concluded that only incumbents for the chairs of mathematics and natural philosophy should be selected there, as small attention was paid in that institution to natural history. While busy pushing this vital inquiry, he was the recipient of the warmest hospitality from the masters of the colleges and the undergraduates alike, to whom he was recommended, not only by his scholar's mission, but also by his handsome presence, pleasant manners, varied information, and cultivated mind. He was invited to occupy rooms in Trinity College, and dined almost daily in its hall. The original letters of Sir Isaac Newton, the manuscript of a portion of Milton's Paradise Lost, the mulberry tree planted by the poet, his noble bust, and other memorials of literary interest, were shown him by the Bishop of Bristol in person. It was with a pleasant emotion of surprise that he noted among people of all ranks a genuine feeling of kindness for his own country.

Before leaving Cambridge, he visited several famous spots in its vicinity, -among them, the stately cathedral at Boston, standing on an eminence that rose to a greater height than the capitol at Richmond from a wide plain recently rescued from the fens; and also the church at Grand Chester, which was then thought to be the scene

of Gray's Elegy, from the belfry of which he heard, at nine o'clock, the curfew tolling across the fields "the knell of parting day." A little later, he was writing a letter to William Wirt from the room at Stratford in which Shakespeare was born. The lower floor of the house was, at that time, used as a butcher's stall; and so neglected was the great poet's fame in his native town that Gilmer had to inquire of half a dozen passers-by before he was able to find the grave.

From Stratford, he continued his journey to Oxford, which was now deserted, for professors and students alike had dispersed for the summer vacation. "I have seen enough of England and learned enough of the two Universities," he wrote from that place, "to see that the difficulties we have to encounter are greater than we supposed, -not so much from the variety of the applications, as from the difficulty of inducing men of real abilities to accept our offer . . . . Education at the Universities has become so expensive that it is almost exclusively confined to the nobility and the opulent gentry, no one of whom could we expect to engage. Of the few persons at Oxford or Cambridge who have any extraordinary talent, I believe ninety-nine out of a hundred are designed for the profession of law or the gown, or aspire to political distinction; and it would be difficult to persuade one of these, even if poor, to repress so far the impulse of youthful ambition as to accept a professorship in a college in an unknown country. They who are less aspiring .who have learning, are caught up at an early period in their several colleges; soon become fellows and hope to be masters; which, with the apartments, garden, and 4, 5 or 600 pounds sterling a year, comprises all they can imagine of comfort or happiness."

An additional obstacle, which Gilmer had to overcome

in securing competent men was the necessity, created by poverty, which forced the University of Virginia to assign several subjects to the same professor, -chemistry and astronomy, for instance, to the already laborious chair of natural philosophy. A second obstacle was the shortness of the vacation in that institution; and above all, the season at which it fell. In Oxford and Cambridge, all study ceased between July 1 and October 10. "If the heat is insufferable in England," he exclaims, "what must it be in our July, August, and September, when there is to be no vacation!" He admitted that, at this hour, he felt discouraged and depressed. "Whether I can find professors elsewhere in England is most doubtful; in the time (fixed by the Board of Visitors), I fear not. I shall not return without engaging them, if they are to be had in Great Britain or Germany. I have serious thoughts of trying Göttingen."

Leaving Oxford in this mood, Gilmer visited Dr. Parr in his home at Hatton. Parr was too infirm to be a of service to him in securing the professors sought for, but was of assistance in preparing a catalogue of classical books for the library. From Hatton, Gilmer travelled on to Edinburgh, the city where his father had matriculated fifty years before, and where a brother had died from over-exertion in the prosecution of his studies. On the day of his arrival, he obtained his first glimpse of a tangible success in carrying out his mission. During his sojourn in Cambridge, he had been introduced in the rooms of the poet, William Mackworth Praed, to Thomas Hewett Key, who, at that time, was a student of medicine, after winning distinction in the academic courses of that University. Gilmer, subsequent to their parting there, invited him by letter to accept the professorship of mathematics. It was the favorable reply to

this letter which reached Gilmer in Edinburgh, and gave him a feeling of encouragement in place of the dejection which had so harassed him. Key confessed that, at the request of his father, -himself a physician in large practice, -he had determined to withdraw from the pursuit of pure science and literature. "Indeed," he added, "nothing but your liberal proposition would have induced me once more to turn my thought to that quarter . . . . I shall be happy, should I find it in my power to agree to your offer. The manners, habits, and sentiments of the country, will, of course, be congenial with my own . . . . Nor would it at all grieve me, in a political point of view, to become, if I may be allowed that honor, a citizen of the United States."

Although Key suggests in this letter that the final arrangement should be delayed until they should have the opportunity to talk fully and intimately together at his father's in town, he now submits a number of practical questions for definite answers which would assist him in deciding. What branch of science was he expected to teach? What duties to perform? Would he be entirely under his own or others' directions? How far should he have the right to control his own time? What was the existing state of the University as to government? What were the number, age, and pursuits of its students? Had Gilmer the authority to make a private arrangement? And would the expense of the journey to the University be partly met at his own charge? To these numerous and searching interrogations, Gilmer was able to return a prompt and satisfactory reply by letter. Key would be expected to teach the mathematical sciences by lessons or lectures, as he himself should prefer; he could only be dismissed by a vote of two-thirds of the Board; he could dispose of his time as he liked, provided that he

should follow no other calling that would be a source of emolument to himself; and he was entitled to such an advance of funds as would defray the expense of his passage to Charlottesville.

An interesting paragraph of this letter related to the number of students that would probably be in attendance the first year. The estimate of that number which Gilmer now gave was scrupulously honest, but it was so exaggerated, in the light of the reality disclosed within a few months, that it must have left a painful impression on Key in recalling it after his arrival in Virginia. Repeating Jefferson's sanguine prediction, Gilmer asserted that not less than five hundred would matriculate so soon as the doors of the University were opened to receive them; and he was confident that at least two hundred of these young men would enter the mathematical course. As each pupil would be required to pay a fee of twenty-five dollars at least, the amount that would accrue to Key from students alone would be five thousand dollars, and when the sum due from the University as a fixed salary, namely, fifteen hundred dollars, was added, the total would rise to the imposing figure of six thousand, five hundred dollars. As no rent was to be asked for the occupation of a pavilion, -which would have reduced this figure, -the prospect was well calculated to dazzle a young medical student like Key, who had been looking forward in England to a protracted period of impecunious probation.

So soon as Gilmer arrived in Edinburgh, he personally interviewed a number of persons who had been recommended to him in London. Among the first of these was Professor John Leslie, who had, at one time, been a tutor in the Randolph family, in Virginia. If Leslie had not since become a scientist of indisputable acquirements,

his letter to Gilmer would appear to be distinctly presumptuous and condescending: "I stated to you," he wrote, "that it appeared to me that even the temporary superintendence of a person of name from Europe might contribute to give éclat and consistency to your infant university. On reflecting since on this matter, I feel not averse, under certain circumstances, to offer my own services. I am prompted to engage in such a scheme, partly from a wish to revisit some old friends, and partly from an ardent desire to promote the interests of learning and liberality. I could consent to leave Edinburgh for half a year. I could sail from Liverpool by the middle of April, visit the colleges in the New England States, New York, and Philadelphia, and spend a month or six weeks at Charlottesville. I should then bestow my whole thoughts in digesting the best plans of education, etc.; give all the preliminary lectures in mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry; and besides, go through a course comprising all my original views and discoveries in meteorology, heat, and electricity. Having put the great machine in motion, I should then take my leave to visit other parts of the Continent. But I should continue to exercise a parental care over the future of the university, and urge forward the business by my correspondence. To make such a sacrifice as this, I should expect a donation of at least one thousand pounds, which would include all my expenses on the voyage."

Leslie's expansive offer, which was reported to the Board by letter, discloses upon its face that he was too costly a luxury to be in the reach of a poorly endowed university, still in its swaddling clothes. Gilmer, for some days, cherished the hope that he would be able to secure the talents of Professor Buchanan for the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry, two courses which

he soon found it necessary to unite under one instructor. Buchanan objected to a session prolonged through the entire summer, on account both of the heat and the obstacle which it would create to his revisiting his native country at the only season when it would be convenient for his British friends to entertain him. He finally declined the invitation; and so did Dr. Craigie, who was offered the chair of anatomy, for which he was extraordinarily well equipped. It is not a cause for surprise to find that Gilmer was disposed to feel somewhat bitter over his failures. "When I saw needy young men," he wrote Jefferson afterwards, "living miserably up ten or twelve stories, in that wretched climate of Edinbrough, reluctant to join us, I did not know where we could expect to raise recruits."

It seems, however, that not all the scholars were so impoverished. The pedagogic calling in Scotland had become lucrative. "Even the Greek professor at Glasgow, Leslie tells me," Gilmer wrote in the letter just quoted, "receives fifteen hundred guineas a year. Some of the lecturers here receive above four thousand pounds sterling. Besides this, we have united branches which seem never to be combined in the same person in Europe . . . . I have, moreover, well satisfied myself that, taking all the departments of natural history, we shall, at Philadelphia and New York, procure persons more fit for our purpose than anywhere in Great Britain. The same may be said of anatomy . . . . As at present advised, I cannot say positively that I may not be condemned to the humiliation of going back with Dr. Blaettermann only."

Socially, he found the city of the North quite as attractive as Cambridge or Oxford. While there, he was entertained by the distinguished advocate, Murray, a kinsman of Lord Mansfield; and was also kindly received

by Lord Forbes, a retired officer of the army. The numerous acquaintances made by him were, he said, astonished to discover that he had been in Great Britain only, six weeks or seven weeks, "and yet spoke English quite as well as they, to say the least. I believe many of them, on both sides the Tweed, would give a good deal for my accent and articulation, which, I assure you, are nothing improved by this raw climate, which makes every one hoarse." Gilmer had an opportunity to be introduced to Jeffrey, and so pleasing was the impression which he made upon that celebrated critic, his wife, and the members of their particular coterie, that he was pronounced by them to be the most winning and popular American who had ever visited Edinburgh.