No 2 Winkworth place City Road Decr 1817 Mr Pratt I took the liberty of writing to you on the 18th of August (mentioning an application I had made in 1814) and offering my services for New Zealand.— Obedient to your favour of the 30th Augt I had an interview with you on the 5th Sepr— You gave me little, or no encouragement.— I left you with the determination, that if it pleased the Lord to permit, I would make myself acquainted with the two new Systems of Education, if peradventure you should be pleased to send me, after I had done so. I acknowledge it is perfectly right that you should be very cautious whom you employ in this most important business; and to be very careful that JESUS is enthroned in each heart, which alone, I apprehend, can enable the Missionary [f] to bear up with patience and resignation against the contradiction of sinners, and the difficultys and dangers which must be expected in such an enterprise. I was unsuccessful in my application in Baldwins Gardens for permission to learn the Madras system, although I had a certificate from The Revd Mr Crosby. I stated to them exactly the case in which I stood. The answer I received was— That I could not be admitted without producing my appointment— That they permitted no one to learn their system on speculation. I met however, with a very kind reception from Mr Millar Secy of the British and Foreign School Society, who gave me immediate admission to learn the plan practised at their establishment. I have attended there some time, and I enclose a copy of Mr Pickton, the Superintendants certificate of my having done so. I also enclosecopyof The Revd Mr Crosbys Certificate together with the Revd Mr Hendricks Letter during Mr Crosbys indisposition, You was kind enough to permit me the privilege of calling upon you, and I should have done so now, in preference to a Letter, but have [f] a proposition to make somewhat different to those I submitted to you on the 18th of August, and I thought it best to do it in writing, in order that you may, if you think fit, lay the same before the Committee. The proposition is this— That in the event of your taking me into the service I wish to be engaged in, I will cause Twenty pounds pr Annum to be paid into the funds of your Society, out of the income of some property which I have in Yorkshire. All that I shall want frm you, with respect to pecuniary matters, will be wherewithal to get a little food and raiment. I have no secular object in view. I do love the Lord Jesus Christ, because He hath loved me with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness hath he drawn me— And I am anxious that the Heathen should love Him also: and I am willing to leave a country that I love, and do what I can, looking to JEHOVAH JESUS for strength, and wisdom, and for the blessing, and giving Him all the Glory, for He is worthy. [f] The blessed Bible promises that Jesus shall have the heathen for His inheritance and I believe the time is at Hand. I will take the liberty of waiting upon you soon (if the Lord will) if you wish me to call at any particular time (I know you are engaged on Wednesday Evenings) please to favor me with a line by the twopenny post wch shall be duly attended to— With prayers for your success in the noble work you are engaged in— I remain For Jesus Christ’s sake Your most obedt Servt Frs Hall