God amid the favourite abodes of heathen idolatry, that selfsame voice which, in his days of youthful enthusiasm and ardent undamped fancy, had poured on his delighted ear the lay that sang the sacred theme of the Redeemer's land, amid the long-loved haunts of his alma mater, amid the venerated temples of the religion of our fathers."

At Benares, Bishop Heber found Mr. Morris, the zealous representative of the Church Missionary Society, and Mr. Frazer, the "extremely popular and exemplary" chaplain.

Here he had a busy and happy Sunday, which may be taken At as representative of every one that he spent in the East. six in the morning he took part in the native Christian service, He publicly using the Hindostani language for the first time. held a confirmation service. He then consecrated the Company's new church. In the evening he preached an English sermon to a crowded congregation, and administered the Lord's Supper to sixty communicants, using Hindostani to the fourteen who were natives, and had been confirmed in the morning. Next morning saw him consecrate the cemetery, and then delighting in the Church Missionary Society's school, endowed by Jay Narain Ghosal of Calcutta under remarkable circum

stances, and ever since a prosperous Christian school bearing his name.1

One of these fourteen native Christians had a matrimonial history of peculiar interest, which Heber himself must tell, for it illustrates unconsciously his own far-seeing wisdom, and the need of such a remedy as Sir Henry Maine applied in Act xxi. of 1866.

"The case of one of these men had occasioned me some perplexity the day before, when Mr. Morris stated it to me; but I had now made up my mind. He was a convert of Mr. Corrie's, and six years ago married a woman who then professed herself a Christian, but soon afterwards ran away from him and turned Musalman, in which profession she was now living with another man. The husband had applied to the magistrate to recover her, but, on the woman declaring that she was no Christian, and did not choose to be the wife of one, he said he could not compel her. The husband, in consequence, about two years ago, applied to Mr. Frazer to marry him to another woman. Mr. Frazer declined doing so, as no divorce had taken place, on which he took the woman without marriage, and had now two children by her. For this he had been repelled from the communion by Mr. Morris, but still continued to frequent the church, and was now very anxious for confirmation. After some thought, I came to the con

1 Mr. Hough, in vol. v. of his History of Christianity in India, tells the story of this early representative of the large class of "almost Christian" Hindoos and Musalmans in every grade of society in India, from the highest. Jay Narain Ghosal, having made a fortune in the English service in Bengal, retired to the idol shrines of Benares to end his days. When ill, he applied for medicine to an English merchant, Mr. Wheatley, who also gave him a copy of the New Testament, and sold to him the Book of Common Prayer, in explaining both of which he passed much time with him. With the medicine he told the patient to pray to the God revealed in the books. Jay Narain recovered, and asked what he could do for the name of Jesus Christ. The answer was found a school in which your countrymen may be taught the Name and the Way, in English and Persian, Bengali and Hindi. Wheatley having failed in business, became the first teacher, and Jay Narain and his family the first pupils. On the good teacher's death and the refusal of Government to superintend a Christian school, Corrie advised him to try the British and Foreign Bible Society. Perseveringly did Jay Narain pray that Corrie himself might be sent as chaplain to Benares, and when this happened all was well. The Church Missionary Society accepted the endowment of 40,000 rupees, besides the school premises and house for two missionaries, in the year 1818; and when the founder died, a Christian, but not baptized, his son followed in his steps. Jay Narain's school is under their missionary, Rev. B. Davis, at present,

clusion that the man should be reproved for the precipitancy with which he had formed his first connection, and the scandal which he had since occasioned, but that he might be admitted both to confirmation and the communion, and might be married to the woman who now held the place of a wife to him. It seemed a case to which St. Paul's rule applied, that if an unbelieving husband or wife chose to depart, on religious grounds, from their believing partner, this latter was, in consequence, free. At all events, as the runaway woman was, if a wife, living in open adultery, it was plain that he had a right to 'put her away.' Though the laws of the country provided him no remedy, yet, as a matter of conscience, this right might be fitly determined on by his religious guides; and I conceived myself warranted to declare him divorced and at liberty to marry again. My determination, I found, gave great satisfaction to Mr. Frazer and Mr. Morris, both of whom said that without some such permission the state of new converts would be often very hard, and that the usual remedies supplied by the canon law would be, to men in such circumstances, utterly unattainable.

"God,' I yet hope and believe, in the midst of the awful and besotted darkness which surrounds me, and of which, as well as its miserable consequences, I am now more sensible than ever, 'God may have much people in this city!""

At Chunar, Heber confirmed more than a hundred in the large church, Corrie reporting "we beheld more than had previously been told us," Bowley and Greenwood being the missionaries. There was found Sir G. Martindell, commanding the division, a fine old soldier, with an experience scarcely shorter than that of Mr. Brooke. Returning to his boats, which were finally dismissed at Allahabad, Heber enjoyed for the last time the quiet of the great river and the daily walks on its banks. His companion, Mr. James Lushington, who discharged the duties of chancellor of the diocese for a time, thus, in a journal long after made public by his mother, pictures the impression made by Reginald Heber :

"September 1824.

"Hume says that admiration and acquaintance are incompatible towards any human being; but the more I know of the Bishop the more I esteem and revere him,

'cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas Quantum vere novo viridis se surrigit alnus.'

Р

He seems born to conciliate all parties, and to overcome what has before appeared impossible. Most great talkers are sometimes guilty of talking absurdities; but, though scarcely an hour silent during the day, I have never heard him utter a word which I could wish recalled."

"FUTTEHPOOR.

"In coming through a brook of water running across the road, the Bishop's horse thought proper to lie down and give him a roll; with his usual kindness, instead of kicking him till he got up again, he only patted him, and said, 'he was a nice fellow.'"

To that civilian's cousin, Mr. Charles Lushington, Heber, writing of the considerable number of native and the large number of European Christians independent of the army,

ROUMI DURWAZA AND IMAMBARA, LUCKNOW

exclaimed, "Not Westmoreland, before the battle of Agincourt, wished with greater earnestness for more men from England than I do." "I am often obliged to be bishop, chaplain, and curate all in one; and in India, though there may be pluralities, there is verily no sinecure." That is significant language from a man who, all his life, worked harder than most two men together. Already he had delayed longer on his tour than he had planned. Hurrying on to Allahabad, where, as there was no chaplain, he promised the residents a Church missionary, and then to Cawnpore, without rest, he passed into the then independent kingdom of Oudh, and reached Lucknow under an escort sent

by Mr. Ricketts, the Resident. During ten days in that Sheea'h Musalman city he was treated by the King with all honour, for which the Governor-General afterwards officially thanked his Majesty, and he sat for his portrait four times to Mr. Home "A very good artist indeed for a king of Oudh to have got hold of; he is a quiet, gentlemanly old man, brother of the celebrated surgeon in London. Mr. Home would have been a distinguished painter had he remained in Europe." He addressed a valuable letter to Lord Amherst as to the state of Oudh, and also of the Company's administration so far. In this passage, as in many others in his letters, he shows the political acuteness and impartiality of one who had travelled far and observed much :

66 Through the Company's territories what have perhaps struck me most forcibly are the great moderation and general ability with which the different civil functionaries apparently perform their arduous duties, and the uniform good order and obedience to the laws which are enforced through so vast a tract of country, amid a warlike, an armed, and, I do not think, a very well-affected population. The unfavourable circumstances appear to be the total want of honourable employment for the energies and ambition of the higher rank of natives, and the extreme numerical insufficiency of the establishment allowed by the Company for the administration of justice, the collection of revenue, and, I am almost tempted to say, the permanent security and internal defence of their empire.

"On the whole I have hitherto been greatly pleased with my journey, so much so that I have frequently regretted the pressure of public business, which seems to render it unlikely that your Lordship will be enabled to undertake a similar tour, through provinces of which, to judge by my own experience, it is almost as difficult to obtain an accurate idea in Calcutta as in London. It is not merely on account of the personal gratification and amusement which you would derive from such a journey, for I know that, let a governor of India go where he will, it is probably that care will climb the Soonamooky 2 and sit behind the howdah. Nor

1 Home painted William Carey's portrait. In 1794 he published his Select Views in Mysore, the country of Tippoo Sultan, from drawings taken on the spot, with historical descriptions (published by Mr. Bowyer).

2 The name of the Governor-General's pinnace.