July 28th, 1843.
My dear Father
Ten minutes ago I received your letter1 and the returned testimonials.2 I am not cast down, I am not even disappointed, but a conviction is deepened which has occupied my mind these many months, and that is – that I have no business here. A voice tells me that with reference to human agency I must depend on my own exertions and on them alone. Think not that I slight the kindness of those who have borne testimony to my character. No, I feel as grateful to them as if their exertions had obtained me all I desired; and whereever my lot may fall I shall always carry with me a deep sense of my obligation to them. You advise me to write to the Dean,3 if I did so it would be to express my heartfelt gratitude for what he has done for me, and not to ask him to do more. Any plan that I could adopt with reference to Somerset House4 would I’m sure prove futile. I must wait the tide of events, encouraged by the hope that sometime or other I’ll meet a favouring current on which to launch my barque – think not that I am cast down.
Why should the subject of America lie dormant? You should put me in possession of all you know concerning it. I shall do nothing without your concurrence. I shall write to Mr Conwill, surely he will tell me all he knows about the matter. I am very glad to know the street Wm5 Tyndall lives in. In the present state of public opinion in America I have no doubt but Mr Ryan is attached to the repeal movement,6 and this might make him careless of forwarding the interest of one whom he knows to be at least the son of an antirepealer. I dont expect that he will answer my letter. What do you think then of my writing to Wm Tyndall? I will consult you in everything. I shall propose nothing irrational, so that I feel assured you will assent to all I propose. I’m no way impatient, but I’m convinced that we should look the subject of going to America in the face, and by no means let it lie dormant. Shall I write to Wm Tyndall?
And now with respect to Emma. Its a project which often has struck me since my arrival in England, but never as a practical one. I am sure I’d feel most happy in her company. But circumstanced as I am I’m sure Emma would feel miserable here. How she would spend her time I know not. My circle of acquaintances in Preston is very limited, and entirely confined to units of the masculine gender. Again I say that I would be delighted to see her; and in sober seriousness I’ll begin on the spot to repair a shattered exchequer in order to afford me the means of going over and dancing the dullness off her! My love to my mother
Your affectionate son | John
With respect to writing to Wm Tyndall send me a single line in reply immediately on the receipt of this – Dont forget. Dont put ‘preapaid’ outside stamped letters; when you do write the word, leave out the first ‘a’ and write ‘prepaid’7 – take a lesson! ha! ha!
John.
RI MS JT 1/10/3292
LT Transcript Only
your letter: letter missing.
returned testimonials: see letters 0134 and 0173.
the Dean: Dean Richard Barnard.
Somerset House: the map office of the Tithe Commissioners based at Somerset House, on the Strand in central London; see letter 0173, n. 7.
Wm: William.
the present state of public opinion in America …the repeal movement: Many second-generation Irish Americans, as well as newer immigrants, organized American auxiliaries of Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association, and the ‘cause captured the imagination of a large element of the swiftly swelling ranks of the Catholic Irish’ (B. Jenkins, Irish Nationalism and the British State: From Repeal to Revolutionary Nationalism (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006), p. 215). In Philadelphia, where Ryan lived, there was a Repeal Society, although it had split into two factions in the early 1840s over O’Connell’s condemnation of slavery.
write ‘prepaid’: Although prepaid ready-stamped envelopes and adhesive stamps had been introduced in May 1840, Tyndall, Snr evidently still preferred to add his own confirmation, even if his misspelling of ‘prepaid’ suggests he was struggling to adjust to the new terminology of the Post Office reforms.
Please cite as “Tyndall0220,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 4 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0220