was superintended by Lieut. Colonel Colebrooke, and the
Hindostanee by William Hunter, Esq. The Gospels were
translated into the Malay by Thomas Jarrett, Esq. of the
civil service.

Of these and other translations of the Scriptures then pro-
jected and undertaken, only a very inconsiderable part was
executed at the public expense. The sole charge incurred
by the college in the department of sacred translation, was
for the Gospel of St. Matthew in Persian and Hindostanee ;
with this exception, the extensive Biblical works successive-
ly announced from this institution were carried on at the pri-

^ See his " Apology for promoting Christianity in India," p. 102.

^ See the "Christian Researches," introduct. p. 7. li. k T. Kite's edition



2(6 MEMOIRS OF

vate expense of those members of the college, amongst whom
the Provost and Vice-Provost held the first rank, and others
who deemed it to be of the highest importance to promote
the diffusion of sacred literature in Asia.

A second occurrence in this year marked an improved
state of moral feeling in Calcutta, and particularly illus-
trates the salutary influence of the college of Fort William.
It is thus mentioned by Mr. Buchanan in a letter to Major
Sandys, in the month of August.

«* The institution of a civil fund for widows and orplians
*< agitates this service at present. The old gentlemen wish
« to include black illegitimate children. The junior ser-
<« vants who are now or have been in college, almost with one
<( voice exclaim against a measure which they conceive
<* would have a tendency to sanction vice, and to countenance
" an illicit connection with native women. The question is
<« now referred to the vote of every individual in the ser-
<« vice. In the mean time, one of my old scholars has writ-
*< ten a letter to the service ; in which he complains of their
<* violation of the divine law, and requests them to revert to
<< the principles of honour and chastity. Mr. M. is in the
*< Governor General's office, and is supported by the young
<< school, by all the college, by the Governor General, and
<< by all the friends of revealed religion. Caricatura prints,
<* exhibiting the mover of the subject, with a black child in
" his arms, pleading its cause in full assembly, while a black
« dye behind urges him forward ; and various other devices
" mark the popular question, and promise to brand the im-
« moral practice. It is said, that the affliction and shame of
<« the old service are extreme ; and that they execrate the
" the college and its fruits, and hope that the Court of Di-
« rectors will now see, how unfriendly it is to ancient insti-
« tutions !

« What the result as to the fund will be, I know not."

This, however, Mr. Buchanan stated to the public in the
following year, in some remarks on the college of Fort Wil-
liama. <* The contest," he observes, " was maintained for a

» See " The college of Fort William," p. 163.



DR. BUCHANAN. 217

♦< considerable time, by printed correspondence, and tljc
*< fund was at length established without the opprobrious
« clause. But a few years ago," adds Mr. Buchanan, " any
" man who should have ventured to resist sucli a measure on
<^ the ground of religious or moral propriety, would have be-
<< come the jest of the whole service. He must be an entire
♦< stranger to what is passing in Bengal, wlio does not per-
^^ ceive that the college of Fort William is sensibly promo-
^< ting an amelioration of the European character, as well as
" the civilization of India."

The activity of Mr. Buchanan's mind respecting objects
which he deemed important to the interests of morals and
religion, may be collected, not only from the preceding cir-
cumstances, but from various hints in his correspondence
and diary.

Thus at the close of the letter from which the foregoing
extract was made, he says, " I have always some plans re-
»« lating to church or college in his Excellency's hands ; and
** generally in arrear. But when he does take them np, it
" is with the proper attention." A memorandum also oc-
curs in the same year, in which Mr. Buchanan notices a
consultation wliich he had lately held with Sir George Bar-
low on a public thanksgiving, probably on account of the
victorious termination of the Mahratta war, on the subject
of a cenotaph for those who had fallen in battle, and respect-
ing an order for the better observance of the Sunday.

Amidst his various labours, however, the domestic trial,
with which Mr. Buchanan had been already exercised, was
renewed by the reappearance, early in the summer of this
year, of alarming consumptive symptoms in Mrs. Buchanan.
In the course of the autumn she became so ill, that her life
was for a short time despaired of; and on her partial recove-
ry, being strongly urged to proceed a second time to Eu-
rope, she at length very reluctantly consented.

Preparations were accordingly made for this purpose, and
in October Mr. Buchanan briefly mentions in his diary, that
he had been on boarji the Lady Jane Dundas to look at Mrs.
B's cabin. She did not, however, leave Calcutta till the



^18 MEMOIRS OF

2!^d of January following, when Mr. Buchanan accompanied
her and her youngest daughter to the ship at Kedgeree ;
and on the 25th the fleet sailed for Madras, leaving him
once more to return to a solitary home, full of tender but
melancholy musings ; hoping almost <* against hope," for
some favourable effect from her voyage, but rather endea-
vouring to prepare his mind for a contrary result. His me-
moranda testify the warmth of affection with which he again
followed Mrs. Buchanan, by frequent notices of the letters
which he wrote to her weekly, and sometimes almost daily,
and of which it is much to be regretted that not a vestige
remains.

It was at the anxious period, which immediately preceded
her departure from India, that Mr. Buchanan resolved to
employ a part of the very limited leisure which his ministe-
rial and collegiate duties allowed, to prepare a work which
had long been the subject of his thoughts, and the impor-
tance of which is now universally acknowledged. This was
what he afterwards entitled, ** A Memoir of the Expediency
*< of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India."

During the century in which they had been gradually ac-
quiring their oriental empire, the East India Company, in-
tent on the pursuits of commerce and ambition, and con-
tending frequently not merely for aggrandizement but for
existence, were but little at leisure to attend to the moral
and religious claims even of their own servants ; much less
to consider those of their native subjects to any thing be-
yond general protection, and the administration of justice;
and even to these, till of late years, but partially and imper-
fectly. Some provision, but of a very scanty and inade-
quate kind, was made for the supply of the spiritual wants
of their European servants, by the establishment of a few
chaplains at each of the three Presidencies ; the number of
whom was gradually increased as the Company progressive-
ly extended its Indian territories.

To those who from principles of infidelity, whether spe-
culative or practical, or from the absorbing influence of
worldly pursuits, were disposed to treat religion as a subor-



DR. BUCHANAN. gig

(linate concern, to consider the most distant and transient
attention to it as amply fulfilling its demands, and who in
the acquisition or consolidation of power amidst the half-
civilized votaries of idolatry and imposture, were tremhling-
ly alive to tlie danger of offending or alarming them, hy the
too prominent profession of a purer faitli, it may he easily
imagined, that the ecclesiastical appointments in India were
deemed sufficiently numerous and effective. But to the eye
of Christian observation, and even of enlightened policy,
they had long been considered unworthy of our public pro-
fession as a Protestant and religious empire, inadequate to
the necessities of the European population, and inconsistent
both with our interest and our duty as the almost undispu-
ted sovereigns of India. The immense distance which sepa-
rates Great Britain and Hindostan, the comparatively small
number of those who are either acquainted with Indian af-
fairs, or interested in their management, the peculiar na-
ture of their direction by a commercial Company, and the
lateness of the period at which they assumed the aspect of
political and territorial importance, all tended to involve the
religious consideration of India in obscurity and neglect.
The providence of God had, however, within the space of a
few years, not only given to Great Britain a decided predo-
minance over every other European nation, but by the ex-
tinction of the Mohammedan, and the subjection of the Mah-
ratta power, had in fact bestowed upon us the empire of In-
dia. An enlarged attention to the religious welfare of an
augmented body of European servants, and to the political
and moral improvement of fifty millions of native subjects,
w^as one of the necessary consequences of our Indian sove-
reignty — a result, however, which those whose views arc
principally directed to political aggrandizement, would, for
the reasons already assigned, be naturally slow to perceive
and acknowledge ; but which the Christian patriot aad philo-
sopher would be eager to anticipate and assert. It cannot,
therefore be a matter of surprise, that a subject so important
in itself, and so intimately connected with his own profes-
sion and local situation, should have early occurred to the



25SO MEMOIRS OF

mind oi' such a diligent and wakeful observer as Mr. Bu-
chanan. The design of his "Memoir" was indeed, as he
afterwards declared, first suggested to him by the late ex-
cellent Bishop Porteus ;a who liad, he said, " attentively
** surveyed the state of our dominions in Asia," and had ex-
pressed his <* conviction of the indispensable necessity of an
<* ecclesiastical establishment for our Indian empire." He
was encouraged also, as he added, <* by subsequent commu-
" nications with Marquis Wellesley, to endeaA'our to lead
•• the attention of the nation to this subject." The manu-
script of this work was transmitted to England in the spring,
and published in the autumn of the year 1805.

Before we proceed, however, with the consideration of his
•< Memoir," it will be proper to recur to the prizes proposed
by Mr. Buchanan to the Universities, and some of the pub-
lic schools, of the United Kingdom. They were accepted
in the summer of 1804, by the several bodies to which they
were offered, with the exception of the University of Oxford:
by which they were declined, on the ground of certain objec-
tions in point of form. The prize compositions were direc-
ted to be delivered to the respective judges towards the end
of the year ; and early in the following spring, the prizes
were awarded to the successful candidates. Of the compo-
sitions which were thus honoured, the greater number were
afterwards published, as well as a few others, which had
proved unsuccessful. In the University of Cambridge, the
prize for the Greek ode was adjudged to Mr. Pry me, of
Trinity college ; and at Eton to Mr. Rennell, afterwards
Fellow of King's college. At the same distinguished school
Mr. Richards obtained the prize for the best Latin verses on
the College of Fort William.

In Scotland, three Latin poems were also published, by
Mr. Mac Arthur, Mr. Adamson, and Dr. Brown, of which
liie two former were thought worthy of the prize by the
Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen. The composition,

* See his "Christian Researches," p. 144, and the first Dedication of his " Me-
moir," p. iv.



DR. BUCHANAN. 231

however, which reflected the highest lionour on its author,
and on the occasion which called it forth, was the English
poem on *• the restoration of learning in the East," hy
Charles Grant, Esq. then Fellow of Magdalen college, Cam-
hridge. The poetical talents, the classical and oriental
learning, the elevated sentiments, and the rich and varied
command of language, displayed in this prize composition,
attracted general admiration ; and tended materially to pro-
mote the design which the proposer of the subject had in
view, by directing the public attention to the revival of
learning on the banks of the Ganges, and by exciting it to
the duty and the privilege of improving the condition of the
degraded natives of Hindostan, and of spreading throughout
our oriental empire the blessings of literature and religion.
A second poem on this subject was published at the request
of the examiners, by the Rev. Francis Wrangham, of Trin-
ity College.

Essays on ^« the best means of civilizing the subjects of
<* the British empire in India, and of diffusing the light of
" the Christian religion throughout the eastern world,"
were published by the Rev. William Cockburn, Fellow
of St. John's College, and Christian Advocate in the Uni-
versity of Cambridge, to whom the prize was assigned ;
by Mr. Wrangham, who with laudable zeal engaged in the
prose as well as in the poetical competition ; by Dr. Ten-
nant, then lately returned as a military chaplain from
India ; and by Messrs. Mitchell and Bryce, to whom the
prize was respectively adjudged by the Universities of
Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen.

These essays were, with one exception, the production of
studious and speculative men, whose attention was probably
first directed to the subject by Mr. Buchanan's proposal to
the learned bodies of which they were members. Whilst it
could scarcely, therefore, be expected that they should sug-
gest any detailed practical arrangements for the civilization
and instruction of the natives of Hindostan, they exhibited
considerable historical and political research, together with
enlightened and benevolent views of the duty of Great



222 MEMOIRS OF

Britain to promote the important objects submitted to their
discussion, and concurred in recommending the adoption of*
certain direct means for diffusing the blessings of Christ-
ianity in India. They possessed the additional merit of con-
tributing to bring before the public inquiries tending to
ameliorate the moral and religious condition of our oriental
empire.

The utility of the labours of missionaries, and the estab-
lishment of schools, was recognized by several of the writers
last mentioned. The consideration, however, of an ecclesi-
astical establishment was reserved for Mr. Buchanan him-
/ self; whose « Memoir" upon that subject was intended to
1 point out the expediency of such a measure, <* both as the
" means of perpetuating the Christian religion among our
<« own countrymen, and as a foundation for the ultimate
<* civilization of the natives."

After tlie extensive circulation of the work itself, and the
ample discussion of its subject, which we have witnessed ;
more especially after the ecclesiastical appointments which
have lately taken place, and which must be attributed chiefly
to the original proposal and the persevering efforts of Mr.
Buchanan, it will not now be necessary to enter much at
large into the statements and reasonings of his able and in-
teresting Memoir. It will be sufficient to observe, that the
first part of it exhited the very inadequate state of the cleri-
cal establishment in India at that period, for the great pur-
poses of the instruction and religious communion of our resi-
dent countrymen. Upon this point, the facts and arguments
adduced by Mr. Buchanan were conclusive as to the obliga-
tion and the policy of a more suitable provision for the due
performance of the ordinances of the established religion.

In the second part, he supposed such an establishment to
have been given to India, and proceeded to consider the re-
sult with respect to the civilization of the natives. After
describing in just and forcible terms their actual condition —
the pride, immorality, and bigotry of the Mohammedans, and
tlie vices, enormities, and barbarities of Hindoo superstition
and idolatry, Mr. Buchanan discussed at some length the



DR. BUCHANAN. 2^3

practicability and the policy of attempting to civilize and
improve them. In this part of his work he exhibited tlie
character of the Hindoos in a different point of view from
that in which they had been generally regarded. He as-
serted that their apathy is extreme,, and that no efforts to
instruct them, except such as partook of a compulsory
nature, ought to be considered as attended with danger to
the British government; that their prejudices are daily
weakening in every European settlement; that they are a
divided people; that they are less tenacious of opinion than
of custom ; and that to iHsseminate new principles among
them is by no means so difficult as it is frequently repre-
sented.

In support of the policy of the measure which he proposed,
the arguments of Mr. Buchanan were irresistible. The
sin,^le consideration, that the attachment of a people separa-
ted from their governors by a variety of moral and physical
distinctions, without any mutual bond of union, must neces-
sarily be precarious, and that such a connecting link can
only be afforded by means of our religion, is a sufficient
proof of this point. In obviating objections founded on the
supposed impolicy of civilizing our Indian subjects, Mr. Bu-
chanan, however, advanced to higher ground.

*< The progressive civilization of India," he observes,
<* will never injure the interests of the East India Company.
'^ But shall a Christian people, acknowledging a Providence
<'in the rise and fall of empire, regulate the policy of future
<< times, and neglect a present duty, a solemn and imperious
« duty, exacted by their religion, by their public principles,
«» and by the opinion of the Christian nations around them ?
^( Or can it be gratifying to the English nation to reflect,
" that they receive the riclies of the East on the terms
*< of chartering immoral superstition ?" Memoir, p. 40.

The appeal was unanswerable, and produced a correspon-
ding impression upon the public mind.

The third part of Mr. Buchanan's Memoir strongly con-
firmed his arguments as to the practicability of his proposed
plan, by a view of the progress already made in civilizing



224i MEMOIRS OF

the nations ot* Hindostan. Many interesting facts were here
stated relative to the existence of Christianity in India from
the earliest ages, and particularly respecting the native
Christians on the coast of Malabar, who, notwithstanding
the accounts given of tbem by a few learned men, were now
for the first time prominently introduced to the knowledge
of the English public. The labours of the Danisli mis-
sionaries Ziegenbalg, and Grundler, and of the apostolic
Swartz, were also commemorated ; and the laudable and
truly Christian addresses of King George the First and
Archbisliop Wake to the former excellent men, were exhibit-
ed as models of imitation to political and ecclesiastical go-
vernors of the present day.

The Memoir itself was with great propriety, and in a
strain of dignified and impressive eloquence, dedicated to
his Grace the late Archbishop of Canterbury, having been
transmitted to this country before the death of that most
Reverend Prelate was known in Bengal.

An appendix to the Memoir contained a variety of impor-
tant information on the superstitions of the Hindoos, tending
powerfully to correct the erroneous opinion so commonly en-
tertained of them at this period, as a mild, humane, and in-
offensive race.

In advocating the expediency of an ecclesiastical estab-
lishment as a foundation for the ultimate civilization of the
natives of India, Mr. Buchanan did not state at length the
re^isonings upon which he grounded his expectation of that
important result.

" No immediate effect," he observes, <* is to be expected
'f from it in the way of revolution ; but it may be demonstra-
« ted by a deduction from facts, that the most beneficial con-
** sequences will follow in the way of ordinary effect from an
<* adequate cause." P. 21.

A detailed view of the intermediate steps between the
cause and its supposed consequences would, doubtless, as it
was afterwards suggested, have been a desirable addition to
the arg'uments of his Memoir. Mr. Buchanan, however,
probably thought, that the concurring testimony of history



DR. BUCHANAN. gg^

as to the connection between the profession and establish-
ment of a religion by the governing power in a state, and its
progressive influence among tlie people, was sufficiently
known and acknowledged to authorize the general assertion
just quoted; and it was not, perhaps, absolutely necessary
to the conclusiveness of his proofs as to the expediency of an
ecclesiastical establishment in India for both the important
purposes stated in his Memoir.

Such was briefly the nature of the novel and interesting
work which Mr. Buchanan transmitted to England in the
year 180.^, for publication. It was calculated, from the pe-
culiar subjects of which it treated, to excite general atten-
tion, and to provoke both discussion and animadversion. The
consideration, however, of its reception and eff*ect, must be
suspended, while we revert to the intermediate course of
this narrative.

It had long been an object of anxiety to the superinten-
dants of the college of Fort William to obtain a version of
the Scriptures in the Chinese language. After many fruit-
less inquiries, they in this year succeeded in procuring the
assistance of Mr. Lassar, a native of China, and an Arme-
nian Christian, whose name is now well known as a learned
professor of that language. Mr. Lassar arrived at Calcutta
in a commercial capacity; and having met with some diffi-
culties, he became known to Mr. Buchanan, who, apprecia-
ting his talents, generously liberated him from his embar-
rassments, and engaged him at a stipend of three hundred
rupees per month to devote himself to tlie translation of the
Scriptures, and to the instruction of a Chinese class, formed
of one of the elder, and three of the junior members of the
missionary establishment at Serampore. The expected re-
duction of the college rendering it inexpedient that Mr.
Lassar should be attached to that institution, this stipend
was afforded for about three years at the sole expense of
Mr. Buchanan. To his liberality, therefore,a must be chiefly

* See the "Christian Researches," p. 13; Christian Observer for 1S09. P- 601 ;
and Dr. M:*rshm?^n's Clavis Sinica, Preface, p. ii.

F 2



2S6 MEMOIRS OF

ascribed the progress which has been made in tliat quarter
towards supplying the vast empire of China with a transla
tion of the sacred volume into its own extraordinary lan-
guage.

The name of Mr. Buchanan appears in the year 1805 in
the list of members of the Asiatic Society. He had proba-
bly been elected previously to that period ; and if he did not
contribute to tlie curious and valuable *< Researches" of that
learned body, it was not so much from any want of interest
in their labours, as from the pressure of his various em-
ployments, which allowed him only to devote his leisure to
inquiries which were exclusively of an ecclesiastical and re-
ligious nature.

Two letters to one of his friends in this year contain proofs
of the paternal anxiety with which Mr. Buchanan watched
over the progress of the students of Fort William. The
weekly reports of the different professors as to the profi-
ciency of their classes were delivered to him every Satur-
day. Their representations, whether favourable or other-
wise, were by him communicated to the college council, and
ultimately, through them, or himself as their organ, to the
Governor General. Mr. Buchanan mentions several in-
stances of the beneficial effects of this watchful superintend-
ence in stimulating even those who would otherwise have
remained incorrigibly indolent to diligence and exertion. In
a few cases, the discipline which had been originally an-
nounced was firmly and impartially enforced ; sometimes, but
very rarely, by absolute removal from college, and the con-
sequent loss of promotion in the service ; at others, by the
kind intervention of Mr. Buchanan with the Governor Gen-
eral, in cases which admitted of apology or excuse, by per
mission to retire, and an appointment which sufficiently
marked the circumstances of inferiority in Vv^hich the neg
lect of college duties had issued. Upon one such occasion