longer he was connected with it.

His ardor was great, and his labor incessant for the welfare of the Institution, that it might become a real and permanent blessing to the rising generation, and the country in which it was planted.

It was impossible for him, with this additional responsibility, and exact personal attention, to continue the daily labor of performing the surplice-duties of the Presidency. These, accordingly, he at this period resigned to the junior chaplain, together with the entire emolument connected with them. But this, the most lucrative, was the only branch of his ministerial labor which he did relinquish. His exertions for the Churches continued unabated; and it is to be supposed his naturally strong constitution began to give way, through the uninterrupted labors of twenty years, under an enfeebling climate; tried as he was by much domestic and private affliction, and by many anxieties and mortifications.

He had become subject to severe attacks of fever, which often reduced him very low: but his spirit for labor seemed to be renewed every time his strength was restored. At length however he was constrained to have

some

some degree of rest from his public exertions, by the decision of the Honourable Court of Directors to contract the sphere of their college of Fort William, and to reduce the scale of its expenditure. Among the offices they saw fit to annul was that of the Provost, which he had held from its first institution nearly seven years.

It is but justice to his name to state here, that no cause whatever was assigned for doing away the appointment, but that of the determination formed for diminishing the scale of the institution generally, and of so lessening the number of students to be connected with it, as to render the continuance of the higher offices unnecessary.

Mr. Brown's wonted disinterestedness, and love for every work which he believed was to promote the glory of God, displayed itself on this occasion.

The paper he delivered in to the Visitor of the College, is annexed to these Sketches, as furnishing a striking view of the amiable meekness of his character, and persevering zeal in all labor, congenial with the calling of the christian minister.

The Government did not judge proper to depart from the letter of the orders from

home,

home, and to accept his generous offer, till the further will of the Court of Directors should be known *.

His public labors therefore became more circumscribed. Increasing infirmities renderedit unsuitable for him to resume those exertions of the surplice-duties from which his college engagements had withdrawn him. On the appointment of a chaplain to the Mission Church, he obtained an increased cessation, which he long had needed, from over-strained efforts; and salutary leisure seemed within his reach. From the year 1809 he had little occupation in Calcutta besides that which

arose

* It will not be expected that it should pass unnoticed here, that, in the considerations on the East India Company's civil service, in a work lately published, the candid and intelligent author, dates the gradual declension of the College of Fort William, from the year 1806, the period when it lost the watchful aid and strenuous efforts of its Provosts; both of whom had been most disinterestedly devoted to its best interests. Under their fostering care, the institution had assumed a higher tone of principle, integrity, and abilities, than had till then been ascribed to the body of writers; and which may serve as a pattern to those who succeed them.

The opinions given by this respectable author on the merits and defects of the College of Fort William, correspond very intimately with those which were held by Mr. Brown on the same subjects.-Vide "Considerations on the State of India," by A. F. Tytler, late Assistant Judge on the Bengal establishment.

arose from his Chaplaincy and his voluntary assistance in the ministry of the Mission Church.

His labors, though assuming from this period a more private and domestic character, continued nevertheless as strenuous as at any former time.

Not only did his rising family demand increased attention, but a new sphere of active usefulness opened to him, in aiding the operations of the Bible and Church-mission Societies in Asia.

He was the first whom they invited to be their secretary in those regions. And he exerted for them the same ardor of spirit which had ever characterized him in the cause of the christian faith: and his labor for them was alike indefatigable and gratuitous.

It seems not unsuitable to remark in this place, once for all, that it was the habit of his mind to give as great attention to each successive object which presented itself in the form of a duty, as if that solely engrossed all his earnestness and anxiety. And yet, when called by the same Providence who gave, to resign the object in pursuit, he did it as entirely, without casting "one longing, lingering

look

look behind," as though it had scarce ever excited his solicitude.

This fact was remarkably exemplified, among minor instances, in his engagement with the Orphan establishment; his private native school for the instruction and support of destitute children; his early efforts to promote a Bengal mission under the auspices of the Established church*; and in his exertions in the cause of the College.

His earnestness in pursuing each of these objects seemed to fill his mind in turn; yet was he never known to lament his frustrated purposes, or appear to think that his hopes respecting them ought not to have been disappointed.

He considered himself as placed by Divine Providence in every department he was called to, so long as there was work for him to do in it but when that ceased, he considered the duty, connexion, and interest, as ceasing with it; just as the day-labourer, employed only to break up, or plough the field, does

not

* Besides devoting himself to the Mission Church, within the first two or three years of his arrival in India, he addressed letters, in union with some respected friends, to the Dignitaries of our Church, and also to a great Statesman, to call their attention to this important object.