the valleys in 1823. As that visit became
the germ of so much blessing to the Vaudois, it is not unimportant to
recall the providential circumstance which led to that visit. Referring to
the doctor's own narrative,[I] he says, "I happened to attend a meeting of
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge on a day when a very
affecting letter was read to the board, signed Ferdinand Peyrani, minister
of Pramol, 'and requested that some aid might be sent, in books or money,
to the ancient Protestant congregation in the mountains of Piedmont, who
were struggling hard against poverty and oppression.'" The society voted
forty pounds' worth of books, including those mentioned as specially needed
for use in their churches. But from the date of this incident Dr. Gilly
sought after fuller information respecting the Vaudois, and determined on
visiting their valleys. This purpose he carried into effect early in the
year 1823, and on his return home the next year he published an account of
his journey, his object being to excite an _immediate_ interest on behalf
of these people. How largely he succeeded, so as to entitle him to be
reckoned among their chiefest benefactors, we shall have occasion to remark
later on. But, apart from the formation of a large and influential
committee in London, by which considerable sums of money were raised "to
assist the Vaudois in maintaining their ministers, churches, schools, and
poor," he was the means of invoking the sympathy and aid of one who
consecrated his life, strength, and means in one almost unbroken series of
efforts for their amelioration--I mean General Beckwith. This distinguished
philanthropist was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, October 2nd, 1789. He was
baptized by the names of John Charles, and entered the 95th Regiment in the
year 1803. His first years as a soldier were spent in Hanover, Denmark, and
Sweden. In 1809 he was engaged in the Peninsular War, being present at the
disastrous retreat from Corunna and the sieges of Salamanca and Toulouse.
For his services at the last place he received a gold medal and the rank of
major, March 3rd, 1814. During these campaigns he was never wounded,
although exposed to great danger. One morning, among others, his old
servant had scarcely reached the skirts of a forest in which the enemy had
an ambuscade than his master's horse was killed by a ball, and the rider
overthrown. The servant thought it was all over with his master, but the
sad tho