The project of visiting England with a view to raising funds for its completion, had been for some time under prayerful consideration. During the winter campaign, it was decided to start early in the spring, and the closing work of the season took the shape of farewell concerts in New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Providence, and elsewhere. One given in Boston, March 26th, in response to a request signed by Governor Claflin, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Rev. E. E. Hale, Dr. Kirk, Phillips Brooks, and several other eminent citizens, was the most successful, financially, that the Singers had ever given in that city.
And so the winter's work drew to a close. Its net result was the addition of another $20,000 to their fund, making $40,000 that they had now secured. With exultation and thankfulness as they thought of past success, and with high hopes for the future, preparations were at once made for the visit to Great Britain. Very cordial letters of introduction, commending the music and mission of the Singers, were given by the governors of five of the New England States, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Hon. George H. Stuart, George MacDonald—then on a lecturing tour in America—and other influential friends. An open letter from Governor Brown, of Tennessee, bespeaking favour for their work, was especially valuable as coming from the chief magistrate of a commonwealth that was so recently a slave State.
They were not to get away, however, without still another conflict with caste prejudices. Cabin accommodations were refused the party by one after
