MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF THE

REV. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, D. D.

LATE

VICE-PROVOST OF THE COLLEGE OF FORT WILLIAM,
IN BENGAL.

NO.

BY

THE REV. HUGH PEARSON, M. A.

OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFord.

Οστις δ ̓ ἐπὶ μεγίστοις τὸ ἐπίφθονον λαμβάνει, ὀρθῶς βουλεύεται·
μῖσος μὲν γάς οὐκ ἐπιπολύ ἀντέχει η δέ παραυτίκα τε λαμπρότης και
ἐς τὸ ἔπειτα δόξα ἀείμνηστος καταλείπεται.

THUCYD.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY KIRK AND MERCEIN,

22 WALL STREET.

ΤΟ

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ. M. P.

TO WHOSE EFFORTS IN PARLIAMENT

THE TRIUMPH OF THE CAUSE

TO WHICH

THE LIFE OF DR. BUCHANAN WAS DEVOTED,

IS EMINENTLY TO BE ATTRIBUTED;

AND BY WHOSE PRIVATE FRIENDSHIP,

AND PUBLIC SUPPORT,

HE WAS HONOURED;

THE FOLLOWING MEMOIRS

ARE WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE HIGHEST

RESPECT AND ESTEEM

INSCRIBED BY

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE observation of Lord Bacon, as to the deficiency in the biographical department of literature in his day, is certainly not applicable to the present times. We have rather to complain of excess than of defect. While ample justice has been done to the lives of eminent persons, it must be confessed, that accounts of obscure individuals have been unnecessarily multiplied.

The Author of the following Memoirs trusts that he will not be deemed liable to this charge. The person to whose life and writings they relate is already well known to the world, and has established an undoubted claim to posthumous regard. The prominent station which Dr. Buchanan occupied in India, and the zeal and ability with which he laboured to promote the interests of Christianity in that country and throughout the eastern world, seem to demand some commemoration of his character and exertions; and, unless the writer of these pages is much mistaken in his judgment, they describe "a person in whom," to use the language of the celebrated author just alluded to, "actions, both great and small, public and private, "are so blended together," as to secure that “ gen"uine, native, and lively representation," which forms the peculiar excellence and use of biography.