University of Virginia Library

XVIII. The Mission to England, Continued

Gilmer stopped with Key in London, and through Key, he was brought into communication by letter with George Long, then about twenty-four years of age, a fellow of Trinity. To Long, he made precisely the same general offer which he had submitted to Key. Longs reply was at once that of a scholar and a man of business: it was sensible, candid, and straight-forward. The peculiar circumstances of his situation, he began, induced him to throw off all reserve. He had lost both his father and mother, and also a considerable property in the West Indies, which he had relied upon to yield him an easy and permanent income. Upon his exertions were almost entirely dependent two younger sisters and a brother under age. He had been studying privately to become a member of the bar, with the expectation that it would afford a subsistence for these relations, as well as gratify his ambition to rise in the world. "Did that

part of America, in which the University of Virginia was situated," he inquired, "open up the prospect of his family obtaining a satisfactory asylum there? Were newcomers there liable to be carried off by a dangerous epidemic disorder? Were common articles of food, apparel, and furniture cheap there? Was the scheme of the University a permanent or experimental one? Would the fixed fee of fifteen hundred dollars possess any chance of doubling when the institution got fully underway? Was the society of Albemarle or Charlottesville so good as to compensate an Englishman, in some degree, for the only comfort which an Englishman would hesitate to leave behind him? What vacation would the professors be granted, and at what seasons? What would be the costs of the voyage, and who would defray them? What sort of outfit for it would be required?"

Such were some of the pertinent questions put by Long. "I have no attachment to England as a country," he concluded; "it is a delightful place for a man of rank and property to live in, but I was not born in that enviable station . . . . If comfortably settled, therefore, in America, I would never wish to leave it." Gilmer replied at length to this letter; and one week afterwards, Long, who had, in the meanwhile, consulted Adam Hodgson, a merchant of Liverpool familiar with Virginia, accepted the original offer.

In reporting Longs acceptance to Jefferson, Gilmer stated that there were two objections to him: (1) he made no pretension to knowledge of Hebrew; but as this study was little esteemed in England, it would require a search that would extend over at least another year, to discover a competent man for the chair of ancient languages, should instruction in the Hebrew tongue be pronounced indispensable: (2) as an alumnus of Trinity, it

would be necessary for Long to return to that college in July, 1825, to stand the examinations for his mastership of arts, the condition of his retaining his fellowship. Both of these obstacles to his appointment could be easily surmounted, -the one by leaving him, after his arrival in Virginia, to acquire the requisite acquaintance with Hebrew; the other, by giving him permission to he present at Cambridge at the time that had been assigned. In accepting the chair of ancient languages, Long stated that "he took it for granted that the professors were not compelled to subscribe to any particular religious principles, or aid in propagation of any doctrine or speculative tenets, about which sects differ." "Allay your fears, I pray about religion," replied Gilmer. "Far from requiring uniformity, we scrupulously avoid having clergymen of any sort connected with the University, not because we have no religion, but because we have too many kinds. All that we shall require of each professor is that he shall say nothing about the doctrines which divide the sects. "When Gilmer submitted his original offer to Long, he also, by way of precaution, wrote to Rev. Henry Drury, of Harrow, soliciting his assistance towards filling the chair of ancient languages, should Long be unable to accept it. It will be seen from this that a clergyman's aid was not despised by him, but no offer of a minister of the Gospel to become a professor was seriously considered. On September 15, he wrote to Jefferson that he was in a position to engage the services of another most competent man for the ancient languages, but as he was a clergyman, he had turned his name down as ineligible. This was probably the person whom the headmaster of Shrewsbury School, Samuel Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, had recommended; or it may have been the brother of the Rev. Henry Drury himself, also a clergyman, who was warmly urged by the Rev. Henry for the chair, although lie was honest enough, at the same time, to acknowledge that the Rev. Benjamin's principal reason for wishing to emigrate was that he was up to his neck in a slough of irremediable pecuniary embarrassments.

By the time Long's consent had been obtained, Key had also agreed to accept the chair of mathematics. Both Key and Long, it seems, noticed the disparity between the offer submitted to them in Gilmer's letters, and the one actually embodied in the contract which they were asked to sign. They raised the objection now, they said, so that there should be no room for dispute after their arrival in Virginia. "There is no doubt," wrote Key on September 27, "that I shall receive a salary of fifteen hundred dollars for the five years, independent of the fees. This is stated in both of your letters, but you wish virtually to reserve to the Visitors the power of diminishing this under certain conditions and limitations. I grant that this power is not to be enforced except at discretion, and for good reasons appearing to the Rector and Visitors. But it is still a power in their hand, which may be employed at their sober discretion, and independent of us. Now the limitation you put to the power of the Visitors is to restrain them from diminishing the fixed salary unless the whole receipts exceed twenty-five hundred dollars. But if the receipts will never be less than four thousand, and the Visitors have the power of diminishing the salary as soon as the whole receipts exceed twenty-five hundred dollars, is this not giving them an unconditional power of diminishing the salary? Ought not the limit to be at the very least forty-five hundred dollars . . . . I have just written

to Liverpool to take my place with the packet that leaves that port on (October) 16th."

The last sentence is a proof that Key had no intention of withdrawing from the engagement because of a supposed contradiction in the terms of the contract. Before this letter was written, Gilmer had been employed in the search for incumbents for the other professorships. "I have had more persons recommended for anatomy," he wrote Jefferson in August, "than for any other place, but immediately they find they will not be allowed to practise medicine abroad, they decline proceeding further." This difficulty, however, was finally overcome with the experienced assistance of Dr. George Birkbeck, the founder in Glasgow of the first Mechanics Institute, afterwards a prominent physician in London, and during many years, interested in the progress of popular education. Birkbeck suggested the name of Robley Dunglison, widely known already as a writer on medical topics. He accepted the anatomical professorship on September 5. On the same day, Gilmer visited Woolwich to talk in person with Peter Barlow, then an instructor in the Royal Military Academy, a member of the Royal Society, and a celebrated investigator in magnetism and optics. Barlow was absent; but afterwards by letter, readily agreed to assist him, and as the first step, promised to write to the son of a distinguished mathematical professor, whose name, however, he withheld. This person was undoubtedly Charles Bonnycastle, the son of John, who had filled the chair of mathematics at Woolwich with conspicuous ability and learning. As Bonnycastle was not in England at that time, for he was in the employment of the Government, Barlow wrote also to George Harvey, of Plymouth. But Bonnycastle was finally selected.

It seems that he had given bond for about five hundred pounds to the British Government, and this he forfeited when he accepted Gilmer's offer. He expected to cancel the obligation by an advance from the University, and there occurred some misunderstanding on this score between Gilmer and himself. Gilmer admitted in April, 1826, in a letter to Jefferson, that he had been compelled "to take Bonnycastle more on trust than the others," as he was anxious to close all engagements in time to get the professors overseas by November. He was under the impression that he had made no promise, in the University's name, to relieve Bonnycastle's sureties, but he declared that, should the Board of Visitors be unwilling to advance the amount, he would do so out of his own pocket. The money was, in the end, paid by the University in full. There was a somewhat furtive reflection on this professor's capacity in a letter which Gilmer received in January, 1825, from George Marx, the member of the banking firm which had honored his letters of credit in London: "I do not know whether it is my duty to tell you in strict confidence," he wrote, "that some opinion has been given me that Mr. Bonnycastle is not adequate to his situation." The conspicuous efficiency afterwards exhibited by him at the University of Virginia is a tacit refutation of this innuendo launched by some unknown and hostile tongue. "The son," said Dr. Birkbeck, "I am persuaded, will extend the fame of the parent. Had I entertained the slightest idea of his being in your reach, he would have been the first recommended."

By the nineteenth of September, Gilmer was in a position to report that he had succeeded in engaging four of the five professors sought for. It had been his expectation that he would certainly be able to embark for home

at an earlier date, but, said he, "At this season of the year, no man in England is where he ought to be, except perhaps those of the Fleet and of Newgate. Every little country school-master, who never saw a town, is gone, as they say, to the country; that is to Scotland, to shoot grouse, to Doncaster to see a race, or to Cheltenham to dose himself with that vile water. With all these difficulties, and not without assistance, but with numerous enemies to one's success (as every Yankee in England is), I have done wonders. I have employed four professors of the most respectable families, of real talent, learning, etc., a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a M.A. of the same University. Then, they are gentlemen, and what should not be overlooked, they all go to Virginia with the most favorable prepossessions towards our country. If learning does not raise its drooping head, it shall not be my fault. For myself, I shall return to the bar with recruited health and redoubled vigor. I shall study and work and speak and do something at last that shall redound to the honor of my country. My intercourse with professional and literary men here has fired again all my boyish enthusiasm, and I pant to be back and at work. Virginia must still be a great nation. She has genius enough; she wants only method in her application."

It only remained to procure a professor of natural history. By the advice of Dr. Birkbeck, Gilmer wrote to Dr. John Harwood, -at this time delivering a series of lectures in Manchester, -who, in his reply, on September 20, expressed regret that his engagements with the Royal Institution made it impracticable for him to consider the offer before the ensuing May. In the meanwhile, he intimated, his brother William Harwood, who had given instruction in natural history, might take the

place as a temporary stop-gap, or as the permanent incumbent, should it not he convenient for himself to leave England in the spring. A few days later, however, Dr. Harwood stated that there was an acquaintance of his in Bristol, -whose name he failed to mention, -who was well fitted by his attainments to assume the chair. This proved to be Frederick Norton. On the same occasion, he again recommended his brother William, who supported his claim in a letter over his own signature. "I confess," he wrote, "that I shall have much pleasure in accepting the appointment provided that my qualifications may meet your approval. I have been long devoting myself to the study of natural history, but more especially to the branch, geology. I am not so familiar with natural history, but I flatter myself with a pretty good acquaintance with chemistry."

Dr. John Harwood, in a letter which Gilmer received just before his departure from England, again revealed his desire that his brother should act as his stop-gap; and so anxious was William Harwood to assume this part, that he crossed to the Isle of Wight to talk with Gilmer in person on shipboard, only to be informed that it was too late for a written agreement to be drawn and signed; but he was advised to run the risk of going out to Virginia without a contract. To this suggestion, he very sensibly demurred. Frederick Norton arrived on the ground a few hours after the ship had set sail (October 5).

During the last week of his sojourn in England, Gilmer's time had not been altogether taken up with the pursuits of possible candidates for University professorships. Among the distinguished persons whom he met in general society was Thomas Campbell, who was interested in America from the association of at least one of

his poems with its scenery, and also from the presence of a brother there. Campbell was prevented from entertaining him at his own home by the mental condition of his son. Gilmer, on several occasions, dined with Major John Cartwright, the author of a laborious disquisition on the English Constitution, and a man of radical leanings, as proven by his sympathy with American and Spanish rebels, and by his advocacy of the reform of Parliament and abolition of slavery. He, like Dr. Parr, was more interested in suggesting a list of editions to be bought for the University library, than in proposing the names of possible professors. Dugald Stewart had been paralyzed in 1822, but he expressed the hope, in a letter dictated to his daughter, that Gilmer would sail from a Scotch port, as this would give the infirm old philosopher the opportunity to make his acquaintance. "I am sorry," he said, "to think that my good wishes are all I have to offer for his (Mr. Jefferson's) infant establishment." Dr. Parr was so much pleased with the young Virginian that he promised to "marry him in England without requiring the payment of a fee." In a letter to Gilmer only a few days before he embarked, he said, "To Mr. Jefferson present, not only my good wishes, but the tribute of my respect and my confidence. I shall write of him what Dr. Young said of Johnson's Rasselas, "It was a globe of sense." I use the same word with the same approbation of Mr. Jefferson's letter to me."

Gilmer, while in London, spent some of his leisure hours in Lambeth Palace Library, and became so much interested in the manuscript of John Smith's History of Virginia preserved there, that he had a copy of it written out for publication in the United States.

During his voyage to New York, he was entirely prostrated by seasickness, and in this unhappy condition, fell

into a raging and devouring fever aggravated by want of medicine, food, rest and attendance. "I am reduced to a shadow," he said, "and am disordered throughout my whole system." A carbuncle appeared on his left side and as the ship-doctor was too incompetent to lance it, he himself was forced to lay open the angry lump with a pair of scissors and with his own hands. "We had no caustic and had to apply bluestone, which was nearly the same sort of dressing as the burning pitch to the bare nerves of Ravillac. All the way, I repeated,

Such is the martyrdom I have endured for the Old Dominion! She will never thank me for it, but I will love and cherish her as if she did." After his arrival in New York, he was detained by illness during several weeks, but, as will hereafter appear, he was, in spite of his feeble condition, ardently interested in engaging a professor for the vacant chair of natural history, the only chair which he had been compelled to leave still unprovided for when he set out from England.