pass another night on board. The uncertainty of our fate
has caused an evening of singular excitement, owing to several of the
passengers going perpetually on deck and bringing down news, either that
we were in the act of crossing the bar, or that we had crossed it, or
that all this was wrong and that we were still outside. As often as it
was announced, and that with the most positive assertion, that we should
land to-night, there was great joy and glee among all the passengers,
excepting ourselves and a few others who had visions of a late Custom
House examination in a dark and dismal night with pouring rain, and a
conviction that landing before morning would not bring us to London any
sooner than doing so early to-morrow, and so we secretly hoped all the
time that we were neither on nor over the bar. Betting, as usual, began
on the subject, and the excitement was still at its height when official
information was brought to us that we neither had attempted nor meant to
attempt to cross the bar till five o'clock to-morrow morning. We have
therefore easily made up our minds to what I fear is a disappointment to
many. We trust now to have a quiet night, for we are lying-to, and are
as still as at anchor, and hope on awaking to-morrow morning, to find
ourselves in the dock at Liverpool; in which case we shall rush up by an
early train to London.

Here, therefore, ends our Journal; but before closing it, I must add a
few lines to say what cause we have had to feel deeply thankful for all
the mercies that have followed us by land and by sea. We have travelled
a distance of nearly 6000 miles, in a country where accidents frequently
occur, both on the railways and in steam-boats, and have never for one
moment been exposed to peril, or experienced one feeling of anxiety. We
have met everywhere with great attention, kindness, and hospitality, and
have been preserved in perfect health. Besides our land and river
journeys, we have made two long voyages across the wide Atlantic, and in
the midst of a tempest, which was a very severe one, the Hand of God
protected us and preserved us from danger, and, better still, kept our
minds in peace and confidence, and in remembrance that He who ruleth the
waves, could guide and succour us in every time of need, so that even I
felt no fear; Papa has had more experience of storms at sea, and was
less likely to feel any, but his confidence, too, was in knowing that we
were under Divine protectio