But I have no wish to plague you any further with my vindication. You, I am sure, will acquit me of intentional disrespect towards any body, particularly a Society which has done so much good to the best of all causes.

The affairs of the sister Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, have occupied a good deal of my time and thoughts. Bishop's College, besides costing two or three times as much in its building as it was first calculated it would, has turned out so expensive in the monthly bills and necessary keep of its inmates, that all the resources I found were quite inadequate to finish the Chapel, build the printing-house, or do more than keep the wolf from the door. Nor would they have sufficed even for this last object, had it not been for the munificent supplies which for these three years we have received from the Church Missionary Society, and for the large subscriptions and benefactions which we have, within the last eight months, obtained from different parts of India. For the present, the institution is doing very well, and I have great reason to be pleased with the manner in which it is conducted by Mr. Mill, the principal, who is one of the best and ablest, as he is decidedly the most learned man in India.

Archdeacon Barnes is every way a great loss; sensible, unaffected, and friendly, exceedingly well

acquainted with the business and interest of the Church in his Archdeaconry, and popular with all ranks of people there. Should any thing happen to me, there is nobody whom I should so gladly look to as my successor; but if he has to wait for the expiration of my term, he will probably think twice, even if the situation were offered him, before, at fifty years old, he again goes out to India. In spite, however, of these labours and drawbacks, and in spite of the far heavier and more painful circumstance of separation from home, and my oldest and dearest friends, I should be extremely ungrateful if I did not speak well of India, and acknowledge myself happy in my present situation.

The circumstance which I have felt most painfully, was my long separation from my wife and children; a measure, however, which my subsequent experience of some of the countries which I had to pass through, sufficiently shewed to have been no unnecessary sacrifice. In Madras, whither I am going the latter end of next month, I yet hope that they may accompany me, but I am not certain, as it must depend on information which I am collecting. Mrs. Middleton made the journey, and though I am compelled to go at a later period of the season, and in hotter weather, I have no doubt that Emily might go with perfect safety. But for the children I am not without apprehensions. At all events my separation from them will, I trust, be far shorter than the last; nor,

though I hear much of the beauty of the south of Malabar, and look forward with great interest to seeing the Syrian Christians, can I think that Emily will lose so much of glorious prospect and romantic manners, as she did by not accompanying me up the crags of Almorah, and among the wild and warlike tribes of Malwah. Bombay and Ceylon we saw together, and she, as well as I, was greatly delighted with both, particularly the natural beauties of the latter. The former was rendered particularly interesting to us from the renewal of my old acquaintance with Archdeacon Barnes, and from the terms of intimacy on which we lived with Mr. Elphinstone, the most remarkable man in India for talents, acquirements, undeviating good nature and flow of conversation. We were his guests for almost three months, and I found something fresh to admire or like in him every day. Every body in India does him justice, as an excellent man of business, a "grand homme d'etat et de guerre," a conqueror and a legislator.

Ceylon is a noble island in all natural riches, but I have seldom seen a country for which man has done so little. The present governor, Sir Edward Barnes, is an able and active man, whose measures seem to have been well directed for the interest of the people, and he has certainly done much for Ceylon.

Emily and I have gained much in our Calcutta society by the appointments of Sir Charles Grey

and Lord Combermere. Grey is looking extremely well, and very little altered from what he was in England; he is very popular here; so is also Lord Combermere, from his constant accessibility, and close attention to business, as well as by his goodnatured and cordial manners. He is now, I apprehend, engaged in the siege of Bhurtpoor, unless the usurper of that little state has submitted without coming to blows. If the war really goes on, and the city falls, Lord Combermere will add greatly to his own reputation and that of the English name, inasmuch as Bhurtpoor is the only fortress, and the Jâts the only people in India, who boast that they have never been subdued either by the Mogul Emperors or the English, having, as you are aware, beaten off Lord Lake with great loss, in many successive campaigns. I did not see the city, except at a distance, but passed through the country, and was very hospitably and civilly treated. I thought them a very fine military race, and their territory one of the best governed in the north.

The army under Lord Combermere is considerable, amounting to near 25,000 men, with a fine train of artillery; there are only, however, about 3000 of these Europeans. Should he fail, it is unhappily but too true, that all northern and western India, every man who owns a sword, and can buy or steal a horse, from the Sutlege to the Nerbudda, will be up against us, less from disliking us than in the hope of booty. And still more unfortunately, it is not easy to say where another army can be found to meet them, now that

Bombay is fully occupied on the side of Sindia, and all the strength of British India in Ava. From Ava and Arracan the news continues to be bad; it is but too certain that our army is melting away with sickness, to which natives and Europeans appear equally liable; and there are various rumours as usual in Calcutta yet more gloomy.

With Emily's best love and good wishes, and my own daily prayers for your happiness, and if it pleases God, our prosperous meeting again, believe me, dear Heber,

Ever your affectionate brother,

REGINALD CALCUTTA.

The steam-boat, long promised, is at length arrived, after nearly a four months' passage. People say this is very well for a beginning, but unless she quickens her pace, most of us will, I think, prefer the old conveyances. We often wish it were possible for you to pay us a visit here. If you were not fully engaged, India is really well worth seeing.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD GRENVILLE.

MY LORD,

Calcutta, Dec. 24, 1825.

I have much pleasure in being enabled to forward to your Lordship, by the H. C. S. Minerva, what will I hope turn out a good collection of the