332 



GANNETT, EZRA S. 



GASPARIN, COUNT. 



six from the English Yearly Meeting, and four 

 from the Indiana Yearly Meeting. Two mem- 

 bers of the society have spent a part of the 

 year in France, distributing religious address- 



es, Bibles, and tracts, and cooperating in the 

 dispensation of relief to the afflicted. They 

 consider that a fair field is opening there for 

 evangelical work. 



GANNETT, Eev. EZRA STILES, D. D., an 

 American clergyman and author, born in Oam- 

 bridgeport, Mass., May 4, 1801 ; killed by the 

 railway collision at Eevere, Mass., August 26, 

 1871. He was educated at Phillips Academy, 

 Andover, and at Harvard College, graduating 

 from the latter in 1820, and receiving the de- 

 gree of A. B. also from Yale College the same 

 year. From 1820 to 1823 he studied theology 

 in the Cambridge Divinity School, and was or- 

 dained June 30, 1824, as colleague with the 

 famous William Ellery Ohanning, then pastor 

 of the Federal Street Unitarian Church, Bos- 

 ton. By the death of Dr. Channing, in 1842, 

 Dr. Gannett was left alone in his charge, hav- 

 ing been, for some years, in consequence of Dr. 

 Channing's failing health and preoccupation 

 with reformatory and general theological 

 topics, practically the sole pastor. He con- 

 tinued to minister to this congregation till his 

 death, his only continued absence being a va- 

 cation of two years in Europe. The demands 

 of business enterprises in that vicinity com- 

 pelled the removal of the Society from Federal 

 Street to Arlington Street, farther to the 

 " South End," where a new edifice was built a 

 few years since. Dr. Gannett was one of the 

 editors of the Christian Examiner, the princi- 

 pal periodical of the Unitarian denomination 

 in the United States, and, from 1844 to 1849, 

 was editor of the Monthly Miscellany. He 

 had also published many occasional sermons, 

 addresses, and orations, at the earnest solici- 

 tation of his people. He received the degree 

 of D. D. from Harvard University in 1843. 

 He was eminent for his devotion to pastoral 

 duty, and was foremost in all the benevolent 

 and religious enterprises of the day. No man 

 was more highly respected or more tenderly 

 loved, and he passed through life with appar- 

 ent pleasure in doing good and aiding the dis- 

 tressed. As a deep thinker and a conscien- 

 tious theologian, Dr. Gannett had few equals, 

 and his reputation will long survive him. 



GASPAPJN, AGENOK ETIENNE, Count DE, 

 a French statesman, philanthropist, and au- 

 thor, born at Orange (Vaucluse), France, July 

 10, 1810; died at Geneva, Canton de Vaud, 

 Switzerland, May 14, 1871. He was the son 

 of Count Adrien de Gasparin, a Minister of 

 the Interior, in Guizot's Cabinet, under Louis 

 Philippe. He was educated at Paris, graduat- 

 ing in 1830, and was soon after assigned the 

 position of Master of Bequests to the Council 

 of State by his father. While in this position 

 he had occasion to investigate the subject of 

 slavery and the slave-trade, and, alike from 



conviction and from motives of philanthropy, 

 he ranged himself promptly with the advocates 

 of emancipation and the enemies of the traffic. 

 He seconded warmly and efficiently the efforts 

 of the Duke de Broglie to abolish the slave- 

 trade, and to emancipate the slaves in the 

 colonies, and in 1838 published an able and 

 eloquent treatise on the subject. In 1842 M. 

 de Gasparin was elected a member of the 

 Chamber of Deputies, as representative of 

 Bastia, Corsica. Speedily he became famous 

 for his eloquent and vigorous speeches on all 

 subjects affecting human liberty. He labored 

 especially to remove certain legal obstructions 

 in the way of the freedom of the Protestant 

 churches, and to secure parliamentary reform. 

 His independence did not please the Govern^ 

 ment, neither were his Protestant convictions 

 relished in Corsica, and in his candidature at 

 Bastia, in 1846, he was defeated. From this 

 time he abandoned political life, but did not 

 cease to labor for all those causes which he 

 believed would benefit humanity, and was 

 especially occupied for some years with the 

 effort to increase the efficiency and spirituality 

 of the French Protestant or Eeformed Church. 

 Finding the rationalistic tendencies predomi- 

 nating in it, he withdrew from its communion 

 in 1847, and united with the Free Church. 

 He made an extensive tour in Egypt and the 

 East in 1847-'48, and did not hear of the Revo- 

 lution of February, 1848, until some months 

 after its occurrence. He sent forward his 

 protest against the overtures made to him to 

 cooperate under the new constitution of France. 

 When he returned to Europe the policy of 

 Louis Napoleon began to be developed, and he 

 with great sorrow decided not to reenter 

 France, but established himself in the Canton 

 de Vaud, Switzerland, where he had ever since 

 resided. Here, with his accomplished and ex- 

 cellent countess,' he busied himself in pursuits 

 of literature, religion, and philanthropy, tak- 

 ing a deep interest in all matters which con- 

 cerned the improvement of mankind. He 

 was accustomed to pass the winter near Ge- 

 neva, and to hold, at the request of his friends, 

 a series of conferences each year. At these, 

 which were largely attended, he discussed, with 

 great eloquence and fulness of knowledge, a 

 variety of topics, historical, ethical, philosophi- 

 cal, politico-economical, and religious. Most 

 of these discussions have been published. He 

 was greatly distressed on account of the Fran- 

 co-German War, and the dismemberment of 

 France, and when, at its close, Bourbaki's 

 army was driven into Switzerland, he received 



