The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward

the next interview he said that if he could possibly step out of himself, and separate his public from his private character, he would at once head the list, but it was considered unadvisable for the head of the Government to appear in such an undertaking. Among his counsellors the most eminent and influential was Mr. Edmonstone, the secretary to Government, but he was not deemed to lie under any such restriction, and put his name down at once for a subscription of thirty pounds. Three years after, the Auxiliary Bible Society was established in Calcutta, and its first meeting was held in the hall of the college of Fort William, a government institution, and a judge of the supreme native court, and a secretary to. Government, were respectively appointed president and vice-president of the Society. The government of Lord Minto was distinguished by its opposition to missionary efforts; and, in the year succeeding the establishment of this Society, placed eight missionaries under a sentence of banishment, of whom only one was enabled to remain in the country. Even in that anti-missionary age, and under that anti-missionary government, all the subordinate members of Government were considered at liberty to assist the progress of Christian truth, as private individuals, and it was only the head of the Government, the representative of the Crown, who was deemed to be debarred from taking any share in it. The principle thus established has been ever since considered as the rule and practice in all questions connected with the diffusion of Christianity. Lord William Bentinck systematically abstained from subscribing to any missionary object while Governor-General, and it was not till he had laid down the government that he sent Dr. Marshman fifty pounds to testify his esteem for the labours of the Serampore missionaries, " as soon as he was at liberty to act in his private capacity." In like manner Lord Dalhousie, while his purse was open to every benevolent object, withheld his subscriptions only from those institutions which were

established with the direct object of proselytism. But neither did Lord William Bentinck nor Lord Dalhousie entrench on the long established liberty of every subordinate officer to encourage the spread of Christianity by his subscriptions as a private citizen, while at the same time every exercise of official influence was strictly interdicted. It is evidently in the spirit of this liberality that the terms of the Proclamation have been selected. If at any future period any attempt should be made to abridge this freedom, and a Christian officer in India should be prohibited from taking the same interest in the baptism of a Hindoo convert which a Mahomedan officer is freely allowed to take in the circumcision of a convert to Islamism, it will be the duty of the people and the parliament of England to interpose their authority, and to prevent so invidious and unjustifiable an innovation.

The Author desires to embrace this opportunity of recording his grateful acknowledgments to the Duke of Portland for having given him access to the papers of Lord William Bentinck, relative to the abolition of suttees, and thereby enabling him to present a more circumstantial notice of that great act of humanity than has yet appeared. He has also been laid under the greatest obligations to Lord Glenelg for access to the valuable papers of the late Mr. Charles Grant. To the late President of the Board of Control, Sir Charles Wood, and to the now extinct Court of Directors, he desires thus publicly to acknowledge his gratitude for the liberty they granted him to consult the records of the India House.

KENSINGTON PALACE GARDENS,

Jan. 25th, 1859.

VOL. I.

JOHN C. MARSHMAN.