with whom we were at war, were held up as professors of atheism; it was right that England should make open profession of her belief in God. The death-bed of Mr Brown was cheered by the confidence he felt that his mantle would fall on worthy shoulders. We have already mentioned the name of Claudius Buchanan; and to show that religious biography has its romance no less than military or naval, did space permit, we would fain extract an account of this excellent man from the animated pages of Mr Kaye.

The highly effective picture of Buchanan is followed by a portrait of Henry Martyn, whom the author lovingly compares to Francis Zavier, without his visionary excitement; and when the bead-roll of names is called over, in which Brown, Buchanan, Martyn, Corrie, and Thomason, head the list, there is no further ground for fear or uncertainty. The champions are in the field, and victory is assured. Nor is a less honourable status awarded to the Baptist missionaries of Serampore, but rather are their struggles, their quarrels, and even their darker deficiencies, dwelt upon with a complacent consciousness that they were free from Episcopal authority, and unencumbered with a sufficient income to keep them from the drudgeries of labour or the trickeries of trade. "That awkward circumstance in the lives of the chaplains of Bengal," exclaims Mr Kaye in triumph,the salary of one thousand a-year, did not stand in the way of the struggling Baptist." A man of the scholarly fame and Christian graces of Mr Carey deserved a nobler introduction than a sneer at the superior worldly advantages of the Company's clergy; and last man in the world to grudge to Henry Martyn or Claudius Buchanan the competence which left them undisturbed by the trials of poverty, would have been William Carey himself. The array, however, was become full from all quarters. The Danish settlement at Serampore afforded safety, if not wealth, to the noble band who had proceeded to India as missionaries, independent of the Indian Government. While Carey was preaching in the highways and streets, Ward

VOL. LXXXV.-YIL

and Marshman, worthy coadjutors in so lofty a task, translated the New Testament into Bengalee; "and on the 18th of May 1800, to the inexpressible delight of the whole party, the first sheet was struck off in a clear legible type."

:

Warming with the success of the holy labourers at Serampore, Mr Kaye cannot restrain his joy at the feelings of Christian brotherhood evoked by Carey's fame. "Lord Wellesley's magnificent design of a college in Fort-William, for the education of the younger branches of the Company's service, had been inaugurated, and a staff of learned professors and teachers appointed to give practical effect to the scheme. At the head of this staff were the heads of the English Church in Calcutta, David Brown and Claudius Buchanan. There was no sectarianism in those days among the English in India and neither did the Governor-General look askance at learning and merit in a dissenting guise, nor did the English churchman of the Establishment refuse to be associated in this and other enterprises with pious men of different denominations. It was enough for them that Mr Carey was a learned man, of a blameless way of life. So, on the recommendation of Mr Brown, he was appointed teacher of Bengalee at the college of Fort-William, on a salary of six hundred a-year." Evil days, however, were at hand, when the effects of the mutiny of Vellore were ascertained. Whether from a fear of the destruction of caste, or anger at a change of uniform, or insults offered to their superstitions by the less politic of the missionaries, or a combination of all these causes, the Government was thoroughly alarmed. It would not be answerable for the conduct of any promulgators of Christianity, unless they were officially under their control. They therefore objected to the settlement of persons devoting themselves to the work of proselytising without a special licence from the authorities; and as the appearance of religious liberty was on the side of the unauthorised professors of the Gospel, the struggle bitter and long. The Company

pore were confined to the limits of that foreign settlement;-a fresh batch of Baptist missionaries was refused permission to land-and the Court of Directors at home, in explanation of these proceedings, published a despatch in 1808, maintaining their unaltered anxiety for the dissemination of Christianity. "But we have a fixed and settled opinion," they added, "that nothing could be more unwise and impolitic-nothing even more likely to frustrate the hopes and endeavours of those who aim at the very object-the introduction of Christianity among the native inhabitants-than any imprudent or injudicious attempt to introduce it by means which should irritate and alarm their religious prejudices." Against these and similar warnings Mr Kaye thinks it his duty to protest, in as far as they profess to be justified by the proceedings of the missionaries of Serampore. He differs from the Indian Government and most of the Indian authorities, and maintains that their conduct was not only very creditable, but "very surprising, considering the circumstances in which they were placed.”

In the year 1813 the struggle between the timid adherents of a negative policy in Church affairs in the East, and the bolder advocates of a deliberate and open declaration of Christianity in the sight of all the heathen, came to the happy compromise of the establishment of a bishop in Bengal.

The debates in Parliament were protracted and severe, prognostics of evil and prophecies of good were freely indulged in on the opposite side, and as the majority for the episcopate was very slender, the Ministry were anxious to soothe the apprehensions of the opponents of the measure by the appointment of a "safe man," and Thomas Fanshawe Middleton was the person selected for the Indian mitre. Claudius Buchanan was at this time at home, and, if his health had been good, would have been designated as a fitter holder of the position by the more enthusiastic portion of the religious world; but he was supposed, whether rightly or wrongly, to be wanting in judgment and discretion;

and when that zealous and laborious missionary was removed by death, at the very time when the new prelate took his departure from England, no farther objection was made to the nomination of the Board of Control. But Bishop Middleton is not so lucky in escaping the denunciations of his present historian. He had the misfortune to be one of the greatest Greek scholars in England, and to be patronised on account of his literary talents by the powerful family of the Pretymans. The iniquities of the Greek Article, and the pluralism heaped on him by his patrons, find little mercy at the hands of Mr Kaye. A friendly critic might have considered that the sacrifice of his classical position and his ecclesiastical offices was a proof of conscientious earnestness in the cause of the Gospel. The dignified incumbency of St Pancras, and the repose of a prebendal stall in Lincoln, were a great price to pay for the privilege of suffering, labouring, and dying in the hot climate of Bengal, with no friends to share or appreciate his scholarly refinement, and evil construction to be put on all his acts. His griefs and perplexities are somewhat triumphantly dwelt on. When he is suffering from one of the effects of the climate, which is known by the name of the prickly heat—and "describes it as having ignited his whole frame, and rendered him little qualified for anything that requires attention "--we are complacently told "that there was something that irritated him even worse than the prickly heat, and that was-Dr Bryce, the Presbyterian chaplain." This excellent and zealous Presbyterian seems, indeed, to have been an incarnation of the prickly heat from which his countrymen suffer, and to have spread the infection wherever he came. He first applied for the alternate use of the cathedral for his Sunday ministrations; he then got the use of the College Hall; and having denounced Episcopalianism, with all its lordly pretensions, he published his discourse as a sermon at the opening of the Church of Calcutta. And to crown the whole, when the first stone of St Andrew's Church was laid with great national demonstrations and masonic

ceremonials, Bishop Middleton was invited to attend. Bishop Middleton did not accept the invitation, but he proceeded on a tour throughout his diocese. His first journey was from Calcutta to Madras. Many things occurred to vex him. His official authority over the chaplains was denied, for they claimed their position as servants of the Company, and not parochial clergy;-differences between Christian sects were protruded prominently in the eyes of the heathen by the vulgar jealousies excited by his ecclesiastical rank; and the Caledonian prickliness of Dr Bryce was still beyond the reach of brimstone. "But there was consolation and encouragement," says Mr Kaye with scornful pity, "in one circumstance that greeted his arrival at Madras. There was a splendid new church to be consecrated." A letter from the bishop is quoted, in which he gives an account of the solemnity and beauty of St George's. "The whole," he says, "conveys a magnificent idea of Christianity in the East." Bishop Middleton, in fact, took up the idea that the surest method of strengthening the Christian cause in India was to make it something venerable and dignified in the people's eyes. It is with this view he relates with such enjoyment not only the growing influence of religion among the English, proved by the confirmation of upwards of three hundred on this occasion, but the deputation he received from the Armenian nation, and the visit paid to him by the Nabob of the Carnatic, on which occasion the guns were fired from the fort. In the same spirit he desired throughout his diocese a certain regularity in ecclesiastical buildings, a decent solemnity, and as much uniformity as possible in the services of the church;-not that he was not as well aware as the bitterest of his traducers that God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, but that he might fulfil the purpose of his acceptance of rank by a display of Christianity in its national and external development; that the Hindoo in his temple, the Mohammedan in his mosque, might feel the Christian also has his holy

ground, the majesty of England suffers no degradation by being prostrated at the foot of the Cross. Bishop Middleton was selected because he was a "safe" man; he is now run down for keeping within the bounds beyond which the native suspicions might have been excited. And after many pages of depreciating remark, this truth seems to dawn upon Mr Kaye himself. In the course of those pages we see that the zeal of the calumniated bishop was rewarded by the building of many churches in all parts of India, by the improvement perceptible in public morals, and by the foundation of the Mission College in Calcutta, one of the noblest movements of the awakened interest of the English public in the conversion of their Indian subjects. But no allowance is made for the wearing effects of labour and responsibility. Illness, incapacity, and finally death, are attributed to disgust at the success of the Serampore mission, which consisted of Dissenters, at the intention at that time entertained of lowering his official rank beneath that of the chief justices of the three Presidencies, and at the unrestrained licentiousness of the Indian press.

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Puseyism and Tractarianism," says Mr Kaye, "were not known by those names when Bishop Middleton went out to India; but he was of the number of those who esteem the Church before the Gospel, who have an overflowing faith in the efficacy of certain forms of brick-and-mortar, and who believe that a peculiar odour of sanctity ascends from prayers offered up in an edifice constructed with due regard to the points of the compass. No man could have had a higher sense of the external importance of his office, or stickled more rigidly for the due observance of the ceremonials which he conceived to belong to it. He had a decided taste for military salutes, and struggled manfully for social precedence. In all this he was sincere. He wrought in accordance with his genuine convictions. It was not personal vanity that inflated him, himself was not dominant over all. But he had an overweening sense of the dignity and import

ance of his office. He believed that it was his first duty to suffer nothing to lower the standard of episcopal authority, or to obscure its exterior glories. His zeal as a bishop shot ever in advance of his fervour as a Christian. This peculiarity was not without its uses. The externals of religion had been too much neglected in India. It was desirable that something more of dignity should be imparted to the priestly character. Lord Wellesley was described by Sir James Mackintosh as a sultanised Anglo-Indian; Bishop Middleton would have sultanised the Episcopal office. He was not without a motive, and a good one, in this. He was an able and an active labourer in his way, blameless in the relations of private life, and as a man to be greatly respected." This is a small proportion of the bread of praise to the unconscionable quantity of the sack of vituperation; but the invidious comparison between the first Bishop of Calcutta and the last, with which the paragraph closes, is still worse. We can conceive nothing that would have been more painful to the humble and generous mind of Bishop Daniel Wilson than the strife his partisans maintain, of which was the greatest, he or his earliest predecessor. One was perhaps only the fitting supplement to the other. The church-building, status - vindicating bishop, made it easier for his successor to combine the loftiness of Episcopal rank with the warmth of missionary zeal; but the mere fact of a comparison being instituted between the two, proves that, even in the opinion of the Wilsonites, the learned bishop was not unmindful of souls; and of the Middletonians, that the later prelate was not unmindful of the dignity of his rank, or the ceremonial distinctions of his Church.

The short and beautiful episcopate of Reginald Heber we can pass over at less length, because the captivating character of that most Christian of gentlemen has attracted an amount of attention to the scene of his labours which the mere progress of Christianity would not have done. His experience is strongly confirmatory of that of Middleton, that the open

profession of our faith, and the official rank assigned to our bishops, are viewed as individual and justifiable methods of diffusing our religion, but that any government interference would be received in a very different spirit." Of the jealousy of the natives," Heber writes on his first visitation in 1824, "I have neither heard nor seen any indications.

The very small degree of attention which I have excited has been apparently that of curiosity only. The King of Oude and his court expressed a wish to be present at the Resident's marriage, pretty much as they might have done had it been a puppet-show; and as his majesty is said to be curious in costumes, I suspect that the novelty of my lawn sleeves may have in part induced him to honour me by asking for my picture. From the Brahmins and Fakirs of both religions I have had pretty frequent visits. Some of the Mussulmans have affected to treat me as of nearly the same faith with themselves, and to call me their ecclesiastical superior as well as of the Christians; but these compliments have generally concluded with a modest statement (like that of Sterne's Franciscan) of the poverty of their order. A rupee or two, with a request that they would remember me in their prayers, I have found on such occasions extremely well taken, and it has been, I hope, no compromise of my religious opinions." A stronger accusation may even now, in all likelihood, be brought against the caution he showed in his intercourse not only with Mohammedans and Hindoos, but with the native converts. At Meerut he is requested by the excellent missionary chaplain, Mr Fisher, to baptise one of these who was anxious for the rite, "but in consequence, says the bishop, "of the rule which I have laid down not to become needlessly conspicuous in the pursuit of objects which are not my immediate concern, I declined. For the same reason I have abstained from distributing tracts, or acting in any way which might excite the jealousy of those whom it is on all accounts desirable to conciliate. The work of conversion is, I think,

silently going on; but those who wish it best will be most ready to say, Festina lente." What might have been the result of a different policy we learn from the almost prophetical observations of the bishop on the population of Upper India. "They are a proud and irritable people; as yet, I apprehend, by no means thoroughly reconciled to the English or their government; not unlikely to draw the sabre against any one who should offend their prejudices; and though caring little for religion itself, extremely likely to adopt the name of religion as a cockade, if induced by other and less ostensible motives to take up arms against their masters. Under such circumstances Government certainly act most wisely in a careful abstinence from all show of interference; and it is still more fortunate that the inhabitants of these (the North-western Provinces) have not at present the remotest suspicion that any such interference is contemplated."

The same clearness of vision and tenderness of heart are manifest in all Bishop Heber's ways. On the great question of the recognition of caste among the converts, he decided in favour of this concession to the Hindoo prejudices, having ascertained that even among themselves it was considered not a religious but a social distinction. It was like the "blood," he considered, of the European nations, the family pride of the Spaniard, the titles of the English. On this and other points the new missionaries had declared themselves against the old; the Baptists at Serampore had split into two camps; differences were growing everywhere into animosities; and Heber's object was to prevent an unseemly disunion in the Church over which he presided, on a question in which he did not think the essentials of Christianity were concerned. His judgment, however, in this case, has been overruled by his successor, Bishop Wilson, and we trust it has not been found an additional impediment to the propagation of the faith.

The episcopate of Daniel Wilson is the longest in Indian annals, extending from 1832 to 1858; and besides

this, he is memorable as being the first who was raised to the metropolitan dignity with two suffragans, the Bishops of Madras and Bombay. The deaths in rapid succession of the two bishops appointed after Heber, persuaded the public that the Episcopal superintendence of all the Presidencies was too much for one man's strength; and when his labours were thus lightened by the co-operation of such men as Corrie and Dealtry at Madras, and Spencer and Carr at Bombay, the energies of the new bishop were called forth at once. We must refer to the volume itself for the loving minuteness with which his acts and aspirations are described. It will be sufficient to record the successful efforts made in his time to dissociate the servants of the Company, as far as possible, from the observances of the heathen superstitions. Juggernaut's car was robbed of its victims, the pilgrim-tax was abolished, and Government absolved from all connection with the management of funds assigned for the support of the religious institutions of India. The attendance of British officers at Hindoo festivals was countermanded; troops were not to turn out, nor salutes to be fired in honour of idolatrous processions. But with a caution characteristic of "the hereditary policy," these changes were to be effected "in a manner calculated not to alarm the minds of the natives, or offend their feelings." This regard for the ignorant prejudices but warm attachments of the Hindoos is, indeed, the marking feature of all who have thought and laboured for the welfare of India. No one can accuse Corrie or Thomason of lukewarmness in the cause either of philanthropy or religion; yet they both were actuated throughout their career by the spirit of Heber's quotation, "Slow and sure." "In the Chinsurah schools," says Mr Thomason, "the Scripture has not been introduced. They are schools for knowledge, not for religion. I apprehend these gentle expedients are the best." Honest expedients also, as maintained by Mr Kaye, are the surest. When the tide of opposition to idols was at the highest, there were outer and long for the