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[beginning of page 1 of the original manuscript]
Anglo-Chinese College
Deed.
I, Robert Morrison, D. D. of the University of Glasgow, having been sent to China in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seven, by a Society of Christians, meeting in London, and composed of members of various British Churches, for the purpose of learning the Chinese language, rendering the Sacred Scriptures into the said tongue, and composing an English-Chinese Dictionary, with the ulterior view of the diffusion of the Christian Religion in China, and the Extra-Ganges nations; and having, in the year 1818, nearly brought these several works to a conclusion, my mind was led to pray to God for direction, and to meditate on what farther means could be used to bring about the final object of my Mission.
The Divine Providence having increased my personal property in a small degree, I determined to appropriate One Thousand Pounds sterling to found a College, to be called the Anglo-Chinese College, the object of which should be the cultivation of English and Chinese literature, in order to the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As the above preamble shows, the cultivation of literature is not to be considered the final object of the Institution, but attended to as a means of effectuating, under the blessing of God's Holy Spirit, the conversion to the faith of Christ of the Extra-Ganges nations, who read or speak the Chinese language; so, on the other hand, the College must never be considered as a mere dwelling-house for Christian missionaries, but as a place devoted to study, with apartments only for the Principal of College, and such other persons engaged in tuition, or the appropriate studies of the College, as it can accommodate with rooms.
Having entrusted the building of the College to the Rev. William Milne, my first associate in the Chinese Mission, and we, unitedly, having laid our views and wishes before the public, soliciting their pecuniary aid, and they
[end of page 1 of the original manuscript]
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