Faraday to William Buchanan   15 February 1849¹

Royal Institution | 15 Feby 1849

My very dear & kind brother

Your letter arrived yesterday and was a great solace to us both comforting us with that comfort with which I trust you are yourself sustained and as you most truly say what have we to expect but frequently recurring blanks among our friends in their places as to this life and the speedy termination of our own[.] This morning we received accounts from Dundee that our dear friend Mr. John Duff was departed and at this moment the body of our late beloved brother Mr. Stopard² who died last Sabbath morning³ lies for interment here. There is great happiness in the midst of the sorrow wherewith we think of the departure of such as these & our close friend your brother⁴ for they were witnesses to the end & evidences that God both can & will keep his people who put their trust in him[.]

We have had several continual communications with George [Buchanan] about his family but yours were for the time the latest words and made us very thankful in the assurance they gave us that Charlotte⁵ & all the others were improving steadily[.]

I am very glad to have the least hopes of your coming here this season & the same expectation will rejoice many others as they come to know it. If not inconvenient to your labours at the Houses⁶ I hope you will come to us[.] We shall be ready & most happy to see you i.e. if it be the will of God to keep us in life until then for not only do the cases of those around but my own increasing hints of weakness remind me that we should say if the Lord will we shall do this or that. But if in the course of time you come up and we are here come to us i.e. if in all things it is suitable to you and others do not appear to you to have a higher claim.

I have almost forgotten the first matter which you mentioned, but I understand: who indeed has not felt the pressure of events[.] Say no more about it until it is entirely convenient to you[.]

My wife is out but still I say give our most affectionate remembrance to Mrs. Buchanan⁷ and <-> I have no means at hand of recalling the name:- your daughter our friend at the Ferry and believe me

Ever Your Affectionate & Grateful Friend | M. Faraday

William Buchanan Esq | &c &c &c