CHAPTER II. ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND AND RESIDENCE THE arrival of the illustrious Hindoo Reformer to our country was anxiously anticipated by all who had become acquainted with him through the various channels which have been laid before the reader. The nature of his labours, and the distance of the scene of them, naturally prevented his being an object of popular enthusiasm ;-nor, if that had been excited in his favour, would he have desired the public demonstrations of admiration and respect which were recently accorded to the great Italian patriot. But the reception given to him, though of a widely different kind, must have been no less gratifying to him at the time, and to his countrymen since his departure. The highest honours were publicly accorded to him, and a place was awarded to him among the foreign ambassadors at the coronation of the sovereign; persons the most remarkable for their social standing and literary eminence sought his society, and highly esteemed the privilege of intercourse with him; he was received into our English homes not only as a distinguished guest, but as a friend;—and when he F was prostrated on the bed of sickness and of death in a foreign land, he was surrounded with the most loving attentions, tended with the most anxious solicitude, and finally laid in the grave surrounded with true mourners, who felt him akin to them in spirit, if not connected. with him by the ties of earthly relationship. At this distance of time, however, when thirty-five years have passed, and swept away so large a portion of the generation then existing, it is extremely difficult to collect memorials of this eventful visit, the first of the kind which had ever been paid to our country. The answers to inquiries on the subject have constantly been that some relative or friend was in frequent and highly interesting communication with the celebrated Brahmin, and could have given abundant information,—but that he is dead! The gentlemen at whose house RAMMOHUN ROY resided in London, and who were on terms of intimate friendship with him, could have afforded the most important information respecting his pursuits there; but they have long since passed away. Those that still remain and had the privilege of knowing him were generally too young at the time to have entered sufficiently fully into his general objects, and therefore cannot throw much light on the manner in which he carried them out. From some of these, however, very interesting reminiscences have been received, narrated with an exactness which shews how deep must have been the impression which they made. From these and from such incidental notices as appeared at the period, especially from the work of the Rev. Dr. CARPENTER already alluded to, our materials must be drawn. We do not find any record of the few years preceding the arrival of RAMMOHUN ROY in England. We have seen that he had contemplated this visit during a long period, and doubtless had been making preparation for its accomplishment. The lawsuit which he had been carrying on for some time in reference to his caste had doubtless a direct bearing on his projected voyage. We understand, that strictly speaking, the mere circumstance of leaving the country is regarded as involving loss of caste; he was probably anxious to establish that this is not necessarily the case, and succeeded;-he retained his rank, and to the very last he was habitually careful while in our country to avoid every thing that could be construed into an act exposing him to loss of caste, and he was constantly attended upon by a Brahmin, who would of course report infringement of regulations. We have already seen that his motive in this, was not any lingering attachment to the superstitions of his country, or to early associations, but a desire to avoid every thing which might impair his usefulness among his countrymen, or diminish the influence of his teachings. The immense difficulty of the enterprise at that period is proved by the fact, that we do not hear of any other Hindoo of high caste visiting this country since the death of RAMMOHUN ROY, until, in 1841 or 2, his friend, DWARKANATH TAGORE, came to England; and in 1845 four native Indian Medical Students accompanied hither Dr. HENRY GOODEVE, the founder of the Medical College in Calcutta. About eight years ago a young Brahmin priest, having embraced Christianity, and been baptised, accepted the offer of an American gentleman to provide him with a free passage to the United States, that he might prepare himself to be a Christian Missionary, and he subsequently came to England. The difficulties he had to encounter to escape, were inconceivable. Nothing but the strongest resolution on his part would have enabled him to elude the efforts to retain him; his Mother even followed him in a boat to endeavour to induce him then to go back. On his return to India five years ago, every effort was made by his family to bring him again within the controul of the Brahmins, and he had recently the sorrow of hearing his Mother, on her dying bed, reproach him as the cause of her disgrace and death, and the misery of the family. It is only at the present time, when a number of courageous young men have determined mutually to support each other in casting off the shackles of superstition and caste, and that a few have pioneered the way, rendering the undertaking practicable and comparatively easy, that such an enterprise has been regarded otherwise than with the greatest dread. It is necessary to remember this, fully to realize the courage of the Hindoo Reformer. The King of Delhi availed himself of the opportunity afforded by RAMMOHUN ROY's visit to England to urge certain claims on the British Government, and conferred upon him the title of Rajah, or Prince, by which he was commonly known in this country, RAMMOHUN ROy being the only Indian Prince known among us.* The present spelling of this word is Rájá, but as RAMMOHUN Roy himself spelt it as in the text, the orthography then used is preserved in this volume. It was on April 8th, 1831, that the Rajah RAMMOHUN Roy landed in our country, at Liverpool. He was at once invited by WILLIAM RATHBONE, Esq., to take up his residence at the hospitable abode of Greenbank, which has been honoured by the presence of so many illustrious strangers who have there found a home; he preferred however to be independent, and at Radley's Hotel he was visited by many who desired at once to give him a respectful greeting. There are some who still treasure the remembrance of being among his early visitors. One of these, now a grey headed man, recollected when a young midshipman, on arriving at Calcutta, going to visit the magnificent residence and grounds of the Brahmin, who was even then celebrated; it was in the Circular Road, at the eastern extremity of the town. He did not see the master of the mansion, but he picked up in the large aviary a relic in remembrance of the distinguished man, which he still treasures. The Rajah was pleased to meet on his arrival one even in comparatively humble rank, who had visited his country and his own home. Those who had watched with deep interest his religious progress eagerly welcomed him. The brief narrative of a most interesting interview with the celebrated WILLIAM ROSCOE is happily preserved in the Memoir of that eminent man by his son, HENRY ROSCOE :- "It will be recollected," says the biographer, "that at a very early period of his life Mr. RoscoE had collected the moral precepts of the New Testament into a small volume, to which he gave the title of 'Christian Morality, |