149

No. VII.

THE RIGHT REVEREND

THOMAS FANSHAWE MIDDLETON, D.D. F.R.S.

LORD BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

THE impression made upon every pious and thinking mind in the country, by the melancholy tidings of the death of this apostolic prelate, was such as can never be effaced. In Bishop Middleton the church of England has lost one of its most able, zealous, and affectionate supporters, and the church of India a founder and a father.

Dr. Middleton was born in Jan. 1769, at Kedleston in Derbyshire, and was the only child of the Rev. Thomas Middleton of that place. From his father he imbibed those principles of piety, which were afterwards so singularly conspicuous in his whole character and conduct. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, under the rigid discipline of the Rev. James Bowyer, who has been not inaptly termed the Busby of that establishment. Here he was contemporary with Sir Edward Thornton, our present ambassador to the court of Sweden; the Rev. George Richards, D.D. F.R.S., author of the Aboriginal Britons, and Bampton Lectures; and Mr. Coleridge the Poet, from whose fertile and powerful pen has issued a just tribute of gratitude to the zeal and ability of his

tutor.

From Christ's Hospital he proceeded, upon one of the school exhibitions, to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he took the degrees of B.A. in 1792; M.A. in 1795; and B. and D.D. in 1808.

In March, 1792, after taking the degree of B.A., and being ordained deacon by the then Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Pretyman), he entered upon his clerical duties at Gainsborough.

In 1794 he was selected by Dr. John Pretyman, archdeacon of Lincoln, and brother of the bishop, to be tutor to his two sons; and it was probably to this circumstance that he was indebted for the future patronage of the bishop, who presented him, in 1795, to the rectory of Tansor, in Northamptonshire, vacant by the promotion of Dr. John Potter to the see of Killala in Ireland. About this time he published a periodical essay without his name, entitled, "The Country Spectator."

In 1797 Dr. Middleton married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of John Maddison, Esq., of Gainsborough, and of Alvingham, co. Lincoln; an event which he repeatedly declared was the most happy of his life.

In 1798 he published "The Blessing and the Curse; a Thansksgiving on occasion of Lord Nelson's and other Victories;" and in 1802 obtained from his former patron the consolidated rectory of Little Bytham, with Castle Bytham annexed, which he held, with Tansor, by dispensation.

In 1808 Dr. Middleton established his reputation as a scholar by the publication of his celebrated "Treatise on the Doctrine of the Greek Article, applied to the Criticism and the Illustration of the New Testament;" a work which will ever be considered as a text-book in that department of Greek literature. The following year appeared "Christ Divided; a Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Lord Bishop of Lincoln." During his residence at Tansor, Dr. Middleton was in a state of comparative seclusion; but his mind was not inactive, though he often panted for a wider field of Christian exertion. Little did he then think that he would hereafter exchange the dull river which crept before his door for the mighty Ganges, and that in this little village he was laying in those stores of theological learning and experience, which were afterwards to be displayed with so much lustre in the kingdoms of the East.

In 1810 he began to act as a magistrate for the county of Northampton; but in 1811 resigned his livings in that county, upon being presented by the same generous patron

to the vicarage of St. Pancras, Middlesex, and Puttenham, Herts; and shortly after took up his residence at the vicarage-house, Kentish Town.

In April, 1812, he was collated by the Bishop of Lincoln to the archdeaconry of Huntingdon; and in the autumn of the same year he directed his attention to the deplorable condition of the parish of St. Pancras, in which he found a population of upwards of 50,000 persons, with only the ancient very small village church, which could not accommodate a congregation of more than 300. On this occasion he published "An Address to the Parishioners of St. Pancras, Middlesex, on the intended Application to Parliament for a New Church," 8vo. Dr. Middleton caused a bill to be brought into Parliament, for powers to erect a new church; and by this measure rendered himself an object of much hostility, especially to the Dissenters, by whose zealous perseverance the bill was lost in the debate upon the second reading. But, though disappointed in his immediate object, he was yet enabled so to prepare and digest the plan, as to leave it an easy task for his excellent successor to accomplish.

During his residence in London, he connected himself closely with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; he entered warmly into all their designs, and gave much of his valuable time and attention to their objects.

In 1813, the Rev. C. A. Jacobi, a German divine, having been appointed one of the missionaries to India, Dr. Middleton was requested to deliver, before a special meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a charge to the new missionary previous to his departure. The impressive manner in which he performed this duty will never be forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to be present; the charge was afterwards printed, and much admired, as the first fruits of those thoughts and powers which had already been directed to the great theatre of action upon which he was so soon destined himself to appear. What imparts an additional interest to the memory of this tranaction is, that both he who gave, and he who received the exhort

ation, are now gone to their reward. The young and amiable Jacobi soon fell a victim to the climate, and too soon has he been followed by his venerable pastor.

Nor did Dr. Middleton neglect the duties of his archdeaconry; his Charge to the Clergy under his jurisdiction will long be admired for the just and able views which it presents of subjects the most important to his clerical bre

thren.

About this time the friends of the establishment of Christianity in our Eastern dominions were very active in prevailing upon Government to establish an episcopacy in those vast regions; and Lord Castlereagh, in a debate on the renewal of the East India Company's charter, adverted to the expediency of such an establishment. It was subsequently enacted, that the Company should be chargeable with certain salaries, to be paid to a bishop, and three archdeacons, if it should please his Majesty, by his letters patent, to constitute and appoint the same.

In the autumn of 1813, Dr. Middleton received an invitation to wait upon the Earl of Buckinghamshire, President of the Board of Controul, who offered to recommend him to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, as the new Bishop of Calcutta. Earnestly dissuaded, as he was, from accepting this high but perilous dignity, he paused, and after some consideration sent in a decided refusal. Upon a repetition of the offer, however, his mind became much agitated; it appeared to him that Providence had called him to the arduous station: he dreaded the responsibility which would attend its rejection; and under these impressions, he was content to sacrifice his comforts, his connections, and his country. He went out, not knowing whither he went not knowing, whether from the regions to which he was hastening he should ever be permitted to return. Often did the friends, whom he best loved, urge him to consider the dangers which awaited him, and to relinquish so harzardous a post; but he resisted all their solicitations, and resolutely closed his eyes upon every prospect, but that which his duty appeared to prescribe.

He was consecrated on the 8th of May, 1814, at Lambeth Palace, the Archdeacon of Winchester having preached the consecration sermon. On the 17th of the same month he attended a special meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, to receive their valedictory address, delivered by the Bishop of Chester; on the 19th he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; on the 8th of June he embarked at Portsmouth, on board the Warren Hastings, and in November he reached Bengal.

In this outline of Dr. Middleton's life and character, it would be impossible to enter into any detailed account of the active and unwearied course which he pursued after his arrival in India. It will be sufficient at present to say, that of his exertions in the sacred cause, the British public can form no adequate notion. The fatigue both of body and of mind which he underwent, and the difficulties by which he was harassed, are more than imagination can readily conceive. 'The time will shortly come, as we have reason to hope, when the public will be put in possession of a full and accurate account both of his labours and of his designs. It is an account to the appearance of which the country will look with great anxiety and interest. The history of his episcopal acts and ministry, the journal of his long and laborious visitations, the researches which he made into the history of the ancient churches in the East, the developement of his comprehensive views in the propagation of the Gospel, will, together, form a volume, the publication of which will constitute an era in ecclesiastical literature. We are happy to hear that he has left behind him such numerous papers, and such ample documents, that nothing will be wanting to effect this important

purpose.

Among the objects to which Dr. Middleton's attention was particularly directed, we must notice his desire to increase the number and efficiency of the chaplains in India, and to provide churches for the accommodation of the European residents. He recurred to each of these points in his several charges; and but a short time before his death, he congratu