'terioration seems inherent in Indian existence.'

he writes,

To Mr. Grant

"I seem to have come out under rather unfavourable auspices. "No feature of my mission is very agreeable. But I view the whole as the counsel of the Almighty; and I know that in his plan there. "is great beauty, though I may not perceive it.

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"I have passed this last year in military society, or in solitude., "And as I shall shortly be stationed up the country, I cannot expect any material change during life. But if I rightly improve the oppor"tunities I may have, I shall do well. What I lament most is, the "effect this inactive life has on my mind. You will not be sur"prised if both my moral and intellectual powers suffer by it. The "climate no doubt has its effect in this hebetation of the soul; and "I hope I shall recover from it in time.

"I suffered a long struggle before could resign myself pas"sively to my unexpected destination. But the struggle is now "over; and I view myself as one who has run his race; to whom "little more is left to do. I have known some, who, in such a case, "would have extricated themselves with violence, and sought a new. "fortune in the Gospel. But it will require a very evident interposition of God indeed to bring me out of this Egypt, now that "he has placed me in it; I shall esteem myself highly favoured, "if I be enabled to pass my days in it. with a pure conscience, endeavouring to do a little, where much cannot be done.”›

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pp. 152, 153. Mr. Buchanan's conduct under these circumstances, was influenced by a determination not to step beyond the prescribed limits of his duty as a military chapiain.' His biographer intimates his hope, that the narrative may serve to check in any who may be similarly situated, either abroad or at home, the too natural disposition to despondency or haste." A serious illness, however, soon after threatened to affect still more permanently Mr Buchanan's capacities of usefulness. From this he slowly recovered, but the spring and tone of his feelings seemed to be destroyed. We find him speaking in terms of much commendation' of the Baptist missionaries, Messrs. Thomas and Carey; but his own expectations respecting the conversion of the Hindoos, were at this period, very faint indeed. Some of his remarks are, however, highly judicious.

"I wish not that any prudential considerations from what has "been, or from what may probably be, should check the missionary "ardour of the day. Nothing great since the beginning of the "world has been done, it is said, without enthusiasm. I am, there"fore, well pleased to see multitudes of serious persons, big with "hope, and apt to communicate; for I think it will further the "Gospel. Instead of thirty missionaries, I wish they could trans

port three hundred. They can do little harm, and may do some 66 good. But let them send as many children as possible, or those

"who may have children. They will do more good by and by than "their parents. No man turned of thirty can learn to speak a new "language well. No Englishman turned of twenty, who is only "acquainted with the labials and dentals of his mother-tongue, can ever acquire an easy and natural use of the nasals and gutturals of "the Bengal language. Send, therefore, old men to take care of "the morals of the young; and send the young to convert the "heathen," pp. 165, 166.

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Of the Hindoos, Mr. Buchanan gives the following opinion.

"Must I say something of the natives? Their general character "is imbecility of body, and imbecility of mind. Their moral powers "are and have been for ages in a profound stupor; and there is "seldom an instance of their being awakened. A partial attempt, "or rather experiment, is now making on them by some Christian "teachers. The Hindoo mind seems at present to be bound by a Satanic spell; and it will require the co-operation of a more "than human power to break it. But Divine co-operation implies "human endeavour. Many ages must then elapse before the con"version of India is accomplished.

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"With respect to moral action, the Hindoos pay as little at"tention to their own religion as a rule of life, as the English do "to theirs. Your profession of the Christian religion is a proverbial "jest throughout the world." p. 177.

A residence in this country adds much to the personal dignity "of the European. Here the labour of a multitude is demanded "for the comfort of one: and it is not so much demanded as volun"tarily given. In no other country can we so well see the ho"mage which matter gives to mind. Generally, however, it is "but the homage which black pays to white. This is the grand argument for keeping the Hindoos in a state of mental depression. The hyperborean Scotchman, broiling under a perpendicular sun, "needs some levamina laborum; and the state of the Hindoo minds "is admirably calculated to take care of our bodies.

"You know the character of the Hindoo superstition. It is "lascivious and bloody. I know no epithet that embraces so much "of it as either of these two. Of the first I shall say nothing: "I shall not pollute the page with a description of their caprine "orgies in the interior of their temples, nor the emblems engraved "on the exterior."" p. 178.

Mr. Buchanan adverts in one of his letters, to the failure of the mission to Otaheite, and expresses his hope that it would not discourage the Missionary Societies.

They have done,' he says, ' no harm; and if they send out their next mission with less carnal éclat, and more Moravian diffidence, they may perhaps do some good. Their chief fault was in the selection of the men. It appears, that most of them were weak, and most of them novices.'

At length, towards the close of the year 1799, the Marquis Wellesley, then Lord Mornington, (on the enlightened policy

and beneficial effects of whose administration, these volumes furnish the most ample illustration,) appointed Mr. Buchanan a third Chaplain to the Presidency, and he immediately entered upon the duties of his office.

In the following year, his Lordship desired Mr. Buchanan to draw out a sketch of the constitution of the college which he was intent upon founding at Fort William, for the instruction of the young civil servants of the company in eastern literature and general learning. Of this college, the Rev. Mr. Brown, as we have had occasion to notice, was appointed Provost, and Mr. Buchanan, Vice-provost. Mr. Pearson gives us an ab- stract of the general reasons upon which the Marquis Wellesley proceeded in the formation of this important institution, as detailed in a minute in council: they reflect the highest honour on his Lordship's sagacity. Lord Wellesley,' writes Mrs. Buchanan to a friend in England, seems inclined to support the Christian religion by every means.'

We now find Mr. B. in a station which rekindled all his ardour, deeply interested his feelings, and demanded his utmost talents and exertions. He now preached at one of the churches in Calcutta once, and sometimes twice, on the Sunday. In his capacity as Vice-provost, with which was united the classical professorship, the superintendence and practical government of the college, principally devolved upon him; besides which, he had to attend to his lectures, an extensive correspondence, and a multiplicity of occasional engagements. His assiduity and diligence were most exemplary; they were prompted by a pure spirit of devotedness to the Gospel, which manifested itself in a constant dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of his own exertions. One thing urges me,' he writes, "to press forward with hope; and that is, that all I hear, and all I say, appears to be so very unlike what it ought to be, that I imagine something better might be attempted.' Perhaps there was a mixture of morbid feeling in this restlestness and dissatisfaction. It is remarkable, that in the midst of his indefatigable labours, he confesses, that he did not know he ever had what Christians call zeal.' I recollect,' he says, 'that I expected it would grow, when I entered the ministry, but I had scarcely entered the ministry, and preached a few times, when I was sent to this country." There, imprisoned in a military station, and fettered by a chaplaincy, he was, indeed, placed in circumstances not favourable to the vigorous expansion of his enthusiasm. But if he had not, what it may seem a paradox to say he had not, the feeling of zeal, in which exertions like his usually originate; if he was not susceptible of that warmth of emotion which makes action pleasureable, communicating such an impulse to the mind, that,

though the mouth be rude in speech, the full heart becomes ♦ vocal, and utters "the word in season ;"' the strength and consistency of his principles, and the noble elevation of his character, were but the more fully evinced by this circumstance,that he had to toil through all his performances with "a languid ' and heartless constitution,' as he himself describes it, both in body and mind, which made him bear easily with all things, and have little pleasure in any thing.' He gave a most amiable proof of the genuine excellence of his character, when in the year 1802, his income being now considerably augmented, be authorized his aged mother to draw upon his agents for three hundred pounds annually, and further, when he remitted to his early patron Mr. H. Thornton, four hundred pounds, as the amount of what he had expended on Mr. Buchanan's account during his residence at college. 'He never expected 'that I should repay him,' he says, but God has put it in 'my power, and therefore it is my duty.' In addition to this sum, he resolved to devote five hundred pounds to the support of a young man at the University, of religious character and good ability, who might be in the circumstances of poverty in which he had once himself been placed. These were traits of a truly Christian generosity of principle.

The extensive institution at Fort William, which reflected so much honour on the enlightened and noble policy of its illustrious founder, had from the first been viewed with jealousy, and even disapprobation, by the Court of Directors. It ap pears that mean suspicions, or at least very inadequate notions, were entertained as to the real object of the institution, although the reasons assigned for its reduction were purely of a financial nature. The plans proposed by the Court, which were to supersede it, were miserably inefficient and impolitic. An attention to the interests of religion and morality, formed no part of them, and, accordingly, the consequence of their being made known among the students at Fort William, was a gradual relaxation in their attendance on Divine service. The signal was considered as given by the order for the abolition of the college, for a return to the old system of relaxed morals and contracting debt;' and thus, what Dr. Buchanan declares to have been the honest purpose of Marquis Wellesley to do ' good in India,' was in a great measure frustrated.

His

We must, however, refer our readers to Mr. Pearson's narrative, for further details on this subject. We must also forbear to enter at large upon Mr. Buchanan's labours to obtain the extension of the ecclesiastical establishment to India. views in earnestly recommending this measure, were, we are convinced, purely patriotic; and the general arguments he made use of, to shew the necessity of conveying spiritual instruc

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tion to the natives, were admirable; 'The toleration of all religions, and the zealous extension of our own,' he remarks, is the way to rule and preserve a conquered kingdom.' If the Scriptures be from God, we do not,' he adds, deserve at his hand to retain possession of this "paradise of nations" a year longer, so greatly have we abused this sacred trust.' "The natives,' he describes as 6 a mixed multitude, who have no common sentiment of truth or falsehood, right or wrong. Every man contradicts his neighbour; and the European tells them they are all right. But as to the necessity of having an Archbishop in India;' as to the Christian policy of placing the mitre on any head,' so long as a mitre was obtained, under the idea that the mitre would itself do good among the Hindoos, and that a spiritual bishop would appear in due time;' as to the advantage, in fact, of any other species of establishment of religion, than the protection of the preachers of the Gospel from the hostility and interference of Christian infidels, we must profess our decided dissatisfaction with Mr. Buchanan's style of reasoning. If he thought, as his biographer deems it probable he did think, that the concurring testimony of history as to the connexion between the profession and establishment of a religion by the governing power in a state, and its progressive influence among the people, was sufficiently known and acknowledged to authorize a general assertion' to that effect, it only shews that on this subject, his views of Christianity partook more of the wisdom of the politician, than of the spirituality of the Gospel.

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Some temporary advantage in respect of the maintenance of outward decency of deportment, would naturally follow the investiture of the Christian ministry with the symbols of secular power; yet not so extensive even in this respect would be the influence of such a measure, as the impressive sanction of private. example in the person of the chief magistrate. Individual zeal and individual piety, would, either by the means, or without the aid, of episcopal authority, produce its genuine effects upon society, but the futility of ecclesiastical schemes, apart from the energies of individual character, have been uniformly manifested, so soon as that scheme has been left to operate by itself as a political engine,-in other words, so soon as the influence of political patronage has begun to supersede the necessity of religious qualifications in the Christian minister. In all the branches of colonial establishments, there is great danger of corruption and abuse creeping in aud vitiating the administration of government, in consequence of that administration being less under the control of public opinion, and because less nicety of selection is generally observed in the appointment of persons to sustain responsible offices. But VOL. VII. N.S.

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