CH. III.]

APPOINTED BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

CHAPTER III.

APPOINTMENT TO THE BISHOPRIC OF CALCUTTA-CONSECRATION IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY-RETURN ΤΟ MARLBOROUGH-APPOINTMENT

SUCCESSOR-FAREWELL VISITS-EMBARKATION-LETTERS.

OF HIS

Ir was in 1858 that he received the offer of the see of Calcutta. A few words may be given to explain the circumstances. In 1856 his most valued friend and former chief, Dr. Tait, had been raised to the see of London. Cotton was appointed to preach his consecration sermon in Whitehall Chapel, and in the following year he became his examining chaplain in connexion with the University of Cambridge, and another of his most intimate friends in connexion with the University of Oxford. Deeply did those weeks at Fulham strengthen the value which each of those two had for their dear associate from Marlborough. The laborious fairness, the alternations of admiration and indignation which the merits and demerits of the candidates called forth, the keen interest which he took in each of them, the sound judgment which he exercised in those trying questions which beset that opening period of a young clergyman's life, whilst they bound him with a yet closer tie to his younger colleagues, awakened in the bishop's mind a yet deeper sense of his fitness for a higher post. Accordingly, when the news arrived in England of the death of Bishop Wilson, the Bishop of London determined to use every effort to secure Cotton's appointment to the see of Calcutta. It was a moment in which more interest attached to the Indian episcopate than at any period since its first establishment.

The Indian mutiny was just over. The horrors of the war itself, and the horrors, must we not add, which followed it, are still fresh in the minds of all. Amongst the few who had not been carried away in the excitement of the disastrous tidings from Cawnpore and Lucknow were the Bishop of London and Cotton himself. A sermon is still extant preached on the fast-day of 1857, in which, whilst the prospect of any personal connexion with India was entirely unthought of, Cotton expressed those sentiments of mercy and fairness which made the indiscriminate cries of vengeance in the English press so distasteful to him and which were in thorough accord with the policy which Lord Canning was, almost singlehanded, bent on maintaining in India. The Bishop of London, with all the energy of his character, pressed Cotton's merits on the Government of that day but, partly from an apprehension lest his modesty should throw some obstacle in the way, without consulting Cotton himself. Meanwhile, from causes unnecessary here to mention, the hope of accomplishing this object had faded away, and the subject was dropped, until the Bishop was suddenly informed that if Cotton would take the post it was still at his disposal. There was not a moment of time to be lost. A change of Government had just taken place, and Mr. Vernon Smith, now Lord Lyveden, who was then the Secretary of State for India, was holding the post only till a new ministry could be formed. The Bishop telegraphed the offer to Marlborough. It was like a thunder-clap to Cotton in the midst of his peaceful labours. The telegram dropped from his hands, and he rushed from the school to his house, and thence hurried up to London. The first person whom he consulted was that friend of many years who has put together these fragments of memoirs. 'What are your reasons for thinking that I ought to take this bishopric?' There are two qualifications,' was the answer, indispensable to a Bishop of Calcutta, which

CH. III.]

CONSECRATION.

61

are possessed by very few, but are possessed by you: one is the power of understanding the old religions of India, the other is the power of dealing fairly and kindly by the different Christian communities. Therefore you must take it.' It was one of those decisive cases in which the mere decision is enough to shake the minds of most. Perhaps in Cotton's case an outside spectator would have been startled and even disappointed to observe how slightly he seemed to be agitated. The calm, disinterested view which on all occasions he would take of his own character and position as of a third person, enabled him in all simplicity to accept the estimate of others concerning himself and to acquiesce in a change in many ways so alien to his habits and feelings. On the following day he saw the Indian Minister, whose brief words dwelt in his memory, as containing in a short compass the extent of his opportunities and responsibilities. I believe that in appointing you I have done the best for the interests. of India, of the Church of England, and of Christianity.'

He was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on Ascension Day. The sermon was preached by the early college companion by whom, more than any other single person, the whole course of his life had been determined-Dr. Vaughan, the head master of Harrow, by whom he had first been introduced to Arnold. That noble sermon still remains, a record of what was expected, a prediction of what was fulfilled. Those who were present can remember the thrill of sympathy, deepened in after years into a yet more abiding conviction, with which they heard the preacher dwell on the inestimable boon of such a pastor to the young Englishmen living at Calcutta, to the families suffering from bereavement or disease, to the clergy who would be gathered round him, on the thought, mournful yet inspiring, of the graves of Martyn at Tocat, of Schwartz at Tanjore, of Heber at Trichinopoly, on the consolation, slight yet how full of meaning, Friends

even in the same land, how little do they see each of the other! when they meet, how little of all that is in their hearts do they tell! how deep a depth lies below, which friend exhausts not to friend, nor brother to brother!' *

With a sedate tranquillity, unlike the excitement which often follows on such appointments, the new Bishop, after his consecration, finding that he would not sail until autumn, returned quietly to his work at Marlborough, already beginning to prepare himself for his future career by study of the Indian languages, but still continuing his intercourse with his pupils to the last moment, as though he were to continue their master and friend.

Meantime a rare tribute of respect and confidence was paid him by those with whom he had acted for the last six years. Instead of the usual process of selection from a number of candidates, his successor was appointed avowedly on his recommendation, and he was cheered by seeing his work in England pass into the hands of one of the most cherished of his Rugby friends. Rarely has a successor so entirely entered into his predecessor's labours. Rarely has a predecessor watched with such loving and grateful affection the continuation and improvement of his task in the hands to which he himself had committed it.

The remaining time was spent mostly in farewell visits and necessary business. One short excursion of a few days he made with one of his friends to see the cathedrals of Norwich, Peterborough, and Lincoln. They met for their journey at Ketteringham, near Norwich, at the house of Sir John Boileau, the friend of M. Guizot, who was staying there at the time. M. Guizot was much interested in the sight of the new Bishop, and

The Word, the Work, and the Promise,' a consecration sermon preached in Westminster Abbey on Ascension Day, by Charles J. Vaughan, D.D.

CH. III.]

DEPARTURE FROM MARLBOROUGH.

63

bade him farewell in words, not the less significant for the foreign idiom in which they were partly couchedGod bless you and your great work! Make peace and good Christians.'

The two friends parted at the London terminus. The agreement was made between them that twice a year, at least, they should on stated days communicate to each other what seemed to each most interesting in the ecclesiastical state of England and of India. It was, in fact, the portion of an elaborate idea, by which the Bishop arranged a systematic correspondence on different subjects with all his English friends.

In some instances it may have dropped through, but in the case just mentioned it was continued with an exactness of date and purpose on either side, and a fullness of information and sympathy from the Indian side which seemed to annihilate the distance of time and space, and only caused the English friend to count the years as they rolled by, which brought nearer and nearer the happy day of the return. In many a desponding hour as to the fate of the Church at home have those letters brought before him the refreshing thought that in one vast diocese, at least, on the other side of the world, in one great episcopal see, the work of Arnold was carried on in the true faith of Christ; in the true genius of the English State and Church, in the spirit of that text which he had always regarded as his motto, 'In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.'

The Bishop took his last farewell of Marlborough early in September. One of his friends, bound to him by no common ties of gratitude, sat with him late on the last night. They read together the seventeenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, knelt once more in prayer together, and parted. The next morning, the whole school turned out at eight o'clock to cheer him, as he started for Hungerford on the outside of the familiar