I have often said in my heart, If the Lord help them not, vain is the help of man.

Much has been done for them by our dear Friends in England, and much still remains to be done, in order that they may be preserved together and not become dispersed as though they had never been a people.
The effectual means of help seems yet to fail,--that of putting the families in the way of helping themselves by suitable employment.

The families who live in the neighborhood of Minden, mostly on small parcels of land, have until now got on with a tolerable degree of comfort, by cultivating their land in summer and spinning yarn in winter; but now the depression is so great that if they could be put into the way of earning threepence a day, they would embrace it with thankfulness.

I have been very diffident in proponing any plan for their assistance, knowing that some former proposals have failed of accomplishing the end.

But I have consulted with those who are best acquainted with their situation, and we think it safest for them to continue their own employment of spinning yarn, and endeavor to mend their trade by placing it on this footing.