tihxary of Che theological ^emmarjp PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Mr, Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia^ Pa, BV"3269 .Al M37 1859 v. 2 Marshman, John Clark, 1794- 1877. The life and times of Carey Marshman. and Ward THE LIFE AND TIMES CAEEY, MAESHMAN, AND WAED. VOL. II. LONDON iTiINTED BT Sl'OTTISWOODE AND CO. m.W-STBEET SQUAKK. THE LIFE AND TIMES CAREY, MARSHMAN, AND WARD, EMBRACING THE HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. JOHN CLAHK MARSHMAN. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON LONGMAN, BEOWN, GEEEN, LONGMANS, & EOBEETS. 1859 CONTENTS THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER X. Page Renewal of the East India Company's Charter - - 1 State of Parties ------ 3 Mr. Fuller's Interview with the President of the Board of Control ----- » 4 Mr. Fuller's interview with Lord Liverpool and Lord Castlereagh ------ 5 Lord Castlereagh introduces the Measure without any- Missionary Clause - - - - - 8 Exertions of the Missionary Bodies - - - 10 Evidence of Warren Hastings - - - - 12 Of Lord Teignmoutli - - - - - 14 OfMr. Cowper - - - - - - 16 Of Mr. Graham - - - - - - 18 Close of the Missionary Examinations - - - 19 Evidence of Sir Thomas Munro - - - 20 Influx of Petitions, and their Effect - - - 21 Mr. Wilberforce's Speech - - - - 23 Majority of fifty-three in favour of Missions - - 29 Mr. Charles Marsh's Speech - - - - 31 Mr. Wilbei'force's Rejoinder - - - - 37 Subsequent Debates and final Triumph of the Missionary Cause - - - - - -41 Progress of the Bill in the House of Lords - - 42 Lord Wellesley's Panegyric on the Serampore Missionaries 43 Change of Policy ci-eated by the Bill - - - 44 A 4 VI CONTENTS OF 1813. Review of the old Policy - - - - _ Opposition of the East India Company to the Innovation - Explanation of the Views of Indian Statesmen on the old Policy -.__._ The Charter the Commencement of the New Era Episcopal Establishment for India - _ . Appropriation of Funds for Education - - . CHAPTER XL Mission to Sirdhana — Begum Suraroo - - _ Mission to Burraah — American Missionaries Missionary Movement in the Baptist Denomination in America ------ Burmese Mission transferred to the Baptist Convention - Roman Catholic Missions to the Eastward Movable metallic Cliinese Types - - - - Close of Lord Minto's Administration, and its Character - Lord Moira's Administration — American Missionaries at Bombay .-_--_ Tlie Order regarding the Missionaries respited Mr. Fuller's Letter to Lord Moira _ . - Java Mission — Mission to Amboyna - - . Missionary Progress at the Stations - - . Change in the Constitution of the Society in England Views of Public Men on Education in India in 1793 1814. Educational Plans of Dr. Marshman . - - Educational Despatch of the Court of Directors - Death of Mr. Sutcliff ----- Mr. E. Carey and ]Mr. Yates - - _ - Dr. Marsliman's Clavis Sinica _ - - - Mr. Chamberlain at Delhi and Sirdhana — His second Ex- pulsion ------ The Bishop of Calcutta ----- Mr. Fuller's Correspondence - - - - 1815. Report of the Mission at the Beginning of 1815 - Death of Mr. Fuller - ... - His Connection with Serampore - . - . The Serampore Missionaries modify their Plans - Dr. Buchanan's Address to the Church Missionaries Missionary Changes in India - - . - Lord Moira's Visit to Serampore - - - - Restoration of the Settlement of Serampore THE SECOND VOLUME. Vll CHAPTER Xir. Page 1815. Liberal Policy of Lord Hastings - - - - 116 1816. Establishment of the Hindoo College - - - 118 "Hints" for native Scliools — the Serampore System of Schools - - - - - - 119 In what Language and by what Means Education was to be given - - - - - -122 Details and Expense of the System - _ . 124 Progress of the Schools - - - - - 126 Rammohum Roy, the great Reformer - - - 127 Death of Mr. Forsyth — Arrival of Mr. Townley — Bow Bazar Chapel - - - - - ].30 Chittagong Mission — Benevolent Institution - - 1 32 Benevolent Institution — Mr, Penney - - - 133 Differences with the Baptist Missionary Society - - 134 Dr. Ry land's Letters to Serampore — Demands of the Society - - - - - - 136 Anxiety produced at Serampore by them — Arrival of JVTr. W. Pearce. - - - - - - 140 1817. Mr. Ward's Letter to his Colleagues - - - 142 Reply to the Society's Demands - - - - 143 The Question of the Premises - - _ - 145 Remark on the Differences - - - - 147 Explanation regarding the Premises - - - 149 Appropriation of Tenths — Sir Fi-ancis Macnaghten — Lieut. Gavin Young - - - - -151 Missionary Movements — Death of Mr. Debruyn - - 153 Calcutta School-Book Society — Lord Hastings' memo- rable Declaration - - - - - 155 Progress of the Native Scliools - - - _ 157 Review of the Mission - - - - - 158 1818. Mr. Ward's Visit to Chittagong — Mr. F. Carey - - 159 The Sumachar Durpun, the First Bengalee Newspaper - 161 " The Friend of India." - - - - - 164 The Calcutta Missionaries - - - - 165 CHAPTER XIII. Serampore College - - - - - 168 Oriental Cast of the Institution - - - -171 Opinion of Lord Hastings, and of Sir John Malcolm - 173 Official Replies from the Society - - - - 175 Private Letter from Mr. Dyer to Dr. Carey, and his Reply 178 Vlll CONTENTS OF Page 1818. Schools in Raj pootana ----- 181 Lord Hastings takes off the Censorship of the Press - 183 Address from Madras - - - - - 184 Mission to Bencoolen - - - - - 186 Mr. Ward's Visit to England — His Letters during the Voyage ------ 187 State of the Baptist Missionary Society - - - 189 Mr. Ward's Anxiety for a New Settlement at Serampore - 190 Mr. Ward finds England filled with Calumnies against Serampore - - - - - -192 Dr. Ryland's prejudices against Dr. Marshman — Dr Marshman's Letters - - - - - 194 Ml. Ward's Reception in England - - -196 His Address on the College. - - - - 197 Mr. AVard's Labours in England - - - - 199 Purchase of Land at Serampore - - - - 200 First Report of the College — Modifications — Lord Hast- ings' Letter ------ 201 1819. Head-quarters of the Society removed to London - - 203 Resolutions of the Committee _ - - - 204 Resolutions at Serampore ----- 205 Completion of the New Settlement desired by Mr. AVard - 207 Mr. Ward's Description of the Feelings and Views of the Committee ------ 209 Remarks on the Subject - - - - -212 Vindication of their Conduct by the Serampore Missionaries 214 The Vindication suppressed - - - - 217 Mrs. Marshman visits England - • - - 217 Dr. Marshman's Correspondence - - - - 218 Mr. Ward's Visit to Holland - - - - 220 Mr. Ward's Visit to America - - - - 220 CHAPTER XIV. 1 820. Savings Bank — Steam-engine - - - - 223 Reconciliation Meeting — Claim of Mr. Adam - - 225 Formation of the Agricultural Society - - - 227 Quarterly "Friend of India" — Suttees - - - 229 1821. Dr. Carey's Illness — Letter from the King of Denmark — Visit of Serfoojee - - - - -231 Death of Mrs. Carey - - - - - 233 Serampore College — Bishop's College - - _ 234 Buildings of Serampore College - - - - 235 Discussions with Ramraohun Roy - - - 238 Brujumohun's Pamphlet — The Chundrika - - 239 THE SECOND VOLUME. IX rage 1821. Letter from the Committee of the Society, and the Reply from Serampore - - - - - 241 British India Society in London - - - - 242 Mr. Ward prepares to return to India — Mr. Mack - 243 Mr. Ward's Farewell Letters .... 245 Mr. Ward's Labours at Serampore — Government Sanscrit College - - - - - - 248 1822. Death of Mrs. Williarap Dr. Marshman's Correspon- / dence .--.__ 250 / Dr. Marshman's Labours — Completion of the Chinese Bible 252 ( Dr. Carey's third Marriage , . - . 254 Progress of the Translations _ . . _ 254 Mr. Hey of Leeds — Versions of the New Testament - 255 Pecuniary Embarrassment at Serampore - - - 258 Mr. Mack's Labours — Bengalee Map - - . 260 Application for Aid to Government - - - 261 Rnjpootana Schools — Introduction of the Bible - - 262 Mortality of 1822— Death of Mr. Chamberlain, Krishnu- Pall, Mr. F. Carey, the Bishop, and the Archdeacon - 265 Mr. Marshman's Visit to England, and Conference with the Committee of the Society _ - . _ 267 Close and Character of Lord Hastings' Administration — Native Address - _ . . . 269 1823. Mr. Canning — Lord Amherst — Missionary Deputation - 272 Court of Directors and the Press in India - - 273 Mr. Adam extinguishes the Liberty of the Press — Mr. Buckingham ------ 274 New Press Law ------ 276 Death and Character of IMr. Ward - - - 278 Effect of Mr. Ward's Death on Dr. Marshman - - 280 CHAPTER XV. First Committee of Public Instruction ... - 284 Other liberal Measures of Mr. Adam — His Death - 285 Lord Amherst lands in Calcutta and persecutes the Press 286 Dr. Carey's literary Labours and literary Honours - 287 Dr. Carey's alarming Illness _ - - - 288 The great Inundation ----- 289 Society's Donation to the Stations — American Funds - 290 1824. Bishop Heber - - - - - - 291 Bible Society's Vote for New Testament - - - 294 The Abbe Dubois - - - - - 294 Death of Mr. Charles Grant . - - - 295 X CONTENTS OF Page 1824. Burmese War - - - - - - 296 Transfer of Schools to the College - - - 297 College Report of 1824 - - - - - 298 Death of Mr. Bentley - - - - - 299 Death of Dr. Ryland - - - - - 300 Dr. Carey's Bengalee Dictionary - - - - 301 1825. The Study of Oriental Languages in England - - 301 Female Schools at Serampore - - - - 303 Request to the Society for a second Grant for the Stations 303 Plan of associating the Stations with the College - - 305 Dr. Marshman detei'mines to visit England - - 306 The Society's Reply to the request of a second Donation - 307 1826. Effect on Dr. Carey — He resolves to quit Serampore - 309 Answer to the Society's Letter - - - - 310 Dr. Marsliman's Arrival in England - - - 311 Present at the Society's annual Meeting - - - 312 He visits Robert Hall and Hannah More - - - 314 Visit to Mr. Gutteridge - - - - - 315 First Meeting with the Committee - - - 316 Visits Edinburgh, Liverpool, and Birmingham - - 317 Second Meeting with the Committee, its satisfactory Result 318 Meeting with the Bible and Tract Societies - - 321 Proceeds to Denmark for a Charter for the College - 321 Professor Raske and Chevalier Abrahamson - - 323 Interview with the King and Prince Christian - - 324 The College Charter - - - - - 325 Visits Hamburgh, Holland, and Paris - _ - 326 Receives gloomy Letters from Lidia _ - _ 327 Resultless Meeting with the Committee - - - 329 Visits Mr. Simeon, the Poet Montgomery, Leeds, and Bristol - - - - - - 330 Three Tours in Scotland collecting for the Society - 332 Visits Walter Scott, Jeffery, and others, in Edinburgh - 333 Prepares for the Meeting with the Committee - - 335 1827. Meeting with the Committee, 15th of March - - 337 Resolutions proposed by Mr. Dyer _ _ . 339 Adjourned meeting of the 16th of March - - - 341 Modified Proposal of Mr. Dyer - - - - 342 Meeting with the Sub-committee the 17th March — Sepa- ration - - - - - - 343 Reflections -.-_.. 345 Robert Hall's Letter - - - - - 349 THE SECOND VOLUME. XI chaptp:r XVI. I'.ige 1826. Death of Bishop Heher - - - - .352 Missionary Movements ----- 353 Government Subscription to the Benevolent Institution - 355 Lord Amherst and the Press . - . - 355 Regulation of Suttees ----- 357 1827. Dr. Marshman's Intercourse with Mr. Pratt and Mr. Wil- berforce --_... 359 Visit to Dublin ------ 359 Dr. Marshman's Movements in England - - - 361 Conference with Mr. Foster . - . . 363 Visits the North of England and Scotland - - 364 Society's adverse Statement, and Dr. Marshman's Reply - 365 Dr. Marshman's Appendix — Storm of Calumny lasts four Years - - - - - - 369 Effect of these Calumnies on the Public - - - 372 Letter from Serampore to the Committee after the Rupture 373 1828. State of public Feeling in England in 1828 - - 375 I Dr. Marshman's Defence ----- 377 ' Effect of these Publications - . . . 330 Mr. Eustace Carey's Pamphlet - - - - 381 Mr. Foster's Letter on Dr. Marshman's unguarded Expres- sion ------- 383 Dr. Carey's Explanation of it, and Remarks - - 384 Effects of these Attacks — Dr. Carey's Letters - - 385 Dr. Marshman pressed to Reply — His Difficulties - 387 Dr. Marshman returns to India discomfited - - 388 Lord Amherst's Departure - - - - 389 Missionary Proceedings - - - - - 391 College Report ------ 393 Mr. Eustace Carey's Pamphlet reaches Serampore - 394 Dr. Carey proposes to anticipate the Termination of their Commercial Union ----- 395 Dr. Marshman lands in India - - . - 395 1829. Vigorous Prosecution of their Labours in India - - 397 Abolition of Suttees — State of the Question in India and in England - - - - - - 399 Lord William Bentinck consults the Civil and Military Officers — The Result - - - - 401 Information contained in the Communications made to the Governor-General ----- 404 Opinions for and against Abolition - - _ 405 Sir William Macnaghten's Opinion - . - 406 Obstacles arising from the Half Batta Order - - 409 Xll CONTENTS OF Page 1829. Fresh Obstacle from the Act of Parliament - - 410 Act for the Prohibition of Suttees .. , . 412 Effect of the Abolition in Native Circles - - - 413 Struggles between the Native Advocates and Opponents of Abolition - - - - - -415 Formation of the Dhurma Subha - - - _ 4I6 Result of the Act of Abolition - - - - 417 Memorial to the King, and its Failure - _ - 418 CHAPTER XVII. Failure of Palmer and Co. — its disastrous Effects - - 420 1830. Detention of the College Dividends in America - - 421 Reduction of Dr. Carey's Income - - » - 423 Appeal of the Missionaries to England - . ~ 424 Pamphlets in Vindication of Serampore - - - 426 Effect of the Pamphlets in England - - - 428 Proposal of Arbitration ----- 430 Remarks on the Transaction . _ ^ _ 433 Tvpo Pamphlets on the Part of the Society - - 435 Dr. Marshman quits the Premises - - - - 437 New Trust Deed - - - - - 438 Discussions on the Word " Baptizo " - - _ 440 Animadversions on the Translations _ . _ 445 Missionary Labours at Serampore . . - 447 Schools and the College ----- 449 1831. Detention of the College Dividends by Mr. Dyer - - 451 Administrative Reform of Lord William Bentinck - 453 Dr. Carey on the Hindoo Law of Inheritance - - 456 1832. Enlargement of the Serampore Mission - - - 458 Efficiency of the Missionary Committee at Serampore - 459 Mr. Foster's Letter . . - . - 460 College Address ------ 462 Fall of the great Firms - - - - - 464 1833. Disastrous Effect on the Mission - - - - 465 Second Appeal to England _ - _ - 457 Death of Mrs. More and Mr. Wilberforce - - 468 Mr. Charles Grant's Despatch on the Shrines of Idolatry 469 The New Charter. . . - - . 470 CHAPTER XVin. 1 834. Dr. Marshman's Depression of Spirits - - . 473 Dr. Carey's Illness and Death - - - - 475 THE SECOND VOLUME. Xlll Page 1834. Character of Dr. Carey - - - - - 477 Tributes of Kespect from various Societies - - 480 Effect of Dr. Carey's Death on Dr. Marshman - - 482 State of Feeling towards the Mission in England - - 483 The Mission and the College _ .. - - 484 Dr. Marshman interests himself in the Abolition of the Sugar Duties . . . _ - 485 1835. Renewed pecuniary Difficulties - - - - 487 " The Friend of India " - - - - - 487 Struggle between English and Oriental Literature - 488 Gradual Progress of English _ - - - 490 Decision of the Supreme Council on the Question - 490 Establishment of the Medical College ... 492 Close and Character of Lord W. Bentinck's Administration 492 Addresses to Lord William Bentinck - - - 493 1836. Sir Charles Metcalfe and the Liberty of the Press - 495 Establishment of Serampore Hospital - - - 495 Translations — the Kunkun Version . - - 496 Chinese Printing . - _ _ - 498 Government Connection with the Shrines of Idolatry - 498 Views of the Missionaries on English Education - - 501 Mr. Mack's Visit to Assam . - - - 502 Mr. Mack's Illness - - - - - 503 Third Centenary of the Reformation in Denmark - - 504 Dr. Marshman's Debility ----- 504 Danger of Mrs. Havelock, and its Effects on Dr. Marshman 505 Approaching Dissolution of the Mission - - - 506 The Mission attacked in the Calcutta Journals - - 507 Formation of a General Society at Liverpool in aid of Serampore ------ 508 Suggestion of Reunion with the Society - - - 509 Death of Mr. Hope - - - - - 510 Proposal for Reunion with the Society made and accepted 511 1837. Death of Dr. Marshman - - - - - 514 Character of Dr. Marshman - - - - 518 Remarks on the Serampore Mission - „ - 520 Final Notices of Serampore _ . - - 523 Letter of Mr. Foster ----- 525 Closing Events ------ 526 P:RRATA— Vol. I. Page 16, side note, for " 1793," read " 1792." 37, line 23, for " liouse," read " House." 39, line 1, for "its" read "tlieir " 72, line 9 from bottom, for "Indian " read "India" 119, line 19, for " has" read "have " 144, line 20, for " wore " read " was " 1.57, side note, for " Kalec Ghat" read " Gunga Saugor ' 175, line 6, for " came " read " come " 193, side note, for "plans" read " plan " 200, line 8, for " applanses " read " applause " 212, line 18, for " for " read " in " 214, line 21, for " communicated " read " communed " 226, line 25, for " Rayust " read "Kayust " 233, line 9, dele " the " at end of line 286, line 13, after " Wcllcslej " insert "had " 289, last line but one, for "attend " read " attended " 292, line 5, read "the evangelisation " 294, line 7, for "incompatible" read " compatible" 341, line 9 from bottom, for "affect " read " effect " 368, line 3, for "invisibility " read " visibility " 371, line 9 from bottom, for "crimininal" read " criminal' 392, line 6 from bottom, before "the " insert "of" 422, line 22, for " Hence, in " read " Hence, on " 466, line 20, for " throughout " read " through " ERRATA — Vol. II. Page 8, line 19, and in side note, for "Bill" read "measure '' 10, line 2, fur " charter" read "Bill " 10, line 3, for "the Bill" read "it " 45, line 5, for "But the period" read "The period, however, 48, line 10, for " tliese " read " this " 48, line 11, for "were" read "was " 53, line 15, for " in'itruction " read " instructions " 67, line 6 from bottom, for "as soon as" read "the moment 71, line 19, after "government " insert " it " 102, line 16, for " were " read " are " 105, line 13 from bottom, for "considered " read "regarded " 112, line 11, for " or to any other" read "or indeed to any " 129, line 11 from bottom, read " an impression " 136, line 19, for " subtility " read "subtilty " 148, line 11 from bottom, for " Christain," read " Christian " 152, line 8, for " Vinditiie " read " Vindiciae" 183, line 12, for " Agmei'c " read " Ajmere " 187, line 16, for " AVard's " read " Ward " 193, line 3, for " the " read " such " 194, line 16, for " proposed " read "suggested " 194, line 21, for "appeared " read " seemed " PEIIIOETOIT \THHOL0GI0i: H [STORY "^^Mmii^^^ki^- THE SERAMPOPtE MISSION. CHAPTER X. The period had now arrived to which the Serampore missionaries had been looking forward, with anxious hope for relief from the interruptions and an- Renewal of u.e ; noyances to wdiich they had been subject for seven years. The charter granted to tlie Company in 1793 was about to expire, and the whole question of Indian policy was to be brouglit under the revision of Parliament. It was twenty years since tlie House of Commons had locked the door of India against the introduction of Christian and secular knowledge, and given the key to the Court of Directors. Durmg this long period, the Court had systematically resisted every effort to unlock it, and their servants in India, acting under the influence of their prejudices, though in some cases, perhaps, with supererogatory z-eal, had recently ordered the banishment of eight missionaries from the shores of India. The opposition to missions which had progressively increased, had now reached a point at which it became evident that without legislative inter- VOL. ir. B 2 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuai>. X. ference, Christian truth must be altogether excluded from India. As the period approached for the renewal of the charter, Dr. Carey and his colleagues redoubled their importunity with Mr. Fuller not to allow the golden opportunity to pass without a vigorous eifort to obtain legal permission for missionaries to proceed direct to India, and to reside and to itinerate in the country without molestation. It was at first supposed that the question of the charter would be brought forward in 1812, and Mr. Fuller went up to London in April, and met the representatives of the different bodies engaged in missions, when it was agreed that it would be more expedient to make their application to Government in- dividually than collectively. The Church Missionary Society held a meeting towards the end of that month, and adopted a series of resolutions, which had been drawn up by Mr. Wilberforce, and which were so worded as to embrace the interest of all other m^issionary bodies. Mr. Fuller printed a statement of the Serampore Mission and translations, and sent a copy of it to every member of Parliament likely to take an interest in the question. On the 9th of May, he waited with a deputation on Mr. Perceval, and discussed the subject of missions with him. He was received with official urbanity and reserve ; but the result of the interview left an impression rather of hope than of confidence on his mind. Mr. Perceval said that although he was unwilling to bring the question of religious rights under discussion in the House, yet as the new charter would concede various privileges to traders, he thought a general protection would likewise be extended to all classes, and not withheld from reli- gious teachers. Five days after, Mr. Perceval was shot by Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons. He was succeeded by Lord Liverpool, whose disposition towards missions, on his first accession to power, appeared to be even more favourable than that of his predecessor. In the month of July, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Grant, 18] 3.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 3 Mr. Babington, and others waited on him on the subject of India Missions, and were agreeably surprised to find that he was wiUing to concede even more than they had ventured to expect. He intimated his desire to sanction three measures: — to estabhsh seminaries at each Presi- dency in India to instruct natives for the ministry; to grant hcenses to missionaries, not from the Court of Directors, but from the Board of Control ; and to consecrate bishops for India. But the question of the charter was not introduced in Parliament during the year 1812. It was postponed to the following: year, and it soon became apparent ir- 1 !•• n ' ^'^'^ °^ parties. that the struggle tor the admission ot mis- sionaries to India would be extraordinarily severe. The great bulk of the Anglo-Indians, who were then a very formidable body, asserted with a feeling of assurance bordering on arrogance, that any attempt to evangelise India would infallibly cost us the empire. The majority of the Court of Directors fully participated in these senti- ments, and among the proprietors of India stock the friends of missions formed an insignificant minority. Mr. Wilberforce, than whom few men better understood the temper of the House of Commons, was led to the con- clusion that the opinion of nine-tenths, or at least a large majority of its members, would be against any motion which the friends of religion might make. According to Mr. Charles Grant, " almost all men of influence appeared to think and act on the conviction that duty and success lay in slighting Christianity, while they showed the most delicate regard to the wildest superstitions of heathenism." The periodical press was, with scarcely an exception, opposed to the introduction of the Gospel in India. In such circumstances, the Ministry, who were totally devoid of any individual sympathy with missionary efforts, were not likely to make any chvalrous attempt to carry an un- popular measure. They were personally indifferent to the question, and officially averse to the agitation of it. B 2 4 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. Such was the general state of feehng when the contest began. In the beginning of March, Mr. Fuller, in Mr. Fuiipr's in- compauy with several members of the Com- terview with the -i-i • • -iix-tio President of the mittec, obtamcd an interview with the Larl oi Board of Con- "■'"• Buckinghamshire, the President of the Board of Control. He had been Governor of Madras for several years, and in that uncongenial atmosphere had imbibed those feelings of repugnance to missionary labours which at that time characterised nine-tenths of the public functionaries in India. Mr. Fuller explained to him the wishes of the Society, and urged the two con- cessions which they considered indispensable to the existence of missions ; liberty of access to the country, and legal toleration when there. With regard to the first request, Lord Buckinghamshire said " he would see if they could be accommodated." As to the second, he enquired what further toleration they wanted in India than they then enjoyed. Mr. Fuller said that the toleration they now possessed was owing to the mere kindness and liberality of the public authorities, which might be with- drawn at any time. He asserted that the conduct of the missionaries for twenty years had been such as to show that they were worthy of this consideration. Lord Buckinghamshire admitted that their conduct had been good ; but questioned whether it might not have been less correct if they had not been under restraint. Per- ceiving that he had wounded Mr. Fuller's feelings by this ungenerous remark, he hastened to qualify it by saying that he only meant to observe that their zeal might possibly have led them to measures injurious to the peace of society, and that he had in his eye at the time the fact which had just been stated to him that a missionary had drawn on himself the insults of a mob in Calcutta. Mr. Fuller replied, that he had heard nothing of the occur- rence, and that it was not likely to be one of the Seram- pore missionaries, as they had a chapel of their own in Calcutta. Lord Buckinghamshire then asked him to put 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. 5 the substance of his statement on paper, which he did the next day, adding the strongest arguments in favour of missions whicli he coultl compress within the compass of a letter. But he retired from the interview with very faint hopes of success. " The President of the Board," he writes to 8erampore, '• gave us no encouragement. They want to hold you at their discretion. Our liberty folks are mad for getting the Roman Catholics into power, but they are very cool as to obtaining even toleration for you. But God is above all." By a singular coincidence of time, it happened that only two days before Lord Buckinghamshire asked Mr. Fuller what further toleration he could desire for the mis- sionaries, the Government of India had exemplified the value of that toleration which they possessed by passing an Order in Council for the deportation of three out of tlie six missionaries residing at Serampore, without even the pretext of their having done anything to disturb the peace of society. The toleration which the President of the Board considered so ample for the missionaries left the local Government with full authority to seize any un- offending member of their body, and send him down the river under a police guard to be embarked for England in the gunner's mess, leaving his wife and family to starve in India. It was, as Mr. Ward justly observed, *' the tolera- tion of a toad." The missionary societies were now on the alert. The Church Missionary Society presented a memorial to the Ministry. A deputation from the London Society waited on Lord Liverpool, who in- terviewwiuiLoid •{ . •11 1 Liverpool and lormed them tliat it was intended to " do Lord tattle. reagn. something for Christianity in the East, per- haps in the form of an ecclesiastical establishment." The Methodist Missionary Society brought tlieir quota of influence to bear on the question. Mr. Euller ob- tained an interview with Lord Liverpool, and considered him friendly to their cause. He gave Mr. Fuller the B 3 6 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. assurance that he would do everything m his power to promote their views; "but we cannot," he added, " allow you to send out missionaries without leave ; and when there, they must, in common with merchants and all other Europeans, be under the control of the Govern- ment." Mr. Fidler said he did not object to their being under the laws, but to their being under restraint, and liable to deportation on mere suspicion. Lord Liver- pool said that in a country like India, in which our empire was one of opinion, it was absolutely neces- sary that Government should have a discretionary power to prevent everything which in their opinion threatened to disturb the public peace. Mr. Fuller urged, that to remove a man from his post on mere suspicion was very arbitrary. Lord Liverpool did not deny this assertion, but replied, that it was not peculiar to missionaries, but common to all Europeans ; that whatever was done by the Indian Government, or any of its agents, was recorded and sent home, and that if the Society had any just cause of complaint, they could obtain redress, either by an application to the Board of Control, or through their own friends in Parliament. Mr. Fuller complained of the hostile spirit of the Court of Directors, and Lord Liverpool assured him that they should not be left in future in their hands, but be placed under the direct protection of His Majesty's Govern- ment, who, he was free to say, existed, in a measure, by public opinion, and must therefore be ever alive to the interest of the nation, and disposed to oblige every honourable body of men who composed it. *' In short," writes Mr. Fuller, " we were almost melted down with the candour, openness and kindness of Lord Liverpool." Yet Mr. Wilberforce, who was far better acquainted with the diplomacy of Downing Street, writes : "The Baptists have got nothing from Lord Liverpool but fair words, and the same condition in substance which was before mentioned, except that Andrew Fuller represents, per- 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 7 liaps mistakingly, that the power is to be wholly with the Board of Control." Far diiFereiit, however, was the impression created on Mr. Fuller's mind by his inter- view with Lord Castlereagh, the ministerial leader in tlie House of Commons, to whom the management of the Bill was entrusted. Mr. Fuller could not fail to per- ceive by his replies that there was no disposition to grant any but the most limited concessions, and that even they could be wrung from him only by the pressure of public opinion. " We shall probably give your missionaries," said Lord Castlereagh, " liberty to proceed to India, where they may profess their own faith." " That is a degree of liberty," replied Mr. Fuller, " which I can obtain any day at Constantinople ; but from a Christian Government, we certainly had reason to expect greater liberality." " But," remarked Lord Castlereagh, " the country in general seems to be indifferent on the subject of India missions ; whatever interest is manifested in them is confined to two or three missionary bodies." "If," replied Mr. Fuller, "the decision of the question is to depend on the expression of public opinion, and that be considered necessary to secure us the privileges we seek, your Lordship will soon have an opportunity of judging how far we carry the sympathies of the nation with us." The interview was in itself unsatisfactory, but it served the purpose of disclosing to Mr. Fuller, in a manner he could not mis- take, the course of action which was to be pursued. He now perceived that the Ministry would grant no concessions except on compulsion. A day or two after, Mr. Thompson, the member for Hull, and one of the warmest friends of the missionary cause, informed Mr. Fuller that it was necessary for him to keep his eye on every movement, that there was a great difference of opi- nion between the Ministry and the India House, and that if they came to an accordance regarding the provisions of the new Bill, it would be hurried through the House, without any time being afforded for the presentation of B 4 8 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. petitions on behalf of the missionary cause, and thus all hope of obtaining greater freedom would be lost. Mr. Fuller commnnicated this information to the other missionary bodies, and it was agreed to hold them- selves in readiness to pour in petitions. Happily the Ministers and the East India Company did not come to a good understanding, and the cause of missions triumphed. On the 32nd of March, Lord Castlereagh introduced to the notice of the House the measures which His Ma- jesty's Minister had resolved to propose for Lord Castlereagh ,, 'n . . n 1 J' TT J introduces the the tiiturc "ovemment or India. He passed a Bill without any , "-^ f /-4 aause""^ high encomium on the East India Company who had created an empire, unexampled in the history of the world, comprising fifty millions of people, and had governed it on principles eminently con- ducive to the happiness of the country. But it was necessary to make some modifications to suit the neces- sities of the times. The salient points of the Bill which he proposed were, that the privileges, authorities, and immunities heretofore granted to the Company should be continued for twenty years longer, with this exception, that the trade to India should be thrown open to the mercantile community in England, that Europeans should be allowed to resort to India, under licenses from the Court of Directors or the Board of Control, and that the Government should be left in full possession of the power they had always enjoyed of expelling from India every one whose conduct or whose views might be con- sidered dangerous. On the subject of religion. Lord Castlereagh said that it was unwise to enter on it gene- rally, but there was one provision which appeared neces- sary, " even for the sake of decency." There was no sort of religious control over the chaplains, and the members of the Church of Enghmd could not receive the benefit of those parts of their religion to which epis- copal functions were necessary ; for example, the cere- 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 9 mony of consecration. He hoped the House would not think he was coming out witli a great ecclesiastical establishment. It would amount only to a bishop and three archdeacons to superintend the chaplains of the different settlements. His speech, which occupied three hours, proposed no concession to the missionaries. The bishop and archdeacons were intended solely for the European community in India. Mr. Wilberforce then rose and expressed his regret that the resolution of the House of the 14th of May, 1793, relative to the religious and moral instruction of India, had not been attended to, and he stated that he was unwilling to leave the same power for twenty years to come in the hands of the Directors who had set their faces against missions for twenty years past. Mr. Alexander Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, said " there was great apprehension of risk on that point, and that a question of such magnitude ought to be left to the Government of the country, who were better acquainted with the circumstances which would ensure its quiet and safety." Lord Castlereagh fully concurred in Mr. Baring's views, and said that the subject of religion was one of equal delicacy and import- ance, and that if the East India Company did not understand what was best for the country, he was sure they were not fit to govern it ; if they were fit to govern it, it would be invidious to interfere with them in the mode proposed by Mr. Wilberforce. Lord Castlereagh seemed to forget that the same argument would apply with equal force to the commercial innovations he had proposed, and prove fatal to them. The conduct of Lord Castlereagh in studiously omitting to make any provision in the charter in favour of missionaiies, and his avowed determination to leave them for twenty years at the mercy of the India House, produced its natural effect. It convinced the friends of the missionary cause that nothing was to be obtained from the Ministry, except by such an expression of public opinion as they would not 10 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. venture to resist. Had the other provisions of the charter accorded with the views of the Court of Directors, the Bill would have been passed rapidly through all its stages. But they were as much dissatisfied with the con- cessions to the merchants and manufacturers as the friends of missions were with its omissions. The East India Company resented this interference with the exclu- sive privileges which they had enjoyed, as they stated, for more than two hundred years, and which had been confirmed under various sovereigns by sixteen Acts of Parliament. They considered that the scheme now pro- posed would completely overthrow " the whole fabric of the Company," and they demanded permission to bring forward evidence at the bar of the House to establish the impolicy and danger of the innovations proposed by the Ministry. There was also a general feeling among the members of the House that it was desirable to obtani fuller information on the subject of India, which was but indifferently understood by the generation which suc- ceeded that of Pitt and Dundas, Fox, Burke, and Sheri- dan, who had made it their study for many years. Lord Castlereagh was therefore constrained to accede to the request. The Directors stated that their witnesses would not occupy the time of the House for more than six days, but the evidence was drawn out to the length of six weeks. The examination of witnesses during this protracted period gave time for rousing the religious spirit of the country, and bringing it to act upon Govern- themis°s'ion°ary mcut. Mr. Wilberforcc and his little cabinet, consisting of Mr. Grant, Mr. Stephen, and Mr. Babington, were indefatigable in their efforts to enlighten and to stimulate public opinion on the subject of missions. Of this movement Mr. Wilberforce was the life ; for he considered the object " the greatest which men ever pursued," and he threw his whole soul into it with as much ardour and animation as he had exhibited on the question of the slave trade. He felt that even if the 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAiMPORE MISSION. 11 Ministry were favourable, they would be overborne in Parliament unless the feelings of the country could be unequivocally expressed. While the various Dissenting bodies were engaged in getting up petitions in their re- spective communities, he was urging the same duty on the members of his own church. " Let it not be said," he writes, "that Dissenters only take an interest in the welfare of mankind, and that the members of the Church are not zealous." By the time the evidence was com- pleted, the voice of the country had become irresistible. During this memorable period, Mr. Fuller was at his post, exciting the zeal and organising the operations of the members of his own denomination. In a letter to his friends at Serampore, at this time, he says, " Lord Castle- reagh's declaration to leave the missionary question in the hands of the Court of Directors operated like an electric shock through the country, and united all the friends of missions in a determination to petition the House of Commons without delay. Churchmen, Method- ists, Dissenters, and almost every party in Scotland were all alive, and pouring in such a flood of petitions as was scarcely ever seen. For eight or ten weeks the legis- lature was overwhelmed with them; and Lord Castle- reagh is said to have remarked that he feared they should have to throw the poor bishop overboard, like another Jonah, to appease the storm." Within a week after Lord Castlereagh had introduced the Resolutions and ignored missions, a large and influential meeting was held at the London Tavern, with Lord Gambler in the chair, when it was resolved, " That this meeting feels it to be a sacred obligation to procure such provision in the new charter as might afford an opening for the gradual communication of our superior religious light and social improvements to the natives, and sufficient opportunities for missionaries to resort to India for these purposes, and prevent the obstruction of their endeavours, as long as they con- ducted themselves in a peaceable and orderly manner." 12 HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. X. It was also resolved to present a petition to Parliament embodying these resolutions; and a permanent committee of twenty-eight gentlemen, of all sects and parties, was appointed to carry the object into effect, and to watch the progress of the question. At an early period of the session, the Court of Directors printed the papers con- nected with the transactions of I8O7, in connection with the Serampore missionaries, and presented a copy of them to each member of Parliament. The object of this proce- dure was to demonstrate the impolicy of admitting mis- sionaries into India, by a reference to the misconduct of the Serampore missionaries. These papers included the communication made to the Court by the Governor-Ge- neral in Council regarding the proceedings of Dr. Carey and his colleagues, and the unauthenticated translation w^hich had been made of the tracts by their enemies. It was an e.v parte statement. If an opportunity liad been afforded the missionaries of defending themselves from the assertions made by Government to justify an act of unexampled severity and injustice, they would have been able efl'ectually to neutralise these representations. If they had been allowed to examine the hostile version of the tracts, they might easily have corrected the sinister impression it was calculated and intended to produce. But the Serampore missionaries, whose alleged delin- quencies were now to be urged as one of the strongest arguments against missions in India, were thus exposed to censure and condemnation behind their backs, by the statements of those who had oppressed them. On the 30th of March, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House to receive the evidence the Court of Directors had mustered with great diligence to support their views, and to resist all innovation, religious, political or commercial. Mr. Adam and Mr. Handle Jackson ap})eared at the bar of the House as Counsel on the part of the Company, and opened the examination by a series of interrogatories Evidence of War reu Hastings. 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 13 which had been previously prepared, after which tlie witnesses were questioned by the members themselves. Warren Hastings was the first witness called in. The House rose in a body as he entered, and paid a sponta- neous homage to the greatest of Indian rulers. But it was twenty-seven years since he had left India, and his opinion on the management of the trade, the admission of Europeans, and the introduction of Christianity was simply a reproduction of the views universally entertained in India on these subjects, during the thirty years which elapsed between the battle of Plassey and the close of his administration, — the dark age of our Indian policy, the age of contracted views and gigantic prejudices. Warren Hastings was in advance of the age in which he himself acted, but he had not kept himself on a level with the advancing liberality of the times, while he rus- ticated at Daylesford. When questioned regarding missions, he said he remembered a worthy gentleman who bore the character of a missionary, Mr. Schwartz in the Carnatic, and another in Bengal, he did not know whether he could call him a missionary, Mr. Kiernander; he also remembered his conversion of one Indian, because it was announced with great pomp and parade — one of the Judges of the Supreme Court having stood his sponsor. He also remembered a Catholic priest who resided near Dacca, and had about him a larsce flock of men whom he called Christians ; but they were Christians only in name and dress, and the priest was ignorant of the common language of the country. On hearing this allusion to the dress of the converts, some member from the manufacturing districts enquired whether the clothes they wore were of European manufacture, and Mr. Hastings replied that he had never seen them, and lie questioned whether they had any garments at all, more than the most necessary and scanty portion of dress belonging to that order of natives. He stated that if during his tenure of office, the missionaries had demeaned 14 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. themselves properly, he should have taken no notice of them, but if they had given any occasion to a belief that the Government itself tacitly encouraged their designs, then, from an apprehension of the consequences such a belief would produce on the minds of the people, he should have recalled them to Calcutta, and, if necessary, compelled them to quit the country. One of the advocates of the Court now endeavoured to turn the Missionary Blue Book to account, and asked Mr. Hastings whether in his opinion it was consistent with the safety of the British Empire to allow missionaries to preach publicly, with a view to the conversion of the native Indians, that Mahomet was an impostor, or to speak in opprobrious terms of the brahmins and their religious rites. Mr. Hastings replied that it was not consistent with the security of the Empire to treat the religions established in the country witli contempt, and that if such a declaration of war was made between the professors of our religion and those of the established religions of the country, he knew not what would be the consequences. Lord Teignmouth was then called in, and asked the same insidious question regarding the public preaching ofLordTeign- 1^ which Mahomct was described as an im- mouth. postor, and the brahmins and their religious rites were vilified, to which he replied that the practice of preaching publicly the doctrines, as stated in the question, would be attended with danger, but he did not think it at all necessary that such doctrines should be publicly preached for the purpose of converting the natives, and that as far as his experience went, there was nothing offensive to the people of India in the character of a missionary. He admitted that the dangers attend- ing an indiscreet zeal would be considerable, but, at the same time, there were proofs that a judicious and prudent zeal might be exercised effectually, and to the conversion of the natives. He was asked whether he 18LS.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 15 was not aware that an opinion prevailed in India that it was the intention of Government to take means to convert the natives, and he answered that he had never heard it or suspected it. Then came the question whether he had not heard that one of the chief causes of the Vellore mutiny, in which a British regiment was massacred, was an opinion of that kind. He said he had seen the assertion in print in England, and had taken some pains to examine it, and w^as clearly of opinion that it was totally without foundation. The questions were varied with much ingenuity, in the hope of extracting from him an admission that missionary efforts would be attended with political danger ; but he was not to be thrown off his guard. "Should any provision," said one of the Company's partizans, " be made in an Act of Parhament, empowering missionaries to go to India to convert the Hindoos, would it not be a document placed in the hands of our enemies, of the agents of France, of which they would make an ample handle to set the country in a blaze ? " Lord Teignmouth replied that neither the agents of France, nor any other public enemies, would be able to make that use of it. " Your Lordship does not think, then, that if the Hindoos were possessed with an idea that we had an intention of changing their religion, and converting them to Christi- anity, it would be attended with any bad consequences at all ? " Lord Teignmouth replied that both Hindoos and Mahomedans had the experience of many years, that every attention had been paid to their prejudices, civil and religious, and that the freest toleration w^as allowed them, and he did not think that they could be brought to believe that this Government ever meant to impose on them the religion of this country. He was then questioned, directly, whether he knew of any missiona- ries who had conducted themselves indiscreetly, and he replied that he remembered some years ago to have heard of one or two instances of alleged misconduct in IG HISTORY OJF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CiiAr. X. the missionaries, but he did not recollect of what nature they were ; probably instances of indiscreet zeal. At the close of his examination he stated that he certainly was of opinion that missionaries might be sent to India with perfect safety to the Government, and that there liad now been missionaries for seventeen years in Bengal, who had circulated numerous copies of the Scriptures and many religious pamphlets in the dialects of India without excitino- anv alarm anions: the natives. The next witness was Mr. Cowper, who had been in the Civil Service in Bengal from 1770 to 1800, and for ten years of that period a member of Council. Of Mr. Cowper. -^ i i i 111 1 t • 1 /v He was asked what would be the political enect of sending out a bishop and three archdeacons. He replied, that two days before he should have said that, provided the utmost care was observed in the selection of proper persons for those situations, and it w^as expressly understood that there w^as no intention to interfere in any form with the religion of the natives, he could see no objection, or very little, to it ; but his opinion had been completely altered by some publications he had just seen in the papers. He then read to the Committee the notice in the " Morning Post " of the meeting held at the London Tavern, at which Lord Gambler presided ; and he assured the Committee that the first resolution, that " there were more than fifty millions of inhabitants subject to the British empire in India, under the influence of inhuman and degrading superstitions, which form an effectual bar to their civilization," would excite a general ferment among the Hindoos, who would infer that the new establishment was intended to aid in their con- version. On being asked what, in his opinion, would be the probable result of any attempts at conversion, whether by missionaries or other means, he said that if the mission- aries went into the country, as they had hitherto done, without any authority or support from Government, they would make no converts, and do no mischief j but if they 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 17 were sent to India under the authority of Government, the utmost danger to our dominion would be the con- sequence, and tliat it would be followed by our expulsion from Bengal, and all our Indian possessions. Mr. Cowper soon became sensible that he had gone too far in reference to missionary efforts unaided by the state, and he en- deavoured to qualify his evidence by stating in reply to subsequent questions put by the friends of missions, that though the advertisement in the "Morning Post" might not imply anything of the nature of compulsion, either on the part of Government or individuals, yet, com- bined with the establishment of a bishopric, it might be construed by the natives of India into a design on the part of the Government to interfere with their religion ; and that nothing was so likely to procure the expulsion of the English from India as any such interference with their religious tenets. He further asserted that the mere proposition of the subject to Parliament would tend to create the greatest alarm among the Hindoos and en- danger our empire ; and that such feelings of alarm would not be sufficiently guarded against even by an express disavowal in the Act of any intention to use force or compulsion. Thus, according to Mr. Cowper, while the Court of Directors baffled every attempt to introduce Christianity into India, Parliament was to be precluded, on pain of losing the empire, from receiving so much as a proposition to permit missionaries to resort to it, though unconnected with the state, because the simple mooting of such a question in the British senate would alarm the brahmins. The Imperial Parliament was therefore to be restricted in the exercise of its indefeasible right to make important inquiries regarding our eastern empire from deference to a bigoted and debased priesthood, who were at the time engaged in burning hundreds of living widows on the funeral pile. The next witness examined was Mr. Graham, who had passed thirty-nine years of his official life in Bengal, VOL. II. c 18 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. X. and quitted it in 1S08. In the course of his examina- tion he stated that it was a custom of the Gentoos to devote themselves as voluntary victims before Of Mr. Graham. , ipt i iiiii the temple oi Jugunnath to be crushed to death under the car of the idol, and he admitted that the Government had interfered to check the practice by persuasion, and that this mode of interference had pro- duced no insurrection or disturbance. He was therefore asked whether similar persuasion might not be successful in correcting other religious prejudices without pro- ducing any ill consequences. But he was determined to make no admission which might give any support to the missionary cause, and he replied that if that persuasion were constantly resorted to, it might create disaffection. He was asked by Mr. Stephen whether there was any act of faith which the Hindoos held in greater venera- tion than self-devotion at Jugunnath. Upon this the Chairman desired the witness to withdraw, and stated to the Committee his serious doubts whether the course they were pursuing was not defective in point of form. There were no allusions in the ministerial propositions either to the mythology of the heathen or the policy of attempting their conversion. But the members friendly to the missionary canse insisted that the last resolution regarding the appointment of a bishop formed a suffi- cient ground for the questions which had been put, relative to the practicability of propagating Christianity in India. Mr, Wilberforce spoke in favour of the course of examination they were pursuing, and maintained that it was right to devise the best means of instructing the mhabitants of India in that religion through which we expected to enjoy happiness in the next world. On this, Sir Henry Montgomery, a retired Madras civilian, said that the massacre of three or four hundred English soldiers in an Indian fortress ought to act as a warning against interfering with the religion of the people of India. Mr. Peter Moore also affirmed that the religious 1813.] niSTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 19 prejudices of the natives were so strong, that any such interference would lead to a general massacre. — But tlie witness was called in, and the religious interrogatories were continued. Mr. Graham stated that great danger was to be apprehended from the attempts of individuals to promote Christianity, inasmuch as they might appear to come from authority ; that it was forty years since the wisdom of the House had passed an Act protecting the natives in the exercise of their laws and religion, and that after this long enjoyment of the privilege nothing could be more dangerous than any interference which could alarm them for the continuance of it. As Mr. Graham was the only witness examined, who had been in India in I8O7, he was asked whether he knew any- thing of any insurrection, or any popular commotion, occasioned by the efforts of the missionaries to preach Christianity in Calcutta, and he stated that he had a recollection that the same year in which he left India one of the missionaries, whose name he had forgotten, went to a place called Chitpore, and endeavoured to preach to the people, and it ended in an affray, but what were the consequences he did not know. No further attempt was made to elicit the opinion of the witnesses brought forward by the India House, re- garding the introduction of Christianity in India. Of the four who had been questioned sionmyexarauml on the subject, only one. Lord Teignmouth, had admitted that the Gospel might be preached there, unaided by the state, without risking the loss of the empire. The House, after this, agreed that religion should be left out of the examination, and this resolution was adopted by the Lords a few days later. In this resolution also, the friends of missions fully concurred. They felt assured that nine out often of the witnesses of the Court would be hostile to their cause, and that it was better to rest it " on the notorious facts of the case, and on the plain and undeniable obligation it involved," c 2 20 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. [Chap. X. The evidence of these retired servants of the Company painfully exemplified the fact, that a long residence in India, amid heathen associations, had not only blunted every Christian sympathy, but created a feeling of per- sonal hostility to any attempt to disturb the native super- stitions. This was still further illustrated by the subsequent evidence of one of the most eminent and enlightened of the public functionaries in India, Colonel, afterwards Evidence of Sir Sir Thomas, Munro, the renowned, though Thomas Munro. pgj-i^jjpg ovcr-estimatcd, governor of Madras. In answer to a question on the colonisation of India, he volunteered the most extravagant panegyric on the Hindoo character and institutions, and said that " if a good system of agriculture, unrivalled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever might contribute to convenience or luxury, schools established in every village, the general practice of hospitality and charity among each other, and above all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, respect, and delicacy, were among the signs which denoted a civilised people, — then the Hindoos were Hot inferior to the natives of Europe ; and if civilisation were to become an article of trade between the two coun- tries, he was convinced that England would greatly benefit by the import cargo." Such sentiments from men who occupied the most responsible situations in the govern- ment of British India could not be regarded without re- gret, but it was in some degree mitigated by the reflection that, when such kindliness of feeling was manifested towards a conquered people, there could be no disposition to make political power an instrument of oppression. On the other hand, it was impossible not to lament this morbid admiration of the institutions of Hindooism, because its practical tendency was to perpetuate the moral and religious degradation of India, and to impede the progress of Christian civilisation. The evidence terminated on the 27th of May. During the eight weeks of its continuance, the table of the House 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 21 had been covered with petitions on the subject of Indian Missions. They streamed in, night after night, from all parts of the kingdom, from large public bodies and individual congregations, from influential tmn^^nd tCir towns and retired hamlets, and from Christians of every denomination, demanding with a unanimous voice, that India should be opened to the Gospel by an express provision in the Bill then before Parliament. The peti- tions amounted to nine hundred, a greater number than, it appears, had ever been presented on any former occa- sion. This unequivocal expression of the wishes of the constituencies produced a salutary impression on the House. Nor was the ministry backward in perceiving that the country had taken the question into its own hands, and that the wisest course was to swim with the stream. Mr. Wilberforce records in his Diary, on the 26th of May, that *' Lord Buckinghamshire acceded to our terms, and on the following day Lord Castlereagh agreed to Lord Buckinghamshire's, and to an arrangement for the Christianising resolutions, far surpassing my expec- tations." It was the petitions which had worked this auspicious change, and to them, and to them alone, is to be attributed the great improvement manifested in the tone of Lord Castlereagh's speech, when he rose on the 31st of May, and brought forward his revised resolutions. The 13th Resolution ran thus : " It is the opinion of this Committee that it is the duty of this country to pro- mote the interests and happiness of the native inhabitants of the British dominions in India, and that such measures ought to be adopted as may tend to the introduction among them of useful knowledge, and of religious and moral improvement. That, in furtherance of the above objects, sufficient facilities shall be affiDrded by law to persons desirous of going to and remaining in India for the purpose of accomphshing these benevolent designs : Provided always, that the autliority of the local govern- ments respecting the intercourse of Europeans with the c 3 22 HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. interior of the country be preserved, and that the prin- ciples of the British Government, on which the natives of India have hitherto rehed for tlie free exercise of their religion, be inviolably maintained." The debate on this Resolution was postponed until the other clauses had been disposed of, and it was not brought forward in Committee before the 22nd of June. On that day the great question was solemnly debated in the House of Commons, far exceeding, in the importance and magni- tude of its results, the measure of opening the trade of India to public enterprise, or continuing it as a monopoly, and of substituting Manchester cottons for India piece goods; — the question whether the light of divine truth and secular knowledge should continue to be excluded from the inhabitants of India. Lord Castlereagh intro- duced the subject in a speech which plainly indicated the feeling of compulsion under w^hich he was acting, no less than his contemptuous indifference to the spiritual im- provement of India. He said that great misconception and misrepresentation had gone forth on this subject, which he was anxious to correct. It was supposed that Government intended to encourage an unrestrained and unregulated resort of persons to India with religious views, but this would not be consonant with the security and tranquillity of the British dominions in the east. The Ministry did, however, think that no danger would arise from allowing a certain number of persons to proceed as missionaries to India, under the cognisance of the Court of Directors and the control of the Board. He carefully abstained from any reference to the unexampled influx of petitions which had forced this conviction on his mind, although he was reported to have exclaimed one evening, when more than twenty were successively presented, " This is enough, Mr. Fuller." He simply stated, as his reason for bringing forward such a proposal, that the House had adverted to the interests of religion in India in one of the resolutions of 1793, and as the subject had 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 23 been frequently alluded to in the present debates, it would seem as if they were less disposed than formerly to the cause of Christianity were a proposition of the nature contained in the Resolution not to be made. *' He did not think there was any ground for supposing that any dread would be created in the minds of the Hindoos. The voyage to India was long, and the expense of it great, and he was therefore inclined to believe that the spirit of proselytism was not so exuberant in our times as to tempt any very alarming number of persons to pro- ceed on religious missions to India. What progress Christianity might make, it was impossible for him, who had never been in India, to say." Sir Henry Montgomery opposed the motion. He said that he had been twenty years in India, and had never known an instance of any convert being made, except one who was converted by " that very respectable individual, Mr. Schwartz." In his o})inion, the Hindoo religion was pure and unexception- able. The immolation of widows was no more a religious rite than suicide was a part of Christianity. If we wished to convert the natives of India, we ought first to reform our own people there, who at present only gave them an example of lying, swearing, drunkenness, and other vices. The mutiny at Vellore arose from a suspicion of a design to change the religion of the country ; the missionaries were not the cause of it, but if they were allowed to act without restriction in India, there would be a repetition of the scenes at Vellore in every part of the country, and he was more anxious to save the lives of thirty thousand of his fellow-countrymen in India, than to save the souls of all the Hindoos by making them Christians at such a price. Mr. Wilberforce then rose and delivered that mag- nificent speech in support of the missionary cause which produced so powerful an effect at the time, Mr.wnberforce's and which will be read with increased interest, 'p'"'''^''- as the triumphs of the cause he advocated are succes- c 4 24 HISTORY or THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. sively multiplied. It recalled to the minds of his hearers the noblest of his efforts on behalf of the oppressed slave, while the magnitude of the interests at stake seemed to give expansion to his views and fervour to his eloquence. Never did he speak with greater power, or produce a greater impression. " The unavoidable prolixity of his details was relieved by flashes of the brightest eloquence." One who was opposed to his missionary views has stated that, with "a just confidence in his powers, he ventured to broach the hackneyed subject of Hindoo conversion. He spoke three hours, but nobody seemed to be fatigued ; all, indeed, were pleased, some with the ingenious arti- fices of manner, but most with the glowing language of the heart." Mr. Wilberforce opened his speech by an allusion to the resolution he had proposed in 1793, which might serve to show that he was not treating of a subject of which he was ignorant. Before he entered upon his argument he was anxious to clear away a misconception which had arisen, and to assure the House that in the work of conversion he abjured all idea of compulsion, and disclaimed all use of the authority or even influence of Government. He then took up the assertion of his opponents, that the natives of India were so firmly, so unalterably attached to their own religious opinions and practices, that their conversion was impracticable, and he met it by a reference to the numerous changes which had taken place in violation of their practices, — to the spread of the religion of Nanuk, of Mahomedanism, and of Christianity. Mr. Wilberforce then proceeded to deal with the assertion that the Hindoos were so good, and their morals so pure, so much purer than our own, that any attempt to communicate to them our religion and morality was, to say the least, a superfluous, perhaps a mischievous attempt. He laid down the general position that there never yet was a country on which the light of Christianity had not shone which was not found to be in a state of the grossest moral darkness, debased by prin- 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERxVMPORE MISSION. 25 ciples, practices, and manners the most flagitious and cruel ; and that the natives of India had from the eadiest times groaned under the double yoke of political and moral despotism. Regarding the moral character of the natives he brought forward various quotations from Hal- hed, Bernier, Scrafton, Orme, Governor Holwell, Clive, Verelst, and Lord Teignmouth, from Sir John Mac- pherson, Lord Cornwallis, and Tamerlane, and, lastly, from tlie replies given by the various public function- aries in India to the interrogatories of Lord Wellesley. From these diversified and independent sources of in- formation he deduced the fact, that the Hindoos were in that state of moral degradation which Christianity alone was capable of removing. He then referred to the "inaptitude," if he might so term it, in what regarded the subject of religion, which was discovered in the generality of Anglo-Indians, which caused their judg- ments, however valuable on other occasions, to fail them egregiously on this. In the minds of too many of his opponents, Christianity and India were inconsistent and totally incompatible ideas. He alluded to the expression of Burke, that Europeans were usually unbaptized in their passage to India, and, though he could not adopt so strong a position, he could not have desired a stronger confirmation of it than was found in the report of Mr. Dowdeswell, the superintendent of police — the same func- tionary who, as secretary, had hunted down the mission- aries. In that report Mr. Dowdeswell stated to Govern- ment, that if he were to enumerate a thousandth part of the atrocities of the dacoits, and of the consequent suffer- ings of the people, and to soften the recital in every mode which language would permit, he should still de- spair of obtaining credit for the accuracy of his narrative. He said that, if we would apply a lasting remedy to this evil, we must adopt means of instruction for the different classes of the community ; but he never thought of resorting to (>hristianity, and only proposed that the 26 niSTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. institutions of Hindooism and Mahomedanism should be revived, and gradually moulded into a system of instruc- tion for these classes! As a further exemplification of this feeling in the minds of Europeans who had long resided in India, Mr. Wilberforce said he could not but animadvert on the spirit and tone with wliich the oppo- nents of missionaries descanted on the impossibility of imparting Christianity to the natives, and thus effecting the moral improvement which it was so desirable to pro- duce. It might have been expected that so unwelcome a conclusion regarding the necessity of abandoning all hope of any attempts to improve India would have been expressed with manifest concern, yet the House had not failed to remark the cheerfulness, if not levity, with which the declaration had been made. But one of the members had supplied him with a clear explanation of the origin of such views when he announced that, in his opinion, all religions were alike acceptable to the common Father of mankind, and that he fully coincided with the remark of the brahmin who had replied to Dr. Marshman, that heaven was a large place, to which thei'e was a number of different roads, and that each nation or individual might choose his own at pleasure. Mr. Wilberforce next described with great effect, the practices which produced moral degradation and social misery in India — the prevalence of polygamy, infanticide, and the burning of widows. On this last practice he dvvelt with peculiar emphasis, and brought forward the statistical returns which the missionaries at Serampore had collected. He then alluded to the various obscene and bloody rites of their idolatrous ceremonies, with all their unutterable abominations, and said that there could be but one feeling of deep commiseration for the un- happy people whose condition he had described, and he entreated the House to commence, with prudence but zeal, endeavours to communicate to those benighted regions the genial life and warmth of our Christian 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. 27 principles and institutions, if it could be attempted with- out absolute ruin to our political interests in India. This allusion to political danger led him to advert to the col- lision between the missionaries at Serampore and the Government of India in I8O7, the documents connected with which had been distributed among the members by the Court of Directors, and created an unfavourable im- pression on their minds. Mr. Wilberforce turned even this apparently sinister incident to good account. He said that there was but one instance in which their oppo- nents had been enabled to find any matter of just com- plaint against any of the missionaries, but the transaction, taken altogether, tended strongly to confirm his con- clusions, and to invalidate those of their adversaries. The story, he said, was this: One of the native converts of the Serampore missionaries had translated into Persian, and printed, without their knowledge, a tract on the life of Mahomet, containing many abusive and highly objection- able passages. Three hundred copies got into circulation in and about Calcutta, that is, in the district where, of all others, the thickness of the population and the intercourse of society must naturally favour the spread of popular discontent. Did this circumstance transpire in con- sequence of any sudden insurrection ? Of all the three hundred, only one was ever heard of, and what became of that ? It was brought by the son of a native merchant to one of the Mahomedan professors of the College in Calcutta, with a request that he would reply to it, and vindicate the honour of the Mahomedan creed. Here was a case, in which, he granted, tliat there was im- prudence, yet so far from producing any commotion, it scarcely excited the smallest attention. The true con- clusion from this incident was, that the natives were so tolerant and patient in what concerned their religion, that even the grossest imprudence could not rouse them to anger. He concluded his speech with a high encomium on the Serampore missionaries. " In truth, Sir, these 28 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. Anabaptist missionaries, as, among other low epithets bestowed on them, they have been contemptuously termed, are entitled to our highest respect and admira- tion. One of them. Dr. Carey, was originally in one of the lowest stations of society, but under all the disad- vantages of such a situation, he had the genius as well as benevolence to devise the plan which has since been pursued of forming a society for communicating the blessings of Christian light to the natives of India, and his first care was to qualify himself to act a distinguished part in that truly noble enterprise. He resolutely ap- plied himself to the diligent study of the learned languages ; after making a considerable proficiency in them, he applied himself to several of the Oriental tongues, more especially to that which 1 understand is regarded as the parent of them all, the Sanscrit; in which last his proficiency is acknowledged to be greater than that of Sir W. Jones himself, or any other European. Of several of these languages, he has already published grammars, of one or two of them a dictionary, and he has in contemplation still greater enterprises. All this time, Sir, he is labouring indefatigably as a missionary, w^ith a warmth of zeal only equalled by that with which he prosecutes his literary laliours. Another of these Ana- baptist missionaries, Mr. Marshman, has established a seminary for the cultivation of the Chinese language, which he has studied with a success scarcely inferior to that of Dr. Carey in the Sanscrit. It is a merit of a more vulgar sort, but to those who are blind to their moral and even their literary excellencies, it may perhaps afford an estimate of value better suited to their principles and habits of calculation, that these men, and Mr. Ward also, another of the missionaries, acquiring from 1000^. to 1500/, per annum each, by the various exercise of their talents, throw the whole into the common stock of the Mission, which they thus support by their contri- butions only less effectually than by their researches 1813] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 29 and labours of a higher order. Such, Sir, are the exer- tions, such the merits, such the success of these great and good men, for so I shall not hesitate to term tliem." Mr. Forbes, who had amassed a large fortune at Bom- bay in commercial pursuits, said he considered that the admission of missionaries would be dangerous , -r)''i • ',1 , 11 Majority of fiftj-- to the liritish empu'e in the east, and he thr.e in favour of A . missions. thought they ought to pause before they risked the lives of the Europeans there by adopting the propo- sition. Mr. Prendergast, who had also lived in India, stated that Dr. Carey's conduct, which had been so exem- plary during Lord Wellesley's administration, had changed on the departure of that noble lord, and that he one day harangued the mob in the streets of Calcutta, standing on a tub, and abused the religion of the people in such terms that he would have been killed but for the inter- ference of the police. As Mr. Prendergast affirmed this fact from his own personal knowledge, it is sufficient to state that it was a pure and simple fabrication. Dr. Carey had never preached in the streets of Calcutta ; none of the Serampore missionaries had ever harangued the people from a tub ; and none of them had been rescued Jby the police. The venom of this story had been carefully dis- tilled into the ears of the Ministry, and had convinced the President of the Board of Control that missionaries ought not to be suffered in India. But it produced no effect whatever on the House, which, at three in the morning, adopted the resolution for the admission of missionaries by eighty-nine to thirty-six. This large ma- jority of fifty-three on the first division, wliich was the triumph of the petitions, decided the fate of the question. But the opponents of the cause were determined to dis- pute every inch of ground during the subsequent stages of the Bill. It was again brought under discussion on the 16th of June. Mr, Fuller had, intermediately, written to Mr. Prendergast to assure him that the assertion he had made regarding Dr. Carey's having preached on a 30 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. X. tub in the streets of Calcutta was utterly without founda- tion, and he therefore called on him publicly to retract so injurious a statement; but Mr. Prendergast was more disposed to meet this demand by a challenge than by a retraction. He came up to Mr. Wilberforce in the House, and asked him, in a manner which, in a noted duellist, could not be mistaken, " Pray, do you know a Mr. Andrew Fuller, who has written to desire me to retract the statement which I made with regard to Dr. Carey?" Mr. Wilberforce answered, with a smile, that he knew him perfectly; "but, depend on it,, you will make nothing of him in your way. He is a respectable Baptist minister at Kettering." Mr. Calcraft then ex- pressed his strongest disapprobation of the missionary clause, which might excite a rebellion in India, endanger the lives of all the Europeans there, and shake the empire to its basis. Mr. Stephen Lushington, who had risen to great distinction in the public service at Madras, repro- bated the admission of missionaries into India in language scarcely less virulent than that which had been used by his relative in the Court of Proprietors, twenty years be- fore, when the question of missions was for the first time brought forward in Leadenhall Street. He said that he could refute the assertions which had been made regard- ing the character of the natives from his own personal observations, and he denounced the remarks of the mis- sionaries and Dr. Buchanan as the most infamous and unfounded libels. He reprobated more particularly the assertions regarding the Hindoo religion in one of the tracts issued from the Serampore press, called the " Rise of Wisdom." " Far different," said he, " was our Book of Wisdom, which, as the apostle said, was full of gentle- ness, and easy to be entreated." He affirmed that, " to do justice to the Company's government, they had always acted on this liberal and enlightened system " — that of excluding Christianity from India — " until of late years a different system had crept in, which, if they had not 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 31 sanctioned, they had, at all events, permitted. God for- bid," said he, " that it should be sanctioned by that House, for it was directly contrary to the faith pledged by us to the inhabitants, who were taught to believe that they should be permitted to pursue their own religion, without molestation, under our government.*' This ingenious and convenient expression was a great favourite with the op- ponents of missions, because it was supposed to furnish an irrefragable argument against all attempts to introduce Christianity into India in all time to come ; but the merit of having coined it belongs to Lord Minto's govern- ment. Mr. Lushington then entered upon an elaborate defence of the morality of the Hindoo religion and lite- rature, and introduced several quotations regarding truth, charity, mercy, religion, and hospitality, from native works, which, he said, were as remarkable for purity of doctrine as for the beauty and simplicity of the style. He read a Hindoo prayer to the House, and said it was impossible for any man to behold the brahmin repeat that prayer without having his mind deeply affected by it. He described their religious worship as replete with devotion to God and benevolence to man. When the Bill was again brought forward on the 1st of July, Lord Castlereagh expressed a strong wish that the clause which referred to the admission of ^^^ ^^.^^,^5 missionaries might be allowed to pass without ^^^'^'^'"^ '^i'^^'^- discussion. But Mr. Charles Marsh, formerly a barrister at Madras, now a member of the House, was impatient to counteract the effect of Mr. Wilberforce's eloquent and powerful speech, and to vindicate the honour of Hindooism and pour the vials of his indignation on the missionaries at Serampore. His speech was the most elaborate and truculent, but unquestionably the ablest, which was delivered against missions during the struggle. Even those who were not convinced by his arguments, were charmed with the brilliancy of his eloquence. It may be considered as an epitome of the views and 32 HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. [Chai'. X. opinions of the whole of the anti-missionary party; and may therefore justify a more extended notice. He began by extolHng the wisdom which had hitherto preserved India to us by abstaining from all interference with the religion of the inhabitants. He stated tliat in all former modes of polity for the government of India, the in- violability of the religious feelings and customs of the natives was considered a sacred and undisputed axiom, and he now affirmed that a departure from that policy would shake our empire to its centre. "Not," said he, " that on a sudden we shall become so weak, or mad, or fanatical as to renounce all the wisdom which history, and experience, and common sense had taught us ; but the real danger was this, that the actual attempt by Parliamentary enactment, to convert the natives, and the mere suspicion on their part tliat such schemes were in contemplation, would produce the same degree of mischief. Enough had been said to diffuse that alarm, and the clause now inserted in the Bill, combined with the resolutions and speeches of public meetings, and the petitions which covered the tables of both Houses fall of which, without any squeamishness or affected delicacy, professed the conversion of the natives) was little calcu- lated to dissipate or appease that alarm." He then denounced the clause by which licences were to be given to the missionaries as most impolitic. Hitherto if a missionary misdemeaned himself the remedy was at hand, — the government banished him from the country, and "the nuisance was instantly abated ; " but now he would be able to set up the licence at home against the revocation of it abroad. " A governor who exercised this power, would do it at the hazard of drawing on himself the clamours and resentments of a body who are every day acquiring fresh accessions of influence and number, and who are knit together by the strongest sympathies. It demands no great effort of fancy to conceive the spiritual denunciations with which every 18I3.J HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 33 conventicle would ring at the persecution of brother Carey, or brother Ringletaube." He then referred to the letter which Lord Minto had addressed to the Secret Committee, in which they were entreated to discourage any accession to the number of missionaries already employed. That letter stated several alarming instances of misguided and intemperate zeal, and of low and scurrilous invective on the part of the Serampore mis- sionaries. He said he would not shock the ears of the House by reading any extracts from these publications, which must be offensive to the moral sense of every cultivated mind, displaying, as they did, a fearful and disheartening system of terrors from which the affrighted reason of man would gladly fly to the most barbarous of superstitions for refuge and consolation. But he would ask on what grounds it was proposed to grant these gentlemen the further facilities which are claimed for them ? He said Lord Castlereagh had told the House not to be alarmed either at the undue increase of mis- sionaries or the kind and description of those who were likely to go out, because the Board of Commissioners would exercise a salutary control over their appointment. " He confessed that his apprehensions on this head would be put to rest if the Earl of Buckinghamshire were always to remain at the head of the Board, or if his successors were necessarily to be influenced by his prudence and good sense. No man was less affected with the cant and fanaticism of the day. No man was inspired with a more philosophical and dignified con- tempt of it. But the noble earl*s successor might be of the new evangelical school. He might be of the number of those who thought the fulness of time was arrived for Hindoo conversion, and that every inspired cobbler, or fanatical tailor, who felt an inward call, had a kind of apostolic right to assist in the spiritual siege already begun against the idolatries and superstition of that degraded and barbarous country." VOL. II. D 34 HISTORY OF. THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. He then brought forward the stereotyped arguments against missions drawn from the Vellore massacre. He asked "if it was possible for the House to go off into such a fit of absurdity and fanaticism, or be visited with so fatal a fatuity, as not to keep so awful an event before them in the discussion of matters affecting the religion of the country? " Although the most enlightened and impartial of Indian statesmen had declared that the mutiny had not been caused, even in the remotest degree, by missionary efforts, the forensic skill of Mr. Marsh, turned it to good account in the debate. " Sir, we need not the acting over again of that dreadful drama, to be taught that all attempts on their religion, however cautiously and covertly made, must not only be unavail- ing but calamitous. If the change in the shape of a turban, or the temporary disuse of marks on the forehead, drove that most passive and obedient soldiery into so bloody a revolt, what may we not dread from the grave discussions at meetings convened for the avowed purpose of converting them, that purpose avowed in petitions from every town in England, and countenanced by a larg^ortion of the legislature of Great Britain ? " At the same time he affirmed that no man could be more unaffectedly solicitous than himself for the diffusion of Christianity, and that he should be undeserving of an audience in a Cliristian assembly were he cold or in- different to its blessings. But there were no means of accomplishing the object, and the attempt would be attended with dangers that appalled him, though they were treated with indifference by those who were not startled by the miseries they might produce in the glorious object of making sixty millions of men Baptists or Anabaptists. One great obstacle to the diffusion of Christianity was the division of the inhabitants into castes. " Your struggles are only begun when you have converted one caste ; never will the scheme of Hindoo conversion be realised till you persuade an immense 1813.] HISTORY OE THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 35 population to suffer by whole tribes the severest mar- tyrdom that has yet been sustained for the sake of rehgion — and are the missionaries whom this Bill will let loose on India fit engines for the accomplishment of this great revolution? Will these people, crawling from the holes and caverns of their original destinations, apostates from the loom and the anvil — he should have said the awl, for Dr. Carey was originally a shoemaker — and renegades from the lowest handicraft employments, be a match for the cool and sedate controversies they Avill have to encounter should the brahmins condescend to enter into the arena against the maimed and crippled gladiators that presume to grapple with their faith? What can be apprehended but the disgrace and dis- comfiture of whole hosts of tub preachers in the con-' flict?" Mr, Marsh then proceeded to upbraid Mr. Grant, one of the Directors, for objecting to the introduction of merchants into India, who from motives of self-interest would be likely to pursue a conciliatory course, while he saw no danger in opening every port to swarms of missionaries and hosts of fanatics, men whose nature and character it was to consider themselves absolved from all human restraints, and free from all human motives, in effecting the object of their calling. He thought it strange that those who considered the prejudices of the natives so immutable that they w^ould not buy our woollens, should yet think them prepared to receive the coarsest texture of theology that could be dealt out from the shops of the Anabaptists, or woven in the loom of their fevered and fanatic fancies. It is in vain to tell them that every European throat will be cut if the missionaries are encouraged, and the attempt at con- version persisted in. The answer is, — These are ridiculous fears, bugbears, to use the phrase of Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. Marsh affirmed that if we adopted the opinions uttered in that House of the degradation of the natives, 36 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. we were unfit to govern them. He denied the fact of their moral and intellectual inferiority, and burst forth in a transcendental rhapsody at the contemplation of their ancient and venerable institutions : " When I turn to her philosophers, lawyers, and moralists who have left the oracles of political and ethical wisdom, to restrain the passions and awe the vices which disturb the common- wealth ; when I look at the peaceful and harmonious alli- ance of families guarded and secured by the household virtues ; when I see among a cheerful and well-ordered society the benignant and softening influences of religion and morality, a system of manners founded on a system of mild and polished obeisance, and preserving the surface of social life smooth and unruffled, I cannot hear without surprise, mingled with horror, of sending out Baptists and Anabaptists to civilise or convert such a people, at the hazard of disturbing or deforming institutions which appear hitherto to have been the means ordained by Providence for making them virtuous and happy.'* He pursued at great length the same strain of inflated eulogy of the Hindoo institutions, extenuating all the vices of the native character, and maintaining that even the rite of female immolation was only an erroneous in- terpretation of Hindoo ordinances, an aberration from its principles, and by no means a necessary consequence of its precepts. He dwelt with peculiar force on the absti- nence from intoxicating liquors which had been enjoined in the Shasters, and which would be overthrown by the introduction of Christianity. ** In exchange for this virtue, they will have been initiated into the mysteries of election and reprobation. I leave it to those who are versed in moral calculations to decide what will have been gained to ourselves by giving them Calvinism and fer- mented liquors ; and whether predestination and gin would be a compensation to the natives of India for the changes which will overwhelm their habits, morals, and religion." 18 13.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 37 Mr. Wilberforce rose after Mr. Marsh, and at once entered upon a vindication of the Serampore mission- aries. " With the well-founded claims which Mr.wuberforce-s on a former evening I stated them to have to '^'=J°'"''"- your respect, it will not, I trust, be very injurious to them to have this night received in this House the con- temptuous appellations of Anabaptists and fanatics. . . . For my own part, I have lived too long to be much affected by such epithets, whether applied to others or to myself. But I confess it was not without some surprise, as well as concern, that I heard these missionaries spoken of in a style like this, by a gentleman whose eloquent exhibition this day certainly indicates a liberal education and an instructed mind. I should have conceived that the missionaries would have been shielded against sucli attacks as these from any assailant of a cultivated mind by their having conceived and planned, and in the face of much opposition undertaken, and so long persevered in carrying on, at a vast expense of time, and study, and money, such dignified, beneficial and disinterested labours." — "Anabaptists and flmatics ! These, Sir, are men not to be so disposed of. Far different was the impression which they produced on the mind of the Marquis Wellesley, far different the language he had bestowed on them. While in India he patronised their literary labours, and very lately in another place, publicly and on a solemn occasion, after describing with a singu- lar felicity of expression which must have fixed his words in every hearer's memory, their claim to the protection though not to the direct encouragement of Government, he did them the honour of stating that, though he had no concern with them as missionaries, they were known to him as men of learning. In fact. Sir, the qualifications which several of them have exhibited are truly extraor- dinary. And, while the thoughts of a Christian observer of them and of their past and present circumstances would naturally dwell upon that providential ordination D 3 38 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. by which such uncommon men had been led to engage in that important service, and would thence perhaps derive no ill-grounded hope of the ultimate success of their labours, even a philosophical mind, if free from prejudice, could not but recognise in them an extraor- dinary union of various, and in some sort contradictory, qualities — zeal combined with meekness, love with sobriety, courage and energy with prudence and perse- verance. To this assemblage I may also add another union, which, if less rare, is still uncommon, — great animation and diligence as students with no less assiduity and efficiency as missionaries. When to these qualifi- cations we superadd that generosity, which, if exercised in any other cause, would have received as well as deserved the name of splendid munificence, and when we call to mind that it is by motives of unfeigned, though it had been misguided, benevolence, that tliese men were prompted to quit their native country and devote them- selves for life to their beneficent labours, is there not on the whole, a character, justly entitled, at least, to com- mon respect? And may I not justly charge it to the score of prejudice that the honourable gentleman here can find only objects of contempt and aversion ? For my part. Sir, I confess the sensations excited in my mind are of a very difiPerent kind, and I would express them in the words, if I could remember them with accuracy, which were used by a learned prelate. Bishop Hurd, on a similar occasion, by acknowledging, that I can only admire that eminence of merit which I despair myself to reach, and bow before such exalted virtue." Mr. Wilberforce then entered at great length on a discussion of the causes of the Vellore mutiny, and asked whether there was any attempt more atrociously unfair than to charge that event on the missionaries and the circulation of the Scriptures. He alluded with great effect to the various innovations which had been made in India with perfect safety, though they involved the 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAIklPORE MISSION. 39 national prejudices, on which the people were said to feel so sensitive, and he showed that this state of the Indian empire was such as to render it highly desirable to in- troduce Christianity into it ; that the idea of its being impracticable was contrary to reason and experience, and that the attempt might be made without any danger, if made with prudence and caution. He said that the pro- posal which had been opposed so virulently was not that Government should embark in tlie great, good, and glorious work of imparting our religion and morals to the natives, but that we should not substantially and in effect prevent others from engaging in it. "Shall we now, in defiance of the common principles of toleration, lay the religion we ourselves profess under such a restraint in any part of our dominions ? No, Sir, it is impossible ; you will not, you cannot act thus. If Christianity should be the only untolerated religion in the British dominions in India, the evil would not stop there. The want of toleration would not be a mere negative mischief; the severest persecution must infallibly ensue. For, assuredly there are, and, by God's help, I trust there ever will be, both European and native teachers, prepared even in the fiice of death itself to diffuse the blessed truths of Chris- tianity." With what irresistible force might Mr. Wilber- force have illustrated this position — that the refusal of to- leration would lead to the severest persecution — if he had then been acquainted with the transactions of the previous twelvemonth, and could have informed the House that while Lord Teignmouth and Lord Wellesley claimed credit for having exerted the invidious power of depor- tation on only one occasion in their respective adminis- trations, and then only in a case of extreme provocation and political necessity, Lord Minto had peremptorily ordered eight Christian teachers out of the country, whose only offence was that they were in India without a license, which he knew would have been refused, how- ever earnestly it might have been sought. At the con- D 4 40 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. elusion of his address, Mr. Wilberforce adverted to the inconsistency of Mr. Marsh, in professing the most pro- found respect for Christianity, and at tlie same time ex- pressing the highest veneration for the Hindoo rehgion and morality. " All this," said he, "might be right or might be wrong, but after such sentiments have been uttered, and received with exulting approbation by the opponents of missions, let it no longer be said that we are all of one mind, all wishing alike for the diffusion of Christianity, but differing only as to the mode of accom- plishing that desirable object. No, Sir, the question is now placed on its true basis, and it clearly appears to be no other than this, whether, as Christianity is the reli- gion of the British empire in Europe, the religion of Brahma and Vishnoo is not to be the acknowledged system of our Asiatic dominions. The question we are now deciding involves not the prosperity, nor the life merely of a single individual, but the religious and moral interests, the temporal, at once, and the eternal welfare of sixty milhons of our fellow-subjects." — Mr. Prendergast repeated the arguments he had used on a former occasion against the principle of the preamble, and, according to the report published in the " Times " of the 2nd July, 1813, "felt himself called upon to restate that he had seen Dr. Carey standing on a hogshead, and heard him tell the people that if they continued in their paganism and idolatry, hell fire would be their portion ; and that Dr. Carey was preserved only by the interposition of the police." "The attempt to convert tlie Hindoos," said he, " was the most absurd infatuation that ever besotted the weakest mind." But the infatuation had happily besotted the House, and on a division, the cause of missions tri- umphed by a majority of 22, the votes for the clause being 54, and those for the amendment only 32. The anti-missionary party made a final effort to ex- punge the missionary clause from the Bill when the report was brought up on the 12th of July. Mr. Keene attacked the Serampore missionaries, and declared that 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 41 they had, from their own press, published an address to all the inhabitants of India, announcing their intention to preach to them a new faith, and callino; on , , ■I . . Subsequent de- them to renounce the superstitions of their an- lnu,n?ofthe cestors. This was surely an act of great impru- "'""""'' "'''''• dence, and, as such, had been censured by the Govern- ment. If such things had been done formerly, it was not likely that, under the present Bill, they would occur less frequently. Mr. Robinson, " in pathetic terms," as the report says, prayed that *'the House would not sanction that clause of the Bill which gave full toleration to mis- sionaries to proceed indiscriminately from this country to convert the Hindoos from a religion to the doctrines of which they were so much attached." Mr. Forbes re- newed his protest against the missionary clause. In the previous debate, Mr. William Smith, the member for Norwich, had asserted that there was fanaticism in indif- ference as well as in religion, and Mr. Forbes endea- voured to vindicate himself from the charge of indiffer- ence by informing the House that his father and his brother were clergymen, that he intended to make his son a clergyman, and that when in India he had assisted in translating the four gospels into Hindostanee. But he said he felt the same hostihty as ever to the clause which allowed missionaries to proceed to India, and that it was the opinion of ninety-nine out of every hundred of those acquainted with India that Christian missions would be attended with the worst possible effects. An amendment was therefore moved, in the last stage of the Bill, to omit the clause altogether, but only twenty-four voted in flivour of it, and forty-eight against it. The Bill passed the third reading on the 13th of July, and put an end to the hostility which the Government of India, both at home and abroad, had manifested tow^ards the cause of missions for twenty years, and to the contumely and per- secutions to which the missionaries in India had so long been subject. The sanctiort of the British legislature 42 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. was now given to the introduction of Christian truth in India ; and thus did the Serampore missionaries, who had fought the battle of missions in that country alone and unaided, with a calm courage and a sacred resolution, find their reward in the triumph of the cause. The progress of the Bill through the House of Lords was marked by none of that opposition to the missionary clause which had been manifested in the Com- Biu in the House nioos. Thcrc were no "old Indians" amono; of Lords. _ ... . . the peers, with Asiatic feelings and prejudices, anxious to exalt the virtues of Hindooism and to exclude the light of Christian truth. Of the fifty witnesses ex- amined by them, only one, Sir John Malcolm, was required to give his opinion on the subject of missions ; but though he apprehended the most dangerous consequences, not merely from the attempt to introduce the Christian reli- gion among the natives of India, but from the growth of any impression that such an attempt would be made, yet this portion of his evidence was evidently given with much reluctance, and from the most conscientious motives. His long residence in the East, the associations in which he had lived from his boyhood, and the opinions which predominated in every rank of society, had given an Oriental bias to his views, which influenced his evidence. On the 9th of April, Lord Wellesley reviewed the whole question of the Indian administration and the scheme proposed by Lord Castlereagh on the 22nd of the pre- ceding month, and he did not forget the promise he had made to Mr. Fuller to bear testimony to the exemplary deportment of the Serampore missionaries. At the close of his speech, he alluded to the subject of missions, and said that, as to the benefit of extending the blessings of Christianity to the natives, no one was less willing than himself to throw a shade over so bright a prospect ; but lie must say that if they expected success, it must pro- ceed from gradual and temperate proceedings. With re- gard to the missionaries, he must say, that while he was 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 43 in India, he never knew of any danger arising from their proceedings, neither had he heard of any impression pro- duced by them in the way of conversion. The , •^ *' Lord Wellesley s greater number of them were in the Danish reramp?re°mll? settlement of Serampore ; but he never heard ''""*"'^'- of any convulsions or any alarm produced by them. Some of them, particularly Mr. Carey, were very learned men, and had been employed in the College of Fort Wil- liam. He had always considered the missionaries who were in India in his time a quiet, orderly, discreet, and learned body ; and he had employed them in the educa- tion of youth and the translation of the Scriptures into the eastern languages. He had thought it his duty to have the Sacred Scriptures translated into the languages of the East, and to give the learned natives employed in the translation the advantage of access to the sacred fountain of divine truth. He thought a Christian go- vernor could not have done less ; and he knew that a British governor ought not to do more. From various allusions to this speech in contemporary correspondence, there is every reason to believe that it was imperfectly reported, and that Lord Wellesley's eulogium of the Se- rampore missionaries was of a much stronger cast. Such testimony, from a statesman of his eminence and great local experience, was of signal service to the cause of missions at a time when the question of permitting the introduction of the Gospel in India was made to turn mainly on the conduct and character of the Serampore missionaries. While the opponents of the cause repre- sented them as a body of fanatics and incendiaries, whose continuance in India was fraught with the most imminent danger to the British empire, this generous vindication of them by that illustrious Governor-General told with great effect on the public mind, and served to neutralise the denunciations of Mr. Marsh, Mr. Lushington, and Mr. Prendergast. The latter, indeed, endeavoured to weaken tlie force of Lord Wellesley's statement by asserting that 44 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION, [Chap. X. Dr. Carey had conducted liimself with great propriety during his administration, but had broken loose from all restraints after his departure. The Charter Act of 1813 is memorable, not only for the facilities which it provided for the first time for the diffusion of Christian truth in India, but also Change of policy p ,i i /2 • i 1 • ,1 • • 1 r created by the tor tuc Denehcial chan2:e m the prmciples ot our Bill. , ^ '-'^ . eastern policy, which it may be said to have inaugurated. For more than fifty years after tiie battle of Plassey, India was regarded as a dependency to be administered, primarily, for the benefit of the East India Company, and, secondarily, for the advantage of England. The exclusive enjoyment of its com- merce and government by the East India Company for so long a period, had imperceptibly led to its being considered rather the domain of a corporation than a Kfviewofthe natioual possession. Every attempt to throw old policy. open the country to national enterprise was regarded as an encroachment on vested riglits. The narrow, and to a certain extent selfish, views wdiich appear inseparable from the privileges of a close corpora- tion, came thus to be applied to the government of sixty millions of people. The trade was conducted on the principle of Queen Elizabeth's monopolies, who gave the Company its first charter, and it was the last remaining vestige of that ancient policy. Ail offices of any value were bestowed exclusively on the covenanted servants of the Company, who, after amassing fortunes in India, came home and obtained seats in the Direction, and sent out another generation of relatives to make fortunes in their turn. None but the servants and dependents of the corporation could enter the country without a licence, and every independent European was regarded as an interloper, liable to be deported whenever his presence became in any measure obnoxious. The government was administered by Britons and Christians, and, as might have been expected, there was the most laudable desire 18l:j.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrOEE MISSION. 45 to protect the people from oppression, but there was at the same time an invincible re})ugnance to the communi- cation of any knowledge which might promote moral and intellectual elevation, or create aspirations which v/ere considered dangerous. But the period had now arrived for the introduction of a more liberal and enliohtened o system. Tim.e had brought about a change of circum- stances, which necessitated a change of policy. In spite of every prohibition, Europeans had forced their way to India, , and more than three thousand had established themselves in the capital and provinces of the Bengal Pre- sidency. This encroachment on their preserve had been winked at by the Indian authorities, and the odious power of expulsion was rarely resorted to. The trade had also been partially opened to stop the clamors of the mercan- tile community, and a certain amount of the Company's tonnage had been allotted to private enterprise. This private traffic had doubled in amount and profit, while the commerce of the Company, conducted without eco- nomy, and with the usual waste of monopolies, had entailed a loss of four millions in nineteen years. In the interval between the charter of 1793 and 1813, new manufacturing interests had arisen in England, and begun to exert an influence on the national councils. Man- chester was rising into a power. The manufacturers and merchants of England now came forward, and, in a voice too loud and too unanimous to be despised, demanded a participation in the trade of India, and permission for Englishmen freely to resort to it. These demands were embodied in numerous petitions from the seats of manu- flicturing industry and from the various seaports, and the Ministry were constrained to bend to what was incon- trovertibly the national will. It was the demand for commercial privileges which first opened the eyes of the Ministry to the fact, that they could not consistently refuse the grant of religious privileges also ; and thus commerce became in some measure the handmaid of religion, and, 46 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. X. under their combined influence, the gates of India were opened at once to the cottons of England and the truths of the Bible. In the innovations proposed by the Ministry, the Directors and proprietors of the East India Company saw nothing; but destruction to the British Opposition of the , . , ^P, , , . ^ , . Kast India Com- empu'c HI tuc Last, auQ the rum ot their own paiiy to the iniio- r ' vation. particular interests. Those who had passed their lives in the atmosphere of the India House, as well as those who were under its influence, were indelibly impressed with the conviction that India would be lost to Eno-land unless it was administered, not merely by the East India Company, but by that Company on tlie pre- scriptive and exclusive principles which had been handed down from generation to generation. They considered the struggle to involve their very existence, and they determined to resist with vigour every attempt to sub- vert the established system of polity, both commercial and relio'ious. They brought forward more than fifty witnesses of all classes, ex-governors-general and ex-mem- bers of council, civil functionaries and military officers, shipowners and ship-captains, tea-brokers and merchants, commissioners of customs and commissioners of excise, v/ho strenuously endeavoured to convince the Lords and Commons of the impolicy and danger of throwing the trade of India open to the public and allowing the free admission of Europeans to that country. They main- tained that the exports from England to India had reached the utmost limit, and that the habits of the natives, which were unchangeable, precluded every chance of increase. The resort of Europeans would, they asserted, lead to such a violation of native prejudices as to endan- ger our sovereignty. These doctrines were maintained, not only by the interested partisans of the Company, but by men who were justly entitled to be considered the most eminent authorities on Indian questions, by Mr. Hastings, Sir Thomas Munro, and Sir John Malcolm, by Explanation of views of In- stati'smen 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 47 Lord Wellesley and Lord Teignmouth, as well as by Mr. Thornton and Mr. Charles Grant. It would be an act of injustice in those who enjoy the benefit of subsequent experience, to attribute these senti- ments to narrow and illiberal views. Men who merely echoed, the traditions of a corpo- iltn\ j_' • ,^ 1 • , i j_l • on the old policy. ration with whose interests their own were closely identified, the Montgomerys, the Lushingtons, the Prendergasts, may be dismissed without any ceremony, but the illustrious statesmen named above were actuated by loftier and more patriotic motives. They regarded Lidia as the brightest jewel of the Crown, and, in a spirit of genuine philanthropy, opposed every measure which ap- peared likely to diminish its security. The opinion that the British dominion in the East would be imperilled by an influx of Europeans, whom the laws might be unable to restrain from excesses, was the opinion of the age. The great men who had contributed to build up the empire, had no experience of any other system, and found it difficult to separate the idea of ruin from innovation. One statesman, however, stood forward at this crisis, and covered himself with lasting honour by the large and comprehensive views whicti he advocated. The Ministry had opened the trade with great reluctance, under the pressure of public opinion, and the privileges they were unable to refuse, were fettered by every restriction they could safely impose. But the proposals of Lord Gren- ville, regarding the government of India, embodied in his speech on the Charter Act, were based upon the broadest and most enlightened views, and exhibited an originality of conception, which showed how far he was ahead of the age. His sentiments were enforced by strong arguments and a commanding eloquence. He not only advocated the admission of British traders to the commerce of India, but considered the blended character of merchant and sovereign an anomaly inconsistent with all true principles of government. No sovereign, he asserted, had ever 48 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. X. traded to profit, and no trading company bad ever ad- ministered government for the happiness of the subject. He proposed to govern India in the name of the Crown, as an integral part of the British dominions, and to throw the appointments of the civil service open to competition. He said be was not indifferent to the odium be might incur by shocking the prejudices of many individuals be personally respected, and opposing the interest of bodies of the greatest weight, authority, and influence in the community. But these, and every other consideration, were subordinate in his mind to the great question, by what pobtical and by what commercial arrangements can the British Parliament best provide for the happiness of the people of India ? His speech excited great surprise at the time, and has been regarded with undiminished admiration since. It was in itself a great event in the history of British India. It propounded original and important principles, which have gradually become triumphant with the progress of time and events. The charter of 1813 was the commencement of a new era, when the first experiment was made, under the irresistible influence of public opinion, to im- prove our eastern })olicy. It made the first great breach in the old prescriptive system which bad flourished for fifty-six years. The current of liberal opinions was now brought to bear on the prejudices which protected the old edifice, and gradually under- mined its foundations, and at length swept it away alto- gether. There remains scarcely a vestige of it, except on the page of history. Instead of a few subjugated pro- vinces, governed upon the most narrow principles, and administered for the benefit of a London corporation, we have now the majestic spectacle of a mighty empire, larger than that of imperial Rome, held by the foremost of civilised nations, on the avowed principle of commu- nicating to its inhabitants the blessings of social, in- tellectual, and spiritual improvement. We are no longer The charter the cninmenceinenc of the new era. 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 49 required to believe that the mission of England in the eastern hemisphere is to export native fabrics, or to import British manufactures. Our vocation is to plant the seeds of European civilisation, and the principles of Christianity. The gloomy forebodings of danger and of failure, which were proclaimed with great confidence to deter Parliament from the experiment, have been shown by experience to be chimerical. The trade to India, which was affirmed to be incapable of increase, has been augmented from two millions a year to twelve. The habits of the natives, which were said to be unchangeable, have yielded to the unrestricted introduction of British manufactures, and the genial influence of British institutions. Europeans have been allowed not only to resort to India, but to acquire a settlement in it, and there has been no violation of national prejudices ; and, at the time these pages are passing .through the press, a Parliamentary Committee is engaged in devising plans for European colonisation, as the most effectual means of strengthening and confirming British rule in India. Above all, missionaries have resorted with- out restriction to every division of the empire, and enjoyed perfect liberty of the press : they have come in contact with the strongest religious prejudices of the people, and have distributed thousands of tracts exhibiting the ab- surdities of Hindoo superstition, in language more fervid than that which was considered fifty years ago ceitain to lead to an explosion ; and, during the formidable rebellion of 1857, when the whole of the north-west provinces was in a blaze of revolt, and the most strenuous eflPort was made to expel us from the country, the missionaries were treated with uniform deference and respect by the most influential classes in native society. The charter provided for the appointment of a bishop and three archdeacons. Dr. Buchanan may be considered as the parent of the Indian episcopate. Eight years before this period, he had published a ^'^'^'^''3'"'^""^°'^ work, to which allusion has already been made, VOL. II. E 50 HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap.X. urging the policy of an *' ecclesiastical establishment '* for British India. When the charter discussions were about to commence, he revised the sketch of the *' Es- tablishment," which was extensively circulated among the dignitaries of the Church and the public men of the day. His proposal was most welcome to the framers of the India Bill. It enabled them to claim credit for not being in- different to the interests of religion in India, and, for a time, to evade the growing importunity for leave to send missionaries there. But Lord Castlereagh unmercifully curtailed the proportions of the project, and, instead of the archbishop, and three bishops, and twelve arch- deacons, whom Dr. Buchanan had required, conceded only one bishop and three archdeacons. In the Bill presented to the House on the 21st of June, it was provided that the bishops and archdeacons "should not iiave any dealings and transactions by way of traffic or commerce of any kind whatsoever." But this clause was eventually struck out on the ground that the insinuation it implied was derogatory to the clerical character, and that the rule was altogether unnecessary. The mem- bers of the House appear to have been utterly ignorant of the fact, that the chaplains of the Company had from time immemorial been engaged in trade as earnestly, and often as successfully, as any senior or junior merchant, and that, not fifteen years before this time, three chaplains had returned to England with fortunes amassed in commer- cial pursuits. The exclusive devotion of the clergymen of the Church of England to the sacred duties of their call- ing, in India, was to be traced to the influence of Brown and Buchanan, who set a noble example of Christian liberality and zeal, and who, in conjunction with Martyn and Corrie, contributed to introduce a higher tone in the body of which they were the distinguished ornaments. The mitre of India belonged of right to Dr. Buchanan, but he was suffering from a stroke of paralysis, and his spirits were crushed by the loss of his wife six months 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 51 before the passing of the Bill ; he could not therefore have accepted the appointment, even if it had been offered to him. It only remains to be noticed, in connection with the India Bill of 1813, that immediately before it was passed, a clause was introduced in reference to educa- . I- ,. I'll 1 1 Appropriation of tion in India, which has been erroneously as- f^^ds for eauca- ' '' tion. sumed to mark the first, and therefore the most important step, in the adoption of a generous and liberal policy. But it is now known to have been inserted by the Earl of Buckinghamshire, at the instance of some member of the House of Commons, who had resided in India, and become orientalised. It provided that a sum of not less than one lac of rupees — 10,000/. — a year should be applied to *' the revival and improvement of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India." This appropriation has been the germ of that enlightened system of education which Government has subsequently established in India ; but it was made for the promotion of Hindoo learning, and the encouragement of the doctrines contained in the Vedas and the Poorans. It was this circumstance, combined with the proviso that the grant was to be paid only out of any *' surplus which might remain of the rents, reve- nues, and profits of our territorial acquisitions" — always a most improbable contingency — that reconciled the Court of Directors and their adherents to the measure. It was a miserable pittance to be applied to the object of public instruction out of a revenue of fifteen millions, and even that pittance was to be misapplied. 52 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. CHAP. XL In resuming the narrative of events at Serampore, the first occurrence of interest is the estabHshment of a mission at Sirdhana, in the north-west pro- Mission to sird- . Til 1 1 T» T /^l 1 hana-Begum vmccs. It uas becu stated that Mr. Lhamber- Sumroo. lain had been sent back to the presidency from Agra, in 1812, under a guard, in consequence of a difference with the commandant. A few days before he quitted the station, he received a pressing invitation from Colonel Dyce, to settle at Sirdhana, and superintend the education of his children. Sirdhana was the capital of a small principality, eleven miles north-west of Meerut, in which the Begam Sumroo had for many years exercised the independence of an Indian feudatory. She was the beautiful daughter of a Mogul nobleman, who emigrated to India, and having experienced a reverse of for- tune, was fain to bestow her on a successful German adventurer, Walter Reynaud. This man has acquired an infamous notoriety in the annals of British India, by the cold-blooded murder of sixty Europeans, who had fallen into the hands of the nabob Cossim Ali Khan, in 1763. When the nabob was obliged to flee from Moorshedabad, on the advance of a British army, he resolved to wreak his vengeance on his English prisoners, and commanded his Mahommedan soldiers to slaughter them. They said they were soldiers, and not executioners, and refused to imbrue their hands in the blood of unarmed and defence- less men. The German then offered his services, and deliberately put the captives to death. The nabob was chased from his dominions, and obliged to seek a refuge at one of the native courts. Reynaud, who had now assumed the name of Sumroo, was among the first to 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 53 desert his ruined fortunes. He proceeded towards Delhi, collected a body of free lances, and, in the con- fusion of the times, contrived to carve out a little princi- pality for himself at Sirdhana, which he bequeathed to his widow on his death. The territory was about twenty miles in length, and twelve in breadth. By her courage and tact she succeeded in preserving her authority amidst the incessant revolutions of that turbulent period, and was treated with great consideration, both by the Mah- rattas and the English. About the beginning of the century, an East Indian, of the name of Dyce, who had received his education at the Military Orphan Institution in Calcutta, and had benefited by the religious instruc- tion of the master, Mr. Burney, a nephew of Madame D'Arblay, proceeded to the north-west in quest of em- ployment. He was taken into the service of the Begum Sumroo, and rose rapidly in her confidence, and received the hand of her granddaughter. She likewise intrusted him with the management of her affairs, and the command of her little army, consisting of three battalions, and sixty guns. She had embraced the Roman Catholic faith, from deference to her husband's wishes, but treated all Christians who resorted to her court with equal hos- pitality. Colonel Dyce was anxious that his children, the offspring of this marriage, should be trained up in his own Protestant creed, and invited Mr. Chamberlain to take the charge of their education. He replied, that it was necessary for him to consult his brethren at Serampore ; and that if he eventually accepted the offer, it must be on the condition of being allowed to pursue his missionary labours without any restriction. The overture was re- newed with increased importunity after Mr. Chamber- lain's return to Serampore. Dr. Carey and his colleagues were anxious to extend the mission to the north-west, and advised Mr. Chamberlain to accept the proposal. He accordingly left Serampore at the beginning of the year, and on his arrival at Futtyghur, found an escort of cavalry E 3 54 HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. and elephants sent by the Begum to conduct him to her capital. As his way lay through Agra, he entered the town with this military cortege^ eight months after he had been ignominiously expelled from it by Colonel Bowie, and sent down in charge of a native guard. Though no express permission had been obtained from the govern- ment of Calcutta, he was allowed to pursue his journey to Sirdhana without interruption. The Begum and Colonel Dyce received him with much cordiality, and he was duly installed in his office of preceptor to the boy, who, at a subsequent period, became an object of national interest in England as Mr. Dyce Sombre, entered Par- liament for the borough of Sudbury, married into the English aristocracy, and died some years ago under the imputation of insanity. Mr. Chamberlain was required to attend his pupil three or four hours daily, but the re- mainder of his time was left at his own disposal, and was devoted to the superintendence of schools, the work of translation, and the preaching of tlie Gospel to those whom he could prevail on to attend. But he had, nevertheless, to lament the loss of those unfettered opportunities of missionary journeying he had formerly enjoyed, and which few men have ever more diligently improved. The mission to Burmah was now become as great a source of anxiety to the missionaries at Serampore, as it had once been of exultation ; and circumstances mah-American arosc which Icd to its cvcntual transfer to their missionaries. 'ii ti*ii American brethren. In this, the last occasion on which it will be necessary to notice that mission, the narrative will be extended beyond the present year. The king at Ava, on hearing of the novel system of vacci- nation Mr. Felix Carey had introduced into the country, was desirousof giving the children in the royal household the benefit of it, and desired that he would repair to the capital. It was necessary, however, to procure a fresh supply of lymph from Bengal, and Mr. Carey was directed to proceed to Calcutta for that purpose, at the king's 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 55 expense. This circumstance was hailed with delight by Dr. Carey and his associates, because it appeared likely to result in the establishment of a mission at Ava; but it proved fatal to Mr. Carey's usefulness. He visited Calcutta, and returned to Burmah, with ample means of extending the blessing of vaccination through the country. The press, which had been sent from Seram- ])ore for the printing of the Scriptures, Mr. Carey was desired by the king to bring with him to Ava. About the middle of the year 1814, he embarked with the press and his family for the capital ; but he had scarcely left Rangoon, when the vessel was capsized by a sudden squall, and his wife and two children were drowned. After some ineffectual efforts to rescue them, Mr. Carey was enabled to save his own life by swimming to the shore. The press was irrecoverably lost ; but Mr. Carey was graciously received by the Burmese monarch on his arrival at the capital, notwithstanding the disappointment of his hopes regarding the wonderful machine which was to multiply the copies of his edicts. The loss of Mr. Carey's property was compensated by a donation from the treasury, and he was decorated with a title, and persuaded to go to Calcutta, as the king's representative, to bring to a termination some negotiations which were pending with the British Government. He now appeared in Cal- cutta in the character of a Burmese noble ; assumed a diplomatic costume, and proceeded through the streets with fifty followers. His father was greatly annoyed at this ridiculous transformation, and, in a letter to Mr. Fuller, said that his son " had sunk from a missionary to an ambassador." The political negotiations intrusted to him, for which he had no aptitude, proved unsuccessful, which brought down on him the severe displeasure of the Burmese monarch ; and on his return to llangoon, he found it more advisable to fly the country, than to proceed to the capital. But, what was far more deplorable, this secular excitement produced a fatal indifference to his E 4 56 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. missionary vocation, and for several years he was entirely lost to the cause. He wandered among the independent provinces to the east of Bengal, and passed through a series of adventures by land and by sea, which would appear incredible even in a novel. At one time he re- paired to the court of one of the barbarous chiefs on the frontier, and was constituted his prime minister and generalissimo ; and led his forces to a conflict with the Burmese, in which, from his utter ignorance of even the rudiments of military science, he was ignominiously de- feated, and obliged to take refuge in the jungles. After three years of this wild and romantic life, he accidentally fell in with Mr. Ward, at Chittagong, and was persuaded to return to repose and usefulness at Serampore. The missionary field, now deserted in Burmah, was speedily occupied by Mr. Judson and his friends. Thus, at the time when the Burmese mission appeared to be an irretrievable wreck, it was taken up by a body of men of invincible perseverance, who brought into the mis- sionary field all that splendid energy which has ren- dered the United States the phenomenon of history. For a period of more than forty years, the American missionaries have pursued their labours in that country with unexampled zeal and success ; and the Burmese mission confessedly stands at the head of our modern missionary enterprises. It realises all that has been affirmed of the almost fabulous success of Xavier ; while it exhibits a more rigid and substantial enforcement of Christian principles and practice. When the American missionaries first made their appearance at Serampore, in 1812, Dr. Carey wrote to Mr. Fuller, " I have Httle hope from the Americans, if they should stay in the East. American habits are too luxurious for a preparation to live among savages." But Dr. Carey lived long enough to correct this hasty and unfavourable opinion, and his mistrust of American missionaries, was exchanged for admiration. During the forty-five years which have 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 57 elapsed since that remark was written, they have been distinguished by a most exemplary combination of self- denial in regard to their personal comforts, and the highest zeal and devotion to the cause. The spirit of economy in which they have acted, has, indeed, been sometimes carried to an injudicious excess, and proved in- jurious alike to their own constitutions and — owing to the interruption of their labours — to the missionary cause ; while the expense of medical drugs atid attendance, and of home voyages to recruit health, has exceeded what might have been necessary to maintain it unimpaired. It is becoming daily more evident, that, for the regeneration of the heathen world, we must look as much, perhaps even more, to the resources of America, which are per- petually expanding with the increase of its population, as to the comparatively stationary strength of England. Mr. Judson, and his companion Mr. Rice, in the prospect of coming in contact with their Baptist brethren at Serampore, employed themselves during the voyage in reviewing the arguments in favour mov^mTnT.n the of infant baptism. But they found, on their nauon inTiie-' . . . rica. arrival, that this was the only topic on which the Serampore missionaries could not be prevailed to enter. They were too earnestly engrossed in their great work, and too happy to welcome new labourers into the field, to waste their time in the discussion of any minor question. But, as Mr. Judson and Mr. Rice stated to their friends in America, this investigation resulted in a change in their own views on this subject ; and, after they had been several weeks at Serampore, they requested to be baptized by immersion on a confession of faith. This circumstance appeared to their minds to dissolve their connection with the Congregational Board, and they honourably forbore to draw on their funds, though in a foreign land without any means of support. But their friends at Serampore removed all anxiety by a liberal offer of assistance till new arrangements could be made in 58 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. America. Mr. Judson was at first desirous of offering his services to the Baptist Missionary Society in England, but the Serampore missionaries urged him rather to throw himself on the sympathies and resources of the Baptist denomination in the United States, and thus con- strain it to establish a distinct missionary agency. Mr. Judson and his companion, driven from Calcutta by the opposition of the British Government, took shelter at the Isle of France, which was under the government of the Crown. From thence Mr. Rice proceeded to America, in the hope of creating an interest in their situation in the denomination with which they were now connected in sentiment. Mr. Judson determined to attempt the estab- lishment of a mission at Penang ; but, finding no vessel at the Mauritius for that port, ventured to embark for Madras, and again to set foot on the inhospitable shores of British India, in the hope of finding a vessel for Penang in the Roads. His arrival was immediately reported to the Supreme Council in Calcutta ; and in the existing temper of the secretaries, whose influence was predomi- nant, there could be little doubt that the return post would bring an order for his deportation to England. There was no vessel at Madras bound to Penang, and only an old and crazy craft on the eve of sailing to Rangoon. But time pressed, and Mr. and Mrs. Judson hastened to embark in her, and after having been exposed during the voyage to the most imminent danger of ship- wreck, reached Rangoon on the 13th of July, and com- menced the American mission to Burmah. These events produced an electric effect in America. A feeling of attachment to missionary exertions had been gradually growing up in the Baptist denomination. The names of Carey, Marshman, and Ward were familiar to men in every circle ; but no attempt had been made as yet to organise an independent missionary association, though the denomination was numerically the largest in the United States. The adoption of their distinctive senti- 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 59 ments by two missionaries already in the field, who now looked to them for support, aroused all the slumbering energies of the body. Associations for foreign missions were formed in the principal towns, and a Central Society was established at Boston, which immediately assumed the responsibility of supporting Mr. Judson and Mr. Rice. But the same feeling of diffidence which charac- terised the first movements of the Congregational Board, and led them to seek a close alhance with the London Missionary Society, induced the new Baptist Board to desire that the missionaries whom they had undertaken to support should be associated with the Serampore missionaries, and act under their directions. It was re- marked, that " their acquaintance with the country, the manners, prejudices, and superstitions of the people, their knowledge of the missionary efforts most likely, under the blessing of God, to be efficient, the result of twenty years of experience, their weight of years, their unshaken fortitude, intense zeal, and unquestionable inte- grity, and their disinterested course in so glorious a cause, render it very desirable that our brethren should be considered members of the mission family." But Mr. Fuller wisely concurred with his friends at Serampore, in concluding that such a coalition might impair the principle of self-reliance, and that it would be more ad- visable for the churches in America to establish a sepa- rate organisation, and take on themselves the responsi- bility of a distinct circle of missions. Soon after Mr. Rice's arrival in America, he was requested, as the dele- gate of the Boston body, to visit the different sections of the Union, to promote the establishment of a general association. He was received in every quarter with a feeling of enthusiasm. Societies were rapidly formed in various towns, and contributions poured in with unex- pected liberality, in many cases from members of other denominations. The funds were soon found to be suffi- cient for the support of the two missionaries, and also 60 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. for more enlarged operations in this large sphere of labour. Delegates from the different societies which had been formed, met at Philadelphia, on the 18th of May, 1814, and established the " General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions." In the course of the next year, Mr. Hough, who was well versed in the art of printing, was engaged by the . . American Board to labour in Burmah. He Burmese mission tht"BaS Con- callcd at Serampore on his way to Rangoon, vention. ^^^ j>^^ Carcy and his colleagues prepared another printing-press and types to replace that which had been lost in the Rangoon river, and presented it to the American mission. They had now the satisfaction of seeing the field of missionary labour in Burmah, on which they had entered seven years before, occupied by another body of Christian labourers, animated by the same evangelical zeal and sustained by powerful re- sources. They gave expression to their feelings of ex- ultation in a very animated address to the American Convention, in which they said, *' Our attempts in the Burmese empire have ended in the transfer of the mission to brother Judson, and those whom you may send to join liim. Something, however, has been done ; a mission- house has been built, the language has been opened, a grammar printed, materials for a dictionary formed, a small part of the New Testament published, and a number of copies circulated. Should Providence give you favour in the eyes of the Burmese Government, that empire stands in great and pressing need of many more missionaries ; and we would recommend you to send as soon as possible to other places, to Bassein, Ava, Marta- ban, and also to Siam. By thus confining your present efforts to countries the languages of which have a strong affinity, your agents will form a united phalanx, having an immense people of the same manners, prejudices, re- ligion, and government as their object j and being near 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 61 each other, and in the same country, the experience and acquirements of each will come into the common stock, and bear an ample interest." The letter then alludes to the slow but certain triumphs of Christian truth and benevolence in the East. " We are sure to take the fortress, if we can persuade ourselves to sit down long enough before it. And then, very dear brethren, when it shall be said of the scene of our labours : The infamous swinging post is no longer erected — the widow burns no more on the funeral pile — the obscene songs and dances are heard and seen no more — the gods are thrown to the moles and to the bats, and Jesus is known as the God of the whole land — the poor Hindoo goes no more to the Ganges to be w^ashed from his filthiness, but to the Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness — the temples are forsaken, and the crowds say, ' Let us go up to the house of the Lord, and He shall teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His statutes' — the anxious Hindoos no more consume their property, their strength, and their lives in vain pilgrimages, but come at once to Him who can save to the uttermost — the sick and dying are no more dragged to the Ganges, but look to the Lamb of God, and commit their souls into His faithful hands — the children, no more sacrificed to idols, are become the 'seed of the Lord' — the public morals are improved — the language of Canaan is learnt — benevolent societies are formed — civilisation and salvation walk arm in arm together — the desert blossoms — the earth yields her increase — and redeemed souls from the different towns and villages, and cities of this immense country, con- stantly add to the number and swell the chorus of the redeemed — 'Unto Him that washed us from our sins in His own blood, unto Him be the glory' — when this grand result of the labours of God's servants in India shall be realised, shall we then think that we have laboured in vain, and spent our strength for nought ? " At the beginning of this year, the Roman Catholic 62 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. missions to the eastward, which had been conducted for many years with great zeal and success, expe- mSnsto'the"' ricnccd reverses which rendered it necessary to appeal to public liberality. Their means had been seriously impaired by the twenty years' war in Europe, and a destructive fire at Penang had recently destroyed their seminary and their property, and reduced them to destitution. In the address which they published on this occasion in Calcutta, they explained the position and the wants of their missions. Of the missionaries originally sent from Europe, only thirty remained ; and they were laden with years and infirmities. Under their direction, a hundred and twenty priests, natives of Siam, Cochin China, Tonquin, and China, discharged their missionary and pastoral duties among a population of three hundred thousand Christians. To provide these extensive missions with a succession of indigenous mis- sionaries— who have always formed the stamina of the Roman Catholic missions in the East, — a college had been established at Penang. That island was recom- mended to their choice by the convenience of its locality, and by the protection it afforded of a civilised and liberal government. The expenses of the institution had been defrayed chiefly from the rent of houses at Penang, in the purchase of which the little property of the society had been invested. These houses were within the range of the recent conflagration, and the mission was thus brought to the verge of ruin. It was originally connected with the " Society of Foreign Missions in France," but had long ceased to derive any assistance from that distracted country. Liberal contributions had also been received from Mexico, which had relieved their distress, and enabled them to extend their operations. But the property in Penang was their main stay, and the fire had completely prostrated them. Their appeal was not in vain. Some of the most eminent merchants in Calcutta were of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. ^3 contributed liberally, and the opulent Protestants did not withhold their aid. Though they had, perhaps, little religion, they luid great liberality, and sectarian distinc- tions were foreign to the feelings and habits of society. In the report of Translations in the present year, especial reference is made to the important improvement which had been effected in Chinese typo- ,, ,, J r Movable metallic graphy. The first version of the Gospels was ^'""^'^'iP'^s. printed on one side, in accordance with the immemorial usage of China, from wooden blocks, on which the cha- racters were engraved by native workmen. But it was soon apparent that this mode of printing would render the publication of new editions of the Scriptures very expensive and very dilatory. The cost of engraving the blocks must be renewed at each successive edition. It became advisable, therefore, to make an attempt to introduce the more expeditious and economical system of European printing with movable metallic types. To eflfect this, blank cubes of type metal were cast of the usual height of the types, on which the workmen en- graved the Chinese character. The metal type was found to give five times the number of impressions which could be obtained from wooden blocks, without impairing the delicacy of the stroke. The use of separate types, moreover, gave the translator the inestimable advantao-e of making successive corrections in the proof sheet. Where the character was of frequent occurrence, a steel punch was engraved, from which any number of charac- ters could be cast. The native punch cutter had executed a considerable number of these punches before the arrival of Mr. Lawson ; but under his direction the punches were greatly improved in beauty and accuracy. This is one of the most memorable improvements made in Chinese printing since its invention, twenty centuries ago ; not only because it admits of the revision of a work as it passes through the press, but also on the ground of economy. When the requisite punches are once cut, 64 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. founts may be multiplied to any extent, and at much smaller cost than a continuous succession of wooden blocks. This improvement, which originated, and was, to a considerable extent, matured at Serampore, before it was taken up by other missionary bodies, forms an era in the history of Chinese literature ; and it will, doubtless, be adopted by the Chinese themselves, when their stationary civilisation, of which the block printing is a very apt emblem, begins to yield to the impulse of European improvement. Lord Minto's administration was now drawing to a close. He had signified to the Court of Directors the period at which he desired to relinquish the Close of Lord I 'ill • i uilfo^n^muts''' government ; and it has always been considered character. ^^ indispeusablc token of respect to every Governor-General, to time the nomination of his suc- cessor, with reference to this intimation. But the new ministry of Lord Liverpool and the Prince Regent wanted the appointment without delay for Lord Moira, and it was determined to supersede Lord Minto. A majority of the Court of Directors yielded to this royal and ministerial influence, and lent themselves to this discour- teous proceeding. Mr. Charles Grant strongly objected to the new appointment, and more particularly to the ground on which it was based. In December, 1812, he writes to Lord Minto, ** Your lordship is dispossessed of your high station without assigned reason or plea, and before the time you had signified your intention to retire, though that time was near, and your intention known. . . I think the office should not come within the vortex of the ministerial system at home, or be liable to be affected by the fluctuations of party ; and no Governor-General should be removed, abruptly, or contrary to his wishes, without adequate reason." It is a singular coincidence, that it was just at the time when Lord Minto's govern- ment was expelling the missionaries out of Bengal, and from a servile deference to what was considered the 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 65 orders, or the wislies of the Court of Directors, that he himself was unceremoniously removed from his office by that very body. At the same time Sir George Barlow was dismissed from his government at Madras, and his appointment as provisional Governor-General was can- celled, in consequence of the mutiny of the British officers of the Madras army, although Lord Minto had passed a high encomium on his conduct on that occasion. Thus the only two Governors-General who were impli- cated in the banishment of missionaries " in obedience to the standing orders " of the Court of Directors, were themselves dispossessed of their offices by that authority. Lord Minto's administration, though adorned with, the talents of such men as Edmonstone, and Adam, Jenkins, Bayley, and Metcalfe, was characterised only by a dull mediocrity. It was not an age of progression, and the Government was not in advance of the age. No idea of any kind of native education had ever been entertained by any of the public functionaries, beyond the encourage- ment of Hindoo andMahommedan literature. The only minute recorded by Lord Minto, on the subject of public instruction, ran in this channel. In March, 1811, he proposed a plan for the revision of the Hindoo College at Benares, and the establishment of two similar colleges in Tirhoot and at Nuddea. In that document, he la- mented the decay of science and literature among the natives of India, and regretted that a nation like England, "particularly distinguished for its love and successful cultivation of letters in other parts of the empire, should have failed to extend its fostering care to the literature of the Hindoos." " Little doubt," he stated, " could be entertained that the prevalence of the crimes of perjury and forgery, so frequently noticed in the official reports, was in a great measure ascribable, both in the Mahom- medans and the Hindoos, to the want of due instruction in the moral and religious tenets of their own creeds," And it was chiefly on this ground, as well as with a view, VOL. II. F 66 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. as he acknowledged, to the more effectual eradication of dacoity, that he proposed to revive and encourage Hindoo literature. It was under his administration, also, that the Bengal Regulation of 1810, which has been considered a standing reproach to the British Government, was passed. By that act, the conservation of Hindoo and Mahom- medan endowments was made a department of Govern- ment, and its Christian officers were required to superin- tend the repairs of temples and mosques. His adminis- tration was a faithful reflection of that feeling of indiffer- ence to the religious and intellectual improvement of the people of India, and of hostihty to the introduction of sound knowledge and Christian truth, which was then enthroned in Leadenhall Street and Cannon Row, not less than at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Happily it was the last administration founded on these "old Indian" principles. The Charter Act of 1813 introduced a new era, of which his successor was the first minister. Nothing could exceed the kindliness of Lord Minto's personal feelings. There is, moreover, reason to believe that his own views were far more liberal than those of his government ; but he wanted firmness to resist the influ- ence of the clique of secretaries in Calcutta, who had been nursed up in prejudices and despotism. After he became personally acquainted with Dr. Carey, Dr. Marshman, and Mr. Ward, he always treated them with great con- sideration and esteem. Before he quitted the govern- ment, he paid a generous compliment to their worth and labours. He availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the annual disputation of the College of Fort William to state publicly, " I profess a very sincere pleasure in bringing the literary merits of Mr. Marshman and the other reverend members of the Serampore Mission to the notice of the public, and in bearing my testimony to the great and extraordinary labours which constancy and energy in their numerous and various occupations, have enabled this modest and respectable community to accom- 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 67 plish. I am not less gratified by the opportunity which their literary achievements afford of expressing my regard for the exemplary worth of their lives, and the beneficent principle which distinguishes and presides in the various useful establishments which they have formed, and which are conducted by themselves." Lord Minto embarked on the 20th of October, 1813, after a reign of a little more than six years, and reached England in the foUow^- ing March, but died a few months after on his way to his seat in Scotland. Lord Moira's arrival produced an immediate and happy change in the policy of the Government with regard to missions. He did not participate in that morbid dread of missionary efforts which haunted the administMUon. "^ American mis- public functionaries in Calcutta. The chief '^"^^^^^^^ members of the local government were as inimical to such exertions as they had been when Lord Minto entered upon his administration. But the im- portant position which Lord Moira had occupied in the political w'orld at home, combined with his own inde- pendence of character, placed an effective check on their anti-missionary propensities. One of the earliest results of his arrival in India w='as to stay the persecution of the American missionaries at Bombay. It has been stated in a preceding chapter that Mr. Nott and Mr. Hall pro- ceeded from Calcutta to Bombay without communicating their movements to the Supreme Government, though they were known to Mr. Martyn, the Calcutta magistrate, and approved of by him. This was considered an act of contumacy, and, as soon as it was reported to govern- ment, an order was despatched to the Governor of Bombay to ship them off to England as soon as they landed. It must not be overlooked that this order was decidedly illegal. The government of India possessed no authority to deport foreigners to England, or, indeed, to take any measure regarding them beyond passing and enforcing an order to quit the Company's territories. Mr. Jonathan 68 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XL Duncan, who had long occupied the post of Governor of Bombay, and who was the original of Sir James Mack- intosh's picture of a ** brahminised Englishman," had left the government. He was succeeded by Sir Evan Nepean, who had been trained in the office of the Trea- sury at Whitehall, but had little qualification for an Indian governorship. He was, however, a man of liberal views and evangelical tendencies, and a friend of Mr. Charles Grant. He was exceedingly reluctant to act on the orders of the Supreme Government, and suspended the execution of them in consideration of the delicate con- dition of Mrs. Nott and the illness of Mr. Hall. When informed of their convalescence he prepared to enforce the orders, and engaged a passage for the missionaries, not in the gunner's mess, but at the cuddy table, at an ex- pense of 400/. When the time fixed for their departure arrived they suddenly disappeared from Bombay, and, according to their own subsequent explanation, proceeded down the coast in the hope of finding shelter in some territory not under British authority. As soon as the fact of their escape was made known to the Bombay government, orders were issued to the officers in the various districts of the Presidency to intercept them ; and they were captured in the neighbourhood of Cochin, and brought back to Bombay. In communicating these cir- cumstances to the Court of Directors, the Governor and Council of Bombay stated that it was little to have been expected that they would have so far forgotten the in- dulgence shown them as to abuse the confidence of government as they had done. But it was added, in mitisration of their conduct, that " the enthusiasm with which these missionaries had been actuated had led them to consider the conduct they have pursued in a different light from that in which we have viewed it." It was with unfeigned reluctance that the Bombay authorities joined in this crusade against the missionaries, and they did not conceal from their masters in Leadenhall Street 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 69 that *' in this proceeding they were only giving effect to the instructions of the Supreme Government, from wiiich they did not consider themselves at liberty to deviate, or to exercise any discretion, however disposed they might be to favour the continuance of the missionaries in the country. And it was but an act of justice to them to state that in every other respect, except as to their leaving the island, they had conducted themselves suitable to the character they professed and to the entire satisfac- tion of the public authorities." The Bombay government made arrangements a second time for the conveyance of the missionaries and their wives to England, but before the period for xhe order their embarkation arrived Lord Minto's ad- SSies^ ministration had ceased, and Lord Moira had '^'''^'"' assumed charge of the government. His sentiments were known to be fiivourable to missions, and great interest was made to procure a reversal of the order whicli had been sent to Bombay for the deportation of the American missionaries. Dr. Carey, Mr. Thomason, and Mr. Udny joined in a memorial to him on the subject ; but as Lord Minto was still residing in Calcutta, as a private individual, it was considered indelicate to solicit of his successor the revocation of an order he had passed, before he had left the country. Mr. Thomason was therefore deputed to wait on Lord Minto on the subject ; he professed great regard for the missionaries, but re- quired time to consult with his former colleagues. Inti- mation of this interview and of the prospect of relief was immediately given to the missionaries at Bombay by the warm-hearted Mr. Thomason, who remarked, in one of his letters to them, *' But we look above councils and governors in this matter. We have a gracious Head, who is not unmindful of his Church. To Him let us commit the matter in faith." In the hope of obtaining a respite of the sentence of banishment, the missionaries com- municated these letters to the Governor, who was by no r 3 70 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. means displeased with a reasonable excuse for suspending the order. To justify this proceeding, he placed Mr. Thomason's two letters, though private and confidential, on the public records, copies of which are regularly transmitted to Leadenhall Street. Lord Minto soon after called on Mr. Thomason, and informed him that he thought there could be no difficulty in granting per- mission for the missionaries to remain in India. The joint address was therefore presented to Lord Moira without delay, and he is stated to have "spoken very de- cidedly about the missionaries being allowed to stay, and to have expressed his conviction that they meant to do good, and that no conceivable injury could arise from their continuance in the country." As soon as these liberal views of the Governor-General were known at Bombay, all further proceedings against them were at once quashed. This declaration of Lord Moira derives additional value from the consideration that it was made before the decision of the House of Commons on the missionary question was known in India. The natural inference from this proceeding on his part was, that if he was at liberty to permit missionaries to remain in India, notwithstanding the " standing orders" and the " repeated injunctions " of the Court of Directors, — which had been advanced as the ground of proscribing them, — there never was any official necessity for proceeding against them. To bring the narrative of this transaction to a close, we must anticipate the period of a twelvemonth. When the despatch of the Governor of Bombay, announcing these proceedings, reached Leadenhall Street, the indig- nation of the anti-missionary party was kindled. The inflammation arising out of their recent defeat in Parlia- ment, which had for ever deprived them of the power of expelling missionaries from their territories, had not sub- sided, and this was perhaps the last occasion in which they would be able to give vent to their feelings. Those members of the Court who were zealous against mis- 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 71 sionaries, condemned the conduct of Mr. Hall and Mr. Nott in no measured terms, asserting that " they had dealt evasively, shufflingly, and unfairly with the govern- ment, so as to bring their motives into suspicion." Mr. Thomason was denounced in the most intemperate lan- guage, for his glaring insubordination, in that *' he, a minister of the Church of England, had encouraged a spirit of disobedience to the government, whose servant he was, and had done this in a spirit of fanaticism, and had counselled the missionaries to look to a higher authority than governors and councils!" It was with great difficulty that Mr. Charles Grant could prevent a resolution of the severest censure being passed on him. But a despatch was drafted to the Supreme Government, regarding the missionaries, which breathed a spirit of the strongest animosity. Their misconduct was said to be so unjustifiable that, instead of entitling them to the indulgence which they received from the Bombay government, merited their marked disapprobation. The *' duplicity " they had practised could not, it was said, be reconciled with the character they bore as Christian missionaries, and the Court would by no means have consented to their remaining in India, but for the interest which had been taken in their behalf in India, But these strong expressions, which could only serve to com- promise the dignity of the Court after the door of India had been opened to missionaries by the legislature, were judiciously expunged by the Board of Control, and the Directors were only permitted to say that " they were concerned to have occasion to notice the questionable conduct of Messrs. Nott and Hall . . . but as perhaps their zeal for the cause in which they have embarked (although it could not entirely justify their proceedings) may have carried them beyond those bounds of propriety which under other circumstances they would have ob- served, we shall leave it to your discretion to permit them to remain during pleasure in India." In reference to the r 4 72 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. future admission of missionaries into India, the local autho- rities were referred to the 53rd George III., sections 33 to 41, to which their particular attention was enjoined. To return to the transactions in Calcutta at the close of 1813. The favourable disposition manifested by Lord Moira towards the cause of missions altered Mr. Fuller's iii r> tt t n letter to Lord thc wholc touc 01 ffovemment. He leit Moira. O England at a time when the feelings of the various religious communities had been roused to enthu- siasm on the subject of missions, and the table of the House of Commons was covered, night after night, with petitions. It is not unreasonable to suppose that his views on this subject may have been influenced by that expression of the public will which had overawed a hostile Ministry, and tliat he felt little sympathy with the defeated prejudices of the India House. His opinion of missions may also have been favourably affected by the letter addressed to him by Mr. Fuller on the eve of his de- parture : — " My Lord, — It is possible your lordship may have heard of a Christian mission to India, tmdertaken about twenty years ago by a society of Protestant Dissenters of the Baptist denomination. It is to bespeak your lordship's favourable regard to this under- taking that I take the liberty of addressing these lines to you previous to your departure for that country. I should have done myself the honour of waiting on your lordship when I was in London about a month ago, but that I understood you were at that time gone into the country. " It may not be disagreeable to your lordship to be told a few of the outlines of the history of this mission. It was first under- taken by two persons only, — Mr. William Carey, minister of a Baptist congregation at Leicester, and Mr. John Thomas, surgeon of an East Indiaman. They left England in June, 1793. For the first seven years they were situated in the neighbourhood of Malda, where they obtained covenants with the Honourable the East India Company. In 1799 four others were sent out to join them, on whose arrival the seat of the mission was removed to the then Danish settlement of Serampore. Mr. (now Dr.) Carey 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SEllAMPORE MISSION. 73 having acquired the Bengalee language and translated the New Testament into it, by the assistance of his new colleagues, got it printed. A copy of it was soon after presented to His Majesty. In a few years. Dr. Carey and his colleagues, Marshman and Ward, having acquired a knowledge of Sanscrit and various other languages, engaged in translating the Sacred Scriptures into as many as twelve of them, which arduous undertaking they are still prosecuting. The character and learning of Dr. Carey recom- mended him to the favourable notice of Marquis Wellesley, who, without any solicitation on his part, appointed him Professor of Sanscrit, Bengalee, and Mahratta in the College of Fort William. " The means by which he and his colleagues disseminate Chris- tianity, are : circulating the Sacred Scriptures in the languages of the country ; preaching in the same languages ; distributing small tracts, composed principally of select parts of the Sacred Scrip- tures ; and establishing schools for the gratuitous instruction of children whose parents choose to send them. By these means upwards of four hundred within the last twelve years have cast off their idolatry and embraced the Christian religion, among whom are a considerable number of brahmins and Mahometans. The progress has been gradual, doubling in number about every two or three years. There are between twenty and thirty native preachers, whose labours are conducted in a quiet and peaceable manner. They seldom address a multitude, but speak in families at the invitation or with the consent of the heads of them. A school of about four hundred children is established by the mis- sionaries, on the plan of Bell and Lancaster, and supported by public subscription. " The missionaries have experienced much kindness, not only from Marquis Wellesley, but from Lord Minto, and it is hoped will continue to enjoy the same kind and liberal treatment under the administration of your lordship. I can assure your lordship you will find the missionaries, and the natives who have embraced Christianity by their means, to be men not intermeddling with politics, and cordially attached to the British government in India. *' The lively interest felt for this undertaking by the Christian public of England, Scotland, and Ireland has been recently evinced by the reparation of a loss of nearly 10,000/. sustained by a fire wliich, on the 11th of March last, entirely consumed the printing office at Serampore. This loss was repaired with but little appli- 74 HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. cation, and in the space of only two months after the arrival of the disastrous intelligence. " That the Supreme Disposer of human affairs may grant your lordship a prosperous voyage, bless, and make you a blessing to the millions in the East who repose beneath the shade of British protection, and give you an interest in the blessings of that Gospel the peaceable propagation of which you may befriend, is, my lord, the desire and prayer of your lordship's most obedient servant, in behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society, "Kettering, 6 Jan. 1813." " A. FULLER, ScC. Soon after Lord Moira had assumed charge of the government, his opinion regarding missions was again tested by a reference from Java. It has been Mhsi^rn'to Am- statcd that, in the previous month of March, boyna. ^ Dr. Marshman hastened the departure of Mr. Hobinson to that island to prevent, as he hoped, the possibility of his being deported to England. But govern- ment was not to be baffled. As soon as the fact of his departure was reported, an order was issued to the Governor, Mr. Raffles, to expel him from the island. Mr. Raffles, however, received him with great cordiality, invited him to his table, and encouraged him to preach and establish schools. He was, therefore, little likely to adopt the prejudices of the Bengal secretaries ; and he requested Mr. Robinson to send him a short and simple reply to the inquiry, " under what authority he had come to the island." Mr. Robinson stated that at the beginning of the previous year the Governor-General, in reference to an application to proceed to Java, had directed Dr. Marshman to be informed that the Supreme Government did not interfere in the internal affairs of the island, but that there appeared no objection to his proceeding thither. This reply, together with Mr. Raffles's objections to the removal of Mr. Robinson, was forwarded to Calcutta, and submitted by the same secretary to the same council which liad only, a few months before, directed the Governor of Java to banish him from the island ; but 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 75 Lord Moira now presided at the Board. Dr. Marshman waited on him and explained the circumstances of the case, and the order was immediately reversed. About the same time, Mr. Martyn, formerly one of Dr. Carey's most successful pupils in the College, now the Resident of Amboyna, one of the Molucca Islands, recently cap- tured from the Dutch, addressed the government of Calcutta on the state of the island. He required a missionary to give instruction to twenty thousand of the inhabitants, who had been made Christians by the Dutch, and to establish schools. Lord Moira directed the appli- cation to be sent to Dr. Carey, with the offer of a free passage to any one of his brethren who might be disposed to avail himself of the opening. The offer was accepted by Mr. Jabez Carey, Dr. Carey's third son, who relin- quished his flattering prospects in the law in Calcutta, and embarked in the work of the mission. The progress of conversion among the natives in the present year afforded much encouragement. In the spring, a small body of Kayusts, six in number, ■'.,. . r ., i.l,i?0 Missionary pro- residins: in a town a lew miles north or ^^eram- gressatthe c* ... stations. pore, embraced Christianity. They were men of independent means and cultivated minds, familiar not only with Persian, but also with English, a rare accom- plishment at that time, and they were, moreover, related to the most aristocratic families in Calcutta. Their con- viction of the truth of Christianity was derived exclu- sively from the study of the Sacred Scriptures. They opened a correspondence with the Serampore mission- aries, who visited them at their residence, and, after a suitable course of instruction, gave them Christian bap- tism. But the sanguine expectations created by this movement in a large and influential circle, were not destined to be fulfilled. The impulse was not diffused, and two of the number, after having been received into the church, returned to their idolatrous associations, and sought re-admission to the caste. The most eminent 76 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XL member of this little band was Tarachand-dutt, who maintained a regular correspondence with Mr. Ward, in English, and for many years laboured with true missionary zeal for the propagation of Christian truth around him. In Calcutta, the indefatigable labours of Mr. Leonard were crowned with much success, and the church in the Bow Bazar was greatly increased in numbers. Dr. Carey and his two associates had long lamented their inability to itinerate, as they had done in the early days of the mission, owing to the heavy engagements which tied them to Serampore ; but they employed as their substitute, Mr. William Thomas, a member of the church, who travelled around Serampore, from village to village, addressing the people in all places of public resort. In Calcutta and its vicinity, they superintended the labours of five active and zealous native preachers, who were supported by the liberality of individual friends in England. Krishnu Pall, the first convert, whose zeal had never flagged, was sent during this year to the dis- trict of Sylhet, in the north-east corner of Bengal, where he was encouraged by two or three gentlemen to settle at Pandooah. That village lay at the foot of the Cossiah hills, which were inhabited by a wild and independent tribe. The oppression of their own chiefs had driven large numbers of them to seek refuge in the Company's territories. The judge of the district of Sylhet opened a correspondence with Dr. Carey, under whom he had studied Bengalee in the College, and advised that *' two or three hundred of the fugitives should be made Chris- tians at once by baptism, and instructed afterwards." Dr. Carey informed him that this would be to begin at the wrong end ; but Krishnu Pall was sent amongst them, and his labours resulted in inducing seven of the tribe to forsake their national superstitions, and to embrace Christianity. The entire number baptised this year in the circle of the mission amounted to a hundred and sixteen. During the present year, Ram-bosoo, whose 1813.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 77 name has frequently appeared in these memoirs, died in Calcutta. He was among the earliest of Mr. Thomas's inquirers, and continued to consort with the missionaries for twenty-five years. He was always ready to employ his powerful pen in ridiculing the follies of the Hindoo creed ; but while he urged his countrymen to forsake idolatry, and to embrace the religion of the Bible, he had not the courage to set them the example, and having]: never lost caste, he died in the bosom of Hin- dooism, in the odour of sanctity, and his funeral rites were performed according to the Hindoo ritual, as if he had ever been a true believer in the gods. In the month of April the missionaries at Serampore received official information of the modification which had been effected in the constitution of the ^, . , Change in the Baptist Missionary Society in England. It the1oS"in^ had now been twenty years in existence, and ^"s'""'^- the chief authority still centred in the man who had been the life and soul of the enterprise, and its seat was still in the county which had been the cradle of the mission. Mr. Fuller was supported by his two cabinet counsellors. Dr. Ryland, of Bristol, and Mr. Sutcliff, of Olney, and by a committee, which met annually at Kettering, to receive and to ratify the report of proceed- ings. But the other Missionary Societies, which had been subsequently formed, had their head-quarters in London, and a desire now arose, more especially among the metropolitan supporters of the mission, to transfer the seat of it to the same great centre of all political, commercial, and benevolent movements. The desire was not in itself unreasonable, but it was manifestly connected with the hope of sharing in the exercise of that power which had been monopolised by the distinguished Secre- tary of the Society. It was, moreover, abundantly sharpened by the announcement of the fire at Serampore, which disclosed the magnitude of its operations, and ex- tended the reputation of the mission throughout the 78 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XI. kingdom. But those who had watched the growth of the mission, were averse to any such change. The sin- srular success which had attended it amidst a succession of the most formidable difficulties, was inseparably associ- ated in their minds with that unity of control which had been conceded by common consent to its great master spirit. Any arrangement which might tend to affect this concentration of energy, was regarded with mistrust. But many indirect hints were thrown out from time to time, by the London members, of the necessity of giving respectability to the mission by transferring it to the metropolis. These hints Mr. Fuller treated with hu- morous contempt in his correspondence with Serampore. *' When we began, in 1793," he remarked, "there was little or no respectability among us, not so much as a squire to sit in the chair at our meetings, nor an orator to address him with speeches. . . . When your translations began to make a stir, though we had no respectability among us, yet it seemed as if something of tlie kind would be bred among us. Hence the eager struggles on your side the water, and of the Church party in the Bible Society, to which Mr. Hughes condescended to lend himself. Here was a feather, and you plebeians, you low-minded anabaptists, will not pretend to wear it. Give it to us 'respectable' men, it will just fit our caps. But as we had made shift to do without ' respectabihty ' at the beginning, both you and we were for going on in the same track. Last year, or the year before, a ' respect- able ' gentleman of our denomination, thought fit to send for brother Carey's likeness, and he has got it, and got it engraved, and the mission is to have the profits. All very good, and we are very glad of it, and a pretty feather it is for him ; but he does not seem easy without bringing the management of our Society to London, or something approaching it, 'after my death, and that of Ryland and Sutcliff.' So there is something now about the mission, that it might be managed by ' respectable ' 1813.] HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 79 men without disgracing or committing themselves. A certain ' respectable ' gentleman said this week to Mr. Sutchff, ' When you, and Fuller, and Ryland, are gone, I see nobody to conduct the mission.' ' We hope there will be,' he replied. We do not consider ourselves as legislators over our brethren, but merely as co-workers with them. If ever the committee begins to legislate for India, I should expect they would issue a declaration of independence, and I should not be sorry if they did. We have never pretended to govern them, for two reasons. One is, we think them better able to govern themselves, than we are to govern them ; another is, they are at far too great a distance to await our directions. Our business has been little more than to furnish them, as far as we were able, with means, and to send out a few recruits." The idea of re-organising the committee, and transferring the seat of the mission to London, also ap- peared objectionable to Mr. Fuller, from the disheartening effect it must produce on the minds of his friends at Serampore, by the interruption of that harmony and co- operation which had contributed so largely to success. The best friends of the mission foresaw that it could not be kept much longer out of the hands of a London com- mittee, whose intercourse with the missionaries in India would be maintained, not as hitherto by affectionate cor- respondence, but by " an abundance of resolutions." They were anxious, therefore, to put off the evil day as long as possible. Mr. Fuller and his colleagues resolved to meet the pressing demand for change, by adding nine- teen members to the committee, chosen by themselves. Of the new members, only three were from London, and the " respectable " gentleman was not among them. The plan was sanctioned at a general meeting of the Society on the 29th of September, 1812, and was communicated to Serampore in a letter drawn up by Mr. Fuller, in which he stated that the seat of the mission would, it was hoped, continue in the association where it origi- 80 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. nated, and where, he trusted, it would continue to be conducted in the same quiet and harmonious mode in which it had hitherto been, but they had agreed to enlarge the committee, by adding to it some of their brethren from different parts of the kingdom, who ap- peared best suited to the work, and had their hearts most interested in it. In his private letter to Serampore, Mr. Fuller said, " I determined on this mode of telling it to the denomination, that is, by telling it to you in a loud whisper, which the public might overhear. By this measure we were asked no questions by those who were on the edge to come in for a share in the rule. Here matters ended, though you see we are not ' respectable ' enough." The important question of education in India had hitherto been regarded by the public authorities on both sides the water with feelings, not of simple me!ron°education indifferencc, but of alarm and hostility. The in India in 1793. r i r- • • i i subject was tor the iirst tune mtroduced to public notice by Mr. Wilberforce, in 1793, when the House of Commons passed a resolution, that such mea- sures ought to be adopted as might gradually tend to the advancement of the inhabitants of British India in useful knowledge, and to their moral and religious improvement. But the East India Directors and proprietors maintained that it was not only not the bounden duty of England to educate the people of India, but that it was the most " absurd and suicidal measure which could be devised," and that it must end in our expulsion from the country. One proprietor, a man of great weight in the parliament of Leadenhall Street, maintained that America had been lost to England through the sanction which had been given to the establishment of seminaries and colleges there, and that we must in India avoid the rock on which we had split there. The clamours of the India House afforded Mr. Dundas an excuse for removing from the Bill the clause in which the educational and religious resolution was embodied, and the policy of excluding 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 81 secular knowledge as well as religious truth from India, was established hy ParHament, during the currency of that charter, for tw^enty years. England, which claimed the foremost rank among civilised nations, exhibited the singular, and almost incredible, phenomenon of deliber- ately resolving to keep fifty millions of people in igno- rance, that there might be less trouble in governing them. England has many transgressions to answ^er for, but perhaps there is not in the history of our national prejudices, a more flagrant and contemptible act, than the determination of the House of Commons, to exclude the light of knowledge from India, in 1793. But while this opposition was manifested to the communication of that instruction to which England owed her position among civilised nations, there was every disposition to foster the doctrines of the Vedas and the Poorans, not simply with the view of conciliating the natives, but from a most preposterous conviction of their intrinsic value. The only educational movement in India, for the twenty years subsequent to 1793, was directed to the encourage- ment of Hindoo learning and theolos^v. A Hindoo college had been established by Mr. Jonathan Duncan, at Benares, to cultivate the laws, literature, and religion of the Hindoos, and the Court of Directors assisted it by an endowment of 1400/. a-year, and directed that an annual lecture should be composed by the pundit in each department, and an English translation sent to them in Leaden hall Street. In 1811, an effort was made to estab- lish similar colleges in Bengal and Tirhoot, on the ground that the morality of the Shastras would be beneficial to the interests of society. Meanwhile, the Serampore Missionaries, as yet unin- formed of the educational vote of 10,000/., were endeavour- ing to enlarge and mature their system of native , . -f . ... .. ft Educational education. In the oriormal constitution ot the pjansofDr. ~ Marshman. Baptist Missionary Society, in 1793, the estab- lishment of schools was recognised as one of the means VOL. II. G 82 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. to be adopted for the introduction of Clnistianity in India, in conjunction with the translation of the Scrip- tures, and the preaching of the Gospel. But these latter agencies had hitherto engrossed more of the attention of the missionaries than the former. The establishment of the Benevolent Institution, in Calcutta, for the instruc- tion of indigent Christian children, led Dr. Marshman to consider more directly the condition of the rising gene- ration in heathen society. Public attention in England had been drawn to the question of education, by the success which had attended the newly-introduced systems of instruction which bore the name of their founders. Bell and Lancaster. Dr. Marshman studied them with great diligence, and personally superintended the intro- duction of the Lancasterian system in the Calcutta institution. At the close of 1813, he drew up a scheme for the extension of Lancasterian schools among the heathen, which was sanctioned by his colleagues, and sub- mitted to Mr. Fuller. It is interesting, as the first orga- nised plan for the establishment of schools which had ever been devised in India ; and it enables us to com- pare the views entertained forty-five years ago by the only men who at the time took any interest in the question, with those which time and experience have since matured. The minute stated that the missionaries had long given their attention to native schools, and had established twenty in various parts of the country. These schools had hitherto been supported from mis- sionary funds ; but as the experiment might now be con- sidered successful, it was desirable to extend the plan beyond the sphere to which it had been limited. For the establishment of an efficient system of schools, there were three requisites — books, superintendence, and funds. The books. Dr. Marshman remarked, should not be confined to religious instruction, but designed also to impart sound and valuable secular knowledge. He pro- posed to commence with a simple treatise on arithmetic. 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 83 a concise work on geography, a well-digested epitome of history, exhibiting a brief view of events in ancient and modern time, and including the salient points, and the best authenticated facts relative to the ancient history of India. These were intended to form the elementary branch of the Hindoo juvenile library. It was also pro- posed to compile, from works held in reverence in the country, a selection of those passages which gave a just view of the duties of life. The introduction of the whole canon of Scripture into the schools was considered open to objection, and it was proposed to prepare a volume of selections from the Divine oracles, on the events of Scripture history. Another volume was intended to embrace the subject of Christian ethics, and it was to be written from dictation, and committed to memory. The series was to close with a treatise on the Gospel dispen- sation, including an epitome of the prophecies relative to Christ, a narrative of his life and death, and a history of the propagation and progress of Christianity. The ques- tion of superintendence was considered the most impor- tant branch of the system. " With a series of books thus digested, and fitted both in matter and size to the schools in view, it will not be difficult, with due superintendence, to employ heathen schoolmasters to great advantage ; but without superintendents, who will feel a deep interest in the schools, little good will ever be effected. The missionary brethren in various parts of the country, might each superintend a circle of ten schools, visiting them all in succession, at least once a month, and oftener, if necessary." It was remarked that the object of schools, though not precisely that to which the missionary was appointed, was so intimately connected with it, more especially in reference to its ultimate result, the diffusion of Christian knowledge and principles, that it was scarcely possible for him to employ a portion of his time more agreeably and more profitably, than in visiting the schools, examining the progress of the children, and G 2 84 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XI. encouraging them by suitable rewards. It was also ex- pected that the youths educated in tlie Benevolent Insti- tution, would be fitted by their training, and the frugality of their habits, to undertake the superintendence of the schools under the direction of the missionary. " In this manner it is possible that, under the Divine blessing, schools may be extended at a small expense, and with very considerable effect, while the senior scholars trained up in them as monitors, from their knowledge of the system and their familiarity with the books used, would soon be qualified to act as masters." In reference to funds, Dr. Marshman calculated that if superintendence could be obtained gratuitously, or at a very moderate rate, each scliool of forty boys might be maintained at an expense of ten rupees a-month, including the teacher's salary, rent, books and gratuities. Upon this estimate, 1000 rupees a-month would be sufficient for the tuition of four thousand children. The paper concluded by stating that there appeared no other plan of widely diffusing the elements of secular and divine knowledge, in the ver- nacular tongue, with equal economy and efficiency, and it was therefore recommended to the consideration and the liberality of their friends in England. While this plan was on its way to England, the first educational plan of the Court of Directors was on its ^, ,. , way to India. The Charter of 1813 had Educational ./ co'urfofDifec- provldcd that the sum of one lac of rupees '°"" in each year should be set apart from the reve- nues of India, and applied to the revival and improve- ment of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India. The next year the Court of Directors conveyed their sentiments as to the mode in which the local government was to give effect to these views. " The natives," the Court observed, " were known to attach a notion of sanctity to the soil, the buildings, 1814] HISTORY OF THE SEIIAMPOKR MISSION. 85 and other objects of devout resort, and particularly to that of Benares, which was regarded as the central point of their religious worship, and the great repository of their learning. The possession of this venerated city, to which every class and rank of the Hindoos is occasionally attracted, has placed in the hands of the British Govern- inent, a powerful instrument of connection and concili- ation." " Deeply impressed with these sentiments," the Court desired that the attention of Government in India should be specially directed to Benares, and their public officers were to be required to report "what ancient establishments are still existing for the diffusion of know- ledge in that city, what branches of science and literature are taught there, by what means the professors and teachers are supported, and in what way their present estabhshments might be improved to most advantage." In the pursuit of this information, the public officers would become acquainted with those natives " through whose instrumentality the liberal intentions of the Legis- lature might be most advantageously advanced." They were also to cause it to be made known that the British Government contemplated establishing among the natives a gradation of honorary distinctions as the reward of merits by the presentation of dresses of honour, or by conferring titles. The despatch then alluded, with great satisfaction, to the "venerable institution" of village schools at the Madras Presidency, by which the instruc- tion of the people was provided for by a certain charge on the produce of the soil and other endowments. These schools possessed an admirable " mode of instruc- tion," which had been imported into England by Dr. Bell, and they had been instrumental in producing good *' scribes and accountants." The local authorities were, therefore, to investigate and report on the present state of the schools, and to affiord the village teachers every protection in all their just rights and immunities. Such were tlie views of the India authorities in Leadenhall 86 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chai*. XI Street and Cannon Row, on the subject of education in India, when they were constrained for the first time to consider it. They do not appear to have entertained the remotest idea of communicating to the natives, either in the colleges or in the village schools, any portion of that sound knowledge which had given Europe the superi- ority over Asia. There was to be no introduction of European knowledge and science, still less of Christian morality. The "liberal intentions of the Legislature" were interpreted, and not perhaps without justice, to signify the patronage of Hindoo philosophy, science, ethics, and mythology. In the opinion of the Directors and the Board, Parliament had voted ten thousand pounds a-year to stereotype Hindooism, and they issued orders to carry this object into effect. During the present year the mission was deprived of the valuable services of Mr. Sutcliff, who died on the Death of Mr. ^Sud of Juuc, 1814, at the age of sixty-two. Sutcliff. jjg j^^^ Ijggj^ ^j,^ Fuller's associate for twenty- two years. The mission appeared to be as much identi- fied with the names of Fuller, Sutcliif, and Ilyland, in England, as with those of Carey, Marshman, and Ward, in India. There was the same unison of heart and feeling in the triumvirate at home as in that abroad. Mr. Sut- cliff was held in the highest estimation for his benevo- lence, integrity, and prudence, but was more particularly distinguished by the amenity of his disposition. To use a familiar expression, his talents w^ere more useful than splendid, and better adapted for the cabinet than for the field. He was the Nestor of the little circle. When any circumstance of peculiar difficulty arose, Mr. Fuller was in the habit of riding over to Olney with the papers, and seeking the advice of Mr. Sutcliff, whose clear perception of the merits of the case, and of the course to be pursued, seemed at once to dispose of the question. His sound practical sense may be estimated by a reply he once gave to Mr. Fuller, when he proposed to convene a meeting of 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 87 tlie committee on some particular occasion : " Call a committee meeting I no, the matter is self-evident. If you do call one, appoint some place on the turnpike-road, at such a mile-stone ; fix the hour and minute. Let us meet, and set our horses' heads together, pass a vote, and separate again in two minutes." Certainly, on more than half the occasions of life, a mounted committee would dispose of business more promptly and effectually than a committee seated round a table. The Charter had provided tiiat if the Court of Direc- tors should think fit to refuse permission to missionaries to resort to India, the application should be ,^ ^ ^ ^ ' Mr. E. Carey and transmitted to the Board of Control, who ^^'-^ates. might authorise them to proceed to any of the Company's principal settlements. At the beginning of this year, Mr. Fuller availed himself of the privilege which he had been mainly instrumental in obtaining, and applied for a license for Mr. Eustace Carey to proceed to India as a missionary. It was granted without hesitation, and he embarked in one of the Company's own vessels. He arrived in Calcutta in the month of August. By a happy- coincidence, the ship in which he sailed was the first to convey the joyful intelligence of the entry of the Allies into Paris, and the close of the war which had desolated Europe for twenty j^ears. The vessel sailed up the Hooghly with the electrifying word " Peace " embla- zoned on her flags. The arrival of Mr. Carey was thus rendered doubly welcome. In the course of the year Mr. Fuller made a second application at the India House for permission to send Mr. Yates to India. Unhappily, it came before the Court of Directors just at the time when their minds were exasperated by the consideration of Mr. Thomason's audacity in advising the American mission- aries, Nott and Hall, to look for relief to a higher power than Governors and Council. A majority of the Court determined at once to refuse the application, but having thus given relief to their anti-missionary feelings, they G 4 88 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. consented to soften the censure they had intended to pass on Mr. Thomason. Mr. Fuller then applied to the Board of Control, and permission was immediately granted. It is unaccountable that men in their elevated position should have allowed their wounded prejudices so far to overcome every sense of official dignity, as to pass an order, without any adequate reason, which they knew the Board of Control was able and willing to reverse. But this refusal enabled the friends of missions to appreciate the importance of the concessions they had extorted from Parliament, by the pressure of their petitions. It demonstrated to them that if Lord Castlereagh's deter- mination to leave the question of missions entirely in the hands of the Court of Directors had not been success- fully resisted, the same obstruction of missionary efforts which had marked the twenty years of the old Charter, might have been perpetuated for twenty years to come. It is, however, due to the Court, to state that this was the only instance of any hesitation to allow missionaries to embark for India from this time forward ; and that although the Act empowered them to cancel the certifi- cates and licenses of the missionaries after their arrival in India, the right was never exercised, and they have en- joyed the freest access to every part of India, with the full consent of the public authorities in Leadenhall Street, and at the three presidencies. Mr. Eustace Carey, the nephew of Dr. Carey, proceeded, on his arrival, to Seram- pore, where his talents and the graceful flow of his pulpit eloquence, made him a general favourite. Mr. Yates was an eminent linguist, and applied with such diligence to the cultivation of oriental literature, under the able tuition of Dr. Carey, as to become eventually second only to his master as a biblical translator. During the present year Dr. Marshman published hisj " Clavis Sinica," or key to the Chinese language, thej Dr.Marshman's rcsult of cight years of labour and study. ^ Itj is at present interesting as one of the earliest i Claris Sinica. 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 89 efforts to open that difficult, and, at the time, mysterious language to our countrymen. His exertions in this de- partment of Oriental philology have been overshadowed by the subsequent labours of eminent scholars, who have cultivated the language in the country itself with supe- rior advantages, but the Clavis is an honourable memorial of literary enterprise. Mr. Edmonstone was at the time at the head of the government in Calcutta, in the absence of Lord Moira, and he evinced his respect for Dr. Marshman's labours and his esteem for the missionaries by a generous donation of 1000/. from the public purse, to alleviate the expense of the publication. While the Ciavis was passing through the press, the East India Company's supercargoes at Canton sent a copy of Dr. Morrison's Chinese Grammar to the Government of India, with a request that it should be printed at the public expense. The work was detained for many months in the secretary's office, and then sent to Serampore to be published under Dr. Marshman's edi- torial superintendence. It reached him as the last sheets of his own publication were passing through the press. A clamour was immediately raised that he had taken unfair advantage of this circumstance to enrich his own work. He repelled the charge of plagiarism as soon as it reached him, but it was, nevertheless, transmitted to England, and echoed in loud whispers through the religious circle. Dr. Ryland directed Dr. Marshman's particular attention to this calumny. " A complaint," he writes, *' is now circulated by Tiie Society. Dr. Pye Smith communicated it to Mr. Burls. He said he was sorry to state that some information had been obtained on the subject of the Chinese, which he wished for the sake of the mission- aries was not true, but he had too much reason to appre- hend it was, viz. that Morrison's Chinese Grammar had been detained in Calcutta, or Serampore, two or three years, and that a great deal of use had been made of it in Dr. Marshman's publication, without his being candid 90 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XI. enough to state the fact publicly, though he had acknow- ledged it in private letters." Dr. Marshman was indig- nant that he should be thought capable of such an act of literary piracy, and he sent lionie an elaborate vindication of himself, in which he alluded to the ungenerous re- marks which had been made on his presumption in con- tinuing his Chinese labours after another Society had entered on that field. He stated that the manuscript of Dr. Morrison's Grammar was detained in a government office in Calcutta, and not at Serampore, and that to avoid the suspicion of having borrowed from it, he had declined to see it, and that it did not reach him until his own work was completed, with the exception of two or three sheets. He appealed, moreover, to the different character of the two works, as a satisfactory proof, which every scholar would admit, that the one could not have been in any measure indebted to the other. We left Mr. Chamberlain at Sirdhana engaged in the education of his pupil, in his translations and missionary labours, and have now to refer to the circum- Mr. Chamberlain sirdliLna-^his stauccs whlch led to his second expulsion from Second expulsion, ^j^^ north-wcst provluccs. In February of this year, the Begum proceeded on a visit to the royal family at Delhi, and Mr. Chamberlain was directed to accom- pany her. She remained six weeks in the capital, and Mr. Ciiamberlain did not fail to improve the opportunity thus afforded him of making known the doctrines of tlie Gospel, and distributing the Scriptures and tracts. No Protestant minister had visited the ancient metropolis of India for two hundred years, since the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Great Mogul in I6i5. Mr. Chamber- lain's discourses created a great sensation in the city, but he encountered less bigotry from the Mahommedans than he had expected. The interest which his labours had excited, encouraged him to send a copy of the Hindoo- stanee Scriptures into the palace, and to present an Arabic Bible to the heir apparent, and these gifts were 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 91 duly recorded and publislied in the Akbar, or Court news. In the month of April, the Begum determined to visit the great fair at Hurdwar. Hurdwar is the most renowned and popular of all the " teerth," or holy places, in the north of India, and is crowded at the annual fes- tival with pilgrims from every province in Hindoostan. The present year was distinguished by a particular con- junction of the heavenly bodies, and the merit of bathing in the sacred stream was indefinitely enhanced. The concourse of pilgrims amounted, at the lowest computa- tion, to a hundred thousand. Never before had the truths of Christianity been proclaimed at this great seat of Hindoo superstition. Mr. Chamberlain was in his element ; day after day, for twelve days, he was inces- santly engaged in preaching to the devotees at the ghats, and to the crowds who surrounded his elephant, or pressed into his tent, to hear this new and strange doctrine, and to request books and tracts. The most profound tran- quillity reigned throughout that vast assembly, though in a high state of religious excitement, as they listened to discourses which impugned the efficacy of the sacred stream to wash away their sins. An eye-witness thus describes the scene : *' During the greater part of this fair, a Baptist missionary, in the service of her Highness, daily read a considerable portion from a Hindoo transla- tion of the Sacred Scriptures, on every part of which he commented ; he then recited a short prayer, and con- cluded by bestowing his blessing on all assembled. His knowledge of the language was that of an accomplished native, his delivery impressive, and his whole manner partook of much mildness and dignity. No abuse, no language which could in any way injure the sacred service he was employed in, escaped his lips. For the first four or five days, he was not surrounded by more than as many hundreds of Hindoos ; in ten days his con- gregation had reached to as many thousands. They sat round and listened with attention which would have re- 92 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XI. fleeted credit on a Christian audience. On his retiring, they every evening cheered him liome with — * May the padree live for ever ! ' Thus, instead of exciting a tumult, as was at first apprehended, by attempting conversion at one of tlie chief seats of idolatry, Mr. Chamberlain com- manded attention by his prudence and moderation." When the assembly broke up, Mr. Chamberlain returned with the Begum to Sirdhana. Towards the close of the year. Lord Moira made his first progress through the north-west provinces with Mr. Charles Milner Ricketts, whose name has already been mentioned in these me- moirs, as his secretary. Some gentlemen, unfriendly to the cause of missions, brought the subject of Mr. Cham- berlain's labours at Hurdwar to the notice of the Gover- nor-General, or Mr. Ricketts, and made an unfavourable report on the subject. Without any investigation, or any request of an explanation, a requisition was sent to the Begum to discharge Mr. Chamberlain from her service, and he was at the same time ordered to return to the Presidency. The Begum entreated the Governor-General to recall the order, and permit Mr. Chamberlain to con- tinue the education of his pupil ; but she was perempto- rily refused, and was constrained to give him up, but not without the bitter remark that she had never experienced such harsh treatment even from the Mahrattas. Mr. Chamberlain proceeded at once to the Governor-General's encampment, and solicited an audience, in the course of which he assured Lord Moira, that, during the entire period of his ministrations at Hurdwar, he was treated by the Hindoos, and more especially by the Brahmins, with the utmost deference, and that the public peace was never for a moment disturbed. He stated that Lady Hood, who was a visitor at the fair, had signified her approbation of his proceedings, and had united with Col. Mackenzie, the Surveyor-General of India, who was travelling with her, in assuring him of the pleasure they derived from witnessing the peaceable demeanour of the 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 93 people, and the great interest they manifested in his addresses. But Lord Moira's mind had been impressed with a sense of the danger of any religious addresses to such a concourse of pilgrims. To Mr. Chamberlain's representations, he simply replied that one might fire a pistol into a magazine, and it might not explode, but no wise man would hazard the experiment. Mr. Chamber- lain was unable to shake his determination, and he was obhged to relinquish the prospect of usefulness which was opening before him in the north-west, and return to the presidency. This was the only instance of any un- friendly interference with the Serampore missionaries, or indeed with any missionaries during Lord Moira's lono- administration, and perhaps it may be most satisfactorily accounted for by a reference to the prejudices of the official staff around him. The see established at Calcutta by the Charter, was bestowed on Dr. T. Middleton, one of the most eminent scholars of the day. From the policy which xheBisho of the Government of India had always main- ^^^'^""^• tained, the bishopric was devoid of those ecclesiastical powers and privileges which were associated with episco- pacy in England, and it occupied an anomalous position. The public authorities had strenuously repudiated the idea of ever creating an ecclesiastical establishment in India corresponding in any sense with that which had existed in England from a remote age. They professed only to provide for the spiritual wants of their own Christian servants. The chaplains had always been con- sidered as forming a department of the military establish- ment ; they were only military chaplains, enjoying the official rank, and the retiring allowances, of majors in the army. The bishop was simply their religious superior, and the official control over all their movements, still rested with the secular government. The bishopric was totally undefined as to its powers, and the bishop found himself checked by numerous impediments. Neither 94 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. were these difficulties smoothed by any very general or cordial sympathy on the part of the public functionaries, either in India or in England, the great bulk of whom considered the office altogether redundant. But he was welcomed with much frankness and respect, and his personal, as well as professional influence, was beneficial in a community in which infidelity had recently been rampant. The rank assigned to the bishop in the new patent of precedence was several steps abov^e that of the commander-in-chief, but the number of guns which con- stituted his salute was fixed at two less in number than the complement of the military chief The only mis- sionaries in Bengal on the arrival of the bishop, were those connected with the Serampore institution, and he had been prepared to regard them with esteem by the pamphlet recently published by Dr. Marsh, subsequently bishop of LlandafF and Peterborough. In that publica- tion, he had spoken in high terms of the Serampore missionaries ; — " Such are the exertions of these extraor- dinary men, who, in the course of eleven years from the commencement of 1800 to the latest accounts, have con- tributed so much to the translation and dispersion of the Scriptures, that the united efforts of no Society can be compared with them. These are the men who, before the Bible Society existed, formed the grand design of translating the Scriptures into all the languages of the East ; these are the men who have been the grand instru- ments in the execution of this stupendous work ; these are the men who are best qualified to complete the de- sign so nobly begun, and hitherto so successfully per- formed." Such a testimonial from a divine of his own school gave the missionaries a friendly introduction to the esteem of the bishop, and Dr. Carey, who waited on him a few days after his arrival, found him very open and cordial. He said that he intended to take an early op- portunity of visiting Serampore, and becoming personally acquainted with the missionaries. Some days after, on 1814.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 95 receiving a copy of the Clavis Siiiica from Dr. Marsh- man, he acknowledged it in the following terms : " I beg leave to assure yoii of the pleasure I feel in adding my name to the list of the patrons of the Clavis. Your name in this department of learning is known to every scholar in Europe, and your labours have received un- qualified applause from the very few who are competent to decide on their merits. Unfortunately, I have no pre- tensions to consider myself as of this number, but I hope that 1 shall ever be disposed to contribute my feeble aid to exertions like those by which you are distinguished, independently of any interest and curiosity raised by the particular subject. In the present case, however, these feelings have been strongly excited by the table of con- tents. It announces investigations which promise to be intelligible even to those who are wholly unacquainted with Chinese, and about which no man who has ever paid the least attention to the philosophy of language, can be supposed to be indifferent." The bishop soon found that in a society like that in India, where men had been trained in a spirit of habitual indifference to reli- gious partisanship, there was a wider scope for liberality of feeling than in England, where the antagonism of sects was ever forced into notice ; and, during the period of his incumbency, no nonconformist was vex- atiously reminded that the bishop belonged to an es- tablished Church. Reverting now to Mr. Fuller's correspondence w^ith Serampore, and in reference to its interests, in this, unhappily the last year of his life, we find Mr. Fuiier-s the same affectionate confidence which had '^°^''e«p''°'i^"'=«- ever marked his intercourse with the missionaries. Un- favourable reports had been sent to England by men of other denominations, who regarded with an invidious eye the eminent position they had attained. A letter was shown to Mr. Fuller from an episcopal layman in Calcutta, which spoke in glowing language of the "apos- 96 HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. tolic labours'* of Mr. Corrie at Agra — which no one hailed with greater cordiality than Dr. Carey and his colleajriies. Mr. Corrie was said to have done more good in a single year than the Serampore missionaries had accomplished in fifteen ; and it was affirmed that *' they were chiefly concerned about baptism, and anxious to make proselytes from the Church of England." They were also charged with being democrats, and with having refused to be subject to government as to the choice of their missionary stations. To this Mr. Fuller replied : " To say there is no truth in the statement would be too much. Every thing we do, sir, is imper- fect ; but if a third of these charges be true, I have all my life been deceived both in myself and my brethren. If any one of the missionaries could be proved to have endeavoured to proselyte pious churchmen to adult baptism, I would acknowledge the truth of that part of the letter." In this vindication, Mr. Fuller was fully borne out by the conduct of his friends at Serampore. While they held the doctrine of adult baptism with the firmness of a conscientious conviction, their minds were too deeply absorbed in the work of evangelising the heathen, to be diverted from it by any desire to convert Christians of other denominations into Baptists, and they would not have crossed the threshold of their door to achieve so inferior a triumph. — In a letter to Mr. Fuller I at the close of this year, Dr. Carey alluded to the destitute condition of his father, then in his eightieth year, and requested that the sum of 50/. a-year might be paid him as long as he lived, and 20/. to his mother, if she survived him. He then reverted to the engraving which had been published of his portrait, and described it as a violation of the engagement on which he had consented to sit to the artist. But he desired that a copy of it should be sent to each of his relatives ; and he not only requested, but insisted, that all these expenses should be charged to his account. After executing 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 97 these commissions, Mr. Fuller said in the last letter which he appears ever to have written to Dr. Carey, " You should not insist on these things being charged to you, nor yet your father's 50/., nor the books, nor any- thing necessary to make you comfortable, unless it be to be paid out of what you would otherwise give to the mission. To insist on their being paid out of your private property seems to be dictated by resentment. It is thus we express our indignation when we have an avaricious man to deal with." The report of the mission drawn up at the commence- ment of 1815 possesses a melancholy interest from the flict, that it was the last which was sent to Mr. „ , Report of the Fuller, and that he was in his grave when it "Jgin""^"/''' reached England. Though at the time it was '^''''' compiled, the missionaries were not aware of his danger, they could scarcely have made it more appropriate to the occasion, if they had known that it would be their last joint communication to him. It was not so much a mere review of the events of the previous year as a retrospect of the labours in which they had been unitedly engaged for fifteen years. It dwelt on the gradual expansion of their sphere of action, and the mode in which the opportunities for the diffusion of Christian truth had been multiplied and improved. It began by stating that the work of planting the Gospel in any heathen land, required three distinct agencies. First, the formation of stations, where the "the standard of the Cross shall be erected, and tlie Gospel preached to the people, and from whence ultimately spring churches." Secondly, the translation of the Scriptures ; and, thirdly, the instruction of youth in the knowledge of the Bible and of the literature suited to the state of the country : that thus divine knowledge may be diffused abroad, and teachers and pastors be raised up to make known the Gospel. These three objects, they remark, were intimately linked together in the prosecution of the great work. If the VOL. II. 11 98 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. Scriptures be not translated and published, the most strenuous efforts would abide only for a season. Unless youth be instructed the Scriptures would be little read, and without missionaries to form stations schools could not be established, or the Scriptures circulated to any extent. In regard to missionary stations, they observe that there were six in Bengal, with resident missionaries, and four occupied only by native labourers ; four in the upper provinces, and one respectively at Surat, in Burmah, Ceylon, and Amboyna. These stations were occupied by eight missionaries sent from England — exclusive of the three senior missionaries at Serampore — by fifteen missionaries, either European or East Indian, who had been engaged in the country, and by twenty-seven native preachers and itinerants. The number baptized since Dr. Carey joined his brethren at Serampore had been seven hundred and sixty-five, of whom more than two-thirds w^ere natives. In regard to the translations, they remarked that the Bible had been translated and printed in the Bengalee, and the Osrisa languages, the New Testament and the Pentateuch in the Sanscrit, the Mahratta, and the Hindee ; the New Testament in the Sikh, and the Gospels in Chinese. The New Testament was also in the press in fourteen of the dialects of India. Grammars had also been published in seven languages, the Sanscrit, the Chinese, the Burman, the Bengalee, the Mahratta, the Sikh, and the Telinga. In the de- partment of education, the schools for indigent Christians in Calcutta contained two hundred and thirty-nine chil- dren of both sexes, and twenty schools for natives at nine stations, were attended by seven hundred and eighty- eight children. That these varied exertions, they observe, were not marked by imperfections, it would be idle to affirm ; the missionary labourers, pressed into the service, while government prevented the access of European missionaries to the country, were in some cases devoid of important qualifications for the w^ork ; the native 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 99 preachers and itinerants lacked that education, and that complete knowledge of Christian doctrine, which could be acquired only by more careful training, and the translations were necessarily and unavoidably imperfect. But after every deduction has been made, the missionary establishment, reared in connection with Serampore, in a country where every thing was to be created, and amidst the stern opposition of the ruling authorities in England and in India, presented a bright example of Christian devotion ; and fully justified the feeling of exultation with which they contemplated the progress of the un- dertaking in this communication to their associates in England. This report never reached Mr. Fuller, he died before its arrival. The sermon he preached in London on the 28th of December, 1814, on behalf of the Death of Mr British and Foreign School Society, was the ^'"''"'' last great effort of his life. It was, in fact, his farewell dis- course, and all the energies of his mind were concentrated in it. He was now gradually sinking into the grave ; as the spring approached, his spirits revived, but his com- plaint, that of a disordered liver, was making fatal pro- gress. On the 11th of February, he wrote to Dr. Carey, " I have an increasing weakness, arising from something wrong in the liver. I scarcely know how to get on from week to week. The death of dear brother Sutclifi' adds to my labours, and my strength decreases, and the years are come in which I have no pleasure in them. It is some comfort to me, however, that the cause of God lives and prospers. I have just received a letter from Mr. Chater, in which he complains of the silence of the Society. In truth, though individuals may write, yet none but my letters are reckoned as from the Society, and my affliction, and the increase of my labour, are too much for me." He then alluded to the circumstance of Mr. Robert Hall's having persuaded some of the mission- aries proceeding to India, " that they ought only to go H 2 100 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. out for a term of years and then return. We said, we compelled no missionary to stop ; if he wished at any time to come home, let him do so, but in an undertaking which costs the public 1000/. ere the party can be fit for labour, to agree with him to return as soon he comes to be of use, is unadvisable. If a person does not mean to stop for life, he had better not go." In the last letter he sent to Serampore, on the 25th of March, addressed to Dr. Marshman, there was no indication of his approach- ing dissolution, and it exhibited all that buoyancy of spirits which had always appeared in his correspondence. He requested that pecuniary aid might be sent to the missionaries in Java, for whom he had made interest with the representative of the King of Holland in London, when the island was ceded to the Dutch : *' Bonaparte " he said, "is again at Paris. Our God is on his throne." He then recurred to the remarks which he had made on Dr. Marshman's correspondence with Mr. Ricketts, which had inflicted more distress on his own mind than on that of his friend, and he was anxious to remove any irritation which it might have created. " Brother Carey seemed to think me severe in my re- marks. It might be so. That is a fault of which I have often had to repent. I hope, however, there are no painful feelings left on your mind." He likewise entered upon a minute statement of the sums which the Bible Society had voted for the translations at Serampore. Then followed a notice of the assertion of Mr. Prender- gast in the House of Commons, during the Charter dis- cussions, that he had seen Dr. Carey on a tub, haranguing the people, and telling them that hell flames would certainly be their portion, if they did not become Chris- tians. Though the assertion was not for a moment credited by those who knew the character of Dr. Carey, Mr. Fuller thought it advisable to obtain an explicit statement on the subject from the missionaries themselves. On the 21st of February, 1814, tliey sent home a com- 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 101 munication under their individual signatures, affirming that *'the assertion of Mr. Prendergast is so utterly without foundation, that we are completely astonished that a member of a British House of Commons should utter so notorious a flUsehood." Mr. Fuller placed it in the hands of Mr. Wilberforce, who has remarked that he carried it about in his pocket for two years, before he had an opportunity of meeting Mr. Prendergast in the House. He denied the accuracy of the report of his speech, as well as the fact of his having ever said that he had himself seen Dr. Carey preaching on a tub. He stated that in 1806 he met a large crowd of natives, full of indig- nation, who affirmed that Dr. Carey had thus addressed them, and Mr. Prendergast firmly believed that if govern- ment had not interdicted the preaching in the Bow Bazar, the mob would have fallen on him. Four days after the date of Mr. Fuller's letter, he assisted at an ordination service, and on being asked how he felt, replied, *' I am very ill ; I am a dying man. All is now over. My work is nearly finished. I shall see you no more. May the blessing of God attend you." From this date, the virulence of the disease increased, and his strength de- clined more rapidly. Towards the close of April, he dictated a farewell letter to Dr. Ryland, his endeared colleague for thirty years ; to this communication he was only able to affix his signature. He expired on the 7th of May, at the comparatively early age of sixty- two, for his athletic frame and robust constitution gave promise of a longer life, but he had worn himself out in the cause of Christian benevolence, and more especially in the service of the mission. The important influence of Mr. Fuller's labours on the character of his own denomination, and the interests of Christian truth, and the progress of missions, it would be difficult to exaggerate. If the man w^ho gives the im- pulse of improvement not only to his own age, but to succeeding generations, be justly esteemed great, few H 3 102 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. men have been more fully entitled to that distinction than Mr. Fuller. He found his own denomination, with some bright exceptions, bewildered in the mazes of hypercalvinism, and stagnant in Christian benevolence. By his exertions in the pulpit, and through the press, he introduced sounder and more elevated views, and quickened it into evangelical activity. The Baptist denomination of the nineteenth century is more indebted for the position it occupies as a Christian agency, at home and abroad, to the labours of Mr. Fuller than to those of any other single individual. But he maybe said to have belonged more to the age in which he lived than to the circle of his own section of the Church. By his noble defence of the great doctrines of Christianity, he is entitled to rank among the most eminent divines of his country. His various writings were distinguished by great originality of thought and sobriety of judgment, and a lucid exhibition of the system of evangelical truth, while his style exhibits much of the Saxon simplicity and force of Defoe. But it was in connection with the great cause of Christian missions that his character attained its highest pre-eminence. His name is indisso- lubly associated with the early and heroic age of modern missions, and in proportion to the triumphs of Christian truth in the east will the efforts of its indefatigable champion be regarded with increasing interest. As soon as he was convinced by the arguments of Dr. Carey of the feasibility of missions, he threw his whole soul into the undertaking. He seemed to require the excitement of so great an enterprise for the full development of his energies. His master mind was peculiarly adapted to the exigencies of a cause in which formidable obstacles were to be overcome. He was enabled to perceive the bearings of a complicated question at a glance, and his undaunted resolution carried him through a sea of diffi- culties to a successful issue. In the prosecution of his labours, he was devoid of prejudices, and no littleness of i 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 103 mind ever disturbed his judgment, or diverted him from the great object before him. He was a first-rate adminis- trator, and combined the rare capacity of a minute atten- tion to detail with the most comprehensive views. The natural ascendancy of a great mind placed him in the foremost place in an undertaking which, at the time, required the exercise of peculiar energies. During the twenty years in which the cause of modern missions was struggling into existence, he devoted his mental and physical powers to it with the greatest zeal and affection. Happily, his life was prolonged till it had completely sur- mounted the dangers which assailed its infancy, and had attained a position in which it no longer required the aid of such talents, and might safely be left for its future progress to the ordinary machinery of Christian bene- volence. The connection between the three missionaries at Serampore and Mr. Fuller was characterised by that' identity of feeling which seems to belong pe- hjs connection 1 • 1 , . 1 1 . n , J with Serampore. culiarly to the early stages ot a great under- taking, when congenial minds are absorbed in removing the obstacles which impede the prosecution of it. They began the enterprise together, and they pursued it with unbroken unanimity. Though separated from each other by the distance of half the globe, they appeared to be intuitively acquainted with each other's thoughts and feelings, and their mutual communications were marked by the total absence of any feeling of reserve. The three men at Serampore were prepared to yield without ser- vility to the judgment of their associates in England, and this feeling was fully reciprocated by Mr. Fuller and his two colleagues. It was not a time for the nice adjustment of the boundaries of authority, and there was never any suspicion that either party would encroach on the province or the independence of the other. Except on one occasion, there was never any discord on questions of missionary policy, and instead of being H 4 104 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XL allowed to rankle and fester, it was promptly removed by frank explanations. Dr. Ryland was now the only link left which connected the Serampore missionaries with the Society. He had been associated with the enterprise from its commencement, and he participated in those feelings of personal attachment which cemented the union with his friends at Serampore ; but he did not possess the commanding talents of Mr. Fuller, and his attachment to particular views not in accord with those of his brethren abroad, was not, as in the case of Mr. Fuller, kept in strict subordination to the great cause of missions. His correspondence with Dr. Marshman, who had been his pupil for several years, exhibited a spirit of censoriousness more suited to their former relation- ship than to their present position as associates in the same undertaking. These circumstances necessarily pro- duced new feelings and clouded prospects ; and those differences which eventually resulted in an entire sepa- ration from the Society, are to be dated from the lamented death of Mr. Fuller. Dr. Carey and his colleagues endeavoured to accom- modate their proceedings to the altered circumstances in The Serampore ^^hich thc mlssiou was Hkcly to be placed by "odlfv^ti'lfr the death of Mr. Fuller, and to avoid the '''''"'■ possibility of collision either in England or in India. The management of the mission by them as the constituted agents of the Society, had not given satisfaction to the missionaries sent out from England, and a feeling of personal hostility had grown up to Dr. Marshman and Mr. Ward, on whom the unthankful task of administration had chiefly fallen. Perhaps it was inseparable from the position of the parties, that the seniors who had borne the burden and heat of the day for so many years, should expect a degree of deference which the juniors were unwilling to yield. The old men had often been obliged to make concessions to maintain peace, which were more prudent than salutary. They 1815.] IIISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORB MISSION. 105 had frequently requested to be relieved from tlieir invi- dious charge, but Mr. Fuller had invariably refused to listen to them. It was with great difficulty they had been able to maintain order and economy in the distribu- tion of the public funds, while they were supported by his co-operation. Now that they were deprived of that assistance, and a new king was likely to arise who "knew not Joseph," they felt it due to the interests of the mission, to insist on laying down the authority which had been forced on them. The wisdom of this course was en- forced by Mr. Fuller's allusion to " the men who were on the edge to come in for a share in the rule." Even before his death, they had begun to turn the vessel out of the course of his policy. It was on the 25th of March that Mr. Fuller, who had sent Mr. Trout to Java to assist Mr. Robinson, requested his friends at Serampore to make him remittances, but while he was on his death- bed, a letter was sent to Dr. Carey, as he wrote, from " a Mr. Dyer, in the name of a Committee," stating that they felt it necessary to remove Mr. Trout on the ground of economy. Dr. Carey, with whom the extension of the mission was a passion, and the extinction of a station like the amputation of a limb, wrote immediately to Dr. Ryland, that, considering Mr. Fuller was not then dead, he considered this step sufficiently hasty, and that he began to tremble for the mission to the east. " I en- treat," he said, *' I implore our dear brethren in England not to think of the petty plan of lessening the number of stations, so as to bring their support within the bounds of their present income, but to bend all their attention and their exertions to the great object of increasing their finances, to meet the pressing demands that Providence makes on them. If your objects are large, the public will contribute to their support ; if you contract them, their liberality will immediately contract itself also." In a letter written about the same time to Dr. Ryland, by Mr. Ward, he said that Dr. Marsh man appeared to be 106 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. deeply wounded by the bitterness so constantly mani- fested in his remarks on the subject of communion, and his sneers at the *' Baptist caste " which Dr. Marshman was charged with endeavouring to set up. " He con- siders that he has committed no crime in differing from you on a subject on which the right of private judgment is sacred. This is not a time for us to be at a distance from each other, but rather to unite ah our energies to supply the want of the Colossus we have lost. It is quite necessary for you to take all the European stations under your control, fixing their salaries, and directing all their movements." The joint communication of the mission- aries on this subject was dated the 28th of October, 1815, immediately after Mr. Fuller's decease was known in India. They stated that the extension of the mission, now no longer confined to one station, rendered it neces- sary for them to resign wholly to the Committee the direction of the European brethren. *' In the expendi- ture of money furnished by the public, a certain degree of control is necessary. But this control can never be exercised by one brother over another. We have never been able to exercise it ourselves, but have been con- strained, for the sake of brotherly love, to leave each brother to his own will.'* At the same time. Dr. Carey and his colleagues engaged to provide from their own resources for the maintenance of the missionaries raised up in the country, as well as to superintend their labours. Dr. Carey likewise wrote to Dr. Ryland, explaining how impossible it was for them to control the expenditure of the missionaries of the Society. '* 1 will not say whether we have always spoken and written with proper wisdom or tenderness. It would be wonderful if we had never erred, nor will I say whether what we have said has been rightly received ; but I do say that it will be much for the advantage of the mission for every one to receive his salary at once from the Society." It is pain- ful to notice the immediate change in the tone of their 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 107 correspondence with England, when the silver cord of confidence was loosed by the death of Mr. Fuller. The Society formed by the Evangelical section of the Church of England for missions to Africa and the East, — now the Church Missionary Society, — was in- p^ Buchanan-s stituted in the year 1799 ; but it was not ?fS 'fission- deemed advisable to send any missionaries out to India while Government continued hostile to the undertaking, and the battle of missions continued to rage. Dr. Buchanan, after his return to England, frequently alluded with regret to the indisposition of clergymen to proceed to India. Writing in July, 1813, he says, " And now we are all likely to be disgraced. Par- liament has opened the door, and who is there to go ? From the Church not one jnan. Lord Castlereagh anticipated this denouement in a very pleasant vein." But the Society now determined to take advantage of the favourable change of circumstances, and to enter on the field with a degree of energy commensurate wdth the magnitude of their resources. Two missionaries were designated in the spring of 1814. The address to them was composed by Dr. Buchanan, but he was unable from ill-health to deliver it in person. " It forms," says his biographer, ** a manual of sound wisdom and instruction, and deserves to be frequently perused and thoroughly digested by every one who aspires to the character and office of a missionary." The address was worthy of the man and the occasion. Dr. Buchanan's advice was the result of long experience and sound judgment. But the gold was not without alloy. His object was to stimulate the resort of pious clergymen to India, and he had not forgotten the old missionary economy under which the missionary derived his support, partly from the allowance of the Society, but chiefly from his own exertions. In his address he described the missionary as "going out to experience new modes of comfort." He said that the annual expenses of a missionary, even among Dis- 108 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XI. senters, was in many instances not less tlian 250/. a year, and in some cases considerably more, and that they would be required *' to resist the seductions of affluence and ease ;" that a missionary appointment abroad was in general more lucrative than a curacy in England, and equally creditable and permanent. He affirmed that Christian learning, combined with industry and probity, must frequently become a source of pecuniary advantage, and that when once a small sum was gained, its accumu- lation was very rapid, in consequence of the high rate of interest among the natives. To apply so low and sordid a stimulus to missionary zeal, and to hold out the prospect of independence by lending money to natives at exorbitant interest, appeared to the Serampore mis- sionaries a very questionable proceeding. They thought such a course would tend to lower the character of the missionary, and impair his efficiency, by diverting his attention to petty and ignoble savings. As they were the only body of missionaries with whom Dr. Buchanan had maintained personal intercourse in India, they thought his remarks were likely, in the first in- stance, to be applied to them, and they were anxious to counteract the effiict of this representation. At the desire of his brethren. Dr. Marshman published some animadversions on it in the Appendix to the Mission Report of 1815. These remarks are valuable chiefly as they furnish a record of the extreme frugality and simplicity which he and his brethren conscientiously adopted, in the midst of all their affluence. *' As the reverend and pious author is known to have lived a long time in the neighbourhood of the missionaries at Serampore, and as he has mentioned one of them by name, it may not be improper to state, that the individual in question has never indulged himself with a single servant about his own person, a thing done by nearly every Portuguese clerk in the country ; and that every article of food and clothing for himself and his family. 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 109 like those of his missionary brethren, is covered by Httle more than sixty rupees monthly ; that even Madeira," — sherry was then unknown in India, — " which in a comitry producing no beverage like beer in England, is so common among nearly all ranks of Europeans, has never yet become a regular article on the table of the missionaries at Serampore ; and that notwithstanding the number of females there, and the extreme heat of the climate, no palankeen, so general a mode of conveyance in India, has yet been constantly retained at the mission-house. Nor did the brethren there, severe as is the application of a sedentary nature daily incumbent on them, indulge themselves with a horse for exercise, till the danger of falling into an untimely grave made them doubt whether by this course they were consulting the real interests of the mission. Whether to tell a young clergyman that * a mission appointment in India ' is in general more lucrative than a curacy in England, and equally creditable and permanent ; that he will obtain admission into the best society, and be in real danger from the seductions of affluence and ease .... be indeed the most effectual mode of inducing him to accept a mission appointment, we will not say ; we cannot but think, however, that a young minister, capable of being moved by these things to accept a mission appointment, would still more ef- fectually consult the interests of religion, and possibly his own happiness, by remaining in his native land." Dr. Ryland, who was then at the head of affairs in England, was so greatly alarmed at the idea of giving umbrage to the Church Missionary Society, that he cut out the leaf containing these remarks from every copy of the Report he could discover, and committed it to the flames. Of Dr. Carey's habits of extreme frugality at the period when these remarks were written. Dr. Marshman has given an amusing account in a subsequent letter to a friend : *' For fifteen years we made Bengalee rum a substitute for all wine and beer, merely because it was a 110 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XI. rupee a gallon, while beer was twelve rupees a dozen, or six rupees a gallon. Now as a gallon of this country rum, mixed with water, — for I never knew it drunk alone, — would make at least four gallons of beverage, this was a thirtieth the price of beer, and our regard for missionary economy, which was then rigid almost beyond belief, fixed us to the nauseous drink. When the tumbler full of it was brought to Dr. Carey, about nine in the evening, as he sat at his desk with his translations, he would drink it down at one draft, simply to get rid of it." It has been stated in a previous chapter, that Mr. Lawson had been permitted by the government of Cal- Missionary cutta and by the Court of Directors to re- changes in India. ^^:^^ -^^ J^^-^ ^^ ^|^g CXpulsioH of Mr. JohuS, with a view to the improvement of the Chinese fount, under the direction of Dr. Marshman. But the native punch-cutter on the establishment at Serampore speedily attained such perfection in this work, as to produce the most delicate specimens of the most complicated Chinese characters. Mr. Lawson no longer deemed it necessary to give his time to this mechanical employment. In the month of September he removed to Calcutta, together with Mr. Eustace Carey, and they were appointed co- pastors of the Church in the Bow Bazar. Mr. Lawson was never able to master the vernacular tongue, but he found ample scope for his ministerial gifts among the European and East Indian members of the congregation and the European soldiers in the fort. Mr. Eustace Carey had apphed with diligence and success to the study of Bengalee, and was enabled to combine mis- sionary labours with his pastoral duties, during the re- maining eight years of his sojourn in India. Mr. Cham- berlain, though but recently removed from Sirdhana, under the frown of government, still longed after mis- sionary employment in the north-west, and importuned his brethren at Serampore to obtain permission to settle at Mizapore, the commercial capital of those provinces. 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. Ill Application was accordingly made to government, but the secretary was instructed to inform Dr. Marshman that government did not deem it advisable to allow him to settle in any part of the north-west provinces ; but gave him leave to select any other division of the presidency. Mr. Yates has accounted for this reluctance on the part of government in a letter to Dr. Ryland : " he has been sent away from the north-west, because he exercised so much zeal and so little judgment, that it was apprehended he would be sent home altogether." He made choice of Monghir for a station, and there he passed the remaining eight years of his life in peace and tranquillity, in the diligent discharge of his missionary duties. Among the changes of the present year was the removal of Mr. Leonard from Calcutta, which was rendered necessary by circumstances which were to be lamented. He was sent to Dacca to establish a branch of the Benevolent Insti- tution, in a large circle of Roman Catholic children growing up in ignorance and vice in that once flourishing capital of Bengal. Next to Calcutta, Dacca contained the largest population of this class in the lower provinces, the descendants by native mothers of the Portuguese who had enjoyed political power and founded settlements more than two centuries before, in the eastern districts of Bengal. The Roman Catholic church was possessed of considerable endowments of land in that neighbourhood, but the peasantry, though nominally Christian, were sunk to the lowest state of degradation. Mr. Leonard pro- ceeded to the interior in the hope of being able to estab- lish schools among them, but he met with no encourage- ment. There was no school throughout that community, with the exception of one at the principal station, where a female was employed in teaching forty or fifty children to commit the catechism to memory, which she be- lieved to contain all that it was necessary for a Cliris- tian to know, though she herself was unable to read it. The priests, who ministered among these ignorant people. 112 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chai'. XI. came from the seminary at Goa, the *' capital of Portu- guese India," but they were Httle raised in acquirements above their flock. They conversed among each other, and with their personal attendants in Portuguese, and were for the most part ignorant of the vernacular tongue. Their duties were limited to the collection of their rents, and the performance of service in Latin on Sundays and festivals. They told Mr. Leonard that if the children were to be taught anything which was opposed to the doctrine of auricular confession, or of the immaculate conception, or to any other dogma of the Roman Catholic church, they would not be permitted to attend his schools. Find- ing it impossible to obtain access to the people, he was oblio'ed to confine himself to the establishment of schools in Dacca, where the influence of the priests was less ex- clusively felt. On the 27th of November, Lord Moira and Lady Loudon, accompanied by the bishop and Mrs. Mid- dleton, paid a visit to the missionary es- visutoserVm- tablishmcnt at Serampore, and, after examin- ing the various departments, said that the mag- nitude of the undertaking greatly exceeded their ex- pectations. Lord Moira has recorded, in his private journal, the great satisfaction he felt from this visit, and his admiration of the spirit of enterprise manifested by the missionaries. He was particularly interested in the assemblage of learned natives from various provinces in India, employed in translating the Sacred Scriptures. When the Affghan moonshee exhibited the manuscript of his Pushtoo translation of the New Testament, the visitors were struck with the Jewish cast of his features, and Lord Moira said he was almost disposed to coincide in the opinion that the ten tribes were to be found, if anywhere, in AflTghanistan. Though he had reprobated the extension of our territories by Lord Wellesley, yet when he himself was placed in circumstances to under- stand our position in the East, he did not hesitate to 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAIklPORE MISSION. 113 declare that the Indus iniist be considered as our boundary ; but he could little have anticipated the arrival of a period when our dominions would extend even beyond that river, and when the Pushtoo translation, which he regarded with surprise, would be circulated among our own subjects, by the agency of an Auxiliary Mis- sionary Society established at Peshawur. This was the first visit paid by any Governor-General to the missionary institution at Serampore. The morbid dread of "offend- ing the prejudices of the natives" had hitherto deterred the hiii'her officers of government from the manifestation of any interest in the efforts of Christian benevolence. Throughout Bengal the missionary enterprise was con- sidered by the people to be proscribed by the public authorities. There were, even then, in high places, men who, in the days of Lord Minto and Sir George Barlow, would have deprecated such a visit as a violation of the neutral policy of government, if not also the fore- runner of a rebellion. But Lord Moira was above the littleness of such fears. The visit of the Governor- General to the chief missionary establishment in the Bengal Presidency created no disaffection, and it was beneficial in correcting the erroneous impression that missionary labours were regarded with feelings of aver- sion by the Christian government of the land. Within three weeks of Lord Moira's visit to Serampore, it was restored to the Danish authorities, in pursuance of the arrangements made at the congress of ■XT' n n ,1 1 , r«,i Restoration of Vienna. Before the second capture or the ti.H settlement : , ' of Serampore. town, in 1808, a considerable sum had been paid annually by the British Government in India to the- Danes, and also to the French, as a compensation for re- linquishing the manufacture of opium at Patna. During the negotiations at the congress, Prince Talleyrand se- cured the restoration of this allowance to the French, — and it is at present the chief support of their settlements in India ; but the representative of the King of Denmark VOL. II. I 114 HISTORY OF THE SEllAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XL did not succeed in regaining tlie opium annuity. The town of Serampore was thus left to depend on its own resources, which were now dried up. The trade of India had been thrown open to British merchants, and they ceased to require the commercial facilities of a foreign settlement. The export of piece goods from India, to which Serampore had been indebted in a great measure for its prosperity, was rapidly expiring under the influx of Manchester cottons ; the town, therefore, speedily became a burden on the finances of the mother country. As a missionary asylum its value had ceased with the freedom of access which the India Bill of 1813 gave to all missionaries. The event of the restoration of the town to its original proprietors was communicated by Mr. Ward to a young friend, in a letter which will serve to exhibit the spirit of his familiar correspondence, and his habit of spiritual reflection on tlie ordinary oc- currences of life : " Wliile I am writing the guns are firing, the office is empty, and the Danish flag is again up. There go the guns from the Danish ship lying off Serampore. All is hushed, and nothing but smoke is left. How different when Christ takes possession of an immortal mind, and sets up His kingdom there; a reign of blessedness commences, measured only by eternity, and every step of progress is advancement towards endless perfection and happiness. Oh, my dear friend, what are all these shows ; they are but the monkey and the dancino" bear on a larger scale. Oh, thou fountain of splendour and moral glory, thou who art the infinite ex- pansion of every thing great and fair and excellent and glorious, never let my friend be content with any thing but thyself, and a portion in that which will last for ever." Immediately after the re-establishment of 'the Danish au- thority at Serampore, the missionaries sent an address of congratulation to the king of Denmark, accompanied with a narrative of the progress which had been made in the various departments of labour, in the previous seven 1815.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 115 years, together with copies of all the works which had been pubHshed in that period. The king directed the following reply to be sent to that communication : " We do hereby charge our college of trade and commerce at Copenhagen, to notify to the Baptist society at our set- tlement of Fredericksnagore, through our chief at that place, that we have accepted with the liighest satisfaction and pleasure the books and other publications transmitted to us by them, and have moreover been much gratified by the testimonies given of the industry and zeal with which they endeavour to benefit our settlement there. And we desire that the said Baptist society shall be forthwith informed of our royal favour and constant pro- tection." I 2 116 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. CHAP. XII. The tide was now rapidly turning in India, in favour of improvement, under the auspices of Lord Moira. Amidst ,.,,,. , all the distractions of the Nepal war, which Lineral policy of ^ _ J Lord Hastings, ^g^g bcqucathed to him by his predecessor, he found leisure to attend to the interests of education. During his first progress through the north-west pro- vinces, he visited Benares and its renowned shrines, but he made no donations to the priests ; his attention was more appropriately bestowed on the advancement of learning. Juynarayun Ghosal, a wealthy and enlightened native of Bengal, who, though he had migrated to Be- nares to obtain the benefit of dying on its sacred soil, was still anxious to establisii and endow a school for the cul- tivation of English, Bengalee, Persian, and Hindostanee, and he submitted his proposal to the Governor-General, who promised him the important aid of Government to carry his wishes into effect. It is not unworthy of re- mark, as a contrast to the proceedings of Lord Moira, that about the same time, on the occasion of replacing the sacred relic in the principal temple in Ceylon, the only crown colony in the east, Mr. Doyley, though it was Sunday, accompanied a magnificent procession of priests, elephants, and dancing-girls, and having taken off his shoes, entered the temple, and presented a grand musical clock, as an offering to the shrine, in the name of His Excellency the Governor. The conduct of Lord Moira, in reference to Mr. Chamberlain, and the rebuke he ad- ministered to Mr. Thomason, who accompanied him in his progress, as chaplain, for having preached against the moving of the camp on Sundays, had led Dr. Carey to 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 117 designate him, in one of liis letters, as " a cold philo- sopher, and no friend to the gospel;" but Lord Moira soon gave him reason to modify this opinion, by the boldness and philanthropy of his proceedings. After assuming the government, he practically repudiated the policy which regarded the stability of our Indian empire as resting on the ignorance of our subjects. He discarded the idea of withholding the blessings of knowledge from the people in order to perpetuate our power. He was the hrst governor-general who endeavoured to promote the moral and intellectual improvement of India, and, that at a time when the majority of Indian statesmen, on both sides the Cape, considered it " hopeless or unsafe." Mr. May, the missionary at Chinsurah, had established a circle of schools in its neighbourhood, and it was one of the earliest acts of Lord Moira's administration, to encou- rage these efforts by a subscription of six hundred rupees a month from the public purse. While on his return to the Presidency, he drew up his celebrated minute "On the Administration of Justice in Bengal," dated on the Ganges, the 11th of October, 1815, in which he enun- ciated these enlightened sentiments : " In looking for a remedy to the evils which afflict the country, the moral and intellectual improvement of the natives will neces- sarily form a prominent feature of any plan which may arise from the above suggestions, and I have therefore not failed to turn my most solicitous attention to the important object of public education. . . In the infancy of the British administration in this country, it was perhaps a matter of necessity to confine our legislation to the primary principles of justice. The lapse of half a century, and the operation of that principle, have pro- duced a new state of society, which calls for a more en- larged and liberal policy. Tlie moral duties require en- couragement. The arts which adorn and embellish life will follow in ordinary course. It is for the credit of the British name that this beneficial alteration should arise I 3 118 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. under British sway. To be the source of blessings to the immense population of India is an ambition worthy of our country. In proportion as we have found intellect sterile here, the obligation is stronger on us to cultivate it. The field is noble; may we till it w^orthily." He wrote also to Mr. Charles Grant, to inquire whether the Court could not be persuaded to give support to schools formed on right principles rather than to Hindoo uni- versities. Mr. Grant informed him that ever since he had sat in the direction, there had been some in the body, and those men of influence, who had been averse to im- proving the moral and intellectual condition of our Indian subjects ; and in any efforts he had made he had expe- rienced much opposition. That opposition had been much weakened in the course of time by death, and was likely to be more so by the infusion of men of different sentiments ; but he did not think the present the time for urging the substitution proposed by the Governor- General. The tide had turned in India, but it had not yet turned in Leadenhall Street. The impulse given to the cause of education by the enlightened measures of Lord Moira, produced the most ffratifyino; effect amona; the native gentry in Establishment ^it--i- r- n a oftheHiudoo Calcutta. Larly m 1815, some or the most College. ^ ^ ' _ opulent and influential natives, both of the orthodox and liberal party, expressed a strong desire to establish a college in Calcutta for the education of their children in the English language and in European science. This proposal, which was spontaneous on their part, was warmly encouraged by Sir Edward Hyde East, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Lord Moira's policy. In the month of May, a meeting of the leading men in Hindoo society was held at his house, to found an in- stitution for giving a generous and liberal education to native youths. Lord Moira accepted the office of president, and Sir Edward and Mr. Harington became 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 119 vice-presidents. It was the first national movement in the cause of improvement. Natives eminent in rank and station hastened to support it by their contributions, and the sum of 11,318/., was immediately raised. Such was the origin of the Hindoo College, which has pro- duced the most memorable results among the upper ten thousand of Bengal. For a period of forty years it has been instrumental in diffusing among the aristocracy of the province that sound knowledge which has tended to raise them above the puerilities of their hereditary creed, and rudely shaken the fabric of Hindoo supersti- tion. The Serampore missionaries, who had propounded their scheme of native education while the community and the government in India were alike in- ..Hints Tor different to the object, determined to take ["hf s'eraXm'e" 1 , n j1 • ' 1 r> • . system of schools. advantage or this impulse ot improvement. After the transmission of their memorandum to Mr. Fuller, they gradually augmented the number of their schools, and endeavoured to improve their cha- racter. Under the new and more favourable aspect which the question of education had assumed, they de- termined to appeal to the public for the means of enlarging their efforts. Dr. Marsh man accordingly drew up " Hints relative to native schools, together with the outline of an institution for their extension and management." This little pamphlet was an enlarged and improved edition of their original proposal, and embodied their more matured views on the subject of public instruction. It produced a powerful impression on the public mind in India, and on its appearance in England was at once embodied in an article in the En- cyclopaedia. It was distinguished by the originality and boldness of its suggestions as well as by that spirit of prudent economy which pervaded all the plans of tlie Serampore missionaries. Under the modest title of " Hints," it proposed a well digested system of national I 4 120 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIL education, susceptible of indefinite expansion, which no subsequent efforts have rendered obsolete. The plan was never carried out to its legitimate extent ; but there can be little doubt, that if the Serampore missionaries had been enabled to prosecute it with their usual ardour, the lower provinces of Bengal would have presented a different aspect to that which they now exhibit. At the end of forty years of comparative inaction, the Board of Control has sanctioned a system of vernacular educa- tion in India on an extended scale ; but the germ of it is to be found in the pamphlet of " Hints " published at Serampore in the year 1816. But before presenting an epitome of the pamphlet, it may be useful to advert to the diversities of opinion entertained on the subject of education and the character of the instruction which it was desirable to give at this early stage of progress. Three different plans were advocated at this period, by three parties, that of the orientalists, the anglicists, and the vernacularists. The orientalists, without repudiating, in theory, the value of instruction through the medium of English, or of the native tongues, contended that the pa- tronage of the State should be given primarily to the encou- ragement of oriental literature, Hindoo and Mahomedan, that the parliamentary grant was designed to promote this object, and shouldbe exclusively appropriated to it. These views were in accordance with the ancient policy of the local government, which was in the ascendant when Warren Hastings founded the Madressa college for the Mahomedans, and Jonathan Duncan established the college for Hindoo pundits at Benares. The orientalists maintained that the support of the indigenous literature of India would serve to conciliate the natives to our foreign rule. There was nothing in the Poorans or the Koran which an enlightened government could be desirous of perpetuating, and the proposal rested on a concession to the strength of native prejudices. It like- wise brought in its train the flattery of the native literati. 1816.] HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 121 which was not without some charm for weak and brah- minised minds. This school of educationists was upheld by the suffrage of the India House ; it was therefore predominant, and was allowed to take the lead in distributing the patronage of government. With the new educational movement another party arose at this time, at the head of which was Sir Edward Hyde East and the Rev. T. Thomason. They considered that the intellectual progress of the country would be most effec- tually promoted by a liberal education through the exclusive medium of the English language. A complete knowledge of English was extremely rare at this time, llammohun Roy was considered a prodigy of learning, for a degree of acquaintance with our literature which at the present day would be considered an ordinary accomplishment. The native youths of Calcutta were satisfied with a mere smattering of English, just sufficient to qualify them for the post of clerks and copyists, and there was no reason at that time to believe that they could be brought to master and appreciate the EngHsh classics. The chief justice and his associates were de- termined to try the experiment. They were buoyed up with the hope that by strenuous and continued exertion English might come to occupy the same place in India which Latin had formerly occupied in the Roman empire. Some were even so sanguine as to expect that it might in the lapse of time supersede the mother tongues of India, and become the general medium of communication, and thus bind the people to their conquerors by the bond of a common language. They maintained, moreover, that it was more advisable" to give a complete education to a few than an imperfect education to the multitude, and to promote the cuhiva- tion of a language already enriched with a noble litera- ture, than of one in which a literature had to be created. The Serampore missionaries stood almost alone in advo- cating a vernacular education as the only means by 122 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. which, the great body of the people, who had no leisure for the acquisition of a foreign language, could be res- cued from the evils of ignorance and superstition. It was upon these views, that the " Hints " for native schools was based. The first section of the " Hints " described the state of ignorance and degradation to which the natives were reduced, when not one man was found in a In what language mcliYe'ducLtion huudrcd who could read a common letter. was to be given, rpj^^ sccoud scctlon dwclt on the mode in which it was advisable to communicate knowledge, and boldly maintained the principle that any hope of giving instruction to the "people" of India, or indeed of any country, through the medium of a language not their own, was altogether fallacious. " For ideas to be acquired in a foreign language, opportunity, leisure, inclination and ability must combine in the case of each individual. Moreover, instruction to answer its proper design should be such as to render the inhabitants of any country happy in their own sphere, and not to take them out of it. But those who acquired a knowledge of English would scarcely remain tilling the ground or labouring at a manual occu- pation." These remarks were written in the infancy of those efforts to imbue the native mind with European knowledge, which have been successful beyond expecta- tion, but the experience of forty years has only served to confirm their truth. A knowledge of English, however imperfect, still continues to create new aspirations, and to render the youth dissatisfied with his own humble sphere of life. There are at the present time several thousand natives in and about the metropolis familiar with the British classics and well-versed in science; but the mass of popular ignorance remains untouched, and as a nation Bengal is as debased as it was under the Mahomedans. National education is still wanting, and it must be im- parted through a vernacular, and not through a foreign medium of communication. The plan proposed by Dr. 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 123 Marshman, embraced, in the first instance, a selection of useful words intended to promote a knowledge of ortho- graphy; the grammatical rules of the Bengalee language; a vocabulary of three or four thousand of the words in general use, and a simple treatise on arithmetic. To these elementary works were to be added an outhne of the solar system couched in short axioms, in accordance with the mode in which instruction had always been con- veyed in Hindoo writings ; then a compendious view of geography, upon the same plan of comprising every fact in simple axiomatic sentences, and a popular treatise on natural philosophy, with a variety of interesting facts relative to light, heat, air, water, meteorology, mineralogy, and chemistry. *' A knowledge of these truths," it was remarked, " would be invaluable to the Hindoos, and rectify and enlarge their ideas of the various objects of nature around them." This was to be followed by a compendium of history and chronology, and lastly by a treatise on ethics and morality, " intended to impart to them that knowledge relative to themselves, their respon- sibility for their actions, their state both here and here- after, and the grand principles of piety, justice and humanity, which might leaven their minds from their earliest youth." Should any one say, " Effect the object at once by introducing the Holy Scriptures into the schools; the measure is not so much objected to on account of any danger attending it, as from its not appearing to be the most efficient method which can be adopted. That the Scriptures contain every degree of information relative to the nature of man, his relation to God, a future state, &c., no one can deny ; they are indeed that to the moral world which the sun is to the world of nature, the source of light and illumination. But from that great mass of divine truth, interwoven in history, narrative, ecclesias- tical polity, prophecy, doctrine and precept, which forms the delightful study of a whole life in Britain, is it to be expected that a heathen youth, totally unacquainted with 124 HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPOUE MISSION. [Chap. XII. the nature of the book, shouhl be able, under the dh'ection of a heathen teacher, to select precisely those truths which would meet the deficiency of his own ideas ? These truths with which we in Europe are familiarised from our earliest infancy, should be laid down in a way no less clear and definite than those which relate to the solar system, natural philosophy, geography and history. The compendium might be drawn up in the very language of Scripture, or otherwise, as might be deemed most advisable." The third section treated of the system by which knowledge should be communicated in these schools. Nothing was to be expected from schools con- Se"se''ol^he ducted on the plan which had been in vogue for system. ccuturics. It was necessary to create a new system of instruction, and to form a new body of teachers. It was proposed, therefore, to adopt the plan which had originated with Lancaster, and which was then in the height of its popularity. Tables were to be prepared on Lancaster's plan, with the twofold object of saving ex- pense, by substituting one large fair copy in the room of many small ones, and of fixing the attention of a whole class, and enabling ten or twelve to receive instruc- tion at once. On the tables were to be exhibited the alphabet and its various combinations, together with words of two, three, and four syllables as spelling exercises, the paradigms of nouns, pronouns, and verbs, and the rules of arithmetic witli a succession of examples. These tables printed in large type, and pasted on boards, were to be suspended around the room, and to be used for reading exercises. The total number of tables was cal- culated not to exceed sixty. Instruction of a higher order was to be given from dictation. The monitor, with the text book in his hand, was to pronounce a portion of each sentence audibly and deliberately, each boy writing it down in his copy book. When the lesson of the day was completed, it was to be revised by the monitor, and 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 125 the number of errors inserted at the foot of the page. Each boy was then to read it aloud in succession, sentence by sentence. The advantages of this scheme of instruc- tion were obvious ; one printed book served for a dozen children ; they made progress in penmanship and ortho- graphy, and also acquired a facility of reading and writing their own language. A spirit of animation and emula- tion was created, and instruction was combined with pleasure. The most important facts and truths, thus written from dictation, and read over three or four times, could not fail to remain deeply impressed on the memory. If the treatises w^ere comprised, as was expected, in four hundred and fifty pages, the whole series, at the rate of half a page a-day, might be completed in about three years. It was also proposed to give printed copies of the books, neatly bound, as prizes, under the impression that they would be read with pleasure in after life. Each class tlius organised and provided with progressive lessons, was to be placed under the direction of a monitor ; and the duties of the master w^ould therefore be reduced to the maintenance of discipline, the regulation of the lessons, the registration of the daily labours, and the general superintendence of the machinery. Eight or ten classes might thus be managed by a single master, and the school would progress through the impulse of the system. In reference to the duties of inspection, it was remarked that whatever might be the intrinsic merits of this or, indeed, of any system, it was only by regular and energetic superintendence, that it could be kept up to the mark of efficiency. But schools conducted on this plan might be superintended with great ease. The chief duties of the inspector, on his periodical visit, would consist in com- paring the registry of attendance with the daily exhibition of work in the copy books, and in examining each class and pupil in the various exercises which had been per- formed. On the subject of expense, it was stated that the outfit of a school, consisting chiefly of sandboards, 126 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. slates, and tables, was not likely to exceed thirty rupees. It was proposed, where practicable, to rent a house for a school-room rather than to build one. The house would generally belong to some influential native of the village, and he would be induced to encourage the school from motives of personal interest. The rent w^as taken at a rupee and a iialf a month, and an equal sum, it was sup- posed, would be sufficient to cover the expense of writing materials and books. The salary of the master was esti- mated at seven rupees and a half a month, and the gra- tuities to monitors at one rupee, making in all eleven rupees and a half. The cost of inspection and super- vision was calculated at one half more. The entire expense of a circle of fifty schools, containing on an average seventy pupils of different ages, was calculated at 825 rupees a month, or about 1000/. a-year. Such was the plan proposed in the " Hints ; " for such an educa- tional establishment, however, this was a very inadequate allowance ; but it was in accordance with that spirit of extreme economy which predominated at Serampore. At the present day, any attempt to give three thousand five hundred boys even the rudiments of knowledge, and through the cheap agency of the vernacular tongue, for 1000/. a-year, would be considered chimerical. But it must not be forgotten that with the increased prosperity of the country, and more especially in the suburban districts, the scale of living and the rate of salaries has been raised in no inconsiderable degree. The " Hints'* then proceeded to describe the progress which had been made in carrying out the plan. The Progress of the Scramporc missionaries had prepared a new schools. fount of types of a size suitable for the tables, with which the alphabet and its combinations and the spelling lessons had been printed ; the arithmetical tables were in the press, and of the other treatises some were ready for the printer and others in progress. They had established an experimental normal school at Serampore, 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 127 in which the masters then employed by them had been, to a certain extent, trained to their new duties. The first school opened on this plan was at the village of ISJabobgunge, about four miles distant from Serampore. To conciliate the inhabitants, they had been desired to select a master themselves, whom they sent to the train- ing school. Village after village had followed the ex- ample, and despatched the individual of their choice for instruction to Serampore. Nineteen schools had been established within the circle of a few miles, and all at the request of the people themselves. In some instances, men of influence had offered their own house, and in other cases the family temple, for a school-room ; houses had in some places been erected by men of property in the hope that they would be rented. Children were attracted to the schools from the most respectable families, and one particular school numbered ten brahmin youths. In one instance, a body of more than twenty boys came to Serampore from a distance of many miles, accompanied by the principal inhabitants of the village, to solicit the establishment of a school. Instruction was welcomed with great avidity throughout the district, and there is every reason to believe that if the missionaries had re- ceived continuous and energetic support in the prosecu- tion of this scheme, and their attention had not been distracted by opposition, which constrained them to fight with one hand while they built wdth the other, the country around the metropolis would soon have been filled with knowledge. It w^as in the present year that the celebrated Ram- mohun Roy came forward more prominently before his countrymen as a reformer. He was at the time about thirty-six years of age, of brahmi- Roy'X''g"eat -, ■,• n 1 Tt ^ o reformer. meal lineage, ot noble presence, and ot rare attainments. He had successfully cultivated the Persian, the Arabic, and Sanscrit languages, and was better read in Hindoo theology and philosophy than the majority of 128 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION, [Chap. XII. pundits in Bengal. His flimily was possessed of some ancestral property, which by the death of his brothers eventually devolved on him, but it was not of such value as to place him above the acceptance of a public office. He became the chief officer of the collector of Run«:- pore, and being thus brought into European associations, cultivated the English language with such assiduity, as in a few years to be able to comprehend the most profound treatises in metaphysics and divinity. He did not renounce the restrictions of caste, and continued to associate with the most orthodox Hindoo families, but he rose superior to the prejudices of his countrymen, and invited European gentlemen to breakfast with him while he sat at a separate table. He repudiated the popular system of idolatry, and formed the bold design of reform- ing the creed and practice of his countrymen, and inviting them to unite with him in the worship of one God. With this view, he published, in the first instance, a work against the " idolatry of all religions," and then an *' abridgement of the Vedant, establishing the unity of the Supreme Being, and that he alone is the object of propitiation and worship." This treatise was compiled more than two thousand years before, by the great Vyasa, and presented a complete and compendious abstract of all the Vedas. A translation of this work in English, which he published in 1816, brought him and his doc- trines of reform under the notice of the European com- munity, and placed him in that conspicuous position which he occupied during the remainder of his life. In the introduction to this work, he attacked with unsparing severity that system of popular idolatry on which Sir Thomas Munro, and Mr. Lushington, and Mr. Marsh had bestowed the highest eulogium three years before in the presence of the British Parliament. He said he had observed some Europeans exhibit a wish to palHate and soften the features of Hindoo idolatry, and to show that all objects of worship were considered by their votaries as 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 129 emblematical representations of the Supreme Being. He affirmed that the Hindoos of the present day had no such views, but firmly believed in the real existence of innu- merable gods and goddesses, who possessed full and independent power in their own departments. He further remarked that "the injurious rites introduced by the peculiar practice of Hindoo idolatry, more than any other ])agan worsliip destroyed the texture of society.'* At the beginning of this year, he visited the Serampore missionaries for the first time, and entered into a long and interesting discussion of religious questions, in the course of which he observed, that the god Krishnu had, on the showing of the Hindoo shastras, been guilty of a petty theft of which the sweeper of his house would be ashamed. " How then," said he, *'can I worship him as a god ?'* For several years after this visit, and down to the period of his discussions with Dr. Marshman on the divinity of Christ, he maintained a friendly intercourse with the missionaries, whose zealous efforts in the cause of Christian benevolence he fully appreciated. The opposition of Rammohun Roy to the current superstition of the country, created a spirit of the most bitter hostility on the part of the orthodox ; but some of the most eminent Hindoos in and around the metropolis en- rolled tliemselves among his disciples, the most illustri- ous of whom was the late Dwarkenath Tagore, who made so favourable impression on the public mind in England, during his visit to this country. In the month of March, during the saturnalia of the Hoolee festival, Rammohun Roy and his friends convened a meeting in Calcutta, and held their first religious service. Chapters were read from the Vedas, which inculcated the unity of the God- head ; hymns were chaunted, in which power and glory were ascribed to the one Omnipresent and All-powerful Being. This was the origin of that religious movement among the intelligent Hindoos of Calcutta and its vicinity, which resulted in the establishment of the " Brumba- VOL. II. K 130 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XII. subha," or society of Vedantists. It now embraces hun- dreds of influential and well educated Hindoos who, like their great leader, denounce the popular superstition, and advocate the philosophical theism of the early Hindoo sages. They do not profess to repudiate caste, but they interpret its rules according to their own inclinations. The most unrestrained convivial intercourse with Euro- peans is not considered incompatible with its integrity. The elasticity of the bond of caste, in fact, admits of the widest latitude of practice among Hindoos, if they be opident, so long as they do not cross the Rubicon, and avow themselves the disciples of the cross. In the month of February, the Rev. Nathaniel Forsyth died in Calcutta. He came to India in connection with the London Missionary Society in 1798, and Fo.'^ythf-^.rrivai was accommodatcd for a twelvemonth w^ith the IsowBaza""^' usc of Dr. Diuwiddle's lecture room for divine Chapel. . 1 /- I - service. He then removed to Chmsurah, where he continued to preach to the European community to the day of his death. Though recognised as a missionary, he never acquired the native language, and as he never " molested" the heathen in the exercise of their religion, he was never molested by the government. On the opening of the chapel in the Bow Bazar, a portion of the sabbath was allotted to Mr. Forsyth for service with a small body of liis friends, but his ministrations were not popular, and his congregation dwindled away two or three years before his death. Soon after, the Rev. Henry Townley, and the Rev. James Keith arrived in Calcutta, and estab- lished a mission under the auspices of the Society witii which Mr. Forsyth was originally connected. Mr. Tow^nley found on his arrival that the chapel was in the occupation of a large church and congregation at the hours appropriated by the usages of society to the services of the sabbath. By the terms of the original deed, he might legally claim to share the pulpit, but he did not deem it advisable to disturb existing arrange- 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 131 ments, or to fix on hours of service which might prove inconvenient. He therefore obtained the use of Free- mason's Hall, where he collected a large congregation : his hibours soon proved acceptable in the highest degree, and he was enabled to raise subscriptions sufficient for the erection of a chapel in his own connection. Thus arose Union Chapel. The Bow Bazar chapel, therefore, remained in the occupation of the Baptist church, with little prospect of interruption, a circumstance which became a prolific source of detraction with the opponents of the Serampore missionaries. As there will be no occasion to recur to this subject again in the course of these memoirs, it may be dismissed at this point with a brief allusion to the subsequent history of the edifice. Three or four years before this period, it was encumbered with a debt of about 2000/., being the aggregate of sums which Dr. Carey and his associates had successively advanced to the builder. The monthly subscription raised by the congregation was equal only to the expenses of divine service and the interest of the debt. An attempt was therefore made to create another fund, which should accumulate at compound interest in one of the great houses of business in Calcutta, till it amounted to the principal of the debt. At the beginning of the year 1816, this sinking fund had reached the sum of 7^0/., and if its growth had not been checked, the encumbrance would have been extinguished in a few years. But the two deacons of the church who were appointed to that office at this time, were hostile to the Serampore missionaries and to all their movements, and discountenanced both the fund for meeting the interest and that for liquidating the principal. Their argument was plausible, and not unreasonable : that *'in proportion as the means increased for the liquidation of the debt, the interest of the church and congregation now meeting there would be diminished, and they would at length stand on the same level with other denominations." The missionaries were thu.s vol-. II. * t 2 132 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII censured on the one hand for having adopted a course which virtually converted that edifice, which was in- tended for the worship of all sects, into a denominational chapel, and condemned, on the other hand, for their efforts to terminate the anomaly and restore the chapel to its original position. Thus thwarted in their attempt to create a liquidation fund, they consulted the members of the church, and obtained their consent to the appro- priation of the sum whicli had accumulated to its object, as far as it would go. The chapel thus remained with a debt of about 1^500/., which was guaranteed by the mort- gage. On the extinction of the Serampore mission in 1837, the pulpit was transferred to the missionaries of the Society, and it continues to be occupied by them on the tenure of the mortgage which had once been so strongly condemned. The most encouraging prospects connected with the missionary labours of this year, were those of the station of Chittagong. Many of the inhabitants of sion-Benevoient Aracau, usually denominated Mugs, had taken refuge from the oppression of the Burmese authorities in the neighbouring district of Chittagong. Mr. Debruyn, who had been employed in this circle as a missionary for five years, had acquired a sufficient know- ledge of the colloquial Burmese which was spoken by the refugees to address them with much acceptance. His amiable disposition had drawn many around him, and they listened with avidity to the message of divine truth. Thirty-three were added to the Christian church by bap- tism in the course of the present year. Many who ap- proved of the gospel, but hesitated to join the Christian community, said, " If we do not become Christians, our children and grand-children will assuredly do so." This casual assertion has been singularly verified in the history of the Aracan Mission. It was transferred in the course of time to the American missionaries attached to the American Board, and became a branch of their Burmese 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 133 Mission, and among the children and grand-children of those who listened to the addresses of Mr. Debruyn, the converts have been numbered by thousands. The Benevolent Institution in Calcutta, had continued to increase both in popularity and efficiency. The oppo- sition of Dr. Ward, in 1812, which has been , . . , •, Benevolprit Insti- noticed in a previous chapter, served to conso- uaion-Mr. J 1 ^ ^ reniiey. lidate it. The subscriptions increased in 1814 to 974/., in 1815 to 1129/., and at the close of 1816, had reached the sum of 1450/. These large contributions were given to an institution without patrons, governors, or committee, which was under the direct control and sole responsibility of three self-constituted managers. But these managers were the Serampore missionaries, who had grown up under the eye of the community, and gradually acquired its unlimited confidence. Nine of the contributors of from 20/. to 40/. a-year, were among the higher officers of government. There was scarcely a name of any eminence in the public service which was not to be found in the subscription list, not excepting even Mr. Adam and Mr. Dowdeswell, who had been the most strenuous opponents of missions in the days of Lord Minto. Not the least gratifying token of kindness mani- fested to the institution, was a donation of 40/. from the editors of the " Youth's Magazine," in London, one of the most useful and popular religious publications of the day. These enlarged resources enabled the mission- aries to purchase tiie ground and building — for 1200/ and thus to place the institution upon a permanent basis. The school continued to flourish under Mr. Leonard, an old soldier, who was delighted with the military organi- sation of the Lancasterian system. On his removal to Dacca, his successor was found unequal to the duties of his post, and the missionaries resolved to give the institu- tion the benefit of a master who had been trained to the science of teaching under Mr. Lancaster himself. On the receipt of their application, he selected one of the K 3 134 HISTORY OF THE SEllAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIT. most promising of his pupils, Mr. James Penney, and introduced him to Dr. Carey in a letter which began thus : " Respected friend, — Allow me to salute thee in the love of him who instituted the first mission the world ever saw, and who alone can bless them until divine knowledge shall pervade the habitable earth. The bearer has always been loved by me, and has always, through grace, made a return worthy of himself and his principles. He has done much good, trained many schoolmasters, and been a blessing to many. I have pleasure in com- mending him to thy kindness and thy love." Mr. Penney fully justified the expectations raised by this commenda- tion. He was an enthusiast in his profession, every inch a schoolmaster, and at the same time, complete master of the system of tuition which had been matured in the Borousfh Road. He "'ave a new and more attractive character to the institution, and improved its efficiency and usefulness. In the course of this narrative, we have now reached the period of those unhappy differences with the Baptist Missionary Society, which from this time for- th'e BaTtlst Mis- Ward, embittered the lives of the Serampore sionary Society. . . . l j i • • rr< i missionaries and cramped their energies. 1 he death of Mr. Fuller was an irreparable loss. It broke the bond of confidence and cordiality which had so long subsisted between the two bodies. The management of affairs at home necessarily devolved on a new agency, and new feelings and tendencies, foreign to the associations of the old connection, which had subsisted for more than twenty years, were now developed. It w^as a period of transition, and the interruption of harmony could only be prevented by the most delicate handling of the questions which must unavoidably arise. The old economy of missions, under which Dr. Carey and his associates embarked, had passed away. Missions had attained the maturity and organisation of a national enterprise. Missionaries no longer went to India with ISIG.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 135 the understanding tliat they must depend for the means of subsistence mainly on their own exertions, which would be eked out by slight or occasional aid from England. The societies were endowed with ample re- sources, and were enabled to give adequate salaries to their missionaries, and this circumstance brought in its train a new principle of subordination, to which the Serampore missionaries were strangers. This appears to have been the real origin of those differences which subsequently became irreconcilable by the introduction of new elements of irritation. The missionaries naturally expected some inauspicious change from the removal of Mr. Fuller's guiding genius, and they endeavoured to anticipate it by their own proceedings. Within a month after they heard of his death, they resigned into the hands of the society the control over the European missionaries which had been forced on them, and re- tained only the supervision of those who were supported from their own funds. There was no member left of the society with whom they had been on terms of cordial and affectionate intercourse from the beginning, except Dr. Ryland. It was, therefore, to his letters that they looked for information of the progress of feelings and events to guide their own conduct. Those letters served only to increase their anxieties, and it is in the impression which they created, that the clue of subsequent trans- actions is to be sought. Within three weeks of Mr. Fuller's death, he wrote, " I have a most anxious desire to preserve unanimity in our society, and I pray God to appear for us. They have united in wishing me to act as secretary till October. I would not give a farthing a ton for power or influence, except for the sake of doing good or preventing evil, but I dread young men getting the reins in proportion to their eagerness to seize them. It has been said the premises belong to the society : that is, you have said so. Will you specify how they are se- cured to it. It may be expedient to answer this question. K 4 136 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. My confidence in you all is complete, but I shall be liable to be questioned about things that I cannot answer." On the 2nd of July, 1815, he said : "If no one can be found who will unite the society, I must keep the secre- taryship in my hands as long as I can. I am afraid to commit the reins to any of those who are so eager to seize them. The confidence of young men in their own competence makes me distrust them the more." When the question of the secretaryship came to be discussed in October of the present year, it was stated that Mr. Fuller had always fixed his hopes on Mr. Christopher Anderson, of Edinburgh, a young man who combined an ardent zeal for missions with great energy and pru- dence. But the presence of such a man would not, it was found, be welcome : great opposition was manifested to his nomination, and one member of the committee opened the Old Testament, and pointed to the verse which described *' Ahab as a subtile man." There was nothing of subtility in Mr. Anderson's character, but the quotation proved fatal to his election, and Dr. Ryland and Mr. Hinton were appointed joint secretaries. Dis- cord still continued to prevail in the committee, which had now lost its presiding genius, and nine months after Dr. Ryland stated in a letter to Dr. Carey, that he had '* unbounded fears for the future." From these and other communications, the mis- sionaries were apprised, that at the first meeting of Dr. Kyiand's ^^^^ committcc hcld after Mr. Fuller's fu- pore'lDe^r^rJds Hcral, suspiclous were expressed regarding oft e Society, ^[^gjj, couduct, which they had never dotie any thing to provoke, and that the anxiety for the mission which had absorbed the mind of the deceased secretary, was at once exchanged for anxiety regarding property. They were likewise informed that investi- gations conducted in no friendly spirit were about to be instituted regarding their past proceedings. They felt in- dignant that instead of being regarded as affectionate 1816.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 137 coadjutors in an enterprise which was indebted chiefly to their exertions for its present position, they were rather regarded in the hght of criminals who were required to vindicate their integrity. On the receipt of Dr. llyland's first letter, they drew out and examined the deeds of the premises on which they resided, and which had not been opened since they were signed. Two of the deeds had been drawn up in the ordinary loose form of convey- ance which was deemed sufficient in a place like Seram- pore, and they had been signed without any close ex- amination. The official attestation of the Jemadar, who was also a member of tlie council of three which go- verned Serampore, was considered a sufficient guarantee of their legahty. They now found that, altliough their main object had been attained of securing the premises to the society, the trusteeship had been made heredi- tary. In the new position in which they found them- selves, with a suspicious committee to deal with, it appeared necessary to adopt some more definite arrange- ment with regard to the premises, the property, and the mission, which should secure the continuance of their independence and tiie confidence of the society. They dehberated long and anxiously on the subject and Mr. Ward drew up a plan of what he termed, a " comfortable settlement" of the station, which he submitted to his colleagues ; but before they had come to any conclu- sion on the subject, he sent a copy of it in confidence to a friend in the committee at home, stating at the same time that the matured plan would be sent to the society as soon as they were agreed upon it. At the annual meeting of the society, held in October, 1816, this private letter was brought forward and treated as a public communication from the three missionaries. It is to the proceedings of that meeting, that all the discord and contention of the next twenty years is to be at- tributed. The following is Dr. llyland's description of the temper of the committee. " A pretty good spirit 138 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE mSSION. [Chap. XII. prevailed, and there was no discord. They enlarged the general committee to forty-two, and appointed a sub- committee of nine. They likewise nominated Mr. Hinton and me secretaries. At last, they came to tiie question of the property at Serampore, and here some things occurred a little unpleasant, which it will require much wisdom to prevent becoming more so. You are aware few remain who knew you from the beginning. You expect, you wish tiie society to assume a new form here, by degrees at least, and so it must needs be. But as young men come forward, who do not know so much of you who are elder as they do of the younger bretiiren, they will require more express satisfaction than we are able to give as to such queries as these. When were the premises at first purchased? In whose names, and with what money? Or if tliey were bought at several times, and in several parcels, let the particulars be fully specified. How do you now propose to proceed? If they stand in your names already, can you make them over to yourselves in trust? If they are yours in trust, are not trus- tees in possession as good as freeholders ? May not their heirs take possession after them, and should we not find it difficult to turn them out? Are there any trustworthy pro- fessors in India, who could be nominated as trustees, or should there not be a deed drawn up in England, and trus- tees chosen here? I said I do not remember the time when we bought them, or when we sent out the money, or laid any plan for its being the common receptacle of all new missionaries. It seems to me they do not wish to seize that which was ours, and make it their own, which no one shall enter except by courtesy. I rather think it is theirs, and they want to make it ours ; they are not aiming to secure it to their children, but from their children. But let us have time to inquire, and all will be well. ... I have not got the minutes of the com- mittee, but I thought I had better prepare you without delay, for what you will hear more of shortly. After 1S16.] HISTORY OF THE SERA3IP0RE MISSION. 139 these discussions, it was resolved that a special meeting of the general committee should be convened as soon as the corrected plan arrives, which the bretliren in India have promised to send, regarding tlie affair of the trust deed of the property at Serampore." A sub-com- mittee was appointed, who assembled for the first time on the 31st of December, 1816, and consummated the mischief which had commenced in the general com- mittee. Tiie corrected plan had not arrived, and if it had, it was for the general committee to discuss and decide the question. But with an utter disregard of Dr. Ryland's sage advice, that they should take time to inquire, they proceeded at once to action, and communi- cated their wishes regarding tlie premises to Serampore. On the advice of a Calcutta attorney, the son of a Baptist minister who happened to be in London, they resolved that the property at Serampore should be vested in eight trustees appointed by themselves, and resident in England, in addition to the trustees in India. They also "resolved to accept the offer of their brethren at Serampore, to undertake on behalf of the society the direction of the missionaries already under their care, fully agreeing with them that this should be deemed only an internal regulation, and that the missions should always be considered as one." But it was not in ac- cordance with fact, to state that the Serampore mis- sionaries had offered to undertake the management of their own stations " on behalf of the societv," nor had they proposed this measure " as merely an internal regu- lation." They had simply proposed to resign the control of the European missionaries to the society which sup- ported them, and to continue to maintain from their own resources those who had been raised up in the country. This was the first communication received at Seram- pore from the society since the death of Mr. Fuller. For twenty months the committee had preserved an 140 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. injudicious silence, which seemed to bode no good. The resolutions were regarded with feelings of the deepest anxiety. They appeared to substantiate the duc'^eda^tsemm- woi'st fcars of Dr. Carey and his associates. ^rrrivii of"Mr. Durlno; Mr. Fuller's life, they had invariably W. Pearce. » . pi n t • alluded to then' own funds as totally distnict from those of the society ; the propriety of the distinction was never questioned for a moment ; and what they gave was regarded by the society as the gift of independent men. But now, those funds were to be expended on the missionary stations "on behalf of the society;" which was taken to imply that they were considered as being at the disposal of the committee. The whole ques- tion of their independence appeared to be involved in the expressions which had been adopted by the committee, and which were so dexterously framed as to exclude the supposition of inadvertence. On the quetition of the premises, they felt that to place them in the hands of a majority of trustees in England, chosen by the committee, would deprive them of all control over them, endanger their continued residence on them, and expose all their missionary operations to the risk of interruption. Nor must it be overlooked that, at the time these resolu- tions reached India, the society's missionaries resident in Calcutta, who were the personal friends of the men now in power at home, had condemned the proceedings of the Serampore missionaries, and manifested a spirit of estrangement which was rapidly ripening into hostility. They felt that there were not wanting men in India who might be willing to employ the power now claimed by the society over their resources to their disadvantage. It appeared to them that their freedom of action would be irrevocably compromised unless they resisted this first encroachment. The danger to which they had been exposed for many years by the opposition of the British Government appeared light in comparison with that which now menaced them. Just at this juncture, while their minds were bewildered by anxieties, a new cause of 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 141 alarm arose. On the 25t]i of August, Mrs. Ward, who had been sent to England by her medical adviser, returned to Serampore in renovated health. In the same vessel came out Mr. William Pearce, the son of the Rev. Samuel Pearce, whose name has been mentioned in a previous chapter, as one of the earliest and most devoted supporters of the mission, and the bosom friend of Mr. Ward. Mr. William Pearce had been trained as a printer by Mr. Colhngvvood, the superintendent of the Clarendon press at Oxford. He was not only an elegant typographist, but a man of great enterprise and perseverance, and possessed a strong hereditary attachment to the cause of missions. A son of Samuel Pearce would at any time have been welcomed at Serampore v»^ith delight by his father's former associates, Dr. Carey and Mr. Ward, but this feeling was qualified in no small degree by the pecu- liar circumstances connected with his appearance. Mr. Fuller had been careful to inform the missionaries that they were not to settle at Serampore but on the express invitation of the senior missionaries. But the new com- mittee proceeded at once to nominate Mr. Pearce to the office of Mr. Ward's assistant, and he was planted at Serampore, on the strength of this appointment, without any reference to the wishes of Dr. Carey and his col- leagues. He arrived when the demands of the society were under consideration, and though he was received witii much kindness, and took a share in the management of the printing office, this proceeding, combined with the portentous resolution, seemed to increase the necessity of resisting the invasion of their freedom. The determina- tion which they adopted at this crisis, has been attributed to a spirit of aggression and ambition ; but the following letter from Mr. Ward to his colleagues will show the real feelings in which their proceedings originated. " I put the following thoughts on paper that they may be well considered, and because the subject involves the question whether we shall give up to ruin or strengthen the edifice we have raised. 142 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. " Nothing that has yet been proposed appears to be ground on which we can anchor at Serampore, as it respects the property here. Nothing ajjpears to be more inevitable than this, that letter to his wc must cxpHcitly acknowledge that the houses were colleagues. , i , • i r ^ • /■ i • bought in the name or the society (subject we may say to the regulations of the trustees, who must always decide the question who shall occupy them). This fact, however, imless prudently met, that we did give the houses to them, if acknow- ledged and confirmed, Avill for ever deprive the occupiers of all happiness. We have misery enough, though a kind of fence sur- rounds us ; but as soon as we are gone the wolves will be let loose, and Serampore will be torn to atoms. These wolves now hover around us, and we can but just keep them off; but woe to those who shall have the whole weight to bear of these expensive establishments which we shall leave upon them, with all these wolves around them. In pondering over these circumstances during the last two days, my mind has been driven to this settled conviction, that it is my duty to see these premises fixed on a better footing than on any plan I have yet seen, or to retire from the mission altogether. I cannot serve the cause much longer in the course of nature ; all I have left to do seems to be to see it settled on a footing that may promise permanence ; and if I cannot see this, 1 need not sink under cares and labours the fruit of which must die with me. I repeat it, the property here must not be left in the hands of men at such a distance, whose servants full of envy and ill will are placed all around, and who will never cease to make the lives of our succe:;Sors a hell upon earth if those successors live on premises belonging to the society in an unqualified sense, or in other words, premises which are common property. " To meet this case, two ways have occurred to me ; the first is to give a deed of trust, transferring the property to the society in the following manner: making ourselves and a minority of other staunch friends here trustees, and expressing in the deed of trust that this property is to be for ever held by the occu- pants at Serampore, and by successors chosen by themselves for promoting the cause in India. " My other plan is to declare frankly to the society, that though we bought the houses for the society and did intend that they should be tlieirs, that imperious necessity had now con- strained us to revoke our gift, as no peace, no union, could be 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAI\irORE MISSION. 143 expected after they liad required a deed of trust with a majority of trustees in England, and had actually sent out a person to take possession of a part of the premises, and to live, whether we liked it or not, in the bosom of our family, interfering with our private regulations, and assuring him that he should have a gig, &c., if he wished it, and adding that it was only permitted to us as a favour to dispose of our own funds as we thought best, a favour to be resumed at the pleasure of the bestowers. That these things had nearh^ dissolved the union at Serampore, and that it had been found impossible to cement it again in any other way than by annulling the writings and forming new ones, in which we cast ofFall vexatious claims and future quarrels, by giving them to the Serampore station exclusively, though debarring for ever our natural posterity from it, and securing it to those who should actually carry on the heavy labours on the spot. That thus we had secured peace and perpetuity to the establishments we had ourselves formed, and had cut off all grounds of heart- burning, envy, and dissension, and that having done this, we hoped to die in peace. " These, my brethren, are plans on which we can act honourably, and I think they effectually meet the case. I think nothing short of something like this will do, and as I have already said, if something effectually securing the peace and permanence of the station at Serampore be not done, I consider my work here as done. Yours in eternal bonds, « W. WARD." The task of replying to the demand of the committee was committed to Dr. Marshman. His letter is one of the least happy of his productions. It ' "^ „ Reply to the seemed to be constructed on the model of sodety-sde. man as. one of Howe's sermons, a volume of whose works was always on his table. It was prolix to an excess, and the simple point at issue was often lost in a cloud of argumentation ; but it was most decisive in its tone. The demands of the society were unequivocally rejected, and the spirit of domination to which they were traced was rebuked with no little acerbity. The letter staggered the society, and as its authorship was clearly manifest from the style, an attempt was made 144 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. when it reached England to attribute it exckisively to Dr. Marshman's machinations. But Dr. Carey insisted on taking his full share of the responsibility, declaring that he had weighed every sentence, and that many expres- sions had been altered to meet his wishes. Mr. Ward's letter quoted above will show that the resolution em- bodied in the letter was only a modification of one of his alternative proposals. The letter must therefore be considered as expressing the unanimous opinion of the three colleagues. It stated that their union with each other was voluntary, and that while thus united they always considered themselves to possess an exclusive right over the produce of their own labour, to be applied by them to the cause in which they were em- barked. Their mutual engagements did not place their resources at the disposal of the society, or of any other body of men. Tliey affirmed, and with perfect truth, that while they had transmitted to England year by 3'ear, detailed statements of the expenditure of the funds sent to them by the society, they had never given even to Mr. Fuller any account of the sums obtained by their own exertions. In regard to the purchase of the pre- mises and the expenditure of their own funds, they had invariably acted in a spirit of unqualified independence, which had never been brought into question. In re- ference to their pecuniary position at this time, of which exaggerated reports had been sent to England, calculated to arouse cupidity, they state that at that time " they had scarcely any thing left." " To support the cause we have exerted ourselves almost beyond our strength, and, in a climate which drinks up the sj)irits, have laid on ourselves labours which few constitutions in England could bear. We have deprived ourselves of all recreation, and the hours which, after the labours of the day, others devote to social intercourse with their families, we have given to extra labour or to particular studies. We have lived at one common table, and subjected the regimen 1817.] HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 145 of our flimilies to each other's will, that we might devote the expense of separate establishments to that cause to which we have devoted ourselves. Were we taken away by death, our families must be turned out on the charity of the public, and, indeed, almost without a rupee, had we not husbanded the little we possessed before we joined the mission, and which after eighteen years' accumulation is not equal to four months produce of tlie labour we devote to the cause." They stated that the sums they had acquired since they settled at Seram.- pore had exceeded 50,000/., out of which they had reserved for themselves a bare sufficiency for food or * raiment. They facetiously remarked, that if control was to be regulated by contribution, they who had contributed two-thirds of the funds had a greater right to the control of the mission than the society itself They complained that the claim of the society to dispose of their funds had been practically exem- plified by sending a coadjutor into their little committee and their family circle without their request or consent, v;ho must share in all their counsels, though it might be incompatible with their domestic comfort and public usefulness. In reference to the demand for transferring the pre- mises to a majority of trustees in England, they inquire whether it was so unsafe to leave property of The question of the cost price of 3000/. with those who were "-i"^-^'^"- annually entrusted with a sum of equal amount by the public in India, which was nearly doubled by their own contributions ? Tiiey state that they were restrained from withdrawing their establishment to other premises, where they would be free from all claim and interruption, simply from a consideration of the injury it might inflict on the society. They point out the ease with which they could devote their income fora tw^elvemonth, if they chose to cramp their institutions for a season, to tiie pur- chase of other premises which were then offered to them. VOL. n. L 146 HISTOKY OF THE SEKAMPORE IVHSSION. [Chap. XU. This had reference to the very ehgible house and grounds formerly occupied by the Rev. David Brown, and known as Aldeen House. The grounds were larger in extent than the mission premises, and the sum at which the estate was offered was Httle more than half the cost of the property now the subject of discussion. The wisest course they could have pursued would have been to relinquish the old premises at once, which they would unquestionably have adopted, if they could have foreseen the flood of calumny to which they would be exposed for fifteen years, and the obloquy which would be heaped on their memory after their death, for continuing to oc- cupy the old premises. They stated that the premises which they had originated solely with a view to the mis- sion at Serampore, they would never by any deed of trust place at the disposal of any committee in England, nor suffer any one on earth to interfere with in the smallest degree. As trustees who had also created the premises, they considered themselves as having an absolute and exclusive right to apply them to this branch of the mis- sion, and to nominate those who should afterwards reside on them with a view to the propagation of the gospel. They should consider it the greatest misfortune of their lives, if the property were to be alienated from the cause of missions, or become the patrimony of their families; but they could not suffer the premises to become a chain about their necks, or to hold them in bondage to any man on earth. They added, " Beloved brethren, we must be free in our funds, in our dwellings, and in our choice of coadjutors. In every thing that can advance the cause of God in India, we are with you as brethren and fellow- helpers * even to live and die with you,' though not in any other character for an hour, nor can any thing affect our most cordial and affectionate co-operation, but your refusing it unless we will become your dependents and vassals." To give effect to this resolution, they embodied it in an *' Explanatory Declaration," which was drawn up 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 147 very clumsily by Mr. Agri, the only man at all acquainted with Danish law in the Settlement, and after having been duly executed and registered, was attached to the deeds. The declaration was to the effect that the property had been purchased by the missionaries in trust for the Baptist Missionary Society, and that to obviate any dispute or contest that might arise hereafter, they made this solemn declaration of their " meaning, will, design, and inten- tion " respecting the premises, that they should be for ever attached to the Baptist Mission at Serampore, and be held in trust by the three missionaries, and such only as they should associate with themselves for pro- pagating the gospel. That on the one hand no person in India or in England, belonging to the Baptist Missionary Society, and on the other hand, none of their children, or the children of any trustee, should have the least right or title to the property, except from the appointment of the trustees. This was the first breach with the society under its new organisation, and instead of being at once closed by candid and friendly explanations, was widened by the Remark on the • r* • • 1 i:v < differences. increase or suspicions, and alter ten years of acrimonious discussion ended in an entire separa- tion. This was, in fact, that " declaration of indepen- dence " which Mr. Fuller had anticipated as likely to result from the attempt of the committee to " legislate for Serampore." These differences were the natural and perhaps necessary consequence of the change of circum- stances in England. Those who had acted for twenty years as the independent coadjutors of Mr. Fuller, could not accommodate their minds to that state of subordination which belonged to the new economy of the mission, under which they were told that they were considered only as the senior servants of the society. It was scarcely possible for the Serampore missionaries, wdth their enlarged views, and least of all for Dr. Carey, to submit to the supremacy of a body which had in- L 2 14S HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. augurated its accession to power by endeavouring to curtail the mission. Nor could they contrast, without some feehng of indignation, the mistrust and suspicion manifested by the new committee with the unbounded confidence of the Indian community, which tliey had acquired by long and disinterested public services. The series of resolutions passed by the Oxford committee was a grave error, for which, however, great allowance must be made, except on tiie ground of precipitation. The members of that committee appear to have placed too much confidence in the representations of the junior missionaries, with whom they were personally acquainted, and they came to the discussion of questions connected with Serampore under the influence of prejudices which passed for virtues. They were for the most part new to the management of the mission. It is questionable whether any one beside Dr. Kyland knew that Dr. Carey in 1793, and Dr. Marshman and Mr. Ward in 1799, had gone out to India under the old regime of missions, with the understanding that they were to become independent of tlie support of the society at as early a period as possible. Tlie committee did not recognise the fact that, however liberally the Serampore missionaries had acted in reference to the society, when they became independent, their connection with it did not differ from that of Schwartz and the Coast mission- aries with the Christain Knowledge Society. Indeed, it is difficult to perceive how a collision could have been avoided between two bodies whose opinions regarding their mutual relationship were so irreconcilably different. There is also reason to believe that the committee were not fully aware of the bearing of their requests on the usefulness and security of the Serampore missionaries ; and every difficulty was seriously aggravated by the exist- ence of a body of men in Calcutta who were unfriendly to Serampore, and were known to enjoy the confidence of the committee. At the distance of forty years, on a 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 149 calm review of these events, it is impossible not to regret the tone of asperity in which the Serampore letter was written. It was a document so determined in its cha- racter, so vigorous in its expressions as to remain per- manently impressed on tlie memory, and the impression it necessarily created was not favourable to harmony. It is just possible that a milder remonstrance would have been as effectual ; at all events it would not have rankled in the mind. But every transaction must be judged by the circumstances and feelings of the time ; and the feelings of the missionaries on this occasion, were those of consternation. It appeared to them that the objects for which they had toiled together for eighteen years were in jeopardy, and that the cliief virtues which the crisis required were firmness and decision. The proceedings of the missionaries regarding the premises became a fertile source of censure. The deci- sive tone of their letter created great ex- ^ . . Explanation asperation in Lnijland, and those whom it regarding the 1 o •" premises. disappointed did not scruple to charge them with having seized premises belonging to the society. But the object of the declaration was not to usurp pro- perty, but to protect their missionary establishment from the intrusion of unknown and unfriendly coadjutors. In their anxiety to accomplish this object, they were driven to the anomaly of declaring, that although the fee simple of the premises belonged to the society, that body was to be debarred from the occupation of them and the appointment of trustees. The explanatory declaration was a mistake, if for no other reason, because it furnished a handle for detraction. It was a grave error of judg- ment ; on which the censorious will delight to expatiate, while the candid will consider it more than covered by a long life of devotedness to the cause of missions. But the claim advanced by the society to interfere with the use and occupation of the premises was L 3 150 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. repugnant to the spirit of the transaction. Whatever right of property the society enjoyed in the premises was derived from the spontaneous gift of the missionaries, and was coeval and concurrent with the right of occupation the missionaries had reserved to themselves, and the one was as sacred as the other. At the same time it must be borne in mind, that the explanatory declaration did not cancel or alter any existing deeds ; it was simply an exposition of their " meaning, will, design, and in- tention " in the original purchase of the premises. It was of no legal validity, and was valuable only as far as it might tend to prevent the entrance of adverse occupants, and cut off the claims of their own children. Whatever irritation their proceedings may have created on the first blush of the affair, their subsequent conduct completely vindicates them from the charge of spoliation. In a letter written to the society some time after, they state, "When informed that our intention in this act'' — alluding to the explanatory declaration — " had been mis- apprehended, we lost no time in assuring you that we considered, and had always considered, the right of pro- perty in the premises to belong to the society, and that we considered this right fully secured by the existing deeds. The difficult crisis of I8I7 had, moreover, passed away. The society's missionaries had established a mission in Calcutta, and we had purchased other and adjoining premises on which our operations might be carried on without risk of future interruption. We, therefore, felt no hesitation in offering to reconstruct the deeds, so as to secure the right of property to your satis- faction, and to admit a new body of trustees. If you will put these two circumstances together — our having resisted the application for new trustees when it appeared that such a step would be fatal to our honour, and de- structive of our missionary plans, and our subsequent voluntary offer of the same concession when it could have done no harm, we trust that you will feel convinced 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 151 that there never was any intention of alienating the property." Dr. Carey and his colleagues had hitherto made no provision for the support of their widows and orphans. With the exception of a very insignificant pittance for apparel, all their incomes had fenu's!'" siT ° i , . *• , 1 TVT Francis Mac- been thrown mto the common stock. Mr. naghien -ueut. Gaviu Young. Fuller had censured this self-denying ordi- nance and counselled them, as a friend, to appropriate the receipts of a twelvemonth for the benefit of their families. They turned a deaf ear on his advice at the time, but the subject was now reconsidered, and they resolved that a tenth of their respective incomes should be reserved by each of their number for the future exigencies of his family. — In the course of the present year, Sir Francis Macnaghten, one of the judges of the Supreme Court in Calcutta, and the father of the lamented envoy who was murdered at Cabul in 1841, came up to reside for a few months at Aldeen House in Serampore. During this period he formed an acquaintance with the missionaries, and more especially with Dr. Marshman, which soon grew into a very cordial intimacy. Sir Francis added to his eminent legal attainments a fondness for theological disquisition, and Dr. Marshman was a very welcome disputant. Their polemic discussions were frequently protracted to a late hour in the evening, and numerous were the letters which passed between them on the most abstruse points of theology. The intercourse between Sir Francis and Dr. Marshman was a source of mutual enjoyment, and it was never interrupted except by the occasional sharpness of their polemical controversies. Sir Francis took a warm interest in all the benevolent plans of the Serampore missionaries, and was always ready to afford them the benefit of his counsel and sup- port, and among the most interesting of his letters are those in which he discussed the questions on which the missionaries were at issue with the society — It was at L 4 152 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. this period likewise that Dr. Marshman was drawn into a pliilological discussion witli one of the most eminent schokrs of the day, the late Colonel — then Lieutenant — Gavin Young. Dr. Marshman had in the preface to his " Clavis Sinica" advanced some doctrines relative to the symbolic medium of communication adopted by the Chinese, which Lieutenant Young impugned in a pamphlet entitled "Vinditise Alphabeticse." The cen- sorship of the press was then in full vigour, and was under the control of Mr. Adam, the secretary to govern- ment, the stern opponent of all freedom of discussion, whetlier political, social, or literary. His interference with the press was often arbitrary and unjust; absolute powder is often wanton. Lieutenant Young had pub- lished an historical, political, and metaphysical work some months before he came in contact with Dr. Marsh- man, and a critique on it was inserted in the ''Asiatic Mirror," then edited by the Rev. Dr. Bryce, the senior chaplain of the Presbyterian church in Calcutta. The review was sent to the author, and received his sanction. But Mr. Adam thought fit to strike it out of the journal, and the paper appeared the next morning with a galaxy of asterisks in the vacant space. The reason assigned for the erasure afforded a pregnant example of the disastrous effect of a censorship on all intellectual progress. Mr. Adam endeavoured to justify this interference by alleging that the ri^view was considered " to be written in a tone of sarcasm and banter, likely to produce irritation, and to occasion an angry discussion, and he deemed the pre- vention of these disputes to be strictly within the limits of his authority." But he did not consider it necessary to prohibit the philological discussion between Dr. Marshman and Lieutenant Young, and it may therefore be inferred that it was conducted in a spirit of exemplary courtesy. In the month of April in the preceding year, the Serampore missionaries established a new station at 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOliE MISSION. 153 Allahabad, and at the beginning of the present year they sent Mr. William Smith to begin a Mission at Benares, where he has continued to labour for more 1 p UTT-*'!. • If Missinnary move- tlian rorty years. Mr. Kicketts, an intelli- ni/nts.-neath of '' '' , Mr. Debruyn. gent and active East Indian, baptized by Mr. Jabez Carey at Amboyna, was, about the same time, sta- tioned at Moorshedabad, the former capital of Bengal. His mind was, however, little adapted to missionary occupations, and after a residence of two or three years he returned to a secular avocation, and turned his atten- tion to the object of elevating the character and im- proving the prospects of the class to which he belonged. He pursued this object with the most laudable zeal, and visited England as the champion of the East Indians, bv whom his memory is still held in deserved respect. At the period of the India Bill of 1833 he w^as invited to give evidence before the Comm.ittee of the House of Commons, and placed on record information of much value regarding their condition and their prospects. All these stations were formed within the limits of the Bengal Presidency. The necessity of resorting to the territories of foreign princes, owing to the hostility of the British government, had now ceased for several years, and the missionaries were enabled to concentrate their exertions. But the pleasure of thus extending their missionary efforts was counterbalanced by the loss of Mr. Debruyn at Chittagong. In the course of three years he had raised a flourishing church among the Aracanese, containing more than a hundred communi- cants. The prospects of that mission were in every respect animating. The spirit of self-reliance manifested by the Aracanese, formed a grateful contrast to the indolent and inveterate habit of dependence exhibited by the natives of Bengal. The native of Aracan after changing his creed still continued to depend on his own exertions for a subsistence. The Bengalee convert, on the contrary, was always looking to the missionary, not 154 HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. indeed to be supported in indolence, but to be furnished with occupation. This serious defect in the national character of the Bengalee has been as fertile a source of discouragement to all missionaries labouring in the pro- vince as it was to the Serampore missionaries in the early stage of the work. Among the Aracanese, with their sturdy independence of character, a wide field of useful- ness was opening to Mr. Debruyn, when his career was cut short by the knife of an assassin. A lad whom he had taken into his family and treated with the tenderness of a parent, stung by the rebuke of his misconduct, stabbed his benefactor to the heart. He languished a day and a night and then expired, but not before he had dictated a letter to the judge excusing the rash deed of the murderer, and entreating that he might not be punished. His loss was severely felt. This poor Por- tuguese youth, with little of human learning, had ren- dered more valuable services to the cause of Christian improvement than many of the missionaries sent from England with the most glowing expectations. Mr. Pea- cock, who had been obliged to leave Agra in consequence of an attack of ophthalmia, was sent to Chittagong to continue Mr. Debruyn's labours. But he had no spring of energy in him, and the mission drooped, and did not recover its vigour until it was transferred to Mr. Judson's associates. Under the energetic labours of the American missionaries, the gospel took root in the province, and a Christian church rapidly rose into existence. At a subsequent period, when the missionaries were for a time driven from their labours by the deadly fever of Aracan, and the churches they had planted were deprived of their superintendence, they continued to maintain their organisation and all Christian ordinances, to receive and baptize converts and to support their own pastors. The impulse given to the progress of improvement bv the encouragement of Lord Hastings, was still further exemplified in this year by the establishment of the Cal- 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 155 CLitta School-Book Society. It was intended to supply the wants of tlie schools which were springing up on all sides. It owed its existence to the exer- tions of the Marchioness of Hastings, Mr. Book' society°° ' Bntterworth Bayley, and Dr. Carey. The Mar- n,emorabi/de- •J J ' ^ 'I ^ claration. chioness had herself compiled the books which were employed in her own school at Barrack pore, and Mr. Bayley was one of the most enlightened members of the Civil Service, a man of advanced views, and a cordial coadjutor in all the plans of Lord Hastings. Eight native baboos were associated with sixteen European gentle- men in the formation of the committee of this society, and a native and a European secretary were appointed at a meeting held on the 1st of July. The society was supported by all those who took an interest in the new educational movement, and they promoted its efficiency, not only by their pecuniary donations, but still more by the contribution of the treatises which tiiey compiled and translated into the vernacular languages. These works were sold under prime cost, and served to stimu- late the diffusion of knowledge. The society still con- tinues to flourish, and exhibits no symptoms of decay, though it is subject to the formidable, but by no means un- desirable, rivalry of other and independent agencies, which it has been the means of calling into existence, and which are inundating the country with cheap publications from the forty presses of the metropolis. It was in the present year that the Governor-General, who had been raised in the previous year to the dignity of Marquis of Hastings, availed himself of the annual exhibition of the college of Fort William, to place on record those enHghtened principles of government which he had brought out witli him, and which shed a greater lustre on this adminis- tration than all his military and political achievements. These principles were now, for the first time, announced from the seat of authority. On the 30th of July, in the great hall of Government House, surrounded by the 156 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. most eminent servants of the state, the most opulent, in- fluential, and learned natives, and the representatives of the princes of India, Lord Hastings uttered these me- morable expressions. " He considered that we should stand above the pride of considering the freedom of the people from oppression as dependent solely on the strength of our arm ; and that we should communicate to them that which was the source of such security in us, and impart to them that knowledge which furnished at once the consciousness of human rights, and the dis- position and the means to maintain them. ... It is hu- mane, it is generous, to protect the feeble ; it is meritorious to redress the injured ; but it is a godlike bounty to bestow expansion of intellect, to infuse the Promethean spark into the statue, and waken it into man. This government never will be influenced by the erroneous, — shall I not rather call it the designing position, — that to spread information among men is to render them less tractable and less submissive to authority. If an abuse of authority be planned, men will be less tractable and submissive in proportion as they have the capacity of comprehending the meditated injustice. But it would be treason against British sentiment to imagine, that it ever could be the principle of this government to per- petuate ignorance in order to ensure paltry and dis- honest advantages over the blindness of the multitude." Yet this treason had been perpetrated by the Indian authorities in 1793, when they induced Parliament by their clamour to strike out of the India Bill the clause which had passed the House for the introduction of the schoolmaster in India. This declaration of Lord Hastings forms an important era in the history of British India. These improved sentiments became in- corporated with the creed and practice of the Indian government. However reluctant the old Indians in India and at home might be to give their sanction to opinions which had hitherto been considered heretical, 1817.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 157 they were borne along by the stream which they could no longer resist. It was in reference to these senti- ments, that Mr. Charles Grant wrote to Lord Hastings, tliat "the moral amelioration of so large a portion of the human species may surely be regarded as one of the greatest designs of Providence, in placing such a distant region under the care of an enlightened nation. This doctrine indeed has, among our authorities in Indian affairs, been hitherto but very partially and imperfectly recognised. Your Lordship has been, I think, almost the first person in eminent station who has practically acted upon it." The plan for the extension of education among the natives, which was introduced to public notice in the "Hints," had succeeded beyond the most Pmg-essofthe sanguine expectation. Contributions poured "''''^'^ ^^''"°'^- in with a degree of liberality which marked the confidence the missionaries enjoyed in Indian society. Within a twelvemonth, schools were established in a circle of about twenty miles round Serampore, at the earnest request of the inhabitants. The report recorded the opening of forty-five, in which two thousand children received the elements of knowledge in their own language. The great desire for education which has since been ex- liibited in the districts about Calcutta, may doubtless be traced to the efforts made by the Serampore missionaries and Mr. May to sow the seeds of knowledge around them ; a thirst for knowledge was thus created in the native communitv who were brouojht under the in- fluence of these exertions. It was those who had re- ceived instruction in these indigenous schools in their own language, who became anxious that their children should take a larger stride, and advance to the know- ledge of English. Dr. Marshman sent a copy of the report to Lord Hastings, who was engaged in those military combinations, which resulted in breaking the Mahratta power and extinguishing the Pindarrces. At 158 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. no former period had any Indian war been conducted on so large a scale. The operations of the different armies, numbering ninety thousand combatants, were super- intended by the Governor-General in the field. But amidst all the tumult of the campaign, he never lost sight of the great questions of social improvement, and contrived to create time to maintain an active correspon- dence regarding them. In replying to Dr. Marsh man's letter, he said, " I ought long ago to have acknowledged your obliging attention in sending me the report of the institution for the encouragement of native schools. The weight of business I have had on me must be my apology for the tardiness of my thanks. You are pro- bably aware of the custom of native princes to present sums destined for distribution in charity. It is a com- plimentary notion of associating in the good deed the person to whom the application of the money is assigned. The sums thus offered are carried to what is called the charity fund, in the hands of the public secretary. And as I do not know any charity which can, in this country, be more urgent than the giving to children the means of acquiring the principles of morality, I have directed Mr. Adam to remit to you the sum of 500 rupees, in aid of your institution." At the close of the present year, the Serampore mis- sionaries drew up a review of the Mission, embracing the Review of the opcratious of tlie three years subsequent to the Mission. report sent to Mr. Fuller in 181.5. In this period they had embraced the opportunities afforded for increasing the stations, and the success of their labours in additions to the church was very encouraging. The review stated that the number of adults baptized amounted to four hundred and twenty, which, added to previous accessions, raised the whole number considerably above a thousand. In reference to the translations, they stated that the sacred Scriptures had been brought into circula- tion, in some cases in single gospels, in sixteen of the 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 159 languages and dialects of India. They also remarked that their opportunities for distribution had not been confined to the versions printed by themselves ; they had circulated numerous copies of Mr. Martyn's Hindee New Testament and Father Sebastiani's Persian Gospels. Regarding tracts, they observed, that the number printed and distributed in the year I8I7 exceeded a hundred thousand, and in tlie three years embraced by the review was above three hundred thousand, in twenty different languages, at the missionary stations on the continent of India and in the islands. No report could issue from Serampore without enforcing the necessity of native agency, and the subject was taken up on this occasion with increased vigour. They represent the European missionary as possessing qualifications which were wanting in native converts, and which fitted him to become " the soul of a missionary circle.'* But the employment of native itinerants was indispensable even on the ground of economy. The sum required for the support of a European with a family would be suflficient to meet the wants of twenty native labourers, who, under his guidance, might itinerate through a large district and fill it with Scripture knowledge. And, they remark, one missionary thus supported by a body of native labourers, would unquestionably be able to accomplish more than two or three Europeans without that aid. Mr. Ward's health had begun to decline under the influence of the climate and the pressure of incessant labours, and he was advised to take a trip on the river for change of air at the beginning of fo cKong^' 1818. The destitute condition in which the '' ' ''"'^' church at Chittagong had been left by the sudden death of Mr. Debruyn, induced him to proceed to that station, and he hoped to visit the native Cliristians in the interior. On his arrival at Chittagong he was surprised by the unexpected appearance of Mr. Felix Carey, of whom no tidings had been received for many months. He had 160 HISTORY OF THE SERAIMPORE MISSION. LCuap. XII. been wandering for more than a year among the wild tribes on the eastern frontier of Bengal ; he had visited Cachar, Jjnteea, and Munipore, and endeavoured to penetrate to the north-east up to tlie borders of China. The intervening country was impenetrable, and as he did not succeed in reaching China, he came down to the sea coast through the Tipperah hills and jungles without any settled project for the future. He had been led to this romantic expedition by a natural spirit of adventure, and a desire to investigate the habits, language, and religion of those unknown regions. Mr. Ward persuaded him to relinquish this roving and unprofitable life, and return to the bosom of the mission family at Serampore ; and Dr. Carey and Dr. Marshman were but too happy to welcome him back to the scene of his former labours. On his arrival at Serampore, he was engaged as his father's assistant, and devoted his oriental acquirements to the translation of the Scriptures. After having made an arrangement so satisfactory to his own feelings, Mr. Ward visited the villages in w^iich the Aracan converts resided, and on his arrival at Cox's Bazar, — then the easternmost point of the British dominions, though not destined to remain so for more than six years, — baptized seven candidates. On leaving these simple minded people, he addressed a farewell letter to them, ^ written in his own ardent and affectionate style, which Mr. Carey turned into Burmese. On his way back to Serampore, Mr. Ward stopped at the indigo factory of a friend in the district of Nuddea, and a brief extract from his correspondence will serve to exhibit the tone of his feelings at the time. " Yesterday morning at five, when I went to walk on the deck, the scene was truly exhila- rating to my jaded spirits, so unused to new scenery and to a breeze on the river at such an early hour. The heathen were certainly right when they maintained that real happiness must be united to inward and outward tranquillity. A healthful body, the serenity of nature, 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. IGl flowing rivers, singing birds, and a soul all tranquillity contemplating infinite excellence, eternal realities, and boundless prospects, make up the blessedness of a Chris- tian .... I have been thinking of looking out for some spot for my future retirement, where I may erect a bungalow and have a Christian village, and devote my remaining days to the instruction of inquirers and tiie formation of young Hindoos for the ministry. It must be by the side of one of these lakes. I do not know what destiny may await me, but at present I do contem- plate something of this kind, if I can but see a comfortable settlement of things at Serampore, and I see nothing now so desirable as such a mode of closing life. Yet, perhaps, my days are already closed, and these bilious attacks may soon liberate me from all flirther service in this lower world. I have not, however, any cause of regret, as long as I have strength to get through my labour, if all may be secured to God for tiiirty or forty years more. Yea, if I could be certain that Serampore would act with vigour in the cause for this time to come, I should be content to die, but my fears are strong for the future." The Serampore missionaries had for some time con- templated the publication of a newspaper in the Bengalee language, to stimulate a spirit of inquiry and ^^^ sumachar to diffuse information. The government of Bengalee news-'* India had always regarded the periodical press ^^^'"^" with a spirit of jealousy, and it was then under a rigid censorship. It did not appear likely that a native journal would be suffered to appear, when the English journals at the presidency, where alone they were pub- lished, were fettered by the severest restrictions. The missionaries were not at the time informed of the opinions — bold for that age — which Lord Hastings entertained regarding the press, in opposition to the views of his colleagues, and they hesitated long before they made any demonstration of their design. They resolved at length to feel the pulse of the public autho- VOL. II. M 162 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CnAr. XII. rities by the tentative publication of a monthly maga- zine in Bengalee. The following extracts from tlieir minutes, regarding this publication, the first periodical work which had ever appeared in any oriental language, will serve to show the feelings of the day. " February 13th, 1818, Mr. Marshman having proposed the publica- tion of a periodical work in Bengalee, to be sold among the natives for the purpose of exciting a spirit of inquiry among them, it was resolved that there is no objection to the publication of such a journal, provided all poli- tical intelligence, more especially regarding the East, be excluded from it, and it do not appear in a form likely to alarm government. It must, therefore, be confined to articles of general information, and notices of new dis- coveries, but a small space may be allotted to local events, with the view of rendering it attractive." The magazine was called the " Dig-dursun," and the first number contained an account of the discovery of America, and of the geographical limits of Hindoostan, a view of the chief articles of trade in India, Mr. Sadleir's aerial journey from Dublin to Holyhead, and a brief memoir of Raja Krishnu-chunder-roy, the renowned zemindar of Nuddea. In the last page some brief notices were given of current events, somewhat in the style of the news letters of the native courts. Copies of this little magazine were sent to the most influential members of government, and not only excited no alarm, but was received with unexpected approbation. Emboldened by this impunity of censure, and by the public encour- agement of the wealthy natives. Dr. Marshman and Mr. Ward determined to advance at once to the object in view, and issued a prospectus for the publication of a weekly newspaper in the vernacular language. The advertisement which announced this journal appeared in all the English papers for a fortnight, and passed under the eye of the censor, and the missionaries expected day by day to receive a notification to desist from the undertaking ; but no such communication arrived. On 1818. J HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 163 the 31st of May, 1818, the first newspaper ever printed in any oriental language, was issued from the Serampore press. It was called the " Sumachar Durpun," or the *' Mirror of News." Dr. Carey, who had passed twenty- four years of his life under a suspicious and despotic government, regarded the publication of the journal with feelings of great alarm. He was fully aware of the enlightened policy which Lord Hastings was anxious to pursue, but he did not think government was prepared for so great a stride in the career of liberal innovation as that implied in the introduction of newspapers among the natives, and he feared it would affect the good understanding which then existed between the Seram- pore mission and the public authorities. When the proof sheet of the journal was brought for final revision, on Friday evening, at the meeting which the mission- aries held weekly for business. Dr. Carey again urged his objection to the paper and his fears of the result ; but Dr. Marshman assured him that a copy of it should be sent the next morning to the chief secretary with a schedule of the contents in English, and that if any disapproba- tion was expressed, the journal should be at once re- linquished. Though Lord Hastings was not at the council board, being absent in the field, no objection was manifested by its members, and the *' Sumachar Durpun " was firmly established. A few days after, a native in Calcutta published a second journal, which he styled the " Destroyer of Darkness." It was intended to sup- port the doctrines and to protect the interests of Hin- dooism. The missionaries felt assured that truth had nothing to lose and superstition nothing to gain from freedom of discussion, and they rejoiced that this new element of life was thrown into the Hindoo community. The novelty of a weekly journal gave the *' Durpun " great popularity among the natives of Calcutta, and the subscrip- tion list was headed by Dwarkenath Tagore. But the influence of the journal was necessarily confined to the M 2 164 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. metropolis. The postage on newspapers was so heavy that a low-priced paper like the ** Durpun " had no chance of circulation in the interior of the country. Lord Hastings returned to the presidency in September, and Dr. Marshman immediately sent him a copy of the journal, and solicited some relaxation of the postage tariff, in consideration of the object for which it had been established. In his reply, Lord Hastings said, that " the effect of such a paper must be extensively and importantly useful. But to furnish such a prospect, extraordinary precaution must be used not to give the natives cause for suspicion that the paper had been devised as an engine for undermining their religious opinions." Dr. Marshman replied that their object in establishing the paper was the general illumination of the country, and as it could not live without the patron- age of the natives, this circumstance afforded a sufficient guarantee that it would not be rendered offensive to their religious prejudices. In the course of a week Lord Hastings laid Dr. Marshman's letter before the coun- cil, and persuaded his colleagues to allow the "Durpun " to be circulated by post at one-fourth the usual charge. In connection with the operations of the press at Seram- pore in this year, it requires to be noticed that in the month of April the missionaries commenced the publi- cation of a monthly magazine in English, to which Dr. "The Friend Marshmau gave the title of the "Friend of of India." India," a name which has been identified throughout India with Serampore for the last forty years. It was intended to include original essays on questions connected with the progress of improvement in India, a repository of the reports of the various societies which were springing up in India under the genial influence of Lord Hastings, and notices of the proceedings of Bible, missionary, and educational societies in other parts of the world. Both the " Friend " and the " Durpun " were commenced while the censorship of the press was in full 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 165 vigour; but do hint was given to the missionaries that government desired to interfere with that " hberty of unlicensed printing" which they enjoyed in a foreign settlement. Soon after the transmission of the letter of the 15th of September 1817. to the society, repudiating their demands, tlie junior missionaries in Calcutta formed a t, ^, ., •' I he Calcutta union, on the principle of subordination to the «'*"'""''"°^- society, which Dr. Carey and his colleagues were said to have unwarrantably relinquished. The basis on which the Serampore mission was founded was the entire con- secration of the proceeds of all labour to the cause of missions. The principle of the Calcutta union was the surrender of the right over its income to the society, for missionary objects. In the letter which the junior bre- thren wrote to the missionaries at Serampore at this time, they said, " the greatest bulwark of the society would have been your own indissoluble union" with them, and the best and most permanent source of replenishment of their funds your identifying the proceeds of your own labour with their funds." This principle was more dis- tinctly explained in a document drawn up by them in the following year : *' The principles of the mission had always appeared to them to be that, on the one hand, all the moneys acquired by the missionary brethren in the service of the society, and especially all permanent pro- perty, should be considered as belonging to the society, and as subject to the final control of the committee in England; and that, on the other hand, the society should supply the wants of the missionaries during their lifetime, and make a provision for their widows and orphans." But this was not the principle of the mission when Dr. Carey embarked in it in 1793, and his two colleagues in 1799 ; it was, that they should receive support from the society only till they were able to support themselves. Hence the Serampore missionaries relinquished all aid from England as soon as they had acquired independent M 3 1G6 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XII. means of subsistence, while the missionaries in Calcutta continued to draw their salaries, to the extent of a thou- sand pounds a-year, long after tliey succeeded in obtaining an independent income. Neither was it in accordance with the principle or practice of missions, at the early period when the Serampore mission was established, that all moneys acquired by the missionaries should belong to the society. The missionaries in Calcutta had a perfect right to make over their funds to the society, and after that surrender the society had the same right to them which Charles the First had to " my brother Neal's money, — because he offered it." Mr. Pearce, after a short residence at Serampore, was invited to join the mission- aries, as the result of their own choice, and not as the nominee of the society. But he considered himself bound to the society under whose auspices he had come out to India, and he deferred to accept the offer till he could communicate with the committee. Before their reply liad reached him, however, he removed to Calcutta, and joined the junior brethren. That union was soon after strengthened by the accession of Mr. Adam, who had recently arrived as a missionary in India. On quitting Serampore, where he was a temporary resident, he ad- dressed a valedictory letter to the missionaries, containing severe reflections on Dr. Marsh man. Dr. Carey and Mr. Ward united in replying to it, and stated that they had now lived in the same family with Dr. Marshman for nearly twenty years, and had seen him in all the varied and trying events of this long period, and could not but feel disgust at the wanton and unjust attack on that which to him, at the close of a long and most active and honourable career, must be dearer to him than life itself — his unblemished character. They pronounced these as- persions to be unfounded and calumnious, and stated that they were more likely to know Dr. Marshman's character than Mr. Adam, by all the difference existing between a most intimate union of nearly twenty years, and the distant observation of a few weeks. The letter concluded 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORB MISSION. 167 with these expressions : " It is our earnest wish that, after you have lived as long as Dr. Marshman in India, you may find your character as unspotted as his, that your labours have been as incessant and successful as his, that your disinterestedness may prove to have been as great as his, wlio has from heavy labour devoted what might have been a large fortune to the cause of God, and that in your advanced years you may have the same blessed prospect of glory and immortality as are enjoyed, we doubt not, by our beloved brother." Towards the close of the year, the missionaries in Calcutta retired from the church over which Dr. Carey and his colleagues presided, and formed a separate church and congregation. Those who are acquainted with the economy of dissenting churches will understand the lamentable result which springs from such events. They likewise formed an establishment on the model of that of Serampore, opened boarding- schools for children of both sexes, and set up a press and type foundry. The establishment of another mission- ary institution in the sphere of labour so long occupied by the Serampore missionaries, on the ground of their delinquency, and on the principle of yielding to the society that implicit allegiance which they were accused of having renounced, could not fail to complicate the differences which had arisen. It was scarcely possible by the most exemplary spirit of Christian forbearance to avoid the friction inseparable from such proximity. It is not questioned that, apart from personal feelings of dislike, the junior brethren were actuated by motives which they held to be sacred and evangelical, but this did not serve to mitigate the mischief, but tended in some measure to aggravate it, by giving this opposition the strengtii of conscientious motives. From some of the other mission- aries of the society. Dr. Carey and his associates were visited with the severest anathemas, and they were ad- vised by one of them to appoint a day of humiliation for their transgressions. M 4 1G8 HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. CHAP. XIII. The state of isolation in which Dr. Carey and his col- leagues now found themselves placed, owing to their ^ , differences with the society at home, which had Serampore Col- J ' '•'°''- deprived them of the sympathies of their mis- sionary brethren in India, did not produce any relaxation of labour. For several years they had been desirous of establishing an institution in which a higher and more com- plete education should be given to native students, more especially to those of Christian parentage, and in which native preachers and schoolmasters, whose defects had long been severely felt, should be efficiently trained up. They now determined to concentrate their exertions on the formation of a college which should supply these wants, and consolidate their plans for the spiritual and intellectual improvement of the country. The times appeared favour- able for such an attempt. The effect of Lord Hastings's liberal views was felt through every vein of society, and associations for the improvement of the natives were springing up in every direction, and were supported in a s))irit of unexampled liberality. On the 15th of July, therefore, they issued the prospectus of a *' College for the instruction of Asiatic, Christian, and other youth, in Eastern literature and European science." It was drawn up by Dr. Marshman, in his peculiar and argu- mentative style, and announced in unequivocal terms that the institution was intended to be the handmaid of evan- gelisation. It opened with the remark, that a more important object could scarcely engage the attention than the propagation of Christianity in India, and that it must be effected by publishing the Gospel in its native excel- lence, and comparing it with the system which then held 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 169 possession of the native mind. Those who were to be employed in propagating it should be familiar with the doctrines which were then held sacred in the country, and this could not be attained without a knowledge of the language, the Sanscrit, in which they were enshrined. Hence the necessity of a college, in which the native Christian teacher might obtain full instruction in the doc- trines he was to combat, and the doctrines he was to teach, and acquire a complete knowledge both of the Sacred Scriptures, and of those philosophical and mytho- logical dogmas which formed the soul of the Buddhist and Hindoo systems. While the native preacher remained ignorant of the principles on which the learned heathen built their arguments, his position as a public teacher was necessarily disadvantageous. If, it was remarked, the apostle Paul had been as ignorant of the philosophy of the Greeks, as both European and native teachers, with few exceptions, were of the Hindoo system of philosophy and religion, he could not have urged their own writings against them, or so efficiently fulfilled his mission. The oriental erudition of a few European missionaries did not super- sede the necessity of giving the same advantage to the body of native teachers. A pundit, foiled by a European disputant, who happened to be versed in the learning of the east, ascribed his discomfiture, not to the superior excellence of the Gospel, but to the national superiority of his opponent. He bowed to the genius of the nation which had established its dominion on the ruin of Hindoo and Mahomedan dynasties. " If ever," said the prospec- tus, " the Gospel stands in India, it must be by native opposed to native in demonstrating its excellence above all other systems." In pursuance of these views, it was proposed to impart a thorough knowledge of Sanscrit to the students, that they might be enabled to understand the tenets and prin- ci])les of the prevailing system. On the same principle instruction was to be given in Arabic, the canonical 170 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. language of Mahomedainsm. The students were likewise to be thoroughly grounded in European science and know- ledge, through the medium of epitomes published in their own language, and explained in lectures. But the English language was by no means to be excluded from the circle of study. *' Though it would be vain to attempt to enlighten a country through the medium of any language besides its own, it does not follow that English cannot be studied as a learned language, to great advantage, by youths of superior talent." It was therefore intended that, after the student had completed his Sanscrit studies, a select number should be enabled to acquire a complete knowledge of the English language, '*to enable them to dive into the deepest recesses of European science, and enrich their own language with its choicest treasures." The college was likewise to include the formation of a normal school, and educate teachers in the science of instruction, and qualify them for organising and managing schools. It was likewise one of the chief objects of the in- stitution to prepare a series of treatises in the vernacular tongues, to form the material of education in the schools. But it was to be considered pre-eminently a divinity school, where Christian youths, of personal piety and aptitude for the work of an evangelist, should go through a complete course of instruction in Christian theology. The institu- tion was to be open to native youths from all parts of India, without distinction of caste or creed. Every native who supported himself, or was supported by benefactors, was to be admitted to all the benefits of the college. Christian youths of Asiatic parentage, of every denomina- tion, were to be admitted into it, with the understanding that the instruction should be divested of everything of a sectarian character. A library was to be formed, to include, in addition to works of classical and European literature, every manuscript of any value, Sanscrit or vernacular, which could be obtained in the countr}^ A philosophical apparatus was also to be provided, and an edifice erectecl 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 171 at Serampore suited to the objects of the institution. The government of the college was to be vested in the governor of Serampore for the time being, and the three senior missionaries. The expense of the establishment was cal- culated at 1960rs. a month, which was considered sufficient to provide for two European professors at 250 rupees, and a classical English tutor at 200 rupees, a month. The pundits and native teachers were estimated at 450 rupees, and the expense of 150 students at 750 rupees a month, and 60 rupees were allotted for prizes monthly. The missionaries stated that it was highly desirable that an institution, intended to promote the cause of Christianity and the interests of literature in India, should receive a character of stability ; and they were desirous of raising a sum which, after providing for the expenses of the ground, the building, and the library, should form a fund for the permanent support of the college. They offered to sub- scribe 2500/. from their own resources, and asked the public to make such additions to it as to place the institu- tion on a solid basis, and leave only a moderate supplement to be provided by annual subscriptions. Dr. Marshman had always entertained a strong objection to the complete endowment of any institution, on the ground that it could not, in that case, be prevented from going to sleep. He was anxious to secure just so much independence as might insure stability, without impairing the necessity of a salu- tary reliance on the support and confidence of the public. It may appear singular, at the present day, that the col- lege at Serampore, founded by men who had been twenty years in India, and were intimately acquainted ^_..^ with its wants, should have been so strongly im])ressed with an oriental character, and that the study of English literature should have been postponed to that of Sanscrit. But it was their full conviction that the evangelisation of the country must be accomplished through the vernacular tongues. The cultivation of Sanscrit was brought prominently forward, not merely )rienta1 cast of the institution. 172 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. because it was the depository of those doctrines which Christianity was to subvert, but also because it was the parent of oriental philology, and the standard of literary purity and excellence. They were anxious that, in striving for the ascendency of evangelical truth, the Christian teacher should possess the same popular advan- tages of literary influence which were then enjoyed by the brahmins and pundits. They desired to bring the weight of oriental attainments into the scale of Christianity ; and they went so far as to contemplate the probability ot a period when Bacon, and Locke, and the most eminent English divines, should appear in a Sanscrit dress, and supersede the Dursuns and the Poorans. They dwelt on the fact, that in the early ages of Christianity its advocates met the Pagan philosophers on their own vantage ground, and combated them with their own weapons ; and they hoped to facilitate the propagation of Christian truth in India by adopting a similar system. The idea that Eng- lish might become the language of Christian civilisation in India had as yet no practical exemplification. Hitherto it had been studied only because it opened the path to lucrative employment under the British Government, like Persian under the Mahomedans. It was generally believed, at the time, that the students of the Hindoo college would not be induced to remain a sufficient time to mature their education, but would be withdrawn when they were sufficiently qualified for clerkships. Experience has corrected these views. Hundreds of youths have been allowed by their parents to remain in that institution long enough to acquire a perfect mastery of our language, and to become as familiar with its classical authors as the graduates of Cambridge and Oxford. This enlightened education has carried them ahead of their national creed, and the influence of Hindooism has been supplanted by the influence of English literature and European science. The hold of the Hindoo system on the upper classes in native society has been weakened, not by the process of 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 173 argumentation, but by the contempt which necessarily re- sults from the introduction of higher and nobler ideas. This effect of a complete English education was not known, and could not have been anticipated at that period. If it had been foreseen, the missionaries would doubtless have modified their plans, as they did at a subsequent period, and given greater prominence to the cultivation of Eng- lish. The prospectus of the college was submitted to the Go- vernor of Serampore, who gave his cordial sanction to the establishment of the institution, and accepted opinion of Lord the first place in the committee of governors. "'^slr'Tohn"'^ Lord Hastings, having extinguished the Pin- daree confederacy, had now returned to Calcutta, and the plan of the college was immediately sent to him. In acknowledging the receipt of it to Dr. Marshman, he expressed his approbation of it ; but regretted that it seemed to announce " such broad and unequivocal pro- fessions of an intention to aim at converting the native students, as would, he thought, give great alarm to any of the Hindoos who might have the document translated to them." " This step," he remarked, '* was so different from the wise and sagacious patience with which the gen- tlemen at Serampore were securing ultimate success in their object, that he was satisfied they would excuse his drawing their attention to what they must have over- looked.'* To this Dr. Marshman replied that the college embraced two distinct objects. It was intended primarily to educate the children of native Christians, and hence the arrangements for Christian instruction had been more expressly set forth. It was also intended to give the benefit of its literary and scientific instruction to other youths, Hindoo or Mahomedan, but without placing any strain on their consciences. Perhaps they had not suffi- ciently guarded against the misapprehension that the par- ticular course of study laid down for pious Christian youths would be compulsory on the students of other 174 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. creeds. This would be more parlicularly explained in the first report. Here it may be proper to remark that the difference between the tuition given in the government and in the missionary colleges consists in this, that in the former Christianity is completely ignored, and the Bible is systematically excluded ; in the latter secular knowledge is blended with Christian instruction, and communicated on Christian principles, but without any attempt to inter- fere with the rights of conscience. A copy of the college plan was also sent to Sir John Malcolm, who, it will be remembered, was the only witness examined by the House of Lords in 1813, on the subject of Christianity in India. His evidence showed the extent to which he participated in the alarms of that period. He apprehended the most dangerous consequences, not merely from the attempt to introduce the Christian religion among the natives of India, but from the growth of an impression that such an attempt would be made. But he had recently visited Bengal and conversed with Lord Hastings, and visited tlie missionaries at Serampore, and his views had been con- siderably modified under the influence of that more liberal policy which was now in the ascendant, as the following extracts from a long and interesting letter to Dr. Marsh- man will show : — "I am flattered by your letter of the 1st of September; any man must be gratified by possessing so much of the good opinion of a society like yours at Serampore. I should, however, ill deserve the sentiments you express, if I were to have any reserve in my reply. I shall be proud to become one of the patrons of your college, and to add my subscription to its support, if you think me worthy of the honour after the following explanations. Though most deeply impressed with the truths of the Christian religion, and satisfied, were that only to be considered in a moral view, it would be found to have diflTused more knowledge and more happiness than any other faith man ever entertained, yet I do think, from the construction of our empire in India, referring both to the manner in which it has been attained, and that in which it must (according to my humble judgment) be 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 175 preserved, tliat the English government In this country should never, directly or indirectly, interfere in propagating the Christian religion. The pious missionary must be left unsupported by government, or any of its officers, to jmrsue his labours ; and I will add, that I should not only deem a contrary conduct a breach of faith to those nations whom we have conquered more bv our solemn pledges, given in words and acts, to respect their pre- judices and to maintain their religion, than by arms, but likely to fall in the object it sought to accomplish, and to expose us eventually to more serious dangers than we have ever yet known. .... It is the nature of the knowledge, and the mode we pursue in imparting It, that is likely to make the difference between its proving a blessing or a curse to India, between Its supporting (at least for a long period) our power in that quarter of the globe, or accelerating its downfall. Enthusiasm or over zeal is quite com- petent to effect the latter ; while the foi'mer requires for its accomplishment a steadiness of purpose, a clearness of head, and a soberness of judgment, that are seldom found united with that intentness on the object which is also quite essential. I wish, my dear sir, I could be certain that your successors in the serious task you propose would have as much experience as you and your fellow-labourers at Serampore, — that they would walk, not run, in the same path, — I would not then have to state one reserve; I should be assured it would be considered as safer to commence by giving a good deal of knowledge to a few than a little to many ; that efforts would be limited to countries where the people are familiar with our government, and would understand the object ; that men in short would be satisfied with laying the foundation stone of a good edifice, and not hazard their own object and incur danger (for in all precipitate or immature attempts of this nature there is great danger) by desiring to accomplish in a day what must be the work of a century." In the midst of these engagements, the missionaries received two successive replies from the society to their letter of September of the preceding year. The omciai replies first was from a quarterly meeting of the com- *^'^°'" "'<^ ^^'^'e'y- mittee held in June, and evidently written under feelings of great alarm. They now perceived the mischief which had been done by the hasty and imprudent proceedings of the sub-committee at Oxford, and were apparently 176 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. anxious to repair it. They alluded to the novelty and embarrassment of their position after Mr. Fuller's death, but stated that there were points of importance on which the public had a right to expect, and they must be pre- pared to furnish, a full and explicit statement. One of these referred to the premises, and the mode in which they were secured. The committee endeavoured to ex- onerate themselves from the odium of having originated the demand for new trustees, by stating that it grew out of Mr. Ward's private letter, which they had treated as a public one. But this did not help them out of the difficulty. Mr. Ward stated that it was desirable that the premises should never be alienated from the society, or become private property ; but he also stated that it was the united wish of his brethren that they should be held in trust for the society "by the members of the mission at Serampore." The Oxford sub-committee resolved that they should be vested in a majority of trustees of their own nomination, which practically took them out of the hands of the missionaries. Dr. Carey and his colleagues had never for a moment contemplated separation from the society. ^ They determined to maintain their ancient in- dependence, but in the closest union with that body. The committee could not comprehend this mode of relationship, which they deprecated as pregnant with consequences equally injurious to both parties, and to the cause of missions. They therefore begged their brethren at Serampore, with the most affectionate importunity, to " pause and in the most calm and serious manner, and as in the sight of Him by whom actions are weighed, to give the deepest consideration to the subject." With regard to the property, they stated it to be the unanimous im- pression that the whole of it belonged to the society, and that the Serampore missionaries held it as part of the society, and as trustees for the whole. At the same time, they observe, " every one must be aware that the interest of the society in it is merely nominal." This 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 177 was followed by the ungenerous reflection — " We have been ready to fear at times, dear brethren, that too much has been said in commendation of your disinterested conduct in devoting your all to the cause of God. . . . But after having been thus applauded for your generosity in resigning all claim to the property in question, except as a constituent part of the society, do you actually intend to resume your gift, and dispose of it according to your own pleasure?" The letter was not satisfactory; it dis- claimed all idea of domination, but, in reality, it maintained such a right of the society not only to the premises, but to all property, present and prospective, as left the mis- sionaries themselves with scarcely any right at all. The spirit of this claim pervaded the letter, and the drift of it could not be misunderstood, notwithstanding the affectionate terms in which it was clothed. The next letter breathed the old spirit of cordiality. A general meeting was held at Reading, on the 31st of August, when a series of resolutions was passed in reference to these discussions, and sent to Serampore accompanied with a letter signed by Mr. Dyer. '* Do not imagine, beloved brethren," he remarked, " that any of U8 have made statements to your prejudice. Whatever surprise or grief some parts of your late correspondence have excited in our minds, we love you too well, we esteem you too highly, to be capable of this." The committee further stated that it appeared to be the general opinion, that the missionaries still considered the society as having a rijrht of interference as to the ultimate destination of the premises, though they were to have no voice in the nomination of trustees, or in the internal management of them ; but the committee at home felt themselves relieved by being exonerated from acting as trustees for property at the distance of half the globe, though they could not conceal their opinion, that the plan laid down was not the best that could be devised, and they suggested the propriety of including in the trust, some gentlemen in VOL. II. N 178 IIISTOEY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Ciiap. XIII. India unconnected with the society, who could have no personal interest in the property. " We mean not to dictate, but to suggest." The letter was not only frank and manly, but affectionate. The secretary stated : — " While our brethren poured out their hearts in prayer for you and for us, — silent tears around the circle attesting how cordially all united in their petitions, — I could not avoid the fruitless wish, Oh! that our Serampore brethren were present now ! Surely the flame of holy love would burst forth with new vigour in their bosoms, and totally consume every remnant of distrust and suspicion, should any such be yet remaining there ! '* Dr. Carey and Dr. Marsh- man — Mr. Ward having embarked for England — now began to entertain the most sanguine hopes of an im- mediate settlement of all differences. In writing to Mrs. Marshman, who was on the river for her health. Dr. Marshman said : "The letters from the society are in the highest degree pleasing ; they breathe the most cordial love to us ; they have acknowledged that the premises were bought with the proceeds of our labour, and that we have a right to manage our own funds, and that they have neither right nor wish to force any one on us ; that we are distinct from them, though united in the same cause, and have acted in the most disinterested manner." But these expectations were destined not to be realised. The prospect of the restoration of harmony and confidence privateietter ^^^^ ^^^^ dispcllcd by thc arrlval of a letter [o°Dnca?er ^^'^^ Mr. Dycr, addressed privately to Dr. his reply. ^arey, desiring him to send home a confidential report on the conduct of his colleague Dr. Marshman. Mr. Dyer had collected together all the sinister reports which had been assiduously circulated through the country regarding the ascendancy which Dr. Marshman was said to have acquired in the counsels of Serampore, his ambition, his fond attachment to his children, and the extravagance of his establishment ; and, at the request of tlie committee, desired Dr. Carey to give his private 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 179 opinion on the validity of all these charges. It was an odious task to impose on an honourable mind, but Dr. Carey considered it his duty to come forward in vindi- cation of his friend rather than return the letter with contempt. At the same time he said that he deeply felt the awkwardness of the position in which he was thus placed, in respect of the associate with whom he had acted in confidence for nineteen years with as great a share of satisfaction as could reasonably be expected in a connection with imperfect creatures, and whom he was now required to condemn, contrary to his own convic- tions, or to justify at the expense of his accusers. Mr. Dyer stated the suspicion entertained by the committee that Dr. Carey had signed the letter of September, ISI7, without weighing or approving it, under the influence of his colleague. He replied that he had weighed and approved every expression, and he thought the measure they had unanimously adopted indispensable to their tranquillity, after the society seemed to assume the right to interfere in their internal economy. He stated that it never was his intention, or that of his brethren, to separate from their *' beloved society," unless forced to it by measures they could not approve. " Even in this extreme case our all will be devoted to the cause which it has been our delight to serve, and the promotion of whicli is the only object for which the society exists." In refer- ence to his colleague, he stated that to Dr. Marshman had generally been allotted the duty of drafting reports and pubHc letters, and of drawing up plans, and he had thus appeared to take a more prominent part in their public proceedings than either of his colleagues. Hence he had often borne the brunt of censure for measures for which they were all equally responsible. Dr. Carey then proceeded to notice Mr. Dyer's inquiries regarding Dr. Marshman's domestic economy, — "Did he not indulge in a magnificent style of living ? was not his house superbly furnished? did he not keep several vehicles for N 2 180 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII- the use of his family ? did he not labour to aggrandise it ? did he not intrude his children on public notice?" Dr. Carey replied, that Mrs. Marshman had suffered from repeated attacks of *' liver complaint," which he said proved fatal in the majority of cases in India, and had been recommended by the faculty to take exercise ; and a gig, resembling a Hansom cab, and a tonjohn, a kind of sedan chair, open at the top, had been purchased for her use ; but the expense of both vehicles did not exceed thirty-six pounds a year. Dr. Marshman had the largest educational establishment in India ; the parents of the children were men of station, and expected to be suitably received and entertained when they visited it. For a long period they had carried the principle of economy to such an extreme point, that they had not a decent room or table to offer to the constituents, and a sum had therefore been voted from the common chest " to provide for what appeared necessary to entertain these guests with decency." Plated ware was unknown at that era in India. The pay of the civil service had not been retrenched, and the mer- chant princes had not gone into the Gazette ; the plate on a gentleman's table was therefore of pure silver ; and it was not uncommon to see twelve hundred pounds' worth brought to the hammer when he retired to England. The service for the mission school consisted only of a tea- pot, milk bowl, sugar basin, and a few spoons, all of silver, but no silver forks. Happily for Dr. Marshman's repu- tation, the silversmith's bill has been preserved, and the whole sum amounted to 95/. 10s. 8d. The sumptuous furniture of the rooms had cost less than the plate, but both together were not equal to the income of the school for a single month. Dr. Carey continued to remark, — "Some one, we know not who, told some one else, we know not whom, that he had been at Lord Hastings's table, but Dr. Marshman's far exceeded his. I have also been at Lord Hastings's table — his private table, I mean — and do therefore most positively deny the asser- 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 181 tion. I suspect the informant never was at his lordship's table, or he could not have been guilty of such misrepre- sentations. Lord Hastings's table costs more in a day than Dr. Marshman's does in ten." And then he remarks, with just indignation, — "Surely matters are not come to that pass that Dr. Marshman, or any other brother, must account to the society for every plate he uses, or every loaf he eats." In reply to the question whether Dr. Marshman had not an inclination to display his children to advantage, his colleague admitted that he was certainly chargeable with that foible, but it was one which most fond parents would be disposed to extenuate. He closed his letter with the remark that all these ques- tions belonged to the internal economy of Serampore, with which no one but themselves had any right to interfere. This letter of Mr. Dyer's produced a most disastrous effect. In the public letter the committee was re- presented by him as dissolved in tears at the mistrust and suspicion entertained of their conduct, and overflowing with love to their beloved brethren* at Serampore. But the private letter, written to one of them at the request of the same committee, three or four months after, was eminently calculated, though it might be uncharitable to say was intended, to sow mistrust among the missionaries, to separate them from each other, and to introduce a system of odious espionage into the bosom of their family. They now perceived that beneath the outer crust of official goodwill there was a current of suspicion and jealousy, fatal to the hope of union. They felt that no reliance could be placed on the most friendly professions of the committee, and the breach became wider than ever. The extension of education was always uppermost in the mind of Lord Hastings. As soon as he schoou m Raj- had broken the power of the Pindarrees and p"°'^"^- restored some degree of tranquillity to the provinces of central India, he determined to introduce the influence of civilisation by the establishment of schools. Dr. MarsJi- N 3 182 HISTOKY OF THE SEKAMPOEE MISSION. [Ciiap. XIII. man had compiled another pamphlet on the subject of national education, which he sent to Lord Hastings in the field. In acknowledging the receipt of it, the Governor- General explained the plans he had been forming for the improvement of the people over w hom our authority was then for the first time extended. " I have to acknowledge an obligation for the small pamphlet you have sent me. It is a very useful publication towards exciting us to perform what every consideration of pride and duty claims from us in India. Let me, however, do myself the justice to say, that before the receipt of it, I had meditated writing to beg that you would try whether practical shape could be given to a project w^hich was floating in my mind. The system of rapine which has been the scourge of central India for a long series of years, has nearly destroyed every vestige of information or principle throughout these vast tracts. Towards restoring just moral notions to those communities, the first step must be to disseminate instruc- tion. Now, would it be possible to engage eight or ten detachments of boys, Vho have been trained in your schools, to proceed with a proper head to each detachment in the pay of government to llajpootana for the purpose of in- troducing your mode of tuition ? Were the method once established in those countries, I have no doubt that it would be carried on by the village schools. One might then cause to be distributed a fewthousandof that printed compilation of fables and apologues which Lady Hastings prepared for her school at Barrackpore. The novelty would secure the perusal of the book, — a perusal, I mean, by those who have learned to read, — and the articles contained in it are so much in the fashion of stories that they would be likely to pass from mouth to mouth, and make an impression. Do not take the trouble of writing, as I am about to embark for Calcutta. But have the goodness to turn it over in your thoughts, against the time when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you." On his return to the presidency he repeatedly discussed the 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOIIE MISSION. 183 proposal with the missionaries, and in his private journal records the satisfaction he felt at the accomplishment of his wishes. Mr. Jabez Carey, whom he had encouraged to proceed to Amboyna five years before, had relin- quished his post as superintendent of schools soon after the restoration of the island to the Dutch authorities, and returned to India. He was now recommended to Lord Hastings as a suitable agent for carrying out his benevolent plans in Rajpootana, and accepted. He at- tended the Benevolent Institution in Calcutta to study the Lancasterian system of tuition, and towards the close of the year proceeded to Agmere, where he passed many years in the superintendence of schools among that wild and distracted population. Lord Hastings appropriated OOO/. to this experiment, not from the parliamentary grant, which was still devoted to Hindoo and Mahomedan lite- rature, but from funds placed at his disposal, on the principle of feudality, by the Nabob of Oude. Lord Hastings's liberality was not limited to matters of education. He brought with him from England very enlightened views on the subject of the press, L„rd Hastings which were greatly in advance of the principles sorrhip^of'the™' then in vogue at the India House, and among ^'^^''' the leading functionaries of government in India. It has been already stated, that in the year 1799 Lord Wellesley, while engaged in the struggle with Tippoo Sultan, esta- blished a rigid censorship of the press, which had given him much annoyance by the freedom of its remarks and its disclosures at a period of political difficulty. Every printer w^as required to affix his name to each number of his paper and submit a copy of it, before its publication, to the inspection of the government secretary, under the penalty of a compulsory return to England. The censor drew his pen across any article w^hich appeared to him likely to prove injurious to the interests of government or of society, and it was not unusual for a journal to appear with one or more columns of asterisks. Lord Hastings N 4 184 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE mSSION. [Chap. XIII. having, as he supposed, estabhshed our dominion in India on a more sohd foundation, by breaking up the Mahratta power and the Pindarree confederacy, resolved to break the fetters of the press. On the 19th of August he abohshed the censorship, without recording any reasons, notwith- standing the remonstrances of his cabinet. At the same time lie established certain regulations for the guidance of editors. They were forbidden to publish animadver- sions on the measures and proceedings of the India autho- rities hi England, or disquisitions on political transactions of the local administration, or offensive remarks levelled at the public conduct of the members of council, or the judges of the Supreme Court, or the lord bishop. They were likewise forbidden to admit discussions having a ten- dency to create alarms or suspicions among the native population of any intended interference with their religious opinions or observances, or to republish from English or other newspapers passages coming under any of the above heads, as well as private scandal and personal remarks on individuals tending to excite dissension in society. Go- vernment was impowered to visit any infraction of these rules by a prosecution in the Supreme Court, or by can- celling the license of the offender and ordering him to return to Europe. These restrictions were so severe that if literally enforced they must have proved fatal to all free- dom of discussion. But after they had been passed, the judges of the Supreme Court, who were known to be ge- nerally unwilling to interfere with the liberty of the press, had on one occasion refused to grant a criminal informa- tion. Lord Hastings was, moreover, extremely averse to inflict on his administration the stigma of banishing an editor. The regulations, therefore, soon became a dead letter, and the press became practically free. Nine months after the abolition of the censorship, the inhabitants of Address from Madi'as scut Up an address to Lord Hastings to Madras. cougratulatc him on the successful termination of the Pindarree and Mahratta war. The address also 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 185 alluded to the liberation of the press, and stated that *' public opinion was the strongest support of just govern- ment, and that liberty of discussion served but to strengthen the hands of the executive. Such freedom of discussion was the gift of a liberal and enlightened mind, an invalu- able and unequivocal expression of those sentiments evinced by the whole tenour of your Lordship's adminis- tration." To this address Lord Hastings replied, — " My removal of restrictions from the press has been mentioned in laudatory language. I might easily have adopted that procedure without any length of cautious consideration, from my habit of regarding the freedom of publication as a natural right of my fellow-subjects, to be narrowed only by special and urgent cause assigned. The seeing no direct necessity for those invidious shackles might have sufficed to make me break them. I know myself, how- ever, to have been guided in the step by a positive and well-weighed policy. If our motives of action are worthy, it must be wise to render them intelligible throughout an empire our hold on which is opinion. Further, it is salu- tary for supreme authority, even when its intentions are most pure, to look to the control of public scrutiny. While conscious of rectitude, that authority can lose nothing of its strength by its exposure to general comment ; on the contrary, it acquires incalculable addition of force. That government which has nothing to disguise wields the most powerful instrument that can appertain to sove- reign rule. It carries with it the united reliance and effort of the whole mass of the governed." The abolition of the censorship, and the promulgation of doctrines so entirely repugnant to the ancient policy of the India House, created great disgust and alarm in Leadenhall Street. The Court of Directors lost no time in preparing a despatch to the Governor-General, in which they stated that the establishment of these regulations made it mani- fest that he did not consider it safe to leave the press without control, but the new system of control was not 186 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XIII. Jikely to prove equally efficient with that wliich it super- seded ; and they entertained the decided conviction that neither the government, nor the public, nor the editors, would benefit from the change. They, therefore, posi- tively directed the government in India, on the receipt of their despatch, to revert to the practice which had pre- vailed for nearly twenty years, and to reimpose the censor- ship. The draft of the despatch was submitted to the Board of Control, over which Mr. Canning then presided, and he treated the proposal with silent contempt. The draft was not so much as returned to the India House. Allusion has been made in a former chapter to the labours of Mr. John Peter at Balasore. That town was Mission to Ben. ^"^ of thc carliest stations of the infant factory couien. ^£ ^j-^g Couipany in Bengal, but was at length abandoned on account of its general unhealthiness, and tlie mortality among the crews of the shipping. Mr. Peter's health failed him, and he was obliged to relinquish the station. Dr. Carey, and his colleagues, now determined, if possible, to establish a mission in the heart of the country, and applied for leave to station Mr. Sutton, who had recently arrived in India, at Cuttack. Just at this junc- ture, the wild tribes in the Orissa jungles, occupying the tributary mehals, had revolted against the British authority. The appearance of our troops, and the proclamation of martial law, quelled the insurrection ; but the country was still in so unsettled a state as to render it unadvisable, at the time, for a missionary to be allowed to proceed there. Another effort to establish a missionary station at this time was more successful. Sir Stamford Raffles, the common friend of Dr. Leyden and Dr. Marshman, had returned to England on the cession of Java to the Dutch, and was soon after nominated to the residency of Bencoolen. He visited his cousin, the Rev. Dr. Raffles, at Liverpool, when he was introduced to Mr. Samuel Hope, an eminent merchant and banker of the town, a man of enlarged mind, and benevolent views, and subsequently one of the firmest 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 187 and most attached friends of the Serampore mission- aries. The first of a long series of letters, stretching over a period of twenty years, which passed between him and Dr. Marshman, alhides in the following terms to his inter- view with Sir Stamford, — " You hav^e doubtless ere this heard of his safe arrival at Bencoolen. I strongly recom- mend you, and your colleagues, to avail yourselves of his mfluence. From a personal acquaintance, though one of short standing, with his views on the subject of missions in general, and of yours in particular, I think I may safely say that you may rely on his cordial co-operation." Sir Stamford came round to Bengal on his way to Bencoolen, and passed some time at Serampore, and urged his friends to establish a missionary station at Bencoolen, which he engaged to support to the full extent of his power. There was at the time a nephew of Mr. Ward's, a youth of energetic and enterprising spirit, residing at an indigo factory in the interior of the country, who, on hearing of Sir Stamford's proposal, volunteered to ac- company him. The missionaries at Serampore never omitted any opportunity of establishing a press, for tiiey considered it one of the distinguishing characteristics of the missionary enterprise, that *' wherever a missionary goes he prints." A press and types, and the necessary apparatus for printing the Scriptures and school books in the Malay language, were made up with great expedition ; and in November of the present year, Mr. Nathaniel Ward ac- companied Sir Stamford to Bencoolen, where he continued to labour in the cause of improvement till the British settlements on the island were made over to the Dutch in 1826. Mr. Ward's incessant labours had now begun seriously to affect his health. It was nineteen years since he had landed in Bengal, and his mental and physical Mr. ward-s visit exertions were greater than a European con- fetS'ir.higtiil stitution could sustain continuously in that tro- '"'^''^^' pical climate. The excursion to Dacca and Chittagong 188 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. in the spring had produced only temporary relief, and his medical advisers insisted on a voyage to England. It was with great reluctance that he consented to quit his colleagues at a time when the embarrassments of their position were beginning to thicken. But it was hoped that the visit to England would serve the double purpose of restoring health and healing the breach with the society by personal and friendly intercourse. He embarked on the 15th of December, Mr. Marsh man taking his place in the management of the printing-office, and the secular department of the mission. Mr. Ward employed the leisure of the voyage in reviewing the questions upon which he and his colleagues were at issue with the society, and examining the future prospects of the missionary institution at Serampore. The enjoyment of that un- qualified independence in the management of their affairs, which they had exercised from the beginning of the mission, appeared to him more important the more he considered the subject. On the propriety of having resisted the demand for trustees, his mind had never wavered. But he regretted that no adequate provision had been made to perpetuate the missionary establishment they had formed after their deatli. He had always been anxious for some definite and final settlement, and in the solitude of the voyage his anxiety on this point became painfully intense. He persuaded himself that his own character, and that of his colleagues, would not stand above suspicion unless some arrangement was made to secure a succession of faithful, God-fearing men to carry on their labours, on the principle of an entire consecration to the work. He proposed two plans for the consideration of his brethren, and urged the ado})tion of one or other of them with so much vehemence as to declare that it would be impossible for him otherwise to return to Serampore. *' As I love my brethren and love my post, I have no objection to die in it, provided I can thereby glorify God. But I cannot and will not die under the disgrace of leaving such an establishment in 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 189 such circumstances." He felt that some explanation of this extraordinary importunity on a topic which had scarcely been discussed at Serampore, was necessary, and he said that if he were asked why he had not brought forward these plans before, he must frankly reply that he had them not ; he had thought of them only while he had been on board. During the early part of the voyage, when his frame was invigorated by the novelty of leisure, and the salubrity of sea breezes, he employed his time in composing "Reflections on the Word of God for every day in the year, to be used in family devotions." He applied to the work with his usual ardour, and wrote four hundred pages in seventy days. " I found it pleasant," he remarked, ** to have my mind occupied with the great subjects of the gospel, and the best interests of man." But as the voyage drew to a close, the benefit he had at first derived from it was neutralised by a return of his old complaint, with the addition of dropsical symptoms. A diseased body acting on the mind, created morbid feelings of anxiety, and gloomy forebodings of the disgrace which would cover his memory unless some *' settlement " was made at Serampore which would " enable him to die an honest man." The possibility of a separation from his brethren he contem- plated with intense pain : " There seems a propriety that persons who have engaged in such a way as we have done should die at their posts." Then, in the confidence that his colleagues would not fail to accede to his wishes, he dwelt with delight on the prospect of his return, and pro- jected a " History of Hindoo Philosophy," and desired that the pundits might be set to work to make translations from the works of the different schools, to be ready by the time of his return. Mr. Ward landed in England in May, 1818, enfeebled rather than strengthened by the voyage, and proceeded immediately to Bristol, to his friend Dr. ^^^^^ „f ^y^^ Ryland, who was so greatly alarmed by his M^rsmnary jaundiced appearance, as to call in medical 1 90 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiav. XIII. advice without delay. He found that Dr. Ryland still retained all his warmth of affection for Serampore, but had imbibed strong prejudices against Dr. Marshman. The influence of the secretaryship of the society had passed into the hands of his junior associate, Mr. Dyer. The society itself was torn with factious dissensions ; it was divided, as Mr. Ward learned from those who were behind the scenes, into five parties, consisting respectively of those who were anxious to retain the seat of the mission in the country, and those who were clamorous for trans- ferring it to London ; of the old men clinging to the long cherished associations of Serampore, and of the younger members of the committee who "knew not Joseph," and corresponded with and supported the junior brethren ; and of a neutral section, disgusted with the proceedings of the committee since the death of Mr. Fuller, and despair- ing of any improvement. Dr. Ryland "trembled for the ark of the mission, when it should be transported to Lon- don, and fall into the hands of mere counting-house men.*' With regard to what was denominated the *' declaration of independence " at Serampore, he thought that if his friends had taken that step at the beginning, he and every one else would have been satisfied of their consistency. He appeared to forget that they had acted in a spirit of perfect independence since the establishment of the mission, and that it would have been preposterous to issue any such declaration before any attempt had been made to infringe it, though Mr. Fuller had anticipated the necessity of it after his death. Mr. Ward's intercourse with Dr. Ryland induced him to urge on his brethren, ,, „, „ with increased earnestness and in more pressing Mr. Ward s i "^ setuemc^?t'at"^"' lauguagc, thc ucccssity of thc "settlement" he Serampore. proposcd. " Lct it clcarly and unequivocally meet the case, so as to secure a constant succession of three members of the union at Serampore, so that in case of neglect to fill up vacancies, the society may have that right J and that the property may revert to the society if 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 191 the union should be dissolved. I know, my dear brethren, that my retirement will be no loss to Serampore, and I will not therefore threaten you with this resolution ; but I can- not, I dare not, return unless you take the step I have suggested. But oh, my God ! do thou prevent this rup- ture, do thou put into the hearts of my brethren that holy disinterestedness of feeling that shall make them, with all their hearts, go into the plan of securing to Thee the result of the exertion of their lives ; that still Serampore may be Thine, that from thence for centuries to come the word of God may go forth, and 'run and be glorified.' Oh, let it be a house for God as long as a single wall shall be left standing, essentially contributing year by year to the grand result — the conversion of India." This letter Mr. Ward showed to Dr. Ryland, and it became the subject of remark in the circle of the society. A report was industriously circulated that Mr. Ward's mind was the prey of remorse for the measures which he and his col- leagues had adopted, and it was stated in a public docu- ment by the committee, that Mr. Ward was so dissatisfied with the mode in which the property was then settled, that unless it was altered he had declared that he would never return to India, to clothe himself with eternal in- famy. But his remarks had reference, not to the question of the premises, on which he had never wavered, but to that of perpetuating the institution after their death. This fact is clearly established by a letter sent to Mr. Dyer a few days after the communication to Serampore which he had shown to Dr. Ryland. " My own idea," he writes, " is, that the premises must be occupied by the members of the union at Serampore, free from the least danger of intrusion. For a power to exist fifteen thousand miles off, and liable to be warped in exact proportion to the distance, capable of disturbing these occupants, is a m.ost serious thing, and an object of well-founded dread. The property must, therefore, be under the exclusive management of the members of this union, and they must 192 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. choose their own coadjutors. As an individual, I have no objection to give the society a veto.** Mr. Ward having become in some degree convalescent, ventured to travel through the country ; but as he pro- ceeded his feelings were deeply wounded by the finds Kngiand calumuics whicli had been for some time dissemi- fUled with cal- , . 1 i ■ 1 ■ i umtiies against natcd ui cverv quarter, and which nnpugned not Serampore. . . only the consistency, but the honesty, and in- tegrity, of the Serampore missionaries. Every member of the society repudiated the imputation of having given them currency, but still they were to be found at every turn. In one of his letters to Serampore, Mr. Ward stated that if matters had been straight between Serampore and the society, he might with ease have raised 6000/. for the college, but so sinister an impression had been created in England and Scotland, that contributors hesitated to give even to the society. One gentleman at Birmingham, who had been in the habit of subscribing 50/. a-year to the mission, refused to continue his donation unless he was assured that the funds of the society were not mixed up with those of the men at Serampore. On the 29th of June, Mr. Ward supped with Dr. Stuart of Dunearne, one of the most enthusiastic friends of the Serampore Mission, who informed him that a friend, after perusing the Hints for native schools and the reports, had intrusted him with 500/. for the object; but he was subsequently forbidden to send it to Serampore until more satisfactory information could be obtained of the mode in which other funds had been appropriated. Dr. Stuart likewise showed him a letter he had just received from one of the junior bre- thren in Calcutta, of the bulk of a pamphlet, filled with the strongest invectives against Dr. Marshman. In com- municating this information to his friends at Serampore, Mr. Ward remarked, that letters such as these, which were coming over in profusion, were enough to ruin the brightest reputation, and to destroy friendship where it was most firmly cemented. Mr. Ward immediately drew up 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SEEAMrORE MISSION. 193 a reply to the Calcutta letter, and effectually disposed of the calumnies ; but for one instance in which there was any opportunity of counteracting the misrepresentations, there were ten cases in wiiich they remained without a reply ; and as that which destroys character is generally more welcome than that which exalts it, these calumnies soon settled down into permanent convictions, and the reputation w^hich it had been the labour of a life to build up, was thus blasted beyond recovery in a few months. Mr. Ward soon afterwards visited Birmingham, and passed several days with Mr. King, who had assisted at the for- mation of the society, and had acted for some time as treasurer, and obtained from him a copious narrative of the reports in circulation against the Serampore missionaries. He said they were charged with having amassed colossal fortunes amidst all their professions of disinterestedness, and that it was believed, not in one circle, but generally throughout the denomination, that they were no longer fit to be entrusted with public money. If Mr. Ward attempted to raise funds for the college, he would be met at every step with the most humiliating queries and suspicions, even if he did not fiil in his object altogether; but if the character of the missionaries, as honest admi- nistrators of public liberality could be established upon satisfactory evidence, he had little doubt that tlie wants of the institution would be fully supplied. Mr. Ward was astounded at the variety and malignity of the reports which crowded on him in every direction. " Under the anguish," as he said, " created by his conversation with Mr. King," he gave vent to his wounded feelings in the following strain. *' If you do not, my dear brethren, open your eyes, and rouse yourselves to do what is right and what is easy, your end will be shame and not honour. My resolution is unalterably taken. I cannot die and leave things as they are. Save me from a separation. I do still want to die with you, and to labour at your side till I die. Did ever men place their affairs in such a state of VOL. II. 0 194 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. suspicion, since tiie world begun, without the shadow of reason, and deliver up their fair characters to be spit upon, and themselves to be spoken of as rogues by those who seek occasion against them, as we have done? Are we not doing everything for Him who Moved us, and loved us to the death ? ' Let us do it then in such a way that our friends may rejoice over us and we rejoice with them. Let us not drive them to the necessity of apolo- gising for us, and making the best of our affairs, as though we were doing something in the dark, to give birth to future infamy." But Mr. AVaid was never more mistaken than when he supposed that any arrangement he or any of his colleaii'ues mis-ht make, could silence these calum- nies. Of this he was fully satisfied, when he found that after his colleagues had cordially acquiesced in his pro- posal, and made the settlement which he had proposed, to his entire satisfaction, they stood no fairer with the adverse members of their own denomination than before. Calumnies like those which were then in circulation, assumed so much the appearance of virtuous indignation against great public delinquents, that it appeared a dere- liction of duty to discredit them. Few men are found to have sufficient strength of mind to admit that they have been mistaken ; and it is rarely that calumnies die out, except on the death of those who have adopted them. Time is an essential element in the establishment of truth, and it is the province of posterity to correct the errors of preceding generations. It was much to be regretted at this juncture that Dr. Ryland had allowed his mind to be warped by prejudices. As the last survivor of the founders of the mis- Dr. K viand's pre- • ""T'll*. • ^ • i , judicd^i against siou m Lugland, it was m his power to exert a Dr. Marshman — • n 1 ii-*i-r»i' Er-^Marshraaa's salutai'y innuence on the public mind. ±>ut his correspondence with Dr. Marshman had gradu- ally increased in asperity, and at length drawn from Dr. Carey the remark, that his colleague, whose reticence had been censured as much as his conduct, "would never reply 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 195 to any of his letters until he obtained credit for common honesty. I advised him to burn your last letter, lest it should fall into stmnge hands." To which Dr. Ryland replied, that "it was easier to burn it than to answer it." At the same time Dr. Ryland aifirmed that his judgment of Dr. Marshman had been formed entirely from the perusal of his own letters to Mr. Ward, which had been placed in his hands, and which gave him an idea of "ambition, egotism, and animosity, he had not seen before." Dr. Marshmaii's opponents placed great reliance on this ad- verse opinion of his former tutor, and, in the fierce con- troversy which arose ten years afterwards, brought it forward to crush him. Dr. Marshman's correspondence for twenty years with his friends in England, written in the unsuspecting confidence of private friendship, was placed at the disposal of his adversaries, but nothing could be discovered in it to tell against him : but here was the testimony of a venerable minister, who had seen letters filled with egotism and animosity. Happily the letters were extant at the time, with Dr. Ryland's distinctive mark impressed on them in Hebrew characters, and Dr. Marshman furnished the most complete vindication of his own character by at once making them public, when the hostile judgment which had been pronounced on them was seen to be the result of mere prejudice. In his correspondence with Mr. Ward at this time, there was nothins: of which an Eno-lishman or a Christian would have cause to feel ashamed. " When I write to anyone else at home," he says, " I am never certain what use will be made of my letter, nor what construction will be put on any part of it. One solitary expression written in the utmost simplicity at midnight, between sleeping and waking, may be spread through the country, and made the subject of animadversions for seven years to come." " 1 charge our friends in Calcutta never to behave un- kindly to any who may seem to express dislike of us, but to manifest towards them all the utmost Christian affec- o 2 196 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XIU. tion." " Had we not at Serampore insisted on our rights as men and as Christians, we must at this time have been turned out of the premises purchased by the labour of our own hands, with our wives and families, or have had insupportable misery with colleagues who had forced themselves on us. . . . You may possibly hear reflections on me ; if you think it worth the while to notice them, you may say, that through the blessing of God, my family is enabled to devote two or three thousand pounds annually to the cause of missions ; this, therefore, is sufficient to evince our sincerity. How little do our own friends in England know me ! Why do I not take the next three or four years of the labour of my family, which I can honourably do, which would produce me 10,000/. ? and the interest of this at eight per cent." — the current interest of the day in India — "would keep me and my family for ever. I have some little doubt whether, after the unworthy treatment I have received from the secre- taries of the society in England, and from their friends in India, I shall continue on the premises at all, while I hope I shall never forsake the union with you and my dear brother Carey. I shall at all events purchase the next house in a few months. You have indeed nothing to fear relative to the cause of missions from my feelings, wounded as they have been by the conduct of Dr. Ryland and Mr. Dyer. I think a man ought as much to sacrifice his feelings to the cause of God, as his pecuniary interests. Are we to desert or even to slacken in the cause of our Redeemer, because some of His servants are imperfect?" Shortly after Mr. Ward's arrival in England, his com- plaint returned with increased violence, and obliged him to resort to the great sanatorium of diseased ceptioif in Eng- ludlaus at Cheltenham. Though he derived considerable benefit from its waters, his phy- sicians enjoined perfect repose ; but he could not be dissuaded from availing himself of the first symptoms of returning health to advocate the cause of improvement 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 197 in India. He was daily engaged, either on the platform or in the pulpit, in endeavouring to rouse public attention to this object. He was the first missionary who had ever returned to England from the East, and his welcome was enthusiastic in every circle but one, where he encountered nothing but cold reserve. His animated addresses were eminently calculated to rivet the attention of popular assemblies, and the novelty of his statements gave a particular interest to his appearance in public ; his engagements were therefore rapidly multiphed. " I have," he writes, " all the attention and popularity which a greedy man could wish, but I sigh for home. One half hour in communion with my God is far more precious than ' hear, hear,' echoed by a thousand voices at a public meeting." During the voyage he had drawn up an address to the British public, narrating tlie progress which had been made at the missionary institution at ms address on Serampore, by the Rev. Dr. Carey, and his ''^^'^''''^e^- brethren in unison with the Baptist Missionary Society, since the beginning of the century. He described their labours in the different departments of preaching, trans- lation, and schools. The fourth and last plan which they were now desirous of submitting to the public was the college, intended chiefly for the instruction of native teachers and pastors in secular and Christian knowledge. The salient point of Mr. Ward's argument in reference to this institution was, that the hundred and fifty millions of people in India could never be adequately supplied with missionary labourers from Europe. It was upon native agents that the weight of the work must even- tually rest, though the assistance of European mission- aries would be necessary to superintend their labours for many years to come. It was difficult for a European to acquire a foreign language in such perfection as to render him a persuasive preacher. The heat of the climate incapacitated him for active service in the open air, while the spiritual wants of the population required o 3 198 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. perpetual journeys among tliem. A native preacher could address his fellow countrymen under the shade of a tree, or even in the open air, for several hours consecutively, without experiencing more fatigue than was felt in similar labour in England. He could find such ready access to their hearts, as well as to their minds, as no European could expect to enjoy ; he could subsist on tl^e simplest food, and find a lodging in every village. It was to train up natives for these duties that Dr. Carey and liis associates had established this institution at Serampore, and devoted 9.5001. to it from their own funds, and it was Mr. Ward's object to raise such further sums as might be required to complete the plan. It was necessary that this appeal should be accredited to tlie public by the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, but it was not without much importunity on the part of Mr. Ward and Dr. Ryland, that they con- sented to give it their sanction. The resolution, which was signed by the two secretaries, ran thus : — " The committee of the Baptist Missionary Society rejoice to witness the progress of religion and learning in the Eastern world, and as they conceive that the college recently founded by their brethren at Serampore may materially promote this desirable object, they beg leave to recommend it to the liberal attention of the Christian public." At the same time, Mr. Ward was informed that the funds of the society were at a very low ebb, and would be seriously affected by any application to the public on behalf of the college; he resolved, therefore, to devote his time, in the first instance, to the service of the society, and his exertions were thus diverted from the main object of his visit to England, at a time when the impression he created had the charm of novelty and freshness. Mr. Ward's life in England was one of incessant ac- tivity. He superintended the publication of another edition of his history of the religion, manners, and philo- 1818.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 199 sophy of the Hindoos. The sections on tlic literature of India, though entirely rewritten, were still the least valuable portions of the work, the chief merit Mr. wanvs in- of which consisted in his graphic description ''°"" "^ '^"s'^"''- of the habits, mental and social, the feelings and character of the natives. The printers supplied him with two sheets daily; and "thus," he remarks, "instead of coming home to leisure, I am plunged up to the neck in work." He likewise made the most strenuous efforts to promote the establishment of female schools in India, and was among the first to awaken public attention to this im- portant branch of duty. " It is beginning," he writes, " to become an object of concern in this country. I started it at a meeting of the British and Foreign School Society ; a record was made on the subject, and when Mr. Allen returned from the continent, he offered to advance the sums necessary to make a beginning. I rejoice in this, as one of the results of my visits to England." Mr. Ward also published an earnest appeal to the British public, on the atrocities of female immo- lation, and endeavoured to organise an association with the distinct object of pressing its abolition. " I hope," he writes to his friends at Serampore, " the question of these burnings will be taken up, and that these fires will burn no longer. We must inundate England with these horrid tales, till the practice can be tolerated no longer." But the time had not arrived for extinguishing these fires, wdiich the genius of Hindooism had kindled twenty-five centuries before ; and they were to be tole- rated for ten years to come. After having deferred for several months to the wishes of the society, regarding collections for the college, he resolved to postpone this duty no longer. He visited the various counties and towns in England, and proceeded through Scotland aud Wales, addressing large assemblies, and calling personally on the wealthy and the benevolent. He succeeded in raising about 3000/., of which 500/., was contributed by o 4 200 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. Mr. Douglas of Cavers, so well-known in the circle of Christian literature, who took a lively interest in the labours of the Serampore missionaries, and more especially in the college. " I have realised," writes Mr. Ward, " more than 3000/. for the college, of which 7OO/. have been contributed by Scotland, which is to be devoted to the support of native preachers at the rate of 10/. a year for each. It is not to be funded. The sum raised in England I shall place in trust, the interest to be annually transmitted to India, to be expended in training native preachers, and other Christian students. Perhaj^s I shall do the same with the money which may be raised in America ; and thus leave nest eggs in both countries. The buildings you must raise yourselves." To return now to Serampore. The attention of the missionaries was more especially given during this year to Purchase of land thc orgaulsatiou of the college, though without at Serampore. ^^^^^ rclaxatiou of tlicir efforts in other spheres of labour. In the previous year they had made some exten- sive purchases of land to the east of the premises hence- forward designated " the society's," and considerable additions were afterwards made, till it extended to more than five acres. This was by far the most eligible plot of ground in Serampore. It lay in the eastern quarter of the town, apart from the hum of the population, and stretched along the bank of the river directly opposite the Governor- General's park at Barrackpore. It was purchased after the views of the committee regarding the old premises were developed, and thus escaped the predicament of being placed " in trust for the society." It was long debated whether it would not be advisable to remove all the missionary establishments to this spot, and thus avoid all further risk of molestation. The chief ground for re- jecting this proposal was the injury which might be inflicted on the society and the cause of missions by so open a mani- festation of discord. It was therefore resolved to appro- priate them to the college buildings, and the ground plan 1819.] IIISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 201 and elevation of a noble edifice, for the accommodation of professors and teachers and two hundred students, together with the requisite public rooms, was prepared by the best architectural skill in the countiy. In the month of August the missionaries issued the first report, which was necessarily limited to a narrative of the preliminary arrangements for the admis- sion of students and the rei^ulation of the the couJI^J.' ° 1111 f r" • Modifications. classes. It also alhided to some modmcations lwi Hastings- letter. of their plan which had appeared necessary. They were now satisfied of the necessity of providing support for a limited number of students in the higher classes, though not Christians, to enable them to complete tlieir studies. This plan, which has since taken the form of scholarships, has been forced on the directors of all such institutions by the necessity of circumstances. Some objection has been urged to it on the ground that it is anomalous to pay students for receiving instruction. But India is not the only country where that which is theoreti- cally anomalous may yet be found practically necessary. The peculiar construction of society in India appears to require the institution of scholarships in all colleges : with- out some provision of this nature, the most promising youths would be snatched from their studies just at tlie time when they were beginning to benefit by them. In India wealth is seldom associated with distinction of birth ; the noblest G;rade of brahminhood is often found in the humblest cottage. A large proportion of the scholars in the missionary institutions, and often in those of the state, belong to families of the highest social distinction, but steeped in poverty; and they are expected to provide for their own support when they reach the age of about fifteen. It is necessary, therefore, for the efficiency of the colleges, that they should possess the means of detaining tlie most promising students until their education has been complete. The first enunciation of this principle is to be found in the first report of Serampore College. 202 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap Xni. To obviate the objection stated by Lord Hastings in the previous year, it was provided that no native youth should be constrained to do any single act, as the condi- tion of enjoying the benefit of the institution, whicli was repugnant to his conscientious feelings. The report stated at the same time that it was desirable to turn to account, as far as possible, the science then possessed by the natives, and to avoid the unpopularity of an abrupt intro- duction of scientific truths repugnant to their old associa- tions. It was hoped gradually to correct and eventually to weed out the scientific errors of Hindooism. But it is scarcely necessary to remark that this idea was abandoned at an early period, as soon as it became apparent that the flibric of scientific truth must be erected on a new basis, without any reference to the existing Hindoo system. The missionaries likewise made a strenuous effort to pro- cure oriental manuscripts, and copyists were dispersed through the country to transcribe the manuscripts, of any value, in the vernacular languages, to which they could obtain access. The plan of publishing the Vedas in the original was also revived, but it was abandoned at the entreaty of Mr. Ward, who, notwithstanding the deep interest he took in Hindoo philosophy, protested against *' the expenditure of a farthing on such rubbish." The report stated that the number of students on the founda- tion in the first year of experiment was thirty-seven, of whom nineteen were native Christians, and the remainder heathens. Before the report was sent into circulation Dr. Marsh man used the freedom of submitting it to the perusal of Lord Hastings. On returning it he remarked, "The perusal I have given to your intended report has been unavoidably hasty. Indeed, the reading anything of the kind, with a view of exercising a censorial judgment on it, is little reconcilable to my occupations or position. But comprehending the just anxiety you feel, that nothing should be published by you which gives dissatisfaction to Government, I have interrupted pressing avocations to 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 203 meet your wishes, as fur as was witliin my power. Two passages strike me as questionable. In the third page there is a mention of the Hindoo religious ceremonies by the name of idolatry. Is there not a hazard that the word would be translated by the term which the Moosulmans apply to the worship of images, and which is understood to involve a sentiment of contemptuous intolerance ? In the fourteenth page may not the reference to divine reve- lation (a description which would be imderstood as apply- ing exclusively to our Scriptures) indicate such views toward conversion as may alarm the brahmins and stimu* late them to prevent the attendance of native students at the college? I say this on the presumption that your re- port will not fail to be translated, so that its tenor will be widely canvassed. Perhaps I may be too scrupulous in these doubts ; yet it is well to submit them to your con- sideration. As to your edifice, I fear that the unbroken uniformity of height in so vast a front may not have a good effect." These suggestions were adopted by the mission- aries. The expressions which appeared liable to miscon- struction were qualified, and the plan of the building modified, and the present edifice, with its classical Ionic portico, considered one of the noblest in India, substituted for the long and unbroken range of buildings originally designed. In the course of the year 1819, the head-quarters of the society were transferred to London, and established in Fen Court. " London," as Mr. Ward wrote „ , , , ' Hoaii-qnarters of to his colleagues, " had gained the prize." The removea ^ country influence in the committee was weak- ened, and that of the metropolis became preponderant. The leading member of the new committee was Mr. Joseph Guttridge, who had created an independent for- tune by his own exertions, and having retired from business, took a prominent part in all the benevolent movements of the denomination. He was the *' re- spectable gentleman" of Mr. Fuller's correspondence, 204 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIIL whose great anxiety for many years had been to confer respectability on the society. He had now attained that position in it to which Mr. Fuller liad been raised by the natural ascendancy of genius. He had none of the liberal and comprehensive views, and none of the frankness and generosity of Mr. Fuller ; but he possessed a clear and vigorous intellect, and that strength of character which always gives influence in every connection. His mind was essentially diplomatic. Like all men of his stamp, he loved power, perliaps as much for its inherent sweetness as for the opportunity it afforded of doing good. No other member of the committee was so well fitted to sub- due the anarchy which had reigned in the society for four years, and to giv^e a definite policy and a unity of action to its movements ; and his advent to power was not with- out use. With him were associated the amiable Mr. Ben- jamin Shaw, a banker, and member of Parliament ; the highly cultivated and scientific Dr. Olinthus Gregory, sub- sequently the biographer of Robert Hall, and Mr. Broad- ley Wilson, a man of princely generosity. There were others of inferior mark, who made up for littleness of mind by vigour of animosity, and were thus enabled too often to sway the counsels of the committee. The members of the new committee devoted several months to the review of the correspondence which had passed for twenty-five years between Mr. Fuller and his friends at Serampore, that they might master, as they said, the Serampore controversy. At the end of 1819, they embodied their conclusions in a series of resolutions, which were to a certain extent conciliatory, and might hav'C contributed to restore concord but for the incurable mistrust which had been created by Mr. Dyer's private and inquisitorial letter. They relinquished all intention of interfering with the management of affairs at Seram- pore. They proposed a consolidation of the trust deeds on such terms as should leave the premises in the exclu- sive possession of the missionaries at Serampore. They Resolutions of the committee. 1819.] IIISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 205 asked also for the power of proposing successors at Seram- pore, or a veto on the appointment. Unhappily for the prospect of reconciliation, they stated in one of the reso- lutions, that if they were to consent to the alienation of the property at Serampore from the society, they would violate the confidence reposed in them by the public, and be guilty of a dereliction of duty. This resolution necessarily implied that such an alienation had been proposed by the missionaries at Serampore, and they considered it a disingenuous attempt on the part of the new committee to damage them in public estimation. They had repeatedly and solemnly disavowed any such wish — Mr. Ward, in his personal intercourse with the committee, and his two colleagues in writing. It appears difficult to account for this gratuitous insinuation, after the secretary himself had stated, not many months before, that " whatever difficulty might have existed respecting the premises, had been fully removed by the perspicuous and candid statements of Dr. Carey, who had distinctly as- serted, what indeed was obvious enough, that the premises must belong to those for whom they were held in trust." Dr. Carey was indignant at what he considered a wan- ton insult, and determined to renounce all connection with the society, unless the charge implied in the reso- lution was withdrawn. " Who ever," he wrote to Dr. Kyland, " asked for any such alienation ? I challenge the society to produce any document under my signature which hints at such a measure. In all this business the society is the aggressor ; and you need not wonder if this ungenerous attack on our honesty is repelled with asperity." A reply to the formal resolutions which had now taken the place of Mr. Fuller's genial correspondence was returned from Serampore in resolutions of equal formality. Rps„,ut,ons at In the first the missionaries state that "nothing serampore. more fully accorded with their original intention and their present wishes than for the right of property on these premises to remain for ever vested in the society, for the 206 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. purpose of being applied to the cause of missions in India. As they had never swerved from tlieir original intention, they regret that the committee, by adding that if they were to consent to the alienation of them from the society they should violate the confidence reposed in them by the public, should even distantly hint that any such pro- posal had been made to them." They stated that it w^as doubtful whether they could legally make any alter- ation in the original deeds, but they would obtain the opinion of the first counsel in India, and if it were found practicable, would cheerfully associate certain members of the committee with themselves in the trust ; but they did not consider the right of the society to be suspended on such a deed. In the third resolution it was stated that they deemed the act of the committee, in disclaiming any intention to interfere in the management of the premises, to be perfectly just ; and they, in like manner, disclaim any intention ever to establish any right of property in them. But on the subject of independence, the difference of opinion between the committee and the missionaries was irreconcilable ; and this was the rock on which the prospects of future union were wrecked. In the fourth resolution they stated that they could not admit of any interference of the society in the election of the members of their union. . . . Between two bodies with indepen- dent resources, mutual confidence could not be preserved except on the basis of acknowledged independence. As brethren, they offered the most cordial co-operation in the labours in which they were both engaged. If this offer was refused, they should esteem it their duty to ffo on with their work alone But before this series o of resolutions reached England the question had been brought to a definite issue, and the hope of reunion extinguished, as will be apparent from the subsequent narrative. The communication from Mr. Ward to his colleagues, written on the voyage, and within two or three months 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SKHAMPORE MISSION. 207 of his landing in England, created, as might have been expected, great surprise at Serampore. He had cor- dially approved of all their measures relative to completion of the premises, and the maintenance of their in- meVJT-sh'edty dependence, to the day of his departure, neither did he now impugn those measures. The new request which he urged on them with such painful importunity, had never occupied much of their attention, and they had trusted to Providence for successors. They were now called upon, under the penalty of forfeiting the confidence of the public, and descending to the grave with infamy, to devise the means of perpetuating the institution at Serampore on the same principles. But the "settlement" which he implored them to make appeared to involve the most formidable difficulties. There was no previous example of such an association to assist their delibera- tions. Three individuals had been brought together by an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances, had ac- quired independent incomes, and agreed to throw their funds into a common stock for the promotion of an object of great interest. Their union was voluntary, and might be dissolved at any time, but it had hitherto been main- tained inviolate by the paramount convictions of Christian duty. It was easy to provide that the property already appropriated to the missionary cause should not be alien- ated, but it was extremely difficult to devise any plan of perpetuating such an association. They were required to find in succession three men of Christian zeal, capable of creating independent resources, and, in a country where every man husbanded his income with a view to the future enjoyment of it in England, disposed to consecrate nine-tenths of it to the improvement of the country, and reserve only a tenth for their families. They were called to give a guarantee to the Christian public that such men, and such men only, would be placed in charge of the institution at Serampore after they were in their graves. It was not without reason that they exclaimed, on hearing 208 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. CCiiap. XIII. what was expected of them in England, " There is no king, lord, nor ruler that asketh such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean." But they resolved to make an effort to meet the impassioned wishes of their colleague, and after long and anxious deliberation constructed a deed, which in the first place provided for the entire independence of the Serampore mission, and every member who might be hereafter admitted into it was to bind himself to maintain that independence inviolate. At the same time, the union with the society was to be equally inviolate, on the basis of independence. The Serampore mission was to consist of not less than three members, all contributors, and if on the occurrence of a vacancy, the survivors omitted to elect a successor of their own accord within a given time, the society should nominate three, of whom they were bound to elect one. If he was unable to contribute to the common fund, the society was to supply a sum equal to a fourth the income of the union, of which their nominee should receive a tenth. If the union was reduced to one member, and he omitted for a certain period to fill up the vacancy, the association w^as to be considered at an end. Agents were to be nominated by the society, and the whole of the property was to be vested in trustees, and applied to the support of the mission, after a suitable provision had been made for the widows and orphans. Such were the salient points of this document, which was not satisfactory even to those who had been constrained to draw it up. The arrange- ments were too complicated, and the character of these articles was more secular than religious, though it is difficult to see how this could have been avoided. The dis- cussions which had arisen in England had reference only to a question of pounds shillings and pence, and the document which was intended to remove public distrust necessarily assumed a pecuniary complexion. These articles of union exhibited rather an earnest desire to meet the wishes of their colleague, than any solution 1819.] niSTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 209 of the difficult question which had been raised. Still the deed was satisfactory to Mr. Ward. He thought it susceptible of some improvement, but its general tenor and provisions coincided with his views. From the day of its arrival in England, every feeling of hesitation or anxiety regarding his return to Serampore was dispelled. Every letter breathed a spirit of the warmest affection for " long lost, and long longed-for Serampore," as he called it; and he seemed to count the days that detained him from the " dear old spot." His attachment to his brethren became stronger than ever ; and to rejoin them, *' never again to part," was the uppermost thought in his mind. But the document produced a different effect on the committee. The clear determination which it exhibited, to maintain the independence of Serampore inviolate, created a feeling of consternation similar to that which would have been produced by the disclosure of some portentous combination against the interests of the society. Mr. Ward had lent a copy of it to Mr. Dyer, who imme- diately sent it to press, and circulated it among the members of the committee in town and country, requesting every member to send his individual opinion on it to Fen Court. The character and the result of the discus- sions to which it gave birth are thus described by Mr. W^ard in his letter to Serampore : — " Respecting the real sentiments and feelings of the committee towards Serampore, I was never, till very lately, able to obtain them. When I landed, I was received with great ^r. ward's de- shyness and reserve, and was never invited to a com- f"i^ngsan"d^'iews mittee meeting, nor shown any of their correspondence. °'""'*' <=°"'"""ee. I had now and then to rebut some ill-natured surmise about you, (Dr. Marshman) ; but till lately, though the committee, after London had gained the prize, has been sitting incessantly, going over all the proceedings of former committees, and all the corre- spondence, that Mr. Gutteridge might see to the bottom of the business — for he has now the most influence — I never knew where the shoe pinched. On the arrival of the document they begged me to meet them. When we met in the committee, the VOL. II. P 210 HISTORY OF THE SEHAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. discussion turned on the question of our independence, and I found we had our finger on the very spot where the bone was out of joint. I urged that nothing would or could be done, as it respected real union, without the admission of independence ; that without it, jealousy and suspicion and want of confidence would ever be felt ; that a claim of authority left room for future oppressions, and that the only heart's ease was independence. 1 wished the society to be the conservators of the union, as they were the natural guardians of it; but that I knew the minds of my colleagues so thoroughly on this point, that I was sure they never would rermquish it, — that if this point was conceded by the society, minor matters might be adjusted, — but that in the main- tenance of their independence they would find Carey, Marshman, and Ward one. I further urged that the dispute about inde- pendence was a war of words ; that the society was contending for a phantom, for that over every such station the control must be nominal, and that their authority over the brethren in Calcutta was nothing, and could be nothing. I reminded them that Se- rampore was independent, and could do without the society ; and that seeing union was desirable to both parties, it was better to establish it on such a basis as would be attended with perfect con- fidence, and that after the acknowledgment of our independence, their advice ree-ardino; ulterior measures would weigh with j^reater force. . . . Mr. Gutteridge, Mr. Shaw, Dr. Gregory, Mr. Broadley Wilson, all pleaded that there was a natural and necessary de- pendence of all stations on the parent society ; the head and members, the senders and the sent ; the very name missionary im- plied this. *' Here, then, the matter is brought to an issue. There is no chance of union with the society but by acknowledging their supremacy. Mr. Gutteridge said they could not, if they would, ac- knowledge our independence ; their duty to the public forbade it. There is no hope, then, whatever, at any future time, as far as I can see, of being one with the society or the committee ; tliey will not concede, and we will not give up our independence. . . . Here, then, tlie ])olnt is ascertained as far as the society is concerned ; that point is some right or control over Serampore. This they will not give up, though if we would acknowledge our dependence they would (for the present at least) let us have anything. They would elect Mr. Marshman, or do anything. It is manifest, therefore, that we arc never to come together. How we shall act 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 211 with them In future I know not. As a committee, Serampore is to them an object of jealousy, and they will become more and more alienated, as the hope of bringing us into a state of dependence lessens, or becomes extinct. I feel much that I am compelled to ask them for money, for it is a point with them never to acknow- ledge the funds at home and Serampore as separate. They would not accept my bills on you ; that would be acknowledging our in- dependence. You should not have driven me to take money from them or starve ! No effort is ever made in favour of schools or translations. All the funds for these objects are thrust into their hands. Serampore is a foreigner ; every letter and every article coming from thence, is turned over and looked at as though it had a bad odour. It is not ours is the feeling. This is the real history of affaii's with the committee, nor do I think any diversion in our favour is to be expected. They have too much the spirit of the corporation ; they are new in office, and love power too Avell. There is a strong feeling in favour of Serampore, but it is stifled, and cannot expand itself on account of incessant rumours of family interests, and of some latent, vlllany hatching there, and to come out by-and-by. This is a good deal the case with the ministers all over the country, and yet such is the powerful im- pression wrought in our favour, that I have been received every- where almost as an angel of God. The society dreads, above all things, that it should be known that Serampore is divided from them, and yet it would sacrifice its own existence, rather than acknowledge tliat we are an independent body. What, then. Is to be done? Shall we content ourselves with our own funds, and what we can raise in India, and let England go ; or shall we en- deavour to secure friends In England, Scotland and America, to promote the objects in which we are engaged ? " In a letter to Dr. Carey, he says : — " The last document has brought matters to a crisis. It Is our Independence which so offends them, and they are determined never to admit it. If we would acknowledge our subjection, I believe we might have everything ; but at the same time subjection to a body always changing is a dangerous thing. The nature of the union between us and them does not call for subjection ; if they could obtain it, they would be none the better for it, and we might at a future period be much the worse. I suppose there is no hope now of our acting together, and the only thing we have p 2 212 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. to do Is to place our affairs on such a safe footing, that all honest men may say, ' Verily, these Seramjiore men died as they lived, devoting their all to Chi'ist, and by the wisdom of their provisions for the future, secured as far as possible all they did to that cause in all time to come.' I rejoice that Ave ever came togethtr, that we were enabled to take the steps we did, and to labour for Him; and I am sure He will guide us that we may so act that our enemies will see their error." With this irreconcilable difference of opinion between the two bodies on a point of vital importance, Mr. Ward Remarks on ^^'^ ^liat It would bc valn to entertain any hope thesui.ject. of cordial union. He appears to have renounced any further attempt to restore it, and all his subsequent movements had reference only to his return to Seram- pore. Nearly forty years have elapsed since the date of this controversy, and on a calm and historical review of it, there appears to be more cause for regret than sur- prise. It is to be regretted, that the progress of im- provement in India should be in any measure checked by this colHsion. So far as any of the members of the com- mittee were swayed by that love of power and supremacy which belongs to our common nature, and public interests were made subordinate to its indulgence, it is to be regretted likewise. But great allowance must be made for the erroneous views which some of the best men in the committee had adopted. They talked about "the first principles of all missionary societies," entirely forgetting that the Serampore mission was estabUshed before those principles existed. The machinery of mis- sionary societies had fallen into the ordinary routine of employers and employed, and Mr. Gutteridge had no con- ception of missionary operations but through the agency of subordinate labourers. He fell into the error of looking at the relationship of the Serampore missionaries and the Society, by a reference to the economy of 1820, and not to that of 1793. It appears, also, that the great and ultimate design of 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 213 missions had been in some measure lost sight of by too exclusive a reference to the means which were consi- dered necessary for prosecuting them. Experience has now taught us, that the object of the missionary agency of Christendom is to plant the gospel in heathen coun- tries, in order that it may grow and flourish without aid. Missionary societies are successful in exact proportion as their agency ceases to be necessary. It is tlieir duty, therefore, to foster every independent effort for the sup- port either of missionaries or native pastors. This doctrine, which no one questions at the present day, was as novel and strange forty years ago as the doctrine of free trade in tlie political circle. If it had been applied to the case of Serampore, which, after having been planted by the society, immediately shot up with such vigour as to require no further tending, every difficulty would have vanished, and the angry dissensions of ten years have been avoided. The missionaries oflered the society cordial and affec- tionate co-operation on the basis of independence, a kind of federal union with individual freedom. Instead of pottering over the old records to hunt up any evidence that could be found of the early subordination of the missionaries to the society, they should have taken the status quo as the basis of action, and accepted the offer in a spirit of manly frankness. Had it been possible to create a dozen establishments like that of Serampore, each raising and managing its own funds, and connected with the society as the centre of unity in a common cause, it ought to have been a subject of congratulation, and not of regret. Had the committee liberally responded to the proposal of the missionaries at Serampore, and, instead of cherishing those in Calcutta as a counterpoise to what was termed the ''rebellious station of Serampore," treated both alike as valuable and independent auxiliaries, much mischief and scandal would have been avoided. Twenty years after, when their Jamaica stations had acquired the same independent resources as Serampore, and made the F 3 214 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. same offer which was made by Dr. Carey and his col- leagues, it was accepted with cheerfulness. Having completed the deed of settlement, the mission- aries turned their attention to the calumnies which had „. ,. .. , been circulated af]jainst them through England, Vindication of O O O ' thfse'raiore'''' ^ud of which thcy received tlie first intimation ,nissionaries. ^^.^^^^ ^^, Ward's Icttcrs. It was twenty years, witliin a fortnight, since they first met at Serampore and read Mr. Fuller's farewell communication, in which he informed them that the funds of the society would not allow liim to promise more than 360/. a year for the support of six families, and found themselves driven by necessity to provide means for their own support. They had not only succeeded in this object, but during this period had acquired a surplus of 40.000/. or 50,000/., whicli they had devoted to the cause in which tliey were engaged. They had also been intrusted with the administration of public donations to the extent of 80,000/. It is easy to conceive the feelings with which men who liad acted with such zeal and devotion would learn tliat, in their own land and in their own denomination, they were considered deficient in common honesty and unworthy of public trust ; and that men of generous hearts hesitated to support the society, lest their donations should find their way to Seram- pore. But they suppressed every indignant emotion, and sat down to the vindication of their characters with a degree of calmness which was scarcely to have been ex- pected under such irritation. In the pamphlet they drew up, they reverted to the original economy of the mission before "the great principles of all missionary societies" had been established ; which was, that missionaries should receive whatever assistance might be necessary from the society at the outset, and embrace the earliest opportunity of supporting themselves. In 1800 they had entered into a voluntary and mutual agreement with each other to unite the proceeds of their labour in a common stock, and devote it to their common object. They soon found them- 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 215 selves in the enjoyment of a large income, which they devoted in various ways, at their own discretion, to the promotion of tlie undertaking. Tiiis fact, they state, was communicated to the society in England, who fully re- cognised the principle, and requested tiiem to act as their local agents, in superintending the disbursement of the funds subscribed at home. The account of the sums received from England for the first six years had perished in the fire of 1812, but it was known from a memorandum published by Mr. Fuller, that the missionary expenditure had been 13,000/., while the remittances had not exceeded 5J40L In the next six years the expenditure had been 10,882/., and the amount received from England 55001. From 1811 to 1820 the remittances from the society had been 28,000/., of the expenditure of which the most accu- rate and minute details had been sent to the committee. The statement then adverted to the question of the pre- mises, and explained the circumstances under which they had been purchased, and the position in which they then stood, with the right of property in the society, and the right of occupancy in themselves. The sums received for the translation of the Scriptures had amounted in tlie aggregate to 31,000/., of which periodical accounts had been submitted to the public. For the Benevolent Insti- tution they had received 10,000/. and more than 5000/. for native schools, tiie faithful application of which had been announced in successive reports. Among other tokens of public confidence, the Governor-General had honoured them with a donation of 600/. for schools in Rajpootana. The pamphlet then referred to the college, to which they had subscribed 2500/. In regard to all these institutions their integrity had never been impeached, and the confidence of the public had been manifested by a constant influx of subscriptions. They also declared that in 1817, when they began to make an appropriation of a tenth of their income as a provision for their widows and orphans, the private property possessed by all three, p 4 216 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. [Cuap. XIII. including bequests, and the sums tbey had brought with them into the country, augmented by Indian interest, fell short of their contributions to the common cause for six months. On the question of the premises, which appeared to form the gravamen of the charge against them, as if they intended to transfer to their own families property which had been consecrated to the mission, they inquire whether, after having faithfully applied more than 80,000/. of public subscriptions to public objects, and augmented it so con- siderably from their private resources, it was likely that they would become dishonest to reclaim for their families property of less value than a tenth of their own gifts. They argue, moreover, that instead of incurring infamy for the possession of two or three old houses of little vakie in the depressed state of the town, it was in their powder at any time to retire from the support of the mission, and with unimpeached characters to devote the remainder of their lives, like other Christian men, to the benefit of their families. They might in this case be charged witii weak- ness of character, perhaps even with inconsistency, but who would venture to impeach their integrity ? In the past year, while these reports were in circulation in England, their contributions, including the donation to the college, had exceeded 5000/. The statement closed with the remark, that after having exerted themselves to support the cause of missions for so many years, and laid on themselves labours which few European constitutions could sustain in a climate like that of India ; after having consumed the best of their days in the work and robbed their own families to enrich the mission, they could not but lament that they were required to interrupt their labours and to vindicate their characters from aspersions which were as base as they were senseless. This forcible appeal to the justice and common sense of their fellow Cin'istians in England might have created a reaction, and possibly revived the old feel- ing of confidence, but it was destined never to see the light. 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE JIISSION. 217 Copies of the pamphlet were sent home hy Mrs. Marsh- man, and botli Dr. Carey and Dr. Marsliman made ar- ran"jements for mvina; it a wide circuhition. But t, . ,. .. c5 O O -._. 1. 1, rj 1^^. vindication Mr. Dyer, having obtained a copy of it, placed '"i^'^'^^'''^^- it before the committee, who were in a fisver of alarm lest the interests of the society and the mission sliould be compromised by the appearance of a statement based upon the existence of differences which they were most anxious to conceal from the public. They determined to suppress it, and obtained the surrender of every copy from Mrs. Marshman. They refused to give a copy of it even to Mr. Ward ; and Dr. Ryland assured Dr. Carey that if the statement had been published, it would have been a " deadly blow both to Serampore and the mission in general." The committee endeavoured to extenuate their conduct, by the assertion that the missionaries had in- curred no censure for the administration of public funds. Suspicions had arisen, not in reference to what they had done, but what it was reported they intended to do. Thus, the fair character of Dr. Carey and his colleagues continued to be the sport of calumny through the kingdom, while their vindication, which might have set them right with the public, was locked up in the secretary's desk. It is not questioned, that this anomalous proceeding arose from a morbid timidity. The committee had not, in fact, the courage to do right ; but the Serampore missionaries suffered as severely, in general estimation, as if they had intended to do wronc;. In the beginning of 1820, Mrs. Marshman visited England for the benefit of her health. Her constitution had been undermined by twenty years of un- Mrs. Marshman relieved toil, in the management of a large ^''"' '^"^'^"'^• school for the support of the mission. Siie huided in England in a state of great debiHty, and was obliged to follow Mr. Ward's example, and resort at once to Chel- tenham. To insure her a favourable welcome, Mr. Ward sent a paragraph to the " Baptist Magazine," the 218 HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. organ of the denomination and of the society, stating that she had been constrained to return to England to recruit her health, after having contributed many thou- sands of pounds to the mission by her personal exertions. But in tlie notice which appeared in that miscellany of her arrival, all allusion to her contribution was omitted. On her first visit to London, after liaving obtained some benefit from the waters of Cheltenham, she was invited to tea by the editor of that journal, one of the most active and influential members of the committee, and subjected to a very searching interrogatory, as to the number of silver spoons and other articles of plate used at her table at Serampore. It has been already stated that the entire value of the plate, which had created so profound a sensation in the committee, fell short of a hundred pounds. The editor took down an inventory of every article from her lips, as he said, "for the good of the cause, and the information of its friends ;" he expressed great satisfliction that the service was no larger, and assured her that the list, which he intended to circulate widely, would be very beneficial to the interests of Serampore. But the feelings in which this humiliating inquisition originated were confined to the official circle of the com- mittee. Other periodical journals admitted Mr. Ward's announcement without recision, and Mrs. Marshman was thus accredited to the Christian sympathies of the friends of religion and missions. Mr. Ward was in Scotland when she landed in England, and she lost no time in sending him a copy of the deed of settlement. In his letter of welcome, he apprised her of that which she had to expect among the friends of the society ; "but in every other circle, you will be received with open arms. Oh, how I long to mount my horse for Serampore ! " A few brief extracts from Dr. Marshman's letters to her will show the temperament of his mind at Kr. Marshman's tliispcrlod. " I aui tliis day fifty-t WO J fifty-two correspondence. yQ^y^ q[ unspeakablc mcrcy. The evil that 1819.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 219 I feared has not come ; and the good expected has exceeded my highest expectations. I look back, to the last thirty years more particularly, with feelings of deep emotion ; what a scene of mercy and blessing, of labour and enjoyment!" "Had not my dependence been upon God, 1 should either have been transported with anger under the trials I have had to endure, and have given up the support of the mission, or have sunk under the treatment I have received even from my friend Dr. Ryland, and have died of a broken heart. I regret to see that he is so little capable of resisting the im- pression made on him by designing men.'* "In our late examination, which the unkindness of others constrained us to make, we found that we had been enabled to de- vote more than foiu' lacs — 40,000^. — to the cause, besides supporting our own families. This filled me with joy. The sum, contributed by my own family, would have given us an income of 1200/. a year in England, and 2000/. in this country. I rejoice more, unspeakably more, in having thus devoted it to the cause of God, than as though f!ie whole sum lay by me at this moment ; and I humbly hope, as our income is now much greater, to devote two lacs more to this glorious cause, should your health and mine be spared for a few years to come." " I have learned, by experience, that it is less painful to suffer in silence the most rancorous defamation for years to- gether, than by attempting to avenge ourselves, under the idea of doing ourselves justice, to injure the cause of missions, even for an hour." " I now know that it is not me they hate, but a nondescript motley monster wiio has been represented to them with my name affixed, and which never can have an existence, for the qualities combined in him naturally destroy one another." Mr. Ward, after completing the canvas of England on behalf of the college, was advised to visit Hol- land, in the hope of raising a missionary spirit in the Menonite community. Captain Angus, of Newcastle, who 220 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XIII. had repeatedly travelled through that country, and was familiar with the language, accompanied him as his inter- preter. In these days of steam communication the distance between London and Rotterdam is often ac- visit J'hoi- complished in ei^jhteen hours. Mr. Ward was land • I 1 1 TT 1 • eight days on the passage. *' Here, he writes, "twenty of us were crowded in a small packet, ten sleep- ing in one cabin, one above the other. The day passed amidst swearing and loose conversation, and the night among fleas and bugs and sea-sick passengers. Besides, the wind was in our teeth, and there was lying to, and going back, and slipping out of our course, and I know not how many other grievances on our passage : such as rancid butter, bad tea, no milk, the soft bread exhausted, and no brandy at hand to correct the water, which was none of the best. Oh ! what a misery would eternity be in one of these packets; no prayers, no divine service, no God. Well, I have received another and most forcible lesson during this short voyage of the blessedness of true religion, and the wretchedness of that life which is desti- tute of it. Even if there were no hereafter, still revela- tion presents such subjects for contemplation, and puts such a substance into human life, that I would say, 'Should you burn heaven and quench hell, still I would be a Christian.'" Mr. Ward's visit to Holland produced little result. He describes the Menonites as heterodox, opulent, and selfish; but he enjoyed an agreeable confer- ence with the missionary society established at Rotterdam, which had resolved to send two missionaries to Bengal, to be stationed at Chinsurah, which had been restored to the Dutch government by the treaty of Vienna. Mr. Ward returned to England after a brief absence of three weeks. He had received a cordial invitation from the most influential members of the Baptist community to visit America, which he was now prepared to accept. On his arrival there, he found that the same calunmious reports regarding Serampore, Mr. Ward's visit to America 1S20.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE JIISSION. 221 which had been industriously disseminated in England, had also been sent across the Atlantic ; but his frank ex- planations served at once to dispel them, and he received the most enthusiastic welcome in every circle and from every denomination. All classes vied with each other in their expressions of esteem ; but it is due to the memory of one, of whom America has just reason to be proud, Mr. Divie Bethune, of New York, to state that nowhere did Mr. Ward feel himself so completely at home as in the bosom of his family. "I felt myself again," he writes, *'at Serampore." In England not a voice had been raised to vindicate, or even to explain, the conduct of the men who had built up the mission in India ; though apologies were occasionally made for them by a charitable reference to the weakness of human nature, and the errors of even the best of men. But Mr. Bethune and another friend came forward, to defend tlieir characters with the warmest zeal, each in his own name, and, by the publication of articles in the most popular journals, set their conduct in its true light before the religious public in America. The friends of Christian truth in that country were not fettered by any association with a body whicli cast the cold shade of its influence on men who oft'ered their zealous co-operation, but refused to relinquish their inde- pendence. They were free to give vent to the most generous sentiments towards the man who, in conjunction with his colleagues, had opened up the path of modern missions to the East. Mr. Ward's journey through the country was a continuous ovation. During the tliree months to which his visit was necessarily limited, he omitted no opportunity of strengthening the principle of missions in a land which was then beginning to com- pete with tlie old country in the field of missionary bene- volence. Mr. Ward succeeded in raising ten thousand dollars for the college, which was placed in the hands of American trustees. After his return to England he appears to have held little intercourse with the members 222 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CiiAr. XIII. of the committee, whose diplomatic reserve ill accorded with tlie warmth of his feelings and his zeal. He found that the concessions made by his brethren had softened no asperities, and produced no reciprocity of conciliation ; he, therefore, relinquished his favourite plan of giving the committee a veto on the appointment of their successors at Serampore, and constituting them tlie *' conservators of the union.'* He wrote to his friends at Serampore, that he was convinced of the vanity of endeavouring to legis- late for posterity; that he was now^ about to return to them, and should be content with the performance of his own duties, and hoped to devote the remainder of his life with increasing ardour to the great cause in which tliey had been engaged together. 1820.] IIISTOKY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. 223 CHAP. XIV. The benefit which had resulted from savings banks in England induced Dr. Carey and his colleagues, at this time, to attempt th.e establishment of a similar savings bank- institution in India on a limited scale. It was ^'<^^'n-'^"«'"'^- intended to promote habits of frugality and industry, more especially in the rising community of native Christians. The circumstances under which it was commenced were not favourable to success. The names of only four indi- viduals were offered as the guarantee of an institution which, in England, was found to require the guarantee of a large body of directors of social eminence. They were, moreover, residing under a foreign flag, beyond the juris- diction of the British courts, and in a settlement which lay under the stigma of being the Alsatia of Calcutta. But the institution took with the public, and so great was the general confidence in them, that deposits to the extent of 5000/. were forced upon them within the first twelve- month. The bank continued in operation for more than four years; but though it was felt to be a very useful institution, the deposits increased to a very inconvenient amount, and the labour of manafrinc^ it was found to interfere with higher duties ; it was, therefore, brought to a close by the return of every sum which had been deposited. Some years after, the plan was taken up by Lord William Bentinck, upon the same philanthropic principle, and the Government Savings Bank still con- tinues to encourage the principle of economy at the Bengal Presidency. — About the same period the Seram- pore missionaries were engaged in the erection of a steam- engine at Serampore. They had experienced great diffi- culty in regard to the supply of paper for the printing of 224 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIY. the Scriptures. The paper of the country liad from time immemorial been sized with rice paste, and attracted the voracious insects, whose attacks even the stoutest parch- ment was unable to resist. Indeed, without incessant care, the first sheets of a work which hngered in the press were devoured by them before the last sheets were printed off. The continent of Europe had not then begun to supply India with its cheap paper ; that which was im- ported from England was sold at so extravagant a price as to preclude the use of it in large editions. Various efforts had, therefore, been made at Serampore to manufacture paper which should be impervious to the worm. At one time a tread-mill was erected to reduce the material in the paper engine ; it was worked by relays of forty men, but tlie machinery was found to be cumbrous and expensive ; and, one man having been accidentally killed, the rest took a superstitious aversion to the wheel, and it was abandoned. About this time, an enterprising European, Mr. William Jones, whose memory deserves to be held in esteem for his spirited efforts to improve the arts and manufactures of the country, turned his attention to the coal mines in the district of Burdwan. The existence of coal in and about Raneegunge had been known for many years, but no effort had been made to turn the dis- covery to account. Mr. Jones established machinery for working the mines ; and the collieries, to which a railway lias now been laid, were first opened by his skill and per- severance. The missionaries determined to take advantage of this circumstance, and to import a steam-engine to work the paper mill. A twelve-horse engine was soon after sent to Serampore by Messrs. Thwaites and Roth well, of Bolton. The erection of this engine was in strict subordination to the objects of the mission, which was conducted by Dr. Carey and his colleagues, on their own resources. They were obliged to accommodate their plans to the exigencies of a country where the division of labour which belongs to an advanced stage of civilisation was unknown, and it 1820.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 225 was necessary to provide in the same establishment for cutting- the punches, and casting the types, and manu- facturing the paper required for the printing of tlie Scriptures. This steam-engine, which may still be seen on the premises at Serampore, was the first ever erected in India, and excited almost as much interest as the first steam-boat, or the first railway. The natives crowded to see the " machine of fire," as they called it, which equalled the achievements of Vishwu-Kurmu, the architect of the gods. Gentlemen of scientific tastes, who had never had an opportunity of seeing a steam-engine, came to Seram- pore and studied its mechanism under the instructions of the engineer. In a letter to Mr. Ward, of the ^7th of March, Dr. Marshman said, " the engine went in reality this day. 1 felt it my duty to study the nature of steam and the steam-engine most thoroughly. After three days of almost unremitted attention, even my dreams not being free, I have been enabled to trace it from its in- vention by the Marquis of Worcester through successive stages to our time, and, by dint of exertions and perpetual questions to the engineer, to comprehend the principle of working it." At the request of the committee of the society, a meeting of the Serampore missionaries and the "junior brethren " was held in Calcutta in July, with 1 , f, . , . 1 . ^^ , . Reconciliation the view ot reconciling diiierences and restorins; Meeting-ciaim , . 1 , . , of Mr. Adam. concord. It was opened with devotional exer- cises. When the discussion commenced, it turned upon two points : the alleged alienation of the premises from the society, and the refusal of Dr. Carey and his colleagues to hold their incomes at the disposal of that body. The junior brethren were somewhat surprised to learn from Dr. Carey, that the riglit of the society to the premises had never been questioned ; that the property had never been alienated ; and that the deeds, of which attested copies had been sent to the committee, had never been altered. On the second point, however, the difference VOL. II. Q 226 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XIV. was broad and irreconcilable. Dr. Carey asserted his own right and that of his colleagues to the exclusive con- trol of their own incomes, and their determination to maintain it. The junior bretiiren, on the other hand, stated, that they did not consider a farthing of their receipts as belonging to themselves; they were the absolute property of the society. They intimated that their brethren at Serampore ought to follow the same rule from principle, and pay their funds into the society's treasury. " I told them," wrote Dr. Carey, " that they had a right to do as they pleased with themselves and their earnings, but liberty was my birthright, which I would not sell even to my brother." Notwithstanding this diversity of opinion, the meeting produced a satis- factory result by dealing away misapprehension, and, for a time, softening asperities. In connection with this question of proprietary rights, it may here be mentioned, that the junior brethren had accumulated in about three years, as it was alleged, the sum of 8000/. ; and that a few months after the reconciliation meeting, Mr. Adam, one of their body, having embraced Unitarian sentiments, withdrew from the connection, and demanded his sixth share of this fund. The demand was resisted by his associates, on the ground that the whole of the property belonged to the society. But, as Mr. Adam refused to relinquish his claim, the question was referred to arbitra- tors, to avoid the odium of a lawsuit. They unanimously repudiated the right of the society to this self-acquired property, and awarded Mr. Adam the sixth of 1800/., the sum to which they reduced the available assets of the union. This decision appeared to be decisive of any legal or constructive right of the society to the funds originated by their missionaries. To prevent the pos- sibihty of any similar claim on the mission property at Serampore at any future time, Dr. Marshman, with the consent of his colleagues, drew up a brief document, to M'hich their seals were immediately affixed, and which Formation of cultural 1820.] HISTORY OF THE SKRAMPORE MISSION. 227 Mr. Ward signed and sealed after his return. It affirmed that tlie entire product of their labour from February 1800, and nine tenths of it since September 1817, had been thrown by common consent into their common stock, and that each of tlie subscribers had relinquished all individual right to it, and barred his lieirs, executors, administrators, or assigns from advancing any claim to any portion of it. In the midst of his missionary, biblical, and literary labours Dr. Carey never lost sight of the material interests of the country. He had a strong natural taste for botanical and acjricultural pursuits, and, tVeAgri O r ' _ ' Society. notvvitlistanding his extreme and even morbid repugnance to letter writing, maintained an extensive correspondence witii the most eminent botanists in Europe and America. His own botanical garden, which covered five acres of ground, was stocked with the richest variety of plants collected from all parts of the world, and, in point of scientific importance, was second only to the government botanical garden, superintended by his friend Dr. WalHch. The encouragement afforded by Lord Hastings to every plan for advancing the interests of the country, induced Dr. Carey to propose the establishment of an agri- cultural society in Calcutta. He hoped to enlist the exer- tions not only of European settlers, but more especially of the native zemindars, who resided more in the metropolis than upon their estates, and to induce them to seek the increase of tlieir rent-roll by an improved system of agri- culture rather than by rack-renting their tenants. In the month of April he drew up the prospectus of the society. The paper exhibited all that clearness of perception and those matter-of-fact views for which he was remarkable ; the style was simple, but to the point, without any surplusage, and it may be taken as a very characteristic specimen of his general composition. He described the great improvements which had been effected in England in agricultural science, by means of such associations, and q2 228 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XIV. which had resulted in the increase of national wealth and individual prosperity. He pointed out the benefit which might be expected from such a society in India, in drawing attention to tlie improvement of land as well as of the implements of husbandry and of stock; in ascertaining the best mode of cropping; and in the introduction of new and useful plants. After the proposal had been a few days in circuhition, he convened a meeting in the town hall of all who felt an interest in the subject; but there was not sufficient public spirit in the community to respond to the call, and the attendance was limited to three European gentlemen besides himself and Dr. Marshman ; there was no native present. Not discouraged by this manifestation of apathy, he said he thought the meeting was sufficiently strong to make a beginning ; and in the same spirit of energy which he had shown at the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society, voted one of their number into the chair, and the Agricultural Society of India was constituted. Such was the feeble origin of an association which now embraces hundreds of members, both European and native, and which, during the last thirty-seven years, has been one of the most vigorous and successful agencies of improvement. At the desire of the meeting, Dr. Carey solicited Lord Hastings to accept the office of patron, and he readily acceded to the request. In the course of two months Dr. Carey's perseverance was rewarded by the accession of more than fifty members, including some of the most wealthy native landholders. At the second meeting, in October, a committee of management was formed, consisting of an equal number of Europeans and natives. The benefit which Dr. Carey was enabled to confer on the interests of India by this spirited exertion has been held in grateful remembrance by the society he established. His bust adorns its hall ; and at the annual banquet, after the distribution of prizes, the memory of the founder is commemorated immediately after the honours paid to the royal family. 1820.] HISTORY OF THE SEHAJirORE MISSION. 229 In June of the present year, Dr. Marshman commenced the pubHcation of the quarterly " Friend of India." It was found that tlie discussion of questions bear- 1 . r» I • 1 !• 1 Quarterly lUfs: on the mterests ot the country in the httle " 'I"';v'' 'Z/ c ... India — Suttees. monthly miscellany, the original " Friend of India," swelled its bulk, and interfered with its punctual appearance. He determined, therefore, to confine that work to the publication of intelligence relative to the progress of religion and education, and to establish a quarterly periodical for *' essays on subjects connected with India, and a review of such works, published either in Europe or in India, as might in any way affect the in- terests of the country." The press was in some measure fettered by the code of regulations which had been pro- mulgated for the guidance of editors on the 19th of August, 1818, when the censorship was removed. They were, among other restrictions, prohibited from publishing *' animadversions on the measures of the public authori- ties in England connected with the government of India." It was scarcely possible, however, to advocate measures of improvement without animadverting on defects, and thereby reflecting on the measures which had proved inju- rious. Lord Hastings was anxious to encourage free and salutary discussion, but he was incessantly urged by Mr. Adam, his associate in council, to restrain the liberty, or, as it was designated, the licentiousness, of the press; and he knew that the Court of Directors were not favourable to his liberal proceedings. The missionaries were, it is true, under a foreign flag, and no restrictions imposed on the periodical press in Calcutta were binding on them. But the circulation of their publications lay in the British dominions, and it was important to cultivate a good understanding with the British government. They de- termined, therefore, to eschew all remarks on the conduct of any of the public functionaries, and, in the discussion of questions of public policy, to avoid all extremes of . opinion or violence of expression. But it was impossible, Q 3 230 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. with the best intentions and the most scrupulous exercise of discretion, to avoid colHsion with the opinions of the party opposed to innovation. Thus, in the article on the Improvement of Agriculture, they felt themselves con- strained to advocate the policy of allowing Europeans to hold land in India, a measure to w^hich the public authori- ties in England and their servants in Calcutta were resolutely, though conscientiously, opposed. In the article on the Native Press, they noticed with feelings of exultation its probable influence on the future welfare of India, in arousing the national mind from the sleep of ages. But the existence of the native press was regarded with alarm in official circles on both sides the water. These articles, however, passed without notice. But in the third number the delicate question of Suttees was elaborately discussed, and the article concluded with a respectful, but importunate, request that government would at once prohibit them. " The question," it was said, " was one which cannot be permitted to slumber ; it ouglit to undergo the most rigid scrutiny in all its bear- ings, since it is only from repeated examination that the abolition of this horrible practice can be ultimately ex- pected. But it must yield in time to the voice of humanity. We cannot persuade ourselves that these un- natural fires will be permitted to exist for another quarter of a century. We cannot for a moment admit the idea that there are 25,000 innocent and helpless females yet destined to the flames, under a Christian and a British government." Great umbrage was taken at the fi'eedom of these remarks, which at the present time would probably be censured for their timidity. The continued toleration of suttees, though rev^olting to every feeling of humanity, was in accordance with the principles of the old tra- ditionary policy. Government had engaged not to interfere with the opinions of the natives in matters of religion, and the Brahmins maintained that the burning of widows alive was part and parcel of the Hindoo re- 1821.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrOllE MISSION. 231 ligion. Mr. Adam brought the article under the notice of tlie council, and represented it as an infringement of the rule which prohibited " discussions having a tendency to create alarm or suspicion among the native population of any intended interference with their religious opinions or observances." He therefore desired that intimation should be given to the editors to abstain from all such discussions in future. Lord Hastings said he had read the article with interest and pleasure, and saw nothing objectionable in it ; and he refused to sanction any com- munication with the missionaries on the subject. He assured Dr. Marshman, in a private conversation, that he was personally favourable to entire abolition ; but the public functionaries in Leadenhall Street and Calcutta shrunk from so bold a measure, and, in the existing temper of men's minds, it was necessary to use great cir- cumspection in discussing it. At tlie beginning of 1821, Dr. Carey was attacked with disease, which for a time appeared to threaten his life. It was only a few days before his illness ^^ ^^^^ ,^ that Mr. Thomason paid a visit to Serampore, j-l-om thT kn"gof and expressed great delight at his vigorous v\^of health and buoyant spirits. Dr. Carey assured him, that though he had been twenty-seven years in India he felt as strong as the day he landed. Soon after, how- ever, he was laid on his couch by fever, wliich at length yielded to the effects of medicine. While the fever was at its crisis. Colonel Krefting, the governor of Serampore, called at the mission house with a letter from the Kinsc of Denmark, in reply to the communication which had been made by the missionaries on the formation of the college. His majesty, after having governed the kingdom for twenty years as regent, had now succeeded to the throne on the death of his father. He assured the missionaries of the great interest he felt in the college, which he de- sired to take under his patronage, and of the progress and success of which he requested to be informed from time Q 4 Denmark — Visit of Serfoojee. 232 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. to time. As a token of his approbation of their labours, he bestowed a gold medal on each of them. On a pre- vious occasion, he had offered them the order of Danne- brog, which he had recently conferred on BonhofP, the chief of the Moravian missions in the colony of St. Croix ; but they respectfully solicited permission to decline an honour unsuited to their position. The medal of merit was therefore the substitute for the order. The king like- wise presented them with a more substantial token of his kindness. He transferred to them a large house and grounds in Serampore, in a very eligible situation ad- joining the premises which Dr. Marshman had recently purchased. It was valued at 1000/., and the rent of it was to be perpetually applied to the support of the college. He also bestowed on the institution the privilege of acting independent of the authorities of the town in the internal management of its affairs. A few days after Dr. Carey's recovery, Serfoojee, the prince of Tanjore, paid a visit to the missionary establishment at Serampore. He had come up from the south of India to Calcutta with the in- tention of proceeding on pilgrimage to Benares, and crossed over to Serampore while residing with Lord Hastings at Barrackpore Park. He was received at the landing stairs by Dr. Carey and Dr. Marshman, and con- ducted over the various departments of labour. It was interesting to see this native prince, the pupil of the illus- trious Schwartz, with his hand in Dr. Carey's, walking through the establishment, and more especially through the room in which the pundits were employed in trans- lating the Scriptures into the languages of India. He spoke English fluently; he dwelt with reverence on the exertions and virtues of his tutor, and expressed great satisfaction in witnessing the progress of similar labours in the north of India. But it was lamentable to reflect that he had benefited so little by the instructions of Schwartz as to have undertaken a devotional journey to the head quarters of Hindoo superstition. 1821.] HISTORY OF THE SEKAMrORE MISSION. 233 On tlie 30th of May Dr. Carey was deprived by death of liis second wife, the accompHshed and affectionate partner of his life for thirteen years. She was o.athofMrs. seized with an epileptic fit four days before her ^"'"^ death, and it was followed by others in rapid succession, which apparently inflicted no pain, but left her on each occasion with less consciousness : the approach of disso- lution was scarcely perceptible. Dr. Carey thus com- memorates her Christian virtues in a letter to Dr. Ryland : — " She was eminently pious, and lived near to God. The Bible was her daily delight ; and, next to God, she lived for me. Her solicitude for my happiness was incessant, and so certainly could she at all times interi)ret my looks, that any attempt to conceal anxiety or distress of mind would have been vain. It was her constant habit to compare every verse of Scripture she read in the German, French, Italian, and English versions, and never to pass by a difKculty till it was cleared up. In this respect she was of eminent service to me in the translation of the word of God, She entered most heartily into all the concerns of the mission, and into the support of schools, particularly those for female native children, and had long supported one of that kind at Cutwa. ... So many merciful circumstances attend this very heavy affliction as still yield me support beyond anything I ever felt in former trials. I have no domestic strife to reflect on, and add bitterness to affliction. She was ready to depart. She had long lived on the borders of the heavenly land, and I think had latterly become more and more heavenly in her thoughts and conversation. She suffered no lono- and painful affliction. She was removed before me, a thing for which we had frequently expressed our wishes to each other ; for though I am sure my brethren and my children would have done the utmost in their power to alleviate her affliction, if they had survived me, yet no one, nor all united, could have supplied the place of a husband." The years in which Dr. Carey enjoyed her society were perhaps the happiest of his life. Her animated conversa- tion, enriched by varied acquirements, was exactly suited to the complexion of his mind ; and he enjoyed a rich feast when, at the close of a day of severe toil, he was en- 234 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. abled to give his mind up to the intellectual intercourse of the evening. Her crippled condition confined her, in a great measure, to her couch ; but her husband was as- siduously attentive to her minutest wants. It was most interesting to see him twice a day convey her down the stairs, in his own arms, to the kind of Bath chair in which she was wont to take exercise. There was a mixture of patrician polish and Christian simplicity in her deportment, which left a most favourable impression on the minds of all those who visited her. She fell in cheerfully with the economy of the mission family at Serampore, and con- tributed by her efforts to the maintenance of harmony. Her funeral was attended by several of the missionaries from Calcutta, and by the whole official staff of the settlement, anxious to pay their last respects, not only to the member of a family of distinguished rank, but also to the wife of Dr. Carey. A day or two after, the following letter of condolence was sent by Lord Hastings : — " Lord and Lady Hastings are solicitous, through the kindness of Dr. Marshman, to make their inquiries after Dr. Carey, and to offer him the expression of their sincere condolence on liis late heavy affliction. They feel assured no one better knows, or will more practically experience, the only consolation which such a case admits of; but while such principles enhance gratitude for one of the best blessings of Providence, it tends to increase their sympathy for the sorrow of one, who, in justly appreciating domestic happiness, is called upon to mourn the interruption of such ties." The progress made in organising the college during the years 1820 and 1821 was necessarily slow. For an insti- tution of this kind the missionaries had every- Serampore , . i i • i i • S^'^^^f-^,, thmsr to create; and, unhappily, at the time Bishop's College. O ' _ ' J l .' ' when the society with which they had been associated miglit have rendered them the most essential aid, by bringing the resources of England to the promotion of their object, they were entirely deprived, not only of its co-operation, but even of its sympathies. In the report of this year they state that the number of pupils in 1821.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 235 daily attendance was forty-five, engaged in tlie study of Sanscrit, wliich was still considered an essential prepara- tion for ultimate success ; but they had succeeded in diminishing by one half the time usually devoted to this dry and uninteresting study. They could, however, effect little in the interior arrangements of the institution till their hands were strengthened by the return of their colleague, with the professor who was to accompany him. While they were erecting the buildings. Bishop's College was rising on the banks of the Hooghly, eighteen miles below Serampore. Soon after the prospectus of Seram- pore College was issued, Bishop Middleton determined to carry out the design he had formed of establishing an episcopal college. *' The time," he wrote, "appears to have arrived when it is desirable that some missionary en- deavours, at least, should have some connection with the Church establishment. The natives have a preference, all other things being equal, for that which is counte- nanced by authority ; and this seems to point out the propriety of placing tiiis establishment — Bishop's College — within the bishop's reach (I speak for myself and my successors), that they may in some measure superintend its proceedings, and make it apparent that the propagation of our religion is not a matter of so little interest with us as to be left entirely to persons whom none of the consti- tuted authorities avow." The college thus founded by Bisliop Middleton is a permanent memorial of his zeal and devotion in the cause of Christian truth, and gives him a distinguished place among the benefactors of India. From his own academical associations he was led to select the Gothic style of architecture for the edifice. The Serampore missionaries did not consider this order suited to a tropical climate and temperature. The para- mount object in every building in the East BuiMmgs of se- is to secure the most ample ventilation, and "-^'-n'ore couege. this is not compatible with the full development of the beauties of Gothic architecture. They preferred the 236 HISTORY OF the SERAJirORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. Grecian style, and a noble specimen of it did they erect in the grounds appropriated to the college, amounting to ten acres. It was built under the superintendence of Major Wickedie, the second member of the little council of Serampore. The centre building, intended for the public rooms, was a hundred and thirty feet in length, and a hundred and twenty in depth. The hall on the ground floor, supported on arches, and terminated at the south by a bow, was ninety-five feet in length, sixty-six in breadth, and twenty in height. It was originally in- tended for the library, but is now occupied by the classes. The hall above, of the same dimensions and twenty-six feet in height, was supported by two rows of Ionic columns ; it was intended for the annual examinations. Of the twelve side-rooms above and below, eight were of spacious dimensions, twenty-seven feet by thirty-five. The portico which fronted the river was composed of six columns, more than four feet in diameter at the base. The staircase-room w^as ninety feet in length, twenty- seven in width, and forty-seven in height, with two stair- cases of cast-iron, of large s:ze and elegant form, pre- pared at Birmingham. The spacious grounds were sur- rounded with iron railing, and the front entrance was adorned with a noble gate, likewise cast at Birming- ham. The reverend historian of the Baptist Mission, in his remarks on Serampore College, says, *' if there were a tincture of ambition in the scheme which piety might deplore, allowances ought to ba made for human weak- ness, and the force of temptations, by which individuals so circumstanced and so honoured must have been assailed. .... Although it were a magnificent failure, a veil of Christian candour ought to be cast over both the men and the measure." But there was no touch of ambition in the project, or the edifice of the college, nor does the conduct of the missionaries require to be palliated by the exercise of Christian candour. Some may even be in- clined to commend the strength of human resolution, 1821.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 237 instead of " making allowances for human weakness," ex- hibited in the formation of such an institution. The scale on which it was proposed to establish the college, and to which tiie size of the building was necessarily accommo- dated, corresponded with the breadth of all the other enterprises of the Serampore missionaries, — the mission, the translations, and the schools. While Mr. Ward was engaged in making collections for the support of the in- stitution in England, he wrote to his brethren, *' the buildings you must raise in India ; " and they determined to respond to the call, and, if possible, to augment their donation from 2500/. to 80uO/., and to make a vigorous effort to erect the buildings from their own funds. Neither the ungenerous suspicions, nor the charge of unfaithful- ness, with which their character was assailed in England, was allowed to slacken the prosecution of this plan. It was while their reputation was under an eclipse in England, and the benevolent hesitated to subscribe to the society, till they were assured that their donations would not be mixed up with the funds of the men at Serampore, that those men were engaged in erecting a noble edifice for the promotion of religion and know- ledge, at their own cost, the expense of which eventually grew under their hands to the sum of 15,000/. To the charge of endeavouring to alienate from the society premises of the value of 3000/., their own gift, they replied, by erecting a building at five times the cost, and vesting it in eleven trustees, — seven besides themselves. It was thus they vindicated the purity of their motives in their differences with the society, and endeavoured to silence the voice of calumny. They were the first who maintained that a college was an indispensable appendage to an Indian mission, and this opinion has since been fully confirmed by the proceedings of other missionary bodies, — the Episcopalians, the Independents, and the two sections of the Presbyterian church, who have erected colleges in connection with their missions, on a scale 238 HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPOKE BIISSION. [Chap. XIV. equal, if not superior, to that of Serampore College : the only difference being that in one case the edifice was erected by the unaided efforts of three individuals, in the other cases by the assistance of public contributions. If the college at Serampore proved for a time a *' magnificent failure," it was because that support which was essential to its efficiency was withheld, while the colleges of other denominations were fully sustained. The committee of the Baptist iVIissionary Society have at length admitted the importance of such an institution for training native itinerants, schoolmasters, and pastors, and resolved to accept and improve the noble legacy bequeathed to the denomination by tlie Serampore missionaries ; and the reproach of failure has ceased. In the course of the previous and the present year, Dr. Marshman was drawn into a controversy with Ram- mohun Roy, on the doctrine of the Atonement. „. J ^ Discussions with This great Hindoo reformer, who had vigor- ^'''"mohu" i^^y- ously exposed the prevailing superstitions of his fellow countrymen, now came forward to assail the fundamental doctrines of Christianity in a publication entitled " The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Happiness and Peace." He maintained that the monotheistic system of the Vedant was sufficient for all the religious wants of man. He ex- tolled the precepts of Jesus, but denied the necessity of an atonement, and questioned the divinity of our Saviour ; declaring that His miracles were less stupendous than those of the Hindoo sage, who drank up the ocean, and then discharged it from his body. His opinions regarding the vicarious sacrifice of the Redeemer differed little from those of the Unitarian school. Rammohun Roy was the fore- most man of the age in Hindoo society, and any treatise from his pen could not fliil to exert a powerful influence among his fellow countrymen, more especially when it chimed in with their prejudices against Christianity. Dr. Marshman considered it important to stand forth in defence of the vital doctrines of the Gospel, thus im- 1821.] HISTORY OF THE SK RAiMrOKE MISSION. 239 ])ugned in the presence of the Hindoo community, on whom the liii-ht of Christian truth was then bemnninc; to dawn. In the first number of tiie quarterly "Friend of India," he published a review of liammohun Roy's ])amphlet, in which his arguments were closely sifted, and the doctrine of the Atonement fully vindicated. Rammohun Roy then published two consecutive appeals to the public in defence of the " Precepts," which Dr. Marshman reviewed more elaborately in subsequent num- bers. To recapitulate the various arguments employed by him in these articles would demand more space than can be spared : it must therefore suffice to remark that they furnish a good exemplification of his peculiar style of reasoning, and on a subject which had been the study of his life. In one of his letters during the controversy, he says, "these are the only articles on divinity 1 have ever written, and some may be apt to think me, from the ' Friend of India,' more of a politician than a divine ; yet the study of divinity is my highest delight." The novelty of a discussion between a Christian divine and a learned Hindoo on the fundamental doctrines of the Bible, attracted much notice in a community which had hitherto treated evangelical truth with sceptical indifference. This defence of Christian truth was received with delight by its friends in India, and even the Unitarians in England and America commended the exemplary temper which Dr. Marshman liad exhibited in the discussion. The only instance of asperity charged on him was the use on one occasion of the word Socinian, which the party repudiates ; though in general society in Calcutta, Rammohun Roy's school was designated as that of " socinianised Hindoos who retained their caste." It was during the progress of this controversy tliat a pamphlet appeared in Calcutta in the Bengalee language, which created an extraordinary sensation in indoo society. It was compiled by iJruiu- pan,phiet-tije "^ . Ill- ChunUrika. mohun, a learned Brahmin, who placed his name 240 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. in the last line of the book, in accordance with the ancient usage of the Hindoo literati. His flither had been the dewan, or chief native assistant, of Mr. Middleton, the resident of Lucknow, during the days of Warren Hastings; and he himself had studied both Sanscrit and English, and become attached to the school of Rammohun Roy. The pamphlet consisted of a series of strictures on the prevalent system of polytheism. The writer was not only not a Christian, but evidently ignorant of the estabhshed argu- ments of Christianity. The style of the work was idio- matic and attractive, combining great simplicity and ease with great vigour and strength ; but its chief power lay in the pungency of its satire. Brujumolum was well versed in theshasters, and quoted them with great efficacy against the popular superstition. He was familiar with the mental habits, thougiits, and feelings of his country- m.en, and was enabled to address them with great effect. Seldom has the system of Hindoo idolatry been subject to so severe and irritating an exposure. From the elegance of its diction, the pamphlet may be considered as one of the most valuable of vernacular classics. The author died soon after its publication, at the early age of thirty- seven, while engaged in translating Fergusson's astro- nomy into Bengalee. Soon after the appearance of this treatise, another native newspaper was started in Cal- cutta, which maintained great influence for many years in native circles. It was designated the Chundrika, and was edited by Bhobany churun, a Brahmin of great in- telligence and considerable learning, though no pundit, but remarkable for his tact and energy, which gave him great ascendancy among his fellow-countrymen. The journal was intended to check the liberal tendencies of the age, and it soon became the organ of the orthodox Hindoos. It was opposed to all innovation, and to every movement which might affect the stereotyped character of Hindooism. During the life of its able and astute editor it was considered the great bulwark of the current super- 1821.] HISTORY or THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 241 stition. Its success was owing not only to the popularity of tlie opinions which it advocated, but also to the charm of its pure and simple style. It was the third native journal which appeared subsequent to the publication of the Serampore Durpun, and after an interval of four years. In the montli of April, 1821, a letter was addressed by the committee of the society to the missionaries at Seram- pore, which tended to widen the breach. Dr. Letter from the Ci -i , , , J r* I • • commiltee of the arey had sent a statement ot his own views on society, and the 1 ,. 1 T . i*p*i T^ reply IromSeram- the subjects under discussion to his triend Ur. p">-«- Ryland, which was private to the extent that it was not shown to his colleague. It was placed on the official records of the committee, and made the occasion of a long and elaborate communication, in which the whole question of the differences was traced from the beginning. It was an exparte statement, intended to vindicate the conduct of the committee, and to leave the charge of inconsistency on Dr. Carey and his colleagues. In this document, an attempt was made to show that the missionaries at Seram- pore were not united among themselves. It was stated, on the authority of Dr. Ryland, that Mr. Ward had declared his determination not to return to Serampore *' to clotlie himself with eternal inflimy." If Mr. Ward had used so strong an expression while labouring under great physical debihty and mental depression, in a private letter confidentially shown to Dr. Ryland, it was an act of great indelicacy, to use the mildest expression, to make it public, without giving him an opportunity of explanation, though he was on the spot. He was thus held up to the denomination, as having charged his colleagues with con- duct that was infamous. But in a letter which he had written to the committee, fifteen months later than the date of the letter shown to Dr. Ryland, he had distinctly signified his approval of all their movements and resolutions. He had also informed the committee, at a personal confer- ence, that they would find him and his colleagues indisso- lubly united on all the questions at issue. A printed copy VOL. II. K 242 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. of the committee's letter was sent to Mr. Ward, only a day or two before he embarked, with a letter from them, full of official affection, stating that they could " say with sincerity that they had acted towards him as they should wish him to act towards them." This proceeding on the part of the committee was considered disingenuous by the missionaries at Serampore. Their own vindication of their conduct, in which the greatest caution had been used to avoid any expression which might appear to inculpate the committee, had been suppressed by that body, on the plea that it would tend to reveal the existence of differ- ences which it was deemed prudent to conceal; but in this communication, which was printed and circulated in Eng- land before it reached Serampore in manuscript, the com- mittee's own version of these differences was given to the denomination, and operated unchecked to the detri- ment of Dr. Carey and his colleagues. The dispute seemed to be turned into a game of chess, in which all stratagems were allowable. To this document the missionaries sent a still more elaborate reply after Mr. Ward's return to Seram- pore. No farther allusion is necessary to these dreary discussions; but one amusing extract will serve to illus- trate the spirit of the controversy : *' As far," said the committee, "as relates to your freedom from control in the management of your concerns, and the application of your funds, we have long ago conceded it." To this, the letter from Serampore replies, " It makes us blush for Baptist brethren, for protestant dissenters. In our judg- ment, you might as well talk of conceding to us the light of heaven, or the air we breathe." Before Mr. Ward quitted England, he assisted in the formation of the British India Society, an association British India So- intended to promote the improvement of India, ci.ty III London. j-j^Qj.g espccially through the medium of schools. It owed its origin chiefly to the exertions of Mr. Butter- worth, the law bookseller and member of parliament, and one of the most active men in the circle of religious bene- 1821.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 243 volence. At his instance, Mr. Ward drew up a long and interesting letter to the Right Hon. J. C. Villiers, which contained a clear exposition of the moral, intellectual, and religious condition of India. He subjoined to it an abstract of the " Hints " and reports of native schools, and some remarks on female immolation, intended to bring that question before the influential men who patronised the society in England. This communication was sup- ported by statements furnished by Mr. Harrington, Sir Edward Hyde East, and Colonel Munro, all great autho^ rities on India questions. Some of the most eminent of the nobiUty and gentry gave the aid of their names to the association. Of those who had resided in India, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir William Burroughs, and Lord Teignmouth, assisted at the inaugural meeting of the Society, in addition to the gentlemen named above ; and there was a fair prospect of vigorous operations and even- tual success. But this benevolent effort to promote the welfare of India did not lead to any practical result. The object was too vague, and the committee too large and unwieldy ; neither was there any man of energy to take charge of the movement, and push it forward after tlie first impulse had subsided, and it soon died a natural death. Mr. Ward now set his face to^^ards the scene of his labours in India, from which he had been separated for two years and a half He had been so happy • i?-|\'rTlATl i^lr. Ward prc= as to eno-aoe the services or Mr. John Mack, p^i;^' "ir'":" !" O O ' India. Mr. Maik, then twenty-three years of age, as one of the professors of Serampore College. His father was solicitor- at-law, and held an influential situation in the sheriff's office in Edinburgh. Mr. Mack had gone through the usual course of academical education in Scotland, flrst at the high school, and then in the university of Edinburgh. The certificates of proficiency which he received from professors Christison, Dunbar, Ritchie, Brown, Leslie, Playfliir, and Hope, were flattering testimonials of his at- tainments. He subsequently attended a course of chemical R 2 244 HISTORY OP THE SEEAMPOEE MISSION. [Cuap. XIV. lectures at Guy's, and tlie surgical lectures of " mild Abernethy," who expressed, in his own peculiar language, his great surprise at the very queer taste of one who did not propose to make surgery his profession. He was originally intended for the church of Scotland ; but having changed his opinion regarding baptism and church polity, he went to the Baptist academy at Bristol, taking with him, perhaps, as much learning as he brouglit away from it. It is difficult to speak of the varied excellencies of Mr. Mack's character, without an appearance of exag- geration. He was an excellent classic, and thoroughly versed in the different branches of natural science, though chemistry was his favourite study. His intellectual genius was of the first order. His judgment was always so sound and judicious, that his suffrage on any question was considered a tower of strength. He was a power- ful and elegant writer, but pre-eminently distinguished for his eloquence, which has seldom been equalled, and has never been surpassed, in India. On one occasion, having been prevailed on to speak at a meeting of the Auxihary Bible Society in Calcutta, he electrified the au- dience by his address to such a degree, that the late Bishop of Calcutta, who presided at the meeting, involuntarily exclaimed, "Why was that man a dissenter ? " His piety was deep and enlightened, the result of strong exercises of mind, which he was in the habit of recording from time to time. Like Henry Martin's, his temper was originally hot and overbearing, but was gradually disciplined by the strength of Christian principle, till it came to present a combination of the resolution of the old covenanters, with Christian meekness. In all respects, he was an accom- plished man, a fitting associate and colleague of Carey, Marshman, and Ward, to whom he became as warmly attached as they were to one another. He embarked with Mr. Ward, in May, 1821, in company with Mrs. Marshman, whose health had been so completely invigorated by her sojourn in England, that her exertions were prolonged for Ward's Fare- well Letters. 1S21.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 245 a farther period of twenty-five years in India. The party consisted also of the first two missionaries of the General Baptist Missionary Society, sent out to commence a mission in Orissa, and Miss Cooke, afterwards Mrs. Wilson, who had volunteered her services in connection witli another society, to organise a system of female edu- cation in India, and whose benevolent and successful efforts in that cause form a bright page in the history of British philantliropy in the East. During the voyage from America, Mr. Ward employed his time in writing " Farewell Letters " to his friends in England and America. He was subsequently Mr. induced to publish them, and the work speedily went through three editions. They are valuable as the effusion of those fervent and affectionate feelings, which endeared him to all with whom he was associated. They also breathe the genuine spirit of Christian benevolence, expanded by the magnitude of the sphere in which he had laboured. In successive letters he presents a vivid picture of the superstitions of the natives, the impurity and cruelty to which they gave birth, and the moral and religious degradation they entailed. He exhibits the hopes, fears, and aspirations of the heathen mind. He carries the reader into the presence of the idol, and brings before him the crowd of prostrate worshippers and the shouts of the frantic votaries. He tlien conducts him to the funeral pile, and depicts the sufferings of the living victim, and endeavours to raise a feeling of commiseration in his bosom, and engage him in a crusade against this horrid rite. A few brief extracts from the letters will serve to illustrate the character of the writer. Speaking of the ancient systems of Hindoo philosophy, he says, " And these are the highest discoveries, and these the proudest fruits, of a philosophy produced by the greatest unassisted mluds that were ever created. All these combinations of intellect, all these colleges founded by the greatest masters the world has ever R 3 246 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. seen, all these writings, these incredible labours terminate in this momentous discovery " there is nothing but spirit and matter in the universe," and in the production of a disciple, dumb, naked, besmeared with ashes, his arm held erect till it has become stiff and withered, surrounding himself with four fires, or lying on a bed of spikes, endeavouring by all this process to extinguish his intellectual powers, that he may be fitted to return to a Being whose blessedness consists in an eternal destruction of all qualities." On the subject of female immolation, he says : — " O that I could collect all the shrieks of these affrighted victims, all the innocent blood thus drunk up by the devouring element, and all the wailings of thirteen thousand orphans, losing father and mother on the same day, and present them at our missionary anni- versaries, and carry them through every town in the United King- dom. I should surely then be able to awaken every heart to the claims of British India. Yes, it is British India where these ao-onisins: shrieks are heard, where the blood of these Avidows flows (DO ' into a torrent, and where these cries of miserable orphans are heard. Not that I mean by these remarks to criminate the British Govern- ment ; they would rejoice to put out these fires. My object is to awaken attention to these awful facts, but especially the attention of the Christian public." In reference to the former and the existing feeling of the Government and the community of India on missions, he remarks : — " Our brethren found the Government decidedl}'^ inimical to the introduction of missionaries. They predicted nothing short of the loss of the country, if the prejudices of the natives were interfered with. A former Governor-General would sometimes observe to one of the chaplains, that he thought the wisest policy the East India Company had ever adopted was, never to disturb the pre- judices of their native subjects. This view of the subject made the .Government decidedly hostile to missionary labours, and this policy was pursued to an extent well known to all who have felt an in- terest in the progress of Christianity in the east. It may be added, that our own countrymen, scattered all over India, felt the same repugnance to missionary exertions, and manifested a firm deter- mination to second the views of Government on this head. Did ever any Ciuise appear to be more hopeless? I well recollect that this was the exact feeling on this subject when I arrived in Bengal. 1821.] HISTORY OF Tlllil SERAMPORE MISSION. 247 Everywhere we were advised to go back. Even one or two good men thought the attempt utterly impracticable. India, in short, had long been considered an impregnable fortress defended by the gods. . . . Now, in all that concerns the mental and moral cultiva- tion of India, the Governor- General and the government of Bengal are become powerful auxiliaries. Native schools have fur years back been under their absolute patronage, several Christian insti- tutions at Calcutta which have the good of the natives as their direct object receive a marked countenance, and missionaries re- ceive the most friendly attention. The School Book Society was formed at the suggestion, and, in fact, under the direction of the Marchioness of Hastings, who has manifested a most benevolent and undeviating solicitude to improve the intellectual and moral condition of this people. In these interesting efforts of tlie Mar- chioness, she may be denominated, in the language of the holy Scriptures, a ' help meet ' to the distinguished nobleman at tlie head of our Indian empire." Regarding the difficulties of evangelising India, he writes : — '' But, in the deep antiquity of the Hindoo institutions, in the aversion of the natives to the least familiar intercourse with the whites, in their deep-rooted attachment to their superstitious rites, in their ignorance of every Christian truth, in their entire want of moral powers and of a conscience, in the pollution of their minds, in their levity and want of principle, and, above all, in their terrors of the law of caste, we have before us those stupendous, and, as some suppose, those inaccessible mountains of difficulty, that have appalled the stoutest hearts, and given I'ise to the almost universal oi>inion that the Hindoos never would, never could, be converted. But, surely the conversion of nearly seven hundred Hindoos, who were not before outcasts, who gave up all worldly connections and prospects from their conviction of the truth of Christianity, is of itself the most solid proof which could be given of the reality of our success, and the certainty of the final triumph of Christianity in this country. How few public avowals of conversion, humanly speaking, should we have in England, if sacrifices* such as the Hindoo has to make, were required." In a letter to Mr. Butterworth, there is a fine exempli- fication of that total absence of sectarian bigotry which distinguished his character and that of his colleagues : — R 4 248 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [ChAp.- XIV. " As for sects, ' a breath may make them, as a breath has made;' there is much trash cleaving to us all, but when 1 see Him whose right it is to reign, and whose dominion is over mind, going forth conquering and to conquer, I must and will rejoice. I am more than ever anxious, my dear sir, to know no man after his sect, to know no man as an Independent, an Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, or a Baptist. I would say of every one who wears the image of Christ, and who contributes to the improvement of the spiritual desert which surrounds him, and of no one else, ' the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother.' What a sad thing, that while our Lord Jesus Christ loves his people because they bear his image, the cause of our attachment should be that they belong to us. . . . The world is not to be conquered by our favourite sentiments, but by the spirit and mind of Jesus Christ in us : ' the kingdom is to be given to the saints of the Most High.' The eyes of the Saviour, in looking down upon earth, are fixed on his own image, — 'to this man will I look ; ' while the sect, sur- rounded by their mud wall are sitting and watching for the She- kinah to fall upon their favourite sentiments. Let us conscien- tiously profess our oplnioiis ; but let us love the man of our sect but little, who possesses but little of the image of Christ, while we love him in whom we see much of Christ, though some of his opinions are the very opposite of our own. . . If I am enabled thus to love all the family, ' whose names are written in heaven,' I have a pro})erty in all ; I have fellowship with all ; the gifts of all are mine; the spirituality of all is mine; the success of all, at home and abroad, is mine. 'My Father wrought it all.'" Mr. Ward reached 8eramj)ore on the 20th of October. In his letters to his friends in England, he describes the ecstasy of his feelings on finding himself again on the hallowed spot. He dwelt on the pleasure Govern'menr hc fclt in exclianeinijj the freezing atmosphere Sanscrit College. , p i • i • • of Fen Court for the genial associations of the family circle at Serampore. The progress which had been made in the erection of the college buildings, in the assem- blage of students, and the arrangement of the classes, ex- ceeded his most sanguine expectations. When he contrasted the extraordinary exertions and sacrifices which had been made by his colleagues during his absence, with the charges Mr. Ward'i l;iboais at Serampore — 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 249 of secLilarity and self-nggrancUsement which had met him at every turn in England, he felt himself bound to them by stronger ties. He returned to his labours with more than his wonted ardour, and was happy to bury all remem- brance of the contentions into which he had been drawn in England in the animating occupations of the mission. He resumed charge of the printing-office, and of the secular department of the mission, and worked the nine- teen presses with increased diligence in the printing of the Scriptures and tracts ; but the object to which his chief attention was given was the training of the more advanced youth in the college for missionary duties. He commenced a religious magazine in Bengalee, and en- couraged them to contribute to it. He likewise established an auxiliary missionary society among the native Christians. Places of worship were erected in several places in the town, and the sabbath day was more particularly devoted to addresses to the heathen ; and tlie Christian students of the college were thus exercised in their future duties. Mr. Ward fully coincided with his brethren in the pro- priety of giving prominence to the cultivation of Oriental literature in the college, and his views were strengthened by the recent proceedings of government. It lias been stated that in 1811, Lord Minto proposed to establish colleges for the cultivation of Hindoo literature at Nuddea and Tirhoot, but the scheme fell into abeyance. For ten years nothing was done in the matter beyond that inter- minable correspondence for which the Indian government has become famous. The plan was finally abandoned ill 18^1, when it was resolved to establish a government Sanscrit college in Calcutta upon a large scale. The sum of '25001. was appropriated annually to its support, and of 12,000/. to the building. It was intended for the exclu- sive cultivation of the sacred literature of the Hindoos, including the Poorans and legendary history. The ten- dency of the institution was to throw the important influence of the literature of the country into the scale of 250 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. Hindooism, and it served to increase the desire of Dr. Carey and his colleagues to bring that influence to aid the interests of Christian truth. They were anxious to create a body of Christian pundits as a counterpoise to the heathen pundits of the Government college, Mr. Ward also revised the manuscript of the " Reflections for every day in the year, " which he had compiled on his voyage to England, and published it in two volumes of moderate size. 7'he work was highly prized by his Christian friends, and brought into daily use in many families. The history of Hindoo philosophy, exemplified by extracts from the works of the different schools, which he had long contemplated, was laid aside ; and his attention was turned to the composition of a treatise on the character of the Christian missionary, drawn from the life of St. Paul. In this work he was anxious to embody all the experience which he and his colleagues had acquired in active labours for nearly a quarter of a century among the heathen ; but he did not live to complete it. In the month of March, 1822, Dr. Marshman was bereaved of his eldest daughter, Susan, who had been married about three years and a half to Mr. Death of Mrs. "^ /-> i t-. i • m Marshma;;^"''' Hcnry Allau Williams, of the Bengal civil Correspondence, ggj-yj^e, aud commcrcial resident at Jungypore. She died of fever five days after her confinement, leaving two children; a daughter, who died of consumption at the age of twenty, and a son who entered the military service of the East India Company, and in his first campaign sustained a siege of four months with his corps at Guznee. After the capitulation of that town the enemy broke fliith with the officers, and subjected them to the most atrocious treatment. Young Williams appears to have suffered more severely than his comrades ; his reason was affected, and he was soon after constrained to retire from the service of the Company, from whom he continues to receive a special annuity. Mrs. Williams was a woman of unaffected piety, and endeared to all her friends by the 1822.1 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 251 peculiar sweetness of. her disposition. Possessed of a large independent income, it was her delight to emulate the examj)le of those among whom she had been brought up at Serampore, and to employ it in the diffusion of knowledge, and in the support of itinerants. Her loss cast a gloom over the circle of the mission family. '* We are trying," writes Mr. Ward, *' to learn the lesson of calm and gracious submission to the will of our Heavenly Parent in this dispensation." Dr. Marshman had always exhibited the utmost buoyancy of spirits under the severest diffi- culties, but this blow appeared completely to unman him, and for some time he became " the prey of settled sorrow.'* To his bereaved son-in-law he wrote daily, for nearly two years, down to the period of Mr. Williams' own death ; and it is in letters like these, written without any restraint, that we have access to the genuine feelings of his heart. No correspondence could exhibit more of the strength of Christian principle, or resignation to the Divine v.'ill, or greater benevolence towards others. When he has occasion to allude to the uncharitable conduct of any of his o})ponents, he appears more anxious to extenuate than to censure it. There is only one letter out of more than five hundred in which he makes use of an epithet which could be deemed h;)rsh. It occurs in reference to the indepen- dence of Serampore, which, he says, he would rather part with life than relinquish ; while the attempt of the society to invade it, is characterised as *' an act of tyranny." It is impossible to peruse these letters without a feeling of sur- prise, that a man so considerate towards all, and more par- ticularly to his enemies, and so warmhearted to his friends, should have become the object of mistrust, if not even of hatred to religious men in England, and- especially to his venerated tutor. Dr. Ryland. In a letter which Dr. Marshman received from him at this time, he was re- proached with his "canting tortuosity ; " and in another to Dr. Carey, Dr. Ryland remarked, " Well, I entered my seventieth year yesterday ; perhaps I shall be hid 252 HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. in the grave ere I see the ruin of the society, at which Dr. Marshman appears to aim ; in v/hich, if he succeeds, his own ruin will soon be the consequence, though his foundation seems to stand strong." Dr. Marshman endeavoured to obtain relief from sorrow by increased application to his missionary duties, and his Dr. Marshman's Htcrary pursults. In the Quarterly Friend labours — comple- C T 1' ^ a 11 i j.' 1 il tionoithe ot India, he waote an elaborate article on the Chinese Bible. t • i p i t i t-» • condition and prospects ot the Indo- Britons, now designated East Indians. He urged them to raise themselves above the inferior position of clerks and copyists, beyond which they rarely aspired ; and pointed out the various paths of honourable exertion which were open to them. He returned also to the subject of female immolation, and endeavoured to impress on govern- ment the criminality of continuing to permit the prac- tice ; maintaining the principle adopted by Lord William Bentinck eight years after, that the only effectual mode of dealing with this rite was to render it penal for any native to aid in the perpetration of it. One Mr. Bowen, who had been sent to India to erect a lighthouse on Saugor island, had recently published a pamphlet (on his return to England) on " Missionary Incitement and Hin- doo Demoralisation." He asserted, that the Serampore missionaries had " pursued measures, than which none more horrible were ever sanctioned by any human government, and had produced in India a mass of misery and crime, which, if developed by an inquiry once insti- tuted, would strike the missionary subscribers in Britain with horror, and the nation with alarm." *' As a measure of matchless injustice," he remarked, "I shall ever view these proceedings with undisguised horror. ... A few years more of missionary labour will involve in domestic anarchy a greater numerical force than all the Europeans in India. May Heaven in its mercy avert the threatening consequences of this mass of well-grounded disaffection." It was amusing to witness this attempt to revive the pre- 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 253 judices and alarms of 1813, which parliament had effec- tually disposed of by opening the gates of India to missionary enterprise. The period of terror had passed away ; and it was in vain that Mr. Bowen endeavoured to persuade the public authorities to put the clock of im- provement back, and extinguish missions. Though his pamphlet produced no feeling but that of contempt, Dr. Marshman did not consider it advisable to allow the bold and reckless assertions with which it was filled to remain unrefuted ; and he published a full and able reply, in which every case of demoralisation which had been adduced was thoroughly examined and explained. But the chief object on which Dr. Marshman was employed at this time, was the completion of the Chinese transla- tion of the Bible. He had been engaged on this under- taking— in his circumstances one of the most laborious that can well be conceived — for fourteen years, and in the first week of December, had the happiness of sending the last sheet to press. This was the first complete edition of the Sacred Scriptures in the Chinese language, perhaps also the first Chinese work ever printed from moveable metallic types. It was prosecuted without any of the facilities which have since been enjoyed in China \ itself by subsequent translators. Their versions are doubtless more idiomatic, perspicuous, and acceptable ; but Dr. Marshman's labours will not fail to be regarded as a monument of zeal and perseverance in the cause of Christian truth. A copy of the work was presented to the British and Foreign Bible Society, at their annual meeting in London, on the 7th of May, 1823, by Mr. Marshman ; when Lord Teignmouth, who was in the chair, remarked, that the presentation of the first com- plete translation of the sacred Scriptures in the Chinese lanffuao-e was one of the most interesting events in the history of the society. Mr. Wilberforce, who had nobly vindicated the character and conduct of the Serampore missionaries in Parliament ten years before, was among 254 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. the foremost to offer his congratulations on the completion of this undertaking. In the course of the present year, Dr. Carey married Mrs. Hughes, a widow of forty-five. His colleagues and Dr. Carey's third fri^nds wcrc gratified to find that, although marriage. ^j^^ posscssed uouc of thc mental refinement or the irtellectual attractions of his late wife, she was sedulous in endeavouring to promote his comfort. Mr. Ward writes, *' Perhaps at his age he could not have found in this country a more suitable match, or any one likely to be a more quiet inmate." She was the best of nuises for a man of sixty-two. Dr. Carey had always put a literal interpretation on the injunction "Swear not at all ; " he entertained a conscientious objection even to judicial oaths ; and as he could not be prevailed on to make the affidavit which was necessary for a licence, the banns were published in the cathedral in Calcutta, to the great amusement of his friends. Towards the close of this year, the missionaries pub- lished another memoir of the translations. It was stated, Progress ofthe that thc Ncw Tcstameut had been published in Translations. ^wcnty of tlic lauguagcs of India. The sixth edition ofthe Scriptures in Bengalee, and a second and re- vised edition ofthe Hindee, Sanscrit, Orissa, and Mahratta Scriptures, was in the press. Of these versions, some liad been twelve years in progress, but seven years was the shortest period occupied in translating and printing any version of the New Testament. To define their operations more accurately, Dr. Carey and his colleagues had been in the habit of dividing the versions into two classes ; those of chief, and those of secondary importance. The languages included in the second series were current in large principalities, and might perhaps, be more aptly termed provincial dialects, three-fourths ofthe vocables being derived from a common source. It may not be uninteresting to observe, in reference to the twenty versions in which the missionaries had com- 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAIMPOEE MISSION. 255 pletetl tlie translation of the whole or a portion of the Scriptures, that their biblical labours have been subse- quently continued by other missionary bodies in eleven of these languages. The remaining nine versions belong to provinces, in vvJiich no missionary agency has been esta- blished, or in which it has been found sufficient to use the version of some neighbouring and cognate dialect. They had also begun the experimental translation of the New Testament in nine other dialects, in some of which, a portion of the gospels was printed ; but under the pressiu'e of adverse circumstances the work was suspended, and not eventually resumed. Tiie memoir was accompanied by a miniature map of India, with the circle of country in which each language and dialect was understood to be current, marked by a distinctive colour. The map is valu- able, because it indicates the knowledge of the philological divisions of India, which had been gained down to that period, by those who had most diligently investigated the subject ; and it will be regarded with increasing interest, as more enlarged observation affords the means of correcting its errors. The expense of these heavy undertakings, however, had exhausted the resources of the missionaries, and com- ])elled them to obtain accommodation from their ,1 11 . /-» 1 1 rn ^I""- Hey of Leeds bankers at the heavy mterest or the day. io -versions oi the •^ ^ .^ ^ _ New Testament. explain the cause of this embarrassment it is necessary to recur to the year 1816. It was stated in the memoir of that year, that the expense of printing a version of the New Testament in any of the languages or dialects of India would not exceed 500/., and that it appeared desirable thus to publish the New Testament in twenty- six of these languages, which had been ascertained to exist among the hundred-and-fifty millions of inhabitants in India. Mr. Hey, an eminent physician at Leeds, and one of the most distinguished philanthropists of the day, was struck with the proposal. He considered that 13,000/. could not be more beneficially laid out than in an attempt 256 HISTORY OF THE SEIIAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XIV. to give the scriptures to every tribe in India in its own speech, though in an imperfect form ; and he determined to exert his influence to raise the necessary funds. He communicated his design and his exertions to the Se- rampore missionaries. But after he had raised a sum of about 1500/., it appeared to him that the Bible Society would be more likely to carry into eftect a plan which must spread over many years, than a private individual. He accordingly made over to them the sum he had raised, and committed the completion of the design to their care. The Society passed a resolution purporting, that whoever should produce a first version of the New Testament in any Oriental language, should, on the examination and approval of his manuscrij)t, be entitled to 500/., to enable him to print 1000 copies of it. The resolution, though passed with a view to the labours of Dr. Carey and his colleagues, did not exactly suit their circumstances, as all their versions were either in or through the press at the time. This movement augmented Dr. Carey's ardour, and despite the prudent advice of his colleagues, carried him beyond the bounds of discretion. The ruling passion of his life was to give the Scriptures to all the people of India. Backed by this encouragement, he pushed forward the translations, and carried them through the press with redoubled energy. The versions of the New Testament embraced by the proposal of Mr. Hey, and by the subsequent resolution of the Bible Society, were removed from the general account of the Trans- lation Fund, to which only the second editions of the New Testament and the books of the Old Testament were henceforward charged. But even these works had been prosecuted with so much vigour, that the fund was 4500/. in arrear. Of the twenty-six versions of the New Testament, one half had been completed at press, but the outlay on only four had been received, leaving that on nine others, amounting to 4500/., to be reimbursed ; while the expense of the remaining versions then in the press 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAJITORE MISSION. 257 was steadily running on. The arrears fell, therefore, little sliort of 9000/. About this time, it was very judi- ciously determined to appoint a Committee of Transla- tions at Madras and Calcutta ; and the Bible Society in London resolved, that the versions of the New Testament })ublished in connection with Mr. Hey's scheme should be referred for the examination and sanction of that com- mittee, and the expense disbursed on the reception of their report. Apparently nothing could be more fair and reasonable than such an arrangement ; but practically nothing could be more injurious to those who were affected by it. None of the members of the translation committee were acquainted with the languages in which any of the versions at Serampore had been made, and were therefore constrained to seek the aid of some Euro- ])ean friend residing in the country in which the language was current, or in its neighbourhood ; and he in his turn was obliged to refer the examination to some native. The first volumes submitted for approval were the Assamese and Mooltanee Testaments. Neither of these provinces was then under British rule, and no European was known to have resided in them. The Assamese version was sent for examination to Major Latter, at Titaliya ; and he transferred the duty to another European, who hap- ))ened to be in communication with the vakeel, or minister of the Raja of Assam, who had a learned brahmin in his suite. Both the vakeel and the pundit pronounced a flivourable opinion of it, but the extreme inconvenience of this process was severely felt. In the letter addressed on this subject to the Bible Society in London, the mis- sionaries state that under this rule the translation must be referred to heathen men, totally ignorant of the doctrine or the phraseology of scripture. A faithful translation must differ widely from a florid Oriental tale ; it must adhere rigidly to the original, of which the native knew nothing, and it would appear to him stiff and incompre- hensible in proportion to its fidelity. Such, moreover, VOL. IL S 258 HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. [CiiAr. XIV. was the want of independence in the national character, that a learned native would be sure to shape his report according to what he conceived to be the wishes of his patron, and witlioiit the greatest circumspection the very mode of questioning him regarding a version might ensure its condemnation. They remarked, that sucli a course of examination would have been unobjectionable before the version was put to press, but to institute it after it had been printed off was to expose those who had been encouraged to undertake the work, unconditionally, to the risk of serious loss. Tliey were likewise placed in a very in- vidious position by the erroneous views entertained on the subject by the Bible Committee. Major Latter, on transmitting the favourable report respecting the Assamese version, stated that the missionaries *' were fully entitled to the remuneration offered by the Bible Society," and Mr. Thomason, on handing over to them the bill on London for 500/., said *'the money had been richly earned." It appeared therefore that the sum contributed to the expense of carrying the version tln*ough the press was considered in the light of a personal recompense. " We recoil," they say in their letter to the parent society, *' from the idea of being remunerated for our labour in translation, and would not ask for the expense incurred in printing if we were able to contribute it ourselves." Dr. Carey and his colleagues were thus reduced to a state of embarrassment, which threatened them with dis- honour and depressed their spirits. In the brrTs'smenTat coursc of thc prcccdiug three years, the erection of the college buildings had taxed their resources to the extent of fifteen thousand pounds, and they had the expense of ten missionary stations on their funds. To tliese severe burdens was now added the responsibility contracted in connection with the transla- tions. Mr. Ward's mind was filled with the most gloomy forebodings. "We have," he writes, "dismissed some of the pundits, and put off some editions of the Bible. Dr. 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 259 Carey is alarmed. I do not see how we can go on wliile we have an obh'gation of ten thousand pounds on tlie translations hanging like a millstone round our necks, and dragging us down to disgrace and ruin. We cannot get on with anything for want of funds, and we are too heavily in debt to be able to borrow. I hope we shall succeed with the Bible Society; this is our only hope." Dr. Marshman, with his usual elasticity of mind, took a more cheerful view of their position. " Our pecuniary difficulties," he writes, " are not greater than we antici- pated, rather less. Amidst it all, I am sure we shall be brought through. . . . My only wish is to find out in all things what is that line of conduct and that frame ot spirit which will please Him. As for pleasing men that is a secondary consideration. It is far easier to please God than to please even good men at all times ; at one time their pride is hurt ; at another, their imagined in- terest. Indeed, if you walk faster in the road of benevo- lence than they do, this will not please them. If they do not go so fast you leave them behind, and they are then offended ; and, unless stirred up to mend their pace, they will either try to stop you, or give your progress an evil name, or say that it is no progress at all." It was vain, however, to attempt to disguise the fact, that their pecuniary position at this time was one of alarming em- barrassment. They had overtasked their strength in the prosecution of their labours. As new prospects of useful- ness were unfolded, they hastened to take advantage of them, without any rigorous attention to the dictates of pru- dence. They may be said to have reached the zenith of their exertions at this period. From this time forward their efforts were limited to the object of maintaining the ground they already occupied. They still conti- nued to pursue their labours with unabated ardour, but with diminished power. The keenest distress which these pecuniary difficulties inflicted on them arose from the necessity of placing a restraint on their labours. It was s 2 260 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. in the midst of this depression, that tliey were requested by Mr. David Scott, the judge of Rungpore, to send a missionary to civilise the Garrows, a wild tribe on the eastern frontier of Bengal ; but the state of their funds obliged them to decline the proposal. '* Mr. Scott," writes Mr. Ward, " has written another letter of twelve pages on the subject of the Garrows. It is a fine opening, but we are too poor." Mr. Mack, on his arrival at Serampore, entered upon his duties in the scientific department of the college, and undertook the general superintendence of the Jlr. Mack's , „-ii i p i 11 labours-Ben- classcs. i hc uumbcrot students at the close galee map. - of the present year was fifty, of whom fifteen were in the preparatory class, and thirty-five engaged in the higher studies of the college. While Mr. Mack was em- ployed in giving secular instruction, Mr. Ward undertook the charge of the theological department ; and they la- boured together with the greatest harmony and assiduity. One of the most pressing wants of the college was that of maps in the native language, and there appeared to be no means of supplying it in India. Lithography was im- known in Calcutta, and there was no native at the time skilled in the art of copper-plate engraving. It was necessary therefore that the maps should be executed in England, and the missionaries resolved to begin with the map of India. The names of more than a thousand towns and rivers were printed in alphabetical order in English, with the Bengalee equivalent side by side. The work was sent to Mr. Walker, the eminent artist in London, who, with this imperfect assistance, compiled and engraved the first map which had ever been executed in any native language, and which was very appropriately inscribed to Lord Hastings. Mr. Mack was also encouraged to give a course of chemical lectures in Calcutta by the gentle- men wlio were attached to the science; and Lord Hastings, on the last occasion of presiding at the meetings of the Asiatic Society, proposed that its rooms should be placed 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 261 at his disposal. The attendance, which varied from eighty to a hundred, was greater than could have been expected in a connnunity very slenderly imbued with scientific tastes. Among the attendants were ten native gentlemen. The series of lectures produced about 105/., which Mr. Mack generously made over to the mission funds. The pecuniary difficulties at Serampore were found to cripple the operations of the college and impede its pro- gress; and, at the instance of Mr. Ward, it was determined to cro up to government for assist- aid^'covrm/ ment. ance. The Serampore missionaries, equally with the most scrupulous dissenters, repudiated all state support, either for religion or missions. They especially deprecated any interference of government in favour of missions -, they held, that it would be injurious to the pro- gress of Christian truth for government to be seen in tlie enterprise, even as an auxiliary; and that the influence of the state w^ould create hypocrites, and not converts. They desired that the missionary should appear before the people simply as the messenger of divine truth, without any secular inducements ; but, at the same time, they considered it the duty of government to employ the public resources in the promotion of education, and the duty of missionaries to avail themselves of this assistance. Tliey were entire strangers to the doctrine newly introduced of proscribing all such support as incompatible with the prin- ciples of dissent. Dr. Marsh man accordingly waited on their oft tried friend Mr. Butterworth Bayley, the public secretary, to solicit his advice on the subject. He said, that although government had made a valuable grant of land to Bishop's College, it had recently declined to afford any direct aid from the public funds on the ground that it was exclusively a theological institution. Under the existing law no Christian pleader was permitted to practise in the courts — the restriction has long since been abrogated — and it would therefore be of little avail to attempt to institute a law class in the college j but a pro- s 3 2G2 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOllE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. posal to establish a medical department would be favourably received by government. A communication was there- fore addressed to the Governor-General, who gave it his cordial su[)port in the council, and a reply was received within four days, stating that government considered the establishment of a European medical professor in Seram- pore College, with the view of affording instruction to natives in that science, likely to produce beneficial results. On the nomination, therefore, of a professor, with satis- factory evidence of his qualifications, the Governor-General would take the application for pecuniary assistance into his favourable consideration. The reply was encouraging, but the missionaries had not forgotten the advice of Mr. Charles Grant, not to build too surely on the liberal tendencies of the existing government, which were apparently dependent on the personal character of one individual. Lord Hastings was about to retire from India, and a less liberal successor might explain away the promise. They determined, there- fore, to keep the plan of the medical department in reserve. The schools which had been established by Lord Hastings in Ilajpootana had not answered his expecta- tions. It would have been a miracle if any Kajpootana ^"' riul^l'onoftiT" great desire for knowledge had sprung up in ^'"'^^ three or four years, among a people accustomed for generations to unrestrained rapine. When the novelty of the thing wore off, the attendance in the schools began to flag. Mr. Jabez Carey, having no school books in the language of the province, inquired of the parents whether they felt any repugnance to the use of the Gospels, an edition of which had been printed at Serampore ; they replied that they felt no objection whatever, and the Gospels were therefore used for a reading exercise. But some of the old Indians at the station represented to Lord Hastincs, that the small attendance at the school was to be ascribed to the reading of the Scriptures, which had led to the dissemination of a report that the children 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOIiE MISSION. 2G3 were to be sent away to Calcutta after tliey had been sufficiently indoctrinated in Christianity. It was under the influence of these impressions that Lord Hastings addressed the following letter to Dr. Carey. '*Some information from Rajpootana makes it neces- sary for me to request that you will write to your son a)id explain to hini his having impeded his progress in a manner of which he is not aware. Mr. Carey has ])ut into the hands of his scholars some translations of the Gospels. A deficiency of other books has, doubtless, been the cause of his taking this premature step, which he has at the same time reconciled to himself by the pre- caution of first asking the parents if they had any objec- tion. The parents did not manifest any disapprobation. But it is not on them, who would probably submit to the compromise rather than interrupt the education of their children, that the circumstance operates unfavourably for our views. It is from desiring persons on the spot to ascertain for me why so few boys seek the proffered in- struction that I have learned the particulars. Many of the natives of hiiz:her rank are active in discouraaino; families from sending their children to the school. They indicate those translations of the Gospels, which the scholars are taught to read, as evincing a design of bringing up the children to be Christians, with a view to sending them off to Calcutta, when they shall have attained a certain age. Absurd as this is, it has had serious in- fluence in preventing children from attending the schools. I must beg you to put Mr. Carey on his guard ; but that he may have no difiiculty, I will take care that he shall be supplied v»'ith a cargo of the pamphlets published by the School Book Society." This little incident will serve to exhibit the difficulty which the cause of education has to encounter in India ; more especially when in direct association with the state. There can be little doubt, that if the reading of the Scriptures had been persevered in at Ajmere, the alarm s 4 264 HISTORY OF THE SERAJNIPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. would have died out never to be revived, when it was ])crceived that no attempt was made to transport the children to Calcutta. An ignorant people will always be exposed to groundless panics, but it is questionable whether a timid concession is the surest mode of re- moving them ; it may, indeed, be the means of confirming them. When the natives at Ajmere saw the Scriptures withdrawn, they naturally concluded that their appre- hensions had been substantial, and their mistrust was only increased thereby. If the Gospels had been con- tinued in the schools, with suitable explanations, time would have restored confidence ; but an opposite course rendered the introduction of the Christian Scriptures at any future time the more difficult. If a portion of the Bible had been read daily in the schools when govern- ment first entered on the work of education in India, leaving it to the pupils to attend the lecture or not, the native objections which are now raised would never have been heard of. But after the Bible had been prohibited, on the ground that the reading of a chapter of it in the state schools was incompatible with the liberty of con- science guaranteed to the natives, it became difficult to introduce it at any subsequent period without raising the suspicion that this freedom was about to be abrogated. It is not to be supposed that the anomaly of a Christian government proscribing the perusal of its own Bible in its own schools will always continue, any more than that the Hindoos will always continue to deify cows and to worship monkeys ; but the course which has been pursued will be found to have increased indefinitely the difficulty of returning to the right path. In reference to the Ajmere schools, it must be observed, that as the use of the Gospels was not the cause of non-attendance, the at- tendance was not improved by their exclusion. The year 1822 was a season of mortality, such as had not been witnessed in Calcutta and its neighbourhood for more than half a century. The cholera, which 1822.] IIISTOIIY OF THE SEllAMPORE MISSION. 265 first made its appearance in Jessore, and on tlie banks of the Cliumbul in 1817, was now reckoned among the permanent diseases of the country. The Mortality on 822. superstitious natives regarded it as a new in- chamVerbj^^^^^^ carnation of the goddess of destruction, and in- Mr^''.(a4,'ti'e o ^ ' Uisliop, and tlie stituted a special form of religious service to Archdeacon. })ropitiate it. To the ravages of this mysterious disease was added, in the present year, a more fatal type of the fever which generally prevailed towards the close of the rains. The obituary of the year was the heaviest on record. At the beginning of it, intelligence was received of the death of Mr. Chamberlain at sea. His health, which for more than sixteen years had withstood the eH'ects of the climate, and even of his own reckless ex- posure to it in his missionary journeys, at length gave way, and his stalwart figure was reduced to a skeleton. After repeated visits to the Sandheads, in a pilot vessel, without any permanent benefit, his medical advisers ordered him to proceed on a voyage to England. With the view of saving the funds of the society, lie insisted on leaving his wife and daughter in India, and embarked alone. But about three weeks after he had been at sea, he was one morning found dead in his cot ; he had ex- ])ired during the night without the affectionate attendance of any member of his family. The roughness of his temper rendered it impossible for him to act in conjunc- tion with others, but he was a host in himself. Preaching to the heathen was with him a passion, which he indulged without the smallest regard to his own health or con- venience. He had often been known to pass four or five hours on a stretch under the shade of a tree in religious discussions with the natives. He was one of the most zealous and devoted missionaries who ever traversed the plains of Bengal. Krishnu-pall, the first native baptized l)y tlie missionaries at Serampore, was struck down by cholera. He appears to have been about thirty-six years of age w^hen he embraced Christianity; and for more 266 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. than twenty years adorned his profession by his exem- plary conduct. After his baptism, he appHed diligently to the cultivation of his own language, which he learned to write with great fluency and vigour. The tracts he compiled were read with eagerness by his fellow country- men, and several of his hymns were held in deserved estimation by his fellow Christians. One of them, ge- nerally known as Krishnu's hymn, was clothed in an English dress by Dr. Marshman, and is not unworthy of the place it still occupies in our devotional services in England. On the 8th of July, the learned Bishop of Calcutta, Dr. Middleton, was carried off by fever. The archdeacon took charge of the see, in accordance with the act of parliament, but in less than two months he also was carried to his grave. Among the latest victims of the season, was Mr. Felix Carey, whose return to Serampore in 1 818 has been already noticed. For four years previous to his death, which took place at the early age of thirty- six, he was employed in revising the translations of the Scriptures in conjunction with his father, for which he was eminently fitted by his profoimd knowledge of eastern philology. He was, unquestionably, the most complete Bengalee scholar among the Europeans of his day; but his style wanted simplicity, and the unrestrained admix- ture of Sanscrit words made his translations difficult of comprehension to ordinary readers. In addition to his biblical labours, he was led into many engagements con- nected with the improvement of the country. He pro- jected the publication of an encyclopaedia in Bengalee, and completed the treatise on anatomy. He translated and published in that language, an abridgement of Gold- smith's ** History of England," of the "Pilgrim's Progress," and of a manual of chemistry compiled by Mr. Mack. He had four other works in the press when his life was prematurely cut short. A few days after his death. Dr. Carey was likewise attacked with fever, which, in such a season of mortality, created the deepest anxiety. " We 1822.] IIISTOllY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 267 trembled,'* writes Mr. Ward, " for the result. His death would have sto))))ed our steam engine, and emptied the ))rinting office ; " but his valuable life was spared, and he was enabled to resume his im})ortant labours. In tlie course of eight months the number of deatlis in tiie mis- sionary circle alone amounted to twenty, and a general gloom pervaded all ranks of society. " We are sur- rounded," again writes Mr. Ward, "with the groans of the dying and the lamentations of the bereaved; every day presents new victims. Such a season has never been known. We appear like prisoners listening for the foot- steps of the sheriff, and the turning of the key of our cell." At the beginning of 18^22, Mr. Marshman embarked for England, and towards the close of it was invited to meet the committee, as the representative of the kierampore missionaries. He round the al'd^'ona-riMlc"'^' leading members more flivourably disposed m'tteofuie'so- towards Serampore than he had any reason to "'"^' expect from their previous correspondence and proceed- ings. Mr. Gutteridge, who took the lead in all their deliberations, was friendly both in public and in private ; but he still maintained, with all the tenacity of a funda- mental principle, that all missionary agencies must labour ill the strictest subordination to the will of the parent institution. The Serampore missionaries were equally inflexible in the maintenance of their independence, and the majority of the committee considered it idle to con- tinue a hopeless contest. The conferences between the committee and Mr. Marshman were therefore conducted in a spirit of concord approaching to cordiality. It was mutually agreed, that the periodical reports of the Seram- pore Mission should appear in a distinct form, but under the auspices of the society. The independence of the missionaries was distinctly acknowledged under the signa- ture of the two secretaries. The bonds of union between the society and Serampore were thus defined : that the missionaries should be affiliated to the society from whom 268 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XIV. they sprang ; that there should be an active and affec- tionate correspondence between the two parties, and an unreserved communication of suggestions for the pro- motion of the missionary cause ; that the collections for the institutions at Serampore should be confided to the committee and its auxiliaries; and that the society should embody in its annual report the proceedings at Serampore, in order that all the missionary exertions connected with the denomination might be presented to the public in a comprehensive form. In reference to the question of the premises, it was settled " that the freehold property at Serampore should be vested in the society, and ultimately revert to them for the purposes of the mission, in the event of those purposes ceasing to be carried into exe- cution by the missionaries for the time being at Seram- pore." It was also agreed that the society should not interfere in the appointment of successors to the mis- sionary union at Serampore ; while it was understood at the same time, that the missionaries *' should frame their plan for securing the establishment there to the great object for which it was instituted, so as to avail themselves of the aid, co-operation, and interference of the society at home, if necessary." This agreement was entered into ** for the purpose of removing every ground of misunder- standing between the Baptist Missionary Society and the Serampore missionaries, and of defining the nature of the future connection between them, so as to perpetuate harmony and good-will." It was hailed by all the friends of the mission in the denomination as a most satisfactory settlement of difficulties. But there was one man to whom it gave little delight, and his undisguised displeasure was ominous of future mischief The Secretary, Mr. Dyer, in communicating the fact of this pacification to Mr. Ward, instead of congratulating him on the event, indulged in the ungracious remark : " I fear you will now have proof that the committee have been right in their apprehensions of the judgment that would be formed by 1822.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 260 tlie Christian public of the measures you have been pursuing." Lord Hastings was now about to quit the government of India, after having administered it since October, 1813. Before his departure, he signified his intention to pay a farewell visit to the estabhsh- tei-'of'Lora ualu mentat kierampore ; but the multiplicily or his tration _ Native ^■l ' . . address. eng:ao:ements in the last week of his residence prevented the accomplishment of his wish. Lady Hastings, therefore, came over alone, and passed two hours in visiting the schools, the printing-office, the foundry, the translation room, and the college ; and ex- pressed her own and Lord Hastings' esteem for the labours which had been so assiduously and so successfully prosecuted. The administration of Lord Hastings forms one of the great land-marks in the progress of British India. It was the period at which the old policy, which regarded the spread of knowledge fatal to our rule, ex- pired, and the new policy of educating the people, at all hazards, commenced. Before his time no effort had been made by government to give instruction to the natives, except in the doctrines of the Koran and the Shaster. It was he who adopted a new course of action, and first gave the patronage of the state to sound and liberal education. He encouraged schools at Chinsurah, and in and around Serampore and in Rajpootana; he afforded assistance to Bishop's College and Serampore College, and supported the Calcutta School-book and School Societies. He placed himself at the head of a new movement, and gave a new impulse to society, European and native. The progress exhibited in succeeding ad- ministrations has been built on the foundation which he laid. In a review of his administration in the " Quarterly Friend of India," Dr. Marshman remarked: — " We see around us a system of illumination, formed and in full operation, aided by the presence and the ex- ertions of the very natives whose powerful influence we 270 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. feared would have been fatal to our plans ; thousands and thousands of youths and children crowding to our schools, and taught by their own countrymen ; native presses in operation ; even female schools succeeding beyond all calculation, and the prejudices against them subsiding in the most extraordinary manner ; books rapidly circulating, colleges erected, and students preparing to spread science throughout these countries. Thus, then, the grand ex- periment has been tried and has succeeded ; and his lord- ship returns to his native country as the most unexception- able of all witnesses, that the amelioration of the mental condition of our Indian fellow subjects is perfectly safe, and by no means an object beyond our reach. And he returns too with the sublime satisfaction in his own mind, that the light which he has kindled will shine till all eastern Asia shall partake of its effulgence, and shall co- operate with the sons of Europe in carrying mental and moral cultivation to the utmost of that perfection of which man in his present state is capable." Lord Hastings left the Indian empire larger than he found it. In his place in parliament he had re])robated the wars and annexations of Lord Wellesley ; but when himself placed in the chief seat of authority in India, he was drawn into wars on a larger scale, and made larger additions to the em})ire, which attained greater consolida- tion under his auspices than had ever been known before. Lord Clive, the first to establish our authority in India, fixed the Curumnassa as tiie boundary of our dominion, and denounced the folly of any Governor-General who should dream of extending it beyond that river. Forty years later the Court of Directors gave their reluctant consent to the policy of extending it to the Jumna, aban- doning the influence we had acquired beyond that river. Seventeen'years after, Lord Hastings declared that in future the Indus must be considered the terminus of the empire, and the home government was constrained, from the neces- sity of circumstances, to acquiesce in the decision. Twenty- 1823.] TirSTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 271 six years passed over, and then even the Indus ceased to be our frontier, and a British cantonment was estabhshed at Peshavvur, and the electric telegraj^h connected it with Calcutta. Thus the British empire in India has been successively expanded during the last hundred years by some law of progression inherent in our position, which has baffled alike the determination of Courts of Directors and ministers of state, and even the omnipotent resolutions of parliament. Many valedictory addresses were presented to Lord Hastings from the various sections of a community over which he had presided for nine years with wisdom and liberality. The most remarkable of them was that of the native gentry of Calcutta. On all previous occasions they had been satisfied to associate themselves with their European fellow-townsmen ; but they now resolved to hold a meeting of their own, and it was found that their social habits, which had been described as immutable, could be readily accommodated to the progress of circum- stances. They adopted the model of English meetings, no- minated a chairman, secretary, and committee, and moved, seconded, and passed resolutions with all the regularity of an assembly at the London Tavern. It is a pleasing fact, that the hrst occasion of a public meeting of natives in accordance with English precedent was to express their gratitude to one whom they deemed a public benefactor. Lord Hastings received the address seated under the canopy of state, surrounded by the chief officers of govern- ment, and all the pomp of the vice-regal office. A stout old Baboo came forward and read it in English, Ben- galee, and Persian. The Governor-General then read his reply in English ; Mr. Thoby Prinsep translated it aloud in Persian, and the assembly broke up. This meeting was memorable, not only as the first of its kind, and the introduction of a new system of organisation in native society ; but also from the exhibition it presented of the characteristics of Hindooism. For four years the Seram- pore missionaries had incessantly denounced the practice 272 HISTOrvY OF the SERAMPORE mission. [Chap. XIV. of suttees in their various publications, and called on government to abolish it. At this meeting, which was composed of rigidly orthodox Hindoos, a proposition was brought forward to offer thanks to Lord Hastings in the address for having continued to permit the burning of widows. It was earnestly opposed by two native gentle- men, Ram-komul-sen and Russomoy dutt, who reprobated the practice in no measured terms, and stigmatised it as a disgrace to the national character ; but they found them- selves in a minority. Their vigorous remonstrances, however, were not without effect, and the meeting agreed to a compromise, and was content to thank the Governor- General in general terms for *' having tolerated their religious rites." Ram-komul-sen had raised himself by his great talents and industry from the condition of a printer's boy to a position of great opulence and influence, and his memory is held in deserved respect for the great work, — a dictionary, English andBengalee, of a thousand quarto pages — which he bequeathed to Oriental scholars, Russomoy- dutt rose to great eminence in the public service, and was eventually placed on the bench of the small cause court in Calcutta — corresponding with the county courts in England — where, with a judicial gown and bands over his native costume, he administered justice for many years to the perfect satisfaction of the community, both European and native. Mr. Canning was nominated to succeed Lord Hastings ; and the Europeans throughout Lidia congratulated them- „ r, selves on tiie pros})ect of havino- so illustrious a Mr. Canning — 11 o MUslonSdlpiT statesman to govern them. A missionary de- putation waited on him when his appointment was known ; but he told them with much decision, that he determined to reserve himself for all questions of civilisa- tion and evangelisation till he was on the spot. The unexpected death of Lord Londonderry deprived Lidia of the services of Mr. Canning, and Lord Amherst, who had acquired political reputation by his embassy to Pekin, was 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 273 appointed to the office of Governor-General. A deputa- tion from the Baptist Missionary Society waited on him to bespeak his favourable consideration of the mission ; but he was unwilling to pledge himself to any particular views on the subject, though he left an impression on their minds that he would not be unfriendly to the missionary under- taking. The deputation was perhaps more officious than necessary. The time had happily passed away when it was important to propitiate the statesman proceeding to govern India in favour of missions. When Mr. Fuller addressed Lord Minto and Lord Moira on the subject of the Serampore mission, the Governor-General of India was absolute, and could extinguish missions by a stroke of his pen. But the Act of 1813 had given all missionaries a legal position in India, and placed them under the safeguard of public opinion in England. The indivi- dual opinion of a Governor-General on the subject of the missionary enterprise had therefore ceased to be of any importance. The Court of Directors had, for four years, been de- ploring the licentiousness of the Indian press since the removal of the censorship, and were impatient rr-ii 11 I , • • Court of Di- to reunpose it. I hev had sou^rht permission rectors andthe 1 ^ ./ CJ 1 press ill India. of Mr. Canning, then President of the Board of Control, to send out orders to India to that effect, but he had not condescended to reply to their letter. They now took advantage of the occasion of Lord Amherst's appointment to renew their solicitations on the subject. They sent a communication to Cannon Row, equal in size to a volume, in which they traced the history of the periodical press in India, from the time of its first esta- blishment, and enumerated all the transgressions of whicli it had been guilty. They stated tliat the late Governor- General had issued a code of instructions for the guidance of editors, which were constantly violated, and had refused to visit these transgressions with the only penalty, that of deportation, which it was in his power to inflict. The VOL. II. T 274 HISTOKY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. settlement of Calcutta was consequently agitated, and the government embarrassed. They therefore requested leave to apply to parliament for additional powers to check these abuses. Mr. Wynne, who presided at the Board, informed them that his Majesty's ministers, though deeply sensible of the weight and importance of the considerations which the Court had pressed on their attention, did not think it advisable to submit to parliament the measure they had proposed. But the object of the Court was im- mediately after attained, without the leave either of pre- sident or parliament. On the retirement of Lord Hastings, Mr. Adam, the senior member of the Council, succeeded, ad interim^ to the office of Governor-General. He was vvith- tingi^h'e'^ thV out question the ablest of the public function- lilierty ol the . ^. ^ ,. . Press -Ml. arics m India; in every respect a c;reat states- Buckingham. ' . . . man : and thirty years of official experience ni situations of great responsibility had fully qualified him for the eminent post to which he had been incidentally raised. He belonged, however, to the old school of Indian politicians, and had uniformly opposed the liberal views of Lord Hastings regarding the press. He con- sidered a free press incompatible with the institutions of a despotic government like that of India, and his objec- tions to it were based, not on personal irritation, but on conscientious principle. He was considered the head of a large and powerful conservative party, the members of which detested, perhaps from inferior motives, the liberty, or, as they termed it, the licentiousness of the press, and only waited for an opportunity to crush it. The leader of the periodical press in Calcutta at the time was Mr. James Silk Buckingham, who has attained a memorable place in the history of India from the persecution to M'hich he was subjected. He arrived in Calcutta with a license in 1818, and established the " Calcutta Journal," which speedily eclipsed its puny rivals, and gave a cha- racter and influence to Indian journalism it had never attained before. He w^as abetted and stimulated by a 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 275 knot of young men, chiefly in the public service, of ardent temperament and brilliant talents, who used his columns to ridicule the follies and imbecilities of various officers of go- vernment. Before the appearance of the *' Journal," public men and public measures had been sacred from criticism. Official personages, who had hitherto considered themselves answerable only to their own lenient masters in Leaden- hall Street, who had been nursed in the lap of adulation and spoilt by the enjoyment of absolute power, could ill brook this rude exposure, and a feeling of intense irritation was created in their minds. Numerous representations had been made to Lord Hastings in this matter ; but though he expressed his strong disapprobation of the vio- lence of the "Journal," and remonstrated with Mr. Buck- ingham on two occasions in private letters, he refused to adopt the ultima ratio of deportation. A paper was moreover started in Calcutta, by the official and conser- vative party, called the "John Bull," and it retorted on the "Journal" in language equally virulent and unscru- pulous. The spirit of party raged in Calcutta as furiously as it had ever raged in England at any period of excite- ment during the reign of George the Third. The secretaries to government had taken to wear an official green coat, and the "Journal " ridiculed them as the gan- grene of the state. For this and other transgressions Mr. Buckingham was prosecuted by the conservative party in the Supreme Court, and acquitted ; which only served to increase the irritation. At length Lord Has- tings quitted the government ; the enemies of Mr. Buck- ingham became lords of the ascendant, and it was resolved to bring him to account for the offences and provocations of the preceding four years. He saw the sky lowering and the storm approaching, but he had not the prudence to take in sail till it had passed over. Li the beginning of February, the Presbyterian chaplain in Calcutta, who was understood to be connected with the party then in power, was appointed clerk to the Committee of Stationery, T 2 276 HISTORY OF THE SERAIMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. and on the eighth of that month an article appeared in the " Calcutta Journal " ridiculing the anomaly of giving such an office to a minister of the gospel, who might thus be employed in counting sticks of sealing-wax and mea- suring yards of tape when he ought to be in his study coiijposing his sermon. Such pleasantries are innocuous in a healthy state of society, but when it is in a state of inflammation every little puncture is apt to fester. Mr. Buckingham's license was immediately revoked, and he was banished from India and ruined. The " Journal " was then entrusted to a gentleman born in India, whom the government could not order out of the country. To meet this contrivance, it was determined at once to abolish the liberty of tiie press. A rule and ordinance was accordingly passed, enactinf]^ that no person Ntw Press Law. iii. Ti •• should prmt any newspaper or book contammg public news, or information, or strictures on the pro- ceedings of government, without a license ; that this license was liable to be revoked ; and that if any newspaper or work should be printed either without a license, or after its recal, any tw^o justices of the peace might inflict a penalty of 40/. for each offence. This ordinance required to be registered in the Supreme Court before it could be enforced in Calcutta. Notwithstanding the remonstrances of the European community, the chief justice ordered it to be registered, upon the ground that the government of India and a free press were incompatible with each other, and could not co-exist. A corresponding Regulation was passed for the Company's territories beyond the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, of a more stringent character. The penalty was augmented to 100/., and the magistrate was at liberty to seize and conh'scate the printing presses, types, and material. On the day on which the act was promulgated, rules were published for the guidance of editors ; in which it was notified that the publication of any observations on the measures or orders of the public authorities in England connected with the government of 1823.] IIISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 277 India, or on the measures and orders of the Indian go- vernments, impugning their motives or designs, or in any way intended to bring them into hatred or contempt, or to weaken their authority, would subject the editors to the loss of their Hcense. Thus was the freedom of dis- cussion extinguished in India, and by a measure equally cruel and unjust. When Lord Wellesley considered it necessary to place the press of India under restrictions he subjected it to the control of a censor. However odious a censorship might be, it was decidedly more fair and equit- able than the licensing system adopted by Mr. Adam. It fettered the editor, but it saved him from ruin, since he was free to publish whatever the censor had spared. Under the law of Mr. Adam, it was impossible for any editor to divine what remarks on the measures of govern- ment might be construed as evincing an intention to " weaken its authority." The editor was placed at the mercy of the secretary or his deputy, and if they were ever visited with a fit of indigestion, it might be fatal to his paper. Whenever the government of India, under the pressure of any public exigency, which in Rome would have led to the creation of a dictator, and in England to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, deems it indis- pensable to restrain the press, the only equitable and honest mode of carrying this harsh measure into effect is to establish a censorship. It gives government the oppor- tunity of preventing the publication of whatever may seem detrimental to the public interests, and it ensures, at least, safety to the editor. The course pursued in 1823 was the tyranny of despotism. The Serampore missionaries found themselves placed in a very unpleasant predicament by these restrictions on the press. They had established a native newspaper, and a monthly and quarterly journal, in which they advocated the progress of improvement, in op- position to some of the most venerable prejudices of the old school of politicians, which was now in power. These w^orks, though published in a foreign settlement, were T 3 278 HISTORY OF THE SERAIMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. circulated in the British dominions ; and tlie tenth section of the Act gave puhlic officers the power of prohibiting the circulation of any book or newspaper within the Com- pany's territories, whether printed at Calcutta or else- where. Dr. Marshman took counsel of Mr. Butterworth Bayley, who advised him not to take out a license, or to lodge a copy of the Serampore publications at the secre- tary's office, but to consider themselves in a foreign colony ; adding, that government had such confidence in their pru- dence as not to desire them to make any alteration in their proceedings. After his return from England, Mr. Ward was enabled to resume his labours in the mission and in the college, with all the energy of improved health ; but De;ith and cha- ^ • n • i r • n ^ • war'd"'^^'' after a brief period of exertion of only sixteen months' duration, his life was suddenly termi- nated by ciiolera. On Wednesday, the 5th of March, he preached the evening lecture, apparently in excellent liealth and spirits. The next morning he joined his brethren at their weekly breakfast, though suffering from what he considered a simple diarrhoea, which he attributed to a cold caught during the night. After breakfast, he proceeded as usual to his labours, and began a letter to the Rotterdam Bible Society. At noon he was obliged to leave the letter unfinished, and retire to his room, which he never left. At three in the afternoon he was seized with cramps ; and it then became evident that the disease from which he was suffering was cholera of a virulent type. Two medical gentlemen were immediately called in, and, under their treatment, the dangerous symptoms appeared to abate. His friends never left his couch the whole of that night. He was placed in a warm bath, and fell into a sound sleep, which gave hopes of his recovery, and induced Dr. Carey to go down to his collegiate duties at Calcutta ; but at eleven in the forenoon of Friday, his pulse began to sink, and at five in the afternoon he was a corpse. The scene of distress was heart-rending. The 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 279 three old men had lived and laboured together for twenty- three years, as if one soul animated them, and it was difficult to realise the fact that one of them was gone. Dr. Marshman had been afflicted for some days with deafness, which the present distress served to aggravate ; and for a time he was altogether deprived of the power of hearing. He paced the room in silent dismay, watching, with intense anguish, the gradual dissolution of his beloved colleague, yet unable to receive any communication. Thus, at the age of fifty- three, died the first of the men at Serampore. It would be difficult to cite another example of so firm and uninterrupted a union of three men for so long a period. That union was created by the magnitude of the object in which they were engaged, and by that elevation of views which it imparted, and was strengthened by the difficulties they had to encounter. They seemed as if they had been born to act together, and every attempt which was made to separate them only served to increase the strength of their union. With no small difference of opinion on many points, and much diversity of temper, there never was any discord among them, or any diminu- tion of mutual confidence. Mr. Ward was particularly distinguished by an amiable and affectionate disposition. He had neither the ardour and elasticity of Dr. Marsh- man, nor the dogged perseverance of Dr. Carey; but he possessed great aptitude for business, great clearness of perception, and untiring industry. He surpassed his col- leagues in a knowledge of the character and habits of the natives, and few Europeans have ever been so successful in managing them. He spoke Bengalee with the fluency and ease of a native, and was thus enabled to acquire a powerful influence over the people. He commanded the attention of a native audience by the flow of his language, and his apt allusion to their habits, feelings, and allegories. In his person, Mr. Ward was of middle stature, his counte- nance was finely formed, with bright hazel eyes, a Roman nose, a broad expanse of forehead, and a bald head. He T 4 280 HISTORY OF THE SERAIMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. left no son, but two daughters ; the eldest married to Captain Ward of the 65th regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, who died soon after his gallantry in the Sutlej campaigns had secured him an independent command; the youngest married to Mr. Nichols, for some time the superintendent of the Benares College. Mr. Ward left nothing for the support of his family beyond a little sum. he brought out with him, and the small accumulation of his tenths for five years ; but his widow^ was fully ])ro- vided for by the gratitude of his surviving colleagues. The death of Mr. Ward was the most severe blow which had ever fallen on Dr. Marshman. Ten days before this unexpected calamity he had written Effect of Mr. , . . , ^ . ^ "^ , . Ward's death on to i]is son-in-uiw, ui reiereuce to the approach- Dr. Marshman. _ _ _ I i ing anniversary of his daughter's death : *' You are quite right in your ideas about death. The Redeemer intended to take away the gloom, and when I contemplate one friend dead five years, and another seven years, and reflect on what they have enjoyed since, with an eternity before them, I cannot help thinking this a happy lot. It is only the survivors who die. The pious dead enter into peace and joy unutterable." He was now called to ex- perience the truth of his own remark, that it is survivors who die. For many days, indeed, he was a living death. On the evening of Mr. Ward's decease, he writes to Mr. Williams : " This is to us the most awful and tremendous stroke, and I have no w^ay left but that of looking upward for help." Four days after he writes: "Our dear Mr. W^ard — he preached only last Wednesday night — to him death was unspeakable gain ; these afflictions make me think far less of life than before. I have, indeed, lost the desire to live except for the sake of the Redeemer's cause, and those relatives for whom God has caused us to care. To depart and be with dear friends, Susan (his daughter) and Mr. Ward, and a multitude of others, seems to be far better than to live." A fortnight after, he writes again : ** I feel the loss of Mr. Ward as a counsellor beyond 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE HUSSION. 281 everything. I never did anything, I never published a page, without consulting him." Immediately after Mr. Ward's death, Dr. Carey wrote to Mr. Marshman, then on the continent, to hasten his return. " Divine Providence has been pleased to remove our beloved brother Ward, after an ilhiess of only thirty-six hours: we are left in circumstances of peculiar distress. The buildings of the college have completely drained us, as you well know, of almost the last rupee, and our printing the Scriptures in the languages of India, on the faith of supplies from Britain, in which we have exhausted at the present time more than 80,000 rupees, — 8000 rupees of borrowed money, for all which we are responsible, — has involved us in such a state of debt, as we never knew before, and in which we little expected to be left in our old age, after so many years' exertion for the cause of God in India. These circumstances are now heightened by the sudden removal of our beloved brother, as it was only from our united and strenuous labour for years to come, with the expense of so many missionary stations on us besides our own, that we hoped, under the Divine blessing, to recover from our present state of embarrassment, and save the cause in which we are engaged from ultimate dishonour. In these circumstances, we are constrained to entreat you to return. ... In your returning and uniting your efforts with ours, we humbly hope that, under the Divine blessing, should we be spared to each other for only a few years, we may be able to surmount our present difficulties, and when called home to have the satis- faction of lying down in the grave free from debt and all fear of thereby dishonouring the cause which is dearer to us than life." From this state of embarrassment, the missionaries were relieved by the liberality of the Bible society, and their gratitude to that body was alloyed only by the reflection that Mr. Ward was not alive to share it. The Bible society had voted them 2000/. in 1822, for the general translation fund, information of which was more than usually tardy in reaching India, and on the receipt of the representation sent from Serampore, made an addition of 3000/. to their previous grant. Another sum of 1000/. had likewise been subscribed to the translations in Eno-- o land, and sent to Serampore through the medium of the 282 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XIV. society. These sums reached India soon after the death of Mr. Ward, and served in a great measure to remove that pecuniary anxiety which, combined with tlieir recent bereavement, was beginning to overwhelm their minds. "Thus," writes Dr. Marshman, *'we have in the course of Providence, 6000/. come into our hands in the course of a fortnight, which has enabled us to pay off both the eight per cents, and the six per cents." In reference to the re* quirements of the college, Dr. Carey and his colleague had desired Mr. Marshman to make an effort to raise ad- ditional funds in England towards its permanent support ; but the friends whom he consulted represented that another attempt to increase the endowment fund might not prove successful, and if it succeeded would yield but inadequate relief. They advised that the society should be solicited to appropriate 1000/. a year from the general funds of the mission to the missionary department of the college, upon the principle adopted by the Gospel Propagation Society in reference to Bishop's College. Some of the most influential of the members of the committee in the country considered that a more legitimate or judicious appropriation of missionary funds could scarcely be pro- posed ; and it is to be regretted that, owing to the mistrust regarding that institution which prevailed in the London circle of the society, the proposition was not adopted. It was virtually negatived by a resolution which the com- mittee adopted to defray whatever expenses might be incurred, beyond the interest of the funded property, in the maintenance of pious natives for the Christian ministry, "it being understood that the students so maintained were members of approved Baptist churches." This offer of aid sounded well, but it was of no practical value. The mere maintenance of native students, to which the resolution was understood to be restricted, formed the smallest portion of the expenditure of the class. It did not embrace any provision for their tuition, which required the costly superintendence of a European pro- 18-23.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 283 fessor and well paid native assistants, or for the prepara- tion and printing of the necessary treatises. Before the resolution was known in India, Dr. Marshman thus re- corded in a letter his own judicious remarks on the proposal. " For the native schools, the Benevolent Institution, and even the college in its literary department, we can plead with the Indian public. They are beneficial to the public interests; they are efticiently managed, and managed cheaper than any other in the country ; and as long as this is the case, and India is liberal, they will be supported. Not so with the missionary stations. If we spend 2000rs. a month on them, and the expense is ever growing, we have to bear all this ourselves, unless the religious ])ublic at home will help us. It may be possible, at some future time, to unite the college and the stations, for the college must supply the stations with men, and the stations will render the college efficient. But this, by the bye. I have no objection to a future check on the college, provided it does not swallow us up. I wish it to be ever guarded against Socinianism, and a certain sum annually from the society may prove that check. Let it not, however, be too large. I should prefer half for the college, and half for the stations. More than 5001. a year in addition to our present resources would be too much ; it would almost ruin it. Adam Smith is right in saying that a college fully endowed goes to sleep. A little is good, but too much relaxes all the sinews of exertion in its pro- fessors and its governors. On the other hand, they who give 1000/. would command the college. Of the society I have the best opinion, but I will never trust them with power again. . . . Letters have come in by the ' Royal George ' in four months ! Tiiere are several for dear Mr. Ward. Some of them I see are bitter against him. S , a great man in the committee, has written to him in terms which make me not sorry that he was in heaven before the letter reached Serampore." 284 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XV. CHAP. XV. It has been stated that Mr. Adam, the temporary governor-general, anticipated the intentions of the Court of Directors in subverting the liberty of the First Committee -r>jl j • • i^ J J^^ ' ' ^ 1 of Public press. i>ut he anticipated their wishes also m Instruction. ■•- -. '■ h/tttitit the career or improvement. Mr. Holt Mac- kenzie, the secretary to government, and one of those eminent Indian statesmen whose unassuming labours were visible only in the consolidation of the empire, had drawn up, and submitted to the supreme Council, an able minute on the subject of education, and the improvement of the morals of the people. On the strength of his suggestions Mr. Adam sanctioned the formation of a " Committee of Public Instruction," and placed on it the men of the greatest intellectual vigour and political experience in the public service at the presidency — Mr. Holt Mackenzie, Mr. Butter worth Bay ley, Mr. Henry Shakespear, Mr. Thoby Prinsep, Mr. Andrew Sterling, and Mr. Horace Wilson. They were instructed to consider and suggest to government the measures which it might be expedient to adopt for the " better instruction of the people and the improvement of their morals." A similar proposal had been made by Lord Hastings, four years before, to Mr. Charles Grant ; but he was informed that it was prema- ture, and that any attempt to make the parliamentary grant subsidiary to such objects would probably prove abortive. Mr. Adam boldly took upon himself to adopt this measure ; and without, as it would appear, consulting the wishes of the Court, placed the annual lac of rupees at the disposal of his education committee. The subsidy to the Hindoo and Mahomedan colleges was not to be disturbed, but the remainder of the grant was to be de- 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 285 voted to the promotion of useful knowledge. This was the first organisation of a system of enlightened education under the auspices of government ; it was tlie germ of those establishments for the instruction of the natives which have since been expanded by successive adminis- trations. It was not till seven months after the institution of tiiis committee in Calcutta that the court of Directors sent out their memorable despatch of the 18th of Feb- ruary, 1824<, drafted by the great historian, James Mill, in which it was stated, that " with respect to the sciences it was worse than a waste of time to employ persons to teach or to learn them, in the state in which they were found in the oriental books Our great end should be, not to teach Hindoo learning, but sound learn- ing." This despatch, the ado})tion of which reflected lionour on the Court, has generally been considered as the commencement of a new era in Indian improvement ; but, without detracting from the m.erits of the Directors in agreeing to terminate the folly of their predecessors and of the parliament of 1813, the credit of having taken the lead in applying the parliamentary grant to the diffusion of useful knowledge belongs to Mr. Holt Mac- kenzie and Mr. Adam. This was one of the last acts of Mr. Adam's administra- tion, which, during the brief period of less than seven months, was not less distinguished by other other iibcrai measures of great merit and utility. Lord Adam-iii?"'- Hastings had bequeathed the treasury to him in a state of "overflowing prosperity," and he took advan- tage of this repletion to reduce the rate of the government loans from six to five per cent., thus effecting a saving of 300,000/. a year. A similar measure of finance in our own times has been characterised as a breach of faith with the public creditor, and a blot on our administration. Mr. Adam likewise relieved commerce by reducing the tariff of customs, appropriated the town duties to the construc- tion of public works, and introduced great improvements 286 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XV. into the administration of justice. These measures served to show what might have been expected from his energy, if he had continued to govern the empire. But all these improvements, and his great talents, and his eminent ser- vices have been equally forgotten in the odium created by the arbitrary banishment of Mr. Buckingham, and the persecution of the press, by which alone his administra- tion continues to be remembered, and which did more injury to the government of India and to the India House than even the patronage of Jiigunnath. After he had resigned the sceptre to Lord Amherst, a large public meet- ing was held in Calcutta, to devise the most suitable means of marking the esteem in which he was held for his public and private virtues. It was crowded by the most dis- tinguished men in and out of the service, and Mr. Robert Cutlar FergLisson, the leader of the Calcutta bar, who had been the most active opponent of his press law, was voted into the chair, and stated that Mr. Adam's " public duties had been fulfilled to the admiration of the Indian public in the most excellent, honourable, upright, and un- assuming manner, and that it would be difficult to point out a better man, or one more justly and extensively beloved." Mr. Adam remained in India for many months after quitting the Supreme Council, that he might be enabled to afford advice to his successor, and travelled through the country, receiving the most gratifying tokens of esteem from all parties. He embarked for England in April 18'25, but died, after he had been six weeks at sea, of dysentery, which had long baffled his physicians, at the early age of forty-six. Lord Amherst landed in Calcutta on the 1st of August, 1823. He found the official circle exulting in their Lord Amherst trlumph ovcr Mr. Buckingham, and impatient i'lSers^c^ute"*' to usc thc trcmcudous power of the new press law for the extinction of all freedom of dis- cussion. Unhappily for his own reputation, he fell in with these extreme views, and adopted the violent coun- 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. 287 sels of those who surrounded him. Mr. Arnott, who had been appointed to the editorial charge of the " Calcutta Journal," pubUshed some remarks which gave umbrage to government, and Lord Amherst was persuaded to sanc- tion his banishment from India, a proceeding of which he had occasion to repent before he quitted the govern- ment. Soon after a pamphlet, which had been pub- lished in London, was republished in the "Journal." It was considered objectionable ; the license of the paper w\as revoked, and the proprietors were ruined. In the month of July Dr. Carey's labours were aug- mented by the appointment of translator to government in the Bengalee language, a post for which no pr. carey-s man of the time was better qualified. The andTuerary""" -, , f% 1 1 1 11 • honours. regulations or government, though legally in force from the date of their promulgation in English, had not been translated into Bengalee for more than eighteen months, and upon Dr. Carey devolved the task of bring- ing up the arrears. This labour was rendered the more arduous by the extreme complication of some of the laws comprised in the arrears, more especially the memorable Regulation of 1822 on the settlement of the land revenue ; in which a single sentence covers a page of printed fools- cap, and of which Dr. Carey used to affirm that the first chapter of Ephesians was child's play compared with it. But farther labours were accumulated on him. Mr. Schroeter, a missionary connected with the Church society, had been labouring for some years on the borders of Boo- tan, and had compiled a grammar and dictionary of the language current there. He had received pecuniary assistance from government, who laid claim to his manu- scripts on his death, and requested Dr. Carey to undertake the task of editing them. At the same time he was en- gaged in completing his Bengalee dictionary. Tliese Herculean labours he w^as enabled to accomplish without any strain on his constitution, simply by that methodical distribution of iiis time to which he rigidly adhered Dr. Carey's alarming illness 288 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSIOIf. [Chap. XV. through life. His relaxation consisted in turning from one pursuit to another. He was in the habit of remarking, that more time was lost by desultory and listless applica- tion than even from external interruptions. He made it a rule, therefore, to enter at once with promptitude on the object before him, and to allow nothing to divert his thoughts from it during the time allotted to its perform- ance. In the course of the present year he was elected a fellow of the Linnsean Society, a member of the Geological Society, and a corresponding member of the Horticul- tural Society of London. On the 8th of October Dr. Carey returned from Cal- cutta about midnight, and as he stepped on shore from the boat, his foot slipped, and he found himself unable to rise. The boatmen conveyed him in their arms to his house and laid him on his couch. Medical advice was immediately called in, and it was found that the iiip-joint had been severely injured. During the next two days more than a hundred leeches were applied to reduce the inflammation ; the agony was ex- cruciating, but the prospect of recovery was very favour- able. On the tenth day, however, a violent fever super- vened, accompanied by severe cough and expectoration, and for several days it was expected that every hour would prove his last, and that the same year would deprive the mission of two out of three of its founders. But, under the blessing of Providence, he was brought back from the gates of death, and became at length conva- lescent, though he was unable for six months to walk without the aid of crutches. During his confinement his garden was swamped by a heavy and unprecedented inun- dation, and on his first visit to it, as soon as he could be carried about with safety, a scene of desolation was pre- sented to his view, which it requires the soul of a botanist adequately to feel. Plants which he had collected from all parts of the world and watched with the most tender 1823.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION, 289 care had been swept away as by a debige. Tlie labour of years was annihilated in a single night. The Damoodah, a mountain torrent which durinsc the rains swells ^^ O The groat to the size of" a great river, had this year over- '""'"^a''""- topped the embankments which had been established to confine its waters in one channel, and laid the whole country between it and the Hooghly under water. So disastrous an inundation had not been witnessed for many years. Hundreds of villages were carried away ; the cattle were drowned; and the wretched inhabitants took refuge on elevated mounds, or in trees, or floated down on the thatched roofs of their ruined houses. The stream of water rushed down violently on the town of Serampore, and in twenty-four hours there were five feet of water in its streets. The college buildings, which were elevated above the liighest level of the inundation, afforded shelter to numerous families, who were fed by the contributions of the charitable ; but the garden became a large sheet of water. The inundation occasioned great destruction of property in the town ; but its effect was nowhere so disas- trous as in the mission premises, about which the society had been contending for seven years. Indeed it seemed at one time as if the river would dispose of the question before the committee had done with it. The bank in front of the houses of Dr. Carey and Mr. Ward had been firm for more than twenty years, while that on either side was treacherous, and entailed incessant expenditure. This substantial bank now gave way under the rush of water from the Damoodah ; and in the course of a few days there was a depth of fifty feet of water where the public road had recently stood, while a perpendicular ragged bank was exposed to the abrasion of the river, v>'hich daily encroached on it. The Hindoos maintained, that it was a just retribution of the river goddess for the attacks the missionaries had made on their religion ; and some of the older natives remarked that one of the first places washed aw^ay was the very spot where the first convert VOL. II. u 290 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XV. had been baptised in 1800. Even among Christians there were some so superstitious as to connect the calamity with the unholy strife of which the premises had been the subject. The river was rushing like a torrent within ten feet of Dr. Carey's bedroom, in which two rents had become visible, when he was obliged, though with great reluctance, to hasten from it. He took refuge in one of the suites of apartments allotted to the professors on the college premises, and there he continued to reside till his death. To save the bank, a wall of solid masonry was erected, two hundred feet in length and fifteen in height, and of proportionate thickness ; but it was scarcely finished before it was engulfed in the river, carrying away with it a portion of Dr. Carey's house, the whole of which soon after disappeared. The missionaries, though relieved from immediate em- barrassment by the liberality of the Bible Society, were ^ . , , still straitened by the insufficiency of their re- SociPty s dona- •/ ^ ^ •' BtaHons-Ameri- sourccs. Thcy rcqulrcd assistance not only to can funds. extcnd, but even to sustain their missionary operations. In the course of six years, the society had been able to send only one additional missionary to the continent of India, and the number of their stations was fewer in 1824 than in 1818. There were only seven on their funds, while the number supported by Dr. Carey and his colleagues amounted to ten. The report of the labours at these stations was incorporated with the annual statements of the society, and served to strengthen its claim on public support. The Serampore missionaries determined therefore to apply for aid, in the first instance, to the society, and Mr. Marshman was desired to bring the subject before the committee and ask for a portion of the funds entrusted to them for missionary purposes. The application was considered in March, 1824, and a sum of 1000/. was at once voted. The grant was supported with great cheerfulness and liberality by Mr. Gutteridge, who exercised a preponderating influence, and who 1824.] HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. 291 assured Mr. Marshman that they would have made it annual, but their powers extended only from year to year ; an intimation was, however, given tiiat it would be renewed on a second a))plication. This friendly donation gave particular gratification to Dr. Carey and his colleagues, not only from the immediate relief it afforded to the missionary stations, but as a testimony of the good feeling of the committee, and they began to flatter themselves that their differences were entirely healed. At the same time they were gratified by a spon- taneous token of confidence from their friends in America. Mr. Ward had been constrained, by tlie exigency of cir- cumstances, to leave the contributions he had raised for the college in the hands of trustees. In June of the present year, Mr. Divie Bethune, the most influential of the number, pressed Dr. Carey and Dr. Marshman to authorise them to sell the stock, and remit the proceeds to India, to be invested in public securities under their direction. " The only argument," he said, " which can be used against this course is the slanderous allegations attempted to be propagated here against the intentions of the Seram- pore missionaries, and therefore it was proper to continue the funds here. But that tainted vapour floated but for a moment in the air of this country ; it was soon dispelled by the effulgence of truth. No course that is wisely pursued by them can ever be turned into a ground of impeachment against them." But after a full consideration of the proposal, it did not appear advisable to the mission- aries to transfer the funds to India, and they continued to be held under the original trust deed. Bishop Middleton was succeeded in the see of Calcutta by Dr. Reginald Heber, who had long occupied a distin- guished position in Eno^land. He united the ~ *■ ... Bishop Heber. zeal and piety of the Christian with the accom- plishments of the scholar and gentleman. It would not be easy to name any individual who has ever succeeded to the same extent in acquiring the universal esteem of u 2 292 HISTORY OF TPIE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CnAr. XV. society in India, by Ins frank, and amiable deportment. Nothing could be more foreign to the feelings of Dr. Heber than the official pomp with which the see had been surrounded. The arrival of the bishop at any station and his departure from it were announced by a salute of fifteen guns, but it was his constant aim to evade these military honours, as well as the ceremonials which belonged to his rank according to the })atent of prece- dence. To avoid the parade of a public entry into a station, he did not scruple to steal into it unperceived, mounted on a pony, with a light hat of Indian cork to shelter his head from the sun, and an umbrella in his hand. Such doings appeared as glaring an anomaly to the Indian community as a bishop's riding in a third class carriage would be considered in England. The country was soon filled with anecdotes of his anti-official pro- ceedings, and his contempt for established forms and usages, but he acquired more weight in society by the simplicity of his character than he could have done by any ecclesiastical assumption. His anxiety to employ the influence of his position for the religious improvement of the country endeared him to the wise and the good. Towards men of other denominations he manifested the most liberal sentiments, and always appeared more anx- ious to promote the general good than the interests of his own section of the church. Soon after his arrival, he opened a friendly correspondence with the Serampore missionaries, which was continued without interruption to the period of his death. In June Dr. Marshman sent him a copy of the Report of Seramj^ore College, which he acknowledged in the following terms : " I have seldom felt more painfully than while reading your appeal on the svibject of Serampore College, the unhappy divisions of those who are servants of the same Great Master ! Would to God, my honoured brethren, the time were arrived, when not only in heart and hope, but visibly, we shall be one fold, as well as under one shepherd! In the meantime, I have arrived, after some 1824.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 293 serious considerations, at the conclusion, that I shall serve our great cause most effectually by doing all which I can for the rising institutions of those with whom my sentiments agree in all things, rather than by forwarding the labours of tliose from whom, in some important points, I am conscientiously constrained to differ. After all, why do we differ ? Surely the leading points which keep us asunder are capable of explanation or of softening, and I am expressing myself in much sincerity of heart — (though, perhaps, according to the customs of the world, I am taking too great a freedom with men my superiors both in age and in talent), that I should think myself happy to be permitted to explain, to the best of my power, those objections which keep you and your brethren divided from that form of church government which I believe to have been instituted by the Apostles, and that admission of infants to the Gospel Covenants which seems to me to be founded on the expressions and practice of Christ himself. If I were writing thus to worldly men, I know I should expose myself to the imputation of excessive vanity or impertinent in- trusion. But of you and Dr. Carey I am far from judging as of worldly men, and I therefore say, that if we are spared to have any future intercourse, it is my desire, if you permit, to discuss with both of you, in the s})irit of meekness and conciliation, the points which now divide us, convinced, that if a re-union of our churches could be effected, the harvest of the heathen would ere long be reaped, and the work of the Lord would advance among them with a celerity of which we have now no experience. " I trust, at all events, you will take this hasty note as it is intended, and believe me, with much sincerity, " Your Friend and Servant in Christ, "Reginald Calcutta. "June 3, 1824." Dr. Marshman returned iiis own and Dr. Carey's cordial thanks for the candid and amiable spirit of this com- munication, and as the bishop was on the eve of quitting the presidency on his tour, proposed that the discussion should be in writing. But lie replied that he should be unable to find leisure for such a correspondence during his tour, and it was happily avoided. The time both of the bishop and of the missionaries was too valu- u 3 294 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CuAr. XV. able to be wasted in a polemic dissection of tlie differences of church and dissent. The communication to the Bible Society regarding the inconvenience to which the missionaries were exposed B.bip Society's fiom thc difficultv and delay incident to the Vote for New Testament. cxaminatioH of the versions of the New Testa- ment, after they had been printed off, was resj)onded to in that spirit of liberality which had always marked its pro- ceedings towards them. The sum of 2500/. was voted for five of the versions. In the reply of Mr. Brandram, who had succeeded Mr. Owen as secretary, he said : " It is not in our power to do away with the regulation which requires the translation to be submitted to competent judges, for it originated, not with the committee, but with your late zealous friend, Mr. Hey himself, and as he is now dead, and the money raised by him was received from him with this condition attached to it, the obligation on us to abide by it has a force almost of a testamentary nature.'* He then alluded to the work which had re- cently been published by the Abbe Dubois, and the reply of Mr. Hough, adding, *' The honourable mention made of you in Mr. Hough's book, has afforded sincere pleasure to many. You have indeed broken tiie ice, and given the onset, and if you had done nothing more, this would of itself afford abundant matter for thanks- giving." The Abbe Dubois, to whose work Mr. Brandram referred, was a Roman Catholic missionary, who had la- boured for twenty years in the south of India, and on his return to Europe published a volume on Indian missions. It created a strong sensation in the religious circle, not only from the interest which was naturally attached to a work from such a quarter, but from its startling assertions. Not only did the Abbe decry all Protestant missions in India, but he re- probated every attempt to communicate Christian know- ledge to the natives, and maintained that all the reports The Abbe Du bois. 1824.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 295 of success were exaggerated and unworthy of credit. As the result of a long residence in India, he asserted that a mission to the heathen was a hopeless undertaking. Such a declaration came strangely from the dignitary of a church which had canonised Xavier. He main- tained, moreover, that the lower classes of natives were so debased as to be beyond tlie reach of reformation, while the upper section of native society was so exem- ])hu"y for its moral virtues that they might possibly lose by becoming Christians. This idea was probably bor- rowed from Sir Thomas Munro, under whose government he had lived ; but Sir Thomas had only assured parlia- ment that if civilisation were to become an article of trade between India and England, he was convinced that England would greatly benefit by the import cargo. It was the ecclesiastic who extended the comparison to the matter of religion. The Abbe did not, of course, spare the Serampore missionaries. He stigmatised their re- ports of conversions as fabulous, and pronounced their translations to be incorrect and unintelligible. On the appearance of the work in London, Mr. Charles Grant sent a copy of it to Dr. Carey, and urged on him and his colleagues the necessity of replying to it without delay. Dr. Marshman undertook the task, and in the course of the present year, published a complete answer to the Abbe, in the quarterly " Friend of India." Another reply also appeared in London from the able i)en of Mr. Townley, who had been obliged from ill health to quit the mission field in India. But the most effective re})ly to the Abbe has since been furnished by the great success of the Church of England missions, which now embrace a Christian population of 60,000 on the very soil which the Abbe pronounced to be hopelessly sterile. The communication from Mr. Charles Grant which accompanied the Abbe's work was the last he sent to Serampore. He died a few months after, at Dpati, ofMr. the age of seventy-seven. His memory will ^''-^■•'^^ ^"•«"'- u 4 296 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XV. alwnys be held in the highest veneration by those who take an interest in the improvement of India. He was one of the most eminent of the great men who have been instrumental in constructing, unobtrusively, the fabric of our institutions in India. On some questions of Indian policy, he held opinions, in common with Hastings, Cornwallis, Wellesley, Pitt, and Dundas, which the ex- perience of a more advanced age has shown to be erro- neous. But it will ever be remembered to his honour, that on every question connected with the religious, moral, and intellectual improvement of the natives, he was half a century ahead of his colleagues at the India House. Amidst all their jeers and opposition, he persevered for thirty years in advocating his own more enlightened views, and lie was rewarded by seeing them at length predominant. He marked his esteem for his friends at Serampore by bequeathing them a legacy of 200/., which was generously doubled by his son, Lord Glenelg. India had now been at peace for five years, but during the present year government found itself involuntarily drawn into hostilities with the Burmese. No- thing could be more foreign to the pacific dispo- sition and policy of Lord Amherst than a war with any of his neighbours, least of all a war beyond the confines of Hindoostan. The dynasty of Alompra, with which we now came in contact, had risen to power in the valley of the Irawaddy three years before the battle of Plassey, and from the period of its elevation had exhibited an over- weening assumption in its foreign intercourse, beyond the loftiness even of Oriental princes. The monarch now on the throne had lately advanced towards our territories by^the conquest of Assam, and by his interference in the affairs of the little principality of Cachar, which we had taken under our protection. He considered himself more than a match for British power, and arrogantly demanded the cession of our south-eastern districts as far as Dacca, which he claimed as the ancient patrimony of the Burmese i8-2G.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 297 crown. His troop«! suddenly burst upon our eastern outposts before we were prepared to meet them, cut up an isolated detachment, and threatened Chittagong. The war which now commenced was forced on us by the insolent aggression of the Burmese, which we were bound by the law of our position to resist. A large armament was assembled at a port in the Andaman Islands, and sailed from thence to Rangoon, which was captured without difficulty. In the course of the ensuing year the army advanced towards the capital, and a peace was dictated to the monarch at Yandaboo in the month of January, 182(i, by which he was compelled to contribute towards the expenses of the war and to cede the provinces of Aracan, Assam, and Tenassermi. Aracan was a pestilen- tial swamp when we took possession of it, but under the genial influence of British institutions, it has become the granary of the Bay of Bengal, and its port is enlivened with vessels from all parts of the world. JMoulmein, which contained only half a dozen fishermen's huts when Mr. Judson and Mr. Crawford visited it after the cession in search of a site for a settlement, has become a great em- porium of commerce. But one of the most important results of this addition to the British dominions has been exhibited in the increased success of missionary efforts. 7'he head-quarters of the American mission was imme- diately transferred from its insecure position at Rangoon to the town of Moulmein ; the labours of the missionaries have been blessed with unexampled prosperity, and Christianity bids fair to become the national faith of the Karens. The missionaries had at this time three establishments dependent on public support in India, the college, the native schools, and the Benevolent Institution. f-I-ii • • f> ,1 • -I Transfer of llie inconvenience 01 three successive appeals schools to the to the liberality of the public during the year, while other institutions were arising around them, rendered it advisable to curtail the number. The Benevolent In- 29S HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XV. stitution was an old favourite with the public, and its expenditure was limited. The college was an establish- ment susceptible of great expansion, and it was, moreover, a department of labour which no other body was then prepared to occupy. It was deemed prudent therefore to reduce the number of schools, and to incorporate those which were retained with the college, and thus to close the native school institution. To avoid the imputation of fickleness in this proceeding, it was stated in their last address to the subscribers, that when the "Hints" were published eight years before, public attention had not been drawn to this means of civilisation ; the missionaries stood alone, but education had now taken root in the country ; efficient schools had been established by various missionary bodies, and Europeans and natives had united in establish- ing a society for this special object. Having thus led the way which others had followed up, they thought they might retire in some measure from this sphere of labour without impropriety, and devote their attention to the college. The report of that institution at the close of 1824, after it had enjoyed the benefit of Mr. Mack's exertions for two college Report jcars, was highly encouraging. The cultivation °^'^'*" of Sanscrit still took precedence of English, but the time devoted to that language had been wisely abridged. An edition of the celebrated grammar of Vopa- deva was published, in which the rules only were given in Sanscrit, while the explanation was in Bengalee. The Sanscrit dictionary, compiled with matchless skill by Umur Sing, and designated the "immortal dictionary," was usually committed to memory in the native collefres. The time thus sacrificed was saved by printing an edition of it with the words in alphabetical order and the signification in the vernacular language. A Sanscrit primer and reader with extracts from Sanscrit works was also compiled and printed, and the study of this language was thus assimilated to the course generally pursued in Europe in the study of 1824.] IIISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 299 tlie classics. For the geographical class, Hamilton's stan- dard work was abridged and pubHshed in Bengalee. Mr. Mack delivered a course of lectures on chemistry in the vernacular tongue, and drew up a simple treatise on natural philosophy, which was also printed in Bengalee. The number of students was fifty-four, of whom forty were resident native Christians. Tlie institution, which was thus gradually acquiring maturity of character, received support from all parties in India, irrespective of class or creed. This circumstance was recorded with gratitude at the conclusion of the report: "When the missionaries recur to the list of subscribers, and perceive how few of them are of the same religious denomination with them- selves, they cannot but feel grateful for that disinterested liberality which ranks our obligations to India as Britons and Christians above all minor distinctions of a religious nature. In a country so destitute of everything which elevates the mind, and so dependent on us, both for political protection and moral improvement, it is surely the duty of every individual to forget the little distinctions which divide society in England, and to make common cause for the promotion of its welfare. It will be time enough a hundred years hence, when the country is filled with knowledge, and truth has triumphed over error, to think of sects and parties." In reference to the events of this year, it remains only to notice the death of one of the most intimate friends of the Serampore missionaries, the well-known DeathofMr. Indian astronomer, Bentley. He is distin- ^''""''^" guished as the first man of science who attempted to demolish one of the favourite arguments which infidelity had drawn from the Indian shasters. The astronomical tables of the Hindoos had long been referred to as furnishing indubitable evidence of the unfathomable an- tiquity of Hindooism. Compared with its records, the Mosaic chronology was but of yesterday. Therefore, the Hindoo religion was genuine, and Christianity was a myth. 300 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Chap. XV. At the close of the last century this was a popular article of faith among those who impugned the Christian revela- tion. To attempt to maintain any such doctrine at the present day, would be as ridiculous as to express a belief in witchcraft ; but it is to Bentley that the credit belongs of having dispelled this hallucination, and demonstrated that all the Hindoo calculations, which so delighted the heart of Voltaire, were fabricated. In the month of May, 1825, Dr. Ryland was removed by death, at the age of seventy-two, after an honourable ^ ^ ,^ career of ji^reat usefulness of more than fifty Death of Dr. O ^ _ •' Ryland. ycars. Hew^as president of the Baptist College at Bristol, and reflected honour on the denomination by his scholastic attainments. He was also pastor of the church in Broadmead, one of the most ancient in the annals of dissent. It was on the mission that his strongest affections were concentrated, though without detriment to his aca- demical and pastoral duties. To have assisted in the formation of the society, he considered as the great event of his life, and he continued to watch over its interests with paternal assiduity. He was the colleague of Fuller and Sutcliff, the early associate of Dr. Carey, the affec- tionate friend of Mr. Ward, and the tutor of Dr. Marsh- man ; and his death broke the last link of personal attachment between the missionaries at Serampore and the society in England, He had not the massive intellect, or the strength or weight of character, which distinguished Mr. Fuller, but in devotedness to the cause which had grown up under their united efforts there was no perceptible difference betw^een them. After the removal of the seat of the mission to London, which he always deprecated, his influence in the counsels of the committee became nominal, but his interest in the cause never ebbed. On hearing of his death, Dr. Carey wrote to a friend in England : " It appears as if everything dear to me in England was now removed. AVherever I look I see a blank, and were I ever to revisit that dear country, I should have an 1825.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 301 entirely new set of friendships to form." As soon as his Bengalee dictionary was completed at press, he sent a copy of it to Dr. llyland, of whose deatli he had not then heard, "as a token of that unalterable affection I have entertained for you for the last forty years, and which I trust will be fully ripened in heaven." The Bengalee dictionary, to which this allusion is made, and which was completed in the present year in three volumes, was the greatest work of Dr. Carey's Dr. careys Ben. life, the translation of the Scriptures excepted, ^^^'-i^-'— y" It was a work of the most laborious research and of intense labour. Every word which was known to be in use was traced, as far as possible, to its origin, and explained with every shade of meaning. The work, however, was un- necessarily expanded, and both the labour and expense of it might have been abridged without any diminution of its value. The whole of the first volume, which consisted simply of the negative form of the words inserted in the two succeeding volumes, might have been spared. But this redundance, though it is to be regretted, does not detract from the great merit and utility of the undertaking, wliich was a noble monument of erudition and industry, and did that for the Bengalee language which Dr. Johnson had done for our own. It was about this time that the London Missionary Society contemplated the plan of setting their missionaries, before they quitted England, to study the Ian- The^ "><^ p^«^^- in the government, was under the influence of his cabinet of councillors and secretaries, and all free expression of opinion was stifled. But he was not long in discover- ino- that in these assaults on the periodical press, he was only gratifying tlie vindictiveness of those around him, and compromising his public reputation. His own dis- position was mild and tolerant; and in proportion as it predominated in the councils of the country, the restric- tions on the press were relaxed. The Government of India, moreover, received a very rough rebuke about this time from the India House in regard to the press. Mr. Arnot, who had undertaken the editorship of the "Calcutta Journal," soon after Mr. Buckingham's expulsion, and whom Lord Amherst had been persuaded to banish like- wise from India, appealed for redress to the Court in Leadenhall Street. After repeated debates, the sum of fifteen hundred pounds was awarded to him as a compen- sation for the injury which he had sustained from the Government of Bengal. This award, which was a palpable condemnation of the policy of Government, and weakened its authority by exposing it to public contempt, was se- verely felt and loudly resented by many of its members. But this was not all. The Court, at the same time, inter- dicted every person in the public service, civil, military, me- dical, or ecclesiastical, from being in future connected with any newspaper, as editor, proprietor, or shareholder, on pain of dismissal ; and allowed six months for the dissolution of any existing engagements. This was a sore discourage- ment to the dominant party, which had for four years worked the conservative press with little moderation, and 1826.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 357 placed the liberal journals under the most invidious re- strictions. From this time forward there was a marked improvement in the conduct of Government towards the press; but it is to be traced principally to the ascendency of Lord Amherst's moderate and friendly views, which were strengthened by the despatch of the Court. 80 com- pletely were the Serampore missionaries dissociated from all political agitation, that at the time when the animosity against the periodical press was at its height, Government manifested its confidence in their discretion by directing a hundred copies of their Bengalee newspaper to be sent, at the public cost, to the public offices in Bengal, and en- couraged a Persian version of it by a liberal subscription. During the administration of Lord Amherst, some attempts were made to mitigate the horrors of female im- molation. Orders were issued to the magistrates Regulation of to prevent every act of suttee which was not unequivocally voluntary, at every stage of its progress. The native officers of police were directed to attend at the pile, and affi^rd assistance to the unhappy victim if a sense of pain, or a love of life, or affection for her children should overcome her resolution. Several instances of the successful result of this rule were exhibited in the present year. Notice had been given to the head native officer at a police station in Jessore of the death of an old man, and of the determination announced by his widow to burn wdth his corpse. The officer repaired to the spot, and put the required questions to her. She replied that she was acting of her own free will, that she had been a suttee in six former births, and was now^ to ascend the pile through the decree of destiny. But as she approached the pile, the tears and entreaties of her children touched her heart; she took them by the hand, and refused to leave them. If the public officers had not been present, her own relatives would, as usual, have thrown her on the pile, and confined her down with bamboos, till life was extinct, to avoid the family disgrace entailed by a recantation of her vow. She A A 3 358 HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. was escorted home by the police, her kindred were de- prived of a triumph, and the mob of a spectacle. About the same time another female, an old woman of the brahmin caste, was rescued from the flames under peculiar circumstances. The magistrate endeavoured to dissuade her from her purpose, and offered her succour and sup- port. But she had been persuaded to believe that she had been a suttee in a former birth, and she now declared that her resolution to become a suttee again was unalter- able. The magistrate was therefore constrained by law to allow her to consummate her purpose. She was assisted to mount the pile, and laid herself down by the side of the corpse ; logs of wood were immediately heaped on her, and two vessels of ghee — clarified butter — poured on the wood to kindle a blaze. But she no sooner felt the torture of the flames, than she leaped off, and fell prostrate on the ground. A body of her own relatives seized her and cast her back on the burning pile, but she again effected her escape, and plunged into the river. The native police, who ought to have interfered before, now came forward and rescued her from the grasp of her relatives, who were dragging her again towards the pile. She was then conveyed to the magistrate who sent her to the hospital, and inflicted condign punishment on those who were implicated in this atrocious deed. It was evident, however, from this, and other instances, that no reliance could be placed on the native police, who were generally Hindoos, and more ready to connive at suttees than to prevent them. It was certain that if, on this oc- casion, the magistrate had happened to be absent from the station, the sacrifice would have been completed, and entered on the reports as an act of voluntary immolation. This humane, but inadequate interference to mitigate the evil, contributed to hasten its extinction. Voluntary im- molations thus became legalised, and Government incurred the odium of sanctioning every suttee which was consum- mated throughout the country. It was felt that this infa- 1827.] HISTORY OF THE fSERAMPORE MISSION. 359 mous practice, like the slave trade, was no subject for regulation, and could be dealt with only on the principle of absolute prohibition. At the same time, the total absence of any agitation in the native community when suttees were prevented by the authority of the magistrate, began to create the impression that the fear of political danger from the prohibition of the rite, had no foundation except in our own timidity. To return to Dr. Marshman's movements in England. Immediately after the separation from the Society had been completed by the signature of the mutual ^^ Marshman-s declaration, he called on the Rev. Josiah Pratt, 'itTrM^Jd'^ the secretary of the Church Missionary Society, '^^ ^^'"^"*— and discussed this event with him. Mr. Pratt received him with feelings very different from those he had encoun- tered in Fen Court, and endeavoured to support his mind under the difficulties which now beset his course. To manifest his confidence in the missionaries, he put his name down as an annual subscriber to the Serampore Mission in its new position. It was the first donation which Dr. Marshman received after the rupture, and he remarked that it was doubly valuable as coming from so eminent a Christian. At the same time he received a friendly letter from Mr. Wilberforce, who had pressed him to visit his country residence. " I address you a few lines, to assure you that 1 look forward with pleasure to the prospect you allow me to entertain, of seeing you after your return from Ireland. ... I cannot conclude without assuring you that the respect I feel for your character renders the kind language you use towards me truly gra- tifying. May it please God to grant you a long contin- uance of usefulness and comfort, and to take you at last to the enjoyment of an everlasting reward." Dr. Marshman had made an engagement before the interviews with the committee, to meet the friends of religion in Ireland, and he now proceeded to -r . 1 1 r- T-w 1 1- * T • 1 Visit to Dublin. Liverpool to embark for Dublm. At Liverpool A A 4 360 HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [CiiAr. XVI. he found the most hospitable reception from the Hopes, and wds shown the first liostile statement which had appeared in reference to the recent separation. He had entertained the hope that any feeUngs of irritation which mi'i'ht have grown out of the discussions in Fen Court, would be buried in the grave of the old and extinct con- nection ; that the attention of both parties would be equally devoted to the promotion of their common object, and that whatever might tend to injure and impede it, would be conscientiously avoided. But he had miscalcu- lated the vitality of prejudices. The paper which was now shown iiim was privately circulated, under the autho- rity of the committee ; it gave their own version of the negotiations, and was intended to exculpate them and to throw the entire blame of the disruption on Dr. Marshman. But though it did not appear to be remarkable either for its candour or its accuracy, he resolved to offer no reply, and not to suffer his mind to be diverted from the object he had set before him, of exclusively advocating the claims of India on the attention of Christians in England. He reached Dublin on the 1st of April, and passed a month in the society of friends of all denominations, who seemed to vie with one another in giving him a cordial rC' ception. The atmosphere of Christian benevolence he now breathed, served to sustain and animate his spirits. He attended the meetings of the various Bible, tract, missionary, and educational institutions, and the enthu- siastic addresses of one fresh from the scenes of labour in India were welcomed in every circle. Among the friends whose intimate acquaintance he made, he dwells with particular delight on the name of Mr. Kelly, who will long continue to be remembered in the Christian Church for his devotional hymns, Mr. Guinness, Mr. Ferrier, and Mr. Matthias, the father of the evangelical party in Ireland, who " had once stood alone in the advocacy of evangelical truth, but was now suirounded by a body of ardent auxiliaries." The gentleman with whom he 1827.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 361 formed the closest friendship, and which was subsequently renewed in India, was Mr. Thomas Parnell, brother of Sir H. Parnell, who was the main-spring of every bene- volent movement in Ireland, and who introduced him to all his philanthropic coadjutors. The present position of the Serampore Mission was the prominent topic of conver- sation, and a day or two before Dr. Marshman's depar- tiu'e, Mr. Parnell, convened a meeting of more than a hundred ministers, of various denominations, to whom he made a statement of its labours and exigences. The last day of his residence in Dublin was spent with Mr. Par- nell, who collected some of his most intimate friends at his residence, and formed the first committee in aid of the exertions at Serampore. The month thus passed in Ireland, amidst these genial associations, was perhaps the most agreeable period of Dr. Marshman's sojourn in Europe, and he never alluded to it, in after days, without the most lively satisfaction. It was during his residence in Dublin, that the memorable conference was held be- tween Mr. Pope and Mr. McGuire, the respective champions of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Dr. Marshman was invited to attend it, and was seated by the side of Mr. Daniel O'Connell. The discussion was to him an object of peculiar interest. He had hitherto regarded Popery only from an antagonistic point of view ; he had now an opportunity of listening to the subtlety of argumentation, by which its adherents were accustomed to defend its dogmas. In his diary he records his surprise at the talent and ingenuity which were employed in the sup- port of opinions which he could not but deem erroneous. Dr. Marshman returned from Dublin to Liverpool, and spent three or four days in calling on Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Rathbone, Mr. Hodson, Mr. Cropper, and other • jy . • 1 1 • ^''- Marshman's gentlemen oi emment station who took an in- movements m c ^ ^ _ England. terest in the progress of improvement in India. On his return to London, he was introduced by an old Indian friend to Mr. Mill, the profound and })hilosophic, 362 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. though not unprejudiced, historian of British India. He passed an evening with him, discussing all kinds of Indian questions, and more especially those which referred to the progress of knowledge and religion, and was delighted with his broad and enlightened views. He was invited to speak at the annual meeting of the London Missionary Society, and afterwards dined with Mr. Hankey, the trea- surer, and the office bearers of the society, as well as the gentlemen who had taken a share in the proceedings of the day. He subsequently breakfasted with the leading members of the Tract Society. From every denomination, except his own, he received those warm expressions of Christian sympathy and kindness to which lie was entitled as one of the pioneers of the missionary enterprise. From London he proceeded to Exeter, on a visit to Sir John Kennaway, one of the great Indian statesmen in the days of Lord Cornwallis and Lord Wellesley, who took a warm interest in the progress of Divine truth in India, and as- sisted the Serampore Mission with a noble donation. At Exeter he found himself at home with Mr. Kilpin, the Baptist minister, and one of his fellow students, thirty years before, at Bristol. Many agreeable hours were passed in reviving old recollections of their classmates, and " tracing their subsequent career," as he records, " and noticing the various instances in which the early promise of eminence had been blighted by waywardness or folly, and the cases in which powers, then unnoticed, had been developed, and had succeeded in securing posi- tions of influence and usefulness." No minister had as yet ventured to hold a public meeting in aid of the Serampore Mission in its present independent character. Mr. Kilpin set the example, and convened a meeting at the Town Hall, which was numerously attended, when the Congregational minister took the chair, and the Methodist minister moved one of the resolutions. The collection was more in accordance with the humble origin of the Baptist mission, than with the position it had at- 1827.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 363 tained, chiefly through the labours of the Serampore body. It did not exceed fourteen pounds. On his arrival in Bristol from Exeter, he found the minds of his friends deeply depressed by the calumnies which had been disseminated throughout the ,, , o (conference with country, through the agency of the affihated as- ^^'■- ^°*'<^''- sociations of the Society. He had considered the resolu- tion to act independently, which had been signed by both parties, as a termination of all strife. He had scrupulously and conscientiously abstained, both in con- versation and in writing, from any allusion to past differences, and he expected that the committee and its partisans would pursue the same course. He proposed to himself to confine his operations to the publication of a statement of the operations of the Serampore Mission, and the prospects of usefulness which lay before the mission^ aries, and after having organised associations among his friends for the support of these exertions, to return as speedily as possible to India. He was now shown an article in the denominational Magazine, purporting to give an account of the meeting which had ended in separation, in which charges were brought against him utterly destructive of his moral character. It was drawn up by the printer with no mean abiUty, and had passed under the eye of the secretary. Mr. Foster assured him that this communication gave but a faint idea of the calumnies which had been circulated throughout the land to injure the cause of the Serampore missionaries. So deeply had Mr. Foster's mind been affected by these misrepresenta- tions, that he had imposed on himself the task of classify- ing them in a tabular form. After having read over this epitome, which covered sixteen foolscap pages, Dr. Marshman wrote to Dr. Carey, " I was grieved at the spirit which was thus manifested, but I felt confident that if the fire was not fed on the other side it would go out, and the command of Holy Writ, ' Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him,' seems to be the only direction I 364 HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. can follow." On the 25th of May, Mr. Foster, Mr. Cottle, and Mr. Roberts met Dr. Marshman in Bristol, to discuss the position and prospects of the Serampore cause. On inquiring what was his purpose under existing cir- cumstances, he informed them that he proposed to publish a statementof the labours at Serampore, and leave it to work its own way. " It must be drawn up," he rem.arked "in the spirit of the Gospel, just as if nothing repugnant to that spirit had appeared on the other side, and all contention must be avoided even in self-defence." Mr. Foster had no compassion for this supererogatory sensitiveness. He acknowledged that Dr. Marshman's views might be ap- plicable in the ordinary course of affairs, but if the facts and documents in his possession, and which would refute these slanders, were withheld from any regard to the feelings of those who manifested no such delicacy towards him, he would injure the cause in which he was engaged. Dr. Marshman expressed his deep gratitude for advice dictated by a generous solicitude for the interest of the mission ; but he was not prepared to follow it. He would weigh it with deep attention, and eventually adopt that course which appeared to his conscience to be most con- sistent with the principles of Christianity ; at all events he wished to postpone his reply to the latest moment. His Bristol friends were disappointed and chagrined at the re- sult of this meeting ; they considered that Dr. Marsh- man's plan of operations was wanting in that boldness which is so highly admired by Englishmen. He then went to the north of England, and was again welcomed with affection by the friends of Serampore, Dr. Steadman, Mr. Acworth, and others. They of Engiand"and wcrc dccplv affcctcd by these attacks on his cha- Scotland. p i • i i i t racter, or which another had newly been issued, of the same mintage. They urged him with much impor- tunity to follow Mr. Foster's judicious advice ; but nothing could shake his resolution to avoid controversy. He attended the meetings of the Association, and endeavoured 827.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 365 by his addresses and his conversation to stimulate the ministers to greater zeal in the cause of missions ; but on the one subject of his differences with the committee he would not touch. In June he paid a visit to Edinburgh, and drew up his promised statement under the revision of Mr. Anderson, who urged him, but in vain, to reply to the attacks which had been made on him. He yielded, however, to tlie solicitations of his friend to the extent of postponing the publication of his own statement till the appearance of the annual report of the Society, then daily expected ; and he promised to notice in an appendix any hostile remarks which it might contain. He then pro- ceeded to the west of Scotland, and was invited to a friendly conference with the members of the Baptist Auxiliary Missionary Society, and gave them an explicit reply to all the questions put to him in reference to these slanders. He was assured, that if he would put these statements in print, he would secure all the aid Glasgow could afford. The same assurance was given to him at Greenock, at Paisley, and at Irvine ; but he still felt the strongest repugnance to appear before the public in oppo- sition to the Society. Returning to Edinburgh, Dr. Marsh man received a copy of the report of the committee relative to the nego- tiations which had ended in the disruption. It , . , , 1 society s adversfl was drawn up with great official caution, but Dr'Mar"sumHn's it contained reflections on the proceedings of '"'^'^' the Serampore missionaries, — more particularly on the conduct of Dr. Marshman, — which went to the destruc- tion of their reputation, and the annihilation of all con- fidence in them. This statement could not fail to damage Dr. Marshman's application for public support. He had flattered himself that the committee would regulate their future proceedings by some such considerations as these, " Our brethren at Serampore have deserved well of the Society and the public ; they have promoted the establish- ment of Christianity in India to the utmost of their power j 366 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CuAr. XVI. they have sent liome the statement of their missionary la- bours to be incorporated with our reports and to strengthen our funds. If we have now declared them to be distinct from us, and left them to prosecute tlie work without our aid, and on their own resources, we should at least abstain from any remarks which may affect their application to the public for support, and starve their mission." But he could no longer shut his eyes to the fact that it was the object of the committee to defeat his endeavours to raise funds for the Serampore Mission, by filling the public mind with prejudices against its conductors. The So- ciety had not been attacked ; the Baptist community would doubtless have been satisfied with a declaration that, in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel, it was deemed advisable to bury all past differences in oblivion, rather than gratify a prurient curiosity, and that it was the sacred duty of both parties to avoid all recrimina- tion, and to address themselves only to the great work before them. But passions had been aroused and must be gratified. The publications of the committee and their partisans w^ere aggressive and not defensive. Notwithstanding the violence of these assaults, however, it was Dr. Marshman's conviction, as he informed Dr. Carey, " that nothing was wanting to make the Baptist mission a by-word and a scandal in the eyes of the Christian world, but a reply from him in the spirit of these documents.'' He determined, therefore, to publish in an appendix to his statement, those facts regarding the measures pursued at Serampore, and the proceedings at the meeting which should *' exhibit the simple truth, avoiding all recrimination, and every allusion which should appear unfavourable to the committee." The appendix, drawn up in this spirit, was submitted to Mr. Foster, who communicated his views to Dr. Marshman in the following characteristic letter : — " The performance, on the whole, appears to us to be ad rem. Through the historical and explanatory statement you will carry, 1827.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 367 I should presume, every reader with you, without much of con- troversial reaction, except those narrow-minded people who can- not comprehend the good of your having created an ^j^ Foster's important institution for education ; and it ought to ''^"^'^• disarm them of that temper for entering on the Appendix, where the debateable ground begins. Nevertheless, there are not a few of them who will take to their arras. But, my dear sir, how could you begin by saying that you should have let the matter alone, but for the circumstance of the appearance of the Society's report ? Could you be unaware of the effect inevitably produced by the condemnatory denunciations which some tioenty at least, of that fiimous committee were uttering and multiplying in so many different stations and sections of our Baptist republic ? You say that only what has appeared officially requires to be noticed. ' That which has not been mentioned in print,' you add, ' I have not noticed. I think it better not. Let surmises and calumnies die a natural death.' Roberts and I are astonished you could say or think so, and could swear to you that there never was a greater error. You see plainly that anything as yet officially published is very brief, cautious, and reserved. It is in the reports, exagge- rations, and misrepresentations circulated in the talking com- munity, that the stress and effect of the hostility has made its way. In your subsequent observations, the first thing that forcibly arrested us was the passage in which you refer to the kind of pledge or engagement made by the Serampore fraternity to each other not to seek any emolument for themselves or families from their labours, — not so much as a cowry. We regretted to see this done in a manner which will infallibly be called slurring it over. You know — no ; you don't know a hundredth part of the malicious effect with which this particular has been harped on. The thing for neutralising this malicious effect Avould be to mention that pledge in the most explicit manner ; to say frankly that it did mean what the words import ; that it was uttered in a warmth of feeling, which precluded, as it did, at the moment, the consideration and forethought of a prudence, which subsequent thought and experience imperatively forced on you as your indispensable duty; and then to bring in what follows in so disjointed a manner lower down in the same page ; that is, the obligation of not leaving your families destitute of provision. Let all this be put together in an unreserved and duly confident language, and it will make every decent person ashamed of any longer harping and carping on that 368 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. particular. Bat this being first done, in what a high tone of just confidence you may add, in immediate connection with it, that con- strained by a necessity, and a mature sense of duty to depart from the exact principle of that engagement, you shall show in the sequel that the departure has been truly very inconsiderable ; that you have substantially fulfilled the engagement, for that you are not in possession of any property of your own from the proceeds of your long and indefatigable exertions, to the amount of one tenth part of what you have expended for the promotion of Christianity and knowledge in India. I tell you it makes me mad that you will not take against your contemptible traducers the rightful ad- vantage of your triumphant position. " I am here reminded to revert to what I should have observed after quoting the remark in your letter, ' Let surmises and calumnies die a natural death.' Let them ! yes ; if they would ; but they will not die a natural death in the sense that you mean ; that is, be silenced by the prevalence of truth and justice, unless the truth be explicitly declared, and nobody can fully declare it but your- selves. There are many tliousands of us Baptists who verily believe that you Serampore people are an extremely opulent firm, and that your asking for money from England is a most un- conscionable claim. I think I told you, in conversation, of my having lately heard a very highly intelligent person of them say, ' They ask for 1000/. from the Society ! Why the Society might with much more propriety ask lOOOZ. from them.' You may justly say liow can people entertain such monstrous extravagance of fancy ? The plain answer is, that under the influence of assiduous misrepresentation, people in utter ignorance may believe anything. And the fact is, that our religious public is in deep ignorance up to this time of the real state of things at Serampore. Now is the time to set them right To conclude by reverting to a topic which cannot be too pointedly enforced or reiterated. Roberts unites with me in most earnestly urging you to do full justice to your cause by a still more explicit and formal declaration of — what may be denominated yowr /)oye;-^y. There is the grand point on which you have been misjudged, misrepresented, and maligned, and there is the very point of your triumph. With two or three highly respectable persons, partaking in the disaffection to Serampore, I have thought it right to infringe the rule of confi- dence under which our conversations in Bristol were held, by in- forming them of your assertion that the whole collective amount of 1827.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 369 any and all property in possession of the fraternity does not exceed 5000/. or 6000/. They expressed their surprise and astonishment at the declaration, saying, Is it possible that the fact can be so ? Will Dr. Marshman venture to make this averment in his expected publication ; if he will, it will be a mighty stroke to confound his traducers, as they will be proved to be, and to set himself right in the judgment of the public. My dear sir, you are not fully aware, it is even impossible to make you fully aware, with what mis- chievous effect, and to what wide extent, the false representations on this subject have been circulated. In some sentences of your statement, you have certainly gone far towards a declaration of the truth on this point ; but there still wants a positive, formal, arithmetical averment. . . . On the strength of these state- ments, you should close with a few sentences of calm and dignified appeal to all impartial readers whether you have not acted faithfully in the spirit of your original design — whether you have been seeking any object of mean self-interest — whether, in short, you have not, as nearly as the most palpable and imperative prudence would permit, adhered to the principles of that engagement which has been so often cited, as what you have abandoned. But what a world this is, in which such noble self-devotedness and such pro- digious exertion as the Serampore fraternity have displayed, should have occasion to make any such kind of appeal in self-defence ! " The Appendix was modified to suit Mr. Foster's sug- gestions. To meet the insinuations made against the missionaries, it gave an unreserved statement of Dr. Marshman-s the pecuniary position of Dr. Carey and his storm oickiumny i^ J I >/ lasts four colleagues, private as well as public. To men y*"- who had heaped their own earnings on the altar of missions with unsparing liberality, it was humiliating to publish an account of the little property that remained to them with the minuteness of a bankrupt's schedule. But Dr. Marshman was assured that the interests of the mission in India demanded even this sacrifice of their feelings, and it was not withheld. The Appendix was a calm and dignified reply to the innuendoes of tiie Society's report, without any reflection on the committee. It is difficult to conceive how any man could place such a restraint on himself amidst this tempest of calumny, as to use no VOL. ir. B B 370 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. stronger expression in his defence than the following. *• In conclusion, Dr. Marshman may be permitted to appeal to every impartial reader, wiiether the Serampore brethren have not faithfully acted in the spirit of their original design ; whether it is possible for them to have been seeking any object of mean self-interest, and whether they have not adhered as closely to their original agree- ment as those duties which were imperatively incumbent on them, as Christian men, would permit." The monthly organ of the society said, in reference to Dr. Marshman's pamphlet : — " It is not easy to conceive how any indi- vidual, who had declined the proposals of the committee in such firm and decisive terms, could cool himself down to that condition of indifference and forgetfulness which its spirit and tone implied, and the whole world might be chal- lenged to produce, since the establishment of Protestantism, an equally strong example of imputations and differences of so serious a magnitude, being borne down by a defence so inwrought with meekness and Christian simplicity." Here, therefore, the controversy ought to have closed. Each party had now appeared before the tribunal of the public with its own statement, and that which had been issued on the part of Serampore, was embodied in language studiously inoffensive, and intended to prevent the neces- sity of a rejoinder. Each party might now, therefore, without any compromise of reputation, turn its attention to the prosecution of its missionary labours in a spirit of hallowed emulation. Seldom has so reasonable an expectation been so signally disappointed. Dr. Marshman's Appendix, instead of dis- arming opposition, as he had hoped, only served to add fuel to the flames. While his friends considered his reply tame, his opponents considered his moderation an indica- tion of timidity, and timidity, equally in religious as in military movements, always encourages fresh aggression. The passions which had hitherto been under some kind of restraint, were now let loose against the Serampore mis- 1827.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 371 sionaries, and against Dr. Marshman in particular. For three years the *' Baptist republic " was deluged with publications, intended to destroy the character, and anni- hilate the influence, of men who had once been objects of admiration. Some of the liigher and nobler spirits in the denomination were doubtless influenced by a feeling of resentment towards men who were represented as havint i i 1 1 T\ T Mr. Eustace before. Ihe pamphlet was drawn up by Mr. (arey-s II . . pamphlet. Eustace Carey, and issued under the joint re- sponsibility of himself and Mr. Yates, the chief member of the Society's mission in Calcutta. It exhibited great talent and much controversial dexterity ; it was also marked by a feeling of intense hostility to Dr. Marshman. In a paper written by Dr. Carey after the perusal of it, he 382 HISTORY OF the SERAMPOEE mission. [Chap. XVI. described his nephew as the *' irreconcilable and sworn enemy of his colleague." He expressed his indignation that " the committee should have furnished the enemies of Dr. Marshman with all the private correspondence of himself and his colleagues, unsuspectingly carried on through a long series of years with their friends, for the purpose of assisting them to run down the character of his associate, and thereby of ruining the interests of religion as far as they were connected with Serampore. Since matters have been drawn to this extremity, however, I rejoice that all this breach of con- fidence has taken place. I consider it as granted . . . that all the evil things which could possibly have been said of Dr. Marshman have been said ; and they have found one inconsiderate self-contradictory letter, written by him at a moment of great excitement, to prove that he thought our stock in trade belonged to the Society, and another in which he said he scarcely knew the extent of our connection with the Society. Two letters in thirty years ; truly the discovery is most astounding ! " This has reference to a letter written by Dr. Marshman im- mediately after the destruction of the printing office by fire, to Dr. Ryland, to sustain his mind under that great calamity. Dr. Marshman drew up a loose statement of the property still existing, which he at first estimated at 10,000/. ; but before he had finished the letter he raised the sum to 20,000/., adding, "not a farthing of this belongs to us, but all to you." A more hasty and incon- siderate statement could scarcely have been made even " at midnight, between sleeping and waking." It had long since passed from his recollection. It was never considered by Mr. Fuller worth the value of the paper on which it was written. During the discussions of the twelve years in which the committee had hunted for documents to sub- stantiate their claim to the earnings of the missionaries, it was never produced. No hint of its existence was given to Mr. Ward, Mr. Marshman, or to Dr. Marshman ; but 1828.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 383 it was now for the first time brought forward to overwhelm Dr. Carey and his colleagues with the charge of incon- sistency and fraud. Dr. Marshman was staggered by its appearance, Mr. Foster was mortified. " The task," he writes to his friend, " is rendered tenfold difficult by the citations made from your own letters, written as if under the directing craft of some evil spirit prescient of a future occasion of mischief. Those execrable letters MtW on Dr. l_ ., , . • T. • , f Marsliman's un- nave thrown mountams m your way. It is not tor guHiciedexpios- me to judge what you should say — that is, what you can say in perfect truth and sincerity. I do not, however, see how you can avoid making a somewhat mortifying concession. In trying for a moment to place myself in your position, I can imagine myself to be able to say something like the following : — 'I have been in some measure erroneous in my representation as respecting the ideas entertained by us (or by myself) during those early 3' ears of the nature of our relations to the Society in England, but I can honestly say it is more by these citations from what I have for- merly written, than by any distinct present remembrance, that I am made sensible of this. The truth is, that these ideas (that we and the product of our labour belonged to the Society) were so exceedingly slight and vague, so wholly unformed into any settled theory or principle, had so little hold on our minds for any practical influence or effect, that I believe they gradually, almost insensibly, vanished away, during the long course of action in which we prac- tically proceeded in the spirit and on the plan of independence, an independence never interfered with, never brought into any dis- cussion by any friends in England. Being through so many suc- cessive years never called to account in any manner to remind us of any foreign claim of authority, and having habitually the onus of judging and acting on ourselves, we naturally left behind us any slight notion we might ever have had of such a respouslbillty ; and when at length circumstances led us to think formally on the subject, Ave felt ourselves perfectly justified in asserting exjjressly our right of independence in everything in which we had none but ourselves to depend on for the creation of means or for the judgment how to apply them.' Supposing this to be the actual state of the case, it is incomparably better to make such a con- cession than to attempt to explain this most unfortunate passage by means of explanations which friends will feel unsatisfactory, and enemies will exnlode as insincere." 384 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chaf. XVI. But such was the temper of the denomination at that period, that no explanation which Dr. Marshman could possibly give would have produced any reaction in his favour. It was a time at which inadvertency was to be paid for as delinquency. In every circle under the influence of the committee, the quotation from his unhappy commu- nication was I ronounced to be an indisputable proof of " defective honesty." At this distance of time, however, the remarks which are found in a letter from Dr. Carey to a friend in Eng- land, written in this year, may be deemed a fair pianauonVf it, cxplanatiou of the circumstances of this case : — and remarks. ^ _ r» ii /r -n 1 1 " There was a time, before Mr. Fuller's death, when the Society was so dear to us that we never thought we could do too much for it, and certainly did exert ourselves to the utmost to promote what we thought the objects of its existence. If at that time we, or any of us, had said or written anything extravagant or foolish respecting our devotedness to the Society, it would not have been won- derful ; and I shall not be surprised if something of that kind should be produced ; but I never considered the proceeds of our labour to belong to the Society. It was always a settled point with me that all our gains were consecrated to God, but not to the Society." This tes- timony is the more important because it was given before Dr. Carey was aware of the existence ot Dr. Marshman's communication in 1812. In another letter, he remarks : — *' For many years we were prompted by an excess of affection to the Society, many members of which knew us and were known to us, almost to starve ourselves to promote their object, and certainly should have thought nothing too much to have done or sacrificed for that purpose ; yet we always considered ourselves masters of what we earned, and all given to the Society, or employed for it, as a gift, and not as debt due to it." Of this fact there is no lack of evidence in the proceed- ings of the missionaries. As soon as Dr. Carey had 18-28.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 385 obtained an independent income, in 1794, He informed the committee that he intended to employ his funds in printing the New Testament in Bengalee, and the secre- tary of the Society requested that he would allow them the privilege of sharing in the expense of the work. Fourteen years later, the missionaries announced that they intended to make certain appropriations of their own income, and present the surplus to the Society. Immedi- ately after Mr. Fuller's death, moreover, they transferred the control of the society's European missionaries to the committee, and stated that they intended to support the missionaries raised up in the country from their own funds. Of their own receipts and expenditure they not only sent no accounts to the committee from first to last, but they never made any allusion to the subject. They acted uninterruptedly in a spirit of entire indepen- dence, and received neither rebuke nor remonstrance. These facts are significant. Against them stands the remark in Dr. Marshman's letter, written without the concurrence, or even knowledge, of his colleagues, " not a farthing of this is ours, but all belongs to you." The reader of this narrative is at a sufficient distance of time from the controversy to see the true bearings of the question, and it is for him, in the exercise of a candid judgment, to decide whether Dr. Marshman's enemies were borne out in fixing on him the stigma of '* defective honesty," or whether his letter was to be considered, ac- cording to Mr. Foster, an " absolute hallucination." These repeated attacks did not fail to counteract the favourable impression created by Dr. Marshman's vindica- tion. Their object was to keep alive the pre- ,. 1-1111 1 • I Effects of these mdices winch had been created a^ramst the attacks Dr. *J ^ _ o ^ ^ Carey s letters. Serampore Mission, and to prevent the acquisi- tion of supplies for it. This object was to a great measure attained. In general, men require no very powerful induce- ment to withhold their liberality. Like a delicate plant, it is easily affected by adverse winds. In this case there VOL. II. c c 386 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XVI. was the strongest argument drawn from the asserted in- consistencies, if not delinquencies, of the applicants for refusing all aid. During this storm of calumny, it was not easy to establish any organisation for the permanent support of the Serampore Mission. Mr. Hope, who had generously undertaken the office of treasurer of the Mis- sion, in writing to Dr. Carey on the subject, said : ** Your opponents have not only declared open war, but kept up a system of bush fighting, which is maintained with a degree of virulence and acrimony seldom before witnessed in this part of the world.'' That public conHdence, which was indispensable to success, was not suffered to take root. The warm attachment of a few devoted friends was no counterpoise to the general feeling of mistrust which was infused by incessant activity into every circle. Dr. Marshman visited the west and the north of t^ngland, and traversed Scotland again, to collect, not, as before, for the Society, but for Serampore ; but the delegates of the committee followed in his track, and wherever they ap- peared their influence tended to weaken the cause of those whom they were sent to oppose. Dr. Marshman endea- voured to keep up the spirits of his friends, as well as his own, by the buoyancy of his expectations; but it was easy to perceive, from the effort it cost him, that it w^as an unnatural and constrained buoyancy. To counteract the reiterated assertions that there was no cordiality between him and Dr. Carey, who, it was affirmed, had generally disapproved of the measures which the committee thought fit to con- demn, he published a collection of the letters of Dr. Carey to various friends in England during the preceding fifteen years. They established beyond question the entire unity which subsisted in their views, and the concurrence of Dr. Carey in those proceedings which had been selected for attack. They also contained a severe censure, in strong terms, of the conduct both of the committee and their missionaries in Calcutta. No one will now be found to coincide in the opinion of Mr. Eustace Carey and his 1828.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 387 friends, that "his uncle had disgraced himself by writing such letters." It was natural to resent the reproofs of so eminent and venerable a man, but there was nothing in the documents unwortliy of his character as a Christian. Still, the publication of the letters was to be regretted as repugnant to that delicacy of feeling which postpones the disclosure of private and confidential correspondence to the time when it can no longer affect the interests of the living. No one regretted the necessity of this course more than Dr. Marshman himself; but it was forced on him by the proceedings of his opponents. They had ran- sacked the private and confidential correspondence of his colleagues, his friends, and his enemies, and published without hesitation every scrap that could be found to tell against him. He had therefore no alternative but to give equal publicity to Dr. Carey's letters, in vindication of his own character, and not less that of his colleague. But the appearance of this collection of letters, though it effectually disposed of one calumny, did little to stem the current of detraction and restore the Seram- pore missionaries to the o-ood opinion or the pressed to reply - ' ^ ^ . "'^ difficulties. denomination. Dr. Marshman's friends pressed on him the necessity of replying to the five hostile pani' phlets and reviews which had appeared in as many months. But, after the wear and tear of twenty months of exhausting controversy, his mind was little fitted for any bold and decisive exertion. He looked with a feeling: of dismay on the task which was then before him. He was required, on the spur of the moment, to answer a series of papers drawn up with consummate ingenuity, and sup- ported by statements from a correspondence, of the existence of which he had been totally ignorant. The documents which were requisite to enable him to meet these assaults with equal circumstantiality of detail, were ten thousand miles off. He was required to devise and to mature arrangements for keeping up in various parts of the country an interest in the missionary operations c c 2 388 HISTORY or the SERAMPORE mission. [Chap. XVT. connected with Serampore ; and at the same time to make preparations for his return to India, from wliich he liad been absent nearly three years. It is therefore no matter of surprise, that the reply which he hastily drew up, was pronounced unsatisfactory by his friends, and withheld from publication. He then asked them to take the materials he had collected and work them up, but this also appeared unadvisable, and he was driven to postpone his reply till after his arrival at Serampore, and he pro- mised that it should be ample and complete. Yet amidst all these difficulties, and at a time when he was subjected to as severe a persecution as ever a Christian man, perhaps, experienced from his own brethren, there is not to be found in all his correspondence a single expression of re- sentment, or a sentiment incompatible with the spirit of Christian meekness. "Let us forget," he writes to Dr. Carey on the eve of his departure, "the things which are behind, namely, that any one has injured us, or wished to do so, except merely to do them the more good in return, and let us press forward to the things which are before us, the calHng by Divine grace of multitudes on multitudes of the heathen." He embarked in the " Hythe," on the 19th of February, 1829, quitting his native land under circumstances which formed a melancholy con- »;?'"'^r'V°'"'^'^ trast to those in winch he had "one out thirtv discomfited. _ ~ . years before, in the springtide of hope, with a noble object before him. That object he had prosecuted with a degree of constancy, disinterestedness, and success, rarely exceeded. He had come to England to strengthen and consolidate that undertaking. He now returned to India, discomfited in his object, crippled in his resources, and with a reputation blackened by calumny. " The war- whoop which has been raised," writes Mr. Hope, "will pursue him till he has reached the Ganges, and indeed long after." The arrangements for the future support of the mission were left in an incomplete and unsatisfactory state; while his friends were dispirited and mortified at 1828.] HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 389 what appeared to be a desertion of duty. Mr. Foster, who had committed himself to the vindication of Dr. Marsh- man's character and conduct, was chagrined in no com- mon degree. " The whole business," he writes, "looks to me like a total renunciation of common sense. A number of pamphlets appear, tending to fix, and very effectually fixing, very grave censures on Sernmpore, and on Dr. Marshman in particular. They are most sedu- lously spread all over the country, and decide nineteen out of twenty. Dr. M. says, suspend your judgment a little while, and advertises the speedy appearance of a quencher. . . . But he speedily takes the first ship of the season (as if every subsequent one would be under some fatal curse), and tells you you may whistle for the promised vindication, provided you whistle to a Christian tune. Was ever anything more like an incorrigible want o^ nous? But a less compassionate interpretation will be put upon it." The real explanation of this singular conduct is to be found in the morbid state to which his mind had been reduced by the incessant pressure of ex- ertions prolonged through a period of two years and a half. His powerfiil mind had successfully struggled against the effects of it for a time, but it gave way at last, and not- withstanding the apparent calmness of his letters, he was unable either to think clearly or act with decision. The ordeal through which he had passed had produced a degree of timidity altogether foreign to his natural character. Every explanation only brought fresh attacks ; even the concessions, which candour might make, were immediately turned into a new weapon of offence. He felt that the storm must expend itself before the voice of reason and equity could be heard, and he hastened from the scene of tumult to the tranquillising associations of Serampore. To turn now to the course of events in India, in the month of March Lord Amherst was constrained, by the illness of his daughter, to quit the government i^^d Amherst's before the arrival of his successor, and Mr. dq-anure. c c 3 390 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. Butterworth Bayley succeeded provisionally to the office of Governor-General. Lord Amherst's administration presented a great and inauspicious contrast to that of Lord Hastings. After the impulse given to the progress of improvement by that illustrious statesman, a retrograde movement was scarcely possible. In reference to im- provements in Lidia, there has always been this source of consolation, that amidst all the mutations of office, the pro- gress once made has never been lost. Down to the period of the last crisis, no public functionary, however wedded to old and traditionary policy, however opposed to every form of beneficial innovation, has ventured to insult the liberal feelings of the age by endeavouring to put the clock back. In the time of Lord Amherst it was simply stopped. The only symptom of animation was exhibited by the council of education, but even they appear to have been affected by the drowsiness of the period, and awaited some awakening impulse. It has been often remarked that from the year I786 to the present date, there has been an uninterrupted alternation, for seventy years, of vigorous and feeble administrations. Lord Amherst's government was unfortunate in coming between that of Lord Hastings and Lord WilUam Bentinck, and it was an interregnum of progress. But Lord Amherst himself had acquired the universal esteem of the community, and there was a sincere feeling of regret at his departure. Amiable, well-intentioned, and liberal, he could not fail to please. For a considerable time before his departure, he had ceased to interfere with the press, and he was justly and sincerely extolled by the organs of public opinion for his magnanimity in declining to use the power which the law had conferred on him. He was succeeded by Lord William Bentinck, who was appointed to the office under the influence of his connection with Mr. Canning. Twenty years before this period he had been harshly re- moved from the post of Governor of Madras, because the mutiny of Vellore had occurred in his administration. He ]828.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 391 felt the disgrace, though unmerited, more sensitively than might have been expected from a mind of extraordinary strength hke his, and never ceased to covet the office of governor-general, in order to recover his position, and to restore his prestige. His wishes were at length gratified, and he came out to India with the determination to carry the most extensive reforms into every branch of the public service. While Governor of Madras, in 1806, he had stated it as his opinion, that "it was necessary for the public safety, that the press in India should be kept under the most rigid control." But twenty years passed amidst the healthy associations of England appear to have pro- duced a complete modification of his views. On his return to India as governor-general, he liberated the press from every practical restriction, and thus established the neces- sity of conceding its freedom by law, a measure which he bequeathed to his successor. When any traditionary poli- ticians descanted, in his presence, on the dangers of a free press in India, he was in the habit of snapping his fingers, and remarking that he found it an invaluable auxiliary by disclosing abuses which other agencies were anxious to conceal. The province of Assam had been annexed to the British dominions, by the treaty of Yandaboo. The Scriptures had been translated into Assamese, and Dr. „. . ' Missionary pro- Carey was impatient to plant a missionary in the ^^^'^'ne^- province. Mr. David Scott, the commissioner of the province, was equally distinguished as a public functionary and a great philanthropist. He had been the pupil and he was the personal friend of Dr. Carey, and had actively co-operated with the missionaries in the work of improve- ment. He was now anxious that a missionary should be sent into the country, and Dr. Carey urged his colleagues to establish a station at the chief town ; but they hesitated to incur a new obligation, while they were so little able to maintain those which existed already. Dr. Carey's importunity, however, was irresistible. He offered to c c 4 392 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. contribute half the expense himself by stinting his own personal expenditure, and they were constrained to yield to his wishes. Mr. Rae, who had resided for several years in the province, was selected for the post at the close of the present year. In Jessore, the missionary station was under the super- intendence of a young man of the name of Buckingham, who seemed to possess a genius for missionary work. He was the son of a European soldier, and had received only the scanty education given to children in his station at the Lower Orphan School. So little benefit did he derive from it, that he not only plunged into immoralities, but assumed the garb of a devotee, under the stings of con- science, and went on pilgrimage to various shrines of Hindoo sanctity. On his way to Gunga Saugor, he visited Serampore, and introduced himself to Mr. Ward, under whose affectionate instructions he was reclaimed from vice, and received into the church. He was em- ployed for a time in the superintendence of the workmen, and commended himself to the confidence of his employers by his integrity and zeal. He applied with the greatest assiduity to the Bengalee language, and so completely mastered it as to compose tracts, which were found acceptable to the natives. All his leisure hours were devoted to the instruction of the native Christians, and addresses to the heathen. Having thus of his own accord qualified himself for the duties of a missionary, he was at length sent to take charge of the station of Jessore ; but he refused to accept any salary, and contented himself with a simple, and too frugal, subsistence. In that mis- sionary sphere his exertions were indefatigable. Mounted on his little nag, he traversed the district from village to village, without any regard to his own convenience, and wherever he went he was welcomed. Buckingham soon revived the cause which had drooped under his feeble predecessor, and the church began to flourish again. — At the close of the present year, the number of missionary 1828.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 893 stations, connected with Serampore, was ten, and the ex- penditure 1430/. a year. The college report of the year, notices with deep regret the death of Col. Krefting, the chief of Serampore, who had taken a generous interest in the institution IT, rrt ' 1 College Report. Since Its establishment. To him the mis- sionaries were placed under the strongest obligation for the unflinching protection he afforded them at the difficult crisis of 1807, when the British government demanded the press, tlie surrender of which would have been a death-blow to the Mission. The uninterrupted con- tinuance of his kindness, both official and personal, de- manded that token of gratitude which was gracefully paid to his memory in the report. From his successor, Mr. Kohlenberg, a man of great accomplishments and of most benevolent feelings, the missionaries experienced the same kindness and support, though they liad ceased to need the protection of a foreign flag. The European class in the college, which had been formed witii the view of raising up missionaries in India to supply vacancies, consisted of eight students, who were prosecuting the same course of theological and secular study which was pursued by missionary students in England. All the students sup- ported by the college funds were of Christian parentage. The report stated, that when the college was originally established, the number of Christian youths available for instruction was very limited, but the native Chiistian population had gradually increased, and they had now the pleasure of seeing around them a large body of native youths, from six to sixteen, the offspring of native Chris- tians, whose number exceeded a hundred, from whom it was their duty to select the most promising for admission into the college. The report further stated, that the pecuniary support received for the institution in England and in India, had not reached their expectations, or their exigencies. Of the sum of 24,824/. expended on the in- stitution since its foundation, during ten years, only 9224/. 394 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. had been received from the public. The contributions of the missionaries had therefore amounted to 15,600/. The departure for Europe of many of the friends of the insti- tution, and the death of others, as well as the increase of demands on public liberality, had reduced the sub- scriptions to such an extent, as to leave the college more than 400/. in arrears, which the missionaries had been re- quired to supply from their own funds. Towards the close of the present year, Mr. Eustace Carey's pamphlet on the Serampore controversy, reached Mr Eustace Scramporc. The extract which he had given JefzfsEm''' fi'om Dr. Marshman's letter to Dr. Ryland in ^°'^* 1812, created the greatest surprise in the mind of Dr. Carey. He asserted that he was no party to it, that he had never heard of its existence, and was certain it had passed from the recollection of his colleague as soon as it was written. He did not consider that a loose ex- pression like this, in a private letter, could be considered as laying him and his colleagues under any legal or moral obligation, but the publication of the extract under the sanction of the committee, evidently showed the value which they attached to it, and it was revolting to his feelings to hold property of any kind to which there was even a constructive claim of this nature. He was desirous of facing whatever responsibility might be considered to arise from that unfortunate expression, boldly and honestly. He yjroposed, therefore, that all the property mentioned in Dr. Marshman's schedule, which had not been ex- pended in the mission, and was still tangible, the punches, the library, and the museum, should be resigned to the Society, and the value of all the stock which had been used up, made good. The proposition met with the ready concurrence of his colleagues, and also of Dr. Marshman, after his return to Serampore, and the offer was made in a mode which will be hereafter explained. In the month of December of the present year. Dr. Carey proposed that their commercial union or copartner- 1828.] HISTORY OF THE SERA^IPORE MISSION. 395 ship should be allowed to terminate before its legal ex- piration. In a letter to Mr. Marsh man he remarked, that in the early period of the mission, that union Dr. careypm- . 1 ' r 1 j_l poses toanticipa'e was necessary towards carryini^ lorward the the termination ... I'll 1 "' '^'^''' commer- various objects ni which they were engaged, ciai union. and there was reason to believe that their undertakings had been thereby advanced, but the object of the mission might now be carried out as advantageously, and perhaps more so, by a different arrangement. " In making this proposal," he writes, "no one will suppose that anything is intended like a disunion of the mission, my object being merely that of carrying it forward in a simpler, though equally efficacious, mode." He proposed that each of the three members should contribute individually to the mission instead of throwing their funds into a com- mon stock, and that the expenditure should be under their joint control, in unison with Mr. Mack. He offered to send 840/. a year to the mission fund, from his own allowances. The proposal originated in a desire to be released, at his advanced age, from the anxieties in- separable from a large establishment liable to be affected by external circumstances, and his colleague, — Dr. Marsh- man then being absent in England, — could not refuse his consent to an arrangement which appeared important to his comfort. Dr. Carey desired that a fair valuation should be made of their joint assets, to await Dr. Marsh- man's return. At the close of the present year, the balance sheet was drawn up under his supervision, and it served to strengthen his wishes to retire from their re- sponsibilities. It then appeared that their liabilities ex- ceeded the entire value of their stock and credits by 900/. Such was the actual condition of the establishment at Serampore, at the time when the monthly organ of the committee was charging them with having *' amassed ex- tensive property, and thereby enriched themselves and families, while they had been unmindful of the great cause to which they originally devoted themselves." 396 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XYI. Dr. Marshman landed at Serampore on the 19th of May, looking, as his friends remarked with deep regret, Dr. Marshman ''fifteen years older." So completely had his lands in India, ^j^^ y^^^^^ unhittged by the treatment he had experienced in England, that when the subject of their embarrassments came under discussion at their first meet- ing for business, he observed, that he could scarcely say he regretted the circumstance, because it served to refute at least one of the calumnies which had been propagated, that they were rolling in wealth. He was greeted on his arrival by a letter from Dr. Judson, the apostle of Burmah, who had removed his residence to Moulmein. " I hasten to welcome your return with gratitude to God, who has preserved you through all your wanderings, and brought you back in safety to the bosom of your family, and to the scene of your labours and successes in His cause. Different has been my lot. Stript of all that was dear to me on earth, induced to quit the field where I had long laboured, I find myself a solitary wanderer, in a new and until lately uninhabited spot. But I hope I have the same heaven in prospect, and that there, I shall met with a few Burmans and Talings as you with a multitude from all the tribes of India." But the letters which followed him from England, regarding the state of public feeling and the prospect of support, were exceedingly disheartening. One friend writes to Dr. Carey: "Every engine has been at work that malice could invent and falsehood apply to the ruin of Dr. Marshman's reputation.'* An- other states, that whenever a warm friend of Serampore was found to be active on its behalf, he was said to be doing the greatest injury to the cause. The star of the society was in the ascendant. An extraordinary eflfort was made to relieve the encumbrance on its funds, and the sum of 4000/. was at once raised. At the same time, Mr. Hope, the treasurer of the Serampore Mission, in- formed Dr. Marshman that he had received J5L in the course of three months, and had no intimation of succour 1829,] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 397 from any other quarter except a legacy of 100/. contin- gent on tlie death of an old lady, and another of 300/,, which he hoped woidd be soon available. During this period of depression, Dr. Carey and his colleagues were pursuing their labours with increased ani- mation. It is impossible to compare the oppo- .. ,. I'T^il'l Vigorous prose- sition then' cause encountered m Enoiand with cntion of their. ^ labours in India. the energy they exhibited in India without ad- miring that indomitable spirit of perseverance with which their minds were animated. At the beginning of the year they occupied a new station in Assam. To the south of Calcutta, in tlie neighbourhood of Barripore, a body of more than thirty natives had thrown off caste and asked for Christian instruction. A young man of the name of Rabeholm, a member of the church in the Bow Bazar, then under the pastoral care of Mr. Robinson, offered his services as a missionary, and a new station was immediately formed in that locality. A native itine- rant, a Christian of long standing and a man of inoffen- sive manners, was sent to reside in the village of Sulkea with the new converts, whose affections he soon gained ; but his active ministrations gave umbrage to the heathen men of the village. One Sunday he had passed the day at Sulkea, and conducted divine service twice in the pre- sence of many of the villagers, who remained in conver- sation with him to a late hour. On the following night a number of men entered his house and barbarously mur- dered him with clubs. The case was fully investigated in the court, and the guilt of two of the ringleaders brought home to them, but they escaped condign punishment in consequence of a difference of opinion between the judge and the Mahomedan law officer as to the extent of their complicity ; but the searching and protracted investigation struck awe into the minds of the violent, and gave heart to those who were well disposed in that little community. Mr. Garrett, the judge of Burrisal, and a most intimate and affectionate friend of the missionaries, had raised a 398 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. subscription of 1350/. for tlie establishment of schools at that station, and he offered to place it at their disposal, that they might apply the interest of it to the object in view. They lost no time in sending Mr. John Smith, one of the most advanced of the college students, to oc- cupy the station both as a schoolmaster and a missionary. This was the origin of the station of Burrisal, now one of the most flourishing on the list of the Baptist Missionary Society. The number of stations connected with Seram- pore was thus increased to twelve, and the expenditure to 1528/., to which was added the sum of 386/., the expense of the stations placed provisionally on the society's funds, which the missionaries were required to refund after the disruption in 1827' The sum collected in England in 1827 and 1828 did not exceed 658/.; and, after crediting 1131/. from the contributions of the missionaries at Seram- pore, there was still a deficit at the close of the year, in- cluding the balance at the beginning of it, of 1138/. The number of schools at the stations amounted to fifteen, with an average attendance of nearly a thousand scholars. The female schools at the different stations numbered more than six hundred scholars. The publication and distribution of tracts exhibited equal signs of activity. The tracts printed during the year, in the Bengalee, the Hindee, the Oordoo, the Punjabee, and the Burmese lan- guages, some of considerable size, amounted to 18,000. Towards the expense of these tracts they had received a donation of 50/. from the Religious Tract Society, and a legacy of four rupees bequeathed by one of the Arra- canese itinerants. In the college department the number of students on the foundation was forty-four, of whom ten were in European habits, and had gone through a course of classical instruction in Latin and Greek under Mr. Mack, and attended Dr. Carey's divinity lectures, and a series of lectures by Dr. Marshman on the different sys- tems of ancient and modern idolatry. The native Chris- tian students continued to pursue their Sanscrit studies ; but the systematic cultivation of English was now intro- 18'29.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. 399 (iuced, and gradually superseded the Oriental classics. Mr. Howe, the son of a deceased missionary, and the senior English student, was appointed English tutor, and all the native Christian students were required to attend his class, which was likewise opened to heathen non-resident stu- dents. The applications for admission were considerable, and rapidly increased to hundreds. Subscriptions to the extent of .546/. had been received for the college in 1827 and the following year, but the balance against the insti- tution was 571/. Including the Benevolent Institution, which was likewise in debt, the entire amount of arrears with which the year closed, was 2300/. The year 1829 has been rendered ever memorable in the annals of British India by that intrepid act of mercy, the abolition of suttees. The question was H • 1 i/V'ii • n 1 AboHtion of sut- nrst introduced omcially to the notice or the tees, state of the J question ui India Supreme Council in the minute recorded by a"'! '" England. Mr. George Udny in 1805, on the eve of Lord Welles- ley's depaiture. His successors, Lord Minto and Lord Hastings, were deterred from abolishing this atrocious practice by the dread of a commotion. They were, more- over, assured that it came within the scope of that toleration of Hindoo observances to which the Indian administration had been pledged by the Parliament of England ; and the odium of continuing to permit it appeared thus to lie at the door of the controlling authorities at home. In 1824 Lord Amherst assured the Court of Directors that the diminution of the rite would be peculiarly acceptable to him and the members of council, but the adoption of any measure of importance regarding it was peculiarly inexpedient at that time. Like other great measures of improvement, it was always inexpedient till it was accomplished. Lord Amherst made an attempt to reduce the number of victims by prohibiting any coercion at any stage of the proceedings. It was found, however, that the attention of the country was only drawn the more in- tensely to the practice by the appearance of Government on the scene, and that the presence of the police, and 400 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. occasionally of the magistrate, only tended to render the act more solemn and august. It was even asserted by some of the magistrates, and by not a few of the observing natives, that the number of suttees had increased since the interference of the state, because the public authori- ties were represented as giving their sanction to every case of immolation which was not prevented. A Chris- tian government was thus represented as encouraging the most atrocious rite of Hindoo superstition. The duty of ascertaining, either by personal inquiry or through agents, whether the act was voluntary, had been imposed on the magistrates, and they were required to give their official permission to burn the living with the dead when there was no pretext for refusing it. Their minds revolted from the odious task, and they adopted every expedient in their power to defeat the intention of the widow, and occasion- ally ventured to exert a vigour beyond the laws by taking upon themselves the responsibility of peremptorily pro- hibiting the act. The question was then referred by the disappointed relatives to a higher tribunal, the judges of which were placed in the dilemma of conniving at a breach of the law, or branding an act of humanity as a misdemeanour. As a matter of necessity they upheld the law, and censured the magistrate, and the evil became indefinitely aggravated. With regard to the views of Leadenhall Street, Mr. Poynder, the indefatigable oppo- nent of suttees in the Court of Proprietors, had carried a resolution in March, 1827, denouncing the rite, and directing the Court of Directors to forward sucii instruc- tions to India as might be deemed expedient to accom- plish the abolition, consistent with all practicable attention to the feelings of the natives, Mr. Poynder subsequently explained to the Court that nothing could be further from his mind in proposing the resolution than the employment of force. The Court, thus urged on by their constituents, sent a despatch to India expressive of their abhorrence of the rite, but stating that they were 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 401 fully sensible of the many embarrassing considerations with which the question was practically beset. They were not prepared for immediate and peremptory abo- lition, but looked to tiie progress of education and the diffusion of knowledge for the gradual extinction of this barbarous rite. Such was the state of the question at home and in India when Lord William Bentinck landed in Calcutta, bringing with him the stern and unalterable determina- , , 1111 • • r 1 Lord William tion that there should be no vvaitmg for the Brnunckcon- <^ suits tlie civil progress of education, or the development of offi^i'S^e favourable circumstances, but that this atrocious ''^'"''" rite should cease absolutely and immediately. As soon as he had had time to look about him, he made prepara- tions for this great measure by seeking tlie opinion of the most eminent of the servants of Government. Perceiving that the subject had been agitated in the Court of Pro- prietors, he immediately sent a private letter to Mr. Astell, the chairman, to this effect : — "I do not believe that among the most anxious advocates of the abolition any one of them could feel more deeply than I do the dreadful responsibihty hanging over my head in this world and the next if, as the Governor-General of India, I was to consent to the continuation of this practice for one moment longer, not than our security, but than the o^eal Jioppiness and permanent welfare of the native population rendered indispensable. I determined, therefore, before I came to India, that I would instantly take up the ques- tion, that I would come to as early a determination on it as a mature consideration, involving so many and such distant references, would allow, and, having made my determination, yea or no, to stand by it, and set my con- science at rest. So I have proceeded. A question of this nature cannot be hurried. Alarm must not be excited by improperly and out of due course giving publicity even to the existence of our intention on the subject." He wished, therefore, that those who had taken up the VOL. II. D D 402 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. question in England would suspend the discussion for the present, because it might tend to embarrass the measure he had in view. He said that he had sent a confidential statement to the officers of the greatest experience and judgm.ent, requesting their opinion as to the effect which the abolition might produce on the minds of the native army. The circular, which was sent to forty-three mili- tary officers, stated that " the feeling of abhorrence for this abominable rite must be extreme to the Englishman and the Christian, who by tolerating sanctions, and by sanctioning renders himself responsible before God for this impious and inhuman sacrifice, not of one but of thousands of victims. But the most important feature in the whole case was this : Would the total abolition of the usage create anxiety and alarm among the sepoys under the apprehension of other innovations?" The replies which were received presented various shades of opinion ; some officers reprobated any interference in the rite, and maintained that it would sap the foundations of our authority ; others wished it to be extinguished gra- dually and indirectly ; but twenty-eight out of forty-three gave their suffrage for the immediate and peremptory abolition of the practice, and maintained that no feeling of disquietude would thereby be created among the sepoys. Lord William Bentinck's chief difficulty ap- pears to have had reference to the sentiments of the native army, and that difficulty was thus removed. A similar circular was also sent to twelve of the most experienced officers in the civil service, and to one of the merchants of Calcutta, Mr. Calder, who happened to be sheriff for the year. It stated that the Governor-General thought the practice ought to be abolished, though not without the fullest deliberation. It had been suggested to Govern- ment whether it might not be expedient, in the case of abolition, to couple it with the abolition of the pilgrim taxes. Those who offered this advice expressed their conviction that the pilgrims, after having been gratuitously 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MSSION. 403 admitted to the shrines, would, on their return home, spread the praises of the Government through the country, and counteract the misrepresentations of those who might be offended by the prohibition of suttees. Others, however, maintained that the repeal of the pil- grim tax would close a very productive source of revenue — about 38,000/. a year — and that it ought not to be relinquished unless it would confer some important boon on the parties to be relieved. They maintained, moreover, that the repeal of the tax would not be so popular as some had imagined ; that a slight payment at places of reputed sanctity had a tendency to raise their fame, and enhance the merit of pilgrimage ; and that the Hindoo was apt to argue tlie dignity of places of religious resort from the attention paid by the ruling power to the regula- tion of these estabiislmients. These different arguments were submitted to the consideration of the civil officers, whose opinion was sought. The replies from the civil and military functionaries were placed in the hands of Captain — the late General — Benson, to be analysed and classified. He was the military secretary of the Governor- General, and took the deepest interest in this work of mercy, and was indefatigably employed for fifteen months in correspondence with various public officers on the question. He reported that, of the twelve civilians to whom reference had been made, four were opposed to all interference, but they admitted that it might be exercised with perfect safety, though not without creating disaf- fection. Nine were for the immediate and absolute pro- hibition of the rite, and of these only two urged the concurrent repeal of the pilgrim tax ; the others asserted that the repeal would not conciliate the native mind to the abolition, though they desired to see the tax abolished on the high moral consideration of our Christian duty. These communications furnished much valuable infor- mation regarding the question of suttees. It appeared that Sir Charles Metcalfe had never permitted one to take 40-1 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. place in any district in the north-west under his control. Mr. Butterworth Bayley had been equally successful in resisting the practice in his own district in Information con- j-j ■, riii .1 i •! , ,i tainedinii.ecom- bensjal. Ihese ffentlemen were liaT)pily at the munii-ai ions made . '-^ "^ ., GenwiiT"""'" ^^^^^ members of council, and heartily co-oper- ated in Lord William Bentinck's bold and bene- volent views. In a district totally disorganised, and in "which our authority was little more than nominal, Mr. Barwell had prohibited these human sacrifices with perfect impunity. In 1798, Sir John Anstruther arrived in Calcutta as chief justice of the Supreme Court, with fresh English notions, and having heard that a woman had been burnt alive within the limits of his jurisdiction, sent immediately for the magistrate, and expressed his surprise that such an atrocious act should have been allowed. The magistrate endeavoured to extenuate it by a reference to the traditionary policy of Government. Sir John told him that sucii acts should not be permitted where he possessed any authority, and that whoever was found to be a party to any suttee in Calcutta should be indicted as a principal for murder in the Supreme Court. The practice immediately ceased within its limits ; but in the course of eighteen years, a hundred and thirty widows were taken into the neicihbourino' territories of the East India Company, and burnt. The King of Oude had put a stop to the practice in his own dominions. The Peishwa and the Rajah of Tanjore, both Hindoo princes, had pro- hibited it. The opinion of Mr. Walter Ewer, the super- intendent of police in the lower provinces, derived par- ticular value from his official position. He affirmed that the total abolition of the usage would be regarded with perfect indifference by the great body of Hindoos through- out the country, and that it would be opposed only by the natives of Calcutta. That city, he remarked, was not only the chief seat of Government, and of all public insti- tutions, but the focus of opposition to every benevolent attempt to ameliorate the condition of the people. He 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 405 stated, with great truth, that while many rajahs and men of substance subscribed to schools and to other benevolent objects, there was not a single instance of their having ever used the smallest effort to prevent a suttee. He con- curred in opinion with those who affirmed, that so long as the sepoys were left in the enjoyment of their religious privileges, and their personal interests were not touched, they would never trouble themselves about the suttee question, or any innovation of the kind. He also urged on the consideration of Government the inconsistency of going on year after year expressing abhorrence of the practice, and yet taking no steps to abrogate it. The arguments generally used against abolition may be gathered from the reply to the queries sent in by the ablest, the most learned, and the most in- fluential of the officers who resisted it, and and'Tgainst' 1 • • 11111 1 1 ^ abolition. whose opinion would, doubtless, have deterred a less resolute governor-general than Lord William Ben- tinck. He was opposed to any authoritative interference with the practice. He would warmly advocate the abo- lition if he were not deeply impressed with the serious evils it would entail. It would inspire extensive dissatis- faction and distrust, alienate in a great degree the affection of the natives from their rulers, and materially retard the progress of those better feelings and sounder notions which were gaining ground. The sacrifice of infants at Saugor, the prohibition of infanticide, and the execution of brahmins, which had been adduced to show the safety of our interference with the laws and practices of the Hindoo religion, were not parallel cases. The analogies were fallacious, and it was a dangerous evasion of the real difff- cidties of the question to adduce them as proofs of the impunity with which suttees might be abolished. He ridiculed the idea that this rule could be opposed without doing violence to the conscientious belief of every order of Hindoos. It would be a direct and unequivocal inter- ference with the Hindoo religion. It would be a violation D D 3 406 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. of our pledge. It would diffuse an extensive dread and detestation of British authority. As to Rammohun Roy and others, who upheld the abolition, they were a mere handful of sectaries, and Government was required to lesislate for the Hindoos at laro-e. " If matters," he remarked, " be left on their present footing, I hope many years will not elapse before important improvements will be effected ; but I should rather expect retrocession ; I should rather look for the deterioration of the national character, if the judicious system hitherto pursued be departed from, if the professions of religious toleration be contradicted by our practice, and the Hindoos learn to question the inviolability of British faith." Such were the arguments adduced by the most learned and able of the anti-abolitionists, the most profound of Orientalists, and the great depository of the old traditionary policy. The arguments in favour of the prohibition may be gathered from the following minute of one of the most distinguished functionaries of Government, Sir William Macnaghten. who was also one of the most accomplished Oriental scholars of the day. ** The question as to the suppression of suttees may I think be resolved into three distinct considerations. First, the moral right (in which term I include obligation) of interference ; Maciiaghten's secondlv, thc probable efficacy of such interference ; opinion. ii-ni i ^• • ^ t {• • t i n and tnu'dly, the political expediency ot it. in tlie first place, then, it will hardly be denied that practices, whether carried on under the colour of religion, or other pretence, which tend to shock and confound the laws of nature, should be suppressed. To the ruling power must necessarily belong the power of examining and pronouncing judgment on such practices, and of banishing them from society. Considered as an abstract question of mo- rality, the ruling authority Is criminal where It neglects to exercise that power for the suppression of practices which are Inimical to the welfare of the people committed to its protection. On this principle the British Government undertook to attack the Hindoo code of laws In one of its strongest holds, and to treat the person of a brahmin with no more respect than that of the vilest outcast 1829.] UISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 407 who bows down to hiin in adoration. I am not an advocate for drawing nice distinctions in a case like this. In my opinion, between religious recommendation and precept, though there may be a distinction, there is no substantial difference. I would go the full length of admitting that the sacrifice of suttee is a religious act of the highest possible merit, according to the notions of the Hindoos, and that we can derive from their code no pretext whatever for its suppression ; but the British Govern- ment has just as much right to save a woman from dying as it has to inflict the punishment of death on a brahmin, and no more : in other words, both are repugnant to the laws of the Hindoos, and both are consonant to the laws of nature. Secondly, as to tlie probable efficacy of a prohibitory enactment, there can, I think, be but little doubt. I am aware of the danger of interferins: with men's belief. I know that bigotry becomes more obstinate from opposition, and that any attempt to smother superstition would, in all likelihood, be only adding fuel to the flames. I admit that it is unjust as well as unwise to interfere with religious creeds, however absurd they may seem ; but there is a wide difference between freedom of thinking and licentiousness in acting. Let the Hindoo believe in his three hundred and thirty millions of gods until it may please the Supreme Being to reclaim him from his idolatry ; but let him not immolate thousands of helpless females on the altar of fanaticism, in defiance of the eternal laws of nature and the immutable principles of justice. Were this prac- tice prohibited by a penal enactment, I am convinced it would cease altogether, for there would be no inducement to its con- tinuance. The people would not care for the performance of the rite if they were compelled to stealth and secrecy ; nor, indeed, is it of such a nature as would easily admit of concealment. The very essence of it consists in publicity. Take away the pomp and circumstance, the ostentation and display, and it would soon cease to be the imposing and alluring ceremony Avhich now dazzles and destroys the infatuated victims who fall within the sphere of its influence. I am, of course, supposing that the prohi- bitory law would be submitted to without resistance; and this leads me to the third consideration, as to the political expediency of interference. Whence is the danger to be apprehended ? Look to the genius of the people and their past history. Under their Mussulman masters they tamely endured all sorts of insults to their religion, and violations of their prejudices. We have no D D 4 408 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XVI. record of any general or organised disaffection. We read that their temples were polluted and destroyed, and that many of them were compelled to become converts to the creed of their oppressors. Neither tyranny nor endurance could well go farther than this. Again, by whom is this barbarous rite chiefly respected ? Not by the hardy and warlike Hindoo of the western provinces, but by the sleek and timid inhabitant of Bengal, by the fat and greasy citizen of Calcutta, whose very existence depends on the prosperity of the British Government ; by the wealthy native, who will invite Europeans to an entertainment, and sit by with, pride and satis- faction while they are feasting on the object of his worship, the mother of his Pantheon. But there is no need to call in the aid of analogy. Look to the conduct of the magistrate of Moradabad, and the recent prohibitory edict of the Dacca authorities. Did these and other similar acts of rashness and violence create a murmur or produce any mischievous consequences ? I remember to have read, somewhere in Orme's * History of India,' of a drunken sailor having climbed up a fort against which we were makino; the most cautious advances, and it was then discovered that the enemy had evacuated it. Is there not some resemblance traceable ? Certain of your functionaries have, in the intoxication of unauthorised zeal, rushed into the citadel of Hindoo supersti- tion, and the folly of their act has proved that the place, if not evacuted by prejudice, was at least considered not worth con- tending for. I cannot, howevei', but respect and admire the wisdom and the caution which dictate the ])olicy of non-interfer- ence. Were the fate of the question in my hands, I might per- haps shrink from the performance of that which I now advocate. The individual entrusted with the administration of the affairs of this stupendous empire might well reply to all enthusiasts, as Lord Carteret is reported to have done on a less important occasion, ' Res duras et novitas regni me talia cogunt.' The supremacy of our dominion may be said to have been only lately established ; and it is still to be remembered that the attempt to suppress suttees (though in itself it might be received with indifference) might be made the rallying point for disaffection, if any does exist in the mind of the native soldiery, or of the population at larwe, against the British Government. But supposing the army to be satisfied, and the community to feel that they are secure in the enjoyment of their civil rights and privileges, I do not think that the abolition of suttees would be followed by any show of resistance, or even by a murmur." 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 409 Still Sir William hesitated to commit the Government to an irrevocable edict of abolition, which it must main- tain, if necessary, at the point of the sword. He wished to prepare the native mind for absolute prohibition by throwing obstacles in the way of consummating the sacrifice, or, as he expressed himself, by a series of an- noyances, the result of which he believed would be to reduce the number of victims to a tenth, after which the total extinction of the rite would be easy. Lord William Bentinck resolved, however, that there should be no farther temporising with this foul practice, and he made up his mind to immediate and obstacle compulsory abolition. But he was arrested at battaordJr the threshold of his resolution, by the disaffection created in the army by the "half batta" order, which he had enforced against his own better judgment, in obedience to the repeated injunctions of his masters in Leadenhall Street. The final orders of the Court were dated the 28th of May, 1828, while he was on his way to India, and they were to take effect from the 1st of the succeeding January. By this order the allowances of the European officers of the army, usually denominated batta, w^ere to be subjected to a large reduction at all stations within 400 miles of the Presidency. This was one of the very few unjust and injudicious orders which had emanated from the Court of Directors since they had been invested with the attributes of sovereignty in the East. It im- perilled the attachment and confidence of the army by a drivelling economy, the utmost result of which was a saving of about 18,000/. a year. The officers were ex- asperated to a degree which had not been witnessed for sixty years, since the great mutiny in the days of Clive. One of the officers stationed at Dumdum, went so far as to declare on his honour, in a letter sent to one of the journals, that if there appeared an enemy in the field, he did not believe there was a single officer or regiment who wovdd give or obey the word of command to march 410 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. against them. This was doubtless an exaggerated repre- sentation of the feelings of the army, but it will serve to show the height of irritation to which they had been wrought, and which carried them to the verge of insub- ordination. Contributions were raised throughout the army to meet the expense of sending a delegate to re- monstrate with the India authorities in England ; and it appeared as if the bonds of discipline could no longer be maintained. Lord William J3entinck feared lest the dis- content which pervaded the officers should unsettle the minds of the men, and he deemed it prudent to suspend the progress of the suttee question. But on the 29th of September, he wrote privately to the chairman of the Court of Directors, that although he had been debarred from bringing the question of abolition before the council from this cause, he was happy to say that he had just received an assurance from the adjutant-general of the army, that " there was nothing to be apprehended on this point." He intended, therefore, within a fortnight to submit a proposition for the prohibition of suttees by public enactment throughout the Bengal Presidency, and he was in hopes, unless anything unforeseen occurred, that this stain upon our Indian administration would be removed by the unanimous concurrence of the council. But one obstacle had no sooner disappeared, than a new and more formidable obstacle arose. The draft of Fresh obstacle thc reguhitiou WRS sent to Sir Charles Edward Parliament? Grc}', thc chlcf-j ustlcc of thc Suprcmc Court, a profound and accomplished lawyer, and also, by virtue of his official position, the first legal authority in India. Sir Charles was as hearty in the cause of abolition as Lord William Bentinck himself, and at that momentous period co-operated with him most cordially and energetically in this great work of mercy. But the chief-justice was obliged to look at the question with the eye of a lawyer, and he could not overlook the fact that the Act 37 Geo. III. ch. 142, sect. 12, presented the most serious 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 411 obstacle to the prohibition of suttees. That notable Act ran thus, "And in order tliat due regard may be had to the civil and religions usages of the natives, be it enacted that the rights and authorities of fathers of families, ac- cordingly as the same may be exercised by the Gentoo or the Mahommedan law, shall be preserved to them within their famihes respectively, nor shall the same be violated or interrupted by any of the proceedings of the said courts, nor shall any act done in consequence of the rule or law of caste, so far as respects the members of the same family only, be deemed a crime, although the same may not be justifiable by the laws of England." Sir Charles stated in his private letter to Lord William, that this Act was "the best justification of the Government for having so long permitted this horrid practice, and that it placed Government in a serious dilemma." After farther con- sideration of the question, he again wrote to Lord William. " I am still of opinion that tiie letter of the statute forbids Government to punish as a crime anything done by a Hindoo, not only which is enjoined, but wiiich is recom- mended by the Vedas .... Considering, however, what was the subject of legislation, how little was known by Parliament of the usages they were sanctioning, and what was the extent of discretion which ought to have been left to the Indian government, I am of opinion that the statute ought to be construed with an im])lied exception of such practices as are contrary to the laws of nature ; and that suttees so long endured are of that class." But Lord William Bentinck was not to be deterred even by an Act of Parliament, and he resolved to persevere in the cause of benevolence, trusting, as suggested by Sir Charles Grey, to the consideration of Parliament, whenever the subject might be brought forward in the House, for an act of indemnity. It can scarcely fail to be considered as one of the anomalies of the present day, that sixty years after the passing of the Act of 1797? which was found, unin- tentionally, to protect suttees, and to perpetuate slavery 412 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. through India, it should have been suggested to the House of Commons to incorporate that most untoward and inauspicious section, the offspring of profound ignor- ance, in the India Bill of 1857 ' The memorable regulation prohibiting suttees at the Bengal Presidency, was passed on the 4th of December, Actfortheprohi- with tlic cordial concurrence of Sir Charles bition of suttees, ^gtcalfc aud Mr. Butterworth Bayley, the two members of council. The preamble was the most delicate and difficult portion of it, and the original draft is in the handwriting of Sir Charles Grey, with numerous emendations by Lord William Bentinck. Every sentence and every expression in it appears to have been re- peatedly weighed with the greatest attention, and with the most anxious care. The regulation itself was simple and decisive. It declared the practice of suttee illegal, and punishable by the criminal courts. Every one aiding and abetting a suttee was to be deemed guilty of culpable homicide, and subjected, on conviction, to fine or imprison- ment, or both. To prevent any misapprehensions in the native mind, it was deemed important to publish the original and the translation simultaneously. Mr. Henry Shakespear, the government secretary, on leaving the council chamber on Saturday afternoon, despatched it to Dr. Carey to be translated into Bengalee. It was twenty- five years since he had sent in to Lord Wellesley the first remonstrance on the subject, and it is easy to conceive the delio'ht with which he now learned the consumma- tion of his wishes. Every day's delay in the promul- gation of the regulation might cost the life of two victims ; knowing that the sabbath was made for man, he sent for his pundit, instead of going into the pulpit, and com- pleted the translation before night. As soon as the regu- lation was passed. Lord William Bentinck sent a private communication to the chairman, requesting him to com- municate the event to the Court of Directors. He stated, that he had found the freedom of the press of 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 413 great use on this occasion, by giving free vent to feelings and opinions which had served to dispel ah mystery and uncertainty as to ukerior intentions. It was not for iiim, he said, to undervahie the merit of this act of the Go- vernment, but honesty and truth compeUed him to say, that there never was a greater bugbear than this question, when thoroughly sifted, turned out to be, and he could not foresee the least inconvenience to the public interests. Thus was consummated this great act of humanity, which has shed an imperishable lustre on the British administra- tion in India. For the first time during twenty centuries, as it was remarked at the time with exultation, " the Ganges flowed unblooded to the sea." To Lord William Bentinck belongs the exclusive glory of this achievement. In 1827, Mr. Poynder brought forward a motion in the Court of Proprietors, to recommend the Directors to put a stop to the practice, but they opposed the motion, almost to a man. To the last, they not only refused to give any encouragement to the abolition, but declared that it would entail the loss of India. Lord William was not ignorant of the feeling of timidity with which they approached the question, and he acted in the spirit of a sound discretion, in not waiting for their concurrence in so bold a measure as the immediate and compulsory ex- tinction of the rite. The abolition created a deep sensation in the rich and influential circle of native society in Calcutta. Ram- mohun Roy was anxious to strengthen the hands C r^ ^li j_1 'Ti Effect of the abo- or Government, and to prevent alarm in Lnjr- luion in native _ *^^ circles. land, by presenting Lord William Bentinck with an address of thanks from the liberal natives of rank in the metropolis. On the other hand, the ortho- dox Hindoos, comprising the great majority of the upper classes, the great landholders, the wealthy merchants and bankers, and the most influential brahmins, were astounded and enraged by the })romptitude and decision of the Go- vernor-General. They determined to get up a counter 414 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. memorial, denouncing the measure, and demanding the restoration of the rite. They engaged the services of Mr. Bathie, an attorney, who happened to be deputy-sheriff for the year, and endeavoured through him to obtain legal assistance in drawing up their remonstrance. But no barrister in Calcutta could be found to barter his conscience for pelf, as we learn from a letter of the sheriff, Mr. Calder, to Capt. Benson, the military secretary : " I saw the draft of a petition a few hours ago, in the hands of my worthy deputy, unwarranted by the fiat of a single barrister, for no one would receive the price of blood which he held in his hands in the shape of a large fee." But the natives obtained the assistance of one or more European gentlemen in Calcutta, who thought fit to resent this interference with the ancient and venerable institutions of Hindooism, and the Hindoo memorial ac- cordingly presented a motley mixture of Asiatic sophistry and European argumentation. It stated that the Hindoo religion was based on immemorial usage as well as on precept, both being equally sacred ; that Hindoo widows immolated themselves under the sanction of immemorial usage ; that the act was not only a sacred duty, but a high privilege; that the interference of Government was an unjust and intolerant dictation in matters of conscience ; and that the measure would be regarded with horror and dismay throughout the Company's territories, as the signal of a universal attack on all they revered as sacred. The memorial farther stated, that inquiry had been made by the most learned and eminent of the Company's servants, Mr. Warren Hastings, Mr. Charles Wilkins, and Mr. Jonathan Duncan, who were satisfied with the validity of the laws regarding suttee, and were contented to allow it to continue. It then turned round on the mis- sionaries, and charged them with having endeavoured to persuade the government in the time of Lord Hastings and Lord Amherst, that the sacrifice was not voluntary, on which orders were issued to the magistrate to prevent com- 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 415 pulsion, but the magistrates reported that the widows had in every instance proceeded cheerfully to the funeral pile. The Governor-General was then reminded of the various enactments of the Parliament of Great Britain, nnder the authority of which the East India Company itself existed, " the substance of which was, that there should be no interference in any shape with the religion or customs of the Hindoos. Those Acts were conceived in the spirit of the truest wisdom, and had never been infringed by the wisest of their rulers. Those Acts con- stituted a solemn pledge and charter from their rulers, on the preservation of which depended rights more sacred in their eyes than those of property, and even life itself." The most strenuous efforts were made to obtain sio;- natures to this memorial, and to prevent any accession to the address of thanks. For several weeks the 1 • /-^ 1 , , • , -1 . struggles bp- native cu'cle in Calcutta was agitated as in- twcei, the native C advocates :md tensely as any community in England during a aSE"'.'"^ great political contest. The great object of Ilammohun Roy was to obtain the adhesion of pundits held in public veneration to the cause of abolition, but some who promised their support, yielded to intimidation and signed the anti-abolition petition. Foremost among the agents of that party was Ram Komul-sen. Seven years before he had nobly stood forth as the champion of humanity and the uncompromising opponent of suttees. He now endeavoured to uphold the cause of immolation, and to enlist the pundits of the Hindoo college, in which he held an important and influential office, on the same side, " out of compliment to his European patron." Eight hundred signatures were at length procured to the me- morial in favour of suttees, and it was presented to Lord William Bentinck on the lUh of January, accompanied with a paper of authorities drawn up by "pundits and brahmins and teachers of holy life and known learning." The Governor-General's reply was drawn up by Sir Charles Grey, and amended by Lord AVilliam Bentinck. 416 HISTORY OF THE SERAIMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVI. In reference to the allusion which the memorialists had made to the Acts of Parhament which were construed to prohibit the abolition of suttees, Lord William Bentlnck stated, "if the petitioners should still be of opinion that the late regulation was not in conformity with the enact- ments of the Imperial Parliament, they had an appeal to the King in council, and the Governor- General would be most happy to forward it." On the l6th of January, two counter addresses were presented to the Governor-General, one from the liberal native friends of Rammohun Roy, to the number of three hundred, who offered their grateful acknowledgments for the abolition. The other was from the Christian inhabi- tants of Calcutta, thankmg him for having obliterated the stigma attached to the British name by the guilty per- mission of this diabolical practice. The next day, the orthodox Hindoos held a meeting, when the answer of the Governor-General was read, and Fon..tionofthe it was rcsolvcd to appeal the^ question to Dhutmasubha. j^j^giand. A socicty was immediately formed with the special object of restoring the rite of suttee to India, and of protecting the general interests of Hindooism. This was the memorable Dhurma Subha, of which the able and astute editor of the " Chundrika " was appointed secretary. He undertook to organise the opposition to the abolition of suttees, and for more than ten years worked this association with the greatest efficiency in the support of Hindoo orthodoxy. At this meeting a sum of 1120/. was subscribed, in sums ranging from 100/. to 250/. to support the objects of the society, of which, however, not more than one half was ever paid up. Week after week, the editor of the " Chundrika " endea- voured in his columns to keep up the agitation which had been raised, and to inflame the public mind. The " Durpun," the Serampore weekly journal, had recently appeared with an English version in alternate columns, which had trebled its circulation, and given it great po- the act of abolition. 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 417 j)ularity among the intelligent natives. The " Durpun " strenuously defended the abolition, and presented a succession of arguments in favour of it, and endeavoured to counteract the assertion which was industriously pro- pagated, that Government intended to subvert the Hindoo creed, and had begun with suttees. The contest between the two journals on this subject, was sharply maintained for many weeks. The Dhurma Subha then threatened to excommunicate every one who should subscribe to, or even be found to read, newspapers or books in which the Hindoo religion was assailed, in other words, in which the abolition was justified. But the subscription list of the " Durpun " was not affected in the smallest degree by this interdict. The abolition of suttees was the boldest assault which had yet been made by the British Government on the religious prejudices of the natives, and the Re,^,]t„f result of it was watched with deep interest, from the conviction that it would serve as a beacon to direct our future progress in the career of improvement. The opponents of the measure, both European and native, predicted that it would prove a failure, and at the same time tend to sap the foundation of our empire in the East. These gloomy forebodings were happily disproved by the event. Two or three acts of female immolation were perpetrated within two years of the prohibition, when the parties were enabled to anticipate the arrival, or to evade the vigilance, of the police ; but the condign punishment of all who were accessory to the deed effec- tually prevented a repetition of the attempt. In five years suttees became matter of history ; and in less than twenty years, it was affirmed by natives, jealous of their national honour, that it never could have existed. Four months after the Act had been passed, it was reported to Govern- ment that twenty-five cases of attempted suttee had been prevented by the police, and without the smallest com- motion. The sepoys heard of the abolition with profound VOL. II. E E 418 HISTORY OF THE SEUAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XVI. indifference ; it touched neither their pay nor their caste. The mob which had been accustomed to crowd around the pile, felt the same dissatisfaction for the loss of the tamasha, or show, which an English mob feels when deprived of the excitement of an execution. The com- munity at large acquiesced, as it had always acquiesced, in the decrees of its rulers. It was enough to know that the supreme authority in the State had decreed that there should be no more suttees in the land. Whatever attach- ment might have been felt in the native community to the dominion of foreigners was in nowise diminished, except, perhaps, with some show of ostentation, among the " fat and greasy citizens of Calcutta," the impersonation of cowardice. Without the slightest tumult, without even a national sigh, a practice which had existed in India since the days of Alexander the Great, and which was repre- sented as the glory of Hindooism, was extinguished at once and for ever by a stroke of Lord William Bentinck's pen. Eight months after the abolition, the Dhurma Subha got ready the memorial to the King of England, praying that the regulation might be disallowed, and the KfnTandus ^ ritc of fcmalc immolatiou rcstorcd. Mr. Bathie, the attorney, engaged for a substantial con- sideration to convey it to England. On taking leave of that Society, after he had received his credentials, he took God to witness that there should be no negligence on his part in promoting the object in view. The vessel in which he had taken his passage had dropt down to Kedgeree, eighty miles below Calcutta, where he joined her. But he had not been many minutes on board before the ship sprung a leak, and was with difficulty saved from destruction. Mr. Bathie returned with the petition to Calcutta, and in communicating the event to his patrons, remarked, " Such misfortunes are generally at- tended with loss of life, but, from my being the bearer of the suttee petition, God has saved all who were with me." But one of the papers in Calcutta asserted, on the con- trary, that the accident to the vessel arose from the cir- 1829.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 419 CLimstance of its having so infamous a petition on board ; and a native journal went so far as to assert that the petition had been forced back to Calcutta " through the virtuous merit of the whole female sex in our country." Soon after, Mr. Bathie embarked again, and on reacliing England presented the petition of appeal, which was duly referred to the privy council. It was taken into con- sideration on the 23rd of June, 1832; and seldom has a more solemn question been referred to that tribunal than on this occasion, when it was called to decide on the fate of a thousand innocent victims, annually sacrificed on the altar of superstition. The venerable Lord Wellesley, who had been the first Governor-General to record his disap- proval of suttees, twenty-seven years before, attended the sitting, as well as Lord Lansdowne, Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, Mr. Charles Grant, and Sir James Graham. Dr. Lushington appeared for the appellants, and argued that the rite of female immolation had been prohibited in contravention of an Act of Parliament, the 37th George III., chapter 142, which ordained that nothing done in consequence of the rule of caste should be held to be a crime, though not justifiable by the laws of England ; and that the suttee rite was in accordance with the rule of caste, and exempt from the interference of the Government of India. The Court of Directors appeared as respondents, to defend the abolition, and stated that the Indian Government had in all cases manifested great at- tention to the religious opinions and customs of the natives, as far as compatible with the claims of humanity and justice ; and that a discriminating regard for these religious opinions was not incompatible with the sup- pression of practices repugnant to the first principles of civil society and the dictates of natural reason. At the second day's sitting, the privy council came to the de- termination to dismiss the petition ; and this great act of humanity thus received the sanction of the highest authority in the British empire. 420 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CuAr. XVII. CHAPTER XVII. The year 1829 closed on Dr. Carey and his colleagues in gloom and anxiety, with increasing responsibilities and debt, and with unabated hostility in England. But Failure of Palmer . . i , 1 • i • • and Co. itsdis- thc prescut year broucfht heavier calamities. astrous effects. f n-> i • n i i •• The difficulties of I8O7, when the mission was threatened with extinction from the morbid alarm of government, terminated in three months. The anxieties of 1813, created by the last crusade of the public autho- rities in India against the missionary enterprise, were removed before the close of the year by the interposition of parliament. On both those occasions they enjoyed the sympathy and support of their associates in England. Not only was that source of encouragement now wanting, but they had, in its stead, to encounter a spirit of general and unscrupulous opposition. The embarrassments of their position seemed to increase with the progress of time. At the beginning of 1830, the firm of Palmer and Co., the most eminent in Calcutta, unexpectedly failed for more than two millions, and public confidence in the mercantile establishments of the town was irretrievably shaken. At that period the commerce of the country, and also of the port of Calcutta, was for the most part concentrated in six gigantic firms. They had gradually grown in magnitude and importance with the expansion of British interests in the valley of the Ganges. For a long series of years they had drawn into their coffers the savings of the public ser- vices, which were regularly transmitted to them month by month. They were considered as stable as the East India Company itself Many of the members of these houses had retired to England since the beginning of the century with colossal fortunes, and a seat in them was considered 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 421 as valuable as a seat in the supreme council. Their en- gagements at this time exceeded fifteen millions ; but the foundation of their prosperity had been for some time in a state of unperceived decay. The opening of the trade to India, in 1813, had introduced a number of small com- mission agents, who were treated with contempt by the established houses, but who gradually succeeded in draw- ing off from them some of the most lucrative branches of their commerce, leaving them to struggle with the obliga- tions which had been accumulating for many years. The house of Palmer was the first to fall. It had been esta- blished more than fifty years, and had taken root in the community, and the members were trustees for a large number of the estates of their old constituents. The insolvency of the firm seriously affected the prospects of the Serampore seminary, as the support of many of the children was derived from funds deposited in it, and the parents of others were impoverished by the calamity. The school had necessarily suffered by Dr. Marshman's absence in England. During the thirty months of his residence there he travelled incessantly on the service of the mission, but would not permit a farthing of his ex- penses to be deducted from the collections he made. His personal contributions to the mission were curtailed by the obligations thus incurred, and the insolvency of Palmer's house still farther crippled his resources, and produced severe depression of spirits. Mr. Robinson, then one of the Society's missionaries, remarked in a letter to England that he continued to change rapidly, and that distress of mind was gradually hastening his end. Another difficulty was now superadded. The funds which Mr. Ward had raised for the college in America had been invested in the public securities, and placed in the hands of trustees. It has d*? been stated in a former chapter that about five years before, Mr. Bethune, one of the trustees, proposed to his friends at Serampore that the securities £ li 3 Detention of the college Jividends in America. 422 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. should be sold, and the proceeds remitted to India, to be invested in the public funds under their own control ; and that they had declined the offer, from the great confidence they felt in the trustees. That confidence they had now reason to regret. The calumnies so assi- duously propagated in England against them had travelled across the Atlantic, and obtained belief in the United States. Dr. Staughton, one of the trustees, writing on behalf of his associates, informed Dr. Carey that they had determined to suspend the transmission of the dividends until an assurance was given them that the money should not be appropriated to the teaching of science, and still less to the purposes of family aggrandisement, but solely to the purpose for which the fund was collected, the as- sistance of hopeful Hindoo youths for the Gospel ministry. It is difficult to account for the fatuity which led so eminent a divine of the American church to rebuke a man of Dr. Carey's scientific tastes for encouraging the study of science in the college. Dr. Carey stated in his reply, ** as to that money not being expended in teaching science, I must confess I never heard anything more illiberal. Pray can youth be trained up for the Christian ministry without science ? Do you in America train up youths for it without any knowledge of science ? " In regard to the insinuation of family aggrandisement, he remarked, *' Where is the family elevation you speak of? If it be real, it can be discerned, but where is it ? Dr. Marshman is as poor as I am, and I can scarcely lay by a sum monthly to relieve three or four indigent relatives in Europe. I might have had large possessions, but I have given my all, except what I ate, drank, and wore, to the cause of missions, and Dr. Marshman has done the same, and so did Mr. Ward. Why then are we to be treated in this unworthy manner, as though we were a body who only lived for the purpose of imposing on others ? " Dr. Staughton, unwilling to leave the application of his remarks ambiguous, had remarked, not *'a feather of your reputation is ruffled ; " but Dr. Carey replied that he 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 423 treated the exemption with scorn, that lie was Master of the College, and desired to take his full share of the re- sponsibility of every proceeding which had been censured. The Serampore missionaries considered it in the light of a gratuitous insult to require the council of a college to make a solemn declaration that they would not embezzle its funds, or employ them in teaching science, and they left Dr. Staughton and the other trustees to deal with the dividends as their consciences might dictate. A heavier blow, however, than the suspension of the American dividends was now impending. The finances of India were again in a state of embarrassment. Reduction of Dr. ' s income. I,ord Hastings left them, at the end of IS^-^, in ^'''^'' a flourishing condition, with the rare blessing of a surplus revenue. Two years of lavish and reckless expenditure in the first Burmese war converted it into a deficit, and left another addition of debt. Lord William Bentinck was constrained, therefore, on his arrival, to appoint a finance committee to examine and report on the subject, and they recommended an unsparing reduction of the public establishments. Among other measures of economy, they proposed to abolish the professorships of the college of Fort William, and to appoint examiners on 500 rupees a month. Dr. Carey called on his old friends. Sir Charles Metcalfe, and Mr. Butterworth Bayley, now members of the supreme council, and they advised him to see Lord William Bentinck. Mr. Bayley remarked that his case was deserving of particular consideration, for in a service of thirty years, no fiiult had once been found with him. He waited on Lord William, and assured him that he had not laid by a rupee, but had regularly employed the surplus of his income, after his household expenditure and some annuities to relatives had been paid, in spreading the Gospel among the natives of the country. The Cio- vernor-General told him to make himself at perfect ease, as every consideration should be paid to his representation. It was understood at the time that the supreme council E i. 4 424 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. approached the proposed reductions in the college with great reluctance, and that a whole sitting was passed in deliberating on them. But financial necessity overpowered every argument, and, at the beginning of June, Dr. Carey's allow\ance was reduced from 1000 rupees a month to 500. The retrenchment could not have come at a more incon- venient season, for the mission never stood in greater need of this aid. The emergency was great and pressing, and the missionaries, as on all similar occasions since 1799, held a special service to implore the divine guidance and support. Mr. Robinson who was present thus describes the scene : " The two old men were dissolved in tears while they engaged in prayer, and Dr. Marshman in par- ticular, could not give expression to his feelings. It was indeed affecting to see these good old men, the fathers of the mission, entreating with tears that God would not forsake them now grey hairs were come upon them, but that He would silence the tongue of calumny, and furnish them with the means of carrying on His own cause." At the same time, Mr. Mack writes, " be assured we are true men all, and have no thought of flinching from our duty, however we may be oppressed with difficulties, or left destitute of help from others. As long as we have any health of body or faculties of mind, we shall devote them unreservedly to that blessed cause in which we are engaged." Having thus spread their supplications before the Divine Majesty, they drew up an appeal to their Christian brethren in England. They stated that circumstances nSnaiies^to of thc most cxtrcmc urgency compelled those who conducted the Serampore mission to make an application to the Christian public in England. For themselves they had nothing to ask except the good-will and the prayers of their fellow Christians at home. But their supplications must be earnest for support to that sacred cause in which they were engaged. Attempts had been made to hold them up as unworthy and unfit, 1830.] niSTORT OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 425 from personal character, and the defective organisation of their missionary system, to be entrusted with the contri- butions of the Christian public, and the farther direction of the mission reared under their care. As long as any such representations of their character and conduct were supported by anything like specious argument or allega- tion, it was not to be expected that the intrinsic importance of the mission would be duly regarded. They had, there- fore, been careful to vindicate themselves from aspersion, and, as far as delicacy would permit, to establish their claims to that integrity and general sufficiency of character which their important trust required. Having done this, they felt that they were now warranted in calling public attention to the real merits and the pressing necessities of their mission. In the preceding year they had been led to extend the mission by the addition of three new stations, but they were now distressed, not because of their incompetence to undertake new efforts, but their inabiHty to continue their present expenditure. The number of stations dependent on them for support was thirteen, the number of European and East Indian labourers seventeen, and of native preachers fifteen ; and the expense of the mission exceeded 1500/. a year. Their resources had from various causes been reduced to about 900/. a year, with which they were required to support the stations, to assist the college, and to maintain the widows and orphans. *' If," the missionaries remarked, " unceasing industry or self-denial could by any means furnish us with the supplies we beg from you, we 'would toil and deny ourselves with cheerful alacrity, and leave you unimportuned. But our hopes are small in this respect, and they are precarious in the extreme. Our present incomes even are uncertain. Again then we implore your help, and we trust we shall not implore in vain. But a few years have passed away since the Protestant world was awakened to missionary effort. Since that time the annual revenues collected for this 426 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuaf. XVII. object have grown to the then unthought of sum of 400,000/. And is it unreasonable to expect that some unnoticeable portion of this should be entrusted to him who was among the first to move in this enterprise, and to his colleagues ? " Before this appeal reached England, the uncertainty of their income was exemplified by the farther reduction of Dr. Carey's income, owing to the aboHtion of the office of Translator to Government, from which he had, for eight years, derived the sum of 36oL a year. This reduction of his resources in a few months from 1560/. to 600/. was to him a source of regret only inasmuch as it deprived him of the opportunity of contri- buting, as he had always done, to the missionary cause. In other respects the serenity of his mind was in no degree affected. " Though thus reduced in his circum- stances," writes Dr. Marshman, *' the good man, about to enter on his seventieth year, is as cheerful and as happy as the day is long ; he rides out four or five miles every morning, returning home by sunrise, goes on with the work of translation from day to day, gives two lectures on divinity, and one on natural history every week in the college, and takes his turn of preaching both in Bengalee and in English." The allusion in the appeal to the vindication of their characters, refers to the pamphlets which were drawn up at the beginning of this year, and sent to Eng- vinmcatfonof land for publication. Every letter received Serampore. r> i • 1 r* 1 i irom home m the course ot the year 1829, de- monstrated the necessity of an immediate and circum- stantial refutation of the various charges which were circulated against them with unabated assiduity. Mr. Foster characterised Dr. Marshman's hasty departure as *' an ignominious flight, which left his enemies in posses- sion of the field, and his friends humiliated." Dr. Marsh- man assured him that he had never intended anything like flight, and if he had been aware of the construction which would be put on his departure at that period, he 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 427 would certainly have remained and brought out his reply, at all events. Mr. Hope conveyed to him the assertion which had been made by Mr. Dyer that "the committee was ready for a renewal of hostilities, and that the first gun fired from Serampore, would be the signal for a broadside." Mr. Hope stated that their cause appeared to be deserted by all, and that he could perceive no en- couragement except what came from Scotland. But, the letters they received from Glasgow where their interest was strongest, were gloomy in the extreme, and stated, that owing to the long delay of the promised reply, friends were beginning to entertain misgivings and to fall off. Immediately on his return to India, Dr. Marshman applied with energy to the task of vindication. At Serampore, he was aided by the recollection and the sympathies of his colleague, and had access to that information on every branch of the subject which was necessary to the com- pleteness of his defence. The associations of the place seemed to revive that spirit of intrepidity which had always marked his character, but which had suffered an eclipse in England. He no longer wrote under those morbid feelings of hesitation and dread which had em- boldened his enemies, and disheartened his friends in the first encounter. He grappled manfully with Mr. Dyer's facts and arguments, unceremoniously exposed his fallacies and misrepresentations, and triumphantly vindicated the integrity of the Serampore missionaries. At the same time, Mr. Marshman addressed a series of letters to Mr. Foster in which he examined the validity of the statements given in the pamphlet written by Mr. Eustace Carey, and Mr. Yates. Dr. Carey also sent home, in a brief pamphlet, his own *' Thoughts on the Discussions," which, inde- pendently of the weight of his character, and his long and eminent services, were calculated to carry conviction to the mind from his clear and matter-of-fact mode of dealing with every question. His pamphlet wound up with this expostulation. Addressing the Baptist Missionary Society 428 HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. ff in the language of Jacob when remonstrating with Laban, he said, *' And now what is our trespass, what is our sin, that ye have so hotly pursued us? Whereas ye have searched all our stuffj what have ye found of all your household stuff? Set it here before our brethren and your brethren that they may judge between us. These thirty-seven years have I been with you — Dr. Marshman thirty years — your ewes and your she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of your flock have we not eaten. Thus we were, in the day the drought consumed us, and the frost by night, and our sleep departed from our eyes. Now therefore let us make a covenant, we and you. . . . This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that we will not pass over this heap to you, and that you shall not pass over this heap unto us, for harm." These three pamphlets which, unhappily, were six months and a half in reaching England, dispelled the anxie- ties of their friends and enabled them to appeal pampiXtsin wlth increasinQ: confidence to the liberality of England. , . rr«i i the denomination. They were pronounced to be '' everything that could be desired in vindication of their character." Mr. Foster was more than satisfied, and ex- pressed his gratification at the effectiveness of the vindi- cation in the warmest terms. Mr. Hope wrote to Dr. Carey, " In point of expediency there is little hazarded by your defiance of Mr. Dyer's menace, and boldly speak- ing the truth ; and in point of duty the course is clearer than I had expected. Dr. Marshman's defence is superior to anything he could have published here, and your ' Thoughts,' I need not say, are all we could wish. We shall err, however, if we suppose that these publications, or anything else, will destroy, or even materially allay tlie animosities of your opponents. They have the ear of the public, and by hook or by crook they will keep it. The previous writers and all the partisans of the Society will neither be won as friends, nor conciliated as foes. Their rancour is unquenchable." The pamphlets, which were 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 429 read with avidity and interest, served to soften the pre- judices of many who had been induced to desert the Serampore mission. The appeal, likewise, produced a favourable impression in many circles, and created a re- action. Contributions came in so copiously that Mr. Hope was enabled to make an immediate remittance of a thousand pounds, and a still larcjer sum in a few days. The rehef from embarrassment which this turn of tide brought with it, excited the strongest emotions of gratitude to God in the minds of the missionaries. *' No succour was ever more seasonable. By a gracious Providence, we got through last year, but not without difficulty ; the salaries of all our missionaries had fallen several months into arrear, and where to obtain assistance we knew not ; but we are now provided for, and joyful tidings you have given us to cheer our dear friends with." " I cannot look back on the feelings which filled our hearts this day twelvemonth, without the strongest feelings of gratitude. Then, our stations seemed to be deprived of all support ; our means had reached the fatal point of exhaustion. How different the prospect now — funds which relieve our anxieties — friends who share with us in the dawn of prosperity, as they sympathised with us under the cloud of adversity, and even our characters, in some measure, freed from the stigma of dishonesty." *' With respect to myself," Dr. Carey writes, " I consider my race as nearly run. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and I am now only three months short of that age, and repeated bilious attacks have weakened my constitution. But I do not look forward to death with any painful anticipations. I cast myself on, and plead the efficacy of that atonement, which will not fail me when I need it. . . But how shall we sufficiently praise and glorify God, who, in the time of our great extremity appeared, and stirred up his people thus willingly to offer their substance for His cause. My heart goes especially to those faithful and constant friends who have stood by us and defended us when our integrity 430 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. was called in question, when our veracity was doubted, our motives misrepresented, our characters traduced.'* Dr. Marshman writes to Mr. Hope, *' that God has granted us supplies from his people, and their prayers for us in this work, is all the fruit I desire from the pamphlets you have received. Victory is a mean thing any more than it promotes the cause of truth and peace ; and revenge, in its fairest and most specious forms, utterly unworthy of a Christian." In another letter of the same period he says, " Thirty-one years ago this day, did I set my foot on the soil of India. What a series of mercies have I experienced in this period, and what a life of unprofitable sloth do I appear to myself to have led. I have more mercies to bless God for than any of His children, and yet I am among the most useless and worthless of them. I cannot bear the thought that the few remaining days of my life should be thus spent. . . As to my dear brother Carey, I met with very few friends in England in their seventieth year so lively, so free from the infirmities of age, so in- teresting in the pulpit, so completely conversible as he is now." Before the disruption. Dr. Marshman, who had freely admitted that the deeds of the premises were insuffi- proposaiof cicut, had promised the committee that a new arbitraiion. arrangcmcut should be made immediately on his return to India. After his arrival the question was long and anxiously discussed, and it appeared to him and his colleagues that the most effectual means of silencing the voice of slander, would be to occupy the premises in future only as tenants paying rent to the Society, to retire from the trusteeship altogether, and to place the settle- ment of the new deed of trust in the hands of a body in England, consisting of three representatives of the com- mittee, and three of the friends of Serampore. They were anxious also to embrace this opportunity of bringing every other question in debate to a final issue, by leaving it to the arbitration of the gentlemen thus appointed. The 1830.] TIISTOPvY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 431 only stipulation contained in the proposal was that one of the arbitrators on the part of the Society sliould be their own treasurer, Mr, Broadley Wilson, a man devoid of all Jesuitism or diplomacy, and in whose justice and impar- tiality they felt great confidence. After having stated their wishes regarding the premises, they referred to the expression used in Dr. Marshman's letter to Dr. llyland in 1812, which has been already alluded to, **A11 this is yours, and not ours." The committee evidently attached importance to this expression, which had been adduced by their advocates to establish the charge of inconsistency, if not of dishonesty, against the Serampore missionaries. They stated, therefore, in the proposal of arbitration, that being anxious to acquit themselves of every obligation under which they may be supposed to have been laid, even by this private and unauthorised letter of one of their number, they were willing to assume that the Society had a lien on the stock then existing at Serampore. They desired the arbitrators to take up the question, and award any such sum as appeared to them equitable to the Society, and to allot such a period for the gradual liqui- dation of this debt as should occasion the least possible inconvenience to the missionary stations dependent on them. Perhaps there was no subject on which Dr. Carey and his colleagues had felt so sensitively as the charge of having embezzled the remittances of the Society while acting as their agents, and they were anxious to obtain an attestation of their integrity, based on the audit of their accounts for the seven years for which they were without a voucher. They had asked the committee for this testimony of their fidelity when the charge was first brought six years before, but Mr. Gutteridge declined to give it, for want, as he said, of documents. They now repeated the request with much importunity. It was their desire that every question which had been brought into discussion between them and the committee should be submitted to the judgment of this impartial body, and 432 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. that their decision should be condusive upon every point. The negotiation was entrusted to Mr. Hope, who on the receipt of the papers, opened a communication with Mr. Dyer. He replied, that knowing as he did the state of public opinion, he could feel no surprise that the mission- aries should at lensfth be convinced that some alteration was necessary in the course of proceeding. He inquired whether Mr. Hope was in possession of such information as would enable the arbitrators to undertake the duty in a satisfactory manner, and the answer was in the affir- mative. But after the lapse of a month, Mr. Dyer in- formed him that the committee did not consider themselves engaged in any controversy or dispute with their Seram- pore brethren which would require such a reference ; they foresaw considerable difficulties in the plan of ar- bitration, but they were willing to confer on the subject with Mr. Hope, and any other friend whom he might name. Mr. Hope considered this reply as intended to evade the demand of his friends at Serampore for an equitable and honourable settlement of every point at issue. He, therefore, declined the conference, and called on the committee for a decisive acceptance or rejection of the arbitration. The committee then passed a series of resolutions on the subject. They stated that their only object regarding the premises was to secure them in the best possible way to the purposes contemplated by the Society; that Dr. Marshman had admitted that the pre- sent deeds were insufficient, and had engaged that a new settlement should be made on his arrival in India, and the committee regretted that this pledge had not been redeemed. They consented to the appropriation of the rent to the Serampore stations while they continued under the direction of Dr. Carey and Dr. Marshman, but would not bind the Society to this appropriation after their death or to the occupation of the premises by the suc- cessors of the senior missionaries. The fourth resolution declared that the committee had never entertained the 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 433 remotest idea of making any claim on the stock at Serampoie. Tlie fifth j)aragraph stated that the com- mittee had no means of auditing the accounts, but they were quite ready to avow their full persuasion that these operations were conducted on the part of the missionaries with the utmost integrity and fairness. Mr. Hope con- sidered that these resolutions were intended to escape from the reference of the questions to arbitration, and he in- formed Mr. Dyer that the various suggestions they con- tained w^ere for the discussion of the arbitrators, and that in the position in which he stood, it w^as clearly his duty to abstain from offering any opinion on them. He must therefore press his request, for a plain and unequivocal assent or dissent relative to the proposal to submit every point in dispute between Serampore and Fen Court to a fair arbitration ; on whicli Mr. Dyer categorically de- clined the reference. The proposal thus made by Dr. Carey and his col- leagues affords an ample vindication of their integrity, and was of itself an answer to a hundred slanders. Remarks on ti.e If the arbitration had been accepted and com- "■^"^^"*°"- pleted, it would have no longer been of any avail to repeat the plausible and popular calumnies which had been circulated ; the missionaries might have regained, in some measure, the confidence of the denomination, and ])ermanent support might have been secured for their missionary establishments. On these grounds the arbi- tration w-as ardently coveted by them. How far the committee was influenced by the same reasons to refuse it must be left to the judgment of the reader. At all events, it is to be regretted that the committee did not perceive the glaring anomaly of reproaching Dr. Marsh- man with having failed to redeem his pledge regarding the premises, when they had in their hands a proposal from him — greatly in excess of his pledge — to remain on the premises only as the Society's tenant, and to leave the settlement of the new trust deed to the Society's ow^n VOL. II. F F 434 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. treasurer, and a body of referees unexceptionably chosen. The testimony borne by the committee to the integrity with which the missionaries had administered the Society's funds entrusted to them, which they had been charged with having embezzled, ought to have been given six years before, when the charge was made, and the attes- tation of their innocence was soUcited. Faithful and honourable men should not have been allowed to remain even for a day under the stigma of this calumnious im- putation, which the committee knew to be groundless, and which five lines from them would have effectually removed. The committee having thus rejected the ar- bitration, issued a series of resolutions to their constituents in reference to the new position in which the questions at issue between them and Serampore had been placed by these movements. No allusion whatever was made to the offer of the Serampore missionaries to abdicate the trus- teeship and to resign the premises to new trustees, chosen in England by a body of arbitrators ; but Dr. Carey and his colleagues were charged with having taken no effec- tual measures to secure the missionary property to public purposes. The committee "deprecated the excitement or renewal of a spirit of strife and controversy. They had witnessed with regret the publication of certain pamphlets from Serampore, containing statements and insinuations respecting their proceedings, equally injurious and unjust. As attempts had been made to excite a prejudice against the committee, by reviving charges and misstatements which were long since refuted, the secretary be de- sired to reprint a portion of the Society's annual report in 1827'" This proceeding of the committee is much to be regretted. If they had said that they were unwilling to continue a controversy which was injurious to the interests of religion, they would have been entitled to the credit of moderation. But it was unfair to represent themselves as injured innocents, and the Serampore mis- sionaries as aggressors. The sacred privilege of reply is 18;30.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 435 not denied to the greatest culprit ; but in this instance the endeavour of the missionaries to refute the heinous charges contained in the pamphlets of Mr. Dyer and Mr. Eustace Carey was treated as a crime, and the vindi- cation of their characters was stigmatised as an " attempt to create a prejudice against the committee by tlie renewal of misstatements." To counteract the effect of the Serampore pamphlets, two publications were put forth in the interest of the committee ; one by Mr. Eustace Carey, the other from the pen of the minister who had socil^tP"""'^'*"' taken an inventory of the silver spoons from Mrs. Marshman twelve years before. When the question of publishing a rejoinder was discussed at Serampore, Dr. Carey laid his peremptory interdict on any such attempt. He thought too much time had been already wasted in controversy. He said, that if he had to live the last twenty-five years over again, he would scru- pulously abstain from offering any reply to any cen- sures which might be passed on him, and inform his opponents that they had his full permission to say what- ever it would afford them pleasure to believe or pro- pagate regarding his conduct, provided they did not encroach on his invaluable time. He and his colleagues therefore determined to allow the subject to drop, and to devote their remaining days to the prosecution of their great work, leaving their characters to the impartial judg- ment of posterity. It would be an unwarrantable tax on the patience of the reader to review the allegations which were renewed in these publications ; but there was one topic of censure which may deserve a passing notice. The ever-recurring question of the premises, the stock theme of the committee, was revived under a new phase. Since that subject had last been brought under discussion, the missionaries had offered to divest themselves of all interest in this property except as tenants, and this might have been expected to bar any farther allusion to the 436 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. question. It was, however, again obtruded on public notice. Dr. Carey and his associates had always affirmed that tlie premises were purchased with their funds. This fact had not only never been questioned for thirty years, but had been confirmed by the committee of the Society, who had stated officially, in 1818, that "a considerable part of the funds derived from the personal labours of the missionaries had been employed in the purchase and en- largement of the premises on which they resided." This assertion was now repudiated by the advocates of the committee. It appeared from the journals and corre- spondence of the missionaries between 1800 and 1804, that sums which had been received from Mr. Fuller either in bullion or by bills, had in some cases been employed in paying off instalments due on the purchase of the pre- mises. Hence it was inferred that the premises had been paid for by the funds of the Society ; that the missionaries had acted simply as agents, and that they could not equitably claim any interest whatever in them. Dr. Carey and Dr. Marshman, having resolved not to reply to these pamphlets, sent their explanations to Mr. Hope. They stated that the Society had made collections only for the support of missionaries, and for printing the Ben- galee Scriptures ; that the committee had never au- thorised the missionaries to appropriate the funds sent them to any other object. They drew, therefore, on the treasurer for these objects and for no other. With a por- tion of the monies thus received, they liquidated some of the obligations they had contracted on account of the premises, providing the sums progressively required for the support of the missionaries and the printing of the Scriptures from their own income. " We paid for the first house," said Dr. Marshman, "partly with the iden- tical rupees received for bills drawn for other purposes, and replaced the sum as it was needed for these objects." The same explanation was given regarding subsequent purchases. If the Society had ever contemplated the 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 437 purchase of premises, or given any instructions to that effect, tlie sums received from them would justly have been deemed to liave been expended in that object ; and the houses and lands would have been to all intents and purposes their property. In that case, however, Mr. Fuller would not have neglected to inform the sub- scribers of this appropriation of 3000/., forming a fourth of their contributions, which he never did. He con- sidered the purchase to have been effected with funds over which the subscribers had no control. As no such instruction or authority was ever received at Serampore, the immediate appropriation of any specific sums obtained from England was simply a matter of account. The con- stituent of a banking-house might with equal justice claim a lien upon any bill which his deposit had been used in discounting. As the missionaries never laid any claim to the premises, from first to last, and had resented every attempt to fix this charge on them as a flagitious slander, the question of the purchase money is one of comparative insignificance, though in the inflamed state of feeling in the denomination, it was easily turned to the purpose of detraction. The refusal of the committee to allow the question of the premises to be settled in England, while they con- tinued to charoe Dr. Marshman with bad faith ^ ^ ^ . ^ Dr. Marshman m havmer neolected to make a satisfactory quits thepre- settlement in India, determined him to quit them. After having completed his arrangements, he removed in the following 3'ear to a small house which he erected for himself, on the ground he had purchased twelve years before. There were associations connected with the old house in which he and his family had lived for thirty years, which rendered the removal painful, especially to Mrs. Marshman. Writing on the subject to a friend in England, she said she was greatly attached to the old dwelling in which eight of her own children and three grandchildren had been born, and five had 438 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chai-. XVII. died, besides her son-in-law. But it appeared to be a question of duty to quit them, and the aged couple did not shrink from this sacrifice of their feelings. Dr. Carey was residing in the college ; on the Society's pre- mises stood the chapel, the garden, the printing-office, a part of the paper-mill, and the house occupied by Mr. Marshman. Mr. Foster was highly gratified to find that Dr. Marshman had retired from the premises, as *' the question seemed to lie like an incubus on all the energies of his friends at Serampore." Mr. Hope also remarked, ** many good men among your friends exclaim, Oh ! that the premises had all been swept away by the Hooghly, rather than bring the character and intentions of the Serampore brethren into doubt and distrust. Cannot they so improve the trust deed as to put an end to slander ? " The benevolent wish of their friends regard- ing the premises was nearer its fulfilment than they expected. One of the most violent gales which had been known since the beginning of the century, swept over the lower districts of Bengal towards the close of 1831. Dr. Carey's garden was again laid waste. His extensive conservatory was crushed by the fall of several large trees, and he wept over the ruin of the collections of twenty years. The river became a little sea, and the waves ate away the bank of the society's premises, and annihilated the public road. The Danish authorities, therefore, called on the missionaries to take down half Mr. Ward's house to afford room for another road, and as the other half would in that case have been unsafe, the whole building was levelled with the ground. Dr. Carey and his colleagues now determined to make another and a final effort to shake off the *« incubus " of the premises. Their obiect was to brine; this New trust deed. ^ . . '' i r i vexatious question to a close; from the refusal of their offer, it appeared to be the object of their op- ponents to keep the seton open. They resolved that their next movement should be so decisive as to baffle all 1830.] HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 439 attempts at evasion. They drew up a new trust deed under the advice of Mr. Kohlenberg, the governor of Serampore, the only able lawyer who had ever been appointed to office since the settlement of the missionaries. The deed recapitulated the history of the premises, and the missionaries embraced this opportunity of placing on record a statement of all their proceedings regarding them as a vindication of their conduct. By this deed, all the premises were transferred from Dr. Carey and Dr. Marshman, to eleven trustees in England, with the stipu- lation that they should continue to occupy them rent free during their lives, and that their colleagues should remove from them within three years after the death of the survivor, paying rent intermediately, which was to be made over to the Society, to whom the rents of the premises subsequently were to belong. The deed was transmitted for registration in the Court of Chancery in Copenhagen, but the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society might raise any objection to it within twelve months. A copy of the deed was, therefore, sent likewise to the committee, who were informed that the registry would not be effected without their concurrence. The committee stated, that although they could not admit the entire correctness of the statements made in the deed, or concur in the mode of settling the property at Serampore, yet, having long withdrawn from all controversy on the subject, they will have fulfilled their duty by recording their dissent on their minutes without taking any steps to frustrate the arrangement proposed. The deeds were therefore registered, and thus ended a contention about brick and mortar, which had for more than sixteen years interrupted harmony and impeded progress. The signa- ture of the deed which relieved Dr. Carey from the odious trusteeship, seemed to give him fresh animation and cheerfulness. "I now hope," he writes to Mr. Hope, "that this troublesome affair will be brought to a close, and that calumny may cease, and our hoary heads go F r 4 440 HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVJI. down to the grave In peace. I trust it will give satisfac- tion, but whether it does or not, we have washed our hands of the business." Dr. Marshman wrote in the same strain. "We have sent you the deed executed this day, by which Dr. Carey and I, and all my family, have ri'd our hands of the mission premises as trustees, for ever ; and I have done this with unspeakable joy. Blessed be God that I have lived to see this day." Never did men rejoice more in the acquisition of property, than did the two old men in divesting themselves of all interest in the premises, which, including contingent expenses and repairs, had cost them 7800/. This final settlement of the question was received with equal delight by the friends of Serampore in England. Mr. Hope in his reply to Dr. Carey, said, " This is a decisive measure, harsh as it regards your junior members, but wisely sub- mitted to as at once putting an end, for ever it must now be, to the jealousies, suspicions, insinuations, and direct crimination of motives and intentions with which the partisans of Fen Court have so long and so industriously assailed you." To conclude the history of the premises ; twelve years after the registration of the deed, the com- mittee announced their intention to dispose of them, and instructed their agent in Calcutta, to offer the refusal of them to Mr. Marshman. The offer was accepted, and the ground was measured, when it was found, on com- paring the result with the record in the original deeds, that about one-fourth of the land and three houses had been swallowed up in the river. The remainder was valued by the agent at 1650/. and sold for that sum, which was paid to the treasurer of the Society. A discussion had arisen several years before this period relative to the rendering of the word "baptizo" and its cognates in Oriental translations. In all the Discussions on . i-i-r' -iii the word versions made m the Last, it had always been bajitizo. ' >i translated by some word which the translators respectively believed to represent the import of the 1830.] HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 441 original term. In the Scriptures published at Serampore, it had been rendered by a word which signified to im- merse. No objection was raised for twenty-five years to the hititude which had thus been accorded by the Bible Society to missionaries of various denominations to follow the dictates of their own conscience. Tlie versions made at Serampore had been freely distributed by missionaries who differed from Dr. Carey and his colleagues on the mode of administering baptism, and the Serampore mis- sionaries had circulated without reserve, versions in which the rendering of the word did not accord with their belief. But in 1827, ^ number of paedobaptist missionaries raised an objection to tlie mode in which it had been translated at Serampore, and requested the Bible Society in London to discontinue the encouragement of any version in wdiich the word was translated, Mr. Hughes one of the secretaries of that Society, and himself a member of the Baptist community, wrote a long and argumentative letter to Dr. Carey, urging him to agree to this arrangenient. But Dr. Carey and his colleagues were not satisfied with his arguments, and determined to adhere to the practice they had adopted from the begin- ning of their labours. In writing on this subject to Mr. Hope, Dr. Carey said, " I do not complain of what the Bible Society have done. They have always acted towards us with the greatest liberality, and could not on this occasion have acted otherwise than they have done. In preparing my reply I had occasion to examine into the number of versions published wholly or in part by them, leaving out those made since 1793. There are forty-two versions printed by them ; of the rendering of the word ill thirteen I am uncertain ; in fourteen it is retained without translation ; in fifteen it is translated." After this reply from Serampore to the Society in Earl Street, the missionaries connected with the London Society in and about Calcutta addressed a letter to their friends at Serampore, stating their objection to a practice which 442 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. they regarded as an " unwarrantable decision on the mode of baptism, in consequence of which ev^ery paedo- baptist missionary was held forth as acting in opposition to the word of God when he administered the rite ac- cording to the mode which he conscientiously believed to be the true and Scriptural one." The reply to this observation was obvious. The word was translated as it had been translated at Serampore in numerous European versions, while the rite of baptism was administered by sprinkling or pouring. But no minister of religion in those countries had ever objected to the use of the version, however inconsistent his practice might be with its injunctions, or requested the Bible Society to interdict the circulation of it. In the course of the present year the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society, of which Dr. Marshman was one of the secretaries, resolved to advise the parent Society to refuse aid to any version in which the original word was not left untranslated. Dr. Marshman, though dissenting from this resolution, did not deem it his duty to relinquish his post, remarking that if, in the present imperfect state of the human mind, every man were to refuse to unite in doing good with those whose opinions might differ somewhat from his own, every good design must fall to the ground. At the same time he requested that his own views on the subject might be submitted to the committee of the Auxiliary Society, and to the parent Society in England. He stated: — *' That if in translating any human production, an Act of Govern- ment for instance, the translator would feel himself bound in common honesty to give the meaning of every word faithfully, according to the extent of his knowledge, this duty Avas unspeak- ably more imperative in translating the Word of God. Should any one, to please men, whether good or bad, give that meaning to any portion of the Divine Word which he believed to be erroneous, or leave any part of it untranslated and disguised, that others might be able to give it a meaning which his own knowledge and 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 443 his conscientious convictions told him was not the correct mean- ing, he nmst be considered as acting unfaithfully towards God, and deceitfully towards his fellow-creatures. He remarked, that if any body of men were to tamper with the conscience of any translator, to induce him to give a meaning to any word which he believed to be erroneous, or to forbear giving it that meaning which he believed to be true, by the promise of aiding or the threat of refusing him aid, it would tend to corrupt his mind from that godly simplicity and that fidelity Avithout which he would be unworthy to put his hand to that great work. He further remarked, that if' the Society were persuaded to refuse assistance in the circulation of any versions in which the word was not left untranslated, the sphere of its operations would be lament- ably contracted. Of the ancient versions, the Syriac, made, if not by the Apostles, at least by Apostolic men ; the Coptic, made in the third century ; the Ethiopic, executed in the fourth ; the Ar- menian in the fifth ; and the Arabic in the eighth century, the word was translated. The Bible Society could not be expected to adopt a rule which would sever these ancient churches from its alliance. Of modern versions, the German, the Dutch, the Danish, the Swedish, the Bohemian, the Polish, the Sclavonian, the Lithuanian, the Finnish, and the Dorpatian equally had the word translated ; but the British and Foreign Bible Society could not consistently cut off the great bulk of the foreign Protestant churches from all connection with it ; while to require those churches to alter the word would be as unreasonable as it would be unsuccessful." A fresh remonstrance from Calcutta, induced Mr. Hughes to write a second time and in more pressing terms to Dr. Carey, but his decision was unshaken. Mr. Hughes wrote in reply : " This is our predicament, if we fall in with the remonstrance, we prohibit, as far as we are concerned, the circulation of what is prepared at Serampore. If, on the contrary, we act in the face of these remonstrances, a company in India and a host in England, are converted into assailants ; either way, good is checked, and evil ensues.'* He farther stated that if the resolution recommended at Calcutta were adopted, an absolute extinguisher would be put on the hopes of these 444 HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. distinguished veterans in the work of translation at Seram- pore. To continue and complete the narrative of these events, on the l6th of February, 1832, the London Bible Society remarked in their letter to Serampore, •' For ourselves we can truly say that our consciences would not be offended by the adoption of your views ; but there are otliers who do feel conscientiously on this subject as well as yourselves, and who feel strongly that they cannot yield the point any more than you, and here is the difficulty which presents itself in full force to such a body as the committee of the Bible Society ; and here it is we feel how truly thankful we sliould have been if you could have met your brethren of other denominations on the practice of the English and several other versions, a practice we feel would have compromised neither party." The remonstrance from Calcutta, however, prevailed, and on the 1st of July 1833, the Bible Society in London gave its official assent to the requisition of the missionaries and the Auxiliary Society in Bengal, and resolved that its aid should be restricted to versions in which the word •' baptizo " was either left untranslated or rendered by such terms as might be considered unobjectionable by the other denominations of Christians composing the Bible Society. The defence of this measure rests on the simple ground of expediency. The adoption of one rule for the west, and another for the east ; the continued circulation of thousands of copies of the New Testament in Europe with the word translated "to immerse," and the prohibition, as far as the Society's patronage was concerned, of the circulation of any copy in Asia, in which the word was thus rendered, was a concession to the strongest, without reference to principle. The Baptists paid the penalty of being in a minority ; and whatever censure may attach to the inconsistency of this decision, belongs more to those who raised the clamour than to those who were constrained to bend to its violence, even at the risk of countenancing the anomalous doctrine that it was more expedient for a 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 445 heathen tribe to be left without tlie Bible, than for it to be taught that baptism was immersion. During the present year animadversions were published in several periodical publications in India and in England, on the Serampore translations. These remarks - -.^ ,^ , . T)M 1 Animadversions] were transmitted to Dr. Carey by the riible on ti,e transia- Society with a request that where the criticisms appeared to be sound and valuable, they should be turned to account in future editions, and that the missionaries would furnish explanations in reference to these hostile remarks. Mr. Hughes, the secretary, in transmitting the wishes of the Society to him said, "Your work is arduous, and your reward, as far as the irreligious and uncandid are concerned, is a succession of surmises and reproaches. But there awaits you a reward of another kind no created power can obliterate ; the happy effects of these transla- tions which have excited so many and such severe anim- adversions." The translations made at Serampore, hke all first attempts of the kind, were necessarily imperfect. Of this truth no one could feel a deeper conviction than the missionaries themselves, and they were constantly anxious to encourage the labours of other translators for the progressive improvement of the version. They un- dertook the work of translation, and pursued it from the purest motives, for thirty years, and they w^ere grateful for every remark made in the spirit of fair and honourable criticism, but not in the spirit of detraction. Colonel Kennedy who had published animadversions on the Mah- ratta version was an accomplished orientalist, though by no means friendly to missionary undertakings. He said that, without intending any disrespect to the missionaries at Serampore, he could not refrain from remarking that their zeal had neither been tempered nor guided by know- ledge, and he pointed out various defects of idiom and construction as they appeared to him, in the translation. But the Mahratta version was more likely to be free from such inaccuracies than several others. It was executed 446 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. under the eye of the Mahratta pundit attached to the college of Fort William, who had been selected for the office, amid many competitors, for his superior attainments in oriental philology. Mr. William Greenfield, the super- intendent of the translating and editing department of the Bible Society, whose knowledge of languages appeared to be almost miraculous, but who was prematurely cut off in the following year at the age of only thirty-two, took up the gauntlet which Colonel Kennedy had thrown down. He defended the Serampore version with great ability and success. *' Never,'* he remarked, '* was there a case of more complete failure ; every charge has melted away before the rays of truth, and nothing remains but the gross errors and misrepresentations of the accuser." In the course of the controversy, Colonel Kennedy had the candour to admit the extreme difficulty of making a faith- ful and, at the same time, intelligible translation in any eastern language. His remarks exactly coincided with the experience of the Serampore missionaries. " In the vernacular dialects there is scarcely a word denoting the operations of the mind. In translating from the copious language of the Greeks, or the ruder language of the Hebrews, innumerable words and phrases occur which have no corresponding terms in Maliratta, but without which the peculiar tenets and doctrines of the Christian religion cannot be explained. But amplification and comments are forbidden, and consequently the only re- source that remains is to use the words that actually exist in the language in a sense that is not given to them by the Mahrattas themselves." It would be useful occasion- ally to recall the attention of those who are disposed to be captious in their strictures on oriental versions of the Scriptures to this sound canon of criticism, and to remind them that time must be allowed for words which are un- avoidably used to express Christian thoughts and doctrines to acquire a conventional and evangelical signification. Colonel Kennedy's criticisms on the Mahratta version, 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 447 however severe, were written in the spirit of a gentleman. Far different was the strain in which Dr. Carey's labours were assailed about the same time by a missionary then con- nected with Bishop's College who subsequently joined the Independent mission in Calcutta. He described the Serampore missionaries as a set of narrow-minded, tasteless, money-making bigots. Any remark on animadversions written in such a temper would be superfluous. The missionary labours of the year were prosecuted with unabated zeal. The difficulties with which the mis- sionaries were called to struggle during the last n J^ • • n r" Missionary seven years or the mission, were equally tor- labours at midable with those of an earlier period, but more disheartening. Their own resources had been cur- tailed by their advanced age and other circumstances ; their long and disinterested labours were forgotten, and they were placed under the ban of their own denomina- tion. Their friends at home were few and feeble, and every attempt to obtain support for their missionary es- tablishment encountered the sternest opposition in Eng- land, but the vital principle of energy was as vigorous as ever. At no period of their career did they exhibit a nobler example of perseverance than in these depressing circumstances. However melancholy it might be to see men who had worn out their strength in endeavouring to promote the best interests of India, and contributed so largely to the object, deserted and maligned, the adver- sity which beclouded their closing exertions almost ceases to be an object of regret in the aspect of that spirit of Christian fortitude with which it was encountered. Mr. Robinson, the oldest and one of the most efficient mission- aries on the Society's list, accepted an invitation to join his friends at Serampore. He was one of the malcontents of 1807, whose querulous correspondence had been pub- lished by the partisans of the committee to overwhelm the senior missionaries, with whom he now united himself. A corresponding committee was also formed, consisting of 448 HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. four laymen who resided in the capital and provinces of Bengal, and who were to take part in the dehberations at Serampore, whenever they had an opportunity of visiting it. In Assam, which had been occupied in the yjreceding year at the importunate desire of Dr. Carey, the European gentlemen formed an association for the support of native schools. At the new station formed at Barripore, to the south of Calcutta, under the superintendence of Mr. Robeholm, an East Indian of great energy and zeal, the native converts had been subject, as elsewhere, to great annoyance from their heathen landlords, and it was re- solved to take land in the neighbourhood, where they might carry on their agricultural labours without molesta- tion. The law prohibiting the purchase or occupation of land by Europeans was still in tbrce, but Government had for some years encouraged the application of English capital to the clearing of the Soonderbuns by making grants of jungle land on permanent leases. The mission- aries availed themselves of this privilege, and obtained a large tract of land in that forest, in the neighbourhood of Barripore. The enterprise was placed under the control of Mr. Robeholm, and four hundred workmen were imme- diately engaged in felling trees, and clearing the land, and digging ponds, and there was every prospect that it would speedily become the seat of a Christian popula- tion. The missionary stations at the close of the year amounted to fourteen, and the number of converts during the year to more than eighty. But the mission was de- prived of the valuable services of Mr. Fernandez, the early friend of Dr. Carey during his residence at Mudna- batty. He had laboured for thirty years with great assi- duity in the cause of the mission, drawing nothing from its funds, but contributing liberally to them, and had raised two churches at Dinagepore and Saddamahl by his own individual exertions. Finding himself attacked by disease, which at his advanced age threatened his life, he hastened down to Serampore to enjoy the solace of his 1831.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 440 friends in his last moments. His wish was gratified, and lie died in their presence at the age of seventy-four, and was buried by the side of iiis old and beloved friend, Mr. Ward. Dr. Carey delivered an address at the grave in which he referred with great feeling to the early history of the mission, more than tliirty years before, wlien Mr. Fernandez was first associated with him in his humble and unnoticed labours. He bequeathed his little property, about 1500/., for the support of the two stations which he had created and superintended. Unfortunately, he had appointed Dr. Carey his executor, who had an insuperable objection to judicial oaths. Not being a quaker, his affir- mation was of no legal force, and the funds were for a time locked up when they were most needed. But the difficulty was at length adjusted through the kind con- sideration of the Chief Justice, Sir Charles Grey. During this year the mission also lost the important services of Mr. Buckingham in Jessore, than whom a more laborious and disinterested missionary had never entered the field of missions. He had laboured in the district for several years with eqnal zeal and success ; but his frame was shaken by continued and over-abundant exertions. He was attacked by acute disease, and having placed himself in the hands of a native doctor, sunk into the grave at the early age of thirty-one. The number of schools for boys at the different stations, English, Bengalee, and Persian, — the use of Persian was not as yet abolished, — was twenty-one, and the schools and the average attendance of scholars eleven hundred ^°"^^^- and nmety-five. In the report of female schools, it was observed that, " though the education of Hindoo females has lost the charm of novelty, it has not for that reason ceased to be interesting. Its importance can never be abated, for nothing can ever supersede it in enlightening and purifying the minds of the women of India, and thus imparting to them individually those blessings without which their existence is nothing worth, and they are in- VOL. II. G G 450 HISTOEY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. [Cuap. XVII. capable of being that solace, and joy, and crown of glory, and jiuard of virtue to their husbands and children which God intended them to be." In allusion to the decay of native prejudices, it was remarked that the year had been one of singular interest, and that Hindoo society in Cal- cutta — which was to Bengal what Paris was to France — had been shaken to its centre by the conflict between ignorance and knowledge, superstition and reason, which had grown out of the liberal policy of Lord WiUiam Ben- tinck. The question of female education had been largely mixed up with that controversy. Indeed the abolition of the rite of female immolation could not fail to draw^ atten- tion to the prescriptive dogma of female ignorance. The demolition of one of the chief outworks of Hindooism, necessarily endangered the others, and weakened the whole fabric. Of the female schools connected with the mission, that in Serampore was the most flourishing ; the number in attendance was eighty- four. At Dacca there were seven schools M'ith two hundred and nine scholars ; at Chittagong, Ave, with a hundred and twenty-nine ; and one at each of the other stations, making an aggregate of four hundred and eighty-four. In the college the number of students in European habits, pursuing their studies in classics and philosophy under Mr. Mack, was nine, some of whom subsequently became efficient as missionaries. " Our highest class of native Christian students is now on the threshold of the Sanscrit classics. We have thirty-seven native Christian youth on the foimdation, and we hope to raise the number next year to fifty." To the study of Sanscrit had for some time been added the cultivation of English upon a more enlarged scale, under the tuition of Mr. Rowe, whose education had been completed in the college. Dr. Carey had delivered a course of lectures on divinity, and another on agriculture, while Dr. Marshman had lectured on ancient and ecclesiastical history. There had recently been some correspondence with the friends of the college 1831.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 451 on the appointment of a divinity professor from England. To this Dr. Marsh man was opposed as long as Dr. Carey was able to continue his services in this department. In writing to Mr. Hope on the subject, he said, " You must not wonder that I am a little enthusiastic when I speak of Dr. Carey. I think there is no one on earth wlio knows his imperfections (such as they are), more than I do, and few who love him more intensely. I never expect any of my friends to be angels, nor faultless (may I say) monsters, while I am so far from perfection myself, of which every year gives me increasing proof, though I feel it too much to make a daily talk of it, in the hope of being contradicted, as the manner of some is, whom, by the bye, I make it a rule never to be so rude as to con- tradict. But what kind of letter is this ? Oh Eustace I- you are right after all. Parenthesis and digression appear to be interwoven into my very bones ; I wonder how I ever preach a straightforward sermon." All the exertions in the college, however, were cramped for want of funds, The expenditure, even on the most economical scale, amounted to 848/., while the ,.■, . , At^fi 'IT 1 Detention of the receipts did not rise above 485/. ; including the college dividends i: _ ' . Ijy Mr. Dyer. arrears of the preceding year, the deficit was about 650/. The American dividends were still detained by the trustees, and the embarrassment thus created was now increased by the interruption of the dividends of the funds in England. Those funds had been raised through the personal exertions of Mr. Ward, to provide for the education of native youths in the missionary department of the college at Serampore, and had been vested in the public securities, and placed in the hands of trustees. Mr. Ward left it to Mr. Dyer and his friends in Fen Court to draw up the trust deed, and they inserted a clause without his sanction, which gave the trustees the power of alienating the funds in certain cases, and Mr. Ward, to whom the deed was shown for the first time within a day or two of his embarkation, inconsiderately signed it. The G G 2 452 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. [CiiAr. XVII. dividends had been regularly transmitted to Seranipore for nine years by Mr. Burls, one of the trustees, who acted for his colleagues. Owing to the decay of his liealth, the agency was transferred to Mr. Dyer, who remitted the dividends to Mr. Mack, and at the same time desired him to forward a statement of the missionary students to whose support the money was applied. Mr. Mack made over the bill of exchange to the treasurer, and referred Mr. Dyer for the information he sought to the College council, who were responsible for its opera- tions under the provisions of the charter. Mr. Dyer, however, persisted in transmitting the dividends to Mr. Mack, and again requested him to furnish the parti- culars he had previously asked for. The College council did not consider themselves bound to acknowledge in- quiries directed to another party, and which studiously ignored their existence. Mr. Dyer determined, tlierefore, to consider Mr. Mack's silence regarding these inquiries as a refusal on the part of the college authorities to give the desired information, and at length carried into execu- tion the threat he had thrown out in the course of this correspondence, and withheld the dividends altogether. He then brought the transaction to the notice of his co- trustees, and made an overture to them to transfer the funds, on this ground, to the Society. But there happened to be four or five of the friends of Serampore among the trustees, and they remonstrated in indignant terms against this unauthorised proceeding. The rebuke produced its effect. The arrears were immediately transmitted to Se- rampore by Mr. Dyer, who informed the trustees that he had made the remittance " as soon as he found himself authorised to do so by the trustees ; " a lame attempt to excuse the suspension of the dividends without their consent. At the same time Mr. Hope remonstrated with the American trustees on the inconsistency of detaining funds which they held in trust, because the parties to whom the funds were due had been unjustly calumniated. Under the influence of this representation, the arrears, 1831.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 453 wliich had accuiiuilated to the amount of 500/., were for- warded to the College, to the great rehef of the institution. In reference to the detention of the funds in England, the report of the College stated in gentle terms that it had created embarrassment, but if mistake or prejudice should so far prevail with the trustees as to render it permanent, tiiey felt assured it would be made uj) by the liberality of the Indian public. If this proceeding had originated in the apprehension that there was not a sufficient number of students in this department of the College to employ the funds, it would probably be reversed when the trustees found that there were fourteen students engaged in studies designed to prepare them for the mis- sionary field. At the conclusion of the report, the mission- aries alluded with exultation to the new prospects of usefulness opened to the College by the liberal policy now adopted in the administrative institutions of the Bengal Presidency, to which we turn. It was in the year 1772 that Warren Hastings for the first time gave a definite form to our civil, criminal, and fiscal institutions in Bengal, fifteen years after Administrative the battle of Plassy. This crude and experi- wlZ^u'-t:^ mental organisation was repeatedly modified in tlie next twenty years ; and in the year 1793 was entirely remodelled by Lord Cornwallis. The establishment of the system which is identified with his name, was justly considered a great era in the history of British India, and it was extolled by the most eminent Indian and English statesmen of the day. But it was based on the principle of working the administration of the country through the exclusive agency of European functionaries. The few offices Avhich were entrusted to the natives were of in- ferior importance and value. Thus, in the days of Warren Hastings, the *' fouzdar," or native chief of Hooghly, an office which was retained for some time after the Ma- homedan rule had ceased, received an allowance of 8000/. annually; under his successor, Lord Cornwallis, there G G 3 454 HISTORY or the SERAMPORE mission. [Chap. XVII. was scarcely an appointment held by a native of which the emolument exceeded 80/. a year. The natives were, in fact, reduced to the condition of hewers of wood and drawers of water to the triumphant Europeans. The increasing exigencies of the public service in the sub- sequent period of thirty years, constrained Government in some degree to relax the system of exclusion, and to enlarge the functions and increase the stipends of some of the native judicial officers ; but the same fundamental principle pervaded every change, that the richest dishes should be for the conquerors, and the crumbs for the natives. At length Lord William Bentinck appeared on the scene, a discreet but fearless reformer ; and, estimating the system of Lord Cornwallis by its results, pronounced it a total failure. It had alienated the minds of the natives, without improving the administration, which ex- hibited in every department the most lamentable weakness and inefficiency. He determined to break up the frowsy policy which had hitherto been considered the perfection of wisdom. He asserted that the number of European functionaries, which was necessarily limited by the mag- nitude of their allowances, was utterly inadequate to the exigencies of the administration, and that it was necessary to obtain additional agency for the pubhc service. He maintained that it was as impolitic as it was unjust to ex- clude the natives, many of whose ancestors had enjoyed the highest offices of state, from every post of honour, and every prospect of distinction in their own country. He felt, likewise, that after Government had abandoned the invidious and selfish policy of keeping the natives in ignorance that they might be the better kept in sub- jection, and conferred on them the blessing of education, it was necessary to open the path of honourable ambition to them ; and that the native talent thus fostered, if not enlisted in the service of Government, would be turned against it. He felt that it was the duty of Government to give the public administration the benefit of all the talent which was tluis developed. He considered, more- 1831.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 455 over, that the time was arrived for abohshing those invi- dious distinctions which had hitherto prevailed in the pubhc service, and for opening tlie gates of office to all men, without reference to caste or creed. Animated by these views, he recast the whole judicial service of the presi- dency, and gave it the form it now presents. He created three grades of native judges, with increased responsi- bilities and emoluments, intending that the initiative of every case should be committed to them, leaving to the more costly functionaries of the civil service the duty of regulating and supervising the machinery. The system Vv'as gradually matured by his successors, upon the broad views thus established by Lord William Bentinck, and introduced into other departments of the state. The same regulation which opened these prospects to the native community, likewise gave the native Christians the opportunity of rising from the degraded position to which they had been condemned under the old system, and aspiring to public employment. All invidious distinctions of creed were at once abohshed. It is particularly worthy of remark that this liberal movement, which for the first time placed the native convert on the same footing with his heathen neighbour, received not merely the concurrence but the applause of the orthodox and bigoted Hindoos. The journal which represented their views, came forward on this occasion and applauded Government for having abrogated all distinctions between Christians and Hindoos. Even those who were dead to the claims of humanity, and clamorous for the burning of widows, could yet ap- preciate the claims of justice and equity. It was to these new privileges bestowed by Lord William on the native Christians that the Serampore missionaries alluded in the College report. They remarked that on no institution w'ere they likely to produce a more beneficial effect. *' The students are now eligible to every legal appointment in India which a native can hold ; and those who may possess no love for the Christian ministry have the G G 4 456 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIT. prospect of a profitable profession, as advocates in the judicial courts ; and the hope of rising to posts of honour- able distinction in their native land. The whole prospect of affairs is thus changed, and the future is relieved from gloom." The attention of tlie missionaries at Serampore had lonff been directed to the mode in which the Hindoo law of inheritance operated against the interests Hmdooiawof '" of Cluistian truth. That law, which was in- inherltance. tended to uphold Hindooism by pains and penalties, was framed more than twenty centuries before, and was coeval with the institution of female immolation. It enacted tliat ancestral })roperty should descend only to those who performed the funeral rites for a deceased parent. Those who forsook the paternal creed, and were thereby disqualified for this office, became not only out- casts, but beggars. The haughty and proselytising Ma- homedans had treated the law with sovereign contempt. No Hindoo, during the seven centuries of their rule, was allowed to occupy the bench ; and a Mahomedan judge was not likely .to support the law which con- signed a Hindoo who embraced his own faith to des- titution. But in 177~j in the first rough code of British regulations drawn up by Warren Hastings, the enjoy- ment of their own laws of inheritance was guaranteed respectively to the Hindoos and Mahomedans. This was considered a simple act of justice to the people whose country we had taken possession of; but, unfortu- nately, every member of the government was at the time profoundly ignorant of the nature or precepts of the law to which the sanction of the British government was thus given. In equal ignorance of the fact that the Hindoo law disinherited every one who forsook the Hindoo religion, this guarantee was subsequently renewed by the public authorities both in India and in England. When the discovery was made that, by the law thus confirmed, every Hindoo convert to Christianity was stripped of the 1832. J HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 457 patrimony to which he might be entitled, tlie pledge of government was pleaded by the Hindoos, and still more by their European abettors, as a bar to any liberal modi- fication of it. But Dr. Carey urged that no promise made under such circumstances, to uphold laws which were repugnant to every principle of justice and equity, could be considered binding. He consulted his friend Mr, Har- rington, when appointed to council in 18'26, on the subject, and at his suggestion, called a meeting to take it into consideration, and the dissenting missionaries in Calcutta gave their assistance to this first movement towards the abolition of the law ; but the movement was without result. Dr. Duff, soon after his arrival in Calcutta, joined some other missionaries in opening the question again, and Dr. Carey used all his influence to forward the object. He wrote to his friends in England, urging them to bring- forward the subject at the approaching renewal of the charter, and supported his views by a case which had recently come before him. " A Hindoo called on me in Calcutta, and said, 'Sir, I have read the Bible through; I am fully convinced that it is the word of God, and I desire to make an open profession of my faith by baptism, and I wish you to baptize me ; but I have a right, on the demise of a relative, to an inheritance of 40,000 rupees, which I should forfeit on being baptized, and I cannot on that account declare to all men the sentiments of my heart.' He has not yet been baptized." No effort was made to correct this injustice in the Charter Act ; but Lord William Bentinck took advantage of the passing of a regulation in 1832, which gave increased privileges to natives, to introduce a section w^hich, though judiciously veiled in ambiguous language to avoid opposition, was intended and calculated to protect the rights of Christian converts. The subject was taken up more courageously a few years after, and an Act was passed which provided that no man should forfeit his right to ancestral property if he embraced another religion. 458 IIISTOKY OF THE SERAMPOHE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. The gleam of sunshine on the prospects of Dr. Carey and his colleagues created by the publication of their pamphlets, which in the course of tvvelve- Enlai-gemcnt of * ,, ,, ^^^^7 ir>i the serampore uiouths brouofht thcm 2300/., created fresh ani- mission. _ <-) _ ^ ' mation. Their minds seemed to resume their natural buoyancy, and their lirst thought was to enlarge the boundaries of the mission. Dr. Carey preached again with his usual fervour from his favourite text, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitation ; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." Mr. Hope, always a man of large views, gave them every encouragement to increase their exertions; but Mr. Gibbs, the agent of the mission in England, cautioned his friends against the error of being over sanguine ; many of the recent contri- butions had been given under the influence of Dr. Carey's affecting appeal, and they might not be repeated ; at all events, it would be wise to wait the results of the pre- sent year before they incurred new obligations. But Dr. Carey's ardour was not to be repressed. He resolved on a new mission to the Cossiahs. He had printed a trans- lation of the gospels in the language of this rude tribe, who inhabited the hills on the north-eastern frontier of Bengal, and who became British subjects at the close of the Burmese war. The commissioner of the district had established his head quarters at the village of Chirra. Its elevated position and its bracing climate soon rendered it the sanitarium of the eastern districts of Bengal, and some of the female members of the family at Serampore had resorted to it in the course of the present year for the restoration of health. They were accompanied by Mr, Lish, a student in the college, who, during his residence at the station, collected the children of the principal men of the village, and taught them to read. The power of being able to write and read their own thoughts, had a peculiar charm for their untutored minds, and they manifested a strong thirst for knowledge. The 1832,] IIISTOEY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 459 commissioner encouraged this attempt to civilise tliem ; and Dr. Carey pressed on his colleagues the establish- ment of a missionary among them. To overcome the objection which was made on the score of funds, he offered to contribute 60l. a year towards it out of his pension, though he might thereby deprive himself of some of the conveniences of life. Mr. William Garrett, a member of the civil service, a worthy grandson of Robert Raikes, the founder of Sunday schools, and the affectionate coadjutor of the missionaries in every benevo- lent project, offered an equal sum, and a mission was established under the superintendence of Mr. Lish. A spelling book, a primer, and other elementary works were prepared, and Mr. Lish entered on his duties with ardour. On the extinction of the Serampore mission, these labours were taken up and continued by a missionary society in Wales. With this additional station, the number connected with the Serampore mission was raised to sixteen. The number received into the various churches by ^^ . ./ t-iticieiicy of the baptism, fell little short of a hundred. At l^lt'rarse^am'- no period since the establishment of the mis- ^°'^' sion, at the beginning of the century, was it in a state of greater efficiency for the diffusion of Christian knowledge. At the head of the establishment were the two venerable founders of the missionary enterprise in the north of India, with their rich stores of experience, and their ardent zeal, which seemed to burn brighter as they ap- proached the term of their existence. With them was associated Mr. Robinson, the oldest surviving missionary besides themselves, wlio had served the cause for twenty- five years in Bengal, Bootan, Sumatra, and Java; and Mr. Mack, who for judgment, energy, and genius, had no superior and few equals in the missionary circle. They were strengthened at this time by the accession of Mr. Leechman, a graduate of Glasgow, who, in spite of the obloquy attached to the old mission in England, and the 460 HISTOIIY OF THE SERAMPCRE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. precarious nature of Its resources, came out with a feeling of generous devotion to share the labours and anxieties of the Serampore missionaries, without making any stipula- tion regarding his allowances. Soon after his arrival, he accepted the office of professor in the college, and took his seat in the missionary committee, the members of which were united together by common sympathies in a good cause, and kept on the stretch of exertion by the difficulties which beset it. In that little compact body there were none of those discordant feelings or jarring interests which had so often destroyed the principle of co-operation in former times. They seemed to be ani- mated with one spirit, and their energies were concen- trated on one object. But public confidence in England was not to be regained by any efforts or any virtues. Tlie reaction produced by tlieir vindication, was already beginning to die out. Mr. Hope regretted that he could not hold out to them any expectation of increased resources from England. " I see no improvement in our prospects ; our own denomination continues almost en- tirely alienated from us, and other denominations are chilled by the fatal spectacle of animosity in bodies once united." The year closed with a deficit of IQJ'il. Mr. Foster continued to take a deep interest in the Serampore mission after Dr. Marshman's departure, and Mr. Foster's to labour to promotc its welfare. He main- tained a regular correspondence with Dr. Marshman, and in his letter of the present year, said : — " You may be sure we are all rejoicing in the wide extension of your missionary operations, and in the promising and pleasing results already apparent ; grateful also to Heaven for the pro- longed life and competence fur continued exertion of the two ancients of the mission ; and for so much worth, ability, and zeal in those who are coming on in preparation to occupy so well the space which t/ou two must at now no very distant time leave vacant. Your recent transactions and ai-rangements re- specting the property, ' premises,' &c., will be higiily satisfactory to impartial persons, if there be any such; and you must not 1832.] IIISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 461 allow yourselves to care about the cavils with which the malignants will do their best (worst) on the matter. They had need, however, to consider policy a little in the matter of their cavilling trade ; for they are now finding that they have driven the thing so hard and so recklessly that it is recoiling on themselves. I know not whether a copy of Hall's ' Collected Works ' may have reached India, or come to your sight. I was indignant to see printed tliere his notorious and mischievous letter to the Committee" — (alluded to in a former chapter) — " inserted without any com- munication with me. I wrote to Dr. Gregoi'y a very strong re- monstrance, and a demand to be allowed to insert something to neutralise the mischief. He explained that he had no unfriendly design in its insertion ; that lie had not been aware of even its exist- ence till several persons (I could have named them, though he did not) had mentioned it to him as what ought to be Inserted, as well as Hall's other printed writings ; and that he had inserted it merely in conformity to the terms of the contract with the publishers, who had given a large sum for the copyright : the contract with the publishers requiring that everything of Hall's which had appeared in print should be included. As for the admission of a note from me In counteraction, I had the utmost difficulty with him, such was his idolatry of Hall, and his repugnance to admit anything that should seem like a reflection or animadversion on him. I had to write and write again, as much as fully occupied my time for ten or twelve days, in order to force into the last volume a letter to say in effect that Hall was completely duped, and knew nothing about a most essential, tlie essential matter in question . . . How often we (myself and the girls) recall to memory the times and circumstances when you were in this house! We are in a very altered domestic condition now. You may not have heard that she who was the best of our little family has left the house — to enter it no more. For many years she had been in a precarious, debilitated, and suffering state of health, from some obscure internal disorder : a state in which it required all her extraordinary fortitude to maintain the accustomed activities of life and its mental exertions. Painful presages would haunt my mind ; but still as she did continue to live, and without a very marked alteration one year after another, I was willing to hope it might please the Supreme Disposer to protract her life to what might be the appointed duration of my own. Early, however, in tlie last spring there was an evident and alarming acceleration of the fatal process, and an exhaustion of the whole vital system." 462 HISTORY OF THE SEBAMPORE MISSION. lChap. XVII. He then proceeds to describe the progress of decay and the termination of Mrs. Foster's life, and adds : — " Oh, it was a blessed change for her, though a melancholy event for me. So assured am I of her felicity, and so vividly do I sometimes imagine it to myself, that I feel it would be discordant not only with piety, but with true affection also, to murmur at her removal, while I felt it an irreparable loss. My wish and prayer is, and my hope also, that so sad a loss may be compen- sated in the only way possible, in being made an impressive part of the Divine discipline to prepare me to attain at length what she has attained ; and to attain it in her loved society. My mind goes after her every day, almost every hour, into the mysterious darkness of that other economy, with endless imaginings and inquiries, to which there is no answer on this side the mortal boundary. Her excellence was great in all respects ; in intellect, conscientiousness, and piety ; and she was tenderly, and even exquisitely affectionate. She was faithfully to the end a zealous friend to Serampore. My dear sir, it is from your having been so long daily in her company, and from my confidence that you will have a kind remembrance of her, that I have dwelt so long on her removal." At the end of the year the missionaries issued an address in reference to the college, which possesses the peculiar interest of bein^ir the last drawn up College address. ^ t ^^ ^ , ^.. y iTi under Dr. Larey s supervision. It embodied the views which he and his colleagues had entertained of the agency of such an institution in the improvement of India. They stated as the result of their experience, that the most effectual mode of diffusing divine truth through India, was that adopted in apostolic times, of employing, for the most part, those who were converted and trained up in the country itself. They remarked that of the nine stations on the continent of India belonging to the Baptist Missionary Society, six were occupied by missionaries sent out from England, while fifteen out of sixteen of those connected with Serampore, were filled by men who had been found in the country. They contrasted with great force the expense entailed by 183-2.] HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPOIIE MISSION. 463 the outfit and passage of European missionaries with the economy of training up men in India. They stated that the instruction and preparation of all the missionaries in their connection jiad not cost them from first to last 2000^. They had now collected in the college all the means and appliances which appeared necessary for the education of missionaries, and it was on this ground that they appealed for support to their friends in England. Some objections had been raised to the institution as not being exclusively of a religious or missionary charac- ter. But Dr. Carey and his colleagues had always felt objections to a strictly theological seminary for missionary students, native or East Indian. They thought it was calculated to produce contracted views, and to give too much of a professional bias to the character. They did not approve of the segregation of youths who were to propagate and defend Christian truth, but considered it more advisable that they should be trained up in associa- tion with those who were destined for secular avocations. They would be more likely to obtain that knowledge of the character, the feelings, and the prejudices of the heathen among whom they were designed to labour, by freely mixing in the general society of a college. But the resources of the institution were inadequate to the enlarfijed views of the missionaries. Havino; erected the college on a large scale at their own expense, they desired to avoid the censure of having saddled the public with the expense of mauitaining an edifice which some might deem too extensive, and they had always borne the cost of repairs themselves. In the present year the roof of the centre hall required to be renewed, and they were constrained to expend 300/. on this object. The current expenditure notwithstanding the most rigid economy, was by no means covered by the receipts. Including professors, tutors, and pundits, and the board of nine students in European habits, and thirty-five natives, the expense in the current year did not exceed SSJL, while 464 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. the receipts fell short even of this moderate sum by 24U. But the appeal produced no result in the " Baptist repub- lic" at home. Indeed, it was scarcely to be expected that a denomination which allowed its own collegiate institutions, the nursery of its strength, to languish for want of support, would be disposed to grant adequate encouragement to a similar institution in a foreign country, and still less to one founded by men, whom it had been tutored to mis- trust and thwart. The year 1833 was ushered in by commercial disas- ters, which affected the whole British community at the Fall or the great Presidcucy. The great houses of business in Calcutta, the bankers of the services, the pivot of the commercial and agricultural enterprises in the interior of the country, which had for several years been })ressed by growing embarrassments, were now constrained to seek refuge in the insolvent court. The failure of Palmer and Co. three years before had given the first shock to this system of credit, and revealed its utter un- soundness. But so strong was the feeling of confidence in the remaining firms, that few of their constituents were induced to withdraw their deposits. The announcement on the 3rd of January that the house of Alexander and Co. had stopped payment, with obligations exceeding three millions, fell like a thunderbolt on the unsuspecting com- munity. It was followed within a few weeks by the failure of Mackintosh and Co. for a sum little short of three millions. The three remaining houses fell in suc- cession at brief intervals, and sixteen millions were buried in the grave of these great establishments. The desola- tion cieated by this calamity was universal. Every local enterprise was for the time paralysed. The members of the civil and military services had to begin life over again, and no man was ashamed to own his poverty. Though every interest in the country was affected by this tempest, it fell with peculiar severity on the Seram- pore mission and its members. The Jessore School fund 1833.J HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 465 of 7OOI., the Delhi Education fund, of the value of 800/., and Mr. Fernandez's legacy to the extent of 1500/., were lost. Dr. Carey's tenths had been sent Disastrous effect A \ 1 J 1 /'^ 1 j_ o'l the mission. to Alexander and Co., and were swept away by their failure. Mrs. Carey was in possession of about 3000/. at her marriage, which was settled on her, but it was now extinguished. Dr. Marshman, writing to Mr. Hope, said, " I had about 2000/., the remains of what I brought with me from England thirty years ago, and it is gone in Mackintosh's house. These losses take away all support for ourselves and our families. We have never insured our lives. I have left to me the house I live in, and two bungalows at Barrackpore. Will the public s'ill believe in our schemes of family aggrandisement, now the truth has been unexpectedly brought to light ? " Mackin- tosh's house had been the bankers of the mission, and had always acted with great liberality in accommodating their friends at Serampore whenever their supplies were delayed or exhausted. That resource now failed, and in the general wreck of all credit, as well as capital, while the three re- maining firms were struggling to maintain a precarious existence, there was no quarter to which the missionaries could look for assistance. They could not expect any reply to their application for aid to England under eight months. The difficulties were more pressing than at any previous period, and the whole missionary establishment appeared to be threatened with extinction, when Mr. Garrett, whose liberality with regard to the Cossiah mis- sion has been already mentioned, came forward and rescued the mission from its perils. He deposited his government securities with the Bank of Bengal, and opened a credit in favour of the missionaries which enabled them to obtain monthly supplies till they could receive remittances from England. But even in these gloomy circumstances, they did not give way to despondency. Dr. Marshman, in his letter to England, said, *' In this state of distress I do not despair. Hitherto God has pro- VOL. II. H H 466 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. vided, and I believe He will again provide. All India must be evangelised ; let me entreat you and our friends around you not to be discouraged, but to intercede with God for us, and to hasten supplies." Another member of the Serampore committee wrote to Mr. Hope : *' You will perceive that in this general calamity all have been reduced to the same level of destitution. What then is to be done ? Shall the evangelisation of India be arrested by the failure of two houses of agency. * Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' " Mr. Leechman, writing to a friend in England, said, " The wide-spread desolation which is now sweeping over India has nearly overwhelmed us. We have been under the greatest apprehensions, however reluctant to take the step, lest we should be compelled to give up some of the stations. May God avert so dark a day. I have seen the tears run down the face of the venerable Dr. Carey at the thought of such a calamity ; were it to arrive we should soon have to lay him in his grave." In these circumstances Dr. Carey and his colleagues issued an address to the missionaries at the various stations, explaining the nature and extent of the difficulties which had so unexpectedly overtaken them. However imminent the danger, they shrunk from contem- plating the necessity of breaking up any of the missionary stations. They could not take such a step without con- sulting their brethren, and inquiring whether they were able to submit to any temporary privation to prevent the contraction of the m.ission. The replies received from them aiforded a noble instance of devotion to the cause, and the friends of the mission in England expressed pecu- liar gratification on the perusal of them, and regretted that they were not at liberty, from motives of delicacy, to place these records before the public. The allowances which these missionaries received bore little proportion to the salaries given to missionaries appointed from Europe ; but there was not one of their number who did not pro- pose the voluntary reduction of them, ranging from ten 1833.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 467 to forty pounds a year, while two of them stated that they hoped to be able for a time to do without any assistance whatever. A second appeal was at the same time drawn up and sent to England. It stated that with the aid received on their previous representation, they had been second appeal enabled to clear off their obligations and to '°^"s'''"''- carry on the mission with increased vigour. In the thirtv months which had since elapsed, they had established four principal and three subordinate stations, occupied by seven European and East Indian missionaries, and eight native labourers. Perhaps it was imprudent in them to have enlarged the sphere of their operations, but the blame must be shared by their friends in England, who had urged them not to allow any anxiety regarding funds to damp their ardour, or deter them from extending their limits. But they were now reduced to a dire necessity. The insolvency of two of the most eminent houses of business in Calcutta for six millions, the destruction of public credit, and the distress which pervaded all classes, had dried up the usual sources of assistance, and thrown them on the generosity of a single individual. " Our wants for the stations," they say, " are not great, for they scarcely exceed two thousand pounds a year, and when the sixteen missionary stations scattered over so vast an extent of territory, and containing forty-seven missionary labourers of various nations, can have their wants supplied for such a sum, we know not how missionary operations can be conducted with greater economy." The appeal was responded to with alacrity, and Mr. Hope was enabled to transmit a thousand pounds by the first vessel. Mr. Gibbs, the agent of the mission, stated that public atten- tion had been drawn to the silent, unobtrusive, but effi- cient operations of the mission, and public sympathy had been aroused by its difficulties. One lady, Miss Cooke of Cheltenham, under the signature of "a stranger," sent a donation of a thousand pounds, one half to be applied to H 11 2 468 HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. the translations, and the otlier moiety to the Cossiah mission. These substantial expressions of confidence seemed to inspire a hope of steady and permanent support for the mission, instead of those extraordinary and spas- modic impulses to which it had hitherto been indebted for assistance, and which must necessarily become weaker at every repetition. In the course of the present year, the cause of Christian benevolence in England, was deprived of two of its most illustrious supporters, Mrs. Hannah More and Mrs. More aPd Mr. Wilbcrforcc. Mrs. More was amoni]j the Mr. Wilberforce. . ,-,... earliest contributors to the Baptist mission, while it was an untried and, as yet, a doubtful enterprise. She had always manifested the highest esteem for the Serampore missionaries. She had watched the growth of their undertaking ; she was no stranger to the severe ordeal through which Dr. Carey and his associates had passed, and she testified her unabated confidence in their integrity and zeal by a legacy of a hundred pounds. Mr. Wilberforce was the earliest, the most zealous, and the most constant advocate of India missions. He was the first to enforce on the House of Commons, amidst the frigid indifference or open hostility of the most influential men of the day, the duty of providing for the moral and intellectual improvement of our subjects in India. How^ his memorable resolutions were adopted by the House, and then thrown out under the influence of Mr. Dundas, has been already told. After the lapse of twenty years, he returned to the contest, and being now backed by the force of public opinion, was enabled to baffle the opposition of the ministry and the India House, and to prevail on the House to open India to the propagation of Christian truth. It was the glory of his life to have been the chief instrument in obtaining the sanction of Parlia- ment to two of the greatest acts of beneficence in connec- tion with our foreign dependencies of the present century ; the abolition of the slave trade, and the introduction of divine and secular knowledge into Hindoostan. 1833.] HISTORY OF THE SKRAMPORE MISSION. 469 It was on the SOtli of February, in tlie present year, that the memorable despatch was sent to India on the pilgrim tax and the connection of government „ ^ . O . . O Mr. Charles with the shrines of idolatry. A committee of Grille 'shd.fefo'f the House of Commons had been appointed to "*'''^''^- take evidence and report on the subject. But before the report was presented, the Court of Directors, who de- precated the agitation of such a question, as tending, in their opinion, to unsettle the minds of the natives, offered to send out a despatch which should meet the case. It has been ah'cady stated, that when the alliance of the British government with Juggernath, which Sir George Barlow had inaugurated, was brought under discussion in the Court of Directors, it was reprobated and repudiated under the influence of Mr. Charles Grant's representations. But the court was overruled by the president of the Board of Control, and constrained to send out a despatch sanc- tioning the connection. After the lapse of twenty-five years the office of president was filled by Mr. Charles Grant, now Lord Glenelg, and he had an opportunity of giving effect to the enlightened views of his father. The despatch which the Court of Directors had prepared was found to be lukewarm and inadequate. Mr. Grant, there- fore, threw it aside, and, in conjunction with his brother Mr. Robert Grant, drew up the orders which were trans- mitted to India on the 20th of February. By a capricious mutation of opinion the first despatch authorising the connection with Juggernath was opposed to the wishes of the court, and dictated by the president; the second, severing the connection was also enforced by the president, but in opposition to the views of the directors. By the terms of the present despatch the natives were to be in- formed, that the British government, so far from abandon- ing the principles of a just toleration, resolved to apply them with more scrupulous accuracy than ever ; and the proceeding then adopted was in truth no more than a recurrence to that state of neutrality from which the H u 3 470 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. government ought never to have departed. It was there- fore ordained that the interference of the officers of govern- ment in the interior management of native temples, and in the customs, habits, and rehgious proceedings of their priests should cease ; that the pilgrim tax should every where be abolished ; that fines and offerings should no longer be considered sources of revenue ; that in all matters relating to their temples, their worship, their festivals, their religious practices and ceremonial observ- ances, our native subjects should be left to themselves ; and that the police force employed for the protection of the pilgrims should be paid out of the general revenues of the country. It was also ordered that for a gradual ap- proach to the desired end, a beginning should be made w^ith some one of the great superstitious establishments, and it was to be extended to the rest only in case of com- plete success. The public recognition of these sound principles by the India authorities at home was of incal- culable service to the cause of religion in the east. The standard of improvement was planted in an advanced position from which it was impossible to recede. Though these orders might remain, as they did, a dead letter for some time, it w^as inevitable, that under the increasing pressure of public opinion, they would be reduced to practice at no distant period. The period for which the government of India had been confided to the East India Company expired in the present year, and the trust was renewed for another period of twenty years. The new India Bill contained several important modifications of the old system. The doctrine inculcated without success by Lord Grenville twenty years before, that the union of the character of sovereign and merchant in the same body was injurious to the interests of both, was now recognised and acted on. The Company was divested of every com- mercial function, and confined to the duties of govern- ment. The trade of China was thrown open to the enterprise of the nation. Though y^ermission had been The new Charter. 1S33.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 471 given, in 1813, to Europeans to settle in India, under revocable licenses, it was considered dangerous at the time to allow them to purchase land and colonise. Public men had outgrown this fear, and })ermission was now given to Europeans to acquire rights in land in every part of India. It was also provided that the offices of govern- ment should be equally open to all, without distinction of class, creed, or caste. This liberal enactment was de- serving of the high encomium passed on it: but it must not be forgotten, that it was Lord William Bentinck who had first introduced this principle into Indian legislation two years before. The India Bill of 1883 was far more liberal in its character and provisions than any y)receding bill, but this is to be attributed to the progress of liberal opinions in the English community. The constitution of the government of India has undergone as many changes as the constitution of England since the Norman conquest. Both have been the growth of time and circumstances. At every stage of mutation the government of India has presented a very accurate exhibition of the prevailing feelings and opinions of the age ; and they have been reflected as faithfully on the banks of the Ganges as on the banks of the Thames. The resemblance is equally apparent in their virtues, their vices, and their prejudices. There was a time, from I76O to 1770* when the con- duct of the chiefs in Calcutta presented the most re- volting picture of corruption and injustice ; but it \vas at a time when 25,000^. were paid in one day to members of Parliament to secure their votes, and Parliament itself was enacting laws for the encouragement of the slave trade. At that dark period of our history, both at home and abroad, any proposal to give the blessings of civilisa- tion to the natives of Africa, would have been considered as wild and preposterous as the proposal to give education to the Hindoos. The first attempt to abolish the slave trade was coincident in point of time with the first attempt to obtain permission to evangelise India. Both measures H H 4 472 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVII. encountered the same resistance in Parliament. It is a historical fallacy to suppose that the Court of Directors, as a body, presented the only obstacle to the introduction of a liberal policy in India. They were by no means sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. The prejudices which predominated in Leadenhall Street were equally strong in Cannon Row and in the cabinet, in the parliament and the press. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dimdas were as strenuously opposed to the admission of Euro- peans into India as the Court of Directors. It was Parliament, under the guidance of the ministry, which enacted that every European found in India without a license should be deemed guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor. It was Parliament and the ministry of Lord Liverpool that refused permission, in 1813, for them to hold land in India. It was Parliament, at the instigation of Mr. Dundas, which thwarted Mr. Wilber- force's first attempt to obtain access for missionaries to India, and it was Lord Castlereagh and the cabinet of 1813 who endeavoured to defeat his second attempt, in which they would have succeeded but for tlie interposition of the country. For every improvement in our Indian policy, as in our home policy, we are indebted to the might of public opinion ; and it is beneficial to the in- terests of society that it should be so. A liberal policy which owes its ascendency to the individual impulse of one statesman, may be neutralised, if not reversed, by a successor of opposite views ; but when it is enforced by an improved tone of public feeling, it becomes incorporated with the law of progression, and acquires a character of permanency, as the history of liberal opinions in our own country universally proves. It was this public opinion which dethroned the traditional and illiberal policy once predominant in the Court of Directors, and it is the same omnipotent agency which can alone protect us from any attempt to revive it which may be made under the government of the crown. To return from this digres- sion to the last days of Serampore. 1834.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOEE MISSION. 473 CHAP. XVIII. At the beginning of 1834, Dr. Marshman experienced another visitation of mental weakness. He had ^ ,, , ,-, , . Dr. Marsliman's never lully recovered irom the severe strain on Jepressionof his nervous system, occasioned by his struggle with the committee. The consciousness of integrity made him indifferent to any injury his personal reputation might sustain. It was the effect of this continued opposition on the interests of the mission, and the dread of its ex- tinction under the pressure of embarrassments, which preyed on iiis spirits. He experienced the first attack of melancholy about nine months after his return from England, when the prospect of support for " the cause " appeared desperate. A twelvemonth after, he was again visited with the same feeling of depression. Dr. Carey writes on this occasion, " Dr. Marshman, who had been so long under the excitement of those disagreeable cir- cumstances, is now sinking under a morbid depression, which is very distressing. The merest trifle lies on his mind with insupportable weight." The feeling of de- spondency was so intensely painful that he noted down in his journal with gratitude the day of his deliverance. For more tlian two years after, he enjoyed his usual buoyancy of spirits and engaged in his various labours with his wonted cheerfulness. But the severe calamities of 1833, and the gradual decay of Dr. Carey's health brought on a third visitation. The little circle at Seram- pore had, at the same time, to deplore the increasing debility of Dr. Carey, and the distressing melancholy of Dr. Marshman. He wandered about the premises like a spectre. Everything he saw or heard, however insigni- 474 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. ficant in itself, filled his miiul with undefinable terror. He was obliged to relinqtiisli the exercises of the pulpit, and was, for the time, totally unfitted for the ordinary duties of life. Though the most fluent of writers, he often sat down to a letter for two hours without being able to write more than half a dozen lines, and they were altogether incoherent. He described his state as a com- })ound of terror and anguish. He often turned, during these days of darkness, to the record he had made of his former affliction and deliverance, and entreated a gracious Providence that he might be "brought out of prison" a month earlier. In the beginning of March, he recovered his spirits : " I felt," he said, " like Christian when he had escaped from the castle of giant Despair." Suddenly he seemed to emerge from deep gloom to light and cheer- fulness. He was again enabled to occupy his place in the pulpit, and he gave expression to his gratitude by takmg for his text, " He brought me also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my foot on a rock, and established my goings, and he hath put a new song into my mouth, even praise to the Lord." He no longer dreaded the desertion of the college and the mission ; indeed his feeling of confidence became so buoyant, that there was some danger of his passing into the opposite extreme of undue exultation. He resumed his old habit of extremely early rising and immoderate reading. *' I remain up," he writes to a friend, " till nine, and some- times ten, when I retire to rest. I long for it to be three when I rise, and enjoy almost a heaven upon earth in reading the Scriptures till five, when I go out for a drive." During this mental eclipse, nothing seemed to give him such acute distress as the apprehension lest his opponents in England might represent his affliction, in theological phraseology, as a "judicial visitation from God," and thus turn his calamity to the detriment of the mission. In the depth of his despondency he had sent several brief letters to England, which afforded unequivocal proof of 1834.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 475 the state of his mind. It happened that at the period of his recovery, Lord William Bentinck determined to send a steamer up the Red Sea, to demonstrate to the home authorities the importance of that route, to which tliey were at the time more than indifferent. The packets were expected to reach England in what was then con- sidered the incredibly short period of seventy days. In the hope that the letters full of joy and hope sent by the steamer, might anticipate the gloomy communications he had sent round the Cape, he deluged his correspondents with letters as a token of his recovery. It was considered a merciful dispensation of Providence that his bodily and mental vigour were thus restored in time to enable him to soothe the dying hours of his beloved colleague. Dr. Carey had experienced several severe attacks of illness in 1833, from which he partially recovered, but it was evident that his constitution, which had ^^ „ , .„ ' Dr. Carey s ill- never been very robust, w^as exhausted by "^^'^ ""'' 'J«a"». more than forty years of incessant labour in the climate of India, without a visit to England to recruit his strength. After he had completed the last revision of the Bengalee translation, he felt that his course was run, and his work accomplished. He had always entertained a dread of " becoming useless,'* as he expressed himself before his death, and he hoped that his life might terminate with his capacity for work. He refused, therefore, to yield to the advice of his friends, and relinquish his labours even when scarcely able to sit at his desk. But he was gra- dually obliged by increasing debility to relax his favourite occupation of revising the proof sheets of his translations, and to take to his couch, to which he was confined for several months previous to his death. The assiduity of Dr. Marshman's attention to his colleague, may be easily conceived. He visited him daily, often twice in the day, and -the interviews were always marked by cheerfulness. They had lived and laboured together in the same spot for nearly thirty-five years. They were the last survivors 476 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CuiP. XVIII. of a 2;eneration which had passed away, and they seemed pecLiHarly to helong to each other. Dr. Carey's fondness for his garden was not diminished by the decay of his strength. He frequently sent for his head gardener, a native who had been in his service for thirty years, and who was famihar with the botanical names of nearly 2000 plants, and received a report of their condition. *' After I am gone,*' he one day remarked with great feel- ing, " brother Marshman will turn the cows into the garden." " Far be it from me," rephed his colleague. ** Though I have not your botanical tastes, I shall con- sider the preservation of the garden in which you have taken so much delight as a sacred duty." Immediately after, he made provision in his will for the appropriation of a monthly sum from the interest of any money he might leave for the perpetual maintenance of the garden. The progress of Christian truth in India was the chief topic of conversation with the various missionary friends who visited Dr. Carey during his illness. While confined to his couch, Lady William Bentinck repeatedly came over to visit him, and Dr. Wilson, the Bishop of Calcutta, came to his dying bed, and asked his benediction. In the prospect of death> Dr. Carey exhibited no raptures and no apprehensions. He reposed the most perfect con- fidence in the all meritorious atonement of the Redeemer, He felt the most cheerful resignation to the Divine will, and looked at his own dissolution without any feeling o anxiety. " Respecting the great change before him,' writes Mr. Mack, " a single shade of anxiety has not crossed his mind since the beginning of his decay, as far as I am aware. His Christian experience partakes of that guileless integrity which has been the grand characteristic of his whole life. . . . We wonder tluit he still lives, and should not be surprised if he were taken off in an hour ; nor is such an occurrence to be regretted. It would only be weakness in us to wish to detain him. He is ripe for glory, and already dead to all that belongs to life." 1834.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 477 His decease thus came softly on his relatives and associ- ates. On Sunday, the 8th of June, Dr. Marshman en- gaged in prayer at the side of his bed, but was apprehen- sive that he was not recognised : Mrs. Carey put tlie question to him, and he feebly replied, " Yes ; " and for the last time pressed the hand of his colleague. The next morning, the 9th of June, his spirit passed to the mansions of the blest. He was followed to the grave by all the native Christians, and by many of his Christian brethren of various denominations, anxious to pay the last token of reverence to the father of modern missions. Lord William Bentinck was at the time at the Neelgirry hills, but Lady William sent over a letter of condolence, and desired her chaplain to attend the funeral. Dr. Carey was in his seventy-third year at t])e time of his death. He had raised himself hy his own energetic exertions from the humblest rank to a position cinracterof of the greatest eminence and usefulness. While ^''^^^'''^■ yet in obscurity he set before himself the accomplishment of a great object, and he pursued it through life with unabated perseverance till he saw it placed beyond the reach of failure. He took the lead in a noble enterprise, which embraced the intellectual and spiritual elevation of a great country ; and his name is indissolubly associated v.ith the progress of improvement in Hindoostan. He was not urged forward by that spirit of enthusiasm in which great undertakings often originate, but by a pre- dominant sense of duty. One of the earliest impressions on his youthful mind was the duty of Christians to give the knowledge of Divine truth to heathen nations ; and the performance of this duty became thenceforward the object of his life, and the mainspring of every movement. Whatever there is of the sublime in the devotion of forty years to one great and benevolent object, belongs to Dr. Carey's character. The basis of his excellencies was his deep piety, the result of strong convictions and steady principle. The love of integrity was so vigorous in his 478 HISTORY OF TEE SERAMPOllE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. mind that he made no allowance for moral obliquity, and never gave his confidence where he was not certain of the existence of moral worth. Among his virtues, that of constancy was eminently conspicuous, both witli regard to the pursuits of life and the associations of friendship. He united great simphcity of character with strong de- cision. When he had made up his mind, after due deliberation, he ceased to hesitate, and difficulties only served to confirm his resolution. He was never a ready writer, and was always pleased with an excuse fop avoid- ing correspondence, which tended in some measure to abridge his influence. He never took any credit to liim- self for any qualification but that of a plodder ; but it was the plodding of genius. He was a strict economist of time, and the maxim on which he acted was to take care of minutes, and leave the hours to take care of themselves. He never lost a minute when he could help it ; and he thus read through every volume of the *' Universal History " during his periodical journeys to Calcutta on his college duties. He rigidly adhered to the regular distribution he had made of his time. To the translation of the Ramayun he allotted three hours a week ; and with the original manuscript in his hand, read his English version off to an amanuensis, which he repeatedly revised. He was intensely attached to the pursuits of science; but his garden was his earthly paradise. His aptitude for the acquisition of languages has seldom been equalled ; and it was to the exercise of this talent that he was indebted for his eminent position. To supply the Sacred Scriptures to the nations of tiie East was the master passion of his life. He commenced with the Bengalee, then engaged in the Sanscrit and Hindoostanee ; and his views, which gradu- ally expanded with the opportunities which arose, at length embraced all the languages and dialects of the country. To him the Bengalee language, the language of more than thirtv millions, is more indebted for the im- 1834.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 479 provement it has received than to any other individual ; and this flict was gratefully acknowledged after his death by the native literati, though they were strongly opposed to his plans of evangelisation. But all his philological labours, his translations, his grammars, and his dictionaries, were subservient to his great object of elevating the natives by the introduction of Christianity. His preach- ing was plain and unadorned, without any attempt at illustration or eloquence ; a simple inculcation of the salient doctrines of the Gospel. His intercourse with society was marked by a straightforward honest blunt- ness, without either tact or refinement. His manners were easy without being graceful ; and the rustic peculiarities he had contracted by his early associations, were rubbed off by a more enlarged commerce with mankind. His conversation was grave and instructive ; but he had no conversational talent. He took an active share in every benevolent undertaking ; and his position as the oldest philanthropist in Bengal gave importance to every cause he espoused. His stature was not above the middle height : the upper portion of his countenance exhibited the noble expression of genius ; but his figure was of a plebeian cast. Though assiduous in the cultivation of his own mind to the highest standard of excellence, he was not sufficiently alive to the importance of improving the minds of his children. The failure of two attempts to establish a school in England, indisposed him to renew the attempt in his own fiimily. His children came from Mudnabatty to Seram})ore without any culture ; and for all the advantages of education they enjoyed they were indebted to the affectionate exertions of Dr. Marsh- man. Four of his sons survived infancy. Mr. Felix Carey, the eldest, was endued with much of his father's scientific and philological tastes ; and, with the intermis- sion of four years, devoted his talents to tlie service of the mission. His second son was employed as a missionary 480 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XVIII. for forty years : the third was engaged for twenty years in the superintendence of schools in Amboyna and Raj- pootana : the youngest embraced the profession of the law. Dr. Carey bequeathed his valuable museum to the college, and directed that his library should be sold for the benefit of his widow — who survived him only a twelvemonth — and his second son. By his will, he directed that he should be buried by the side of his second wife, and that the only memorial of him should consist of an inscription on her tombstone in the following words : — WILLIAM CAREY, BORN AUGUST 1761; DIED . A WRETCHED, POOK, AND HELPLESS WORM, ON THY KIND ARMS I FALL. The various societies whose objects had been promoted by the labours of Dr. Carey, hastened to ofi'er their tribute of respect to his memory. The reso- spect"from°vario'us lution passcd by the British and Foreign Bible Society was remarkable for the ap})ropriateness and cordiality of its expressions. " The committee cannot receive the intelligence of the death of their venerable friend Dr. Carey, without expressing their long cherished admiration of his talents, his labours, and his ardent piety. At a period antecedent to the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Dr. Carey and his earliest colleagues were found occupying the field of biblical translation, not as the amuse- ment of missionary leisure, but as subservient to the work to which they had consecrated themselves, that of teaching Christianity to the heathen and other unenlightened nations. *' Following in the track pointed out by the excellent Danish missionaries, they set sail for British India, intending there to commence their enterprise of zeal and mercy, notwithstanding impediments which at first threatened to disappoint all their hopes, but which were afterwards succeeded by the highest patronage of 1834.1 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 481 government. There for forty years did Carey employ himself amid the numerous dialects of the East ; first, in surmounting their diflSculties, and compelling them to speak of the true God and of his son Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, and then presenting them in a printed form to the people. *' For this arduous undertaking he was qualified in an extraor- dinary degree by a singular facility in acquiring languages — a fa- culty which he had first shown and cultivated amidst manifest disad- vantages in the retirement of humble life. The subsequent extent of his talent as well as of his diligence and zeal, may be judged of by the fact, that, in conjunction with his colleagues, he has been in- strumental in giving to the tribes of Asia the sacred Scriptures, in whole or in part, in between thirty and forty different languages. " For many years it was the privilege of this society to assist him in his labours ; he was among its earliest correspondents. If, for the last few years, the intercourse has been less regular, and direct assistance suspended in consequence of difficulties arising out of conscientious scruples, on the part of himself and his brethren, still the committee have not less appreciated his zeal, his devoted- ness, his humility ; and they feel, while they bow with submission to the will of God, that they have lost a valuable coadjutor, and the church of Christ at large a distinguished ornament and friend." The Asiatic Society of Calcutta held their monthly meeting on the 2nd of July, when the Bishop of Calcutta, who was in the chair, proposed this resolution : — " The Asiatic Society cannot note on their proceedings the death of Dr. Carey, so long an active member and ornament of this institution, distinguished alike for his high attainments in the ori- ginal languages, for his eminent services in opening the stores of Indian literature to the knowledge of Europe, and for his extensive acquaintance with the sciences, the natural history and botany of this country, and his useful contributions, in every branch, towards the promotion of the objects of the society, without placing on record this expression of their high sense of his value and merits as a scholar and a man of science, their esteem for the sterling and surpassing religious and moral excellencies of his character, and their sincere grief for his Irreparable loss." The Agricultural Society of which he was the parent, also offered their tribute of respect j and the Baptist Mis- VOL. II. I I 482 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. sionary Society, which owed its existence to his energy, most honourably determined to bury all animosities in his grave, and recorded in a well-worded resolution, their sense of his personal virtues and his public services. To these testimonials of the worth of Dr. Carey may be added the letter addressed by Sir Charles Metcalfe to Dr. Marsh- man : " I received with great sorrow the melancholy intelligence con- veyed in your letter of yesterday of the demise of the excellent Dr. Carey. The only consolation for the loss of so good a man is, that he lived as long as nature generally allows ; and that after a life of eminent usefulness, devoted to public benefit, he came to an honoured death, surrounded by his own good works, and attended by the respect and applause of all good men." Dr. Marshman's health and spirits had happily been restored before Dr. Carey's final illness, but the death of the colleaofue who was endeared to him by a Effect of Dr. . ^ ^ , . ^ .^. iii carfy'^ Jeath on couuectiou ot thu'tv-Tive years, miiicted a blow Dr. Marshman. _ *^ . "^ . . on his enfeebled constitution which seemed to threaten a return of his mental debility. There have been few instances of such long continued and unalloyed friendship amidst such efforts as were repeatedly made to dissolve it by infusing mistrust and suspicion. There does not appear on any occasion to have been the least diminu- tion of affectionate confidence between them. So strong, indeed, was their mutual attachment, that it was con- fidently predicted that they were not likely long to survive each other, and it seemed at first as if the prediction was likely to be fulfilled. Every object around him reminded Dr. Marshman of endeared associations which were now extinguished, and he wrote to Mr. Hope that everything seemed to be tinged with " the blackest hue of melan- choly.'* It was found necessary for him to seek change of air and scenery, and he took a journey to the sanitarium of Chirra, to which Mrs. Marshman had been obliged to resort for health at the beginning of the year. 1834.1 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 483 On his return to Serampore, Dr. Marshman was cheered by the receipt of letters from England written before Dr. Carey's death had been heard of, which informed I- n J t 1 n •!• 11 •! State of feeling him or the decay ot preiudice, and the revival towards the mis. n n^ r^^^ • •> n ■ - sion in England. or conndence. Ihe spn-it or opposition was wearing itself out. With many, all interest in Serampore had ceased with the final settlement of the question of the premises, and the registration of the deed. The attention of the committee of the Society, moreover, was drawn off to their West India missions, where scenes of deep ex- citement and of the most painful interest were exhibited in connection with the emancipation of the slaves. But when the intelligence of Dr. Carey's death arrived in Eng- land, it was diligently represented that now the head and glory of Serampore was removed, there was nothing left there to give it a claim on public attention or support. Mr. Hope, who watched every phase of public feeling with much solicitude, wrote out to his friends that to such insinuations there was only one reply, — to live them down. The advice was very evangelical, and in ordinary circum- stances would have been most appropriate. But the object of all these representations was to extinguish the mission, and however exemplary might be the conduct of the missionaries while they were endeavouring with true Christian fortitude to live down calumnies, the stations dependent on them for support must in the mean time perish from starvation. It was chiefly to the exertions of Mr. Gibbs, their travelling agent, that they were indebted for the pecuniary assistance they obtained from England, but he had reason to complain that his friends at Seram- pore did not appreciate the necessity of suiting their communications to the taste of the day. " You must be far more copious in your correspondence on missionary matters in order to feed the voracious desires of the religious public after novelties with fresh excitement, which is the great stimulant to benevolent exertions in the present day There is very little money II 2 484 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIH. given from the pure principle of love to the Redeemer and concern for the heathen." The mission was in as flourishing a condition as at any former period. The younger associates, clustered around ,,, . . , the last survivor of the three, were actuated T he mission and the college. |^y ^)-,g strougcst dcsirc to maintain and per- petuate the usefulness of Serampore, and a more compact and efficient committee for the local management of mis- sionary operations has seldom been seen in India. It was frequently remarked by friends at home that if a portion of the talent collected at Serampore could be transplanted to England, the prospects of the mission would be immedi- ately brightened. At no period since the establishment of the college was it so efficient as regarded professors and teachers ; never had the number of pupils been so consi- derable, or the desire to benefit by its advantages so gratifying. Nothing was wanting but the oil to keep the lamp burning. Some doubts had been expressed regard- ing its religious character and teaching, and Mr. Mack entered on a correspondence with Dr. Stevenson, the Presbyterian missionary at Bombay, on this subject, in the course of which he observed: "Our students are of two classes. Christian and heathen ; the former are supported as well as educated by the college. They are partly East Indian and partly natives in the stricter acceptation of the term. Some of both are theological students, pre- paring for, and in part already engaged in the Christian ministry. The others may hereafter embrace the same vocation, but, for the present, they are receiving a general education, in which religion occupies a prominent part. The heathen students are all under my own care in the English department, and are classed with their Christian countrymen, without any distinction but what may arise from their different degrees of efficiency in all their studies not purely theological. All of them who are sufficiently advanced, read and study the Scriptures two days in the week, and all their other studies, whether in science or 1834.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 485 history, are conducted on Christian principles. At morn- ing worship the Christian students alone are required to attend, and nothing either in profession or practice is required of any heathen which is inconsistent with his own faith ; but the whole controversy between religion and irreligion is continually before them, and we leave the result to God. What more can be necessary to make the college a rehgious institution?" Regarding the mis- sionary stations, the report of the year observes that the number amounted to eighteen, and the individuals engaged in the work exceeded fifty, of whom eleven were from Europe, thirteen East Indians, seventeen natives of Bengal, two from the north-west provinces, six from Aracan, and one from Telinga. The number of conver- sions had rather exceeded than fallen short of the returns of previous years. In the midst of these active missionary operations. Dr. Marshman did not lose sight of the secular interests of the country- He had assisted at the formation of pr. Marsi.man the Agricultural Society, and had always been In'fhelboi'kion l.|. p • 1 • 1 of the sugar du- a diligent promoter or its objects, connected as "e*. they were with the welfare of India. The greatest griev- ance of the day was the differential duty of eight shillings the hundredweight imposed on the sugar produced in the East Indies, to foster the more favoured colonies in the West Indies. The Agricultural Society had petitioned Parliament for the repeal of the duty in 1827, but without success. A second appeal was presented in 1829, but though it had produced no result, the society was disposed to rest its hope of relief on these representations. But Dr. Marshman felt that this expectation was fallacious, and that with so powerful a body as the West India pro- prietors to combat, it was necessary to knock again, and still louder, at the door of the House of Commons. He therefore addressed a long letter to the president of the society, urging the despatch of another memorial, with especial reference to recent events. The West Indies had I 1 3 486 HISTOlliT OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. recently received a bonus of twenty millions on the einan- cipation of the slaves, and their claims to a protective duty had been materially weakened. At the same time the revenues of India had been saddled with the payment of 650,000/. a year to the proprietors of India stock, for forty years to come, on the abolition of their commercial privi- leges. By the bill which imposed this obligation, Euro- peans had been permitted, for the first time, to hold lands in India ; but the privilege would be a mere mockery if their produce continued to be subject to a duty from which that of their competitors was exempt, A petition was accordingly drawn up and presented to the House, but several years elapsed before it produced the effect of re- lieving India from this unjust impost. The interference of one who sustained a missionary character in a question of this secular nature, was effectually vindicated in Dr. Marshman's letter : *' If it be asked, what have you to do with such matters ? Is it not your business to care for the souls of the heathen? I reply, that he who properly cares for their spiritual improvement, cannot be indifferent to their temporal welfare, especially when they are sufferers and cannot plead for themselves." He and his colleagues had always abstained conscientiously from meddling witli any question which was purely of a political character. They had never incurred the charge of being political agi- tators. But they considered it perfectly compatible with their missionary vocation to take an active interest in every measure calculated to relieve the wretchedness of the people, and to promote their temporal well being. The government professed an anxious desire, and with perfect sincerity, to make the British rule a blessing to the coun- try, and Dr. Carey considered that he was only promoting its wishes when he came forward to assist every exer- tion directed to this end. Public functionaries, who con- sidered any exposition of wrongs as a reflection on their own neglect or backwardness, might resent such interpo- sition on the part of missionaries in questions of a social 1835.] IIISTOIIY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 487 nature, but the missionaries at Serampore had never con- sidered their morbid sensibihties as the measure of their own duty. At the beginning of 1835, they were again reduced to difficulties for want of funds. They had paid away the last farthing, and had disposed, for a very inadequate p^^^^^^ p^^„. sum, of their claims on the estate of Mackintosh ■"-'"'y difficulties. & Co. to supply the pressing wants of the stations. They were soon after relieved by the arrival of supplies from England, but the funds were not obtained without great difficulty. Mr. Giblps, their travelling agent, informed them that at Birmingham he had not been able to obtain a farthing for the Serampore mission from the members of the Baptist denomination, though he had received 131. from the members of the Established Church. Wherever the agents of the Baptist Missionary Society appeared, the prospects of Serampore were blighted. Writing to Eng- land on the subject of the college. Dr. Marshman said that they had ten young men in it, natives of India, of eminent piety, preparing for missionary labour. The professors were exemplary in the performance of their duties, but they were several months in arrears. Mr. Mack writes at the same time : " It is manifest the college has no hold on the minds of our friends in England. As sailors say of the mizen mast, which has not the support from stays which the other masts have, that it is ' God Almighty's mast,* since it depends solely on his care, so we may say of the college, that it is indeed God's part of the mission. I have therefore ceased to look to men for its support." Indeed all hope from human sympathy must have been extinguished by Mr. Hope's report that the subscription to it in Eng- land, for twelve months, had not exceeded one guinea. In these circumstances, it was determined to make an effiart to create support for the college by reviving the *' Friend of India" in a weekly form. The edito- .. The Friend of rial management was undertaken by Mr. Marsh- '"''"'■' man, and Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman engaged to con- 1 1 4 488 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVUI. tribute largely to it. It was resolved to give it rather a religious than a political character, and to make it the vehicle of discussion on all questions connected with the moral, social, and material interests of India. It was established at a time when Lord William Bentinck had given the most liberal encouragement to the " ventilation " of such subjects. The earlier numbers were published before the close of his administration, and he was pleased to express his approbation of the spirit in which it was conducted. The missionaries of all denominations hailed with pleasure the appearance of a journal, not exclusively religious, but prepared to discuss public measures in an evangelical spirit, and it has always received their cordial support. But at the end of the first year the subscription list numbered only two hundred ; and as it barely paid its own expenses, it yielded no support to the college. As it was under the editorial management of men who were connected with the missionary establishment at Serampore, those whose prejudices were offended by its remarks avenged themselves by denouncing the intermeddling of missionaries in questions beyond their vocation. I hey insisted on considering it the organ of the whole missionary- body, notwithstanding repeated disavowals of any such association. The dread of compromising that body by any freedom of remark, laid the conductor under a galling re- straint, which affected the popularity and usefulness of the journal. On the extinction of the mission, it was enabled to assume a bolder tone, and to enter upon the unre- stricted discussion of questions of every class, and the sphere of its usefulness was gradually enlarged. The last days of Lord William Bentinck's administration were marked by memorable events. It has been stated in a previous chapter that under the influence Struggle between ' i orfenuuuera- ^^ Mr. Holt Mackcuzic's miuutc, Mr. Adam ^"^" had established a committee of public education "for the better instruction of the people, the introduction among them of useful knowledge, and the improvement 1835.] HISTORY OF TPIE SERAMPORE MICSION. 489 of their moral character." It was naturally expected that after this movement some effort would be made to raise the standard of pubhc instruction above the level of Hindoo and Mahomedan literature. This hope was soon after strengtliened by the arrival of the despatch from the India House, drawn up by Mr. Mill, which affirmed that the great end should not have been to teach Hindoo or Mahomedan learning, but useful learning. But those who entertained this hope were destined to a severe dis- appointment. The orientalists still predominated in the committee, and to this liberal injunction from the public authorities in England, they replied that, '* tuition in European science was neither among the sensible wants of the people, nor in the power of government to bestow; that the learned Hindoos and Mahomedans were satisfied with their own learning, little inquisitive of anything beyond it, and did not consider the literature and science of the west as worth the labour of attainment, and that any attempt to enforce an acknowledgment of the supe- riority of the intellectual productions of the west would only create dissatisfaction." These antiquated sentiments came from the same mint as the arguments which were subsequently produced against the abolition of suttees. The reign of orientalism was thus perpetuated for ten years longer. The patronage of the state was given to the cultivation of Hindoo and Mahomedan literature, and English learning was encouraged only to the extent neces- sary to save appearances. Large sums were lavished on the printing of the oriental classics, and two thousand pounds were appropriated to an edition of Avicenna! The public funds were employed in teaching the young brahmin how the soul was absorbed in the deity, and how the slayer of a goat became sinless on pronouncing holy texts, what was the number of ideal classes into which the objects in the universe were divided, and what were the virtues of the holy sacrificial grass called Koosa. The pundits and mouluvees enjoyed an earthly paradise, and 490 HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVllI. hymns were composed, after the model of the vedas, in honour of those who were thus pouring the wealth of the state into the lap of the brahmins. But a ^reat change was gradually coming over the native community in and about Calcutta. A thirst for Gradual pro. EugHsh knowlcdgc was gradually spreading gress of English, ^j^^j^g ^j^g uppcr classcs. Mauy of the stu- dents who had completed their education at the Hindoo college had set up private seminaries, thus diffusing more widely the desire for English instruction. Tokens of this improvement were unequivocally exhibited in various ways. The students in the oriental seminaries received stipends from the state ; those in the English institutions were required to pay for their tuition, and the payments of the latter exceeded the donations to the former. At the same time, the new members introduced into the education committee were found to sympathise more with the as- pirations for English learning than with the predilection for the Shasters and the Koran. An effort was therefore made to carry out the enlightened views of Mr. Adam and of the Court of Directors, and to employ the public money in the diffusion of useful knowledge, but it failed. At length the two parties in the committee became equally balanced, and the struggle between European and oriental literature was maintained for three years Decision of the , A i i i P i onThe"\.e'stion' without auy preponderaucc. At the head oi the English section was Mr. — now Sir Charles — Trevelyan, who took a prominent part in all the improve- ments which distinguished the closing yearsof Lord William Bentinck's administration, and great is the gratitude due to him for the energy with which he pushed forward the liberal policy of introducing the cultivation of English literature. The committee having thus come to a dead lock, it became necessary to refer it to the supreme council to arbitrate between the claims for ascendency of the Poorans, the Vedas, and the Koran, on one side, and Bacon and Milton and Johnson on the other. The de- 1835.] HISTORY OF THE SEKAMPOKE MISSION. 491 cision of a council composed of Lord William Bentinck, Mr. Macaula}', and Sir Charles Metcalfe on such a ques- tion, may be readily supposed. It was made known in the memorable resolution of the 7th of March, 1835, which laid down the principle, that the great object of the British Government ought to be the promotion of Euro- pean science and literature among the natives of India. All the existing professors and students in the public institutions would continue to receive their stipends, but no fresh stipend should be henceforward granted to any student, or any public money be appropriated to the printing of oriental books, but the funds at the dis- posal of the Committee of Public Instruction were to be employed in imparting to the native population a know- ledge of English science and literature, through the medium of the English language. Thus fell the fabric of Orientalism, fifty-four years after its first development in the establishment of the Mahomedan college in Cal- cutta, and the edifice of European science and Engli>sh literature arose upon its ruins, chiefly through the ener- getic and enlightened exertions of Mr. Trevelyan. It was an unequivocal blessing to the country to subvert the old policy which retarded the progress of European civilisa- tion and sought to stereotype the senile philosophy and errors of Hindooism. But the Anglicists, whose influence now became paramount, and who wisely established the study of the English language for the upper classes, did little or nothing for the education of the people through the medium of their own vernacular tongues. They de- clared indeed, that *' they conceived the formation of a vernacular literature to be the ultimate object to M'hich all their efforts must be directed ; " but no practical eflx)rt was made to carry these views into eflPect, and diu'ing the next cycle of twenty years, the patronage of the state was given almost as exclusively to the study of English as it had previously been given to that of Sanscrit and Arabic. 492 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. The last and crowning act of Lord William Bentinck's administration was the establishment of the Medical Col- lege in Calcutta. It was apprehended that the Establishment of, ^ ^ • i n ^ • \ • i the medical rulcs ot castc, which rorbid a native to touch a college. ' dead body, would defeat this benevolent design, but Lord William Bentinck was determined that the experiment should be made. The college was organised, and this most inveterate prejudice was at once overcome. Native youths of the highest social rank took at once to the use of the scalpel. The success of tlie institution has exceeded the highest expectations which were indulged, and the progress of the students has been little inferior to that of the great bulk of students in the medical schools in England. On the 20th of March Lord William Bentinck em- barked for England, after having held the government for a period of nearly seven years. His adminis- Close and charac- r ^ >/ J Bernini's ad- tratiou constltutcs a great and memorable era in mmistration. ^^^ ludlau lilstory ; another landmark of very advanced progress. His audacious attacks on ancient and venerated opinions confounded and annoyed the whole body of old Indians, and, like some of the most eminent of his predecessors, it was to another age that he had to look for justice. He was the boldest reformer who had as yet appeared on the scene, and his great and bene- ficial measures have given the tone to subsequent adminis- trations. He broke up the exclusive system of European agency, which had in his opinion rendered our government as unpopular as it was inefficient, and he determined to popularise it by enlisting the services of the natives. While Europe rung with applause for the abolition of suttees, which was an honour to Christendom, the natives idolised him for opening offices of trust to them in the land of their nativity, and endeavouring to raise the national character by education and the responsibilities of office. His administration was not distracted like that of the majority of his predecessors by the necessity of war, and 18?5.] HISTORY OF THE SEEAMPORE MISSION. 493 he had leisure for promoting the pursuits of peace ; no ruler ever made a more earnest or successful attempt to introduce healthy principles, and to promote improvement. He advocated with much ardour the policy of opening the country to the settlement of Europeans, and con- trihuted more than any other public functionary of the time, to demolish the old prejudices against this measure. He hesitated to establish the liberty of the press by a legislative enactment ; but he paved the way for this measure by giving the press seven years of practical free- dom,*' and by constantly encouraging the discussion of public questions in the papers. He thought some power should be reserved to the public authorities, responsible as they were for the peace and integrity of the empire, to enable them " effectually to secure the government against sedition." Though he never interfered with the freedom of public discussion, except in the solitary case of the half batta order, he thought government should have authority to come down summarily on the press, in a clear case of political necessity. The various classes of society vied with each other in endeavouring to do honour to their departing chief. The Agricultural Society went up with an address, to which Lord William Bentinck replied : " It Lord wuiiam 1 . Bentinck. is impossible not to deplore the same defective state in the agricultural as in every other science in this country. Look where you will, examine the whole scheme of this Indian system, and you will find the same result ; poverty, inferiority, degradation in every shape. For all these evils, knowledge ! knowledge I knowledge ! is the universal cure." In replying to the address of the com- mercial community, he alluded more particularly to the introduction of ocean and river steamers, which he had laboured to promote, notwithstanding the lukewarmness, and, it was even asserted, the rebukes, of the India House. '* If," said he, '* five powerful steamers had been at our command in the last Burmese war, it would probably 494 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap, XVITI. have terminated in a few months." This prophetic as- sertion was fulfilled seventeen years after, when Lord Dalhousie was forced again into hostilities with the Bar- raese court. With the aid of a steam flotilla, such as it had been the aim of Lord William Bentinck to create, the war was concluded, and Pegu annexed in ten months, at an expense of less than a million, against more than ten millions which the first war had entailed. The natives of Calcutta, of all shades of opinion, likewise presented an address which was most gratifying to his feelings. They desired *'to record their grateful acknowledgments to him who had been the first to teach them to forget the distinc- tion between conquerors and conquered, and to become in heart and in mind, in hopes and aspirations, one with Englishmen. We ardently desire to cherish these feelings. We trust they will descend to our children and to our children's children." The Dhurma Subha, the society of orthodox Hindoos, paid him the greatest compliment in their power, by determining that it was not suitable to present an address to the ruler who had abolished female immolation. In reply to the address from the missionaries, Lord William Bentinck said : " I have the more reason to be flattered by your kindness on this occasion, inasmuch as it proceeds from those with whom, in their public capacity, I have carefully abstained from holding any communication. The professed object of your lives and labours is conversion. The fundamental principle of British rule — the compact to which Government stands pledged — is strict neutrality." But on his arrival at St. Helena, the first port at which he touched on his return to England, he wrote to Dr. Marshman to say, that while he occupied the post of Governor-General he considered himself precluded from giving support to missionary institutions, but he embraced the first oppor- tunity of manifesting his esteem for the Serampore mis- sionaries, after he had retired from office, by a donation of 50/. 1836.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 495 Lord William Bentinck was succeeded in the government of India by Sir Charles Metcalfe, who held the provisional appointment till the arrival of a successor from England. It would have been beneficial to the c^aTfe^and'fhe"!'" interests of the country, if the office had been permanently conferred on him. There can be no doubt that his career would have been as distinguished as when, on his return to England, he was successively ap- pointed to the government of the West Indies and of Canada. But Mr. Canning, while President of the Board of Control in 1820, had placed on record his opinion that " the case could hardly be conceived in which it would be expedient that the highest office of the Government of India should be filled otherwise than from England ; and that one main link at least between the systems of the Indian and British Government ought for the advantage of both to be invariably maintained.'* Sir Charles Met- calfe, therefore, remained in office less than a year ; but this period was rendered memorable in the annals of British India by the legal emancipation of the press. On the 3rd of August the government of India, of which he was the head, and Mr. Macaulay the most illustrious member, passed an Act repealing all the regulations by which the press had been fettered. The Court of Di- rectors took offence at the adoption of a policy on which they had not been consulted, and which was not in accord with their views ; and Sir Charles Metcalfe, finding that he had lost their confidence, relinquished the office of governor of Agra, to which he had been appointed, and retired from the Company's service. In January, 1836, Dr. Marshman made a successful effort to establish a hospital in Serampore. The number of deaths in the town annually was reported to be five hundred, and it was hoped that no incon- of^serampJre' siderable number might be saved by prompt and timely attention. With the sanction of the local authori- ties, he convened a meeting of the principal inhabitants at 496 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. the King's House ; the institution was at once established, and placed under the auspices of the Queen of Denmark. Colonel Rehling, the governor, accepted the office of president ; the secretary to government, Mr. Elberling, agreed to act as secretary ; Dr. Marshman was appointed treasurer, and Dr. Voigt, the medical officer of the settle- ment, offered his gratuitous services. The committee consisted of five Protestant gentlemen, the Roman Catho- lic vicar, and three wealthy natives. Dr. Marshman obtained from the Governor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe, the privilege of receiving supplies of medicine from the government dispensary at prime cost, which proved of no small advantage to the infant institution, at a time when medicines imported from Europe were ordinarily sold at an advance of more than five hundred per cent. The governor reported the proceedings of the meeting to his court, and the Queen w^as pleased to accompany the acceptance of the office of patroness with a liberal donation of five hundred rupees a year, which was continued for nine years, until the settlement was transferred to the British Government. The establishment of the hospital was the last public act of Dr. Marshman's life, of which it formed an appropriate termination. The department of translations, which had been main- tained chiefly through Dr. Carey's labours, was seriously affected by his death ; but his surviving col- uieXmkun'" Icagucs strcuuously endeavoured to supply the deficiency. They undertook the joint revision of the Bengalee New Testament, and commenced the publication of it. Mr. Thompson, the missionary at Delhi, and one of the most accomplished Hindostanee scholars in India, was invited to Serampore to superintend an improved edition of the Hindee New Testament. The missionaries also published an edition of Dr. Judson's Bur- mese New Testament, of three thousand copies, for the province of Aracan, and offered to print an edition of the Orissa New Testament, prepared by the missionaries in 183G.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 497 that province, who had taken up Dr. Carey's labours in that language. A very gratifying testimony was received at this time regarding the translation which Dr. Carey had made about fifteen years before in the Kunkun language. It is current on the western coast of the Indian peninsula, in the territory which still continues to be dignified with the name of Portuguese India. In 18^2, some of the mis- sionaries who had newly arrived at Bombay, wrote to their friends at Serampore, stating that there was no such lan- guage as the Kunkun in existence, and that the time and expense bestowed on this version had been entirely thrown away. Their opinion was supported by the testi- mony of the official pundit in the court, who condemned the version in one oracular sentence, " Bad letter, and no language at all.'* The Serampore missionaries asserted that though the language might not be spoken to the north of Goa, it was the vernacular tongue in the district which lay in a south-eastern direction from that city. They farther stated that the translation had been made by two pundits in succession, one having died before the version was complete, and that the invention of a language under such circumstances was an impossibility. The mis- conception was now cleared up, and the value of the version established on evidence w^hich was unexception- able, but not till after Dr. Carey was in his grave. A body of missionaries from Basle planted themselves in this section of the country, and Mr. Anderson, a member of the Madras Civil Service, who took a lively interest in the missionary undertaking, anxious to assist their labours, applied to the missionaries at Bombay for some aid in the study of the Kunkun language. He was referred by them to the Serampore version of the New Testament. They stated, moreover, that the language was spoken by all the Goanese cooks and butlers in Bombay, amounting to several thousands, some of whom were actually in the service of the missionaries who had pronounced the lan- guage itself a fabrication. After copies of the version had VOL. II. K K 498 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. been sent to the Basle missionaries, Mr. Anderson wrote to Mr. Mack that there was a considerable difference between the Kunkun, as used by the pundits and by the native Christians, but that the version printed at Serampore was invaluable. The missionaries likewise stated that the translation was good, and understood by the pundits, though too high for the common people. It has been stated in a former chapter that the first attempt at Chinese printing from movable metal types, as distinguished from the xylographic typography Chinese printing. n r^i • 1 - O T"! 1 or Chnia, was made at k^erampore. Ihe ad- vantage of this mode of printing was now beginning to be appreciated by the missionaries in China ; one of whom writes thus to Dr. Marshman in the present year : — " We wish to obtain farther particulars about the Chinese print- ing at Serampore. How are your metallic types made ? Have you steel punches? Who are your printers?" At the same time, the son of the distinguished missionary Dr. Morrison, Mr. J. R. Morrison, than whom no man was better acquainted with the language, literature, and habits of the Chinese, joined Mr. Gutzlaff in the re- quest that an impression of their New Testament, of which they sent the manuscript, might be printed at Serampore from these metallic types. At the close of the present year the Roman Catholic vicar apostolic of Cochin China, who had resided in that country for many years in charge of the Christian community, and compiled a copious dictionary of the language, came round to Bengal to print it. He sought permission to use the Chinese types which had been prepared for Dr. Marshman's translation of the Scriptures, and they were employed in printing his " Anamitic and Latin Dictionary." The despatch from the India House, drawn up by Mr. Charles Grant, the President of the Board of Control, directins; that the interference of the British Government con- O Thrinesof*^'"^ Govcmment in the interior management of the Idolatry. natlvc tcmples, and in the direction of tlieir 1836.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 499 rites, ceremonies, and festivals, should cease, had remained a dead letter for three years. A few months after the issue of the despatch Mr. Grant quitted office, and his successor was, apparently, little disposed to enforce its provisions. It was, at the time, rather an individual impulse of philanthropy than a national movement. The Court of Directors were not hearty in the orders they had been constrained to issue, and this fact was not without its influence on the public authorities in India, and more especially at Madras. The suggestion in the despatch, that a gradual approach should be made to the accom- plishment of the object, afforded them an excuse for doing nothing. But in the present year an astounding cata- strophe at the great temple of Conjeveram, in the south of India, aroused the government of that presidency from its state of indifference, and compelled attention to the injunctions of the despatch. At the Bengal Presidency, the government had not been in any degree implicated in the encouragement of idolatry, except in reference to the holy places at Juggernath, Gya, and Allahabad ; and the connection of the state with them had not arisen from any morbid sympathy with the superstitions of the country, but from the sordid motive of securing the sum — about 38,000/. a year, — which was obtained from those shrines. But the case was different at Madras, where the public authorities had for more than half a century manifested the strongest bias in favour of the idolatry of the natives. The system of patronage had been elaborately organised at an early period by one of the most eminent public function- aries whom the people long continued to venerate. The go- vernment manifested as strong a predilection for Hindoo and Mahomedan practices, as if it had not consisted of Christian men, and every effort to interfere with the patron- age of the native superstitions was resisted with indigna- tion. Considerable sums of money were openly and sys- tematically disbursed from the public treasury for the celebration of Hindoo and Mahomedan festivals; and one 500 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. annual donation, for what the applicants termed the "belly god feast," attracted particular attention, from the quaint- ness of its designation. The royal ensign was hoisted at Fort St. George, and salutes were fired from the ramparts, on the anniversary of the Mahomedan festival of Bukreed, and on the birthday of some of the Hindoo gods. Mili- tary bands and escorts accompanied the processions ; and, on one occasion, a gate in the fort had been widened to accommodate a heathen procession. The collector of the district in which the great temple of Conjeveram was situated, had been accustomed, from the earliest period of our government, to send his public servants into the villages to press men to draw the car. Snatched from the plough, the loom, and the net, they were marched by hundreds a distance of ten or twenty miles, and yoked to the car, and the whip was frequently applied to them when they drooped. No remuneration was granted to the poor wretches, nor any provision made for their sub- sistence during the impressment. In the present year, fifteen of the men who had thus been forced into the service of the idol, fell down while drawing the car, and were crushed to death under its wheels. The Madras officials, alarmed by this tragic event, issued immediate orders to put a stop to the practice. The priests of the temple were constrained thenceforward to hire labourers from their own resources, and the connection of the Government with the shrine of Conjeveram ceased. The event was hailed with gratulation by the public journals in India, and they expressed a hope that other superstitious compliances would likewise be discontinued without delay; but the royal salutes, and subsidy to the belly god, and the escorts, were continued for some time longer. Even in Bengal, men in the highest political position declared that they were not going to give up the two lacs of rupees they received from the shrine of Gya at the bidding of fanatics-, but the fanatics triumphed. The pilgrim-tax was at length abolished ; though at Juggernath laries on educa- tion. 1830.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 501 the donation which had been paid from its receipts was for several years imposed on the public exchequer, and the honour of breaking the last link of this unholy alliance was reserved for Lord Dalhousie*s administration. The college continued to maintain its efficiency. The number of students exceeded a hundred, one half of whom consisted of native Christians, the larsrest „. O Views of the number which had yet been assembled there. Knlush^'l There were likewise ten students in European habits, and the report of the year details with minuteness their progress in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, in mathe- matics, logic, natural philosophy, and divinity. Sanscrit had given way to English. On this subject the views of the missionaries had been changed with the change of circumstances. Since the establishment of the institution," the desire for English instruction had been gradually diffused through the native community. Natives edited journals and composed poems in the EngHsh language; their progress in mathematics, metaphysics, and mental philosophy exceeded all expectation. The cultivation of English literature and European science, though unac- companied with instruction in the principles of Christianity, had raised them above their creed, and emancipated them to a great extent from the fetters of Hindooism. The influence of the shasters and of the priests was rapidly giving way to this new and more beneficial influence. The Serampore missionaries had supposed in 1818, when the college was established, that the philosophical and mythological systems of Hindoostan would possess the same vitality which Grecian philosophy had exhibited, and in inculcating the study of Sanscrit their object was to create Christian pundits to contend with Hindoo pun- dits on their own ground, for influence over the national mind. In the government Sanscrit colleges, the en- couragement of oriental literature was based on other considerations ; the conciliation of the natives, a veneration for eastern antiquity, a conviction that there was much in K E 3 502 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIIL the shasters worth preserving, and also the homage of the native Uterati. As soon as it was perceived that the influence of Hindoo philosophy was giving way under the progress of more generous and elevating studies, the mis- sionaries hastened to modify their plans, and to give that attention to the cultivation of English which they had at a more early stage thought it useful to give to the culture of Sanscrit. In the report of the present year, they state that the attention of the students to that language must now be confined to the forming of such an acquaintance with it, as shall enable them to read it with ease, and mal the last of its existence, the affairs of the mission appeared therefore to be approaching a final and irre- trievable crisis. All the missionaries at the various stations were three or four months in arrears. Their usefulness was thus fatally compromised ; for while they were unable to meet the just claims of their domestics and tradesmen, it was impossible for them to address the heathen with confidence or success. In these gloomy circumstances it was deemed advisable to depute Mr. Leechman to Eng- land to support the exertions which were necessary to raise supplies. Mr. Mack's convalescence was not then known in India, and the assistance of a coadjutor was, under any circumstances, considered important. The missionaries at Serampore likewise accepted the resignation of two of their European labourers, and discontinued one station. These reductions diminished their monthly expenditure, and, with other economical efforts, brought it within the sum of about two thousand rupees a month. But they could not but feel most acutely the painful conviction that no mission could be said to be in a flourishing condition when it began to be conducted on the principle of contraction. They were acting, however, under the pressure of an impe- rative necessity, and cut off a limb to save the body. Great exertions were likewise made, and not without success, at the various stations to raise local subscriptions, and great efforts were made to counteract them. The decay of Dr. Marshman's health, and the departure of Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman, furnished opponents with the opportunity of detraction which they The mission were not slow to embrace. A series of anony- cSu/. mous articles appeared in the Calcutta journals, intended to weaken public sympathy, and to stop public contributions. One member of the missionary committee at Serampore came forward in his own name and joined, attacked in the _our- nals. 508 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap. XVIII. issue with these adversaries, challenging them to affix their signatures to their future communications, which effectu- ally silenced them. In the course of his reply he said : " It would be idle to deny that we are in difficulties. When, indeed, have we been exempt from them ? The history of this mission for thirty-seven years has been a history of difficulties. Every stage of its progress has been marked by adversity and deliverance. From the time when, three days after Dr. Marshman and Mr. Ward landed in India, they were ordered to quit it, and onward through the period when the open hostility of government threatened the existence of the mission, .... our course was strewed with thorns. When the opposition of govern- ment ceased with the charter of 1813, new difficulties arose, and we were called to sustain a far more harassing struggle with our own Christian brethren, which struggle unhappily continues. We have been too much habituated to emergencies to regard the present occasion in any other light than as calling for renewed exertions. . . . We have the answer of a good conscience, that with all simplicity we have, while labouring for our own support, endeavoured to spread moral and religious truth through India. The present trial, like all that preceded it, is intended for good, and it will be our aim not to defeat that object either by recrimination on our opponents, or by despairing of the cause in which we are embarked." This document derives interest from the fact that it was the last which emanated from the Serampore mission before its extinc- tion, which, notwithstanding the determination not to despair, was approaching with rapid strides. We turn therefore to the progress of events in England during the present year. When the Serampore mission was cast on the sympathy and support of the public in 1827, a number of devoted friends came forward to promote its support in Formation of a , » r>i ?tTverpo"oi*in^ thcir scvcral localities by the formation of local aid of Serampore. associatious, by congrcgational collections, and 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 509 by individual applications ; but the general management of its affliirs in England devolved on Mr. Samuel Hope, the Rev. Christopher Anderson, and the Rev. George Gibbs. For ten years they generously sustained this responsibility, and laid their friends at Serampore under the deepest obHgations of gratitude by their indefatigable exertions. Great inconvenience, however, was expe- rienced from this mode of conducting its affairs. It was not in accordance with that system of organisation, which, amidst increasing competition for public support, had become necessary to the prosperity of any association. The supporters of the mission throughout the country felt the want of a centre of operations, to which all com- munications should be directed, and from which intelli- gence should radiate. An alarming deficiency in the subscriptions of 1836 gave irresistible force to these con- siderations. Early in the present year, the friends of the mission met at Liverpool, and adopted measures to remedy this defect, and to place its affairs in a more advantageous position. They determined to graft on the local association ' of the town a General Society in aid of Serampore, with a central conunittee, on the plan adopted by all missionary societies. The committee continued Mr. Gibbs as the travelling agent of the Society, and appointed the Rev. 13. Godwin secretary ; he entered upon his duties with great ardour, and continued them throughout the year with undiminished energy. Mr. Mack reached England in April in renovated health, and gave his assistance to this generous movement. Mr. Leechman, who landed soon after, joined his colleague in advocating the claims of the mission. A meeting of the friends of Serampore was held at Liverpool in connection with the new society, on the 22nd of September. The position and pros- , n .1 • ■ J- 1 1 il Suggestion of re- pects ot the mission were discussed, and the union wuh the . . • • 1 /• • 1 Society. inquiry arose, whether, considering the financial embarrassments connected with the attempt to maintain 510 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. two missionary societies in the same denomination, the difficulty of stemming the strong tide of adverse influence extending from the Fen Court committee throughout the kingdom, and the animosities arising from this divided state of things, an endeavour to reunite the societies was not desirable. While, therefore, it was resolved to support the Serampore mission with undiminished vigour, it was deemed advisable to seek the opinion of its chief sup- porters throughout the country on the question which had thus been mooted. It was the desire of Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman, the representatives of the Serampore mission, to maintain the principle on which it was founded, and to obtain support for it as an independent agency. But when they perceived so strong a tendency, on the part of those without whose aid they were powerless, to seek an alliance with the society, they felt the necessity of yielding to the current. They reflected on the withering embarrassments which had been so long felt at Serampore, the exigencies of the stations, and the declining health of Dr. Marshman. The eflTorts of the new society might not be successful. To save the missionary stations from ex- tinction they resolved, as a matter of necessity rather than of choice, to co-operate in the proposed design. Tlieir decision was strengthened by the death of Mr. Samuel Hope, who had been the mainstay of the Serampore mis- DeathofMr. slou iu Euglaud for ten years. He was a man Hope. of large mind, comprehensive views, and sound judgment, the affectionate friend and the judicious adviser of the Serampore missionaries. He was ever ready to sup- port with his purse and the influence of his position the iDcnevolent labours of every denomination, but his affec- tions centred in Serampore. He generally wrote to Dr. Marshman by every vessel, and the deep interest he took in the mission, and the sympathy he felt in the hopes and disappointments of the missionaries brought vividly before them the days of Andrew Fuller. He brought sub- stantial relief to his friends by constantly anticipating the 1837.] HISTOKY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 511 collections, and on one occasion made a loan of a thousand pounds to the college. The loss of this invaluable aux- iliary at this important crisis, removed whatever hesita- tion Mr. Mack or Mr. Leech man might have felt regard- ing the suggestion of reunion. At the same time Mr. Mack was anxious that a full report of the mission, extending to the latest date, should be drawn up and circulated, because he deemed it of the utmost importance to show that, in tendering themselves to the society, they did not offer them a lifeless burden, but a living body of fliithful men, whose energetic labours had been blessed with success. Though the Serampore mission had been curtailed by the reduction of three stations, the success at those which remained fell short of no preceding year. There was scarcely a station without additions to the church, and at one station the number of fresh converts exceeded twenty. The suggestion of a reunion with the Baptist Mis- sionary Society, was submitted to forty-three of the most influential supporters of the Serampore Mission, both lay- men and ministers, throughout the country, and, with the exception of two or three, they gave their proposal for re- sufli-age in favour of it. An overture was Stymade'^aud accordingly made to the committee in Fen '"""'^'■'"^^ Court that the two missionary bodies should be con- solidated, and that the stations connected with Serampore should be annexed to the society, to which the entire superintendence of them should be relinquished. The committee " cordially reciprocated the feeling of earnest desire expressed by their friends at Liverpool, to restore a combination of missionary effort among all members of the denomination at home and abroad." It was then proposed, that a deputation consisting of two ministers, two laymen, and the two delegates from Serampore should meet a similar deputation from Fen Court. But the London committee refused to admit Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman to the conference, on the ground that mis- 512 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOKE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. sionaries on both sides should be excluded. Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman, however, were principals in the ne- gotiation, and without their concurrence, the general committee at Liverpool in aid of Serampore would not have been justified in making any overture to the com- mittee. They might have withdrawn from the support of Serampore, but they had no right to transfer its in- terests to the Baptist Society, without the concurrence of the missionaries themselves, or their accredited agents in England. But as the Fen Court committee continued to press their exclusion, it was deemed advisable to yield the point rather than risk the success of the negotiation. Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman were, therefore, kept in an adjoining room during the conference, but admitted to the repast which followed its completion. The con- ference was held on the 7th of December, and the act of reunion was completed. Throughoiit this transaction, the friends of Serampore acted from the most honourable and benevolent motives, and in a spirit of the most delicate consideration for the feelings of the Serampore missiona- ries. Feeling as they did that it was not possible to support two missionary societies in the same denomi- nation, the greater bent on extinguishing the less, they endeavoured to save the important missionary labours connected with Serampore by a timely transfer. They were also desirous of terminating a schism which was corroding the Baptist community. The principle of amalgamation which they adopted, was, therefore, the dictate of necessity. But it was impossible for those who were identified with the Serampore mission not to perceive that the reunion with the Society was, virtually, the ab- solute surrender of the mission to those who had laboured for ten years to extinguish it; the consummation of the plan which Dr. Marshman had rejected in 1827. It was natural that they should regret the extinction of an institution, as a distinct agency, which they had so long endeavoured to maintain, amidst a host of difficulties. In the com- 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 513 municatioii wliicli the commit tec of the Baptist Missionary Society circulated among their friends, — as distinguished from tlie official announcement in their monthly organ, — they did not attempt to conceal the satisfaction they felt that this reunion was the triumph of the principle they had maintained in their discussions with Dr. Marshman, — the subordination of all missionary labours in India, con- nected with the denomination, to the control of the Society. In proportion to the feeling of exultation thus manifested by tiie committee at this termination of the conflict, w^as the dejection of those who regarded the cause of Seram- pore with feelings of paternal affection. But they had the consolation of reflecting that they had remained at their ])ost to the last moment, and had yielded, at length, only to the irresistible pressure of circumstances, and that the missionary stations they had established would be continued, though not under their direction. Under these considerations they could overlook the ungenerous taunt of Mr. Dyer, conveyed a few months later to the secretary of the late Serampore Mission, " that the com- mittee had taken on themselves a large burden of expense, not of a kind to add to the reputation or popularity of the Society, mainly from a wish to preserve worthy men from severe distress, and to put an end to a divided state of things." The terms of the agreement were thus announced by the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society. "The Serampore friends provide for all claims against their mission, and for all such as may accrue up to the 30th of April next. The whole of the stations at present forming the Serampore Mission are to be incorporated with ours. It is expressly stated that the European missionaries at Serampore are not included in this arrangement. Dr. Marshman's age and infirmities, it is said, disqualify him from taking any part in it. Mr. John Marshman is not recognised as sustaining any missionary character. Tlie books and translations at Serampore are considered public property, and to be placed at the disposal of the committee; VOL. II. L L 514 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVITI. but it is agreed that no changes shall be made in the ad- ministration of affiiirs at Serampore till the decease or voluntary resignation of Dr. Marshman. With the college the Society will have nothing to do." And thus was the Serampore Mission extinguished after a bright and useful career of thirty-eight years. During these negotiations Dr. Marshman was sinking into his grave. The successive departures of Mr. Mack Death of Dr. ^"*^^ ^^^' Loechman, and the death of Mr. Bar- Marshman. ^j.^^^ ^.j^^ j^^j l^gg^^ ^ faithful aud camest co-- adjutor in the mission, affected his spirits and increased his weakness. The hot season of 1837 was, moreover, the most severe which had ever been experienced. The ther- mometer in his room at four in the afternoon stood at 106°. The heat told on his exhausted constitution, and though the rains brought some relief, they could not restore his vigour, and he was totally disabled from any public exercises. On the 7th of September, he wrote to Mr. Godwin under the impulse of that buoyancy of feeling which he endeavoured to maintain, that, taking all things into consideration, and reflecting on the v/ay in which help had been obtained in their missionary labours, during tlie absence of Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman, he might well say, "What hath God wrought for us?" *' For my own part," he adds, *' I am grieved at my in- gratitude and my insensibility in the midst of all God's goodness. Surely there never was a viler and more un- worthy creature forgiven and saved than I feel myself to be." He then referred to the zeal and energy of his younger colleagues. '* I think it a sacred duty to bear testimony to you, as secretary, while I have opportunity. Should God be pleased to remove me, you may have occasion to use it in order to ward off attempts to injure His precious cause here. Such attempts, will never, I hope, be made. If they should, you have the testimony of one who has known those on whom the weight of affairs will devolve better than any one in England or 1837.] IIISTOrtY OF THE SEKAMPORE MISSIOX. 515 India, with wliotn time may tlien be no more." During the month of October the symptoms of decay became more decided. lie was visited by his missionary brethren of various denominations, with wliom he conversed earnestly on the progress of divine truth in India, encouraging them to redouble their efforts in this " sacred cause." Mr. Yates, the senior member of the Society's mission in Calcutta, came up to see him, and was bathed in tears as he knelt by his dying couch and engaged in prayer. Dr. Marsh- man assured him of his unabated affection for him and all his associates, however he might have differed from them on minor points ; said that he rejoiced in their success, and was convinced the feeling was mutual ; that there was room enough in India for both missions, for ten missions, and encouraged them earnestl3^ to persevere in their labours. At the beccinnino; of November he walked down stairs for the last time. The next day he made an ex- cursion on the river, in the hope of recruiting his strength. On arriving at Calcutta he was visited by Dr. Nicholson, the most eminent physician at the presidency, v/ho placed him on a more regular diet ; the dysentery with which he had been afflicted for some time left him, but was succeeded by dropsy. The excursion on the river appeared at first to invigorate him, but when the ex- citement occasioned by a change of scenery had sub- sided, he experienced a relapse, and desired to be taken home without delay, that he might die on the spot where he had passed so long a period of his life. He was carried up from the boat in a chair, and, as he entered the gate, was entreated to allow himself to be taken to the more commodious house in which he had lived for thirty years, then occupied by Mr. Marshman, rather than to his own inconvenient dwelling. He pausedTor a moment, and then replied, "Brother Carey did not die on the Society's premises, and I will not." "The iron had entered his soul." Towards the middle of November the dropsy in- creased, and he was unable to turn himself on his couch 616 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Cuap. XVIII. or even to raise his lieati, and was scarcely expected to survive from liour to hour. But he was supported by tlie blessed hope of immortality, and the richest consola- tions of the Divine presence were vouchsafed to him. The resignation of his mind and the serenity of his feelings afforded the clearest evidence of the value of Christian truth at the hour of approaching dissolution. When apparently unconscious, he repeatedly exclaimed, " The precious Saviour ! He never leaves nor forsakes." Fre- quently after a night of broken rest and bodily suffering, the triumph of joy beamed in his eye in the morning, as he informed his friends that he had experienced the greatest delight in communion with God. A week before his death, the swelHng in his hands, feet, and stomach began to subside, and he felt a degree of lightness of head, but his mind was still fixed on the work in which he had been engaged ; he prayed in Bengalee, and conversed in that language on spiritual subjects. Soon after, he appeared to regain his strength, both of body and mind, and at his own request, was carried about in his " tonjohn " or sedan chair, to take his last look at the various objects on the premises. On Thursday morning he caused the bearers to convey him to the chapel, where the weekly prayer- meeting was held, and to place him in the midst of the congregation, and, while seated in his " tonjohn," he gave out in a firm voice the missionary hymn, which he and his colleagues had been accustomed to use in every season of difficulty, till it came to be identified with their names, and to be designated the chant of the Serampore mis- sionaries. " O Lord our God, arise, The cause of truth maintain, And wide o'er all the peopled world Extend her blessed reign. " Thou Prince of Life, arise, Nor let thy glory cease ; Far spread the conquest of thy grace, And bless the earth with peace. 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 517 <' Thou Holy Ghost, arise, Expand thy quick'ning wing, And o'er a dark and ruined Avorld Let light and order spring. " All on the earth, arise, To God the Saviour sing ; From shore to shore, from eartli to heaven, Let echoing anthems ring ! " For several clays he dictated to his daughter his recollec- tions of the early days of the mission, with a clearness and precision which showed that his astonishing powers of me- mory remained unimpaired to the last. On Sunday even- ing he sat up in his chair, and spent several hours in feasting on the periodical pubhcations of August, with all his former avidity. On Monday he was evidently worse, and felt that his strength was fast ebbing. At seven on Tuesday morning he called his family around him, and told them he was dying. He prayed fervently, and with tlie utmost cornposure, commending himself, his family, his friends, and the '* precious mission," to the Divine keeping. He inquired whether there was anything ftrther he could do for the cause, and then turning on his side, composed himself as if to sleep. From that posture he never moved, and about four hours after breathed his last, without a sigh or a groan. He was interred on the afternoon of the 6th of December, in tiie cemetery which contained the mortal remains of his colleagues. " They were lovely and pleasant in their live'S, and in their death they were not divided." During his illness he anxiously inquired regarding the success of Mr. Mack's and Mr. Leechman's visit to England. Owing to the incomplete- ness of the overland route, the mails of two months had been detained in Egypt, and Dr. Marshman was thus spared the distress which he must have felt on hearing that the Serampore mission, the object of his warmest affec- tions and solicitude, was about to be broken up, and the whole missionary establishment transferred to the society. L L 3 518 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Ciiap-XVIIL He went down to the grave without any intimation of its approaching dissokition. As his friends returned from the grave, the letters from Mr. Mack whicli had arrived by the mail, were delivered, in whicli he explained the cir- cumstances under which he had been constrained to agree to the surrender of the mission to the society. By a singular, perhaps, it may also be considered a providential course of events, this intelligence which would have in- flicted the most poignant distress, did not reach India till he was beyond the reach of pain. It was the day after his burial that the two deputations met in London, and the Serampore mission, passed over to the Society. It was emphatically buried in his grave. Dr. Marsh man w^as within a few months of seventy at the time of his death. Born in a liumble sphere of life, . ,^ he raised himself to a position of distinguished Character of Dr. _ _ t ^ o ^ ^ warshman. emiueuce by his unaided exertions and his in- domitable energy. He plied the shuttle with the Greek grammar before him, and before he was twenty had filled his mind w^ith vast stores of knowdedge, and thus laid the foundation of future usefulness. Whatever object he set before him he pursued with enthusiasm which never flagged. Obstacles only seemed to redouble his ardour, and he was never so much at home as in the midst of difficulties. In application to business he was indefati- gable, and thought nothing of devoting half the night to the completion of a task. His attention was drawn to the subject of missions by the perusal of a sermon of Mr. Samuel Pearce ; and when he had once embarked in the cause, the prosecution of it becamiC a passion. For thirty-eight years, every other consideration was absorbed in his devotion to it, and every sacrifice appeared light which could promote its interests. His piety, which was deep and sterling, formed the basis of all the excellencies of his character. The historian of the Baptist Mission has justly remarked that " no journals display a more pro- found piety, a sympathy of the noblest kind with the 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 519 moral condition of tlie heathen, and a paramount soH- citude for the glory of God." The incessant study of the great puritan writers of the seventeenth century seemed to have given a cast of })uritan devotedness to his character. He was distinguished by his liberality of feeling towards all other denominations, and by the total absence of bigotry in his intercourse with his fellow Christians. He possessed great powers of argumentation, and lie swayed the judgment of others as much by his reasoning as by his energy. Few men have ever exhibited such extraordinary })o\ver of memory. At the distance of twenty years he could recount with ease the minute details of a long series of events. At the same time, his firmness was apt some- times to degenerate into obstinacy. From the peculiar constitution of liis mind, he seldom went straightforward to an object, but took a wary and circuitous course to remove tiie difficulties in his way. Hence he was often charged with pursuing a tortuous and designing policy. His opponents, when unable to bend him to their own purposes, accused him of an inordinate love of power, but it was impossible that he could have continued in cordial co-operation with such men as Dr. Carey and Mr. Ward without deference to their opinions. Whatever appear- ance of domination his energy might present, there was no attachment to personal interests. He died, like his col- leagues, in graceful poverty, after having devoted a sum little short of forty thousand pounds to the mission, and that not in one ostentatious sum, but through a life of privations. In a private letter written a few years before iiis death, he said, "God lias made my wife and me the humble instruments in his hands of contributing thirty thousand pounds to His cause, and how much hap{)ier I feel than as though I had this sum in the funds or in landed pro- perty, I cannot tell. I Iiave never had a misgiving thought for having done it, though I have two sons unprovided for." While in England his constitution was feeble in the ex- treme, and Huntington, theonce celebrated preacher, wdiom li L 4 520 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. he visited before bis embarkation, exclaimed, on hearing of his design, ** You go out to India, who look as though you had been kept by the parish!" But he determined to inure himself to the climate by unreserved exposure, and he soon obtained an iron constitution. His stature was about five feet nine inches, his countenance singularly expressive of high intellect and stern decision. Of twelve children only six survived inflmcy. The eldest has been spared to compile this record of his labours and his virtues ; the second embarked in the law as a solicitor, and failed ; the youngest went the western circuit in England, and may still be in the remem.brance of his bar associates for his humour and his memory. The eldest daughter was married to Mr. Williams, of the Bengal Civil Service ; the second to Dr. Voigt, the medical officer at Serampore, in the first instance, and subsequently to Dr. Brandis, at present superintendent of forests in British Burmah ; the youngest is Lady Havelock. The Serampore Mission, of which the last of the founders was now laid in his grave, may be said to belong to the heroic age of missions, and the interest Remarks on the ,.,. ,, . .-., Serampore Mis- which IS attachcd to it. Will coutiuue to in- sion. ' crease w4th the future triumphs of Christian truth in India. At the period when it was established, the public authorities, both in India and England, were opposed, on political grounds, to every attempt to intro- duce religious or secular knowledge into the country. It was the zeal, fortitude, and perseverance of Dr. Carey and liis two colleagues which were mainly instrumental in inducing higher and more improved principles of policy ; and the objects which they laboured, amidst every dis- couragement, to promote, are now admitted to be the objects for which India has been committed, in the course of Providence, to the guardianship of England. Those who first moved in this undertaking have well deserved the gratitude of every Indian philanthropist. The mission was established by three men of humble lineage, " apos- 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMrORE MISSION. 521 tates," as their opponents delighted to term them, from the last and the loom ; but of sterling genius. They were brought together by unforeseen circumstances, and when their infant establishment was threatened with extinction by their own government, were providentially provided with an asylum in a foreign settlement till the storm had blown over. A unity of object produced a unanimity of sentiment which has rarely been surpassed. Every private feeHng and every individual predilection was merged in the prosecution of a great public undertaking, which they pursued with unabated energy to the end of their lives. They were exactly fitted for mutual co-operation. They were all imbued with the same large and comprehensive views, the same animation and zeal, and the same pecu- niary disinterestedness. Their united energies were con- secrated to the service of religion, for the promotion of which they vv^ere enabled, by severe and protracted labours, to contribute a sum, which, at the close of the mission, was found to amount to eighty thousand pounds sterling. After the hostility of government had been subdued, the opposition of the society commenced, and the missionaries had another succession of difficulties to encounter. It were idle to affirm, that in that prolonged controversy they always acted or wrote without falling into errors ; but a life of devotedness to a noble cause will, in the judgment of the candid, be sufficient to outweigh them. Upon the main point, however, of their differences with the com- mittee of the Baptist Missionary Society, it is no pre- sumption to assert that they were fundamentally right. The society was more indebted for the popularity and importance it attained to their labours, than they were indebted to the society for any of the advantages of their position. They were left to plan and prosecute and support an extensive order of operations, peculiarly their own, entiVely in accordance with their own judgment and from their own means. From their first settlement at Se- rampore they had acted in a spirit of entire independence, 522 HISTORY OF the SERAMTORE mission. [Ciiap. XVIII. and the freedom of action to wliich tliey had thus been accustomed they were determined to maintain. On the other hand, after the society had been planted in London, the committee became anxious to bring them into a state of subordination to tlieir control. Tliis object was dis- tinctly avowed in 1820, when Mr. Ward first met the com- mittee, the leading members of which held the doctrine that there was a " natural and necessary dependence of all missionary stations on the parent society, the head and the members, the senders and the sent; it was imphed in the very name missionary." The resolution to extinguish the independence of Serampore may have been occasionally placed in abeyance, when the prospect of success appeared remote, but it was never relinquished. Wlien the mission was at length surrendered to the society, through the exigency of circumstances, tlie committee did not hesitate to avow that this was the consummation of the object they had pursued ten years before in tlie negotiation with Dr. Marshman, and which he had been censured for re- sisting. It was this question of independence which un- derlaid the whole controversy between the society and the missionaries. It was the head and front of their offending. If at any period of these discussions they had consented to admit the supremacy of Fen Court, and to place all their operations under the control of the committee, the dispute would have immediately terminated ; all their alleged de- linquencies would have vanished, and the same vigorous efforts would have been made to defend their characters which were made to asperse them. But no one with the generous feelings of an Englishman will fail to commend the exhibition of that Anglo-Saxon spirit of freedom which pervaded the proceedings of the missionaries, and to which our own country is indebted for whatever is deemed valuable in its institutions. The Serampore missionaries never considered them- selves but as the simple pioneers of Christian improve- ment in India; and it is as pioneers that their labours are lS37.] lIISTOftr OF THE SEKAMPOUE MISSIO^J. 523 to be cstiinated. In the infancy of modern missions, it fell to their lot to lay down and exemplify the principles on which they should be organised, and to give a right direction to missionary efforts. They were the first to enforce the necessity of translating the Scriptures into all the languages of India. Tlieir own translations were necessarily and confessedly imperfect, but some imper- fections may be forgiven to men who produced the first editions of the New Testament in more than thirty of the oriental languages and dialects, and thus gave to the work of translation that impulse which has never subsided. They were the first to insist on the absolute exclusion of caste from the native Christian community and church. They established the first native schools for heathen children in the north of India, and organised the first college for the education of native catechists and itine- rants. They printed the first books in the language of Bengal, and laid the foundation of a vernacular library. They were the first to cultivate and imnrove that lano'uaiice and render it the vehicle of national instruction. They published the first native newspaper in India, and the first religious periodical work. In all the departments of missionary labour and intellectual improvement they led the way, and it is on the broad foundation which they laid, that the edifice of modern Indian missions has been erected. To bring this history of tlie Serampore mission to a close, it is only necessary to add one or two supple- mental notices. By the articles of ''reunion," ^. , . •/ '1' inai no: ices of everything belonging to it was transferred to ^'^'"""I'O'"*'- the Society, except its debts. They were increased to the extent of 1000^. by the provision, dexterously made in the absence of Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman, that the arrangement should not come into operation before the beginning of the official year in May. The expense of the stations for a period of nearly five months was thus added to the obligations of the mission, which were thus 524 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPOUE MISSION. [Chap. XVIII. swelled to more than 3000/. Of this sum one moiety was due in England, the rest was payable in India. Mr. Mack and Mr. Leechman, after having signed the Articles, were therefore under the necessity of traversing the country to collect subscriptions to liquidate the debt. If it had been difficult to obtain support for the Serampore mission while it possessed the attraction of an animated and active body, the difficulty was indefinitely increased when con- tributions were solicited after it had ceased to possess any vital interest. By dint of the most strenuous exertions, rendered the more irksome by the ungenerous remarks they had to encounter, they succeeded in raising a suffi- cient sum to liquidate the home debt. The sums due in India fell on those who had made themselves personally responsible for them, and they also were paid off by the middle of 1839, but without any appeal to the public liberality. The year following the dissolution of the mission, Mr. Mack returned to India, and revived Dr. Marshman's seminary for his own support. Those who had been connected w^th the Serampore mission were bound down by the Articles of the 7th of December, 1837, never to make any attempt to raise subscriptions for missionary objects ; but it was at the same time provided that any station capable of sustaining its own missionary operations, should be exempt from the control of the So- ciety. Mr. Mack and his colleague claiined this privilege for Serampore, and provided for its missionary exertions by congregational collections and individual contributions. In addition to the superintendence of the college, they undertook the oversight of the native Christian community, and the direction of the itinerants employed in and around Serampore ; but only as private individuals. Though the mission, now confined to Serampore, was thus withdrawn from public observation, and existed only as a matter of historical record, there were many of its old and faithful adherents in England from whom tokens of aii'ectionate remembrance were received from time to 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 525 time. One of the most characteristic of tliese communi- cations was a letter from Mr. Foster to Mr. Marshman, which may be considered as the true index of the feelings still cherished regarding the extinct mission. *'It was with regret that I first heard of the indications, prema- ture as they might perhaps he called, of the decline of your father's strength and lite. His extraordinary health through LptterofMr. life, and the unfailing vigour in which I have invariably ^'"''^"^'■• seen him while here, might have seemed to promise a somewhat longer term than that which Providence had actually appointed for him. I easily fancied him maintaining onward some measure of the same unsubdued energy. " But we were informed, and could easily believe, that the loss of his admirable old beloved associate inflicted on him a depression from which he could not recover, causing him to feel as if half his life and power Avere gone — withdrawn to another world, to which he must thenceforwai'd be looking with a desire to follow. " I have often imagined the animated mutual recognition and con- gratulations of the three seniors, in that happy region. What ecstacy to find themselves all associated again, in the triumph of a final escape from all evil, and of all hearing together, as each had separately, their Master's sentence of approbation, " Well done, good and faithful, enter, as a band still indissoluble, into tlie joy of your Lord." How insignificant will appear to them now, in their inviolable serenity, all the untoward incidents, the offensive pro- ceedings, the ill offices, the wrongs which had annoyed and harassed them during their mortal sojourn. They will look back on all this as only a discipline to prepare them the more for the new career of service for which they will have all things auspi- cious, and for ever. " My inveterate partiality to Serampore made it very unpleasing to hear of the great change in the economy. In passing over to the Society, it has strangely lost in the minds of us, the old and faithful adherents, the interest which it had under the honoured name and administration of Serampore. But loe, the older portion of us, are fast falling back into the order of men of the past, and have lost, and are losing by death, one and another of those that formed our party. A new race is coming on to be the supporters of the Indian mission, who are very little acquainted with the matters of this controversy, and will never take any trouble of 526 HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. [CiiAr. XVIII. inquiring. The official agency of the Society, I am told, is much changed by the introduction of new and younger men, by the re- tirement or comparative Inactivity of some of the old ones, and by , a subsidence or mitigation of the mains animus — rather worn out perhaps, than converted. Some of them profess greatly to lament their former proceedings." After Mr. Mack had laboured with great zeal and success in his ministerial and pastoral duties at Serampore for a period of more than six years, his career osing evens. Qf yggfyjj^gss -y^ras suddcnlj cut short by a fatal attack of cholera, on the S6th of April, 1846. For twenty-three years he devoted his splendid talents to the diffusion of Christian knowledge in India, and his name is honourably and indissolubly associated with those of his great colleagues at Serampore. One of the highest dignitaries of the Church of England in India remarked, at the time, that there had been but few men at Seram- pore, but they had all been giants. Mr. Mack was the last of the giants. His loss was felt to be irreparable. On his death, the missionary establishment at Serampore was voluntarily transferred to the Baptist Missionary So- ciety, who appointed the Rev. W. H. Denham to take charge of it. Towards the close of 1845, the- settlement of Serampore was transferred by the King of Denmark to the British Government, but in conformity with the express wishes of his predecessor, Frederick the Sixth, he made it an indis- pensable condition that the charter granted to the college should be fully acknowledged. An article was therefore inserted in the treaty of cession, confirming the charter in every respect, and a copy of it was incorporated with that document preparatory to its receiving the signature of the public authorities. On the 1st of March, 1847, the widow of Dr. Marshman was removed by death, at Serampore, at the advanced age of eighty. She was the last survivor of those who assisted at the formation of the mission forty- seven years before, and the sum which she was enabled to 1837.] HISTORY OF THE SERAMPORE MISSION. 527 contribute personally to its support fell little short of the contributions of her husband. She fully participated in all his feelings of devotedness to the missionary cause, and gave him the most important assistance in all his plans of benevolence. She possessed a strong mind and a sound judgment, and nothing was ever known to ruffle her temper. The peculiar amiability of her disposition secured her the esteem of Dr. Marshman's greatest opponents. By the year 1854 nearly all those members of the committee who had united in declaring sixteen years before that '* the Society would have nothing to do with the college," were in tlicir graves, and their adverse feelings v/ere buried with them. In that year the com- mittee yielded to the request made by the council of Serampore college to adopt that institution as the mis- sionary and educational training school of the Baptist Missionary Society. The breach with Serampore was thus finally healed. Every feeling of prejudice against that mission has been completely extinguished, and throughout the denomination once so hostile to it, there is but one feeling: of veneration for the cjreat men who have shed a lustre on its character, while they contributed in an unexampled degree to the spread of divine and secular knowledge in India. THE END. LONDON: I'KINTKD BY SI'OTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUAIiE. )l)l DATE DUE JUN1 im ^ J}Wr^g199? PRINTCDINU.S.A.