'T^ M K LIFE 
 
 Al.LXANT'>FR DLir. D 
 
 
 D. 
 
 GKORGH SMITH, C.\.K, \J I.;. 
 
 ,,'■:;■•. O'' • l'!-IE i.lFt. • ■ (HN V\-II ;• 'V f, ! , rv — 
 
 ;.i.<.'V OF j'mK Kon a 1 .■■■ .1 •. I'il.'CAL \ ''■'■') - !" 1 i 1- i'irvr 
 
 ..■ . . - '■ I c. 
 
 I ;i ' \ INTKOI)!, u :V i'\ ' M 
 
 !ajR, b.;* 
 
 j Nj- r\'V I \ t ,! r • vi r .-• 
 
 JA^-i I '■•> C. \ "u 
 
 ■v>s 
 
■■".; ;■ • i» 
 
 i,.i*Si" v* 
 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ALEXANDER DUFF, D.D., LLD. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE SMITH, CLE., LL.D.. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF JOHN WILSON, D.D., F.R.S.," 
 FELLOW OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL AND STAIISTICAL 
 
 SOCIETIES, ETC. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D. 
 IN ^ J VOLUMES. 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS BY JEENS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 
 
 TORONTO : 
 JAMES CAMPBELL & SON. 
 
TO 
 
 THE PEOPLES OF INDIA 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 
 THIS LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY 
 
 WHOSE LATEST PUBLISHED WORDS WERE THESE: 
 
 *'WnERE7ER I WANDER, WHEREVER I STAT, MY HEART IS IN INDIA, IN 
 DEEP SYMPATHY WITH ITS MULTITUDINOUS INHABITANTS, AND IN EARNEST 
 LONGINGS FOR THEIR HIGHEST WELFARE IN TIME AND IN ETERNITTJ* 
 
 tb~'f^V^ 
 
This volume tells the story of the earlier half of 
 Dr. DufiTs life of nearly seventy-two years. Of the 
 Scottish Mission to India, which will see its jubilee 
 reached at the close of this year, the history is 
 brought down to 1843. The acknowledgment of 
 the assistance of friends, which the author has not 
 been able to make in the text, he hopes adequately 
 to express in the Preface to the whole work, when 
 the second volume shall appear. 
 
 The Rev. Principal Harper, D.D. and the Rev. 
 George Lewis have been removed by death as the 
 sheets have passed through the press. 
 
 Sebampore House, Merchiston, 
 
 Edinburgh, 28th A^ril, 1879. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 1 806-1 829. 
 The Boy and the Student 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1829. 
 The First Missionauy of the Cuurch of Scotlain. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 1830. 
 
 TlIK Two SuinVBECKS . 
 
 PAGES 
 
 1-32 
 
 33-04. 
 
 65-85 
 
 Calcutta as it was 
 
 The Mine Prepared 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1830. 
 
 • * • • 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 1830-1831. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 i83i-i833- 
 The First Explosion and the Pour Converts 
 
 86-103 
 
 104-130 
 
 137-177 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 i833-J83S- 
 The Renais-sance in India — The English Language 
 
 AND the Church 178-205 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1833-1835. 
 The Renaissance in India — Science and Letters . 200-232 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1832-1835. PA0K8 
 
 Woiuc FOB Eunoi'KANa, Eurasians and NativI'I Christians 233-270 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 •835. 
 TiiK Invalid and the Orator . . 
 
 '1-304 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1 83 5- 1 836. 
 
 l)l{. DlIFK ORdANIZINU 
 
 . 805-33!) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1837-1839- 
 
 Fishers op Men 
 
 . 840-387 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1 839- 1 840. 
 Eqypt — Sinai — TBomiuy — Madras . 
 
 388-424 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 1841. 
 Fighting the Governor-General . 
 
 . 425-441 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 1841-1843. 
 The College and its Spiritual Fruit . 
 
 . 442-478 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Dr. Duff at Thirty 
 Calcutta . 
 
 Frontispiece 
 To face page 89 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 Alexandeii Ditkf, as tlic poniHal of tluH {idmirable 
 niomoir will inaki; a[)par<'iit, w;ih one of i\w. most vun- 
 iKMit of modern missi,,iiai'ies. TTis name will go down 
 to posterity witli those of William IJurns and David 
 Livingstone, as togetlun* constituting "the thrcse migh- 
 tics" of the noble band of Scottish worthies whose la- 
 bors in the fields of heathenism have given lustre to the 
 amials of our century. Others might be ranked among 
 the thirty ; but they were " the first three," each of 
 whom was distinguished by making a new departure in 
 the great enteiprise to which they had all devoted 
 themselves. 
 
 Livingstone saw that if anything was to be really 
 done for Africa, the slave-trade — that open sore of the 
 world — must be got rid of, and in order to secure that, 
 as well as other things of importance, he entered upon 
 these exploring expeditions which have made his name 
 imperishable. Burns, upon perceiving the prejudice of 
 the Chinese against foreigners of every sort, and finding 
 his European dress a hindrance in the prosecution of his 
 work, deliberately adopted the costume of the people 
 among whom he labored, became as a Chinaman to the 
 Chinese, and left a name at the mention of which t\Q 
 hearts of multitudes, both in Scotland and in China, are 
 
 ix 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quickened as Ly some potent spell, for they knew Mm 
 as their spiritual father. Duif, seeing that the false 
 science of the so-called sacred books of India was in- 
 separably connected with their religious teaching, came 
 to the conclusion that the thorough education of the 
 Hindoos would be subversive of the native superstitions. 
 He, therefore, not A\nthout the risk of being misunder- 
 stood by the committee at home, deliberately adopted 
 what may be called the educational plan. How that 
 was carried out by him, and the influence which he ex- 
 erted on education in India through Lord William 
 Bentinck, Sir Chai-les Trevellyan, and the young com- 
 missioner ^mIio was afterwards to become better known 
 as Lord Macaulay, is set forth with sufficient distinct- 
 ness in these j)ages. He was an uncompromising ad- 
 vocate of that which he believed to be right, and his 
 eloquence, alike in Calcutta and in Scotland, often car- 
 ried all before it. On his first return to his native land 
 he was virtually put, by the objections of many, upon 
 his own defence, and the speech which he delivered on 
 that occasion, in the General Assembly, has always been 
 referred to as one of the grandest specimens of sacred 
 eloquence. The ten years' conflict was then at its 
 height, but Moderates and Evangelicals alike laid down 
 their arms to listen, even as the hostile hosts at Tala- 
 vera forgot their enmity as together they drank from 
 the brook that flowed between their lines. 
 
 Thus the work of Duff was as important among the 
 churches of his native land as it was in India. His 
 zeal and oratory kindled an amazixig enthusiasm for the 
 
PsTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 niissionaiy cause, and liis simple, fervent piety ahvays 
 preaclied a silent sermon of great power. His visit to 
 tlie manse of Ellon wrought such a change on the Rev. 
 James Robertson — the leader of the Moderate party in 
 the church — that Robertson's biographer does not hesi- 
 tate to speak of it as a conversion ; and wherever he 
 went he was recognized as being in veiy deed " a man 
 of God." 
 
 His labors in America are yet remembered with 
 gratitude and admiration by multitudes among us, wlio 
 will be glad to have former impressions recalled by the 
 account which is here given of iiis visit to oar laiid. 
 And students of Scottish ecclesiastical history will find 
 in this biography, which spans the fifty years between 
 Chalmers's professorship of Moral Philosophy at St. 
 Andrews, and the breaking up of the union negotia- 
 tions between the disestablished Presbyterian churches, 
 rich material for their purpose. 
 
 We need not do more than refer to the labors of 
 Duif in later yeai's as the Convener of the Foreign Mis- 
 sion Committee of the Free Church, and the first Profes- 
 sor of Evangelistic Theology in its college. To the last 
 he was a man of power, tall and stalwai't in form, 
 easily distinguishable, in later years, by his flowing 
 beard of silvery whiteness, he was always an object of 
 interest to the visitor to the Free Assembly, and though 
 the volcanic fire of his old eloquence had largely burnt 
 itself out, it occasionally flamed forth even then in such 
 a way as to give one some idea of its former brightness. 
 It is always difticult to convey an ade<piate impression 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of eloquence to those who have not heard it, and it may 
 be that tlie accounts here given of that of Duff may 
 seem to be exaggerated. But let the jeader remember 
 til at the essence of oratory is too volatile and subtle to 
 linger on the printed page. A far better test than the 
 reported speech is found in the permanent effects which 
 it produced, and judged by that tlie eloquence of Duff 
 must have been second only to that of Chalmers ; for if 
 the Free Churcli of Scotland was tlie result of the one, 
 the Indian Missions, both of the Established and Free 
 Churches, were as really the fruit of the other. 
 
 But enough. It seems to me to savor of presumption 
 that I should even thus allude to one whose " praise is 
 in all the churolies," and my only apology for writing 
 tliese sentences must be that I am glad of having my 
 name associated in any lowliest manner with that of one 
 of the greatest missionaries of his age. 
 
 W. M. T. 
 
 December, i879. 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ALEXANDER DUFE, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1806-1829. 
 THE BOY AND THE STUDENT, 
 
 Alexander DuflTs spiritual Ancestry. — The Prince of the English 
 Evangfclicals and the Prince of Llissionaries. — James Duff" and 
 Jean Rattray. — Auchnaliyle and the Cottage at Balnakeilly. — 
 ]jcn-i-vrackie, Pitloclirie, and Killiecrankie Pass. — The Duff 
 Chuich and tlio Duff Tombstone. — Portrait of a Cottage Patri- 
 arch. — Dugald Buchanan and David Hume. — Gaelic poems of 
 "The Skull," and "The Day of Judgment."— Alexander Duff's 
 First Dream. — The Call in his Second Vision. — Early School- 
 masfers. — Lost in the Snowstorm of 1819. — A year with Moncur 
 at Perth Grammar School. — Influence of " The Paradise Lost." — 
 St. Andrews University as it was. — Pictures of the Student by 
 surviving Contemporaries. — Five years of Thomas Chiilmers. — 
 The St. Andrews University ^lissionary Society. — Letter to 
 Dr. Chalmers. — Alexander Duff", M.A. — Licensed to preach the 
 Gospel. 
 
 rjlHE spiritual ancestry of Alexander Duflf it is not 
 -'- difficult to trace to Charles Simeon. Heredity, 
 even on its physical side, is a mystery which modern 
 science has as yet failed to explain. Much more difficult 
 is it to discover all that is comprehended in the in- 
 fluences through which the character receives its motive 
 power and peculiar colouring. It was the remark of 
 
 6 
 
2 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1806. 
 
 Duff himself, when, in the fulness of his fame, ho 
 solemnly congratulated a young friend on a firstboi'n 
 son, that in nothing is the sovereignty of God so clearly 
 seen as in the birth of a child ; the fact, the sex, the 
 circumstances, the bent. To be at all, is much ; to be 
 this rather than that is, to the individual, more : but to 
 be the subject and the channel of a diviuo force such 
 as has made the men who have reformed the world, 
 in the days from the apostlcB to tlie greatest modern 
 missionaries, is so very much more, that we may well 
 look in every case for the signs which lie about their 
 infancy. In this case these signs are near the sur- 
 face. It was through the prince of the Evangelicals of 
 the Church of England that, unconsciously to both, 
 grace flowed, at one remove, to the distant Highland 
 boy of the Presbyterian kirk, who became the prince 
 of Evangelical missionaries. And the grace was the 
 same in both for it was marked by the catholicity of 
 true Evangelicalism, which is not always found in 
 the sectarian divisions and strifes of the Eeformed 
 Churches. 
 
 It was just after that conversation of his which 
 proved to be the foundation of the Church Missionary 
 Society that, in 1790, the accomplished English clergy- 
 man who filled the pulpit of Trinity Church, Cambridge, 
 was induced to make his first tour through Scotland. 
 At Dunkeld, Simeon tells us, his horses were at the 
 door to take liim on to the Pass of Killiccrankie, with 
 the intention of at once turning back to that gate of 
 the Highlands in order to hurry on to Glasgow. But 
 " I felt myself poorly, I ordered them back and pro- 
 ceeded to Killiccrankie the next day. At Moulin, a 
 village four miles from K., I called to see a Mr. Stew- 
 art." In that visit was the seed of Alexander Duffs 
 higher life. Having seen the pass, Simeon returned to 
 assist Mr. Stewart, who was the parish minister, at 
 
yl^t. I. CHARLES SIMEON AND ALEXANDER DUFF. 3 
 
 the Lord's supper. Their intercourse resulted in an 
 iinmediate change in the preaching of a man of high 
 repute for amiabiUty and learning, but, like the young 
 Cliahners afterwards, '*very defective in his view of 
 the gospel and in his cxporie- co of its power." From 
 that moment Stewart '' changed the strain of his 
 preacliing, determining to know nothing among his 
 people but Jesur Christ and Ilim crucified." 
 
 Years afterwards, as Simeon looked back on that 
 visit to Scotland, and saw how in Moulin, at Dingwall, 
 and then in the Canongatc of Edinburgh, Dr. Stewart 
 was made a living power to the souls of men and 
 women, he blessed God for the indisposition which had 
 kept him back at Duukeld, and so liad sent him to 
 MouHn. This, and the results of his preaching for 
 Dr. Colquhoun in Leitli, led the Evangelical whom 
 the University then despised and his own brethren 
 condemned for preaching in non- Anglican churches, to 
 write, "amongst the many blessings which God vouch- 
 safed to me in those journeys, there were two in par- 
 ticular for which I have reason to adore His name." 
 After this, Simeon sent out to India the men, liko 
 David Brown and Henry Martyn, who, as chaplains 
 and missionaries, formed the salt of the infant empire. 
 He soon saw, also, one of tlie noblest of evangelizing 
 agencies established, the Church Missionary Society ; 
 and he had helped the London Missionary Society, fruit- 
 ful parent of similar organizations in Great Britain, 
 America and Germany. But the far-reaching conse- 
 quences of that day's work in Moulin he had not 
 dared to dream of. 
 
 Among Stewart's parishioners, of whom he had told 
 Simeon there are " few real Christians whom I can 
 number in my parish," were two young people, who 
 were not long in experiencing the new electric thrill 
 which showed itself in more than one revival such as a 
 
4 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1 806. 
 
 few of the most aged villagers recall with fond memory 
 at the present day. James Duff and Jean Kattray 
 were under seventeen when Simeon preached wliat he 
 at the time bewailed as his barren and dull sermon. 
 Gaelic was the prevailing language of the district ; 
 few knew English. But what the English of Simeon 
 began, the Gaelic of Stewart continued, and James 
 Duff was equally master ol both languages. In due 
 time he married Jean Uattray and took her to the 
 farm of Auchnahyle. There Alexander Duff was born 
 to them, on the 25th April, 1806. Removing thence 
 soon after somewhat nearer Moulin, the boy's child- 
 hood and early youth was spent in and around a 
 picturesque cottage on the estate of Baluakeilly. No 
 trace remains of the old house of Auchnahyle, a new 
 one having been built on its site. All the missionary's 
 early reminiscences were identified with the cottage 
 at Balnakeilly, still standing and but little changed, 
 among the woods that slope up from the old north 
 road before it enters Moulin from Dunkeld. 
 
 And here, as he himself once wrote, " amid scenery 
 of unsurpassed beauty and grandeur, I acquired early 
 tastes and impulses which have animated and in- 
 fluenced me through life." To its natural beauty of 
 hill, wood and water, on which the artist's eye loves to 
 rest, there is now added the memory of him whose 
 whole genius was coloured by the surroundings, and 
 who, when the shadow of death was darkening over 
 him, delighted to recall the dear father-house. It is 
 the centre of Scotland. Rising gently some two 
 miles to the north-east, Ben-i-vrackie reaches a height 
 of 2,800 feet. Thence the young eye can descry 
 Arthur's Seat which guards Edinburgh, and, in the 
 far north of Aberdeenshire, the mightier Bens of 
 Nevis and Macdhui. The house is beautifully placed 
 in an open glade, with a brattling mountain stream 
 
JEt. I. DUFf's DESCRimON OF HIS BIRTnPLACE. 5 
 
 on either side, and a wealth of weeping birch, ash, 
 lurch, and young oak trees, which, in the slanting 
 niitumn sun, seem to surround the cottage with a 
 setting of gold. Twice in after years, with a loving 
 and eloquent fondness, was he led to describe the 
 place and the father who trained lim there. When 
 in Calcutta, in 18G0, ho observed in the Witness news- 
 paper an advertisement soliciting subscriptions for a 
 new Free Church for the parish, which the altered 
 times made it desirable to erect in the neighbouring 
 railway town of Pitlochrie, he thus wrote in a public 
 appeal : — 
 
 " The parish of Moulin, fairly within the Grampians, 
 embraces the central portion of the great and noble 
 valley of Athole, watered by the Tummel and the 
 Garry, with several glens and straths stretching con- 
 siderably to the north. The great north road from 
 Dunkeld to Inverness passes through the southerly 
 section of the parish, along the banks of the fore- 
 named rivers. About a mile to the north of this road, 
 and wholly concealed from it by intervening knolls and 
 ridges, lies the village of Moulin, in a hollow or basin, 
 once partly the bed of a lake, but now drained and 
 turned into fertile corn-fields, with the ruins of an old 
 castle in the middle of them. Formerly the half, 
 probably the greater half of the population lay to the 
 north, north-west, and north-east of the village. But 
 things are very much altered now. From the enlarge- 
 ment of farms entire hamlets have been removed, and 
 the cottars in most villages in these directions greatly 
 reduced in number ; while one glen has been Avholly, 
 and more than one to a considerable extent depopu- 
 lated, to make way for sheep-walks." 
 
 The Pitlochrie portion of his native parish he de- 
 scribed as " slightly elevated on rolling ridges above 
 the Tummei, which, after its junction with the Garry 
 
6 LIFE OP DR. DUFP. i8o6. 
 
 a littlo above, flows on to join tUo Tay a few miles 
 fartlier down ; with the country all around richly 
 wooded, while free from all marshy ground and 
 cultivated like a garden ; encompussed on all sides, 
 and at no great distance, with swelling hills and craggy 
 precipices, and the sharp pointed peaks of the lofty 
 Ben-i-vrackie towering up almost immediately behind 
 it; placed, also, within a mile or two of the celebrated 
 Pass of Killiecrankie, which is bounded on the east 
 by Fascally, with its enchanting scenery including the 
 Falls of Tummel, and on the west by the battle-field 
 on which Lord Dundee, ' the Bloody Clavers,' the 
 relentless scourge of Scotland's true patriot worthies, 
 the heroes of the Covenant, and the last hope of the 
 Stewart dynasty, fell mortally wounded in the hour of 
 victory; and which itself furnishes to the true lover 
 of nature's works a variety of views altogether un- 
 surpassed in their combination of the beautiful, the 
 picturesque, the romantic, and the sublime." 
 
 The Duff Church now stands in Pitlochrie as the 
 solitary memorial there of the man who has given a 
 new and higher interest to that portion of the Gram- 
 pian range than any of its sons. No ; not the only 
 memorial. There is another, a tombstone in the 
 Moulin kirk-yard, " erected as a grateful tribute to 
 the memory of his pious parents ... by their af- 
 fectionate son, Alexander Duff." When, early in 
 1848, he heard in Calcutta of his father's death, he 
 sent to Dr. Tweedie a prose elegy on that cottage 
 patriarch, which, undesignedly, enables us to trace the 
 spiritual influence as it had flowed through Simeon, 
 Stewart, and the good old Highlander to the son, 
 who had been then for nearly twenty years the fore- 
 most missionary in India. 
 
 *' If ever son had reason to thank God for the 
 prayers, the instructions, the counsels, and the con- 
 
^.t. I. duff's description of his father. 7 
 
 sistont examples of a devoutly pious father, I am that 
 son. Thougli sent from home for my education at 
 the early age of eight, and thougli very little at homo 
 ever after, the sacred and awakening lessons of in- 
 fancy were never wholly forgotten; and, in tlie absence 
 of moulding influences of regenerating grace, the 
 feni' of offending a man who inspired me in earliest 
 boyhood with sentiments of profoundest reveretico and 
 love towards himself, as a man of God, was for many 
 a year the overmastering principle which restrained 
 my erring footsteps and saved mo from many of tho 
 overt follies and sins of youth. Oiiginally aroused to 
 a sense of sin and the necessity of salvation, when a 
 young man, under the remarkable ministry of the lato 
 Dr. Stewart of Moulin, and afterwards of Dingwall, 
 and the Canon gate, my father was led to flee for refiigo 
 to the hope set before him in the gospel. And tho 
 spark of light and life then enkindled in his soul, far 
 from becoming dim amid the still surviving corruptions 
 of the ' old man ' within, and the thick fogs of a carnal 
 earthly atmosphere without, continued ever since to 
 shine more and more with increasing intensity and 
 vividness. In the days of his health and strength, and 
 subsequently as of ten as health and strength permitted, 
 he was wont to labour much for the spiritual improve- 
 ment of his neighbourhood, by the kee[)ing or super- 
 intending of Sabbath schools, and the holding of weekly 
 meetings, at his own house or elsewhere, for prayer 
 and scriptural exposition. In prayer he was indeed 
 mighty — appearing at times as if in a rapture, caught 
 up to the third heavens and in full view of the beatific 
 vision. In the practical exposition and home-thrusting 
 enforcement of Scripture truth he was endowed with 
 an uncommon gift. In appealing to the conscience, 
 and in expatiating on the bleeding, dying love of the 
 Saviour he displayed a power before which many have 
 
8 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1806. 
 
 been melted and subdued — findinj* immediate relief 
 only in sobs and tears — and being ecpially fluent in the 
 Gaelic and Knglisli languages, he could readily adapt 
 himself to the requirements of such mixed audiences 
 as the [lighlam'.i usually furnish. 
 
 " lu addressing the young ho was wont to manifest 
 a wiiming and affectionate tenderness, which soon 
 riveted the attention and captivated the feelings. His 
 very heart seemed to yearn through his eyes as he 
 imploi'Cil them to beware of the enticement of sinners, 
 and pointed to the outstretched arms of the Redeemer. 
 Seizing on some Bible narrative or incident or miracle 
 or parable, or proverb or emblem, ho would * picture 
 out ' one or other of these so as to leave a clear 
 and definite image on the youthful mind. And when 
 he fairly entered on the full spirit of some stirring 
 theme, such as Abraham's offering of his son Isaac, or 
 Jesus weei)ing over infatuated Jerusalem ; or when, 
 piercing through the outer folds, lie laid bare the 
 latent significance of some rich and beautiful emblem, 
 such as the * Rose of Sharon,' the ' Lily of the Valley,* 
 or the great ' Sun of Righteousness,' his diction 
 would swell into somewhat of dramatic energy, and 
 his illustrations into somewhat of the vividness and 
 sensible reality ; while his voice, respondent to the 
 thrilling within, would rise into something like the 
 undulations of a lofty but irregular chant, and so 
 vibrate athwart the mental imagery of the heart, and 
 leave an indelible impression there. 
 
 *' Next to the Bible my father's chief delight was in 
 studying the works of our old divines, of which, in 
 time-worn editions, he had succeeded in accumulat- 
 ing a goodly number. These, he was wont to say, 
 contained more of the ' sap and marrow of the gospel' 
 and had about them more of the * fragrance and fla- 
 vour of Paradise,' than aught more recently produced. 
 
^t, ,. A COTTAGE TATRIAnOn. 9 
 
 Ilalyburtoii's 'Memoirs' was a prime favouriho; but 
 of all nieroly human productious, no one secMUod to 
 stir and animato his whole soul like the * Cloud of 
 Witnesses.' And he took a special pains to saturate 
 the minds of his children with its contents. Ills 
 habit was orrlly to tell us of the manner in which the 
 Papacy corrupted God's word and persecuted God's 
 people. lie would show us pictures of the enginery 
 and processes of cruel torture. lie then would givo 
 some short biographical notice of one or other of 
 the suffering worthies ; and last of all conclude with 
 reading some of the more striking passages in their 
 * Last Words and Dying Testimonies.' To tliis early- 
 training do I mainly owe my * heart-hatred ' of 
 popery, with any spiritual insight which I possess 
 into its subtle and malignant genius, its unchanged 
 and unchangeable anti-christian virulence. 
 
 " During his latter days, his answer to every personal 
 inquiry was, ' I am waiting till my blessed Master call 
 me to Himself.' His unsparing exposure and denun- 
 ciation of the follies, levities and vanities of a giddy 
 and sinful world subjected him, in an uncommon 
 degree, to the sneers, the ridicule, the contempt and 
 the calumny of the ungodly. But like his Divino 
 Master, when reviled he strove not to suffer himself 
 to revile again. His wonted utterance under such 
 trials was, ' Poor creatures, they are to be pitied, for 
 they know not what spirit they are of ;' or, ' Ah ! well, 
 it is only another reason why I should remember them 
 more earnestly in prayer. The day of judgment will 
 set all right.' In the sharpness and clearness with 
 which he drew the line between the merely expedient 
 and the absolutely right and true ; in his stern adhesion 
 to principle at all hazards ; in his ineffable loathing 
 for temporizing and compromise, in any shape or "orm 
 where the interests of * Zion's King and Zion's cause' 
 
10 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1814. 
 
 were concerned ; in his energy of spirit, promptness of 
 decision, and unbending sturdiliood of cliaracter; in 
 tlio Abraliam-liko cast of his faith, which manifested 
 itself in its directness, sii ipHcity, and strength — in all 
 these and other respects he alwoys appeared to mo to 
 realize fully as much of my own beau-ideal of the 
 ancient martyr or hero of the Covenant as any other 
 man I ever knew. Indeed, had ho lived in the early 
 ages of persecution, or in Covenanting times, my per- 
 suasion is tliat ho would have been among the fore- 
 most in fearlessly facing the tyrant and the torture, 
 the scaffold and the stake. Oh that a double portion 
 of his spirit v/ero mine, and that the mantle of his 
 graces would fall upon mo ! " 
 
 This history will show how richly the prayer was 
 answered; this letter itself does so. But tlic pictures 
 of the " Cloud of Witnesses" wero not all that fired 
 the imngiuation of the Highland boy. Like Carey 
 with liis maps of the heathen world, the father spoko 
 to his children from such representations of Jugganath 
 and the gods of India as were rarely met with at that 
 time. On another occasion the son thus traced tho 
 specially missionary influences which surrounded him 
 as a child : " Into a general knowledge of the objects 
 and progress of modern missions I was initiated 
 from my earliest youth by my revered father, whoso 
 catholic spirit rejoiced in tracing the triumph of tho 
 gospel in different lands, and in connection with the 
 different branches of the Christian Church. Pictures 
 of Jugganath and other heathen idols ho was wont 
 to exhibit, accompanying the exhibition with copious 
 explanations, well fitted to create a feeling of horror 
 towards idolatry and of compassion towards the poor 
 blinded idolaters, and intermixing the whole with 
 statements of tho love of Jesus." 
 
 Another ^f Alexander Duff's early and constant 
 
^^t. 8. CELTIC INFLUENCES. II 
 
 sclioolmastcrs out of school was the Gaelic poet, 
 j)ii<';ild Buchanan, catechist in the neighbouring 
 liannoch a century before, who has been well de- 
 scribed as a sort of Highland repetition of John 
 Ihmyan * in his spiritual experiences. The fire, the 
 t^low, of the missionary's genius was Celtic by nature 
 and by training. The fuel that kept the fire from 
 smouldering away in a passive pensiveness was the 
 prophetic denunciation, varied only by the subtle irony, 
 of poems like " Latha Bhreitheanais " — Tlie Dan of 
 Jinhimeid, and " An Chiigeann "—The Sl-iilL The 
 boy's great and fearful deliglit was to hear the Gaelic 
 lamentations and pasans of Buchanan^ which have at- 
 tained a popidarity second only to the misty visions 
 of Ossian, read or rehearsed by his father and others 
 who had committed them to memory. Buchanan is 
 the man who, when challenged by David Hume to 
 quote language equal in sublimity to Shakespeare's 
 well-known lines beginning " The cloud-capt towers, 
 the gorgeous palaces," gravely recited the Revelation 
 which opens, " I saw a Great AVhitc Throne," when 
 the sceptic, admitting its superiority, eagerly inquired 
 as to its author ! 
 
 The bard of Rannoch moralizes in lines some of 
 which, as translated by Professor l^lackie, we quote, 
 from their applicability to liim whom they so 
 influenced : — 
 
 " I sat all alono, 
 
 By a cold grey stone, 
 And behold a skull lay on the ground ! 
 I took in my hand, and ])iLiful scanned 
 
 Its ruin all round and round. 
 
 9|( :ic 4(- ;|C 9|( 
 
 * ProfcsRoi* J. S. T3Iaclvio on The Laiujuago and Literature of the 
 Sculttsh lHjhlands. 187G, 
 
12 LTFE OP DR. DUrP. 1814. 
 
 " Or wert thou a teacher 
 
 Of truth and a preacher, 
 With niossage of mercy to tell j 
 
 With an arm swift and strong 
 
 To pull back the throng 
 That headlong were plunging to hell ? 
 
 * 41 « ♦ « 
 
 " Or wert thou a wight 
 
 That strove for the right, 
 With God for thy guide iu thy doing ? 
 
 Though now thou lie there 
 
 All bleached and bare. 
 In the blast a desolate ruin, 
 
 " From the tomb thou shalt rise 
 
 And mount to the skies. 
 When the trump of the judgment shall bray ; 
 
 Thy body of sin 
 
 Thou shalt slip like a skin. 
 And cast all corruption away, 
 
 " When in glory divine 
 
 The Kedeemer shall shine. 
 The hosts of His people to gather, 
 
 When the trumpet hath blared. 
 
 Like an eagle repaired 
 Thou shalfc rise to the home of thy Father." 
 
 The more weird and alarming strains of The Day 
 of Judgment so filled the boy's fancy that, when he 
 first left home for the Lowlands, he one night dreamed 
 he saw the signs of the approaching doom. In 
 vision he beheld nmnbers without number summoned 
 where the Judge was seated on the Great White 
 Throne. He saw the human race advance in suc- 
 cession to the tribunal, he heard sentence pro- 
 nounced upon men — some condemned to everlasting 
 punishment, others ordained to everlasting life. He 
 
^t, 8. HIS VISIONS AND HIS CALL. 13 
 
 was seized with an indescribablo terror, uncertain 
 what his own fate would be. The doubt became so 
 terrible as to convulse his very frame. AVlien his turn 
 for sentence drew near, the dreamer awoke shivering 
 verj'' violently. The experience left an indelible im- 
 pression on his mind. It threw him into earnest 
 prayer for pardon, and was followed by what he long 
 after described as something like the assurance of 
 acceptance through the atoning blood of his Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 The next harvest vacation was marked by another 
 experience of a similar kind, in which those who 
 keep the ear of the soul open for every whisper of 
 the divine, will read a-prophetio call in the light of 
 the boy's future. He had not long before narrowly 
 escaped drowning in tlie more easterly of the two 
 streams around the cottage, having been drawn 
 into it as he was lifting out water from the swollen 
 torrent, and swirled under the rustic bridge. The 
 more peaceful westerly burn was the scene of his 
 second vision. He dreamed, as he lay on its banks 
 among the blae-berries musing alone, that there shone 
 in the distance a brightness surpas-^ing that of the 
 sun. By-and-bye from the great ligat there seemed 
 to approach him a magnificent chariot of gold 
 studded with gems, drawn by fiery horses. The 
 glory overawed him. At last the heavenly chariot 
 reached his side, and from its open window the 
 Almighty God looked out and addressed to him, in 
 the mildest tones, the words, "Come up hither; I 
 have work for thee to do." In the effort to rise he 
 awoke with astonishment, and told the dream in all 
 its details to his parents. Not long before his death, 
 he repeated it in this fcrtn to his grandson, so deep 
 and lasting had been the impression. Such a call, be 
 it the prevision of fancy or the revelation of a gracious 
 
14 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1817. 
 
 (Icsliiiy, was a fitting commencement of Alexander 
 Duff's career, and a very real preparation of liim for 
 the work lie had to do. 
 
 The parish "dominie" of Moulin was an exception- 
 ally useless teacher, even in those days and under an 
 " indifferent " Presbytery. Amiable, ingenious, and 
 even learned, he divided his time between the repair of 
 watches and violins durino: school hours when the elder 
 children heard the lessons of the younger, and fishing 
 in the Tummel when his wife heard all read the Bible 
 in the kitchen. A father of James Duff's intelligence 
 and earnestness was sorely perplexed when, in 1814, a 
 friend invited him to send Alexander to a school 
 between Dunkeld and Perth, which the neighbouring 
 farmers, ensfaofed in reclaiming: some wastes of the 
 Duke of Athole, had established for their children. 
 After three years of rapid progress, the boy of eleven 
 was placed in the Kirkraichael school, twelve miles 
 from Moulin, though not till his father had visited the 
 teacher with whom Alexander was to board, and had 
 satisfied himself that there was good ground for his 
 great reputation all over the country-side. In time 
 the sluggish Presbytery of Dunkeld awoke to the new 
 educational light, and a deputation of their number 
 found Alexander Duff, as the head of the school, put 
 forward to read the Odes of Horace. 
 
 Mr. A. Macdougall was master of Kirkmichael 
 school. In his family and under his teaching Alex- 
 ander Duff laid the foundation of a well-disciplined 
 culture, for which, s^ long as his teacher lived, ho did 
 not cease to express to him the warmest affection. 
 Among his fellows were Dr. Duncan Forbes, who 
 afterwards became Professor of Oriental Languages 
 in King's College, London; Dr. Tweedie, associated 
 with the future missionary as convener of the Foreign 
 Missions Committee of the Free Church of Scotland ; 
 
^t. II. I'OST IN THE SNOW. 1 5 
 
 the Rev. Donald Fergusson, still Free Church minister 
 of Loven ; and the Rev. Mr. Campbell, the present 
 parish minister of Moulin. Such was the teacher's 
 iil)ility, and such his well-deserved popularity, that 
 the thinly peopled parish at one time sent eleven 
 students to St. Andrews. " I have not forgotten the 
 days I passed under your roof," wrote Duff when he 
 liad become famous, to his old master, " nor the 
 manifold advantages derived from your tuition, and, I 
 trust, never will. And when the time comes that in 
 fho good providence of God I shall visit Kirkmichael, 
 I know that to mo aj least it will be matter of 
 licartfelt <^iatification." " Wliat would I have been 
 tliis day," ho wrote again, "had not an overruling 
 Providence directed mo to Kirkmichael school?" Of 
 every book and pamphlet which he wrote he sent a 
 copy to his first benefactor. 
 
 Before he left Kirkmichael to pass througli the 
 then famous grammar school of Perth to St. Andrews 
 University, he was to carry with him from his home 
 another experience never to be forgotten. 
 
 The winter at the end of 1819 was severe, and 
 the snow lay deep in the Grampians. The Saturday 
 liad come round for young Duff's weekly visit to 
 his parents. Taking the shorter track for ten miles 
 across the low hill by Glen Briarclian and Strathire, 
 from Kirkmichael to Moulin, ho and a companion 
 waded for hoars throuQ^h the snowv heather. The 
 sun set as they got oui. of the glen, no stars came out, 
 all landmarks were obliterated, and they knew oidy 
 that they had to pass between deep morasses and a 
 considerable tarn. To return was as impossible as it 
 was dangerous to advance, for already they felt the 
 ice of the moss-covered pools and then of the lake 
 cracking under their feet in the thick darkness. Still 
 going forward, they came to what they took to be 
 
1 6 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1820, 
 
 a precipice hidden by the snow-driffc down -whicli 
 tlioy slid. Then they heard the purling of the burn 
 which, they well knew, would bring them down the 
 valley of Athole if they had only light to follow it. 
 The night went on, and the words with which they 
 tried to cheer themselves and each other grew fainter, 
 when exhaustion compelled them to sit down. Then 
 they cried to God for deliverance. With their heads 
 resting on a snow-wreath they were vainly trying to 
 keep their eyes open, when a bright light flashed upon 
 them and then disappeared. Roused as if by an 
 electric shock, they ran forward and stumbled against 
 a garden wall. The light, which proved to be the 
 flare of a torch used by salmon poachers in the Tura- 
 mel, was too distant to guide them to safety, but it had 
 been the means of leadino: them to a cottan^e three 
 miles from their home. The occupants, roused from 
 bed in the early morning, warmed and fed the wan- 
 derers. To Alexander Duff''s parents the deliverance 
 looked almost miraculous. Often in after years, when 
 he was in peril or difficulty, did the memory of that 
 sudden flash call forth new thankfulness and cheerful 
 hope. Trust in the overruling providence of a gra- 
 cious God so filled his heart that the deliverance 
 never failed to stimulate him to a fresh eff'ort in a 
 righteous cause when all seemed lost. 
 
 The boy spent his fourteenth year at Perth Grammar 
 School, of which Mr. Moncur, the ablest of the 
 students of John Hunter of St. Andrews, and a born 
 teacher, had just been made Rector. The flrst act of 
 the new master was, in presence of the whole school, 
 to summon the janitor to sink in the Tay the many 
 specimens of leathern " tawse " of various degrees of 
 torturing power, which had made his predecessor 
 feared by generations of boys. With consummate 
 acting, ho asked why the generous youths entrusted 
 
^t. 14. INFLUENCE OP THE CLASSICS AND MILTON. 1 7 
 
 to liim sliould bo treated as savages. He at least had 
 confidenco in them to this extent, that each would do 
 liis duty ; and, being the perfect teacher he was, his 
 confidenco was justified. The scene was never forgot- 
 ten, and it went far to develop in Duff the power wliicli 
 fascinated and awed his Bengalee students for many 
 a year, and made his school and college the firt?t in all 
 Asia. Under Moncur his Latin and Greek scholarship 
 had their foundation broadened as well as deepened. 
 In the favourite optional exercise, now too much 
 neglected, of committing to memory the master-pieces 
 of both, he generally came off' first, and thus was 
 trained a faculty to which much of his oratorical 
 success afterwards was due. He left Perth at fifteen, 
 the dux of the school. Yet we question if he carried 
 away from it anything better than Johnson's "Ram- 
 bler," which the Rector lent to him for the vacation 
 before the University term, and especially Milton's 
 " Paradise Lost." Often in after years did ho refer to 
 the latter as having, unconsciously at the time, exercised 
 a great influence over his mental habitudes. He carried 
 the book constantly in his pocket, and read portions 
 of it every day. Thus the " Paradise Lost " moulded 
 his feelings and shaped his thoughts into forms pecu- 
 liarly his own. The Gaelic Buchanan and the English 
 Milton, the Celtic fire and the Puritan imagination, 
 feeding on Scripture story and classic culture, coloured 
 by such dreams and experiences, and directed by such 
 a father and a teacher — these were used to send forth 
 to the world from the bosom of the Grampians a tall 
 eagle-eyed and impulsive boy of fifteen. Presented 
 with twenty pounds by his father, from that day he 
 was at his own charges. 
 
 It was a fortunate circumstance that he went to 
 St. Andrews. Of the four Scottish universities at 
 that time the most venerable was still the most 
 
 c 
 
1 8 LIFE 01' 1)11. nUFP. 182 1. 
 
 attractive, from tlic renown of some of its professoi's. 
 Little, of course, could be said for the schools of 
 divinity anywhere till Thomas Chalmers went to Edin- 
 huri^h, aUhough Principal IJaldano was not without 
 routine ability and goodness, as head of St. Mary's, 
 the theological college which Canhnal Beaton had 
 founded. But the other two, known as the United 
 CVdleges of St. Halvator and St. Leonard, enjoyed the 
 services of the ripest Latinist at that time in the 
 United Kingdom, Dr. John Hunter, and of Dr. 
 Jackson whoso lectures on natural philosophy were 
 reckoned the most scientific of the day. The reputa- 
 tion and the influence of even these, however, were con- 
 fined to their generation compared with that intellec- 
 tual and spiritual ferment caused by the new professor 
 of moral i)hilosop]iy, which is still working in the lives 
 of men and the institutions of his country. When Dr. 
 Chalmers almost suddenly disappeared from the pulpit 
 and platform, the wynds and the hovels of Glasgow, and 
 began the winter session of 1823-2-^l< at St. Andrews 
 with one lecture, Alexander Duff, having carried off the 
 highest honours in Greek, Latin, logic, and natural 
 philosophy, was one of the crowd Avho sat at the great 
 professor's feet. His Latin had procured fc ^ him the 
 most valuable of those rewards which Scotland, with 
 its peculiar mixture of Latin and French theological 
 and law terms, calls "bursaries," without sufficiently 
 distinguisliing between the prizes of genuine scholar- 
 ship guined by hard competition, like Duff's, and the 
 doles restricted to poor students, often because they 
 bear the same name or have been born in the same 
 district as the thoughtless or vain donor. Especially 
 had he carried off the essay prize offered for the 
 best translation into Latin of Plato's "Apology of 
 Socrates," and the Senaius spontaneously dubbed him 
 Master of Arts. 
 
Jf,t. 15. ST. ANDRRWS AS IT WAS. I9 
 
 Tlio impetuous spirit of Du(T received impressions of 
 tlic theological deadness of St. Andrews, atidof the new 
 life brouglit to it by Clialmers, which found this ex- 
 pression, when recalled in the distant scenes of India : 
 " Poor St. Andrews lay far away, isolated and apart, 
 in a region so cold that th,o thaw and the breeze, so 
 relaxing and vivifying elsewhere, scarcely touched its 
 lianlened soil. The great stream of national progress 
 flowed past, leaving it undisturbed in its sluggishness. 
 Tiic breezes of healthful change blew over it, as over 
 the unruffled surface of a land-locked bay. From all 
 external influences, even of an ordinary kind, it soemed 
 entirely shut out. No steamer ever entered its 
 deserted harbour, with its influx of strangers carry- 
 ing along with them new tastes, new habits and 
 new thoughts. No mail-coach or oven common stage- 
 coach ever distuibed the silence of ts cfrass-grown 
 streets. Its magistracy was virtually self-elected, 
 enjoying in perpetuity a quiet monopoly of power. 
 The Hector, the very guardian and controller of its 
 University, must be himself one of the existing prin- 
 cipals or professors of divinity ; and not, as in tlio 
 case of other Scottish universities, a man beyond tlio 
 collegiate pale — a man of name, of independency and 
 power, whoso occasional visitation might tend to shako 
 the dry bones of dull, deadening, monotonous routine. 
 Dissent, so rife and flourishing elsewhere, could barely 
 show itself in the nerveless impotence of creeping 
 infancy. And even the rising spirit of the missionary 
 enterprise could only faintly struggle, and that too in 
 the bosoms of but a few, not. for life but for a sickly 
 weary existence, just as the palm or other rich pro- 
 duct of tropical climes might for a time be seen pain- 
 fully struggling for existence on a bleak Grampian 
 heath. 
 " Such was the condition of St. Andrews, — a con- 
 
20 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1823. 
 
 dition in which the gfiiinb spirit of the eighteenth 
 century, mantled till over with the deadly night-shade, 
 was felt still shooting his baleful breath far into the 
 nineteenth, — a condition in which the policy and the 
 power of * moderate ' ascendancy were comparatively 
 unmodified and unchanged, when, in the spring of 
 1823, it was suddenly announced that Dr. Chalmers 
 was unanimously elected by the Senatus Academicus 
 to the vacant chair of Moral Philosophy. And when 
 it is remembered that at that time not one member 
 of the Senatus belonged to the evangelical party in 
 the Church, that all were moderate and some of them 
 intensely so, and that Principal Nicoll was even the 
 acknowledged leader of the moderate party in the 
 General Assembly ; it may well bo imagined how tlio 
 unexpected announcement was received with mingled 
 feelings of surprise and delight — surprise at the choice 
 of such a man. by such an elective body, delight that 
 the choice should have fallen on one so transcendently 
 worthy. Indeed, * delight ' is far too feeble and in- 
 adequate a term to express the full gust of pleasurable 
 emotion which instantaneously followed the announce- 
 ment, and speedily diffused itself through the whole 
 community. It was rather a burst of high-wrought 
 enthusiasm. Of some it might truly be said that they 
 believed not for very joy. 
 
 " Doubtless the sources of this joy were of an ex- 
 ceedingly varied and mingled description. Visions of 
 temporal aggrandizement already floated before the 
 minds of the townspeople, then sadly steeped in secu- 
 larity and religious indifference. Without commerce, 
 without manufacture or any leading branch of indus- 
 trial occupation, their very existence might bo said to 
 depend on the University. And in the presence of 
 such a * celebrity ' as Dr. Chalmers, they were sharp 
 enough to behold such a nucleus of attraction for 
 
ylit. 17. 'i'UI^ COMING OF CUALMEI18 TO ST. ANDREWS. 21 
 
 btialcnts and strangers generally, that his residence 
 jiiiiongst them might fairly bo regarded as equivalent 
 to an increase of thousands of pounds to their scanty 
 niinual income. Again, many of the iidiabitants, alike 
 of town and countiy, had numberless traditionary 
 local anecdotes and recollections of him as a boy, a 
 student, a lecturer on mathematics and chemistry, and 
 lastly, as the eccentric minister of the neighbouring 
 parish of Kilmany. And to receive him back again 
 amongst them, in the full blaze of an unparalleled 
 popularity, they felt to bo like the shedding of some 
 nndetinable radiance on themselves. Tiie few, the 
 very few, scattered and almost hidden ones of piety 
 and prayer, hailed tho event with feelings somewhat 
 akin to those of him who beheld the cloud laden with 
 its watery treasure rise and swell from the west, after 
 a long and dreary season of parching drought. As 
 for the students, however careless or unconcerned as 
 to purely spiritual interests, they were, without any 
 known exception and with all the honest fervour of 
 youth, enraptured at tho thought of having for a 
 professor a man of genius, and the greatest pulpit 
 orator of his age. The dull dead sea of former apathy 
 and inertness was suddenly stirred up from the depths 
 by the rush and impulse of new and unwonted excite- 
 ment. For many dajs they could think of nothing 
 else, and speak of nothing. The third volume of 
 ' Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk,' with its portrait and 
 graphic delineation of Dr. Chalmers, obtained from 
 the college library, was well-nigh torn and shattered 
 from tho avidity for its perusal. Already did every 
 one picture to himself the form of the man with his 
 pale countenance and drooping eyelids ; his mathe- 
 matical breadth of forehead with its ' arch of imaofina- 
 tiouj' surmounted by a grand apex of high and solemn 
 veueiation and love. Already, with anticipated breath- 
 
23 LIl'E OF Dll. DL'l'F. 182J. 
 
 Icssncss, (lid ojicli otio scoin, in fancy, as if ho felt lii3 
 Tierves creeping jukI vibrating, and his l)l()od i'lvcz- 
 ing and boiling, when the elocpienco of tho niiglity 
 enchant(»r, bursting through all conventional trannnela, 
 shono forth in all tho splendour of its overpowering 
 glories. 
 
 " At length the time of his installation canio round. 
 In November, 1823, ho delivered his inaugund lecture 
 in the lower hall of the public lil)rary, still called tho 
 ' Parliament Hall,* as there, in IGI'5, the Covenanting 
 1 Parliament assembled which tried and condemned 
 Sir Robert Spottiswood and other royalists for their 
 share in the battle of rhili[)haugh." Dr. ITanna has 
 told tho rest in tho memoirs of his great father-in- 
 law. 
 
 Such wcro tho professors. And what tho students ? 
 There had followed Duff to St. Andrews an old school- 
 fellow from Perth, John Urcpdiart, with whom ho 
 shared the same lodgings, and, morning and evening, 
 engaged in the same worship. Unpdiart was a Con- 
 gj'egationalist, as were also John Adam and W. Lind- 
 say Alexander, who is still spared to the ('hurch, and 
 has written this bright sketch of Duff in their student 
 days: "When I first became ac(puunted with him 
 he was in all the vigour and freshness of early youth, 
 stalwart in frame, buoyant of spirit, full of energy 
 and enthusiasm, impulsive but not rash, a diligent and 
 earnest student, and already crowned with academic 
 distinctions earned by success in different depart- 
 ments of learned and scientific study, llis reputation 
 stood high as a classical scholar, and he had gained 
 several prizes for essays in literature and philosophy. 
 Subsequently to the time of which I am speaking, he 
 gained equal distinction as a Hebrew scholar, and his 
 essays in theology commanded the strongest approba- 
 tion from his professors. Already also as a speaker, 
 
^],:t ,7. AS A STUDKNT IN ST. ANDIJKWS. 23 
 
 li(> li:i(l in (lel)ii(inj^ fiociotios, and snbsoqucntly by liis 
 discourses in tlio IMicoloirical I lull, displayed that 
 intclk'ctiial [)o\vcr and that rare gift of elo(|UCMico 
 wliicli enabled him in after-years so niii^ditily to sway 
 the emotions, giiido the opinions, and iiitliieiico tho 
 decisions of others, in deliberative councils no less 
 than in ])opular assemblies." 
 
 Que of his juiuors, the son of Professor Ferric, and 
 now tlie Rev. AV^illiam Ferric, in the State of New 
 York, gives ns this other and very human gliuipsc of 
 ilic iuipeluous student: — "lie was passing the win- 
 tlows of my father's house in St. Andrews with others 
 innu(r to some great students' meeting, and 1 remember 
 Nairnc, who was theti my tutor, called out as they 
 passed, 'There is Duff.' I looked, and ho had on a 
 cloak, and was going Avith a good thick stick in liis 
 hand, as though ho expected that there might bo a 
 row." The Rev. J. ^V. Taylor, of Flisk, whose first 
 year at college was Duff's last, writes : " Though out- 
 rageously thoughtless I was much impressed l)y Duff. 
 There was a weight and a downi'ight earnestness 
 about him which everybody felt. lie was the l)oast 
 of the college, ''nd was greatly regarded by the towns- 
 folk of St. Andrews. His ap[)earancc as ho passed 
 with Imri'icd step is indelibly photographed on my 
 niiiid, and is thus put in my * Historical Antiquities ' 
 of the city. * That tall figure, crossing tho street and 
 looking thoughtfully to the ground, stooped somewhat 
 ill tho shoulders and his hand awkwardly grasping 
 the lappet of his coat, is Alexander Duff, tho pride of 
 tlio college, whoso mind has received the impress of 
 Chalmers's big thoughts and tho form of his phrase- 
 ology. Under Chalmers, ho was, in St. Andrews, tlic 
 institutor of Sabbath schools and the originator of 
 the Students' Missionary Societ3^' " Another survivirig 
 fellow-student, Dr. A. M'Laren, the minister of Kem- 
 
34 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1824. 
 
 back, near Cupar, describes him thus: — " As a friend he 
 was alwa^'^s singularly obliging, warm-hearted and con- 
 stant ; as a companion he was uniformly agreeable and 
 cheerful, and not unfrequently impressive in his appeals 
 to the better susceptibilities of our nature; though 
 generally in high spirits and mirthful, he never allowed 
 his mirth to degenerate into boisterous vulgarity." 
 Yv hat the lad was at St. Andrews, the man proved to 
 bo all through his life. He was high-minded, generous 
 and chivalrous with the bearing of the old school, and 
 that not less after his hours of controversy than in his 
 happiest times. 
 
 The first session was not over when the great 
 Christian economist, the expounder of Malthus and 
 Ricardo, who had transformed the worst wynds of 
 Glasgfow, bef?an the humblest mission work in the more 
 ancient city, and threw himself into the then despised 
 cause of foreign missions. Duff's young spiritual life, 
 which had been slumbering into formalism, he tells us, 
 was quickened with that burning enthusiasm which 
 glowed the brighter to his dying day. His friends, 
 Urquhart and Adam, took steps to offer themselves to 
 the London Missionary Society for China and Calcutta ; 
 and llobert Nesbit went to his friend John Wilson, of 
 Lauder, begging him to break the news to his motlier 
 that he was to be sent by the Scottish Missionary 
 Society to Bombay. It is not surprising that these, 
 and such companions as the late Henry Craik, of 
 Bristol, Mr. Midler's colleague; William Tait, son of 
 the godly Edinburgh minister who was deposed in the 
 Row heresy case ; and Mv. Scott Moncrieff, late of 
 Penicuik, met with Duff in the session of 1824-5, and 
 founded the Students' Missionary Society. Duff was 
 its librarian, Nesbit its secretary, and R. Trail its 
 president, as having originated an earlier society of 
 divinity students only. Their object was to study 
 
^t..i8. THE STUDENTS MISSIONARY SOCIETr. 25 
 
 foreign missions, so as to satisfy themselves of the 
 necessities of the world outside of Christendom. IS^ot 
 a room for their meetings would the authorities of 
 either college, or the magistrates who had charge of 
 the city school, allow them, until, some time after, the 
 principal and professors were enlightened so far as to 
 subscribe an occasional guinea. And that in spite 
 of all the influence of Chalmers, who fed the spirit of 
 the students and interested the townsfolk in the cause 
 by lecturing on some portion of the field of heathenism 
 once a month in the town-hall. This society, note- 
 worthy in the history of Scottish Missions as the 
 fruitful parent of the most apostolic missionaries of 
 the country, met first in an adventure school in a 
 dingy lane of St. Andrews. 
 
 The Memoir of Urquhart, who passed away all too 
 early from the work for which he was preparing, reveals 
 at once the depth of Duff's friendship, in the letters 
 and in the preface to the third edition of 18G9, and 
 the very practical forms of mission study and prayer 
 followed by the members. When Urquhart, in his 
 concluding address, solemnly announced for the first 
 time his personal dedication to missionary work, and 
 charged every one of his fellows to take this matter 
 into most serious consideration, his friend Duff re- 
 ceived a deep and solemn impression. But books, 
 essays, and even the lectures of Chalmers, were not 
 all. In those days the giants of the early societies 
 occasionally came home with news of victory in the 
 high places of the field, with plans of further cam- 
 paigns, with appeals for recruits. When Urquhart 
 startled his companions by that announcement into 
 following his exam.ple, ne had just returned from a visit 
 to the great missionary, Dr. Morrison, then in London, 
 from whom he had been taking lessons in Chinese. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers kept open house for all such in St. 
 
26 LlFli 01' mi. DUFF. 1828. 
 
 Andrews, to which his sympathy with them as well 
 as his fame attracted them. Thus the students saw 
 Dr. Marshman, who was full of the enterprise of 1818, 
 when ho and Carey had opened, in Serampore, the first 
 English and Sanscrit college for native missionaries 
 and educated Hindoos. Dr. Morrison in due time 
 came north, to plead for IIong-Kong and Canton, 
 to which his labours were then confined; to tell of 
 his triumphs iu Biblo translating and dictionary 
 making, and to give some account of the ten thousand 
 Chinese books which he had brought home. And 
 from Calcutta there might be seen, at the lively break- 
 fast table of the renowned professor of moral philo- 
 sophy, the spare form of that Sanscrit and Bengalee 
 pundit. Dr. Yates, alternating between attacks on 
 Church establishments and expositions of Brahmanical 
 subtleties, or listening to the professor's emphatically 
 expressed opinion that religious societies should bo 
 managed by laymen, while ministers confine themselves 
 to the more spiritual duties of their ofifice.* John 
 Urquhart was right when he Avrote that the colleges 
 of St. Andrews, under all these influences, had become 
 like those of Oxford in the days of Ilervey and Wesley. 
 Reckoning up the fruits of the influence of Chalmers 
 for five years on the three hundred students who 
 passed through his classes, his accomplished biographer 
 exclaims : — " More than one missionary for each col- 
 lege session — two out of every hundred students — 
 what other University record can present a parallel ! " 
 The six were Nesbit, Adam, Duff and Urquhart, and 
 Mackay and Ewart who followed them. Dr. Hanna, 
 remarks of Duff, that the life and labours of this prince 
 of missionaries proved how truly and how intensely he 
 
 • Dr. Hanna's Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D., vol. 
 iii., p. 15'i, note. 
 
^t. 22. LETTER TO DR. CHALMERS. 27 
 
 was impelled to tread in the footsteps and to imitate 
 the noble pattern of his great teacher. 
 
 It was on the 19th October, 1828, that Dr. Chalmers 
 made this entry in his journal : — " Enjoyed my last 
 Sunday at the beautiful garden of St. Leonard's : a 
 sad sinking of heart." Duff returned to his last ses- 
 sion at St. Andrews to find the light of the University 
 leaving for the wider and more purely proft*ssional 
 sphere of Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh. But 
 tlio disappointed student found some recompense in 
 being asked by Chalmers to write freely to him. Tho 
 first fruit of a correspondence and a personal friend- 
 ship which ceased, twenty years after, only v/iMi tho 
 death of the greatest Scotsman since Knox, was the 
 following. Dr. Chalmers seems to have carefully pre- 
 served the original, having that sympathy with students 
 which more than doubles the preacher's and the pro- 
 fessor's power : — 
 
 " St. Andrews, 20th Jan., 1829. 
 
 "Rev. and Dear Sir, — When leaving St. Andrews, 
 you were so good as to request me to write to you 
 during the session, and I promised to do so. I assure 
 you that neither the request nor the promise was for 
 one moment forgotten. I reckoned tho request an 
 honour, and you know it is not human nature to 
 neglect what is viewed in this light. . . . 
 
 " The sum total of students attending the Old Col- 
 lege is 191 ; St. Mary's, nearly 40. The session has 
 as yet passed by very quietly. T>here are no gcnfleman 
 outlaws or iwivileged desperadoes to gain an infamous 
 notoriety by disturbing the general peace, and setting 
 laws and discipline at open defiance. Billiard? and 
 nocturnal riots and other irregularities are therefore 
 unheard of; and if there be an indulirerco in any ex- 
 cesses, it is still shroud* "1 uiidcr the veil of scores v. 
 
28 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 The vigorous measures taken by the professors on a 
 former session operate as a very salutary if not an 
 effectual check ; and tlie rigid upholding of these mea- 
 sures will no doubt render the check permanent. 
 
 *' Dr. Cook's arrival in St. Andrews caused littlo 
 inquiry, and created littlo or no excitement. His in- 
 troductory lecture was delivered in the Latin class- 
 room to an audience almost solely composed of students, 
 and not very numerous. Its brilliance may be esti- 
 mated from the fact that most of the students appeared 
 very restless and fidgety; Mr. Lothian sat yawning 
 in one of the back seats. Dr. Cook has proclaimed 
 himself the champion of the ancient system. He 
 seemed to exult in having the high honour of restoring 
 the poor houseless fugitive to its former domains, and 
 investing it with its former dignity. His was a most 
 perfect science : it was independent of revelation ; it 
 could exalt man to a state of dignity allied to the 
 Fountain of being, and could achieve wonders in 
 refining the moral constitution of the lord of nature. 
 Moral philosophy could not be understood without a 
 previous view of the mental faculties. This was proved 
 and illustrated by a lengthened analogy, of which this 
 is the substance : It is as impossible to investigate the 
 principles of morals without a previous knowledge of 
 the faculties of the mind — which is the instrument em- 
 ployed — as it is for the astronomer to have a know- 
 ledge of his science without a previous acquaintance 
 with the facts of astronomy. The depth of this rea- 
 soning no one could fathom, and it was unanimously 
 enrolled among the list of paralogisms. He then gave 
 a sketch of his course, of which I have endeavoured to 
 send you a faithful outline. From it you will at once 
 perceive how rigidly he intends to follow the traces of 
 the olden time, and how St. Andrews is likely to retain 
 its character of the * Old Maiden ' strictly inviolate. 
 
M. 23. ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY AFTER CHALMERS. 29 
 
 IIg concluded by a lon^ panegyric on his father, wlio 
 was one of the most distinguished of moral pliiloso- 
 pliers ; and another upon Dr. Crawford, adding, ' Nei- 
 tlicr can I bo supposed to bo altogether unaffected by 
 the brilliant talents and the splendid eloquence of my 
 immediate predecessor/ Almost in the next breath 
 he proceeded, ' Entering the chair which I now occupy, 
 after three such distinguished men, it may bo thougiit 
 that I labour under many disadvantages,' etc., and 
 concluded by stating that he had thought long and 
 much upon the subject, and therefore felt himself by 
 no means unprepared to deliver a course of lectures 
 upon moral philosophy. Upon this a certain gentle- 
 man facetiously remarked t ' No wonder, for he has 
 been preaching upon morals all his lifetime.* My own 
 feelings, and the feelings of all those whose memories 
 fondly dwelt upon better days and enabled them to 
 draw a sorrowful contrast, would heartily incline mo 
 to inscribe above the door of entrance, in legible 
 characters, ' Ichabod, the glory is gone.' The number 
 of students attending this class has actually dwindled 
 to 28 — not half the number for the last five years. 
 This some of the professors account for by saying 
 that last session some of the second-year students 
 attended moral philosophy instead of logic, and this 
 season they attend logic instead of moral philosophy. 
 But the truth is, there are only four or five students of 
 whom this can be said, leaving still the deficiency un- 
 accounted for on any such principle. He was prepared 
 to lecture on political economy, and every exertion 
 was made to muster a class ; but the thing would 
 not succeed. Two students were at last induced to 
 enrol; but such an attendance was too meagre to 
 escape the imputation of being a farce, and accordingly 
 the scheme was abandoned as hopeless. 
 " The other classes are conducted in the usual way, 
 
30 LIFE OF Dll. DUFF. 1S29. 
 
 except that Mr. Duncan and Dr. Jackson have estab- 
 hshcd a regular system of weekly competitions, which 
 promise to do much good in stimulating and rewarding 
 the really deserving. 
 
 " About ten days ago old Dr. Hunter was found in 
 his study asleep and almost stilT with cold, his fire 
 having gone out. For some days he was confined to 
 bed, very unwell, but is now rapidly recovering. 
 
 *' The building of a new college is still the subject of 
 conversation. Reports have flourished without num- 
 b^ r, and repeatedly died ; but the happy consummation 
 of their dying into a reality seems yet to be somewhat 
 distant. True, the professors talk confidently of 
 £23,000 being granted through the intercession of 
 Lord Melville, of the money being already in the Ex- 
 chequer in Edinburgh, of the king's architect being 
 expected everyday; the foundation stone is to be laid 
 in March, and your class-rooms are to be finished 
 during the ensuing summer, etc., etc. These things 
 may be true, but past disappointments suggest the 
 propriety of not being very sanguine till actual opera- 
 tions are commenced. 
 
 " The Students' Missionary Society is succeeding as 
 well as ever, its numbers in no degree diminished. 
 Even those who were at first disposed to view it with 
 a jealous eye and shrink from any contact with it, as 
 being an institution quite unacademical, begin to regard 
 it more auspiciously and countenance it with their 
 support. Our meetings are well attended, our books 
 much read ; so that I trust the spirit which was sud- 
 denly kindled five years ago may long survive in this 
 quarter at least, and demonstrate that it was not an 
 ephemeral effervescence, founded on no principle and 
 supported by no truth. I would rejoice to be en- 
 abled to assert the same of the Town Missionary 
 Society. All were prepared for a great change, so that 
 
JEt. 23. CITY MISSION WORK. 3 I 
 
 its decrease was not unexpected. Its monthly meet- 
 ings are truly the wreck of what they were. The 
 animating spirit is gone, and gone with it have most 
 of the attendants. I fear they will find the greatest 
 (lilficiilty in keeping up these interesting meetings, and 
 tliat the Society will relapse into its original state of 
 inefficiency. ]\lr. Bain reads the greatest part of the 
 evening, and Mr. Lothian takes also a share. But 
 there is the absence of those connecting remarks, and 
 those appeals and addresses which, to most of the 
 auditors, constituted the charm of the evening's busi- 
 ness in past years. Mr. Bain is well-meaning and 
 very anxious for its prosperity, but he wants life, 
 energy and activity. If the new burgher-minister 
 now to be elected, Mr. Aiken, be a popular man, ho 
 may lend effective aid and in some measure cause a 
 revival. 
 
 " Sabbath schools have now overtaken almost tho 
 whole population. I have personally visited all tho 
 lower classes in the town, and did not find twenty 
 children who were not attending some school or other. 
 A very great, if not the greatest proportion appears 
 to be taught by Dissenters — a circumstance which of 
 course grieves Dr. Haldano very much. lie is so 
 much annoyed by it, that he spends no inconsiderable 
 portion of his time in visiting the parents for the ex- 
 press purpose of requesting them to beware of the 
 arts and beguiling insinuations of the Dissenters, 
 and to remove their children from their schools ere 
 they be tinctured with their pestiferous principles. 
 At all events every Christian must rejoice that ' by 
 all means ' the doctrine of the Cross is now regularly 
 and systematically taught to nearly all the children of 
 St. Andrews. 
 
 "Dr. Haldane has contrived to muster a class of 
 mechanics, or rather apprentice-lads, to whom I ex- 
 
32 LIFE OF DU. DCFF. 1829. 
 
 plain an appointed passage of Scripture every Sunday 
 morning between ten antl eleven o'clock. I have tlio 
 conducting of a girls' school between four and six; and 
 later in the evening I spend an hour and a half or two 
 hours with Messrs. Smyth, Fortune, Watson and an- 
 other fellow-boarder, Ilobb, from Stirling. I prescribe 
 a chapter to be read and studied for the following 
 Sabbath, examine upon it, make remarks and explana- 
 tions. Messrs. Watson and Fortune, in whose welfare 
 you expressed yourself as interested, are conducting 
 themselves with great propriety, and I feel very much 
 delighted with the intelligent a;iswers which they 
 give to most of the questions put to them on the 
 Sabbath evening. Mr. Craik expresses himself satis- 
 fied with the manner in which they prepare their 
 regular class-lessons. 
 
 " I have been proposed for trials before the Presby- 
 tery of St. Andrews, and my first examination takes 
 place on the lltli of February. I almost begin to fear 
 when I think of the awful responsibility of the Chris- 
 tian ministry, and tliis fear sometimes makes me shrink 
 from the office, as if it were to be tarnished by my pre- 
 sence. Again I reflect, that if my motives are well 
 founded the Lord will sustain me ; and if not, it were 
 far better that I desisted in time." 
 
 In the spring of 1829, and in this spirit, Alexander 
 Dulf, M.A., was licensed by the Presbytery of St. 
 Andrews " to preach the gospel of Christ and to exer- 
 cise his gifts as a probationer of the holy ministry." 
 The man was ready ; the work had been long waiting 
 for him. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 1829. 
 
 TUE FIRST MISSIONARY OF THE CEUUCII OF 
 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 Early Missionary Confession of the Kirk. — The Apathy of Two Cen- 
 turies. — Preparations by the Scottish Layman, Charles Grant. — 
 Tho Foundation of the Missioni>ry Societies after the French 
 Revolution. — The First Preshjtonan Chaplain and Enj^lish 
 Bishop of Calcutta. — Dr. Inj^lis, Founder of tho Mission. — Lord 
 Binning's Help. — General Assembly's Letter to tho People of 
 Scotland. — Alexander Duff's Ansv/er. — Announcement to hir 
 Father and Mother. — Accepted by the Foreign Mission Com- 
 mittee on his own Conditions. — Ilis First Missionary Sermons. — 
 Bagster's Bible Presented to Him. — Pathetic Counsels and Fare- 
 wells. — David Ewart. — Patrick Lawson's Advice. — Marriage and 
 Ordination. — Mr. and Mrs. Duff leave Leith for London. — Dr. 
 Inglis to Dr. Bryco. — Letter to Dr. Chalmers. 
 
 The work had been waiting for two hundred and 
 seventy years. Alone of all the Reformed Churches 
 the Kirk of Scotland had placed in the very front of 
 its Confession the fact that it was a missionary church. 
 The foresight of John Knox, the statesmanship of the 
 Scotsmen who gave civil as well as religious freedom 
 to the kingdom, have been extolled by secular historians 
 so opposite as Mr. Froude and Mr. Hill Burton. But 
 that foresight saw farther than even they acknowledge, 
 when the Scottish Parliament of 1560 passed an Act 
 embodying the first Confession, which has this for its 
 motto, " And this glaid tydingis of the kyngdome sail 
 be precheit through the haill warld for a witncs unto 
 all natiouns, and then sail the end cum." That con- 
 fession was the four days' work of John Winram, John 
 
 D 
 
34 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1S29. 
 
 Spotswood, John Willock, John Doiighis, Jolm Row 
 and John Knox. 
 
 First self-presci'vation, then the attempt to throw 
 their own ecclesiastical organization uniformly over 
 England also by political means, and finally the re- 
 action and tho indifference which mere policy brings 
 about, succeeded in reducing the Kirk of tho eighteenth 
 century to lifelossncss. What had, for all Christendom, 
 been a series of crusades against the Turks; and for 
 tho Spanish and Portuguese discoverers in the Indies, 
 West and East, a series of raids by the Latin Church 
 on tho native inhabitants, became in tho Reformed 
 Churches at homo a defence of the orthodox faith 
 against popery. But tho General Assembly of 1G17 
 had expressed a ^vish for " a more firm consocia- 
 tion for propagating it to those who aro without, 
 especially the Jews. For the unanimity of all the 
 Churches, as in evil 'tis of all things most hurtful, so, 
 on the contrary side, in good it is most pleasant, 
 most profitable, and most effectual." Again do w^o 
 catch a glimpse of tho missionary spirit when, in 
 sending forth ministers with tho unfortunate Darien 
 expedition, the Assembly of 1G99 enjoined them 
 particularly to labour among the natives ; while its 
 successor added, " The Lord, we hope, will yet honour 
 .you and this Churcli from which you are sent to carry 
 His name among the heathen." In 1743 tho Kirk 
 indirectly supported Brainerd, and in 1774 tried to 
 raise up native teachers in Africa. Yet so far did it 
 decline from the ideal of Knox, that when the French 
 Revolution and the progress of commercial discovery 
 had roused England, America and Germany, as little 
 Denmark had long before been stimulated, the General 
 Assembly selected as its Moderator the minister who 
 in 1796 carried this opinion by a majority — " To spread 
 abroad the knowledge of tho gospel among barbarous 
 
^t. 23. THE EAST INDIA COMrANY's CUAUTKUS. 35 
 
 and lioatlicu nutions sclmhs to bo liiglily preposterous, 
 ill so far as it anticipates, nay, it cveu reverses tlio 
 order of nature." 
 
 What the Kirk of Scothuid refused to do till 1820, 
 one of the greatest of its sons was for half a century 
 carefully preparing. Charles Grant, an Inverness- 
 sliiro boy, was a civil servant of the East India Com- 
 pany during the famine which swept off a third of 
 the population of a largo portion of Bengal in 1770. 
 From thai time, as an evangelical Christian first and a 
 Presbyterian, Baptist and Episcopalian afterwards, as 
 his position led him, Charles Grant in India, in tlio 
 Court of Directors, in the House of Commons, in 
 society and in the press, never ceased till he induced 
 Parliament to send out chaplains and schoolmasters, 
 and tho Churches to supply missionaries. Before 
 Carey had landed at Calcutta and become his friend, 
 Charles Grant had implored Simeon to send out 
 eight missionaries, offering to receive all and him- 
 self to bear permanently the cost of two. That was 
 before Simeon's pregnant visit to Moulin. To Charles 
 Grant and the friends whom he stirred up, like AVilbcr- 
 force and the elder Macaulay, wo owe first the Charter 
 Act of 1793 which conceived, that of 1813 wliicli 
 brought to the birth, and that of 1833 which completed, 
 what we may fairly describe as the christianization 
 of the East India Company, opening its settlements in 
 India and China to toleration in the widest sense alike 
 of truth and of trade. 
 
 The nearly successful attempt of Wilberforce to get 
 " the pious clauses " of Charles Grant into the charter 
 of 1793, though foiled by the time-serving Dundas, 
 then dictator of Scotland, led Christian men through- 
 out England and Scotland to do what the Churches in 
 their corporate character were still unwilling to organ- 
 ize. Tlie Baptists had shown tho way under Carey, in 
 
36 LIFE OF DIl. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 1792. rrcsbytcrians, Indcpontlonts and some Anglican 
 Evangelicals united to found the London JMissionary 
 Society in 1795. The year after saw tlio more local 
 Scottish and Glasgow ^lissionary Societies. And to 
 tlic partly colonial, partly foreign agency of the Propa- 
 gation Society, the Evangelicals of tho Church of 
 England added the Church Missionary Society, which, 
 in 1804, sent forth to West Africa its first represent- 
 atives, who were German. By its establishment of 
 one bishop, three archdeacons, several Episcopalian 
 and three Presbyterian chaplains in India, tho charter 
 of 1813 compelled the directors of the East I:idia 
 Company " to show our desire to encourage, by every 
 prudent means in our power, tho exteuoion of the 
 principle of the Christian religion in India." That 
 language is sufficiently cautious, and tho concession 
 marks no advance on the orders of William III., in 
 the charter of 1C98. But it was accompawiied by the 
 very practical resolution of Parliament, without which 
 much of Duff's career would have been very different, 
 that " a sum of not less than one lakh of rupees 
 (£10,000, at par) in each year shall be set apart and 
 applied to the revival and improvement 0^ 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 of India." The chaplain was thus legalized, 
 tho schoolmaster was thus made possible. But it was 
 not till 1833 that the missionary, the merchant, the 
 capitalist, the Christian settler in any form was recog- 
 nised or tolerated save as an "interloper" — that was 
 the official term — admitted under passports, watched 
 by the police, sometimes deported and ruined, always 
 socially despised. 
 
 The first Scottish chaplain duly balloted for by the 
 Court of Directors, and sent out to Calcutta, was the 
 
^t. 23. DR. JOHN INOLIS. " 37 
 
 Rev. James Bryco, of Strachan, in tho Presbytery of 
 Kincardinc-O'Noil. ITo sailed in the same East India- 
 man with tho first bishop selected by tho Prusidetit 
 of tho Board of Control, Dr. Middleton, who liked 
 neither his Presbyterian brother nor the missionaries 
 sent out by tho Church Missionary Society under 
 protection of tho same charter. So littlo of a mission- 
 ary spirit had tho first representa^ivo of tho Church of 
 Scotland in India, that " ho has no hesitation in con- 
 fessing that ho went to tho scene of his labours strongly 
 impressed with a belief, should ho step beyond tho pale 
 of his own countrymen ho would find every attempt 
 to shako the Hindoo in the faith of his fathers to bo 
 futile and unavailing." So ho and Bishop Middleton 
 fell to squabbling about sects and churches, about the 
 height of a steeple and the name of a church building, 
 till tho Governor-Generals, Cabinet Ministers and tho 
 directors were dragged into the fray, and that in a city 
 of which the wise Claudius Buchanan had written ten 
 years before, that a name or a sect was never men- 
 tioned from the pulpit now filled by tho Bishop, '* and 
 thus the Word preached becomes profitable to all." 
 
 Of a very different type was the Rev. John Inglis,D.D. 
 The minister of Old Greyfriars, Edinburgh, was tho 
 one man of the Moderate party in tho Church worthy, 
 as an ecclesiastic at least, to rank with his great 
 evangelical contemporaries, Chalmers, Andrew Thom- 
 son and Sir Harry Moncreiff. His worthiness lay 
 in the fact that, as Lord Cockburn puts it, ho was the 
 only leader of that party whose opinions advanced with 
 the progress of the times. Ecclesiastically, in matters 
 of Kirk diplomacy, he was a moderate, so that tho 
 same authority has described his powerful qualities 
 as thrown away on the ignoble task of attempting to 
 repress the popular spirit of the Kirk, although these 
 would have raised him high in any department of 
 
38 LIFK or DC. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 public life. Spiritually, as a preacher, lie was an 
 evangelical, altliongli before liis deatli, in 1834, lie had 
 preached his church nearly empty. As an ecclesiastical 
 lawyer, his clear thinkir.g, lucid exposition and innate 
 eloquence, were such as to make his hearers forget his 
 tall, ungainly figure and raucous voice. His fruitless 
 intolerance in the Leslie case was due to his party 
 in 1805, and he grew out of that in the subsequent 
 thirty years of his career, to nobler work and a finer 
 spirit. That and smaller follies were amply atoned 
 for by his foundation of the India Mission and his 
 selection of the first three missionaries. 
 
 So early, comparatively for Scotland, as 1818, Dr. 
 Liglis preached a sermon in which we find the seed of 
 the foreign mission system of the Churcli of Scotland, 
 and of the call of Alexander Duff. The one glimmer- 
 ing missionary taper of the Kirk since the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century had been the " Society in 
 Scotland, Incorporated by Royal Charter, for Propa- 
 gating Christian Knowledge." Although benefiting 
 chiefly the Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, it did spend 
 a few small sums on an occasional missionary at 
 Astrakhan in the East, and among the Indians of the 
 AYest, while it gave grants to the Serampore and other 
 labourers. To preach the annual missionary sermon 
 of the society was an honour reserved for the ablest 
 ministers, who generally talked platitudes on education 
 or kept themselves to formal theology. But when on 
 Friday, the 5th June, 1818, Dr. Inglis announced his 
 text, the spirit of unconscious prediction moved him. 
 *' Is it a light thing," were the words which he read 
 from Isaiah, " that Thou shouldest be My servant to 
 raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the pre- 
 served of Israel ? I will also give Thee for a light to 
 the Gentiles, that Thou maycst be My salvation unto 
 the end of the earth." With triumphant faith in the 
 
_/Et. 23. TDE GEKM OF THE SCOTTISH MISSION SYSTEM. 39 
 
 ultimate universal prcvabnce of ChristiaTiify, ho saw 
 in the prophet's message " the most exalted idea both 
 of Divine love and humxan felicity." In terms only 
 less enthusiastic than those which ever afterwards 
 marked the first missionary whom his Church was to 
 send forth, and far removed from the " moderatism " 
 of the ecclesiastical party who claimed him, Dr. Inglis 
 showed how the nature and the divine agencies of 
 Christianity secured its future universal dominion, in 
 spite of its very limited success at that time. Among 
 these agencies he placed education foremost, not 
 because he made the mistake attributed to him of 
 requiring civilization to precede Christianity, but 
 because out of converted savage races he might thus 
 raise indigenous preachers, and by means of natives 
 endowed with intellectual vigour, and with a capacity 
 of estimating what is just and true, he might secure 
 more abiding and ultimately rapid progress. Pointing 
 to the conquest of the Roman Empire by the Church, 
 he asked why our connection with our commercial 
 dependencies should be less favourable; upon what 
 principle we who raised factories for trade concluded 
 that " establishments for the instruction and civiliza- 
 tion of our benighted brethren might not be rendered 
 signally effectual." The three chaplains sent to India 
 he accepted as only an instalment ol the Church's and 
 the nation's duty. The translation of the Scriptures 
 without comment ho in^ged as of equal importance 
 with schools. And this was written just before the 
 Serampore missionaries had opened the first Chris- 
 tian college, while the sceptical English and educated 
 Hindoos of Calcutta were striving to establish their 
 Anglo-Indian college on non-moral principles, from 
 which even the theist, Rammohun Roy, dissented as 
 fatal to the true well-being of a people. 
 It was Ramraohun Roy, too, who was tho instrument 
 
40 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 of the conversion of the first chaplain, Dr. Bryce, 
 from the opinion of the Abbe Dubois that no Hindoo 
 couM be made a true Christiau, to the conviction that 
 the past want of success was largely owing to the 
 inaptitude of the means employed. Some nine years 
 after the confession which we have already quoted, 
 we find Dr. Bryce writing : " Encouraged by the ap- 
 probation of Rammohun," I " presented to the General 
 Assembly of 1824 the petition and memorial which 
 first directed the attention of the Church of Scotland 
 to British India as a field for missionary exertions, 
 on the plan that is now so successfully following out, 
 and to which this eminently gifted scholar, himself a 
 Brahman of high caste, had specially annexed his sanc- 
 tion. . . Bammohun Boy was himself a hearer in 
 the Scotch Church of Calcutta." To the minute of St. 
 Andrew's kirk-session on the subject Rammohun Roy 
 appended this singular testimony on the 8th December, 
 1823 : "As I have the honour of being a member of 
 the congregation meeting in St. Andrew's Church 
 (although not fully concurring in every article of the 
 "Westminster Confession of Faith), I feel happy to have 
 an opportunity of expressing my opinion that, if the 
 prayer of the memorial is complied with, there is a 
 fair and reasonable prospect of this measure proving 
 conducive to the diffusion of religious and moral know- 
 ledge in India." But, in reality. Dr. Bryce's scheme 
 was one for almost everything that Duff's was not. 
 His plan of a " Scottish College " was dictated by 
 sectarian hostility to the Bishop's College of his rival. 
 Dr. Middleton.* His proposal condemned schools 
 for *' the lower and illiterate classes of the Hindoos " 
 as strongly as the Abbe himself had done, and urged 
 
 * See Memorial and Petition, at page 284 of liis Sketch of Native 
 Education in India. 
 
^t. 23. MISSIONARY LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OP SCOTLAND. 4! 
 
 " addressing the better informed natives at this capital 
 in their own language, and from under the roof of an 
 established Christian temple, and under the sanction 
 and countenance of an established .ecclesiastical au- 
 thority." The secular ecclesiastic desired, in fact, to 
 create such a college for himself " by the maintenance 
 of two or more probationers or clergymen of our 
 Ciuirch, under the ecclesiastical superintendence of 
 the kirk-session of St. Andrew's Church, to be edu- 
 cated under their eye in the native languages of the 
 country, and employed under tlioir authority, when 
 duly qualified, to preach, from the pulpit of St. An- 
 drew's Church, to such native congregation as might 
 attend their ministry." 
 
 Dr. Inglis and the General Assembly of 1825 were 
 less informed as to the actual state of society in Ben- 
 gal and Calcutta than their chaplain on the spot, but, 
 being free from his ecclesiastical vanities and enmities, 
 they drew up a much wiser plan, though one still far 
 from adequate to the needs and opportunities of India 
 at the time. They pronounced it desirable to establish, 
 in the first instance, one central seminary of education, 
 with branch schools in the surrounding country, for 
 behoof of the children of the native population, under 
 one who ought to be an ordained minister of the national 
 Church, and not less than two assistant teachers from 
 this country. That General Assembly re-appointed the 
 committee of Dr. Inglis upon the propagation of the 
 gospel abroad as a permanent body, with power to 
 raise funds and select masters. It ordered an extra- 
 ordinary collection in all churches and chapels for the 
 purpose, thus adding to the " great schemes " of the 
 Kirk, or the Highlands, the Home and the Colonial, 
 the fourth and greatest of Foreign Missions. And on 
 April 2Gth Dr. Inglis, as convener of the new com- 
 mittee, issued a letter " to the People of Scotland," 
 
42 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 apologising for " our forefathers," since perchance 
 their utmost exertions were not more than sufficient 
 for estabUshing themselves and their posterity in the 
 liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free ; pointing 
 to the recent missionary efforts of otlier religious com- 
 munities, and summoning the nation in the name of 
 the General Assembly to do its duty. Appealing to 
 the facts stated in the fifth report of the Calcutta 
 School Book Society, founded in 1817, and in the 
 *' History of Calcutta Institutions," by Mr. Charles 
 Lushington, one of the secretaries to Government, 
 the national letter mentioned schools for the educa- 
 tion in English of natives of both sexes, and colleges 
 to train a more select number to be the teachers and 
 preachers, as the best means for sowing a great 
 spiritual harvest which may " be reaped by the estab- 
 lishment of the Redeemer's kingdom over the exten- 
 sive regions of Asia. Yet let it not be inferred from 
 our having said so much about schools and other 
 seminaries of education, that we for a moment lose 
 sight of the more direct means of accomplishing our 
 object, by the preaching of the gospel to the heathen 
 world. . . It is in subserviency to the success of 
 preaching that we would, in this case, devote our labour 
 to the education of the young/' The whole letter, and 
 especially the evangelic note of the predicted triumph 
 with which it closes, show the same spirit which 
 eight years before had preached, but with necessarily 
 less information, of the ultimate and universal pre- 
 valence of the Redeemer's kingdom. But though the 
 aims and the proposals of Dr. Inglis were very dif- 
 ferent from those of Dr. Bryce, we shall see how far 
 both fell short of the genias of the first missionary, 
 who refused to be fettered by any conditions. 
 
 With the exception of the Campbells of Argyll, and, 
 for a time, those of Breadalbane and tho Stuarts of 
 
^t. 23. niS ANSWER TO THE LETTER TO THE TEOrLE. 43 
 
 Moray, the peers of Scotland have been so seldom in 
 their proper places as the natural leaders of the 
 people, that it is pleasant to be able to record the part 
 taken in the foundation of its India Mission by the 
 Haddington branch of the ducal house of Hamilton. 
 The ninth earl, when still Lord IJinniuGf and one of 
 the commissioners of the old Board of Control, used 
 all his otlicial influence to encourage Dr. Inglis iu his 
 efforts for the Christian education of the natives of 
 Bengal. The harmony of the Church and the Board 
 in measures for the good of India, was not disturbed, 
 as was too often the case in other reforms, by tlio 
 Court of Directors, for Charles Grant was then 
 supreme in influence with the " chairs." Lord Bin- 
 ning had at this time made the acquaintance in Home 
 of the young Bunsen, " for whom he has a great 
 liking and value," says the Baroness of her husband, 
 and he was afterwards Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 Alexander Duff's answer to this letter to the people 
 of Scotland was to give himself — not, indeed, to the 
 new committee for a time, but to the Master, to bo 
 used as His minister wherever amonof the Gentiles Ho 
 might send him. But all his sympathies were with 
 the natives of India. " It was," ho long afterwards 
 told his converts* when bnldimi-^thttm a life don f^ftire- * 
 well, " when a student at college, in perusing the 
 article on India* in Sir David Brewster's " Edinburgli 
 Encyclopa)dia," that my soul was first drawn out as by 
 
 * The article is a wonderfully elaborate and intelligent perform- 
 ance for that time. In a hundred double-columu quarto pages 
 the writer, Mv. Stevenson, librarian of the Treasury, writes tlio his- 
 tory, describes the rise and progress of the European establishments, 
 states the geographical and statistical facts, pictures the Hindoo 
 religion, social iustitutionn and languages, and closes with details of 
 the population of Bengal and Calcutta. The whole ai'ticlo is worthy 
 of the work m which Thomas Carlyle began his literary career. 
 
44 I^IFE OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 a spell-liko fascination towards India. And when, at 
 a later j3eriod, I was led to respond to the call to 
 proceed to India as the first missionary ever sent 
 forth by the Established National Church of Scotland, 
 rny resolution was, if the Lord so willed it, never, 
 never to return again." 
 
 Session after session, as he had returned from the 
 winter's study at St. Andrews to the quiet of his 
 Grampian homo, the student had delighted his parents 
 with details of his domgs. John Urquhart had always 
 been first in his talk. Especially had his father been 
 struck with admiration at that student's determination 
 to be a missionary to the Hindoos. In 1827 the 
 usual budget of iutePigence was produced, but as 
 the parents hung on their sou's revelations, now with 
 tears, now with smiles, and ever with thankfulness 
 and pride, the loved name of his Jonathan was not 
 once mentioned. " But what of your friend Urqu- 
 hart ?" at last exclaimed the father. " Urquhart is no 
 more," said Duff with the almost stern abruptness 
 of self-restraint, and then slowly, wistfully added, 
 *' What if your son should take up his cloak ? 
 You approved the motive that directed the choice of 
 UrquluiTi} ; you ^ommende^ h;s high p»irposo, — ;- .The 
 cloak is taken up." Mother and father were awed 
 into silence at this, the first breaking to them, or to 
 man, of the vow that had already been made to God.* 
 
 So the missionary mantle fell in circumstances very 
 unlike Elijah's and Elisha's. He knew that they had 
 
 * Our authority for this most eignificanC anecdote is the Rev. 
 and now venerable Andrew Wallace, long minister of Oldham- 
 stocks, who has extracted the facts from a diarywritten while Duff's 
 parents were still alive. In prco-railway days, on a journey from 
 Hawick to Edinburgh, his companion on the top of the coach proved 
 to be a Highlander from Moulin, who, having lived in the house next 
 to Duff's, and loving him much, told Mr. Wallace the story. 
 
^t. 23. DECLARES HIS DETERMINATION TO BE A MISSIONAUY. 45 
 
 set their heart upon his being a minister in the High- 
 lands, and tliat ho had a prospect of not being long 
 without a parish. Ho had therefore considered, before 
 God, what his course of duty should be towards them, 
 and had come to the conclusion that he ought to have 
 no dealings in such a matter with flesh and blood. 
 Moved chiefly by what he afterwards termed the grand 
 utterance of Christ, " If any man love father or 
 mother more than Mo ho is not worthy of Me," Diilf 
 thus anticipated all remonstrance. At first they were 
 overwhelmed, in spite of all the father's early teaching 
 on the various mission fields, and especially that of 
 India ; for they were parents wisely proud of their 
 student son's reputation, and fondly indulging in tlio 
 prospect of his settlement near themselves. But calm 
 reflection brought them to acquiesce in the deliberate 
 choice and solemn announcement of the young evange- 
 list as the will of God, and they lived to rejoice in the 
 surrender of themselves and their boy. 
 
 The case of India came very close to him when, 
 during the subsequent session of 1827-28, Principal 
 Haldano laid before him a letter from Dr. Inc^lis, who 
 had, thus far, been unsuccessful in inducing any 
 ministel' or prt^acher of thb Church of Scotland to offer 
 himself for Calcutta, although students like Nesbit 
 and Wilson were preparing to bo sent out to Bombay 
 by the Scottish, and others by the London Missionary 
 Society. Dr. Haldane pronounced the third year's 
 student of theology precisely the man that the Church's 
 committee wanted. But Duff declined, from his 
 youth and inexperience, to commit himself to any 
 definite station until his studies were completed. A 
 year after, in the spring of 1829, the proposal was 
 again made to him ; this time by Dr. Ferric, Professor 
 of Civil History, and minister of Kilconquhar. IIo 
 thus turned for counsel to Dr. Chalmers : — 
 
46 LIFE OF DIl. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 {( 
 
 St. An'dk'kws, 12//^ March, 1820. 
 
 ** Ili:v. AND DuAU Sir, — In redemption of a pledge 
 formerly given, and encouraged by your kind reply, I 
 sliould now endeavour to communicate whatever local 
 intelligence can bo collected since the writing of my 
 last letter. But i trust that, though such communi- 
 cation be deferred for the present, I will be exonerated 
 f I'om the charge of neglect, by a desire to make known 
 without delay the following particulars. Unexpected 
 as they are in their nature, [ind deciding, as they ap- 
 pear to do, my future destiny in life, I trust you will 
 excuse their exclusive e^'otism. 
 
 " About three weeks ago I was sent for by Dr. 
 Ferric, who stated that he had received a letter from a 
 cousin of his, asking his advice as to the propriety of 
 going out to superintend the Assembly's scheme for 
 propagating the gospel in India, and that he dissuaded 
 him from going, for, although he was satisfied as to 
 his piety and '^.cal, yet he knew ho wanted several other 
 qualifications that were indispensably necessary. Im- 
 mediately, he said, I occurred to him as a person well 
 fitted for such a sacred and important station, and 
 accordingly Tie made the proposal to mo of going to 
 India to take charge of the new establishment. A 
 proposal so weighty was neither to be precipitately 
 rejected, nor inconsiderately acceded to. I therefore 
 assured him I would solemnly deliberate on the 
 measure, would wait for more definite information re- 
 garding its precise nature, and in the meantime would 
 make it the subject of prayer. On the subject of 
 im'ssions in general, I have read much and thought 
 much, and in regard both to the sacredness of the 
 cause and the propriety of personal engagement, my 
 mind has long been entirely satisfied ; nay more, on 
 often revolving the matter, a kind of ominous fore- 
 boding mingled so constantly with my thoughts, that 
 
ALt. 23. INl'OKMS CJIALIIEKS THAT HE WILL GO TO INDIA. 47 
 
 it became an .almost settled impression that tlio chiy 
 was not far distant vvhen I would feel it to bo my duty 
 to adopt the decisive step of devotiiii^ my life to tho 
 sacred cause. In these circumstances and with these 
 feelings nouglit remained in the present instance but 
 to inquire, seriously and prayerfully to inquire, 
 * whether do I consciously feel myself ]iossessed of 
 tho qualifications necessary to constitute the truo mis- 
 sionary character?* and 'whether can I accept of tho 
 offered appointment, uuactuated by any but tho proper 
 motives, a desiro to promote God's glory and tho 
 Avelfare of immortal souls?' Now, were this a matter 
 which required merely human consultation or advice, 
 you, my dear sir, are tho tried friend on whose readi- 
 ness in giving advice, as well as its soundness when 
 given, I could most confidently rely. But I hope that 
 I acted in accordance with your views, when I con- 
 cluded that the present inquiry rested almost solely 
 between myself and I'ny Maker. With this view of tli© 
 case and in this spirit the inquiry was certainly con- 
 ducted. And the result was, that, weak as is my 
 faith and secularized as, I must confess, are all my 
 desires, I yet felt I could find it in my heart to devote 
 myself to tho service of tho Lord, undivided by any 
 worldly tie and uninfluenced by any mercenary motive. 
 " The inquiry as to the motives being brought to 
 this conclusion, at which may the Lord grant that I 
 have not arrived through any self-deception, the other 
 inquiry, respecting the requisite qualifications, was by 
 no means concluded so much to my own satisfaction. 
 But on further reflection on the subject, the exceeding 
 precious promises of God appeared to rebuke my dis- 
 trustful vacillating spirit ; and I seemed to have tho 
 faith — I trust it was not the presumption — to conclude 
 that, if I engaged in the work with full sincerity of 
 soul, by faith accompanied with prayer, God's grace 
 
48 LIFE OF DIl. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 might bo sufTicicnt for mo, and ITis strength might bo 
 made perfect in my weakness. In this frame of mind, 
 therefore, I resolved, if offered the appointment, to ac- 
 cept of it. Tliis offer was not long in being virtually 
 made. On Wednesday, last week, Dv. Ferrio received 
 a letter from Dr. Muir (Dr. Inglis, the convener of the 
 committee, being unwell), which among other things 
 contained the following clauses : * Dr. Inglis intimated 
 his earnest desire to know from you as soon as pos- 
 sible what may be the determination of Mr. Duff. Tlio 
 Doctor is satisfied by all you have said that he is tho 
 very person fitted for the important purpose, and ho 
 is therefore extremely anxious to receive Mr. Duff's 
 decision on the side of the offer; as he is not able to 
 occupy himself with the routine of ordinary duty, his 
 mind is exercised with almost a keen feeling of anxiety 
 on the Indian scheme. If you can write to me soon, 
 and especially if you can send me any encouraging in- 
 telligence from Mr. D., your letter on the subject will 
 be very acceptable to him.* From this you perceive 
 that the offer was fairly laid at my door, and that a 
 definite answer was required as soon as possible. 
 And having already made up my own mind on the 
 subject, I lost no time in visiting my friends, in order 
 to justify to them a conduct to which I knew they 
 would feel a strong aversion. I have now returned, 
 after having succeeded in securing their concurrence, 
 and have thus endeavoured to present you with a brief 
 statement of all that has transpired 
 
 "I am now prepared to reply to the committee in the 
 words of the prophet, * Here am I, send me.' The work is 
 most arduous, but is of God and must prosper ; many 
 sacrifices painful to *flesh and blood' must be made, but 
 not any correspondent to the glory of winning souls to 
 Christ. With the thought of this glory I feel myself 
 almost transported with joy; every thing else appears to 
 
ALt. 23. SELF-DliVOTlON. 49 
 
 fall out of view as vaia and insinfnificant. The kinoes 
 and great men of the earth have reared the sculptured 
 monument and the lofty pyramid with tho vain hope 
 of transmitting their names witli reverence to succeed- 
 ing generations; and yet the sculptured monument 
 and the lofty pyramid do crumble into decay, and must 
 finally bo burnt up in the general wreck of dissolving 
 nature; but he who has been tho means of subduing 
 one soul to tho Cross of Christ, hath reared a far moro 
 enduring monument — a monument that will outlast all 
 time, and survive the widespread ruins of ten thousand 
 worlds ; a trophy which is destined to bloom and flourish 
 in immortal youth in the land of immortality, and which 
 will perpetuate tho remembrance of him who raised it 
 throughout the boundless duration of eternal ages. 
 
 "But I am wandering, and have almost forgotten 
 that I am writing a letter and not a discourse. I trust, 
 however, that you, who know human nature so well, 
 will grant me every indulgence when you take into ac- 
 count the present freshness and excitation of my feel- 
 ings. My heart is full ; would to God that it continued 
 so, as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaketh ! As the active members of committee sc^m 
 to have formed a favourable opinion of me, anything 
 which you may feel yourself entitled to say calculated 
 to confirm that opinion, or any opportunity which you 
 may have it in your power to take of making known my 
 sentiments on the present important subject, will be 
 viewed as a token of kindness, surpassed only by the 
 many already experienced at your hands, most unde- 
 served on my part. But I am almost disgusted with 
 this continued tissue of selfishness, and must endeavour 
 to atone for it in my next communication. Please pre- 
 sent my kindest regards to Mrs. Chalmers and family, 
 and Miss Edio, and 1 remain, rev. and dear sir, yours 
 with deep feelings of gratitude, Alexander Duff." 
 
50 LIFK OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 But lio was Dot tlio man to yii'ld liimsolf blindly to 
 conditions wliicli niitj^lit fcttiT his action in a new field, 
 and ncutralizo all that was ori;j^inal or strong in liis 
 nature, lie required to bo assured, first, that he should 
 be -wholly unshackled in the modes of meeting and 
 operating on the natives; and secondly, in particular 
 that ho should be entirely independent of the chaplains 
 and kirk-scssion of Calcutta. Ilis foresight in these 
 Tiost wise provisions proved equal to his self-devotion, 
 and enabled that devotion to accomplish all that his 
 genius was peculiarly fitted to attenq)t. Alexander 
 Dull: in trammels would have meant shipwreck of the 
 mission. To these terms Dr. Inglis consented, and 
 with sucb utter trust that the dilliculty afterwards was 
 to receive instructions of any kind from the Church. 
 Referred in vain to Dr. David Dickson as likely, from 
 his experience of the Scottish Society, to enter into 
 useful details, the first missionary of the Church of 
 Scotland went out to Calcutta with oidy one injunction 
 laid upon him, which it became his duty to violate the 
 moment he saw the country and the people for him- 
 self. That order was, not to settle in the metropolis 
 itself but in a rural district of Bengal. 
 
 The committee had a rule, that they must formally 
 jiear a man preach before ordaining him as a mis- 
 .sionary. Accordingly, at a week-day evening service 
 then conducted in one of the churches into which a 
 barbarous ecclesiasticism has divided the once bcau- 
 liful Presbyterian cathedral of St. Giles, the Rev. 
 Alexander Duff, M.A., licentiate of the Kirk, preached 
 his first sermon, before Dr. Inglis and Dr. Andrew 
 Thomson, representatives of the two great parties 
 in the Church, and the only members of committee 
 present. The text was that word of St. Paul, in which 
 he and all his true successors have planted the mis- 
 sionary standard, from Corinth west to Columba on 
 
AH.23. DANIKL WILSON. DIl. CUNNINGHAM. EDWAUI) HIVING. 5 I 
 
 lona, and east to Duflf in Calcutta : " I doti'rmim'd 
 not to know anytliinjif among you save Josus Christ 
 and llini crucified." Mr. Diiif breakfasted with Dr. 
 ('Iiahners on the niornijig after the great orator had 
 made tliat cmanci[)ation speech wliich carried not only 
 h^diiiburgh but the wliole country by storm. Of this 
 speech the Duko of Wellington, then L^'imo INIinister, 
 caused 105,000 coi)ies to be printed and circulated 
 throughout the country. At that time also (he rc>print 
 of Baxter's *' Reformed Pastor" had apj)eared, forming 
 one of the series of Collins's Select (Miristiun Authors, 
 with the introductory essay by Bishop Wilson ot' 
 Calcutta, then Daniel AVilson, vicar of Islington. Dr. 
 Chalmers luid just finished tlie perusal of it, and said iu 
 his own blunt way, " In this essay Daniel Wilson has 
 risen far above himself." On the same occasion there 
 was a meeting of students held in one of the class- 
 I'ooms of the University, which Duff had the curiosity 
 to attend. There for tlic first time he saw and lieard 
 Principal Cuimingham, then a student of theology, 
 speak. He was so struck with the close, comjiact, argii- 
 inentative power of the address, that he remarked, "that 
 man, if spared, vv^ill be sure to shine forth as a great 
 ecclesiastical debater." Then, too, ho received his 
 first impressions of Edward Irving, being more than 
 once one of the crowd who got up on a winter's morn- 
 ing at four o'clock to besiege the gates of St. Cuth- 
 bert's, for a place to hear Thomas Carlyle's inspired 
 friend, whom ho pronounced worthy of his marvellous 
 reputation. 
 
 The report read by Dr. Inglis to the Assembly of 
 1829, buried in old records and magazines from which 
 we have exhumed it, declared that what the committee 
 had wanted in its first missionary was " nothing less 
 than a combination of the distinguished talents requi- 
 site for that oOice (head of a college), with such dis- 
 
52 L1F2 OF DE. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 interested zeal for the propagation of the gospel as 
 could induce a highly gifted individual to foiegothe 
 prospect of a settlement at home corresponding to his 
 merits, for the purpose of devoting himself to labour 
 in a distant land, without any prospect of earthly 
 reward beyond what should be indispensably necessary 
 to his outward respectability in the society with which 
 he was to mingle." This subsistence allowance was 
 nxed at £300 a year and a free house, *' as the least 
 that could be reasonably proffered," in the year 1829. 
 
 The committee then described " Mr. Alexander Duff, 
 preacher of the gospel," whom they had found " after 
 long-continued inquiry and much patient waiting," 
 as " a person possessed of such talents and acquire- 
 ments, literary, scientific and theological, as would do 
 honour to any station in the Church ; who also com- 
 bines with these the prudence and discretion which are 
 so peculiarly requisite in the discharge of the duties 
 which will devolve upon him ; and is, at the same time, 
 animated with such zeal in the cause to which he 
 devotes himself, as to make him think lightly of all the 
 advantages which he foregoes in leaving his native 
 laud." The self-dedication of the young preacher was 
 made a reason for a renewed appeal to the congrega- 
 tions of the Kirk to do their duty. Not half of them — 
 only 400 — had subscribed, and that but £5,000 in three 
 years. *' The natives of India," they were told, " are 
 our fellow subjects, members of the same grefit com- 
 monwealth to which we belong, dependent upon the 
 fostering care of the same government under which we 
 live. Shall not this consideration find its way to the 
 heart of a Briton ? . . Our exertions for this be- 
 nevolent purpose may even have the effect to sanctify, 
 in the sight of Heaven, the government . . f^nd 
 to prolon;^', for the benefit of many generations, tuo 
 interesting relation in which we stand to so huge a 
 
.^t. 23. ORDINATION BY DR. CHALMERS. 53 
 
 portion of tlie human race. What would the fathers of 
 our Churclx have said if, looking forward to a period 
 of such internal peace and prosperity as it now enjoys, 
 they could have supposed that the men whc now fill 
 tlieir places in the world, would not even aim at 
 participating in the high honour of being instrumental 
 in the hand of God for promotyig the enlargement of 
 the Redeemer's kingdom on earth?" Who shall say 
 that the convener who wrote, and the Assembly who 
 heartily adopted such language as that, had not a truly 
 imperial spirit in the highest sense. Christian as well 
 as political ? The response had waited only for the 
 man. Mr. Duff's ordination resulted in the offer, by 
 not a few parislies, of that annual collection which, in 
 the three temporarily severed but heartily co-operating 
 branches of the Kir^ of Scotland, has risen to a gross 
 revenue for foreign missions of nearly £100,000 a year. 
 
 The General Assembly of May, 1829, cordially and 
 unanimously appointed Mr. Duff their first mission- 
 ary, and his ordination in St. George's followed on 
 the 12th of August, Dr. Chalmers officiating on the 
 historic occasion. Dr. Harper, the venerable Principal 
 of the United Presbyterian College, still recalls the 
 marvellous speech delivered by the new missionary, 
 then a young man of twenty-three, on his formal 
 designation to the East. With such force and fire, 
 such energy and action, did the rapt enthusiast picture 
 the work to which he was giving his life, that Dr. 
 Harper feared he would too soon waste himself away 
 in the heat of the tropics. 
 
 From not a few pulpits and platforms before his 
 departure for India he delivered missionary discourses 
 and appeals, which roused a new spirit in the country, 
 and have left behind them, in the long half-century 
 since they were uttered, the echo of such a burst of 
 self-dedication as this in the fine old kirk of Leuchars, 
 
54 LIFE OP Dli. DUrP. 1829. 
 
 where, preaching from Romans i. 14, " I am debtor both 
 to tlie Greeks and to the Barbarians," he exclaimed — 
 " There was a time when I had no care or concern 
 for the heathen : that was a time when I liad no care 
 or concern for my own soul When by the grace of 
 God I was led to caro for my own soul, then it was I 
 began to care for the Jieathen abroad. In my closet, 
 on my bended knees, I then said to God, '0 Lord, 
 Tliou knowest that silver and gold to give to this 
 cause I have none ; what I have I give unto Thee, — I 
 offer Thee myself, wilt Thou accept tL> gift ? ' " The 
 hearer who recalls this, adds, " I think I see him, with 
 tears trickling down his checks as he uttered theso 
 words. Afterwards I walked from Dundee to St- 
 Andrews, and went to his Sabbath school, when ho 
 gave a very afTccting address th his class of young 
 people, urging them to remember him in their prayers 
 as he would them in his, and the same God who heard 
 them would hear him in India." 
 
 To Mrs. Briggs and other friends who presented him 
 with that Baofster's Bible which had afterwards so event- 
 ful a history, he wrote : — " I surely can never forget St. 
 Andrews. Endeared by many interesting associations, 
 and linked to my soul by the fondest recollections of 
 kindness and friendship and Christian fellowship, it 
 would argue a destitution of all principle and of all 
 feeling did I ever wholly forget it. And if, amid the 
 cares and the employments of an arduous but Tlorious 
 undertaking in a foreign land, the fieshness of x ^eling 
 be apt to become languid, and the vividness of mcmcry 
 to fade, the daily obtrusion on the eye of sense of a 
 memorial like the present cannot fail to quicken the 
 languishing feelings, and revive the fading impres- 
 sions on the memory. What is more : the daily 
 perusal of that blessed book, which, in its present 
 adventitious connection, must serve as the reviver of 
 
^.t. 23. TO FATHER AND MOTUER. 53 
 
 what had a tciidency to decay, and tho remombrancci' 
 of friends that are far distant, will invest these im- 
 pressions with a sacredness, and those feelings with a 
 hallowedness, to the possession of which they could 
 not otherwise have any claim." 
 
 The decision of the General Assembly, and the 
 arrangements which followed it, led him thus to address 
 his fiithcr, wlio had watched with a grateful pride the 
 consecration of the son to a higher than an ecclesiastical 
 bishopric of souls : — " Pray with redoubled earnestness 
 that I may be strengthened with all might in the inner 
 man, and with all grace and all divine knowledge, that 
 I may be enabled to approve myself a good and a 
 valiant soldier of the Cross, and not merely a common 
 soldier but a champion. Oh ! that I breathed a nobler 
 spirit, and were filled with a more fervent and devoted 
 zeal, and were more humbled on account of my vilcness 
 and unworthiness, and were clinging more closely to 
 my Saviour." Tho natural affection of his mother 
 lie thus reasoned with : " Beware of making an idol 
 of me. AVhilo you feel all the tenderness of parental 
 love which the faith of tho gospel, far from extirpating, 
 strengthens, sanctifies, and refines, be earnest in prayer 
 to God that Satan may not tempt you to raise me to 
 an undue place in your affections, lest God, in His holy 
 displeasure, see fit to remove mo not only to India, 
 but to the land of skulls anu sepulchres. Think 
 then, ponder, pray over these things, and may God 
 Himself guide and direct you into the ways of peace 
 and heavenly resignation. Your account of the 
 people about Moulin has driven me to pray, and 
 humbled me in the dust. Lord, what am I that I 
 should bo so highly honor.red as to be made the in- 
 strument of conveying such truths as were calculated 
 to arouse, to awaken, to edify ? Merit, is it said ? 
 No, no, had I any more tlian tlio hollowed channel 
 
56 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 of tlie river along wliicli are inaclo to flow tliose 
 streams tbat enrich and fertilize the neighbouring 
 lands ? " Again when leaving Scotland he thus 
 poured out all the sacred confidences and trust of 
 his heart : — 
 
 "EniNBUEon, 25t7i August^ 1829. 
 
 "My* Dear Father, — I received your gratifying 
 letter in time to prevent uneasiness. It was truly a 
 gratifying letter, vividly displaying the workings and 
 resolutions of a Christian mind, as well as the feelings 
 of a tender parent. Who sent us all our blessings ? 
 God. And shall we return His kindness with base 
 ingratitude ? shall we become more obdurate the more 
 He showers upon us of His loving-kindness ? Yes, we 
 may, but woe unto us if we shall; we may, but heaven 
 will frown upon us if we do, and hell will exult with 
 joy. Come, then, let us acknowledge the goodness of 
 God. Let us pour out our souls in praise and thanks- 
 giving at a throne of grace. Is He not a kind God, 
 and shall we be unmindful ? Is He not a gracious 
 forgiving God, and shall we be rebellious ? Is He not 
 a God of love, and shall we therefore hate Him and 
 His children ? Ah ! What do I say ? Forget, rebel 
 against, and hate the great Creator, Preserver, Re- 
 deemer, and Judge ! Oh, my soul, shrink from the 
 impious thought; and praise God that thou art not 
 at this moment an outcast in the place of perdition. 
 
 " This, my dear father, I believe to be the language 
 of your heart, when you have finally resolved to deliver 
 mo up a free-will offering to the Lord. In so delivering 
 me do reckon it to be a duty and a privilege. Instead 
 of my being willing in this service, and preserved from 
 the evil that is in the world, might I not, at this 
 moment, be a rake, and given up to all manner of vice, 
 and doomed to expiate my crime against an outraged 
 
JEt. 2^. TENDEU FAREWELLS. 57 
 
 community on the scaffold ? And would not your 
 heart be broken and your grey liairs brought down 
 •with sorrow to the grave, if this were my unhappy 
 destiny ? Yes, ray dear father, sure I am that, in this 
 case, anguish inexpressible would be your anguish, 
 such as alone a parent can feel. Who then has so 
 highly favoured you and me as to save us the anguish 
 and shame of such a death ? God alone, in the riches 
 of His restraining grace and boundless compassion. 
 And if, on the other hand, God, with a love that is 
 unfathomable as the abyss of His own infinity, has 
 blessed me undeservedly, blessed me with the comforts 
 of this life, infused into my soul a portion of His 
 grace, taught me to look forward to a glorious 
 heaven as my home ; nay more, made my venerable 
 parent the Church of Scotland call me, one of the 
 unworthiest of her sons, to fight the battles of the 
 Lord in the land of the enemy, and exhibit feats of 
 divine heroism, and live the life and die the death of 
 a special ambassador of the Lord to the heathen, oh ! 
 should not I rejoice, should not y^ u rejoice and fall 
 down on your knees, and bless and praise and magnify 
 the holy name of God, for having so richly favoured, 
 so highly honoured a feeble, undeserving son of yours ? 
 Or will you be a loser by so giving me up to the Lord, 
 and so praising Him for His goodness in having called 
 me to so mighty a work? No, God will bless you 
 with the blessing of Abraham,- will enrich you with 
 His faith and reward, and will reward you a thousand- 
 fold for your willing resignation and cheerful readiness 
 in obeying God's command. The Lord bless you, and 
 my dear mother, and all the people of God at Moulin. 
 Adieu ! Your dear and affectionate son, 
 
 "Alexander Doff.'* 
 The student who seems to have taken the place of 
 
58 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 Urquliarfc In liis affections was one of bis own age, 
 but several years junior to him in college. To David 
 Ewart, also a Perthsliire man but born at Alytli, lie 
 thus describes his preparation in Edinburgli for tho 
 work which he had undertaken. The glowing lan- 
 guage and utter self-surrender doubtless influenced his 
 friend to follow him after some years to Calcutta : — 
 
 " EoiNnuRGU, 8th J'lihj, 1829. 
 
 "My Dear Mr. Ewart, — In rede, ption of a pledge 
 given at our last parting I now write to you. At 
 present my time is chiefly occupied in inspecting the 
 best conducted schools in this city, in writing dis- 
 courses for my ordination-trials, etc., and in studying 
 the religion and character of the Hindoos, so far as 
 a knowledge of these can be acquired from books and 
 the information of gentlemen who have been in India ; 
 my object being, under the divine blessing, to employ 
 every means that may conduce to render myself more 
 fully qualified for satisfactorily fulfilling tho arduous 
 duties which I have undertaken to discharge. To 
 imbue these dead exercises with the living energy of 
 heaven, and convert them into usefulness in the service 
 of heaven, I endeavour feebly and imperfectly, yet, 
 I trust, earnestly and incessantly, to pour out my 
 soul in prayer and supplication to the Father of spirits, 
 that He may cause His richest blessings to descend 
 upon my feeble efforts. I have endeavoured to exam.- 
 ine into the state of my soul, to prove the sincerity of 
 my motives in my self-dedication to the cause of Christ. 
 I have endeavoured not only to subdue, but absolutely 
 to crucify and annihilate, that fair and plausible and 
 insinuating but withal hell-enkindled and soul-destroy- 
 ing thing, self : I have endeavoured to count the cost 
 and view it in its most fearful magnitude : I havo 
 
JFA. 23. FIRST LETTER TO DAVID EWART. 59 
 
 endeavoured to ascend tlio mountain of tlio Lord, to 
 enter His holy temple and presence, to lay liold of tho 
 balances of the sanctuary. In the one side I liave 
 placed the clinging ties and lingering claims of tlio 
 land of my fatliers, the fond caresses of friends and 
 acquaintances dear as life, the refined enjoyments of 
 civilized society, the delights arising from favourite 
 studies, and the exhilarating benefits of a kindly cli- 
 mate : in the other, the unredeemed chcerlcssness of a 
 foreign land, the scorn and contempt and ridicule of 
 the strangers for whose welfare I labour, the grating 
 inconveniences of a rude untutored community, tho 
 engagements in studies and pursuits inherently unwel- 
 come to the mind, and tho enervating, destructive 
 influences of an unwholesome atmosphere; dangers, 
 difficulties, disappointments, yea, the great probability 
 of a sudden, premature death : — these have I, in depen- 
 dence upon divine grace, endeavoured to weigh in tho 
 balances. Tho former side, notwithstanding its appci' 
 rent weight, has been found wanting ; the latter God 
 has been graciously pleased, to cause uniformly to pro- 
 ponderate. And in the glow of a feeling Avhich is not 
 natural to flesh and blood, and which, from its per- 
 manence, cannot bo the offspring of a heated imagina- 
 tion, I have been enabled to exclaim : ' May the former 
 considerations not only be weakened, but be utterly 
 swept out of existence. Lord, I feel their littleness, 
 their total insignificancy, and, for the sake of promoting 
 Thy glory among the heatlien, I cordially, cheerfully 
 embrace the latter : yea, if such were Thy will, I 
 am ready to go to the parched desert or the howling 
 wilderness, to live on its bitter herbs and at the mercy 
 of its savage inhabitants. Lord, strengthen the weak- 
 ness of my faith that I may bo powerful in accom- 
 plishing Thy will.' . . Your affectionate friend, 
 
 ^* Alexander Duff." 
 
60 LIFE OF DR. DUFF, 1829. 
 
 Next to liis own people, none took so keen an in- 
 terest in the whole career of the young missionary as a 
 patriarchal couple at Blairgowrie, who, being childless, 
 had long devoted themselves exclusively^ to work for 
 Christ. Patrick Lawson and his wife became young 
 again when they had students around them ; and few 
 were so welcome as Alexander Duff, who had been in 
 the habit of visiting them annually, on the rising of the 
 college, attracted chiefly by their rich and racy l)iblical 
 talk. In his last interview, after his appointment by 
 the General Assembly, ho was asked abruptly whether 
 he intended to marry. He replied that he had been 
 too close a student to think of such matters, and had 
 not, up to that time, met one whom he could conscien- 
 tiously regard as a suitable helpmeet in so arduous an 
 enterprise. " Well," said the old gentleman, stead- 
 fastly regarding him, " I do not approve of young men 
 fresh from college taking wives to themselves when 
 newly married to their church, before they can pos- 
 sibly know the requirements of their work. But your 
 case is wholly different. You go to a distant region 
 of heathenism, where you will find little sympathy 
 among your countrymen, and will need the com- 
 panionship of one like-minded to whom you may un- 
 bosom yourself. My advice to you is, be quietly on 
 the look-out ; and if, in God's providence, you make 
 the acquaintance of one of the daughters of Zion, 
 traversing, like yourself, the wilderness of this world, 
 her face set thitherward, get into friendly converse 
 with her. If you find that in mind, in heart, in tem- 
 per and disposition you congenialize, and if God puts 
 it into her heart to be willing to forsake father and 
 mother and cast in her lot with you, regard it as a 
 token from the God of providence that you should use 
 the proper means to secure her Christian society." 
 Thus he went on, in the allegorical style of Bunyan, 
 
JEt. 23. MAKllIAGE. 61 
 
 and with a deep feeling wliicli speedily won Mr. Duff's 
 assent. 
 
 Just before Dr. Chalmers ordained the missionary, 
 Dr. Inglis married him to Anne Scott Drysdale, of 
 Edinburgh. It was, and was more than once pronounced 
 by him, when left the survivor but not solitary, a happy 
 consummation. Never had even missionary a moro 
 devoted wife. Sinking herself in her husband from 
 the very first, she gave him a new strength, and left 
 the whole fulness of his nature and his time free for 
 the one work of his life. She worthily takes her place 
 among those noble women, in many lands of the East, 
 who have supplied the domestic order, the family joy, 
 the wedded strength needed to nerve the pioneers of 
 missions for the unceasing conflict that ends in 
 victory. 
 
 It was on the 19th September, 1829, that the mis- 
 sionary and his wife left Leith for London, where they 
 became the guests of Alderman and Mrs. Pirie, and 
 where Mr., afterwards Sir John Pirie, secured a 
 passage and fitted up a cabin for them in the Ladij 
 Holland East Indiaman. Dr. Inglis had formally 
 npplied to the Court of Directors for that permission 
 for Mr. Duff and his wife to sail to India as "inter- 
 lopers," not in the covenanted civil, military and naval 
 service of the East India Company, which passport 
 Parliament was soon to declare unnecessary by the 
 liberal charter of 1833. He was. Dr. Inglis reported 
 to the Assembly of 1830, " supplied with letters of 
 introduction and recommendation to the Governor- 
 General, to our countryman the Earl of Dalhousie, 
 to other men of influence at the seat of Government 
 at Calcutta, and to some of our private friends." The 
 Earl, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Indian 
 armies, was the father of the great Marquis, and tho 
 Governor-General was Lord William Bentinck. This 
 
6a LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 was tlio letter to the Calcutta cliaplaln. Dr. Bryco 
 and his wife in due time welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Duff 
 with the proverbial kindliness of Anglo-Indians. 
 
 "Edinburqii, \Gth Snptnmhcr, 1829. 
 
 "My Dear Sir, — This letter will bo delivered to you by Mr. 
 Alexander Duff, who is, at length, sent out as Head Master of 
 the General Assembly's proposed Institution in India. I need 
 not say much for explaining to you tlio causes of delay in the 
 acconiplishmcnt of an object which I have had much at heart. 
 Want of money will readily occur to you j and it was in fact 
 tho only impediment. But we now hope that wo may venture 
 to send out one assistant to Mr. Duff, who may reach him 
 pretty nearly as soon as he shnll have made all tho requisite 
 preparations for tho work assigned to him. 
 
 "I have great confidence in Mr. Duff for an able and faith- 
 ful and prudent discharge of all the duty which lie has under- 
 taken. At tho College of St. Andrews, where lie was bred, 
 he stood very high in respect of attainments — literary and 
 scientific as well as theological; he carried off many of tho 
 first prizes in every department. At the samo time his whole 
 heart seems to be committed in the work which he has under- 
 taken ; and we have had the strongest attestations of the pru- 
 dence and discretion of his general conduct. 
 
 " As to his side in tho Church I have made no inquiry. 
 It was obvious from tho beginning that this was not a point to 
 bo insisted on. But he has been recommended to mo by men 
 of both sides of the Church in language equally strong. I 
 have no doubt of his experiencing from you all the kindness 
 which my heart can desire ; and I am confident that my friend 
 Mrs. Bryce will have an equal disposition to show kindness to 
 Mrs. Duff. With her I am littlo acquainted; but it would 
 give me much pleasure to learn that sho proves an agreeable 
 accompaniment of our mission to India. 
 
 ** Many thanks to you for whai you did in procuring contri- 
 butions to our fund. I received notice from Dr. Meiklejohn 
 and Mr. Peterkin that they amount to about £1,000, lying in 
 a bank at Calcutta, and bearing interest at the order of the 
 General Assembly. I received a similar intimation that 3,350 
 rupees were lying for us at Bombay. An order will bo sent 
 
^t. 23. T)R. INGLIS TO DR. CUYCE. 63 
 
 through tho house of Coutts & Co., in London, for the pay- 
 ment of botli tho Calcutta and tho Bombay money to their 
 correspondent in Calcutta, who will bo empowered to dispose 
 of it, for behoof of the Assembly's Committee, in tho payment 
 of salaries, etc., as circumstances shall require. 
 
 " I must refer you to Mr. Duff for an explanation of all our 
 plan, which has been arranged in tho course of consultation 
 with your excellent friend, Dr. Macwhirter. In truth, tho 
 want of money seems to be the only thing that stands in tho 
 way of a fair prospect of great success. This want I shall do 
 everything in my power to supply ; and I am very hopeful 
 that you will now find it in your power to assist mo farther 
 with your friends in India. In this case wo should be able 
 very soon to completo what has been proposed by having, be- 
 sides tho head-master, two assistant-teachers from Europe, 
 and as many native teachers as they can conveuieutly superin- 
 tend. I shall now bo very anxious to hear from you about 
 what is doing after Mr. Duff's arrival. Tho precise site of 
 our Institution will bo an important object to fix. All that wo 
 have determined hero is that it should bo in tho neighbourhood 
 of Calcutta." 
 
 The missionary's last letter from London was 
 addressed to Dr. Chalmers : 
 
 ''6th October, 1829. 
 
 " Dear Doctor, — I cannot make a sufficient acknow- 
 ledgment to you for your kindness in forwarding to 
 me a copy of your charge. No boon could be to me 
 so invaluable, no address equally pregnant with sound 
 advice and eloquent admonition. Major Carnac, to 
 whom you so kindly introduced me, I found truly 
 agreeable and ready to promote my views. By Mr. 
 Orme I was last week introduced to a full meeting of 
 the directors of the London Missionary Si5ciety, who 
 received mo with the most marked attention ; and in 
 private I have reaped much benefit from the conversa- 
 tions of Mr. Townly, Dr. Henderson, and Mr. Hands. 
 
64 LIFK OV D\L DUFF. 1829. 
 
 I have attciulcd Mr. Forbes for tlio acquisition of 
 oriental languages. My kindest respects to Mrs. 
 Chalmers and family, and Miss Edio. This evening 
 wc aot off for Portsmouth." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 1830. 
 
 THE TWO SmrWREGKS. 
 
 "In Perils of Waters." — The Lady Holland and lier Pnsscn<:;er8 
 — Lieutenant- J[. Af. Diirand. — Madeira. — Tho Unfortunate Ball. 
 — Captain Marryat. — Georj^o Canin'u;»''.s KIdcst 8on. — Pirates. — 
 Capo Vcrd Islands. — OIF Dassen I.sland. — Tlio First Shipwreck. 
 — Anticipations of the Day of Judgment. — Resignation and 
 Prayer. — Saved at Last. — Tho Biblo and Psalter cast up by 
 the Sea. — Fervent Thanksgiving of All. — Lesson from tho Lost 
 Library.— Capo Town. — Letter to Dr. Chalmers. — Mr. and Mrs. 
 Duff sail in tlio Muira for Calcutta. — Opposing Gaics. — At the 
 Sandheads. — Cyclone off Saugar Island. — The Second Shipwreck. 
 — A Night and Day of Storm. — Tho Missionary and his ^Vifo 
 thrown on the Shore of India. — A Day and Night in a Temple. 
 — Welcomed at Calcutta. — Adam and Lacroix. — Lord and Lady 
 William Bentinck. — Superstition of tho Natives forecasts Duff's 
 Future. 
 
 The vision of judgment seen by the child who had 
 been feeding his fancy on the Gaehc rhapsodies of 
 Dugald Buchanan; the divine call to the boy as ho 
 lay dreaming among the blae-berries on the stream- 
 let's bank ; the deliverance of the youth by the flare 
 of a torch when he and his companion were falling 
 into the sleep of death, lost amid the snowdrifts 
 of the Grampians — these foreshadowings were not 
 to cease until the missionary's preparation for his 
 work was completed. He had followed the monition 
 of all three, not blindly, but as explained by John 
 Urquhart's death-consecrated appeal, by Dr. Haldane's 
 apparently premature invitation, by Dr. Ferrie's ap- 
 propriate demand that he should offer himself for 
 
66 LIFE OF DU. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 Calcutta, by Dr. Inglis's approval, by tlio General 
 Assembly's appointment ; and, finally, by ordination 
 at the hands of the Presbytery, amid the crowd that 
 filled St. George's, Edinburgh, and after the inspirit- 
 ing eloquence of Dr. Chalmers. Alexander Duff and 
 his wife were still to undergo the experience of tlie 
 greatest of all missionaries who wrote, *' Thrice I 
 suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in 
 the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of waters." 
 
 The East India Company's ship Lady Holland, 
 having filled up in the Thames with a cargo valued 
 at £48,000, entered the Channel, shipped her passen- 
 gers at Portsmouth, became windbound for a week at 
 Spiihcad, and finally set sail from Ryde on the 14th 
 October, 1829. Plunging heavily into the storm out- 
 side the Isle of Wight, the ship made for Falmouth. 
 When the gale had abated she passed close to a 
 derelict vessel carrying w^ood and swept desolate by 
 the waves. Not a trace of the crew could be found. 
 The sight affected the Ladij IlollaiuVs passengers 
 and crew, filling not a few Avith ominous apprehen- 
 sions as to the issues of a voyage thus begun. But 
 the dreaded Bay of Biscay proved to be unusually 
 friendly, although contrary winds did not allow the 
 ship to reach the roads of Funchal till the 7th of 
 November. By that time the twenty-two passengers 
 had taken stock of each other. The great man on board 
 ■was no higher than a judge in the Madras civil service ; 
 but it was a fortunate circumstance that Mr. Lascelles 
 and his party of seven proved to be " decidedly pious," 
 as described by Mr. Duff in a letter to Principal 
 Haldane. An eighth, and next to Duff himself the 
 most remarkable man on board, was Henry Marion 
 Durand, the young lieutenant of Engineers who was 
 to come second only to Sir Henry Lawrence on the 
 brilliant roll of the Company's soldier-statesmen. lie 
 
JEt. 23. LIEUTENANT DDRAND. CAPTAIN MARRYAT. 67 
 
 mado up a gatlieriug of at least ten who attcndcil 
 daily worship.* 
 
 The captain, as usual, had intended to remain 
 a week at Madeira, to take in a cargo of wine 
 that it might make the voyage to India to bo 
 mellowed for the English market. Anticipating tliis 
 Alderman Pirio had provided for the hospitable 
 reception of Mr. and Mrs. Duff by his agent, Mr. 
 Stoddart, who was one of the principal merchants and 
 afterwards British Consul. As there were at tho 
 time three British frigates in the roads, they found 
 their fellow-guest to be the famous novelist, Captain 
 Marryat, who was in command of one. The week had 
 nearly passed; the agent of tho ship gave the usual 
 ball to the captain and passengers on the night before 
 her announced departure, and all were present at the 
 dance save the Duffs and Lieutenant Durand. After 
 midnight westerly gales set in with violence and drove 
 tho ships in the Bay out to sea. Three of them 
 missed stays, were driven ashore and dashed to pieces, 
 and not a li '' was saved. The captains of the frigates 
 and other vessels, being on shore at the ball, were in 
 a very sorry plight. Day after day there was a suc- 
 cession of gales, so that nothing was heard of any 
 one of the vessels for upwards of three weeks. 
 We may imagine the position of those passengers 
 who had gone ashore in their ball-dress with no 
 change of garments. Despairip'-'^ of tho vessel some 
 of them began to negotiate wi i a Portuguese ship 
 about to proceed to Lisbon, that tucy might thence go 
 to London and take ouu a new passage. 
 
 Being thus unexpectedly detained upwards of three 
 
 * Tlio life of Sir Henry Duraiul, tho noblest member of tlio dacal 
 house of Northauibcrlaud, is beiug wriLton by his second son, who 
 is of the Bengal "-vil scrvioo. 
 
68 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1829. 
 
 "weeks beyond the allotted time, the passengers in the 
 different parties visited the most interesting sights of 
 the island, amongst others the Curral, in the centre, 
 which is in reality the gigantic crater of a volcano 
 rising to the height of six thousand feet. Approached 
 by a difficult zigzag path along many precipices which 
 look down upon a tremendous chasm, the Curral was 
 not seen till they actually reached it. At the first 
 sight of its vast dimensions, in breadth as well as height 
 and depth, all were struck dumb by a sensation of the 
 sublime. The appearance of the place suggested to 
 Mr. Duff the well-known lines of Cowper, — 
 
 " Higher than the heights above. 
 Deeper than the depths beneath. 
 Free and faithful, strong as death," 
 
 which he could not help repeating aloud. During 
 his stay he also inspected some conventual and mon- 
 astic institutions, making inquiries into the practical 
 workinof of both. At that time Don MiLmel had 
 usurped the throne of Portugal, and had seized the 
 Portuguese fleet, which ho sent to Madeira to capture 
 the island, to expel the Constitutionalists, and to pro- 
 claim his own sovereignty over it. Such was the 
 ignorance of the inhabitants, that the priests succeeded 
 in making them believe that Miguel was the incarna- 
 tion of the archangel Michael; and their professed 
 belief or non-belief in this impudent dogma was con- 
 stituted into a test to distincruish between the Miofucl- 
 ites and the Constitutionalists. 
 
 A little before this time the eldest surviving: son 
 of the great George Canning had been there in com- 
 mand of an English frigate. Animated by the liberal 
 principles of his father, he made it to be understood 
 that, though he could not officially interfere, if any of 
 the persecuted Constitutionalists chose to seek refuge 
 
ALL 23. DROWNING OF LOUD CANMIMG's BUOTIIEB. 69 
 
 on board liis sliip he would receive them. In time it 
 was known to the Portuguese authorities that he had 
 upwards of three hundred of these on board, and the 
 Governor of the island and the Admiral of the Portu- 
 guese sent him a message to the effect that if he did 
 not deliver up the refugees, whom they reckoned 
 traitors, they would blow his frigate in pieces. This 
 they could have done, but young Canning, witli the 
 spirit of the British seaman, always repUed, "No, 
 never: I will deliver up not one of them, and you 
 may blow my ship in pieces if you like, but that will 
 only precipitate your own doom, as it would send 
 forth the English Navy to put an end to you utterly." 
 In point of fact they did not meddle with him. A 
 good way up the hill a retired merchant of the name 
 of Gordon resided in a house beautifully situated. 
 He was a very humane man. He had got himself 
 appointed conservator of animals, so that he was 
 constantly on the look-out for cases of cruelty to be 
 punished. It was a real instance of benevolence of 
 natural instinct. He was also very hospitable. One 
 day Captain Canning went up the hill to the house, 
 in front of which was a tank of fresh water. Being 
 greatly heated lie threw off his clothes, plunged into 
 the tank, was seized with cramp, and never came out 
 alive. Thus perished one whose younger brother be- 
 came the first Viceroy of India.* Among the Consti- 
 tutionalists tliere was throughout the island universal 
 lamentation. 
 
 Mr. Duff held Sabbath services in the had of one 
 the boarding-houses, which were attended by most 
 
 * Shall we never sec a memoir of Charles John Earl Canning, K.tjr , 
 and his more noble vvit'e r Their name seems likely to perish most 
 uudt'servedly, absorbed in that of the De-Burghs or Burkes, of whom 
 is their nephew, the Marquis of Clanriearde. 
 
70 LIFE 0¥ DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 of tlio English pcoplo in Fiinclial ; and there was no 
 hearer more attentive than Captain Marryat, who used 
 to boast that one of his ancestors was a martyr to the 
 Christian faith. After three weeks one and another of 
 tlie missing ships began to return, and on the 3rd 
 December the Ladi/ Holland set sail in company with 
 one of the British frigates which had been ordered 
 to the equatorial regions to look after pirates. This 
 necessitated a detour to the port of the principal 
 of the Cape Verd islands, where the captain of the 
 frigate had to consult the British Consul, and learn 
 from him all that was known about the proceedings 
 of the pirates. There the ship was again detained 
 a week. At that time the islands, instead of realizing; 
 what their name implies, were suffering from long- 
 continued drought, so that everything on the surface 
 was literally burned up. 
 
 One morning, within a few hundred yards of the 
 vessel there passea, scudding before the wind, one 
 of the famous pirate ships with at least fifty men 
 on deck, and the British frigate in full pursuit. 
 The Lady Holland, thus saved from what otherwise 
 would have been destruction to passengers and ves- 
 sel, rapidly proceeded on her voyage, leaving the 
 frigate to deal with the pirate. After having been 
 driven by the south-east trade-wind very near to the 
 coast of Buenos Ayres, she at last, early in February, 
 ai)proachcd the coast of South Africa, for the ca[)taiii 
 intended to call at the Cape of Good Hope. For 
 a whole week the weather had been cloudy and bois- 
 terous, so that no accurate observation could be ob- 
 tained as to the position of the ship ; still, the captain 
 knew that he was within no great distance of the 
 coast. Three times, by contrary winds, he was driven 
 considerably to the south of Table Bay, and returned 
 with the view of going into it. 
 
JEt. 24. THE FIRST SillPWllECK. 7 1 
 
 From the Cape coast tlicrc shoots out into the sea, for 
 forty or fifty miles, a sandbank on wliicli soundings may 
 be liad, but along wliicli a tremendous current sweeps 
 round from the Cape. By soundings, on Saturday 
 evening, loth February, the captain knew that ho had 
 entered on this bank. His intention, therefore, was 
 to avoid risks by turning his vessel back to sea about 
 eight o'clock. But having then sounded, his conclu- 
 sion was that he might safely go on for other two 
 hours, and his fixed determination was by ten o'clock 
 to turn back or heave to and stay till morning. But 
 as four bells announced ten o'clock, and he rose to 
 give the order to turn the vessel back, she bumped 
 with alarming violence upon rocks. The concussion 
 was tremendous, and from the first moment her case 
 seemed hopeless. It was not upon a precipice, but 
 on reefs of rock over which the waves and billows 
 dashed furiously, so that at once her back was 
 broken and the fore part sank down between the reefs. 
 As in all East Indiamen in those days lights were 
 put out at ten, almost all the passengers had retired 
 to their berths. The vio^ ..x> collision, as it seemed, 
 at once roused them up, and they rushed to the 
 cuddy, wrapped up in blankets, sheets, or whatever 
 they could lay hold of. Occupying one of the back- 
 most poop cabins, Mr. DufF was half undressed when 
 the shock took place. Ho ran out into the cuddy, 
 crossed the cabin, met the captain on the deck, and 
 heard him exclaim in agony, " Oh, she's gone, she's 
 
 gone I 
 
 I " 
 
 Seeing that the condition of the vessel was hopeless, 
 the command was promptly given to cut down the masts 
 in order to relieve the pressure of the wind on the sails, 
 and then, in case there might be a way of escape, to caulk 
 the seams of the long-boat, which was in the centre of tho 
 vessel, and in which were forty sheep when it left Eng- 
 
72 LIFE OF Dll. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 land. Meanwhile almost all the passengers assembled 
 in the cuddy, but, from the violence of the motion, they 
 could neither sit nor stand without clinging to some ob- 
 ject. At first consternation was depicted in every coun- 
 tenance at the suddenness of so terrible a catastrophe, 
 for all had joyfully made their arrangements to go on 
 shore at Cape Town next forenoon. In one of the 
 cabins adjoining tlie cuddy there was a captain who was 
 heard crying out in bitter agony, " What shall become 
 of me, I have been such a hypocrite!" The explan- 
 ation of this was, that he had been married to a 
 godly lady, and while she lived he tried to pay at 
 least outward homage t») the observances of religion, 
 but, after her death, ho relapsed into the follies of 
 the world. Mr. Duff was wont to hold a religious 
 service every Lord's-day, which all the passengers 
 attended except this officer, who, to show his con- 
 tempt used to pace the poop deck over their heads. 
 One of the ladies, who was a Christian, happened to 
 notice that another of the passengers, a colonel who 
 occupied one of the poop cabins, was not among 
 the number present, and her remark was, " Let 
 us not allow him to go down without at least his 
 knowing it." Two or three entered his cabin and 
 found him profoundly askep. AVaking him up, they 
 dragged him into the cuddy. Astonished he began 
 to cry out, " Are you all crazed ? " and then he 
 suddenly broke out into a bacchanalian song. This 
 surprised every one, because it was not known that he 
 could sing at all. He was naturally a most affable and 
 courteous man, who was a general favourite with the 
 passengers. But it turned out that he had a habit, 
 unknown to most of them, of nightly taking a very 
 copious dranglit of brandy, and then retiring to bis 
 berth. Having slept it off, the next morning he would 
 appear cheerful as usual. The disaster having taken 
 
A'A. 24. THE FIRST SUirWRECK. JT, 
 
 place about ten o'clock, tlicro liad not been time for 
 him to recover from the effects of the draught. 
 
 A few of the passengers were God-fearing people, 
 and they were calmly resigned to what seemed to 
 be their inevitable fate. As was often the case in these 
 long voyages, several of them were not even on speak- 
 ing terms. To introduce a mollifying element, Mr. 
 Duff was accustomed daily to have a number of them in 
 his cabin, to whom he read portions of the history of 
 India and other works. Now all, oppressed with the 
 conviction that they might immediately appear before 
 the judgment seat of God, became suddenly reconciled, 
 shaking each other by the hand and imploring forgive- 
 ness. Others thought of the friends whom they had 
 left at home, and gave varied utterance to their feel- 
 ings. The whole scene, Mr. Duff used to say after- 
 wards, tended to suG^s^est the marvellous revelations 
 which shall take place at the Day of Judgment. In 
 about half an hour, when the first convulsive agonies 
 of feeling began to abate, ho suggested that, as all 
 might suddenly bo called together to give their final 
 account, they should join as best they could in prayer 
 to God for their deliverance, if it were Ilis holy will, 
 and if otherwise that they might bo prepared to meet 
 Him. All responded, clustering around him and hold- 
 ing by what objects they could, while the missionary 
 poured out his soul in fervent sup[)lications. 
 
 While such was the scene below, the captain and 
 the sailors were eagerly doing their part on the deck. 
 All around the wreck there was one mass of white 
 foam, except immediately behind. The captain had, 
 at the very outset, ordered one of the gig boats 
 hanging over the side of the vessel to be launched. 
 He put three seamen into her, with the order to 
 follow this darker part, and, if possible, get round the 
 mass of white foam to ascertain whether there was 
 
74 LIFE OF DK. DUFF. iSjot 
 
 any landing place available. For, at the time, it was 
 not known wlieihor the vessel had struck on a sunken 
 reef, on an island, or on the mainland. It wjis a 
 desperate endeavour. The sea was running mountains 
 high, and it seemed impossible that a small boat could 
 live in it. Three hours had passed and the boat was 
 given up as lost, when it appeared and the seamen 
 announced that, round the mass of Avhite foam, they 
 had. found a small sandy bay, on which, if it could be 
 reached, a landing would be practicable. This inten- 
 sified the desire to launch the long-boat, but, sur- 
 rounded as the wreck was by masts, spars and broken 
 bulwarks, it seemed more than doubtful whether this 
 could be done. Every wave was now rolling over the 
 main deck. 
 
 At last, watching their opportunity, the sailors got 
 the boat afloat by the help of one of the waves. 
 When they saw it fairly oif at a short distance from 
 the wreck, they raised the shout, " There goes our 
 last hope," meaning, there it is safe among the floating 
 fragments of the wreck. But scarcely had the cry 
 been uttered when the rope snapped, and the boat was 
 seen like a dark speck moving away into the mass of 
 white foam. By this time the moon gave a dim 
 flickering light. Though the last hope of deliver- 
 ance thus seemed gone, not a word was uttered by 
 any one of the passengers, who had become so ex- 
 hausted that their only desire was for a speedy end. 
 To their surprise, however, the dark speck in the 
 foam, wdiicli had disappeared, began to approach, and 
 a human voice was heard from it calling for a rope. 
 It turned out that a wretched sailor, who had seemed 
 to be the worst man on board, confessed that ho 
 had resolved, if any one were to be saved he would. 
 Amid the uproar and darkness he had concealed 
 himself lengthways in the bottom of the boat. When 
 
yEl. 24. THE OWEAT DELIVERANCE. 75 
 
 it approacliGcl tho dark line of rock he saw it might 
 bo dashed in pieces, and so he seized an oar and held 
 it up against the rock, thus turning the boat round 
 into a small cove. There the next wave threatened 
 to dash him to pieces, so witli the energy of despair 
 he grasped a second oar, and succeeded in owing 
 back to tho wreck. 
 
 The long-boat could not contain above a third part 
 of those on board ; the question therefore was, who 
 should go first. Had it been at the outset there 
 might have been a rush for tho boat, but by this 
 time all tumultuous feelings were assuaged. The 
 prevalent feeling was, that all the lady passengers 
 should if possible get on board. Then a very strik- 
 ing scene occurred : some of these were married, some 
 unmarried. The unmarried ones went to the married 
 men, saying, " You go with your wives, — you are two, 
 we are only one," — because the wives had said that 
 they would not leave without their husbands. Event- 
 ually all the ladies and married men got on board. 
 Manned by a few strong sailors, with the gig leading 
 the wav, tlie lonof-boat at lensfth reached the shallow 
 sandy beach. The wind after midnight had begun 
 considerably to abate, and all were landed. 
 
 Soon after the last boat arrived daylight began to 
 appear. Before this there was no means of knowing 
 whether the place was inhabited ; but sounds in end- 
 less variety were heard, amongst which all agreed that 
 they could distinguish the braying of asses. It was 
 found that the shipwrecked party had reached an 
 island, of which the only tenants were myriads of pen- 
 guins who had given forth these discordant noises. 
 The penguin is a bird in size intermediate between a 
 duck and a goose, with short flappers which assist it 
 in swimming and in running- quickly along the shore. 
 Soon also it was found that, since at that season the 
 
76 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 pongiilns laid their eggs in holes burrowed in the 
 sandy surface of the island, there were two Dutchmen 
 on the spot sent from Capo Town to collect the spoil. 
 The passengers bargained with these men for the use 
 of their cooking-pot, and then divided themselves into 
 companies — one, to collect eggs ; another, to gather 
 withered grass and sea-weed for the fire; and a third, 
 to remain by the pot and constantly boil the eggs as 
 their only food. 
 
 Soon after this a sailor, walking along the beach, 
 noticed an object cast ashore. Going up to it, he found 
 it was a quarto copy of Bagster's liible and a Scotch 
 Psalm-book, somewhat shattered but with Mr. Duff's 
 name written distinctly on both. The precious volumes 
 had not been used on the voyage out. Wrapped in 
 chamois leather they had been put with other books 
 in a box, which must have been broken to pieces. The 
 sailor who found the volumes high and dry on the 
 beach had been the most attentive at the service which 
 the missionary had held with the crew every Sabbath. 
 Taking Bible and Psalter to the hovel where the pas- 
 sengers sought shelter, with a glowing face he pre- 
 sented them to their owner. All were deeply affected 
 by what they regarded as a message from God. Led 
 by Mr. Duff they kneeled down, and there he spread 
 out the precious books on the white bleached sand. 
 What a meaning to each had the travellers' Psalm, the 
 107tli which he read, as to all exiles, captives and 
 stormtossed wanderers since the days when its first 
 singers were gathered from all lands to rebuild Jeru- 
 salem ! What fervent prayer and thanksgiving followed 
 its words, as tne band of shipwrecked but delivered men 
 and women lifted their wearied faces to the heavens : 
 
 " Whoso is wise and will observe these things, 
 
 Even thuy tjliuU undcrslaud the lovingkinduess of the Lord, 
 
 }> 
 
JEt. 24. Till-: LOSS OF HIS Lir.KARY. 77 
 
 For the missionary liimself tlio appnrcnfc miracle 
 had a very special meaning, wliicli influenced his after- 
 life. His letters, so far as we liaveu^iveu extracts from 
 them, have shown that when in all the flusli of his 
 collei^e successes he anew devoted himself to God, 
 for what was tlien dreaded as a missionai'y career, 
 he counted learnini^ as nothing in com[)arison of 
 winning Christ for himself and for others. As to 
 some of the greatest of the Fathers on their tui'ii- 
 ing from Paganism, Homer, Yirgil and Horace had 
 been dear companions, wliose lines lingered on the 
 tongue and rang in the ear when their books were 
 not in the hands, so was it to Alexander Duff. Ho 
 loved these less only because he cared for tlie old and 
 never to be dethroned queen of tlie sciences more. He 
 had but half parted with their companionship, and ho 
 could never lose the culture they gave him — tlie sym- 
 pathy with all literature by which he was nmrked till 
 his last days when ho read to his grand-children the 
 " Paradise Lost," which classical associations made 
 more dear to him. So when going forth to found a col- 
 lege, a Christian Institute, like Bishop Berkeley at the 
 Bermudas, he had taken with him a library of more 
 than eight hundred volumes, representing "every 
 department of knowledge." All were swallowed up in 
 the shipwreck save forty. And of these forty the only 
 books not reduced nearly to pulp were the Bible, in 
 the best edition of those days, solenndy presented to 
 him by friends in St. Andrews on his ordination ; and 
 the Psalter with which Moses and David, Asaph and tlio 
 other authors of the five books of the orioinal Hebrew 
 lays, have ever since fed the Church of God and com- 
 forted sinning, ])onitent humanity. AYitli the books 
 had gone all his journals, notes, memoranda and 
 essays, dear to an honest student as his own flesh. 
 The instinct which had led all the passengers, even the 
 
78 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 least devout of the twenty-two, to recognise in the 
 preservation of the Bible and Psalter a message from 
 God, became in his case a conviction that henceforth 
 human learninof must bo to him a means onlv, not in 
 itself an end. That the word of God abide th for ever, 
 was afresh written upon his soul. The man to whom 
 purely secular scholars in the next generation bore 
 this testimony as tlic highest they could give, that ho 
 was afraid of no truth but sanctified all truth, did not 
 cease, even then, his allegiance to learning in every 
 form when of his books and journals he wrote to Dr. 
 Inglis : * " They are gone, and, blessed be God, I can 
 say, gone without a murmur. So perish all earthly 
 thingfs : the treasure that is laid up in Leaven alone is 
 unassailable. God has been to me a God full of mercy, 
 and not the least of His mercies do I find in cheerful 
 resignation." 
 
 The land proved to be Dassen Island, in the Atlantic, 
 forty miles N.N.W. of Cape Town and ten miles from 
 the mainland of Africa. From afar they saw the 
 white mist which forms the ' table-cloth ' of Tablo 
 Mountain. The shipwrecked people planned to cross 
 the strait and find their way on foot to the town, but 
 the Dutchmen's skiff was too small to do the work of 
 ferrying in less than a mouth. So the Irish surgeon of 
 the ship set out alone, and in four days a brig of war 
 rescued them, sent by the humane Governor, Sir Lowric 
 Cole, although it was just weighing anchor for other 
 duty at Port Elizabeth. The surgeon had sought an 
 immediate interview with his Excellency, who had just 
 finished his despatches. The gallant soldier, who had 
 been one of Wellington's generals in the Peninsular 
 
 * Extract of a Letter respecting the Wrcch of the " Ladij 
 IloUand," East Indiaman, from tlio Rev. Alcxuudcr Duff. Edin- 
 burgh, 1830. 
 
^t. 24. AT CAPE TOWN. 79 
 
 war, declared, •' liumanity has tlie first claim." The 
 weather-beaten party landed in the midst of the British 
 and Dutch inhabitants, who crowded to express their 
 sympathy. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Duff were received by the Rev. Dr. 
 Adamson, son of that minister at Cupar Fife who 
 had been colleague of Dr. Campbell, father of the 
 Lord Chancellor. For weeks the passengers were de- 
 tained. The next East Indiaman was so full that three 
 of them paid a hundred guineas each to be allowed to 
 swing their cots in the steerage. Furlough rules make 
 no allowance for even shipwreck, and high salaries 
 draw belated officials. Mr. and Mrs. Duif could get 
 a passage in the last ship of the season, the Molra, 
 and that only on payment of 3,000 rupees ! This sum 
 was equal to £2G2 10s. in gold, such was the rate of 
 exchange then as now. From Cape Town he thus 
 addressed Dr. Chalmers : — 
 
 " Cape Town, March hth, 1830. 
 
 " My Dear Doctoi?, — I know your time is precious 
 and I shall not detain you, as my tale may be briefly 
 told : On Saturday night, February 13th, the Lady 
 Holland was w^reckcd off Dassen Island, forty miles 
 north from Cape Town, but not a life was lost, not 
 even a personal injury sustained by any one of the 
 passengers or ciew. This is the fact : for a detail of 
 the fact and its consequences I refer you to a com- 
 munication of this date, addressed to Dr. Inglis as the 
 official organ of the Assembly's committee. You will 
 there have an account of the nature of our danger and 
 deliverance, our severe loss and future prospects. 
 And the object of ray writing to yoii separately, is — 
 that a circumstance so calamitous in its aspect may 
 not be permitted to cool zeal or damp exertion, but 
 may be improved, to kindle a new flame throughout 
 
So LIFE OF DIJ. DUFP. 1830 
 
 the Churcli and cause it to burn inextinguishably. 
 As remarked in the communication referred to, ' tliough 
 part of the first-fruits of the Churcli of Scotland in 
 the great cause of Cliristian philanthropy has perished 
 in the total wreck of the Lad// Ilulland, the cause of 
 Christ has not perished. The former, like the leaves 
 of autumn, may be tossed al)outby every tempest; the 
 latter, more stal)le than nature, ever reviving with 
 the bloom of youth, will flourish when nature herself 
 is no more. 
 
 *' The cause of Christ is a heavenly and divine 
 thing, and shrinks from the touch of earth. Often 
 has its high origin been gloriously vindicated. Often 
 has it cast a mockery on the mightiest efforts of 
 human power. Often has it gathered strength amid 
 weakness, become rich amid losses, rejoiced amid 
 dangers, and triumphed amid the fires and tortures of 
 hoU-enkindled men. And shall the Church of Scotland 
 dishonour such a cause, by exhibiting any symptoms 
 of coldness or despondency in consequence of the 
 recent catastrophe ! God forbid. Let her rather 
 arouse herself into new energy; let her shake off 
 every earthly alliance with the cause of Christ, as a 
 retarding, polluting alliance ; let her confide less in 
 her own resources and more in the arm of Him who 
 saith, * Not by power, nor by might, but by My Spirit.' 
 From her faithful appeals let the flame of devotedness 
 circulate through every parish, and prayers ascend to 
 * the Lord of the harvest, ' from every family ; and 
 then may we expect her fountains to overflow, for the 
 watering and fertilizing of many a dry and parched 
 heathen land. 
 
 " This is the improvement suggested ; and of all 
 men living you, my dear Doctor, are, with God's 
 blessing, the individual most capable of making it. 
 Let the committee be awakened, and, from the awaken- 
 
^t. 24. SAILS FROM CAPE TOWN. 8 1 
 
 ing appeals of tlio committee, let tlie Cliurcli be aroused. 
 Who, that has heard it, can ever forget your own 
 vivid description and eloquent improv^ement of the 
 magnificent preparation and total failure of the first 
 great missionary enterprise ? F om it ours stands at 
 an immeasurabb distance ; but the principle is the 
 same. I fear that much of calculatinor worldliness is 
 apt to enter into the schemes and preparations of the 
 Assembly. And now Heaven frowns in mercy, and 
 buries a portion of its fruits in the depths of ocean, 
 to excite, if possible, to the clierishing of a holier 
 spirit, and a more prayerful waiting on the Lord for 
 the outpouring of His grace. 
 
 " Mrs. Duff desires her kindest remembrance to 
 you, and with kindest regards to Mrs. Chalmers and 
 family, I remain, my dear Doctor, yours most sin- 
 cerely, cc K T\ J» 
 
 •^' "Alexander Duff. 
 
 " Sunday sail, never fail," was the chant to which 
 the sailors lifted the anchor for Calcutta. But the 
 day proved to be no better omen than the derelict 
 timber-ship which had crossed the bows of the Ladi/ 
 Holland in the English Channel. Contrary winds 
 drove the Moira to fifty degrees of south latitude, and 
 then for weeks she was beaten out of her course by 
 westerly gales, culminating off Mauritius in a hur- 
 ricane which threatened the foundering of the ship. 
 Although the year 1830 was well advanced, and Lord 
 William Bentinck had not been satisfied with the first 
 attempt to send a steamer from Bombay to Suez, all 
 the rewards offered had failed to discover the course 
 and the tacking which have since reduced the Capo 
 voyage from an uncertainty that might spread beyond 
 half the year, to an average of a hundred dnjs. Not 
 till near the end of May did the Moira sight the hardy 
 little pilot brig which, far out in the Bay of Bengal 
 
 a 
 
82 LIFE OF DK. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 but still in the muddy waters of tlie united Ganges 
 and Brahmapootra rivers, is the advanced post of 
 British India proper. 
 
 The hot sun was blazing with intcnsest power 
 as the belated East Indiaman was carefully navi- 
 gated into the estuary of the Hooghly, the most 
 westerly of the so-called mouths of the Ganges. 
 Hardly had she been moored in the rapid stream 
 off the long, low muddy flat of Saugar Island, when 
 the south-west monsoon was upon her in all that 
 splendid fury which the Hindoo epics describe with 
 almost Homeric realism. The clouds hid the sun, and 
 ffave birth to a storm which soon chano^ed into the 
 dreaded cyclone. It seemed a portentous welcome at 
 the very threshold of India, after the previous wreck 
 at its then outmost gate. In spite of three anchors 
 thrown out the Molra was dragged, tossed and — as 
 we have twice since seen in similar cases — lifted by 
 the wind and the storm- wave on to the muddy shore 
 of the Saugar, the sagara or Cobleutz or confluence of 
 Gunga with the ocean. The river was of unusually 
 vast A^olume, the low delta land was flooded. Poised 
 on the very edge of Saugar bank, with some ten feet 
 of water on the shore and sixty or seventy on the 
 river-side, and wedged in this position by the force of 
 the hurricane, the Molra worked for herself a bed in 
 the clay. There is no lime for calculation when the 
 genius of the cyclone rides the rotary storm so that 
 no living thing can stand upright. But instinct takes 
 the place of thought, and the love of life develops 
 daring which, in calmer hours, were madness. The 
 vessel was soon found to bo very slowly heeling over 
 into the deep water. But nothing could be done, for 
 the great wind of heaven was still loose, and the mid- 
 night darkness that might bo felt was broken only by 
 the flash of the forked lightning. The captain managed 
 
JEt 24. THE CYCLONE AND THE SECOND SniPWRECK. 83 
 
 to secure the ship's papers on his person, and waited 
 for tlie dawn, which revealed the vessel leaning over at 
 a sharp angle, but still kept from disappearing by the 
 wedge-like compression of the silt of the bank. Often 
 afterwards did Alexander Duff describe the scene on 
 which that May morning broke, and the deliverance. 
 
 The appearance of the river from the cuddy por- 
 tion of the hull was very awful. The wind, in 
 mighty whirling eddies, raised up columns of water 
 which came down like so many cataracts. From the 
 extremely perilous position of the ship it was necessary 
 that all should be put on shore, but that meant deep 
 water. One largo tree, however, was espied, and to 
 that the pilot and the natives succeeded in making a 
 hawser fast, by swimming to its branches. Along this 
 a boat was moored to the tree, and there, on somewhat 
 higher ground, the passengers were " landed " up to 
 the waist in 'water, at the time rolling in billows. 
 The wind drove all, passengers and crew, inland to a 
 village where caste forbade the natives to give them 
 shelter. The island stretches for ten miles in length 
 and five in breadtl and at that time had a population 
 of some ten thousand persons, who lived by the manu- 
 factui'e of salt, and on the offerings of the pilgrims at 
 the annual bathing festival of the winter solstice, 
 which used to attract a quarter of a million of devotees 
 from all parts of India. Denied access to the few huts 
 that were not flooded, the shipwrecked party took 
 possession of the village temple. Whether it was that 
 of the sage Kapilmoonnee, whose curse had destroyed 
 the eponymous Sagar, king of Oiidh, with its great 
 banyan tree in front, or the tiger-haunted pagoda 
 which forms the centre of the fair, we know not. But 
 it was thus that the first missionary of the Church of 
 Scotland was, with his wife and fellows, literally 
 thrown on the mud-formed strand of Bengal, where 
 
$4 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 the last land of tlio lioly goddess, Gunga, receives her 
 embrace, and manv a motlior was tlien wont to commit 
 licr living child to the pitiless waters. 
 
 When the tidings reached the capital, a hundred 
 miles np the Ilooghly, numerous small boats of tlie 
 covered " dinghy " class began to appear. In one 
 of these Mr. and Mrs. Duff arrived at the City of 
 Palaces, dvenchod with mud, and terribly exhausted 
 after twenty-four hours in the temple following such a 
 day and night of storm. Young Durand, too, found 
 his way to the city, to the palace of the Bishop, where 
 the tall lieutenant for some days excited amusement 
 by appearing in the epicene dress of his kind host. 
 The Duffs were hospitably entertained by Dr. Brown, 
 the junior Scottish cluiplain. In due time three 
 steamers dragged the Moira off Saugar shore, sorely 
 shattered, but thus the baofrrnGfe was saved. It was 
 on the 27th May, 1830, that they readied the scene 
 of the next third of a century's triumphs, having left 
 Edinburgh on the 19th September, 1829, more than 
 eight mouths before. 
 
 The first to visit Mr. Duff the evening on which 
 he landed were his old St. Andrews companion, the 
 llcv. J. Adam, and his afterwards life-long friend 
 and greatly beloved brother, the Rev. A. F. Lacroix, 
 both of the London Missionary Society. Next day 
 came the venerable Archdeacon Corrie, fruit of 
 Simeon's work ; also Dr. Bryce, the senior chaplain ; 
 General Beatson, and other Christian strangers, who, 
 with the more than freemasonry that has not yet died 
 out of Anglo-India, desired to welcome Duff to Bengal. 
 His own letters of introduction, preserved on his 
 person in the two shipwrecks, he duly presented. 
 With his wife ho lost no time in calling at Government 
 House on Lady William Bentinck, who received them 
 not merely with courtesy but with genial Christian 
 
JEt 24. LANDS AT CALCUTTA. 85 
 
 sympathy. Tlio Governor-General bimsclf did not 
 need the letter from a personal friend at liomo, to 
 give tlio young missionary a warm reception. His 
 Excellency sent for him, spoke encouragingly to him, 
 and at a private dinner fully entered into his plans. 
 "Was Lord William not the greatest of the Bentiucks, 
 the best of all the Governor-Generals ? 
 
 Alexander Dulf was little more than twenty-fonr 
 years of ago when, a tall and handsome man, with 
 flashing eye, quivering voice, and restless gesticulation, 
 ho first told the ruler of India what he liad given his 
 life to do for its people. Heir of Knox and Chalmers, 
 he had to begin in the heart of Hindooism what they 
 had carried out in the medicGvalism of Rome and the 
 moderatism of the Kirk of the eighteenth century. 
 He had also to make it a missionary Kirk. His work 
 was to be twofold — in East and West. 
 
 Need we wonder that, when the Calcutta news- 
 papers told the story of the repeated shipwrecks, the 
 very natives remarked — " Surely this man is a favourite 
 of the gods, who must have some notable work for 
 him to do in India ?'* 
 
CHAPTER rV. 
 
 1830. 
 CALCUTTA AS IT WAS. 
 
 Duff disobeys tlie only Order of his CliurcL. — Calcutta a fourtli of 
 London. — Bengal. — Job Charnock selects KalUatta. — Tho First 
 European Settlers. — Growtli of the City. — Native.s be<>inning to 
 learn Enj^lish. — Foiinders of the great ]?cngalec Families. — Tho 
 leading Natives Oi Bull's Arrival. — Tho washerman who first 
 taught English. — Adventnro Schools. — Matrimonial Value of 
 Penmanship then and of "t.A. Degree now. — The Oriental 
 
 Colleges and Orientalists. — i^ natchcs Written by James Mill. — 
 Dufl's Account of tho Origin of the First English College in 
 India. — Tentative Efforts of tho Early Missionaries. — The Work 
 of Destruction Begun, -who shall Construct ? 
 
 Having secured full power to carry out his own plaus 
 unfettered by conditions in Scotland or on the spot, 
 and having failed to obtain from his Church any in- 
 structions for his guidance save one, Mr. Duff's first 
 duty was to refuse to give effect to tliat one. He 
 had been forbidden to open his mission in Calcutta. 
 Why, it is difficult to understand, in the absence of 
 all reasons assigned for such a prohibition. So the 
 agents of the Scottish Missionary Society before Dr. 
 Wilson had neglected Bombay city, while shut out from 
 the Maratha capital of Poona, and had wasted years 
 in the obscure villages of the Konkan. The example 
 of tho Apostles, beginning at Jerusalem, might have 
 sufficed. The first of all Protestant missions and 
 colleges in Bengal had, indeed, been established out- 
 side of the capital, but that was because the East 
 India Company's early intolerance had driven Carey 
 
^t. 24. TIIK MODERN CALCUTTA. 87 
 
 and Marshman to the protection of the little Danish 
 Government at Serampore. Bishop Miildleton had 
 followed, spontaneonsly, the unfortunate precedent, by 
 building his Gothic pile so Far down the right bank of the 
 Hooghly that his college has proved useless for its great 
 object ever since. This only had been determined on 
 by Dr. Inglis and Mr. Duff, that the first missionary 
 was to open a school or college, just because that line of 
 proselytising work had been neglected by the few other 
 missionaries then in Calcutta. When Duff had seen 
 these at work, in the city and all round it to Carey 
 at Serampore, and twenty-five miles up the river to 
 Chinsurah and the old factory of Hooghly, he resolved 
 to begin his career by disobeying the one order ho had 
 received. It was the resolve of genius, the beginning 
 of an ever-growing success, without which failure, 
 comparatively, was inevitable. The young Scot had 
 vowed to kill Ilindooism, and this he could best do by 
 striking at its brain. Benares, Poorce, Bombay more 
 lately, might have been its heart ; but Calcutta was its 
 brain. Let others pursue their own methods in their 
 own places, he would plant his foot down here, among 
 the then half-million eager, fermenting Bengalees, 
 feeling after God if haply they might find Him with 
 Western help, and about to be used by the English 
 Government as instruments for carrying its civilization 
 all over Eastern, Central and North-western India. 
 
 Calcutta, the metropolis of the British Empire in 
 the southern half of Asia, now covers an area of 
 thirty-one square miles, and has a fixed population of 
 900,000, exclusive of the hundreds of thousands who 
 daily visit the port, the markets, the offices, the ware- 
 houses, the domestic homes and the schools for trade, 
 service and education. That is, the greatest city 
 of the English in the East is just one fourth the size, 
 in area and inhabitants, of London itself within the 
 
88 LIFE OF DR. DUI'P. 1830. 
 
 juristHctlon of the Metropolitan Board of Works or 
 the district of the School Board. London had the 
 same population at the bogininng of this century as 
 Calcutta now has. To what point Calcutta will reach 
 in the next century, under tlio same wise and peaceful 
 administration which has made it what it is, he may 
 conjecture who hest realizes its unparalleled position. 
 It is at once the centre of tho most densely packed 
 and fast-breeding rural population in the world, and 
 of a network of rivers, canals and railways compared 
 with which those that have created Holland are micro- 
 scopic. It is the focus of our whole political system 
 in Asia. 
 
 Itself impregnable by nature and the entrepot of the 
 wealth of Bengal, Calcutta has sent forth triumphant 
 expeditions to Burma, to Java, to Canton and to Peking 
 in the far East. It has been prepared to civilize the 
 Maories of Australasia, as it had previously pushed 
 the edge of the sword that separates evil from good 
 into the heart of the Pathans of the Suleiman range 
 and the Western Himalayas. From Calcutta, Mauri- 
 tius and even the Cape have been started on a new 
 career. Embassies from the palace of its Governor- 
 General, still known simply as Government House, 
 seventy years ago dictated terms of peace and pro- 
 gress, against the barbarous aggression of Russian 
 and French absolutism, to the Shah of Persia, the 
 Ameer of Cabul, and the Maharaja of the Sikhs, when 
 the Sutlej was our only frontier besides the sea. 
 Were we basely to retire from the responsibilities of 
 empire, and confine our administrative system to the 
 one Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, its swarming 
 sixty millions would enable Calcutta to send to the 
 mother country a clear annual surplus of from four 
 to six millions sterling. For it is with the twelve mil- 
 lions of revenue yielded every year by Bengal, that 
 
CALCUTTA 
 
 Scale of I English MUe 
 
 ■t 
 
 2 S^Jbfin's Church 
 
 3 ad Hunan CK. 
 
 4 3* Anirawi JErh 
 
 5 J^to Ouaf Scotlarul 
 
 6 Xfinian, OujptH^ 
 
 7 BapUrt Chapd' 
 .SgK Court 
 
 9 Jbtt Of/it» 
 10 HiwTvSaZb 
 U SnMootPresuUiuyiaiUeye/ 
 
 14 DovetoTu CoHtgt 
 
 15 CauraZ Atstmhly Jturt'} 
 IG la, JUiarttnura 
 
 V Fret Ovurohi inat. 
 tHaDr DxjJfh Hou^e 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 r/". 
 
 BtrwTfi 
 
 
 19 .A<c« Church, MiaaioTV ^ 
 
 20 Urvuresrsify 
 
 21 BenofoUjvti hurtttutUm, . 
 
 22 MtdbLaHConegu ®' 
 
 23 Cofi'i itG«s. CoUegt/ ibfl 
 2i ^auu;09u« «»-^^/ 
 25 .^otwr's CoU^efAC 
 20 Seotoh Conatery 
 
 27 ^fTTR^nuzTi/ Cv- 
 
 28 Xoman GufioSc 
 
 Ouhtdral 
 
 29 OustcmllotLSe, 
 
 30 SaHars' Borne 
 
 ^^m 
 
 a< Gmmalht Sftuo^ 
 \> CoVege Stuart 
 C HUiinyton. Jfr^. re 
 a. VaVuiujii* 3ifujirt, 
 ^^TVJluUif Square 
 
 18 
 
 to 
 
 B 
 
 ei 
 
 >^ 
 
 /HIi] 
 
 &o 
 
 Ki 
 
 a 
 
 FOBI 
 
 ^ 
 
 B 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Af 
 
 '26 
 
 s^fo 
 
 Al ip o r^ 
 
 f emora Hqubc m 
 
 \t\ 
 
 Jiy pemU'iMoTi o'' tJiC "hurrh Mici>HL<ntnry >')oii4:fy 
 
^t. 24. JOB CnAENOCK FOUNDS CALCUTTA. 89 
 
 Calcutta has spread tlie British Empire all over 
 Southern Asia. 
 
 In the Old World thore is no example of the growtli 
 of a capital so rapid. In 159G this mighty metro- 
 polis figures on the rent-roll of the Emperor Akbar 
 as Kalkatta, one of three villaofos in the district of 
 Hooglily which together paid an annual tax of £2,31-1. 
 The great temple, still in its suburbs, is that of the 
 black destroying goddess of Kaleegliat. Driven from 
 the factory at Rooghly by the Mussulman officer of 
 Aurungzeb, the East India Company's agent, the 
 notorious Mr. Job Charnock, with his council, sailed 
 down the river in search of another site. Oolabaria, 
 on the same right bauk and somewhat below the 
 present Botanical Garden, was tried. But, though 
 the ferry town on the high road to the shrine of 
 Jugganath, in Orissa, that place had the two disad- 
 vantages of bad anchorage and exposure to the raids 
 of the Marathas. Not so the high ground immedi- 
 ately to the north of Kalkatta. There the river was 
 deep ; its expanse, a mile broad at high water, protected 
 the place from the western devastators ; and the sur- 
 rounding inhabitants were a prosperous brotherhood 
 of weavers for the Company's trade. Under " a large 
 shady tree," somewhere between the present Mint and 
 the most orthodox quarter of Sobha Bazaar, Job 
 Charnock set up the Company's flag and his own 
 zanana. For he had taken to himself the beautiful 
 Suttee or Hindoo widow whom ho rescued from 
 cremation only to be himself Hindooized, and on 
 whose tomb ho used afterwards to sacrifice a cock, 
 according to that contemporary gossip. Captain 
 Alexander Hamilton. It is significant that the 
 second college which Duff built as the Free Church 
 Institution stands in the great thoroughfare leading 
 down to the oldest burning ghaut, NeemtoUa, the 
 
90 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 place of the neem-tree, wliich name probably em- 
 balms tlie tradition of that " large shady tree." Many 
 a suttee must have taken place within car-shot of the 
 founder of Calcutta, who used to have his sentences 
 of whipping executed on native offenders " when he 
 was at dinner, so near his dining-room that the groans 
 and cries of the poor delinquent served him for 
 music." 
 
 The days of the glorious Revolution had come ; the 
 new East India Company got a new and most Chris- 
 tian charter ; the old church of St. John was raised 
 with a proud steeple only to be cast down by the next 
 cyclone ; and the Fort, of Black Hole memory, was 
 i^uilt in Kalkatta village under William the Third's 
 name. The Court of Directors, too, under revolu- 
 tion influences, became Christian once more, and 
 directed their agent at Calcutta to use this mis- 
 sionary form of prayer : *' That these Indian nations 
 among whom we dwell, seeing our sober and righteous 
 conversation, may be induced to have a just esteem 
 for our most holy profession of the gospel." Char- 
 nock's rough and, towards the natives, revengeful 
 administration ceased five or six years after his first 
 settlement at Kalkatta. Sir John Goldsborough was 
 sent by the older and then superior Government of 
 Madras to reform the little colony, which he began 
 to do by sending the Roman Catholic priests off" to 
 Bandel, because they encouraged the civilians to form 
 connections with the half-breed Portuo^uese under their 
 influence. " In Calcutta »11 religions are tolerated 
 but the Presbj'terians, and they are browbeat," wrote 
 Hamilton. By 1706 there were 1200 English in the 
 infant capital; but such were the excesses of many 
 of them, and such the absence of sanitary arrange- 
 ments adapted to the climate, that 460 burials were 
 registered in that year. Hamilton blames the site of 
 
JEt. 24. THE LLACK HOLE AND PLASSEY. 9 1 
 
 the factory, and especially tlio neiglibouriiig saltwater 
 lakes or swamps. But time and science have proved 
 that Job Charnock selected a jiosition on which nearly 
 a million of human beings, many of them foreigners 
 from the cold north, live and labour with a rate of 
 mortality little higher tlia.i that of London. The 
 water, the drainage, the gas, the conservancy arrange- 
 ments of the modern Calc itta may compare favour- 
 ably with those of the other capitals of the world. 
 
 By 1752 the population had grown, according to 
 Holwcll, to 400,000, when the irate Governor of 
 Bengal, Sooraj-ood-Dowla, made a swoop upon them 
 from his capital of Moorshedabad. Cf the English 
 who did not flee to the ships one hundred and twenty- 
 three perished within twenty feet square of the guard- 
 room called, by the soldiers usually confined there, the 
 Black Hole. Instead of the Hindoo Ghaut of Kalee, 
 the city was re-named the Muhammadan place of Alee, 
 Aleenuggur. But the sack and the burning proved 
 only new sources of wealth, when Olive and Watson 
 had chased the tyrant back to his capital, and 
 had defeated him at Plassey. In 1758 a long pro- 
 cession of a hundred boats, laden with seven hundred 
 chests, and then a second despatch, brought to Cal- 
 cutta the largest prize that the British people had 
 ever taken, or £1,110,000 in silver rupees. From 
 much of tbat, sent as compensation, the citizens, 
 English, Armenian, Portuguese and Bengalee, built the 
 present city of Calcutta and Fort William. The reign 
 of extravagance began ; but also that of health, be- 
 nevolence, education and, gradually, outward respect 
 for religion. There were two thousand Europeans in 
 the new city, many of whom,, had spent twenty or 
 thirty years in India without once attending public 
 worship. For them a new St. John's arose in the 
 old cemetery. Friends of Cecil, Simeon, and the 
 
92 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 18301 
 
 Clapliam men were sent out as chaplains, after 
 Clive had purged the services. Ho liimself invited 
 the missionary Kiernander, when Lally had broken 
 up the Lutheran settlement at Cuddalore, to instruct 
 the natives and bury the Europeans in Calcutta, after 
 the only chaplain there had perished in the Black 
 Hole. The Company's ships carried liis annual sup- 
 plies free, and ho raised the building wl ich still 
 flourishes, under the Church Missionary Society, as 
 the old mission church, thank;? to Charles Grant's 
 foresigl)t. The jungle, termed forest, around the new 
 Fort AYilliam was cleared away, and Calcutta obtained 
 that magniPcent plain called by the Persian name 
 Maidan, around which are its great public buildings 
 and its Chowri.ighee paLaces. By the close of last 
 century, when the Marquis Wellesley plrnted down 
 on its edge the fine reproduction of Keddlestone 
 Hall in Derbyshire, designed by the brothers Adams, 
 which is still called Government House, defying the 
 Court of Directors, Calcutta was worthy of the 
 position given it in the days of Warren Hastings as 
 "the seat of the central government. By that time 
 it had become the outlet and the inlet for the 
 trade of all Eastern and Northern India up to the 
 Sutlej, so far as the Company's monopolies allowed 
 trade to follow a natural course. 
 
 The necessities of intercourse with the natives, 
 diplomatically with the court at Dacca and Moor- 
 shedabad and commercially with the capitalists and 
 manufacturerii, had early created a class of interme- 
 diaries and assistants between the English and the 
 people of the country. Of the former was the 
 Punjabee Omichund, the wealthy intriguer who tried 
 to cheat both Clive and the Muhammadan ruler, 
 whom he had instigated to the destruction of tho 
 English, and was defeated by his own weapons. Of 
 
Et. 24. CALCUiTA UNDEll CLIVE AND UASTINGS. 93 
 
 tlio latter were nearly all the great Hindoo families 
 which are still the heads of native society. Lord 
 Olive's moonshee was, to his countrymen, more power- 
 ful than the great Governor himself, llaja Nobokissen 
 founded a house like the Barin<j:s of Enj^land. More 
 famous at the time, though now forgotten, was Olive's 
 dowan, Ramchand. In the year of the victory of 
 Plassey each of these men had a salary of £7'2 
 pounds; yet on his death, in 17G7, ten years aft(;r, 
 the latter left a fortune of a million and a quarter 
 sterling. Nobokissen spent ninety thousand pounds 
 on his mother's obsequies. The various ghauts, 
 or bathing places, on both banks of the Ilooghly, 
 from Oalcutta to Serampore, commemorate at once 
 the wealth and the superstition of the men who, in 
 those days, lived on the ignorant foreigners whom 
 they assisted, and on their own less educated country- 
 men whom they oppressed. Many a Bengalee proverb 
 has come down from the times of Olive, Yerelst and 
 Hastings, such as the triplet which Mr. J. 0. Marshmau 
 used thus to render — 
 
 " Who does not know Govindram's club, 
 Or tlio liou!-e of" Jjonmuleo Sirkar, 
 Or the beard of Omicliund?" 
 
 Govindram Mitter was the "black zemindar" who 
 for thirty years was the nominal subordinate of the 
 English collector of the taxes of Calcutta on from 
 j£36 to .£60 a year, and whom only the brave Holwell, 
 hero of the Black Hole time, finally deprived of the 
 power to oppress like a Turkish pasha. The cruel 
 e^xactions of Raja Daby Sing under Warren Hastings 
 have been handed down to everlasting shame by the 
 eloquence of Sheridan. 
 
 The advance merchants known as " Daduny," 
 through whom the Oompany njade its contracts with 
 
94 Wi^'iS OF Dli. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 the native weavers for their calicoes and muslins, which 
 Lancashire soon learned to manufacture from Indian 
 cotton for export, were the first to learn as much 
 English as was necessary for their intercourse with 
 the masters they defrauded. A lower class were the 
 panders and agents whom ship captains were forced 
 to use, and who still, as from the seventeenth century, 
 mislead our sailors to their too fi-equenb destruc- 
 tion. Tiiese were termed •' dobhasias " or two- 
 language natives, a word used in the earlier commercial 
 transactions at the Portuguese Calicut and the English 
 Madras. Ram Komul Sen, the author of the first 
 English and Bengalee dictionary, tells in his preface 
 how the first English captain who sailed to the infant 
 Calcutta sent ashore askincf for a dhobasia. The 
 Setts, the Bengalee middlemen who helped Job 
 Charnock to buy the Company's piece goods, in 
 ignorance of the word sent a " dhobee " or washerman 
 on board, with propitiatory gifts of plantains and 
 sugar-candy. To that washerman, wlio made good 
 use of the monopoly of English which he acquired, 
 the native lexicographer ascribes " the honour of 
 having been the first English scholar, if scholar ho 
 could be called, amongst the people of Bengal." The 
 mere vocabulary of nouns, adverbs, and interjections, 
 which, for nearly a century, constituted the English 
 of the Bengalees, as it still forms that of the domestic 
 servants of Madras, became improved when Sir Elijah 
 Inipey went out to establish the Supreme Court in 
 1774. Cases like the trial and hanging of Nuncomar 
 for forgery, and the growing business of the Court 
 which included all the citizens of Calcutta in its 
 jurisdiction, while the judges strove to extend their 
 power far into the interior, made the next generation 
 of middle-class Bengalees a little more familiar with 
 English. Interpreters, clerks, copjists, and agents of 
 
^t. 24. THE GREAT DENGALEE FAMILIES. 95 
 
 a. respectable class were in demand, alike by tlio 
 Government and the great mercantile houses. For a 
 time Lord Cornwallis pursued the illiberal and, as it 
 proved, impossible policy of employing only Europeans. 
 Hence the greatest nativ ^ of the time^ whom we dhall 
 learn to admire hc.eafter, Raja Rammohun Roy, did 
 not begin to learn English till he was twenty-two, nor 
 did he master it till he was thirty. 
 
 He stood at the head of the leading Hindoo families 
 of Calcutta at the time of DufTs appearance there. 
 After winning the gratitude of the Government as 
 " dowan " or principal native assistant to the Collector 
 of Rungpore, he had settled in the city in 1814. Others 
 worthy of note were Dwarkanath Tagoro, of the mer- 
 cantile firm of Carr, Tagore & Co., and his cousin, Pro- 
 sunno Coomar Tagore, great landholder and lawyer. 
 Ram Komul Sen, already alluded to, was "dewan" 
 of the Bnnk of Bengal. Russomoy Dutt was at that 
 time " banian " or broker to Messrs. Cruttenden, 
 Mackillop & Co., and afterwards honoured judge o£ 
 the Small Cause Court. Raja Radliakant Deb was 
 head of the orthodox party. Ram Gopal Gboso was 
 a member of the firm of Messrs. Kelsall, Ghose & Co. 
 These were the principal English-speaking native 
 gentlemen, the most active in the education of their 
 countrymen, the reformers before that reformation 
 of which the young Scottish missionary became the 
 apostle. We shall see how the Christianity that he 
 brought and applied, in a form adapted to the wants 
 of the time, tested them and sifted their families, and 
 still tries their descendants as a divine touchstone. 
 
 How did these men and the other respectable Ben- 
 galee families get their English, such as it was, before 
 the educational as well as spiritual revolution begun 
 by Duff? First, a keen self-interest drove them to 
 find it at the hands of Eurasians, Armenians, and 
 
96 LirE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 English advonturers. Then Government, which had 
 ignored and even opposed the Enghsh education of 
 the natives, was forced by Parhament to patronise it. 
 Then a very few of the missionaries at that time 
 in Bengal lent their aid. Bui- all proceeded on the 
 same mechanical, utilitarian, and routine sj^stem which 
 marked English schools till the days cf Lancaster and 
 Beh. 
 
 Sherborne, a Eurasian, kept a school in the Jo- 
 rasanko quarter, where Dwarkanath Tagore learned 
 the English alphabet. Martin Bowl, in Amratolla, 
 taught the founder of the wealthy Seal family. Ara- 
 toon Petroos was another who kept a school of fifty 
 or sixty Bengalee lads. The best of the pupils be- 
 came teachers in their turn like the blind Nittyanund 
 Sen in Colootolla, and the lame Udytchurn Sen, who 
 was the tutor of the mlllionnalvG Mulliks. Their text- 
 books were such pitiful productions as those of Dytclie 
 -■ and Enfield, Cooke's letters and Greenwood's gram- 
 mar. To write a good hand was far more important 
 than to understand what was read, for to be a copyist 
 or book-keeper was the destiny of the majority. One 
 of the Mullik family, when in 18G9 reviewing that 
 period of dim twilight, stated in his own English, 
 " that the betrothmcnt of a maid to a youth fit to 
 wear the laurel of Hymen, was chiefly influenced by 
 the capability of the latter in point of his English 
 penmanship, a specimen of which was invariably called 
 for by the parent of the girl." Now the possession of 
 the degree of Master of Arts is the test, a fact that 
 gauges the whole intellectual and social progress which 
 Duff had come to set in motion for far higher religious 
 ends. As the vernaculars of the country were neglected 
 by the British Government for the Persian of its 
 Muhammadan predecessor, so English had to give way 
 to a vicious orientalism. In 1780 AVarren Hastings 
 
JEt. 24. THE ORIENTAL COLLEGES. 97 
 
 had founded tlio Mddrissa or Muliammadan college in 
 Calcutta, to conciliate the Moulvies by teaching the 
 •whole range of the religion of Islam, and preparing 
 their sons as officials of the law courts. In 1791 
 Jonathan Duncan, of philanthropic memory, did the 
 same for the Hindoos, by e«ta, ^shing the Benares 
 Sanscrit College avowedly to cultivate their " laws, 
 literature and religion." From Plassey to the char- 
 ter of 1813 was the most evil time of the East India 
 Company's intolerance of light in every form, so much 
 did it dread the overturning of a political fabric which 
 had sprung up in spite of it. But then the Court 
 of Directors was compelled by Parliament, expressing 
 weakly the voice of the Christian public, to write the 
 despatch of the 6th September, 1813, which com- 
 municated the order that " a sum of not less than one 
 lakh of rupees (£10,000) in each year shall be set 
 apart and applied to the revival and improvement of 
 literature, and the encouragement of the learned 
 natives of India, and for the introduction and pro- 
 motion of a knowledge of the sciences among the in- 
 habitants of the British territories of India." Weakly, 
 we say, for Charles Grant had, in 1792, sketched in 
 detail, and had continued all these yep^'S to press on 
 the court and in Parliament, a scheme of tolerant 
 English and vernacular education, of such far-sighted 
 ability and benevolence that all subsequent progress 
 to the present hour is only a commentary upon his 
 suggestions.* 
 
 In spite of the charter of 1813, that order was not, 
 in its spirit and intention, carried out till Duff landed 
 
 * Observations o^r the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of 
 Great Britain, particularly with respect to Morals, and on the Means 
 of Improving it. Written cliieP.y iu the year 1792. Ordered by the 
 House of Commons to be printed, 16th June, 1813. 
 
 H 
 
9^ LH'E OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 in Calcutta. First, Colt'l)rooke — tlio groatost orien- 
 talist who has yet lived — when a raenihr of Lord 
 Minto's Council, and then Dr. H. II. Wilson — who, 
 in England, comes only second to him — directed the 
 Parliamentary instructions to t'.ie establishment of 
 another Sanscrit college, this time in Calcutta. The 
 directors' despatch of 3rd June, 1814, Avas all in favour 
 of such orientalism, but, though ignoring English, it 
 deserves the credit of having urged the establishment 
 of a system of vernacular schools, on Bell's principles, 
 from a cess on the land. Had that been attended to as 
 each province w\is added to the empire or settled in its 
 land revenue and tenures, the whole work of national 
 education for which DufF laboured side by side with 
 his English system, as we shall see, might have been 
 done. Instead of either, the public money was so 
 misapplied as to call forth a despatch on the 18th 
 February, 1824, in which James Mill, in the name of 
 the directors, reviewed the fruitless and wasteful past, 
 usino; this lanij^uage : — 
 
 " The great end should noL Lave been to teach Hindoo learn- 
 ii)g, but useful learning. No doubt in teaching useful learning 
 to the Hindoos or Muliammadans, Hindoo media or Muliam- 
 inadan media, so far as they were found the most effectual, 
 would have been proper to be employed, and Hindoo and 
 Muhammadan prejudices would have needed to be consulted, 
 while everything which was useful in Hindoo or Muhammadan 
 literature it would have been proper to retain ; nor would 
 there have been any insuperable difficulty in introducing, 
 under these reservations, a system of instruction from which 
 great advantage might have been derived. In professing, on 
 the other hand, to establish seminaries for the purpose of 
 teaching mere Hindoo or mere Muhammadan literature, you 
 bound yourselves to teach a great deal of what was frivolous, 
 not a little of what was purely mischievous, and a small re- 
 mainder indeed in which utility was in any way concerned. 
 In the new college which is to be instituted, and which we 
 
/Et. 24. THE DIRECTORS CONDEMN THE ORIENTAL COLLECJES. 99 
 
 think you have acted judiciously in placing at Calcutta instead 
 of Nuddoa and Tirhoot as originally sanctioned, it will bo 
 much farther in your power, because not fettered by any pre- 
 ceding practice, to consult the pnuciplo of utility iu the course 
 of study which you nuiy prescribe." 
 
 Threo years later, on tlio 5th September, 1827, tho 
 directors took a stronger position, wlien pointing out 
 that the course of education must not merely " pro- 
 duce a higlier degree of intellectual fitness, but that it 
 will contribute to raise the moral cliaracter of those 
 who partake of its advantages." The writer, charac- 
 teristically, could not find " the best security against 
 desfradinof vices " elsewhere than in " that rational 
 self-esteem " of which his greater son's autobiography 
 gives us such sad glimpses. But that despatch had 
 hardly been discussed and angrily answered by the 
 orientalists around the Governor-General, when Duff 
 gave himself to the life task oi supplying the only 
 motive power which would secure " the last and 
 highest object of education " to the natives of India. 
 
 Fortunately we have his own account of the estab- 
 lishment of the first English college in India, tho 
 Vidyalaya, or Anglo-Indian, or Hindoo College, as 
 given in his evidence before the select committee of 
 the House of Commons previous to the Company's last 
 charter of 1853. The immediate precursor of that 
 movement was the minute of 2nd October, 1815, in 
 which Lord Hastings, declaring his solicitude for the 
 moral and intellectual condition of the natives, pro- 
 jected a system of public instruction, and thereafter 
 visited Serampore to inspect its schools and encour- 
 age its missionaries. The David Hare mentioned was 
 the son of a watchmaker in London, who and whose 
 brothers made a modest fortune in India. 
 
 €t 
 
 The system of English education commenced in the follow- 
 
lOO LIFE OP DR, DUFF. 1830. 
 
 ing very simplo way in Bengal. Tlicre woro two persona who 
 had to do with it,— one was Mr. 13avid Hare, and the other 
 was a native, Rainmohim Roy. In the year 1815 they woro in 
 consultation one evening with a few friends as to what should 
 bo done with a viow to the elevation of the native mind and 
 character. Ilainmohun lioy's proposition was that they should 
 establish an assembly or convocation, in which what aro called 
 the higher or purer dogmas of Vedantism or ancient Hindooism 
 might be taught j in short tho Pantheism of tho Vedas and 
 their Upanishads, but what Ilammohun Roy delighted to call 
 by the more genial title of Monotheism. Mr. David Uaro was 
 a watchmaker in Calcutta, an ordinary illiterate man himself; 
 but being a man of great energy and strong practical sense, 
 he said the plan should be to institute an English school or 
 college for the instruction of native youths. Accordingly ho 
 soon drew up and issued a circular on the subject, which 
 gradually attracted the attention of the leading Europeans, 
 and, among others, of the Chief Justice Sir Hyde East. Being 
 led to consider the proposed measure, he entered heartily into 
 it, and got a meeting of European gentlemen assembled in 
 May, 181G. He invited also some of the influential natives to 
 attend. Then it was unanimously agreed that they should 
 commence an institution for tho teaching of English to tho 
 children of the higher classes, to be designated ' The Hindoo 
 College of Calcutta/ A large joint committee of Europeans 
 and natives was appointed to carry the design into effect. In 
 the beginning of 1817 the college, or rather school, was 
 opened, and it was the very first English seminary in Bengal, 
 or even in India, as far as I know. In the joint committee 
 there was a preponderance of natives, and partly from iieir 
 inexperience and inaptitude, and partly from their absurd 
 prejudices and jealousies, it was not very well managed nor 
 very successful. Indeed, had it not been for the untiring 
 perseverance of Mr. Hare, it would have soon come to an end. 
 The number of pupils enrolled at its first opening was but 
 small — not exceeding twenty — and even all along, for the 
 subsequent five or six years, the number did not rise above 
 sixty or seventy. Then it was, when they were well-nigh in 
 a state of total wreck, and most of the Europeans had retired 
 from the management in disgust, that Mr, Hare and a few 
 others resolved to apply to the Government for help as the only 
 
^':t. 24. THE FIRST ENGLISH SCHOOL IN INDIA. 10 1 
 
 means of savinj? the sinkitif? institution from irretriovnblo ruin. 
 The Govornmeut, when thus appealed to, did come forward and 
 proffer its aid upon certain reasonable terms and conditions ; 
 and it was iu this way that the British Government was first 
 brought into an activo participation in the cause of Euylish 
 education. 
 
 "The Gcvernnient then came forward and said in substance, 
 — *If you will allow us to appoint a duly qualified visitor, so 
 as to give us some control over the course of instruction, wo 
 will help you with a considerable pecuniary granc' But, 
 however equitable the proposal that they, as large subscribers 
 to the funds, should have an iiiilueutial voice iu the manage- 
 ment, such was the blindfold bigc try of the larger moiety of 
 the native committee, that the interposition of the Govern- 
 ment, even in the mild form proposed, was at first very stoutly 
 resisted. At length the sober sense of the smaller moiety 
 prevailed. The first visitor happened to bo Mr. Horace 
 Hayman Wilson, the famous Sanscrit scholar. It was not, 
 perhaps, an appointment altogether congenial to his other 
 pursuits, he being thoroughly wrapped up in Sanscrit and 
 Sanscrit lore of every sort. But still, as his iuQuenco with the 
 natives was deservedly groat, he was appoiuted to the office ; 
 and, as an honourable man, he rigorously resolved to do his 
 duty. He very soon threw new life into tho system, and got 
 it very much improved; the number of pupils soon also g.-eatly 
 increased, so that altogether there was a great deal of zeal 
 manifested, and a considerable degree of success attained. At 
 the same time, so far as the Government were concerned, their 
 views at the outset, with regard to the best mode of communi- 
 cating European literature and science, were somewhat peculiar 
 and contracted ; in other words, their views seemed to be that 
 whatever of European literature and science might be con- 
 veyed to the native mind should be conveyed chiefly through 
 native media, that is to say, the learned languages of India — 
 for the Muhammadans, Arabic and Persian ; and for the Hindoos, 
 Sanscrit. This was the predominant spirit and intent of the 
 British Government." 
 
 The college, which had upwards of a hundred 
 students and an endowment of £15,000 on Duff's 
 arrival, lost all its capital in the commercic'l collapse 
 
I02 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 whicli occurred soon after. Then, too, perished the 
 Calcutta School Society, established about the same 
 time and on the same principles intolerant of Chris- 
 tianity. Its committee had, in 1823, opened an English 
 school as a feeder to the college, >n which it maintained 
 thirty free students out of one hundred and twenty 
 in atteudauce in 1829. The object was the then 
 far-sighted one of encouraging the purely vernacular 
 schools, in which the public subscriptions were more 
 beneficially used, to train their pupils well in Bengalee 
 before drafting them into English classes. But the 
 fifth report of that society, and the official investiga- 
 tions of Mr. Adam soon after, show that there were not 
 more than five thousand native children at school in the 
 whole city of Calcutta when Duff landed. Not more 
 than five hundred of these learned English, and that 
 after the straitest sect of secularists of the Tom Paine 
 stamp. Such was the educational destitution of Cal- 
 cutta, low and high, seventeen years after the Olapham 
 philanthropists had, through Parliament, forced the 
 Court of Directors to promise to educate the natives. 
 
 Outside of Calcutta the few missionaries had made 
 somewhat fitful attempts to use English as the best 
 medium for the conveyance of truth. A Hindoo who 
 was " almost a Christian," Jeynarain Ghosal, in 1814 
 left 20,000 rupees to found that college in Benares which 
 tlif Church Missionary Society still conducts so well. 
 In the same year, at Chinsurah, the London Missionary 
 Society's agent, Mr. May, opened a high school, which 
 received the first grant-in-aid. Helped by Rammohun 
 Roy and Dwarkanath Tagore, Dr. Marshman estab- 
 lished many native schools in 1816 ; but it was in 1818 
 that the great college of the Serampore missionaries 
 was projected to do on the Christian sido what the 
 Calcutta Hindoos were attempting on the purely 
 secular. Ur Happily, that was not in Calcutta. There 
 
yEt. 24. THE WORK OP DESTIIUCI'ION BEGUN. IO3 
 
 sattee, infanticido, and tlio clicking of the dyln;^ with 
 Ganges mud were as common as in the time of 
 its apostate founder, Job Charnock. Mr. G. Pcarce, 
 who landed there three years before Duff, as a mis- 
 sionary of the Baptist society, was even then required 
 to report himself to the police and to make oath that 
 he would behave himself peaceably. Sunday was blot- 
 ted out of the calendar. Caste and idolatry revelled 
 under the protection of the Company. Human sacri- 
 fices and Thug murder by strangling were common. 
 Only four societies, represented by a dozen foreign 
 missionaries, were at work in Calcutta and all Bengal : 
 — the Baptist, the London, the Church, and the Orissa 
 General Baptist. In 1827 there were only nine Baptist 
 and half a dozen Anglican converts in all Calcutta, and 
 of these but a portion were Hindoos, and one had 
 been a Muhammadan. This was the fruit of ten years' 
 labour. 
 
 Thus far the work of destruction had beQ:un, and 
 Hindoo hands hrd been the first to try to pull down 
 their Dagon of falsehood, while Government officials 
 had been active, more or less unconsciously, in prop- 
 ping it up. The Bengalees, beginning to leave even 
 the glimmering and reflected light of natural religion 
 as embodied in the varied concrete of their own 
 system, were groping in the still darker region whero 
 all was doubt, where the old was gone and nothing 
 had taken its place. Who was to arrest the demoral- 
 ization ? Who could so guide the fermenting process 
 as to w^ork into the mass the leaven which is slowly 
 leavening the whole lump ? AVho should begin the 
 work of construction side by side w^itli that of a dis- 
 integration such as even the nihilists of the Hindoo 
 College had not dared to dream of? 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 1830-1831. 
 TEE MINE PBEPABED. 
 
 Preliminary Researches. — DuflF's first Interview with Carey. — They 
 Agree as to the best System of Aggression on Hindooism. — That 
 System confirmed by Experience. — Preparing tne Mine and 
 Setting the Train. — The Bible the Base and Crown of the System. 
 — Why Previous Attempts Failed. — Buchanan's Christian In- 
 stitution in tlie East. — Serampore College. — Bishop's College and 
 Dr. Mill's Sanscrit Christiad. — All Providential Advantages 
 centred in Duff. — His Bengalee Ally, the Raja Rammohun Roy, 
 the Erasmus of Hindooism. — The Brumho Sobha and Dharma 
 Sobha. — Dufi"s Treatment of Rammohun different from that by 
 Dr. Marshman. — The Theist finds for the Christian a School and 
 five Pupils. — The first Day. — The Lord's Prayer and the Gospels 
 in Bengalee. — Opposition of the other Missionaries. — Dufi" teach- 
 ing the English Alphabet. — Contemporaneous teaching of 
 Bengalee and English. — Removes to College Square. — First 
 Public Examination of the School converts all Oppocents. — 
 Branch Institution at Takee. — A new Educational Era in India. — 
 Rev. W. S, Mackay joins Duff. — Letter introducing Rammohun 
 Roy to Dr. Chalmers. — Story of an English Adventurer. — Dufi" 
 the first to teach Political Economy in India. — The Home Com- 
 mittee remonstrate, confounding it with Politics. 
 
 With the exliaustless energy which marked his whole 
 life, Alexander Duff spent the hottest and wettest 
 period of the Bengal year, the six weeks from the 
 end of May to the middle of July, in preliminary in- 
 quiries. From early morning till latest eve he visited 
 every missionary and mission station in and around 
 Calcutta, from the southern villages on the skirts of 
 the malarious Soonderbun forests to the older settle- 
 ments of the Dutch at Chinsurah and the Danes at 
 
ALL 24. BUFF* a FIJiST MEliTINQ WJTH CAREY. IO5 
 
 Serampore, There was not a school which he did not 
 inspect ; not one of those thatched bamboo and wicker- 
 work chapels, in which apostolic men like Lacroix 
 preached night and morning in Bengalee to the passers- 
 by in the crowded thoroughfares of the capital, in which 
 he did not spend hours noting the people and the 
 preaching alike. For he had at once begun that study 
 of the vernacular without which half his knowledge of 
 and sympathy with the natives must have been lost. 
 He was especially careful to visit in detail represen- 
 tative rural villages, that he might satisfy himself and 
 the committee. From such minute investigations, and 
 from frequent conferences with the more experienced 
 men already in the field, h© arrived at two conclu- 
 sions. These were, that Calcutta itself must be the 
 scene of his earliest and principal efforts, from 
 which he could best operate on the interior ; and that 
 the method of his operations must be different from 
 that of all his predecessors in India. 
 
 With one exception the other missionaries discour- 
 aged these two conclusions. He had left to the last 
 the aged Carey, then within three years of the close of 
 the brightest of missionary careers up to that time, in 
 order that he might lay his wh( > case before the man 
 whose apostolic successor he was to be, even as Carey 
 had carried on the continuity from Schwartz and the 
 baptism of the first Protestant convert in 1707. 
 Landing at the college ghaut one sweltering July 
 day, the still ruddy Highlander strode up to the flight 
 of steps that leads to the finest modern building in 
 Asia. Turning to the left, he sought the study of 
 Carey in the house — " built for angels " said one, so 
 simple is it — where the greatest of missionary scholars 
 was still working for India. There he beheld what 
 seemed to be a little yellow old man in a white jacket, 
 who tottered up to the visitor of whom he had already 
 
I06 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830 
 
 often heard, and with outstretched hands solemnly 
 blessed hira, A contemporary soon after wrote thus 
 of the childlike saint — 
 
 " Thou^rt in our hearts — with tresses thin and grey, 
 And eye that knew the Book of Life so well. 
 And brow serene, as thou wci-t wont to stray 
 Amidst thy flowers, like Adam ere he fell." 
 
 The result of the conference was a double blessing, 
 for Carey could speak with the influence at once of a 
 scholar who had created the best college at that time 
 in the country, and of a vernacularist who had preached 
 to the people for half a century. The young Scots- 
 man left his presence with the approval of the one 
 authority whose opinion was best worth having. The 
 meeting, as Duff himself once described it to us, was 
 the beginning of an era in the history of the Church 
 of India which the poet and the painter might well 
 symbolize. 
 
 Though for two years the Kirk's committee han- 
 kered after station in the interior, we may at once 
 dismiss the decision to begin first at Calcutta. But 
 the determination, confirmed by all he had seen 
 and heard, to open an English school, in time to be 
 developed into a college different from any then in 
 existence, and yet only the nucleus of a great spiritual 
 campaign against Hindooism, proved too fruitful in its 
 consequences to be merely stated. 
 
 Duff's object was, in the strength of God and the 
 intensity of a faith that '. irned even more brightly to 
 his dying hour, nothing less than the destruction of a 
 system of beliefs, life, and ancient civilization of the 
 highest type, based on a great literature expressed in 
 the most elaborate language the world has seen. Up 
 to that time, missionaries in the less Hindooized south 
 of India had been at work for more than a century, and 
 
^t. 24. HIS MISSIONARY TOLICY. IO7 
 
 Lad been driven to evangelize the non-Bralimanical 
 tribes. The system remained untouched — nay, re- 
 mains so to the present day, according to the most 
 scholarly authority, Mr. Burnell.* In the coast settle- 
 ments of Eastern and Western India, after some twenty 
 years' labour a few missionaries had detached a few 
 units from the mass by ill-taught vernacular schools 
 generally under heathen masters, and by addressing 
 fluctuating and promiscuous groups in the streets and 
 villages amid the contempt of the learned and the scorn 
 of the respectable classes. Up to that time the converts 
 had not only been few, but their new fuitli liad not 
 been st r-propagating. It had died out with them. 
 Of the hundreds of Kiernander's converts during his 
 long work in Calcutta Simeon's chaplains found hardly 
 a trace, so that the biographer of Thomas, f the surgeon 
 who brought Carey to Bengal, doubts their existence. 
 Of the tens brought over by the evangelical clergy of 
 whom Martyn was the type the earlier missionaries 
 found none. The first fact forced on Duff was, that, as 
 against the Brahmanized Hindoos, the prevailing mis- 
 sionary method had failed both in immediate results and 
 in self-developing power. The logical, if also anti- 
 spiritual conclusion, was undoubtedly that of the Abbe 
 Dubois, who knew no other method — that it was impos- 
 sible to convert the Hindoos, and needless to try. 
 
 Long after that time we have heard the greatest 
 vernacular preacher Bengal has seen, Dufi''s dear friend, 
 Lacroix, confess that during fifty years he did not 
 know that he had been the means of making one 
 convert from Hindooism. And so recently as this 
 year an equally typical missionary to Islam, the Rev. 
 T. P. Hughes, warns us that there is very little, if any, 
 
 * See Academy for Dec. 28fch, 1878, page G04. 
 t The Life of John Thomas, First Baptist Missionary to Bengal, by 
 C. B. Lewis. London, 1873. 
 
Io8 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 analogy between street preaehing in England and in 
 an Indian city. ** There the evangelist stands up not 
 as a recognised religious teacher, and the doctrinal 
 terms he uses will either seem strange to the ears of his 
 listeners, or will convey a meaning totally at variance to 
 the one he wishes to impart. But in private interviews 
 the evangelist stands face to face, eye to eye, and heart 
 to heart with the opponent or the inquirer, and can 
 speak as one fallen sinner should speak to another. 
 There is a chord of sympathy in such meetings which is 
 not to be found in the public market-place, and it needs 
 but the touch of love and the power of God's Spirit to 
 awaken its emotions ! "* Still stronger and yet more 
 sensitive and true is that chord when it is in the heart 
 of ingenuous and grateful youth, and day after day in 
 the class-room, and night after night in the enthusiasm 
 of the lecture-room or in the heavenly contagion of 
 the secret conversation, the miesionary plays upon it 
 with the art of the Master in the synagogue or by the 
 well, and in the oft-frequented places by the sea-shore 
 or on the hill-side. 
 
 We have Duff's own statement of his divine strategy 
 when, ten years afterwards, he told the people of 
 Scotland, " In this way we thought not of individuals 
 merely ; we looked to the masses. Spurning the no- 
 tion of a present day's success, and a present year's 
 wonder, we directed our view not merely to the pre- 
 sent but to future generations." Admitting the pro- 
 priety of the direct policy adopted by his fellow- 
 labourers of every sect in other circumstances, he 
 thus "joyfully hailed" them : "While you engage in 
 directly separating as many precious atoms from the 
 mass as the stubborn resistance to ordinary appliances 
 can admit, tve shallj with the blessing of God^ devote our 
 
 * The Church Missionary Intelligencer for January, 1879. 
 
iEt. 24. THE BIBLE THE CENTRE OF EDUCATIONAL MISSIONS. I09 
 
 time and strength to the preparing of a mine, and the 
 setting of a train which shall one day explode and tear 
 up the whole from its loioest depths^ So Jolm Wilson 
 reasoned on independent grounds, and acted on de- 
 tailed plans adapted to Western India. So, as against 
 the Brahmanical and Muhammadan systems, all tlie 
 Protestant — now the only aggressive — missions in 
 Northern India, have gradually come to do. In this 
 sense, education, saturated with the Bible, became the 
 most evangelical and evangelistic agency ever adopted 
 against the ancient Aryan faiths. 
 
 When reviewing this period in the last weeks of his 
 life, Duff declared that he was resolutely determined 
 on this one thing : Whatever scheme of instruction 
 he might adopt must involve the necessity of read 
 ing some portion of the Bible daily by every class 
 that could read it, and of expounding it to such as 
 could not, with a view to enlightening the understand- 
 ing, spiritually impressing the heart and quickening 
 the conscience, while the teacher prayed, at the same 
 time, that the truth might be brought home, by the 
 grace of the Spirit, for the real conversion to God of 
 at least some of them. As he read Scripture and the 
 history of the Church, he did not expect that all or 
 the majority of these Bengalee youths would certainly 
 be thus turned, for in nominal Christendom he felt 
 that few have been, or are, so changed under the most 
 favourable circumstances. That '* many are called but 
 few chosen,'* however, only quickened his zeal. But 
 he did expect that, if the Bible were thus faithfully 
 taught or preached, some at least would be turned 
 from their idols to serve the living God. 
 
 While religion was thus to be in the forefront, his 
 resolution was, from the first, to teach every variety of 
 useful knowledge, first in elementary forms, and, as the 
 pupils advanced, in the higher branches, which might 
 
no LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 ultimately embrace tlio most advanced and improved 
 studies in history, civil and sacred, sound litera- 
 ture, logic, mental and moral pliilosopliy after the 
 Baconian method, mathematics in all departments, 
 with natural history, natural philosopliy and other 
 sciences. In short, the design of the first of Scot- 
 tish missionaries was to lay the foundation of a system 
 of education which might ultimately embrace all the 
 branches ordinarily taught in the higher schools and 
 colleges of Christian Europe, but in inseparable com- 
 bination with the Christian faith and its doctrines, 
 precepts and evidences, with a view to the practical 
 regulation of life and conduct. Religion was thus 
 intended to be, not merely the foundation upon 
 which the superstructure of all useful knowledge was 
 to be reared, but the animating spirit which ivas to 
 pervade and hallow all^ and thus conduce to the 
 highest welfare of man in time and for eternity, as 
 well as to the glory of God. These sentiments he was 
 wont to inculcate in the case of all whom he consulted 
 on the subject at that time. All truth, directed by 
 the two-edged sword of the Yery word of God, was 
 that which was to pierce to the vitals of Brahman- 
 ism, save the Hindoo people, and make them in- 
 struments of truth to the rest of Asia, even more 
 widely than their Buddhist fathers had sought to be. 
 
 Wherein did this differ from previous attempts? 
 "When, on the 24th June, 1806, Dr. Claudius Buchanan, 
 fruit of the Cambuslang revival, looked back on the 
 horrors of Jugganath worship from an eminence on 
 the pleasant banks of the Chilka Lake, he projected 
 *' xhe Christian Institution in the East," which, " being 
 fostered by Britain, my Christian country, might grad- 
 ually undermine this baleful idolatry, and put out the 
 merftory of it for ever." This was to be a catholic col- 
 lege for translating the Bible into the oriental tongues 
 
JEt. 2^. FAILURU OF PREVIOUS COLLEGES. Ill 
 
 by planting a professor in every province with a lan- 
 guage and literature of its own, to report on both and 
 to teach the natives printing. So far as that was not 
 premature, it was being done by the immortal three of 
 Serampore, who refused to impede their own organ- 
 ization by this untried project. Buchanan thereupon 
 turned himself to the creation of the ecclesiastical estab- 
 lishment of a bishop, three archdeacons, and more 
 numerous chaplains. Just as Buchanan had looked to 
 Jews and Armenians as his best missionaries, the men 
 who made the great stride of establishing the Seram- 
 pore College depended on Eurasians or Christians 
 born in the country. Nobly did their agents work, 
 from Ava to Peshawur ; but here; too, there was no 
 self -development in the system. The distance of tlio 
 college from Calcutta shut it out "rom taking its place 
 as the counteractive of the false philosophy and im- 
 pure literature taught by the Hindoo College. 
 
 When ecclesiastical rivalry stirred up Bishop Middle- 
 ton to erect of his college, he made the same mistake. 
 He pictured a second grove of Academe, in which — 
 that is, in the neighbouring avenues of the Botanic Gar- 
 den — the professors and students would walk, but he 
 left the sweltering class-rooms and debating societies 
 of the Chitpore quarter of Calcutta to atheism and 
 Voltaire. Hence, the only good fruit of the vast ex- 
 pense lavished to this day on Bishop's College has 
 been the Christa Sangita, the Christian epic in Sans- 
 crit of the learned Dr. Mill, its first principal. What 
 one of the early missionaries, who shared the dream, 
 wrote in 1844 is still true : *' Sure I am, that if sainted 
 spirits can weep. Bishop Middleton is now weeping iu 
 heaven over the idol of his heart."* Men make sys- 
 
 * Sketches of Christianity in North India, by tho Rev. M. Wilkin- 
 son. London, 1844. 
 
112 LIFE OP DR. DUFF, 1830. 
 
 tems, and some men can work in spito of systems 
 doomed to failure. Duff might have in time trans- 
 formed even Bishop's College, for its two fundamental 
 objects were to raise native preachers and teachers, 
 and to teach " the elements of useful knowledge and 
 the English language to Muhammadans and Hindoos." 
 But it was more than a fortunate, it was a directly 
 providential combination of circumstances, which cul- 
 minated in the Scottish evangelization of the Hindoos 
 by education. These were, the sermon of Dr. Inglis in 
 1818 ; the call of Alexander Duff in 1828 ; his wise 
 independence and his wiser disobedience of the only 
 command laid upon him ; his unrivalled educational 
 experience as well as spiritual energy ; the revolution 
 in belief and opinion begun by the Hindoo College ; the 
 official toleration and personal friendship shown by 
 the Governor-General ; and, lastly, that to which we 
 now come, the help of the one Hindoo whom English 
 teaching had led to find the living God. 
 
 In a pleasant garden house in the leafy suburbs of 
 Calcutta, the Raja Rammohun Roy, then fifty-six years 
 of age, was spending his declining days in earnest 
 meditation on divine truth, broken only by works of 
 practical benevolence among his countrymen, and soon 
 by preparations for that visit to England, where, in 
 1834, he yielded to the uncongenial climate. " You 
 must at once visit the Raja," said General Beatson, 
 when Mr. Duff presented his letter of introduction, 
 " and I will drive you out on an early evening." 
 Save by Duff himself afterwards, justice has never 
 been done to this Hindoo reformer, this Erasmus of 
 India. He was early misunderstood by the Serampore 
 missionaries in his own country, and he was thus 
 driven into the arms of the Unitarians when he was 
 lionized in Great Britain. Had the truth-seeking 
 Bengalee and the Scottish apostle met when the 
 
i^t. 24. THE YOUNO ItAMilOUUN ROY. II3 
 
 former was yet young, Eastern and Northern India 
 might have been brought to Christ by a Bengalee 
 Luther, greater than their own Chaitunya, instead of 
 their more earnest youth being kept from Ilim by the 
 Vedic dreams of the Brumho Sobha, and now by the 
 vaguG ethical naturahsm of its successor, the Brumho 
 Somaj. 
 
 At the close of the administration of Warren 
 Hastings, when the bleached bones of the victims 
 of the great famine were beginning to disappear, in 
 1774, a Brahman landholder and his most orthodox 
 wife had a son born to them on the ancestral estate 
 in the county of Burdwan, some fifty miles from the 
 English capital of Calcutta. Rammoliun Roy's father 
 had retired in disgust from the service of the 
 tyrant, Sooraj-ood-Dowla; his predecessors had been 
 holy ascetics or sacerdotal lords, till the intolerant 
 Aurungzeb forced one of them to take office at court. 
 Their spirit, withdrawing from worldly wealth and 
 distinction, came out in the young Rammohun, who, 
 though trained in all the asceticism of his mother's 
 breviary, the "Ahnika Tattina," renounced idolatry at 
 the age of sixteen, when he wrote but did not pub- 
 lish an attack on " the idolatrous system of the Hin- 
 doos." That is, he gave up his father's love, his 
 mother's care and his rights of inheritance, and he 
 braved the loss of caste and the persecution of his 
 friends. To this he had been led by too intimate a 
 knowledge of the Bengalee and Sanscrit literature, in 
 his own home, followed by a course of Arabic and Per- 
 sian at Patna, and by the study of Muhammadanism. 
 From Patna the young and truth-loving theist went 
 to Benares, where he learned that the Brahmanism 
 of his day was a corruption of what seemed to him 
 the monotheism which underlay the nature-worship of 
 the Vedas. Captivated for a time by philosophic 
 
 I 
 
ri4 tilFE OP DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 Buddliism, he visited Tibet, where its practical Lamaio 
 form disgusted him. Recalled by his father, ho tried 
 to influence tho old man who died in 1803, and ho so 
 succeeded in convincing his motlier of the folly of her 
 life-long austerities that she confessed her disbelief in 
 Hindooism before her death. But he had no Divino 
 Saviour to reveal to her. The widow died in the service 
 of the idol Jugganath at Pooree, having declared before 
 she set out on the hideous pilgrimage : " Ramtnohun, 
 you are right, but I am a weak woman, and am grown 
 too old to give up rites which are a comfort to me." 
 
 In a brief autobiograpliy which ho wrote in England, 
 he states that ho was about twenty when ho began to 
 associate with Europeans. *' Finding them generally 
 more intelligent, more steady and moderate in their 
 conduct, I gave up my prejudice against them and 
 became inclined in their favour, feeling persuaded that 
 their rule, though a foreign yoke, would lead more 
 speedily 8,nd surely to tho amelioration of the native 
 inhabitants." 
 
 Seeking a livelihood in the service of the English, 
 as his fathers had done in that of the Delhi emperors 
 and their Bengal lieutenant-governors, Rammohun 
 Roy became an example of rectitude to the corrupt 
 native officials who made our name detested, and he 
 won the friendship of his British superiors. At fifty 
 he retired to philosophic ease and spiritual meditation, 
 and became the centre of the Calcutta reformers. But 
 he was far ahead of his timid contemporaries, who 
 while approving the better followed the worse. The 
 English language had introduced him to the English 
 Bible, and the necessity of mastering that led him to 
 the original Hebrew and Greek. It was all eclecticism 
 at first, tor he admired in the law of the Old and the 
 gospel of the New Testament only the same doctrine 
 of the Adwaita or unity of God, which he had held 
 
yEt. 24. TUB BAUIili;!: VLiDANTIC WOUSIIir. II5 
 
 up to his Hindoo and Muliammadan coimtrymon as 
 the toacliiii;^ of tlio Upanisliads and tlio Mosnavi, till 
 they denounced liirn as na.'ttik or atheist. Of this time 
 he afterwards wrote : — " Tliis roused such a feehuGT 
 against me, tluit I was at hist deserted by every person 
 except two or three Scotch friends, to whom and the 
 nation to wliich they belong I always feel grateful." 
 
 In the very year, ISII-, in Avhich ho took up his 
 residence in Calcutta, he opened the Brumho Sobha, 
 in order to teach and to practise the worship of ono 
 supremo undivided and eternal God. At first in his 
 own house, and then in the thoroughfare of Chitporo 
 road, he and his pundits expounded in the vernacular 
 the purer teaching of the Vedas, once a week, but on 
 each day of the week in rotation in seven years. They 
 sang hymns to the sound of drum (tohlah) and cym- 
 bals, (momiccrf), guitar {tomhiwn) and violoncello {beci' 
 Za/i), such as this: "Ail is vain without the blessing 
 of God. Remember Ilim Who can deprive you of 
 wife, children, friends, relatives and wealth. He is 
 the Supreme, separate from the triune deity (Bruniha, 
 Yishnoo and Siva) ; to Him belong no titles or dis- 
 tinctions. J. is written : * Blessed is he whoso soul 
 dwellcth on Him.' " Again : ** Thine own soul is 
 thine only refuge ; seek to cherish it in its proper 
 abode composed of five elemer^i, and guided by six 
 passions. Why dost thou distrust thine own soul ? 
 . . God dwelleth even in thine own heart." Christ 
 was shut out from Rammohun Roy by inability or un- 
 willingness to believe His own revelation of the Father 
 and promise of the Spirit. But he set Him, as a 
 practical teacher, far above all others, when, in 1820, 
 he published anonymously that chrestomathy of the 
 synoptic Gospels which he termed, " The Precepts of 
 Jesus the Guide to Peace and Happiness." 
 
 His attitude to Brahmanism was still that of Erasmus 
 
Il6 LIFE OF DR. DUFF, 1830. 
 
 towards Roinanism. He believed lie could purify the 
 popular religion of its " perversion " while falling back 
 on its early purity. His attacks on idolatry, his decla- 
 ration of the equality of all living creatures, without 
 distinction of caste, rank, or wealth, under the moral 
 government of God, and of their duty to worship Him 
 according to the most sacred mysteries of the Veds, 
 roused at once the superstitious fear and the aristo- 
 cratic selfishness of the orthodox families. They met 
 the Brumho Sobha by instituting the Dharma Soblia, 
 to uphold Brahmanism and all its consequences, such 
 as suttee and the denial of civil and religious liberty, 
 of property and marriage to dissidents from idolatry. 
 Thus Hindoo society became divided iuto opposing 
 camps, while the Hindoo College youths formed a third 
 entrenchment in support of pure atheism and libertin- 
 ism. These were the three powers at work, unconnected 
 by any agency save the slow and indirect influence of 
 English literature in the hands of vicious teachers, un- 
 opposed by Christianity in any form, denounced at 
 a distance, and not once fairly grappled with by any 
 Christian man, from the Bishop to the Baptist mission- 
 aries, who had been telegraphed from the Sandheads as 
 "papists" requiring the special attention of the police. 
 The Serampore missionaries, indeed, had taken a part 
 in the conflict, and their quarterly Friend of India had 
 given voice to Christ's teaching on all subjects, human 
 and divine. But they were not on the spot ; and, as 
 we shall see, they made the mistake of fighting 
 Eamraohun Roy instead of first using him as an ally 
 against the common foe, and then educating him up 
 to the revealed standard. If Eammohun Roy had 
 found Christ, what a revolution there would have been 
 in Bengal ! But God works by His own method, and He 
 Bent Alexander DufF to its people and its government, 
 when He had thus prepared the Hindoo to help him. 
 
^Et. 24. EAMMOHUN EOY's SUPPORT. II7 
 
 Having listened to the young Scotsman's statement 
 of his objects and plans, Rammohun Roy expressed 
 general approval. All true education, the reformer 
 emphatically declared, ought to be religious, since the 
 object was not merely to give information, but to 
 develop and regulate all the powers of the mind, the 
 emotions of the heart, and the workings of the con- 
 science. Though himself not a Christian by profession 
 he had read and studied the Bible, and declared that, 
 as a book of reliirious and moral instruction it was 
 unequalled. As a believer in God he also felt that 
 everything should be begun by imploring His blessing. 
 He therefore approved of the opening of the proposed 
 school with prayer to God. Then, of his own accord, 
 he added that, having studied the Vedas, the Koran 
 and the Tripitakas of the Buddhists, he nowhere found 
 any prayer so brief and all-comprehensive as that 
 which Christians called the Lord's Prayer. Till, there- 
 fore, Mr. Duff had sufficiently mastered the Bengalee 
 and his pupils the English, he recommended him to 
 study and daily use the Lord's Prayer in the Ben- 
 galee or English, according to circumstances. But he 
 entirely approved of using the English language, and 
 not the Bengalee, Persian, Arabic or Sanscrit, for con- 
 veying sound European knowledge. This led him also 
 to remark that he entirely disapproved of Government 
 having established a new Sanscrit college in Calcutta, 
 against which, at the time of its establishment, he 
 solemnly protested, on the ground that instead of 
 thereby enlightening the native mind according to the 
 intention of the British Parliament, the authorities 
 were confirming it in error and prejudice, and rivet- 
 ing upon it the chains of darkness. He declared of 
 the Indian Government that it had acted just as if 
 the English Government, professing to enlighten the 
 natives of the British Isles, instead of setting up a 
 
Il8 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 school or college for improved literature, science, and 
 philosophy, had established a great semiuary for the 
 teaching of all the scholastic, legendary, and other 
 absurdities of the middle ages. 
 
 " As a youth," he said to Mr. Duff, " I acquired some 
 knowledge of the English language. Having read 
 about the rise and progress of Christianity in apostolic 
 times, and its corruptions in the succeeding ages, 
 and then of the Christian Reformation which shook off 
 these corruptions and restored it to its primitive purity, 
 I began to think tliat something similar might have 
 taken place in India, and similar results might follow 
 here from a reformation of the popular idolatry." 
 Till his study of the Gospels, Rammohun Roy nad not 
 distinguished between the one universal entity of Pan- 
 theism and the personal and supreme God of Theism. 
 When he engaged the Baptist missionary, Mr. Adam, to 
 teach him Greek and Hebrew, he so shook his tutor's 
 faith in the revealed Trinity of Scripture that the 
 Christian relinquished his office, became Editor of the 
 India Gazette^ and was generally known in Calcutta 
 as ** the second fallen Adam." Then came the contro- 
 versy "with Serampore. Christ had drawn Rammohun 
 so far as to a personal God in the Christian sense. 
 Had he, at this stage, fallen into the hands of' a theo- 
 logian of comprehensive views and wide sympathies 
 with inquirers struggling to ascertain truth, especially 
 religious truth, in its highest forms, he might have 
 been led to realize, not merely the perfect humanity 
 but the Divinity of Christ as set forth in the Scrip- 
 tures, and on their divine authority. Though the 
 nature of the incarnation and of the Trinity was incom- 
 p^ ehensible to finite and spiritually blinded reason, the 
 facts might have been believed oH sufficient authority. 
 
 It so happened that one of the Serampore mission- 
 aries took him up rather sharply from the title of his 
 
ALL 24. RAJA UAMMOllLFN ROYS CllUlSl'lANnT. 1 I9 
 
 pamphlefc, *' The Precepts of Jesus the Guide to Hap- 
 piness," wliicli seemed to imply that moral precepts 
 alone are sufficient to attain to supreme felicity. This 
 was exposed as a system of mere legalism. Had 
 Ranimohun Roy been an orthodox Christian, and, re- 
 linquishing orthodoxy, he had come to profess theism 
 and published such a treatise with such a title, it 
 would indubitably have been a sign of his falling from 
 the truth. But it was overlooked that he had been 
 born and brought up an idolater, so that to renounce 
 polytheism in all its forms, and attain to a clear belief 
 in the existence of one God, Creator of all things, 
 was an evidence of his having made considerable 
 strides upwards towards the attainment of truth. This 
 provoked him to publish an elaborate reply, which 
 again called forth a rejoinder, and that another from 
 him, so that the controversy became bitter, and he was 
 kept back from the higher doctrines of uhe Christian 
 faith. Such was his attitude towards Christianity when 
 Mr. Duff first made his acquaintance ; but he never lost 
 his extreme veneration for the character of Jesus Christ, 
 and his admiration of the supreme purity and subli- 
 mity of His moral teachings. Subsequently Mr. Duff 
 and he had many earnest and solemn discussions on 
 the subject. The testimony of John Foster shows that 
 this remarkable Hindoo died believing in the divinity 
 of the mission of Jesus Christ, including His miracles, 
 but had not attained to an assurance of the deity of 
 His person. 
 
 Greatly cheered by the emphatic concurrence of 
 E-ammohun Roy, Mr. Duff said the real difficulty now 
 was, where, or how, to get a hall in the native city 
 in which to commence operations; for the natives, 
 owing to caste prejuTlices, were absolutely averse to 
 letting any of their houses to a European for PJuropean 
 purposes. Then, if a suitable place could be got, how 
 
I20 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 could youths of tlio respectable classes be induced to 
 attend, since lie was resolved to teacli the Bible in every 
 class, and he was told that this would constitute an 
 insuperable objection. For, at that early period, the 
 ignorant Hindoos regarded the Bible with something 
 like loathing and hatred, as the great antagonist of 
 their Shasters ; they were also actuated by the super- 
 stitious belief that to take the Bible into their hands, 
 and read any portion of it, would operate upon them 
 like a magical spell, forcing them to become Christians. 
 Rammohun Roy at once offered the small hall of the 
 Brumho Soblia, in tlie Chitpore road, for which he 
 had been paying to the five Brahman owners five 
 pounds a month of rental. The few worshippers were 
 about to use a new building which he had himself 
 erected before leaving for England, with the honour 
 of Raja, on a mission from the titular Emperor of 
 Delhi to represent certain complaints against the East 
 India Company. As to pupils, his personal friends 
 were sufficiently free from prejudice to send their sons 
 at his request. Driving at once to the spot, the gener- 
 ous Hindoo reformer secured the hall for the Christian 
 missionary from Scotland at four pounds a month ; the 
 liberal Dwarkanath Tagore, who also afterwards died in 
 England, being one of the five proprietors. Point- 
 ing to a punkah suspended from the roof, Rammohun 
 said with a smile, " I leave you that as my legacy." 
 
 After a few days five bright-eyed youths of the 
 higher class, mostly Brahmanical, called upon Mr. Duff, 
 at Dr. Brown's where he still resided, with a note of 
 introduction from Rammohun Roy stating that these 
 five, with the full consent of their friends, were ready 
 to attend him whenever he might open the school. One 
 of these, a Koolin named Khettwr Mohun Chatterjee, 
 turned out a first-rate scholar, entered the Govern- 
 ment service, and attained to one of the highest 
 
JEt. 24. THE FIRST DAY OF DUFF's COLLEGE. 121 
 
 offices whicli a native could then hold. He was long 
 greatly respected and trusted for his intelligence and 
 intecrritv. Havino: met in the hall with the iive 
 on a day appointed, by the aid of an interpreter 
 Mr. Duff explained to thoin, in a general way, his in- 
 tentions and plans. They seemed highly delighted, 
 and went away resolved to explain the matter to 
 their friends. In a day or two several new youths 
 appeared along with them, requesting admission. 
 On every successive morning there was a fresh suc- 
 cession of applicants, till classification and weeding 
 out became necessary. When that had been done, 
 a day was fixed for the public opening of the school, 
 at ten a.m., when Rammohun Roy was present to ex- 
 plain difficulties, and especially to remove the prejudice 
 against reading the Bible. The eventful day was the 
 13th of July, 1830. 
 
 Having been meanwhile busy with Bengalee, having 
 obtained from the Bible Society's depository copies 
 of the four Gospels in Bengalee and English, and 
 having borrowed some English primers from the 
 Eurasian teacher of an adventure school, Mr. Duff was 
 ready. Standing up with Rammohun Roy, while all the 
 lads showed the same respect as their own Raja, the 
 Christian missionary prayed the Lord's Prayer slowly 
 in Bengalee. A sight, an hour, ever to be remem- 
 bered ! Then came the more critical act. Himself 
 putting a copy of the Gospels into their hands, 
 the missionary requested some of the older pupils 
 to read. Thor^ was murmuring among the Brah- 
 mans among them, and this found voice in the 
 Bengalee protest of a leader — " This is the Christian 
 Shaster. We are not Christians ; how then can we read 
 it ? It may make us , Christians, and our friends will 
 drive us out of caste." Now was the time for Ram- 
 mohun Roy, who explained to his young countrymen 
 
122 LIFE OF DR. DUFP. 1830. 
 
 that they were mistaken. " Christians, like Dr. Horace 
 Hayman Wilson, have studied the Hindoo Shasters, 
 and you know that he has not become a Hindoo. I 
 myself have read all the Koran again and again, and 
 has that made me a Mussulman ? Nay, I have 
 studied the whole Bible, and you know I am not a 
 Christian. Why, then, do you fear to read it ? Read 
 and judge for yourself. Not compulsion, but enlight- 
 ened persuasion which you may resist if you choose, 
 constitutes you yourselves judges of the contents of 
 the book." Most of the remonstrants seemed satisfied. 
 Daily for the next month did the Hindoo reformer 
 visit the school at ten for the Bible lesson, and fre- 
 quently thereafter till he left for England, when his 
 eldest son continued to encourage the boys by his 
 presence and their teacher by his kindly counsel. But 
 all the Christian missionaries kept aloof when they 
 did not expostulate with the young teacher, whoso 
 weapon of English seemed to them as unbiblical as 
 his alliance with the author of " The Precepts of 
 Jesus " was unholy. In vain did Duff reiterate to 
 them his leading object, which was, by proper culture, 
 to awaken, develop, stimulate and direct the various 
 powers and susceptibilities of the human mind, and 
 for this end to employ the English language as the 
 most effective instrument ; to imbue the whole know- 
 ledge thus imparted with the spirit of true religion ; 
 and at the same time to devote daily a portion of time 
 in every class to the systematic study of the Bible 
 itself — not in the way of formal scholastic exercise, 
 but of devotional and instructive study, not merely 
 with a view to intellectual illumination but with a view 
 also, by the advocacy of the grace of God's Spirit, to 
 the conversion of the soul to God. It was vain for 
 him thus to show that if what is ordinarily called 
 secular useful knowledge should be largely commuui- 
 
JEt. 24. OPPOSITION OF THE EARLY MISSIONARIES. 1 23 
 
 cated. that would be in inseparable alliance with divine 
 truth. It was vain for him to state that he not only 
 did not disapprove, but on the contrary wholly approved 
 of tlioir modes of operation, as probably the only means 
 which at an early stage could be practised. In the then 
 Imckward state of things these, ho said, were carried on 
 under great disadvantages and consequently compara- 
 tive ineflQciency ; still, as progress advanced, the time 
 might come when they could be worked more effec- 
 tively, therefore his own intention was to master tho 
 vernacular language with a view to usefulness in vari- 
 ous forms through that medium. It was vain for him 
 to explain that while the English language would thus 
 be used as the channel of conveying all higher and im- 
 proved knowledge, he was determined that the vernac- 
 ular should be thoroughly taught to the pupils at the 
 same time, as a channel of distribution for the masses. 
 The other missionaries constantly harped on this fact, 
 that many of the low natives in Calcutta sought a smat- 
 tering of English only to carry on dealings with the 
 sailors, whom they allured to low taverns, there to 
 revel in all manner of wickedness, contriving at tho 
 same time to rob them of what money they possessed, 
 and often even stripping them of their clothes, and 
 throwing them into the street to be taken up by the 
 police. English had thus come to be in bad odour with 
 the early missionaries, as regarded these low caste 
 natives on the one hand, and its apparent effect in 
 leading the children of the better class natives into the 
 wildest infidelity. 
 
 With :'egard to the natives who wished to learn 
 English for such purposes, Mr. Duff's reply was that, 
 even on the low ground of the principles of political 
 economy, he would soon by th^ multiplication of these 
 overstock the market, and make it necessary for those 
 who wished to obtain better positions to remain longer 
 
124 ^^^^ t)F DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 at scliool, SO as to gain a liiglior degree of knowledge, 
 wliich might not only enlarge the intellect but regu- 
 late the morals and manners. With regard to the 
 children of the higher classes, his trust was that the 
 thorough inculcation of God's word, with prayer, 
 would have the effect of preventing them from becom- 
 ing utter unbelievers or atheists, and in all respects 
 make them better men and members of society, even if 
 they did not outwardly and formally embrace the 
 Christian faith. On the evening before the day of 
 opening the school, one of the missionaries, who had 
 become his dearest friend, came to his house vehe- 
 mently to expostulate with him at the eleventh hour. 
 When his friend saw that he could make no impression 
 on the far-seoing Scotsman, he rose, and, shaking him 
 by the hand, looked imploringly in his face, saying 
 that he was sorely grieved that his coming to India 
 might, by the course he intended to pursue, prove a 
 curse rather than a blessing. The simple remonstrant 
 exclaimed, as a parting shot, "You will deluge Cal- 
 cutta with rogues and villains." 
 
 The school thus fairly started, let us look at its 
 founder at work. The student who had passed out 
 of St. Andrews University its first scholar, its most 
 brilliant essayist, its most eloquent debater; the 
 preacher whose fervent utterances had thrilled the 
 coldest assemblies by addresses which promised a rival 
 to Chalmers himself, and were afterwards hardly ex- 
 celled by Edward Irving's ; the man who had been 
 the stay and the counsellor of all on board the two 
 wrecked vessels, is doing — what ? Destitute of assis- 
 tants, save an untrained Eurasian lad, and despised 
 by his brother missionaries, he is spending six hours 
 a day in teaching some three hundred Bengalee youths 
 the English alphabet, and many an hour at night in 
 preparing a series of graduated school-books, named 
 
ALl 24. WIIITINO PRIMERS AND TEACniNQ TUE ALl'UADET. I 25 
 
 *' Instructors," which held their place in every Chris- 
 tian English school in Bengal for the tliird of a 
 century. Men, wise in their own narrow sphere and 
 unable to conipreliend, because unwilling to study, 
 circumstances so dillerent as those of the educated 
 Hindoos, ask if tlie powers of a minister of the gospel 
 are to be degraded by such work? Yet without tluit 
 sowing of seed the great tree would still have to be 
 planted. Without tliat humility. Duff wojild have 
 been like the average of his fellows, whoso incon- 
 derate short-sightedness was soon turned into admir- 
 ation and then imitation. It was the genius of 
 Duff, sanctified by the purest self-sacrifice, that led 
 him to begin thus, as his Master taught, in the spirit 
 of a little child. 
 
 His school-books were constructed on a system. 
 The first contained lessons on interesting common 
 subjects, in which the pupils might be drilled not 
 only in reading but in grammatical and other exer- 
 cises. The second consisted of religious lesions, 
 taken for the most part from the Jiiblo itself, — 
 especially the historical portions, and put into forms 
 adapted to the opening intelligence of the youth. 
 These were carefully read, expounded and enforced 
 on the understanding, heart and conscience, as purely 
 reliffious exercises, without reference to • construing 
 which would only desecrate the subject matter. 
 
 As to the English alphabet, which most of the pupils 
 had to begin for the first time, Dufif devised a plan for 
 teaching a large number simultaneously. He got a 
 board supported by an upi ight frame, and along the 
 board a series of parallel grooves. He then got the 
 letters of the English alphabet painted on separate 
 slips of wood. Around this upright frame a large 
 class was arranged in a semi-circle. The first letter 
 with which he uniformly began was the letter "0,'* 
 
126 ITFB OP DE. DUFF. 1 830. 
 
 because of the simplicity of its form and sound, and 
 because the sound and the name are the same, as is 
 the case in Sanscrit and Sanscrit-derived vernacuLirs. 
 When this letter was thoroughly mastered, whicli was 
 soon done, the next letter which he usually put into 
 one of the grooves was " X." Ho would then 
 bring the two letters together, and pronouncing 
 them would say, " 0, X, 0,i'" lie then would tell 
 the pupils that this was the name in English for an 
 animal with which they were all well acquainted, and 
 would give them the corresponding word in Bengalee. 
 This always delighted them, as they said they not 
 only knew two letters of the English alphabet, but 
 had already got hold of an English word. So over- 
 joyed they were at this, that when they went out 
 into the street, and met an ox pulling a native cart 
 (which they were sure soon to do), they went along 
 gleefully shouting at the top of their voice, " Ox, 
 Ox." But the new missionarv was not satisfied 
 with giving the Bengalee or the English word. He 
 began to question the boys as to the properties 
 and the uses of the objects, or different parts of the 
 objects, whicli the word represented. This exercise 
 always delighted them, for it was fitted to draw 
 out what information they already possessed, and to 
 stimulate the powers of observation. In this way 
 the intellect was fairly awakened, and the boys de- 
 lighted in thinking that they had acquired something 
 like a now power or faculty. In a word, they had 
 become thinking beings. The same process of minute 
 interrogation was carried on in all the classes. The 
 boys, in their exuberance of delight, would be con- 
 stantly speaking of it to their friends at home, to the 
 pupils of other schools, and to acquaintances whom 
 they might meet in the street. In this way, as well 
 as for other reasons, the school soon acquired an ex- 
 
M. 24. THE INTELLECTUAL METHOD OF TEACHING. 1 27 
 
 tensive popularity among the native community, and 
 the pressure for admission increased fur beyond what 
 tlie little hall could accommodate. In the face of the 
 old mechanical and monotonous style of teaching then 
 universally prevalent, this method was felt to be a real 
 novelty. In the course of time it led others, so far 
 as they could, to imitation, so that ere long the new 
 system was fairly initiated in most of the Calcutta 
 and in many of the Bengal schools.* 
 
 Wo have DufTs own account of the genesis of his 
 educational system, given to the students who had 
 been made by it all they became the third of a century 
 afterwards, when he was bidding them farewell. Ilis 
 method was the same to which John Wilson was led in 
 Bombay. '* A passage in the introduction to the cele- 
 brated Lectures on Mental Philosophy by the late Dr. 
 Thomas Brown, the successor of the famous Dugald 
 Stewart, relative to Education being, when properly 
 conducted, the grandest practical application of mental 
 science, first drew my attention, theoretically, while 
 yet a student, to the real philosophical basis of a sound 
 and enlightened education. A personal inspection, at a 
 much later period, of the Edinburgh Sessional School, 
 then, in the absence of Normal schools, the most re- 
 nowned in the kingdom, showed me what the intel- 
 lectual and interrogatory system of education might 
 and ought to be in practice. With adaptations and 
 modifications specially suited to the peculiar circum- 
 stances of India as it then was, this was essentially 
 the system introduced and wrought out, from the 
 very first day on which our school was opened." 
 
 • A similar process was going on in Scotland where Dr. Andrew 
 Thomson condescended to the same humble but then necessary task 
 of primer- writing, alphabet-teaching and map- illustration, and 
 trained Mr. Thomas Oliphant to make English education what it 
 has since become in Edinburgh and iu Glasgow. 
 
128 LIFE OP DTI. DUFF. 18301 
 
 Increased accommodation was secured, and the next 
 step was taken. The decree went forth that nono 
 would bo allowed to begin English who could not read 
 with ease their own vernacular. The purely Bengale."* 
 department was then created, in a bamboo shed with 
 tiled roof erected in the back court. Under pundits 
 carefully supervised by the missionaries, that has ever 
 since formed an essential part of the organization. 
 But, for the first time in Bengal, the English-learning 
 classes also were required to attend it for an hour 
 daily. This contemporaneous study had two results of 
 vast national importance, — it tended to the enriching 
 of the vernacular language with words, and the then 
 barren literature with pure and often spiritual ideas. 
 This system developed into that study of Sanscrit 
 which, in due time, the University was enabled to in- 
 sist on in even its undergraduate examinations, with 
 the happiest effects on both the language and the litera- 
 ture. Thus, too, Mr. Duff carried on his own Bengalee 
 studies, the rivalry between teacher and taught, and 
 the marvellous aptitude of the taught, adding to his 
 one over-mastering motive a keen intellectu 1 stimulus. 
 That could not be drudgery which was thus conducted, 
 and was in reality the laying of the foundations of 
 the Church of India broad and deep in the very mind 
 and conscience of each new generation. 
 
 Thus the first twelve months passed. The school 
 became famous in the native city ; the missionary had 
 come to be loved with that mixture of affection and ' 
 awe which his lofty enthusiasm and scorn of ineffi- 
 ciency ever excited in the Oriental ; and the opposition 
 of his own still ignorant brethren was not abated. For 
 this was no gourd to grow in a night and perish in 
 a night; and till vulgar success comes commonplace 
 people do not perceive the gifts of others, as Pascal 
 remarks. Duff now resolved that he must live as well 
 
yEt. 24. IN COLLEGE SQUAIJB. I 29 
 
 as work in tlio very midsfc of the natives, and bo in 
 hourly contact with thorn in tlio street as well as in 
 his own house. No European had ever before resided 
 there, uor was any Hindoo prepared to let a house to 
 one who would pollute it hy tho consumption of beef, 
 and cast an evil spell on the neighbourhood. Many 
 a week passed in fruitless endeavours to find an 
 abode, when a two-storied tenement, uninhabited for 
 twelve years because of tho belief that it was haunted, 
 was with much entreaty obtained in College Square. 
 The locality, fronting the Hindoo and Sanscrit 
 Colleges, wos so central, that it was long afterwards 
 secured by Mr. Barton for the Cathedral Mission 
 College, and the Medical College and University have 
 been built on the third side of the square. Up to this 
 time ho had lived to the south, on the same line of 
 road, in Wellesley Square, fronting the Muharamadan 
 College and close to the site of the future Free 
 Church building. He thus fairly planted himself in 
 the citadel of the enemy, and he was driven from 
 it to another quarter only by the unhealthiness ot 
 the house. He subsequently built his first college, 
 still known as the General Assembly's Institution of 
 the Established Church of Scotland, and his own 
 dwelling-place — succeeded, after 1813, by another 
 close by — in Cornwallis Square, to the north. 
 
 Despairing of inducing the European community to 
 follow him, in order to test the results of his first 
 year's labour he announced the examination of his 
 pupils in the Freemasons' Hall. To remove the pre- 
 judice that his work was low and fanatical, he secured 
 Archdeacon Corrie as president on the occasion. It 
 was an experiment, but Mr. Duff" felt confident that the 
 pupils would so acquit themselves as to recommend 
 the school and its system. In this he was not disap- 
 pointed. The reading of the boys ; their acquaintance 
 
130 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 witli tlie elements of Englisli grammar, geograpliy and 
 aritliraotic ; the manner in wliicli they explained words 
 and sentences, and illustrated their meaning by ap- 
 posite examples ; the promptitude and accuracy with 
 which they answered the questions put to them — all 
 took the auditors by surprise and filled them with 
 admiration, seeing that the school had been only a 
 twelvemonth in operation. But what astonished them 
 most of all in those early days was the ease and 
 freedom with which the Hindoos read such portions 
 of the Bible as were named to them, as well as the 
 readiness and accuracy with which they answered all 
 questions, not merely on the historical parts but on 
 the doctrines and principles of the Christian faith and 
 morals, to which their attention had been directed in 
 the daily lessons. 
 
 Altogether the efiect produced by that examination 
 was very striking. By those present it was pronounced 
 absolutely marvellous. The three daily English news- 
 papers of Calcutta had their reporters present, who 
 gave such accounts of the examination and the new 
 and felicitous modes of instruction pursued in the 
 school, that European Calcutta talked of nothing else. 
 The opinions of the English residents, official and 
 independent, reacted on the leaders of the native 
 community, till in the second year hundreds were 
 refused admittance to the school from want of ac- 
 commodation, and the number of European visitors 
 interfered so seriously with the regular discipline of 
 the classes that Saturday was set apart for such in- 
 spection. The elder pupils now consented to act as 
 monitors, native assistants pressed their services upon 
 the missionary, and the elementary teaching fell to 
 these as the English classes passt . on to collegiate 
 studies in sacred and secular truth. 
 
 There was another immediate result. Dr. Inglis 
 
^t. 24. THE TAKEB BRANCH MISSION. I3I 
 
 and tlio EJinburgh committee liad their desire as to a 
 school in the interior. While visitors from all parts 
 of India, including far Bombay as we shall see, 
 carried away with them the principles of the system 
 to establish schools elsewhere, Mr. Duff was implored 
 to open a similar school at the purely Bengalee town 
 of Takee, forty miles off. There was the ancestral 
 seat of Kaleenath Roy Chowdcry, one of the principal 
 followers of Rammohun Roy. He and his brothers 
 offered all the buildings and appliances for an English, 
 Bengalee and Persian school, to be supervised by Mr. 
 Duff, and taught by men of his own selection and on 
 his own Christian system, whom in the Bengalee and 
 Persian departments the brothers would pay. The 
 triumph was complete. There a vigorous mission 
 school arose, long conducted by the Rev. W. C. Fyfe, 
 now head of the Calcutta Mission, and aided by Dr. 
 Temple, whose widow (now Mrs. W. S. Mackay) and 
 family have ever since been most closely identified 
 with spiritual and mission work. The examination of 
 the school and the example of the Chowdery family led 
 not a few of their wealthy co-religionists in Calcutta 
 to open new schools or improve the old mechanical 
 establishments. 
 
 At this time Mr. Duff supplied the Hindoo reformer 
 with the following: letter of introduction to Dr. Chal- 
 mers. Had they met during the brief remainder of 
 Raja Rammohun Roy's life, which was spent almost 
 exclusively in the society of English Unitarians, the 
 sympathetic Christian divine, who had himself passed 
 through the last spiritual conflict left for the truth- 
 seeking Hindoo, might have led him to the only wiso 
 God, the Saviour. As it was, the Raja died in 1833, 
 declaring that he was neither Christian, Muhammadan, 
 nor Hindoo. To the last he preserved his caste, that 
 he might secure his civil rights of property and in- 
 
132 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1 830. 
 
 lieritance and retain his nationality. His best bio- 
 graplier pronounces him *' a religious Benthamite." 
 
 *' Calcutta, College Squaee, 18th Nov., 1830. 
 
 " My Dear Sir, — This may probably be delivered to 
 you by the celebrated Rammohun Roy. His general 
 character and acquirements are too well known to re- 
 quire any description on my part. And when I say that 
 he has rendered to me the most valuable and efficient 
 assistance in prosecuting some of the objects of the 
 General Assembly's Mission, I feel confident I have 
 said enough to secure from you towards him every 
 possible attention in your power. Any further parti- 
 culars illustrative of the accompanying document, which 
 is a copy of what I originally inserted in a religious 
 periodical published in Calcutta, you. as a member of 
 the Assembly's committee, may learn from Dr. Inglis. 
 I would write to you more frequently and more fully, 
 were it not that I ever cherish the impression that 
 whatever is addressed to Dr. Inglis, as chairman of 
 the Assembly committee, is equally addressed to every 
 individual member of it. Remember me kindly to Mrs. 
 Chalmers and family. Yours most sincerely and grate- 
 fully, " Alexander Duff." 
 
 Dr.. Inglis and the Church of Scotland, sorely tried 
 by the disasters which befell the first missionary, and 
 even before they could learn his safe arrival at Cal- 
 cutta, determined to pursue their original plan of 
 sending out two colleagues to assist him whom they 
 had appointed " the head master of a seminary of 
 education with branch schools." One was most 
 happily found in a tall, slightly bent and pale youth 
 from Thurso, who, having studied at Aberdeen Univer- 
 sity, completed his course at St. Andrews a year after 
 Duff, but in time to know well the man whom he ever 
 
JEt. 24. HIS FIEST ENGLISH ASSISTANT. 1 33 
 
 afterwards worked along with iu loving harmony. 
 The Rev. W. S. Mackay, who joined the infant mission 
 in the autumn of 1831, was so accomplished and 
 elegant a scholar that it is difficult to say whether ho 
 became more remarkable as a learned theologian, as 
 a master of English literature and style, or as an 
 astronomer. A lofty and intense spirituality marked 
 all his work, and only a robust physique was wanting 
 to him. But even his assistance was not enough, as 
 the school developed into a college, and branch schools 
 like Takee demanded organization and supervision, 
 while other duties than that of daily teaching denied 
 the missionary a moment's leisure. Competent lay 
 teaching of secular subjects was required, and for this 
 the acute but imitative Bengalee intellect had not yet 
 been sufficiently trained. 
 
 Mr. Duft' thus found his first English assistant. 
 Among the passengers of the Moira was a Mr. Clift, 
 the son of an English squire, who was going out to 
 one of the great mercantile houses of Calcutta. Being 
 of a combative disposition he was placed by the captain 
 next to the missionary, who soon discovered that he 
 was highly educated and well read, especially in the 
 then little studied science of political economy. On 
 the failure of the firm in which the youth became an 
 assistant, he sought the advice of Mr. Duff, who at 
 once offered him the position of assistant master on 
 sixty pounds a year — the highest salary he was em- 
 powered to give, but invited him to his house as a 
 guest. Mr. Clift did his work in the higher classes 
 well. In the house his conduct was upright, and at 
 least respectful in reference to religion, on which, how- 
 ever, he maintained a studied silence. He was sent to 
 the Takee branch school as its first master. Thence 
 he returned, stricken with jungle fever, to the tender 
 ministrations of Mrs. Duff. In the delirium of the 
 
134 I^^^E OF DR. DUFF. 183 1. 
 
 disease lie was heard repeating Cowper*s hymn, " There 
 is a fountain filled with blood." As he recovered he 
 confessed that he had been trained by pious parents, 
 and that he had led a careless life. He became a 
 changed man on his return to Takee, from which 
 Government took him subsequently to make him prin- 
 cipal of an English college. The incident powerfully 
 confirmed the young missionary in his conviction of 
 what was then little recognised in educational systems, 
 the importance of saturating the young mind with 
 divine truth. 
 
 But the episode has a twofold interest apart from 
 that. This youth was only one of many of that class 
 of adventurers who, like Meadows Taylor in Western 
 India, and hundreds of well-educated lads who 
 enlisted in the East India Company's Artillery es- 
 pecially, sought in service in the East, mercantile, 
 military and uncovenanted, the career denied to their 
 roving and romantic spirits elsewhere. Sir Henry 
 Lawrence, after he published his marvellous sketch of 
 the lives of such military adventurers in the Punjab,* 
 more than once promised us to write a book on the 
 prominent English, Scotch and Irish adventurers 
 in India, for none knew them so well seeing that none 
 assisted them so gsnerously. But Mr. Clift Lad even 
 a closer interest for Alexander Duff, introduced as the 
 missionary had been into the practical and theoretical 
 teaching of political science by Dr. Chalmers, who 
 had in Glasgow just before given a new illustration 
 of the meaning and the working of economics in the 
 highest sense. In his determination to use all truth 
 for the good of the people of India, and through it to 
 
 * Adventures of an Officer in tlie Service of Runjeet Singh, by Major 
 H. M. L. Lawrence, Bengal Artillery : 1845. The book is now as 
 rare as it is valuable. 
 
JEt. 2$. THE FIRST TEACHER OP POLITICAL ECONOMY. 1 35 
 
 educate tliem to recognise and love tlie higlicst truth, 
 Duff projected a manual of political economy more 
 elementary than the writings of Adam Smith and J. R. 
 McCuUoch. Even at the outset he began to suspect, 
 what every year and many a woful blunder like tho 
 mortality of the Orissa famine have since proved, 
 that without the data supplied by the old civiliza- 
 tions, the so-called *pre-historic' customs and the 
 social systems of the East, political economy must 
 be partial in its generalizations and one-sided in its 
 principles. Still, even as it was in 1831, the science 
 might be a powerful armoury against the caste, tho 
 social exclusiveness, the commercial apathy, the in- 
 dustrial antipathy, which marked the Hindoos. 
 
 Recalling his talk at the cuddy table of the Moira^ 
 Duff proposed to Mr. Clift the drafting of such a 
 manual. The manuscript he expanded with new illus- 
 trations and vivid contrasts, all leading up to Christian 
 teaching. The book became most popular, as taught 
 in the spirit in which it was written. Thus Mr. Duff's 
 school was the first in which political economy was 
 expounded in a country where, indeed, the Permanent 
 Settlement of Cornwallis and the famous * Fifth Re- 
 port ' had groped in the dark after a just and self- 
 developing system 'of land revenue and treatment of 
 land tenures ; but where Holt Mackenzie and Mertina 
 Bird, Thomason and John Lawrence were yet bene- 
 volently to dogmatize in favour of thirty years' leases, 
 which each changing Government uses to screw more 
 and more out of the peasantry, and tlftis chiefly makes 
 them unable to withstand famine when it comes. But 
 the story is not complete. So little had political 
 economy been mastered in the land of Adam Smith 
 and m the kirk of Thomas Chalmers, that the com- 
 mittee condemned the enthusiastic missionary, when 
 he joyfully reported his success, for teaching a subject 
 
13^ lilFE OF DR. DUFF. 183 1. 
 
 ■wliicli tlie monopolist Government of the East India 
 Company might confound with pohtics ! 
 
 Alexander Duff was not only in the citadel of Hindoo- 
 ism ; he had already dug his mine and laid the powder. 
 The fire from heaven was about to fall, as he invoked it 
 in the prayer of Lord Bacon*: — " To God the Father, 
 God the Word, God the Spirit, we pour most humble 
 and hearty supplications ; that He, remembering the 
 calamities of mankind, and the pilgrimage of this our 
 life, in which we wear out days few and evil, would 
 please to open unto us new refreshments out of the 
 fountains of His goodness for the alleviation of our 
 miseries. This also we humbly and earnestly beg, 
 that human things may not prejudice such as are 
 divine ; neither that, from the unlocking of the gates 
 of sense, and the kindling of a greater natural light, 
 anything of incredulity or intellectual night may arise 
 in our minds towards divine mysteries. But rather 
 that, — by our mind thoroughly cleansed and purged 
 from fancy and vanities, and yet subject and perfectly 
 given up to the divine oracles, — there may be given 
 up unto faith the things which are faith's. — Amen." 
 
 * Quoted in Indicia and India Missior^ t^ the '" appropriate con- 
 clusion " of the book. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1831—1833. 
 TEE FIRST EXPLOSION AND TEE FOUR CONVERTS. 
 
 Eagerness of the Bengalee Youth to learn English. — Self-evidenc- 
 ing Power of Clirist's Teaching. — The Pharisees of Brahmanism. 
 — The Disintegrating Effect of tn;.o Science. — The Cry raised 
 of " Hindooisra in Danger." — Projected Course of Lectures. — 
 Derozio and the Atheists of the Hindoo College. — Tom Paine 
 the favourite Author, — The first and only Lecture. — -The City 
 in an Uproar. — The Govern or- General privately Encourages the 
 Mis.sionary. — Duff studying Bengalee. — First propounds national 
 system of Female Education. — The Debating Societies. — Robert 
 Burns on the banks of the Ganges.— The Native Press, English 
 and Vernacular. — Krishna Mohun Banorjea — Second Course of 
 Lectures. — Mohesh Chundei Ghose, the First Convert, brings 
 his Brother to Christ. — Confessions of Krishna Mohun and his 
 Baptism. — The Third or Martyr Convert. — The Fourth Convert 
 at last SuiTendered by his Father to Duff.— Origin of the Calcutta 
 Missionary Conference. — Duff's great scheme of a United Chris- 
 tian College foiled by sectarian controversy in England. — A 
 Bombay Civilian's Pitiiture-of the Revolution in Bengalee society. 
 — Bull's private estimate of his Success and faith in his Policy. 
 — The English Language and British Administration required to 
 do their part. 
 
 " Throughout the whole progress of these preparatory 
 arrangements," Mr. DufF afterwards wrote, " the ex- 
 citement among the natives continued unabated. They 
 pursued us along the streets. They threw open the 
 very doors of our palankeen, and poured in their 
 supplications with a pitiful earnestness of counte- 
 nance that might have softened a heart of stone. In 
 the most plaintive and pathetic strains they deplored 
 their ignorance. They craved for ' English reading ' 
 — * English knowledge.' They constantly appealed to 
 
138 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 the compassion of an * Ingraji ' or Englishman, ad- 
 dressing us in the stylo of Oriental hyperbole, as 
 
 * the great and fathomless ocean of all imaginable 
 excellences/ for having come so far to teach poor 
 ignorant Bengalees. And then, in broken English, 
 some would say, 'Me good boy, oh take me;' others, 
 
 * Me poor boy, oh take mo;' — some, * Me want read 
 your good books, oh take me ;' others, ' Me know your 
 commandments, Thou shalt have no other gods before 
 Me, — oh take mo ;' — and many, by way of final appeal, 
 
 * Oh take me, and I pray for you.' And even after 
 the final choice was made, such was the continued 
 press of new candidates that it was found absolutely 
 necessary to issue small written tickets for those who 
 had succeeded ; and to station two men at the outer 
 door to admit only those who were of the selected 
 number." 
 
 Payment for class-books, and the formal signature 
 by parents and guardians of an agreement to secure 
 punctual and regular attendance, struck at the root 
 of two evils which marked all the other schools and 
 colleges in Calcutta. The more severe test of steady 
 attention to the Bible studies was no kss cheerfully 
 submitted to, parents also beiug invited to listen to 
 the hoi ir's p reaching to the young every day, and to 
 satisfy tliemselves that Christianity did not act as a 
 spell, although it might in time persuade as a divine 
 force co-operating with the truth-seeking soul ; and 
 was in any case a perfect system of moral principles 
 and practice. The Lord's Prayer was succeeded by 
 the master parable of the Prodigal Son, and then 
 came the apostolic teaching to I'he Corinthians on 
 what our fathers called charity. 
 
 " Throughout, all were attentive ; and the minds of 
 a few became intensely riveted, which the glistening 
 eye and changeful countenance, reflecting as in a 
 
MX. 25. SELF-EVFDENCING LIGHT OV THE SCRIPTURES. 1 39 
 
 mirror the inward thought and varying emotion, 
 most clearly indicated. At last, when to the picture 
 of charity the concluding stroke was given by the 
 pencil of inspiration in the emphatic words ' endureth 
 all things,' one of the young men, the very Brahman 
 who but a few days before had risen up to oppose the 
 reading of the Bible, now started from his seat ex- 
 claiming aloud, ' Oh, sir, that is too good -for us. 
 Who can act up to that? who can act up to that?' 
 A finer exemplification, taking into view all the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, could not well be imagined of 
 the self-evidencing light of God's holy word. It was 
 an almost unconscious testimony to the superior ex- 
 cellence of Christianity, extorted from the lips of an 
 idolatrous Brahman by the simple manifestation of its 
 own divine spirit. It was a sudden burst of spontane- 
 ous homage to the beauty and power and holiness of 
 the truth, in its own naked and unadorned simplicity, 
 at a moment when the mind was wholly untrammelled 
 and unbiassed by prejudice, or party interest, or sect." 
 
 Then followed the Sermon on the Mount, which 
 drove home to a people more enslaved by the letter 
 that killeth than even those to whom it was originally 
 addressed, the lesson of the Spirit. " When, on one 
 occasion, the question was put, * What do you mean 
 by Pharisee ?' a boy of inferior caste, looking signifi- 
 cantly at a young Brahman in the same class and then 
 pointing to him, archly replied, ' He is one of our 
 Pharisees !' — while the Brahman simply retorted in 
 great good humour, ' True, my caste is like that of the 
 Pharisees, or worse ; but you know I am not to bo 
 like my caste.' " 
 
 Nor was this all. From the simple reading of the 
 words that promise blessedness to him who loves and 
 prays for his enemy, one youth was turned to the feet 
 of the Divine Speaker and became the fourth convert 
 
I40 LIFE OF PR. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 of the mission. For days and weeks the young Hindoo 
 could not help crying out, " ' Love your enemies 1 
 bless them that curse you ! ' How beautiful ! how 
 divine 1 surely this is the truth!'* And in the more 
 directly secular lessons science came to carry on what 
 grace had begun in the morning and was yet to com- 
 plete. The explanation of the word " rain " on the 
 Scoto-Socratic method in a junior class, led to the 
 discovery by the lads of its true nature, as neitlier 
 Indra-born nor from a celestial elephant, according to 
 the Shasters, but the result of natural laws. " Then 
 what becomes of our Shaster, if your account is true," 
 remarked a young Brahman. " The Shaster is true, 
 Brahma is true, and your Gooroo's account must be 
 false — and yet it looks so like the truth." 
 
 This was but a slight shock compared with that 
 given on the next eclipse. Mr. Dulf was himself as 
 much surprised by the effect of his teaching as his 
 pupils. He wrote of this time : — " Though we were 
 previously acquainted in a general way with the fact, 
 that modern literature and science were as much 
 opposed as Christianity itself to certain fundamen- 
 tal tenets of Hindooism, our own conception on the 
 subject was vague and indeterminate. It floated in 
 the horizon as an intangible abstraction. Now this 
 incident, by reducing the abstract into the concrete, 
 by giving the vague generality a substantial form, by 
 converting the loosely theoretical into the practically 
 experimental, — at once arrestee"' fixed and defined it. 
 A vivid glimpse was opened, not only of the effect 
 of true knowledge when brought in contact with 
 Hindooism, but of the modus operandi, the precise 
 mode in which it operated in producing the effect." 
 
 The effect of the first year's teaching. Biblical, 
 scientific, and literary, through English and through 
 Bengalee, on even the young Hindoos, was to lead 
 
yKt. 25- TUB CRY OF * IIINDOOISM IS DANGER.' 141 
 
 tlicm into licence before they could reacli true self- 
 regulating liberty ; for the Bengiileo boy just before or 
 at the age of puberty is the most earnest, acute and 
 loveablo of all students. The older lads, " impetuous 
 with youthful ardour and fearless of consequences, 
 carried the new light which had arisen on their own 
 minds to the bosom of their families, proclaimed its 
 excellences on the house-tops, and extolled its praises 
 in the street-assemblies. With the zeal of proselytes 
 they did not always observe circumspection in their 
 demeanour and style of address, or manifest due con- 
 sideration for the feelings of those who still sat in 
 darkness. Even for the infallible Gooroos and other 
 holy Brahmans, before whom they were wont to bow 
 in prostrate submission, their reverence was greatly 
 diminiiihed. They would not conceal their gradual 
 change of sentiment on many vital points. At length 
 their undaunted bearing and freedom of speech began 
 to create a general ferment among the staunch ad- 
 herents of the old faith. Tlie cry of ' Hindooism in 
 danger ' was fairly raised." 
 
 The result was seen one forenoon, when only half a 
 dozen of the three hundred youths appr.a'ed in the 
 class-room. To the question of the puzzled missionary 
 the only reply was a copy of that morning's Ghimdrihi. 
 This Bengalee paper had been established to fight for 
 the sacred right of burning living widows with their 
 dead husbands. Now, as the organ of the orthodox 
 Dharma Soblia, of which its editor was secretary, it 
 had become the champion of the whole Brahmanical 
 system against an aggressive evangelical Christianity 
 of a very different type from the secularism of the 
 Hindoo College with which it had of late been allied. 
 The decree went forth that all who attended the 
 General Assembly's Institution were to be excluded 
 from caste, and it was urged that a yellow flag or 
 
142 LIFE OP DR. DUrP. 1831. 
 
 other unmistakable symbol should bo planted in front 
 of the building to warn the unwary against the moral 
 and religious pestilence. But the Hindoo society 
 of the capital had already become too rationalistic in 
 its mode of viewing the national faith, and too selfish 
 in its desire to secure the best education which would 
 lead to official and mercantile appointments. The 
 ])anic did not last a week. The lEoly Assembly had 
 no greater power than public opinion chose to give it. 
 Further diatribes against the missionary and his work 
 revealed only the essential weakness of a body which 
 the earlier refonns of Ilammohun Hoy had provoked 
 into existence. Mr. Duff went calmly on till the 
 classes became more crowded than ever. The quiet- 
 ness and confidence of an assured faith and an in- 
 tellectual conviction were seen in his drawing up, 
 after the experience of the first six months, " the 
 scheme of a complete educational course which might 
 require nine or ten years for its development, with 
 grounds, reasons and illustrations " occupying in all 
 about a hundred closely written folio pages. This 
 he sent off to Dr. Inglis as the mechanism of the 
 Christian Institute to regenerate Bengal and light a 
 fire in British India, from which ever since many a 
 torch has been kindled to help in the destined de- 
 struction of every form of error. 
 
 The college thus securely established in native so- 
 ciety, triumphing over the ignorance of his own 
 countrymen and already famous throughout India, 
 Mr. Duff proceeded to use at the same time the two 
 other more immediately powerful weapons of lectures 
 and the press. The minds of not a few leading Hindoos 
 had been emptied of their ancestral idols spiritual and 
 ecclesiastical, and were swept and garnished. Into 
 some, thus deprived of even the support which the ethi- 
 cal elements of their old orthodoxy supplied, the new 
 
ilit. 25. THE IKUilllNT IN TUB UlNDOO COLLEGE. I43 
 
 tlcnions of lawless lust and Western vice had entered 
 with the secularism and anti-theism of the Hindoo 
 Colle'T^e, so that their last state was worse than the 
 first. Others, saved for the hour from this, wore in 
 the temporary attitude of candid inquirers, bold to 
 violence in their denunciation of the follies of which 
 they and their fathers had long been the victims, 
 but timid towards the new faith, with its tremendous 
 claims on their conscience and irresistible appeals to 
 their intellect. In May, 1829, the teaching of a 
 Eurasian of some genius and much conceit, named 
 Derozio, had bop^un to undermine the faith of the 
 students of the Hindoo College in "all religious prin- 
 ciples whatever," as even its secularist managers ex- 
 pressed it. Hence they formally resolved that Mr. 
 D'Ansc'line, tlie head-master, "in communication with 
 the teachers, check as far as possible all disquisitions 
 tending to unsettle the belief of the boys in the great 
 principles of natural religion." This interference only 
 fanned the smouldering fires. Discussion blazed out 
 into ridicule. Young Brahmans refused to be guilty 
 of the hypocrisy of submitting to investment with 
 the 'po'ita, or sevenfold Brahmanical cord ; many sub- 
 stituted favourite lines of Pope's " Iliad " for their 
 daily and festival prayers. In February, 1830, seeing 
 that the Hindoo College was thus threatened with ex- 
 tinction, although all that was going on was only the 
 logical outcome of their principles and their adminis- 
 tration, the managers threatened with immediate dis- 
 missal teachers who did not " abstain from any com- 
 munications on the subject of the Hindoo religion 
 with the boys," or who suffered " any practices incon- 
 sistent with the Hindoo notions of propriety, such as 
 eating or drinking in the school or class-rooms." 
 
 By April, 1831, the ferment had so increased that 
 Mr. Derozio was discharged as " the root of all evils and 
 
144 LIFE OP BR. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 cause of public alarm." "Students of *'the dining party" 
 wlio had broken caste by eating animal food, or food 
 with Hindoos of other castes than their own, were 
 removed ; and it was determined that " such books as 
 may injure their morals should not be allowed to be 
 brought, taught, or read in the college." This was 
 what fifteen years' teaching of English and Sanscrit, 
 by the East India Company and orthodox Bengalees 
 combined, at the bidding of Parliament which sought 
 the moral and spiritual elevation of our native sub- 
 jects, had resulted in. The unhappy Derozio, whose 
 end was even sadder than his life which might have 
 reflected lustre on the valuable but then uncared 
 for community of Eurasians, was charged with incul- 
 cating *' the non-existence of God, the lawfulness of 
 disrespect towards parents, the lawfulness of marriage 
 with sisters." He admitted the first, but pleaded that 
 his chief object had been to enable the boys " to ex- 
 amine both sides of the question." Mr. Hare still 
 was of opinion that he was a highly competent teacher; 
 and Dr. H. H. Wilson, the official visitor on the part 
 of Government, which spent the public funds on the 
 place, declared he had never observed any ill effects 
 from Derozio's instructions. But the atheistic and 
 immora?! poet was dismissed in deference to the clam- 
 ours of the orthodox idolaters, although the principal 
 English text-b")oks, taught by men in quite as full 
 accord with them as he, were the more licentious plays 
 of the Eestoration and David Hume's Essays ! 
 
 Outside of the classes, but constantly referred to by 
 the teachers, the favourite book was Paine's coarse "Age 
 of Eeason," which a respectable deist would not now 
 mention save as a warning. That book, his better reply 
 to Burke, his "Rights of Man," and his minor pieces 
 born of the filth of the worst period of the Fi >ch Revo- 
 lution, an American publisher issued in a cheap octavo 
 
^t. 25. SCEPTICAL INQUIRY. 1 45 
 
 edition of a tliousaud copies, and shipped the whole to 
 the Calcutta market; such was the notoriety of the 
 anti-christian success of the college which Raramohun 
 Roy was ashamed to patronise. These were all bought 
 at once at two shillings a copy, and such was the 
 continued demand for the worst of the treatises that 
 cio-ht rupees (sixteen shillings) was vainly offered for 
 it.* Thus, from the opposite poles of truth, were the 
 two English colleges — the old secularists' and the new 
 evangelical missionary's — brought into collision, as 
 the former retired foiled ir its assault on Hindooisra, 
 and the latter advanced with renewed trust in the God 
 of truth to fire the train. Unlike the horror-stricken 
 but passive Christian preachers in the vernacular 
 chapels and schools of Calcutta at that time, the 
 young Scotsman threw himself into the breach 
 made in the at last crumbling walls of Hindooism. 
 "We rejoiced," he wrote, "in June, 1830, when, 
 in the metropolis of British India, we fairly came 
 in contact with a rising body of natives, who had 
 learnt to think and to discuss all subjects with un- 
 shackled freedom, though that freedom was ever apt 
 to degenerate into licence in attempting to demolish 
 the claims and pretensions of the Christian as well 
 as every other professedly revealed faith. We hailed 
 the circumstance, as indicating the approach of a 
 period for which we had waited and longed and 
 prayed. We hailed it as heralding the dawn of an 
 auspicious era, — an era that introduced something new 
 into the hitherto undisturbed reign of a hoary and 
 tyrannous antiquity." 
 
 Having by his first j^-ear's work of teaching and 
 personal intiuence carried on this work of preparation 
 for calm inquiry, he took three men of like spirit with 
 
 * Calcutta Christian Observer for August, 1832. 
 
 L 
 
146 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1 831, 
 
 himself into his counsels. Dr. Dealtry, who succeeded 
 Corrie first as Archdeacon of Calcutta and then as 
 Bishop of Madras, was at that time chaplain of the 
 Old Church, and was worthy of such predecessors as 
 Martyn and Chiudius Buchanan. John Adam had 
 been his own fellow-student at St. Andrews, and was 
 then of the London Missionary Society. Mr. James 
 Hill, also a Congregationalist, was the popular and 
 able pastor of tliat Union Chapel in wiiich Christians 
 of all sects still gather on the first day of every year 
 for catholic communion, after a fashion too rare in 
 divided Christendom. Ali were eager observers of 
 nativ^e jjrogress, and agreed to co-operate in delivering 
 the first course of lectures to educated Bengalees. 
 The subject was Natural and Revealed Religion. The 
 first lecture, on the External and Internal Evidenoes, 
 fell to Mr. Duff; Mr. Adam undertook the second, 
 on the testimony of History and Fulfilled Prophecy; 
 Mr. Hill was to prepare the third, on Christ in the 
 Four Gospels, and the Genius and Temper of His 
 Religion. Dr. Dealtry was to close the course with 
 a statement of the doctrines of Christianity. But to 
 prepare the native mind for unprejudiced inquiry, Mr. 
 Hill delivered an introductory lecture on the moral 
 qualifications necessary for investigating truth. Mr. 
 Duff fitted up a lecture room in his house, which, 
 being still in College Square, was most central for the 
 class invited. To some that room became the place of 
 a new birth, and its meiuories stir hallow the similar 
 work, on the same site, of the Cl ^rch Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 It was a sultry night in the first week of August 
 when twenty of the foremost students of his own and 
 of the Hindoo College took their places in expectation 
 of a novel exposition. With the chastened eloquence 
 which used to attract the Governor-General and his 
 
J£t, 25. THE NATIVE CITY IN AN UPROAR. 1 47 
 
 wife to the dissenting cliapel, Mr. Hill treated a sub- 
 ject that called fortli no controversy, and appealed 
 to admitted but too often neglected principles. In 
 silence the young men separated, looking forward to 
 the real tug of war a week after in DulFs lecture on 
 God and Ilis Revealing. That never took place. 
 
 Next morning the news flew like wildfire over Cal- 
 cutta. Students of the Hindoo College had actually 
 attended, in the house of a missionary, a lecture on 
 Christianity ! Soon the whole city Avas in an uproar. 
 The college that day was almost deserted. Continu- 
 'ing to rage for days the orthodox leaders accused the 
 Government itself of breach of faith. Had it not 
 promised to abstain from interference with their re- 
 hgion, and now insidiously it had brought out a wild 
 Padre, and planted him just opposite the college, like 
 a battery, to break down the bulwarks of the Hindoo 
 fiiitli and put Christianity in its place ! In all haste. 
 Dr. H. H. Wilson, Mr. Hare, Captain Price and the 
 native managers put up a notice threatening with 
 expulsion students who should attend " political and 
 religious discussions." That was the degree of their 
 love of truth. The students themselves remonstrated. 
 Mr. Hill published an indignant exposure of the mis- 
 representation and cowardice of the college authori- 
 ties ; and Mr. Duff at greater length assailed the 
 wisdom, justice and goodness of their tyrannical 
 decree. But he was not ohe man to rashly imperil 
 the cause in which, like the first missionary, it be- 
 hoved him to be all things to all men if thereby he 
 might win some. That was still the time of the East 
 India Company's absolutism, when the Governor- 
 General had the right of deporting non-official settlers 
 without assigning reason. Not so very long before, 
 the able civilian John Adam had gagged the press 
 and ruined, by deporting, Mr. J. Silk Buckingham, to 
 
148 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 183 1. 
 
 appease Dr. Bryce and the John Bull newspaper. The 
 very existence of the mission might be at stake, and 
 prudence at least demanded that all the facts should 
 be known to the Grovernment, if only that the mis- 
 sionary might be assured that it shared none of the 
 Company's ignorant fears. 
 
 Mr. Duff, therefore, thought it right to solicit a 
 private interview with the Governor-Greneral. Lord 
 William Bentinck listened with the utmost attention 
 and patience. At the close of the statement he said in 
 substance : Assuming the accuracy of the facts which 
 he could not possibly doubt, he felt that Mr. Duff had 
 done nothing to contravene the law, nothing that 
 ought to disturb the public peace. At the same time 
 he added, from his knowledge of the Hindoo charac- 
 ter, that it would be well to allow the present tumult 
 quietly to subside. After a time it might be in Mr. 
 Duff's power more successfully to renew the attempt. 
 So far as he himself was concerned, he could not, 
 as Governor-Greneral, in any way mix himself up with 
 missionary affairs, or even officially express sympathy 
 and approval. But he declared that privately, as 
 an individu£il Christian man, he felt deep sympathy 
 with the avowed object of the missionaries, and ap- 
 proved of the operations of all who carried them on 
 in the genuine spirit of the gospel. He who had been 
 Governor of Madras during the Vellore mutiny, re- 
 peated the advice patiently to wait for a seasonable 
 opportunity to recommence what, if Mr. Duff went 
 about it calmly yet firmly, he himself would advance 
 by his private sympathy and support. 
 
 This for the moment answered the purpose ; fear 
 and alarm were ^bated. The most advanced students, 
 however, though having no good-will to Christianity, 
 but the contrary, felt that this was a violent inter- 
 ference with their freedom and independence. They 
 
yEt. 25. FIBST BENGALEE SERMON. FEMALE EDUCATION. 1 49 
 
 winced under the order, and boldly declaimed against 
 the bigotry and tyranny of tlie college and the Govern- 
 ment authorities. They seemed to champ like horses 
 prepared for battle when forcibly kept back by bit and 
 bridle. Still from policy or necessity they deemed it 
 expedient to submit to what they reckoned a despotic 
 exercise of authority. 
 
 Being thus for a time freed from the task of prepar- 
 ing lectures in addition to his heavy school work, Mr. 
 Duff energetically set about mastering the Bengalee 
 language by the help of a learned Brahman pundit. 
 By the end of a twelvemonth he succeeded so as to 
 speak it with tolerable fluency. He wrote out for tho 
 sake of accuracy and committed to memory his first 
 sermon in Bengalee. But regular preaching in the ver- 
 nacular he did well to leave to others, who gave their 
 whole strength to a work specially adapted to meet 
 a very different class from those who held the inner 
 fort of Brahmanism. Denied lectures, the young men 
 met in debating societies of their own. These, often 
 nightly and in various quarters of the city, he asked 
 permission to attend, and soon m address from him 
 was welcomed as an attractive part of tho proceedings. 
 There it was that he first formulated his far-seeing 
 policy on the subject of female education, from which 
 Government still directly keeps back its hand, though 
 aiding the tentative efforts of missionaries. 
 
 At that time Miss Cooke, who became the wife of the 
 Church missionary, Mr. Wilson, had been teaching the 
 first female school in Bengal for eight years. She had 
 been led to form it by a visit paid to one of the boys' 
 schools of the Calcutta School Society, in order to ob- 
 serve their pronunciation of the vernacular, which she 
 was learning. Seeing the pundit drive away a wistful- 
 eyed little girl from the door, she was told that the 
 child had troubled him for the past throo months with 
 
150 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 entreaties to be allowed to read with the boys. Next 
 day, on the 28th January, 1822, she opened her first 
 school with seven pupils, and in a year, with the 
 lielp of the noble Countess of Hastings, the Governor- 
 General's wife, she had two hundred in two schools. 
 The Soranipore three had, as usual, anticipated even 
 Mrs. Wilson by their Female Juvenile Society. But 
 at that early period and long after, the few hundred 
 girls under the only partial and brief instruction 
 allowed them before very early marriage, formed but 
 units, and were of a class similar to those reached 
 by the street and village ] caclier. Many were bribed 
 by money to attend. The middle and higher classes, 
 whose sons Mr. Duff had attracted to his own school 
 and was daily influencing by personal intercourse, 
 were shocked at the idea of educating their wives and 
 daughters ; and even if they had consented, as many 
 now do, would not let them out of the home-prison of 
 the zanana. 
 
 But these youths thought differently, and Mr. Duff 
 encouraged them. One evening he found the subject 
 of debate by some fifty Hindoo College students to 
 be, " whether females ought to be educated." As 
 to the theory of the thing they ended in being 
 unanimous; one married youth exclaiming, "Is 
 it alleged that female education is prohibited, if not 
 by the letter, at least by the spirit of some of our 
 Shasters ? If any of the Shasters be found to advance 
 what is so contrary to reason, I, for one, will trample 
 them under my feet." The brave words won raptur- 
 ous plaudits for the speaker. As these youths became 
 fathers and grandfathers, female education would 
 spread of itself, if the Christian Church supplied the 
 vernacular and English lady teachers. Hence Mr. 
 Duff's conclusion, as he listened to the vaporous but 
 not insincere talk of these fledglings : '* Over the pre- 
 
^t. 25- BENCiALEE DEBATING SOCIETIES. I5I 
 
 sent (1830-40) generation little or no control can bo 
 exercised by tliese youths. But as time rolls on they 
 become the heads of families themselves, and then will 
 tliey be prepared, in many instances at least, to give 
 practical effect to their better judgment." He dreamed, 
 he talked, he almost lived to be witness of " the hal- 
 cyon period when universal theory shall run parallel 
 with universal practice," in instructing the women of 
 the great educational centres of India. And we shall 
 see how ready he was to play his part in the practice 
 when he had done the preparatory work of educating 
 the husbands and the fathers. 
 
 It was of societies whei'e such questions were dis- 
 cussed that a vernacular newspaper exclaimed, " The 
 night of desolation and ignorance is beginning to 
 change its black aspect, and the sky, big with fate, is 
 about to brinof forth a storm of knowledge which will 
 sweep those airy battlements away that have so long 
 imprisoned the tide of thought." But social ques- 
 tions were not all. These were the days when the first 
 echoes of the English Beform Bill agitation began to 
 reach Anglo-Indian newspapers. In the native mind 
 the constitutional progress of the English Whigs came 
 to be mixed up with the frothy Bepublicanism of 
 their familiar Tom Paine, and the sensus communis of 
 Reid and the Scottish school of philosophy with that 
 blasphemer's favourite name of " common sense." 
 An education which, in the Grovcrnment colleges, long 
 after continued to fill the memories of the students 
 with the best — sometimes with the worst — passages 
 of the English poets, had made quotation the mark of 
 culture and elegance in a young debater. They had 
 not mastered Shakespeare or Shelley as now, but Sir 
 Walter Scott, Byron and even Ilobert Burns were 
 their favourites. "More than once," writes Duff of 
 that time, " were my ears greeted with the sound of 
 
152 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 183 1. 
 
 Scotch rliymcs from the poems of Robert Burns. It 
 would not be possible to portray the effect produced 
 on the mind of a Scotsman, when, on the banks of the 
 Ganges, one of the sons of Brahma, — in reviewing the 
 unnatural institution of caste in alienating man from 
 man, and in looking forward to the period in which 
 knowledge, by its transforming power, would make 
 the lowest type of man feel itself to be of the same 
 species as the highest, — suddenly gave utterance, in 
 an apparent ecstasy of delight, to these characteristic 
 lines : — 
 
 ' For a' that, and a' that, 
 
 Its comiii' yet, for a' that, 
 That man to man, the world o'er. 
 Shall brothers be, for a' that.' 
 
 How was the prayerful aspiration raised, that such a 
 consummation might be realized in a higher and nobler 
 sense than the poet or his Hindoo admirer was privi- 
 leged to conceive ! " 
 
 But it was time, after all this experience of the 
 variously mixed material on which he was to work, to 
 come to close quarters with Young Bengal ; to build 
 a spiritual temple on the foundation thus cleared 
 and almost crying out, as in a very similar transition 
 state the young and erring Augustine cried, "0 Truth, 
 Truth ! how eagerly even then did the marrow of my 
 soul pant after thee ! " 
 
 The traditional idolaters and the liberal inquirers 
 had become separated farther and farther from each 
 other, by that gulf which even here marks off the love 
 of the true from the tendency to the false. The liberals 
 established their own English journal, well naming it 
 the Enquirer. Long before, E-ammohun Roy had set 
 the English llefonner on foot ; but it had committed 
 itself to reproducing the antichristian attacks of Paine 
 
^t. 25' ^ '^'^^^ ^^ TKANSITION. 1 53 
 
 after its founder Lad left for England, and it was 
 assisted in this by Englishmen who called them- 
 selves Christians. The English of the Enqalre)\ and 
 the Bengalee of the Gyananeahun^ week after week 
 attacked Ilindooism and its leaders with a courage and 
 skill that called down on the editors the execrations of 
 their countrymen. But all besides was negative. The 
 Reform Bill was eagerly turned to in July, 1831, for a 
 positive something to rejoice in as the germ of a new 
 reformation which would sweep away tyrants and 
 priests. The Holy Congregation's threat of excomnm- 
 nication was met with this welcome : *' Be some hun- 
 dreds cast out of society, they will form a party, an 
 object devoutly to be wished by us ! " The man who 
 proved a more than worthy successor of Eammolmn 
 Roy and sounded those trumpet notes in the EnqiiLver 
 was he who is now and has long been the staid scholar 
 and the grave minister of the Church of England, the 
 Rev. Krishna Mohun Banerjea, LL.D. Then he was 
 a Brahman of the highest or Koolin class, legally 
 entitled to marry all the women who might take hold 
 of him to be called by his name, and with the cer- 
 tainty of becoming, in Hindooism, a Pharisee of the 
 Pharisees. 
 
 Duff has himself told the story of that act by which 
 the truth-seeking Koolin formed the party of pro- 
 gress which he desired. Krishna Mohun happened to 
 be absent from a meeting of the liberal party held in 
 his fiunily house on the 23rd of August, 1831. 
 
 " If there be anything on which a genuine Hindoo is 
 taught, from earliest infancy, to look with absolute 
 abhorrence, it is the flesh of the bovine species. If 
 there be anything which, of itself singly, must at once 
 degrade a man from his caste, it is the known partici- 
 pation of that kind of food. Authentic instances are 
 on record, wherein a Brahman, violently seized by a 
 
154 I-Tl^E OP DE. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 Moslem, has had such meat forced into his mouth ; 
 and thougli deprived of voluntary agency as much as 
 the veriest automaton, the contamination of the touch 
 was held to be so incapable of ablution, that the hap- 
 less, helpless, unwilling victim of intolerance, has been 
 actually sunk along with his posterity for ever into 
 the wretched condition of outcast. Well, in order to 
 furnish the most emphatic proof to each other of their 
 •mastery over prejudice and their contempt of the ordi- 
 nances of Hindooism, these friends of liberty had some 
 pieces of roasted meat, believed to be beef, brought 
 from the bazaar into the private chamber of the 
 Enquirer. Having freely gratified their curiosity and 
 taste with the unlawful and unhallowed food, some 
 portion still remained, which, after the return of the 
 Enquirer, was thrown, though not with his approba- 
 tion, in heedless and reckless levity into the com- 
 pound or inner court of the adjoining house, occupied 
 by a holy Brahman, amid shouts of — ' There is 
 beef ! there is beef !' The sacerdotal master of the 
 dwelling, aroused by the ominous sound and exasper- 
 ated at the unpardonable outrage which he soon found 
 had been perpetrated upon his feelings and his faith, 
 instantly rushed with his domestics to the quarter 
 whence it proceeded, and under the influence of rage 
 and horror, taking the law into his own hands, he 
 violently assaulted the Enquirer and his friends. 
 
 " Knowing that they had been guilty of an action 
 which admitted of no defence the latter confessed 
 their criminality, uniting in apologies for the past 
 and promises of amendment for the future. But 
 neither confession nor apology nor promise of amend- 
 ment would suffice. Tht openly avowed opinions and 
 conduct of the Enquirer and his friends had long been 
 a public scandal and offence in the eyes of their bigoted 
 countrymen; and, short of formal excommunication, 
 
JEt 25. OASTB BROKEN BY THE ABOMINATION OF BEEF. 1 5 5 
 
 tlioy were in conscqucnco subjected to all manner of 
 persecution. But tlio crisis — the hour of unmitii,^1te(l 
 retribution — had now arrived. Hundreds speedily 
 ralHed around the Brahman, the sanctuary of whoso 
 home had been so grossly viohited by the presence of 
 the abomination of abominations. Inflamed witii un- 
 controllable indignation, they peremptorily demanded 
 of the family of the Enquirer to disown him in the 
 presence of competent witnesses, under pain of expul- 
 sion from, caste themselves. Having no alternative, 
 his family then called upon him formally to recant his 
 errors, and proclaim his belief in the Hindoo faith, or 
 instantly to leave the homo of his youth, and be for 
 ever denuded of all the privileges and immunities of 
 caste. He chose the latter extremity. Accordingly, 
 towards midnight, without being able to take formal 
 leave of any of his friends, he was obliged to take his 
 departure he knew not whither, because he could not 
 be prevailed upon to utter what he knew to be false. 
 * "We left,' wrote ho, * the home where we passed our 
 infant days ; we left our mother that nourished us in 
 our childhood ; we left our brothers with whom wo 
 associated in our earliest days ; we left our sisters with 
 whom we sympathized since they were born.' As he 
 and his friends were retiring, the infuriated populace 
 broke loose upon them, and it was with some difficulty 
 they effected their escape and found shelter in the 
 house of an acquaintance." 
 
 Recovering from the fever that followed, young 
 Banerjea returned to the assault, but still had no posi- 
 tive truth to lean upon. " I was perfectly regardless 
 of God," he wrote in the confessions of a later time ; 
 " yet, as a merciful Father, He forgot not me. Though 
 I neglected Him, yet He had compassion on me, and 
 without my knowledge or inclination created, so to 
 speak, a circumstance that impelled me to seek after 
 
156 LIFE OP DR. DUFP, 1831. 
 
 Ilim." It was this. Unwilling to compromise the out- 
 cast further, Mr. DufT sent a native friend to invito 
 him to his house. The confessions continue: "Mr. 
 Duff received me with Cliristian kindness, and in- 
 quired of the state in which we all were. He openly 
 expressed his sentiments on what we were about ; and 
 while he approved of one half of our exertions he 
 lamented the other. He was glad of our proceedings 
 against error but sincerely sorry at our neglecting 
 the truth. I told him it was not our fault that we 
 were not Christians ; we did not believe in Christianity, 
 and could not therefore consistently profess it. The 
 reverend gentleman, with great calmness and compo- 
 sure, said it was true that I could not be blamed 
 for my not believing in Christianity so long as I was 
 ignorant of it, but that I was certainly guilty of serious 
 neglect for not inquiring into its evidences and doc- 
 trines. This word 'inquiring' was so uttered as to 
 produce an impression upon me which I cannot suffi- 
 ciently well describe. I considered upon my lonely 
 condition — cut off from men to whom I was bound by 
 natural ties, and thought that nothing but a determi- 
 nation on the subject of religion could give me peace 
 and comfort. And I was so struck with Mr. Duff's 
 words, that we instantly resolved to hold weekly meet- 
 ings at his house for religious instruction and discus- 
 sion." In the Enquirer he continued with growing 
 boldness : — " Does not history testify that Luther, alone 
 and unsupported, blew a blast which shook the man- 
 sions of error and prejudice ? Did not Knox, opposed 
 as he was by bigots and fanatics, carry the cause of 
 reformation into Scotland ? Blessed are we that we 
 are to reform the Hindoo nation. We have blown the 
 trumpet, and we must continue to blow on. We have 
 attacked Hindooism, and will persevere in attacking 
 it until we finally seal our triumph." 
 
JEt. 25. SEEKING AFTER GOD. 157 
 
 Persecution drove the reformer to a European lodg- 
 ing-house, for not a native dared to shelter him. Tliero, 
 after narrowly escaping death by poison at the hands 
 of their outraged families, his associates found him. 
 And there DufF held earnest conference with them, 
 as they debated the establishment of a Reformation 
 Society, and the only one among them who had large 
 property of his own offered it for the common cause. 
 But convinced that, without some nobler truths to 
 substitute for the system they destroyed, this would 
 prove only an eradication society, the hot conspira- 
 tors in the cause of religious freedom agreed to meet 
 in the missionary's house every Tuesday, to study the 
 claims of Christianity to bo such a positive and life- 
 giving system as they now desiderated. 
 
 Hence the second course of lectures and discussions 
 was carried on with ripe experience on the part of Mr. 
 DufF, who now preferred to keep it in his own hands ; 
 and was delivered to really earnest truth-seekers, many 
 of whom had fairly separated from the idolatrous and 
 caste system 01 their fathers. But still, at first, the 
 Enquirer declared it had no religious doctrines to pro- 
 mulgate, only " let us have all a fair field, and adopt 
 what reason and judgment may dictate." In a month 
 the weekly discussions had brought its editor to the 
 admission that theological truth is the most important 
 of all, because of its practical influence on life, and that 
 Christianity deserves special inquiry as having civil- 
 ized a whole continent. " A reverend gentleman of 
 the Presbyterian sect has undertaken the task of un- 
 folding to us the nature of this set of doctrines." Prom 
 forty to sixty seekers after God listened to each lecture, 
 sat far into the night canvassing its statements, and 
 either returned night after night for further inquiry or 
 wrote out their difficulties for solution. The novelty 
 of the weekly meeting drew many spectators, and some 
 
158 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. X831. 
 
 of these professedly calm inquirers proved to be ** proud, 
 forward, rude, boisterous and often grossly insulting.'* 
 But those were the exceptions, and they only stimu- 
 lated the ardour without ruffling the perfect courtesy 
 of the apostolic teacher, who had a yearning sympathy 
 with every soul feeling after God, and knew that it is 
 through much tribulati^^n such must enter the kingdom. 
 The record of these agonizings, intellectual and spirit- 
 ual, forms a unique chapter in the history of the apolo- 
 getics of those days.* As tlie demonstration of the 
 existence and personality of the great First Cause called 
 back the subtle spirit of the Bengalee, steeped in 
 pantheistic polytheism, from its initial rebound into 
 nihilismj the closing exhortations, delivered with all 
 that tearful fervour which was soon to summon the 
 Churches of the West to a new crusade, led them up 
 to the great love of Christ and the influence of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 Thus passed the cold season of 1831-32 in Cal- 
 cutta. The work of John the son of Zacharias, was 
 done. As his "Behold the Lamb of God!" sent 
 Andrew to Christ, and Andrew " first findeth his own 
 brother Simon . . and he brought him to Jesus," 
 so was it now. At the conclusion of the discussions, 
 Mohcsh Chunder Ghose, a student of the Hindoo 
 College, sent his own brother to Mr. Duff, with this 
 note : — 
 
 " If you can make a Christian of Mm you will have a 
 valuable one ; and you may rest assured that you have my 
 hearty consent to it. Convince him, and make him a Christian, 
 and I will give no secret opposition. Scepticism has made mo 
 too miserable to wish my dear brother the same. A doubtful- 
 ness of the existence of another world, and of the benevolence 
 of God, made me too unhappy and spread a gloom all over my 
 
 * Appendix to Lidia and India Missions. 
 
^t. 25. THE riRST CONVERT. 1 59 
 
 mind ; but I thank God that I have no doubts at present. I 
 am travelling from step to step ; and Christianity, I think, will 
 be the last place wh^re I shall rest; for every time I think, 
 its evidence becomes too overpowering/* 
 
 On the 28tli August, 1832, the Enquirer announced 
 the baptism into Christ of Mohesh himself, in an 
 article Avhich thus closed : " Well may Mr. Duff be 
 happy, upon the reflection that his labours have, 
 through the grace of the Almighty, been instrumental 
 in convincing some of the truth of Christianity, and 
 others of the importance of an inquiry into it. We 
 hope ere long to be able to witness more and more 
 such happy results in this country." 
 
 For some unexplained reason this first convert of 
 the G cneral Assembly's Bengal Mission chose to receive 
 baptism at the hands of an English chaplain whom he 
 did not know. li. is no cause for regret that the broad 
 seal of catholicity was thus stamped on Mr. Duff's 
 work, when his first son in the faith publicly declared 
 his belief — " in spite of myself," as he said — in 
 the triune God, in that old mission church which 
 Kie lander had built and Brown and Martyn, Corrie 
 and Dealtry had consecrated by their ministrations. 
 It was thus that this first-fruit of his toil, in Mr. 
 Duff's house and before many witnesses, after deep 
 silence burst forth : — 
 
 " A twolvemonth ago I was an atheist^ a materialist, a 
 physical necessitai'ian ; and what am I now? A baptized 
 Christian! A twelve^nonth ago Tvas the most miser tblc cf 
 the miserable ; and what i. ■ I now ? In my own mind, tho 
 happiest of the happy. Whui! a change i How has it been 
 brought about ? The recollection of the past fills me with 
 wonder. When I first came to your lectures, it was not in- 
 struction I wanted. Instruction was the pretext, a secret 
 desire to expose what I reckoned your irrational and super- 
 Btitious follies the reality. At last, against my inclinations. 
 
l6o LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 against my feelings, I was obliged to admit the truth of 
 Christianity. Its evidence was so strong that I could not 
 resist it. J3ut I stWl felt contrary to what I tliongld. On hear- 
 ing your account of the nature of sin, and especially sins of the. 
 heart, my conscience burst upon me like a volcano. My soul 
 was pierced through with horrible reflections and terrible 
 alarms ; it seemed as if racked and rent in pieces. I was in a 
 hell of torment. On hearing and examining further, I began, I 
 knov not how or why, to find relief from the words of the 
 Bible. What I once thought most irrational I soon found to 
 be very wisdom ; what I once hated most I soon began to 
 love most ; and now I love it altogether. What a change ! 
 How can I account for it ? On any natural principle I cannot, 
 for every step that I was made to take was conti'ary to my 
 previous natural wish and will. My progress was not that of 
 earnest inquiry, but of earnest opposition. And to the last, 
 my heart was opposed. In spite of myself I became a Christian. 
 Surely some unseen power must have been guiding me. 
 Surely this must have been what the Bible calls 'grace,' free 
 grace, sovereign grace, and if ever there was an election of 
 grace surely I am one.'' 
 
 Krishna Mohun Baneijea himself was the next. Ho 
 desired that tlie lecture room in the missionary's house, 
 which had been " the scene of all my public opposi- 
 tion to the true religion, should also be the scene of 
 my public confession of it." He sought that there his 
 still Hindoo friends, who had been strengthened in their 
 unbelief by his arguments, might witness his " public 
 recantation of all error and public embracing of the 
 truth, the whole truth, as revealed in the Bible." The 
 Bev. Mr. Mackay opened that service with prayer. 
 Mr. Duff addressed and thus interrogated the catechu- 
 men : — " ' Do you renounce all idolatry, superstition, 
 and all the frivolous rites and practices of the Hindoo 
 religion ? ' To this the Koolin Brahman replied : ' I do, 
 and I pray God that He may incline my countrymen 
 to do so likewise.' The second question was : * Do you 
 believe in God the Father and Creator of all, in Jesus 
 
^t. 25. THE CONFESSIONS OF THE SECOND CONVERT. 161 
 
 Christ as your Redeemer, and in His sacrifice as the 
 only means whereby man may be saved, and in the? 
 sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit ? ' To this, 
 with emotion, he replied, 'I do, and I pray God to 
 give me His grace to do His will.' These and other 
 questions being answered, Mr. Duff administered the 
 ordinance in the name of the Father, Son and Holy 
 Ghost ; and then engaged in prayer, the whole com- 
 pany kneeling." Such was the description, in the daily 
 newspaper of Calcutta, of the putting on of the yoke 
 of Christ by the Koolin Brahman who, like another 
 Saul of Tarsus, had made his name known and dreaded 
 among thousands of his countrymen. By a different 
 path from that of Mohesh Chunder, but along the in- 
 tellectually thorny way of the Trinity from which 
 many of his countrymen fall aside into their old poly- 
 theism, Krishna Mohun stumbled on to Him who is 
 the Way, the Truth and the Life. His confessions 
 have a typical interest for more than his own people 
 and the students of ecclesiastical annals : — 
 
 " My attention having been particularly directed to the So- 
 cinian and Trinitarian systomSj I at once felt more favourable 
 to the former than the latter ; but not seeing anything in it so 
 great that it might reasonably call for the adoption of such 
 extraordinary measures as those which Jesus employed for 
 its rropagation, I could not yield my conviction to it. On 
 the other hand, I understood not aright the doctrine of the 
 atonement; and on grounds of mere natural reason could 
 never believe it to be possibly true. And us the Bible pointed 
 unequivocally to it, I strove to persuade myself, in spite of the 
 most overpowering external evidencOj not to believe in the 
 sacred volume. Neither could I be satisfied wi'h the forced 
 interpretation of the Sociuians. Socinianism, which seemed 
 little better than Dcism^ I thought could not be so far above 
 human comprehension that God should think of working such 
 extraordinary miracles for its establishment. Accordingly, 
 though the external evidences of the truth of the Bible wera 
 
 M 
 
1 62 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 overwhelming, yet, because I could not, on principles of 
 reason, bo satisfied with either of the two interpretations given 
 of it, I could not persuade ray heart to believe. The doctrines 
 of Trinitarian Christians, which I thought were really accord- 
 ing to the plain import of Scripture language, were all against 
 my feelings and inclinations. Socinianism, though consonant 
 with my natural pride, seemed yet so insignificant, as a pro- 
 fessed revelation, that I could not conceive how, with pro- 
 priety, an all-wise God should work miracles for its sake. So 
 that I remained in a state of doubt and perplexity for a long 
 time ; till God, by the influence of His Holy Spirit, was gra- 
 ciously pleased to open my soul to discern its sinfulness and 
 guilt, and the suitableness of the great salvation which centred 
 in the atoning death of a Divine Redeemer. And the same 
 doctrine of the atonement which, when not properly under- 
 stood, was my last great argument against the divine origin 
 of the Bible, is now, when rightly apprehended, a principal 
 reason for mj belief and vindication of the Bible as the pro- 
 duction of infinite wisdom and love/' 
 
 That baptism took place on the 17tli October, 1832. 
 In the same class-room, on a Tuesday evening, the 
 14tli December, a third cateclmmen put on Christ. 
 Gopeenath Nundi had sought a morning interview 
 with Mr. Duff in his study, and there burst forth in 
 tears with the cry, " Can I be saved ?*' He told how 
 the last of the lectures had driven him to take counsel 
 with Krishna Mohun Banerjea who prayed with him 
 and sent him next morning to the missionary. At first 
 imprisoned by his family, they cast him off for ever by 
 advertisement in the newspaper; but nothing could 
 shake his faith. Still, before the irrevocable step was 
 taken, his brothers and caste-fellows implored him to 
 desist, then foully abused him, and then offered him all 
 that wealth and pleasure could give, including even the 
 retaining of a belief in Christianity if only he would 
 not publicly profess it. The last appeal was in the 
 name of his venerable mother, whose piercing shriek 
 
JEt. 36. THE THIRD AND FOURTH CONVERTS. 1 63 
 
 none who have seen a Bengalee woman in sorrow can 
 forget. The scene has often since been repeated, 
 must yet be again and again w^itnesscd before India 
 is Clirist's. Nature could not remain unmoved. Go- 
 peeuath wept, but throwing up his arms and turning 
 hastily away he decided, " No, I cannot stay ! " Wo 
 sliall meet the same true martyr's courage in him 
 again, amid the captivity and the bloodshed of the 
 Mutiny of 1857. He proved faithful unto death. 
 
 Nor was Anundo Chund Mozoomdar long left be- 
 hind — the youth who in the school had been drawn by 
 the divine power of the Sermon on the Mount. He 
 had been the first to seek more detailed instruction 
 in the missionary's house. He had given up the 
 family and caste and festival idol worship till a 
 Cashmere Brahman, who had in vain remonstrated 
 with him, naively complained to Mr. Duff himself 
 that the gods had been blasphemed by the atheist 
 Anundo. Of a wealthy family, ho had declined to bo 
 married rather than submit to the ritual of Hindooism. 
 Put out of caste, he only rejoiced in the new-found 
 liberty, when his fa^^:r, an official in Jessoro, visited 
 the capital. His u cle had written a vigorous protest 
 against idolatry, and the father, though an orthodox 
 Hindoo of what had now begun to be called the old 
 school, liberally accepted the position, and wrote to 
 Mr. Duff to receive the persistent Anundo as his son : 
 " Convert him in your own way, and make him your 
 follower." So, in St. Andrew's Kirk by the junior 
 chaplain. Dr. Charles, Anundo was baptized, on Sun- 
 day, the 21st April, 1833, before the Scottish con- 
 gregation and many awe-stricken spectators. Whether 
 from the Hindoo College or from his own, it was by 
 "the self -evidencing power of the word of God" that 
 the joyful missionary saw these, his four spiritual sons, 
 brought to the faith. 
 
164 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 With now confidence in liis own fearless attitude 
 towards truth in every form, and with assured trust in 
 his system which used all forms of truth as avenues 
 by wliich the Spirit of God might be let in on the 
 hoary superstitions of India, he set himself to perfect 
 his organization. For the native church whicli he had 
 thus founded on the one corner stone, and for cate- 
 chumens, ho opened a private week-day class to study 
 systematicolly the doctrines of Christ in the minutest 
 detail, and a Sunday class to read the Scriptures and 
 hold communion with the Father in prayer. Having 
 erected a bamboo and wicker-work chapel for ver- 
 nacular preachin':^-, he added to that an English ser- 
 vice every Sunday evening. For inquirers outside 
 Christianity, who had yet been won from atheism, 
 he conducted successive courses of pubhc lectures on 
 the Bible, on the Socinian controversy, and on mental 
 philosophy, followed by open discussions. Foiled at 
 these, many changed the arena to the Bengalee news- 
 paper. But pursuing them there, Mr. Duff adver- 
 tised that he would answer each hostile article in 
 good faith on the next lecture night, a procedure 
 which gave a keen interest to the controversy in native 
 society. 
 
 Thus within and without the work went on, while 
 the school was every year developing into the fiimous 
 colleo^e which it became with the aid of a colleasfue 
 so able as Mr. Mackay, and of Eurasian assistants so 
 fiiithful and earnest as Messrs. Sunder and Pereira. 
 The administrative, the statesmanlike genius of Mr. 
 Duff, had after its first examination seized the advan- 
 tage of making it a still more catholic, central and 
 efficient institute, by uniting in its support and man- 
 agement all the Christian sects then represented in 
 Calcutta. For on the practical ground of economy of 
 energy and strength of aggressivvjness. aS well as on the 
 
ALt. 26. niS PROJECT OP A UNITED MISSION COLLEGE. 1 65 
 
 highest of all, he ever desired unity. Ho found an 
 agency in the well-known Calcutta Missionary Con- 
 ference. 
 
 Mr. William Pearce, the generous and catholic-minded 
 son of the Rev. Samuel Pearce of J3irmingham, had, as 
 the head of the extensive Baptist Mi.«f:ion press, been 
 in the Imbit of inviting the few Protestant missionaries 
 to breakfast on the first Monday of every month. 
 The meeting was found so pleasant and profitable that 
 it grew into a more formal conference after breakfast, 
 with devotional exercises before that meal, accor(Tiug to 
 the early hours and pleasant hospitality of Indian life. 
 The nomination of a secretar}'', to take notes of the 
 papers and conversations, further gave the gathering 
 that permanence and utility which it has enjojaxl now 
 for half a century. To this body Mr. Duff submitted 
 his plan of a united college, such as has recently been 
 carried out in Madras for all Southern India and is 
 still under discussion for Bombay. For a fee of ten 
 suiUinofS a month Mr. Duff declared his willinoruoss to 
 receive the best vernacular pupils of the various mis- 
 sions and give them the highest Christian education. 
 All approved, and the Conference appointed a committee 
 to work out the plan in detail. But, as has often 
 happened since, the divisions of the Western Church 
 were fatal to the growth of that of India. Mr. Duff 
 prepared the plans of a building which would ac- 
 commodate the students below, and at least two other 
 colleagues, lay or clerical, above. This scheme showed 
 a mastery of detail and a foresight such as would have 
 anticipated the various colleges, comparatively weaker, 
 which the missionary societies were afterwards com- 
 pelled to erect and which they still conduct. 
 
 We survey with pain the outlines of so stately, so 
 Christlike a prospect for the Christianizing and civiliz- 
 ing of the millions of our subjects in Bengal, when we 
 
1 66 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 reflect that what was easy in 1832 has still to be at- 
 tempted ; and why ? Because the outburst of what 
 is in itself a miserable church and state controversy, 
 however important to the actual combatants, made it 
 impossible for the Nonconformist Churches to work 
 along with the two Established Churches of Scotland 
 and England in carrying out the last command of 
 their common Lord, although their missionaries in the 
 front of the battle were unanimous in the desire for 
 such co-operating unity. As Charles Grant's far- 
 seeing proposals of 1792 fell to be made facts un- 
 consciously by Duff in 1830-33, so Duff's have yet to 
 be realized, in Northern and Eastern India, by the 
 divided Churches of the West. 
 
 Rarely if ever in the history of any portion of the 
 Church at any time since apostolic work ceased Avith 
 John the Divine, has one man been enabled to effect 
 such a revolution in opinion and to sow the seeds of 
 such a reformation in faith and life, as was effected by 
 the first missionary of the Scottish Church in Bengal 
 in the three years ending July, 1833. In the form 
 of an experiment as to the subordination of educa- 
 tion to evangelical religion, Duff's work was watched, 
 criticised and narrowly weighed, not only by be- 
 nevolent men but by officials of all kinds throughout 
 India. Towards the end of 1831, from the then very 
 distant Bombay there came to Calcutta, to study and 
 report upon it, Mr. Henry Young, of the civil service 
 of Western India. He was a friendly supporter of 
 the Rev. John Wilson there, who gave him a letter 
 of introduction to Mr. Duff. Let us obtain a few 
 glimpses of the state of native society in Calcutta in 
 the sixteenth month after the opening of the General 
 Assembly's school, as given by a broad-minded layman 
 of great administrative experience as well as Christian 
 benevolence. 
 
iEt. 26. MU. H. YOUNG ON TUE KEVOLUTION IN CALCUTTA. 167 
 
 "November 15//i,1831. 
 
 "Dear Mr. Wilson, — . . I availed myself on landing of 
 your letter to Mr. Dull', and lived with him during the time I 
 spent in Calcutta. 1 have never regretted doing so, as it lias 
 .•itlbrded me an opportunity of seeing much and learning more 
 rco-arding a class of young men who, of all others, engaged 
 my attention in that place ; and I am sure you woul ^ not fail 
 to share in the common interest felt, were you to witness the 
 ])leasing progress they are making under Mr. Duff. The num- 
 ber of young men who, having received a college education, 
 have really thrown olf idolatry, is very great ; but there are 
 not above eight or nine who come boldly forward, and bravo 
 every effect of the pride and bigotry of their cuiiutryuien. Of 
 these Krishna Moliun Banerjea, the editor of the EiK^aircr, is 
 the most conspicuous. He certainly leads the rest, and, by 
 t}io admission of all, is the most sober and well conducted of 
 the whole. In a conversation I had with him the day before 
 I left, he told me there were not more than four upon whom 
 he could depend for decided support, and who go the full 
 length of his own principles ; but he thinks the rest are coming 
 round, and upon them he hopes principally to exert an in- 
 iluenco by means of his paper. It must be remembered that 
 they were formerly bold, impetuous characters, puffed up with 
 conceit of their supposed attainments, and forward in pro- 
 claiming their atheistical sentiments. Now they profess a 
 belief in the Supremo Being, and speak in the very best tone, 
 and maintain their desire to judge nothing rashly. They will 
 not, they say, hesitate to condemn and to expose idolatry and 
 the Brahraanical impostures, because they are convinced of 
 the folly and absurdity of their former belief ; but of Chris- 
 tianity they will examine and inquire, and are ready to embrace 
 the truth wherever and whenever they see it. 
 
 " There can be no doubt that, unaer God, they are indebted 
 for this favourable change to Mr. Duff's lectures, and to the 
 knowledge they have acquired of English. All the direct effects 
 of their education at the Hindoo College have been, with this 
 exception, decidedly evil; and though it has been overruled in 
 this instance, as far as we can see, to the furtherance of good, 
 yet it is only the direct effects of that system to which its 
 directors can lay claim. Mr. Duff has a school of about 150 
 
1 68 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 boys, in which there are some of the higher class that can now 
 road and write with some fluency in English. When they are 
 a little farther advanced Mr. Dufl' will gradually instruct them 
 in the higher branches of science and literature, and ground 
 them thoroughly in the evidences of religion, and go over 
 every objection that the inlidel has made to them, with a view 
 of preparing them for a successful resistance to those young 
 men whom tlie college is daily sending forth with heads filled 
 with the subtleties of Hume, etc. So that his two objects at 
 present are (and between these he divides his time) : to put 
 himself at the head of the movement already taken place 
 amongst the students, and gradually reclaim them from the 
 wrong paths they have taken ; and to train up another set of 
 young men who have not been subject to the disadvantages 
 these have felt, who have not lost the docility and teachable- 
 ness so necessary in receiving the truth, and who, if God 
 vouchsafe His bles?ing, may furnish a body of well educated 
 young men of a far superior order to any that we have yet 
 seen in India. This was the proper object of Bishop's College, 
 and it has failed from causes which are well known, and which 
 arc fatal to the Buccess of every human scheme. Mr. Duff is, 
 in lact, about to establish an Institute himself, the plan of which 
 has been fully arranged, and has met with the concurrence 
 of all hero, and which only wants the sanction of the home 
 authorities to be at once set on foot. In the meantime this 
 school forms a nucleus, and has arisen unostentatiously with- 
 out exciting any great notice, and will ultimately furnish him 
 with a set of students to commence with who have been 
 brought up under his own eye and under his own system, 
 which, I might say, is a most efficient one. I questioned him 
 a good deal about the prospect he had of securing their atten- 
 dance for the period that it would require to go through his 
 course. He said he felt, as all others feel, how diflicult it was, 
 but that such was the eagerness of the boys to remain, that if 
 they could only obtain a sum sufficient for their support, they 
 would resist every inducement held out by their families to 
 leave him ; and that, in fact, he had resolved in all cases of 
 difficulty to supply them with funds himself, and he accord- 
 ingly does so support one or two of them already. He said 
 six or eight rupees a month was ample, and that he himself 
 only gave them four. The same practice was found necessary 
 
yEt. 25. ExVGIilSII THE MOST EFFICIENT INSTRUMENT. 1 69 
 
 at tbo Hindoo College, and some boys in the first class now 
 receive from Government fifteen rupees a month ; and after all 
 that can bo said ajj^ainst the measure, I am fully persuaded of 
 its propriety, and hope that every one will support the system. 
 
 "1 very soon, of course, came to ask his opinion upon tho 
 subject of education generally, and stated our eircumstauccM 
 to him. Ho attributed the ill success of scriptural education 
 to the imperfect and elementary nature of tho education given 
 and the neglect of the English langungo, and seemed to havo 
 tho fullest conviction of the success of the system he is about 
 to pursue ; for to every suggestion about tho inutility and ill 
 success of schools, ho always replied that he thought the failure 
 was owing to tho not communicating a medium through which 
 sound and enlarged ideas respecting God and our relations to 
 Hiui might bo conveyed, and through which the effects of 
 what education they did receive might bo kept alive and 
 strengthened. After what I witnessed of the fi\eility of Eng- 
 lisli instruction, I could not urge as an objection tho difliculty 
 of imparting it, and, in short, I came away from Calcutta fully 
 convinced that in neglecting English wo havo neglected the 
 most efliicient instrument we could have used. With all tho 
 young men I have spoken to you about, any person may havo 
 the most free and unreserved comtnuuicatiou in our own 
 language ; and it quite astonished mo to find how closely and 
 attentively they followed Mr. Duff in the most abstract and 
 metaphysical discussions, taking up the weaker parts of an 
 argument with a readiness which showed how fully they had 
 comprehended what was addressed to them. I do net mean 
 that their objections were always the happiest, but they showed 
 they had, in the main, comprehended his arguments, lie fully 
 concurred in all we proposed to do, though I cannot say he 
 went the length which I havo hitherto been disposed to go, in 
 asserting uni'eservedly that knowledge without religion is 
 positively evil. 
 
 "Mr. Duff's school has not been in operation sixteen months, 
 and yet an advance has been made sufficient to extort tho 
 praise of Mr. Hare, who told me, as he was showing me the 
 college the other day, that Mr. Duff deserved credit for it. Let 
 us hear no more, therefore, of the difficulty of teaching them 
 English. I havo seen it here in various instances effectually 
 surmounted. The Hindoo College is a fine quadrangular build- 
 
170 LIFE OF DH. DUFF. 1831. 
 
 ing, ilie inner area being very small, so as to give the house the 
 shape of a native building; I do not say appearance, for it is 
 built after a regular Grecian order, and, like most houses in 
 Calcutta, is very handsome and elegant. The ground-floor 
 students are exclusively eugaged in the study of Sanscrit, 
 whicli occupies them seven or eight years, and one cannot help 
 grieving at the sad and cruel waste of precious time and talent 
 at this unprofitable study. English has been introduced 
 recently, that is to say, since the last two or three years ; and 
 I observed one class going over a proposition of Euclid, which 
 they seemed to enter into con amove. The first class had just 
 returned from a lecture on some branch of natural philosophy, 
 and seeing some essays of their composing I asked for one or 
 two, which with some hesitation they granted, I was sur- 
 prised to find on my return that one went directly to refute 
 Paley, and establish the mortality of the soul and. the futility 
 of any hopes as to futurity. The subject was: 'Is Paley's 
 definition of virtue, viz., that it is doing good to mankind for 
 the sake of everlasting happiness, correct ? ' and the writer 
 contended that after death the soul vanished into thin air, etc. 
 "I was fortunate enough to witness, on the Tuesday before 
 I sailed, a missionary prayer meeting. There were present (at 
 Mr. Duff's in rotation), Mr. Duff, W. 11. Pearce, Yates, Sandys, 
 Percival, Mackay, Christie, G. Pearce, T. Robertson (chaplain), 
 Reichardt, Lacroix, Gogerly, and two or three others whom 
 I cannot recollect. At seven we met upstairs and engaged in 
 prayer until breakfast-time, when about twenty sat down. 
 After breakfast subjects that had been proposed at the last 
 meeting for discussion were announced, and the sentiments of 
 each person present were called for. The question under dis- 
 cussion was, as far as I recollect it, ' the relative importance of 
 itinerant preaching as compared with education, as a means of 
 spreading the gospel,' and the sense of the meeting was ex- 
 pressed in the three resolutions I alluded to in my letter to 
 Robert Money. The subject was very well, as I thought, dis- 
 cussed, but not exhausted; and I should like to have proposed 
 for inquiry next month, * The origin and recorded success of 
 juvenile education as a means of spreading the gospel in 
 heathen countries.' The question, however, proposed by Mr. 
 Mackay will perhaps embrace this. There was at least a pro- 
 portion of two-thirds of the meeting present who were engaged 
 
^t. 25. HIS OWN ESTIMATE OF PAST AND FUTURE. 171 
 
 directly in itinerant preaching in, around, or away from Cal- 
 cutta. Mr. Lacroix is said to be by far the most ready and 
 effective preacher, and to draw crowded audiences. 
 
 "The infant school, under Mr. Macpherson'a superinten- 
 dence, founded by the Bishop and conducted by a Mrs. Wilson, 
 flourishes; so, I believe, does the High School, under the Rev. 
 Mr. Macqueen, who is rector; but the Free School of St. 
 Jainos\s parish is wretchedly organized, and the children are 
 almost parrots. I wonder any person neglects to introduce the 
 interrogatory system of instruction ; no other deserves, I think, 
 support. I must not omit to say that the day before I left, 
 Tarachund Chukurbutee, the leader of the Moderates (as they 
 are called who, renouncing idolatry, yet fall short of the 
 decision and uncompromising spirit of Banerjea and others), 
 called upon Mr. Duff and promised to attend with several of 
 his friends at Mr. Duff's lectures. This was a subject of great 
 delight to us all, as they had hitherto declined to mix with the 
 Ultras (as they are styled), and feared to compromise their 
 worldly interests." 
 
 Three months after Mr. Younoj's visit wo find Mr. 
 Duff's own Immble estimate of the results, but far- 
 reaching statement of an unconquerable faith, in two 
 letters to the Rev. Professor Ferrie, of Kilconquhar : — 
 
 " Calcutta, dth January, 1832. 
 " Here there is little change : much work of preparation 
 silently cai'ried on, little of the practical work of conversion 
 from dumb idols to serve the living God. We cannot over- 
 estimate the worth of an immortal soul, and should one 
 be found cleaving to the Saviour steadfastly and immov- 
 ably we cannot rejoice too much or ascribe too much glory 
 to God. But methinks that, considering the millions still 
 unreclaimed, our joy should be tempered and our glorying 
 moderated, lest the one should be found to be mere self- 
 gratulation and the other a vain boastfulness. How I 
 fear that much, far too much, has been made of partial 
 success in the work of conversion, and that many good people 
 at home are under serious delusion as to its extent. Every- 
 thing around me proves the necessity of more earnest prayer 
 
172 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 and redoubled exertion. I see nothing to satisfy me that any 
 decisive victory has been won on the grand scale of national 
 emancipation. The few converts that have been made can 
 never be the seed of the Church : they resemble rather those 
 somewhat imseasonable, somewhat short-lived germs which 
 start up under the influence of a few peculiarly genial days 
 in winter — an indication of the seminal power of mother earth, 
 and a token of what may be expected in spring. Let us not 
 then confine our views to the few shrivelled sprouts of a mild 
 winter ; — for these let us be thankful, as they tend to revive our 
 hopes and reanimate our sinking spirits. But let us reach 
 forward with restless longing and unceasing efibrt to the full 
 glow and life and verdure of spring, when the whole earth 
 shall be loosened from its cold torpor and the heavens pour 
 down refreshing floods. It is not easy in Calcutta to congre- 
 gate a decent audience to listen to Bengalee preaching. The 
 people are naturally apathetic, and here there is superadded 
 such pervading avarice, such moiiey-making selfishness, that it 
 is difficult to secure any degree of attention, or even to excite 
 any alarm for the safety of their own religion. Thousands 
 there are, in fact, who cannot be said to have any religion at 
 all. Preaching generally becomes either a conversation, or a 
 discussion in which the most arrant frivolities in argument are 
 reiterated with an obstinacy that wastes precious time, and 
 wholly impedes the free deliverance of truchs that might 
 quicken the conscience and save the soul i'Jive. More, gener- 
 ally speaking, can be done by way of direct preaching in 
 Bengalee in the neighbourhood than in the town of Calcutta, 
 though I think that missionaries have often too readily given 
 way to the accumulation of acknowledged difficulties to be 
 encountered in town. To desert it is like abandoning one 
 of the enemy's strongest holds and allowing him to occupy it 
 undisturbed. 
 
 " My labours in Bengalee preaching have hitherto been ne- 
 cessarily very limited. But there is a sphere now partially 
 occupied, formerly almost unattempted : there is the instituting 
 of English schools under a decidedly Christian management, 
 End insisting on the inculcation of Christian truths. The field 
 may become one of the richest in bearing luxuriant fruits. 
 We only want the necessary funds and qualified agents. The 
 success that has attended the large school first established has 
 
JEt 26. THE VARIED WORK IN CALOUTTA. 1 73 
 
 infused a kind of new stimulus into the minds of those most 
 interested in the Christian education of the natives, and in 
 that alone much real good has been achieved. The work is 
 excessively laborious and not a little expensive, but time will 
 show its vast importance. I trust that you are acquainted 
 with the various proposals already irwarded to the Assembly's 
 committee. I crave your special attention to the last, as being 
 perhaps one of the most momentous that has ever been for- 
 warded from a heathen land, referring chiefly to a union of all 
 denominations in the support of a Central Institution for the 
 more advanced literary and religious education of promising 
 native youth; and to be under the exclusive control of the 
 Assembly's committee. I refer you again to the printed pro- 
 posals sent homo, and expect your powerful advocacy of tho 
 measure. 
 
 "Thousands can now talk English tolerably well. Amongst 
 those I labour a good deal, as this class, being of the better 
 sort, has generally been neglected. For the last two or three 
 months I have been delivering a course of lectures on the 
 evidences of natural and revealed religion, to about fifty 
 of the more advanced young men who have been educated 
 at the Hindoo College, as well as of the class of East 
 Indians who have received a competent education. On the 
 whole the eff'ect is pleasing. Much discussion takes place at 
 times, but in tho end objections have hitherto been withdrawn. 
 
 " Our church still droops. Were an acceptable preacher to 
 officiate regularly it might yet be in some degree recovered 
 from its degradation. I preach occasionally, and perceive clearly 
 that many are willing to attend, and under a different state of 
 things would, but refuse at present on the presentation of a plea 
 which they hold to be sufficient. Consequently many have joined 
 other communions permanently, many temporarily, and many 
 live without the stated administration of ordinances. In this 
 way that which once was a united community is now severed into 
 fragments ; and that aid which would once hav3 been and now 
 might be affoi'ded can no longer be expected. Oh let us have 
 a pious and talented successor to Dr. Brown, and much may 
 yet be done. Another of the same stamp when the present 
 incumbent retires, and a vast deal may be done towards re- 
 storing our Zion. Such appointments would immensely profit 
 the Assembly's Mission. Mr. Mackay, if he enjoy good health. 
 
174 I-IFB OP TR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 will do well. But he does not appear to be strong, nor capable 
 of untiergoing much bodily fatigue, nor exertion in speech, all 
 of which is so essential to the active discharge of a missionary's 
 duties. I wish the committee would bear in mind that a 
 constitutional vigour of body is just as requisite as a vigorous 
 activity of mind, and piety and learning. Indeed it is not 
 studying men that we want, but hard-woi'king men who have 
 been and still are students." 
 
 " Feb., 1834. — Awakened by the pleasing success which has 
 attended our humble efforts in Calcutta, some zealous friends 
 at home, as I hear, are beginning to think tliat a new station 
 might be opened. Now, let me say at once that notliing 
 would prove more disastrous. Of all stations in India Cal- 
 cutta is by far the most important. Its population is a vast 
 motley assemblage or congregation of persons from all parts of 
 Eastern Asia. Of course the natives of Bengal greatly predom- 
 inate, and next to these, immigrants from all the provinces of 
 Gangetic India. A revolution of opinion here would be felt 
 moi'o or less throughout the Eastern world, and particularly 
 among the millions that are the victims of idolatrous delusion 
 and Brahmanical tyranny. It is of no ordinary importance, 
 therefore, to make Calcutta the grand central station for con- 
 ducting missionary operations on an extended scale. But we 
 require a score more labourers, and if we had two score 
 Calcutta alone and its neighbourhood would afford abundant 
 scope for their best efforts for at least several years to come. 
 It has hitherto been a radical error in the organization of 
 missions, to scatter the pioneers and so dilute and fritter away 
 their strength, instead of concentrating their efforts on some 
 well-chosen field. I sincerely trust that this is an error which 
 the committee of Assembly will endeavour to avoid, and that 
 all their aim will be for years directed towards the strengthen- 
 ing of the Calcutta station. 
 
 " I perceive it was stated in the last AsL^embly by Mr. 
 Thomson, of Perth, that the Assembly's Institution should 
 always remain a mere school. No remark has astounded me 
 more for many a year — the utter ignorance which it betrays 
 of the wants of this people and the most probable means of 
 supplying these with success ! If it is to continue a mere 
 school, then I say that all the time, money and labour hitherto 
 expended on it have been thrown away for nought. Instead 
 
JEt 28. AN EFFICIENT COLLEGJ] AND NOT A MERE SCHOOL. I 75 
 
 of being an apparatus which God might bless as the means 
 of leading heathens to the way ot salvation through Ciirist, it 
 would be much more likely to become a machine for trans- 
 forming superstitious idolaters into rogues and infidels. It 
 has been entirely overlooked that in this country there is a 
 gigantic system of error to bo rejected ere a system of truth 
 can be embraced j and the few years which a boy can spend 
 at a mere school can barely suffice to open his mind to tho 
 absurdity and irrationality of tho religion of his ancestors, a 
 religion that closely intertwines itself with every feeling and 
 faculty of the soul, with every habit and every action of life. 
 But supposing that in a mere school you could succeed in 
 overthrowing Hindooism and in inculcating much of tho 
 knowledge of Christianity, still if the boy be not confirmed 
 in any belief, and you turn him adrift amid a multitude of 
 heathens the most licentious and depraved under the sun, 
 what must be the consequence ? I can only say from ex- 
 perience, that his latter end must be in all respects worse 
 than the first. 
 
 " Our only encouragement is the hope of being ablo to in- 
 duce a certain proportion of %ose wlio enter as boys to remain 
 with us till they reach the age of puberty, and consequentlj'", 
 attain that maturity of judgment which may render know- 
 ledge, through God^s blessing, operative and impressions 
 lasting. Anrl were there no reasonable hope of securing this 
 end, I wot.i .vithout hesitation say, 'the sooner you abandon 
 the school, the better.' I, for one, could not lend myself 
 as an instrument in wasting the funds of the benevolent 
 in Scotland in teaching young men a mere smattering of 
 knowledge, to enable them to become more mischievous pests 
 to society than they would have been in a state of absolute 
 heathenism. On the other hand, if out of every ten that enter 
 the school even one were to advance to the higher branches 
 of secular and Christian education ; were he to become in head 
 and in heart a disciple of the Lord Jesus ; and were a number 
 with minds thus disciplined, enlai'ged, and sanctified, to go 
 forth from the Institution, what a leaven would be infused 
 through the dense mass of the votaries of Hindooism ! And 
 what a rich and ample reward for all one's labours, what a 
 glorious return for all the money expended ! I look to you, 
 my dear sir, as one whose superior discernment ran penetrate 
 
176 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1833. 
 
 this subject^ and expose the erroneous views of such zealous 
 but, in this instance, mistaken men as Mr. Thomson of Perth. 
 ''The school continues greatly to flourish. You may form some 
 notion of what has been done, when I state that the highest 
 class read and understand any English book with the greatest 
 ease; write and speak English with tolerable fluency; have 
 finished a course of geography and ancient history; have studied 
 the greater part of the New Testament and portions of the Old ; 
 have mastered the evidence from prophecy and miracles ; have, 
 in addition, gone through the common rules of algebra, three 
 books of Euclid, plane trigonometry and logarithms. And I 
 venture to say that, on all these subjects, the youths that com- 
 pose the first class would stand no unequal comparison with 
 youths of the same standing in any seminary in Scotland. 
 Other labours progress apace. My Tuesday evening lectures 
 on the evidences and doctrines of Christianity are still con- 
 tinued. God has been pleased to bless them for the conver- 
 sion of a few, and the obstinacy of many minds has been shaken. 
 On Sunday evening T preach also in English to considerable 
 numbers in a small native chapel. There is cercainly much to 
 encourage, while there is much also to damp one's zeal. 
 Believe me, the people at home have far too exalted an idea of 
 what has been done in India. Still, much has been done ; and 
 that draws out the hope of soon doing still more. Let us not 
 rest till the whole of India be the Lord's." 
 
 In all this warfare of the young apostle against the 
 hoary citadel of Brabmanism, and in the retreat of 
 tliG foremost of its men into the slough of theoretical 
 atheism and practical immorality, or of vague theism 
 and a dead ethics, we have seen the divine influence 
 at work. To Calcutta and Bengal, as once to Je- 
 rusalem and Syria, Christ was being manifested to 
 destroy the works of the devil. We must now look 
 more closely at the human instrument He had chosen 
 through which to pronounce the wonder-working spell, 
 not only in the native city and for that generation, 
 but over all India and Southern Asia and for the 
 ages to come. It was the Greek tongue and the 
 
JEt. 2J. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 1 77 
 
 Roman order in that which was to all the race the 
 fulness of the ages. In India the set time came with 
 the English language, with the legislation and the 
 administration, the commerce and the civilization of 
 the British people. The Missionary had, thus far, 
 done his work. The Governor-General in Council 
 must now do his. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1833-1835. 
 
 TEE BENAISSANOE IN INDIA. TEE ENGLISH 
 
 LANGUAGE AND TEE GEUBCH. 
 
 Lord William Bontinck ready. — The Charter of 1833. — Macaulay'a 
 share in that and in the Reform Act. — His Contrast of Calcutta 
 and Edinburgh. — Sir Charles Trevelyan becomes his Brother-in- 
 Law. — Trevelyan's Alliance with Duff. — The Growth of a Vicious 
 Orientalism alter Lord Wellesley. — Lord Minto. — Bishop Heber. 
 — The Prinseps and W. H. Macnaghten. — The Anglicists. — Mr. 
 B. H. Hodgson and the Varnacularists. — Duff's Experience as a 
 Celtic Highlander. — James Mill. — Macaulay's Famous Minute. — 
 The Missionary's Greatest Ally. — Decree of Lord William Ben- 
 tinck's Government. — Sir C. Trevelyan's Account of Duff's 
 Triumph. — Duff's Modest Narrative. — His Regard for True 
 Oriental Scholarship. — Vindicates the Government Decree. — 
 Shows where, from political expediency, it failed. — Eloquent 
 Application to the Church of Canning's Peroration on the New 
 World. — Macaulay's Revival of Letters and Duff's Indian Refor- 
 mation begun. 
 
 Lord William Bentinck was ready. He had enjoyed 
 wliat some call the drawbacks, but all true men pro- 
 nounce to be the real advantage, of being a younger 
 son. The second son of the third Duke of Portland, 
 Lord William Cavendish Benfcinck was thrust out into 
 positions where he developed for the good of human- 
 ity all those virtues and that ability which had made 
 Hans William, the founder of the house, second only 
 to his friend William III. as a benefactor of Great 
 Britain. Because, while still under thirty, he hap- 
 pened to be Governor of Madras when the family of 
 Tippoo provoked the mutiny of Vellore, Lord William 
 
/Et 27. LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK. 1 79 
 
 Bcntinck was recalled by the Court of Directors for 
 cxacly the same avowed reason which caused their own 
 extinction after the Mutiny of 1857. In the interval 
 before his return to India as Governor-General the 
 young administrator secured a constitution for Sicily, 
 and, in 1814, he would have restored the old republic 
 of Genoa but for Lord Castlereagh's stupidity. It 
 was one of the many merits of George Canning that, 
 during his too brief term as Prime Minister, ho sent 
 Lord William Bentinck to govern all India. Alroady, 
 when Duff landed, had the new Governor-General 
 spent two of the seven years which have marked 
 the page of British India with triumphs hardly less 
 brilliant than those of the Marquis Wellcsley, and 
 paralleled only by the later achievements of the Marquis 
 of Dalhousie. Had he, as he washed, been appointed 
 the immediate successor of Lord Hastings, instead 
 of the weak Amherst, it is difficult to decide whether 
 he would have prepared the way for Duff's mission of 
 positive Christian truth and educational progress, or 
 whether his lofty benevolence would not have failed, 
 like other premature ideals, for want of the concurring 
 aids of a ready man and a ripe time. As it was, it was 
 well that the purely educational, literary and scien- 
 tific reforms of his Government fell at the end of 
 his s-even years' career in the highest ofl&ce which any 
 man can fill next to that of Premier of the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 It was well also that to the work of Duif and the 
 legislative and administrative measures of Bentinck, 
 applying the principles and results of that work to all 
 India and for all time, there were added the indispens- 
 able co-operation and the supreme sanction of the 
 British people through Parliament. For the first 
 fruit of the Reform Act of 1832 was the East India 
 Company's charter of 1833. That charter withdrew 
 
l8o LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1833. 
 
 tlie last obstructions to the work of Duff and of every 
 settler in India, missionary or journalist, merchant or 
 planter, teacher or captain of labour in any form. It 
 converted the Company into a purely governing body, 
 under a despotic but most benevolent constitution so 
 well fitted for the freedom and the elevation of loner- 
 oppressed races that the most democratic of English 
 thinkers, Mr. John Stuart Mill, has declared the sys- 
 tem to bo the best ever devised. That charter has tho 
 additional merit of giving men, as well as rendering 
 possible a constitutional system, to India. It added 
 a law member to the Governor-General's council or 
 cabinet, then of five, and created a commission to 
 prepare codes of law and procedure such as havo 
 come next only to Christianity itself, from which they 
 spring, in their humanising and elevating influence. 
 To mention no others, these four men. Lord Macaulay, 
 Sir Barnes Peacock, Sir Henry S. Maine and Sir 
 James F. Stephen have together done more for tho 
 varied races and the corrupting civilizations of tho 
 peoples of India than the jurists of Theodosius and 
 Justinian effected for Europe, or the Code Napoleon 
 for modern France. 
 
 The eloquence of the young Macaulay in carrying 
 the Reform Act resulted in his appointment as one of 
 the commissioners, and then as the secretary, under 
 Lord Glenelg and along with Sir Robert Grant, of 
 the Board of Control. He was the master of the 
 Court of Directors for eighteen months, and they for 
 some time opposed his nomination as the new law 
 member. Was not the charter of 1833 his doing, and 
 was he not, at thirty-three, in their eyes an intolerably 
 conceited person ? Six years older than his country- 
 man and fellow Highlander, of whose doings he could 
 not help being officially cognisant, little did he think 
 that without himself the revival of letters and of faith, 
 
^t. 2 7- MACAULAY GOES TO CALCUTTA. l8l 
 
 brought to tlio birth by the young missionary, could 
 not bo perfected. So it is that God works by many 
 and apparently incompatible instruments. For Ma- 
 caulay was ever the apostle of the old Whig neutrality 
 in religion, whether in India or in Ireland, although 
 his whole boyhood had been steeped in the discussions 
 of his father, of the Clapham men and Hannah More on 
 the evangelization of the Hindoo and the Negro alike. 
 It was not till June, 1834, that Macaulay reached 
 Madras to join the Governor-General, then at the 
 Ncclgherry hills, while he sent his sister on to Cal- 
 cutta, there to be the guest of Lady William Bentinck. 
 Duff had just left India stricken down by almost deadly 
 disease as we shall see, when in sultry September the 
 Honourable the Law Member o* Council took up his 
 abode, under a salute of fifteen guns, in what is still 
 the best of the Chowringhee palaces, the Bengal Club. 
 But none the less, Macaulay's greatest Avork — greater 
 than even his penal code and his Warren Hastings 
 and Clive essays — was to be the legislative comple- 
 tion of the young Scottish missionary's policy. Yet 
 Macaulay was never happy during his brief Indian resi- 
 dence of three and half years. He did not know the 
 magnitude, he had not his father's faith to realize tho 
 consequences, of the educational work between which 
 and a re-reading of nearly all the best Greek and Latin 
 authors he divided his leisure. In 1854, when Sir 
 Barnes Peacock completed his penal code, Macaulay 
 wrote to his sister, " Had this justice been done sixteen 
 years ago I should probably have given much more at- 
 tention to legislation and much less to literature than 
 I have done. I do not know that I should have been 
 either happier or more useful than I have been." And 
 in the glorious cold season of Bengal, so early as 
 December, 1834, he had thus sighed out his "heim- 
 weh" to Mr. Macvey Napier, of Edinburgh : "Calcutta 
 
l82 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 is called, and not without some reason, *the city of 
 palaces ; ' but I have seen nothing in the East like the 
 view from the Castle Rock, nor expect to see anything 
 like it till we stand there together again." 
 
 There was a third official, the warm personal zeal 
 of whose co-operation drew him clc'^r to Duff than 
 the two rulers, without whom his energizings could 
 not have been either so abiding or so imperial in their 
 consequences — Charles Trevelyan. Like Sir Henry 
 Durand at a later date, he had been compelled by 
 public duty to report to Government the malversa- 
 tion of a high civilian, an offence happily rare since 
 Clive's reforms. But Macaulay himself tells the 
 story : — 
 
 tt 
 
 Trevelyan is almost eight-and-twenty. He was educated 
 at the Charterhouse, and then went to Haileybury, and came 
 out hither. In this country he has distinguished himself 
 beyond any man of his standing, by his great talent for 
 business; by his liberal and enlarged views of policy; and 
 by literary merit, which, tor his opportunities, is considerable. 
 
 He was at first placed at Delhi under , a very powerful 
 
 and a very popular man, but extremely corrupt. This man 
 tried to initiate Trevelyan in his own infamous practices. But 
 the young fellow's spirit was too noble for such things. When 
 
 only twenty-one years of age he publicly accused , then 
 
 almost at the head of the service, of receiving bribes from the 
 natives. A perfect storm was raised against the accuser. Ho 
 was almost everywhere abused and very generally cut. But, 
 with a firmness and ability scarcely ever seen in any man so 
 young, he brought his proofs forward, and after an inquiry of 
 
 some weeks fully made out his case. was dismissed in 
 
 disgrace, and is now living obscurely in England. The 
 Government here and the directors at home applauded 
 Trevelyan in the highest terms, and from that time he has 
 been considered as a man Hkely to rise to the very top of the 
 service. 
 
 " Trevelyan is a most stormy reformer. Lord William said to 
 me, before any one had observed his attentions to Nancy : ' That 
 
^t. 28. SIR CnARLES TREVELYAN. 1 83 
 
 man is almost always on the right side in every question ; and 
 it is well that it is so, for he gives a most confounded deal of 
 trouble when he happens to take the wrong one.' He is quite 
 at the head of that active party, among tho younger servants 
 of the Company, who take tho side of improvement. In par- 
 ticular, he is the soul of every scheme for diffusing education 
 among the natives of this country. His reading has been 
 very confined j but to the little that he has read he has 
 brought a mind as active and restless as Lord Brougham's, 
 and much more judicious and honest. . . He has no small 
 talk. His mind is full of schemes of moral and political im- 
 provement, and his zeal boils over in his talk. His topics, oven 
 in courtship, are steam navigation, the education of the natives, 
 the equalization of the sugar duties, the substitution of the 
 Eoman for the Arabic alphabet in the oriental languages."* 
 
 Trevelyan had not been a week in Calcutti when, in 
 1831, he threw himself into the different movements 
 originated by Duff". In their first interview the two 
 young men soon found themselves absorbed in this 
 question of all others — the advantage, the positive 
 necessity of using the English language as the medium 
 of all Christianizing and civilizing, all high educational 
 and administrative efforts by its rulers to reach the 
 natural aristocracy and leaders of the people, and 
 through them to feed the vernaculars and raise the 
 masses. Duff^s plans, his experience, his success, were 
 not only accomplished facts, but had been then for 
 twelve months the talk and the imitation of every 
 thoughtful and benevolent Englishman in the far East. 
 Trevelyan told how he himself, at Delhi, had been for 
 four years speculating on the advantages of thus using 
 the English language. From that hour he clung to 
 the missionary, and became the principal link between 
 his far-seeing practical principles on the one hand and 
 
 * The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by his nephew, George 
 Otto Trevelyan, M.P. Second Edition, vol. i., p. 387. 
 
184 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 the coming action of Government in the same direc- 
 tion. It fell to Macaulay to advise and to the Gover- 
 nor-General to act under the following circumstances. 
 When the British succeeded to the Muhammadan 
 civil government of Bengal and Hindostan, on the 
 Emperor Shah Alum's grants to Olive at Benares in 
 1765, Warren Hastings made the first and most en- 
 lightened attempt to popularise the sacred books of 
 Islam and Brahmanism by Halhed's translations. It 
 was in vain. When Lord Cornwallis was forced to put 
 the judicial as well as revenue courts under British 
 officers, he still made a barbarous Persian, as technical 
 as the language of the Scottish courts, the only 
 lingual medium between the people and their new 
 rulers. The earliest colleges, as we have seen, Muham- 
 madan at Calcutta and Sanscrit at Benares, were created 
 to prepare the few natives required as intermediaries 
 between the Company's civilians and their subjects. 
 Thus an orientalism unworthy of the name of scholar- 
 ship sprang up, grew by tradition in spite of English 
 scholars like Sir William Jones, and widened the 
 gulf between the foreign ruler and the ignorant, 
 oppressed and suspicious ruled. Lord Wellesley was 
 the first who had the genius to seek to correct the evil. 
 In spite of the parsimonious Court of Directors, he 
 established the College of Fort William. He put Carey 
 and Buchanan practically at its head, to teach the 
 vernacular as well as classical languages of the East, 
 and to train the young *' writers " with a view, as Duff 
 described it, to *' the formation of sound moral and 
 religious habits, as much as for the cultivation of all 
 branches of professional or useful knowledge." That 
 college, like " the glorious little man " its founder, 
 sent forth a body of scholars and administrators to 
 whom we owe the conquest and good government of 
 India up to the next generation of then* pupils, headed 
 
jEt 28. THE GROWTH OF A VICIOUS ORIENTALISM. 1 85 
 
 by the Lawrences and Durand, Thomason and the 
 Muirs. Some, like Lord Metcalfe, early corrected the 
 orientalizing tendency of their studies by executive 
 work on the widest scale. Others, like Sir W. Mac- 
 naghten, intensified its evils by the narrowing work of 
 a mere secretary to Government. Lord Minto's ad- 
 ministration, more brilliant in some respects than has 
 yet been allowed, identified the growing orientalism, 
 not with the toler ^.tion in which it was born, but with 
 antichristian anti-popular timidity. Lord Hastings, 
 though personally friendly to the religious instruction 
 of the natives, found the orientt^l mania in this form 
 too strong for him to let it grow. Sydney Smith's 
 brother, who had made a fortune as Advocate-General 
 in Calcutta, proposed the educational clause in the 
 charter of 1813, doubtless in the interest of the 
 Brahmanizing orientalists, who had almost unchecked 
 influence with the Governor- General when it came to 
 be applied. But whatever tlio intention. Parliament, 
 led by the Grants and Wilberforce and deluged with 
 petitions from the whole country, had so worded the 
 clause as to secure the education of the whole 
 people of India in positive truth of every kind, the 
 revealed truth of Christianity being no doubt as much 
 in their mind as the superstitions of Brahmanism and 
 the Koran were in that of the minority. Like much 
 else in human compromises, confessions and con- 
 tracts, the language fortunately allowed of honest 
 development according to the growing needs of the 
 country and the time. 
 
 Still the orientalists, being in power on the spot, 
 had the unchecked administration of the money al- 
 lowed for public instruction. In spite of Rammohun 
 Roy, notwithstanding the expressed desire of the 
 natives themselves for English, although the vernacu- 
 lars were barren and the classical books printed and 
 
1 86 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 taught were not touched by one native who was not 
 highly paid for submitting to learn them, the British 
 Government persisted in its folly. When the ex- 
 pediency of spending a little of the grant ordered by 
 Parliament on the Hindoo College established by tlio 
 natives themselves was forced on the authorities, tlio 
 agent whom they selected to represent them was the 
 most intense and least Christian of all the oriental 
 party — the assistant- surgeon, Horace Hayman Wilson. 
 Even in 1833, when the Company had to render the 
 next account of its stewardship, the Government 
 Committee of Public Instruction was equally divided 
 between Oriento-maniacs and Anglo-maniacs, as they 
 called each other. What the teaching was in the 
 partially English Hindoo College we have seen. It 
 remained in the Benares Sanscrit College exactly what 
 Bishop Heber described it to have been during his tour 
 in Upper India. Under a grant ordered by Parliament 
 on the pressure of the Christian public, and ad- 
 ministered by a Christian Government, a professor 
 lecturing on a terrestrial globe identified Mount Meroo 
 with the North Pole, declared that the tortoise of 
 the Hindoo cosmogony supported the earth from under 
 the South Pole, pointed to Padalon in the centre of 
 the globe, and demonstrated how the sun went round 
 the earth every day and visited the signs of the Zodiac! 
 Well might the teaching of such " rubbish " in a state 
 college excite the wonder of the Bishop. But that was 
 harmless compared with what was taught elsewhere, 
 and even with the obscenely idolatrous teaching which 
 Imgered in Government school-books till Lord North- 
 brook purged them three years ago, if indeed they be 
 yet purged. 
 
 When Trevelyan came to the support of Duff, and 
 adopted his plans as well as his principles as the only 
 policy for Government, the Brahmanizing five in the 
 
/Et. 28. THE TEACniNG OF THE ORIENTALISTS. 1 87 
 
 Government committee were these : The Honble. H. 
 Shakespear was a colleague of the Governor-General, 
 and only as such was dangerous. Mr. H. Thoby Prin- 
 sep and Mr. James Prinsep were brothers. The latter, 
 an uncovenanted officer of the Mint, was the greatly 
 lamented scholar who fell an early victim to his too 
 eager researches into the inscriptions on coins and 
 rocks which he deciphered. The former was one of the 
 under-secretaries to Government at that time, was a 
 greater scholar in Arabic and Persian than his brother, 
 was afterwards director, member of Parliament, and 
 member of the Secretary of State's council, and died 
 at eighty-six, the day before Duff. William Hay Mac- 
 naghten was a Charterhouse boy, who from the day he 
 landed in India, first as a cadet and then as a civilian, 
 mastered the several languages of south and north, 
 proved the most extraordinary scholar in the classical 
 tongues ever turned out by Fort William College, and 
 was trusted by Lord William Bentinck beyond any 
 other secretary. His evil policy and sad fate in Cabul 
 make his career most tragic. These, with the zealous 
 secretary of the committee, Mr. T. C. C. Sutherland, 
 made the orientalists very formidable antagonists. 
 
 The Anglicists were no less strong, however. Fore- 
 most among them was the greatest land-revenue au- 
 thority, Robert Mertins Bird, who corrected and com- 
 pleted the work of Holt Mackenzie, author of the first 
 official minute on education, and at whose feet Lord 
 Lawrence sat as a revering pupil. Mr. J. B. Colvin 
 was he who died in Agra Fort during the mutiny, 
 Lieutenant-Governor. Sir Charles Trevelyan atoned 
 for the probably routine efficiency of Messrs. Saunders 
 and Bushby, who always voted straight. We must in 
 justice to these two main parties add a third, whom we 
 may describe as Vernacularists. Allying himself with 
 the Serampore men then left, with Dr. Marsh man and 
 
l88 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 hk son in the Friend of India, Mr. Brian H. Hodgson, 
 long the first authority on Tibetan Buddhism, advo- 
 cated the foundation of a normal vernacular institution 
 to manufacture good teachers, reliable translators and 
 pure books. English, ho urged, would be as bad as 
 Persian, Arabic and Sanscrit, which had " proved the 
 curse " of India, " not so much by reason of the false 
 doctrines they have inculcated as by reason of the 
 administrative mystery they have created and upheld." 
 All that was good, or possible at the time, in Mr. 
 Hodgson's then really remarkable proposal Mr. Duff 
 had already advocated or actually carried into effect. 
 His school and college long proved to be the first of 
 normal training institutions in India, which, indeed, 
 has had no others worthy of the name save those 
 established by the Christian Vernacular Education 
 Society since the mutiny. The vernacular department 
 of his school, fitting into the English and ultimately 
 the Sanscrit classes, secured all that the great orien- 
 talist of Nipal wanted. But Hodgson, in common with 
 his less enlightened fellows on the committee, could not 
 see that while the natives themselves desired English, 
 while it was administratively necessary as well as politi- 
 cally desirable to give them facilities for mastering the 
 English literature as well as language, no body of truth, 
 scientific, historical or ethical, not to say Christian, could 
 be conveyed to the natives through their then barren 
 vernaculars or sealed classical tongues. The Govern- 
 ment, like the missionaries, must begin at both ends : at 
 the vernacular that the people might at least read and 
 write their own language intelligently, and at the higher 
 or English end that thence their own teachers might 
 convey the material and even the terms of truth to 
 them through the vernacular ; and in time to the learned 
 through the Sanscrit, Arabic and Persian. Writing of 
 this period Duff declared : — " I saw clearly and ex- 
 
^t. 28. ME. B. HODGSON AND THE VERNACULARISTS. 1 89 
 
 pressed myself strongly to the effect that ultimately, 
 in a generation or two, the Bengalee, by improvement, 
 might become the fitting medium of European know- 
 ledge. But at that time it was but a poor language, 
 like English before Chaucer, and had in it, neither 
 by translation nor original composition, no works em- 
 bodying any subjects of study beyond the merest 
 elements. As a native of the Highlands I vividly 
 realized the fact that the Gaelic language, though power- 
 ful for lyric and other poetry and also for popular 
 address, contained no works that could possibly meet 
 the objects of a higher and comprehensive education. 
 Hence those who sought that found it in English col- 
 leges, and returned as teachers and preachers to dis- 
 tribute the treasures of knowledge acquired through 
 English among the Gaelic people." 
 
 Just when, in 1834, Duff's success, Trevelyan's 
 earnestness, and the increasing urgency of the de- 
 spatches from the Court of Directors drafted by his 
 friend Mr. James Mill* had produced a dead-lock in the 
 Committee of Public Instruction, Macaulay was ap- 
 pointed its president. But he declined to act until the 
 Government, of which he was a member, should have 
 decided the question of policy in its executive capacity. 
 And to him, as law member, the preliminary duty was 
 assigned of declaring whether the Governor-General in 
 Council could legally apply to English education the 
 grant ordered by the Parliament of 1813, and hitherto 
 reserved for a so-called orientalism. On the 2nd Feb- 
 ruary, 1835, he submitted to Lord William Bentinck 
 
 • In 1836 Macaalay wrote to his father : — " I have been a sin- 
 cere mourner for Mill. He and I were on the best terms, and liis 
 services at the India House were never so much needed as at this 
 time. I had a most kind letter from him a few weeks before I 
 heard of his death. He has a son just come out, to whom I have 
 shown such little attentions as are in my power." 
 
IQO LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 that minute which, while as striking a specimen of his 
 written stylo as even the passage on Burke in his 
 " Yfarren Hastings " pronounced by his biographer 
 " unsurpassed," proved to be the first charter of in- 
 tellectnal libert}'- for the people of India, the educa- 
 tional despatch of 1854 based on Duff's evidence before 
 a Parliamentary committee being the second. 
 
 In that minute Micaulay began by showing that the 
 lakh of rup'^es set apart by order of Parliament was not 
 only for " reviving literature in India," but also for 
 " the iutrod action and promotion of a knowledge of the 
 sciences among the inhabitants of the British terri- 
 tories." These words, he said, are "alone sufficient to 
 authorize all the changes for which I contend." But 
 so terribly was he in earnest that he proposed, if his 
 colleagues in council differed from him, to do what 
 would now be impossible, — to pass a short Act rescind- 
 ing that former clause of the charter of 1813 on which 
 the orientalists based their opposition. He was him- 
 self indeed the author of the charter of 1833 more 
 than any other man, even Lord Glenelg, and he was 
 the most constitutional of Whigs. But, nevertheless, 
 to propose that a local legislature, and such a legis- 
 lature as that of India was till Lord Dalhousie's time, 
 should quietly abolish an Act of Parliament, was daring 
 even then. The proposal was unnecessary, for his 
 opinion as the responsible legal adviser of the Governor- 
 General was sufiScient. In twelve pages like this he 
 then proceeded to prove that, being " free to employ 
 our funds as we choose, we ought to employ them in 
 teaching what is best worth knowing ; that English is 
 better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic ; that 
 the natives are desirous to be taught English and 
 are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic ; 
 that neither as the languages of law nor as the lan- 
 guages of religion have the Sanscrit and Arabic any 
 
JEt. 2g. MACAULAY S FAMOUS MINUTE. IQI 
 
 ])cculiar claim to our encouragement; that it is possi- 
 i)le to make natives of this country thoroughly good 
 English scliolars, and that to this end our efforts ought 
 to bo directed." Mr. Thoby Prinsep replied after the 
 Anoflo-Indian fashion, which conducts all deliberate dis- 
 ciission by then written i\r\d now printed minutes, often 
 of value second only te Macaulay's, and too seldom 
 ordered by Parliament to be published. Able as that 
 councillor was, even in his blindness and to the last 
 hour of liis duties in the India Office, his vain repre- 
 sentations called forth only this rejoinder, scratched 
 in pencil, from the law member : " I remain not only 
 unshaken but confirmed in all my opinions on the 
 general question. I may have committed a slight mis- 
 take or two as to details, and I may have occasionally 
 used an epithet which might with advantage be soft- 
 ened down. But I do not retract the substance of a 
 single proposition I have advanced." 
 
 Never did what his enemies called his "conceit," 
 and hostile critics afterwards used to denounce as his 
 " obstinacy," stand the world in better stead. He 
 fought for the enlightenment of the millions of our 
 Indian Empire as it then was, and of millions yet 
 unborn. While in the same breath he officially and 
 personally advocated religT^us neutrality, it was a 
 true neutrality, intended to prevent the hostility of 
 Hindooizing foreigners to Christian liberty and prin- 
 ciples, and he stood forth the greatest ally the Indian 
 missionary has ever had. It was not only English 
 that Macaulay persuaded the Government to teach, 
 it was the recognition of the equality of children 
 of all castes in the public schools, from which the 
 Brahmanizing orientalists had weakly excluded all but 
 the Brahmans. When he fairly joined the committee 
 he penned such ink-blotted sentences as these in the 
 minute-book which circulated from member to mem- 
 
192 LIFE OP DR. DUFP. 1834. 
 
 ber : "No such distinction ouglit to be tolerated in any 
 school supported by us." " Tlio general rule clearly 
 ought to be that all classes shou'd be treated alike, 
 and sliould be suiTered to intermingle freely." It was 
 only Duff and the Christian missionaries who had up 
 to this time disregarded caste and idolatrous festi- 
 vals alike in their schools, and who had begun rot 
 only to ask but to receive fees for the secular instruc- 
 tion, such as the respectable poor could pay and as 
 would make them value aright the instruction they 
 received. But it was much that the Government 
 should at that time follow the same just and tolerant 
 course. 
 
 Nor was it in this only that Macaulay, as an 
 educationist, followed Duff, through Trevelyan as the 
 intermediary. In public instruction, as in everything 
 else, principles are little without the men to give them 
 effect. Even after tempting the missionary's assist- 
 ants, like Mr. Clift, to leave him, Government could 
 not get teachers worth the name. In the days before 
 normal schools Macaulay wrote in the old minute 
 book, " Teacliing is an art to be learned by practice. 
 I am satisfied that it will soon be found necessary to 
 import from England, or rather from Scotland, a re- 
 gular supply of masters for the Government schools." 
 And from the first, again following Duff more or less 
 consciously, Macaulay looked on English as the indis- 
 pensable preliminary to the true education of the 
 people in their own vernaculars. He thus supported 
 a proposal to teach Hindee at Ajmer : — " An order 
 to give instruction in the English language is, by 
 necessary implication, an order to give instruction, 
 where that instruction is required, in the vernacu* 
 lar language. For what is meant by teaching a 
 boy a foreign language? Surely this, the teaching 
 him what words in the foreign language correspond to 
 
M. 28. MACAULAY ON TEACHINO ENGLISH. 1 93 
 
 certain words in his own vernacular language, the 
 enabling him to translate from the foreign language 
 into his own vernacular language, and vice versa. Wo 
 learn one language, our mother tongue, by noticing 
 the correspondence between words and things. But 
 all the languages which we afterwards study wo learn 
 by noticing the correspondence between the words in 
 those languages and the words in our own mother 
 tongue. The teaching the boys at Ajmer, therefore, 
 to read and write Ilindee seems to me to bo bond fide 
 a part of an English education. To teach them Per- 
 sian would bo to set up a rival, and, as I apprehend, a 
 very unworthy rival to the English language." 
 
 So, just seven years before. Duff had not only 
 written but acted in the case of Bengalee, and for tlio 
 first time in the East. Before he left India Macaulay 
 was able, sympathetically with the objects of the mis- 
 sionaries, to write to his father in language that reads 
 like an extract from Duff's earlier official reports to 
 Dr. Inglis : — " Our English schools are flourishing 
 wonderfully. We find it difficult, indeed in some 
 places impossible, to provide instruction for all who 
 want it. At the single town of Hooghly fourteen 
 hundred boys are learning English. The effect of 
 this education on the Hindoos is prodigious. No 
 Hindoo who has received an English education ever 
 remains sincerely attached to his religion. Some 
 continue to confess it as matter of policy ; but many 
 profess themselves pure deists, and some embrace 
 Cliristianity. It is my firm belief that if our plans 
 of education are followed up there will not be a single 
 idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty 
 years hence." 
 
 Having, as a colleague of Macaulay's, endorsed his 
 opinions in a minute, as Governor-General in Council 
 Lord William Bentinck thus issued the decree of the 
 
 o 
 
194 I'IFE OP DE. DVFP, 1835. 
 
 7th ^farcli, 1835, which fitly closed tho long list of 
 services to the people of India and his own country 
 such as tho former have immortalized by the statue 
 with its inscription fronting tho Town-hall of Calcutta, 
 anu as tho latter has expressed through the eulogium 
 penned by IMacaulay : — 
 
 *'lst. His Lordship in Council is of opinion that; tho groat 
 object of the British Government ought to bo tho promotion of 
 Kuropoan liteniiuro and science among tho natives of India, 
 and that all tho funds appropriated for tho purposes of educa- 
 tion would be best em})loyed on English education done. 
 
 " 2nd. But it is not the intention of his Lordship in Council 
 to abolish any college or school of native learning, while tho 
 native population shall appear to bo inclined to avail themselves 
 { f tho advantages which it affords ; and his Lordship in Council 
 directs that all the existing professors and students at all tho 
 institutions under tho superintendence of the committee shall 
 continue to receive their stipends. But his Lordship in Coun- 
 cil decidedly objects to the practice which has hitherto prevailed 
 of supporting tho students during the period of their education, 
 lie conceives that tho only effects of such a system can be to 
 give artificial encouragement to branches of learning which, in 
 the natural course of things, would be superseded by more 
 useful studies j and he directs that no stipend shall be given to 
 any student that may hereafter enter at any of these institu- 
 tions, and that when any pi'ofessor of oriental learning shall 
 vacate his situation tho committee shall report to the Govern- 
 ment the number and state of the clas? in order that tho 
 Government may be able to decide upon the expediency of 
 appointing a successor. 
 
 "3rd. It has come to the knowledge of the Governor- 
 General in Council, that a large sum has been expended by 
 the committee on the printing of oriental works ; his Lordship 
 in Council directs that no portion of the funds shall hereafter 
 be so employed. 
 
 " 4th. His Lordship in Council directs that all the funds 
 which these reforms v.'ill leave at the disposal of the committee 
 be henceforth employed in imparting to the native population 
 a knowledge of English literature and science through the 
 
JEt. 29. aOVERNMKNT DECEEE IN FAVOUR OP ENGLISH. I95 
 
 mocliiim of tho English language j and his Lordship in Council 
 requests tho cominittoo to submit to Government, witli all 
 expedition, a plan for the nccomplishmcut of this purpose."— 
 (Signed,) " U. T. 1'kinhei', Secretary to G over time tit." 
 
 Rhadakant Deb and Russoraoy Dutt, tlio native 
 lenders of the orthodox and the liberal Bengalees, 
 were at once added to the committee ; for even the 
 orthodox had never approved of the fanatical and, in 
 relation to them, false orientalism of Dr. H. H. Wilson 
 and liis associates. The Prinseps, one of whom had 
 officially signed the decree, led the Bengal Asiatic 
 Society in an attack upon " the destructive, unjust, 
 unpopular and impolitic resolution, not far outdone by 
 tlie destruction of the Alexandrine library itself," and 
 memorialised the Court of Directors against it. What 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan, after all the experience of tho 
 past half-century, still thinks of Duff and his share 
 in the triumph, that veteran reformer has enabled us 
 thus to learn : — 
 
 " Our concern," he writes to us, "is with the part 
 performed by Dr. Duff at this crisis of Indian history. 
 When he arrived in India the first marveUous results 
 of the education given at the Hindoo College had begun 
 to appear. Newly acquired freedom had led to a state 
 of intellectual exaltation, and, seeing that the religious 
 system they had been taught to venerate had no foun- 
 dation, the young men jumped to the conclusion that 
 all religion was priestcraft. Dr. Duff then came for- 
 ward as a dtifender of the truth of Christianity, and 
 in several public disputations lie converted some and 
 enforced respect upon all. But he did a great deal 
 more than this. He clearly appreciated the new intel- 
 lectual and moral power which had appeared on the 
 field, and had the sagacity to distinguish between its 
 present abuse and the important use to which, under 
 proper direction, it might be appl^od in aid of the 
 
196 LIFE OP EH. DUr?. 1835. 
 
 Cliristian cause. There was a general demand for 
 education, and lie proposed to meet it by giving reli- 
 gious education. Up to that time preaching had been 
 considered the orthodox regular mode of missionary 
 action, but J)r. "Duff luld that the receptive plastic 
 minds of children might be moulded from the first 
 according to the Christian system, to the exclusion of 
 all heathen teaching, and that the best preaching to 
 the rising generation which soon becomes the entire 
 people, is the ' line upon line, precept upon precept ; 
 here a little, and there a little,' of the schoolroom. 
 Reconstruction upon a sound basis would then be 
 linked with the destruction of ancient error. What- 
 ever difficulties the Government might have, the mis- 
 sionary societies were free to offer religious education 
 to all who were willing to accept it. 
 
 " The remarkable success of the school which Dr. 
 Duff opened at Calcutta on these principles, and the 
 influence it had in promoting the establishment of 
 similar institutions in other parts of India, are well 
 known, but account should also be taken of the direct 
 access thus gained to the future leaders of the people, 
 and of the new respect paid to missionaries as tutors 
 of young native chiefs and other highly considered 
 persons. These were great and pregnant reforms, 
 which must always give Dr. Duff a high place among 
 the benefactors of mankind. The indirect influence of 
 his exertions upon the action of the Government was 
 at least equally important. The example of his suc- 
 cess, and the stimulus gi^'-en by him to the popular 
 demand for English educt jn, entered largely into the 
 causes which brougnt about the Resolution of Govern- 
 ment of the seventh of March, 1835." 
 
 Duff's own attitude and criticism of the last act of 
 Lord William Bentinck will be found in that which is, 
 historically, the most important of his many pamphlets. 
 
^t. 29. TREVELYAN ON HIS SERVICES TO MANKIND. 1 97 
 
 his " New Era of the English Language and English 
 Literature in India." With the culture that had 
 marked his whole school and university studies, he 
 recognised the attractions of a genuine oriental scholar- 
 ship, and reproached his countrymen for their indif- 
 ference to it, for " perseverhig in a truly barbarous 
 irrnorauce of one of the most remarkable nations 
 and countries on the face of the globe." Following 
 that remark of a contemporary historian, Duff con- 
 tinued : — 
 
 *' If poetry and romance and chivalry bo an object of pursuit, 
 are there not ample stores of poetic eS'usion and romantic 
 legend that might not be disclaimed as unworthy by any of the 
 older nations of Europe ? and are the records of any state more 
 crowded with the recital of daring adventures and deeds of 
 heroism than the annals of Rajasthan ? If philology, where 
 can we find the match of the Sanscrit, perhaps the most 
 copious and certainly the most elaborately refined of all lan- 
 guages, living or dead ? If antiquities, are there not monu- 
 mental remains and cavern temples scarcely less stupendous 
 than those of Egypt ? and ancient sculptures, which, if inferior 
 in 'majesty .and expression,* in richness and variety of orna- 
 mental tracery, almost rival those of Greece ? If natural 
 history, where is the mineral kingdom more exujerautly rich, 
 the vegetable or animal more variegated, goi'geous, or gigantic ? 
 If the intellectual and moral histor} of man, are there not 
 masses of subtile speculation and fantastic philosophies, and 
 infinitely varied and unparalleled developments of every prin- 
 ciple of action that has characterized falleu degraded humanity ? 
 If an outlet for the exercise of philanthropy, what field on the 
 surface of the globe can be compared to Hindostan, stretching 
 from the Indus to the Ganges, and from the Himalaya to Cape 
 Comorin, in point of magnitude and accessibility combined, 
 and peculiarity of claims on British Christians, the claims of 
 not less than a hundred and thirty millions of fellow-snbjects, 
 sunk beneath a load of the most debasing superstitions, and 
 the crudest idolatries that ever polluted the surface of the 
 earth, or brutalized the nature of man ? " 
 
198 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1835, 
 
 Having used official documents to show the people of 
 Great Britain and Ireland wherein the follies of the 
 Calcutta orientalists' abuse of the public money differed 
 from the pursuit of an enlightened scholarship, the 
 missionary vindicated the propriety and excellence of 
 the decree which restored the Government position 
 of strict neutrality by allowing English to take its 
 place beside the classical and vernacular languages of 
 the people of India, according to their own demand, 
 and with a view to purify the former while enriching 
 the latter : — 
 
 « 
 
 As concerns the interests nnd glory of the Government 
 itself, its dissemination of its own language and literature, far 
 fi'om being impolitic, seems the only wise and magnanimous 
 policy. The vast influence of language in moulding national 
 feelings and habits, more especially if fraught with superior 
 stores of knowledge, is too little attended to and too inade- 
 quately understood. In this respect we are in the rear of 
 nations some of which we are apt to despise as semi-barbarous. 
 When the Romans conquered a province they forthwith set 
 themselves to the task of ' Romanizing ' it ; that is, they strove 
 to create a taste for their own more refined language and liter- 
 ature, and thereby aimed at turning the song and the romance 
 and the history — the thought and the feeling and fancy, of the 
 subjugated people, into Roman channels, which fed and aug- 
 mented Romish interests. And has Rome not succeeded ? 
 Has she not saturated every vernacular dialect with which she 
 came in contact with terms copiously drawn from her own ? 
 Has she not thus perpetuated for ages after her sceptre moul- 
 ders in the dust the magic influence of her character and 
 name ? Has she not stamped the impress of her own genius 
 on the literature and the laws of almost every European king- 
 dom, with a fixedness that has remained unchanged up to the 
 present hour ? 
 
 " Ai^d who can tell to what extent the strength and perpe- 
 tuity of the Arabic domination is indebted to the Caliph Walid, 
 who issued the celebrated decree that the language of the 
 Koran should be ' the universal language of the Muhamraadan 
 
JEt 29. ANALOGY OF ROME, THM CALIPHS AND AKBAR. 1 99 
 
 worlds so that, from tlie Indian Archipelago to Portugal, it 
 actually became the language of religion, of literature, of gov- 
 ernment and generally of common life ? * 
 
 "And who can estimate the extent of influence exerted in 
 India by the famous edict of Akbar, the greatest and the wisest 
 far of the sovereigns of the House of Timur ? Of this edict 
 an authority already quoted thus wrote, about six years ago : 
 ' The great Akbar established the Persian language as the 
 language of business and of polite literature throughout his 
 extensive dominions, and the popular tongue naturally became 
 deeply impregnated with it. The literature and the language 
 of the country thus became identified with the genius of 
 his dynasty; and this has tended more than anything else to 
 produce a kind of intuitive veneration for the family, which 
 has long survived even the destruction of their power ; and 
 this feeling will continue to exist until we substitute tho 
 English language for the Persiarf, which will dissolve the spell, 
 and direct the ideas and the sympathies of the natives towards 
 their present rulers.' The 'until,' which only six years ago 
 pointed so doubtfully to the future, has, sooner than could have 
 been anticipated, been converted into an event of past history. 
 And to Lord W. Bentinck belongs the honour of this noblo 
 achievement. He it was who first resolved to supersede the 
 Persian, in the political department of the public service, by 
 the substitution of the English, and laid the foundation for tho 
 same in every department, financial and judicial, as well as 
 political. And. having thus by one act created a necessity, 
 and consequently an inci ised and yearly increasing demand 
 for English, he next consummated the great design by super- 
 adding the enactment under review, which provides the re- 
 quisite means for supplying the demand that had been pre- 
 viously created. And this united Act now bids fair to out- 
 rival in importance the edicts of the Roman, the Arabic and 
 the Mogul emperors, inasmuch as the English language is in- 
 finitely more fraught with the seeds of truth in every province 
 of literature, science and religion than the languages of Italy, 
 Arabia or Persia ever were. Hence it is that I venture to 
 hazard the opinion, that Lord W. Bentinck's double act for 
 the encouragement and diffusion of the English language and 
 English literature in the East will, long after contemporaneous 
 party interests and individual jealousies and ephemeral rival- 
 
200 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 ries have sunk into oblivion, bo hailed by a grateful and bene- 
 fited posterity as tho greatest master-stroke of sound policy 
 that has yet charactei'ized the administration of the British 
 Government in India." 
 
 Let the Government, he urged, use the Asiatic 
 Society of Sir William Jones and James Prinsep as 
 the oflBcial organ for dis})onsing its patronage of stand- 
 ard oriental writers and their translations. But for 
 the true education of the learned themselves, as well 
 as for the elevation of the illiterate millions, the vast 
 ocean of oriental literature deserves Firdousi's satire 
 on Ghuzni in all its glory : " The magnificent court of 
 Ghuzni is a sea, but a sea without bottom and without 
 sbore. I have fished in it long, but have not found 
 any pearl." "Is it not one thing," asked Duff", "to re- 
 gard a literature as an inexhaustible field for literary, 
 scientific and theological research, and quite another to 
 cherish it as the sole nursery of intellect, morals and 
 reliorion ?" Nor was one who knew the relation of the 
 English to his own Gaelic vernacular so enthusiastic 
 for English as to dream that it could ever supersede 
 the mother tongues of millions, or do more than give 
 them a new wealth and power. He thus concluded 
 his vindication of the enactment, and proceeded to 
 show where it fell short of bis own ideal : — 
 
 ".Who, then, will hesitate in affirming that, in iJie meantime, 
 the Government has acted wisely in appointing the English 
 language as the medium of communicating English literature 
 and science to the select youth of India? And who will ven- 
 ture to say that the wisdom of the act would be diminished 
 if it guaranteed the continuance of English as the medium 
 until the living spoken dialects of India became ripened, by the 
 copious infusion of expressive terms, for the formation of a 
 new and improved national literature ? . . 
 
 "What will be the ultimate effect of these yearly augmenting 
 educationary forces ? Wo say ultimate with emphasis, because 
 
^t. 29. DEFECT OF THE DECREE OF 1835. 201 
 
 we are no visionaries. We do not expect miracles. We do 
 not anticipate sudden and instantaneous changes. But we do 
 look forward with confidence to a great vltimafe revolution. 
 We do regard Lord W. Beutiuck'a Act as laying the foundation 
 of a train of causes which may for a while operate so insensibly 
 as to pass unnoticed by careless or casual observers, but not 
 the less surely as concerns the great and momentous issue. 
 Like the laws which silently, but with resistless power, regu- 
 late the movements of the material universe, these education- 
 ary operations, which are of the nature and force of moral 
 laws, will proceed onwards till they terminate in effecting a 
 universal change in the national mind of India. The sluices 
 of a superior and quickening knowledge have already been 
 thrown open ; and who shall dare to shut them up ? The 
 streams of enlivening information have begun to flow in upon 
 the dry and parched land, and who will venture to arrest their 
 progress ? As well might we ask with the poet : — 
 
 « ( 
 
 Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, 
 Forget her thunders and recall her fires ? 
 When the loose mountain trembles from on high, 
 Shall gravitation cease, while you go by ? ' 
 
 " But highly as we approve of Lord W. Bentinck's enactment 
 so fur as it goes, we must, ere we conclude, in justice to our 
 own views and to the highest and noblest cause on earth, take 
 the liberty of strongly expressing our own honest conviction 
 that it does not go far enough. Truth is better than error in 
 any department of knowledge, the humblest as well as the 
 most exalted. Hence it is that we admire the moral intrepid- 
 ity of the man who decreed that, in the Government institu- 
 tions of India, true literature and true science should hence- 
 forth be substituted in place of false literature, false science 
 iiud false religion. But while we rejoice that true literature 
 and science is to be substituted in place of what is demon- 
 strably false, we cannot but lament that no provision whatever 
 has been made for substituting the only true religion — Chris- 
 tianity — in place of the false religion which our literature and 
 science will inevitably demolish. . . 
 
 " Our maxim has been, is now, and ever will be this : — 
 Wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever Chrlstianitij is sacri- 
 ficed on the altar of worldly expediency, there and then must the 
 
202 LlPifl OP DR. D0FP. 1835. 
 
 supreme good of man lie bleeding at its base. But because a 
 Christian govorumont has chosen to neglect its duty towards 
 the religion which it is sacredly bound to uphold, is that any 
 reason why the Churches of Britain should neglect their duty 
 too ? Let us be aroused, then, from our lethargy, and strive 
 to accomplish our part. If wo are wise in time, we may con- 
 vert the act of the Indian Government into an ally and a 
 friend. The extensive erection of a machinery for the destruc- 
 tion of ancient superstition we may regard as opening up new 
 facilities, in the good providence of God, for the spread 
 of the everlasting gospel, as serving the part of a humble 
 pioneer in clearing away a huge mass of rubbish that would 
 otherwise have tended to impede the free dissemination of 
 divine truth. Wherever a Government seminary is founded, 
 whicli shall have the effect of battering down idolatry and 
 superstition, there let us be prepared to plant a Christian in- 
 stitution that shall, through the blessing of Heaven, be the 
 instrument of roaring the beauteous superstructure of Chris- 
 tianity on the ruins of both. 
 
 " Already has the Church of Scotland nobly entered upon 
 the great field ; but let her remember that she has only crossed 
 the border. Already has she taken up a bold and command- 
 ing position in front of the enemy ; but let her not forget that 
 the warfare is only begun. Let her arise, and in the name 
 of the Lord march forward to take possession of the land. 
 Already has she given evidence of the possibility, and an 
 example of the mode of turning the Government schemes of 
 education to profitable account. Where the Government had 
 established its first English college there did she station her 
 first missionaries and plant her first Christian institution. 
 And some of the most talented of the young men reared in 
 the Government college became, through the grace of the Divine 
 Spirit, her first converts, the first-fruits of her missionary 
 labours in Hindostan. 
 
 "We have often wondered at the boldness of the conception 
 of a celebrated statesman, who, when taunted on the occasion 
 of the last invasion of Spain by France, as to the diminution of 
 British influence and the declension of British interests in the 
 councils of Europe, which that event seemed to indicate, rose up 
 in the British senate, and in substance made the magnificent re- 
 ply : ' While others were torturing their minds on account of the 
 
M. 29. canning's peroration ArrLiRD TO MISSIONS. 203 
 
 supposed (iisturbanco of tlio equilibrium of power among tlio 
 European states, I looked at the possessions of Spain on tlio 
 other side of the Atlantic : I looked at the Indies, and I called 
 in the new world to redress the balance of the old/ What is 
 there to prevent the Church of Scotland* from attempting to 
 emulate, in a much higher and holier sense, the magnanimous 
 spirit of this reply ? If she awake and arise, and put forth 
 all her latent energies in behalf of the perishing heathen, may 
 she not, in reference to the glowing prospects of Christianity 
 in the East, be yet privileged to show that, at a time when 
 many upbraided her with the diminution of influence at home, 
 and others were racking their ingenuity in adjusting the dis- 
 turbed equilibrium of her power, she looked at the dominions 
 of idolatry across the great ocean ; she looked at the Indies 
 and, through the blessing of God, called in a new Church to 
 redress the balance of the old ? " 
 
 With the sensitive modesty which ever marked him, 
 the eloquent adapter of Canning's saying made no allu- 
 sion to his own part in this result, of which Trevelyan 
 writes that it " entered largely " into the official side 
 of the revival, and how much more largely into the 
 spiritual I In the next year's report which he drafted, 
 Trevelyan, remembering John Knox though writing of 
 purely secular schools, declared it to be the Govern- 
 ment committee's aim to establish a vernacular school 
 iu every village of India, and to endow a college for 
 Western learning ultimately in every zillah or county 
 town. In that one year the Grovernment English schools 
 were doubled in number, in Bengal and Northern India 
 alone rising to twenty-seven. Accepting that so far, 
 
 * The reason why the Church of Scotland is here singled out for 
 special notice is, that the whole of the preceding article happened 
 to be originally inserted in the Church of Scotland Magazine. Tha 
 author, however, equally rejoices in all the real success that has 
 attended the missionary labours of other Churches and societies, 
 and unites with all that sincerely love the Lord Jesus in earnest 
 prayer and supplication for their increasing prosperity. — A. D. 
 
204 LIFE OP DTI. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 tlio Dcw demand of its first missionary was, that tlio 
 Scottish and other Churches should plant an insti- 
 tution beside such secular schools, to supply the 
 people with the lacking elements of positive moral and 
 spiritual truth. That, too, he of all men brought 
 about, alike by the stimulus he gave to the other 
 Churches to follow his example, and by the tolerant, 
 catholic grant-in-aid system, which he did not succeed 
 in securing till Parliament again interfered in 1853. 
 
 The conflict which resulted in the decree of 1835, 
 and the discussion to which that ordinance in its turn 
 gave rise, left a curious trace on the writings of Mr. 
 Gladstone and Macaulay three years after. Mr. Duff's 
 complaint that the Government of India had made no 
 provision for putting Christianity in the place of the 
 false faiths which a true science and literature were 
 destroying, rests on precisely the same principle to 
 advocate which Mr. Gladstone, in 1838, published his 
 first book on " The State in its Relations with the 
 Church." When, on his return from India, Macaulay 
 wrote his well-known essay on that most earnest 
 volume, he met the proposition that the propagation 
 of religious truth is one of the principal ends of 
 Government, as Government, by considerations drawn 
 from his Indian experience. From the other extreme 
 of political expediency he assumed that the Govern- 
 ment of India, while it " ought indeed to desire to 
 propagate Christianity," should not attempt such 
 substitution of the true for the false, because it 
 would inevitably destroy our empire. 
 
 Thus was begun, first practically and then legis- 
 latively, that revival of letters in India, of which, 
 referring to the Renaissance of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries, Macaulay had written in his famous 
 minute : " AVhat the Greek and Latin were to the 
 contemporaries of ^lore and Ascham, our tongue is to 
 
JEt 29. TUB REVIVAL OP LETTERS. 205 
 
 th'e people of India." Similarly Duff Lad reasoned 
 years before that was written : What the Christian 
 Reformation did for Europe through the Greek tongue, 
 the Roman law and the Bible in the vernaculars, it 
 will similarly do for India and further Asia through 
 the English language and the British administration. 
 It is diflBcult to say whether he showed more genius in 
 instinctively seizing the position in 1830, in working 
 out the parallel down to 1835, or in influencing the 
 Indian Government and the British public by his 
 heaven-born enthusiasm and fiery eloquence. 
 
CHAPTER Yin. 
 
 1833-1835. 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA.— SCIENCE AND 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 The Duff-Ben find: Period. — The Aryan Witness to Christian Doc- 
 trine. — Medical Science and Practice in Vedic times. — Charaka 
 and Susruta. — First Attempt of an Indian Governnicnt at Medical 
 TeachinjT. in 1822. — Dnff Protests apfainst the Unscientific Folly 
 of the Orientalists. — Lord William Bentinck's Goraniittee, — Sir 
 C. Trevelyan's Narrative. — Duff's Brahmanical Students offer to 
 Dissect the Human Subject. — The Bonojal Medical College created. 
 — Bramley, Henry Goodeve and the First Professors. — Modosoo- 
 dun Goopta and the First Dissection. — Subsequent Success of 
 College and Native Christian Physicians. — The Controversy about 
 Romanizing the Oriental Alphabets. — The -539 Languages and 
 Dialects of Further Asia. — Sir C. Trevelyan's Account of Duff's 
 Assistance. — Duff's Work for Vernacular Education. — Adam's 
 Reports on the Indigenous Schools. — Duff uses the Press. — Es- 
 tablishes the Calcutta Christian Observer. — Opinions on Biblical 
 Criticism. — Freedom of the Press permitted by Lord W. Bentinclc, 
 and legally secured by Metcalfe. — In what sense a Renaissance 
 Is true of India. 
 
 During what may appropriately be marked out as 
 this Duff-Bentinck period, the Hindoo mind began to 
 awake from its long sleep under the dominance, first 
 of its own Brahmanism broken only for a time by the 
 Buddhist revolt, and then of the Arab-Muhammadan 
 tyranny, to which it had early lent the culture of the 
 caliphs of Bagdad down to that of Akbar at Agra. 
 The nineteenth century in India is the beginning of a 
 renaissance in a sense which promises to be as real 
 for Southern and Eastern Asia as that of the fifteenth 
 was for Europe. In philology and philosophy, in 
 astronomy and medicine, the Vedic Hindoos were the 
 
^t. 28. EAULY FAITH AND SCIENCE OP THE HINDOOS. 207 
 
 teachers of Pythagoras and Plato, of Aristotlo and 
 Hippocrates, as well as of the Arabs who, like Ibn 
 Sina, called Avicenna in the dark ages of P^urope, 
 preserved the teaching of both Hindoos and Greeks 
 for the coming revival of letters in the West. What 
 was the relation of the Hindoo Aryans to the Accadian 
 or Chaldean and the first Semitic or Egyptian civili- 
 zations, is still a problem for the solution of which 
 scholars are painfully collecting the materials. Even 
 in faith, just as Rammohun Roy went back on the 
 Vedas and Keshub Chunder Sen, his present represen- 
 tative at the head of the Brumho Soraaj, professes still 
 to find there the body of natural religion, so the Rev. 
 Dr. K. M. Banerjea, the first convert baptized by 
 Duff, appeals to his countrymen to give up their 
 idolatry and caste, by " The Aryan Witness, or the 
 Testimony of Aryan Scriptures in corroboration of 
 Biblical History and the Rudiments of Christian 
 Doctrine." He beseeches them to turn — to return — 
 to Christianity as to the fuller, because anew revealed 
 embodiment of what the Yedas mysteriously pro- 
 claimed, that " the Lord of the creation offered him- 
 self a sacrifice for the benefit of gods," that is, of 
 the mortals he redeemed for heaven ; and that the 
 same Lord, " the giver of self," initiated the rites of 
 sacrifice which is a " reflection " of himself. 
 
 This renaissance, this bringing to the birth again 
 in faith, in philosophy, in philology, was no less re- 
 markable in science. The Yedic system, which had 
 given the West the knowledge of numbers and of the 
 stars, down even to the nine numerals which we incor- 
 rectly ascribe to the Arab middlemen who only revived 
 their use, was the first to teach the healing art, accord- 
 ing to the greatest living authority, Weber*. The 
 
 ♦ See his History of Indian literature (1878), pp. 30 and 265. 
 
208 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1 834. 
 
 rcf^iilation of tlio sacrifices required alike astronomical 
 observations and anatomical ])ractico. The victim was 
 carefully dissected that its different parts might bo 
 assif^aied to the proper deities. Each part had its 
 distinctive name. In the Atharvan, one of the four 
 great Vedas, we find songs addressed to diseases and 
 to the herbs which heal them. Even in Alexander's 
 time his companions praised the Hindoo physicians, 
 and ascribed to them that specific for snake-bite which 
 has so perished, that all the researches and the science 
 of Sir Joseph Fayrer and the old medical service of 
 India have failed to re-discover it. To medicine the 
 Hindoos assigned a secondary scripture, the Ayur 
 Veda, or " science of life," and derived it, like the 
 four Yedas, directly from the gods. Their first histori- 
 cal writers were Charaka, at the head of all surgery, 
 and his disciple once removed, Susruta, chief of all 
 physicians before Galen. The number of their 
 medical works and authors Weber pronounces " ex- 
 traordinarily large," and the sum of their knowledge 
 lie declares to have been " most respectable." 
 
 In surgery European savants have borrowed from 
 them the operation of rhinoplasty. Even so late as 
 1460, Colot, the famous surgeon of Louis XT., begged 
 a man's life from the gallows in order to prove that the 
 operation of lithotomy was not necessarily fatal, and 
 the man lived. But the common Bhoidos of India had 
 successfully practised the operation since Charaka's 
 time. So with the process for cataract, to perform 
 which the princes of Europe used to send into Asia 
 for oculists. Dr. Allan Webb, when professor of de- 
 scriptive and surgical anatomy in the Bengal Medical 
 College, in 1850, told his Hindoo students: "It is 
 very true that the itinerant Bhoidos do occasionally 
 poke out eyes, but it is equally true that I have seen in 
 various parts of India many eyes to which they had 
 
^t. 28. DECADENCE OF UINDOO MEDICINE. 209 
 
 restored sight." Embryotomy and mesmerism, not to 
 mention more, have been successfully practised in 
 India for ages. 
 
 But the oppressive and corrupting influences of the 
 sacerdotal Brahmans soon extinguished the dim light 
 of scientific observation and practice in Southern and 
 Eastern Asia. Gifts to themselves took the place of 
 natural remedies. All knowledge, every form of truth 
 they laid upon their own bed, which was narrower than 
 a man could stretch himself on. Happily for the mil- 
 lions whom they have thus deluded for centuries, from 
 Cape Comorin to Java and Lhasa to Peking, the scien- 
 tific falsehood became easily manifest at the first touch 
 of the senses honestly applied. Disintegration began 
 when Duff demonstrated the cause of the first eclipse 
 which took place after he opened his school. Every 
 day's teaching, even apart from revealed truth which 
 shows the divinity of its origin by concerning itself 
 only with man's spiritual nature, hastened the process, 
 which is as rapid in the secular as in the Christian 
 college. In spite of itself the East India Company, 
 which ignorantly desired to maintain Hindooism for 
 political ends, made its secular teachers missionaries 
 of destruction at least, when for the " rubbish " which 
 astounded Bishop Heber at Benares they used Eng- 
 lish to give full play to the evidence of the senses. 
 The elemental theory of medicine which Plato and 
 Hippocrates had learned from Charaka and Susruta 
 fell with the cosmogony of the tortoise. Of science 
 as of faith it became true for a time, that the edu- 
 cated Bengalee mind was empty, swept and gar- 
 nished. 
 
 Moved by the purely utilitarian consideration of 
 providing native doctors or dressers for the army 
 hospitals. Government established the native Medical 
 Institution in Calcutta in 1822, under an English 
 
2IO LIFE OP DB. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 doctor and native assistants. Hindostanee, tlie lingua 
 franca of all India, was the language of instruction, 
 and the scientific nomenclature of the "West was ren- 
 dered into Arabic. Four years after, medical classes 
 were opened at the Sanscrit College to read Charaka 
 and Susruta, and at the Madrissa to study Avicenna 
 and the other Arabic writers. Thus the orientalists 
 dreamed they could give the people of India the bless- 
 ings of the healing art as developed in the West, just 
 as they persisted in spending that people's money on 
 the printing of books which their scholars scorned, and 
 in the payment of youths to learn what was despised 
 because of its methods and what was pernicious 
 because of its falsity. Dr. Tytler, the head of the new 
 institution, was one of the most fanatic of the orien- 
 talists. His translations, afterwards condemned by 
 his own medical brethren, proved to be among the 
 most costly of the wasteful pubhcations. The only 
 anatomical instruction which he dared or desired to 
 give, was from sundry artificial preparations or models, 
 from the lower animals, and occasional post mortem 
 examinations of persons dying in the general hospital. 
 For a Hindoo of caste to touch a dead body, even that 
 of his father, was pollution to be atoned for by days 
 of purification and much alms. To break through 
 that iron prejudice Dr. Tytler and the orientalists 
 declared to be impossible, and they did not try. Yet 
 their own little scholarship, or unscholarly preposses- 
 sions, did not carry them so far as to translate Susrutii. 
 They would have learned that the literature classified 
 under the term " Ayur Yeda '* carefully provides for 
 dissection of the human subject, and that after a 
 fashion so disgusting as almost to justify the later 
 superstition. It was to be made a putrid carcase by 
 lying for seven days in still water, and then to be rubbed 
 so that each integument and part might be studied. 
 
^t.28. TFTE COMMITTEE ON MEDICAL EDUCATION. 211 
 
 But, adds the Galen of India, who was no materiahst, 
 " the life of the body is too ethereal to be distinguished 
 by this process." 
 
 Duff was roused, by his own principles and his daily 
 experience in the school, to protest against Dr. Tytlcr's 
 folly. If his teaching were of force that all trutli is 
 a unity, and that for the Hindoos of that generation 
 truth could be got only through the language of 
 their rulers, of Shakespeare and Bacon, and the Biblo 
 of James, it was of force in every branch of ^earning, 
 scientific and practical as well as other. " Only use 
 English as the medium," he declared, " and you will 
 break the backbone of caste, you will open up the way 
 for teaching anatomy and all other branches fearlessly, 
 for the enlightened native mind will take its own 
 course in spite of all the threats of the Brahraanical 
 traditionists." In 1833 Lord William Bcntinck, not 
 less attracted by the controversy than compelled by 
 the deplorable state of medical education, appointed a 
 committee to report on the whole subject. The mem- 
 bers were : Surgeon J. Grant, the Apothecary General ; 
 Assistant-surgeons Bramley and Spens, Baboo Ram 
 Komul Sen, T. C. C. Sutherland, the secretary to the 
 Committee of Public Instruction, and Sir C. Trevclyan. 
 For twelve months did these authorities, professional 
 and educational, take evidence and deliberate, having 
 submitted to the combatants on both sides from forty 
 to fifty detailed questions. What was the effect of 
 Duff's answers to these, following his experience, we 
 are enabled by Sir Charles himself to show in this ac- 
 count of the conflict : — 
 
 ** It was now proposed to raise up a class of native 
 medical practitioners, educated on sound European 
 principles, to supersede the native quacks, who, unac- 
 quainted with anatomy or the simplest principles of 
 chemical action, preyed on the people, and hesitated 
 
212 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 not to uso tlio most dangerous drugs and poisons. 
 The battle which had been so well contested in the 
 Education Committee was fought over again in this 
 new field. The superintendent of the Medical Institu- 
 tion, a learned and enthusiastic orientalist, set in array 
 the arguments of his party, and confidently predicted 
 the failure of the attempt, while Dr. Duff took the 
 opposite side. The following extracts from the report 
 of the special committee show how largely we are 
 indebted to him for this great reform : — 
 
 " Tho Ilov. Mr. Duff, on tho other band, although acknow- 
 ledging that the native languages, by which wc understand the 
 Bengalee in tho lower provinces t'.nd tlio Urdu in the hij^dier, 
 alone are available; for imparting an elementary education to tho 
 Tnass of tlie people, alHrms that the popular language does nf)t 
 afford an adequate medium for communicating a knf)wl(.'dgo of 
 the In'gher depiu'tmonts of literature and science. * No original 
 works of the descrij)tion wanted/ he observes, * have yc.'t ap- 
 peared in the native languages ; and thou<^h much of a higlily 
 useful nature has been provided through European talent and 
 perseverance, no translations have been made in any degree 
 suflicient to supply materials for the prosecution oi" the higher 
 object contemplated ; neither is it likely in the nature of 
 things that, either by original publications or translations of 
 standaid works, the deficiency can be fully or adequately 
 remedied for such a number of years to come tas may leave tho 
 whole of tho present generation sleeping with their fathers.' 
 
 "We beg now to call your Lordship's attention to the 
 opinions of tho Rev. Mr. Duff. To the question whether, 
 in order to teach the princij)les of any science to native 
 boys, he considered it necessary that they should know 
 Sanscrit, Arabic and Persian, tho reverend gentleman 
 I'cplies that, ' In reference to tho acquisition of European 
 science, the study of tho languages mentioned would be a 
 sheer waste of labour and time; since, viewed as media for 
 receiving and treasuring the stores of modern science, there is 
 at present no possible connection between them.' On tho 
 other hand, in reply to the question whether he thought it 
 possible to teach native boys the principles of any scienco 
 
Ait.28. SCIKNOE TAUGHT TIIUOgGU ENGLISH. II 3 
 
 through tho medium of tho Eiiglisli hinguage, lie roplitid that 
 'the cxperienco of tho last tliroo years lias, if possible, coii- 
 lirmeJ tho conviction ho previously entertained, not merely 
 that it is possible to t(;ach native V)oys the principles of any 
 science through the medium of the J*]iiglish language, but that, 
 in tho present incipient state ofiufoive improvement, it is next 
 to impossible to teach them successfully tho princi])les oi any 
 science through any other medium than tho English.' He 
 further records his opinion, that tho study of the Vhiglish 
 langunge might be rendered vo.r^^ popular among ilie natives. 
 *The sole reason,' ho justly observes, 'why tlu; lOnglisJi is not 
 now more a general and anxious objc.'ct of ac(piisition among 
 the natives, is the degree of uncertainty under which they (tho 
 natives) still labour as to tlie ultimate intentions of Govern- 
 uient, and whether it will ever lead them into paths of useful- 
 ness, pr(jfit, or honour; only iet the intentions oi" (lovernment 
 bo oflicially announced, and thera will be a gcnci'ul m<jvement 
 among all the more i-espectable classes.' IJut the teaching of 
 English ac(juires much importance when wo consider it, with 
 Mr. Duff, as the gi'and reme<ly for obviating the prejudices 
 of tho natives against practical anatomy. ' 'J'he English lan- 
 guage,' ho urges, ' opens up a wliolo woi'ld <jf new ideas, and 
 examples of success in every department of science; and tho 
 ideas so true, and tho examples so striking, work mightily on 
 the susceptible nn'nds of native youth; so that by the; litne they 
 have ac(juii"ed a mastery over tho Thiglish language, under 
 judicious and enlightened instructors, their minds are almost 
 metamorplujsed into the texture and cast of European youth, 
 and they cannot help expressing their utter contempt for 
 Hindoo superstition and pi-(;judices.' 
 
 "There is an argument of fact put in by Mr. Duff, which is 
 admirably to the point. Wo allude to tho introducti(jn of tho 
 I'higlish language and of English science among the Scottish 
 Highlanders, whose native language, to this day, is the Gaelic. 
 The parallel is a very fair one ; ^'je no pe(^j)le were more super- 
 stitious, more wedded to their own customs, and raoro averse 
 to leaving their native country, than tho Highlanders : but 
 since the introduction of tlio English language among thera, 
 the state of things is much changed. The same observation 
 applies to Ireland and Wales, where, as in the IHghlands of 
 Scotland, the English ia a foreign language ; and yet ita 
 
214 LIFE OF DIl. DUFF. 1834, 
 
 acquisition is eagerly sought after by the natives of all these 
 countries as an almost certain passport to employment. There 
 are medical men, natives of these countries, scattered all over 
 the world, whose mother tongue is Welsh, Irish, or Gaelic, 
 which, as children, they spoke for years — just as the children 
 of European parents in ludia speak Hiudostaneo and Bengalee ; 
 with this difference, however, that the latter soon forget the 
 Oriental tongues ; while the youth who acquire the indigenous 
 language of Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, and Wales, never 
 lose the language of those countries, because they do not quit 
 them till a more advanced period of life. For the first years 
 of youth the Highlanders at school, even of all ranks, think in 
 the Gaelic ; but this does not prevent their acquiring such a 
 fluent and business-like knowledge of English as to enable 
 them to pass through life with credit and not unfrequcntly 
 with distinction. What is there in the condition, physical or 
 moral, of the natives of this country that should render them 
 incapable of acquiring English as easily as the Irish, the High- 
 landers, and Welsh ? " 
 
 " The expectations with whicTi this change was made 
 have been completely realized. The most intractable 
 of the national prejudices has given way before the 
 exigencies of the dissecting room, and European 
 medical science has taken root in India, whereby one 
 of the greatest boons ever conferred on suffering 
 humanity has been extended to that country." 
 
 This was not all. Duff supplied the old solution — 
 solvituT amhulando. The commission visited his school, 
 in common with all in which English was taught, but 
 he did not forewarn the youths of their coming. 
 Taking the senior class, which had been nearly four 
 years under English instruction, into a small room 
 by themselves, he invited the visitors to make any 
 inquiries in any way they chose. Timidly and after 
 a roundabout fashion did the Apothecary General 
 approach the dreaded subject of dissection, for the 
 first thing he learned and indeed saw was that the lads 
 
M. 28. THE ANATOMISTS IN THE MISSIONARY SCHOOL. 2 1 5 
 
 were chiefly Brahmans. He thus began : " You have 
 got many sacred looks, have you not?" " Oh yes," 
 was the reply, " wo have many Shasters beheved to be 
 of divine authority. Some are very old, and others 
 have been written by Rishis (holy sages) inspired by the 
 gods. They are upon all subjects, literature, science 
 such as it is, chronology, geography and genealogies of 
 the gods." '' Have you not also m'^dical Shasters, which 
 profess to teach everything connected with the heal- 
 ing art ? " " Oh yes," they said, " but these are in the 
 keeping of the Bhoido or physician caste ; none of us 
 belong to that caste, so that we do not know much about 
 them." " Do your doctors learn or practise what we 
 call anatomy, or the examination of the human body 
 with a view to ascertain its real structure in order 
 skilfully to treat wounds, bruises, fractures, etc.?" 
 " We have heard them say that anatomy is taught in 
 the Shasters, but it cannot be like your anatomy." 
 " Why not ? " *' Because respectable Hindoos are 
 forbidden by imperative rules of caste to touch a dead 
 body for any purpose whatever ; so that from examina- 
 tion of the dead body our doctors can learn nothing 
 about the real structure of the human body." " Whence 
 then have they got the anatomy which, you say, is 
 taught in the Shasters ? " " They have got it out of 
 their own brains, though the belief is that this strange 
 Shaster anatomy must be true or correct, it being 
 revealed by the gods ; but we now look upon this as 
 nonsense." '* What then," said the commissioner, " if 
 the Government should propose to establish a medical 
 college for Hindoos under European doctors like the 
 medical colleges in Europe ? Would you approve 
 or disapprove of such a measure, or how would it 
 be viewed by the natives generally?" "We certainly 
 who have been taught European knowledge through 
 the medium of English would cordially approve, but 
 
2l6 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 our ignorant orthodox countrymen would as certainly 
 disapprove." "Well then, were a college of this kind 
 established, would any of you be disposed to attend 
 it ; or would there be insuperable objections in 
 your minds against your doing so ? " " Not at all," 
 they said. " If wo were not already otherwise com- 
 mitted to some course of life which would prevent 
 us, we would be very glad to attend." "What!" 
 said the commissioner, " would you actually be 
 prepared to touch a dead body for the study of ana- 
 tomy ? " " Most certainly," said the head youth of 
 the class, who was a Brahman ; " I, for one, would 
 have no scruples in the matter. It is all prejudice, 
 old stupid prejudice of caste, of which I at least have 
 got rid." The others heartily chimed in with this 
 utterance. The commissioners were highly gratified. 
 The result of their inquiry exceeded their most 
 sanguine expectations. They thanked the young men 
 for the promptness of their response, and promised to 
 report their liberal disregard of hereditary prejudice 
 to the Governor General. His Excellency's surprise 
 did not prevent him from completing the case by con- 
 sulting the orthodox pundits. These reported that 
 the prohibition against touching a dead body was most 
 stern, but they did not find it anywhere expressed in 
 the Shasters that Hindoos are forbidden to touch the 
 human subject for anatomica^ purposes. Yet both these 
 and the Muhammadan Moulvies stirred up the com- 
 munity to petition the Government to remain satisfied 
 with the study of the Sanscrit and Arabic treatises. 
 
 Nor was Duff alone in this. David Hare, of the 
 Hindoo College, seems to have been equally zealous, 
 although we have no record of his action beyond 
 the fact. The Governor-General in Council embodied 
 the unanimous conclusions of the special committee 
 in an order dated 28th January, 1835, abolishing the 
 
j£l^ 28. THE i'lEST DISSECTION BY A HINDOO. 217 
 
 Medical Institution and classes, and creating a new 
 college under the Committee of Education for " tbo 
 instruction of a certain number of native youths in 
 the various branches of medical science." The new 
 college was declared open to all classes of natives, 
 without exception as to creed or caste, who could read 
 and write English and Bengalee, or English and 
 Hindostanee. Eurasians and Europeans were after- 
 wards included. The English language and the West- 
 ern scientific standards were declared the medium 
 and the test of instruction. On the 1st June, 1835, 
 the classes were opened in an old house in the rear ot 
 the Hindoo College, only to be removed by Lord 
 Auckland to a building then pronounced " magnifi- 
 cent," but long since too small for the thousands who 
 form what has proved to be the largest medical school 
 in the world. Dr. Bramley, the first principal, died 
 soon after, and the early success of the great experi- 
 ment is associated with the name of Dr. Henry Goodeve, 
 who still survives. With him were associated the 
 Danish botanist of Serampore, Dr. Wallich ; the Irish 
 professor of chemistry, Dr. O'Shaughnessy, who gave 
 India the electric telegraph, and two others. David 
 Hare was secretary. Nobly, not less effectually than 
 Duff's ardent enthusiasm predicted, has the Bengal 
 Medical College, with its hospitals, under the ablest 
 members of the Company's medical service and Ben- 
 galee professors who have risen from the students' 
 benches, realized what Lord W. Bentinck's committee 
 aimed at when it laid down for it a curriculum " ample, 
 comprehensive and worthy of a great Government, 
 not intended merely to supply the wants of the State 
 but of the people, and to become a moral engine of 
 great utility and power." 
 
 How did Duff's Brahman students and those of the 
 Hindoo College stand the test when the hour came for 
 
2l8 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 tlio first dissection ? That hour came after the first 
 six months' study. The time was then recalled 
 when the medical class in the Hindoo College mot 
 for the first cutting up of a kid, and the college gates 
 were closed to prevent popular interruption of the 
 awful act ! Following his professor, Modosoodun 
 Goopta, of the Bhoido or physician caste, was the first 
 native to handle and plunge his knife into the subject 
 provided for the purpose. Rajendranath Mitter fol- 
 lowed, and their fellow-students quickly imitated this 
 act of moral courage. Thus, nearly three thousand 
 years after Si.sruta and his loathsome instructions, the 
 study of practical anatomy by the natives of India 
 was established. So fast did it spread, that a purely 
 Hindostanee class and then a Bengalee class were 
 opened, to meet the need of subordinate assistants in 
 the military and civil hospitals, and of the cities and 
 villages of the country. From sixty in 1837 the number 
 of subjects for the dissecting room rose to above five 
 hundred in 1844, and now must be three times greater. 
 Dwarkanath Tagore and Dr. H. Goodevo soon took 
 four students to England to seek a British diploma; of 
 these two were Christians and one was a convert of 
 the General Assembly's Institution. Ever since. Duff's 
 college has sent some of its ablest converts as well as 
 Hindoo students to take the highest honours in the 
 medical faculty of the Calcutta University. One of 
 them is now a professor in the Medical College, and 
 several have entered the covenanted service by competi- 
 tion with Scottish, English and Irish graduates. The 
 tale of wliat the medical colleges of India — for others 
 sprang up in imitation of Bengal, at Bombay, Madras, 
 Lahore and Agra — have done for humanity, for the 
 sciences allied with medicine, and for enlightenment 
 throughout the peninsula, in the half -century since Daff 
 began his apostleship, would form one of the most 
 
/Et. 28. TUE THIRD BATTLE WITH THE OUT ENTA LISTS. 219 
 
 brilliant chapters in the history of progress, but it is 
 not for us to tell it here. ~ * 
 
 In yet a third field did Duff and Trevelyan, aided 
 by that accomplished scholar of the Baptist Mission 
 press, Dr. Yates, meet the orientalist party. Tho 
 committee of the Calcutta School Book Society was 
 the scene of the conflict. That body had succeeded 
 in supplying pure English literature to the natives 
 on mercantile principles, while the Government 
 Oriental colleges had their shelves groaning under 
 expensive works which no native would take as a gift, 
 unless also paid to read them, and at which true 
 scholars laughed. In 1833 Mr. Thompson, a Govern- 
 ment teacher at Delhi, sought the patronage of the 
 society for an English and Hind.itanee dictionary 
 in the Roman character only, designed to assist 
 natives of the upper provinces in the acquisition of 
 English and Europeans in the study of Hindostauee. 
 Dr. Yates, as secretary, recommended the purchase of 
 two hundred copies. Mr. James Prinsep condemned 
 the use of the Roman alphabet by any but Europeans 
 as " ultra-radicalism." Dr. Tytler, whose foible was 
 a desire to stand well with the few Oriental scholars 
 iu Europe, protested that such a book would " com- 
 promise our character very much, particularly with 
 European scholars, in whose eyes the Oriental litera- 
 ture of Calcutta does not stand very high at present." 
 Sir Charles Trevelyan demolished both in a long 
 minute, in which he exposed the unscholarly character 
 and expense of Dr. Tytler's translations, showing that 
 Rs. 105,426 (£1 0,543) of public money had thus been 
 wasted in the ten years since 1824. On this James 
 Prinsep cast the broad shield of his genuine learning 
 over the wounded Tytler, in a minute which con- 
 cluded with this retort on the " alleged superiority of 
 English to Sanscrit or Perso- Arabic orthography : — " I 
 
220 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 never heard of a mother who did not complain of the 
 difficulty of teaching a child the difference between 
 C and S, and I will ask whether a native child 
 would as readily recognise tlie * City of God' (Allah- 
 abad) in the ' isle of bats ' and the * palace at 
 Ghazeepore * in * Chelsea tune ' {chuhul sitoo}i)." Dr. 
 Tytler felt as grateful to James Prinsep as Homer's 
 hero when, worsted in battle, he was hid under the 
 apron of his celestial mother, Aphrodite. After 
 Trevelyan had slain Prinsep, Duff entered the field 
 through the press and anonymously, while Mr. H. 
 Thoby Prinsep in turn brought the heavy artillery of 
 the Asiatic Society to bear upon him. 
 
 The merits of the eontroversy are these : In the 
 East Indies, as influenced from their metropolis Cal- 
 cutta — including in that term Dutch Java and now 
 French Anam — there are eight distinct ethnological 
 families, containing 243 spoken and written languages 
 and 296 dialects of these languages, or 539 in all. 
 These have to be mastered — having been reduced to 
 writing in many cases by missionaries and officials — 
 before the half of the human race who use them can 
 be influenced for good. They present two sets of 
 difficulties, arising from their varying written charac- 
 ters and very different grammatical structure. Can 
 the former class of difficulties not be removed or 
 modified ? If the English language and literature are 
 to be used as the medium and the instrument of civil- 
 ization in the effete East, why not the one Roman 
 alphabet in which they are expressed ? — such was the 
 very natural reasoning of the Anglicists of 1833. That 
 this is no dream may be accepted from the fact that 
 the great scholar Lepsius has prepared a " standard 
 alphabet," and that the Boden Sanscrit professor 
 at Oxford is an earnest advocate of Romanising, while 
 Professor Max Miiller has a similar plan of his own. 
 
JEt 28. THE LANGUAGKS AND ALl'IIAUETS OF INDIA. 221 
 
 One character is necessary, and that has, of course, 
 been the Roman thus far for tongues rudiiced to 
 writing for the first time by missionaries, wlio desire 
 to tell and write for these simple people " the won- 
 derful works of God " in Christ. But more than 
 this, Mr. Cust is within the truth, as every scholar 
 will admit, when he declares, *' It may be accepted 
 as a scientific fact that all the characters used in the 
 East Indies can sooner or later be traced back to the 
 Asoka inscriptions, and through them to the Phosnician 
 alphabet, and thence backwards to the hieratic ideo- 
 graphs of the old kingdom of Egypt, and thence to the 
 venerable hieroglyphics of the fourth dynasty." The 
 solitary exception is the Chinese character used in 
 Anam.* 
 
 More than three rivals compete to represent the 
 539 languages and dialects, for the Indian, Arabic 
 and Roman are complicated by additions or adapta- 
 tions to represent all the sounds of each, till religion 
 is invoked to consecrate some, so that the orthodox 
 Hindoo will not use the Perso- Arabic, nor the strict 
 Muhammadan the sacred Nagree. If one alphabet 
 in the good Asoka's days, not long after Alexander 
 the Great, why not one again — why not one at any 
 rate, and that the Roman, for all the peoples who learn 
 writing, and even reading, for tlie first time from the 
 Christian missionary and the British and other Euro- 
 pean Governments in Asia ? Though deprecating as 
 injudicious and impracticable any attempt to supersede 
 the established characters of cultivated languages by 
 the introduction of the alien Roman character, Mr. 
 Cust urges the use of the standard of Lepsius in the 
 case of languages hitherto unwritten. In 1878 he used 
 this language, which is the echo of Duffs half a century 
 
 ♦ A Sketch of the Modern Languages of the East Indies. 1878. 
 
2 22 LIFE OP Da. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 ago: — "It is a remarkable phenomenon that the foun- 
 tains of so many languages and dialects should have 
 been unsealed just at the moment when the intellectual, 
 mechanical and religious powers of Engla\'d and Holland 
 were at their height, ready to undertr.ke the task of 
 translating the Bible into scores of languages, foi- 
 which task, even if the opportunity had offered itself, 
 English scholars wore, last century, as unfitted as the 
 Spanish and Portuguese are even now unfitted, and as 
 unwilling to lend themselves to the task as the Italians, 
 French and Russians are even now imwilling." 
 
 We have received this narrative of Duff's advocacy 
 of the Romanising system from Sir Charles Trevelyan, 
 who sought officially to carry it out when Governor of 
 Madras. lie has recently published as an illustration of 
 it "Riibinsan Kruso," being a translation, through the 
 Hindostanee, of Defoe's immortal work into Persian 
 in the Roman character. To that Mr. Tolbort, of tho 
 Bengal civil service, as editor, has prefixed an exposition 
 and defence of the application of the Roman alphabet 
 to the languages of the East, declaring that that alplia- 
 bet "will be to the education of Asia what George 
 Stephenson's rails were and are to the locomotive steam 
 engine." The system of transliteration was that of Sir 
 William Jones, who followed the Italian or continental 
 European sound of the vowels, while Dr. Gilchrist 
 afterwards sought to fix them to the moro familiar 
 of their various sounds in English. Thus the well- 
 known "Ameer" of the latter is the "Amir" of the for- 
 mer, and the " Punjab " is " Panjab." The advantage of 
 the Gilchrist transliteration of proper names for purely 
 English readers is evident ; that of the Jones system 
 for Romanising and strictly scholarly purposes is not 
 less so. The German orientalists ha '3 recently pub- 
 lished a whole iseries of the Oriental classics in Roman 
 type. In the twenty years ending 1857 the Bible, 
 
ALt 28. BOMANISINO THE ORIENTAL ALPHABETS. 223 
 
 the Pilgrim's Progress, the Koran, and forty-thrco 
 other religious or educational works had appeared in 
 Romanised Hindostanee. Sir C. Trevelyan writes : — 
 ♦♦ It was proposed to extend to India the advantogo 
 which Europe enjoys of making one charactei servo 
 for many different languages and dialects, whereby it 
 might bo at once seen how far they agreed or differed, 
 and a tendency might bo created towards a common 
 Indian language and literature, of which English 
 would be the connecting link, and the Christian re- 
 ligion the principal source of inspiration. Eastern 
 writing is thoroughly phonetic; that is, the duo 
 relation of sign and sound is consistently maintained 
 throughout, so that a simple transliteration into the 
 Roman character gives a correct representation of the 
 sounds in all the native languages; and during the 
 long period which has elapsed since the invention of 
 printing, the typography of these letters, with all its 
 accessories of punctuation, capital letters, italics, and 
 other mechanical helps, has been so improved that 
 they have become a much more efficient anc^. economical 
 medium for expressing the languages of the East than 
 the various alphabetical systems in actual use tliere. 
 This would also be the salvation of the native lan- 
 guages, which have a hard struggle in their com- 
 petition with the all-powerful English, freighted with 
 so many substantial advantages, and it would h,T,vo a 
 highly salutary political effect by intimately associat- 
 ing our nation with the growth of the new Indian 
 literature, and by removing a serious practical obstacle 
 to satisfactory mutual intercourse. 
 
 " This system has made steady progress, notwith- 
 standing every discouragement, and its advantages 
 have become so generally recognised that effectuaj 
 arrangements are likely soon to be made for its grad'ial 
 adoption; but the undertaking might have been 
 
224 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 strangled in its birth if Dr. Duff had not given it his 
 strenuous support. The turning point of the contro- 
 versy was marked by the publication of three papers 
 by Dr. Duff, in the first of which the * possibility,' 
 * practicability,' and ' expediency ' of substituting the 
 Roman for the Indian alphabets was discussed, and in 
 the last two a practical schemo for that purpose was 
 worked out in detail, and objections were answered. 
 These papers give a high idea of the logical powers 
 and critical acumen of Dr. Duff. They settled the 
 system on its present basis, and may be read to this 
 day with interest and advantage. 
 
 " It was impossible to work, as I did, with Dr. Duff, 
 without having his character clearly unfolded before 
 me, and I must be allowed to indulge my feelings by 
 briefly saying what I think of it. He combined child- 
 like simplicity and sincerity with intellectual powers 
 of no mean order, and his fervid Celtic nature imparted 
 warmth and energy to everything he undertook. His 
 disinterestedness, and freedom from selfish motives of 
 all kinds, appeared to me to be perfect. His whole 
 being seemed to be engrossed in the one great object 
 of his life, compared with which all merely personal 
 motives were of secondary consideration. He was a 
 truly loveable character. My feeling towards him is 
 compounded of affection and respect, and I should 
 find it difficult to say which of these predominates." 
 
 Thus far the battle begun and carried on by Duff 
 had been for the people. English he fought for, as 
 the weapon of truth's warfare at that stage not only 
 against the intolerance of the quasi-orientalists who 
 squandered the people's money on a few scornful 
 Brahmans and Moulvies, but against the equal intoler- 
 ance of their own leaders in the Hindoo College, who 
 excluded the Ic . er castes even from secular instruc- 
 tion. Through the natural heads and respectable 
 
yEt. 28. HIS WORK FOR VERNACULAR EDUCATION. 2:5 
 
 castes of tlie Hindoos he determined that Western 
 truth and English benevolence should reach the masses 
 and fertilise the literature of their motlor tongue. 
 Hence his own early devotion to Bengalee at a time 
 when his busy nights were no more his own than his 
 exhausting days, and the instinct of genius drove him 
 to take the tide of English in native society near the 
 flood that he might guide it to faith and all that a 
 reasonable faith here involves, in social purity, in 
 public enlightenment, in national revival. Hence the 
 Bengalee department in his school, and the simulta- 
 neous teaching and reaction on each other of English 
 and the vernacular. Without that the taunt of the 
 barren orientalists might have had some justification. 
 English might have become only another official jar- 
 gon like court Persian, to be used by the initiated 
 few for the oppression of the many, and the widening 
 of the gulf between alien rulers and ignorant ruled. 
 From that memorable Monday, 2nd of August, 1830, 
 when the Highland lad opened his school with our 
 Lord's Prayer in Bengalee, to the day just after the 
 Mutiny, when he introduced the Christian Vernacular 
 Education Society into Calcutta, and down to his last 
 effort for India, having put English in its right place 
 chronologically and educationally, he sought to have 
 India covered with primary schools worthy of the 
 name. 
 
 Here, also, the Government of Lord William Ben- 
 tinck came to his help and did its duty. The same 
 ever to be remembered months at the opening of 1835, 
 which legislatively brought to the birth the Renais- 
 sance in science and letters, by the medical college 
 and English language decrees, saw the first official 
 step taken in the application of both to the varied 
 vernaculars of India. On the 20th January " W, 
 Bentinck," with whom his colleagues, the Honbles. 
 
2 26 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 H. Blunt, A. Ross and W. Morison ** concurred en- 
 tirely," wrote the minute which sent Mr. Adam, for 
 seventeen years a missionary and then editor of the 
 India Gazette, to visit and report on all the existing 
 vernacular schools in Bengal. The minute began with 
 the " universally admitted axiom that education and 
 the knowledge to be imparted by it can alone effect 
 the moral regeneration of India." At a time "when 
 the establishment of education upon the largest and 
 most useful basis is become the object of universal 
 solicitude," the minute wisely declared it essential to 
 ascertain the actual state of education as carried on 
 for centuries entirely under native management. It 
 deprecated interference with these before Government 
 knew the facts, and direct inquiry by officirJs as certain 
 to excite distrust. Hence the appointment of Adam, 
 whose three reports, the more that they prove his 
 intelligent philanthropy and administrative wisdom, 
 reflect severely on the stupid apathy of the Committee 
 of Education, which shelved them and drove him to 
 resign in disgust. Ho showed that, as Duff put it, 
 92|- out of every hundred children of school-going age 
 in Bengal were destitute of all kinds and degrees of 
 instruction. That is, on the basis of the under-esti- 
 mated population of that time, six millions of such 
 children were wholly uneducated. Yet not for twenty- 
 two years thereafter would Government do anything 
 for Bengal. Not till Dalhousie was Governor-General 
 was anything done for Upper India save by the 
 missionaries. So the evil round goes on under the 
 system which breaks the continuity of progress in 
 India — the five years term of high office. A Bentinck 
 takes his seven years' ripe experience with him, to be 
 followed by a reactionary Auckland. We shall not 
 bring the illustration down to our own day. Mission- 
 aries like Duff in Eastern, Wilson in Western, and 
 
^t. 28. HIS USE OF THE PRESS. 22 7 
 
 Cald^^cU in Soutliera India alone remain immortal till 
 their work is done ! 
 
 In all liis work and at every stage of it Duff felt 
 that he had a more powerful ally and instrument than 
 oven Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General, — 
 and that was the Press. From the outsot of his 
 career writing went hand-in-hand with teaching and 
 public speaking. The relation of his new ideas to 
 the few native papers, English and vernacular, accord- 
 ing as they opposed, misrepresented or advocated 
 them, and his plan of replying by public discussion to 
 the attacks of their correspondents, we have seen. The 
 Serampore missionaries had, before him, filled the 
 breach, alike by their quarterly Friend of India and by 
 Mr. Marshman's establishment of the first Bengalee 
 newspaper. So that, whereas in 1814 there was only 
 one English periodical and not one nativ^e in all Ben- 
 gal, and in 1820 five English papers and still not one 
 Bengalee print, in 1830 there were eight native papers. 
 But Duff had not been twelve months in Calcutta 
 before he saw the necessity of establishing a Magazine 
 to represent missionary and philanthropic operations 
 of all kinds, and to bring Christian opinion to bear 
 upon Government on the one hand and the educated 
 natives on the other. Hence in June, 1832, appeared 
 the first number of the Calcutta Christian Ohserrcr, 
 " edited by Christian ministers of various denomina- 
 tions." The signature *' D " marks the authorship of 
 the introductory programme. Besides the sectarian 
 periodicals then in Calcutta, he sought " something 
 unconfined by any trammels of party or of sect — 
 something that will embrace with impartial and com- 
 prehensive view the wide domain of Catholic Chris- 
 tianity." He desired to produce a periodical which 
 should do for religion in the East what James Prinsep'a 
 Journal of the Asiatic Society accomplished for science 
 
228 LIFE OF DR. DOFF. 1832 
 
 and tliG Calcutta Magazine laboured to effect for litera- 
 ture. The six divisions of the Magazine he mapped 
 out as theoretical and practical theology, Biblical criti- 
 cism and translation, missionary operations, European 
 and native institutions and events, reviews of books, 
 intelligence of progress of all kinds, amid contro- 
 versy and resistance, for only eventually may " the 
 great Christian temple, like its material prototype 
 of old, be raised with noiseless harmony of design 
 and execution." The passage relating to the second 
 division has a peculiar interest : — 
 
 " It is not necessary that the majority, or any very 
 considerable portion of the Christian public should be 
 Biblical critics or translators. . . But, however true 
 that the great doctrines of revelation are so potent as 
 to have produced but one persuasion in the minds of 
 the immense majority of devout believers in every age, 
 it is not less true that even these have been repeatedly 
 and variously impugned. And as the Scriptures were 
 written in ancient and dead languages, none who were 
 ignorant of these could venture to elicit and set in 
 array the genuine force of scriptural evidence. Hence 
 arises one of the most important offices that devolves 
 upon the Biblical critic. Again, the Bible containing, 
 as it does, an historical and prophetical account of the 
 most interestijig events that tran-spired on the stage 
 of this w^orld for 4000 years, as vvell as of the extraor- 
 dinary dispensations of the Almighty, must naturally 
 and unavoidably include in its contents many ' things 
 hard to be understood.' Now these are the things 
 which, surrounded as they are by many luminous 
 points, cost the pious believer least trouble. But these 
 are the very things upon which the unbeliever is ready to 
 pounce with more than the ravenous speed of an eagle 
 upon its prey. In the reasonableness of this conduct 
 he resembles the man who, withdrawing hie view from 
 
j£t 26. ON BIBLICAL CRITICISM. 229 
 
 the gorgeous productions of the animal, vegetable and 
 mineral kingdoms, and tbe combined glory of tbe 
 summer's landscape, would point in a tone of triumph 
 to the meanest reptile or weed, or to the dampest and 
 most dingy cavern, in proof of the worse than gratui- 
 tous assertion that the external world contained nouf,ht 
 that was fair, beauteous, or lovely. Every person of 
 common sense and common honesty would regard such 
 a procedure with merited contempt and indignation ; 
 while the zoologist, the botanist and the mineralogist 
 would follow him still further, and by evolving the 
 hidden beauties and harmonies of what has been so 
 rashly decried, convict him of the most presumptuous 
 empiricism. Now, what service these men of science 
 are enabled to render in rescuing even the most de- 
 spised of the works of God from the reproaches of the 
 ignorant, the very same is the Biblical critic expected 
 to render on the hard and dark things — the abstruse 
 and apparently profitless parts — of the Word of God. 
 To be fully qualified for a task so arduous, he ought 
 of all learned men to be the most learned." 
 
 The Observer became, under Duff's influence and 
 that of his colleagues during his absence from India, 
 all that he thus desired ; while from 1835 to 1875 the 
 Friend of Inclia^ changed by Mr. J. C. Marshman into 
 the powerfiil weekly news'paper which it long con- 
 tinued to be, applied the same Christian principles in 
 a more purely political and broadly imperial way 
 to the elevation of the whole empire. At the same 
 time we shall see him using, for the highest ends, the 
 English daily journals of Calcutta as he used the 
 Anglo-Bengalee newspapers, and in his second term 
 of service in Bengal editing the Galcutta Bevieiu. 
 
 The coarse licence of Hich/s Gazette^ the first Eng- 
 lish newspaper published in India, in 1780, followed 
 by that of the Bengal Journal, led the Company's 
 
230 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 authorities, in 1794, to deport the editor of the latter, 
 Mr. William Duane, because of an inflammatory ad- 
 dress to the army. During the war with Tippoo Lord 
 "Wellesley established a formal censorship of the press, 
 which, made still more severe in 1813, continued till 
 1818, when Lord Hastings practically abolished it. 
 George Canning, when President of the Board of 
 Control, suppressed a severe condemnation of this act 
 by the Court of Directors. But when Mr. John Adam 
 became interim Governor-General, he gratified the 
 bureaucratic instinct against criticism by reviving the 
 censorship and deporting Mr. James Silk Buckingham, 
 to please his rival. Dr. Bryce, who was at once senior 
 Scottish chaplain, editor of the John Bull, and clerk of 
 str.tionery ! The weak Lord Amherst put Adam's most 
 severe restrictions in force against Mr. Arnot of the 
 Calcuita Journal, and warned the Bengal HurJcaru. 
 
 When Lord William Bentinck's financial reforms 
 reduced the military allowances known as batta, he was 
 covered with abuse which might have tempted other 
 men to crush the self-seeking critics. But he knew 
 and he loved the principles of freedom which his great- 
 grandfather, Hans Bentinck, had helped William III. 
 to consolidate in England. He went further, declar- 
 i.ng that the liberty of 4he. press was neces*sary to the 
 good government of the country, as supplying " that 
 lamentable imperfection of control which, from local 
 position, extensive territory and other causes the su- 
 preme council cannot adequately exercise." In 1831 
 he invited criticism and suggestions, with results seen 
 in such works as the Honble. F. J. Shore's " Notes on 
 Indian Affairs,'' and in the destruction of many an 
 abuse. Most happily, however, it was left to a Bengal 
 civilian and pupil of Wellesley to atone for the high- 
 handed folly of an otherwise estimable administrator 
 like John Adam. Charles Theophilus, first and last 
 
JEt 2g. BEGINNING OF THE RENAISSANCE COMPLETED. 23 1 
 
 Lord Metcalfe, when acting as Governor-General, 
 deliberately risked the permanent appointment, by the 
 Act XI. of 1835, which Macaulay wrote, repealing all 
 restrictions on the press throughout India, and lea 'ing 
 it, like all other institutions and persons, to the ordi- 
 nary law of sedition and libel. Vernacular as well as 
 English literature in India took a new start, hardly 
 checked by the bureaucratic timidity of Lord Canning's 
 advisers in 1857, and certain to bo again freed from 
 the less excusable action of Lord Lytton's councillors 
 in 1877. Thus the birth of the Renaissance was 
 completed. Thus the name of Metcalfe is linked 
 with those of Macaulay, Trovelyan, Bentinck and 
 Alexander Duff. 
 
 No one who knows history and is accustomed to 
 weigh in its balances, sacred and secular, the causes 
 and the tendencies of human progress, will be surprised 
 that we have thus broadly applied the term Renaissance 
 to the intellectual and spiritual movement started by 
 Great Britain in Southern Asia in 1813, vitalised by 
 Duflf in 1830-35, and still in its vigorous infancy. That 
 this movement is not a birth only, but a re-birth, those 
 will most readily confess who know far better than the 
 Brahm^anizipg orientalists of tjie East India Company 
 the real splendour of the early Aryan civilization ; the 
 comparatively pure traditions which were the salt of 
 Vedic nature-worship ; the wealth of the Aryan lan- 
 guages which Hellas itself never matched, while it 
 borrowed from them ; and the influence of all three, 
 through Greek, Latin and Arabic, on Europe in the 
 dark ages. That the waking up of the Hindoo mind 
 is certain to prove a Renaissance not only in the 
 Italian sense, but in the English — a reformation in the 
 spiritual region, and a silent constitutional revolution 
 in the political condition, is due to Alexander Duff. 
 We have seen it in the Christian college which is the 
 
232 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. i^^. 
 
 nursery and in the first converts who proved the seed 
 of the Church. We have seen it in the Enghsh lan- 
 guage, in Western science, in the liberty of printiiifr, 
 in the education of the people in their mother tongue, 
 in the growth of a pure vernacular literature. Wc 
 have yet to watch the development in church and 
 university, in literature and science, in social freedom 
 and even in the political elevation that springs from tho 
 concession, without a struggle, of all the constitutional 
 liberties which it took the ruling power centuries to 
 consolidate for itself. But above and under all we 
 shall continue to find this, as Europe and Scotland 
 before all countries found, that the motive power and 
 the principle of growth consist in the putting every 
 Asiatic spiritually in that relation to God which tho 
 Divine Christ has alone revealed and guarantees. Tho 
 missionary is thus before all others. Savonarola has 
 survived the Medici, and Luther lives. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ] 832-1835.. 
 
 WORK FOB EUnOPEANS, EURASIANS AND 
 NATIVE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 St. Anrlrow's Kirk. — Anglican and Presbyterian Sectarianism. — The 
 Steeple Controversy. — The Battle of the Gilded Cock. — Fight 
 for a Second Sunday Service. — A Boileau Wanted. — Sunday Ob- 
 servance in India. — A Boston Socinian and the Lord's Supper. — 
 Duff longs for Friendly Sympathy. — The Senior Chaplain of 
 Madras. — Daniel Wilson and Lord William Bentinck. — Rise of 
 the Eurasian Community. — First Charity Schools. — Origin of the 
 Doveton Colleges. — The Civil and Religious Rights of Converts 
 from Hindooism and Muhammadanism. — The first Writ of 
 Habeas Corpus in India.: — Dr. H. H. Wilson Apologises to the 
 Missionaries, — Case of Brijonath Ghose. — Duff docs the Bishop 
 of Calcutta's work. — Castigates Mr. Longueville Clark. — His 
 Power of Moral Suasion. — Bengal Asiatic and Agricultural Socie- 
 ties. — Mr, and Mrs. Duff decline to attend the Governor-Generara 
 Ball.— Lord William Bentinck's Public Eulogy of Duff.— The 
 School becomes an Arts and Divinity College. — Reminiscences of 
 Duff in 1834 by a Bengalee Schoolboy. — The Bible and Tract 
 Societies. — The Great Cyclone of May, 1833. — The panic-stricken 
 Tiger.— Fever after Flood.— Duff's First Attack.— Visit of A. N. 
 Groves from Baghdad. — A Day in the College. — Duft again 
 stricken down by Dysentery. — Carried on board the John 
 M'Lellan bound for Greenock, — The Precious Seed Germinating. 
 
 So early as the beginning of tlie year 1832, while Mr. 
 Duff was steering his apparently frail boat in the very 
 trough of the sea of Hindoo society, with no assistance 
 and little sympathy from his own countrymen, he was 
 called to minister in St. Andrew's kirk to the Scottish 
 residents, and to help the Eurasians and the native 
 Christians in their earnest struggles after toleration 
 for themselves in the eye of the law and a good edu- 
 cation for their children. Thus early he began the 
 afterwards lifelong labours which ended in the estab- 
 
234 I-TFE OF DR. DUFF. 183a. 
 
 lisbraent of tlio Anglo-lDdian Christian Union, and in 
 the creation of the Dovcton Colleges of Calcutta and 
 Madras. 
 
 St. Andrew's kirk — in 1813 the fruit, like its fellows 
 in Bombay and Madras, of much talking in obscure 
 Scottish presbyteries, and much petitioning of Par- 
 liament by synods and general assemblies since 1793 — 
 had never justified its existence. How Dr. Bryce, its 
 first chaplain, went out to Calcutta in the same ship 
 with Bishop Middleton we have told. A bishop must 
 have his cathedral; so St. John's church, consecrated 
 by the ministrations of Claudius Buchanan and Henry 
 Martyn, to which Warren Hastings, his council and 
 all the " factors " in the settlement used to walk to 
 morning service, was enlarged and dubbed by the 
 necessary name, until Bishop Wilson built St. Paul's 
 Cathedral. It was still more requisite that the Scot- 
 tish chaplain should have a church, and the Govern- 
 ment selected as its site the spot on which Lord Clive's 
 old court-house had stood, whence the name still given 
 to the finest street in all t!ie East. The Presbyterian 
 had won the first move iii the evil game of sectarian- 
 ism which he and the Anglican bishop introduced into 
 India. But, viewing the national Church of Scotland 
 as a dissenting body, the bishop would not allow 
 Government to give it a church with a steeple. The 
 Scottish blood of more than half Calcutta was roused 
 at this, for as to origin the Scotsmen were in the 
 majority. 1 aey had the secret sympathy of the evan- 
 gelical missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, 
 whom Dr. Middleton liked no more than the episcopal 
 and youthful representative of the same views in the 
 see of Colombo now does. Long and loud raged the 
 battle of the steeple. It occupied secretaries and 
 honourable members of Council and the Governor- 
 General week after week, till the literature of the 
 
JEt 26. ANGLICAN AND PRESBYTEUIAN SECrAKIANISM. 235 
 
 subject plunged the predecessors of future Dalhousies, 
 Caniiiugs and Lawrences in despair. The men who 
 were equal to successful expeditious to Java, Mauritius 
 and the Cape of Good Hope ; who had conducted to a 
 happy issue Burman and Goorklia wars, Maratha and 
 Piutlaree campaigns, confessed tliemselves l)eaten by the 
 steeple controversy. Lord Hastings, liiinself a Scots- 
 man, directed all the papers to bo hurled at the heads 
 of the directors who had sent out the ecclesiastical 
 combatants. Equally baffled, the directors appealed 
 to the Crown and its law officers, not sorry that tho 
 authority which had forced the Church establishment 
 upon them should have a little more trouble. Tho 
 decision was that, as equal in their own sphere to the 
 Episcopalians, tho Presbyterians should have their 
 steeple, although the Government were paying a thou- 
 sand pounds as ground rent for the site. Years had 
 passed in the fight, but the national zeal had not 
 waxed cold. There are steeples and steeples. Of 
 what height was St. Andrew's to be ? Tho kirk itself 
 was a noble structure, and the steeple must correspond 
 with it architecturally. To close tho matter, the 
 Scottish residents, in public meeting assembled, sub- 
 scribed eighty thousand rupees (£8,000) to add to tho 
 spire allowed by Government, so as to raise it to a 
 point twenty feet higher than that of the cathedral, 
 and they surmounted the whole by a cock to symbolise 
 their crowing over the bishop. Against this Dr. 
 Middleton renewed the fight, and the cock, like the 
 steeple, occupied the discussions of the Governor- 
 General in Council and then of the Court of Directors. 
 The decision was worthy of the most subtle of the 
 ecclesiastical schoolmen, and of the satire of Boileau's 
 " Lutrin." It must have been meant, by the James 
 Mills, Charles Lambs or Thomas Love Peacocks who 
 in those days draughted the despatches, as fine irony. 
 
236 LIFl!) OF Dtt. DUFF. 1 83 2. 
 
 When, it was ruled, the quinquennial repairs of the 
 building come round, the public works authorities are 
 not to gild the cock anew ! The judgment was a 
 new triumph, for the patriotic Scotsmen of Calcutta, 
 for long thereafter, used to raise some five hundred 
 rupees privately to regild the boastful symbol. 
 
 But it was one thing to revel in such warfare, and 
 quite another to fill the kirk inside, with its spacious 
 aisles and vast galleries, seated with eight hundred 
 chairs, over which swung cooling punkahs for as 
 many occupants. Dr. Bryce was more at homo as 
 editor of the John Bull and cler'k in the stationery 
 office. In due time ho received as colleague a man of 
 a very different stamp, tho Dr. Brown whose guest 
 Duff became on first lauding in India. But this gave 
 rise to a new squabble. Scandalised that there should 
 bo only one service on Sunday, Dr. Brown proposed 
 to hold public worship in the evening also. Again the 
 dispute travelled up through the usual machinery of 
 secretaries, council and directors, when the decision 
 came that all chaplains were military servants, but tho 
 Government would not concern itself with their inter- 
 nal ecclesiastical arrangements. Dr. Brown might 
 act as he pleased. But he met with an unexpected 
 obstacle at the first evening service. The precentor 
 was engaged to raise the tune at only one weekly 
 service, and did not appear. The good minister had 
 a voice fortunately quite equal to the occasion, and 
 Dr. Bryce surrendered. But in the spring of 1830 
 Dr. Brown had a fall from his horse, which sent him on 
 sick leave to the Straits of Malacca, where ho died, 
 and the old state of things was re-established. 
 
 The three acts in the ecclesiastical drama of steeple, 
 cock, and second service, recall the mock-heroics on 
 the fight of the treasurer-bishop and the chanter con- 
 cerning the reading-desk of Notre Dame : — 
 
^t 36. UESULT OF TUB ECCLESIASTICAL SliUABDLES. 237 
 
 " Jc clianto lo3 cotnbata, ot co Pri'Iat terrible, 
 Qui par sos longs travaux, efc sa force inviiiciblo, 
 Uans uiio illustre Eglisc? exor^'atit son grand coour 
 Fit plac'jr in la fin un Lutrin daus lo cbojur. 
 
 Quelle furcur, dit-il, quel avouglo caprice ! 
 Quand lo diucr est prct, vous ap[)L'llo i\ I'office ? 
 De votro digniio soutcnoz micux Tuclat, 
 Est-ce pour travaillcr que vous ctcs prolat ? " 
 
 As Boileau closes the strife by bringing m Piety, 
 Faith and Grace, who awaken Aristus to restore peace, 
 so the missionary brings life back to St. Andrew's. 
 
 This was the kirk and the kirk-session under 
 which Duff might have been bound to work, had not 
 the young evangelist been given the foresight and the 
 grace to stipulate that he should go out to found the 
 mission in India fettered by no man there. The 
 Government was distracted and disgusted, iihe educated 
 natives were scandalised by this continued exhibition 
 of Christianity, and the Scots, who had been so proud 
 of their national kirk, ceased to enter it. Some per- 
 manently joined the Church of England, especially 
 when the loving and cultured lleginald llcber became 
 the second Metropolitan of India, and others found 
 what they desired among the Congregationalists or 
 Baptists. The majority of the residents, Scottish and 
 English, made the Sabbath a time of pleasuring, when 
 they could absent themselves from their offices, which 
 were open and busy every day. Boating excursions, 
 picnic parties to Barrackpore and the French and 
 Dutch settlements up the river, and pig-sticking on 
 the edge of the Soonderbun jungles to the south of 
 the city, were the result of the spiritual energies of 
 Middleton and Bryce. 
 
 In this state of things Dr. Bryce resolved to take 
 furlough home. Believing that he could help the new 
 
238 LIFE OF DU. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 mission by reporting its success, in which he had 
 always sympathised, ho quietly proposed to throw on 
 the missionary the whole duty of preaching in St. 
 Andrew's pulpit and taking pastoral oversight of the 
 large Scottish community Thus modestly and in 
 this brotherly spirit did Duff reply to the first sug- 
 gestion on the 30th November, 1831: — "I should 
 have rejoiced to have been able to have rendered 
 more frequent assistance on Sunday ; but I really 
 find every moment so engrossed, and the personal 
 fatigue often so harassing from the miscellaneous 
 calls on my daily avocations, tliat I have little time 
 and generally still less strength to spare for pulpit 
 duties. In the event, however, of your twelvemonth's 
 trip being resolved upon, I would be ready to do my 
 best, or to enter into the adoption of any measure 
 which might secure regular service for the good folks 
 of St. Andrew's. This, however, is a subject for 
 further consideration." The next information which 
 Duff received was in the form of a letter, sent back 
 by the pilot from the Sandheads, as the mouth of the 
 Hooghly is called, in which Dr. Bryce announced his 
 sudden departure with his invalid wife. With no 
 stock of prepared sermons (for all his manuscripts had 
 gone down at Dassen Island), with his daily college 
 duties, and his weekly evening lectures, tiie sudden 
 call made even Alexander Duff hesitate. But having 
 reason to believe that if the kirk were once shut 
 Government would put difficulties in the way of 
 opening it again, bewailing the condition of his 
 own countrymen as sheep without a shepherd, and 
 meeting at every turn the evil effect of their lives 
 on the observant natives, he threw himself into the 
 breach. 
 
 Never before — not whci. Kiernander was in the 
 full flush of that activity which attracted Clive, and 
 
^t. 26. PREACHER AND PASTOR. 239 
 
 his own Cambuslaug compatriot, Claudius Bucliarian, 
 was reproving even a good Governor-General like 
 Cornwallis — liad Calcutta seen such a preacher and 
 pastor. He went into the pulpit the first Sunday to 
 find a score of worshippers lost amid the eight hun- 
 dred chairs. The sight he described as that of "a 
 void and huge wilderness." The session registers gave 
 him the names of not a few who had continued to 
 preserve their latent rights by paying seat-rents, and 
 with these he determined to begin. The easy theory 
 had been that the Scotsman in India is so different 
 a being from what he is at home, that he regarded 
 his minister's visit as intrusive. The new pastor soon 
 put that to the test. He found his purely pastoral 
 calls welcomed. The Sunday solitude of the kirk 
 gradually became a respectable crowd. The ministra- 
 tions during nearly all 1832 resulted in the creation 
 of the good congregation which Dr. Charles, the new 
 chaplain, found on his arrival. The results on the 
 morals and the higher life of European society became 
 marked. Bishop Turner, who followed Dr. James, the 
 short-lived successor of Heber, had been grievously 
 vexed by the utter absence of all signs of a day of 
 rest, Christian or national, when he landed. Govern- 
 ment as well mercantile offices were open daily with- 
 out intermission, as they had been smce the first 
 settlement of the British in India. The bishop's 
 attempt to reform society by privately asking the less 
 godless to sign a voluntary pledge to abstain from 
 business and from compelling the natives to attend 
 office on the Lord's- day, brought down on him the 
 fiercest bigotry and intolerance. Duff, a little later, 
 found his opportunity just before Daniel Wilson landed 
 as the next bishop. 
 
 A prosperous young Scottish merchant asked the 
 officiating minister of St. Andrew's to baptize his first- 
 
240 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 born. The father was met by a kindly exposition of 
 Presbyterian discipline, and was recommended to 
 delay nntil he liimself should, by attending church at 
 least, and then by observing family worship, show 
 some honest regard for the Christianity he professed 
 ill name only. Resentment, under Duff's persuasive 
 kindliness, soon gave way to the confession that he 
 was junior partner of a firm which employed five 
 hundred natives, that his senior was in England, that 
 he had to supervise the men on Sunday as on other 
 days and c uld not possibly attend church. The 
 minister's further intercourse with him and his wife 
 led him to try the experiment of shutting the office 
 for one day in seven. Summoning his operatives on 
 the Saturday, he explained that for the next month 
 he would not require their attendance on Sunday, but 
 would not on that account lower their wages. If he 
 found that the four or five holidays led them to work 
 more zealously, he would be able to make the arrange- 
 ment permanent. They could not believe the state- 
 ment at first, and it soon formed the talk of the 
 neighbourhood and of the surrounding villages to 
 which the} belonged. It was found that not one was 
 absent on Monday morning, and that that month's 
 tale of work exceeded the out-turn of each of its pre- 
 decessors, while a new feeling of cheerful loyalty and 
 confidence had been born between the employed and 
 their employer. The change, and the baptism which 
 followed, became the ^leginning of a new life to more 
 than to this family. It was long till society became 
 outwardly transformed. But that was the dawn of 
 the social as well as spiritual improvement which 
 has made the Christian day of rest, observed by 
 Government order and European opinion, a boon and 
 a teacher to the thousands of toiling Hindoos and 
 others wlio rejoice in its physical advantages, and arc 
 
JEL 26. WORK AMONG AMERICANS. 24 1 
 
 sometimes led by it to higher thoughts, though, un- 
 doubtedly, the viciously inclined abuse the rest as 
 all good gifts may be abused. The English Sab- 
 bath is not the least of the blessings conferred by 
 the British Government on India, and, as usual, the 
 missionaries pointed the way. 
 
 Not till he had been for six months thus building 
 up the congregation did Mr. Duff announce the in- 
 tended communion of the Lord's Supper. A young 
 American waited upon him next day to declare that, 
 being from Boston, he had been brought up a Uni- 
 tarian, but had failed to find any real comfort in his 
 religion. Expecting an impulse to a higher emotional 
 life at least from the celebration of the sacrament 
 after the simple Scottish form, he sought permission 
 to sit down at the table with friends who were already 
 members of the Kirk. Having expounded the truo 
 nature of the divinity of Jesus Christ, very much as he 
 had done to inquirers like Krishna ]\Iohun Banerjca, 
 and pointed to the only source of all the privilege of 
 His memorial sacrifice, Mr. Duff recommended fuj'thcr 
 study of Scripture. The youth consented, and at the 
 same time courteously offered his counsellor the books 
 of Dr. Channing, which were at that time new to 
 England and India. As the American, witli the 
 assistance of no little intercourse with Duff, was 
 gradually being led upwards from Jesus of Nazareth 
 to the ImmanuelWho was wounded for our transsfres- 
 sions, a wasting sickness seized him, and he was sent 
 to sea to the health-giving breezes at the Sandheads. 
 In the pilot-brig he died, but not before the full glory 
 Oi the Incarnation entered liis soul, and he charged 
 the captain, as he died, to tell Mr. Duff that he had 
 found Jesus to be his all-sufTicient because Divine 
 Saviour. Such cases may bo taken as typical of 
 the work done among his own people in that year 
 
 ^ B 
 
242 LIFE OF BR. DUrr. 1830. 
 
 memorable to many. Thus, as ever after, there worked 
 side by side in Duff's career the evangelising of the 
 Hindoo and the recalling by the evangel of many who 
 had forgotten their baptismal, their national, their 
 personal birthright in Christ. 
 
 In all this the impulsive but ever loving heart of 
 Alexander Duff had continued to pant for the sym- 
 pathy of such a friend as Urquhart, whom he had lost 
 all too soon in his student days. Dr. Brown had been 
 taken away, and in the great-hearted Swiss Lacroix, 
 over whose grave he long after poured out a eulogy 
 wortliy of David and Jonathan, he found some of the 
 affection that strong men cherish. Many, who knew 
 little of the far higher work he was doing for all time, 
 had desired to see him Dr. Brown's successor, and to 
 this he alludes in these letters to the Rev. Dr. Laurie, 
 the Madras chaplain, by wliom he had been hospitably 
 received on his way to Calcutta. The fervour of his 
 friendly longing bursts forth, as it ever did to those ho 
 valued. Here, too, we see his interest in the soldiers, 
 for whom few then cared : — 
 
 " College Square, Calcutta, 1st Nov., 1830. 
 ** My Deae Friend, — Bold indeed must that heart 
 be, and cheerless that soul, that would not experience, 
 .1 will not say pleasure simply, but strong emotions 
 of holy love and ardour on the jjerusal of your truly 
 apostolic letter. I have not for a long time received 
 anything so refreshing and to myself so humbling. 
 With the sincerity of conviction I felt that you treated 
 me and mine with more than a brother's kindness, and 
 manifested towards me more than the natural tokens 
 of a brother's love, and I appeared to feel that it was 
 not possible to regard any other brother in Christ 
 with a more tender affection. But since the receipt 
 of your last letter you seem as if more endeared than 
 
^t. 24. WORK AMONG SOLDIERS. 243 
 
 ever to my soul. Such warmth, such earnest anxiety, 
 such bowels of compassion, such yearnings of a father 
 for the souls of his people ! Truly was I cheered and 
 aroused, as with a message from heaven, and humbled 
 to the very dust. Oh, that I had one half the zeal and 
 anxious longing for the redemption of lost souls and 
 the continued welfare of such as appear to be within 
 the fold of Christ ! Oh pray with me, and for me, 
 that all the cold and frozen apathy of nature may 
 disappear before the genial influences of a heavenly 
 fire ! 
 
 "It need scarcely be added, that immediately after 
 receiving your letter the necessary inquiries were 
 made respecting the regiment in behalf of which you 
 expressed such d'3ep and unfeigned interest. The 
 information obtained was that one half of the resji- 
 ment had reached Calcutta, and proceeded straight on 
 to Chin surah, thirty miles to the north ; that Chinsurah 
 itself was only to be a temporary station, as the inten- 
 tion was tliat they should proceed without delay to the 
 upper provinces. By this arrangement I am not only 
 deprived of the opportunity of being useful to them, 
 but also precluded from the possibility of seeing them 
 at all. I trust, however, that they will not be for- 
 saken, that He who hath begun a good work will 
 accomplish it unto the end. While at Chinsurah they 
 may derive benefit from the instructions of Mr. Pear- 
 son, missionary of the London Society. On Monday 
 last week he came down to Calcutta ou business : to 
 him I represented the case as strongly as possible. 
 He felt for them, and stated that on Sunday, 24th 
 October, about forty assembled and listened atten- 
 tively to his address ; and that his efforts should not 
 be spared so far as his other duties would admit of 
 it. Hence you perceive that the Lord has dealt very 
 graciously with them ; and our prayers should be that 
 
244 l^IFE OF DE. DUFF. 1830. 
 
 at every station some man of God may be raised up 
 to comfort and cheer this little band in the perilous 
 voyage to eternity, warn tliem of danger, strengthen 
 them for the toil of a busy warfare, and direct them 
 in safety to the blissful haven of eternal rest. 
 
 " It is interesting to think that after reaching Cal- 
 cutta the idea suggested in your letter, of employing 
 pious and respectably educated soldiers as teachers, 
 occurred so forcibly to my mind that the first attempt 
 to secure teachers was directed to that quarter ; and 
 it was on' after the attempt proved fruitless that 
 my attention was particularly directed towards 'the 
 country-born,' as they are commonly called. Among 
 these, after mucli trouble, anxiety and waste of 
 time, I succeeded in securing two or three young 
 men of apparent piety and steady consistency of 
 conduct. For this I feel thankful to God, and trust 
 that in future, with God's blessing, the requisite 
 supply of subordinate teachers may be had from this 
 class. 
 
 " I would now be inclined to give you some account 
 of all my proceedings for the last five busy husij 
 months, but know not where to begin or how to 
 end, so multifarious and closely crowded are the 
 materials accumulated. A volume, not a few sheets, 
 vrould be required. This note, however, is but the 
 preliminary notice, as it were, of what I trust will be 
 a frequent and delightful correspondence. In order 
 to meet your wishes, when you write be so kind as to 
 state, in the form of question, those subjects on which 
 you would desire to be informed, and I in return will 
 take the same liberty with you. I have now traversed 
 every part of Calcutta and its vicinity ; have resolved, 
 after much anxious inquiry, to make Calcutta my head- 
 quarters ; have found the impossibility of instituting, 
 in the first instance, a central seminary of the de- 
 
/gi, 24. HE DESCRIBES HIS WORK. 245 
 
 scription proposed by tlie Assembly's committee ; liave 
 found, after mucli investio^ation, that, in the present 
 state of things in Calcutta, it is more advisable for the 
 Assembly's ultimate purpose to maintain Englisli in 
 preference to Bengalee schools ; have proved, by a 
 most successful experiment on a large scale, that, with 
 proper management, elementary Englisli education, 
 including tlie reading of the Scriptures by the most 
 advanced classes, may be carried on to almost any 
 extent ; and that, in the -course of a ver^'' few years 
 indeed, a central institution for a higher education will 
 be absolutely demanded. I cannot enter into detail. 
 In the school now formed in the building formerly 
 occupied as a Hindoo college, on the Chitpore road, 
 there are present every day, after making the neces- 
 sary allowance for temporary engagements and sick- 
 ness, not less than 250 from the age of six to twenty- 
 four, and of all classes from the Brahman downwards. 
 The labours of every day are commenced with prayer 
 — generally the Lord's Prayer, as that has been fully 
 explained; about ninety read a portion of the New 
 Testament in English, and listen to any explanations 
 or remarks. So far well. The Lord alone can give 
 the effectual blessing. I have been and still am in a 
 whirling vortex of employment. Excuse therefore my 
 haste. Pray write me without delay. Remember me 
 in kindness to those dear friends who share in our 
 Christian affection — Messrs. Dalmahoy, Bannister, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wardrope, Mr. and Mrs. Webster, Mr. 
 Smith and Mr. Ridsdale. I have no recollection of 
 one of the name of Rodgers at St. Andrews. I pray 
 fervently with my whole heart that he may prove a 
 faithful, zealous and devoted fellow- worker with you 
 in the ministry. Oh, who can estimate the blessing 
 of a messenger of God, having the same mind and 
 bearing the shame with and for Christ ! Who can 
 
246 LIFE OV DE. DUFF. 183 1. 
 
 estimate the curse of an emissary of Satan, wearing 
 the outward garb and glorying only in the riches of 
 Christ's visible Church ! The last accounts from Dr. 
 Brown are ciio(3i'less ; I fear he is no more; if so, 
 happy, happy, happy he 1" 
 
 ''29th Deccmher, 1831. 
 
 ** Things here are in a very complicntod state, and 
 very difficult to unravel in all that conci 1 us the vitals 
 of religion, whether among Europeans or natives. I 
 think it not unlikely that when a decided movement 
 shall take place it will be simultaneous among 
 all classes, and probably sudden in its appearance. 
 Be this as it may, the elements of change are at 
 present accumulating rather than any great or deci- 
 sive change developed. Much is visible to call forth 
 gratitude to God, but nothing, nothing to equal the 
 expectations raised at home or justify the gloryings 
 of many. 
 
 " I am still little else than an explorer of the field, 
 though the success of the largo English school estab- 
 lished is pleasing, and with the Divine blessing it may 
 become one of the nurseries of a higher and better 
 institution. Since the departure and death of our 
 mutually much esteemed friend. Dr. Brown, I am 
 left absolutely alone. Many, many are exceedingly 
 kind and friendly, but there is not one who can feel 
 and co-operate with me as a brother. Often I think of 
 Madras and of the kind friends there, and especially 
 of you, my brother. More I cannot say — I always 
 fear giving vent to my feelings, lest there might escape 
 a word that indicated repining or dissatisfaction with 
 the allotments of the Almighty. 
 
 "My spare time — and it has hitherto been vcnj 
 limited — is devoted to the languages. Here, with 
 God's blessing, I experience little difficulty — the want 
 
jEt, 25. ARRIVAL OF DANIEL WILSON. 247 
 
 of time is my grand enemy. I have had no tidings 
 from home of late, though I daily expect to hear some- 
 thing about fellow-labourers on their way or arriving. 
 Education can bo pursued to almost any extent in 
 Calcutta, with proper agents and adequate funds. I 
 intend very soon to transmit homo a report or 
 memorial on the practicability and necessity of found- 
 ins: an institution for the more advanced branches of 
 a literary, scientific and Christian course of instruction, 
 to which the labours of European teachers shall be 
 chiefly confined, while the branch schools may always 
 be conducted by less qualified individuals to be found 
 already in the country, and the direct preaching of 
 the gospel shall be carried on to the utmost practicable 
 extent. 
 
 " Has your colleague arrived ? and does he profess 
 a kindred spirit ? Many here have ■ wished to per- 
 suade me to apply, or allow application to be made, 
 that I might succeed Dr. Brown, but I have per- 
 emptorily declined, on the ground that my motives 
 might be misrepresented and misconstrued — that the 
 act might be viewed as an inglorious abandonment 
 of the cause which I have engaged to promote, and 
 that in this way the cause itself, so far as its present 
 connection with the Church or Scotland is concerned, 
 might languish and suffer. But from my soul I 
 pray, and I am sure you will join me in this prayer, 
 that a man of Grod may appear to heal the breaches 
 that have been opened in our Zion. 
 
 " Have you written Dr. Inglis ? or found it prudent 
 to attempt making any collection for the General 
 Assembly's fund ? Yours very truly, 
 
 "Alexander Duff.'* 
 
 Daniel Wilson's arrival in 1832, as fifth Bishop of 
 Calcutta, brought together two men of the same 
 
248 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 evangelical spirit though separated by ecclesiastical 
 forms. " A visit to Dr. Carey at Serampore," 
 writes the bishop's biographer, " elicited many in- 
 teresting reminiscences of the early Christianity of 
 India. A friendly conversation with Dr. Duff fur- 
 nished important information on the subject of native 
 education." Daniel Wilson's episcopate was to last 
 nearly as long as Duff's apostleship in India. Al- 
 though the most ** churchy " of evangelicals the bishop 
 wrote of Lord W. Bentinck, as he might have done of 
 Duff, " Lord AVilliam is rather more of a Whig and 
 less of a churchman than I could desire, but incom- 
 parably better than the highest churchman if without 
 piety, vigour and activity. Lord William reverences 
 religion and its sincere professors and ministers, 
 but he has prejudices against bishops." Like Duff, 
 the Governor-Greneral had told the new bishop, who 
 applied to him in vain to have his sacerdotal claims 
 over the chaplains legally acknowledged, " Christianity 
 is my object." The bishop rejoined with characteristic 
 prejudice : " With a feeble people like the Hindoos 
 there must be creeds, a liturgy and an established 
 ministry." Yet Duff had won his first four converts 
 there, and the revolution he had begun was so fer- 
 menting that the bishop wrote in March, 1833: *' A 
 most interesting moment is dawning on India. The 
 native mind is at work. A beginning of things is 
 already made." 
 
 Europeans and Americans constituted only one-half 
 of the professing Christian or born Christian commu- 
 nity in India. Before the influence of missionaries 
 and chnplains, the overland route and liberal furlough 
 rules combined to make the married life of white 
 settlers in India all that the wife of Sir Henry Lawrence 
 longed for it to be, in the Calcutta Revmo, the Eura- 
 sians (Europe-Asia) or East Indians had become 
 
JEt. 26. THE EURASIANS AND THE DOVETON COLLEGES. 249 
 
 strong in numbers, tlio offspring of Englisli fathers 
 and native mothers. In 1833 Dufl' developed into a 
 system his hibours for tliem. 
 
 Leaving out the half-caste children of the earlier 
 Portuguese, who had been allowed to fall nca the 
 level of the lower castes by the Romish Church which 
 should have cared for its sons, the mixed offspring of 
 their officers and writers early forced the Company to 
 attend to them. So far as these children had sprung 
 from soldiers, the Military Oi'phan School, for which 
 David Brown first went to India, was established in 
 1783, and the Female Ori)luin Asylum in 1815- — noblo 
 charities still. In 1789 the charity school for others 
 was developed into the Free School, originally endowed 
 with part of the compensation paid by the Moorsheda- 
 bad Government for its sack of old Calcutta. Tho 
 immortal three of Serampore established the Benevolent 
 Institution in Calcutta to meet tho increasing need, 
 while Dr. and Mrs. Marshman conducted high-class 
 schools at Serampore for the benefit of the mission. 
 More recently the third of a million sterling, left by 
 the Frenchman, Claude Martin, who " came to India a 
 privat(3 soldier and died a major-general," as his tomb 
 records, was spent in Martinieres or boarding schools 
 for poor Christians in Calcutta, Lucknow, and his 
 native city of Lyons. Finally, the great and good 
 Henry Lawrence endowed the hill Asylums which bear 
 his name, for the children of our Christian soldiers 
 not otherwise provided for. It is a bright roll of 
 Christlike love covering a multitude of sins, not 
 judging, but healing and atoning fo'^ an evil and, to 
 its victims, inevitable past. 
 
 Now in all this there is no independent self-effort. 
 The Eurasian community has given India and Eng- 
 land some of its best men and women, whose virtues 
 were nursed on self-i eliance and the fear of God. In 
 
250 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 183a. 
 
 1823 tho Eurasians of Calcutta united to found a 
 joint proprietary school, catholic within tho limits of 
 Protestantism, for tho higher education of their chil- 
 dren. Their fine ideal they somewhat stiffly ex- 
 pressed in tho name they gave to what became the 
 germ of the Doveton Colleges, the Parental Aca- 
 demic Institution. In this they followed tho Baptist 
 founders of the Benevolent Institution and the Ar- 
 menian conductors of the Philanthropic Institution, 
 under that good man and scholar, Johannes Avdall. 
 Their leader was the son of an English ensign 
 who fell at the siege of Seringapatani, John AVilliani 
 Ricketts. He rose from the Military Orphan School, 
 through the East India Company's establishment 
 at Bencoolen, to bo the first of his class in India. 
 This college was the boon he left them, as well as 
 the right of sitting on juries side by side with their 
 fellow Christians. But he did moro. He deserves 
 to be remembered as the one citizen of Calcutta who, 
 when a public meeting was about unanimously to vote 
 a complimentary address to the Honble. Mr. Adam, 
 protested against so honouring the man who had 
 stripped the press in India of liberty. 
 
 We have seen how Duff had been led, in his early 
 despair of finding assistants, to think of soldiers, and 
 how he had secured the young adventurer, Clift. His 
 experience of the two lads Sunder and Pereira, who 
 were his first pupil-teachers, and tho zeal which led 
 him to examine and advise all the schools in and 
 around Calcutta of every kind, brought him into close 
 relations with the collegiate school of the Eurasians. 
 His great services to it led the managers to nominate 
 him visitor, side by side with the patron, Lord Met- 
 calfe, of whose merits as a Christian statesman this 
 is not the least, that he was the first official to help 
 the Eurasians to help themselves, as Lord Northbrook's 
 
JEt. 26. FIGHT FOR THE RIGHTS OP CONSCIENCE. 251 
 
 Government did long after, when alarmed at tlio 
 increase of Christian poverty in India caused by tlio 
 thoughtless neglect of all the intervening administra- 
 tions. " Much as has been gained," he told the com- 
 mittee, teachers and youth of the school after the tenth 
 successful examination in 1833 : " much yet remains to 
 ho won. Let this community rise by its own endea- 
 vours ; unless men act as men, what can Governments 
 do ? Moral and intellectual knowledge are not sepa- 
 rated, and we gain the higliest dignity of our nature 
 when we cultivate both." 
 
 For the Eurasians as for the Native Christians and 
 all who were not either Hindoos, Muhammadaiis or 
 European British-born subjects. Duff was in the front 
 of those who fought the battle for the rights of con- 
 science, which Lord William Bentinck partially and 
 Lord Dalhousie and Lord Lawrence long after 
 completely secured to all classes. With a true toler- 
 ance, but in ignorance of what it involved, Warren 
 Hastings in his code of 1772 guaranteed to Hindoos 
 and Muhammadans their own laws of inheritance. 
 But these laws exclude dissidents from their respective 
 religions from all civil right to ancestral property. 
 Conversion meant disinheritance, and Parliament, with 
 ignorance equal to that of Hastings, wrote sucli a law 
 on the English statute-book. As if this were not 
 enough, the East India Company had by legislation 
 excluded all converts from public office of any kind. 
 Duff had not been long in Calcutta when he awoke 
 to the enormity of enactments which Muhammadans 
 themselves would never have passed or enforced, and 
 which fossilized Hindooism for ever. From 1830 the 
 missionaries all over India agitated the question, the 
 Court of Directors was stirred up by memorial, and 
 the Eurasians sent home Mr. Rickctts to petition Par- 
 liament, which examined him. The result was the 
 
252 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 Kegulation of 1822, wLich provides that no one shall 
 lose any rights or property, or deprive any other of 
 rights or propertj^ by changing his religion. Lord 
 William Beiitiuck had previously thrown open the 
 public service to all the natives of India, including 
 the outlawed Native Christians, enacting that there 
 should be no exclusion from office on account of caste, 
 creed or nation. The development of an enlightened 
 legislation under Macaulay, Peacock, Maine and 
 Stephen, has now given the varied creeds and races of 
 India better codes than any country possesses, and, 
 save as to the rights of minors and age of majority — 
 not yet settled in England — nothing more is needed. 
 
 But how desirable that is still may appear from the 
 first collision with the law, or rather the lawyers, in 
 defence of the rights of conscience. The missionaries 
 were those of the Church of England, their natural 
 defender was the newly arrived Bishop Wilson, but 
 their actual leader was the young Highlander, whose 
 zeal for fair-play and civil and religious liberty led him 
 alone into the breach and tj victory. 
 
 The case occurred just after the whole Mission- 
 ary Conference had publicly answered a thoughtless 
 attack upon them by the then rising orientalist, H. H. 
 Wilson, and had forced that keen Hindooizer to 
 apologise to them. From the day when, in 180(S, 
 Wilson reported his arrival at Calcutta a young 
 assistant surgeon, he became })opular as an amateur 
 actor and musician in the local theatre, and as a most 
 versatile and accomplished member of society. But 
 he worked hard at Sanscrit in the midst of all his 
 amusements, so that in five years he published his 
 first translation, that of Kalidasa's Mcghaduta or 
 " Cloud Messenger," and in six more his great 
 Sanscrit-English dictionary appeared. He gradually 
 established his reputation as, next to Colebrooke, the 
 
^t. 26. H. H. WILSON APOLOGISES TO THE MISSIONARIES. 253 
 
 greatest of English orientalists. Just before lie went 
 home, in 1832, to be the first Boden professor of 
 Sanscrit in Oxford, an appointment which he gained 
 by the narrow majority of seven over the learned and 
 devout Dr. Mill, he wrote a letter on the study of 
 Sanscrit literature in England, at the request of 
 Bishop Turner. In that letter this passage occurred: 
 *' In Bengal the better order of Hindoos regard the 
 missionaries with feelings of inveterate animosity, 
 whilst they invariably express a high respect for 
 clergymen of the Established Church. They cannot 
 avoid seeing that the latter are held in higher estima- 
 tion by the European society, and that they cannot 
 be reproached with practices which not unfrequently 
 degrade the missionary character in the eyes of the 
 natives." Called to account for this " snobbish " as 
 ^vell as libellous statement by " the missionaries of 
 all denominations in Calcutta," Dr. H. H. Wilson ex- 
 plained that the letter was private and had not been 
 published by him, and that he was exceedingly sorr^ 
 to learn it " should have given pain to the missionaries 
 of Calcutta, for whom generally I have a high respect, 
 and with several of whom I have long been and hope 
 long to be on terms of kind and friendly intercourse." 
 His defence on the merits was, that he merely re- 
 ported the opinions of high caste Bengalee society, 
 which he did not share. This made it the; more im- 
 portant that the missionaries should meet the reflec- 
 tions nnon tliPiu, which they did in a letter signed 
 by the lev. C. Grogerly, the Conference secretary, and 
 full of hibcorical interest to all who would trace the 
 development of Christianity in India.* 
 
 The truth is, that Dr. H. H. Wilson only too ac- 
 curately, because undesignedly and without malice, 
 
 « 
 
 Calcutta Ohristian Observer for Oct., 1832, vol. i., p. 233. 
 
254 I^IFE OF DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 expressed the contempt with which missionaries had 
 been regarded by men and ministers of the world, in 
 the days of the vile treatment of Carey and his 
 colleagues by their home committee, which tempted 
 the sneers of Sydney Smith in the Edinlmrgh P^'vieio. 
 For men to live in poverty, and die unknown by their 
 contemporaries, for the sake of oppressed or savage 
 or superstition-ridden races, while really the pioneers 
 of the Government which proscribed them and the 
 founders of civihzation and scholarship, was to be pro- 
 nounced mean, weak, illiterate creatures. Alexander 
 Duff in Eastern, as John Wilson in Western India, 
 was the first to change all that, even before the gentle 
 Carey's death, alike by his work and by such an 
 exposure of the calumny that the boldest scoffer 
 dared not repeat the lie. 
 
 It happened thus. Duff's success had led the 
 Church Missionary Society to open an English school 
 in its Amherst-strcet mission-house. Of that Duff's 
 second convert, Krishna Mohun Banerjea, had been ap- 
 pointed master. There Brijonath Ghose, after several 
 months' instruction, sought baptism, and took refuge 
 -vith his own countryman, the master, to escape the 
 persecution of his family. He was above fourteen 
 years of age, then bolieved to be the Hindoo age of 
 discretion, as it is more than that of puberty and 
 marriage. Blackstone lays it down that a boy "^ at 
 fourteen is at years of discretion, and therefore may 
 consent or disagree tc marriage." The father had 
 taken the youth from the Hindoo College, lest the 
 purely secular education there should make him a 
 '*' nastik " or atheist, and had placed him under so 
 well-known a Christian convert as Krishna Mohun, 
 aftbr hearing the bishop declare that instruction in 
 Christianity was the grand object of the school. Yet, 
 under a writ of habeas corjjus, to which Krishnr/Mohun 
 
JEt. 24. THE FIRST HABEAS COEPUS CASE. 255 
 
 replied that the boy was not in his custody, Brijonatk 
 liiraself appeared at the bar of the Supremo Court. 
 After pleadings on both sides, it was decided that he 
 must be delivered up to his father as not of age, being 
 only ''fourteen years or thereabouts." Documentary 
 evidence of age, from the horoscope, is fabricated in 
 India with an ease which has led the civil service 
 commissioners in England to reject it altogether, 
 while oral witnesses can be purchased at sixpence a 
 head. The test of discretion, of intelligence, of sincer- 
 ity, seems to have been rejected, as it never was in 
 England in cases which were then frequent in Chancery 
 as to Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish minors. 
 The daily papers, by no means prejudiced in favour 
 of men at whose puritanism they were too ready to 
 laugh, described the scene at this the first attempt to 
 vindicate for the natives themselves, who will one day 
 be grateful for the act, the rights of conscience. 
 " The poor fellow," reported the Bengal IlurharUy 
 " was then seized hold of by the father, who could not 
 get him out of the court without considerable exertion. 
 The little fellow cried most bitterly, repeated his 
 appeals to the judges, seized hold of the barristers* 
 table, and was dragged inch by inch out of the court, 
 amidst the sympathy of some and the triumph of 
 others." Bishop Wilson, who was to have baptized 
 him, felt " lively grief ; " but he contented himself with 
 this remark, " A free agent I really believe that boy 
 was ; and the law of deliverance has been to him and 
 still is an imprisonment." In three years thereafter, 
 when the most intolerant could no longer doubt his 
 age, the youth, earnest and consistent amid all the 
 persecution, was with three others baptized. 
 
 The father's counsel was Mr. Longueville Clark, 
 who had then been ten years at the Calcutta bar, and 
 continued there for nearly forty more, with the repu- 
 
256 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1832. 
 
 tation of being one of the best chess-players m the 
 world. To the legitimate arts by which he served his 
 client, he added in open court the statement which, 
 under other circumstances and as afterwards intensi- 
 fied, might have been libellous, that " this was a case 
 of great importance, as the rights of Hindoo parents 
 were too often invaded by the missionaries in Cal- 
 cutta!" Brijonath's was the first case of the kind; it 
 involved great legal as well as moral principles, certain 
 to be again questioned ; and 'die charge was repeated 
 against the whole body of missionaries not many 
 months after they had received a courteous apology 
 from Dr. H. H. Wilson. After in vain appealing to the 
 most experienced agents of the missionary societies 
 to vindicate the common purity of motive, rectitude 
 of action and inevitable sense of duty, Mr. Duff, the 
 youngest among them, entered the lists. Having 
 failed to obtain from Mr. Clark the most microscopic 
 evidence of his statement beyond general assertions, 
 which added to the injury the insult that the 
 conduct of the missionaries was " flagitious and 
 dangerous," Mr. Duff resolved to publish the corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 But where ? The three daily papers he believed to 
 be hostile to him at that time. Fortunately, Mr. Stoc- 
 queler, also of the Sans Souci theatre set of amateurs, 
 had come round from Bombay to Calcutta, and had 
 bought the Tory newspaper of Dr. Bryce, the John 
 Bull. Securing as his staff of heavy writers Sir John 
 Peter Grant, who had resigned the Bombay bench after 
 his squabbles with Sir John Malcolm, Mr. John Farley 
 Leith, now M.P. for Aberdeen, and Mr. Charles Thack- 
 eray, uncle of the great prose satirist, the new editor 
 converted the almost defunct daily into the liberal 
 Englishman. At that press Macaulay used soon after 
 to print the rough proofs of those essays which he 
 
M. 26. OASTIG\TES MR. LONGUEVILLE CLARK. 257 
 
 sent from India to Napier, while Hohvell's monument 
 to the memory of those who died in the Black Hole 
 still perpetuated the humiliation, and Plassey looked 
 as it had done on that morning of sunshine breaking 
 through the rain-clouds when Clivo gave the order to 
 cross the river. Mr. Duff found tlio new editor will- 
 ing to look at the correspondence, though alarmed by 
 its bulk, and was surprised to find the whole in next 
 morning's paper, introduced by fair and even bold 
 editorial remarks. The case is only another illustra- 
 tion of that marvellous power of persuasion which, 
 resting always on a good cause, made Duff irresistible, 
 even by experts like himself, in private discussion still 
 more than in his most skilful and eloquent orations. 
 We remember a later case, in which, in the more 
 judicial Friend of India, one who has since proved 
 the most brilliant of English journalists, having advo- 
 cated one side of a question, was led by the moral 
 suasion and logical power of Duff, directed by a spirit 
 of purest philanthropy, to confess that he was wrong, 
 frankly stated the other side, convinced the Govern- 
 mf ', and altered the proposed action. 
 
 Never, in all the controversies which we have read 
 or heard, have first thoughtless misrepresentation 
 and then deliberate malice received such a castigation. 
 There are passages in the twenty octavo pages of 
 Duff's alternate scorn and ridicule, reasoned demon- 
 stration and rhetorical appeal, of which Junius would 
 have been worthy if that pitiless foe had fought with 
 sacred weapons and. for other than self-seeking ends. 
 The Christian is never forgotten, for it is the rights 
 of conscience and the supremacy of truth for which 
 he fights. Nor is the man, the Celt, the indignant de- 
 fender of the honour of his colleagues, of the glory of 
 his Master in them, and of the grandeur of their one 
 mission, wanting. The reply of the barrister was tho 
 
 s 
 
258 LIFE OF DB. DUFF. 1833. 
 
 mocking laugh of Mcphistopholes, the expression of 
 a desire to secure the missionary " for our Calcutta 
 Drary." The press and all society were disgusted 
 or indignant at the lawyer assailant, to whom Avaa 
 applied the couplet from Young's Epistle to Pope : — 
 
 " He rams his quill with scandal and with scoff, 
 But 'tis so very foul it won*t go off." 
 
 The episode closed, for ever, the period of super- 
 cilious contempt and intolerant misrepresentation of 
 men and of a cause soon found to be identified with 
 the best interests of the Hindoos themselves as well 
 as of the British Government. The defeated barrister 
 expressed the desire of seeking the satisfaction appro- 
 priate to himself, in a challenge to fight a duel, which 
 only the black coat of the defender of the faith pre- 
 vented him from sending. But he went so far as to 
 consult a friend on the subject. 
 
 All the local honours and attentions which Calcutta 
 society could at that time off'er had been presseo upon 
 Mr. Duff ever since the first examination of his school. 
 Especially did the loading men urge him to join the 
 Bengal Asiatic Society, although with most of them 
 he was conducting the Oriental controversy. But duty 
 to his daily work prevailed over his natural tastes, and 
 the memory of Dassen Island was never absent from 
 him in the face of what he regarded as temptations to 
 literary self-indulgence. Of the publications, library, 
 and other aids of the Society he made full use in 
 the war of languages, alphabets and systems. Much 
 more evident to him was the duty of using the Agri- 
 cultural Society of India, founded by Carey for the 
 improvement of the peasantry and the enlightenment 
 of the great zemindars whom the permanent settlement 
 of Lord CornwaUis had recognised as copyhold land- 
 lords on a vast scale. Of this body he was long a 
 
^t. 26. DECLINES TO ATTEND AN OFFICIAL BALL. 259 
 
 member, alike in its executive and in its publications 
 committee, and thus lie found outlets for many of 
 the educated natives, non-Christian as well as Chris- 
 tian.' 
 
 Of the social life of Mr. and Mrs. Duff at this period 
 we have one significant glimpse. The accession of 
 William IV. to the throne was marked by an ofhcial 
 ball at Government House, to which tliey were duly 
 invited by Lord and Lady William Bentinck. Per- 
 plexed, the Scottish missionary took counsel of a chap- 
 lain, who assured him that, viewing the invitation as 
 a command, he was in the 1 .bit of going to Govern- 
 ment House on such occasions, of making his bow to 
 the Governor-General and his wife and at once retiring. 
 This compromise did not commend itself to Mr. Duff, 
 even although he had not remembered the memorable 
 experience of the first Bishop of Calcutta. On the 
 occasion of the trial of Queen Caroline, a witness for 
 the defence attempted to justify her presence at an 
 indecent dance by the assurance that he had seen 
 Bishop Middleton and his family at a nautch in 
 Government House. A reference made to Calcutta 
 elicited the fact that Dr. Middleton's family were 
 present but not himself ; and the Marquis of Hastings 
 sent the explanation to the Lord Chancellor that the 
 movement of a woman's feet while she sings cannot 
 be called dancing. This, however, was not a nautch, 
 but an official ball for Europeans only, such as that from 
 which, at a later period. Lord Elgin carefully excluded 
 native nobles, who were liable to misunderstand the 
 motives of English ladies on these occasions. Mr. 
 Duff frankly stated, in a letter to the private secretary, 
 the reasons why he could not conscientiously obey the 
 most kind and courteous command of the ruler of 
 India. After long delay he received the Governor- 
 General's cordial approval of his spirit and action. 
 
26o LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834 
 
 Soon after his Excellency begged the missionary and 
 his wife to meet him at dinner in one of those frequent 
 gatherings where the two men discussed, in a like 
 spirit, the highest good of the people and the govern- 
 ment of India. 
 
 Lord AYilliam Bentinck left India after sickness liad 
 driven Duff home for a time. He was a statesman 
 and a phihmthropist worthy to be associated in tlio 
 spiritual as well as intellectual refoi'niation of India 
 with the man to whom, in his absence and wlien 
 bidding all the missionaries good-bye, lie made this 
 reference, after answering those who would nse the 
 force of the conqueror and the influence of the 
 state-paid bishop to induce the profession of Chris- 
 tianity : *' Being as anxious as any of these excellent 
 persons for the diffusion of Christianity through all 
 countries, but knowing better than they do the ground 
 we stand upon, my humble advice to them is, Ilely 
 exclusively upon the humble, pious and learned mis- 
 sionary. His labours, divested of all human power, 
 create no distrust. Encourage education with all your 
 means. The offer of religious truth in the school of 
 the missionary is without objection. It is or is not 
 accepted. If it is not, the other seeds of instruction 
 may take root and yield a rich and abundant harvest 
 of improvement and future benefit. I would give 
 them as an example in support of tliis advice, the 
 school founded exactly upon those principles, lately 
 superintended by the estimable Mr. Duff, that has been 
 attended with such unparalleled success. I would say 
 to them finally, that they could not send to India too 
 many labourers in the vineyard like those whom I have 
 now the gratification of addressing. Farewell. May 
 God Almighty give you health and strength to prose- 
 ciite your endeavours, and may He bless them with 
 success." The deputation to whom the great pro- 
 
M^ 28. TUE SCUOOL IJICCOMKS A COLLEGE. 20l 
 
 consul addressed words such as had never before been 
 lieurd from a, Governor-General's lips — nor since — 
 consisted of the venerable Dr. Marslnnan, the saintly 
 Lacroix and Mackay, Messrs. Sandys, Yates and W. 
 Morton. 
 
 Lord William Bentinck left the land for wliich ho 
 had done so much, in Marc' , 18:35, eight montlis after 
 Dull", whose work he legislatively coni[)leted in the last 
 weeks of his seven years' administration. But Dnlf 
 was not driven from his position, even by almost deadly 
 disease, until he had developed liis school, with Mackay 
 at his side, into " a complete Arts College including 
 the thorough study of the Bible as well as the evi- 
 dences and doctrines of natural and revealed re- 
 liirion." The annual examination of the classes in 
 the town-hall became one of the notable events of the 
 year, when there assembled the best representatives of 
 all society, European and native, from the Governor- 
 General and his wife, and the learned S'^/U of the 
 founder of the orthodox Dharma Sobha, the Raja 
 Rhadakant Deb, to the humblest Baboo or middle- class 
 Bengalee. Reporters, through all the newspapers, 
 spread tlio facts of the six hours' testing of Plindoos 
 in Biblical as well as secular knowledge, over Southern 
 and Eastern Asia. Mr. ]\Iack, the able graduate of the 
 University of Edinburgh, whom the Seramporo three 
 had associated with them in their educational and 
 literary labours, used to publish a critical estimate o*^ 
 the whole, which guided the many imitators of Duff, 
 Christian and non-Christian, to higher efforts. We 
 may leave with him for a time the famous General 
 Assembly's Institution, with this description of its 
 founder as he first appeared to a little trembling eager- 
 eyed boy brought in from the jungles of Bengal to 
 learn English by an orthodox father, who ran the risk 
 of afterwards seeing his son a Christian and in time 
 
262 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 
 
 1834. 
 
 u missionary. Tlio Rev. Lai Bchari Day writes of this 
 time : — * 
 
 " It was some day in the year 1834 that I accompanied my 
 father to the General Assembly's Institution. It was about a 
 month after I had been admitted into the institution that I 
 caught a near view of the illustrious missionary. He came 
 into the class-room while we were engaged in reading the first 
 page of the ' First Instructor ' — the fii'st of a series of class- 
 books compiled by himself; and though forty-four years have 
 elapsed since tlie occurrence of the incident my recollection 
 of it is as vivid as if it had happened only yesterday. I cannot 
 say he walked into the class-room — he runJied into it, his move- 
 ments in those days being exceedingly rapid. He was dressed 
 all in black, and wore a beard. He scarcely stood still for a 
 single second, but kept his feet and his hands moving inces- 
 santly, like a horse of high mettle. He seemed to have more 
 life in him than most men. lie had his white pocket-hand- 
 kerchief in his hand, which he was every now and then tying 
 round his arm and twistmg into a thousand shapes. Ho 
 seemed to be a living personation of perpetual motion. But 
 what attracted my notice most was the constant shrugging of 
 his shoulders, a habit which he afterwards left off but which 
 he had at that time in full perfection. In our lesson there 
 occurred the word * ox ' : he took hold of that word and 
 catechised us on it for about half an hour. He asked us (the 
 master interpreting his English to us in Bengalee) whether wo 
 had seen an ox, how many legs it had, whether it had any 
 hands, whether it had any tails, to the infinite entertainment 
 of us all. From the ox he passed on to the cow, and asked us 
 c^ what use the animal was. The reader may rest assured that 
 he did not speak before Hindoo boys of the use made of the 
 flesh of the cow, but dwelt chiefly on milk, cream and curds. 
 He ended, however, with a moral lesson. He knew that the 
 word for a cow in Bengalee was goroo, and he asked us whether 
 we knew another Bengalee word which was very like it in 
 sound. A sharp class-fellow quickly said that he knew its 
 paronym and that it was gooroo, which in Bengalee means the 
 
 • EecuUedtons of Alex an J er Puff, D.D., LL.D., and of the Mission 
 College which he founded in Calcutta. 187l>. 
 
Af.i. 38. UJi WEAUS lilMSKLF OUT. 263 
 
 Uniliinan spiritual guide. IIo was quito delighted at the boy*a 
 discovery, and uskod us of what use tho (jouruu was, uud whoLhor, 
 on tho whole, the tjoroo was not more useful thati tho ijooroo. 
 Ho then left our class and went into anotlior, leaving in our 
 minds seeds of future thouj^ht and reflection.^' 
 
 To liis own college teaching and such school super- 
 vision Mr. Duff added a constant attention to tho 
 aggressive work of tho Bengal auxiliary of tho British 
 and Foreign Bible Society and of the lleligious Tract 
 and Book Society. His Sunday evenings were given 
 up in 1833-'U to a new course of lectures and discus- 
 sions, contrasting Christianity with Hindooism and 
 Muhammadauism. For tliese public controversies ho 
 purchased an excellent bungalow in the native city, at 
 a point where four main thoroughfares met. Night 
 after night for a long time eager inquirers, earnest 
 disputants and curious spectators crowded the place 
 almost to suffocation. Every year was adding to tho 
 intelligence of the native public, the purely spiritual 
 and moral suasion of Christianity was coming to be 
 understood, and this last course proved tho most 
 popular of all. Even Muhammadans attended and 
 took part in the grave quest after divine truth, and 
 the crowds spread the sto^y not only over tho city but 
 into many a rural villago where the Christian mis- 
 sionary had not been seen. 
 
 But what of the man himself who, for four years, 
 did not cease to burn thus lavishly and incessantly 
 the physical energy he had brought from the Scottish 
 Grampians, the exhaustless enthusiasm he ever fed at 
 its heavenly source ? He had received his first warn- 
 ing in the great cyclone of May, 1833, but heeded it not. 
 Prematurely came the rain that year, marshalled by 
 the rotary hurricane which, revolving within itself, as 
 if the destroying counterpart of the harmony of the 
 spheres, moved rapidly over the land. From the Bay 
 
264 LU'^E OF DR. DUFF. 1833. 
 
 of Bengal, the mighty waters of which it dragged in 
 its devastating train, over isUind and mainland, forest 
 and field, village and town, the wild fury of the cyclone 
 rolled itself north and west. Here the storm-wave 
 and the wind bore inland for miles to some rising 
 ground a full freighted Indiaman of 1500 tons, among 
 the hamlets of the peasantry, where for months after 
 it lay a marvel to all. There it swept into sometimes 
 instant but more frequently lingering death hundreds 
 of thousands of human beings and their cattle, whose 
 vain 3truggles to cling to roofs and trees and the 
 iloatinfif wreck of their desolated homes susfo^ested 
 thoughts of a greater flood and prayers for the bow 
 of mercy. Most graphic of all was this incident, which 
 we tell as Duff himself told it to the writer. His 
 authority was the Argyllshire fellow-countryman who, 
 on that dreadful day, was superintending the clearing 
 of the jungle on Saugar Island. 
 
 For several weeks before his party had been an- 
 noyed by the night attacks of a tiger of unusual size 
 and ferocity. It carried away some of their animals 
 employed in agricultural operations, as well as two or 
 three human beings. When the cyclone prevailed 
 and the water continued to rise over the island, 
 as many natives as could swim went to the Scots- 
 man's bungalow for shelter, until it was greatly over- 
 crowded. At last, while watching the flood rapidly 
 rising to a level with the floor, at a distance, driven 
 before the tempest along the mighty torrent of waters, 
 he noticed the famous tiger evidently aiming at reach- 
 ing the house. Happily he had a double-barrelled 
 gun loaded and ready. The tiger reached the bun- 
 galow, laid hold of it, leaped into it, worked a way 
 trembling through the dense mass of human beings, 
 and did not stop till he got head and nose into the 
 remotest corner, where he continued to lie still quiver- 
 
 J 
 
^t. 27. THE CYCLONE AND THE TIGER. 265 
 
 ing like an . ipen leaf. The Scotsman concluded 
 that though, under the influence of terror produced 
 by the violence of the tempest, he was then quite 
 tame, if the bungalow escaped and the storm abated 
 the genuine nature of the savage brute would 
 return, and all the more speedily from the exhaus- 
 tion it must have undergone swimming and strug- 
 gling to reach the bungalow. So he very coolly took 
 the gun and pointed the barrel to the heart, rest- 
 ing it on the skin, which he afterwards showed to all 
 Calcutta as a trophy of that cyclone. Thus mingled 
 were the terrors of the tempest, which has often since 
 recurred, and on the last occasion, in 1876, even more 
 horribly. 
 
 The effect on the survivors was for a time quite as 
 deadly. Many who escaped the flood fell by the pesti- 
 lence which it brought when the waters subsided and 
 the cold season of 1833-84 came round. Malarious 
 fever, bred by the rotting carcases and vegetation, 
 spread a blight over the fairest portions of the rice 
 land. Inexperienced in tropical sanitation, and bound 
 to discharge the duty of inspecting the prosperous 
 branch school at Takee, Mr. Duff*, his family with him, 
 set off" by native boat for the place, which is seventy 
 miles due east of Calcutta. It was November, 
 and the country was only beginning to dry up. 
 Scarcely had they left the city when they came upon 
 a mass of putrid bodies, human and animal, through 
 which they had to work their way. All was beautiful 
 to look at in the green jungle forests of the Soonder- 
 buns, but the abundant fruit from which the Bengalees 
 take their proverbial word for " hypocrite " symbol- 
 ised the reality. Mr. Duff plucked the tempting 
 raJchalee only to find it filled with nauseous slime. 
 Mr. Barlow, son of Sir George Barlow who had been 
 interim Governor-General, was in charge of the Com- 
 
266 LIFE OF DB. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 pany's salt station of Takee on £8,000 a year. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Temple received the missionary and Lis party 
 with their usual hospitality. The return journey, by 
 palankeen, was even worse, and the missionary was 
 laid low by his first illness, jungle fever in its deadliest 
 form. His fine constitution showed that robust elas- 
 ticity which often afterwards resulted in rapid recovery, 
 and after tossing amid the sea breezes of the Sand- 
 heads for two o^^ three weeks he was once more in 
 the midst of his loved work. But with the heat of 
 April, 1834, a remittent fever came on which his 
 vigour of will resisted so far as to take him, again and 
 in that weather, to Takee. Dr. Temple, alarmed at 
 his appearance, at once sent him back, warning him 
 against the scourge which, oven more than cholera still, 
 was then the ojyj^robriwm medicorum — dysentery. 
 
 On his return at the height of the hot season 
 he found as his guest the good Anthony Groves, 
 surgeon-dentist of Exeter, who gave up all he had 
 for a mission to Baghdad, and was the first and best 
 of the Plymouth Brethren. The romantic and very 
 pathetic story of that mission to Muhammadaus under 
 a Government which punished apostasy with death, 
 the experience of Francis W. Newman and Mr. Parnell 
 and the young Kitto — this is not the place to tell, as 
 Groves told it in the sympathising and sometimes 
 amused ear of Alexander Duff in 4, Wellington Square, 
 Calcutta. For when the two widowers. Groves and 
 Parnell, and the young bachelor, Newman, left Bagh- 
 dad, they could not leave behind them their one con- 
 vert, the ?ovely Armenian widow of Shiraz, Khatoon,- 
 nor could she travel with them save as the wife of one 
 of them. So they cast lots, and the lot fell on John 
 Vesey Parnell, graduate of Edinburgh University ; and 
 when he succeeded his father, the first Baron, in 1842 
 she became Lady Congleton. So we have seen more 
 
Mi. 28. VISIT OP ME. ANTHONY GROVES. 267 
 
 recently, but according to their regular custom, the lot 
 fall on the Moravian who, having descended from the 
 snowy solitudes of Himalayan Lahoul to receive the 
 brides sent out by the followers of Zinzendorf, married 
 one and conducted the others to his exnoctant brethren. 
 Duff must have smiled when his gue^D, of high, even 
 childlike spirituality, gravely told him how when Parnell 
 had invited the British Resident at Baghdad and the 
 European assistants to dinner, he applied Luke xiv. 13 
 literally by calling in some fifty of the poor, the maimed, 
 the lame and the blind to sha^e the feast. 
 
 Having come round by Bombay and Tinnevelly, 
 where he renewed an old friendship with Mr. Rhenius, 
 and was charmed by the primitive simplicity of the 
 native church there, as Bishop Cotton was thirty years 
 after, Mr. Groves found himself in a new world when 
 among the j'^oung Brahmaus who were searching the 
 Scriptures diligently. After a general survey of the 
 whole school and college he was closeted with the 
 highest class, and left to examine them on the Bible, 
 on theology, and in detail on the evidences of Chris- 
 tianity. Himself an excellent scholar, Mr. Groves was 
 astonished at the intelligence and promptitude of the 
 replies. But the whole force of his loving nature was 
 drawn out when he came to examine these Hindoos on 
 the design and effect of the sacrifice of the Son of God 
 on the Cross of Calvary. His questioning burst forth 
 into an appeal which pressed home on their conscience 
 the knowledge they had shown, while he wept in his 
 fervour, and the eyes of the young men glowed with 
 reflected inspiration. Then turning suddenly to Mr. 
 Duff he exclaimed, " This is what I have been in 
 quest of ever since I left old England. At Baghdad 
 I almost daily exhorted the adult natives, but in the 
 case of even the most attentive I always painfully felt 
 there was a crust between their mind and mine. Here 
 
268 LIFE OF DB. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 1 feel that every word is finding its way within. I 
 could empty the whole of my own soul into tlieirs. 
 How is this ? " Duff's answer was to open the door 
 into the large hall and point to the busy scene, to 
 the children in the infant gallery lisping the Englisli 
 alphabet. "There," he said, "is the explanation. 
 Well do I remember how I would have loathed such 
 employment, not only as insufferably dull, but as 
 beneath the dignity of the clerical office. But on 
 coming here I soon found that this, with a specific 
 view to the systematic attainment of higher ends, was 
 imperatively demanded as auxiliary to the ultimate 
 renovation of India. On the principle of becoming 
 all things to all men and new things in new circum- 
 stances, there four years ago did I teach ABO. 
 Pilloried though I was at the time, in the scorn of 
 some, the pity of others, and the wonder of all, the 
 work was persevered in. And you have seen some of 
 the fruits. The processes that followed the alphabet- 
 ical training tended in a gradual and piecemeal way to 
 break up and remove that very crust which interposed 
 an impassable barrier between your instruction and 
 the minds of your auditors. Was it not worth while 
 to begin so low in order loend so high ? " " Indeed," 
 replied Groves, " this throws new light on the whole 
 subject. I frankly confess I left England an avowed 
 enemy to education in connection with missions ; but 
 I now tell you as frankly that henceforth, from what 
 I have seen to-day, I am its friend and advocate." 
 
 That was Duff's last day, for a long time, in his 
 loved Institution. Even then the agony of dysentery 
 had begun, and its prostration, more terrible mentally 
 than physically, soon followed. A generation was to 
 pass before the specific of ipecacuanha was to be used 
 to charm away the bloody flux which used to sweep 
 off thousands of our white soldiers. Four physicians 
 
Ait. 28. ORDEBED HOME. 269 
 
 failed to heal the visibly dying missionary. The good 
 Simon Nicolson, the Abercrombie of Bengal, liad just 
 been succeeded by Dr. now Sir Ranald Martin, him< 
 self now followed by Sir Joseph Fayrer. Ranald 
 Martin was called in, pronounced the case desp(3rate, 
 but asked permission to try an experimental remedy 
 which had sava^d one or two of his patients. TI10 
 result was that, after a long and profound trance as it 
 seemed to the sufferer, he woke up to consciousness, to 
 revival, to such a point of convalescence that he could 
 be carried on board the first Capo ship for home. 
 The devoted Groves had slept beside him day and 
 niijht, nursinnr \i[m. with a brotlier's tenderness. For 
 he was not the only invalid. On the day that the 
 stricken family were laid in their berths in the John 
 M\Lellanj bound for Greenock, with Groves as their 
 fellow-passenger, a son was born, to whom the name of 
 Groves, as well as his father's name was given. From 
 Mrs. Duff's letter communicatii^g the departure to Dr. 
 Chalmers we learn that, even when tlius rescued from 
 the very gates of death, the ardent missionary im- 
 plored the doctors to send him on a brief voyage short 
 of Great Britaii' ' I devoted myself to the Lord," he 
 pleaded, " to spend and be spent in His service in this 
 land." Ranald Martin's stern reply was : " In the 
 last nine months you have suffered more from tropical 
 disease than many who have passed their lives in India. 
 Let not a day be lost." As the Greenock Indiaman 
 dropped down the Hooghly his boy was taken to 
 comfort him. But he would have been still more 
 cheered had he known that at that very time, in July, 
 1834, his old friend, David Ewart, was being ordained 
 as the third missionary of the Church of Scotland and 
 would soon after arrive to help Mr. W. S. Mackay. 
 
 Thus closed the first five years since Duff had 
 been sent forth from St. George's, with the charge of 
 
270 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 Thomas Chalmers ringing in his ears, ordained to 
 preach the gospel in India. Thus ended the first 
 period of his Indian service since he opened his 
 famous Institution in the great Bengalee thoroughfare 
 of Chitpore road, Calcutta. Even the half-century 
 which has passed since Inglis planned and Chalmers 
 preaclied and Duff responded, *' Here am I, send me," 
 enables us to say that that lustrum is entitled to 
 rank with the most memorable eras when human 
 progress has taken a new start to the enUghtening 
 and the blessing of a whole continent. As the mis- 
 sionary is borne to the life-giving breezes of ocean 
 from the sweltering pestilence of a Bengal July, the 
 precious seed he has been sent to sow is germinating 
 and growing up night and day, he knoweth not how. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1835. 
 THE INVALID AND THE OBATOB. 
 
 Unwillingness to leave India. — The Voyage Home. — The Reform 
 Election and Sir Robert Peel. — Welcome from Dr. Chalmers. — 
 Ignorance of the Committee after death of Dr. Inglis. — First 
 Addresses. — Comes to an understanding with the Committee. — 
 Confidential Notes on the Four Converts. — Letter from Go- 
 peenath Nundi to his spiritual Father. — First Campaign in 
 London. — Rev. John Macdonald. — Seized with his old fever at 
 Mr. Joseph Gurney's. — Letter to Ewart. — Expect great things. — 
 General Assembly of 1835, in the Tron Kirk. — Duff rises from 
 bed to make his first speech. — The Oration described. — Extracts. 
 — The tremendous effect. — Contemporary Accounts. — Opposi- 
 tion and Discussion. — The Orator contrasted with the models 
 whom he studied. — India and India for Christ as the theme of 
 eloquence. 
 
 Having successfully founded and to some extent 
 built up the mission in Calcutta and Bengal, Mr. Duff 
 is summoned, though he knows it not, to do the 
 equally necessary work of creating a living missionary 
 spirit in the Church at home. The apparently dying 
 apostle is really being sent on that parallel or alter- 
 nating service which divided his whole career into 
 two indispensable and co-operating sets of activities 
 m East and West. Having set the battle in array in 
 front, and fought for years at the head of his scanty 
 forces, he had then to leave the post of danger to 
 colleagues of his own spirit, for the less honourable 
 but not less necessary duty of looking to his reserves 
 and sending forward his ammunition. Thus it was 
 that he became at once the missionary worker, the 
 
2 72 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1834. 
 
 unresting civilizing force in India, and the missionary 
 organizer, the unmatched Christian orator and preacher 
 at home. He led two lives, and in each his splendid 
 physique, his burning enthusiasm, his divine call and 
 support, enabled him to do more than the work of 
 many men together. 
 
 Yet, as consciousness returned and strength began 
 to come back, it was natural that the young missionary 
 should long to be left at his post, should even some- 
 what murmuringly marvel why he had been taken 
 away in the hour of victory. The very elements 
 seemed to conspire to keep him in Bengal. The John 
 M'Lellan could not breast the fury of the south-west 
 monsoon in a Bengal July, her decks were swept 
 again and again of the live stock laid in for the long 
 voyage, and after six weeks' tossing she had to put 
 into Madras for stores. By the time that she sighted 
 South Africa Mr. Duff had become so far reconciled 
 to the change as to be able to write thus to Dr. 
 Bryce : — " The very thought of returning home at 
 the commencement of my labours and infancy of the 
 Assembly's mission would have, I verily believe, broken 
 my heart, were it not that God, by successive afflic- 
 tions, which thrice brought me to the verge of the 
 grave, disciplined me into the belief and conviction 
 that a change so decided was absolutely indispensable, 
 and that to resist the proposal to leave Calcutta 
 would be tantamount to a resistance of the will of 
 Providence. I shall not revert to the pain and mental 
 distress at first experienced. God has, I trust, over- 
 ruled all for my spiritual improvement; and I trust, 
 moreover, that by my return for a season to Scotland 
 the great cause may be effectually furthered." It was 
 during this otherwise tedious time of slow convalescence 
 that he seems to have read the Bible straight through 
 three times. Beginning with the enthusiastic convic- 
 
-Et. 28. THE FIRST EEFORM ACT. 273 
 
 tion, born of liis own success, that the Church in 
 the world woukl grndually glide into a millennium of 
 godliness, this comparative and repeated study brought 
 him to the conclusion that the missionary work is 
 merely preparatory to the great outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit. In history, as in the prophets, he ever 
 found righteousness and peace preceded by judg- 
 ments. 
 
 The invalid was just able to land at Cape Town, 
 and with tho assistance of a friendly arm walk to 
 church, where Dr. Adamson, his host five years be- 
 fore, baptized the child born on the day they had left 
 Calcutta. AVhen the ship entered the Firth of Clyde 
 it was Christmas-day. The sea breezes had done their 
 best for five months, and the apparently restored mis- 
 sionary rejoiced in the strong frost which greeted 
 him as from his own Grampians. When he landed at 
 Greenock he found the whole country in the exuberant 
 excitement of the general election under the first Reform 
 Act, which had extended the franchise from two thou- 
 sand electors who returned all the Scottish members 
 of Parliament to something like a fairer proportion. 
 The time of freedom in Church as well as State had 
 begun — the conflicts which ended in the disruption 
 of the Kirk and the abolition of the Corn Laws ten 
 or twelve years after. The sight of election hustings 
 was as new to Scotland as it was to Mr. Duff. Every- 
 where he heard only abuse of the Duke of Wellington. 
 In Edinburgh Lord Campbell talked of impeaching 
 " the multifarious minister " who for the hour held 
 eight cabinet offices, till it was said, " the cabinet 
 council sits in his head and the ministers are all of 
 one mind." It was seen in time that the Duke was 
 only doing his duty till Sir Robert Peel should return 
 from Italy and form the new ministry which first put 
 Mr. Gladstone in office. In such circumstances who, 
 
274 ^^^^ OP DB. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 in kirk or public meeting, would listen to the talo 
 of a triumph so remote and so obscure as that which 
 Mr. Duff had modestly to tell. Yet the tale was 
 really one of a spiritual revolution affecting millions, 
 compared with which the Reform Act, the policy of 
 Sir Robert Peel, and the training of Mr. Gladstone 
 were but single events in a constitutional series ! 
 After a few days spent in Greenock with the Rev. Mr. 
 Menzies, formerly librarian of St. Andrews University, 
 and in Glasgow with his old fellow-student. Dr. 
 Lorimer, for both of whom he preached, Mr. Duff 
 turned his face towards the committee in Edinburgh. 
 He reached the capital by what was then the easiest 
 and quickest means, the canal track-boat. Finding 
 that Mrs. Duff's mother had been removed by death, 
 he and his family settled down in the sea-bathing 
 suburb of Portobello, in a house in Pitt Street lent 
 to them by the trustees of her father's estate. 
 
 The first member of committee and personal friend 
 on whom Mr. Duff called was Dr. Chalmeis, then 
 redeeming the fame of the University of Edinburgh 
 in its theological faculty. Most courteous and even 
 enthusiastic was the greeting of the greatest Scotsman 
 of his day, who added to all his other gifts that large- 
 hearted friendliness which is the rule of his countrymen 
 scattered abroad. The hour sped rapidly in a fire of 
 question and answer about the progress of the mission 
 and the state of things in India. On accompanying 
 his visitor to the door Dr. Chalmers demanded of 
 him, " Where is your cloak ? " "I have not had time 
 to get any," was the reply. " That will never do in 
 this climate ; it is now very frosty, and you are as 
 thinly clad as if you were in India : let me not see 
 your face again till you have been at the tailor's." The 
 young missionary was already an old Indian in this, 
 that the fire of the tropics had made him indifferent 
 
JEt. 29. lONORANCE OP THE COMMITTEE. 275 
 
 to his first wintep in Scotland, after wliicli comes 
 the reaction that often drives the sufferer to tlio sun 
 of the south. 
 
 But where was there another Chalmers or one 
 worthy of him at that time in Scotland ? Dr. Inglis, 
 the founder of the mission, was gone. Dr. Brunton 
 had not then been appointed his permanent successor. 
 He and the other members received the ardent ad- 
 vances of the astonished Duff with a polite indifference, 
 or replied with congratulations on the fact that so 
 good a conservative statesman as Sir Robert Peel had 
 been placed at the head of affairs, as if to save and 
 even to extend the Kirk which had been for years 
 furiously assailed by the Voluntaries. More than once 
 was the young Highlander stung into the warning that 
 for the Kirk to trust any secular statv. ^man, however 
 respectable, was to lean on a broken reed. The tran- 
 scendent interests of a great spiritual institution like 
 the Church of Scotland, he said, must be placed only 
 on Christ Himself, its living Head. There was one 
 minister, besides Chalmers, who had watched the 
 work done in Bengal and had genius enough to appre- 
 ciate it. He at once invited Mr. Duff to begin his 
 crusade in Falkirk. That was John Brown Patterson, 
 the marvel of the High School of Edinburgh, whom 
 Pillans took with him to the University ; the student 
 who had there gained the hundred pound prize 
 proposed by the Government commissioners on the 
 universities of Scotland for the best essay on the 
 character of the Athenians — an essay which, when 
 published, was pronounced unsurpassed in English 
 literature at the time, for its learning and style. The 
 result of Duff's preaching in Falkirk, and of a public 
 meeting: with formal resolutions to advance the Benojal 
 mission, was not only a collection of money which 
 surprised all in that day, but the lighting of a flame 
 
276 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 which, in coming days and years, Duff was to fan and 
 spread till it covered the land, and fired America and 
 many other parts of Christendom. The glad report 
 of this, made formally to the committee, was received 
 with respectful silence. Nor was the bitterness of Mr. 
 Duff's heart assuaged till, about the same tinu two 
 theological students called upon him for information 
 regarding his mission. The interview gave him a 
 new confidence for the future, for he reasoned that if 
 any number of the divinity students were like these, 
 the India mission would never lack men worthy of 
 it. His young visitors were the saintly Murray 
 M'Chcyno and he who is still Dr. A. N. Somerville 
 of Glasgow. 
 
 Somewhat dubious now as to the attitude of the 
 committee, Mr. Duff received, with hesitation, the next 
 invitation to tell the public of his work. Dr. A. 
 Paterson, who had been driven out of Russia by the 
 intolerance of the Czar Nicholas, asked him to address 
 half a dozen godly folks who met once a month in the 
 Edinburgh house of Mr. Campbell, of Carbrook, for 
 prayer for foreign missions. On finding the drawing- 
 room crowded by a large audience he remonstrated, 
 and refused to remain. But explanation showed that 
 no endeavour had been made to summon the audience, 
 whom he therefore consented to address. The result 
 was, such an impression in many circles outside as 
 well as in the Kirk, that an English visitor who had 
 been present rode down to Portobello next morning 
 to make a large donation to the mission, and Mr. Duff 
 was formally summoned, for the first time, to meet 
 the committee in the rooms in the University which 
 Dr. Brunton occupied as librarian. Mrrvelling what 
 the sudden cause could be, but delighted that at last 
 he would have an opportunity of giving an account of 
 his stewardship, Mr. Duff hurried to the spot with 
 
iEt. 29. FIGHTING THE COMMITTEE. 2/7 
 
 that punctuality for which, like all successfully busy 
 men, he was over remarkable. 
 
 It was thus he used to tell the story : — Entering 
 the room he found that nearly all the members of 
 committee were present. After prayer the acting 
 convener rose, and standing in the middle of the floor, 
 in substance spoke as follows : — He had thought it 
 right to summon a meeting to settle and determine 
 the case of Mr. Duff, who, in these days of agitation, 
 turmoil, and revolutionary tendencies and irregulari- 
 ties of every description, had taken it upon him to 
 hold not exactly a public, but at the same time a 
 very large meeting in the house of Mr. Campbell, of 
 Carbrook, with the view of addressing it on the sub- 
 ject of missions. Now he regarded this as a very l i- 
 warrantable and irregular proceeding. Mr. Duff h{„d 
 given him no intimation of his intention to hold such 
 a meeting, nor had he any means of knowing what 
 might be the leading subject of the address. He 
 thought it therefore right to consult his colleagues, 
 to induce them to lay down rules to regulate Mr. 
 Duff's proceedings on such matters in future, as it 
 would never do, in unsettled times like these, to allow 
 the agent of a responsible committee to adopt what 
 measures he chose. 
 
 Immediately Mr. Duff stood up, and taking pos- 
 session of the middle of the floor, respectfully ad- 
 mitted that he was the agent of the committee, but of a 
 committee guided by moral and spiritual influences and 
 considerations. While in one respect therefore he was 
 their agent, in another respect he must be considered 
 on a footing of religious co-equality, co-responsibility 
 with themselves ; but not to insist further on this, he 
 would soon bring the matter to a decisive 'ssue. When 
 he went to India originally he declared that he would 
 not go if hampered by any conditions which his own 
 
278 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 conscience did not approve; that, entering upon an 
 entirely new field, full discretion must be allowed him 
 within the limits of reason and sobriety to follow what 
 courses he might deem most effective for the ends 
 which the committee and himself had alike in common. 
 This reasonable concession was at once cheerfully 
 yielded by Dr. Inglis and his committee; and now 
 when he, Mr. Duff, had returned, after several years of 
 multiplied experiences, he thought that full discretion 
 should be allowed him to adopt what course might 
 seem best for awakening an interest in the Church's 
 mission, so long as he was ready to take any coun- 
 sel or advice which the home experiences of members 
 of committee friendly to missions might suggest. 
 He then explained how the recent meeting had 
 not originated with him; though when he came to 
 understand it he fully approved of it, and thought 
 that the successful result sufficiently proved its provi- 
 dential legitimacy. Of course, if the committee had 
 any work for him to do of any kind anywhere, he 
 would at once relinquish all other duty for the sake 
 of taking up that; but beyond this he could not 
 possibly go. He was an ordained minister of the 
 gospel, and therefore supposed to be endowed with 
 ordinary ministerial gifts, graces and attainments. 
 He was in all respects therefore the free-man of the 
 Lord ; free to carry out whatever his blessed Master 
 might indicate as His most gracious will. That 
 liberty he would not and could not for ten thousand 
 worlds relinquish. The decisive issue, therefore, came 
 to be this : if the committee resolved, as they had a 
 perfect right to do, to draw up some peremptory 
 instructions to regulate Mr. Duff's proceedings in 
 purely spiritual, ministerial, and missionary matters, 
 he must at once write out his resignation as their 
 agent. If on reconsideration they came to the con- 
 
iEt. 29. CONQUERING THE COMMITTEE. 279 
 
 elusion that it was better to allow things to remain 
 as they were, and grant him full liberty of action 
 within the reasonable limits stated by himself, he 
 would rejoice in continuing as their agent, and do 
 what he possibly could to create a deeper interest in 
 the mission throughout the bounds of the Church, 
 and thereby help to increase the funds and the number 
 of agents to be sent abroad. For the people being 
 profoundly ignorant of tue whole subject, their being 
 wakened to take a deeper interest in so spiritual a 
 work as the evangelisation of the wo^ld would not 
 only be carrj^ing out more fully the last great com- 
 mission of our blessed Saviour, but also tend in 
 many remarkable ways spiritually to benefit their own 
 souls. Having so spoken he sat down. 
 
 Instantly, all present, without any one of them 
 uttering a single word, went out precipitately, leaving 
 Mr. Duff and the convener alone in the middle of 
 the floor to look at each other in a sort of dumb 
 amazement. " Probably," said the former with great 
 calmness, "we have had enough of the subject for 
 this day." 
 
 So, on that memorable occasion, the uncompromis- 
 ing devotion to duty of the young missionary proved 
 to be more powerful than all tact or ecclesiastical 
 finesse, as it had done in more difficult circumstances 
 among the Bengalees. Dr. Inglis was gone. The 
 country and the Church knew nothing of the Bengal 
 mission save from the meagre report printed once a 
 year for a General Assembly which had not then 
 become a popular parliament. The unhappy commit- 
 tee wanted only a head to lead them. Dr. Brunton 
 woke up to the new duties which his rare courtesy 
 always afterwards sought to discharge with kind- 
 liness. Had he referred to the scanty records 
 of which he took charge on appointment to his 
 
28o LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 office, he would have found an official communica- 
 tion, written by Mr. Duff as he sailed up the Clyde, 
 and thus concluding : — " Why is it tliat the Lord 
 was pleased so to reduce me to the verge of exist- 
 ence that I left the field of labour in that all but 
 desperate condition of a dying man, and has since 
 been pleased so wonderfully to bless the voyage to 
 me that by the time I have reached my native 
 shores I feel enabled to encounter any reasonable 
 share of bodily exertion ? Surely it may be, or rather 
 must be, th?t the Father of spirits has something 
 or other to do with me, in pioraoting in this land 
 the glorious cause — e"en the glorious cause of the 
 Redeemer to which my heart and soul and life are 
 exclusively devoted. Oh, may God grant that wise 
 thoughts may be put into our minds, so that when 
 we meet, measures may be devised for the occupa- 
 tion of my time while I remain in Scotland which 
 He Himself will abundantly bless for the promotion 
 of His own glory in connection with the Assembly's 
 mission to the perishing heathen." 
 
 After Falkirk the next call came from Dr. "Wilson of 
 Irvine. Dundee followed, led thereto by a visit which 
 Mr. Duff had paid to all its ministers on his way north 
 to Moulin to visit his father and mother. Meanwhile 
 his official and private correspondence shows how 
 necessarily active he was in educating the new con- 
 vener and committee in the progress of the mission, 
 much of the history of which had passed away with 
 Dr. Inglis. A letter from the Eev. W. S. Mackay 
 on the work in Bengal called fgrth these •* running 
 notes " on the converts : — 
 
 " March 20th, 1835. 
 "If these had not been so specially referred to by Mr. 
 Mackay I should be silent. Many in Calcutta know, and none 
 more than my dear colleague, how much I was called on to 
 
JEt. 29. WHY TWO CONVERTS JOINED THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 28 1 
 
 do for these, and how much to bear from them during tho 
 time of their infidelity and the progress of their inquiries after 
 truth ; God only is witness of all I had to do and endure, 
 hew I had to toil and struggle and travail in soul for them. 
 It may easily be imagined then how peculiar must my feelings 
 towards them be. When the two first joined the English 
 Church I was not much surprised, owing to the very satis- 
 factory reasons stated by Mr. Mackay. And if the ground of 
 their reasons had not been removed (as it happily now is), I 
 should not have expected any talented young man who burned 
 with zeal to be employed in arousing his countrymen, to re- 
 main with us — indeed I could not ask any. If the Church of 
 England offered to ordain and support them as missionaries, 
 and we could not, then for the good of India would I say, 
 ' rather than remain unemployed, or betake yourselves exclu- 
 sively to secular professions, by all means join the Church of 
 England or any other Church of Christ that will engage to 
 send you forth as effective labourers into the missionary 
 field.' 
 
 "While therefore I did not feel surprised at the two first 
 converts separating themselves from me, I do confess that 
 there was an apparent want of consideration to my feelings in 
 the mode of tho separation. But while others blamed them 
 for the act as well as the mode, and charged them with in- 
 gratitude, I really could not blame them so much as their 
 instigators and advisers. They did not consult me, as I think 
 they were in gratitude bound to do. Tho former were young 
 and inexperienced ; the latter, I fear, were actuated more by 
 the spirit of proselyting to a party than by the love of Chi'ist 
 and the love of the brethren : the latter therefore, in my 
 estimation, must bear the main burden of the blame, if blame 
 there be. My mind is satisfied, aye my very soul kindles into 
 joy at the thought that these my spiritual children continue 
 steadfast in the faith, full of zeal for their Master, and con- 
 scientiously endeavour to serve Him. This noble testimony 
 from my dear colleague is to me glad tidings indeed, for though 
 in a measure separated in time, we may yet rejoice together, 
 and rejoice over the fruits of our separate labours, in tho 
 realms of bliss. 
 
 " The obvious remedy for such defections from our Church, 
 though not from tho Church of Christ, is (1) the power of ordain- 
 
282 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 ing and supporting qualified labourers : (2) The supporting 
 promising young men, when cast oflf by their friends o.. 
 account of their specially devoting themselves to the work of 
 preparation for the Christian ministry : (3) The erection of a 
 higher institution for the communication of the more advanced 
 branches of knowledge, literary, scientific and theological. 
 The first of theae is now granted ; the two last are yet want- 
 ing, and till these bo granted too it is utterly impossible for 
 the Assembly's missionaries in India to be responsible for the 
 continued adherence of well-educated pious young men to the 
 communion of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 *' Nothing would pain me more than that I should be thought 
 to have formed too high an estimate of the character of these 
 young men, and have led others to do so. I conscientiously 
 believe that I have understated rather than overrated that 
 character as a whole, and that many Christians in Calcutta 
 would give a far more flaming account than I have ever done 
 or ever will do. I simply stated a few clear and notorious facts ; 
 I might have stated more, and drawn more glowing inferences, 
 but purposely refrained from doing so. God knows that 
 under the most powerful temptations to write strongly I have 
 often written in modified terms, and often not at all. I always 
 shrink instinctively I'rom raising expectations that could not 
 be realized, and if I do not greatly mistake, I think the 
 whole tenor of my communications with the committee for the 
 last five years bears me out in this assertion. 
 
 '' In the case of the first two that were baptized, if they did 
 not consult me, as they should have done, it was a matter 
 altogether personal to myself, and no one perhaps could feel 
 for them as I did, or make for them, in the peculiar circum- 
 stances of their situation, the same allowances. And seeing 
 that the matter was personal to myself, and that I had long 
 forgiven them before God, and that in all other respects, so 
 far as I could observe, they continued to walk worthy of their 
 high calling, yea, to labour without ceasing in their Master's 
 service, I could not feel myself for a moment justified in the 
 attempt to lower their general high character or impede their 
 usefulness by dwelling on circumstances to me of so personal 
 a nature. And as the matter is so very liable to misconstruc- 
 tion on the part of those who must ever be more or less un- 
 acquainted with the peculiarities of the position of these young 
 
iEt. 29. WHY TWO CONVEETS JOINED OTHEE MISSIONS. 2S3 
 
 man, and so apt therefore to do injury to our cause, I would 
 beg the committee never to refer to the topic of ' ingratitude ' 
 towarila me. Let the causes of separation from us be freoly 
 and fully stated, if any questions bo put, and stated too in order 
 to rouse our brethren to put us speedily in possession of the 
 remedy against future defer ions. 
 
 " When Gopeenath Nundi was appointed at my own recom- 
 mendation to the school at Fuctehpore, it was not in connection 
 with any society. The surgeon or the station, in his applica- 
 tion to mo, expressly stated that the school was founded and 
 would be supported by the British residents of the place. Its 
 being taken under the patronage of the Church of England 
 Missionary Society was altogether a subsequent event. We 
 could not obviate this, as we had no disposable funds to offer 
 which might secure the permanency of the institution. 
 
 "In June or July, 1833, Archdeacon Corric was about to 
 proceed to the upper provinces on his ministerial visitation. 
 This was thought a favourable opportunity for Gopee, as the 
 Archdeacon kindly offered to take him along with himself. On 
 his return to Calcutta the Archdeacon spoke of Gopeo in the 
 very highest terms, and so also did Messrs. Hill and Paterson, 
 missionaries of the London Missionary Society at Berhampore, 
 and others whom Gopee had visited in his passage up the river. 
 From himself I have never had the slightest intimation of an 
 intention to join the English Church, though for my own 
 part I scarcely see how he can avoid it. He is, I presume, 
 supported to a certain extent (though I never heard any par- 
 ticulars) by the Church of England Missionary Society. Out 
 of Calcutta (thanks to the supineuess of our Church and her 
 friends) he cannot enjoy the benefit of Christian ordinances 
 but in connection with the Church of England. How in these 
 circumstances Gopee can avoid joining the Church of England 
 I cannot well see. Mr. Mackay states that he still retains his 
 afi*ection for me ; I am rejoiced to hear it, for it did appear 
 to me strong as death. 
 
 " Anundo's case is of course under consideration." 
 
 Gopeeiiatli was afterwards ordained by the Ameri- 
 can Presbyterian Church. Anundo had been induced 
 by Mr. Groves to accompany him to England, in the 
 
284 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 same ship with Mr. Duff. On his return to India he 
 became a catechist of the London Missionary Society, 
 and died in 1841. Whatever may have been the motives 
 which actuated those who induced Duff's first two 
 converts to leave their spiritual father, all must re- 
 joice in the fine catholicity, in the rare self-abnegation 
 v/hich marked his own acti n and have ever since 
 made his college the nursery of evangelists for all the 
 Protes[.ant agencies of Northern and Eastern India. 
 He at least never grudged the Church of God what his 
 own committee were unwilling or unable to utilize. 
 And in letters such as this from Gopeenath Nundi, 
 as well as in the continued reports of Mr. Mackay 
 and Mr. Ewart regarding others, he found a solace 
 and a joy of the rarest kind. Two years after his 
 baptism Gopeenath thus concluded a long letter to 
 Mr. Duff, from Futtehpore, beyond Allahabad, where 
 in the Mutiny of 1857 he was to witness a good con- 
 fession, having been, as he here desired, " kept faithful 
 unto death ": — 
 
 "After I was separated from you in July, 1833, I was 
 almost thrown alone into the world. Often I was tempted to 
 be hopeless, and felt the need of your society. When I feel 
 my lonesomeness, or want of a friend to open my heart to, I go 
 to Him who is ever kind to me, and disclose my secrets. He 
 is the only searcher of ail those that are lost. He is the only 
 friend of all the broken-hearted. He is the true leader, who 
 leads out of the world and temptation, particularly to the 
 new and inexperienced. Jesus is sweet unto all those that call 
 upon Him in faith. Did He not promise that He shall be with 
 me even unto the end of the world — then what fear ? ' Let 
 your loins be girded about, and your lights burning ! ' Such 
 are my expressions in the hour of temptation. Oh what a 
 comfort to have Christ always, and have fellowship with Him I 
 Is it not a great blessing to have Christ, a friend, a companion, 
 and a conductor in all things ? Then let these lines be my con- 
 tinuul expression :— 
 
./Et. 39. THE BROTHERHOOD IN CHRIST. 285 
 
 * If on my face, for Thy dear Name, 
 Shame and reproaches be ; 
 All hail reproach, and welcome shame, 
 If Thou remember mo.' 
 
 "I 
 
 Oh what a groat, mistake of them that are still wandering, 
 not knowing where to harbour at ! Did not our Lord pro- 
 nounce peace on all that are Hi ' Peace I leave with you, 
 My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto 
 you : let not your heart be troubled, neither let it bo afraid.' 
 Is this peace pronounced not for all ? I aay it is for all, 
 whoever he may be, whatever nation or country he belongeth 
 to ; so I am sure His peace resteth on me so long as I have 
 sufficient faith, even unto the end of my life. 
 
 "Although we are separated by sight, still our hearts are 
 combined in the Lord. As for my part, I find that the hearts 
 which are once in the fellowship of Jesus cannot on any 
 account be separated, neither by time nor by distance. Wo 
 are merely separated by earthly boundaries ; but our Christian 
 love grows stronger and stronger as the day of salvation ap- 
 proaches. Only a few thousand miles are between you and 
 me; but I have you always in my heart, and make mention of 
 you in my prayers : you are scarcely gone out of my sight. 
 But oh, remember me sometimes in your prayers. Pray not 
 only for my sinful soul, that I may be kept faithful unto death, 
 but also, and especially, for the souls of the poor heathens 
 around me, that they may soon be freed from the chains of 
 Satan and be blessed in the name of Jesus. Whether I live 
 or die, let Christ be glorified by the .ngathering of sinners to 
 Him. I have many more trials and temptations yet to meet ; 
 but oh, may I cut short all of them through Him who is ever 
 gracious to me. Those days are gone by when we used to 
 converse on religious topics ; more especially on Christ's con- 
 descension to save poor sinners. But we have a sure hope, 
 that they will be renewed in a better place, and at a better 
 time, when we come to dwell in the mansions of our heavenly 
 Father. Oh may we soon come to that place, and greet each 
 other with a brotherly embrace, — singing praises to the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen. Yours 
 affectionately, " Gopeenath Nundi." 
 
 "These lines," wrote Duff when publishing them 
 
286 LIFE OP DB. DUFF. 1835 
 
 long after, ** in their toucliing simplicity require no 
 comment. It surely is not possible for any e.\poricnco(l 
 Christian to peruse them without being sensible that 
 ho is holding converse with a mind not only generi- 
 cally but specifically the same as his own ; that he is 
 in union and communion with a perfectly congenial 
 spirit — a spirit new-moulded and fashioned after 
 the similitude of Christ — a spirit whose heavenward 
 breathings would, with talismanic effect, mark out its 
 possessor from amidst the countless throng of his 
 turbaned countrymen as belonging to the spiritual 
 confederacy and brotherhood of the foithful." 
 
 In April, 1835, after making the amcmlG honorable^ 
 the convener submitted to Mr. Duff a letter from the 
 clerk of the Presbytery of London, expressing pro- 
 found interest in the India mission of the established 
 Church of Scotland, and inviting the missionary to 
 preach to and address each of the congregations, 
 which were ready to begin a system of contributions 
 for the good cause. There was only one dissentient 
 in the Presbytery, as it proved, and that solely from 
 ignorance. He was the Rev. John Macdonald, who, 
 when he heard the good news of God from Bengal and 
 understood how an educational agency like Duff's was 
 the most evangelistic of all as directed to cultured 
 Hindoos, gave himself to the same service, resigning 
 his London charge for the Calcutta mission. Having 
 accomplished his congenial task, Mr. Duff happened to 
 be breakfasting with Mr. Joseph Gurney, the Christian 
 philanthropist who superintended the system of short- 
 hand reporting in the House of Lords. The mis- 
 sionary was about to set out for the final meeting of 
 representatives of all the congregations, when, as he 
 lifted a cup of coffee to his lips, he was seized with 
 the violent shivering which marked the return of his 
 old fever. He was nursed in Alderman Pirie's house 
 
ALi. 29. LETTER TO DAVID EVVAllT. 287 
 
 for three weeks, and insisted on returning to Edin- 
 burgh for the Gcncrul Assembly, which he reached 
 by steamer apparently a wasted skeleton. 
 
 "London, Camderwell, 20th May, 1835. 
 
 " My Dear Ewart, — I need not say how rejoiced I 
 was when I heard of the step you had taken. May 
 the God of grace strengthen and uphold you : may He 
 pour upon you of the richest effusions of His grace : 
 and may Ho render your labour effectual in advancing 
 the Redeemer's kingdom in the benighted land of 
 your adoption. By this time you will have become 
 acquainted with the state of things in Calcutta. It is 
 needless therefore for me to refer to it. The pushing 
 on of the advantages already gained in our Institution 
 is a matter of paramount importance. The raising up 
 of a class of native teachers and preachers from our 
 Institution is the only thing that will meet the de- 
 mands of India, the only thing that will reconcile the 
 people at home to our proceedings. Therefore every 
 nerve should be strained towards the accomplishment 
 of this end. The day that the presbyterial board of 
 Calcutta shall ordain one of our young men for the 
 work of the ministry will be a glorious day for India 
 and for our cause. Such an event would do more than 
 anything else in the way of arousing our countrymen 
 at home. When ordained, of course the young mis- 
 sionary should be employed in or near Calcutta, within 
 reach of superintendence and direction. 
 
 *' I came to London about a month ago, and have 
 preached or delivered addresses in all our Scotch 
 churches here. All of them have now formed, or are 
 about to form, congregational associations in support 
 of our cause. I was to have spoken at some of the 
 great anniversary meetings held here in May ; but on 
 
288 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 Siiturday, tlio 2 ad of May, I was seized with a severe 
 attack of my old friend, or enemy, tlie Bengal inter- 
 mittent fever, wliicli has up to this date confined 
 me to the house I am now through God's blessing 
 nearly recovered; but the consequence has been that 
 for the present the finest opportunities for making 
 our cause extensively known in this great metropolis 
 have been lost. It docs look mysterious, but no 
 doubt we shall yet find that God has ordered it for 
 the best. 
 
 " While I have been advocating the claims of our 
 mission generally, and the necessity of increasing 
 prayerfulness and increasing contributions, I have 
 not forgotten the special calls for more suitable 
 accommodation for our Institution, for an extensive 
 library, apparatus, etc. Things are progressing to- 
 wards something efi*ectual being done in these respects. 
 I have now just attended a general meeting of the 
 Religious Tract and Book Society, and pled in behalf 
 of our Institution. The committee have accordingly 
 unanimously voted a grant of all their publications, 
 amounting in value to about £30. My affectionate 
 regards to Mr. and Mrs. Mackay, Dr. Bryce, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Charles, the members of session, brother 
 missionaries, etc. Yours affectionately, 
 
 ** Alexandee DuFr " 
 
 Duff had now a work to do, and to do at once, com- 
 pared with which his crusade in Bengal had been 
 pleasant. The opposition there was what he had 
 counted on ; it had inspirited him with eagerness for 
 the battle, and he had been successful. In his own land 
 he had had just experience enough to sound the depth 
 of ignorance, and consequent indifference to India 
 and the state of its people. The few who were of 
 the spirit of Dr. Inglis, removed by death; Simeon, 
 
JEt. 29. ** EXPECT OBEAT THINGS." 289 
 
 near his end; Dr. Lovo, removed to Glasgow after 
 founding the London Missionary Society ; John 
 Foster, Charles Grant and Wilberforco, gathered 
 round the societies, leaving Churches, as such, colder 
 than before. Irvine and Falliirk were exceptions 
 in the presbyteries of his own Kirk ; even the Lon- 
 don Scotsmen were represented as more desirous to 
 wipe off the reproach of Unitarianism by inviting 
 him to their midst than to advance foreign missions. 
 We have seen what his own committee, on the removal 
 of Dr. Inglis, knew of his drings, and how little they 
 understood the magnitude of his aims. Just ten years 
 had passed since the General Assembly had been induced 
 with difficulty to invite a general collection for the pro- 
 posed Indian Mission, by the assurance, prominently 
 pubHshed, that it was " not to bo repeated," yet not 
 fifty out of its thousand churches made any response. 
 Dr. Inglis was so delighted by the consent of the 
 Presbytery of Edinburgh to mak? an annual collection, 
 even in 1831, that he announced it to Duff as a tri- 
 umph, and declared he would now fix the maximum 
 revenue for the mission at £1,200 a year. From the 
 front of the battle, in all its heat and vastness, the mis- 
 sionary had replied, " Not £1,200 but £12,000, and do 
 not stop at that." How had that reply been received ? 
 When, before the Assembly of 1835, Duff was reading 
 up the meagre records of the committee, he found that 
 a leading member had written on the margin of that 
 reply, *' Is the man mad ? Has the Indian sun turned 
 his head ? " When he pointed out the query, its writer, 
 now himself convener, tore it off and threw it into the 
 fire, exclaiming, " No more will be heard on that sub- 
 ject." But, in high and low, this was the want of know- 
 ledge and of faith which the first Scottish missionary 
 who had returned from India was called to meet. And 
 the return of the old fever of the rice 'r ?."nps of 
 
290 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. T835. 
 
 Bengal, following his London campaign, liad made 
 liira once more a gaunt invalid. 
 
 Physicians and friends tried to dissuade him, and 
 the list of business that yeai, which followed the 
 ecclesiastical reforms of 1834, was so large that it was 
 doubtful if time would be found for even the India 
 Mission. What was all the administration of Lord 
 William Bentinck, or all the codes and the essays of 
 Macaulay, to a general election ? what the evangeliza- 
 tion of Bengal to the presbyters of Auchterarder ? 
 But Duff knew that this was his time ; that if he died 
 he must yet deliver his soul and tell his tale. He could 
 have no prosperous mission in India without Scotland, 
 and every Scottish man, woman and child could be 
 reached best through the reports of the General Assem- 
 bly, which the reforms of 1834 had made the most 
 popular of parliaments. 
 
 Casting himself on the promise to Paul, the first 
 and greatest of missionaries, that the grace of God 
 would be sufficient for him, yea, would be perfected 
 even by his weakness, Mr. Duff resigned himself 
 passively into the Divine hands. In those days' he 
 did not commit a speech or address to writing, but 
 thoroughly conned over the materials of it, leaving 
 the expression to the time when he should stand eye 
 t'^ eye with tlie crowd. The reforming party in the 
 Kirk had established the Scottish Guardian as their 
 weekly newspaper, in Glasgow, and the editor, the 
 Eev. George Lewis, had formed a volunteer staff of 
 reporters of the Assembly's proceedings. Brother of 
 one who was a warm friend of Mr. Duff — Dr. James 
 Lewis — and himself one of the few interested in the 
 subject, he instructed his staff to take down as full a 
 report of the missionary's speech as possible. Monday, 
 the 25th ^Tay, 1835, had been assigned for what had 
 liitherto been the purely formal duty of presenting 
 
JEt. 29. IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OP 1835. 29 1 
 
 the annual report of tlie India Mission. The Assem- 
 bly met in that most un ecclesiastical large box called 
 the Tron kirk of Edinburgh. Though in the m' -^han- 
 ical sense unprepared, and just risen from a sick bed, 
 Mr. Duff testified often after, that never during his 
 whole life did ho more thoroughly experience the 
 might of the Divine saying, *' As thy day so shall thy 
 strength be." At first it seemed as if he could not 
 go on beyond a few sentences, and he was conscious 
 that many were gazing at him, apprehensive, as they 
 afterwards said, that he would soon drop on the floor. 
 But, leaping by one effort into the very heart of 
 his subject, he became unconscious of the presence 
 of his audience save as of a mass which was gradually 
 warming to his heat. Advancing from stage to 
 stage of what was, for him, *' a brief exposition," he 
 whispered out his at that time unmatched peroration 
 with an almost supernatural effect, and subsided 
 drenched with perspiration as if he had been dragged 
 through the Atlantic, to use his own expression. Then 
 for the first time he marked the emotion of his hearers, 
 many of them callous lawyers and lords of session, 
 cool men *of the world or antipathetic " moderates." 
 Down the cheeks of even these the tears were 
 trickling. 
 
 With the unconsciousness of the highest art their 
 first Indian missionary at once planted the General 
 Assembly beside him in Bengal, as he set himself to 
 " the conversion of a hundred and thirty millions of 
 idolaters." Step by step he hurried them on from the 
 first attempt, on the old system, to influence the- edu- 
 cated Hindoos, through the statement of the evidences 
 of Christianity, of miracles, prophecy and the demand 
 for the proof of the missionary's authority, till this 
 conclusion was reached : " The power of conveying 
 the necessary knowledge seems to me to be the only 
 
292 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 substitute we possess instead of the power of working 
 miracles. But it is surely one thing to say, that a 
 sound liberal education is greatly advantageous towards 
 the establishment of the evidence and authority of 
 the Christian revelation, and, consequently, towards 
 securing a candid and attentive hearing, and quite 
 another to say, that it is indispensably and universally 
 necessary to the heart reception of the gospel remedy. 
 The former position we do most firmly maintain, but 
 in the solemnity of apostolic language, we exclaim, 
 God forbid that we should ever maintain the latter ! 
 Instead of demanding your authority for the truth 
 of Christianity, the Brahman may challenge you to 
 invalidate, if you can, the claims of his system. You 
 soon find that there is no common ground in logic, and 
 you turn to the experimental principles of physical 
 science to find the cataclysms of the Hindoo cosmo- 
 gony exalted against the petty, the recent learning of 
 the West. You turn to theology proper, only to find 
 that the Vedic Shasters sanctify and render infallible 
 all Brahmanism, secular as well as sacred. Do then," 
 exclaimed Duff, after pleading for the supply of mis- 
 sionaries "qualified to silence the intellectually proud 
 as well as to edify the spiritually humble," 
 
 tt 
 
 Do then let me again crave the attention of this venerable 
 court to the grand 'peculiarity, that if in India you only impart 
 ordinary useful knowledge, you thereby demolish what by its 
 peojjle is regarded as sacred. A course of instruction that pro- 
 fosses to convey truth of any land thus becomes a species of 
 religious education in such a land — all education being there 
 regarded as religious or theological. Every branch of sound 
 general knowledge which you inculcate becomes the destroyer 
 of some corresponding part in the Hindoo system. It is this 
 that gives to the dissemination of mere human knowledge, in 
 the present state of India, such awful importance : it is this that 
 exalts and magnifies it into the rank of a primary instrument in 
 spreading the seeds of reformation throughout the land. I ask 
 
JEt 29. HIS FIEST OEATlON. 293 
 
 not, whether SQund useful knowledge be universally necessary, 
 either as the precursor or friendly ally of that which is divine. 
 Such is neither ray own impression nor belief. But, seeing 
 that the communication of useful knowledge becomes, in tho 
 circumstances described, such a tremendous engine for breaking 
 down the accumulated superstitions and idolatries of ages, I tlo 
 ask, in opposition to those who decry and donounco useful 
 knowledge, not in the abstract but as totally inapplicable to 
 missionary purposes, — I do ask, with humble but confident 
 boldness, as in the sight of Heaven, 'Who is it that will hence- 
 forward have the hardihood to assert that the impartation of 
 such knowledge has nothing to do with the christianization of 
 India?'" 
 
 But tbe European, tbe foreign missionary to the 
 educated Hindoos soon comes to discover further, that 
 if the gospel is to be extensively "preached with power 
 it must be by natives themselves, whom it is his task 
 to duly qualify. Appealing to the Highland ministers 
 among his audience, the speaker used the same old 
 analogy of the Gaelic and English which ho employed 
 with such effect against the one-sided orientalists of 
 Calcutta : — 
 
 tt 
 
 Oh, there is that in the tones of a foreigner's voice which 
 falls cold and heavy on the ear of a native, aud seldom reaches 
 the heart ! — whereas, there i sometliiug in tho genuine tones 
 of a countryman's voice, wlucli, operating as a charm, falls 
 pleasantly on the ear, and comes home to the feelings, and 
 touches the heart, and causes its teilderest cords to vibrate. 
 Doubtless there have been, and there may be now, individual 
 cases of foreigners having in some degree, or even altogether, 
 surmounted tliis grand practical difficulty. But these raro 
 cases form such palpable exceptions from tho general rule, that 
 they can scarcely be counted on, in providing a nafwurtZ supply 
 of preachers of the everlasting gospel. Thus, again, is the 
 comparative inefficiency of European agency, when put forth 
 directly in proclaiming the gospel, forced upon the mind ; and 
 the necessity of haviu'g recourse to native agents in the work 
 is once more suggested with a potency that is resistless. They 
 
294 ^^^^ OI' DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 can witlistand that blazing sun, they can bear exposure to that 
 unkindly atmosphere, they can locate themselves amid the 
 hamlets and the villages, they can hold intercourse with their 
 countrymen in ways and modes that we never can. And 
 having the thousand advantages, besides, of knowing tho 
 feelings, the sentiments, the traditions, the associations, the 
 habits, the manners, the customs, the trains of thought and 
 principles of reasoning among the people, they can strike in 
 with arguments, and objections, and illustrations, and imagery 
 which we could never, never have conceived. How glorious 
 then must be the day for India when such qualified native 
 agents are prepared to go forth among the people, and shake 
 and agitate, and rouse them from the lethargy and the slumber 
 of ages ! 
 
 " It is for reasons like the preceding, that a man of fervent 
 piety, going forth with the fullest intention of doing nothing 
 but directly and exclusively preaching the gospel in the native 
 tongues, often finds himself, in such a country as India, con- 
 strained to think of other and more effectual means of ulti- 
 mately accomplishing the same work, and hastening the same 
 consummation." 
 
 Then followed a graphic description of the speaker's 
 own mo^o of overcoming such difficulties; apathetic 
 picture of the separation of his third convert from 
 father and mother, from brothers and friends, for ever; 
 and a contrast, which time has unhappily only proved 
 at once a prediction and a justification, in the political 
 results of the system wbich the Government of India 
 alone of all ruling powers, civilized or barbarous, pur- 
 sues — public instruction carefully divorced from all 
 religion : — 
 
 {( 
 
 If in that land you ao give the people Icnoivledge without 
 religion, rest assured that it is the greatest blunder, politically 
 speaking, that ever was committed. Having free unrestricted 
 access to the whole range of our English literature and science 
 they will despise and reject their own absurd systems of 
 learning. Once driven out of their own systems, they will in- 
 evitably become infidels ii^ religion. And shaken out of the 
 
^t. 29. HIS FIRST ORATION. 295 
 
 mechanical routine of their own roligious observances, without 
 moral principle to balance their thoughts or guide their move- 
 ments, they will as certainly become discontented, restless 
 agitators, — ambitious of power and official distinction, and 
 possessed of the most disloyal sentiments towards that Govern- 
 ment which, in their eye, has usurped all the authority that 
 rightfully belonged to themselves. This is not theory, it is a 
 statement of fact. I myself can testify in this place, as I have 
 already done on the spot, that expressions and opinions of a 
 most rebellious nature have been known to drop from some of 
 the very proteges of that Government which, for its own sake, 
 is so infatuated as to insist on giving knowledge apart from 
 religion. But as soon as some of these became converts to 
 Christianity, through the agency already described, how totally 
 ' fferent their tone of feeling towards the existing Government ? 
 Their bowels yearned 7er the miseries of their countrymen. 
 Theif now knew the only effectual cure. And their spontaneous 
 feeling was, 'Ah! woe be unto us, if the British Government 
 were destroyed and the Hindoo dynasties restored ! The first 
 thing would be to cut us off, and what would then become of 
 our poor degraded country ? Wo pray for the permanence 
 of the British Government, that, under the shadow of its pro- 
 tection, we may disseminate the healing knowledge of Chris- 
 tianity among our brethren, — that knowledge which alone can 
 secure their present welfare and immortal happiness.' In 
 like manner, and for the same reason, there are not more loyal 
 or patriotic subjects of the British crown than the young men 
 that compose the more advanced classes in our Institution. So 
 clearly and strongly did this appear to many members of the 
 present Government in India, that instead of regarding us with 
 jealousy and suspicion as enemies, they looked upon us as tlie 
 truest friends of the British Government, the staunohest sup- 
 porters of the British power.'' 
 
 The adoption of English as the language of the 
 higher education, the abolition of foreign Persian as 
 the official medium, the use of the vernaculars for 
 giving knowledge to the millions, the spread of the 
 higher education from Calcutta to the great cities and 
 feudatory states of Upper and Central India, and the 
 
296 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 duty of Scotland through its Kirk, all the more since 
 the death of Inglis, carried the orator to his climax, 
 ■which became a model of rhetoric for many a year 
 after in the schools and manuals of elocution : — 
 
 " Whenever wo malco an appeal in behalf of the heathen, it 
 is constantly urged that there are enough of heathen at homo, 
 — that there is enough of work to be done at home, and why 
 roam for more in distant lands? I strongly suspect that 
 those who are most clamorous in advancing this plea are just 
 the very men who do little, and care less, either for heathen 
 at home or heathen at a distance. At all events, it is a plea 
 far more worthy of a heathen than of a Christian. It was 
 not thus that the apostles argued. If it were, they never 
 would have crossed the walls of Jerusalem. There they would 
 have remained contending with unbelieving Jews, till caught 
 by the flames that reduced to ashes the city of their fathers. 
 And if we act on such a plea, we may bo charged with de- 
 spising the example of the apostles, and found loitering at home 
 till overtaken by the flames of the final conflagration. But 
 shall it be brooked that those who in this Assembly have so 
 far succeeded to their office, should act so contrary a part ? 
 Let us pronounce this impossible. I for one can see no con- 
 trariety between home and foreign labour. I am glad that 
 so much is doing for home : but ten times more may yet be 
 done both for home and for abroad too. It is cheering to 
 think of the overmastering energy that is now put forth in 
 the cause of chui'ch extension in this land, as well as in refer- 
 ence to improved systems of education, and model-schools, 
 and more especially the enlightenment of the long-neglected 
 and destitute Highlands. I know the Highlands; they are 
 dear to me. They form the cradle and the grave of my 
 fathers ; they are the nursery of my youthful imaginings ; 
 and there is not a lake, or barren heath, or naked granite peak 
 that is not dear to me. How much more dear the precious 
 souls of those who tenant these romantic regions ! Still, 
 though a son of the Highlands, I must, in my higher capacity 
 as a disciple of Jesus, be permitted to put the question. Has 
 not Inspiration declared, that ' the field is the world * ? 
 And would you keep your spiritual sympathies pent up within 
 
^t. 29. THE rEROEATION. 297 
 
 the craggy ramparts of the Grampians ? Would you havo 
 them enchained within the wild and rocky shores of this dis- 
 tant isle ? ' The field is the world.' And the more we are 
 like God, — the more wo reflect His image, — the moro our 
 nature is assimilated to the Divine, — the more nearly will we 
 view the world as God has done. ' True friendship,* it has 
 been said, ' has no localities/ And so it is with tho lovo of 
 God in Christ. The sacrifice on Calvary was designed to 
 embrace the globe in its amplitude. Leo us view tho subject 
 as God views it — let us view it as denizens of the universe—* 
 and we shall not be bounded in our efforts of philanthropy, 
 short of the north or south pole. Wherever there is a human 
 being there must our sympathies extend. 
 
 " And since you, hero assembled, are the representatives of 
 that National Church that has put forth an emphatic expres- 
 sion of faith in the Redeemer's promises; an emphatic ex- 
 pression of expectation that all these promises shall one day 
 be gloriously realized — and in these troublous times this is a 
 precious testimony — I call upon you to follow it up with deeds 
 proportionate. * Faith without works is dead.' Let you, 
 the representative body of this Church, commence, and show 
 that the pulse of benevolence has begun to beat higher here, 
 and if so, it will circulate through all the veins of the great 
 system. Let the impulsive influence begin here, and it will 
 flow throughout the land. Let us awake, arise, and rescue 
 unhappy India from its present and impending horrors. Ah ! 
 long, too long has India been made a theme for the visions of 
 poetry and the dreams of romance. Too long has it been 
 enshrined in the sparkling bubbles of a vapoury sentimentalism. 
 One's heart is indeed sickened with the eternal song of its 
 balmy skies and voluptuous gales — its golden dewa and 
 pageantry of blossoms — its 
 
 'fields of paradise and bowers, 
 Entwining amaranthine flowers,'— 
 
 its blaze of suns, and torrents of eternal light : — one's heart 
 is sickened with this eternal song, when -above, we behold 
 nought but the spiritual gloom of a gathering tempest, re- 
 lieved only by the lightning glance of the Almighty's indigna- 
 tion — around, a waste moral wilderness, where * all life dies, 
 and death lives' — and underneath, one vast catacomb of 
 
298 LIFK OP DR. DUFI'. ' 1835, 
 
 immortal souls perishing for lack of knowledge. Let us arise, 
 and resolve that houceforward these 'climes of the sun ' shall 
 not be viewed merely as a storehouse of flowers for poetry, and 
 figures for rhetoric, and bold strokes for oratory ; but shall 
 become the climes of a better sun — even ' the Sun of right- 
 eousness J ' the nursery of ' plants of renown. ' that shall 
 bloom and blossom in the regions of immortality. Let us 
 arise and revive the genius of the olden time : let us revive 
 the spirit of our forefathers. Like them, let us unsheathe the 
 sword of the Spirit, unfurl the banners of the Cross, sound 
 the gospel-trump of jubilee. Like them, let us enter into 
 a Solemn League and Covenant before our God, in behalf of 
 that benighted land, that wo will not rest, till the voice of 
 praise and thanksgiving arise, in daily orisons, from its coral 
 strands, roll over its fertile plains, resound from its smiling 
 valleys, and re-echo from its everlasting hills. Thus shall 
 it be proved, that the Church of Scotland, though ' poor, can 
 make many rich,' being herself replenished from the ' fulness 
 of the Godhead:' — that the Church of Scotland, though 
 powerless, as regards carnal designs and worldly policies, has 
 yet the divine power of bringing many sons to glory; of 
 calling a spiritual progeny from afar, numerous as the drops 
 of dew in the morning, and resplendent with the shining of 
 the Sun of righteousness — a noble company of ransomed 
 multitudes, that shall hail you in the realms of day, and crown 
 you with the spoils of victory, and sit on thrones, and live and 
 reign with you, amid the splendours of an unclouded universe. 
 *' May God hasten the day, and put it into the heart of every 
 one present to engage in the glorious work of realizing it ! " 
 
 The long-drawn sigh of the profoundly moved 
 hearers relieved the suppressed emotion which lighted 
 up or bedimmed every face. The presence of God 
 alone was the fitting place at such a time, and 
 Dr. Gordon was unanimously called on to lead the 
 devotions of the Assembly in praise and thanksgiving 
 to God. When the tunult of emotion was thus 
 chastened, one after another of the leaders of the 
 house, on both sides, rose to give expression to his 
 feelings. Among these was the venerable Dr. Stewart, 
 
^t. 29. IMMEDIATE EFFECT OP THE SrEECH. 299 
 
 of Erskine, who thus spoke : — " Moderator, it has 
 been my privilege to hear Mr. Fox and JMr. Pitt speak 
 in the House of Commons, that grand focus of British 
 eloquence, when in the very zenith of their glory as 
 statesmen and orators'. I now solemnly declare that I 
 never heard from either of them a speech similar, or 
 second to that to which we have now listened, alike 
 for its lofty tone, thought and sentiment, its close 
 argumentative force, its transcendent eloquence and 
 overpowering impreasiveness." The Rev. J. W. 
 Taylor, of Fiisk, still lives to give us this remiuiscenco 
 of that day : — 
 
 "Before Alexander D-iiff left St. Andrews for India tliero 
 was a meeting of the Studeuts* Missionary Society in St, 
 Mary's College. I stumbled up the dark stairs, and when I 
 got into the room, I found ^'uff addressing a small meeting, 
 and lamenting in his own pathetic way the little interest 
 which the cause of Christ and of missions was awakening in 
 the student mind. The next time I heard Duff was in the 
 General Assembly of 1835. I was tliere as a volunteer 
 reporter to the Scottish Guardian. It was fortunate that the 
 reporting of Duff's speech was entrusted to the cool head and 
 steady hand of Professor Chalmers of Loudon. All the rest 
 of us reporters sat spell-bound. There stood Duff in front of 
 the square box-like enclosure which contained the moderator, 
 the procurator, the clerks, and the more distinguished leaders 
 of the Assembly. The look of modesty, of dignity, of anxiety, 
 as if conscious that the future of his plan of Indian missions 
 was suspended under God upon the impression which would 
 be made that day upon that Assembly, won the interest of 
 every one in the crowded house. And as the great missionary 
 went on expounding in bis own deep heart-moving tones his 
 great method of overthrowing Hindooism by the combined 
 agencies of a sacred education and of the Bible, for betwixt 
 two and three hours he held the vast audience under the sway 
 of his commanding eloquence, and when he finished one 
 conviction possessed every heart — this is the key-note for 
 India's evangelization. Many old ministers who had been 
 cold in the cause of missions, and many moderate ministers 
 
300 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1 835. 
 
 who liaJ boon opposod to missions, dated the rise of missionary 
 zeal in tlioir hearts from the speech of that day. Even Dr. 
 George Cook, who in his lectures to his students was accus- 
 tomed to argue against foreign missions, under tho stirring 
 impulse of Dr. Duff's address rose and vied with the evan- 
 gelical brethren in expressing his admiration of the zeal, the 
 skil fulness, tuo dovotedness and big-heartedness of the great 
 missionary. 
 
 " The first India mission speech of Duff was sufficient of 
 itself to signalise any Assembly. But tho Assembly of 1835 
 was rendered further illustrious by the famous speech of Rev. 
 Andrew Gray, demanding for chapels of ease tho status of 
 Presbyterian Churches, and the constitutional provision of 
 kirk-sessions and representation in the Presbytery.' 
 
 }> 
 
 The Scottish Guardian of next day wrote thus : — 
 " Mr. Duff's speech will be found at full length in our 
 columns, occupying tlie most prominent place in the 
 proceedings of the Assembly of yesterday. It lias 
 thrown a flood of light upon the christianization of 
 India, and furnished principles and information for 
 guiding our Church which will lead to an entire new 
 model of missions, and give, we trust, a new direction 
 to all the efforts of the Christians of Britain in behalf 
 of India. It would be vain for us to attempt to 
 describe the impression which the lofty, intelligent 
 Christian enthusiasm and fervid eloquence of Mr. 
 Duff produced upon the Assembly. Every heart felt 
 his appeal, and every understanding approved the 
 wisdom and sagacity of the means which he proposed 
 for giving success to the missionary enterprise and 
 achieving the christianization of India. It will be 
 long ere the Assembly will forget his pleading. His 
 appearance has thrown a sacredness around its meet- 
 ing, and will give a Christian elevation and dignity to 
 the whole of its procedure. His speech will yet tell 
 in its moral influence, not only in the cottages of India, 
 but in the cottages of our own land, and will send 
 
JEt. 29. THE FIRST BATTLE OP THE UOME CAMPAiaN. 30I 
 
 back our clergy to their homes smitten with the 
 missionary and apostolic spirit that burns witli sweet 
 fervour in the breast of our devoted missionary. Who 
 would not pray God that he might have the same 
 wisdom and Christian zeal, and might bring these 
 to bear upon the christianization of his own allotted 
 vineyard in the Church, with the same success as Mr. 
 Duff promises to concentrate them upon his Indian 
 enterprise ? " 
 
 The Preshytcnan Bevicw of the following July 
 described the whole house as " absorbed in one feeling, 
 exquisite even to pain ; tears ran down almost every 
 cheek " during the address. The historian of " the 
 ten years' conflict," declaring that it is difficult to 
 refer, at this distance of time, to the impression which 
 it produced without using what may seem like the 
 language of exaggeration, records : — " It was indeed a 
 token that better days had come for the Church of 
 Scotland, when Chalmers and Duff were contempor- 
 aneously making the whole country resound with 
 their noble pleadings — the one for the heathen at 
 home, the other for the heathen abroad." The 
 General Assembly ordered the publication of the 
 address, and two editions of twenty thousand copies, 
 following the newspaper, spread it abroad, not only 
 over Great Britain, but in America and many parts of 
 the continent of Europe. In Scotland, as in India, 
 the first battle of the campaign had been won. 
 
 But only the first. For it was natural and advan- 
 tageous that this, the earliest adequate statement in the 
 West of what has since been called the educational 
 system of missions, should excite discussion and bring 
 down on its advocate the charges, now of overlooking 
 other agencies and then of being an innovator, now of 
 departing from apostolic precedents and again of not 
 sufficiently recognising the difference between the 
 
302 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 Btato of tlio Britisli and of that of tho Roman empire. 
 Dr. Wilson also had protested against, and had de- 
 parted from the stereotyped and fruitless policy of 
 the missionaries whom he had found in Western India, 
 but that was in India itself, and the Scottish Mission- 
 ary Society had reproved him instead of publishing his 
 communications. Both the Bengal and the Bombay 
 apostles taught and practised the system which Scrip- 
 ture, their Church and experience alike led them to 
 elaborate independently of each other — that of chris- 
 tianizing the Hindoos, Parsoes and Muhammadans, 
 who are each the inheritor of a complex body of 
 religion, philosophy and literature, by public and 
 private discussion, and by continuous instruction in 
 Western truth through the English language. In 
 their hands, and that of all their worthy successors 
 in every Church and society, colleges, lectures, frank 
 discussion, daily tuition become, for these classes^ as 
 truly evangelistic and converting as village preaching 
 and purely vernacular teaching for the simple non- 
 Aryan peoples. 
 
 Never did public speaker in any assembly think 
 less of himself or of the form of his oratory, and 
 more of the message which he believed he was charged 
 by his Master to deliver to the Church and the 
 . country, than did Duff. Hence the immediate in- 
 fluence on those who heard him, and the abiding 
 power of the printed report of what he said, although 
 that fell far below the reality in days when verbatim 
 reporting was unknown. He spake as a prophet, not 
 as a carefully prepared rhetorician. This redeemed 
 his orations from the dangers of the florid style 
 which was the fashion of that period of literature, 
 while it gave him the power of the more recent school 
 of eloquence, of which Mr. Bright is the master. 
 More nearly than any of the speakers of the first 
 
JE{. 39. TUE STYLE OP DTS ORATORY. 303 
 
 half of tlio nineteenth century, Duff thug rcahzed tliat 
 which Mr. Gladstone has pronounced the supreme in- 
 fluence of the speaker, the power of " receiving fro'u 
 his audience in a vapour what ho pours back on them 
 in a flood." But, while eschewing the mechanical 
 or formally rhetorical preparation which would have 
 cramped while it polished his utterance, Duff did not 
 neglect the careful and admiring study of the masters 
 of English eloquence, from Chatham and Burke to 
 Erskine and Canning. A little collection of their 
 master-pieces published in 1827 seems to havo been, 
 at one time, his constant companion. It is carefully 
 marked at such speeches as these — Mr. Pitt, in vindi- 
 cation of his father, Lord Chatham ; Mr. Fox, in 
 respect to the Government of India ; Mr. Grattan, on 
 moving for a committee on the claims of the Roman 
 Catholics; and Mr. Brougham on the slave trade. 
 From these was the form of his oratory unconsciously 
 derived ; but not more from these than from Chalmers 
 — his St. Andrews lectures on moral philosophy, eman- 
 cipation speech and sermons, such as Mr. Gladstone 
 to *^^his day pronounces equalled only by the very 
 diSerent " reasoned homilies" of John Henry Newman. 
 Duff", too, was at once as fortunate and unfortunate 
 in his principal theme as his greatest models. For if 
 the India of popular lancy casts a glamour over the 
 imagination, the novelty of its names, customs, and 
 beliefs repels the mind which desires the passive en- 
 joyment of eloquence in proportion to the earnestness, 
 the fulness and the accuracy of the speaker. On 
 India showy platitudes tell where authoritative know- 
 ledge, even when expressed in the chastest rhetoric, 
 fails to attract. Witness the contrast, at the present 
 day, between the popularity of Macaulay and — in this 
 sense — his successor, Sir Henry Maine. Duff's first 
 Assembly address was precisely what Sheridan's 
 
304 LIFE Of DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 celebrated Begum of Oudli speech had been — unex- 
 pectedly magical in its effect on the hearers, but lost 
 to a great extent in the report. It was India that 
 revealed Burke as the orator he became. The know- 
 ledge which he gained in the select committee of 1780 
 fed his imagination with events even more distant 
 and new than the Terror of the French Revolution. 
 Into that imagination the malicious Francis dropped 
 the spark which caused it to explode into the five 
 great speeches on the impeachment of Warren Hast- 
 ings. After Sheridan had failed in that year, so 
 that, like a living statesman of the same type, he 
 exclaimed to Woodfall, " It is in me, and it shall come 
 out," India enabled him to make the speech which led 
 the House to adjourn, from the impossibility of debat- 
 ing judicially after it. Burke, Fox and Pitt united in 
 declaring it the most extraordinary effort of human 
 eloquence, ancient or modern, just as the venerable 
 Stewart of Erskine said of Duff's that it surpassed 
 the finest efforts of Fox and Pitt, yet these speakers 
 were second only to Burke in the higher flights of 
 the imagination, in the abandon which resulted from 
 absorption in their subject. The impartial and ex- 
 perienced Wilberforce did not mean to praise Canning 
 when he said that that speaker never drew you to him 
 in spite of yourself, as Pitt and Fox used to do, yet 
 he was a more finished orator than either. Canning 
 had wit and humour inconsistent with abandon^ but 
 as precious in themselves as they are rare. Duff 
 manifested powers of sarcasm and scathing indignation 
 when he rose to the heights of his prophetic message 
 and was called to demolish opposition or expose 
 hypocrisy in the name of his Master. For it was not 
 India only, but India for Christ, that was the source 
 of his inspiration. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 1835-1836. 
 
 BB. BUFF OltOANIZING, 
 
 Degree of Doctor of Divinity. — Dr. Duff called to fill the place of 
 Dr. Inglis in Old Groyfriars. — Offered South Church, Aberdeen, 
 and recommends Dr. Tweedie. — The Higher Calling of the Mis- 
 sionary. — The Mai'iioch Case. — Pressed by the Earl of Fife to 
 prevent Schism by accepting the Living. — Plan of Rousing every 
 Presbytery formed on the Voyage Home. — Foreign Missions out- 
 side of Church Parties. — The First Campaign of 1835. — Ex- 
 periences in the Far North. — Enthusiastic Iloception. — Return 
 of Fever. — The Second Campaign, of 183G, opened in Perth. — 
 Description by Eye-witnesses. — Dr. WilHam Thomson. — Dr. 
 Guthrie and the Opponent of the Law of Gravitation. — Invita- 
 tions from England. — "jpeech for the Church Missionary Society. 
 — The Guest of Carus in Trinity College, Cambridge. — Sacred 
 Interview with the aged Simeon. — Memories of the Moulin Re- 
 vival. — Whewell. — Original MS. of the "Paradise Lost," as a 
 Drama. — Milton and the Cam. — Dr. Duff addresses Public Meet- 
 ing called by the Mayor. — At Leamington with Dr. Jephson. — 
 News from Calcutta. — Intercourse with Lord William Bentinck. 
 
 Fa.e more effectually than even the speaker had dared 
 to dream, the first Assembly oration of the first mis- 
 sionary of its Church set Scotland on fire. The 
 excitement of the general election, which for the hour 
 made Dr. Chalmers so much of a Tory as to call forth 
 the remark in his broadest Fifeshire accent, " I have 
 a moral loathing of these Whugs," had spent itself. 
 The new spiritual life which was to work itself out 
 in the disruption of 1843 had asserted its power in 
 the General Assemblies of 1834 and 1835. Even 
 Dr. Inglis had declared just before his death, " The 
 
 X 
 
306 UF£ OP DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 kingdom of Christ is not only spiritual but inde- 
 pendent. No earthly government has a right to 
 overrule or control it." Chalmers, with such disci- 
 ples as the young Thomas Guthrie, had begun to go 
 forth on his evangelical mission of church extension 
 throughout the length and breadth of Scotland. Side 
 by side and in loving co-operation with that, as 
 Chalmers had always taught and he himself had 
 again enforced, Duff proclaimed and established the 
 claims of foreign missions. The whole people were 
 ready to receive the missionary ; almost every parish 
 competed for a visit from him. Zealously anticipating 
 St. Andrews and the other universities, Marischal 
 College, Aberdeen, had hardly met for the autumn 
 session of 1835 when it honoured itself and surprised 
 the young divine, still under thirty, by presenting him 
 with the diploma of Doctor of Divinity. 
 
 The most embarrassing and even annoying form 
 taken by the popularity thus suddenly acquired and 
 steadily increased for many a year, was that of the 
 patrons of church livings, and the then few congre- 
 gations who had the right to call their own minister, 
 persecuting Dr. Duff to settle amongst them. He 
 must effectually clear this obstacle out of his path 
 before entering on his first home crusade. What to 
 some would have seemed a flattering recognition of 
 their merits was to him at once humiliating and 
 irritating. That it should be supposed he would even 
 consider proposals to retreat from the front of the 
 battle into the easy and yet respectable comfort of 
 the baggage, was an evidence of the dense ignorance 
 which long prevailed regarding the missionary duty 
 of the Church, and a reflection on his own sacrifice 
 to that duty. Dr. Ing^is was gone. Dr. Anderson, 
 who had been appointed his successor, soon followed 
 him, and the otherwise attractive city charge of Old 
 
^t. 29. OFFERED THE LIVING OF OLD GRKYFRIARS. 307 
 
 Greyfriars was pressed upon Dr. DufF. The patrons 
 were the Lord Provost, tlien the Honble. Mr. Trotter, 
 and the town council of Edinburgh, but they had pro- 
 mised to leave the election in the hands of the congre- 
 gation if it were unanimous. On the very morning 
 when Dr. Duff was to open his crusade in the country, 
 just half an hour before he was to leave his house for 
 the Perth stage-coach, which then started from the 
 Black Bull Inn, at the head of Lekh Walk, he was 
 stopped by a deputation from the kirk-session and 
 people offering him the living. When he showed some 
 impatience under the long catalogue of weighty reasons 
 which they advanced for his closing with their urgent 
 request, they thought that they \voald secure him by 
 the temptation of preaching for the rest of his days 
 amid the grandest ecclesiastical and historical associa- 
 tions, and in the pulpit of his old friend Dr. laglis. 
 Hardly had he escaped from a position which Pro- 
 fessor Wilson's cousin, John Sym. was to fill side 
 by side with Dr. Guthrie, and reached the Highlands, 
 when the South Church of Aberdeen laid hold of him. 
 Determined not to lose the advantage of his services 
 altogether, the disappointed people besought him to 
 name a candidate most like to himself. The delicacy 
 of this duty troubled him ; but he met the repeated 
 invitation to assist the congregation by directing 
 their attention to Dr. Tweedie, his old fellow-student, 
 whose ability he had again personally recognised in 
 London Wall Presbyterian church. The Aberdeen 
 people had plied him with the argument that, by 
 meeting their request, Ae would be fible to advocate 
 the claims of India at home. In the appendix to the 
 published sermon on the mutual duties and responsi- 
 bilities of pastor and people, which he preached on 
 introducing the new minister to the church, he thus 
 dealt with that consideration : — 
 
308 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 " Were I to remain iu my native land, it would doubtless be 
 still in my power to do something by way of advocating tlie 
 claims of poor benighted India. In that case, however, me- 
 thinks my tongue would not only falter, but often * cleave to 
 the roof of my mouth/ Fearlessly f^nd unsparingly have I 
 reprobated the indolence and cowardice of those who kept 
 lingering, lounging and loitering at homo, in lazy expectation 
 of some snug peaceful settlement, instead of nobly marching 
 forward into the wide field of the world, to earn new trophies 
 for their Redeemer, by planting His standard in hitherto 
 unconquered realms. Neither have I suppressed my honest 
 indignation at the no less criminal supineness of others, who, 
 having once obtained such settlements, ingeniously devise a 
 thousand petty frivolous pretexts for continuing to wrap them- 
 selves up in the congenialities and luxurious indulgences of 
 home, instead of boldly daring, though at an immeasurable 
 distance, to tread in the footsteps of apostles and prophets 
 and martyrs. Not that I would have such loiterers to join our 
 storming ranks. Far otherwise. I, for one, would wash my 
 hands of the guilt of appending such drags to the chariot 
 wheels of the conquering Messiah. The grand evil is that 
 such persons should exist at all, arrayed externally in the garb 
 of the heralds of salvation. How often have our ears been 
 regaled with the music of eloquence, echoing the songs of 
 divine chivalry and the battles of the faith ? But all the 
 while have we not been left in sorrow to exclaim, — Where the 
 rushing crowd of champions, clad in armour of light ? Where 
 the continued toiling, and struggling, and fighting which form 
 the certain prelude to decisive victory ? Alas ! alas ! if without 
 an effort, without a struggle and without a sacrifice, imagina- 
 tion alone could conquer all difficulties, then, with the ease of 
 some potent spell, and the rapidity of some inexplicable en- 
 chantment, might we behold every howling waste converted 
 into gardens of delight, and golden palaces starting from 
 every barren shore ! Such sentiments and expressions may bo 
 deemed by many over-severe and not a little uncharitable. If 
 so, I cannot help it. What I feel strongly I express strongly. 
 How then could I in consistency, after such decisive expression 
 of my own feelings, reconcile myself to the resolution of 
 throwing aside my weapons of aggressive warfare, and timidly 
 shrinking down into the shrivelled form of a comfort-seeking 
 
JEt. 29. THE HIGHEIl CALLING OF A MISSIONARY. 309 
 
 tirae-servcr at home ? What a plausible corroboration might 
 thereby be given to the base calumny, that few or none go 
 forth to heathen climes but such as have been unsuccessful 
 and disappointed candidates for office in their native land, — 
 the only merit allowed them being the ignoble one of making 
 a virtue of necessity ? What a triumph might be furnished 
 to the thousands who stoutly call in question the sincerity of 
 those who profess their willingness to submit to sacriliccs for 
 the sake of Christ ? And with what shouts of dei-ision might 
 any appeals of mine, on the subject of personally engaging in 
 the toils of missionary labour, be responded to ? 
 
 >i 
 
 The third among many other temptations put before 
 Dr. Duft* was of a different and, in an ecclesiastical 
 sense, still higher kind. It was nothing less than this, 
 that he might save the Church of Scotland from being 
 rent in two by the conflict for spiritual independence 
 which had now entered on its life and death stage. 
 The famous Marnoch case, with all the Strathbogie scan- 
 dals, was in its early stage, having succeeded the first 
 assault of the civil courts, made in the Auchterarder 
 case, on the spiritual independence in purely spiritual 
 things guaranteed to the Kirk by Scottish Acts of Par- 
 liament, the Treaty of Union and the Revolution Settle- 
 ment. Marnoch is a small parish on the Dover on, 
 nine miles south-west of Banff. The Earl of Fife was 
 patron of the living, which fell vacant after the Act 
 of the General Assembly restoring to communicants 
 their spiritual and historical right to veto the patron's 
 appointment of a minister of whom they disapproved. 
 The earl, who had settled down in Duff House, was 
 indifferent to the Veto Act, but lie did not wish the 
 annoyance of fighting his own tenantry on such a 
 question. In the days of his dissipation as boon com- 
 panion of George IV., he had allowed his brother, 
 General Duff, to promise the living, when it should bo 
 vacant, to one Edwards, long a tutor in the family. 
 
3IO LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 But the old minister would not die, while the Veto Act 
 represented an earnest change of popular opinion on the 
 traffic in livings which had once already rent the Kirk, 
 having degraded the nation ever since Queen Anne's 
 days. The earl, having sobered down, at first tried to 
 induce his brother to release him from the promise to 
 Edwards. Failing in this, the puzzled and somewhat 
 penitent patron put in Edwards as the old minister's 
 assistant, half hoping that the now sapless " Dominie 
 Sampson " might be accepted by the people for pity's 
 sake. Alas! for the earl, the tutor proved so prodigious 
 a failure that the little parish came to hate him, and the 
 kirk became emptier than ever. Again the earl appealed 
 to his ruthless brother: "John Edwards had been 
 fairly tried and found wanting ; would he accept this 
 fact as sufficiently redeeming his promise to the un- 
 happy tutor, which should never have been made, and 
 agree to another plan ?" This was, to ask their clans- 
 man, Dr. Duff, to accept the nomination to Marnoch, 
 which had now become vacant, in the certainty that he 
 would be unanimously called by the people under the 
 Veto Act. General Duff heartily consented, and, let 
 us hope, was inclined to provide for the old tutor at 
 his own expense instead of at the spiritual cost of 
 the parish. 
 
 On this the earl asked his own minister, Mr. 
 Grant, of Banff, to plead with Dr. Duff, to whom 
 the nomination was offered as a mark of the earl's 
 good will, as some recognition of his high deserts, 
 as the only means of delivering the patron from a 
 terrible dilemma and of preventing a local scandal ; 
 but, above all, as a sure bulwark against the tide 
 of schism and anarchy which might sweep away 
 the Kirk itself and destroy even its Bengal Mission. 
 Dr. Duff was implored to be the Curtius who would 
 thus close up the gulf for ever. It was all in vain. 
 
JEt. 2g. THE MAKNOOH CASE AND TUE EARL OP FIFE. 31I 
 
 Poor Edwards was forced on the throe liundred heads 
 of famihes and thirteen heritors against their solemn 
 dissent, against the hiw of the Kirk and of the hand till 
 Parliament altered it, and against the rising claniuur 
 of the whole country. Ho was invited by only one 
 heritor besides the earl and his brother, and one 
 parishioner, " Peter Taylor, the keeper of the public- 
 house at which the presbytery were wont to dine." 
 No man knew and no minister proved better than 
 Dr. Duff that Marnoch, like Auchterarder and Le- 
 thendy, was but a symptom of a disease to be cured 
 only by the vis medlcatrix natarcG of the case — by 
 leaving the Church to the laws of Christ in word and 
 conscience, a loyal ally of the state but independent 
 in the purely spiritual sphere. Dr. Duff respectfully 
 declined what was undoubtedly intended to be a liberal 
 and generous offer. The earl replied in a letter ex- 
 pressing admiration of the consistency and self-sacrifice 
 of the missionary. But the old companion of the worst 
 sovereign England has seen, turned to the law courts, 
 where a majority of the judges, to the grief of men 
 like Jeffrey and Cockburn, helped him and his reverend 
 presentee to drive every member from the kirk to 
 worship God, like their forefathers in persecuting times, 
 in a hollow in the winter's snow. With these three 
 typical instances we dismiss such calls to home work. 
 How was not only the Church but all Scotland to be 
 organized for the permanent and progresGive support, 
 by prayer and by knowledge, by men and by money, 
 of missionary work in India ? That was the problem 
 which had occupied the thoughts of Duff on his home- 
 ward voyage, " when rocked amid the billows of a 
 tempest off the Cape of Good Hope," and again as he 
 paced the deck on the return of health. His resolution 
 was formed before he landed, only to be intensified by 
 the early indifference of the committee which his first 
 
312 LIFE OF DU. DUFF. 1835. 
 
 speecli had dissipated, and by the return of the fever 
 which had fired his spirit anew. It was "the favourite 
 plan of visiting and addressing all the presbyteries of 
 the Church in detail " which had thus forcibly seized 
 his mind, and had been elaborated and prepared for 
 during the first six months of his recovery. Such a 
 proposition, he told the friends of the India* Mission 
 in 1844, when its success had been established and 
 the organization had to be renewed on a greater scale 
 owing to the disruption, "was received in those days, 
 even by the most sanguine, with grave doubts and 
 fears as to its practicability, and by others with an 
 expression of stark amazement. * What ! ' was the 
 ordinary exclamation, * expect presbyteries of the 
 Church, in their official presbyterial capacity, to 
 assemble on a week-day for the express and sole end 
 of listening to an exposition of the motives, obliga- 
 tions and objects of the missionary enterprise, and that 
 too, with the ulterior view of organizing themselves 
 into missionary associations ! ' — certain well-known 
 presbyteries, both in the north and in the south, being 
 usually named, in regard to which the realization of 
 such a plan was felt to be the very climax of improba- 
 bility." 
 
 From his own mind the experience of Irvine, and 
 from the Church his Assembly speech, removed every 
 doubt. Generally preceding Chalmers in the church 
 extension movement at home, with a thoroughness and 
 over an extent of country possible only in the case of 
 one who devoted to it his whole strength and unique 
 experience. Dr. Dufi" went far to anticipate the greatest 
 triumph in Christian economics, the Sustentation 
 Fund for the ministers. The parallel, the necessary 
 balance and support of that fund, is the system of 
 congregational associations under similar presbyterial 
 supervision for the missionaries abroad. 
 
At. 29. FOREIGN MISSIONS AEE OF NO PAETY. 313 
 
 But the essential preliraiuary to all success liad to 
 bo mado known — foreign missions are of no party. 
 Thoy are the care and the corrective, the test and the 
 stimulus of all parties in the Church. The missionary 
 who, as such, takes a side in ecclesiastical warfare, 
 may gratify his own personal bias, but he imperils the 
 cause in which he ought to be absorbed. The missions 
 of the Scottish Church, above all, originated in pure 
 catholicity, and have, even through the disruption, 
 been directed by Christlike charity. Dr. Inglis, their 
 founder, was a moderate by association and an evan- 
 gelical in spirit, as we have seen. When he sought 
 and found the first missionary he wrote to the most 
 pronounced of the moderate party — "As to his sido in 
 the Church I have made no inquiry." And .t will be 
 well at this stage to ponder the fact, as the key to 
 much of his future action, that that missionary thus 
 early, alike in his friendlv intercourse with and help 
 to Dr. Bryce, in his loyalty to Dr. Inglis and Dr. 
 Brunton, and in this statement of his ecclesiastical 
 policy, declared the superiority of himself, because of 
 his work, to all party. Thus he became the peace- 
 maker, in one sense of the beatitude, at home, as in 
 the higher sense his work in India of reconciling men 
 to God won him abundantly the peacemaker's blessed- 
 ness. He thus described the success, of his first 
 campaign of 1835-7, and the cause of that success. 
 As a question of mere statistics he raised the annual 
 income of the foreign missions scheme from £1,200 to 
 £7,589 in 1838. 
 
 " My journeyings among the towns and presbyteries of 
 Scotland were soon commenced, amid various interruptions, of 
 longer or shorter continuance, arising from ill health and other 
 causes, till almost every town and district from the Solway 
 Firth to the mainland of Orkney had been visited, and many 
 of them more than once, — and almost every presbytery of the 
 
SH LIFE OF DR. DUFF, 1835. 
 
 Church addressed and organized into a missionary association. 
 Throughout tliese extensive and diversified visitations, I was 
 received with equal kindness and attention by all classes and 
 ranks in society — in the baronial residence of the nobility, and 
 the cottages of the poor, by ministers and members of the 
 moderate and evangelical divisions of the Church, as well as 
 by leading ministers and members of tli'^ dillerent dissenting 
 communions. And why ? For this chief reason, I have no 
 doubt, among others, that no one Icnew me as a party man — no 
 one being able to point his fmger to a single overt act of mine 
 which could fairly stamp me as such. Meetings of every 
 description, public and private. Church and anti- Church, In- 
 trusion and non-Intrusion, were held in all directions around 
 me, with the frequency and the fulness of the showers of an 
 Indian rainy season ; and yet, up to the hour of my departure 
 from Scotland, I never once was so much as present at any one 
 of them. Everywhere, accordingly, was I received in my 
 simple and single character as a missionary to the heathen, 
 pursuing, with undeviating fixity of purpose, my own chosen 
 and peculiar vocation. In this way regions and habitations 
 were visited that had never been invaded by the sound of a 
 missionary's voice before. The result was, that a great deal 
 of new information was communicated, mucli sympathy and 
 interest in behalf of India excited, and not a little of hitherto 
 unbroken soil reclaimed for missionary purposes. Everywhere 
 Avt;re large and liberal collections made, prospective obliga- 
 tions voluntarily undertaken, and permanent associations, 
 priBsbyterial and congregational, special and general, duly 
 formed. Ministers and other office-bearers, on both sides of 
 the Church, were brought into immediate friendly and co-oper- 
 ative contact, on a theme wholly exempt from the intrusion of 
 party jealousies, rivalries, and antagonisms, — a theme which 
 savoured pre-eminently of the Cross, appealed to the most 
 generous motives, and aimed at the promotion of the noblest 
 ends. Already it was evident that a better understanding and 
 better feeling was beginning to spring up between various 
 parties, previously marshalled in nmtual opposition; that 
 these parties frequently greeted and recognised each other 
 on more cordial terms, frequently visited each other on 
 a more friendly footing, and frequently assisted each other, 
 on sacramental and other occasions, iu ways that promised to 
 
JEt. ir). ACT CREATING FOKE ION MISSION ASSOCIATIONS. 315 
 
 exert a mellowing and hallowing influonco, alike on pastors and 
 people. Amid scenes and expei-ieucos like those how could 
 my heart bo otherwise than glad ? How could I help rejoicing 
 in a growing ])rocess of convcrgency and assimilation? How 
 coidd I but long, with prayerful earnestness, for the time, 
 when * Ej)hraim should not envy Judali, nor Judah vex 
 l'ij)liraim ;' but when all, merging the heats and tempers of 
 partizanship in the divine amplitude of the Christian spirit, 
 should unite, on the broad basis of a common fjiith and a 
 common charity, in extending tho etupiro of the Itedeemer 
 over the remotest wilds of heathenism." 
 
 Having settled his family in the old mansion-houso 
 of Edradour, within a mile of Pitlochrie, lie recruited 
 liis energies there during June, 1835. Meanwhile tho 
 Rev. Dr. Gordon, as secretary of the committee, was 
 putting in force the short Act passed by the General 
 Assembly recommending all presbyteries to givo 
 Dr. Duff a respectful hearing at meetings called for 
 the pur})oso, and to form a presbyterial association to 
 create in each congregation an agency for prayer and 
 the propagation of intelligence regarding the evangel- 
 ization of the world. This Act had been drawn np by 
 Mr. Makgill Crichton, of Rankeillour, in the back-room 
 of the publishing house of Waugh and Innes, next the 
 Tron kirk, to give practical eifect to the enthusiasm 
 created in the Assembly by the great speech, and had 
 been unanimously passed. 
 
 Beginning with the presbytery of Meigle, the first 
 in Strathraore to the east of Perth, Dr. Duff proceeded 
 during the rest of the year in regular order to the 
 north, zigzagging over Forfar, Arbroath, Brechin, 
 Montrose, Aberdeen, the valleys of the Dee and tho 
 Don, Old Deer, Peterhead, and Fraserburgh ; then west 
 through Strathbogie, along the Spey, and through 
 Banff, Elgin, and Forreg to Inverness. At the last he 
 spent a week, but he generally addressed three presby- 
 
3l6 LIFE OP DB. DUPP. 1835. 
 
 teries, including the largo congregations, every week, 
 lie then went northwards to the presbyteries of Cha- 
 iionry, Dingwall and Tain, still in addition to these 
 addressing large congregations. In the morning ji 
 the day on which he was to leave Tain for Dornojh, 
 ho was suddenly, while at breakfast in the manse of 
 Dr. Macintosh (whose mother showed him all manner 
 of motherly attentions, as he had known her brother, 
 Mr. Calder, and others in Calcutta), seized with a fit of 
 fever and ague. He was thus obliged to betake him- 
 self to bed, which he was unable to leave for three 
 weeks. All the arrangements for meeting the eastern 
 presbyteries of Sutherland and Caithness were over- 
 turned, and the only one that could bo overtaken ac- 
 cording to the old arrangement was that of Tongue in 
 the Reay country. Ho resolved to proceed thither di- 
 rect across Sutherland. A friend conveyed him to the 
 manse of Mr. MacGillivray, at the lake Lairg, where 
 he remained one night, and met there young Mr. 
 MacGillivray, minister of Strathy, half-way between 
 Thurso and Tongue, who had come a distance of nearly 
 a hundred miles to convey him ^;0 Tongue. There 
 they arrived in the midst of a snowstorm. But the 
 hearts of the people were warm. Nowhere did he meet 
 with a more hearty reception. From Tongue he pro- 
 ceeded eastward along the coast of Thurso, stopping 
 one night with Mr. MacGillivray to address his people. 
 On that occasion one of the old peculiar race called 
 *' the Men " spoke a few words at the close, and as 
 he was speaking down came a heavy pour of rain 
 which pattered very strongly against the windows. 
 For a moment the speaker paused, and looking gravely 
 at the people said to them with much earnestness in 
 Gaelic : ** My brethren, they are the heavens tuat are 
 weeping over the sins of the people," but in Gaelic 
 the phrase was much more expressive than any trans- 
 
^t. 29- EESULTS OF HIS FIRST CAMrAlON. 317 
 
 lation of it into English can bo. After addressing 
 tlio presbyteries of Thurso, Wick, and Dornoch, as 
 well as largo congregations connected with these 
 places, Dr. DufF returned to his teni[)orary home in 
 the vale of Atholo in order to recruit from tlie 
 exhaustion of six niontlis incessant itinei-ating and 
 public speaking. ilow thorougldy even the most 
 ** moderate " presbyteries did their work on tliis oc- 
 casion is seen in the *' Brief Exposition of the Church 
 of Scotland's India Mission," a well-written and 
 elocpient appeal of thirty-five pages by the presbytery 
 of Ellon, for tlie formation of a Foreign Mission 
 Association in every parish as giving to the interest 
 taken in the diffusion of the gospel a fixed and per- 
 manent character. 
 
 If Dr. Duff was surprised by the enthusiasm which 
 he called forth in his first tour, the result of the second 
 exceeded even that. For, to the fame of his Assembly 
 speech there was now added the bruit of his eastern 
 and northern triumphs. And he opened the campaign 
 of 1836 in his own county of Perthshire. Repeated 
 attacks of his old fever, in spite of the occasional 
 retreat to Edradour, forbade the physicians to allow 
 him to think of returning to India. But, as may bo 
 seen from this extract from an official narrative of his 
 proceedings sent to the committee at the close of 
 1835, his heart was ever in India : — 
 
 " As nearly a twelvemonth has passed by since I 
 reached my native land, I naturally begin to look with 
 a longing eye towards the East. Summer is the best 
 season for leaving this country. But if it be resolved 
 that I set off next summer, medical opinion conspires 
 with dire experience in enforcing on me the conviction 
 that the intervening period spent in almost absolute 
 repose would be little enough so to recruit my frame 
 as to entitle me, with any reasonable prospect, to brave 
 
3l8 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 anew tlie influence of a tropical climate. On the other 
 hand much, very much, might yet be done in this our 
 native land in behalf of the mission. Unless it be 
 vigorously supported at home little can be done 
 abroad. But there is a disposition to support it at 
 home wherever its claims are freely and intelligibly 
 made known. The experience of the last few months, 
 I think, has amply confirmed this assertion. Of course 
 the grand advantage (and the only one to which I lay 
 claim) that I possess in advocating the claims of the 
 mission at home, is one that cannot be communicated 
 to others, even that of having been on the field of 
 labour, and having been an eye and ear witness of all 
 that I happen to describe. It is this circumstance 
 mainly, I must presume (for nothing else of an advan- 
 tageous nature am I conscious of possessing beyond 
 my fellows), that has made our brethren and the mem- 
 bers of our Church generally muster everywhere in 
 such numbers and listen with such marked attention 
 and resolve with such admirable unanimity. It was 
 my own impression, months ere I landed on these 
 shores, that good might result from visiting the pres- 
 byteries of our Church. But that impression has been 
 deepened in a tenfold degree by the experience of the 
 last four months, i.e. if professions without number do 
 not turn out (which God forbid) like Dr. Chalmers's 
 exuberant shower of promises. About a third part 
 of the presbyteries have now been visited, and clearly 
 the other two-thirds could not be visited before next 
 summer, or if so such visitation would leave me in a 
 condition the most unfit for resuming my labours in 
 the East, but it seems most desirable that all the pres- 
 byteries should be visited. What then is to be done ? 
 As for myself I am in a sti "t between two. But after 
 having thus stated the case I leave the matter entirely 
 in the hands of the committee." Dr. Macwhirter 
 
JEt so. BEGINS niS SECOND CAMrAION. 319 
 
 settled tlie matter for both by peremptorily deciding, 
 on medical grounds, in favour of a less active and 
 exciting visitation of tlie presbyteries. 
 
 Very vividly are the impressions of the first visit of 
 Dr. Duff to Perth pictured by two of his audience at 
 the time, Mrs. Barbour, then a child, and her mother, 
 Mrs. Stewart Sandeman, of Bonskeid, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Moulin. These are some of the lines 
 written by Mrs. Sandeman in I80G upon Dr. Duff : — 
 
 " He crossed o'er our path like an angel of light. 
 The sword of the truth in his grasp gleaming bright; 
 O'er mountain and valley unwearied he flew 
 Imploring our aid for the poor lost Hindoo. 
 
 " The rich gorgeous East with its dark Indian grove 
 Was the land that he pled for — all pity and love ; 
 But we caught the swift glance and the dear mountain tone. 
 And claimed him with reverence and pride for our own. 
 
 " Yes ! dark Ben-i-vrackie, all rugged and wild. 
 And fair vale of Athole, yo welcome your child, 
 For oft have his thoughts turned in fondness to you. 
 While he toiled for the soul of the darkened Hindoo. 
 
 " And shall we not aid him with heart and with hand 
 To ope fountains of truth in that desolate land ? 
 Nor break the witched charm that he over us threw 
 While in anguish he pled for the erring Hindoo." 
 
 " The arrival of Dr. Duff in the county town of his 
 native Perthshire was a memorable event to most of 
 the dwellers in it. It was doubly memorable to the 
 children who got a holiday to go and hear him in the 
 East Church on a week-day. Some days before, the 
 carriage had been watched as it conveyed the invalid 
 missionary to the crescent facing the North Inch, 
 and stopped at the house of the Rev. William Thom- 
 son, for whom he was to preach in the Middle Church. 
 Reports of his suffering state had come before him. 
 
320 LIPE OP mi. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 Mrs. Stuart, of Annat, then residing in Edinburgh, 
 had been at the communion in Lady Glenorchy's 
 church. She came home enraptured with the table- 
 service, at which a stranger had presided. His voice 
 had seemed hke one from heaven, and he looked so ill, 
 as if he might have passed away while he broke the 
 bread. It was Dr. Duff who had arrived from India. 
 
 " It was no wonder that the deep galleries of the old 
 Middle Church of St. John's, Perth, always full, were 
 on that morning crowded. Even the seats behind the 
 huge pillars were eagerly seized. The text was, * Be 
 not conformed to this world.' While the preacher 
 cut right and left, root and branch at the worldliness 
 in the Church of Christ, he described how men and 
 women carried it into God's house, and could be seen 
 stepping down the aisle with a look so proud as might 
 make an archangel blush. Next came the week-day 
 address on the claims of India. Mr. Esdaile, the 
 scholarly minister of the East Church, followed by the 
 presbytery and other ministers, accompanied Dr. Duff 
 to the pulpit steps. Some had made a tedious journey 
 to be there. Even the children in the multitude that 
 day assembled were breathless listeners. The gaunt 
 figure in the pulpit, soon rid of the gown, was seen 
 beneath the coloured window which was wont to come 
 between little people and weariness when Mr. Es- 
 daile' s erudite and polished discourses went beyond 
 them. And now the eloquent descriptions of the far- 
 off land began. Snow-peaks, dense forests, aromatic 
 gardens and Ganges waters were the background. The 
 hideous image of idolatry arose before the mind's eye 
 like themonster of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, Brahmans, 
 ftikeers and soodras in thousands swarming at the 
 base. Each arrowlike sentence of appeal for help was 
 barbed with reproach to the selfish Britons who had 
 come home rich without doing anything to enlighten 
 
iCt. 30. AN OrrONENT TO THE LAW OF GRAVITATION. 32 1 
 
 the natives of *poor, plllnged, ravaged, unhappy 
 India.' When all was over the missionary sank back 
 exhausted, and had to rest half-way down the pulpit 
 stairs. One at least of the young who had heard him 
 had to seek shelter in bed on returning home, to hide 
 the marks of weeping,' ready to join on the morrow in 
 the project of a school companion whose emotions had 
 taken the practical shape of a penny a week subscrip- 
 tion." 
 
 Dr. Duffs host, on ^his occasion, was the Rev. Dr. 
 "William Thomson, whose portly figure and exalted 
 character used to strike him with awe when ho was 
 a boy at Perth Academy. In his own field of genial 
 scholarship and active philanthropy he was worthy 
 of his more famous brother, Andrew Thomson of St. 
 George's. The tremendous strides of the missionary, 
 as he walked with her father to the top of Kinnoul 
 hill, so alarmed the youngest daughter, now Mrs. 
 Omond of Monzie, that she was glad when he stopped 
 at the Tay bridge to take a long fond look of the 
 hills among which his father's cottage lay. When, in 
 1863, the old man passed away at the age of ninety, 
 Dr. Duff, then still in India, recalled in a public letter 
 the long career of Dr. William Thomson, and declared 
 that his had been " one of the happiest, most genial, 
 and alike to head and heart most exhilarating domes- 
 tic circles in Christendom." 
 
 It was during this Perthshire tour that Dr. Guthrie, 
 following hard on Dr. Duff's track in the cause of 
 church extension, found this trace of him at Abernyte. 
 Mr. Wilson, the minister of the parish, had as his as- 
 sistant that James Hamilton who became an accom- 
 plished naturalist and Edward Irving's successor in 
 London. But Wilson himself was an opponent of Sir 
 Isaac Newton in the law of gravitation. It grieved 
 him that his Church's first missionary should dream of 
 
 Y 
 
322 LIFE or DE. DUFF. 1 836 
 
 subverting Hindooism by a science quite as false as 
 the cosmogony of the Yeds. Dr. Guthrie attempted to 
 reason with the animated fossil, and then pretended to 
 bo so far convinced as to ask most meekly how it is 
 that the people of the antipodes do not drop off into 
 boundless space. " AVell sir," said the simple oppo- 
 nent of Sir Isaac Newton, " they keep on just as the 
 flies do which you see there walking along the ceil- 
 ing." Some of the a 'priori objections to Dr. Duff's 
 evangelistic system of education were quite as well 
 founded. 
 
 In two instances only did the Indian missionary 
 meet with rudeness. One occurred under circum- 
 stances whicb have caused the event to be traditional 
 in the place. Appealed to long after for the facts, he 
 thus told the story. The presbytery of Dunbar had 
 been summoned to meet in the parish kirk of the 
 town. Dr. Duff was received the evening before the 
 meeting under the hospitable roof of Mr. Sawers. On 
 setting out to visit the minister of the kirk, as was his 
 first duty, he was gently warned that his reception 
 might not be very cordial. The Rev. Mr. Jaffray, he 
 was told, was notoriously hostile to foreign missions 
 generally, and was by no means reconciled to those of 
 his own Ohui*ch. This did not deter Dr. Duff, whose . 
 duty it plainly was to show courtesy to the man in 
 whose kirk he was to address the presbytery and the 
 people. After some hesitation the servant admitted 
 him, and he followed her to the study so closely 
 that further denial was impossible. Mr. Jaffray stood 
 up, and glaring at the intruder with fury, shouted out 
 in tones heard by the passers-by in the street out- 
 side, " Are you the fanatic Duff who has been going 
 about the country beguiling and deceiving people 
 by what they choose to call missions to the heathen ? 
 I don't want to see you, or any of your descrip- 
 
^t. 30. THE BRAHMAN OF DUNDAR. 323 
 
 tiou. I want no Indian snake brou^lifc in araonof 
 my people to poison their minds on sucli subjects ; 
 so as I don't want to see yon tlie sooner you make 
 off the better." Dr. Duff stood calm and impertur- 
 bable for a little, and then, breaking he silence, said 
 that he had come merely to show him courtesy as the 
 minister of the parish and an ordained minister of the 
 Established Church, as both of them were. As he 
 must be aware to-morrow the meeting of presbytery 
 was to be held in his church, he, Dr. Duff, thought it 
 only due to him to show this tribute of respect and 
 courtesy. With permission therefore Dr. Duff very 
 briefly would tell him the nature and object of his 
 visit to Dunbar under the sanction and recommen- 
 dation of the General Assembly. He did so very 
 briefly because he saw in Mr. Jaffray's countenance 
 that the churl was all the while in wrathful agony. 
 
 When Dr. Duff ended, he said he had nothing more 
 to explain and would now retire. " By all means," the 
 reply was, in a surly tone, *' the sooner the better. I 
 never want to see your face again on earth. I was no 
 party to the meeting to-morrow. The presbytery had a 
 perfect right to fix on my church; but as for me, I had 
 nothing to do with it ; I shall not go near the meeting, 
 for T hate the s>ibjcct,i and might almost .say the same 
 thinof of him who has been the means of callinof such 
 a meeting to disturb the feelings of my people and in- 
 troduce what may be new strifes and divisions among 
 us." Dr. Duff, in a single sentence, said ho hoped 
 and trusted it would turn out otherwise, since the 
 blessed Saviour's command was, " Go into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature," and the 
 present was but a humble attempt on the part of the 
 Established Church of Scotland to obey this partiiig 
 and imperative commission. All this time both were 
 standing in the middle of the floor; so Dr. Duff, respect- 
 
3^4 LIFE OP DU. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 fully bowing, bade him good-night, and retired to his 
 congenial quarters. That evening Dr. Duff said no- 
 thing, except, in answer to a question, stating in 
 general terms that the warning Mr. Sawers had given 
 had not been in vain. Next day, however, he was 
 everywhere met by parties personally unknown to 
 him, who condoled with him on the strange recep- 
 tion given to him by their minister. " The truth 
 is," they said, " wo expected nothing cordial, but we 
 never dreamed that he would stoop to such rudeness." 
 After this ]\Ir. Jaffray very generally throughout the 
 bounds of the Church, when this remarkable incident 
 became known, went under the name of the Brahman of 
 Dunbar. Tbe intention was to indicate his barbarous 
 rudeness, but the greatest injustice was thus in Ignor- 
 ance done to the Brahmans of India, more particularly 
 the learned and studious class, who are among the 
 most courteous and gentlemanly persons to be met 
 with. 
 
 By this time the effect of Dr. Duff's work in Scot- 
 land had spread across the border, influencing churches 
 and societies in England. When in the midst of 
 his organization of associations in Perthshire, ho 
 was pressed by mi«ny: and repeated invitations 
 from the great missionary and religious societies in 
 London to address them in the coming month of 
 May. Even those who had most ignorantly objected 
 to his Assembly oration of 1835, that it did not re- 
 present the operations of other Christians in India, 
 had by this time discovered, alike from his provincial 
 addresses and the repre^,entations of their agents in 
 Bengal, the catholicity of his spirit and the extent of 
 his zealous co-operation with all the Protestant mis- 
 sionaries in Calcutta and the neighbourhood. Espe- 
 cially was this the case with the Church Missionary 
 Society, the noble evangelical organization of the 
 
JEt. 30. niS FIGST EXETER HALL ORATION. 325 
 
 Cliurch. of England, whose representatives in Bengal, 
 Doaltry, Corrio and Sandys had been his most inti- 
 mate fellow-workers. His response to that society's 
 earnest appeal to address its annual meeting in Ma 
 was the beginning of a relation which, as we shall see, 
 became closer and more loving on both sides till the 
 end. Never before had the directors deemed it expe- 
 dient to go out of their own episcopal circle to find 
 speakers, till Dr. Duff was thus enabled to return, on 
 a wider scale, the kindness of Dealtry and Corrio to 
 himself when he first landed in Bengal. When the 
 meeting was held in London he found himself on the 
 platform seated between the Bishops of Chester and 
 Winchester. When the latter had spoken the young 
 Presbyterian apostle rose, and so addressed them that 
 the interest and emotion of the vast audience continued 
 to increase till he sat down amid a tempest of enthu- 
 siastic applause. We have no report of this effort 
 beyond its effect, which the Bishop of Chester indicated 
 when, following Dr. Duff after a long pause, he declared 
 with characteristic gravity that he had waited until the 
 gush of emotion excited by the preceding speaker had 
 been somewhat assuaged. When all was over, among 
 otlidrs the ^godtyMr. C^arws, one of Mie deans :of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, introduced himself to Dr. Duff, 
 and at once exacted the promise that the missionary 
 would accompany himself in a day or two on a visit 
 to the University. 
 
 Other circumstances apart, the peculiar interest 
 of this visit to Cambridge lies in the meeting for the 
 first and last time of the aged Simeon and the young 
 Duff. Simeon was within a few months of his death, 
 but even after half a century's labours for the Master, 
 in England and Scotland and for India, he was appa- 
 rently in health and vigour. He and Dr. Duff had what 
 the latter afterwards described as " a very prolonged 
 
326 LIFE OP DR. DUFP. 1836, 
 
 scdenint.** He was full of questions regarding India 
 and its missions, for which ho had done so much 
 all that time. And we may be sure that, among the 
 other topics which occupied that memorable conversa- 
 tion, the Moulin revival was not forgotten. We have 
 already traced the spiritual ancestry of Duff to Simeon, 
 from the journal of the latter, written in 179G, when 
 the events occurred. The record of them, or the talk 
 about them forty years after by the venerable saint and 
 his own son in the faith, the evangelical Anglican and 
 the evangelical Presbyterian, it is now possible for us 
 to recall from Duff's talk afterwards. 
 
 "What during the conversation gave Simeon such 
 profound interest in the Moulin revival of 179G was 
 the remembrance of his own share in the quickening. 
 His host, Mr. Stewart, the parish minister, was then 
 a comparatively young man, an excellent and accom- 
 plished scholar, but without any evidence of true piety. 
 Ho was of a frank and cheerful disposition, and was a 
 great favourite with the people, for whom he had always 
 a kind word. His life, as written by Dr. Sieveright, of 
 Markinph, shows how by degrees he became unhappy, 
 from the conviction that there was something real in 
 Christianity which he did not possess and had not 
 discovered. The exceeding honesty of his intellectual 
 nature showed itself thus, as one present told Dr. Duff. 
 Mr. Stewart had read the preliminary psalm at public 
 worship in the church on the Lord's-day, and w^is 
 about to give out his text, when he leaned over the book 
 board, and looking round with a saddened, piercing 
 eye on his congregation, he said to them in substance : 
 " My brethren, I am bound in truth and faithfulness to 
 tell you that I feel myself to be in great ignorance and 
 much blindness on the subject of vital religion. I feel 
 like one groping in the dark for light, and as yet I 
 have found none. But I think it right to tell you, 
 
^.t. 30. HIS ACCOUNT OF SIMEON's VISIT TO MOULIN. 327 
 
 tliat if God in mercy will give me any measure of the 
 tnie Ufjht, joyfully shall I impart the same to you. Do 
 you therefore, all of you, pray God fervently that lie 
 may be pleased to bescow upon me the tnio litjlttf or 
 such portions of it as He may deem fit for me." 
 
 An announcement of so novel and startling a kind, 
 indicating such simplicity and godly sincerity, could 
 not but produce a profound sensation. The news 
 rapidly spread, not only through the parish but 
 through the surrounding country. One of the con- 
 sequences was that many even of the most careless 
 and ungodly were wont to go every Lord's-day to 
 church in the expectation of hearing that the minister 
 had found what he called the true light. Still Aveeks 
 and months passed without any discovery being made 
 to him. At last it so happened that Mr. Simeon, 
 of Cambridge, and the Rev. James Haldane, of the 
 Tabernacle; Edinburgh, had arranged to make an 
 extensive tour through the north of Scotland, preach- 
 ing the gospel as they might find opportunity. On 
 a Thursday they had arranged from Dunkeld to 
 visit Blair- Athole, about twenty miles distant. They 
 had to stop at Pitlochrie, which is about half-way. 
 At that time there was a small country inn there. Ou 
 arrival they told the innkeeper that as early as he 
 could manage it ' they wanted a couple of horses to 
 take them to Blair- Athole. ** Na, na," said the inn- 
 keeper, " this is our fast day, as the sacrament is to be 
 held next Sabbath, and we regard the fast day like 
 another Sabbath, and we do not hire horses or vehicles 
 on the Lord's-day." '* Well," said Simeon, " I suppose 
 there is worship in the parish church to-day ? " " Oh, 
 yes," said the innkeeper, naming the hour. " Well," 
 said Simeon, " though this in one respect is a disap- 
 pointment to us, it may be that in some other respects, 
 as yet unknown to us, God may have some gracious 
 
328 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 design in it, so let us go at once to tlio English worship 
 at Moulin." Towards the evening of the day, after all 
 the services, English and Gaelic, were ended. Simoon 
 and Ilaldano resolved to call at the manse and see the 
 minister, who received them with great heartiness. 
 After some converse Mr. Simeon, from his sage, 
 spiritual experience, could not but notice there were 
 internal workings in the soul of Stewart which to him 
 looked like the incipient influence of divine grace. Mr. 
 Stewart was greatly refreshed by Mr. Simeon's con- 
 verse, and in parting with both in the evening he said 
 to them, "You can see every tiling that is worth seeing 
 in and about Blair- Athole by Saturday afternoon; " so ho 
 implored them both to come to the manse on Saturday 
 evening, attend the church on Sabbath, and partake or 
 not partake, as they thought proper, of the sacrament. 
 Mr. Stewart said that as minister of the parish he would 
 be expected to preach what the Scotch were in the habit 
 of calling the "action sermon " — sermon before the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament — but that on sacrament 
 Sunday they had always public service in the church 
 in the evening, as the people's haarts were then 
 surcharged with feelings of love and pious emotion. 
 That sermon Mr. Stewart asked Mr. Simeon to preach. 
 Simeon agreed, and it is very remarkable how that 
 sermon was blessed of God as the signal instrument 
 of opening Mr. Stewart's eyes to discern the h^ue lujlit 
 of the everlasting gospel. 
 
 His own declaration w .s, that about the middle of the 
 sermon Mr. Simeon, who had evidently studied his case 
 and endeavoured to adapt as much of the discourse as 
 was practicable to it, uttered a few sentences which to 
 Mr. Stewart looked like a revelation from heaven. His 
 own significant expression was, that it seemed as if 
 the dense cloud canopy which had hitherto inter- 
 posed between his soul and the vision of God in Christ 
 
JEt 30. HIS ACCOUNT OP THE MOULIN REVIVAL. 329 
 
 roconciliTig a guilty world to Himself, had suddenly 
 burst asunder, and through the chink a stream of light 
 had como down direct from heaven into his soul, dis- 
 placing the darkness which had hitherto brooded over 
 it, filling it with light, and enabling him to rejoice with 
 exceeding great joy. He was wont, also, to add, that 
 in spite of partial obscurations afterwards, this light 
 never wholly left him, but continued to anini'ite, 
 cheer and guide him through all his ministerial and 
 other labours. On the following Lord's-day Mr. 
 Stewart was enabled joyfully to announce publicly 
 from the pulpit, that the light which ho sought 
 for and waited for from heaven had at last dawned 
 upon him and filled his soul with gladness ; he would 
 therefore proceed Sabbath after Sabbath to give out 
 as much of it as he could to his own people and others 
 who might choose to be present. He then commenced 
 a series of discourses on the 3rd chapter of St. John's 
 Gospel, which awakened, aroused and enlightened 
 numbers of the people. Parties were wont to como 
 every Sabbath from all the surrounding parishes, so 
 that the work became very extensive, and proved a 
 mighty revival, in which scores of the previously care- 
 less, indifferent and godless became genuine converts 
 to the truth as it is in Jesus, and continued so all their 
 days. Yea, instead of diminishing, their light went 
 on increasing and abounding. However humble in 
 their circumstances, however illiterate, their souls be- 
 came replenished with the truths of the Bible, so as to 
 become burning and shining lights to all around them. 
 All this will account for the deep interest felt by 
 Mr. Simeon when Dr. Duff called upon him, as tho 
 father and mother of the missionary when young 
 and unmarried came more or less under the arous- 
 ing influences of the great revival. About three or 
 four months after this Mr. Simeon was called to his 
 
33^ LIFK OP Dll. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 eternal reward, but tliougli ho rests from his Libours, 
 his works, in many of their blessed and fruitful 
 spiritual consequences, do still follow him. Such 
 is substantially Dr. Duff's account of what he had 
 hoard of the ^loulin revival, and of what Simeon and 
 ho had talked over in Cambridge. The Baptist Carey, 
 the Anglican Simeon, the IVloderato Inglis, and the 
 Evangelical Chalmers, united with such Congrega- 
 tionalist contemporaries as Urquhart and Lacroix to 
 link Duff into a truly apostolical succession, divided 
 by no party and confined to no sect. 
 
 As the guest of Cams at Cambridge, Dr. DufT occu- 
 pied the rooms in which Sir Isaac Newton made many 
 of his most remarkable discoveries in optics. The old 
 St. Andrews student revelled in associations in which 
 no college in the world is more rich. For Trinity, 
 which Henry VIII. founded and his daughters en- 
 riched, had been the nursery not only of the Church's 
 most learned prelates and theologians, but of Bacon 
 as well as Newton, of Jowlcy and Dry don and Andrew 
 Mar veil. When dining daily in the common hall with 
 the professors and students, he had much converse 
 with Whewoll, who was master from 1841, when he suc- 
 ceeded Christopher Wordsworth, to 18G6 when he was 
 followed by " Jupiter " Thompson, the present master. 
 But what interested him most of all, after the living 
 Simeon, was the collection of the Milton MSS. in the 
 museum of the college. There he saw the list, in Mil- 
 ton's own hand, of the hundred titles, or more, which 
 the poet had jotted down on returning from Italy, in 
 his thirty-first year, as possible subjects of a great 
 English poem. There " Paradise Lost " appears at the 
 head of them all, and also four drafts of it for dramatic 
 treatment,* the drama to open, as the poet's nephew 
 
 * See Professor Masson's perfect Globe Edition of The Poetical 
 Works of John Milton 0877), page 11. 
 
JEt 30. CAMBRIDOE ASSOCIATIONS OP MILTON. ^^ I 
 
 Pliillips tells US, with Satan's speech on first beliolding 
 the glories of the new world and the sun, as now 
 given near the beginning of the fourth book of the 
 epic. 
 
 Ever in the midst of his absorbing talks with Simeon 
 and Cams about missions, Dr. DufT was constrained by 
 the fjc]ilii.H loci to think of Milton. When walking by tho 
 Cam, on one occasion, he expressed surprise that no re- 
 gular Cambridge student had then offered his services 
 as a missionary. Cams, in reply, drew his attention to 
 tho exceeding beauty of the spot ; to the loveliness 
 of the grounds and their adornments ; to the banks of 
 the Cam witli their grotesque variety of flowers, tho 
 willow trees overlianging tho stream, the umbrageous 
 shade cast by other trees on the footpaths along tho 
 lawns, seats to invite the student to enjoy his favourite 
 books ; to tho exquisite order in which all things wero 
 kept. All this, said Cams, tended insensibly to 
 act on human nature, and produce an intensely re- 
 fined and luxurious state of mind, with corresponding 
 tastes and predilections from which it would be diffi- 
 cult to wean the student so as to induce him to 
 , become a voluntary exile to distant shores teeming 
 with the abominations of heathenism. The remark, 
 Dr. Dufi" replied, had some force in it, in the case 
 of the old nature. But this ought not to present 
 difficulties to the child of God, who professed to act 
 by faith and not by sight. Whoever was resolute of 
 purpose as a son of God, would find divine grace 
 more than sufficient to wean him not only from tho 
 academic illusions of Cambridge, but from ail the 
 world besides. But then, turning to the river at their 
 side, he exclaimed in the lines of the exquisite Lycidas, 
 the memorial poem which Milton wrote on the death 
 of Edward King, his fellow-student at Christ's Col- 
 lege : — 
 
332 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 "Next, Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow. 
 His mantle hairy and Lis bonnet sedf^e, 
 Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 
 Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 
 ' Ah ! who hath reft/ quoth he, ' my dearest pledge ? ' ** 
 
 At that time Mr. Cams could not venture to call 
 a public missionary meeting in the college, but the 
 Major presided over a great gathering of students 
 and citizens in the town-hall, whom Dr. Duff addressed 
 at length on India and its missions. From Cambridge 
 he went to Leamington, where he gained some advan- 
 tage from the treatment of the then celebrated Dr. 
 Jephson. Having avoided the excitement of the 
 General Assembly of 1836, ho thus spent the summer 
 in England. But on his return to Scotland in autumn, 
 to complete his organization of the presbyteries and 
 congregations, he was sternly ordered by the physicians 
 to rest at Edradour. Rest for him was impossible. 
 He induced them to wink at occasional raids, made 
 for three or four weeks at a time, in different directions 
 from that centre. Thus the months passed till the 
 General Assembly of 1837. 
 
 During all his wanderings north and south. Dr. Duff 
 kept up a close correspondence with his colleagues, 
 Messrs. Mackay and Ewart, in Calcutta, and with 
 other frib.ids of the mission there. He was a keen 
 observer of public affairs in the closing days of Lord 
 William Bentinck's administration, and the opening 
 promise of that of Lord Metcalfe, whom the jealous 
 Court of Directors refused to appoint permanent 
 Governor-General. Of how much that was most bril- 
 liant and abiding in these times could we not say that 
 he had been a part ? How he explained to the English 
 public the exact meaning of Lord Wil. m's educational 
 minutes of 1835, in his " New Era of the English 
 Language," wo have told. The following extract 
 
JEt. 30. NATIVE CHEISTIANS AS PHYSICIANS. 333 
 
 from an official letter to the committee, gives us his 
 impressions of the other great triumph in the estab- 
 lishment of the Bengal Medical College : — 
 
 " Eduadour, IWb July, 1835. 
 " I have just received a letter from an intimate 
 friend in Calcutta, Mr. J. Nelson, attorney of tho 
 Supreme Court, and now a member of our correspond- 
 ins: board. Ho writes : — 
 
 
 * You will f reqv -^ntly have heard that the school is doing 
 well. Within the last few days a prospect has been opened up 
 likely to be very beneficial to it. I allude to an entirely new 
 construction of the medical school with which Dr. Tytler was 
 connected, which has been placed under Dr. ]3raniley, who is 
 to receive boys from the various seminaries, qualified by their 
 knowledge of English to become pupils for education in 
 medicine. He states that in tho formation of his plan, ho 
 particularly looked forward to our seminary for a supply, and 
 at a visit he made to it the other day he found a number of 
 boys most Avilling to go to him, I think there can be no 
 differences of opinion as to the advantages likely to accrue by 
 this opening for the young men. It is true that the primary 
 object we have in view is the endowing them with a know- 
 ledge of Christianity, and sending them forth as teachers and 
 preachers amongst their benighted countrymen ; but it is easy 
 to perceive that for many years persons so sent forth would 
 require to be supported by our funds, and wq have not the 
 means of doing so except to a limited few. Besides, it appears 
 to me to bo hit^hly valuable to have a portion of native Chris- 
 tians as laymen, interspersed among the brethren, particularly 
 in such a respectable character as that of a doctor; for it is not 
 intended that they shall, when qualified, be drafted out to tho 
 army. On the contrary, they are to receive the education 
 and thereafter to have a free control in the exercise of their 
 knowledge and talents, in such way and manner as they may 
 respectively think proper. The jail of tho Court having been 
 vacated, Dr, Bramley has applied for it, and I believe I may 
 say that Government have agreed to give it for a small renti 
 one portion to be occupied by our school, and the other by his 
 
334 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 medical seminary, whereby sucli of our pupils as fancy medi- 
 cine will be completing themselves in the higher branches 
 of education, at the same time that they are receiving medical 
 instruction.' 
 
 " Of the intention of Government to remodel the 
 old native medical institution in Calcutta I was fully 
 aware upwards of two years ago. Dr. Tytler, at the 
 head of it, and his coadjutors were of the old school 
 of orientalists, who strenuously upheld the necessity 
 of communicating all ^ \iropean science to the natives 
 throuG^h the medium of the learned lano^uaGfes of the 
 East. The decisive experiments of the last few years 
 in Calcutta have tended entirely to explode this opinion, 
 and leave it a refuge only in the minds of a few of the 
 old orientalists. In remodelling the medical school, 
 the grand controverted question was, whether, as 
 heretofore, the knowledge should be conveyed to 
 Mussulmans in Arabic and Hindoos in Sanscrit, or 
 Avhether it should not be conveyed to both through 
 the medium of En2:lish. A Government committee 
 was appointed to receive and examine evidence from 
 all quarters, and thtxi submit a formal report to the 
 supreme Government. The three most active men 
 in this committee were Mr. Trevelyan, the deputy 
 political secretary; Dr. J. Grant, the writer of the 
 account of the last examination of our Institution, and 
 Dr. Bramley. Being all intimate friends of my own, 
 I was from time to time appr. "ed of the progress and 
 results of their inquiries ; to u^^out fifty questions 
 relative to the state and prospects of English educa- 
 tion in Bengal, I gave a lengtheied reply in writing. 
 Before I left India this report was finally completed, 
 and being favoured with a perusal of that part which 
 related to the question of general education, I had the 
 satisfaction to perceive that tlie new views on this 
 subject were recommended in such a way as to insure 
 
Mt 30. LETTER TO DE. EWAET. 335 
 
 tlieir adoption on the part of Government. And glad 
 I am, for tlie sake of our Institution and for the real 
 welfare of India, that this has been the consummation. 
 The superintendence of the medical school being taken 
 from Dr. Tytler, the champion of antiquated opinions, 
 and given to Dr. Bramley, the enlightened supporter 
 of sounder views, furnishes a guarantee of indefinite 
 future good to India, as it is the test of the triumph 
 of enlightened principles and measures among the 
 powers that be . . Two Calcutta letters have just 
 reached me by the morning post, the one from JMr. 
 Trevelyan detailing the stops relative to the medical 
 institution, the other, consisting of not less than four 
 sheets, from Dr. Bryce. 'J^he doctor seems really to 
 be most enthusiastic in our cause." 
 
 " London, 22iid Juno, 1836. 
 
 "My Dear Ewart, — I cannot possibly describe to 
 yon the Intenscness of interest which our mission 
 now excites in our native land. The eyes of all Scot- 
 land are now upon you. Oh, that God in His mercy 
 would pour out Ilis Spirit and seal home the truth to 
 the hearts of numbers, yea, thousands of the perishing 
 heathen ! I had once cherished fondly the hope that 
 this summer I would be retracing my steps to India. 
 This, however, I find to be an impossibility ; the truth 
 is, that the labours at home, into which I was im- 
 pelled for the sake of arousing the Christian public, 
 have retarded the progress of my recovery, and 
 reduced me to the lowest state of exhaustion. From 
 this it will require some time to recover, and yet ray 
 work at home is not ended. The only thing that 
 reconciles mc to the detention in my native land, is the 
 assured fact that God has been pleased to employ me 
 as an humble instrument in stirring up the slumbering 
 zeal of our Church, and that the instrumentality haa 
 
33^ LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 been crowned witli a success wliich I never, never, 
 never anticijiated I Thanks be to God for all His un- 
 deserved mercies. 
 
 *' 1 now understand the mystery of Providence in 
 sending mc from India. What between vile politics 
 and fierce voluntaryism our cause was well nigh being 
 entirely engulfed in oblivion. At first I could scarcely 
 get from any one or in any place a patient hearing. 
 Now, if I had a thousand tongues, they might simul- 
 taneously be raised in a thousand pulpits. * The spirit 
 is willing,* but, alas, * the flesh is weak.' Pray for 
 me — that after having left a flame burning behind me, 
 I may be speedily restored to you. Yours affection- 
 
 ^* "Alexander Duff." 
 
 Dr. Duff did not leave London, on this occasion, 
 without spending a forenoon with Lord William Ben- 
 tinck. After breakfast the two philanthropists enjoyed 
 the fullest and freest converse regarding the conduct 
 and policy of the Government in India, past and 
 present. Relieved of tne responsibilities of Governor- 
 General Lord William was able to criticise most 
 frankly the anomalous constitution of the East India 
 Company, of the Board of Control created to enable the 
 Crown to check and overrule the Court of Directors, 
 and of the administration in India itself in all its 
 branches. The critic commended some institutions 
 and persons, but exposed the faults and weaknesses of 
 many more. Of that priceless experience, as of the 
 still riper knowledge which Dalhousie and Lord Can- 
 ning took with them to a premature grave, there is no 
 detailed record. Rulers stumble on to-day repeating 
 the mistakes of their greater predecessors and dream- 
 ing that their statesmanship is new because they are 
 blind to the past. 
 
 Whilst the conversation was still fresh in his mind, 
 
JEt. 30. LORD W. BENTINCE ON GOVERNING INDIA. 337 
 
 Dr. Duff wrote down a very full and minute state- 
 ment of the whole, which, as a curiosity, he sent to 
 the Foreign Missions Committee.* One thing, how- 
 ever, was never effaced from his memory : Lord W. 
 Bentinck with great emphasis said that some believed 
 the Government in India was an absolute irresponsible 
 despotism. Others were equally strong in the belief 
 that the Court of Directors was the originating and 
 directing power. Others again were as strongly con- 
 vinced that the real power lay with the President of 
 the Board of Control, with the British Parliament at 
 his back. But, he added, one thing that struck him, 
 and of the truth of which he had the amplest ex- 
 perience, was this, that in the office of the President 
 of the Board of Control the chief secretary, through 
 whose hands all official documents were sent out and 
 sent home, for a long period — between forty and fifty 
 years — exercised a power to which no President of 
 the Board of Control, no Director, no Governor- 
 General or any other respousiblo official could pretend. 
 Lord William Bentiuc] soon after addressed this 
 letter to Dr. Duff: — 
 
 " Frankfort, August 27th, 1835. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I am confident you will excuse my 
 seeming uncourteous return for your very kind letter, 
 when I assure you that the weakness that I brought 
 with me from India, and greatly increased by all the 
 excitement, fatigue and bustle consequent upon my 
 return, completely incapacitated me for all business 
 and exertion, and it is only here and at Bruxelles that 
 a day of leisure and quiet has given me an opportunity 
 of offering this explanation to many friends whose 
 
 * This letter is not among those most kindly copied for us from 
 the records of the Established Church of Scotland. 
 
338 LIFE OF DK. DUFF. 1836. 
 
 letters I have been equally compelled to neglect. Lady 
 William begs that I will express also her acknowledg- 
 ments for your obliging inquiries. She is, I am sorry 
 to say, a greater invalid than myself. We have been 
 both advised to take the mineral waters of Germany — 
 she, those of Schwalbach in Nassau, and I, those of 
 Carlsbad in Bohemia. My health has much improved 
 since I left London. 
 
 "I am much gra'^ied to hear of your successful 
 operations in Scotland. It must bo the result of great 
 personal exertion alone, for though I have had ample 
 reason to know the indifference and apathy that 
 generally prevail respecting all matters connected with 
 India, yet even with all this experience I was not pre- 
 pared for the feeling of dislike almost with which any 
 mention of India is received. But this conviction of 
 a sad truth, this disgraceful proof of British selfishness 
 ought only to have the effect of exciting those deeply 
 interested in the moral and religious welfare of the 
 people of India to renewed efforts in their behalf. 
 
 " I have always considered the Hindoo College as 
 one of the greatest engines of useful purpose that had 
 been erected since our establishment in India; but that 
 institution, in point of usefulness, can bear no com- 
 parison with yours, in which improved education of 
 every kind is combined with religious instruction. I 
 will not prolong this letter further than to say that I 
 cannot be more gratified with any man's good opinion 
 than by yours, and wishing you health and happi- 
 ness, I remain, dear sir, your friend and well-wisher, 
 
 " W. Bentinck." 
 
 This, the greatest of the Bentincks, who thus ex- 
 presses something like shame at a degree of English 
 apathy to India still prevailing in spite of warnings 
 like the first Afghan war and the Mutiny for which 
 
JEt. 30. MACAULAY ON LORD W. BENTINCK. 339 
 
 that iniquity was the preparation, died four years 
 after, having represented Ghisgow in the House of 
 Commons. Born in 1774, he was sixty-five years of 
 age when his ripe experience was lost to a country and 
 a ministry which preferred to the wise Metcalfe a 
 place-hunter like Lord Auckland. But Heaven takes 
 vengeance on a land for preferring the political par- 
 tisans of the hour to its truly good and great states- 
 men. The equally noble Lady AVilliam, renowned in 
 the East for her Christian charities, was the second 
 daughter of the first Earl of Gosford, and survived her 
 husband till May, 1843. This great Governor General's 
 epitaph was written by Macaulay, in the inscription 
 which covers the pedestal of the statue erected oppo- 
 site the town-hall of Calcutta by grateful natives and 
 Europeans alike : — " To William Cavendish Bentinck, 
 who during seven years ruled India with eminent 
 prudence, integrity and benevolence ; who, placed at 
 the head of a great empire, never laid aside the sim- 
 plicity and moderation of a private citizen ; who in- 
 fused into Oriental despotism the spirit of British 
 freedom; who never forgot that the end of government 
 is the welfare of the governed; who abolished cruel 
 rites, who eff'aced humiliating distinctions, who allowed 
 liberty to the expression of public opinion, whose con- 
 stant study it was to elevate the moral and intellectual 
 character of the Government committed to his charge, 
 this Monument was erected by men who, differing 
 from each other in race, in manners, in language and 
 in religion, cherish with equal veneration and grati- 
 tude the memory of his wise, upright and paternal 
 administration," 
 
CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 1837-1839. 
 FISHERS OF MEN. 
 
 Effect of First Assembly Speech in Drawing Men. — Rev. Jolin Mac- 
 donald gives Himself. — M'Cheyno almost Drawn. — Glasgow 
 supplies James Halley. — The Letters of Principal Macfarlan and 
 Dr. Duff. — Dr. Coldstream and Medical Mi.ssions. — John Ander- 
 son gives himself to ^ladras. — Followed by Johnston and Bi aid- 
 wood. — Drs. Murray Mitchell and T. Smith. — Stephen Hislop. — 
 Duff's Great Speech in Exeter Hall. — Spiritual Destitution of 
 India. — Indignant Satire on the Church's Apathy. — The Calculus 
 of Eternity, and the Arithmetic of Time. — Missionary sacrifice in 
 the Light of Christ Himself. — General Assembly of 1837. — Duff's 
 Vindication of the Mission. — The two bigotries, of Infidelity and 
 an unwise Pietism. — Native Apostles. — Duff appeals to Posterity. 
 — Mistake of the Indian Presbyteries in the Training of Native 
 Missionaries. — Dr. Macwhirter's Command. — Prize Essays on 
 Foreign Missions. — Dr. Chalmers and the position of the Kirk in 
 1839.— Letter to Dr. Ewart.— Ordination of Dr. T. Smith.— 
 Epistle to all Young Theologians. — Speech on Female Education. 
 — Lectures and Book on India and India Missions. — Farewell to 
 the General Assembly of 1839. — The Press. — Personal References. 
 — Gifts for the College Building, Library and Scholarships. — 
 Duff pleads with Thomas Guthrie to go to India. — Dr. Chal- 
 mers endorses Duff's System, and acknowledges his Christian 
 Economics. — The Farewell to Moulin and to the Children. 
 
 In the two and a half years after his return home 
 at the beginning of 1835, convalescent from the dy- 
 sentery of Bengal but subject to the recurrence of 
 its jungle fever, Dr. Duff had nearly completed his 
 work of organization. Only the fervour of his zeal, 
 and the power of recovery from exhaustion due to 
 a splendid physique which marked his whole life, had 
 enabled him to visit and address seventy-one presby- 
 teries and synods and hundreds of congregations all 
 over Scotland. This he had done during the rigours 
 
i?Lt. 31. DRAWING MEN TO INDIA. 34 1 
 
 of winter and the heats of summer, when as yet the 
 canal boat, the stage-coach, and the post-carriage wore 
 the most rapid moans of conveyance. Twice ho had 
 visited London and some of the principal cities in 
 England on the same mission. But that mission was 
 not merely or ultimatoly the establishment of associa- 
 tions to collect money, nor even the diffusion through 
 the Churclics of a missionary spirit. Those were but 
 means to tlie great end of discovering and sending 
 out men of the highest faith and scholarship to carry 
 on the work he had begun in Bengal, to extend it to 
 Madras, and to strengthen Bombay. For, with his 
 delighted concurrence, the General Assembly of 1835 
 had received under its superintendence the Scottish 
 ]\-Tissionary Society's stations in Bombay and Poena, 
 then under the care of Dr. Wilson, Mr. Nesbit and 
 Mr. J. Mitchell. The Kirk's Bengal Mission, with its 
 one missionary of 1829-31, must, according to Dr. 
 Duff, grow into the India Mission, to christianize the 
 progress which was radiating out from all the groat 
 English centres in the East. 
 
 Hence the most real and fruitful result of his first 
 Assembly speech and of those which followed it, in 
 Scotland and in England, was in drawing men to give 
 themselves to India. The whole religious biography 
 of the former country relating to that period is 
 coloured by his influence or bears traces of his per- 
 suasive power. We have already told how his early 
 visit to the London presbytery had converted the Rev. 
 John Macdonald from an opponent of his system into 
 such an advocate of it that the minister of Chadwoll 
 Street, Pentonville, threw up his homo charge and took 
 his place beside ]\Iackay and Ewart in Calcutta. Son 
 of that Dr. Macdonald of Ferintosh, who was worthy 
 of the name he bore, of "apostle of the Highlands," 
 John Macdonald published a " Statement of Reasons 
 
342 LIFE OF DIl. DUFF. 1837. 
 
 for Accepting a Call to go to India as a Missionary,'* 
 wliicli, as followed by his self-sacrificing life theroiifter, 
 was the most powerful testimony to the cause Dr. 
 Duff had yet called forth. No one can give moro 
 than himself; no gift to any cau::?o can bo moro 
 precious than that of the whole sphitualised nature 
 of a man who is in earnest to the death, ».«» John 
 Macdonald proved to be. In Macdonald Dr. Duff 
 early saw, and found for the ten years of the new 
 missionary's Indian experience, an intense spiritual 
 force to give increased evangelistic efficiency to 
 the Calcutta college. " Your special and peculiar 
 vocation," he wrote to his new colleague before 
 sending him forth, '* would bo to impart, through the 
 blessing of God's Spirit, a spiritual impression to tho 
 minds of scores that have already become dispossessed 
 of Hindooism, as well as to preach whenever an open- 
 ing presented itself, to adult idolaters. Our plan is 
 now so extended as to admit of a division of labour." 
 We have seen how young M'Cheyne and Somer- 
 ville were moved by the interview which they sought 
 with the returned missionary. Duff never lost his 
 hold on M'Cheyne, who soon after formed one of the 
 Church's mission of inquiry into the condition of the 
 Jews in Palestine and Eastern Europe. In April, 
 1836, the saintly young preacher wrote in his jour- 
 nal : — " Went to Stirling to hear Dr. Duff once more 
 upon his system. With greater warmth and energy 
 than ever. He kindles as he goes. Felt almost con- 
 strained to go the whole length of his system with 
 him. If it were only to raise up an audience it would 
 be defensible, but when it is to raise up teachers it ia 
 more than defensible. I am now made willing, if God 
 shall open the way, to go to India. ' Here am I ; send 
 me ! ' " His biographer. Dr. A. Bonar, remarks that 
 " the missionary feeling in M'Cheyne's soul continued 
 
^t. 31. " THE MAN WHO DliAT TAIT." 343 
 
 all his life. Must tlioro not be somewhat of this 
 missionary tendency in all true ministers ? " Yet tho 
 only one of the M'Cheyne band who practically 
 answered this question, besides William Burns, of 
 Cliina, was John Milne, of Perth, who was afterwards 
 for a few years Free Church minister in Calcutta. 
 Macdonald's resignation of a home charge for a mis- 
 sionary's apostolate caused so much excitement as to 
 irritate him into putting the question to the degenerate 
 Church — " Why is not such an event commonplace?" 
 Ediuhurgh and St. Andrews had sent their best 
 student i to the field; it was now the turn of Glasgow, 
 which had been doing much for Kaffraria, to inquire. 
 The ripest scholar in its university proved to bo the 
 most devoted student of theology. James Halley, A.B., 
 was the favourite disciple of Sir Daniel K. Sandford, 
 who, having imbued him with the very spirit of a 
 reverent Hellenism, introduced him to the Edinburgh 
 Professor of Greek as '* the man who beat Tait," tho 
 present Archbishop of Canterbujy. Ho promised to 
 be the ornament of his university and of the Church, 
 when death prematurely closed his bright career. 
 What he was, the Rev. William Arnot's little memoir 
 tells us. He hurried through from Glasgow, with 
 James Hamilton, afterwards of Regent Square, to 
 hear Duff's speech in the Assembly of 1835, and ar- 
 rived only in time to witness its effect. He describes 
 it as "a noble burst of enthusiastic appeal which 
 made grey-headed pastors weep like children, and 
 dissolved half the Assembly in tears." The im- 
 mediate effect on him was seen in the College Mis- 
 sionary Society, of which he was president. Address- 
 ing Dr. Macfarlan, the principal of the University, 
 and Dr. Duff afterwards, Mr. Halley sought their 
 encouragement of the students' missionary aims. The 
 former replied, declining to contribute even the usual 
 
344 I-IFE OP DB. DUFF. 1837. 
 
 guinea, warning thorn that " such exertions on tho 
 part of the students are premature and injudicious,'* 
 and thus concluding : " I trust you will receive this 
 explanation as a proof at once of my deep interest 
 in the real welfare and improvement of the students 
 attending this university, and of the personal regard 
 for yourself." We are not parodying the words, nor 
 misrepresenting the acts of the head of the University 
 of Glasgow in the year 1835. Early in 1837 Mr. 
 Halley received from Dr. Duff this reply : — 
 
 it 
 
 PiTLOCHRiR, 7th March, 1837. 
 
 ** I had once expected to have been able to meet 
 your association in person, in which case much could 
 bo advanced that cannot well be committed to writing. 
 But it was a constitution shattered beyond hope of 
 recovery in a tropical clime that drove me from tho 
 field of labour ; and ever since my arrival in my native 
 land I have been buffeting with the dregs of tropical 
 disease. In this way, rocked by discipline and cradled 
 by disappointment, I have been unable to overtake a 
 tithe of what I had originally proposed to myself. 
 But as it is the ordination of Heaven, I trust I have 
 learned to submit in patient resignation, ever ready to 
 adopt the language of my Saviour and Redeemer — 
 ' Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.' 
 
 " In the midst of the thunder of clashing interests 
 and the lightning of angry controversy in this dis- 
 tracted land, how sweet, how refreshing to the soul 
 to enter the quiet haven of devotion, and there hold 
 communion with the great I Am, and the Lamb slain 
 from the foundation of the world, and the Holy Spirit 
 that enkindles with the fervour of divine love. It is 
 this feature in the organization of your society — 
 effective as it is in other respects also — that inspires 
 me with the purest joy. An alternate meeting is 
 
^t. 31. GLASGOW UNIVERSITY MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 345 
 
 devoted, you say, to Christian fellowship, prayer and 
 the reading of missionary intelligence. God bo 
 praised who has put it into your hearts to unite in 
 such hallowing exercises. If such meetings were 
 more general they would be the rallying centres of 
 hope to a divided Church and a bleednig world. 
 
 " You advert to the chillini? influence of academic 
 pursuits on the growth of piety in the soul. Most 
 keenly have I felt it myself. How is it to bo obvi- 
 ated ? By constantly falling back on the touching 
 and searching simplicity of God's own word, and 
 constantly besieging a throne of grace with the 
 honest effusions of a heart panting and thirsting after 
 the love of God. Without the unceasing recurrence 
 of such soul-reviving exercises I have learned, from 
 sad experience too, that even religious pursuits — 
 whether these consist in replenishing the intellect 
 with divine knowledge or in the multiplied duties of 
 the ministerial office — that even such pursuits may 
 drain up the fountain-head of spiritual vitality and 
 cause the plant of renown in the soul, for a season 
 at least, to droop and wither and decay. 
 
 " You complain of indifference to religion in general 
 and missions in particular. Oh, it is this indifference 
 which I fear may eventually prove the ruin of our 
 land, if God in mercy do not send some trumpet-peal 
 to rouse us from our lethargy 1 The work of missions 
 is so peculiarly a Christian work that neither its 
 principles nor its objects can be rendered perfectly 
 intelligible to any but God's own children. Indiffer- 
 ence to religion in general must, therefore, produce 
 indifference to the missionary cause. These are re- 
 lated as an antecedent and consequent, as cause and 
 effect. If the souls of men have not yet been 
 awakened to a sense of sin and danger — if they have 
 not yet been sanctified, they cannot be susceptible of 
 
t 
 
 46 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1 837. 
 
 any spiritual impression f':'om any quarter whatever. 
 To arrest tbc attention of such persons in a 
 vital manner, and secure their sympathies and their 
 exertions in behalf of the perishing heathen, we must 
 first arouse them to a lively personal concern for the 
 salvation of their own souls." 
 
 Another who was then a youth of promise, and be- 
 came the founder of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary 
 Society, if not of Medical Missions, was profoundly 
 impressed. We find Dr. Coldstream, who had just 
 settled in Leith as a physician, thus writing in 1837 : 
 " The missionary sermon and lesson of yesterday, by 
 Dr. Duff, were most impressive. I have no words to 
 express their thrilling effect. . . I think I never 
 felt so strongly the delightful influence of the bond 
 of Christian love. The very spirit of love seemed to 
 move with electric fire through the great assembly, 
 knitting heart to heart, and kindling sparks of holy 
 zeal. It is a day much to be remtmbered." When, 
 thirteen years afterwards. Dr. Dufi" publicly referred 
 to a series of lectures on Medical Missions published 
 by that most successful society, and asked " when will 
 some of these lecturers set the example of devoting 
 themselves to the missionary service and come out to 
 India?" as has since been done. Dr. Coldstream re- 
 plied, " I feel as if you had put the question to mo 
 individually." 
 
 The report of the speech of 1835 found its way to 
 the retreat, near Dumfries, of a young licentiate of thr 
 Kirk whom sickness had laid aside. John Anderson 
 had passed through the eight years' studies of the 
 University of Edinburgh the first man of his set. Like 
 John Wilson at an earlier time, he had come under the 
 influence of Dr. Gordon, who to his labours in pulpit 
 and parish added the duties of secretary of the Foreign 
 Missions Committee. Having refused the office of 
 
^t. 31. JOHN ANDERSON OF MADRAS. 347 
 
 assistant to a minister, Jolm Anderson wiis altogctlier 
 despairing of health, and was ah-eady thirty-two, when 
 that happened Avhieh ho himself shall describe — " We 
 well remember the time when, on his return from India, 
 the Rev. Dr. Duff, emaciated by disease and worn out 
 with the strenuous exertions of the first five years of 
 his missionary life, delivered his first speech on India 
 Missions. , . Its statements flew like liofhtninj? 
 through the length and breadth of Scotland, vibrated 
 through and warmed many hearts hitherto cold to 
 missions, and tended to produce unity among brethren 
 standing aloof from each other. Never will we forgot 
 the day when a few of its living fragments caught our 
 eye in a newspaper in our quiet retreat on the banks 
 of the xTith, near Dumfries, when suffering from great 
 bodily weakness; It kindled a spirit within us that 
 raised us up from our bed, and pointed as if with the 
 finger to India as the fold of our future labours." 
 Already had Anderson, as a tutor, been able to train 
 men like John Cowan, Esq., of Beeslack. But his 
 indomitable will and untiring energy wore now called 
 to found and build up in Madras the General Assem- 
 bly's Institution, which has since expanded into the 
 great catholic Christian College of Southern India — • 
 tlie first to realize Dr. Duff''s ideal of a united colloo'o 
 representing all the evangelical churches. Ordained in 
 St. George's, Edinburgh, by Dr. Gordon, Mr. Ander- 
 son visited the alcutta Mission before setting up his 
 own on its model, and was soon after joined by such 
 colleagues, also the fruit of Duit's appeals, as Messrs. 
 Johnston and Braid wood from the same university. 
 Aberdeen at the same time joined her sister colleges in 
 the high enterprise, by sending Dr. Murray Mitchell to 
 Bombay. The harvest, for that season, was finished 
 by another missionary from Edinburgh, the Rev. 
 Thomas Smith, to whose ordination we shall again 
 
348 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1837. 
 
 refer. The opening of tlie Central India Mission in 
 Nagpore, a few y^ears after, by Stephen Hislop, com- 
 pleted the Indian organization of the missions of the 
 Church of Scotland, established and free. All, directly 
 or indirectly, are to be traced to the living seed sown 
 amid so much weakness but yet with such power in 
 1835-36. 
 
 After a rest at Edradour, all too short. Dr. Duff 
 went up to liondon at the beginning of May, 1837, to 
 take part in the anniversary of the Church of Scot- 
 land's Foreign Missions, held by the London Pres- 
 bytery in Exeter Hall. After much searching we have 
 been able to discover in an old volume of pamphlets 
 of the period a copy of what his English critics have 
 always pronounced by far the most eloquent of Dr. 
 Duff's speeches. Though weak, he was no longer the 
 fever-wasted man who had excited the alarm of the 
 Assembly of 1835. By unrivalled experience in both 
 England and Scotland he had learned the defects of 
 the home Churches and of the best stay-at-home Chris- 
 tians in relation to the missionary command of Christ. 
 And so, as he mused on the contrast between the pro- 
 fession and the reality, as he listened to the rhetorical 
 periods of bishops and clergymen, of ministers and 
 professors who talked but did nothing more, the fire 
 of indignation burned forth into glowing sarcasm. 
 Nothing short of a reprint of the twenty-five pages of 
 that rare address could do justice to this vein uf the 
 impassioned oratcr. Severed from the context, without 
 the flashing eye, the quivering voice, the rapid gesticu- 
 lation, the overwhelming climax, the few passages we 
 may now reproduce seem cold and formal indeed. 
 But we must premise the orator's own explanation of 
 the satire — " These expressions are in alhision to 
 certain tropes and figures that have actually flourished 
 amid the exuberant rhetoric of Exeter Hall." 
 
iEt. 31. THE RHETORIC OP EXETER HALL. 349 
 
 Beginning, in tlie highest style of his art, as Demos- 
 thenes and Cicero and Paul before Agrippa had done, 
 this modern prophet, sent from the millions of Hin- 
 dooism to the very centre of Christian profession, 
 congratulated London, and especially its Scottish resi- 
 dents, on the reception of the appeal lately sounded in 
 their ears " in behalf of our suffering countrymen in 
 the Highlands and islands of Scotland. Nobly and 
 righteously, and in a way worthy of the wealthiest 
 metropolis in the world, has the appeal been responded 
 to. But why is it that we should bo affected even 
 unto horror at the melancholy recital of mere temporal 
 destitution, while we are apt to remain so cold, callous 
 and indifferent to the call of spiritual necessities that 
 is rung in our ears, loud as the cry of perishing multi- 
 tudes which no man can number?" Then after skil- 
 fully picturing the horrors of famine and pestilence 
 among our own countrymen and within the narrow 
 limits of our island, and asking if imagination could 
 concei/e aught more harrowing, he replied : " No ! not 
 to the natural feeling, even although such a death is 
 by the hands of a mysterious Providence. To the 
 higher order of spiritual sensibility, however, some- 
 thing may be presented more harrowing still. I 
 know a land where earth, sea and air conspire in 
 favour of its inhabitants — a land so gorgeously clad 
 that it has been emphatically styled * the climes of the 
 sun.' And truty they are * the climes of the sun ; ' for 
 there he seems to smile with exuberant bounty, and 
 causes al) nature to luxuriate in her rich magnificence. 
 There the glowing imagery of the prophet seems 
 almost literally to be realized. The trees of the forest 
 seem to clap their hands, and the valleys seem to 
 rejoice on every side. All bespeak the glories of a 
 presiding Deity and recall to remembrance the bowers 
 of Paradise. But oh 1 in this highly favoured land — 
 
350 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1 83 7. 
 
 need I say I refer to India ? — wliicli for beauty might 
 be the garden of the whole earth, and for plenteousness 
 the granary of the nations, — in this highly favoured 
 land children are doomed to see their parents and 
 parents their children perish — perish, not because 
 there is no meat in the field, no flocks in the fold, no 
 cattle in the stall, but because they are goaded on by 
 the stimulants of a diabolical superstition to perish 
 miserably by each other's hands." 
 
 Then followed word-pictures of that which may 
 still be seen along the Hooghly — " sons and daughters 
 piously consigning a sickly parent, for the benefit of 
 his soul, to the depths of a watery grave;" of "the 
 putrid corpse of the father and the living body of the 
 mother" burning together, in every feudatory state 
 at that time, and only in 1828 prohibited in the East 
 India Company's territory ; of the sacrifice of children 
 by their mothers to the waters of Gunga and the jaws 
 of the alligator ; and of the systematic murder of 
 female infimts by the Rajpoot castes from Benares to 
 Baroda. Rising from one scene of pitiful horror to 
 another, every one of which an audience even of 1837 
 knew to be living fact and not old history as we now 
 happily do, thanks to Missions and Christian appeals, 
 the rajDt speaker reached the highest of all in the 
 spiritual destitution and debasement which had made 
 such crimes inevitable; and in the means which he 
 had taken, through sacred and secular truth harmo- 
 niously united, to give India a new future. A far- 
 seeing demand for pure English and vernacular liter- 
 ature, beginning with " the Bible, the whole Bible, the 
 unmutilatcd Bible, and nothing but the Bible," for 
 those whom . both state and church were educating, 
 brought Dr. Duff to the practical object of his address 
 — the duty of every Christian man, woman and child 
 in Great Britain. 
 
^t. 31. INDIGNANT SATIRE ON THE CHURCIl's APATHY. 35 I 
 
 « 
 
 Look at men*s acts and not at tlicir words, for I am wearied 
 and disgusted with very loathing at ' great swelling woi'da * 
 that boil and bubble into foam and froth on the bosom of an 
 impetuous torrent of oratory and then burst into airy nothing- 
 ness. Look at men's acts, and tell mo what language do they 
 speak ? Is it in very deed a thiug so mighty for ono of your 
 nobles or merchant princes to rise up on this platform and pro- 
 claim his intense anxiety that contributions should be liberal, 
 and then stimulate those around him by the noble, or rather 
 ignoble, example of embodying his irrepressible anxiety in the 
 magnificent donation of £10, £20, or £50 ! when, at the very 
 moment, without curtailing any of the real necessaries of life, 
 without even abridging any one of its fictitious comf )rts or 
 luxuries, he might readily consecrate his hundreds or thou- 
 sands to be restored more than a hundred-fold on the great 
 day of final recompense ? And call you this an act of such 
 prodigious munificence that it must elicit the shouts and the 
 pa3ans of an entranced multitude ? Call you this an act of such 
 thrilling disinterestedness that it must pierce into hearts other- 
 wise hermetically sealed against the imploring cries of suffering 
 humanity ? Call you this an act of such self-sacrificing gene- 
 rosity that it must be registered for a memorial in the book of 
 God's remembr ^e, with the same stamp of Divine approbation 
 as that bestowed on the poor widow in the gospel, who, though 
 she gave but little, gave her all ? 
 
 "And is it in very deed a thing so mighty for a Christian 
 pastor, whether bishop, priest or deacon, or any member of a 
 Church, to abandon for a season his routine of duty, and once 
 in the year to come up, either to regale, or be regaled, with the 
 incense of human applause in this great metropolis, the em- 
 porium of the world's commerce, the seat of the world's 
 mightiest empire, and the general rendezvous of men and 
 things unparalleled in all the world besides ? Is it a thiug so 
 mighty for any one of these to stand up on this platform, and 
 call on assembled thousands to rise to their true elevation, and 
 acquit themselves like men in the cause of Him who rides on 
 the whirlwind and directs the storm ? And, dismissing all 
 ordinary forms and figures of speech as tame and inadequate, 
 is it an act so heroic to stand on this platform, and break forth 
 into apostrophes, that ring with the din of arms and the shout 
 of battle ? Is it an act so heroic, at the safe distance of ten 
 
352 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 183 7. 
 
 thousand miles, courageously to summon the gates of Peking to 
 lift up their heads, and its barricades and ramparts to rend 
 asunder at the presence of the heralds of salvation ? and, 
 impersonifying the celestial empire herself, boldly invoke her 
 to send up without delay her hundreds of millions to the house 
 of the Lord, exalted above the hills, and place her imperial 
 crown on the head of Him on Whose head shall be all the 
 crowns of the earth, and the diadem of the universe ? 
 
 " Or, is it an act of spiritual prowess so mighty, for one who 
 never joined in the conflict, to stand up on this platform, and 
 rehearse the battles that have been fought in the missionary 
 field, the victories that have been obtained, and the trophies 
 that huve been won ? Is it an achievement of never-dying 
 fame to burst into rapture at the unrivalled honour of those 
 brave veterans that have already laid down their lives in storm- 
 ing the citadels of heathenism ? Hark ! here are a few blasts 
 from a trumpet that has often pealed, and pealed with effect, 
 at our great anniversaries. The missionary's life ? Ah ! * an 
 archangel would come down from the throne, if he might, and 
 feel himself honoured to give up the felicities of heaven for a 
 season for the toils of a missionary's life.' The missionary's 
 work ? Ah ! ^ the work of a minister at home, as compared 
 with that of a missionary, is but the lighting of a parish lamp, 
 to the causing the sun to rise upon an empire that is yet in 
 darkness.' The missionary's grave ? Ah ! ' the missionary's 
 grave is far more honourable than the minister's pulpit.' 
 
 '^ After such outpourings of fervent zeal and burning admir- 
 ation of valour, would ye not expect that the limits of a kingdom 
 were too circumscribed for the range of spirits so chivalrous ? 
 Would ye not expect that intervening oceans and continents 
 could oppose no barrier to their resistless career ? Would yo 
 not expect that, as chieftains at the head of a noble army, 
 numerous as the phalanxes that ere while flew from tilt and 
 tournament to glitter in the sunshine of the Holy Land, they 
 should no more be hoard of till they make known their 
 presence, by the terror of their power, in shattering to atoms 
 the towering walls of China, and hoisting in triumph the 
 banners of the Cross over the captured mosques of Araby and 
 prostrate pagodas of India ? Alas, alas ! what shall we say, 
 when the thunder of heroism that reverberates so sublimely 
 over our heads from year to year in Exeter Hall, is foundj in 
 
JEl Zi» ^ APPEAL. 353 
 
 diangeloss succession, to die away in fainter and yet fainter 
 echoes among the luxurious mansions, the snug dwellings, and 
 goodly parsonages of Old England ! 
 
 "Listen to the high-sounding words of the mightiest of our 
 anniversary thundcrors on this platform, and would ye not vow 
 that they were heroes, with whom the post of honour was the 
 post of danger ? Look at the astounding contrast of their 
 practice, and will not your checks redden with the crimson 
 Hush of shame, to find that they are coAvards, with whom the 
 post of honour is, after all, the post of safety ? Ye venerated 
 fathers and brethren in the ministry, whc l now see around 
 me, of every denomination — to you I appeal. I appeal in the 
 spirit of foithfulness, and yet in the spii'it of love, and ask : — 
 Is this the way to awake the long-slumbering spirit of devoted- 
 ness throughout the land ? Is this the kind of call that will 
 arouse the dormant energies of a sluggish Church ? Is this 
 the kind of summons that will cause a rush of champions into 
 the field of danger and of death ? Is this the kind of example 
 that will stimulate a thousand GutzlafTs to brave the horrors 
 of a barbarous shore ? — that will incite thousands of Martyns, 
 and of Careys, and of Morrisons, to arm themselves on the 
 consecrated spots where these foremost warriors fell ? I know 
 not what the sentiments of this great audience may be on a 
 subject so momentous ; but as for myself, I cannot, at whatever 
 risk of offence to friends, and of ribaldry from enemies, — I can- 
 not, without treason to my God and Saviour, — I cannot but 
 give vent to the overpowering emotions of my own heart, when, 
 in the face of England, Scotland and Ireland I exclaim, ' Oh 
 that my head were waters, that mine eyes were a fountain of 
 tears, that I could weep over the fatal, the disastrous iucon- 
 sistencies of many of the most renowned of the leaders of our 
 people ! ' 
 
 " What, then, is to be done ? How are the gigantic evils 
 complained of to be efficiently remedied ? Never, never, till 
 the leading members of our Churches be shamed out of their 
 lavish extravagance in conforming to the fashion of a world 
 that is so soon to pass away, and out of their close-fisted penu- 
 riousness as regards all claims that concern the eternal destinies 
 of their fellows. Never, never, till the angels of our Churches, 
 whether ordinary pastors or superintending bishops, be shamed 
 out of their sloth, their treachery and their cowardice. For, 
 
 A A 
 
354 I'if'E 0^ ^^' DUFP. 1837. 
 
 rest assured, that people would got we.iry of the sound of tlio 
 demand ' Give, give/ that is eternally reiterated in their oars, 
 when those who make it so seldom give, or, what is the same 
 thing, give in such scanty driblets that it seems a mockery of 
 their own expostulations, — and of the sound of the command 
 * Go, go,' when those who make it, are themselves so seldoui 
 found willing to go ! 
 
 " How, then, is the remedy to be effected ? Not, believe me, 
 by periodical showers of words, however copious, which fall 
 Mike snow-flakes in the river, — a moment white, then gono 
 for ever.' No ; but by thousands of deeds that shall cause 
 the very scoffer to wonder, even if ho should wonder and 
 perish — deeds that shall enkindle into a blaze the smouldering 
 embers of Christian lovo — deeds that shall revive the days of 
 primitive devotedness, when men, valiant for the truth, de- 
 spised earthly riches, and conquered through suQeriugs, not 
 counting their lives dear unto the death." 
 
 " Archangels," ho said, " cannot leave their thrones ; 
 but where are the learned and the eloquent, tho 
 statesmen and the nobles, — where is one of our loud- 
 talking professors ready to do more than shrivel 
 their little services into the wretched inanity of an 
 occasional sermon, or a speech, easily pronounced and 
 calling for no sacrifice ? . . AVhat ! expect one and 
 all of these to descend from their eminences of honour 
 and go forth themselves content with the humble 
 fare and arrayed in the humble attire of self-denying 
 missionaries ? Is not this the very climax of religious 
 raving ? Gracious God ! and is it really so ? . , 
 Are we in sober seriousness determined to contract 
 the calculus of eternity within the narrow dimensions 
 of the arithmetic of time ? Do I now stand in an 
 assembly of professing Christians ? " Then the sacred 
 orator, turning from sarcasm and irony, from reproach 
 and prophetic ridicule, thus closed with his entranced 
 audience in the presence of Him who gave Himself: — 
 
 ft 
 
 With deep solemnity of feeling let me ask : — ' Who is 
 
iEt. 31. MISSIONS IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST. 355 
 
 this that comoth from Edom, with dyed garments from 
 Bozrah ? ' It is the Man who is Jehovah's fellow. It is 
 Immanuel, God with us. But who can portray the undcrived, 
 the incomparable excellencies of llim, in whom dwelt all the 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily ? In this contemplation wo are 
 at once lost in an immeasurable ocean o. overpowering glory. 
 Imagination is bewildered; language fails. Go take a survey 
 of the earth wo dwell upon. Collect every object and every 
 quality that has been pronounced fair, sweet, or lovely. Com- 
 bine these into one resplendent orb of beauty. Then leave 
 the bounds of earth. Wing your flight through the fields of 
 immensity. In your progress collect what is fair and lovely 
 in every world, what is bright and dazzling in every sun. 
 Combine these into other oibs of surpassing brightness, and 
 thus continue to swell the number of magnificent aggregates, 
 till the whole immense extent of creation is exhausted. And 
 after having united these myriads of bright orbs into ono 
 glorious constellation, combining in itself the concentrated 
 beauty and loveliness of the whole created universe, go and 
 compare an atom to a world, a drop to the ocean, tho twink- 
 ling of a taper to the full blaze of tho noon-tide sun ; — the n 
 may you compare even this all-comprehending constellation of 
 beauty and loveliness with the boundless, the ineffable beauty 
 and excellence of B.im who is ' tho brightness of tho Father's 
 glory,' who is ' God over all, blessed for ever ! ' 
 
 " And yet wonder, O heavens, and rejoice, earth ; this 
 great, and mighty, and glorious Being did for our sakes con- 
 descend to veil His glory, and appear on earth as a Man of 
 sorrows, whose visage was so marred more than any man's, 
 and His form more than the sons of men. Oh, is not this 
 love ! — self-sacrificing love ! — love that is ' higher than tho 
 heights above, deeper tliuu the depths beneath ' ? Oh, is not 
 this condescension ! — self-sacrificing condescension ! — conde- 
 scension without a parallel and without a name ? God manifest 
 in the flesh ! God manifest in tho flesh for the redemption of 
 a rebel race ! Oh, is not this the wonder of a world ? Is 
 not this the astonishment of a universe ? 
 
 " And, in the view of love so ineffable and condescension 
 so unfathomable, tell me, oh tell me, if it would seem aught 
 so strange — I will not say in the eye of poor, dim, beclouded 
 humanity — but in the eye of that celestial hierarchy that 
 
356 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1837. 
 
 caused heaven's arclies to ring with antlieras of adoring 
 wonder when they beheld the brightness of the Father's glory 
 go forth eclipsed, mysteriously to sojourn on earth and trend 
 the winepress alone, red in His apparel and His garments dyed 
 in blood ? Tell me, ob, tell me, if in their cloudless vision 
 it would seem aught so marvellous, so passing straugo, did 
 they behold the greatest and tho mightiest of a guilty race, 
 redeemed themselves at so vast a price, cheerfully prepared to 
 relinquish their highest honours and fairest possessions, their 
 loveliest academic bowers and stateliest palaces ; yea, did tliey 
 behold Jloyalty itself retiro .and cast aside its robes of purple, 
 its sceptre and its diadem, and issue forth in the footsteps of 
 the Divine Redeemer into tho waste howling wilderness of sin, 
 to seek and to save them that are lost ? 
 
 ''Ye grovelling sons of earth, call this fanaticism if you 
 will; brand it as wild enthusiasm ; — I care not for tho verdict. 
 From you I appeal to the glorious sons of light, and ask, 
 Was not this, in principle, the very enthusiasm of patriarclis, 
 who rejoiced to see the day of Christ afar off, and were glad ? 
 Was not this the enthusiasm of prophets, whoso harps, in- 
 spired by the mighty theme, were raised into strains of more 
 than earthly grandeur? Was not this the enthusiasm of 
 angels that made tho plains of Bethlehem ring with the 
 jubilee of peace on earth and goodwill to the children of men? 
 Was not this the enthusiasm (with reverence be it spoken) of 
 the eternal Son of God Himself, when He came forth travailing 
 in the greatness of His sti'ength, to endure tho agony and 
 bloody sweat ? And if this be enthusiasm that is kindled by 
 no enrthly *^re, and which, when once kindled, burns without 
 being consumed, how must the hopes of the Church lie sleep- 
 ing in the tomb, where it does not exist ? Oh ! until a larger 
 measure of this divine enthusiasm be diffused through the 
 Churches of Christendom, never, never need we expect to 
 realize the reign of millennial glory — when all nature shall 
 once more be seen glowing in the first bloom of Eden ; when 
 one bond shall unite and one feeling animate all nations ; when 
 all kindreds and tribes and tongues and people shall combine 
 in one song, one universal shout of grateful ' Hallelujah unto 
 Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever 
 and ever 1 ' " 
 
JEt. 31. VINDICATION OF HIS SYSTKM. 35/ 
 
 We have not met with a record of the effect of this 
 denunciation and appeal, any more than with a report 
 of that whicli Dr. Duff had uttered in the same hall 
 in the previous year at the anniversary of the Churcli 
 Missionary Society. But we know that the Rev. John 
 Macdonald had given himself to the mission as tho 
 result of Dr. Duff's earliest visit of all, in 18:]5 ; and 
 money at least was not stinted, for it was announced 
 to the Assembly held a few weeks after that £700 
 had been sent as the result of that meeting. 
 
 The General Assembly of 1837 is memorable in 
 ecclesiastical annals for tho happily rare event of a 
 contest regarding the modcratorship. It is of interest 
 here because of Dr. Duff's " Vindication of the Church 
 of Scotland's India Missions," in reply to the mis- 
 understandings and misrepresentations which had 
 arisen out of his speech of 18o5, to which, as an 
 oratorical effort, it comes only second. The local 
 reporters wrote : " This eloquent address produced, 
 amidst the profound silence with which it was listened 
 to, occasional bursts of enthusiasm which were irre- 
 pressible ; and the peroration at its close called forth 
 an expression of emotion in the Assouibly such as wo 
 have rarely witnessed." The Assembly ordered its 
 publication. Led by Dr. Muir, of Glasgow, in united 
 prayer the members returned thanks to God for pre- 
 serving the health and life of their dear brother. Dr. 
 Duff. The " Vindication " has a value which is more 
 than historical, from the demand that the Church 
 should send out its most highly educated ministers 
 and ablest preachers as missionaries to races like the 
 Hindoos, and from this still necessary answer to the 
 ignorant and the malevolent ; — 
 
 " Let it never be forgotten that, as tho Governinent schemes 
 of education uniformly exclude religious instruction, this may 
 only be a chauge from a stagnant superstition to a rampant 
 
358 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1837. 
 
 infidelity. Wheat then is to bo done ? Are the Christians of 
 Great Britain to stand idly aloof and view the onward 
 march of tho spirit of innovation in the East as unconcerned 
 and indifferent spectators ? Forbid it, gracious Heaven 1 
 What then is to be done ? Why, if we are faithful to our 
 trust, and wise in time, we may, through the blessing of God, 
 be honoured in converting the education plans of the Indian 
 Government into auxiliaries, that may lend their aid in pre- 
 paring the way foi the spread of the everlasting gospel ! 
 Wherever a Government seminary is founded, which shall 
 have the effect of demolishing idolatry and superstition, and 
 thereby clearing away a huge mass of rubbish; there let us 
 bo prepared to plant a Christian institution, that shall, through 
 the blessing of Heaven, be the instrument of rearing tho 
 beauteous superstructure of Christianity on the ruius of all 
 false philosophy and false rcligiou. Wherever a Government 
 library is established, that shall have the effect of creating an 
 insatiable thirst for knowledge ; there let us bo forward in 
 establishing our depositories of Bibles and other religious 
 publications, that may saturate the expanding minds of Indian 
 youth with the life-giving principles of eternal truth. And 
 who can tell whether, in this way, by * redeeming the time' — 
 by seizing the present golden opportunity — we may not be 
 privileged to behold all the Government schemes of educa- 
 tional impi'ovement in India overruled by a gracious superin- 
 tending Providence for tho ultimate introduction of Messiah's 
 reign ? 
 
 " From having formerly said so much on the power of useful 
 knowledge in destroying the systems of Hiudooisra, it has been 
 strangely concluded by some that our object has been to 
 reform tho natives of India by means of ' knowledge without 
 religion.' Need I say that no conclusion could possibly bo 
 more unfounded ? It is, indeed, most true that, for reasons 
 which have more than satisfied many of the wisest and most 
 devoted Christians in this land, I have, with uniform and 
 persevering earnestness, advocated tho universal diffusion of 
 sound knowledge in India. Not contented with seeing such 
 knowledge ooze out in scanty drippings, I have toiled and 
 laboured, in conjunction with others, to pour it out in copious 
 streams that may, one day, cover the whole land with the 
 swelling tide of reason uud intelligence. This, however. 
 
JEt. 31, niS ALLIANCE OF EELIGION WITH KNOWLEDGE. 359 
 
 happens to be only one-half of any statement that I have ever, 
 anywhere, made on the subject. And what right has any one, 
 in reason or in justice, to fasten on one-half of a statement, 
 and deal with that half as if it were the whole ? Strongly and 
 sincerely as I have pled for the diffusion of sound general 
 knowledge in India, have I not, on every occasion, insisted 
 as strongly on the contemporaneous diirusion of religious 
 truth ? Have I not even laboured to demonstrate that, for the 
 best interests of man in time and eternity, the former should 
 ever be based on the latter — pervaded with the spii*it of it 
 throughout and made to terminate in its exaltation and 
 supremacy ? Have I not ever contended for the holy and 
 inseparable alliance of both ? — for the reciprocal inter-blending 
 of their different, though not uncongenial, influences ? And 
 if one or other must have the precedency, either as respects 
 priority of time or dignity of position, in the mighty work of 
 regenerating a corrupt world ; in the uaino of all that is 
 reverend and just, let that be selected for the honour which, 
 by inherent superiority and excellence of nature, is pre- 
 eminently entitled to it. 
 
 " Without ' useful knowledge ' man might not live so com- 
 fortably in time : without * divine knowledge ' eternity must 
 be lost. How then could the missionaries of the Church of 
 Scotland — the missionaries of a Church first loose:ied from 
 Popery by the Wisharts and Hamiltons, subsequently eatab- 
 lishod by the Knoxes and ]Mclvillea, and onwards perpetuated 
 by the Rutherfords and Hulyburtons — how could we dare to 
 sacrifice, at the shrine of a spurious liberality, that highest and 
 sublimest knowledge, whose ennobling truths many of these 
 worthies so heroically died to testify ? Or, if we dared thus to 
 act the part of degenerate children, how could we abide the 
 piercing glance of rebuke which they would cast upon us, if 
 recalled from the realms of day to witness our treacherous 
 cowardice ? And how might we not feel, even now, as if their 
 very ashes would speak out of the tomb, and their blood from 
 under the altar cry out against us ! Such, indeed, and so 
 strong, are my own convictions of tho vast importance of 
 useful knowledge in the great work of reforming India, that 
 were this venerable house to forbid the diffusion of it in 
 connection with its own mission, I, for one, would feel myself, 
 however reluctantly, constraiued at once to relinquish the 
 
360 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1837. 
 
 honourable position wliicli it has been pleased to assign to me. 
 But such, and so overwhelming, are my convictions of the 
 immeasurably superior importance of that higher knowledge, 
 which unseals the fountain of Immanuel's love, that — sooner 
 than consent wilfully to withhold it for an hour from the 
 famishing millions of India, or of any other land, in deference 
 to the noxious theories of certain propagandists of the present 
 day — I would lay down my head upon the block, or commit 
 this body to the flames ! 
 
 " I feel assured, however, that, so far as this house is con- 
 cerned, it will never fall into either of these extremes. Not- 
 withstanding the charges of religious bigotry that have been 
 so profusely heaped upon it, this house, like its noble reform- 
 ing ancestry, has been, is now, and, I trust, ever will be, the 
 consistent, the enlightened advocate of all really useful know- 
 ledge throughout the wide domain of families, schools and 
 colleges, whether in this or in other lands. And, notwith- 
 standing the charges of secular convergency that have been as 
 abundantly levelled at it, this house, like its noble reforming 
 ancestry, has been, is now, and, I trust, ever will be, the 
 intrepid, the unbending advocate of a thorough Bible instruc- 
 tion, as an essential ingredient in all sound education, whether 
 on the banks of the Forth or on the banks of the Ganges. 
 Yea, may I not be permitted with empliasis to add, that, sooner 
 than consent to surrender this vital principle, which is one 
 of the main pillars in the palladium of the Protestantism of 
 these realms, this house is prepared, as in times of old, to 
 submit to dissolution by the strong arm of violence ? — and its 
 members, like their fathers of the Covenant, prepared once 
 more to betake themselves to the dens and caves of the earth 
 — to wander by the lonely shore or over the desert heath, 
 to climb the mountain-steep for refuge, or secretly assemble to 
 worship in ' some deep dell by rocks o'ercanopied ' ? 
 
 " Let it, then, ever be our distinguishing glory to arbitrate 
 between the advocates of untenable extremes. Let us, on the 
 one hand, disown the bigotry of an unwise pietism, by re- 
 solving to patronis3 to the utmost, as in times past, the cause 
 of sound literature and science — lesO, by our negligence, in 
 this respect we help to revive the fatal dogma of the dark 
 ages, that what is philosophically true may yet be allowed to 
 be theologically false. And let us, on th^ other hand, de- 
 
^t 31. EXTREMES OF INFIDELITY AND UNWISE PIETISM. 36 I 
 
 nounce the bigotry of infidelity, or religious indifference, by 
 resolving to uphold the paramount importance of the sacred 
 oracles, in the great work of christianizing and civilizing a 
 guilty Avorld. Let us thus hail true literature and true scienco 
 as our very best auxi .iries — whether in Scotland, or in India, 
 or in any other quarter of the habitable globe. But, in 
 receiving these as friendly allies into our sacred territory, let 
 us resolutely determine that they shall never, never, bb allowed 
 to usurp the throne, and wield a tyrant's sceptre over it.'' 
 
 The foresight and the faith, the culture and the 
 self-sacrifice of that passage, reveal the height and 
 the breadth of the speaker's Christian statesmanship. 
 Every year since he spoke it has only given new force 
 to its truth, new reason for regret that the Church 
 and the Government alike were not wise in time to 
 seize the golden opportunity. Even Lord William 
 Bentinck's Government had refused the Mission Colleo-e 
 a grant-in-aid in recognition of the secular instruction 
 it gave, lest the Company, which was a partner with 
 the priests of Jugganath in their gains from the 
 deluded pilgrims, and which ordered its Christian 
 officers and Muhammadan sepoys to salute t^e ele- 
 phant-headed, pot-bellied idol Gunputty, should hurt 
 the religious feelings of the natives. The Mutiny 
 came, and brought the catholic universities with it. 
 The Mutiny passed — but at what a price ? In vain, 
 to this hour, by gagging the press and imprisoning 
 libellous or treasonable editors, does the Government 
 try to undo the evil effects of the undiluted and rigid 
 secularism of its schools and colleges. It goes on 
 sowing the wind as no other Government on earth 
 does or in history has ever done. Woe to India 
 and to the Church — to the three Churches of Scotland 
 especially which, in Duff and Wilson, and now in Dr. 
 Shoolbred, have been honoured to lead the way — if 
 this warning is forgotten 1 
 
 I 
 
362 LIFE OF DR. DUIF. 1837. 
 
 Dr. Duff went further. The spiritual reformation 
 of the varied peoples of India he saw must be effected 
 by themselves when foreigners had thus handed on 
 the divine torch to ''' the Luthers and the Calvins and 
 the Knoxes of Hindostan " : — 
 
 "Our objcctj therefore, is not local or partial, individual or 
 tempoi'ary. It is vast and all-comprehensivo. It is nothing 
 less than intellectaally and spiritually to reform the universal 
 mind of India ; and not merely so, but to embody the 
 essential spirit of the reformation in improved institutions, 
 that sliall perpetuate its blessings to latest ages. But, has it 
 ever been heard of, that a great and permanent reformation, 
 in any land, has been the work of a day, or a year, or even a 
 single age ? Never, never. A great reformation is not merely 
 the pregnant cause of innumerable happy effects : — it is itself 
 but the aggregate effect of innumerable predisposing causes, 
 that may have been accumulating for centuries, ere they 
 became ripe for explosion. Viewed in this respect, the Re- 
 formation of Luther has been well compared to the rapids of 
 a river, in its precipitous passage from some mountain range 
 to the level plains below. Now, for India we not only con- 
 template a religious reformation, as effective as that of Luther 
 in Europe, but a reformation still more pervasive, and more 
 thoroughly national. 
 
 "As yet, however, we are only defiling among the wild, 
 upland, and mountain ranges of Hindooisra, with its bleak 
 wastes of fable, its arid knolls of prejudice, its frowning 
 crags of superstition, its towering eminences of idolatry. 
 But already, blessed be God, after the long dark night of 
 forty centuries, has the Sun of righteousness begun to gild 
 the Eastern horizon. Already are His earliest beams seen 
 reflected from the frozen summits. Already are there drop- 
 pings of truth on many a rocky heart. Already are there 
 under- currents of inquiry, that shall one day emerge from the 
 hidden recesses of individual minds. Already are there evan- 
 gelical founts that send forth their little rills of saving know- 
 ledge. Already are the clouds fast gathering, surcharged 
 with the waters of salvation, and ready to pour down their 
 copious showers. And soon may the swollen brooks unite 
 
JEt 31. nE CONFIDENTLY AITEALS TO POSTERITY. 363 
 
 into rivers, and rivers into a mighty stream of quickoninj^ 
 influences. For some years more, the mighty stream itself 
 may continue to flow on through comparatively barren and 
 unanimated solitudes. At length, impatient of restraint, it 
 must burst its accustomed boundaries, and, dashing headlong, 
 in the foam and thunder of a cataract of reformation, it 
 will gently glide into the peaceful under-vale of time. There 
 it shall roll on in its majestic course, overspreading its banks 
 with the verdure of righteousness, and pouring the fertility 
 of paradise into its pastures of gospel grace, till it finally 
 disappear and is lost in the shoreless ocean of eternity ! 
 
 " Persuaded, as I feel, that such is our present position 
 among the incipient processes that shall, in due time, unite 
 and issue in so glorious a consummation, I, for one, am cheer- 
 fully willing to toil on, for years, in feeding, if it be but one 
 of the little rills of awakening influence, — though I should 
 never live to behold their confluence into the mighty stream 
 of sequences, with its rushing cataract, and waving harvest 
 gladdening its after-course. And, as regards the ultimate 
 realization of the magnificent prospect, I would, even on a 
 dying pillow, from a whole generation of doubters confidently 
 appeal to posterity.' 
 
 )i 
 
 We have seen how of his first four converts three 
 had become teachers, and were soon to become 
 preachers of the gospel, but under the Church of 
 England, the London and the American Missionary- 
 Societies, because the Church of Scotland was not 
 prepared to send forth the young evangelists in her 
 own name. Dr. Bryce, who had retired from the 
 ecclesiastical service in Bengal, rose in the General 
 As.'- nbly " after the heart-stirring and transcendently 
 eJoqaent speech " of Dr. Duff, to tell its members how 
 something at least was to be done to remedy this for 
 the future. The Assembly of 1834 had created three 
 presbyterial bodies at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, 
 which united in sending representatives to the central 
 and highest court. These bodies drew up a course of 
 study to be followed by converts who sought to be 
 
364 LIFE OF DR. DUFf. 1838. 
 
 licensed preacliers and ultimately orda;ncd missionaries 
 to their countrymen. In attempting to fix this course, 
 said Dr. Bryce, " the presbytery felt that a very 
 great latitude must be held as allowed to them, alone 
 acquainted as they could be with local circumstances. 
 But of this latitude they felt disinclined to avail 
 themselves beyond the necessity of the case, and 
 after the most mature deliberation given to the sub- 
 ject, they determined to follow generally as a model, 
 and as far as practicable, the course pursued at our 
 Divinity halls at home." We do not know how far 
 this decision would have been modified had Dr. Duff 
 been in Calcutta, although his letter at page 281 seems 
 to imply that he would have followed the Scottish 
 model less slavishly. While we admire the determi- 
 nation to secure a learned as well as godly native 
 ministry, shown in the rule which compels Bengalee, 
 Marathee, Goojaratee, Tamul, and even simple Son- 
 thalee converts to pass a satisfactory examination in 
 Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and to sign the historical 
 documents of the Scottish Churches before being 
 licensed to preach, we are compelled by hard facts 
 aL well as common sense to ask if it is thus we shall 
 raise or equip native Luthers. Is it a Christian 
 Nanuk or a Hindoo Calvin that India needs ? As the 
 story of the mission goes on we shall meet with able 
 Bengalee converts, made preachers and missionaries 
 because they have satisfied the presbytery according 
 to Dr. Bryce's still enforced " course of study." But 
 financially as well as ecclesiastically and even spirit- 
 ually, this parody of Western theological training has 
 worked so badly that the three Scottish Churches 
 have been asked by their missionaries to sanction 
 an evangelical course and creed more like those -of 
 the Apostles and the Church at Antioch, and not 
 less thorough and pure than those of covenanting. 
 
JEt 32. REST AT EDRADOUR. 365 
 
 much-sufFerlng, often testifying and still sorely divided 
 Scotland. The Church of India has grown so far out 
 of infancy that it asks to be freed from the controver- 
 sial swaddling-bands of the West. 
 
 After again visiting some of the presbyteries in the 
 south of Scotland, Dr. Duff began his preparations 
 for returning to India. But he was premature. Ilis 
 general health was suffering so greatly that ho was 
 detained, and was even forbidden to attend the Assem- 
 bly of 1838, by his medical adviser, Dr. Macwhirter, 
 who had been for years physician to the Countess of 
 Loudoun, wife of the Marquis of Hastings, Governor- 
 General of India. Dr. Macwhirter when in Calcutta 
 had the reputation of being an exceedingly skilful 
 physician, while he was one of the most gentle and 
 amiable of men. After full personal inspection and 
 all manner o-f inquiries, the physician lifted up his 
 hands in astonishment, expressing the utmost surprise 
 that, with a body so weakened by general as well as 
 special disease, and so exhausted by the prodigious 
 labours undergone. Dr. Duff had been able to perse- 
 vere, though at the same time he had done so, un- 
 consciously to himself, not only at the risk of perma- 
 nent injury bub of premature death. " You are not 
 at all in a fit state to return to India," said Dr. Mac- 
 whirter. " You must have months of perfect quiet 
 under proper medical treatment with a view to re- 
 cruiting. If you can really submit to this, since 
 you are still but young in years and evidently have 
 a singularly wiry and iron constitution, my medical 
 judgment is that, after a reasonable time you will be 
 so far recruited as to warrant you to return. My 
 earnest advice to you, therefore, is at once to return to 
 your quiet Highland home, where by correspondence 
 I can perfectly regulate, from day to day if need 
 be, your regimen and medical treatment; there you 
 
366 LIFE OP DR. DUFP. 1838. 
 
 will have the tender, nursing care of the members 
 of your own family about you." Thus most of the 
 autumn, and a considerable part of the winter of 
 1838-30, was spent at Edradour. 
 
 In that quiet and beautiful retreat Dr. Duff only 
 exchanged the voice for the pen. From all parts of 
 the kingdom and from other lands he was applied to 
 for counsel or information or help on the most catholic 
 grounds. Among others whom his earliest addresses 
 had roused were " a few friends of the missionary 
 enterprise in Scotland,"* as they described themselves, 
 who offered two prizes, of two hundred and fifty 
 guineas in all, for the best essays on " The Duty, 
 Privilege, and Encouragement of Christians to send 
 the Gospel of Salvation to the Unenlightened Nations 
 of the Earth." Dr. Duff, with whom Dr. Chalmers 
 and Professor M'Gill, of Glasgow, were associated as 
 promoters of the philanthropic enterprise, conducted 
 a remarkable correspondence on the subject, declaring 
 that if he had the means he would himself supply 
 the money. This is the first illustration in Scotland 
 of what we have seen in Bengal — his conviction that 
 for foreign missions, as for all good objects, the press 
 is an agency, not so powerful as the pulpit in the 
 spiritual region, but more extensive and effective in 
 its influence on the mass of mankind. To the last 
 he complained that it was far too much neglected by 
 the Church as a weapon of good. The adjudicators, 
 who were Professor Welsh, Dr. Wardlaw, the Rev. 
 Henry Melvill, Dr. Jabez Bunting, and the Rev. T. S. 
 Crisp, representing all the evangelical Churches, 
 
 * Mr. R. A. Macfie, of Dreghorn, who subsequently organized 
 the Liverpool Conference of Missionaries, iuforms us that these 
 friends were bis father; Mr. John Wright, jun,, father-in-law of 
 the Rev. Charles Brown, D.D. ; and the late Thomas Fairnie, of 
 Greenock, etc. 
 
^t. 32. DIl. CIIALMEllS. 367 
 
 awarded tho prizes to Dr. Harris, the president of' 
 Cliesliiint College, and to Dr. R. Winter Hamilton, of 
 Leeds. The essays were published, but not in a 
 cheap form which would have sent them into every 
 house ; several thousands of both were sold. A 
 catholic narrative and exposition of the foreign mis- 
 sionary movement from the beginning of the eigh- 
 teenth century to the present day, popular, accurate, 
 condensed, and including Romish missions, is still a 
 desideratum. 
 
 When fairly restored to health, towards the summer 
 of 1839, Dr. Duff prepared himself for the consolida- 
 tion of all the work ho had been doing during tho 
 previous four years towards making the ilirk of Scot- 
 land permanently for the future a Missionary Church. 
 He sent out a third missionary in addition to Mr. John 
 Macdonald and Dr. Murray Mitchell ; he broadened 
 the movement for female education in the East; he 
 spoke his farewell counsels to the country through tho 
 General Assembly ; he left his lectures on " India and 
 India Missions," to quicken the missionary spirit in 
 his absence ; and he made the final arrangements for 
 giving Bengal a central college worthy of the higher 
 Christian education. In all he had the constant sup- 
 port of Dr. Chalmers, and the friendly hospitality of 
 Dr. Brunton alike in the university and at Bilstane 
 Brae. Of the former we find him thus writing to Sir 
 Andrew Agnew, on the 17th September, 1838 : " What 
 triumph attends Dr. Chalmers's career 1 How ought we 
 to bless and praise our Heavenly Father for having 
 raised up so mighty a champion of truth in troublous 
 times ! Truly it is the duty of every one that fears 
 the Lord to lift up his arms as for battle, when the 
 enemy is coming in on every side like a flood. What 
 ineffable consolation in the assurance, * the Lord 
 God Omnipotent reigneth I ' " By this time it had 
 
368 LIFE OP DK. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 . become evident that the spiritual rights of the Kirk, 
 guaranteed by Scottish Parliament, Union Treaty and 
 Revolution Settlement, were in danger. In May, 
 1830, Lords Brougham and Cottenham gave the 
 sanction of the highest appellate court to the aggres- 
 sion of a majority of the Scottish judges on these 
 rights. Dr. Duff began to see the purely spiritual 
 work for which a Church exists, which he had done 
 side by side Avith Chalmers and Guthrie in kirk ex- 
 tension, threatened. In 1839 the revenue of the 
 Church of Scotland for missionary purposes of all 
 kinds was fourteen times greater than it had been in 
 1834, so that Chalmers exclaimed : " We are planting 
 schools, we are multiplying chapels, we are sending 
 forth missionaries to distant parts of the world, we 
 have purified the discipline, we are extending the 
 Church and rallying cur population around its vener- 
 able standard."* All this foreign colonial, and home 
 missionary work was to be extended far more largely 
 than fourteen times, by the very ecclesiastical cata- 
 clysm which in 1843 seemed certain to extinguish it. 
 
 So greatly had the Bengal Mission been extended 
 under Mackay and Ewart, working out Dr. DuflF's 
 system with his careful and constant support from 
 home, that they were not satisfied with the addition of 
 a third colleague in the person of Mr. Macdonald. 
 The three clamoured for a fourth to help them to over- 
 take the special field in which no other mission had 
 then followed them. To their demands Dr. Duff sent 
 this among other replies : — 
 
 " Edinburgh College, January \hth, 1839. 
 "My Dear Ewart, — To your last letter I purposely 
 delayed replying till I might have it in ray power to 
 
 • Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. By Dr. Hanna. 
 Vol. ii. chap. 27. 
 
iEt 33 NO EXCLUSIVELY SECULAR WORK IN COLLEGE. 369 
 
 communicato somctliinf^ of a dofinito nature on the 
 maiQ practical point therein referred to. Tlio instant 
 it was received I wrote most urgently to Dr. B run ton, 
 pressing the necessity of immediately appointing a 
 new labourer to support you. Something was spoken 
 on the subject. But lets and hindrances seemed to 
 threaten to retard indefinitely. In December, my own 
 health having much improved, I resolved to visit Edin- 
 burgh — firstj to consult in person with my medical 
 advisers as to my fitness for immediately returning to 
 Calcutta ; and second, in the event of that not being 
 allowed, to enforce the appointment of another. As 
 to the first point, — though satisfied with the progress 
 made on the whole, it was deemed utterly inadvisable 
 to attempt to return tih next summer. But, if tlie 
 Lord will, I have now the certain prospect of turning 
 my face eastward in June or July next. Meanwhile, 
 I have laboured incessantly in pressing the second 
 point, the immediate appointment of another. And 
 I am sure you will rejoice to learn that yesterday, at a 
 meeting of the general committee, not only was it re- 
 solved to appoint one, but the individual was actually 
 nominated — and he will lose no time in setting sail to 
 join you. The new colleague is Mr. Thomas Smith, 
 lately licensed to preach the gospel — one who has long 
 pondered the subject of personal engagement in the 
 missionary cause, though young in years. He has a 
 fine missionary spirit, and in mathematics and natural 
 philosophy was one of the most distinguished students 
 of the session in Edinburgh. He will at once, there- 
 fore, be able to lend you effective aid, by taking up 
 any of your own or Mr. Mackay's departments in the 
 scientific part of the course. He will thus relieve 
 you of some of those most onerous duties that have 
 devolved on you in consequence of Mr. Mackay's 
 lamented illness. We have given Mr. Smith to under- 
 
 6 B 
 
370 WFE OF DB. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 stand that he may be called on by you to take up the 
 very subjects which constituted Mr. Mackay's share 
 of instruction in the Institution. And I am happy to 
 say that he will be prepared, if deemed proper by you, 
 to do so cheerfully. 
 
 *' It will not do for a single moment to abate one 
 iota of the educati£)nal course. The committee, the 
 General Assembly, the entire Church of Scotland is 
 publicly committed to it. If the Institution at Cal- 
 cutta be allowed to drop, the sinews of war at home 
 will be cut off, and all the missionaries must either 
 return, or support themselves the best way they can on 
 the voluntary system. At this moment nothing would 
 reconcile the people of Scotland to any measure that 
 would weaken the strength of the Institution. And 
 henceforward, such is the public feeling of intelligent 
 thoughtful people on the subject, that the committee 
 dare not send a missionary who will not pledge him- 
 self to join in conducting any department of the edu- 
 cational course which may devolve upon him, either by 
 the judgment of his brethren or the exigency of un- 
 forseen contingencies. This does not infringe on the 
 grand design of effecting a thorough division of labour 
 when the number of labourers is complete — each 
 having that department allotted to him in which he 
 is known and acknowledged most to excel — or that 
 which may be his forte. But this is not to be under- 
 stood as limiting one so exclusively to one particular 
 department as to exonerate him from taking some 
 share in conducting any other when a vacancy may 
 temporarily occur. 
 
 ** I do not altogether relish the idea of a total se- 
 paration or chasm being effected between the strictly 
 spiritual and what is called the secular department. 
 Rather, I should say, there ought to be no exclusively 
 secular department. In other words, in teaching any 
 
^t. 33. EPISTLE TO THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS. 37 1 
 
 branch of literature and science, a spiritually-minded 
 man mu^t see it so tauglit as not only to prove sub- 
 servient to a general design, but bo more or less 
 saturated with religious sentiment, or reflection, or 
 deduction, or application. In this way, incidentally 
 and indirectly it may be, yet most eifectually, may 
 religious impression be conveyed even when engaged 
 in teaching literature and science. But besides this 
 incorporation of what is religious with what is secular 
 or scientific, there ought no doubt always to be regular 
 systematic instruction in what is biblical and religious. 
 And if in this department any one should be allowed 
 to excel, it would, on the principle of division of labour, 
 be well to allot it to him, but not n such sense as 
 that any other was precluded from teaching religion, 
 or that he was exempted from taking a share in the 
 literary and scientific departments, in case of necessity 
 arising from temporary illness or absence. 
 
 " Now, my dear Ewart, there is at my disposal 
 something above £1,000 in all. Do then send me by 
 the first steamer a complete list of all your desiderata 
 as to books, philosophical apparatus, etc., and I shall 
 endeavour to have all supplied. Do not miss a 
 steamer in sending me as complete a list as you can 
 furnish, that it may reach in time to enable me to 
 avail myself of it before returning to join you. My 
 affectionate regards to Mr. and Mrs. Macdonald, Mr. 
 Charles, Mr. Meiklejohn, etc. I hope to reply to tho 
 old pundit ere long. In haste, affectionately yours, 
 
 " Alexander Duff.'* 
 
 In St. Andrew's Church, Edinburgh, on the 7th 
 March, 1839, Dr. Duff him':>elf presided at the ordin- 
 ation of his young colleague, now the Rev. Thomas 
 Smith, D.D., and the only survivor of the prse-Mutiny 
 oand. Dedicated to all students of divinity in Scot- 
 
372 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 land, ** with miiny of whom the author has enjoyed 
 much general converse,*' the discourse and the charge 
 to the youthful missionary still form not only the 
 most remarkable as it has been the most popular of 
 Dr. Duff's writings, but a model to be studied by all 
 candidates of theology of whatever Church. The mis- 
 sionary apostle himself described it as " a plain letter 
 of instructions which might prove really useful to a 
 young and inexperienced but beloved brother." The 
 epistle has just enough of an autobiographic element 
 to give it a fascination which every year will increase 
 as the events of the decade ending 1839 are thrown 
 farther back in the history of India and of its Church. 
 *' Missions the Chief End of the Christian Church ; 
 also the Qualifications, Duties and Trials of an Indian 
 Missionary," as the publication of 1839 was entitled, 
 should be edited for republication in its completeness. 
 The latest reprint is sorely mutilated. Many a mis- 
 sionary has that little epistle and charge sent to India, 
 China and Africa from other Churches. 
 
 The education of the women of India was begun 
 by young ladies of Eurasian extraction, in Calcutta, 
 under the Baptist missionaries so early as April, 1819. 
 Mrs. Wilson followed, in the same city, in 1822. But 
 Bombay, if later, soon distanced the rest of India, be- 
 cause of the absence of caste among the Parsees, the 
 greater freedom of the social life of the Marathas than 
 that of the Bengalees, and the readiness of Mrs. Mar- 
 garet Wilson to take advantage of both. Hence, in 
 1837, a Bombay officer. Major Jameson, began in Scot- 
 land the formation of the Ladies' Societv for Female 
 Education in the East. Still it was long till, in any 
 part of India, it was possible to bring girls of respect- 
 able and cas\.e-bound families under Christian or even 
 secular instruction, with the exception of Parsee ladies. 
 On his first visit to England Dr. Duff was asked to 
 
^t. 33. FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA. 373 
 
 supply the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel witli infor- 
 mation, wliich the preacher published as an appendix 
 to his sermon preached for the Society in London for 
 promoting female education in China, India and the 
 East. He heartily supported Major Jameson's move- 
 ment in Scotland. On a recent visit to Penicuik we 
 found in a state of active prosperity the hrst Ladies* 
 Society ;.eon in Scotland for combined prayer and 
 work for female education in India. That society is 
 the result of an address by Dr. Duff, of which there 
 is no other trace. In the forty years since, it has 
 kept up an intelligent interest in, and has called forth 
 annually increasing work and subscriptions for the 
 evangelizr.tion of the women of India, from some of 
 the best families of Midlothian and not a few of the 
 cottages and farms of Penicuik. 
 
 Dr. Duff's address at the first annual meeting of 
 the Scottish Ladies' Society, now more vigorous than 
 ever in two bands, not only sketched the position of 
 women in the East under Hindoo and Muhammadan 
 law and practice, but outlined a policy, applicable to 
 Calcutta and Bengal, which he lived long enough to 
 see in full fruition. That has before been sketched in 
 the account of the discussion in Bengalee debating 
 societies, and as an integral part of his missionary 
 educational system. It is most tersely put in these 
 sentences of his appendix to Baptist Noel's sermon. 
 
 "From the unnatural constitution of Hindoo so- 
 ciety, the education of females, in a national point of 
 view, cannot possibly precede, cannot even be con- 
 temporaneous with the education of males. The 
 education of the former, on any great national scale, 
 must, fi'om the very nature of their position which 
 those only who have been in India can at all ade- 
 quately comprehend, follow in the wake of the en- 
 lightened education of the latter. In a word, a 
 
374 ^i^^ 0^ ^^' i>^Fr. 1839, 
 
 gGDeration of educated males, i.e. educated after the 
 European model, must be the precursor of a genera- 
 tion of educated females." 
 
 Should nothing, then, be done ? On the contrary, 
 elementary education among the few who may be 
 induced to attend a public school, and during the 
 brief time before marriage and re-absorption into 
 their own idolatrous system, should be zealously prose- 
 cuted. Christian philanthropy will care especially for 
 the outcast and the orphan, and the growing class of 
 native Christians must be provided for. " But there 
 is another and far more rapidly increasing one, that 
 must annually swell the aggregate of those friendly to 
 female improvement; the multiform class that aims 
 at the acquisition of European literature and science, 
 through the medium of the English language. From 
 various concurrent causes thousands of native youth 
 have now begun to flock to Government and Mis- 
 sionary Institutions, there to enter on the career of 
 English education ; and, if the future keep pace pro- 
 portionately with the past, these thousands will ere 
 long be multiplied tenfold, and ultimately a hundred- 
 fold. Now, it may safely be laid down as an un- 
 doubted axiom, that every individual who receives a 
 thorough English education, whether he become a 
 convert to Christianity or not, will, with it, imbibe 
 much of the English spirit, i.e. become intellectually 
 Anglicised; and hence, will inevitably enrol himself 
 in the catalogue of those whj assert the right of 
 females to be emancipated from the bondage of 
 ignorance. This is not a legitimate inference only, 
 it is a statement of the results of past experience." 
 
 The elementary or direct method has not only 
 rescued thousands of girls from destruction, aiding 
 Government in famines and providing wives for 
 Christian homes ; but it has, on the normal school 
 
JEt. 33. HIS BOOK, " INDIA AND INDIA MISSIONS." 375 
 
 method, trained devoted vernacular teachers who 
 were ready to enter the zananas, and to teach the 
 select caste schools, the moment that tlie indirect 
 influence had prepared the next generation of women 
 to be taught. What Dr. Duff predicted in 1829-1839 
 came to pass twenty years afterwards. We shall see 
 how this policy has led to the caste school and the 
 zanana instruction till at least one Bengalee lady 
 has passed the matriculation examination of the 
 University of Calcutta. 
 
 When residing with Dr. Gordon, on the occasion of 
 Mr. T. Smith's ordination, that zealous secretary of 
 the committee suggested to him the delivering of a 
 series of popular lectures in so central a place as 
 St. Andrew's church. Having devoted two or three 
 weeks to the arrangement of his materials. Dr. Duff 
 attracted overflowing crowds in the foui' weeks of 
 April to hear those gorgeous descriptions, novel ex- 
 positions, and thrilling narratives which he published 
 for the benefit of the funds of the committee, to 
 whom the book was dedicated, under the titlo of 
 " India and India Missions : including Sketches of the 
 Gigantic System of Hindooism both in Theory and 
 Practice." The work soon reached a second edition, 
 and has still a historical value, although it may be 
 said that oriental scholarship has come to exist only 
 since the translations of Sir William Jones and the 
 essays of Colebrooke were followed, chiefly after 1839, 
 by the publication of the researches of Burnouf and 
 Lassen, Prinsep and John Wilson, H. H. Wilson and 
 Weber, Max Miiller and the brothers Muir. Nor were 
 Duff^s lectures confined to Edinburgh. We have 
 traces of him in Liverpool, both in the Philanthropic 
 Hall and in the Collegiate Institution, where Dean, 
 then Principal, Howson induced him to deliver one 
 described by a critic as " of remarkable brilliance and 
 power." 
 
37^^ LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 The General Assembly of 1839 brought -with it, for 
 Dr. Duff, the solemn but not sad duty of saying fare- 
 well to the country and the Church. As a member 
 for his native presbytery of Dunkeld he spoke again, 
 but with fresh power and new facts, " on the subject 
 of your great missionary enterprise." The contrast 
 between the past and the present in the highest court 
 of the Kirk was no striking that he recalled the time 
 when the venerable Erskine cried out, '* Rax me the 
 Bible," that he might prove to his brethren in the 
 ministry the duty of preaching the gospel to the 
 heathen. Against that memorable incident, only a 
 generation past, he set the record of converts and 
 Hindoos about to become themselves missionaries, as 
 given in the latest report of the India mission. Sad- 
 dened for the moment that he was leaving no eye- 
 witness behind him to feed with facts and appeals the 
 home machinery he had organized, he said, " Public 
 meetings alone will never answer our end. We must 
 descend to the mass and permeate with vitality its 
 humblest and most distant atoms. Without this all 
 our missionary, educational, and church extension 
 schemes must flag and fail. You must get the young 
 on your side," he said ; " give me the school books and 
 the schoolmasters of a country, and I will let any one 
 else make not only its songs and its laws, but its 
 literature, sciences and philosophy too ! What has 
 made Brahmanism the hoary power it is but its 
 Shasters ? What has sustained the force and passion 
 of Islam for centuries but the Koran" read in every 
 school and college from Gibraltar to the Straits of 
 Malacca ? So must Christians use the Press, after his 
 outburst on which he referred to his own departure : — 
 
 ti 
 
 Already is it the boast of our country, that it has replen- 
 ished the service of our sovereign with warriors and states- 
 men ; supplied every civilized nation with men accomplished 
 
iEt. 33. FAliEWELL ADDRESS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 377 
 
 in learned professions ; filled the exchanges of every nietro- 
 polis in the globe with entcrprisirg capitalists ; sent intrepid 
 adventurers to explore the most barbarous and inhospitable 
 climes. But let us, through the medium of works for the 
 young, .*id especially of school books universally adopted, only 
 s;ttui'ate the juvenile mind of the nation with evangelistic 
 principles, duties, and motives, and our country may bo 
 destined to earn yet greater and more lasting fame. Our 
 parochial schools may become the rudimental nurseries, and 
 our colleges, and especially our divinity halls, the finishing 
 gymnasia of a race of men who shall aim at earning higher 
 trophies than flags and standards rolled in blood — nobler 
 badges than mimic stars of glittering dust ; — a race of men, 
 on whom shall fall the mantle of the Eliots and the Brainerds 
 of the West, and the Martyns and Careys of the East. 
 
 " . . . Often, when wearied and exhausted under the 
 debilitating influences of a vertical sun and a burning 
 atmosphere : often, when depressed and drooping in spirit, amid 
 the never-ending ebullitions of a rampant heathenism : often, 
 when thus made, in some measure, to realize the feelings of 
 the exiles of old, who by the streams of Babel did hang their 
 harps upon the willows, and wept when they remembered 
 Zion — often, often I have retired to the chamber of medita- 
 tion, on a table of which constantly lay a copy of ' the Cloud 
 of Witnesses ; ' and after pe/using some of the seraphic 
 utterances of our Renwicks and Guthries, from the dungeons 
 and the scaffolds of martyrdom, often have I fallen down 
 before the divine footstool, ashamed and confounded on ac- 
 count of my faint-heartedness and cowardice ; and rising up, 
 new -braced and invigorated in the faith, as often have I been 
 made to resolve, through grace, to be so faint-hearted and 
 cowardly no more. But little did I then think of the fresh 
 impulse and enjoyment that awaited me, when subsequently 
 privileged to visit those regions of our native land, that may 
 well be termed the Judaea and Jerusalem of persecuting times. 
 I have been in temples of the most gorgeous magnificence ; J 
 have been in palaces decorated with the glittering splendours 
 of art; I have been in bowers gladdened with perpetual 
 summer, and clothed with never-dying verdure ; — but never, 
 never amongst them all have I experienced the same pure and 
 elevated and ecstatic emotion as within the last two years. 
 
378 LIFE OP DB, DUFF. 1839. 
 
 when traversing those bleak and dreary upland moors, and 
 barren mountain solitudes, that often constituted vhs only 
 home of those devoted men of whom the world was not 
 worthy — that have been consecrated in the eyes of posterity 
 as their birthplace and theii' graves ; and over every moss, 
 and rock, and dell of which once waved the banner em- 
 blazoned, aa if in rebuke of the treason and blasphemy of 
 latter days, with the glorious inscription, — 
 
 ••'For Reformation 
 In Church and State, 
 According to the Word of God, 
 And our sworn Covenants.' 
 
 " Now, these are the men whose example wo are ever and 
 anon called upon to imitate. But surely, if there be any one 
 point more than another in which they have set us the most 
 emphatic example, it is in their cheerful determination to deny 
 themselves and submit to all manner of sacrifices. Can we, 
 except in derision, be said to emulate their conduct, if not 
 prepared and resolved to submit to like sacrifices with them ? 
 If all were here present this day, whether clergy or laity, who 
 glory in being the members of a Church that has been watered 
 and cemented by the blood of martyrs, might we not demand, 
 * What substantial proof or pledge have ye ever yet given that 
 ye are really prepai*ed and resolved to tread in their footsteps ? 
 You profess to imitate their example ! Well, in order to this, 
 you are called upon, like them, to deny yourselves, in order 
 the more effectually to advance the cause of the Redeemer/ 
 
 " In the spirit of this resolution I originally went forth to 
 heathen lands. And though suddenly removed by an afliictive 
 visitation of Providence, over which I had no control, the 
 spirit of that resolution still abideth the same. If the Lord 
 will, therefore, my unaltered and unalterable purpose is, to 
 return to the scene of my former labours. In adhering so 
 determinedly to this purpose, I am not unaware of the mis- 
 construction and uncharitable insinuations to which, in certain 
 quarters, my conduct has been subjected. Now, though in 
 myself I feel and confess that I am nothing, yea, ' less than 
 nothing, and vanity,' I must, for the sake of ' magnifying my 
 office,' be permitted to assert and vindicate the integrity of my 
 actuating motives. I would return to the land of my adoption. 
 
Mt. 33. PAEEWELL ADDRESS TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 379 
 
 not because, in the gross and carnalising judgment of somo 
 vvorldlings, I could not do better at homo. No ; if the earnest 
 and reiterated entreaties of friends ; if the most alluring offers, 
 on the part of some of ' the mighty and the noble •/ if the 
 most tempting ' vitations to spheres of houour and responsi- 
 bility, from 10. a few of the Christian people of this laiul, — 
 could liavo availed aught, I might, in the low, vulgar and 
 drivelling sense of the expression, have done better at home. 
 I would go, not from the restless spirit of wild, roviug ad- 
 venture. If the animating principle had flowed from that 
 source, sure enough it ought by this time to have been cured, 
 in the case of one who twice suIFored shipwreck, barely 
 escaping with life; who, more than once, was well-nigh 
 foundered amid the gales and hurricanes of the deep ; and who 
 was thrice brought to the very brink of the grave by the 
 noxious influences of an unfriendly clime. I would go, not 
 from any exaggerated estimate or ambitious longings after the 
 pomp and luxuries of the East. No. Dire experience con- 
 strains mo to say, that, for the enjoyment of real personal 
 comfort, I would rather, infinitely rather, be the occupant of 
 the poorest hut, with its homeliest fare, in the coldest and 
 bleakest cleft that flanks the sides of the Schehalliou or Ben 
 Nevis, than be the possessor of the stateliest palace, with its 
 royal appurtenances, in the plains of Bengal. I would go, 
 not from any freaks of fancy respecting the strangeness of 
 foreign lands, and *he exciting novelty of labour among the 
 dwellers there. There I have been already; and can only 
 testify that the state of the heathen is far too sad and awful a 
 reality to be a fitting theme for story or for song, — unless it 
 be one over which hell would rejoice, and heaven weep. I 
 would go, not from any unpatriotic dislike of my native land, 
 or misanthropic aversion from its people, or its institutions. 
 No : for its very ruggedness, as the land of ' the mountain and 
 the flood,* I cherish more than ordinary fondness. How could 
 it be otherwise ? Nestled and nursed, as it were, from earliest 
 infancy, among its wildest and sublimest scenes : — no pastime 
 half so exhilarating as the attempt to outrival the wild goat 
 in clambering from crag to crag, or to outstrip the eagle in 
 soaring to their loftiest summits ; no music half so sweet as 
 the roar of the cataract among the beetling precipices of some 
 dark frowning ravine or solitary dell ; no chariot and equipage 
 
380 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1839^ 
 
 half so much coveted as the buoyant wreaths of mist that 
 scoured atliwnrt tlio scalped brows, or curled their strange and 
 fantastic shapes around the ragged peaks of the neighbouring 
 hills. Hence a fondness for the characteristic scenery of my 
 native land, amounting almost to a passion — a passion which, 
 like every other, it requires divine grace to modify and subdue. 
 For oft as I have strayed among gardens an(.' groves, bo- 
 studded with the richest products of tropical clin.es, the in- 
 voluntary (ejaculation has ever been, * Give mo thy woods, thy 
 barren woods, poor Scotland ! ' Towards its people I have 
 always cherished the fondest attachment — an attachment 
 vastly augmented by the circumstance, that from Pomona, the 
 mainland of Orkney, to the Solway Firth, there is scarcely a 
 city or district in which I could not point out one or more 
 personal friends, in whose Christian society I have found re- 
 freshment and delight. Of all its institutions, sacred and civil, 
 I have ever entertained an unbounded admiration — an admira- 
 tion that has been immeasurably enhanced by the contrast 
 which the want of them exhibits in other lands. I would 
 therefore go, not because I love Scotland less, but because 
 I humbly and devoutly trust that, through the aid of divine 
 grace, I have been led to love ray God and Saviour, and the 
 universal extension of His blessed cause on earth, still more. 
 I would go because, with the Bible in ray hands, I cannot see 
 what special claim Scotland has upon me, as a minister of 
 Christ, any more than any other land embraced within the 
 folds of the everlasting covenant ; because, witii the Bible in 
 my hands, I cannot see how a soul in Scotland can be intrin- 
 sically more precious than a soul in Greenland, or Kaffirland, or 
 Hindostan, or any other region on earth ; because, with the 
 Bible in ray hands, I cannot see that the bounds of the Church 
 of Scotland are identical with the bounds of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom ; or that the Lord Jesus, who is no respecter of 
 persons, is the Redeemer of Scotland rather than of any other 
 realm included in the emphatic and catholic designations of 
 * all the woi'ld,' and ' all nations.' " 
 
 While thus entitled to be exacting, in his Master's 
 interest md their own, towards others because he 
 was not sparing of himself, the missionary was no less 
 
^t. 33- FAREWELL HONOURS DECLINED. 381 
 
 gonorons in his acknowledf^inont of tlioso who did 
 their duty. Mr. Baptist Noel had shown that in tho 
 year 1834, when tho whole income of the United King- 
 dom was estimated at about 514 milHons sterhntr, tho 
 proportion assigned to missions and Bible societies of 
 all kinds was only one seventeen-hundredth part, or 
 £300,000. Dr. Duff told of individuals, and especially 
 Christian ladies, who had become his fellow-helpers 
 in the gospel. One lady in London raised £500 ; her 
 example led two at Inverness* to collect £1,000 in 
 pennies, every one of which meant so much intelligence, 
 prayer and faith ; and another aided the new colonial 
 scheme by supplying with four ministers the thirty 
 thousand Scotsmen then in the island of Capo Breton. 
 Still another sent him £500 in an anonymous note, 
 as " from one who, having felt tho consolations of tho 
 gospel, is most anxious these should be imparted to the 
 perishing heathen." Thus was the Government price 
 of the site (£1 ,600) for the new college in Cornwallis 
 Square contributed ; thus was the building raised ; and 
 thus, as we have seen from the letter to Dr. Ewart, 
 were a library and philosophical apparatus supplied for 
 the use of its students. Tnto this college building 
 and equipment fund, destined to an unexpected fate — 
 the disruption of 1 843 — Dr. Duff poured a sum which 
 many to whom he had been blessed offered him in vain 
 as a personal gift for his family. All that he would 
 
 * Thus described by Dr. DufF: "One of the most peculiar at- 
 tempts was that which originated with the Misses Macintosh, of 
 Raigmore House, Inverness. Their father had been the founder of 
 one of the six great commercial and banking-houses in Calcutta. 
 The scheme was io interest parties in every parish iU Scotland so 
 fis to realize by pennies the sum of £1,000. Through indefatigable 
 exertions, at length the object was really accomplished, and in 
 carrying it out no doubt a vast deal of fresh interest in the 
 mission was diiTused throughout the membership of the Church." 
 
382 LIFE OP DB. DUFF. 1 839. 
 
 consoTit to, of a personal naturo, was tlio publication 
 of his portrait, painted by William Coweu, and on- 
 graved, in mezzotint, by S. W. Reynolds. The original 
 is now in Calcutta. 
 
 Ho who had stood alone in Calcutta in 1830 now 
 saw eight other miHsionaries from the Church of Scot- 
 land in India all working on his system with an enthu- 
 siasm fu'cd by his own. And ho did not stop there. 
 Dr. Guthrie had been called to the church of Old 
 Greyfriars in Edinburgh which he himsolf had refused, 
 and liad been there only two years when he wrote : " I 
 had DiifTand some others dining with me the other day. 
 Duff was keen for me to go out to India. Dunlop de- 
 clared that Lord Medwyn would take out a prize war- 
 rant, seeing that he is risking some five or six hundred 
 pounds in the new church (8t. John's), on the under- 
 standing that I was to be minister thereof." Ten years 
 after, when Guthrie broke down from overwork, Duff 
 thus wrote to him from Calcutta : " The whole of 
 your remarkable career during the last few years I 
 have been following with intense delight ; your Manse 
 scheme and Ragged School have been bulking before my 
 mind's eye in a way to fill me with wonder, aye and 
 devout gratitude to the God of heaven for having so 
 extraordinarily blessed your efforts. From my own 
 experience I find that a season of affliction and inward 
 humiliation usually precedes some development of 
 spiritual energy in advancing the cause of the Lord." 
 Puzzled by his refusal of any personal recognition of 
 his services at home, friends on both sides of church 
 politics begged that Dr. Duff would at least meet them 
 at a public dinner or banquet. With his answer many 
 who have been victims on such occasions, alike in 
 giving and receiving honour, will sympathise : " Fare- 
 well dinners," he said, " were never to my taste. I 
 have always shunned them in the case of others, and 
 
TEt. 33. THE SECOND OHAEQE OF DEi» CUALMEUS. 383 
 
 I will not myself be the object of honour. Tlioy are 
 generally attended by a mass of stereotyped phrases 
 intended to bo flatteries but without honest meaning. 
 Mut hold a religious service, and ask Dr. Chalmers to 
 give me his fatherly counsel and admonition." And 
 so it came about that, though the great preacher's 
 ordination charge to Duff has not seen the light, wo 
 have his matured opinion on the Scottis' missionary 
 system, from the economics of which he received many 
 a hint for his own Free Church creation three years 
 after. Dr. Ilanna has reprinted the farewell charge of 
 1839 in the " Sermons illustrative of different stages 
 in liis ministry," by the man whom Mr. Gladstone has 
 pronounced the grandest of all preachers he has hoard, 
 in spite of a distasteful accent, although John Henry 
 Newman was one of those preachers. 
 
 " Ten years ago," said the divinity professor of 
 sixty to the already experienced missionary of thirty- 
 three who stood before him above a vast crowd in 
 St. George's, Edinburgh, " in the work of setting you 
 apart to your office I expatiated on the nature and 
 evidence of conversion to God. * As we have heard, 
 so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in 
 the city of our God : God will establish it for ever.' 
 Christianity is the manifestation of truth by the S[)irit 
 to the conscience. It is on some such moral evidence 
 that the philosophy of missions is based. As we have 
 heard, so have we seen : then may it be understood 
 how, without a sensible miracle, there may arise in 
 the mind a well-founded belief in the truth of Chris- 
 tianity." Thus had hhe first missionary of the Church 
 of Scotland devised his plan and carried out the divine 
 policy — " faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
 word of God." 
 
 "By a device of admirable skilfu'.ness and correspondpnt 
 success, you have brought many of tKe most iufluential families 
 
'y 
 
 84 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 of nindostan within reach of the hearing of the word of God. 
 You havf, instituted a school mainly of scriptural lessons and 
 scriptural "xenHses. You have practised no deceit upon the 
 natives, for all is above board, and it is universally known 
 that the volume which forms the great text and substratum of 
 your scholarship is the book of the religion of Christians. 
 But you, at the same time, have studied to multiply the at- 
 tractions of this school ; you have not only iustituLod a lecture- 
 ship on the evidences of Christianity, but, for the purpose of 
 engaging the attendance chiefly of the higher classes, you 
 have pressed into the service both the physical and the 
 mathematical sciences, and, what might startle some, have 
 superadded the doctrines of political economy, and all that the 
 votaries of science might be lured within the precincts of 
 sacred ness. It is thus that many of India of all ranks, and 
 especially of the upper orders of society, have passed through 
 your seminary in successive hundreds, familiarized with the 
 language and seasoned with the subject matter of inspiration. 
 It is thus that many have heard with the hearing of the ear, 
 and at least been disarmed of all hostility to the gospel, and 
 some of these, many, have been made to see, and been con- 
 verted, and become the declared friends and champions of our 
 faith. It delights me, sir, to know, as the fruit of my in- 
 timate converse and of my acquaintance with your principles 
 and your thoughts, that while you have done so much to 
 obtain an extensive hearing for the gospel of Jesus Christ 
 in the most likely and promising quarters of human society, 
 you are at the same time fully and feelingly aware what that 
 high and external quarter is whence alone the seeing comes, 
 anu that unless a blessing, to be evoked only by prayer, shall 
 descend from the sanctuary above upon your enterprise, all 
 the labour you have bestowed upon it will prove but a vain 
 and empty pf^,rade. Let me earnestly recommend the con- 
 tinuance of this sacred and fruitful union, a union between 
 the diligence of ever-working hands and the devotion of ever- 
 praying hearts. Men of various moods and temperaments, and 
 different tastes of spirituality and intellect, will be variously 
 affected by the spectacle. Those of shrewd, but withal of 
 secular intelligence, will think lightly of your supplications, 
 perhaps even speak contemptuously of those outpourings of 
 the Spirit on which, I trusi, you will ever wait and ever watch 
 
^t. 33. DR. CHALMERS EULOGISES HIS SYSTEM. 385 
 
 with humblo expectancy. Those of serious, but withal of 
 weak and drivelling piety, will think lightly of your scieuco, 
 and perhaps even speak with rebuke of your geometry, and 
 your economics, and your other themes of strange and philo- 
 sophic nomenclature, as things that have in them a certain 
 cast of heathenish innovation, prejudicial to the success, be- 
 cause incongruous with the simplicity of the gospel. But 
 amid these reproaches on the right hand and on the left, 
 persevere as you have begun ; and whether, on the one hand, 
 they be the cold rationalists who assail you with their con- 
 tempt, or, on the other hand, they be the fanatical religionists 
 who look on you with intolerance, continue to do what all men 
 of sense and of sacredness have done before, and you will 
 at length reap tho fulfilment of the saying, that wisdom is 
 ju&' "fied of her children.' 
 
 }i 
 
 
 Having thus put his imprimatur on the system in 
 language as strong as even Dr. Duff's when the mis- 
 sionary vindicated his evangelism alike against " the 
 bigotry of an unwise pietism " and *' the bigotry of 
 infidelity," Dr. Chalmers spoke with an almost pre- 
 dictive reference to his own coming scheme of Free 
 Church economics, when ho said, " You were the first, 
 I believe, to set the example of parsing from parish to 
 parish, and from presbytery to presbytery in behalf of 
 your own cause, and it only needs to be so carried 
 forward in behalf of other causes as to fill the whole 
 length and breadth of the land, in order to reap a 
 tenfold more abundant harvest from the liberalities 
 of the people than has ever yet been realized." Re- 
 ferring to his special work of home missions as not 
 a competing but a co-operating cause, he uttered a 
 truth which his successors have generally though not 
 always remembered : " Our two causes, our two com- 
 mittees, might work into each other's hands. Should 
 the first take the precedency and traverse for collec- 
 tions the whole of Scotland, the second would only 
 find the ground more softened and prepared for an 
 
 c 
 
386 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 abundant produce to itself. It acts not by exhaustion 
 — it acts by fermentation." And with this glimmer- 
 ing of the certain glory, he a second time sent forth 
 his favourite disciple and now beloved brother ; refer- 
 ring to " the singularly prophetic aspect, not merely 
 of the days in which we live, but both of Christendom, 
 that region you are about to leave, and of Eastern 
 Asia, that region of ancient idolatry whither you are 
 going ; for we can notice on that distant horizon the 
 faint breakings of evangelical light which, like the 
 dawn of early morn, may perhaps increase more and 
 more till the drying up of the Euphrates that the way 
 of the kings of the East may be prepared.** 
 
 We find this note written to Dr. Chalmers before 
 the address : — 
 
 « 
 
 BiiiSTANE BY LoANHEAD, Tuesclaijj 8th. 
 
 My Deae Sib, — I thank you with all my heart for 
 your very kind note of this morning. To receive 
 from you anew in any form the address of ten years 
 ago — the material of which became food for the white 
 ants of Bengal, but the moral of which had been 
 previously incorporated into my mental constitution — 
 will be to me an invaluable boon. 
 
 " I am grieved to say that I had a pre-engage- 
 ment for breakfast on Thursday morning, of such a 
 nature that I cannot suspend it. But, if possible, I 
 shall endeavour to call on you between ten and eleven 
 o'clock, a.m. I cannot express the gratification, the 
 comfort, the invigoration of spirit which I have ex- 
 perienced in the very prospect of yottr giving me a 
 parting address on Thursday, for to you I feel more 
 indebted, as an instrument in the hands of God, for 
 the impulse that carried me to heathen lands, than to 
 any other in the form of mere man. With grateful, 
 aff'ectionate regards, " Alexander Duff.' 
 
 it 
 
JEt. 33. ANGLO-INDIAN PARTINGS. 38 7 
 
 Dr. DufF preached his farewell sermon to his own 
 people, in the Moulin parish kirk of his childhood, 
 from the text, " Finally, brethren, farewell." The 
 services, Gaelic and English, lasted for live hours, and 
 the crowded audience were in tears. On the subse- 
 quent Monday evening he met with them again, and, 
 after a short address, shook hands with the minister 
 in the name of all the country people, who had flocked 
 in from the vale and the hillsides of Athole. Then 
 followed the living martyrdom of Indian exile, the 
 parting of father and mother from their four children. 
 The birth of the youngest, a boy, only a few months 
 before, had been to Dr. Duff a source of new joy and 
 strength at a time of depression. Parents and children 
 were not to meet again for eleven long years. 
 
CHAPTER Xin, 
 
 1839-1840. 
 EOTPT.^SINAL—BOMBA T.—MA D J? 
 
 Wigliom and the Overland Route. — Dr. Duiff as a ' 
 ■wich to Civita Vecchia with Cardinal Wi.seni;i 
 Wines of France. — Syra. — Alexandria. — Muhami; 
 Church jf St. Mark. — The Pyramids and Memplii 
 the Pasha's Misgovernment of Egypt. — Interview 
 Patriarch. — Caravan to Suez and an Indian of tli 
 Dr. Duff goes alone to Sinai. — Justinian's Convci 
 rine. — Greek and Hindostauee. — A Christian ' 
 Mount of Moses. — Letter to his Daughter. — Sii( 
 Meeting with Wilson and Nesbit. — The Differin 
 Western and Eastern India as Missionary FicKi 
 Backwardness of English Education in Boniba; 
 Missions and Missionaries there. — Round (\i 
 Madras — A Night with Samuel Hebich at 3 
 Scottish Mission iu Madras. — A Cyclone at Hi 
 Hooghly. — Calcutta again. 
 
 The Overland Route, a phrase which I 
 have any but a historical meaning sinc^ 
 of the Suez Canal, had just been made a i 
 ',he autumn of 1839, Dr. and Mrs. Duff went forth to 
 India for the second time. On the ordinary roll of 
 the English martyrs of science the name of Thomas 
 Waghorn is not to be found. It has been left to the 
 French to do justice to the memory of the man who, 
 amid obstruction, obloquy and injustice ending in a 
 pauper's death, first opened the British overland route 
 to India in 1830. When M. Ferdinand de Lesscps 
 created the consequent of that by cuttinp: ♦^^-^ ' n^inl 
 
III (jijcu sL'izud by his creditors. Thomas Wag- 
 
 * In the eight years ending 1878, the number of vessels which 
 have passed through the Suez Canal has been 10,988, yielding 
 eight millions sterling in dues. Of these vessels 8,007 were British, 
 which paid six millions sterling out of the eight. In the last year, 
 1878, of 96,303 passengers who passed through the Canal in 1,593 
 ships with a measurement of 3,269,178 tons, -besides the many who 
 crossed the isthmus by railway, 28,;:5o9 were British soldiers and 
 l'i,775 Ani^lo-TiuUans, or -irijlM iu all. 
 
390 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 
 
 horn died in the misery of debt, while the Pen 
 and Oriental Company sent its first steamers, it 
 along the path he had persistently tracked on 
 complete the scandal, not seven years have 
 since his aged sisters were driven to ask the p\i 
 support, while the Government which had so 
 their brother raised a revenue of fifty millions 
 a year from India and paid nearly half a iin 
 subsidies for the postal traffic on his overlaiui 
 So it is that the Latin poet's experience is stil! 
 "Sic vos non vohis" The bees of humanit 
 honey, but not for themselves. 
 
 When Dr. Duff resolved to return to India 1 
 was, in 1839, still Waghorn's overland route, li 
 the story of the heroic pioneer so far, and he i 
 to run the risk. *'A man above the count 
 activity, energy and enterprise!" was his in 
 exclamation then, before the eager life had hvc 
 a miserable tragedy by an ignorant country 
 ungrateful Government. Hotels in Egypt, swi 
 vans instead of camels in the desert, and a 
 with cabin accommodation for twelve passeng( i 
 the marvellous facilities supplied by tins i 
 benefactor in such circumstances. Thus ho li 
 verted the nearly five months of 1830 into tlio 
 and a half of 1839 between London and Boml > 
 as he pointed the road to the present rcductioi 
 time to sixteen days. Dr. Duff had to find ! 
 first to Bombay, at the request both of Dr. 
 and the Kirk's committee, that he might conit 
 counsel his colleagues there after the keen excii 
 caused by the baptism of the first two converts ivum 
 Parseeism. His most rapid course thus lay from 
 Harwich to Antwerp and Brussels, south by Paris to 
 Marseilles, and thence by steamer to Syra, there to join 
 the mail steamer from Constantinople to Alexandria. 
 
M'DINAL WISEMAN. 39* 
 
 s showed more than tho 
 
 ^^-Tudian. By reading 
 
 ^lad gone over his 
 
 ■lligent onjoy- 
 
 (lour of the 
 
 Mio broad 
 
 '.(1 or 
 
 i;il!v' 
 
 step iu 
 
 whom Eiisi^hiii ■ 
 Antwerp Dr. Dull 
 created by the flow uL i 
 
392 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 earliest overland route — by Solomon's cities in tlio 
 desert, the Danube and the Rhine to the Dutch East 
 India Company's docks. In Brussels, " so strangely 
 mixed up with the intricate web of British history," 
 and still more in Paris, he marked '* the combined 
 idolatry of sense and intellect " which more than ever 
 attracts worshippers from every land. As ho went on 
 to Chalons-sur-Saone, Melun recalled Abelard to him. 
 The wealth of the wine country through which he was 
 slowly driven suggested such reflections as these, of 
 oven more significance to our own time than they were 
 forty years ago : — 
 
 "In these countries, mantled with vineyards, one 
 cannot help learning the true intent and use of the 
 vine in the scheme of Providence. In our own land 
 wine has become so exclusively a mere luxury, or, 
 what is worse, by a species of manufacture, an intoxi- 
 cating beverage, that many have wondered how the 
 Bible so often speaks of wine in conjunction with corn 
 and other such staple supports of animal life ! Now, 
 in passing through the vineyards in the east of France, 
 one must at once perceive that the vine greatly 
 flourishes on slopes and heights where the soil is too 
 poor and gravelly to maintain either corn for food or 
 pasturage for cattle. But what is the providential 
 design in rendering this soil — favoured by a genial 
 atmosphere — so productive of the vine, if its fruit 
 become solely either an article of luxury or an instru- 
 ment of vice ? The answer is, that Providence had no 
 such design. Look at the peasant at his meals in 
 vine-bearing districts I Instead of milk he has before 
 him a basin of the pure unadulterated ' blood of the 
 grape.' In this, its native and original state, it is a 
 plain, simple and wholesome liquid, which at every 
 repast b( comes to the husbandman what milk is to 
 the shepherd, — not a luxury but a necessary, not an 
 
^t. 33. WINES OF FRANCE. URNS OF ETRURIA. 393 
 
 iiitoxicfitiii!^ but a nutritivo boverago. Hence, to tlio 
 vine-dressing peasant of Auxerre, for example, an 
 abundant vintage, as connected with his own ininiedi- 
 ate sustenance, is as important as an overflowing dairy 
 to the pastoral peasant of Ayrshire. And hence, by 
 such a view cf the subject, are the language and the 
 sense of Scripture vindicated from the very appearance 
 of favouring what is merely luxurious or positively 
 noxious, when it so constantly magnifies a well- 
 replenished wine-press, in a rocky, mountainous 
 country like that of Palestine, as one of the richest 
 bounties of a gracious Providence — not to the rich 
 or the mighty of the earth, but to man, as man, with 
 his manifold physical wants- and infirmities." 
 
 The sail from Chalons down the Saone took the 
 travellers i'^ to the heart of scenery like their own 
 Scotland, but with a climate more congenial to the 
 Anglo-Indian than the gloom and the grey of the cold 
 North. Past Roman ruins and fairy-like villas, Rous- 
 seau's valley of Rochecardon and Lyons of martyr 
 memories, — where a day of refreshing intercourse was 
 spent with the evangelical pastor, M. Cordcs, — they 
 were swept on by the rapid Rhone two hundred miles 
 in twelve hours to papal Avignon ; thence Marseilles 
 and its steamer were reached. On the calm bosom of 
 the Mediterranean, the Presbyterian and very catholic 
 missionary and the Roman Catholic Dr. Wiseman were 
 glad to renew their talk. The magnificence of Genoa 
 — the first * city of palaces ' — from the sea, with the 
 setting sun bathing it in gold, gave place to the gentler 
 beauty of Leghorn, framed as it were in the "Western 
 Apennines, and that to the low land and fever-stricken 
 swamps of the neighbourhood of Civita Vecchia. As 
 they coasted along the ancient Etruria, their talk was 
 of the discovery of ancient urns in its hills. Here 
 Dr. Wiseman was a master, and he courteously guided 
 
394 I-IFE OP DR. DUFF. 1839. 
 
 liis travelling companion to tlio nearest eminence 
 where the treasures of ancient art had been found. 
 At the then papal port they parted never to meet 
 again, the English priest to his episcopal consecration 
 and cardinal's hat in due time, the Scottish missionary 
 to his turning upside down of the idolatrir of the far 
 East. 
 
 The Marseilles steamer then called at Malta, passed 
 within a hundred yards of the precipitous headland 
 of Cape Matapan, and dropped anchor at Syra, the port 
 of Europe which is nearest to India. The filth and 
 the vice of a Levantine albeit Greek centre contrasted 
 painfully with the glories of Homeric and even later 
 days. The steamer from Constantinople had Colonel 
 Hodges, the new British Consul-General for Egypt, on 
 board, and also the Rev. Mr. Grimshaw, rector of 
 Bedford, and known in his day as the author of a lifo 
 of Cowper the poet. On reaching Alexandria they 
 found that the last act of the departing Consul- 
 General, Colonel Campbell, would be to lay the founda- 
 tion stone of the first English church, of St. Mark, 
 which now adorns one corner of the great square. Dr. 
 Duff learned that the ceremony was to be of a purely 
 civil character, in this Muhammadan city, with it? 
 memories of Panta3nus and Clement, of Origen and 
 Athanasius, and sought an explanation of the anomaly. 
 Colonel Campbell was a great favourite with the 
 enlightened Muhammad Ali, the irresponsible ruler 
 of Egypt. Being religiously disposed, the Consul- 
 General had felt the need of a Protestant place of 
 worship in a city like that of Alexandria, which was 
 daily becoming a greater thoroughfare between the 
 West and East than it had been since the time of its 
 founder. Though himself a Presbyterian, he did not 
 want it to be exclusively Presbyterian : he knew that 
 members of all Protestant Churches would often be 
 
JEt. 33. MUHAMMAD ALI AND ST. MAUK*S, ALEXANDUIA. 395 
 
 passing through and there bo often detained for days. 
 What ho wanted was a Protestant Church on a purely 
 cathoUc basis, so that ho might freely invite any minis- 
 ter of any Church to conduct divino service there. Ho 
 had repeatedly therefore asked his friend the Pasha 
 for a piece of grou!id, outside the walls of Alexandria, 
 on which such a church might bo erected. 
 
 Muhammad Ali frankly declared that personally ho 
 had no prejudice on the subject, but the religious 
 heads of Islam at Constantinople would resist tlio 
 attempt. At his farewell interview with the Consul- 
 Goneral, however, he said, with a smiling countenance : 
 " Colonel Campbell, you and I have always been fast 
 friends. You have often greatly helped mo with your 
 counsel, and in other respects have done mo good 
 service. You know that in the East the custom is for 
 a ruler to make his friend a present of a piece of land, 
 commonly called 'jagheer,' to be in perpetuity his own 
 property. I want to give you a small portion of the 
 space occupied by the great square in Alexandria, 
 very near its centre. It is my parting gift to you, 
 only you must ask me no question as to what use 
 you may make of it, as that may involve me in 
 official trouble. But I tell you plainly, you may use 
 it for whatever purpose you think proper." Colonel 
 Campbell thoroughly understood the Pasha, thanked 
 him with all his heart, and soon made over the land 
 to a committee of the English residents as the site 
 of the first English church. Muhammad Ali went 
 further. He could not himself be present, but he 
 sent his chief officers of state and bis body-guard 
 to honour his friend on the occasion of laying the 
 foundation stone. All the consuls, all Alexandria, 
 were to be present. How could a religious service 
 be attempted in such circumstances ? 
 
 Colonel Campbell came to see that, even in Oriental 
 
39^ I'lI'E OF DB. DUFP. 1839. 
 
 oyos, tlio clodication of a sito for the worship of God 
 Avithout tlio recognition of tho proseuco of God would 
 be a scandal, or a cause of suspicion. Accordingly on 
 the 14th December, Ur. Duff — described in tho Globe 
 newspaper of the time as " a missionary of some cele- 
 brity in India, who happened to be present in Alexan- 
 dria — perfo. ned tho religious part of tho ceremony, 
 in which he was followed by the Rev. Mr. Grimshaw." 
 Since that occasion Dr. Yule has raised a Scottish 
 church near the square, and M. do Lesseps has had his 
 canal cutting blessed by prelates of all the Eastern 
 Churches side by side with Muhammadan Moulvies. 
 But never before or since has the Egypt of Fatimito 
 caliphs and Turkish pashas heard publicly read in its 
 greatest place Solomon's dedication of the first Temple 
 and the prayers of Protestant ministers from West and 
 East. " It was quite remarkable to note," wrote Dr. 
 Duff, " the stillness, respectfulness, and earnestness 
 with which the whole mass of surrounding Mussul- 
 mans, only a few of whom could understand English, 
 listened to the prayers, the reading, and addresses, and 
 then quietly dispersed. Such was the noble catholicity 
 of the Protestant church, as projected and practically 
 established by Colonel Campbell." In two interviews 
 with Muhammad Ali thereafter, Dr. Duff pressed upon 
 the Pasha the importance, for industrial as well as 
 other reasons, of attracting the Jews back to Palestine, 
 for the Pasha was at the time master of that part of 
 Syria. 
 
 By dahabieh up the Mahmoodieh canal, excavated 
 in 1820 by cruelly forced labour, and slowly up the 
 Hooghly-like Nile of the Delta, Cairo was reached, only 
 to find that there were sixty passengers to fill the twelve 
 berths of the small steamer to Bombay. This gave 
 Dr. Duff a whole month, in which he not only visited 
 the pyramids of Geezeh and Sakkara, and explored 
 
JEt 33. MUIIAMMADAN MISRULE IN EGYPT. 397 
 
 Memplua from the ancient comctory, of wliicli Sir 
 G. Wilkinson's Arabs wore busily laying baro th(3 
 mummy pits, but carefully studied the condilion of 
 the unhappy fellaheen of Egypt, and afterwards went 
 to Mount Sinai. Familiar with Bengal and with the 
 British financial and administrative systems, tlio far- 
 seeing missionary formed impressions regarding the 
 rule of Muhammad Ali very different from those which 
 were popular at the time, but too sadly confirmed 
 by the subsequent history of Egypt to the present 
 hour. Indeed, having many times passed tlirough 
 the land, from the days of the vans in the desert to 
 those of the canal steamer and the now railway, wo 
 can find no more correct description of Egypt as it was 
 than that of the Bengal missionary in 1830, and no 
 more faithful account of Egypt as it is than that of the 
 Bengal Lieutenant-Governor, Sir George Campbell. 
 The one unconsciously confirms the other. Both 
 independently show the hopelessness of Mussulman 
 rule under the very best conditions. 
 
 After an eloquent description of Cairo, full of the 
 life and colour of the confused oriental scene which 
 Parisian taste has now covered but not cleansed, and 
 the exposure of a great magician whose spiritist arts 
 made him the talk of the East, Dr. Duff" wrote in the 
 Calcutta Chrisiian Observer of 1840, that the hope 
 of a revival of Egypt under the new Pasha was a 
 delusion. 
 
 *' That the Pasha is one of the most extraordinary 
 men of his age — a man of uncommon talent and 
 energy of character ; a man, too, capable of being 
 courteous and affable in the extreme — is universally 
 conceded. But that he is, in any sense, the real friend 
 or regenerator of Egypt, is belied by every one of his 
 actions. Self, self, self, is with him the all in all. 
 Personal fame, personal power, and personal aggrau- 
 
39^ LIFE OF DE, DUFF. 1840. 
 
 dizoment, circumscribe the entire horizon of his policy. 
 On the details of his well-known history it is needless 
 to dwell. Born of a humble parentage at Cavallo 
 in Albania, in 1769, he for some time acted as an 
 assistant collector of taxes, and afterwards as a to- 
 bacco merchant. Having been twice admitted to his 
 immediate presence, it wonderfully struck us that his 
 whole appearance still pointed very significantly to 
 the lowliness of his origin. Of middle stature, inclined 
 to corpulency rather than corpulent, he exhibited in 
 his countenance nought of real greatness, dignity, or 
 command. Indeed, the entire expression of it was 
 decidedly of a sharp, harsh, and vulgar cast ; its chief 
 redeeming quality being its venerable beard. But 
 those eyes — were they not striking ? Yea, verily ; 
 such a pair of flashing eyes we never saw. it seemed 
 as if their possessor could penetrate through one's 
 bodily frame, and at a single glance read the most 
 secret thouo-hts and intents of the heart. Still it was 
 not the piercing glance of a profound intelligence 
 which mainly lightened through these eyes : it was 
 rather the vivid flash of a tiger-like ferocity. Hence, 
 doubtless, his favourite oath, when bent on some deed 
 of more than ordinary horror, * By my eyes ! ' When 
 he spoke, his voice had a peculiar shrillness which 
 made one feel uneasy ; and when he smiled, his very 
 smile had somewhat in it of a savage grin." 
 
 Dr. Duff showed in detail, in agriculture, in manu- 
 factures, in public works, in commerce, in military 
 discipline, and in the aggravated horrors of the slave- 
 trade, that all the changes amounted to neither a 
 reform nor a regeneration, but to the oriental art of 
 squeezing the peasantry that the ruler might have 
 a full treasury and a ruthless army. The solitary 
 printing-press and polytechnic school were " in point 
 of fact, as much the mere instrument of an all-absorb- 
 
^t. 34. DEGENEEACY OP THE COPTIC CHURCH. 399 
 
 ing despotism as the drill ground, the cannon foundry 
 or the powder mill." Then, as all through the 
 debasing history of his house, while it is true that 
 Muhammad Ali and his successors have been capable 
 of occasional acts of generosity, the remark of their 
 J'rench panegyrist sums up the truth : — " The traveller 
 sees with astonishment the richness of the harvests 
 contrasted with the wretched state of the villages. If 
 there is no country more abundant in its territorial 
 productions, there is none, perhaps, whose inhabitants 
 on the whole are more miserable." Forty years of 
 that misery have slowly passed, handing it on in an 
 intensified form to a new generation, from whom 
 Christian bond-holders still demand the pound of flesh, 
 while the Western Powers are foiled in the attempt to 
 keep the fellaheen quiet, only, let us hope, to hasten 
 the day of their deliverance. 
 
 Dr. Duff could not be in Egypt without studying 
 the most degraded of all Christian churches except its 
 Abyssinian offshoot, the Coptic. Yery tender is the 
 sympathy, very eager the hope, which he expresses in 
 its case. Then the only missionaries in all Egypt were 
 Messrs. Lieder and Kruse, the former and his wife long 
 the benefactors of its people, and the friends of all 
 Christian travellers who sought them out. Now 
 American Presbyterians like Dr. Lansing, as well as 
 others, have done in Cairo, and from Eamleh to the 
 equator, the same work among Copts and Arabs that 
 Dr. Duff had been doing among Hindoos and Muham- 
 madans. " Roused by recollections of faded glory, we 
 felt moved with a burning desire to know how life 
 could be rebreathed into the shrivelled skeleton of so 
 fruitful and so noble a mother of churches," wrote 
 Dr. Duff. The Patriarch, professing to be the 
 apostolic successor of St. Mark, had been conveyed 
 from his convent to the chair of the Evangelist by 
 
400 LIFE OP BR. DUFP. 1840. 
 
 the soldiery of the Pasha for consecration ! Dr. Duff 
 sought an interview with him, that he might urge 
 the gradual establishment of a college like that in 
 Calcutta — a scheme since most successfully carried 
 out by the Americans. He and Mr. Grimshaw were 
 conducted to the audience chamber by the Bishop of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 " There the Patriarch, a dark-complexioned, venerable 
 old man clad in his pontificals, was seated in oriental 
 style to receive us. Having explained the anti-popish 
 character of the doctrines of the Churches of England 
 and of Scotland as well as of other Protestant denomi- 
 nations, and having raferred at some length to the 
 original prosperity and subsequent decline and per- 
 secution of the Church of Egypt, we expressed our 
 deep regret at the obscuration of their light, our 
 sympathy for their past and present sufferings, and 
 our earnest concern for their restoration to more than 
 primitive excellence. The Patriarch admitted that 
 many grievous errors had formerly crept in ; that 
 much deadness still continued to benumb, and much 
 darkness to overshadow them ; and that there was 
 need for the infusion of new life and new light. 
 When, in making this admission, he pointedly referred 
 to the sufferings of their martyred fathers, he seemed 
 greatly moved, and melted into tears. What then was 
 to be done towards a revival and a re-illumination ? 
 Might not, it was asked, might not the Bible be freely 
 circulated, not in the Coptic, which was a dead lan- 
 guage studied by few, but in the Arabic, which, read 
 by numbers, was understood and spoken by all t^ 
 Without qualification or reserve the Patriarch de- 
 clared that it might; adding, with emphasis, that 
 wha' ver else might be alleged against his Church, 
 this at least had never ceased to be one of its distin- 
 uishing characteristics, viz., that the Bible should bo 
 
 
^t. 34. HIS SCHEME FOE REVIVING THE COPTIC CnURCTI. 4OI 
 
 held as the ultimate standard of appeal in articles of 
 faith ; and that to it, through any intelligible medium, 
 the laity and the priest should, all alike, have the 
 right of unrestricted access. Again, it was asked 
 whether, in order to aid* in reviving and diffusing 
 a knowledge of Christian doctrine, tracts or small 
 books in the form of extracts or selections from the 
 most celebrated fathers of the Alexandrian school, 
 who are still regarded -u^th profoundest veneration 
 by the Copts themselves, might not be compiled, trans- 
 lated, and distributed among the people, or introduced 
 into seminaries of education ? Without hesitation the 
 Patriarch — smiling with t;vident delight at our respect- 
 ful recognition of names which have reflected honour 
 on the Christian Church — replied, that there could bo 
 no possible objection to such a measure, yea, that he 
 would consider such tracts and books an invaluable 
 boon. The subject of raising or rather new-creating 
 a standard of instruction for the clergy next occupied 
 the main part of conversation. Not to arouse the 
 fears and suspicions of an ignorance so profound, not 
 to tear up by the roots a plant so sapless and feeble 
 by sudden stretches of innovation, it was asked in 
 the first instance, whether a seminary might not be 
 established in which candidates for the ministry 
 could pass through a systematic course of theological 
 tuition, making the Bible itself the great text-book, 
 and selections from the most venerated of the fathers 
 important auxiliaries, superadding, with a view to the 
 expansion of the miud by an enlargement of the range 
 of ideas, a course of instruction in geography and 
 general history, ancient and modern, placing the 
 whole system under the patronage and supervision 
 of a committee composed of the Patriarch himself and 
 other leading members of" the Coptic community, to- 
 gether with the English missionaries, and entrusting 
 
 D D 
 
402 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1840. 
 
 the latter with the entire practical and professorial 
 duties of the proposed institution ? After much initial 
 explanation, the Patriarch eventually signified his own 
 acquiescence in some such scheme. He accordingly 
 announced his consent and sanction that Mr. Lieder 
 should forthwith prepare in writing a well digested 
 syllabus of the projected plan, to be submitted form- 
 ally to himself and his council of bishops .and presby- 
 ters for their united approval and ratification; and 
 that, when approved of and ratified, an authenticated 
 copy thereof, signed by the Patriarch and sealed with 
 the patriarchal signet, should be furnished to the 
 missionaries, to be by them forwarded for the satis- 
 faction of the British Churches, with a view to secure 
 and guarantee their countenance and support. After 
 replying to many other questions relative to the 
 present doctrines, discipline and ceremonial of his 
 Church ; and after thanking us for the i^.terest which 
 had been manifested in its re-invigoration and pros- 
 perity, the Patriarch rose up and solemnly pronounced 
 his benediction, subjoining, with tearful eyes and 
 quivering lips which betrayed deep emotion, the simple 
 but devout aspiration : ' If Tie should never meet 
 again in time, my prayer is, tharfc we may meet in 
 heaven, before the throne of our common Lord and 
 Saviour.' " 
 
 For the expedition from Cairo to the peninsula of 
 Sinai a party of five English gentlemen offered to join 
 Dr. Duff. At Alexandria he had engaged an assistant 
 at the British Consulate, who was master of the popular 
 Arabic. The sheikh of the tribes of the Sinai range, 
 happening to be in Cairo, was secured as guide of 
 the caravan, Mr. Lieder making the necessary con- 
 tract. Each of the six travellers had three camels, 
 for himself, for the tent and for the provisions. 
 One was a Madras civilian, whoso ideas of comfort in 
 
JEt. 34. AN OLD INDIAN IN THE DESERT. 403 
 
 the desert proved to be those of the most luxurious 
 nawab that Theodore Hook or Thackeray ever satir- 
 ised. The route was the most southerly, from old 
 Memphis to Jebel Attaka, believed by the scholars of 
 that day to have been the line of the Exodus, just as 
 the latest scholar, Brugsch Bey,* would now scud tlic 
 Israelites north through the Sorbonian bog. Before 
 sunrise on the morning after the first encampment in 
 the desert, when all were up for a frugal breukftist 
 and early start, the nawab was heard shouting for 
 his gridiron, and then for chops. He was pacified 
 with difficulty, but only to call an early halt for 
 * tiffin,' or luncheon, in the blazing sun. Next day a 
 sandstorm threatened to engulf the whole party, and 
 tho unhappy gourmand demanded to bo led back to 
 the joys of the Waghorn hotel in Cairo. He was forced 
 to proceed, but his troubles were not yet at an end. 
 On the following morning, after the misery of the 
 sand, he called for water. Dr. Duff's description of 
 the scene used to be most amusing. " For what 
 purpose?" "Why," said the nawab, " to have a bath, 
 for this state of things is simply intolerable." His 
 associates tried to persuade him that it was vain to 
 expect water for such a purpose. Then it was that lie 
 coolly asked for one or more of the hogskins in which 
 water for culinary purposes was carried, though, as 
 the skins had not been sufficiently tanned, the water 
 by that time had got the colour of London porter ! 
 Yet being the only water available for necessary uses, 
 no part of it could be given up for the luxury of a 
 bath. The civilian was still unsatisfied, and could not 
 be quieted. At last it occurred to some one to call 
 the sheikh. The look of the Arab was one of perfect 
 
 * A nistorii of Ugijpt iinder ihe riiamohs derived entirehj from the 
 Monuments. By Houry Eru^^'sch Bey. 1879. 
 
404 LIFE OP DE. DUFF, 1840. 
 
 astonislimcnt. He eyed the Sybarite from head to 
 foot as if his eyes would penetrate his very body. At 
 last when the explanation was fully given, the sheikh, 
 instead of a formal reply, looked somewhat con- 
 temptuously at the gentleman, put both his hands 
 down into the deep sand, took up a handful, rubbed 
 liis fingers with it, and looking steadfastly at the 
 Englishman, said with great emphasis : " That, sir, 
 is the water of the desert ! " The result was that, 
 from Suez, Dr. Duff alone went on to Sinai, while his 
 companions returned to Cairo, not however without 
 having exacted from the sheikh a new pledge, drawn 
 up by the English vice-consul then just established at 
 Suez, to bring back in safety the foolhardy missionary I 
 The silence of the desert of Sinai for the next fort- 
 night proved a time of refreshing to the spirit of the 
 solitary traveller, as he passed from the toils of the 
 West to the labours about to be renewed in India. 
 Bible in hand, he rode day by day along the track of 
 the children of Israel, as they had marched, noting 
 the wells, the palm-trees, the acacias, the camel tracks, 
 and the desert landscape. As he left the Red Sea for 
 the great plain at the foot of the Mount of the Law, 
 he followed the eastern central route and returned by 
 the south-western, that he might cover as much ground 
 as possible. It was evening when he came to the 
 outer border of the great platform of the wilderness of 
 sandy rock. The rays of the setting sun fell slantingly 
 on the stupendous masses of grey granite which form 
 the Sinai range, as it stretches for forty or fifty miles 
 along the sea and rises to a height of between 8,000 and 
 9,000 feet. To his imagination the sight was that of 
 a mighty fortress on fire, of blazing battlements and 
 flashing towers. On the morrow at sunrise, while the 
 ground was still bound by frost, the disintegrated 
 granite seemed a mass of orient pearl and gold, and 
 
JEt. 34. APrROACniNG THE MOUNT OP MOSES. 405 
 
 the plain looked as if strewed with the manna from 
 heaven, which melted away as the sun rose in the 
 sky. Since that time many a scientific explorer 
 and, finally, the Ordnance Survey have revealed the 
 physical appearances of the wilderness of the wander- 
 ings, only to leave the question of the actual peak 
 from which God talked with Moses as unsettled as 
 ever. Dr. Duff's experiences, as often told to his 
 children and grandchildren down to his last years, 
 have an interest of their own. 
 
 The broad valley running along the north side, 
 opposite the eastern portion of the Sinai range, is the 
 Wady es-Sheikh. The wady runs eastward for some 
 distance, then turning to the south it enters the centre 
 of the great range, and proceeds westward to the 
 foot of Jebel Musa, the traditional Mount Sinai.* 
 This undoubtedly. Dr. Duff used to say, is the route 
 that would be pursued by any great caravan or large 
 company of travellers, and more particularly by such 
 a host as that of Israel. From the central point in 
 the Wady es-Sheikh there is a pass which rises on the 
 rio-lit to a considerable elevation, and runs strai«cht 
 to Jebel Musa. Following this. Dr. Duff was struck 
 by the appearance of the precipitous mountains on 
 both sides. It really looked as if the mount some 
 time or other had been cleft asunder. As he as- 
 cended, the mountain air became exhilarating in a 
 way scarcely to be conceived. When the summit of 
 the pass was reached, a lofty, perpendicular conical- 
 looking mountain suddenly rose up some miles in 
 front. Immediately the whole of the Arabs dis- 
 mounted and began to shout out, " Jebel Musa," 
 
 * Dean Stanley's map of the traditional Sinai, in his Sinai and 
 Palestine (1860), best illustrates Dr. Duff's experience in 1840, and 
 Dr. Wilson's in 1843. 
 
406 LIFE OP DR. rUFP. 1840. 
 
 " Jebel Musa," " Jebol Musa," showing the veneration 
 they had for the mountain. Then the traveller entered 
 on a very remarkable gently sloping plain, the slope 
 beinc: downwards to the foot of the mountain, but the 
 surface as smooth as if it had been artificially pre- 
 pared. Hero was a plain quite capable of holding the 
 entire encampment of the Israelites, for it should 
 never be forgotten that their ordinary tentage must 
 have occupied very little space, somewhat like that of 
 the Arabs now. This plain seemed a gigantic nest in 
 the centre of the mountains, for all round on every 
 side it was bordered by craggy precipices. The soli- 
 tude was profound, reminding him of the perfect 
 stillness of a well-kept Scottish Sabbath. Proceed- 
 ing onwards he reached the base of a high peak. 
 Here the first thing which astonished him was the 
 literal truth of the Scripture passage which speaks of 
 the mountain that might be touched, and, when the 
 law was given with such awful solemnity from its 
 summit, declares how means were used to prevent the 
 people from touching it. As a native of the Gram- 
 pians, he had been wont from infancy to gaze at and 
 climb mountains. Then when he read this in the 
 Bible about Mount Sinai, he wondered what it meant; 
 for if any one had told him, as a youth, of any 
 Scottish or Grampian mountain that it might be 
 touched, or that means might be taken to prevent its 
 being touched, he would at once have inquired — for 
 instance of Schehallion, Ben Lawers, or Ben-y-gloe — 
 "Where is the beofinninor of the mountain?" Now 
 when he saw Mount Sinai itself, the literal truth of 
 the whole description flashed upon him. 
 
 A mile or two up the wady, on the east side of the 
 mountain, is the celebrated convent, Justinian's St. 
 Catharine. He had left Suez on Monday morning, 
 and it was Saturday forenoon when he reached the 
 
JEt. 34. IN ST. Catharine's convent. 407 
 
 convent. The stately building is an irregular fortress, 
 with apparently no entrance) into it. For the sake 
 of protection from the Arabs it is surrounded by a 
 massive wall, forty feet high. In the centre of the 
 eastern wall was a cupola, with a windlass inside ; the 
 ordinary rule was, when strangers appeared there, to 
 let down a bag to receive any communication from 
 parties known to the superior, who might accredit 
 their character and position. When Dr. Duff loft 
 Cairo there were six who intended to visit the convent, 
 and they got from the Greek Patriarch the requisite 
 order. But here was only one traveller. The superior 
 demanded an explanation from the sheikh. On that 
 Dr. Duff was hoisted up into the convent, and was 
 fairly installed as a guest ix.- all that is left of what 
 was once the great episcopal city of Paran, and a 
 mountain of Greek hermitages to which pilgrims 
 flocked from all parts of the Christian East. 
 
 How to communicate intelligibly with the superior 
 and the monks was the India^^ missionary's first diffi- 
 culty. They were ignorant of Latin, but their first 
 evening service, followed by a reading of the Gospels, 
 suggested to Dr. Duff that he should try Greek. 
 After he had been taken round the traditional sights 
 of the convent, including the legendary site of the 
 burning bush, he visited the superior, who was 
 walking on the terrace. Having heard of the convent 
 garden, every inch of the soil of which had been carried 
 from Egypt on camel-back. Dr. Du^ said to him, " You 
 have a garden," using the word paradelsos. To him, 
 examinin;^^ the little spot, the superior said, *' You are 
 going to India," as the Patriarch's certificate stated. 
 "Yes," said Dr. Duff, "I am returning to it." "Do 
 you speak the Indian language, then ? " "In India," 
 Dr. Duff replied, " there are many languages." On 
 this the superior sent for a monk who had spent 
 
408 LIFE OF DR. DUFF, 1840. 
 
 several years in India, and the man came into his 
 presence exclaiming, "Bahout, bahout salaam, Sahel)." 
 The familiar Hiudostanee thenceforth became his 
 medium of communication. The old monk was a 
 Kussian by birth. As a pedlar ho had worked his 
 way through the great Khanates of Central Asia and 
 Afghanistan to the Punjab, and thence had gone as 
 far as Calcutta, where he had resided for some time. 
 Such wanderings are still not unusual on the part of 
 semi-Eastern races at a low stage of civilization like 
 the Russians, and of our own hardy Muhammadan 
 and Sikh merchants. Sikhs and Hindoos of Western 
 India have been settled in St. Petersburg ; there are 
 traces of them in the marts along the Danube, and we 
 have met them in recent years at the Nijni Novgorod 
 fair on the Volga. Not long ago the Government of 
 India was sorely puzzled to find heirs in the Punjab 
 for the enormous fortune left by a villager who had 
 thus found his way to wealth in the Nevski Prospekt. 
 Having set his heart on climbing to the top of the 
 Mount of Moses before the sun rose on the coming 
 Sabbath, Dr. Dufi' persuaded his new friend, in spite 
 of all dissuasions, to call him in time and give him 
 a younger guide with food that he might there spend 
 the day of rest and worship. Excited by the prospect 
 he could not sleep, any more than Tischendorf when, 
 four years after this, that scholar spent Whitsun morn 
 on the peak of Jebel Musa, during the memorable 
 visit when his casual discovery of forty-three leaves 
 of the Septuagiut among the waste paper intended 
 for the oven of the convent, led to his discovery of 
 the only complete Uncial MS. of the Bible. Descend- 
 ing from St. Catharine, which the Ordnance Survey 
 places at an elevation of 5,020 feet, while Jebel Musa 
 rises to 7,359, the impetuous missionary mounted up- 
 wards with a speed that alarmed his guide. The 
 
^t. 34. ON THE TOP OF MOUNT SINAI. 409 
 
 summit was readied just before the sun's first rays 
 heralded his approach, always rapid in the south, and 
 the sky was clear without a cloud. Dr. Duff's heart 
 was filled with gratitude to God for the favour with 
 which He had thus visited liini. While the monk 
 vainly displayed the contents of his wallet, the travel- 
 ler was gazing at the first red ray of light which shot 
 and then streamed over the whole range, turning its 
 peaks for the moment into a succession of glowing 
 furnaces. Then rose the glorious luminary of day in 
 all the fulness of its majesty, calling out from the dark 
 waste of mountains the infinite variety of tints and 
 colours. There he penned this letter to his daughter, 
 one of twelve which he wrote to dear friends in 
 Scotland from the same spot : — 
 
 " Top of Mount Sinai, 
 ** Sabbath Morning, 12th January ^ 1840. 
 
 " My Dearest R ; — Did you ever expect ^o 
 
 get a letter from papa dated 'Mount Sinai' ? — a letter 
 written on the very top of that extraordinary moun- 
 tain on which Jehovah once came down, amid thun- 
 derings and lightnings, so that the thousands of 
 Israel were affrighted, and Moses himself exceedingly 
 quaked ! And yet so it is. Here I am on a Sabbath 
 morning, on the 12th January, about sunrise — when 
 perhaps you and your sister and brothers are scarcely 
 out of bed. And amid all the wonders of that most 
 indescribable scene around me I have not forgotten 
 my dear children, or the guardian friends that surround 
 them. Yes, this very moment I have finished reading 
 aloud the 19th and 20th chapters of Exodus, — but oh 
 in what a different voice from that in which they were 
 uttered upwards of three thousand years ago ; and 
 have just now risen from the naked granite peak, on 
 which I knelt to implore the Lord for a blessing — to 
 
4IO LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1840. 
 
 pray that the law might be my schoolmaster to 
 bring me to Christ; and iu my prayer, rest assured 
 that you and sister, brothers a.i'' otlicr friends, wore 
 not forgotten. No ; the remeinhnince of you all has 
 been sweet to me. May the Lord lead and guide you, 
 in grace and in truth, to know and to do His holy 
 Willi 
 
 " I left Cairo in company with some gentlemen for 
 Sinai. Wo followed the route of the children of Israel 
 as recorded in Exodus, through Succoth, Etham, 
 Pihahiroth to the Red Sea — to the memorable spot 
 where Jehovah divided the waters of the great deep 
 to afford a safe passage to His chosen people. We 
 could not cross on dru ground^ so we travelled north- 
 ward to Suez, where my companions, from fatigue or 
 faint-heartedness in traversing the desert, resolved to 
 proceed no farther. So, in the society of an Arab 
 sheikh, or chief of a tribe, and a few Arabs, with 
 camels, etc., I advanced alone along the eastern border 
 of the Red Sea into the 'great and terrible wilderness;* 
 passed the bitter fountain of Marah — whose waters I 
 tasted and found as bitter and undrinkable as ever ; 
 passed Elim, where there are still wells and palm- 
 trees; came to the spot where the Israelites next 
 encamped by the sea shore, and so on to the base and 
 top of Sinai, where I now am. 
 
 " But you may say, * What, papa, climb a mountain 
 on Sabbath ! ' Yes, my dear ; think for a moment. In 
 Edinburgh, where there is a church, it would be wrong 
 not to go there to worship with the rest of God's 
 people. But hero there is no church — no church 
 within hundreds of miles, in which I could worship. 
 Now you know that God is ' ^ot confined to temples 
 made with hands.' He is a Spirit, and is to be wor- 
 shipped in spirit and in truth. He is everywhere to 
 be found, and may everywhere be worshipped. Our 
 
A^A. 34. SiNAI AND CALVARY. 4 I I 
 
 Saviour often wont apart to a mountain to pray ; so 
 this morning I retired to the summit of Sinui to hjld 
 communion with my God, and to renicnibor in prayer 
 those that are dear to me. I never hi\d such a chureli 
 before; for this is the chureli where Jt^hovah Himself 
 proclaimed the law to the thousands of Israel. And 
 the very rocks now surround me that quaked and 
 shook at that mighty voice. Oh may wo all find 
 refuge from the thunders of Sinai beneath the shadow 
 of the Cross of Calvary 1 
 
 " This is a solemn spot 1 This is a solemn day ! 
 And never in my life did I before read the fourth 
 commandment with such peculiar emotion ! ' Re- 
 member the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.' I hope, my 
 dear children, that you strive to obey this and other 
 commands of the Lord. Attend submissively to the 
 instructions of those who are over you; pray that 
 God Himself, by His Spirit, may make you more able 
 to obey. . . Your affectionate papa, 
 
 *' Alexandeu Duff." 
 
 Several times during that memorable day did Dr. 
 Duff read aloud, amid the awful silence of the mount, 
 the Ten Commandments. To him the desolation and 
 the barrenness around marked the blighting influences 
 of sin, the hopeless state of man under the law which 
 condemns. In desire he turned to the mount in Jeru- 
 salem where the great Sacrifice for sin was offered, 
 and heaven was opened for the Pentecostal effusion 
 which is yet to bless the whole earth. " The law was 
 given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
 Christ," the words he had first joined the monks of St. 
 Catharine in reading, rang in his ears as his guide took 
 him to the legendary spots where since Justinian's 
 days it had been taught that Jehovah passed by re- 
 vealing the skirts of His glory, while farther on the 
 
412 LIFE OP DB. DUFP. 1840. 
 
 Arabs show tlio footprint of Muhammad's dromedary 
 on the ni<^lit-journoy from Mecca to Jerusalem. Like 
 every traveller before and since, down to the purely 
 scientific members of the Ordnance Survey, Dr. Dulf 
 returned from his fortnight's study of the natural 
 features of the peninsula of Sinai strengthened in his 
 conviction of the truth of Holy Scripture. Ho was 
 invigorated by the air of the desert at that season. 
 His only mishap was his being thrown from a camel 
 and stunned for a time. 
 
 The little Bombay steamer arrived at Suez the 
 morning after his return, with the news, then as now 
 eagerly looked for, of the progress of an evil policy in 
 Afghjinistan. Sir Jolm Keano had marched up the 
 Bolan Pass to the capture of Kandahar and Ghuznee, 
 where the young lieutenant of Engineers who had 
 forced the gate was his old companion, Durand. But 
 till he learned this Dr. Duff had doubted whether there 
 might be a British India to go to, 30 fatal did the 
 policy which sacrificed Dost Muhammad seem to all, 
 save to the council of Lord Auckland, and the Cabinet 
 in which Lord Palmerston was the foreign secretary 
 and Sir J. C. Uobhouse president of the Board of 
 Control. But there was a practical question of more 
 importance for the moment — how to secure a passage. 
 Dr. Duff happened to be the first to meet the purser, 
 who advised him to go to the office at once and pay 
 his money. This the missionary refused to do because 
 the day was the Sabbath. Had not the purser re- 
 spected his conscientiousness, and himself secretly 
 become responsible for the passage-money, Dr. and 
 Mrs. Duff would have been left in Egypt for another 
 month. " I have secured for you the best cabin," said 
 the pursei " next to that occupied by the Commander- 
 in-Chief." 
 
 When early in February, 1840; the Suez steamer 
 
iEt. 34. "^I'i'^1 ^"' WILSON IN nOMRAY. 413 
 
 entered the harbour of Bombay, Dr. Wilson was wait- 
 ing to receive Dr. and Mrs. Duff, wliom lie at once 
 installed in what was then the centre of all his 
 op(>rations, the mission-house of Amhi-olie. The two 
 missionaries to Western and liastern India, from the 
 Scottish border and the Grampian hif^hlands, from 
 tlie Universities of Edinburi^h and St. Andrews respec- 
 tively, met for the first tijne. Uol)ert Nesbit, too, was 
 there, and Dr. Murray Mitcliell who had not long l)e- 
 fore arrived from Abei'deen. All were still young men : 
 Wilson was just thirty-six, and Duff was nearly thirty- 
 four years of age. Their experience of India had not 
 been the same, for they had been separated by distance, 
 by race, by language, and even by social differences 
 more widely than Fi'ance from Russia. Like a bracing 
 wind from the north. Dr. Duff brought with him all the 
 news of national and ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland, 
 — of the widening gap in the Kirk, of the work of 
 Chalmers and the toil of Welsh, of the devotion of 
 Gordon and, on the other side, of the kindly zeal of 
 Brunton ; of the coming men like Guthrie and Candlish, 
 some of whom he had vainly summoned to higher 
 work in the East; of the missionary spirit of presby- 
 teries and congregations all over Scotland, soon to bo 
 checked for a time by internal disruption, but only 
 to burst forth in home and colonial and educational 
 movements as well as foreign missions, along the 
 lines first marked out, as Dr. (Jhalmers had said, by 
 Duft' himself. Nor was the talk oidy of Scotland, for 
 the Calcutta missionary had visited Bombay to consult 
 about that now mission from the Prosbyterian Church 
 of Ireland to which he had given a mighty impetus 
 after Wilson had invited it to the Krisliua-desolated 
 lands of Kathiawar. 
 
 Dr. Duff embodied his month's experience of Bom- 
 bay and Poena in a long letter which his Church 
 
414 I-IFB OF I>B« DUFF. 1840. 
 
 pulMshed as a complete narrative of travel. The 
 pamphlet of thirty-six pages forms an artistic picture 
 of Western India, its physical aspects, its varied races, 
 its different civilizations existing harmoniously side by 
 side under the shadow of the Christian Government, 
 its proselytising and other benevolent agencies, and 
 especially its Scottish mission and missionaries. The 
 report, written as he doubled Cape Comorin on the 
 way to Madras and Calcutta, has a peculiar value from 
 the contrast which it suggests rather than works out 
 between the conditions of Western and Eastern India 
 as fields for the agencies of Christian philanthropy. 
 The reproach is often too well founded that, amid the 
 vastness and variety of India and its peoples, the 
 foreign resident becomes so enamoured of his own 
 presidency or province as to do injustice to the others 
 of which he is more ignorant. Hence the conflicting 
 statements and opposing evidence of officials and 
 settlers who have been twenty years in India and 
 speak " the language." Like even the greatest philo- 
 sophers, they are wrong onl}'- in what they deny, while 
 more or less right in what they assert. Of this weak- 
 ness there is little trace in Dr. Duff's report. He was 
 too well travelled, too scrupulously fair for that. A 
 quarter of a century after his visit we found his 
 representations proportionately true as between the 
 natives of the more imperial and superstitious Bengal 
 and those of the less caste-bound and more commercial 
 Bombay. 
 
 In Western India the small community of Parsees, 
 free from caste and aggressive in their progress as 
 having been long oppressed, formed a more remarkable 
 element of the population in 1840 than, since the 
 commercial development caused by the United States 
 civil war, has since been, relatively, the case. The 
 settlement of the land revenue in leases directly be- 
 
iEt. 34- BOMBAY CONTRASTED WITH BENGAL. 415 
 
 tween the Bombay Government and tlio cultivator, 
 and the lapse of rent-free tenures, did not foster the 
 creation of such a body of zemindars, or great and 
 generally absentee landed proprietors, as those who 
 crowd native Calcutta. The temporary nature of the 
 Bombay tenure has further proved fatal to the growth 
 of prosperity and of thrift, and has developed the 
 shocking agrarian demoralisation revealed by the 
 Deccan Riots Commission. Had the land revenue 
 settlement of Bombay ouly been made permanent with 
 the cultivators, it would have created prosperous and 
 loyal millions of peasant proprietors, able to withstand 
 famine, free to attend to and value education and 
 Christianity, and enabled in time to yield in indirect 
 taxation far more than the periodically increased land- 
 tax which now keeps them on the margin of starvation. 
 On the other hand, the mistake was made in Lower 
 Bengal of applying the financially sound and equitable 
 principle of permanence of tenure not to the cultivators 
 but to their lords, some hereditary and some mere tax- 
 collectors, from whose exactions moreover they were 
 not protected till 1859, when it was too late to alter 
 society. The knowledge of the revenue officials of 
 India has never been equal to their benevolence. 
 Hence, for want of a Von Stein, the British Govern- 
 ment, with the best intentions, has created and is 
 periodically intensifying the only serious danger to the 
 stability of its rule and to the self -developing growth 
 of civilization. This did not escape Dr. Duff's eye 
 when he wrote of the main bulk of the inhabitants of 
 Bombay, the Hindoos : — *'As the ryotwaree system pre- 
 vails — that which regards the ryot, the actual cultivator 
 of the soil, as having a possessory right therein, and as 
 directly amenable to all the fiscal and other regulations 
 of Government — there is no large and powerful body 
 of landed proprietors, corresponding to the zemindars 
 
41 6 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1840, 
 
 of Bengal. From these and other causes united, there 
 is a- very marked difference indeed in the outward 
 temporal circumstances of Hindoo society in Bombay 
 and in Calcutta. Most of the avenues to worldly 
 eminence being blocked up or preoccupied by enter- 
 prising strangers, and most of the impellant motives 
 to great secular exertion being cut off, the Hindoo 
 community of Bombay seems stricken with a languor 
 and apathy, a poverty and mediocrity, a diminutive 
 weight and influence, a want of general activity or 
 zeal for improvement, which form a perfect contrast 
 to the wealth, and power, and splendour, the liveliness, 
 and energy, and restless spirit of temporal ameliora- 
 tion, which characterize the great Hindoo merchants, 
 bankers, zemindars, and rajas of Calcutta." Since 
 that was written, trade and cotton manufacture have 
 attracted the acute intellect of the Maratha Brahmans 
 and the keen capital-hunting scent of the Goojarat 
 Jains. But this is still true, to some extent, of the 
 effect produced on public instruction by such con- 
 ditions. Dr. Duff is describing his visit to the Govern- 
 ment Elphinstone College and schools : — 
 
 "In the schools there are at present about 500 pupils ; in the 
 college about a dozen. In passiug through the different classes 
 it was impossible not to be struck with the sparkling intelli- 
 gence in the countenances of ti.e youth. Yet none of the more 
 advanced have begun to exhibit that freedom from prejudice, 
 and that fearlessness of inquiry, which, ten years ago, youth of 
 somewhat the sa^me standing largely manifested in Calcutta. 
 What are the causes of the difference ? Some of these may 
 be latent ; others are obvious enough. First, the desire for a 
 superior English education is of later growth at Bombay than 
 at Calcutta ; and even now it is not so ardent and widely 
 diffused in the former as in the latter. The local government 
 has not done nearly so much to create and encourage the 
 desire as that of Bengal. Besides, one grand stimulus was 
 wanting in the west, which operated with great potency in 
 
JEt 34. BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA. 4 1 7 
 
 the east. In the west, Persian, the language of diplomacy, was 
 not, as in the east, also the language of the civil and criminal 
 courts — the vernacular tongue being from the first adopted. 
 In the east it gradually became obvious to all thinking rainda 
 that an anomaly so pt'epos^erous as the administration of 
 justice through a medium alike foreign to rulers and ruled 
 could not, in the nature of things, be long perpetuated. It 
 seemed the demand of reason that the language of one or other 
 of the parties concerned should be substituted. In either case 
 — Persian ceasing to be the language of polite literature and 
 of converse in cultivated society — English must take its place. 
 Hence it was that a strong sense of self-interest, operating on 
 shrewd forecasting minds, gave an early impulse to the study 
 of English in Calcutta, which, in like intensity, could not bo 
 experienced at Bombay. Accordingly, while in the latter 
 place the aggregate number, in seminaries of every description, 
 receiving anything really entitled to the name of a good 
 English education, scarcely amounts to a thousand; in Cal- 
 cutta it exceeds five or six times that sum, though the popula- 
 tion at the utmost is not more than double. But at Bombay, 
 as elsewhere, the English tide has now fairly set in; and 
 nought can arrest its progress till it overflow the land. 
 Secondly, from the more recent and limited character of 
 evangelistic, educational, and other operations at Bombay, it 
 is at least ten years behind Calcutta as regards the general 
 relaxation of unthinking bigotry, the general tendency of 
 indurated hereditary prejudices towards a state of fusion and 
 incandescence, and th« conse»^uent. general preparedness for 
 change. Nursed and nurtured in a state of society so uncon- 
 genial to mental freedom of inquiry, the young men naturally 
 present a more hostile front of resistance to the direct influences 
 of the new ti^uths offered for tlieir acciaptanoe. This, however, 
 is a cause the force of which will be yearly diminishing. 
 Thirdly, in the Bombay Government seminaries, a prepon- 
 derant share of attention has hitherto been bestowed on the 
 polite, the mathematical, and the physical sciences, to the com- 
 parative disparagement and neglect of the mental, moral, and 
 economic. Now, the former, addressing, as they chiefly do, 
 the imagination, the memory, the understanding or 'faculty 
 judging by sense,' and the speculative reason, are not calcu- 
 lated to produce the same varied influential practical convic- 
 
 E E 
 
41 8 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1840. 
 
 ti'ons, or to awaken tlie same bold and stirrinpf activities of 
 inquiry, aa tlio luttei' ; whose very objects are the powers and 
 capacities of the immaterial soul, as well as the duties, rights, 
 privileges and relationships of man, viewed as a member of 
 human society and a denizen of the moral universe. A more 
 vigorous graft, therefore, of the latter on the Bombay Govern- 
 ment institutions, would bo a decided improvement. Still, as 
 it is in the hundred metropolitan institutions, tho noblest, most 
 fruitful, and most enduring of all sciences would be wanting — 
 and that is 'knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.' 
 Until it be admitted, for the sanctifier and regulator of all 
 other knowledge, man's life is, after all, treated practically as 
 nothing better than a meaningless riddle; and his destiny as 
 nothing higher than that of the * brutes that perish.' '' 
 
 The Church of Scotland's Mission, in both Bombay 
 and Poona, was suffering under the combined triumph 
 and alarm caused by the conversion of the first two 
 Parsees who had accepted Christianity. " The Parsee 
 convulsion, like the shock of a moral volcano, has 
 more or less affected every province of missionary 
 labour. It has laid an arrest on the friendly inter- 
 course which began to subsist between the members 
 of the mission and many of the more influential of 
 the native community. It drove into alienation and 
 def»ertion the young tmc^n educated in Government 
 seminaries, who had been induced to attend Dr. 
 Wilson's former weekly lecture, and Messrs. Nesbit 
 and Mitchell's private evening classes. It greatly 
 affected the attendance on the services in the ver- 
 nacular languages. It broke up certain departments 
 in connection with female education. It almost anni- 
 hilated, for a time, the English Institution — reducing 
 at once the number of pupils from two hundred and 
 sixty to fifty — and removing the whole of the Parsee 
 youth, by far the most advanced and promising of the 
 number. Yet, in the midst of all these depressing 
 and disheartening calamities, did our brethren betray 
 
^t. 34. NESBIT AND WILSON. 419 
 
 either faint-lieartcdness or despondency ? No ! * Strong 
 in tlie Lord, and in the power of His might,' they still 
 prayed, and laboured, and persevered." 
 
 Very precious were the sympathy an the counsel 
 of Dr. Duff at this time. Of Nesbit, his old St. 
 Andrews companion, ho wrote, "With commanding 
 talents of an intensive rather than discursive character, 
 there is no subject on which ho is led to concentrate 
 his powers which he is not sure to master in a style 
 of surpassing superiority. Hence, as a philosophical 
 linguist and practical Marathee scholar, he is generally 
 allowed to be imrivalled." After descriptions of Dr. 
 Wilson's scholarship, the fruits of which he enjoyed in 
 the study of the Cave Temples, and of his influence in 
 society, native and European, Dr. Duff" thus testified 
 to his wisdom in the battle for toleration : *' Dr. Wil- 
 son, who took the lead in the whole proceedings, 
 conducted himself throughout with a manliness of 
 Christian energy which must for ever endear him to all 
 sincere friends of the missionary enterprise." How 
 the great Bombay missionary valued this visit he has 
 told in a remarkable letter of the 28th February, 1840.* 
 Of Panwel, where they parted in apostolic fashion, 
 after re,a4iiig th^ 20th chapter of tlie Book of the Acts 
 and prayer, he wrote : " My memory will often visit 
 the hallowed spot whence we moved asunder." These 
 were the closing words of 'Dr. Duff'^ report on Bombay 
 and Poona : — 
 
 *' Intensely occupied were the days which I spent at 
 both — in visiting educational and other institutions ; 
 in witnessing miscellaneous missionary operations ; iu 
 eliciting all manner of information which might present 
 to my own mind something like a topographical chart 
 of the existing state of things; in addressing, lectur- 
 
 * The Life of John Wilson, D.D., F.B.S. (1878), p. 283. 
 
420 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1840. 
 
 ing, and prcacliing; in holding converse with my 
 brethren, individually and collectively ; in freely can- 
 vassing, reviewing, and comparing all past proceedings 
 connected with the Mission, at home and abroad ; in 
 frankly soliciting and communicating suggestions as 
 to the future. Sweet and pleasant was the personal 
 intercourse with my respected brethren ; very sweet 
 and very pleasant is the remembrance of it now. 
 Dearly beloved before for their works' sake, they are 
 now dearer than ever, from the felt experience of their 
 worth. AVe met and we parted of one spirit and of one 
 mind; not merely as children of the same Father, 
 redeemed through the same blood, and partakers of 
 the same inheritance of grace ; but of one spirit and 
 of one mind as regards the essential principles, modes, 
 and prospects of missionary operation in India." 
 
 The only communication between the western capital 
 and the metropolis of Indian then was by teak -built 
 sailing vessels round the peninsula. Dr. and Mrs. 
 Duff were the only passengers. Now, Mr. W. Mac- 
 kinnon has called into existence the second largest 
 fleet of steamers, which carry the traveller rapidly 
 and toiich at every port on the wide-stretching coasts 
 of Southern Asia and Eastern Africa, from Singapore 
 and the Java islands reaching to Australasia, along 
 the shores of India, Persia and Arabia to Zanzibar. 
 Hugging the picturesque coast of Malabar, the ship 
 passed native town and feudal castle, pirate stronghold 
 and busy harbour, till, leaving Goa to the north, it 
 dropped anchor for a day and night at Mangalore in 
 the Canara county of Madras. This once dreaded 
 roadstead of Hyder Ali, scene of alternate Portuguese 
 intolerance and Mussulman ferocity, of General 
 Matthews' s victory and of the East India Company's 
 treaty with Tippoo, had been occupied by the self- 
 denying Basel missionaries in 1834. It has been ever 
 
iEt. 34. SAMUEL HEBICH AND THE BASEL MISSION. 42 1 
 
 since their greatest as it- was their earliest Christian 
 settlement, having now some 1,200 church members 
 out of the more than 0,000 gathered in at other 
 stations. In Hebich, the afterwards famous and 
 somewliat eccentric German then stationed there, 
 Dr. Duff found a friend of kindred spirituality and 
 earnestness. With him and his colleagues the 
 Scottish missionary spent, the night in delightful con- 
 verse* till within an hour of the dawn. Frequently 
 afterwards did Samuel Hebich recall the talk of that 
 cightjt especially to the many sepoy officers and 
 civiUans of the East India Company, whom his fear- 
 less appeals and holy self-denial led to Christ. Mr. 
 Finlay Anderson, the assistant collector who received 
 the Basel brethren in 1 834, still survives to help in 
 every good work for the people of India. This was 
 Hebich' s last year in Man galore, where he had laid 
 the spiritual foundatioti of the Tooloo church, and 
 left among others Dr. Moegling, to civilize not only 
 the Canarese but the recently annexed Coorgs from 
 Mercara as a centre. 
 
 Cape Comorin — too low to be seen save where the 
 Western Ghauts abruptly end some miles inland — and 
 Ceylon were then successively rounded, when the ship 
 came to anchor in the swell of the Madras Roads 
 for five days. These days were busily spent in an 
 inspection of the Mission, and in stirring addresses to 
 both natives and Europeans. Mr. Anderson and Mr. 
 Johnston, fruit of the General Assembly address of 
 
 • So, long after, Dr. Norman Macleod inspected the allied Ger- 
 man Mission at Calicut, and recorded the " very encouraging re- 
 sults" of ■which he wrote : " These, being connected with education 
 as well as preaching, are the more likely to be permanent! " 
 
 t The German Memoir of Hebich, of which an English transla- 
 lation appeared in 1876, contains no reference to this meeting with 
 Dr. Duff. 
 
422 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1840. 
 
 1835, bad organized out of the St. Andrew's school, 
 opened by the Scotch chaplains in Madras in that 
 year, the nucleus of what has since become the groat 
 Christian College of South India, representing all the 
 evangelical missions there. Just three years before, on 
 the 3rd April, 1837, Mr. Anderson had begun the new 
 Institution in a hired house in Armenian street, with 
 fifty-nine Hindoo youths. His early success, in the 
 baptism of highly educated Hindoos who became 
 missionaries to their countrymen, had, as at Calcutta 
 in 1830, and Bombay in 1839, so alarmed the native 
 community as to produce this remark, " Some of our 
 best youths have been forcibly carried off or withdrawn 
 against their will." Yet, when on Monday, the 20th 
 April, Dr. Duff visited the infant college, this was his 
 impression : — " It was wise on the part of Mr. Ander- 
 son and his coadjutor to make the Bible itself — as in 
 Bombay and Calcutta — not only the principal book of 
 the Institution, but to bestow upon the teaching of it 
 the largest measure of their time and attention, so 
 long as this could be done without occasioning that 
 desertion of pupils which the more successful prose- 
 cution of general literature and science in other native 
 seminaries must inevitably insure, if there be not a 
 correspondent progress in such studies in the Mission 
 seminaries. And certainly in the Bible department, 
 which has been chiefly cultivated, there is much, very 
 much, to excite admiration, delight and thanksgiving 
 to God. xV^o where have I met with young men of the 
 same age and standing who evinced a more intelligent 
 grasp, a more feeling comprehension, of the divine 
 truths which they had learned from God's holy oracles. 
 In some cases, there is every reason to believe that 
 vital and saving impressions have begun to be made. 
 And even should all be renounced in a day, what has 
 been done will not, cannot be lost. Talk and dream 
 
iEt. 34. THE SCOTTISH MISSION SYSTEM IN MADRAS. 423 
 
 who will of not being able, dlrecfh/ ami formalJ 1/ , and 
 in tliG homo sonso, to preach the gospel in onr Indian 
 mission seminaries, I do most solemnly aver for myself, 
 that never, never, when addressing an audience of 
 fellow-Christians in my native land, had I a more 
 sensible consciousness of reaching the understanding 
 and the heart than I experienced when pouring out 
 ray soul on the themo of man's lost and ruined state 
 by sin, and of man's redemption through a crucified 
 but Divine Redeemer, in presence of the assembled 
 youth of the General Assembly's Institution, Madras." 
 On the other side, we have this official record by Mr. 
 Anderson of the visit of the founder of the Scottish 
 missionary system in the East : " He left an impression 
 behind him on the minds of our youths which nothing 
 will ever efface. It was quite thrilling to see how ho 
 set them on fire by the truths which he exhibited to 
 them in touching and graphic figures, with an energy 
 of manner altogether his own. Their bright eyes 
 seemed to say, as they sparkled with delight, * This 
 man loves the natives, especially native boys.' " 
 
 Dr. Duff had been delayed on his outward tour too 
 long for himself, if ncu for the work he had to do. Ho 
 reached the pilot ground at the mouth of the Ilooghly 
 at very nearly the same advanced season as on the 
 occasion of his first arrival in Bengal. Again did 
 the rotary storm seem to defy his advance. The sus- 
 picious calm of a hot May evening, following a lurid 
 sunset, warned the captain to be ready. Before mid- 
 night the cyclone burst upon the ship with savage fury. 
 Lashing themselves to the cuddy hatch, the captain 
 and his officers sat ready to cut down the mast should 
 the vessel drift to the shore. For twelve hours tho 
 whirlwind raged, with a violence which was set off by 
 a hideous and sometimes ludicrous contrast. An 
 officer who had joined the ship at Madras, whither he 
 
424 LIVE OP DB. DUFF. 1840. 
 
 had returned from leave in the colonies, and who soon 
 after fell one of the thirteen thousand butchered amid 
 the snows of the Klioord Kabul pass, had an Australian 
 parrot which ho had diligently taught. Ever and anon 
 in the pauses of the blast, and continuously as if con- 
 tending with it, the bird was hoard to shriek, now de- 
 fiantly, now pathetically, '* There's nae luck aboot tho 
 house whan our gudeman's awa' ! " The Malabar 
 teak of the Bombay-built vessel withstood tho wind 
 and tho waves, and the course of the cyclone finally 
 drove it out to comparative safety in tho open sea. 
 After a voyage from Bombay of nearly seven weeks, 
 Dr. and Mrs. Duff were received under the hospitab^-e 
 roof of the nephew of Dr. Patrick Macfarlan, of 
 Greenock, who was chief magistrate of Calcutta. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 1841. 
 FIGHTINO THE aOVEBNOU-GENERAL. 
 
 India Sncrificed to Party Politics. — ^Malcolm, M. Elpliinstone and 
 Lord Heytesbnry. — The First and tlio Second Lord Auckland. — 
 The Misses Eden. — Controversy between Orientalists and Angli- 
 cists Renewed. — Lord Auckland's Minute. — Mr. ^[arsliman's Com- 
 ment. — Dr. Duff's three Letters to the Governor- General. — The 
 Irony of Trnth. — Lord W. Bentinck and Lord Auckland Com- 
 pared. — The Missionary and the Governor- General Contrasted — 
 Vernacular Education by a School Cess urged. — Lord Auckland 
 Arraigned at the Bar of Universal Reason. — The Dangers of 
 purely Secular Education denounced by a Government Secretary. 
 — The Educational Reaction temporarily forgotten in the Cabul 
 Disasters. 
 
 Lord Auckland had been Governor-General for four 
 years when, for the second time, Dr. Duff landed at 
 Calcutta. Apart from contemporary history, his ap- 
 pointment to the most responsible office under the 
 British Crown forms the most scandalous instance of 
 the sacrifice of the good of the people of India and of 
 the peace of the Empire to the intrigues and the self- 
 seeking of political parties. India is so far outside of, 
 so high above, the level of purely party politics, that 
 it used to be true that its governing and commercial 
 classes left Whig and Tory prejudices behind them. 
 Even the purely British officials who, as Governor- 
 General, governors, and law member of council, owed 
 their appointments to partisan considerations among 
 others, were generally raised by the very elevation of 
 
426 LIFE OP DB. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 their duties to tlie disinterested and philosophic level 
 which looked only at the good of India. From the 
 high vantage ground of a Governor-General's seat, 
 the purely domestic questions which cause the rise 
 and fall of ministers in England often look petty in- 
 deed. It may be accepted as an absolute test wliicli 
 marks off the really able statesmen among the nine- 
 teen Governor-Generals from the few whom history 
 despises, that the former in every case acknowledged 
 first their duty to India; the latter, their selfish gra- 
 titude to the party which sent them out. Against 
 rulers like Warren Hastings, Lords Wellesley and 
 Hastings, W. Bentiuck and Dalhousie, Canning and 
 Mayo, we have to set Cornwallis (the second time), 
 Amherst and Auckland, not to mention the living. 
 
 "William Eden, a younger son of a Durham baronet, 
 and a barrister who entered political life, was created 
 Baron Auckland for negotiating a treaty of commerce 
 with France. His successor rendered services to the 
 Whig party of a less evident kind, and in 1830 Lord 
 Grey gave him a seat in the Cabinet. When sick- 
 ness sent Lord W. Bentinck home after an adminis- 
 tration of nearly eight years, the Court of Directors 
 would not allow the most brilliant servant they had 
 had since Warren Hastings, to fill the seat which he 
 occupied provisionally, because his honesty had been 
 equal to his ability. They were willing to see the 
 Honble. Mountstuart Elphinstone appointed, but he 
 had had enough of oflBce as Governor of Bombay 
 and he declined the high honour. On this the Tory 
 ministry selected Lord Heytesbury, who drew the 
 usual allowance for outfit, made the indispensable 
 speech about peace at the Albion, and had taken his 
 passage to Calcutta. ^ut just as, under somewhat 
 similar circumstances, George Canning gave place to 
 Lord Amherst, and died Premier of England, so Lord 
 
^t. 35. LOED AUCKLAND AND SIE J. 0. HOBHOUSE. 427 
 
 Auckland was sent out instead of Lord Heytesbury. 
 The Melbourne ministry took office in April, 1835, 
 with Byron's friend, Sir John Cam Hobhouse as Pre- 
 sident of the Board of Control. Refusing their con- 
 fidence to the Tory Governor-General designate, the 
 Whig ministry, which was to hold office for six yenr^ 
 and a half, sent out Lord Auckland to the seat which 
 Bentiuck had made more illustrious than ever, and 
 for which Metcalfe and Blphinstone were better fitted 
 than even he. In a word, the British Government 
 had once again jobbed the appointment, and the whole 
 empire was to suffer the consequence in the military 
 disasters, the financial losses, and — greater than both — 
 the political consequences in 1857 of the first Afghan 
 war. Sir John Cam Hobhouse, made Lord Broughton 
 for the iniquity, found in Lord Auckland the tool 
 and in Lord Palmerstou, then Foreign Secretary, the 
 confederate who enabled that reckless, blinded official 
 to boast of the deepest stain on the page of English 
 history, " It was I that did it." 
 
 The best thing that George, the second Lord 
 Auckland, did was to take to Calcutta and Simla with 
 him his two clever sisters, one of whom, Emily, in 
 her journals, not to mention her novels, has left us 
 unconsciously the most vivid picture of the Governor- 
 General's weakness of character. If to her " Up The 
 Country," and the book which more recently followed 
 it, we add Sir John Kaye's picture of the unhappy 
 faineant pacing the verandas of Government House 
 at night as he brooded over the horrors of the Ghilzai 
 massacre which made him sleepless, we may form some 
 idea of the man who, between Hobhouse at home and 
 Macnaghten by his side, blindly let the empire drift 
 down the dark current of a policy of which he never 
 approved, but which party prevented him from fairly 
 considering and resolutely refusing to carry ou^. Any- 
 
428 LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 tiling would have been better than this drifting, but 
 on him was the curse against which the prophet cried 
 ill vain. 
 
 It was the Governor-General's vacillation — ending, 
 as is generally the case, in weakly following the evil — 
 which brought Dr. Duff into conflict with Lord Auck- 
 land. The missionary had set out to return to Bengal, 
 grateful to his Excellency for the interest which he and 
 the Honble. Misses Eden had shown in the Institution 
 during ^ 's absence, by frequent visits and occasional 
 prizes. As a rule the English settlers, and above all 
 the Christian ministers in India, are loyally on the side 
 of the Government there. They are roused to demon- 
 strations against it only by some sucli departure 
 from principle as Lord Ellenborough's, or evidence of 
 incapacity to understand the gravity of the crisis as 
 Lord Canning's advisers showed in 1857. Up to the 
 disasters of 1842 Lord Auckland — who had been made 
 an earl in reply to the opposition of the Court of 
 Directors and to the universal public opinion which, 
 then as since, condemned his policy — was personally 
 respected for his amiability. His advisers liked a 
 Governor-General whom they could lead ; the pubHc 
 appreciated the social attractions of his court. Those 
 who estimated an administration by a higher standard 
 even praised him for legally completing what his pre- 
 decessor had begun in the Act of November, 1837, 
 which aboiishb^ Persian as the language of the courts. 
 
 But another qu">stion of still greater importance to 
 the people had come down to him. Lord W. Bentinck's 
 Government had, ii 1835, decreed that English should 
 be the language of the higher public instruction — 
 finally, as it seemed. Still the formal approval of the 
 Court of Directors had not been communicated. Not 
 only was Lord W. Bentinck out of office, but Dr. Duff 
 was far away, and of their coadjutors, Metcalfe was in 
 
^t. 35. LORD AUCKLAND'S DELHI MINUTE. 429 
 
 Agra, while Macaulay and Trevelyan were soon to go. 
 The defeated orientalists saw their opportunity with 
 the new and weak Governor-General. They resolved 
 to get rid of the reform of March, 1835, by a side-blow. 
 Mr. Thoby Prinsep and the Bengal Asiatic Society led 
 the assault. Mr. Colvin, the private secretary, was 
 neutralised or so far talked over as to seem to con- 
 sent to the undoing of that which he had formerly 
 urged. 
 
 From 1836 to 1839, the renewed controversy between 
 the Orientalists and Anglicists went on in the form 
 of a dispute as to the proportion of public funds to be 
 assigned to each. On the 24tli November, 1839, Lord 
 Auckland signed, at Delhi, a minute which is remark- 
 able among Indian state papers for its Dad stylo and 
 worse reasoning. The contrast to Macaulay's and 
 Duff's was painful. The minute professed to be a 
 compromise of a dispute in which there could be no 
 concessions by what was true to what the Govern- 
 ment had officially allowed to be false and therefore 
 unworthy of being propagated by the public funds. 
 But the defeated Anglicists were not to be found, save 
 one. Mr. Marshman, though rather a vernacuUirist, 
 raised his solitary voice against the reaction in the 
 weekly press. The minute itself no sooner appeared 
 in an official blue-book, fifteen months after it had 
 been written, than Dr. Duff criticised it in a series 
 of letters to Lord Auckland which appeared in the 
 Christian Observer. Mr. Marshman, though grateful 
 to the Governor-General for his personal support of 
 vernacular schools, did not spare the weak amiability 
 which had led his Excellency to apply " the spirit of 
 compromise amongst varying opinions " to a contro- 
 versy over vital principles. The orientalists he 
 described, in 1841, as "a few elderly gentlemen of 
 the ancient regime, who rather dislike the spread of 
 
430 I-IFE OF DR. DUrP. 1841. 
 
 knowleclf]fo as a clanf::orous innovation tLan hail it witli 
 generous confidence as the means of national regener- 
 ation ; who, if compelled by the spirit of the age to 
 sanction education at all, must use every endeavour to 
 restrain it to the absurdities and logomachies of the 
 dark ages. . . When a retrograde movement is 
 made merely to quiet a few superannuated European 
 gentlemen, and extinguish their already expiring mur- 
 murs, wo confess it passes our comprehension. 
 AVhat will be gained by their reconciliation, or to what 
 will they be reconciled ? " 
 
 The evil which the minute had secretly attempted 
 to do was twofold. It reversed the decree of Lord 
 AV. Bentiuck by restoring the stipends paid to natives 
 to learn Sanscrit and Arabic books which their own 
 learned men neglected where they did not teach them 
 far more effectually in the indigenous * Toles ' or 
 colleges. Thus error was again endowed, while true 
 orienial research was hindered. And the minute 
 finally shelved the plan for the improvement of ver- 
 nacular schools and teachers which Lord W. Bentinck 
 had appointed Adam to submit. Lord Auckland be- 
 came the victim of what was afterwards scouted by 
 his successors as the filtration theory — the belief that 
 if only the higher classes are educated with the public 
 money, tlie millions of the people who contribute that 
 money may be left in their ignorance till the know- 
 ledge given to their oppressors filters down to them. 
 Seriously that con tin tied to be the fact, if not the 
 theory of the Government in Bengal, at least, for the 
 thirty years from Lord Auckland's minute to the time 
 when Sir George Campbell was made Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the province. 
 
 Dr. Duff did well to be angry, for his experience 
 and his foresight anticipated the mistake. Lord 
 Auckland thus became, not only the foe of a righteous 
 
^t. 35- LETTERS TO LORD AUCKLAND. 43 1 
 
 policy beyond the frontier but the r'^actionary enemy 
 of the people of India. But for him the vernacular 
 side of the reforms of Duff and Bentinck would have 
 become a reality long before the present Earl of 
 Derby's despatch of 1859 on the subject issued in the 
 Duke of Argyll's action, through Sir George Campbell 
 in 1870. Happily Lord Auckland was too feeble even 
 to stunt the already vigorous growth of the English 
 side of these reforms. So, taking Wordsworth's lines 
 as his introduction, Dr. Duff thus began the corres- 
 pondence. The language now reads as fine irony, since 
 a few brief months were to reveal the incapacity of 
 Lord Auckland and his Government, at home and on 
 the spot, with its miserable results. But, early in 
 1841, Dr. Duff used such language, as the whole press 
 of the time did, in all good faith and loyalty. Had 
 not Baron Auckland just been made an earl for his 
 apparent success? 
 
 " Oh ! for the coming of that glorious time 
 When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth 
 Ar 1 best protection, this imperial realm, 
 V; lile she exacts allegiance, shall admit 
 An obligation on her part to teach 
 Them who are born to serve her and obey; 
 Binding herself by statute to secure 
 For all the children whom her soil maintains. 
 The rudiments of letters ; and to inform 
 The mind with moral and religious truth." 
 
 "My Lord, — When the Governor-General of India has 
 recorded his sentiments on a great national question, and 
 when these have been rapturously responded to by so many of 
 the councillors, the judges, the secretaries, and the leaders of 
 public opinion, it may be deemed presumptuous in a Christian 
 missionary to lift up his voice at all; more especially should 
 that voice, however feeble, seem to mingle as a note of discord 
 amid the fresh full gale of popular applause. And so it would 
 be, were the question exclusively one of mere worldly policy. 
 But when it is found to be one which, in its essential bearings, 
 concerns the souls fully as much as the bodies of men, affect- 
 
432 LIFE OP DR. DUTF. 1 841. 
 
 ing the interests of eternity not less than those of time, the 
 Christian missionary must not, tlaros not be silent, evm if 
 his voice sliould be uplifted against kings and governors and 
 all earthly potentates. When the honour and glory of his 
 Divine Master and the imperishable destinies of man are in- 
 volved, the ambassador of Jesus can brook no dalliance witli 
 mere human greatness, or rank, or power. In the spirit of St. 
 Basil, in the presence of the Roman prefect, he is ever ready 
 to exclaim : — ' In all other things you will find us the most 
 mild, the most accommodating among men ; we carefully guard 
 against the least appearance of haughtiness, even towards the 
 obscure citizen, still more so with respect to those who are 
 invested with sovereign authority ; but the moment that the 
 cause of God is concerned we despise everything.' 
 
 " In the influence of policy and arms, you are, my lord, at 
 this moment, the first man in Asia. Speak but the word for 
 peace or for war, and that word will speedily cause itself to be 
 felt fi'om Ceylon to Bokhai'a, from the Euphrates to the Kianko. 
 Thus planted on an eminence which would make most men 
 giddy, it is no small achievement to have so maintained the 
 equilibrium and balance of the mental powers, that, amid the 
 blaze of conquest and the echoes of victory, you could have 
 paused to indite a calm dispassionate dissertation on edu- 
 cational economics. But does it follow that the first man in 
 Asia, in policy and arms, must also be the first in the depart- 
 ment of intellectual and moral husbandry ? This may be ; but 
 all the probabilities are against it. 
 
 " Thac the author of the immortal work on ' The Conduct 
 of the Human Understanding ' should be the author of the 
 equally immortal ' Thoughts on Education,* is nothing 
 strange. The intellectual habit from which the former pro- 
 ceeded formed the best possible discipline and preparation for 
 the production of the latter. But that the intellectual habit 
 from which resulted the celebrated Simla ukase on British 
 policy in Central Asia should prove the best discipline and 
 preparation for inditing a Delhi minute on national education, 
 would be passing strange. Who that has studied the human 
 mind, or attended to the lessons of past experience, could 
 reasonably expect Lord Auckland to be equally at home — 
 equally great— in both ? When the first statesman in Asia 
 steps aside from his own towering eminence to grapple with a 
 
^t. 35. LORD AUCKLAND CONTRASTED WITH BENTINOK. 433 
 
 theme that is wholly foreign to, and incompatible with, his 
 general habits, he must reckon it no disparagement if of him it 
 be recorded, as of Newton and of Brown in similar circum- 
 slauces, that he has gone out as another man 1 Still, as the 
 Commentary on Daniel will bo perused because it is the pro- 
 duct of the author of the ' Priucipia,* and the poem of the 
 * Paradise of Coquettes ' will be read because it claims the 
 same paternity as the lectures on * The Philosophy of the 
 Human Mind,' so v/ill the Delhi minute on native education 
 obtain currency and favour because it is the offspring of a 
 politician and statesman who is at the head of the most power- 
 ful empire in Asia. And as, in the cases of Newton and of 
 Brown, the splendour of their great, their immortal works, 
 is apt, from the blending of association, to shed and diffuse 
 a portion of their own lustre over the kindred but inferior 
 progeny of the same minds ; so will the dazzling renown of 
 the present Governor-General of India, as a statesman, be sure 
 illusively to communicate a share of its own brilliancy to a 
 production which otherwise might soon have sunk into obli- 
 vion ; — a production which is remarkable chiefly for itc. 
 omissions and commissions — remarkable for its concessions 
 and its compromises — remarkable, above all, for its education 
 without religion, its plans without a providence, its ethics 
 without a God 1 '* 
 
 Having reviewed the whole controversy in Lord 
 W. Bentinck's time, very much in the tone of his 
 " New Era of the English Language," Dr. Duff comes 
 to this conclusion in his first letter : — 
 
 " Here are two systems of education, directly opposed to 
 each other, and absolutely contradictory in their entire sub- 
 stance, scope and ends. Reviewing these two systems. Lord 
 W. Beutinck, with the straightforward bearing of British 
 manliness and British courage in the spirit which fired the old 
 barons of Runnymede, and with the decisive energy of uncom- 
 promising principle, thus pronounced his decision : ' Regard- 
 less of the idle clamours of interested partisanship, and fearless 
 of all consequences, let us resolve at once to repudiate alfcogethor 
 what is demonstrably injurious, bccaijse demonstrably false, 
 and let us cleave to and exclusively promote that which i* 
 
434 I'IFE OP DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 demonstrably beneficial, because demonstrably true.' Review- 
 ing tlio very same system, my Lord Auckland, with what looks 
 very like the tortuous bearing of Machiavellian policy, in the 
 spirit of shrinking timidity wliich heretofore hath compro- 
 mised the success of the best laid schemes, and with the 
 Protcus-like facility of temporizing expediency, thus enun- 
 ciates his contrary verdict : * Fearful of offending any party, 
 wishing to please all, and anxious to purchase peace at any 
 price, let us, — dropping all minor distinctions between old and 
 new, good and bad, right and wrong, — let ..i at once resolve 
 to embrace and patronize both, and both alike : — 
 
 'Tros Tyriusvo mibi nullo discrimino liabetur.' 
 
 "In a word, 'Let us,' says Lord W. lientinck, 'disendow 
 error and endow only truth,' ' Let us,' replies Lord Auckland, 
 ' re-endow error, and continue the endowment of truth too.' 
 A decision so wholly at variance with every maxim of truth 
 and righteousness, a decision so utterly repugnant to the pro- 
 gressive spirit of the age, what valid plea, what plausible grounds 
 can be adduced to justify ? Justify ! It surely must scorn all 
 justification as impossible, and any attempt at justification as 
 the most ludicrous farce. Bub seeing that vindication is im- 
 practicable, does it not admit of some palliatives ? If palliatives 
 there be, they may be summed up in a single sentence ; viz., 
 that it was most kind and amiable to soothe the expiring 
 sorrows of the superannuated remnant of the race of orien- 
 talists, who, like the owls and the bats, have such a special 
 affection for the dingy and the dismal edifices of hoar antiquity, 
 and who, like these lovers of darkness, are ever ready to break 
 forth into strains as doleful as the notes of a funeral dirge, 
 when the crazy crevices in which they have so long nestled are 
 threatened with extermination ! Most kind and amiable we 
 admit all this to be ! But, beyond this admission, where are 
 we to look for grounds of palliation ? 
 
 " These words are penned in the full assurance that with 
 your lordship and councillors they will not have the weight of 
 a feather. So let it bo. Here, your lordship is evei'ything. 
 Here, politically and civilly speaking, your voice is all but 
 omnipotent. Speak but the word, and thousands are ready to 
 shout, ' It is the voice of a god ! ' Speak but the word, and 
 thousands more ai'e ready to fall down and worship whatever 
 
^.t. 35. THE MISSIONARY AND THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 435 
 
 idol or imago you may be pleased to sot up. Here, on the 
 other liiiud, the humble missionary, in a worldly sense, neither 
 is, nor desires to bo, anything. Lot him but speak the word, 
 and lo, it is the voice of a fanatic ! Let him but give forth his 
 warnings, and lo, they are treated with supercilious scorn or 
 branded as a grand impertinence. But, ray lord, I must 
 remind you that the greater the power, the more tremendous 
 the responsibility ! I must also remind you that — apart from 
 the solemnities of the great assize to which the noble and tho 
 mighty will be sumnioned, without respect of persons, along 
 with the poorest and the meanest of the land — there is, even 
 here below, another tribunal, of a different frame and texture 
 from that of an Asiatic time-serving, favour-seeking com- 
 munity, at whoso bar tho appeal of a gospel minister will bo 
 lieard as promptly as that of tho noblest lord. There is a 
 British public, and abovo all, a religious public in Great 
 Britain, which heretofore hath been moved, and may readily 
 be moved again, by tho addresses and expostulations of a 
 Chi'istian missionary. It was the righteous agitation of this 
 public which wi'onched asunder the bars of prohibition to tho 
 Ireo ingress of Bibles and heralds of salvation into India. It 
 was the righteous agitation of this public which accelerated 
 and insured the abolition of tho nun-derous rite of suttee. It 
 was tho righteous agitation of this public Avhich foredoomed 
 the ultimate severance of official British connection with tho 
 mosques and temples and idolatrous observances of this be- 
 nighted people. And rest assured, my lord, that as certainly 
 as the rising sun chases away the darkness of night, so certainly 
 Avill the righteous agitation of this same British public even- 
 tually wipe away, as a blot and disgrace, from our national 
 statute book, that fatal act, by which your lordship has restored 
 the Government patronage and support to the shrines and 
 sanctuaries of Hindoo and Muhamraadan learning with all 
 their idolatrous, pantheistic and antichristian errors ! A 
 sui'cr prospect of earning the garland of victory no Christian 
 missionary could possibly desire, than the opportunity of 
 boldly confronting, on a theme like this, the mightiest of our 
 state functionaries, in the presence of a promiscuous audience 
 of British-born free-men, in any city or district, from Cornwall 
 to Shetland. His march would be that of one continued con- 
 quest. The might and the majesty of a great people, awakened 
 
43^ LIFE OP DR. DOFF. 1841. 
 
 to discern the truth and import of things as thoy are, wouhl 
 increasiii<jfly swell his train. And, from the triumph of in- 
 doniitiil)le principle in Britain would emanate, as in times past, 
 an influence which would soon cause itself to bo felt in the 
 supreme councils of India, and thence extend, with renovating 
 efficacy, through all its auti -religious schools and colleges.'* 
 
 In the second letter, v,ith consummate art as well as 
 fairness Dr. Duff takes out of the minute and holds up 
 to eulogy all of it that lie can justly praise. Especially 
 does he thank the Governor-General for at last carry- 
 ing out his own recommendation of 1834, to promote 
 true oriental scholarship by *' a separate grant for the 
 publication of works of interest in the ancient literature 
 of the country, to be disbursed through the appro- 
 priate channel of the Asiatic Society." He corrects 
 the mistake which would build the pyramid of national 
 education on its apex, beginning with the college, 
 going on afterwards to the secondary school, and 
 leaving the millions without primary schools. He tells 
 what John Knox and his associates did for Scot- 
 land in 1500. He urges that the same means which 
 the Scottish Parliament then decreed be adopted by 
 the Indian Government, in levying a school cess on the 
 land-tax, as a road cess had even then begun to be 
 raised. " So might a permanent education fund be 
 established, proportionate to the wealth and population 
 of each province, by * the surrender in return of one 
 per cent, of the revenue on the part of the revenue 
 receivers for educational purposes.' Well might such a 
 sum, or one hundredth part of their immense revenue, 
 b'^ pronounced the very minimum amount that India — 
 sunk, depressed, benighted India — has a right to ex- 
 pect or demand from her rulers for securing one main 
 ingredient of the panacea of her intellectual, moral and 
 social maladies." Such a cess was raised first in Bom- 
 bay, and then by the late Earl of Kellie in a district 
 
y^t. 35. APPEAL TO TIIR STATESMEN OP ALL COUNTRIES. 437 
 
 of Central India, till now it is exacted all over India. 
 But it is not the revenue receivers who pa}^ it. Rather 
 liavo cesses of all kinds, of which that for schools is 
 the least, been added to the peiiodically increased 
 land-tax,* till the burden of tho long-sutl'ciing culti- 
 vators is gi'eater than they can bear. 
 
 The third letter arraigned Lord Auckhmd and his 
 advisers at tho bar of universal reason, as spiritually 
 guilty in their education schemes " of what looks 
 like treason against the majesty and sovereignty of 
 the God of providence ; of the cruelest wrong to tho 
 souls and immortal destinies of thousands " of their 
 Indian fellow-subjects. After a very practical exposi- 
 tion of the fact, ever since pressed upon tho Govern- 
 ment of India in vain, that it stands alone of all tho 
 world in the suicidal attempt to support by public 
 taxation an official system of education which jealously 
 excludes religion of every kind and the sanctions of 
 morality, Dr. Duff thus closed : " For tho substantial 
 justice of tho charge I appeal — not to the religious 
 public of Great Britain alone — but to the recorded 
 verdicts of the Russells of England, the Cousins of 
 France, the Falcks of Holland, the Altcnsteins of Ger- 
 many and all the greatest and most celebrated states- 
 men of ancient and modern times 1" 
 
 The appeal remained unheeded by the Government 
 till 1854. The concession then solemnly made by the 
 present Lord Halifax and by Lord Dalhousie, to tho 
 
 ♦ In theory, half the net produce of the land is left, on tho system 
 of thirty years leases, to the cultivators, ifear by year cesses have 
 been imposed, till tho State takes sixty per cent, and the peasant 
 receives only forty. The latest impo«t is that of a cess to be 
 " solemnly," " religiously," set apart !i.s a reserve for the famines 
 which the periodical increase of the 'and-tax provokes. This new 
 burden has no sooner been paid for the first time than it has been 
 used to carry on the second Afghan war. 
 
438 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 effect that the State would adopt the English position 
 of giving grants for secular education and retiring 
 from its functions as a direct schoolmaster whenever 
 the public would take its place, has never been carried 
 out. As a commentary on Dr. Duff's appeal in 181-1, 
 on the broken j)ledgo which he secured in 1S51< fi'oni 
 Parliament, on the alarm of Lord Northbrook in 1875, 
 on the censorship of the native press in 1877, and on 
 the annually increasing political as well as moral and 
 spiritual danger of the system, wo may cite this ex- 
 tract, made confidentially to one of Lord Auckland's 
 successors in 1872 by the Home Department which is 
 charged with the imperial direction of public instruc- 
 tion in India : — 
 
 " That most remarkable feature in Indian education, tlio 
 religious neutrality of the Government, is no doubt a relic of 
 the extreme apprelieusion which prevailed in 1 793, and whether 
 its original declaration was a wise one or not is far too deep 
 and many-sided a question to be discussed here. Wo must 
 accept the fact as we find it. But it is^ I believe, absolutely 
 without precedent or parallel elsewhere, besides beiug entirely 
 opposed to the traditional idea of education current in the 
 East. In Europe, it is almost an axiom that the connection of 
 any State system of education with religion is not the mere 
 result of tradition ;* ' it is an indissoluble union, the bonds of 
 which are principles inseparable from the nature of education.' 
 This is admitted almost universally. Even the French system 
 is religious, not in the sense in which all European systems 
 profess to be more or less so, in inculcating the precepts of a 
 certain universal and indisputable morality, but in inculcating 
 morality in the only way in which the masses of mankind will 
 ever admit it, in its connection with the doctrines of religion. 
 In Holland, primary instruction was decided in a much debated 
 law to be designed to train ' to the exercise of all Christian 
 and social virtues,' while respecting the convictions of dis- 
 senters. In Switzerland, religion stands on the same footing 
 
 * Public Education, by Sir J. K. Shuttleworth, p. 290. 
 
A'A. 35. DANnF.RS OP A NATIONAL SECUTATIISM. 439 
 
 ns reading, writing, grammar and arithmetic, as a fundamontal 
 part of the schomo. In Germany, generally, religion still 
 forms, as it has always done, the first and staple subject of 
 the elementary school, and tho religion of the master must bo 
 in conformity with that of tho majority of his pupils. Tho 
 American system, while repudiating all doctrinal or dogmatic 
 teaching, provides everywhere for the regular daily reading of 
 tho Bible and for prayer. \nd, lastly, tho framers of tiio 
 Phiglish Education Act, 1870, have been able to assumo as a 
 matter of course that every elementary school would be con- 
 nected with a recognised religious denomination, and that 
 Government aid might, therefore, bo oiTered to all alike for 
 secular education only. * 
 
 " In India, not only is there no religious teaching of any 
 kind in Government schools, but even tho aided schools under 
 native managers are generally adopting tho same principle. I 
 believe this result was never anticipated, and I am sure it 
 requires attention. Looking to tho rapid growth of our educa- 
 tional system, and to the enormous inilucnco for good or evil 
 that a single able and well educated man may exercise in this 
 country ; and looking to the dense but inflammable ignorance 
 of tho millions around us, it seems a tremendous experiment 
 for the State to undertake, and in some provinces almost 
 monopolise, the direct training of whole generations above 
 their own creed, and above that sense of relation to another 
 world upon which they base all their moral obligations ; and 
 the possible evil is obviously growing with the system. It is 
 true that things go smoothly and quietly, but this is attained 
 by ignoring not only the inevitable results of early training on 
 the character and tho great needs of human nature, especially 
 in tho East, but by also ignoring tho responsibility which 
 devolves on tho Government that assumes the entire control 
 of direct education at all. If, therefore, while fanaticism is 
 raging around, there is a calm in our schools and colleges, it 
 is an ominous and unnatural calm, of impossible continuance, 
 the calm of the centre of the cyclone. 
 
 " The subject is one of extreme difficulty, that grows with 
 the consideration devoted to it. Of course it is out of the 
 question to recede in any degree from the pledges of the past. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone's speech, Ilansard, vol. CCII., p. 2G7. 
 
440 LIFE OF DTI. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 And it is probable that the evil is less serious in primary 
 schools whore the instruction given does not necessarily de- 
 stroy religious belief, whereas our higher instruction does. 
 Therefore, although the State may establish and maintain 
 primary schools where no local effort is forthcoming, it v,'ould 
 still seem very desirable that it should retire as rapidly and as 
 coi plctely as practicable from the entire control of all direct 
 instruction, and especially higher instruction, and leave it to 
 local management to bo encouraged by the State, and aided 
 in conformity with the English principle which, without any 
 interference in the religious instruction imparted, practically 
 insures by tho constitution of the local boards that some 
 religious instructiou is regularly given.' 
 
 » 
 
 We shall see this vital question coming up again 
 and again to the very close of Dr. Duff's life, when, as 
 he lay a-dying, liis memory went back to tliis conflict 
 with Lord Auckland, and he longed that his life might 
 be spared, if only to fight till he won tho battle against 
 a neutrality which is not neutral to but carefully fosters 
 the worst error ; against a secularism which is fast 
 robbing the Hindoos even of the natural religion and 
 traditional truth of their own system, till they them- 
 selves cry out. The Christian college stands alone 
 in the breach which tho rising flood-tide is threatening, 
 while Church and State look on apathetically. 
 
 Even the daily newspapers of Calcutta republished 
 Dr. Duff's letters, and made them the I'.ubject of edi- 
 torial comment. " As no press ever struggled more 
 manfully for its own liberty," he wrote in a note to 
 bis reprint of the correspondence, " so none has on 
 the whole ever less abused that liberty when conceded. 
 In this respect the sentence of Sir J. 0. Hobhouse 
 must be regarded as downright, though perhaps, in 
 his happy ignorance of Indian affairs, unintentional 
 calumny." Bat the subject was, in a few months, 
 swallowed up in the snows of Afghanistan, with our 
 
JF.t. 35- '^HE FIRST AND SECOND AFGHAN WARS. 44 1 
 
 thirteen tliousand troops and tlicir ofTicers. Lord 
 Auckland began his evil policy in July, 1837, with Lord 
 W. Bentinck's hard-earned surplus of a million and a 
 half sterling. He was created an earl in 1840, for 
 that march to Ghuznee which made Sir John Keano a 
 baron though he forgot his battery-tra^n. The more 
 denounced an evil policy is the more fruitful of hon- 
 ours is it expedient for the responsible ministry of the 
 day to make it. Sir J. C. Hobhouse himself became 
 Lord Broughton ! In January, 1812, when ho had 
 packed his baggage to return home triumphant. Lord 
 Auckland received intelligence of the bloody collapse 
 for which he had converted his great predecessor's 
 surplus into a deficit of two millions, had added enor- 
 mously to the debt of India, had shaken the English 
 power in the East till it nearly fell in pieces in 1857, 
 had allied his country with iniquity — and yet, had not 
 succeeded in warning his successors forty years after 
 against following in his blood-stuined feeble footsteps. 
 It fell to Henry Lawrence and George Clerk, to Colin 
 Mackenzie and George Broadfoot, to save the residue 
 of the troops and to rescue the captives alike from tho 
 imbecility of the Whig Governor-General and from the 
 madness of his Tory supplanter. 
 
CHAPTER Xy. 
 
 1841-1843. 
 THE COLLEGE AND ITS SPIRITUAL FRUIT. 
 
 Outwai'd Signs of the Progress of a Decade. — The Second Convert 
 a Christian Minister. — Tlie College Building.s. — The Staff of 
 Five j\lissionaries. — Tneir Unity in Variety. — The College Re- 
 organized. — A Normal Training Class. — Dr. Duff's Educational 
 System then contrasted with the State Colleges now. — The 
 Spiritual Machinery. — The Female Orphanage. — Legal Disabili- 
 ties and Social Oppression of Hindoo Widows. — The Native 
 Christian Family.— The Death of Dr. Duff's Child in Scotland.— 
 Dr. Inglis and his Son, the Lord President. — Sympathy with 
 Mrs Briggs, of St. Andrews. — The j\[ovement in Krishnaghur. — 
 A New Vaishnava Sect. — Dr. Duff visits the District twice. — Inter- 
 view with the Gooroo of the Woi"shippei"s of the Creator. — New 
 Stations at Cahia .and Ghospara. — The Eight New Converts 
 from the College. — Mahendra's First Sermon. — lieview of the 
 Twelve. — Proclamation of Peace in Afghanistan and China, — 
 Lord Ellenborough. — Dr. Duff's Anticipations. 
 
 When Dr. Duff landed at Calcatta to begin the second 
 period of liis work in India, even he was astonished 
 at the outward signs of progress which ten years 
 of English education under really enlightened British 
 administration had brought about. No one could 
 doubt that, in the great cities and intellectual centres 
 at least, as in Italy of the first three centuries, and 
 again of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the 
 Renaissance was a fact. Even on his way from the 
 ship to his own college-building and principrd's or 
 senior missionary's residence, which he had yet to see, 
 he passed through a succession of such outward evi- 
 dences, which he reported in his own graphic style to 
 Dr. Brunton. 
 
^t. 35. 0UTWA1?D SIGNS OF THE RENAISSANCE. 443 
 
 Tlie first object that Lad caught his eye on landing 
 was a sio^nboard on which were marked in laro-o char- 
 acters the words, " Ram Lochun Sen & Co., Surgeons 
 and Druggists." Not six years had passed since the 
 pseudo-orientalists had declared that no Hindoo would 
 be found to study even the rudiments of the healing 
 art through anatomy. But here, scattered over the 
 native town, were the shops of the earlier sets of duly 
 educated practitioners and apothecaries who had begun 
 to find in medicine a fortune long before the chicane 
 of law attracted them to our courts. 
 
 "When I gazed at the humble, yet significant, type 
 and visible symbol before me of so triumphant a 
 conquest over one of the most inveterate of Hindoo 
 prejudices — a conquest issuing in such beneficial prac- 
 tical results — how could I help rejoicing in spirit at 
 the reflection that, under Divine providence, the 
 singular success of your Institution was overruled as 
 one of the main instruments in achieving it ? Oh ! 
 that a like energy were put forth — an energy like to 
 that which characterized the Divine Physician — for 
 the healing of the spiritual maladies of the milHons 
 around us ! Holy Spirit ! do Thou descend with a 
 Pentecostal effusion of Thy grace. Come from tho 
 four winds, breath, and breathe upon these slain, 
 that they may live. Blessed be God that the belter 
 cause is neither wholly neglected, nor without promise. 
 
 "After passing the Medical College itself, the next 
 novel object which in point of fact happened to attract 
 my atteniion as I approached Cornwallis Square, was 
 a handsome Christian church, with its gothic tower 
 and bu^^tresses, and contiguous manse or parsonage. 
 iVnd who was the first ordained pastor thereof ? Tho 
 Rev. Krishna Mohun Banerjca, once a Koolin Brah- 
 man of the highest caste ; then, through the scheme 
 of Government education, an educated atheist and 
 
444 I-IFE OF DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 editor of the 77/? ^^zaV^^r newspaper ; next brought to a 
 saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, and 
 admitted into the Christian Church by baptism, 
 through the unworthy iustrumentaUty of him who 
 now addresses you ; and, last of all, ordained as a 
 minister of the everlasting gospel by the Bishop of 
 Calcutta, and now appointed to discharge the evan- 
 gv'^lical and pastoral duties of the new Christian temple 
 which was erected for himself I What a train of 
 pleasing reflection was the first view of this edifice 
 calculated to awaken ! Men there are who, practically 
 ignorant of the real nature of the gospel and of the 
 power of God's grace themselves, still choose to deny 
 the possibility of converting Hindoos of good caste. 
 To repudiate with holy indignation the downright 
 atheism of such denial, it is enough for the believer to 
 know that with God all things are possible. But here 
 was, in addition, a sensible refutation of the atheistic 
 dogma. Here is not a low caste, but a high caste 
 Hindoo, yea, one of the highest order of the Brah- 
 manical caste in India; not an ignorant man, but 
 one who, having gone through an ample course of 
 European literature and science, explored the labyrinth 
 of Hindooism with the torch of modern illumination, 
 and deliberately rejected his ancestral faith as a 
 tissue of absurdity, superstition and cruelty; not a 
 rash enthusiast, but one who, in his ignorance of a 
 better faith, having been led to deny the very being 
 of a God, was persuaded, on the ground of reason and 
 consistency, to examine the claims of natural and 
 revealed religion; one who, having had his under- 
 standing opened, to discern the resistless force of 
 evidence, and his heart deeply affected by a sense of 
 the suitableness and adaptation of the gospel remedy 
 to his felt condition as a guilty and helpless sinner in 
 the sight of God, publicly and solemnly embraced the 
 
Mt. 35. THE FIBST BENGALEE MINISTER. 445 
 
 Christian faith, through the sacred ordinance of bap- 
 tism. Such has been the steadfastness of his Christian 
 walk and conversation for the last eight years, that 
 even the bitterest enemies among his own countrymen 
 now, with one accord, acknowledge his sincerity. 
 Nor has he been inactive in his Master's service. 
 Naturally endowed with no ordinary degree of energy 
 and force of character, he has laboured assiduously 
 and successfully as a teacher, a catcchist, and now 
 an ordained minister of the gospel of salvation. He 
 preaches regularly both on Sundays and week-days, 
 in Bengalee and in English, to suit the wants of this 
 country, to men who have, or have not, acquired a 
 European education. Nor has he laboured in vain. 
 ThrouG:h his faithiul ministrations not a few have been 
 shaken out of their idolatries. Several educated 
 natives of high promise have professed Christianity ; 
 and some already act as his fellow-helpers in advanc- 
 ing: the cause of the Redeemer in this bonio*hted land. 
 Who can dare to gainsay facts so notorious and de- 
 ^xsive ? And do they not amount to a visible demon- 
 stration of the wretched fallacy of the atheistic dogma, 
 of the alleged impossibility of converting high caste 
 Hindoos ? Shall we glory in being able to appeal to 
 such emphatic demonstration ? Never, never ! so far as 
 man's instrumentality is concerned. But we glory in 
 the Lord. His is the kingdom, and His the power, and 
 His too — and His alone — must be all the glory ! * It 
 is the doing of the Lord, and marvellous in our eyes.' 
 " Of the Bengalee sermons preached in this new 
 church the author has published a small volume. 
 They are designed specially for Brahmans and other 
 high caste Hindoos. Both from their stylo and sub- 
 stance they are admirably calculated for the object 
 designed. Of this work, remarkable as being the 
 first volume of regular sermons ever published Ux the 
 
44^ J^IFE OF DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 Bengalee language by a Brahman convert and ordained 
 preacher of the gospel, and peculiarly enhanced in 
 our estimation from the circumstance of its author 
 being one of the first-fruits of the Church of Scotland's 
 Mission to India, I shall endeavour, by the first oppor- 
 tunity, to send you a copy. Nor is the illustration 
 hereby aff'ordcd of another process of paramount 
 importance to be overlooked. What is wanted to 
 insure, under God, the rapid and extensive spiritual 
 regeneration of India, is not an exotic artificially 
 sustained life, but an indigenous, self-sustaining, self- 
 propagating life. Here, then, is the process com- 
 menced in this great heathen metropolis. One has 
 been called of God, endowed with such gifts of nature 
 and endowments of grace, as to have not only life in 
 himself, and for himself, but life so abundantly as to 
 be enabled, through the Divine blessing, to communi- 
 cate a portion to others around him. These already, 
 in the good providence of God, have been blesf ,d in 
 imparting a share of their own vitality to others; who 
 must bo destined to impart the same to others still, in 
 an onward progression, through an ever widening 
 circle. The rate of augmentation, at first gradual and 
 almost imperceptible, may at length advance with a 
 rapidity which might well make the present pioneering 
 generation incredulous. Here there is one case where 
 Christianity may be said to have fairly taken root in 
 the Indian soil, where the process of indigenous self- 
 propagation may be said to have fairly begun. The 
 poor earthen vessel which had originally been employed, 
 under Providence, in conveying the seed of life to this 
 portion of the Indian soil, after depositing the seed in 
 the spot pre-ordained and chosen of God, became 
 shattered and useless. To prove that it had nought 
 to do with the giving of the increase, the human 
 instrument was wholly withdrawn from the field. By 
 
^t 35. THE MAIN DESIGN OP THE MISSIONARY COLLEGE. 447 
 
 his witlidrcawal was the process of indepcndont self- 
 diffusion arrested ? On the contrary, in the particular 
 instance under review, it progressed more rapidly than 
 ever. And though the original conveyer of the seed 
 had died, or had never returned, the process would 
 have still gone on, to the praise of God's glorious 
 grace. Surely a statement of fact like this might well 
 dart a ray of new light into the darkest caverns of 
 prejudice and unthinking bigotry. Surely it might 
 open up a glimpse of the holy and noble extent and 
 purpose of the most fret^uently misunderstood part of 
 our labours. For what is the main and leadinGf desi^fn 
 of all our Christian schools and missionary colleges ? 
 Is it not, in humble dependence on the blessing and 
 fruitful increase of God's Holy Spirit, to raise, and 
 rear up, and multiply a superior race of natives 
 who, like the Rev. Krishna Mohun Banerjea, shall be 
 privileged to originate and perpetuate the mighty 
 process of gospel propagation through all the cities 
 and provinces of India ? 
 
 " After passing the new church, which stands out to 
 the eye so pleasing a monument of the incipient pro- 
 gress of Christian influence in this heathen metropolis, 
 I came full in view of the Assembly's new Institution 
 and Mission-house, on the opposite side of CornwalliL^ 
 Square. Gratifying as some of the preceding spec- 
 tacles were, this to me was the most gratifying of all. 
 What a change since May, 1830, and how different the 
 thoughts and feelings of the spectator I Then, almost 
 the only thing determined on was, that Calcutta should 
 not be my head-quarters and fixed abode ; — now, I 
 saw before me my head-quarters and permanent 
 residence. Then, the precise line of operations to be 
 adopted was not only unknown, but seemed for a 
 while incapable of being discovered, as it stretched 
 away amid the thickening conflict of contending dif- 
 
44^ LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 184 1. 
 
 ficultios ; — now, there stood before mo a visible pledge 
 and token that one grand line of operation had long 
 been ascertained, and cleared of innumerable obstacles, 
 and persevered in with a stead fastness of march which 
 looked most promisingly towards the destined goal. 
 Then, I had no commission, but either to hire a 
 room for educational purposes at a low rent, or to 
 erect a bungalow at a cost not exceeding £30 or 
 £40 ; — now, there stood before me a plain and sub- 
 stantial, yet elegant structure, which cost £5,000 or 
 £G,000. Then, it was matter of delicate and painful 
 uncertainty whether any respectable natives would 
 attend for the sake of being initiated into a compound 
 course of literary, scientific and Christian instruction; 
 — now, 600 or 700, pursuing such a course, were ready 
 to hail me with welcome gratulation. Then, the most 
 advanced pupils could only manage to spell English 
 words of two syllables, without comprehending their 
 meaning;— now, the surviving remnant of that class 
 were prepared to stand an examination in general 
 English literature, science and Christian theology, 
 which might reflect credit on many who have studied 
 seven or eight years at one of our Scottish colleges. 
 Then, the whole scheme was not merely ridiculed as 
 chimerical by the worldly-minded ; but as unmissionary 
 if not unchristian, in its principles and tendencies, by 
 the pious conductors of other evangelizing measures ; 
 — now, the missionaries of all denominations resident 
 in Calcutta, not only approve of the scope, design and 
 texture of the scheme, but have for many years 
 been strenuously and not unsuccessfully attempting 
 to imitate it to the utmost extent of the means at their 
 disposal. Yea, so strong has the conviction of some 
 of them become on the subject, that in some instances, 
 they have laboured to promote the object not only 
 without the sanction, but almost in spite of the declared 
 
Mt. 35. THE PROGRESS OF A DECADE. 449 
 
 sentiments of tlie home committees of the parent socie- 
 ties; and, as one of the number (who has devoted the 
 last fifteen years exclusively to Bengalee preaching, but 
 who has gradually become an entliusiastic admirer and 
 advocate of our scheme, as one of the migliticst engines 
 for the dissemination of the gospel in India) again 
 and again declared to me, in the presence of other 
 missionary brethren, the main argument employed 
 by them in writing to, and expostulating with their 
 home committees, has been an appeal to the model, 
 example, and palpable success of our Institution. 
 Then — not to multiply more contrasting parallelisms, 
 — it was my lot to stand alone, without any actual 
 assistance or practical co-operation whatever, — alone, 
 yet not alone, for I was driven the more urgently 
 to look to God as my helper and my counsellor, my 
 fortress and my tower; — now, I was to join four 
 beloved brethren, one iL spirit, one in mind, one 
 in purpose, one in resolution, able, ^v^illing, ready 
 mutually to assist, mutually to co-operr-te in carrying 
 out the great generic principles of the Mission into 
 thei.i' full and legitimate development. In the midst 
 of such a crowding profusion of past remembrances, 
 and present realities, and future prospects, I trust that 
 the presiding feeling after all was gratitude to the 
 Father of mercies, and joy in the God of our salvation. 
 Who am I — did the soul instinctively cry out — who 
 am I, that the Lord should condescend so graciously 
 to visit lae ? After being in deaths oft, after so many 
 perils by land and water, after so much unprofitable- 
 ness and unworthiness, who am I, that I should have 
 so much given me of my heart's desire ? that I should 
 be spared to witness so much of what, ten years ago, 
 had been pronounced to be the wild dreams of a 
 visionary, actually realized ? Almost instinctively was 
 I led to appropriate and apply, in a very humble and 
 
 G G 
 
450 I-IPE OF DK. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 subordinato sense, tlie words of aged Simeon : — * Lord, 
 now lettest Thou Tliy servant depart in peace ; for 
 mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, whicli was prepared 
 before the face of all people, — a li<^lit to lighten the 
 Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.' " 
 
 If the college building and the mission-house, with 
 their spacious grounds, in a fine open square and yet 
 close to the busiest part of the native city, formed the 
 fruit of his homo labours on which ho could look with 
 legitimate satisfaction, much more had he reason to 
 rejoice in the colleagues who had followed him, and 
 had so well carried out his plans during his absence. 
 The whole staff, with Dr. Duff again at its head, 
 formed a remarkable group of five pioneers, such as 
 no other mission has probably ever enjoyed at ono 
 time. Dr. AY. S. Mackay, whom we have previously 
 described, had bravely brought a spirit of intense 
 devotion and unusually high intellectual grace to bear 
 up his frail body, until the arrival of Dr. Ewart soon 
 after Dr. Duff's first departure set him free to obey 
 the physician's order. He had restricted his energy, 
 but in 1838 had been forced to visit Tasmania in 
 search of health. In the Australian colonies he had 
 pled for the Mission with a quiet power which led 
 many of the churches to try to detain him. But de- 
 claring that even at the risk of chronic sickness there 
 vvas no career like that of an Indian missionary, he 
 had returned to his post, shipwrecked like Duff in 
 the Bay of Bengal. Dr. Ewart seemed a man whose 
 physique the tropics could not touch, even when he 
 lectured and taught for six hours a day and rested, 
 only to give up his evenings to the increasing inquirers 
 and converts. Mr. Macdonald had found a place 
 peculiarly his own in tbe purely theological work of 
 evangelizing all the classes, and specially of training 
 the catechumens who sought to be first catechists 
 
^t. 35. THE FIVE MISSIONARIES. 45 I 
 
 and tlien ordained missionaries to their country- 
 men. Youngest of all, and now the only survivor, 
 Dr. T. Smith after a visit to the Capo of Good 
 IIopi. to throw off the tlien too fatal dysentery of 
 Bengal, had amply redeemed the promise which Dr. 
 Dull' saw in him when presiding at his ordination in 
 St. George's, as a spiritually aggressive mission.'uy to 
 the educated Hindoos and as the first mathematician 
 then in the East. St. Andrew's kirk, too, was a lielp 
 to the Mission rather than a drag on its energies, as in 
 former days, under the two chaplains, Dr. Charles and 
 Mr. Meiklqjohn. Thus generously, but truthfully, did 
 Dr. DufF write home of the colleagues who only needed 
 him among them to consolidate and carry out to still 
 wider results their varied labours. 
 
 "Our missionary brethren, Messrs. IMackay, Ewart, 
 Macdonald and Smith, have, in different ways, been 
 labouring up to the full measure of their strength, and 
 some, it is to be feared, beyond their strength. Of 
 the rich and varied endowments and graces which all 
 of these have been privileged to bring to bear upon 
 this great missionary field it is impossible to think, 
 without admiration of the disinterested devotedness 
 wherewith all have been consecrated to the advance- 
 ment of God's glory ; or, rather, without adoring grati- 
 tude towards Him who bestowed the willing heart to 
 refrard such self-consecration as one of the chiefest of 
 the privileges of the heirs of glory. How admirable 
 the ordinance of Heaven! Diversities of gifts — yet 
 one spirit ! Here there are five of us, born, brought 
 up, educated in different parts of our fatherland, in 
 diverse circumstances and amid indefinitely varying 
 associations. Still, when thrown together, in the 
 inscrutable counsels of Divine providence, in a strange 
 and foreign land, without losing any one of our pecu- 
 liar idiosyncrasies, we find that we are one in spirit. 
 
452 LIFE OF DE. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 one in the prime actuating motives, one in the grand 
 design and end of our being ! Blessed be God for 
 the realization of such oneness and harmony, as the 
 l^roduct of a genuine Christiari love. With one accord, 
 for reasons a hundred times reiterated, we regard our 
 ]\Iission Institution as the central point of our opera- 
 tions. In the present exigencies of India, it cannot 
 be otlierwise in the eye of any largely observant and 
 contemplative mind. From an intelligent conviction 
 of the peculiar character of the present wants of India, 
 as well as from voluntary obligation, we all feel our- 
 selves pledged, systematically, to devote a due propor- 
 tion of our time to the advancement of the interests of 
 an Institution which has already infused so much of 
 the leaven of divine truth into the vast mass of native 
 society ; and which promises, with the Divine blessing, 
 to infuse still more. The remainder of our time is 
 daily devoted to prayer-meetings, conversations, dis- 
 cussions, preaching, translation, preparation of tracts, 
 or any other miscellaneous objects of a missionary 
 character which may present themselves in the course 
 of providence, or which may best comport with the 
 ability or predilection of the individual labourers." 
 
 By 1841, too. Dr. Duff's return enabled him to 
 reorganize the Institution in all its departments, 
 rudimentary school and college, English and Oriental. 
 AYliile the ecclesiastical doctrine and practice of 
 Presbyterian parity, of the equality of ordained elders 
 lay and clerical, governed the presbytery and the kirk 
 in all purely spiritual things, organization required 
 something more for the efficient wo^^^ing of a great 
 college and a growing mission. All the gifts and 
 varied energies of the five men must be utilized and 
 directed to the one spiritual end of the immediate 
 conversion of the students, as the test of a system 
 which aimed at far more, even the ultimate subver- 
 
^t. 35. THE COLri^GE EEORGANIZED. 453 
 
 sion of the whole Brahmanical system and the substi- 
 tution of an indigenous Christian Church. Dr. Duff's 
 earhest act was to propose the formation of a mis- 
 sionary council to meet regularly for consultation and 
 prayer under the senior, or whomsoever the Church 
 at home might recognise as the senior, on account 
 of peculiar fitness for the presidency of a Christian 
 collco^e. The macliinew thus establislied within the 
 Presbyterian ecclesiastical system, has ever since 
 worked as well as in any divinity or university Seuatus 
 in Scotland. Men who are not only gentlemen, but 
 gentlemen of the highest type — the Christian, will find 
 no difficulty in such cases save when a mistake is 
 made in adding^ to their number. The odium ecdesi- 
 asticum is a sure gauge of the diminution of the love 
 of Christ, not a proof of intelligent earnestness for the 
 truth. For one Athanasius there are a thousand like 
 Paul of Samosata. Certainly, with the exception of the 
 two sacerdotal parties of the Church of Rome and in 
 the Church of England, foreign missions or mission- 
 aries have ever testified to the Churches which sent 
 them forth, that in Jesus Christ there is neither party 
 nor sect, that the devil is a common enemy strong 
 enough to require all the unity of the evangelical 
 forces. How Dr. Dufi"s reorganization of the Mission 
 was received by his colleagues, Dr. Mackay thus officially 
 reported to the committee : '' Dr. Duff" will tell you of 
 our meeting together regularly for consultation, and 
 of what we have agreed on ; but I cannot refrain from 
 saying, that in all our new and complicated arrange- 
 ments, arising out of our increased number and ef- 
 ficiency, there has been no difference of opinion ; and 
 we are all agreed as one man. Each is satisfied with 
 his own peculiar work, and all are satisfied that every- 
 thing has been done for the best. In Christ we feel 
 that we have one Head, one end, and one mind ; and 
 
454 I*"^ OF DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 believing, wo pray that we may always labour together 
 in peace, and unity, and love." 
 
 To no subject, when in Scotland, had Dr. Duff 
 devoted more of his little leisure than to the careful 
 inspection of all educational improvements in school 
 and college made during his absence in India. These he 
 now proceeded to adapt to his Bengalee circumstances. 
 He had the buildings, the library, the philosophical 
 apparatus for scientific and technical training — every- 
 thingf but the assistant native teachers. In all India 
 there was not a normal school at that time. The 
 Mission had raised its own subordinate masters, but 
 on no regular system. He saw that his first duty was 
 to devote part of the strength of his increased staff to 
 the systematic training of native schoolmasters. He 
 had introduced the gallery system, as it was called, into 
 India for the first time. Every Saturday the Institu- 
 tion was crowded by visitors to see the novel siglit of 
 some three hundred boys from six to twelve exercised 
 after the most approved fashion of David Stow, begin- 
 ning with gymnastics and closing with an examination 
 on the Bible. Here was his practising department. 
 Daily, since he lived in the grounds, did Dr. Duff him- 
 self induce all the native teachers to remain for an 
 hour, when lie taught them " Paideutik," with results 
 which soon showed themselves in the increased efficiency 
 of the school. Not only so, but he was continually 
 called on to surrender his best teachers to other 
 Missions and to Government, while he was consoled by 
 the consciousness that he was thus extending a Chris- 
 tian, as well as educational influence, far and wide. 
 To utmost Sindh, as it then was, as well as far eastern 
 Burma the college sent forth teachers of other schools, 
 as well as officials for the many subordinate and some- 
 times higher appointments of the State, so that the 
 little leaven was gradually leavening the whole lumpj. 
 
^t. 35* '^^^ COLLEGE CURRICULUM AND METHODS. 455 
 
 The General Assembly's Institution at that time was 
 strongest in the two allied, though too often divorced 
 subjects, of physical and mental science. The mission- 
 aries themselves were fresh from the higliest honours 
 in the classes of Chalmers and Jackson, Leslie a id J. 
 Forbes, Brown and Wilson. Of the five, four were 
 masters in the field of mathematics, pure and applied. 
 Dr. Duif himself lectured on chemistry, but his special 
 delight lay in the exposition of psychology and ethics, 
 leading up through natural religion to the queenly 
 theology of revelation. A native student of that time,* 
 who has now been for years a professor in a Govern- 
 ment college, bears this testimony to the intellectual 
 and scientific training of a period when " cram " was 
 unknown, when competition had not learned at onco 
 to stimulate and to poison the higher education, and 
 when physical science was taught as the handmaid of 
 faith. Dr. Duff lectured on the methods of teaching 
 pursued in Scotland, in Switzerland, in Germany, in 
 Pr:i^jdia; and expounded the systems of Stow, of 
 Fellenberg, and of Pestalozzi. Two things were 
 greatly insisted on throughout the classes — a clear 
 conception of an idea in the mind, and the expression 
 of that conception in words. " Duff did not think 
 that a boy had thoroughly caught hold of an idea 
 unless he could express it in his own words, however 
 
 * Rev. Lai BoLari Day, professor of Englisli Literature in the 
 Government College, Hooghly, Tliese were the studies of tlio 
 highest college class, in 18 13 : — In Theology : the Bible, Scriptural 
 doctrines with textual proofs, Greek Testament, Taylor's " Traus- 
 missiou of Ancient Books," Paley's " HoroD Paulinas." In English : 
 Milton's "Paradise Lost," Young, Bacon's Essays and "Novum 
 Organum," Foster's Essays. In Psychology : Brown's Lectures, 
 Whately's Logic and Rhetoric. In Mathematics : analytical geometry, 
 spherical trigonometry, conic sections, the diilerential calculus, optics. 
 In Physics : geology, magnetism, steam navigation. In Sanscrit: the 
 Mugdhaboda. In Pciaiun : the Gulistau and Bostan. 
 
^5^ LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 inelegantly. We therefore took no notes of explana- 
 tions given by the professors; indeed, no notes were 
 given in the class, under the apprehension that they 
 might contribute to cramming. How just that fear 
 was must appear evident to every one who observes 
 the mischievous consequences arising from the practice 
 of giving notes now adopted in all the Indian colleges. 
 Th3 students of the present day never open their 
 mouths in the class-room — unless, indeed, it is to 
 make a noise. They take down the professor's words, 
 commit them to memory — often without understand- 
 ing them — and reproduce them in the examination 
 hall. A copying-machine would do the same. An- 
 other feature in the educational system pursued in 
 the General Assembly's Institution was the judicious 
 mixture of science with literature. At the present 
 day the cry in India, as in Europe, is — physical science. 
 And many people think it is a new cry. But thirty- 
 five years ago Duff took his pupils through a course of 
 pliysical science, in addition to a high literary course. 
 Mechanics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, optics, astronomy, 
 the principles of the steam-engine — the text-books 
 generally being of the science series of Lardner — were 
 taught in the college classes. A course of lectures on 
 chemistry was also delivered, accompanied with ex- 
 periments; the youthful and fascinating science of 
 geologv was studied on account ot its bearing on 
 theology ; while we were so familiar with the use of 
 the sextant, with Node's ' Navigation, and with the 
 * Nautical Almanac,' that some captains of ships, after 
 examining us, declared that some of my class-fellows 
 could guide a ship safely from the Sandheads to Ports- 
 mouth. The Bengal colleges of the present day have 
 not yet advanced so far as the General Assembly's 
 Institution did, under the guidance of Duff, thirty-five 
 years ago." 
 
^t 35. SrmiTUAL AGENCIES OF TDE COLLEGE. 457 
 
 In all this, however, again as in the solitary time 
 of his founding the Mission, the intellectual was di- 
 rected above all things, and excluding all other imme- 
 diate ends, to the spiritual. A new creation in Christ 
 Jesus was what the founder and the four colleagues of 
 like spirit with himself sought to make every student, 
 while they were sustained by the divinely given con- 
 sciousness that they were working for ages yet to 
 come, under the only Leader with Whom a thousand 
 years are as one day, against a system which would 
 not fall, as it had not risen, in a night. 
 
 So when the reorganization of the college was com- 
 plete, several directly and exclusively spiritual agencies 
 were called into play. First, the public offices being 
 now shut on the Sabbath-day, Dr. Duff opened a class 
 for the systematic study of the Bible by thoughtful and 
 religiously disposed Bengalees, who had never studied 
 in a Christian college, and were occupied as clerks all 
 the week. Many of that large class were in the habit 
 of visiting him and the other missionaries, as inquirers, 
 in the evening. Every Sunday morning, at seven 
 o'clock, saw a goodly number of young and middle- 
 aged Hindoos, of the higher class, gathered in the 
 mission-house during the three years which ended with 
 the disruption of the Kirk. Dr. Wilson was doing 
 similar work in Western India. Never, probably, since 
 Pantsenus, the first Christian missionary to India, and 
 his successors in the great School of the Catechumens, 
 evangelized the lands of the Me^^Herranean and the 
 Indian Ocean from Alexandria, iic*d there been such 
 searching of the Scriptures. The result of that three 
 years' work was that the majority of the Hindoo in- 
 quirers expressed an intellectual conviction of the truth 
 of Christianity. Only the Spirit of God, in direct, 
 irresistible and expanding influence, was wanting so to 
 touch their hearts as to make them dare the renun- 
 
45^ LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 ciation of father and mother, caste and kinship, for 
 Christ. " God is a sovereign God," Dr. Duff once 
 said of these busy years, *' and at that time, so far as 
 I could judge, the grace of God's Spirit operated effect- 
 ually on only one soul, to whom it brought home witli 
 power the whole truth of gospel salvation through 
 Jesus Christ." We shall come to him and to others, 
 and we shall see in the coming years how the seed 
 bore fruit of different kinds secretly and openly. 
 
 For another class, students who had left college for 
 the world but still desired at once the elevating influ- 
 ence of companionship with the missionaries and the 
 continuance of their studies, Dr. Duff" opened a week- 
 day evening lecturo in his house. There they read, 
 in a critical spirit, those master-pieces of literature 
 in which were most apparent suggestions of good 
 thoughts and spiritual ideas drawing the reader to the 
 higher life. Such were Guizot's History of Civilization,* 
 a history of the Renaissance and Reformation which 
 had gained the pr Tered by the French Academy, 
 
 and John Foster'^ ?. This, too, proved most 
 
 popular. The olu.^ r\ ^ad yet to be cared for, 
 Hindoos who had le^ ch jjge just before or at Dr. 
 Duff's arrival, who remeinhercd the lectures of 1831-4, 
 and desired to renew their investigations. For such he 
 delivered a weekly lecture in a side-room of the Insti- 
 tution, on the leading points of a complete system of 
 mental and moral philosophy, leading up to religion, 
 natural and revealed. Here his remembrance of the 
 famous series of Chalmers at St. Andrews, in which he 
 had been the foremost man, stimulated the missionary. 
 
 * The Protestant missionaries in China have just issued the pro- 
 spectus of fifty-one treatises to be written for the people of China 
 and Japan, by the ablest Sinologues. Dr. Williamson is engaged on 
 a History of Civilization for this Chinese encyclopcedia of pure and 
 Christian literature. 
 
JEt 35. FEMALE EDUCATION AND HINDOO WIDOWS. 459 
 
 He brought his large audience of thoughtful hearers to 
 ^j\\e utmost confines of psychological observation and 
 the ethical reason, and then pointed them to " the 
 higher calculus of revealed truth." 
 
 At this time, too, he saw the first streaks of the 
 dawn of that day which he had anticipated ten years 
 before, when the educated Bengalees would demand 
 educated wives, and the increasing community of 
 native Christians would seek the means of instruction 
 for their children. The orphan refuge for girls, begun 
 by Mrs. Charles, was developed into an efficient Ben- 
 galee school under the Ladies' Society, and from that 
 in later days, in its two branches, many young women 
 have gone forth to be zanana teachers, and the happy 
 wives and mothers of a prosperous Christian commu- 
 nity. The time for more public and direct aggression 
 on the ignorance and social oppression of the women 
 of Bengal, at least, was not yet. In a noble building 
 planted just opposite Dr. Duff's first college, and beside 
 the church of his second convert, the Honble. Drink- 
 water Bethune, a member of the Government, founded 
 a female school, which, though no longer premature, 
 pure secularism has ever since blighted. Yet the two 
 enlightened Brahman landholders of Ooterapara, near 
 Calcutta, had in vain besought the State to join them 
 in opening a school for Bengalee young ladies there. 
 
 But while Duff sought, in the new orphanage, to 
 prepare Christian teachers, wives and mothers for the 
 future, as it developed before his own eyes, he was no 
 less active in procuring the removal of legislative ob- 
 structions to the freedom of women within legitimate 
 limits. In an official letter of 16th September, 1842, ho 
 expounded in detail the two evils of infant betrothal and 
 early marriage — before puberty, often — and of the 
 prohibition of widow marriage. The characteristic dis- 
 belief of Hindooism, in common with all systems except 
 
46o LIFE OP DR. DUFF. 1841. 
 
 Christianity, in the continence of man and the purity 
 of woman, makes widows for life of the infant girls 
 whose betrothed have died. These, growing up de- 
 spised, ill-treated and overworked, become the centre 
 of the household and village intrigues which fill the re- 
 cords of the criminal courts of India, and the mainstay 
 of the thousand groat shrines to which pilgrimages are 
 made from vast distances and am: a incredible hardships 
 all over the peninsula. Weary of life and dissatisfied 
 with herself, allowed a freedom unknown to the wife 
 and frequently never herself a wife, the Hindoo widow 
 vainly seeks peace at the hands of the touting priest, 
 who strips her of her all — even of what honour she 
 may have left — in the name of the Yaishuava deity. 
 Or slie courts rest at the bottom of the village well. 
 Add to this the state of wives who are no wives, of 
 the Koolin Brahman's hundreds of wives, some of 
 them whole families of mother and daughters, and 
 we have an idea of the moral and spiritual problems 
 wliicli Christian education faced in even orthodox 
 Hindoos. AVith satisfaction did Dr. Duff observe the 
 discussion of these in the vernacular newspapers, 
 and the formation, so early as 1842, of "a secret 
 society among the educated Hindoos for privately 
 instructing their young daughters and other female 
 relatives." 
 
 On the other side he had, before this, described his 
 administration of the ordinance of Christian baptism 
 to the first boy of his third convert, Gopeenath 
 Nundi : *'The Christian Hindoo father stood forth, 
 in the presence of his countrymen, some of whom 
 had formerly been either his pupils or companions, 
 holding in his arms the infant whom he desired 
 solemnly to consecrate to his God and Saviour. Be- 
 side him stood the Christian Hindoo mother, holding 
 by the right hand her firstborn, a little girl of three 
 
^t. ZS- THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 46 1 
 
 years. And tliero, in the presence of God and man, 
 did both parents unite in taking upon themselves the 
 most sacred vows and obligations to bring up their 
 little one in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 Thus, in the heart of the Brahmanism of Bengal, there 
 was growing up the sweet plant of the Ciiristian 
 family. And the agitation against the legal prohibi- 
 tion of widow marriage, begun in these years, bore its 
 fruit iu the Act of Lord Dalhousio and Sir Barnes 
 Peacock, which, just before the Mutiny, removed all 
 legal obstructions to the marriage of Hindoo widows. 
 
 While thus sowing joy for generations to come. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Duff were called to bear the bitterness worse 
 than death — the sudden blow of the removal of one of 
 their own children far away from themselves. Long 
 separation and frequent death form the oft-repeated 
 tragedy of Anglo-Indian life. That is none the less 
 bitter that it occurs so often, and seems all the more 
 cruel that the dearest friends who have never left home 
 can only half sympathise with the sufferers. Duff's im- 
 pulsive, continuously imj^etuous affection rushed forth 
 to all his friends and converts, but it flowed in a rapid 
 and deep stream towards his family. In Dr. Brunton 
 he had made a friend to whom he poured forth all the 
 fulness of his heart in private letters, often side by 
 side with his ofiQ.cial correspondence. Thus did thoy 
 write each other, and thus did Dr. Duff, in his own 
 sorrow, comfort the venerable and still surviving lad\% 
 Mrs. Briggs, of St. Andrews, whose gift he employed 
 in the mission work : — 
 
 "Edinbuugh College, 2nd Juno, 1841. 
 
 " My Dear Dr. Duff, — I had counted upon commenciug my 
 letter by this mail with an appeal which would, I well know, 
 be readily responded to, for your sympathy and condolence 
 under our sore bereavement. But, in the unsearchable counsels 
 of God, I am called, on the other hand, to offer ours to you. 
 
462 LIFE OP DR. DUFI\ 1841. 
 
 Our heavenly Father has called little Aune to Himself. I need 
 not detail the circumstauces. I know that more than ouo 
 afTi'ctionato friend intends to transmit them to you. Nor do 
 I need to remind you what are the duties to which, after the 
 first sore burst of anguish, you will feel yourself called. I 
 write merely o assure you that the little sufl'crer had every 
 human resource which you yourself could have desired. !Mrs. 
 Campbell watched her with maternal care. The best medical 
 skill of Edinburgh was promptly and affectionately bestowed 
 on her. We have laid her in Dr. Inglis's burial place, close 
 to the spot of his own hallowed rest. 
 
 "I will mix up no other theme with this. The little which 
 I had to say on business I address to Mr. Ewart. I am sure 
 you will not misunderstand me, as if I imagined that, even 
 under this sore trial, you would cease for a day to labour in 
 your Master's work. On the contrary, I know by experience 
 that such labour is most wholesome medicine in huraaji sorrow. 
 But you are well entitled to judge for yourself at what precise 
 time and in what proportion you are best able to bear the 
 medicine. Mr. Webster happened to be here from Aberdeen 
 on Assembly duty ; and nothing could exceed his devotedness 
 in doing all that was kind and useful. He has written to you, 
 I believe ; as has also Dr. Abercrombie. Miss Stevenson (the 
 writer's niece) communicates with Mrs. Duff by this despatch. 
 My dear friend, my prayers and my best wishes are with you. 
 May God Himself sustain and cheer you ! Yours affection- 
 
 ately, " Alexander Brunton." 
 
 "Calcutta, Cornwallis Square, 17th August, 1841. 
 " My Dear Dr. Bhunton, — How strikingly did the mournful 
 intelligence by the last overland make me realize the force of 
 the humble but expressive adage, * a fi'iend in need is a friend 
 indeed.' Often, often, have I in retrospect watched with wonder 
 and delight the manifold acts of personal kindness shown to 
 me by yourself and Miss Stevenson. And I assure you that, 
 unable, in the deep sincerity of my heart, to find anything in 
 myself worthy of such kindnesses, I have been ever led to ascribe 
 it all to the special grace and favour of God my heavenly 
 Father, who hath been pleased in His sovereign mercy to 
 raise up unto mo friends in so peculiar a sense. But oh, me- 
 thinks your last attentions to our da"ling and beloved chilu 
 
^Et. 35, ON THE DEATH OP HIS CHILD. 463 
 
 were, if possible, the kindest acts of all, attentions paid too 
 amid your own sore, sore domestic bereavements. It were to 
 afTect a stoicism alien to my nature were I to pretend that the 
 affliction lias been to us a lij^lit one. Oh no, it was one of the 
 heaviest that could possibly have befallen. Even now, after 
 the interval of nearly a month, the vivid realization of it 
 brought about by my writing this note scarcely allows me to 
 proceed. The tears flow now as copiously as on the day of 
 the unexpected intelligence. But do not, my dear father 
 and friend in the Lord, do not conclude that these are tears 
 of murmuring or complaint against the will and act of my 
 heavenly Father. Oh no, they are the meltings of the poor 
 weak human heart of a fond parent, still smarting under the 
 rod of my heavenly Father's chastisement. I can truly say that 
 if these past weeks have been fertile in natural sorrow, they 
 have also been still more fertile in spiritual joy. Every thought 
 of my departed darling child is associated with the thought l ' 
 heaven — the home of the weary pilgrim of Zion, and the re- 
 membrance of Tlim who hath gone before to prepare mansions 
 of glory for all His faithful followers. I have felt more in the 
 communion of the Divine lledeemer and its fellowship with the 
 redeemed in glory, than I have experienced for some time past. 
 Still may I say, it was good for me to have been thus afflicted. 
 
 "It was a kind thought 01 your ., and in beautiful harmony 
 with all your other refined and delicate consideration for human 
 feelings, to have our little one laid beside the man for whoso 
 memory beyond all others I cherish the deepest veneration. 
 Kindest and best thanks to dear Mrs. Inglis and family for 
 their ready consent. Also my warmest thanks to the com- 
 mittee for their tribute of respect. I think far more of their 
 act of favour in behalf of the departed than if they had be- 
 stowed thousands on the living. May the Lord reward you all. 
 
 " The enclosed business note for Dr. Gordon I leave open, that 
 you may peruse its contents, and lend your aid in accelerating 
 the object solicited. Before this reach you, the Madras events 
 will have cheered you. We have reason to bless God and 
 take courage. It is not to be expected that Satan will sur- 
 render this long-possessed realm without a deadly struggle. 
 Tour report to the Assembly has been very soothing and 
 cheering : may the Lord bless its difll'usion. The enclosed 
 you will kindly hand over to Mr. Inglis; it also contains one 
 
4^4 LlFia OF DE. DUFF. 1841, 
 
 for bis mother, Mrs. Dr. Inglis. This reminds me of what I 
 often intended to ask; could you net manage to procure for us 
 a bust (or even a print, if that cannot be had) of Dr. Inglis, to 
 be set up in the library of our Institution ? Surely nothing 
 could be more appropriate. With heartfelt thanks and re- 
 membrances to Miss Stevenson, Mrs. Stevenson, and love to 
 my dear young friends the Borrowmans, I am ever gratefully 
 and affectionately, " Alexandeu Duvf." 
 
 " Uth November, 1841. 
 
 " My Dear Mrs. Brigqs, — It was indeed kind of you — more 
 than kind — amid your own aflfliction and sore bereavement, to 
 remember one so distant and so unworthy. The announce- 
 ment of the death of your dear husband I had noticed, and 
 longe 1 to learn some particulars relative to his latter end. 
 This I was disposed to ask for as a favour at your own hands. 
 But you more than anticipated me. And your doing so, un- 
 solicited and unprompted, enhances the favour a hundred-fold. 
 That you had * much comfort in his death, which was that of 
 the Christian enjoying peace in believing;' — ah, my friend, 
 these simple but touching and thrilling words in your letter 
 did cause tears of joy to flow from eyes which, in these heathen 
 climes, seldom find matter but for tears of sorrow, and a song 
 of grateful thanks to ascend to the Father of spirits from a 
 heart which, though vexed daily and almost hardened by the 
 freezing obduracy of the votaries of idolatry, has not yet 
 (blessed be God) wholly lost its sensibilities or its sympathies 
 with the great Christian brotherhood. To sleep in Jesus, to 
 die in the Lord, oh, is not this the top and flower of all 
 other blessings here below ? What more could the expanded 
 souls of the ransomed in glory, what more could the burning 
 desires of a seraph long for on behalf of sinful mortal man, 
 than that he should fall asleep in Jesus ? This being the case 
 with your departed husband, while, if I met you, I could not 
 help weeping along with you, could not help the outgush of 
 nature's tenderness and nature's regrets, I should also soon 
 be constrained to mingle joy with my weeping on account of 
 the ascended and ransomed spirit. And in order to die the 
 death of the righteous, oh, may it be ours to live the life of 
 the righteous, to be united to Christ by a living faith, to be 
 grafted on Him as a liviiiy branch, to be built up in Him as a 
 
^t. 35. LETTER TO A LADY. 465 
 
 livinrj stone, to be replenished, through the energy and in- 
 working of His Almighty Spirit, with that grace now which 
 shall ripen into glory hereafter. These, my dearly beloved 
 friend, these are amongst the blessings which constitute the 
 heritage and possession of God's own children. 
 
 "As to your remembering me by the large munificence of a 
 Christian heart, as well as the kindness of a Christian's holiest 
 wishes, I know not what to say. Coming from one whose noble 
 and (considering the arduous circumstances of the case), I will 
 add, heroic example of piety I was wont to admire and gather 
 strength from when yet a feeble neophyte myself, I cannot 
 doubt the heartfelt kindliness of the motive, and dare not 
 therefore refuse. In the spirit of Christian love that pi'omptcd 
 the token of remembrance, I cannot but accept it as sent to 
 me by the Lord, through the instrumentality of one of His 
 own chosen ones. And I pray God that I may be privileged 
 to employ it in such way as may best promote His own glory 
 and honour. Recompense you on earth I cannot; I can only 
 pray that the God of all grace may continue to shower upon 
 you still richer effusions of His fatherly loving-kindness, and 
 in the world to come reward you a hundred-fold. And to all 
 your other kindnesses, oh, deny me not the crowning ore, to 
 remember me in your daily petitions at a throne of grace, that 
 the Lord may uphold me in His strength, and cause His 
 pleasure more abundantly to prosper in my unworthy hands. 
 
 " Amid much to humble we have much to cheer us here. Tho 
 other day we joyously admitted a young Brahman, of whose 
 faith in the atoning sacrifice of the Divine Redeemer we had 
 ample evidence, into the communion of Christ's visible Church. 
 But as Dr. Brunton will probably publish some portion of tho 
 account I sent him, I need say no more here. Is Miss Grace still 
 with you ? Often, often, do I blend my being with ten thou- 
 sand recollections of St. Andrews. There I passed some of my 
 earlier days of sin and folly, and shameful neglect of God and 
 salvation. There, too, the Lord was pleased to rescue me as 
 a brand from the burning. Oh, praised be His Holy Name. 
 Were I to name the many men in whom I feel the deepest in- 
 terest, and to whom I would beg to be remembered, my whole 
 paper would be filled. The Lord bless you, and enrich you, 
 and ennoble you more and more by the shining of His grace. 
 Yours gratefully and affectionately, "Alexander Duff." 
 
 n u 
 
466 LIFE OP DE. DUFF. 184 1. 
 
 In the year 1838, when Dr. Duff was in the press of 
 his home operations, the news came from Nuddea, a 
 county fifty miles to the north of Calcutta, of large 
 additions of Hindoo and Muhammadan peasants to 
 the Church. In 1830 he had visited the spot, among 
 other parts of rural Bengal, only to decide that he must 
 begin the Scottish Mission in Calcutta, and from that 
 as a base extend his influence. In 1832 the Church 
 Missionary Society opened a school in Krishnaghur, 
 the county town, and baptized five students in the first 
 twelve months. By 1838, whole villages with their 
 head men had sought instruction, and hundreds of 
 earnest men and women, under purely spiritual in- 
 fluences, were baptized, and proved their sincerity by 
 suffering persecution unmoved. Then there came into 
 operation motives of a more mixed character. The 
 river Jellinghi, one of three streams into which the 
 mighty Ganges spills over so as to form the united 
 Hooghly on which Calcutta stands, inundated the dis- 
 trict and swept off" the rice harvest. The result was a 
 local famine, from too much water, such as we have 
 twice witnessed since that year. There was no rail- 
 way to pour in food as now, no machinery to link the 
 million of sufferers with the charity of Great Britain, 
 no prudent anticipation on the part of the authorities. 
 The work of relief fell, as usual, on the few mis- 
 sionaries, English and German, who sailed over the 
 inundated plains of an area as large as Lincolnshire, 
 distributing rice to the dying and lending small sums 
 to those who could thus struggle through the crisis. 
 The result was precisely what Madras and Mysore have 
 recently displayed on a greater scale. The evangeliza- 
 tion of the previous six years,* acted on by gratitude 
 
 * The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross (1876), by the Rev. 
 James Vauglian, who is now again building up the Church at 
 Krishnaghur amid many difficulties. 
 
^t. 35- THE NEW SECT, "WORSHirrEIiS OF THE CREATOR." 467 
 
 for the humanity and symjathy shown, bore both 
 natural and spiritual fruit in the profession of Chris- 
 tianity by thousands. On one occasion Bishop Wilson 
 presided at the baptism of nine hundred Hindoos 
 and Muhammadans. Dr. Duff drew up a document 
 explaining the movement to the churches at home. 
 Judging from analogy there can be little doubt that 
 Krishnaghur and the rich sugar, indigu, oilseed and 
 jute districts of the Hooghly Delta would by this time 
 have been what the Tinnevelly Church has become, in 
 similar circumstances, had the missionaries not com- 
 paratively deserted it before the infant church had 
 been consolidated and had produced its own tried and 
 trained pastors. As it is, the large nominal Christian 
 descendants of the first converts, among whom caste 
 has crept and the sacerdotalism of Jesuit priests 
 recognising caste, is being again evangelized, like the 
 lapsed sections of our own cities and mining and 
 manufacturing districts. 
 
 But there was another providential preparation for 
 the rapid creation of the Krishnaghur Church. When 
 Eammohun Roy was feeling after God, as we have 
 already told, among the learned of Burdwan and Cal- 
 cutta who knew Sanscrit and English, there was a 
 villager of the cowherd caste in Ghospara, near Krish- 
 naghur, who in the Bengalee vernacular admitted 
 neophytes to a new sect on the payment of a rupee 
 and the recitation of this Muntra, or combined creed 
 and charm — "0 sinless Lord. great Lord, at thy 
 pleasure I go and return; not a moment am I without 
 thee; I am ever with thee. Save, great Lord." 
 E-amchurn Pal was really a follower of the great 
 reformer Chaitunya, but he set up a new sect which 
 recognised Jiim as the incarnation of Krishna rather 
 than the character which he professed. The Gooroo, 
 or teacher, was the sinless lord, entitled to all the 
 
468 LIFE OF DR. DUl'T. 1842. 
 
 spiritual power and offerings. This new sect of 
 Vaisbnavas called themselves Kharta-bhajas, or wor- 
 shippers of the Creator. They ate together twice a 
 year ignoring caste, and gained over many women and 
 infirm persons by the belief that the Muntra removed 
 barrenness and disease. Such is the account of tho 
 Gooroo's contemporary, Mr. Ward, of Serampore.* 
 In this its first stage, before the denunciatio: of 
 caste had given place to free love, as in many such 
 sects, and the cessation of idol-worship had been 
 followed by the substitution of one god for another, 
 the new teaching sent many to swell tlie ranks of 
 true but uninstructed Christians. 
 
 To a careful study of the Kharta-bhajas, with, the 
 view of founding a mission among them, Dr. Duff 
 devoted the college vacation of 1840-41, and again of 
 1841-42. As the guest of the Church missionary, 
 Mr. Alexander, he was at the head-quarters both of 
 the sect and of Christian operations. In discussing 
 vernacular education, helping to spread village schools 
 and frequent meetings with both the Christians and 
 the Kharta-bhajas, two months passed away. He 
 signalized his farewell by a simple feast to the Chris- 
 tians of one station, at which five hundred squatted, 
 oriental fashion, before piles of curry and rice and the 
 fruits of the cold season, spread out on the soft green 
 leaves of the plantain-tree, and deftly conveyed to the 
 mouth with two forefingers and thumb. So the Hishis 
 ate on the ancestral Aryan tabhJand. But here were 
 also women and children, and glad sounds of praise 
 arose to the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour, 
 
 * Vol. ii., page 175, of A View of the History, Literattire, and My- 
 thology of the Hindoos (1818, second edition), by W. Ward. A 
 work now of some rarity, and drawn upon by not a few writers 
 without due acknowledgment. 
 
^t 36. THE NEW STATIONS AT CULNA AND GllOsrARA. 469 
 
 Jesus Christ. Dr. Duff was intensely human, rejoicing 
 as much in the social feast of the lately christianized 
 families, in its way, as in their solemn acts of pure 
 worship. Desirous to concentrate his mission on the 
 left bank of the river, Mr. Alexander urged his Pres- 
 byterian guest to take possession of Culra, opposite, 
 once the great port of fertile Burdwan, and still a 
 pilgrim town of 50,000 inhabitants, where the per- 
 petual lease of a piece of ground had been secured. 
 After inspecting the place. Dr. Duff dropped down 
 the Hooghly to Ghospara, now three miles from the 
 railway station of Kanchrapara. There, in a mango 
 tope or grove, he visited the Gooroo of the Kharta- 
 bhajas. Surrounded by his disciples, the son of 
 Ramchurn made a statement of his faith to the mis- 
 sionary sitting upon the simple " charpoy " or low 
 couch-bed of the East, and willingly granted him, 
 in perpetuity, a lease of land for a Christian school 
 and church. From the fifty thousand pilgrims who 
 twice a year crowd to the " cold sea" or pool whose 
 waters had healed the wife of their Gooroo, and to the 
 sacred pomegranate-tree under which she was buried,* 
 he thought to gather many to Christ. 
 
 But where were the missionaries for the rural 
 stations, thus increased to three — Takee, Culna and 
 Ghospara ? In the first, Mr. Clift had been succeeded 
 by Mr. W. C. Fyfe, sent out from Scotland as an 
 educationist and subsequently ordained, so that he is 
 now the senior missionary in Bengal. Happily the 
 college in Calcutta, which, in 1830, had begun with the 
 Lord's Prayer in Bengalee, the English alphabet, and 
 the slow spelling out of the Sermon on the Mount, 
 and had given its first four converts to the Angli- 
 can, American Presbyterian and Congregationalist 
 
 • A Statistical Account of Bengal (1876), vol. ii., p. 63. 
 
470 WFE OP DB. DUFF. 1842. 
 
 Churches, because the Kirk was not prepared to 
 utilize them, was producing the ripest spiritual fruit. 
 Established to sway towards Christ, and by Christ, 
 the whole revolution of thought and feeling which the 
 English language and the British administration had 
 set in motion and were hurrying away from all faith 
 and morals. Dr. Duff felt that his college would be 
 an immediate failure if it did not bring in individual 
 souls and raise an indigenous missionary ministry. 
 Before idl other agencies for educated Hindoos, his 
 system had, in 1830-1834, accomplished both results. 
 Nor had it ceased to do so in his absence, while his 
 return gave it a new impetus. "Whether we look at 
 the spiritual or the intellectual character of the young 
 men; whether we consider what they sacrificed for 
 Christ, or what He enabled them to become in His 
 work, we may assert that no Christian mission can 
 show such a roll of converts from the subtlest system 
 of a mighty faith and an ancient civilization as Dr. 
 Duff's college in the first thirteen years of its history. 
 We begin with the one failure — let the truth be told, 
 but tenderly. In 1837, Dwarkanath Bhose, at the age 
 of seventeen, was baptized. No convert witnessed so 
 good a confession as he, if persecution be the test. He 
 was the Peter of the band. Thrice carried off by his 
 bigoted family, chained and imprisoned till Mr. Leith's 
 services in the Supreme Court were necessary to en- 
 force toleration, he clung to his convictions. So bright 
 a student did he become that he was one of the four 
 Bengalees selected by Government to complete their 
 medical studies in London. Was it there that, like not a 
 few of his countrymen since, he found the temptations 
 of a great city, in which he was alone, overpowering ? 
 With the highest professional honours he returned to 
 practice in Calcutta, where he fell a victim to the 
 vice which our excise system has taught the educated 
 
^t. i6. THE NEW CONVERTS. 47 1 
 
 Datives of India, when it plants the licensed wine-shop 
 beside the Christian school. We visited him in his fatal 
 sickness. "Who shall say that, like Peter also, he did 
 not rise, ever so little, from his fall ? It i^ not English 
 Christians, at least, who can judge 'iira. Bather lot us 
 judge our own wani} of faitb and charity towa^'dp India ; 
 our own administration wnich, now purged of most 
 other debasing tendencies and immoral monopolies, 
 still uses the whole power of the State to secularise 
 public instruction, and to raise an annually increasing 
 revenue by spreading drink and drug licences far and 
 wide over India and even China. The missionaries 
 were used to make Dwarkanath Bhose the noble con- 
 vert and accomplished student he was when he landed 
 on our shores — who is responsible for the rest ? 
 
 A fellow-student of Dwarkanath' s would have stood 
 by his side in baptism. Laid low by fever he sent for 
 his companions, declared to them that he believed in 
 Christ, and died before he could be baptized. He was 
 one of a large class of secret Christians, who have 
 been known to baptize each other in the last hour. 
 The bloom of the Mission, intellectually and spiritually, 
 was also cut off by an early death — two converts who 
 lived and worked long enough to become the David 
 and the Jonathan of the Church of India, Mahendra 
 Lai Basak and Kailas Chunder Mookerjea. Mahendra 
 had entered Dr. Duff's school in 1831, at the age of 
 nine, but was removed to the Hindoo College be- 
 cause of the direct Christian teaching of the former. 
 Returning he became so thoughtful as to alarm his 
 Hindoo friends, who tried to seduce him to sins which, 
 they thought, would make even the missionaries shun 
 him. It was in vain. He rose to be the gold medalist 
 of the college, and his demonstrations of some of 
 Euclid's problems were so ingenious as to call forth 
 the eulogy of Professor Wallace, of the University of 
 
472 LIFE OF DR. DUFF. 1842. 
 
 Edinburgh. But his intellectual power was dedicated 
 to the office of the Christian ministry. Baptized in 
 1839, after renewed opposition from his father, ho be- 
 came the first divinity student of the college. The 
 same year saw him joined by a Koolin Brahman, 
 Kailas, T>'ho had. gone through the six years' course of 
 the college. ^iVhcn on the way with his family to an 
 idolatrous service, his conscience so pricked him that 
 he fled to the mission-house. Gentle and confiding, 
 he was deluded by solemn pledges into leaving its pro- 
 tection, when he was kept in durance for three months. 
 On escaping he was publicly baptized in the college 
 hall. After systematic theological training, the two 
 friends were appointed catechists. Part of their prac- 
 tical training had been to accompany the missionaries 
 on itineracies through the rural districts in the cold 
 season. Dr. Duff thus described his experience of 
 Mahendra, as a preacher, at the beginning of 1841 : — 
 "In these rural itineracies I had much reason to 
 be satisfied with the docility, humble demeanour, and 
 moral earnestness of my young friend, Mahendra. 
 His tact, too, and management in meeting the objec- 
 tions, and in presenting divine truth in an intelligible 
 form to the minds of his countrymen, were such as to 
 encourage no ordinary expectations as to the future. 
 On one occasion he displayed much eloquence and 
 power. Standing on the steps in front of a temple 
 of Shivii; in the large town of Culna, we got into a 
 long and varied discussion with the Brahmans. Soon 
 an immense crowd was assembled. They professed 
 their readiness to listen to what the SaJieb had to 
 say; but when, at my suggestion, Mahendra began 
 to ask certain questions, he was at first received with 
 a shout of derisive scorn. ' What I ' exclaimed they, 
 * shall we give ear to the words of a poor ignorant 
 boy?' With the greatest calmness and self-posses- 
 
JEt. 36. THE NOBLEST OP ALL THE CONVERTS. 473 
 
 sion Mahendra replied, * Well, friends, if I am a poor 
 ignorant boy, is that not a stronger reason why you, 
 who are so loarned, should take pity npon me, and 
 give me the knowledge which you believe would re- 
 move my ignorance. I began to ask the qu stions, 
 not with a view to abuse you, or your faith, or to dis- 
 play my own learning, which is veiy little ; but simply 
 to know what your creed really is, and thus enable mo 
 to compare it with my own.' This ' soft answer ' had 
 the desired effect. After answering some questions, 
 they began to interrogate in return. In reply to the 
 query respecting his faith, Mahendra began by giving 
 a brief sketch of what ho was by birth and education, 
 and how he came to renounce Hindooism and embrace 
 Christianity. His exordium at once caught the ear 
 and riveted the attention of every one; and not a 
 whisper was heard from the previously unruly and 
 nproarious audience, when he commenced his narrative 
 by saying, ' Countrymen and friends, I am a Hindoo ; 
 I was born and brought up a Hindoo ; yea, I belonged 
 to the Boistobs, one of the strictest sects, as you know, 
 among the Hindoos. My father was and is a Boistob ; 
 my mother was and is a Boistob; they were both vory 
 careful in training me up in the knowledge of their 
 peculiar creed ; they made me attend upon Radhanath, 
 one of the great pundits of the Boistob sect ; at his 
 feet I was brought up ; he laboured to imprint upon 
 my mind the doctrines of Atma, Onama, and other 
 Shasters.* How forcibly the preliminary part of this 
 address made me realize the exceeding naturalness and 
 adaptation of the Apostle's appeal, in somewhat similar 
 circumstances, and with a view to somewhat similar 
 ends ! * Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of 
 Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the 
 Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Pharisee ! ' How 
 forcibly, too, did it make me feel the superiority of the 
 
474 I'IFB OP DB. DDFP. 1843. 
 
 vantagc-grouml on wliicli a qualified native must over 
 stand, when addressing his own countrymen — his own 
 kinsmen according to the flesh I Oh that we had 
 hundreds of Mahendras I — hundreds exhibiting similar 
 qualifications of head and heart; then might we begin 
 to lift up our drooping heads, in the full assurance that 
 the day of India's salvation was nigh at hand. At 
 tlie conclusion of Mahendra's long address we dis- 
 tributed all the tracts in our possession. We had 
 reached the temple about five p.m. ; it was now eight 
 o'clock; and the full moon, shining from the deep blue 
 vault of an almost starless though cloudless sky, lighted 
 us back to our small boat on the river. On our way, 
 we overheard many remarks respecting what had been 
 said ; amongst others, the following : * Truly, he looked 
 a poor, ignorant boy; but his words showed him to bo 
 a great pundit.' " 
 
 These were the men, Mahendra and Kailas, who were 
 placed in Grhospara as missionaries to their country- 
 men. Within a few weeks of each other, in the year 
 1845 they passed away, after services which Dr. Ewart 
 and Mr. Macdonald recorded in Memoirs of them. So, 
 also, the amiable Madub Chunder Basak died ripe for 
 heaven. Dr. Duff longed for hundreds like them, and 
 he did not pray in vain. Passing over the baptism 
 of another Brahman, of Kalichurn Dutt, and of Dr. 
 DuflP's converts baptized by other Churches, we come 
 in 1841-3 to the conversion of the four remarkable 
 Hindoos who lived to bo ordained ministers of the 
 Free Church of Scotland, and at Culna and other rural 
 stations, as well as Calcutta itself, proved successful 
 missionaries. The Rev. Jugadishwar Bhattacharjya, 
 a Brahman of the Brahmans, above eighteen, whom a 
 mob attempted to tear from the mission-house, has 
 since won the gratitude of his peasant coun^^ymen, 
 alike by his spiritual and his temporal services to 
 
JFA. 37. THE TWELVE PRINCIPAL CONVERTS. 475 
 
 them, having saved many in the time of famine. Such 
 are his knowledge and influence, that ho was selected 
 by Lord Northbrook to give evidence before a Com- 
 mons committee. The Rev. Prosuuno Koomar Chat- 
 terjca, once of the same highest caste, has long presided 
 over another of the rural missions in Bengal. The 
 Rev. Lai Behari Day, a successful English author and 
 Government professor, who preaches regularly to the 
 Scotsmen sent out to superintend the jute mills on the 
 Hooghly, has lately told the world his " Recollections " 
 of the missionary who was one of his spiritual fathers. 
 Last of all, but now no more, do we linger over the 
 name of the Rev. Behari Lai Singh, the Rajpoot who 
 died the only missionary in India of the Presbyterian 
 Cburcli of Enf]:land. The teaching: which led him to 
 sacrifice all for Christ he and his brother received in 
 the college; the example which afterwards proved to 
 him that Christianity was a living power was that of 
 his official superior, Sir Donald M'Leod. 
 
 From the converts made up to 1843 we have named 
 these twelve — four in the first period, eight in the 
 second — as the typical fruit of the system directed by 
 the first missionary of the Church of Scotland to the 
 destruction of Brahmanism and the building up of 
 the Church of India by educated Hindoos. The first, 
 Brijonath ; the sixth, seventh, and tenth, Mahendra, 
 Kailas, and Madliub; became early fruit of the native 
 Church in heaven, but not before Mahendra and Kailas 
 had done true service for their Master. With a joyful 
 catholicity Dr. Duff had given Krishna Mohun to the 
 Church of England, Gopeenath to the American Pres- 
 byterian Church, Anundo to the London Mission, and 
 Behari Lai to the English Presbyterians. Of the 
 twelve not the least brilliant fell ; while we shall see 
 Gopeenath witnessing a good confession in his hour 
 of trial in the Mutiny. 
 
47^ LIFE OF DE. DUl'F. 1843. 
 
 Wliilo tho college, in spiritual iufluenco and intellec- 
 tual force, with its 900 students and three brunch 
 stations, was thus advancing to tno state of efficiency 
 in which it closed for the last time in 184'3, all around 
 there were then, as now, disaster and confusion in 
 public nffairs. Thus longingly did Dr. Duff dwell on 
 tho triumphs of peace, and on tho way which it opened 
 for the Prince of peace, into the lands beyond our 
 frontiers, then on tho Sutlej and tho Yoina mountains 
 of Arakan. How hopefully, in the Punjab, the Karen 
 country and China, have his anticipations been realized. 
 What he wrote of Loi d EUenborough even may stand, 
 for he wrote it on the 17th October, 1842, before the 
 Somnath Gates proclamation and the Sindli war, 
 Captain Durand being that Governor-General's private 
 secretary : — 
 
 " For the last three years all India has been in a 
 state of suppressed ferment and smothered excitement, 
 by the desolating warfare in Afghanistan and China. 
 A permanent peace with Afghanistan may prepare a 
 way of access to the vast nomadic hordes of Central 
 Asia, who, from time immemorial, have been the 
 conquerors and desolators of its fairest and richest 
 provinces. The last few years have served to prove 
 that, though the sword of war may destroy, it cannot 
 tame or subdue any portion of these wild and lawless 
 races. What fresh glory will this shed on the triumphs 
 of the gospel, when, by the peaceful * sword of the 
 Spirit,' these very tribes are brought into willing sub- 
 jection, and endowed with meek and iamblike disposi- 
 tions ! A permanent peace with China may open up 
 an effectual door of ingress to more than 300,000,000 
 of human beings — one-third of the entire race of man- 
 kind I— hitherto shut up, and, as it were, hermetically 
 sealed against the invasion of gospel truth. How 
 mysterious, and yet how wisely beneficent the ways of 
 
JFA. 37. PEACE THE OPPORTUNITY OP THE MISSIONARY. 477 
 
 Divino Providence ! China being sealed a^^ainst the 
 direct intrusion of Bible heralds, the last thirty years 
 have been chiefly devoted by the lamented Morrison 
 and others to the study of that unique and solitary 
 lingual gonus, the Chine?o tongue — to the investigation 
 of Chinese antiquities, literature, mythology, and other 
 such like subjects as tend to throw light on the genius, 
 the character, the mental and religious habitudes of so 
 singular and multitudinous a people — to the prepara- 
 tion of grammars, and dictionaries, and tructs, and, 
 above all, to the translation of the Word of life, that 
 Book of books, the Bible. And when the requisite 
 apparatus for an effectual spiritual warfare has been 
 fully prepared, suddenly and unexpectedly the in\menso 
 field for their practical application has been thrown 
 open, by the instrumentality of one who * meant not 
 so, neither did his heart think so.* (Isa. x. 7.) What 
 a striking coincidence I AYho dare say that it :s for- 
 tuitous ? Oh no ! It is altogether the ordination of 
 Him who ' knoweth the end from the beginning.' It 
 is one of those marvellous points of confluence among 
 the manifold streams and currents of Providence, 
 which may flow, for years or even ages, unseen be- 
 neath the surface, till the * set time ' hath come for 
 their springing forth visibly, to bespeak the presiding 
 presence of Him, who ' doeth according to His will 
 among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of 
 the earth.* 
 
 " If anything could enhance the joy which we have 
 all experienced from the simple announcement * Peace,* 
 it is the language in which the present Governor- 
 General has couched his solicitation for the offering of 
 public prayers and thanksgivings to Almighty God 
 throughout all the Indian Ciiurches. From the State 
 circular, penned by Lord Ellenborough himself, I ex- 
 tract the following passage : — * The seasonable supply 
 
47^ I-IFB OP DE. DUFF. . 1843. 
 
 of rain, following our prayers recently offered to God 
 for that blessing, wliereby the people of the North- 
 Western Provinces have been relieved from the fear of 
 impending famine; and the great successes recfntly 
 obtained by the British arms in Afghanistan, whereby 
 the hope of honourable and secure peace is held out to 
 India, impose upon us all the duty of humble thanks- 
 giving to Almighty God, through whose paternal 
 goodness alone these events have been brought to 
 pass. Nor have we less incurred the duty of earnest 
 supplication, that we may not be led to nbuse these 
 last gifts of God's bounty, or to attribute to ourselves 
 that which is due to Him alone ; but that He may have 
 granted to us grace so to improve these gifts to us, 
 to show ourselves worthy of His love, and fit instru- 
 ments, in His hand, for the government of the great 
 nation which His wisdom has placed under British 
 rule.' These, surely, are sentiments worthy of a 
 British statesman, and honourable to the Christian 
 head of the most powerful empire in Asia ! — sentiments, 
 embodying so solemn a recognition of Jehovah's su- 
 premacy and man's responsibility ; — sentiments which 
 are sure to be translated into all the languages, and 
 circulated among all the nations of the Eastern world ! 
 Oh, let all the British Churches respond, with heart 
 and soul, to the voice of thanksgiving and supplica- 
 tion which is about to be lifted up by all the Churches 
 in India ! and pray that the time may come, and that 
 right speedily, when the outpourings of God's Spirit 
 shall descend on this dry and parched land." 
 
 END OP VOL. I.