CHAPTER XXI.

SOCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH NATIVES IN CALCUTTA-VISIT TO PÁTSHALÍSBUSINESS IN THE UNIVERSITY-LETTERS-DEPARTURE FOR ASSAMJOURNALS AND LETTERS-RETURN TO KOOSHTEA-THE BISHOP'S CONSECRATION OF A CEMETERY-RETURN ΤΟ THE RIVER-UNPROTECTED CAUSEWAY-HIS FATAL FALL.

THE hot months of the year glided away peacefully and happily, though the few inmates of Bishop's Palace were unusually parched by the heat of May and June. The rains of July refreshed them somewhat, and the Bishop remained well in health, and found in constant work the best antidote to the relaxing effects of another hot season in the plains. There was the usual pleasant intercourse with the social circle in Calcutta, which he always liked to maintain, both from principle and inclination. An attempt was made to extend friendly hospitality beyond the limits of European society, by two soirées given, the one at the palace, the other at the house of a Church Missionary Society's missionary, to several of the leading Hindus in Calcutta. No Eastern ladies were present. One of the guests, who was a Christian, remarked, speaking for himself and some members of his family, also converts, 'I wish we could get our ladies to come with us.' There are cases in which habit and national custom continue to assert, even after the adoption of Christianity, a singular power, and the freedom of the Christian religion seems almost to increase the reluctance to emerge from Eastern seclusion. It is a feeling which commands respect and sympathy in days when the tendency is rather to encourage a rending

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INTERCOURSE WITH NATIVES.

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of the veil between the Eastern woman and the outside world, although, as yet, the safeguards either of Christianity or of education to fit her for the glare of a less restrained existence are few and slender. In spite of the absence of ladies, however, the evenings passed very pleasantly. The native gentlemen expressed a gratification, which their English hosts fully reciprocated; and the Bishop was well pleased to find in pleasant conversation and fruit ice a neutral ground on which educated men of different races and religions could meet under a private roof and exchange the courtesies of civilised life.

In July a day was spent with some wealthy Bengali landholders. Two brothers were doing good among their countrymen and dependents by the establishment of schools, reading-rooms, and a dispensary. Unfortunately, the lustre of their philanthropy was dimmed by the feuds which, after the manner of too many Bengalis, had divided the brothers and their families; the wealth which was so well spent in one direction sufficing also for interminable lawsuits. On account of some disclosures on this head, the Bishop had grave doubts about the propriety of visiting the place, and the only argument that weighed against his scruples was one that has unhappily too often to be urged in India, that those on whom a cloud rested were not worse than the average of their countrymen, whether educated or not. So the visit was paid, and was ostensibly to mark appreciation of public-spirited undertakings carried out on a very liberal scale. Something besides English literature is needed to regenerate a nation,' was the journal comment on an expedition which was full of interest and presented no drawbacks beyond regret over some inconsistencies in the life of real benefactors of their countrymen.

With a satisfaction wholly unqualified, the Bishop spent another day with the Rev. J. Long, of the Church

Missionary Society, among his Pátshálas in a missionary district a few miles out of Calcutta. The Pátshálas are the original and indigenous village schools of India, reaching back to unknown antiquity; and when left only in the hands of the gurus or teachers, they are miserably neglected or mistaught, the scholars sometimes being unable even to read. In some places Government, in others the Vernacular Education Society, takes them in hand, places a circle of them under the charge of an inspector (in the latter case, a native Christian superintended by a missionary), and establishes at once the system of payment to the guru by results.' In the Society's schools the inspector also introduces some elementary Christian teaching. A number of these gurus, 'much brushed up by contact with Long and his Christians,' had gathered at Thakerpukur to meet the Bishop, and in return he went with them round about the district, penetrating through damp jungle, and crossing nullahs or brooks, to reach some schools situated among the low lands that are almost a swamp in the rainy season. was very much pleased with what he saw. The schools proved on examination to be quite as good as an average English village school, were thoroughly native in idea and appearance, and yet had received a most successful infusion of a Western and Christian element.

He

The Bishop took as usual his full share in the affairs of the University. One important piece of business before the governing body was connected with the munificent gift of two lakhs of rupees (20,000l.) from Premchund Roychund, a great Bombay millionaire. The disposal of the money raised a sharp contest, and the old professorship controversy of 1862 was revived. Many of the opponents of the proposed scheme were, as before, strongly in favour of the principle involved in Government education; and even those who might allow that

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the idea of University professorships was right in theory, still maintained that it would be premature to attempt such a sweeping change in the system of higher education. In their view, the University, though a great success, could in no sense be said to have as yet become an indigenous institution, for no colleges had as yet been founded by natives, and missionary colleges could not be considered permanent institutions, when a large proportion of home supporters still objected on principle to expending the funds on education instead of more directly evangelistic work. The Bishop again supported the professorship movement, both in the Syndicate and in the Senate, but in vain; and he had only the consolation of seeing the success of another plan suggested by himself, but only as a pis aller, for founding certain annuities in the nature of fellowships, to be called Premchund Roychund Studentships, and contended for by Masters of Arts in an examination equal in pretensions to one for Oriel or Trinity fellowships.

This year also witnessed the final arrangements for the memorial to Dr. Duff. The subscriptions were handed over to the University to found scholarships. The form which the memorial thus took was by no means that which the Bishop and many others had desired, and was a very disappointing substitute for the hall which had been originally proposed. In such a public hall, in the native quarter of the city, for meetings, lectures, conversaziones, all serving as links between the educated and intelligent of Eastern and Western races, many of Dr. Duff's friends had seen the fittest symbol of his life's work, and the most suitable memorial of the leading position he had held in native education. A letter of the Bishop's in 1863 will have served to indicate the difficulties which from the first embarrassed the scheme for a hall. It was taken up again, and pushed forward warmly in 1864, when

he and many others amongst its supporters doubled their subscriptions. But stiffness of views among Europeans, and Bengali lukewarmness when a testimony of respect and honour is to pass from words into deeds, divided the counsels, and crippled the funds. The committee found themselves eventually compelled to accept a compromise, and to fall back on the foundation of University scholarships, useful in themselves, but very inferior as a memorial to the projected hall.

The few letters annexed find their right place here :

To his Son.

Bishop's Palace, April 5, 1866. We were very glad indeed to get your first brief sketch of Woolwich, and much interested by it. I quite appreciate the self-satisfaction with which you say you strut about in your uniform.' When the right of wearing it has been gained wholly by yourself, and not by my making interest with military magnates of my acquaintance to get you a commission in the Line, a little pleasure in the new costume is perfectly legitimate. I remember the intense satisfaction with which I began to exercise any small privileges when I was elected Fellow at Trinity: my delight in using the College plate when entertaining my friends at dinner, or in giving orders for the library; nay, even the secret chuckle with which I walked over the grass-plots, forbidden to less exalted persons. Such reminiscences seem childish and absurd, but there are childish and absurd elements in human nature, and they furnish, in spite of ourselves, some portion of the rewards of any success. However, it would not be well that we should confine our attention to these small results of our own exertions; and so I doubt not that you are rising from the contemplation of your uniform to the contemplation of your work, and to the duty of using these two years as a grand opportunity for preparing yourself for usefulness in the profession which you have deliberately chosen, and have, by God's blessing on your own efforts, been enabled to enter. We should like to know in your next something about the difference between Engineers and