Bethune. According to her dying request, Mrs. Hamilton's remains lie buried in Trinity Church-yard, near the tomb built for her illustrious husband by the Society of Cincinnati, whose President General (after Washington) he was. Among the most sincere and affectionate mourners at her funeral was my beloved mother. The Rev. Dr. Weston (St. Paul's, New York), at the request of the Orphan Asylum Board, prepared a sermon eloquently commemorative of her many virtues and pious services, to be preached in the chapel of the institution, but was prevented by illness from delivering it. CHAPTER XIV. THE SUM OF HER LABORS, AND HER REST. -Sunday-schools. Review.-Mr. and Mrs. Bethune's Plans.-Visit of Missionaries.- [THE closing chapter of this memoir is taken from a sketch which the Rev. Dr. Bethune prepared and published immediately after the death of his mother. He left the biography unfinished; and, in order to complete it in his words, this sketch is here inserted, though it repeats some facts already mentioned.— Editor.] Before the year 1807 Mr. Bethune and his very intimate friend, Mr. Robert Ralston, of Philadelphia, sympathizing in larger missionary views than those generally entertained in this country at that time, had made themselves Foreign Directors of the London Missionary Society, the only two such in the United States. In 1807, that society sent to this country (to avoid French cruisers), on his way to China, the Rev. Mr. (afterward Dr.) Morrison, the translator of the Bible into Chinese, and the Rev. Messrs. Gordon and Lee, on their way to India. These brethren, while waiting for a vessel, spent the greater part of their time in Mr. Bethune's family, with great spiritual advantage, as they afterward testified; and animated the pious three, Mrs. Graham, Mr. and Mrs. Bethune, with yet more ardent desires for promoting the Divine glory. There was also another missionary who, for similar reasons, came to this country, on his way to India, and was intimate with the Bethune family-the Rev. Mr. May, of whom the writer can ascertain no more than that he was eminently distinguished by his love for children, whom he delighted to address, and by whom he was attended in large numbers. Mrs. Bethune used to express herself as having been greatly interested by Mr. May's efforts; and, from her own sayings, there is no doubt that her zeal for an instrumentality like the Sabbath-school was much increased. For several years after this Mrs. Bethune suffered much from ill health, but continued to maintain her charitable and religious engagements with great success; and, about the time when Dr. Mason removed his ministry to the new church built for him in Murray Street, Mr. and Mrs. Bethune and Mrs. Graham transferred their Church-membership to the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Romeyn; and of that church (after some intermediate changes, rendered necessary by changes in the city) Mrs. Bethune was a communicant at the time of her death, the attachment between her and her beloved pastor, Dr. James W. Alexander, having been of the most tender description. About the year 1812 (the precise date can not now be given), the attention of Mr. and Mrs. Bethune was called to the blessed effects of the Sunday-school system established in England by Robert Raikes. Their pious correspondents in England, particularly Stephen Prust, Esq., of Bristol, sent them many reports and documents illustrating the work; and they endeavored to awaken the Christian public to that means of usefulness, but, for a time, with little success. Pious people, and some eminent ministers, even doubted the propriety of so occupying the Sabbath day. Mr. Bethune, weary of delay, at last said to Mrs. Bethune, "My dear wife, there is no use in waiting for the men; do you gather a few ladies of different denominations, and begin the work yourselves." Mrs. Bethune had already made encouraging experiments in two schools-one, during the winter, near her city residence, within convenient distance of Dr. Romeyn's church; the other in the basement of her country-seat, between Bank and Bethune Streets, Greenwich, besides starting others, as she had opportunity, during her summer travels in different parts of the country between the Hudson and the Lakes. Intent upon a wider diffusion of the blessing, she determined to call a public meeting of ladies, of different denominations, in the Wall Street Church, which she addressed from the clerk's desk; and, aided-by many noble women, among whom may be noted Mrs. Francis Hall, of the Methodist, Mrs. William Colgate, of the Baptist, and Miss Ball, of the Dutch churches, she had the happiness of seeing put into successful operation "The Female Union for the Promotion of Sabbath-schools," which continued, by its publications and its schools, containing 7000 or 8000 children, to exert a large usefulness, until it was absorbed by the New York branch of the American Sunday-school Union. There had been Sunday-schools of various kinds, in various places, before this: Mrs. Graham, as early as 1792, had an adult Sunday evening school in Mulberry Street, and Mrs. Bethune, in subsequent years, had made several similar efforts; but this may be regarded as truly the first introduction here of the Raikes' system, as will be shown on some future occasion, when time is had for proper research. Mrs. Bethune had a wise dread of administering charity in such a way as might encourage pauperism, and adopted fully the views of economists like Colquhoun on Indigence, Chalmers on Civic Economy of Large Towns. Of this she gave convincing proofs. The war of 1812-14 brought great distress on the laboring classes, and the cry of the needy roused Mrs. Bethune to new energy for their relief. The great trouble was the scarcity of work. Mrs. Bethune, having duly considered the plan, associated herself with a number of like-minded ladies in a society for the promotion of industry. They rented a large wooden building, called The Economical School, then standing on the north side of Anthony (now Worth) Street, F |