The following letter from Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE to Dr. WARDLAW, dated Dec. 4, 1852, was read at the Second Annual Meeting of the Glasgow Female New Association for the Abolition of Slavery:

  DEAR SIR: I was most deeply and gratefully touched by your kind letter, and by its certainly very unexpected contents. That Christian hearts in good old Scotland should turn so warmly towards me seems to me like a dream; yet it is no less a most pleasant one. For myself, I can claim no merit in that work which has been the cause of this. It was an instinctive, irresistible outburst, and had no more merit in it than a mother's wailing for her first born. The success of the work, so strange, so utterly unexpected, only astonishes me. I can only say that this bubble of my mind has risen on the mighty stream of a divine purpose, and even a bubble can go far on such a tide. I am much of my time pressed down with a heavy sadness, "for the hurt of the daughter of my people," it is so horrible, so sad—such a dishonor to Christ and his cause.

  But, again, when I see that a spirit above me is issuing this feeble work book—choosing the weak things of this world to confound the mighty—then I have hope. Why has he given it this success, unless he means some mercy to the cause? Please to say to those Christian friends who have sent me the invitation in your letter, that I gladly accept it—though, when I get there, I fear that they may be disappointed. I never was much to see, and now I am in feeble health—worn and weary. I am now putting through the press another work, "A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," containing all the facts and documents which confirm the story; truth darker and sadder, and more painful to write than the fiction was. I shall call heaven and earth to witness to the deeds which have been done here! Alas! that I should do it. Should God spare my life till April, I trust to mingle prayers and Christian affection with the Christians of Scotland.—Yours in the gospel of Jesus.

H. B. STOWE