Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

fication, with which he saw the chief of our religious estab'lishment in his country and his Court." "He subsequently," says Mr. LeBas, "assured an English officer, that no occur

6

[ocr errors]

rence, since he had occupied the throne, had given him more lively gratification than this visit of the English prelate; and that, since he must so soon lose his society, he hoped to indemnify him by the pleasure of his correspondence.'

At Trichinopoly, the Bishop consecrated a church, licensed the clergyman, confirmed about a hundred persons, including several officers, and preached twice on the Sunday. At Palamcottah, he was visited by a deputation of Brahmans from the Tinnevelly Pagodas, who came to pay their respects to the Lord Padre Sahib, and to represent, that their church lands yielded so little, after payment of Government demands, that the priests were in danger of starving:-such being their lamentable position, they hailed with delight the arrival of the English Bishop, feeling sure that he would interfere, as a brother, in their behalf. Having dismissed this deputation, he received another of native Christians, who sung a hymn in Tamil; and the two parties then quitted the camp together.

[ocr errors]

6

From Cochin, where the Bishop found "the Dutch church shut up for want of a minister-the school in the fort destroyed -the children left unbaptized-and the sick unassisted;" and where the Syrian church was in an equally depressed state, he proceeded to Cannanore, and thence to Bombay and Ceylon. There we cannot follow him in detail. In spite of the ominous predictions of people, who ought to have known better, the first Episcopal visitation produced no sort of alarm or irritation throughout India, except in the puckah, well-verandahed houses of a few professing Christians. Native princes received the Christian Bishop with reverence, and embraced him with affection. Native priests came out from their temples to welcome him, and implored his assistance in their behalf. He came back to Calcutta again, as sound as he had quitted it. Not a hand had been lifted up against him; not a stone had been cast at him; not an affront had been put upon him. The natives of India thought the better of us and our religion-and the great question, which had been discussed in scores of pamphlets and speeches, was now set at rest for ever.

But the Bishop's troubles, which were of a different class, were not yet quieted. There was much-in Calcutta above all other places to vex and to irritate one of his peculiar frame of mind. Schism and informality were the banes of his existence. It is melancholy to read his complaints, and to think how much cause of rejoicing there was, in at least some of the

[ocr errors]

eircumstances, which caused him so much annoyance. Unhappily, in the affections of Bishop Middleton, the Church was before the Gospel. Nay, even the Church itself was a source of vexation to him, where there was not proper episcopal controul. The church missionaries were thorns in his flesh; he talked of either licensing or silencing them, but he found it was beyond him to do either. He tolerated the missionaries in remote regions; he could even rejoice in their appearances upon the outskirts of civilization; but it was a different thing, when they toiled at the very seat of the Supreme Government, and preached the gospel, without a license from any one but Christ, under the shadow of the episcopal residence itself. He did not recognize the value of the work done by Protestant ministers out of the pale of his own ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It was not Establishment work. It had not the stamp of the mitre upon it. It was not made legitimate by letters patent, or rendered lovely by lawn.

It was not likely that such men as Corrie and Thomason should regard these episcopal peculiarities without feelings of lively concern. That they differed from him, on many points, is well known; but, situated as they were, it was only decorous that they should express themselves with moderation. "I was led," wrote the former, in a letter to his brother, "last Thursday into a long conversation with the Bishop, respecting missionary proceedings, in which the Church Missionary Society, and its views were brought forward and discussed. The Bishop's chief objection. was, that the sending out of English clergymen, as missionaries, 'would prevent the East India Company from making such

6

"

a provision of chaplains as they ought to make. As far as

6

"

it goes, the argument is just; but I think he ought rather to adopt such missionaries, and, by pointing out to Government the benefits produced by them, to draw forth Government sup

port, which otherwise may not be afforded in any way."*

[ocr errors]

6

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

See also the Bishop's own letters passim. "But the missionaries in orders of the Church Missionary Society," he complains in one case," are coming out continually. Three arrived very lately; and they will become in a few years the parochial clergy. In one place the society have lately built a neat church, and appointed their minister; and who can say anything against it? ..... Other cases of the same sort may be expected every day, and if the Church Missionary Society will supply ordained 'clergymen, wherever they are wanted, the Company may be relieved, indeed, of a heavy expense; but then what becomes of the Bishop's jurisdiction?" Again; "As to my recognizing the missionaries, what can I do? They will soon have in India a body of ordained clergymen, nearly half as numerous as the Company's chaplains; and I must either license them, or silence them-there is no alternative. (The Italics are the Bishop's own). But how can I silence men, who come to India under the authority of a clause in the charter ?" It does not seem to have occurred to Bishop Middleton, that they came to India, not merely under the authority of a clause in the Company's charter, but under the authority of a clause in the great Gospel charter of Christianity.

6

·

Mr. Corrie had returned to England, for the benefit of his health, a few weeks after the arrival of Bishop Middleton. Towards the close of the rainy season of 1817, he was again at his post. The Bishop had returned in the preceding cold weather. There being no vacancy at the Presidency, on Corrie's arrival, he was ordered to proceed to Benares.* At that time Brown and Martyn were dead; Buchanan was in England; Thomason was at Calcutta. At Benares, as at Chunar, he employed himself diligently; founding schools; correcting translations of the Scriptures; and doing incidentally as much missionary work, as could be done, without impairing his efficiency as a chaplain. Nothing could be more correct than Corrie's views of the relative claims to his services of the chaplaincy and of the mission. "If I were professedly a missionary," he wrote to Mr. Simeon, "and had the same prospect of entrance into this very citadel of idolatry, I should consider it a call to live

"

' and die in this place; but, as a chaplain of the Government,

C

"

am I not to consider the disposal of Government, as the voice of Providence to me? I can truly say, that, in the prospect of leaving this place, I am oppressed; O Lord undertake ' for me."

"

In the cold weather of 1818-19, Mr. Corrie was summoned to Calcutta, to take his place there as a Presidency Chaplain. There the characteristic kindliness and hospitality of his nature found such vent, as was denied to them in the Mofussil. The social charities were largely cultivated by him. His doors were ever open to the stranger. He was continually surrounded by his friends. To the young he was especially acceptable; and it was said of him "as long as he lives, and wherever he lives, he will have as many people about him, as fall in his way, • until every corner is occupied, and he himself left without a

6

6

[ocr errors]

corner."

It was about this time, that the Missionary zeal of Bishop

66

On his way to Benares, he kept a journal, in which we find an entry, illustrative of the barbarity of those Ghát murders, to which we devoted a recent article ;During the 19th and 20th, we had an opportunity of witnessing two distressing in'stances of the unfeeling conduct of the Hindus towards the sick and dying. On one occasion, two women were employed at the river side, filling the mouth of a child with 'mud. Miss B. asked them, if the child were ill? One of them answered 'Yes;' Miss B-You are going to kill it outright.' On which they began to laugh, and talk with each other; and prosecuted their work of death. Farther on, a sick man was laid, with several people sitting round. A young and handsome Brahmin was attempting to bind a weight round his neck, in order to sink him in the river, which the sick man was resisting, with marks of much remaining strength. Abdullah called out-Take him into some warm place, and he will recover;' to which the Brahmin answered with a significant nod: Aye, aye; we will put him into a warm place;' on 'which the persons around laughed aloud."

6

"

F

Middleton began astonishingly to develop itself. The Archbishop of Canterbury had, in that year, 1818, as President of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, made a vigorous movement in favor of Indian Missions, by proposing to place £5,000 at the disposal of the Bishop of Calcutta, to enable him to carry out the objects of the Institution-good hope. being entertained of the result, now that the affairs of the Society were to be placed under " proper Diocesan controul." A Royal letter had been obtained on application to the Prince Regent, and large collections made on the strength of it. The biographer of Bishop Middleton says, that "this intelligence was as the breath of life to him, as it showed that his urgent representations had at last succeeded in communicating a powerful impulse to the public feeling in England." It appears to us, that it would have been more correct, if it had been stated that public feeling in England communicated a powerful impulse to Bishop Middleton.

[ocr errors]

These "splendid manifestations," says Mr. Le Bas, "confirmed him in the resolution to attempt the foundation of a Mission College at Calcutta." Here was a noble commencement of the Fund, which he had long wished to accumulate, for the establishment of a Collegiate Institution under Episcopal superintendence. The project was soon sketched out, and sent Home to the Propagation Society, the objects of the proposed college being thus represented:

1. For instructing native, and other, Christian youths in the doctrines and discipline of the Church, in order to their becoming Preachers, Catechists, and School-masters.

2. For teaching the elements of useful knowledge, and the English language, to Mussulmans or Hindus, having no object in such attainments beyond secular advantage.

3. For translating the Scriptures, the Liturgy, and moral and religious tracts.

4. For the reception of English Missionaries, to be sent out by the Society, on their first arrival in India.

The proposal was readily accepted by the Propagation Society, and the promised £5,000 were placed at the Bishop's disposal. The Christian Knowledge Society also contributed £5,000 towards the undertaking. Other large sums flowed in from other quarters. Government granted a plot of ground for the erection of the building-as noble a site as could have been found in the whole country-and the work of construction was speedily commenced. It has now been completed for more than a quarter of a century, during which time it has

been, in its comely "Collegiate Gothic," an ornament to the river-bank, upon which it stands. There is not perhaps a nobler monument of an unaccomplished purpose in any part of the world.

66

Having devoted a special article, in a former number, to the consideration of this costly and most mortifying failure, we need but briefly allude to it in this place. On the 15th of October, 1820, the first stone of Bishop's College was laid, "with all due and impressive solemnity." It appears that the nature of the undertaking was not very clearly understood. One party a sensible man, and a Churchman too," much scandalized the Bishop, by asking him if his new college was a branch of the Baptist establishment at Serampore! Mr. Jones, the contractor, died suddenly, whilst the edifice was in course of erection; but, after a brief pause, it sprung up, none the less rapidly for this, under the superintendence of Captain (now Colonel) Hutchinson of the Engineers. But they were getting on still further at Serampore, and this made the Bishop a little anxious and impatient.

[ocr errors]

In 1821, Bishop Middleton went forth on a visitation-tour to Bombay and Ceylon. He arrived at the former place, towards the end of February, and remained there about five weeks-during which he held his visitation, consecrated two or three burial grounds, visited the caves of Elephanta, and received a vast number of visits of ceremony and invitations to dinner. Here he began to feel, more sensibly than before, that the climate was "telling" upon his constitution, and, in more than one letter, he complained of the lassitude, which beset him, and of other distressing sensations, "symptomatic of decay." It was whilst at Bombay, that he received intelligence of the attempt, made at Queen Caroline's trial, to make light of the imputation, that she had been present during an indecorous exhibition of dancing by a mountebank named Mahomet, on the plea that Bishop Middleton and his family had attended a nátch at the Governor-General's :-the witness being a gentleman, who was a guest of the Bishop's at the time. The Bishop wrote to a friend, requesting him to deny the assertion in a London paper. As his (the witness's) topic," he wrote, was no better, than that Mahomet must have danced decently before the Queen, because a Hindoo woman had danced decently at Calcutta, his evidence might have been spared. The fact, however, of my being there is utterly untrue. He did me the favour of taking charge of the ladies of my family, while I remained with my books and business at

66

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »