"I was glad to learn that Lord Elgin was to go in the same steamship with you from Boston. I have no doubt it will have proved interesting to him as well as to you, and perhaps useful to you. I miss you very much from the office, but I do not like to employ any more aid without sanction of the Government, though I could get no one to take your place. I would wish you to write me what Lord Elgin may have thought or have said as to our doings and plans of proceeding. If the library plan succeeds, it will achieve noble results.[51] I feel that our success and happiness in the Department are inseparably united." [51] Lord Elgin always referred to Dr. Ryerson's library scheme in his educational addresses as the "Crown and Glory of the Institutions of the Province." It was indeed fortunate for my mission that I was on the same Cunard steamer to England with His Excellency the late lamented Lord Elgin, to whom I entered into full detail in regard to the objects of that mission. Before leaving the steamer, Lord Elgin most kindly promised to aid me in every way he could while in England, and wrote me his address as "Broom Hall, Dumfermline," in case I should have occasion to refer to him. He also added the following paragraph to the letter of your instructions and authority, which, in more than one instance, I found to be of essential service to me:-- "I believe the object of Mr. Hodgins' mission to be most important to Canada, and I trust that he will meet with all support and encouragement. (Signed) "ELGIN AND KINCARDINE, "Governor-General. "September, 1853." One of my letters, reporting to Dr. Ryerson as far as I had gone, my proceedings in England, having been enclosed to the Hon. Mr. Hincks, he said in reply:--"I return you Mr. Hodgins' interesting letter, with thanks for its perusal. It was fortunate he went by the same steamer as Lord Elgin. I am much interested in the success of your libraries, which is beyond my most sanguine expectations. "QUEBEC, 11th Oct. 1853."