that insufficient allowance for a very hot climate had been made in the rather English size and disposition of the apartments, yet from the skilfully chosen aspect of the college front, so that the south-east monsoon, cooled somewhat in passing the Ganges, (nearly a mile wide there) blew through the open windows from end to end, Bishop's College was found to be quite as habitable in the hottest months of the year as most of the British dwellings in or near to Calcutta. Bishop Middleton's original plan was solely for the accommodation of the three professors, foundation students, and missionaries. Accordingly when, in 1828, it was determined to open the college to general students also, the additional accommodation expected to be required was provided by the erection of another corps-de-logis to the left, corresponding in size, and as far as could be in elevation, with that comprising the hall, library, and chapel, with a similar tower in the centre, and, like it, parallel to the river; and adjoining thereto a third corps-de-logis, corresponding to the other two, at right angles to the river; thus forming a second three-sided court of one hundred and fifty feet square, and bringing the last-mentioned building within twenty-five yards of the spacious ghaut (or flight of stone steps) which form the landing place from the river. The college, thus increased, affording ample accommodation for the principal, and two professors, and their families, for about twenty foundation and about fifty general students, and for several missionaries; and presenting to the eye, as seen from the river, apparently embosomed in groves of the palm, sissoo, mango, bignonia, almond, and teak, one of the most beautiful and picturesque scenes in the world. Such is the external appearance of Bishop's College; whilst the judgment manifested in the selection of its site is further exemplified by the undisturbed scholastic retirement which it affords to the professors and students, with the botanic garden adjoining, for a never-cloying pleasure ground to all the college inmates, and yet the whole within one hour's easy distance by boat and carriage from the far-famed city of palaces. To the firm and energetic Middleton succeeded in the episcopacy of Calcutta, A. D. 1823, the gentle and amiable Reginald Heber, who became as much attached to Bishop's College, and as deeply convinced of its promise of exceeding usefulness to the cause of Christianity in the East, as could almost have been its founder himself. Under the visitorship of Bishop Heber, the college library accommodation for its books and manuscripts, and the college hall, were fitted up and completed. He designed and ordered the fittings for the college chapel (which up to this time exhibited only bare walls) during the last visit which he made to the college early in 1826. This collegiate chapel, with its original perfect proportions, fretted roof, its superb stainedglass eastern window, its brilliant organ, checquered marble floor, and carved teak-wood rails, seats, desks, and stalls, is exceeded by very few collegiate chapels in England, or in Europe. The winning demeanour and merited popularity of this engaging prelate enabled him to gather considerable sums from public and private bounty for the college; and from this fund he assigned nearly two thousand pounds to the erection, about three hundred yards behind the college, of a house for the college press and its superintendent, sketching himself the elevation in character with that of the college; and this building forms accordingly a striking ornament to the college demesne, and a fine addition to the appearance of the whole buildings and grounds from the river. Bishop Heber obtained also from the governor-general, Earl Amherst, a further grant of sixteen acres from the botanic garden jungle; thus increasing the college demesne to thirty-six acres, and permitting the laying out of a spacious vegetable and fruit garden for the daily supply of the college tables. The college demesne has been gradually levelled, laid down in fine grass, planted, furnished with roads and walks, adorned with borders and beds of flowers, and altogether so highly and tastefully improved that it is scarcely too much to state that what was at first a noxious jungle, has been converted into an earthly paradise. These beautiful grounds, together with the noble fabric of Bishop's College and its adjuncts, thus situated close to the margin of that great river, present indeed a scene of mingled magnificence and rural bloom and loveliness such as is hardly anywhere to be equalled, probably nowhere to be surpassed. What the sagacious piety, therefore, the vigorous ability, and the masculine genius of Middleton had conceived, planned, and brought to bear in the mass, was happily completed and brought into active operation under the auspices of the fervent devotion, the elegant taste, and the graceful spirit of Heber. Wherein is especially to be included the body of statutes for the government of this collegiate establishment,' which were suggested and sketched by Bishop Middleton, confirmed and embodied by, and authenticated by the corporate seal of, the society, and brought into force in 1826 by Bishop Heber,-statutes so wisely adapted to the objects in view, that to change will be to dete riorate them. It is then to these two distinguished prelates, under Providence, that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and through them the whole Christian world, is indebted for the creation and completion of a religious institution which, by that society's able selection of its authorities, and their own presiding and fostering care, has been already enabled so much to promote, and is likely yet so much more powerfully to forward, the progress of the gospel in Hindustan. Notwithstanding many and unexpected difficulties, the blessing of God was upon the solid groundwork laid by Bishop Middleton. The superstructure raised thereupon was not to fail. The system of instruction and discipline he had prescribed for the education of the college students was steadily acted upon. The diocesan native schools he had established for elementary instruction to the Hindu and Mahommedan youth were perseveringly maintained. An effect, not yet noticed here, was gradually taking place; and since it can be marked from the period of that prelate's abode in Bengal, and cannot (it is believed) be traced beyond his arrival, the cause may consistently be added to the category of substantial benefits conferred upon India by the establishment of a British episcopacy there and this effect was the gradual overcoming and dissolution of some of the most powerful : prejudices in the native mind; especially of their long holden objections against receiving instruction from openly declared missionaries, and their yet stronger prejudices against the introduction of the gospel of Christ, in whole or in part, as the means for the moral education of their children. In a word, the seed which Middleton had sowed, and Heber had watered, was to bear a manifold increase. The results of the Bishop's College course of education in sacred knowledge, Western learning, and Oriental literature, in mild discipline and ready obedience, upon a materiel certainly of the least. plastic or encouraging, have been gratifying and successful beyond any hope of their instructors. The practical good effects from training their pupils for the management of native schools, and other labours of the Indian ministry, by a lengthened noviciate as catechists under the ordained missionaries, have surpassed any previous expectation. It is not within the present limits to enter into the full details, though they can be readily furnished; but it may be truly asserted that the ordained missionaries and catechists, now occupied in the Propagation of the Gospel in India, who have been educated wholly or in part at Bishop's College, form a body of clergymen and of candidates for holy orders, who, for sound acquirements in theology and general knowledge, for religious and moral demeanour, for personal manners, and for unwearying and active missionary usefulness, would do credit to any religious institution or college whatsoever. Over the missionaries sent from Europe, they have the unspeakable advantages of an early acquaintance with the natives in their habits, customs, and peculiar prejudices-in a familiar knowledge of the native languages, and a consequent power of colloquial intercourse with them; and in being inured from early life to the modes of living, and to the changes and risks of, and best defences against, the trying climate of the tropical countries in which their field of labour is situated,-all to an extent that the adult European missionary arriving in India can scarcely be hoped to attain for several years, if indeed ever. Of one of the students, a more particular mention may be desirable, both as being the first of the converts from Hinduism who have received instruction in the college, and as being now removed by the inscrutable decree of his divine Master far beyond the influence of earthly judgment. Mohesh Chunder Ghose, born near Calcutta of respectable parents, was several years since admitted as a pupil of the government Hindu College, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the English language, and (as common there) got rid entirely of the Hindu worship and idolatries without having any religion given him instead. But in this condition of infidelity, possessing great abilities and a powerful understanding, he read, and reasoned, and inquired sufficient to satisfy him of the truth of Christianity, and received the sacrament of baptism accordingly in one of the churches of Calcutta. He was admitted to Bishop's College in 1832, and, after completing his period of academical study in a most exemplary manner, was transferred to the duties of a catechist under one of the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society; and while his diligence and fidelity in that calling gave the best promise of future more eminent services to the Christian cause, and he was about to be submitted to the bishop as a well prepared candidate for admission to holy orders in our church, an attack of illness, mainly occasioned by his unremitting efforts to prepare himself in every way for usefulness to his countrymen, suddenly brought him to a premature grave, in the autumn of 1837. Of the ex-students of Bishop's College, six are ordained missionaries, and three are catechists, employed in Bengal or the adjacent provinces; one is second master of the Martiniere School, and one chaplain to the Free School in Calcutta; three are ordained missionaries, and three are catechists in the presidency of Madras; and one is a colonial chaplain in Ceylon. The present Bishop of Calcutta, consecrated in 1832, concurs with his predecessors in the see in bearing the strongest testimony to the value and excellence of this institution, as a means of promoting the extension of Christianity; and Bishop's College, in fact, recommends itself to every faithful member of the church of England, as the strong hold and fortalice of our blessed religion in Eastern India. It wants but a fitting encouragement, as regards endowment, to supply a numerous and able indigenous clergy for our immense territories there; gradually to unseat their idolatries and fanatical error; and to diffuse the happy influences of the gospel from Cashmeer to Cape Comorin. And the time, it is to be hoped, is not far distant when some portion of the large sums expended by the Bengal government on education, (such as the great establishments of the Hindu college, the Mahommedan College, the Bengali College of Medicine, and the government native schools, and others,) may be assigned to Bishop's College. It is worthy of remark that the allowances of one single civil servant of the third class, (for example, one of their public secretaries, or one of the magistrate-judges of the native courts,) some four thousand sicca rupees per mensem, would, in addition to its existing slender endowments, defray all the charges of Bishop's College. May it be hoped, then, that some of our Christian patriots in the court of proprietors will advocate the cause of this noble institution? At all events, Bishop's College presents to the wealthy and munificent of the English nobility and gentry an institution worthy in every possible point of their heartiest support. Like our colleges of Oxford or Cambridge, it is, in the first instance, essentially a religious foundation; and, like them, open for the admission of all lay students of moderate qualification, who shall conform themselves to its religious ordinances, and its academical instruction and discipline,-all of which, to the very utmost the differences of country and climate permit, are assimilated to those of our own universities. And Bishop's College has the yet further and, to every generous mind, the yet stronger claim, that it wants this support and endowment. Utterly unsupported by the Indian government, which seems to think itself precluded from the direct encouragement of any engine for extending Christianity among its heathen subjects, it looks to England for sympathy and favour. And of the thousands and tens of thousands which are yearly bestowed in works of piety by the rich and liberal, some portion would be well expended in generous endowments for this deserving institution. . Much might be added on this subject, as well as regarding the operations of the press and syndicates of the press of Bishop's College, and of the gratifying progress there made in translations of parts of the scripture, of the liturgy, and of holy books, for the instruction of the natives of Hindustan in the history and doctrines of our holy faith. But the limits appointed are already passed; and it is only hoped that, through the medium of your pages, Bishop's College may become more generally known, and its value and excellence more widely and largely appreciated. G. B. THE LITERARY POLICY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME IN 1835; OR, THE PROHIBITORY INDEX FOR THAT YEAR. SIR,-Not to go to the Continent, our own country has furnished individuals of some rank in the republic of literature, who have shewn themselves much alive to the importance of those literary manifestoes which Rome is accustomed to issue, at no very long intervals, from her apostolic press. The prohibitory and expurgatory indexes of Rome, and of the countries in her communion, excited intense curiosity and feeling in the protestant public, both at the time of their first appearance, and for as long time afterwards as genuine Christianity, and the system which had for ages corrupted it and sought to corrupt it again, was an object of any concern. The first librarian of one of the noblest libraries in the world, Dr. James, has left on record-in his immortal works, his Corruption of the Scripture and Fathers, and his Manuduction, besides other productions-the importance which he put, and justly, on the pontifical condemnations in the indexes of the papal church. William Crashaw, the father of a degenerate son, followed in the same steps, with deserved applause. His Falsationum Romanarum, &c., is a monument of correct and valuable criticism on the same subject. Sir Humphrey Lynde, particularly in his posthumous Answer to a superficial Jesuit, J. R. Robert Jennison (so Dodd), A Case for the Spectacles, has entered largely into this field of criticism. Alexander Cooke, in his Yet more worke for a Masse Priest, has shewn with what advantage the battery of Rome may be turned against herself. The attention bestowed upon the same subject by Sir Edwin Sandys, in his justly celebrated Europe Speculum, is familiar to all but superficial readers. Birckbeck, in his Protestant Evidence, which acquired the admiration of Selden, has distinctly and elaborately availed himself of the same source of argument. Bishop Barlow, in his Genuine Remains, has directed the theological student to the official censures of the Roman church, particularly as a guide to the most valuable portions of theological * Pp. 5-12. Pp. 8, &c. Second Edition. + Pp. 126-132, ed. 1629. |