or the River of Silver, in consequence of some pieces of that metal having been found in it. The result of the expedition must be told by the author :—

'Cabot's residence in the La Plata, though measured tediously by hope deferred, and finally blasted, was not passed inactively. The small force which remained, after one of the vessels had been despatched to Europe, might be supposed insufficient to enable him to maintain his position; yet it is certain that his operations were of a very bold and adventurous character. He seems to have pushed his researches as far as could be done without quitting the waters which enabled him to be promptly advised of the arrival of the expected reinforcement.

Of these operations we are left to gather the extent rather from circumstances than any direct information afforded by the Spanish historians. In a Memoir prepared by the Court of Spain, to resist the pretensions of Portugal, in this quarter, it is made the leading argument, after an enumeration of a vast number of tribes, that Sebastian Cabot erected forts in the country, administered justice there in civil and criminal cases, and reduced all these Nations under the obedience of the Em peror.

It is impossible not to be struck by the reflection which this passage suggests, as to what may almost be termed the ubiquity of this adventurous and indefatigable seaman in the new world.

As no supplies were received from Spain, subsistence must have been drawn from the labours of the party. Experiments were made on the fertility of the soil and the results carefully noted. Cabot's final report to the Emperor described, with great minuteness, the various productions of that region, and spoke also of the wonderful increase of the hogs, horses, &c., brought out from Spain. This Memoir would be, even at the present day, highly curious and interesting. It is, doubtless, preserved in Spain, and there was probably a copy of it amongst the papers left with Worthington.

In the midst of his labours the same evil spirit which had pursued him to the La Plata was preparing a final blow. The Portuguese, Diego Garcia, would seem to have quitted the country immediately, with the specimens he had obtained of the precious metals, but he left behind a party of his followers. These men were guilty of some act which roused the wildest resentment of the Guaranis with whom Cabot had made a treaty. It is expressly declared that the latter had no concern with the cause of exasperation, but the vengeance of this fierce and sanguinary people made no distinction, and it was determined to sacrifice every white man in the country. Secret meetings were held, and a plan of action deliberately concerted.

៩

A little before day-break the whole nation burst upon the feeble garrison of Sanctus Spiritus. It was carried, and the other position, at St. Salvador, furiously assaulted. We have no particulars, but know that Cabot must have repelled the shock, for he was enabled to prepare for sea and to put on board the requisite supplies. This done, he quitted the illomened region.

Amongst the wild tales which have passed into the traditions of the La Plata, one would represent Cabot to have fallen in the course of the sanguinary conflicts with the natives. This misconception is embodied in the

"Argentina y Conquista Del Rio de la Plata," a poem on its early history, written by Don Martin de el Barco.'-pp. 165-167.

Cabot seems to have been well received on his return to Spain. After a few years, however, he transferred his residence to England, where he obtained a pension, and afforded his advice and assistance to several commercial speculations, connected with the whale fishery, and the trade to Russia. The particulars which have been preserved of the latter years of his life, though scanty, are characteristic of the seaman.

'Sixty-one years had now elapsed since the date of the first commission from Henry VII. to Sebastian Cabot, and the powers of nature must have been absolutely wearied out. We lose sight of him after the late mortifying incident; but the faithful and kind-hearted Richard Eden beckons us, with something of awe, to see him die. That excellent person attended him in his last moments, and furnishes a touching proof of the strength of the Ruling Passion. Cabot spoke flightily, "on his death bed," about a divine revelation to him of a new and infallible method of Finding the Longitude, which he was not permitted to disclose to any mortal. His pious friend grieves that "the good old man," as he is affectionately called, had not yet, 66 even in the article of death, shaken off all worldlie vaine glorie." When we remember the earnest religious feeling exhibited in the Instructions to Sir Hugh Willoughby, and which formed so decided a feature of Cabot's character, it is impossible to conceive a stronger proof of the influence of long cherished habits of thought, than that his decaying faculties, at this awful moment, were yet entangled with the problem which continues to this day to vex, and elude, the human intellect. The Dying Seaman was again, in imagination, on that beloved Ocean over whose billows his intrepid and adventurous youth had opened a pathway, and whose mysteries had occupied him longer than the allotted span of ordinary life. The date of his death is not known, nor, except presumptively, the place where it occurred. From the presence of Eden we may infer that he died in London. It is not known where his Remains were deposited. claims of England in the new world have been uniformly, and justly, rested on his discoveries. Proposals of colonization were urged, on the clearness of the Title thus acquired, and the shame of abandoning it. The English Language would probably be spoken in no part of America but for Sebastian Cabot. The Commerce of England and her Navy are admitted to have been deeply-incalculably-his debtors. Yet there is reason to fear that in his extreme age the allowance which had been solemnly granted to him for life was fraudulently broken in upon. His birth-place we have seen denied. His fame has been obscured by English writers, and every vile calumny against him eagerly adopted and circulated. All his own Maps and Discourses" drawn and written by himself" which it was hoped might come out in print, "because so worthy monuments should not be buried in perpetual oblivion," have been buried in perpetual oblivion. He gave a Continent to England: yet no one can point to the few feet of earth she has allowed him in return!'-pp. 222, 223.

The

The work might very well have ended here. The author might have been satisfied with proving, as we think he has done most

satisfactorily, that Sebastian Cabot was the first European discoverer of America, although fame has hitherto most unjustly denied. him the honour of having executed that great achievement. But not contented with having established the fact, the author, whose love of minute criticism seems to have no limit, goes on, chapter after chapter, rectifying, in a most dictatorial tone, some minor mistakes which have been made by historians with respect to subsequent voyages to the new world. Into this desultory matter we have no desire to enter, particularly as the author's reasoning is in general confused, and frequently absurd and ridiculous.

ART. V.—The Life of the Right Reverend Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By the Rev. C. W. Le Bas, M. A., Professor in the East India College, Hertfordshire, &c. In two volumes, 8vo. London: Rivingtons. 1831.

THOUGH We received this work in the early part of the present year, yet we purposely postponed the review of it, because we felt that it could not possibly obtain a fair hearing at a period when the public mind was full, almost to repletion, of biographies and recollections, sermons, correspondence, hymns, and a variety of other publications, connected with the name of the late Bishop Heber. The sense of weariness that was produced by almost daily references to the career of that lamented individual having in a great degree subsided, we can now turn to the life of his predecessor in the same extensive sphere of action, with the attention which such a work deserves. The Memoir of a Bishop of Calcutta is a history of the English church, as far as it goes, and therefore carries with it, especially in these times, a more than ordinary interest. It is in that point of view that the author of these volumes has uniformly contemplated the task which he undertook to perform, and we must do him the justice to say that he has accomplished it in a very successful manner. The style of his narrative is occasionally vigorous, often elegant and engaging. His extracts from the correspondence of Dr. Middleton, are generally introduced with great tact; although strongly attached to the memory of the individual, whose career he relates, yet he cannot, we think, be charged with any gross violation of historical impartiality; if he defends the Bishop from any accusation, he states the accusation itself in all its parts, and thus enables the reader, in a great measure, to form his own conclusions. If there be not that poetical attraction about these volumes which gleamed so abundantly throughout those that described the life of Heber, the want of it is to be imputed to the marked difference in this respect of Dr. Middleton's character from that of his successor, rather than to any deficiency of power upon the part of his biographer.

We have but few particulars of Dr. Middleton's early life. His father, the Rev. Thomas Middleton, was rector of Kedleston, in Derbyshire, where he was himself born, on the 26th of January, 1769. When ten years old, he was received into Christ's Hospital, of which he lived to be a governor. His education was completed at Cambridge; as soon as he received ordination, he entered on his course of professional duty as curate of Gainsborough, where he amused his leisure hours with the conduct of a small periodical work, called "The Country Spectator." It seems, however, to have had but very limited success in that quarter, for it was continued but eight months, having consisted of thirty-three papers, most of which were from the curate's pen. He must have been enthusiastically attached to literature at that period, when he was able to persuade himself that the good people of Gainsborough would read, and support, a publication got up after the fashion of Addison. Nevertheless, it proved to be the foundation of his fortune, for Dr. Pretyman, then Bishop of Lincoln, happening to peruse one of his productions, appointed him tutor to his sons, and afterwards presented him to the livings of Tansor and Bytham, which furnished him with so many of the conveniences of life, that he was enabled, in 1797, to marry Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of John Maddison, Esq., of Alvington, in the county of Lincoln. In the society of this lady,' says his biographer, he appears to have found all the happiness he could have anticipated. he had a companion admirably qualified to heighten the blessings of life, and to alleviate its burthens; whilst she was fully able to form a just estimate of his worth, and was at all times willing to render him every kind and obliging office by which the labours of a scholar can be relieved. With uniform cheerfulness, and unwearied care, she underwent the toil of transcribing every manuscript which he prepared for the press.'

In her

He was, in due course, elevated by his patron to a prebendal stall in the cathedral church in Lincoln, and for some time he held a commission of the peace for the county. But it is very much to his credit that he did not retain that office beyond the period of twelve months, a period that was sufficient to convince him of the incompatibility of the duties of a magistrate with those of a clergyman. The apprehension of felons for robberies and rapes, and the commitment of them for trial, the quelling of riots, and the adjudication of minor criminals, are all very essential and important duties in a community like ours; but they are duties in which clergymen of any church ought not to be called upon to participate. We hope that the practice will soon be abolished altogether, for in times of political excitement, nothing can be more odious than the spectacle of clerical magistrates lending themselves to either party, and fomenting the passions of the people.

In 1811 he removed to London, having exchanged his livings of Tansor and Bytham, for those of St. Pancras and Puttenham, and

the archdeaconry of Huntingdon. He paid marked attention to the proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and for a season became editor of the British Critic; and when, in 1813, the charter of the East India Company was renewed, and the diocess of Calcutta thereby established, comprising the whole of the territory, stretching from Delhi to Cape Comorin, and from the Indus to the mouth of the Ganges, he was, upon the recommendation of Doctor Tomline, then Bishop of Lincoln, nominated to the new Bishopric, with a salary of 5,000l. per annum. He did not accept the office without hesitation. No wonder, for how is it possible that a single individual could ever perform, in a manner satisfactory to his own conscience, the multifarious duties which a diocess of such an enormous extent imposed. The rules which he laid down for the guidance of his future conduct well deserve to be held up for the example of others, although we shall find that he did not succeed, upon all occasions, in reducing his own precepts to practice.

"Invoke divine aid-Preach frequently, and as one having authority. Promote schools, charities, literature, and good taste: nothing great can be accomplished without policy-Persevere against discouragement-Keep your temper-Employ leisure in study, and always have some work in hand-Be punctual and methodical in business, and never procrastinate-Keep up a close connection with friends at home-Attend to forms-Never be in a hurry-Preserve self-possession, and do not be talked out of conviction-Rise early, and be an economist of timeMaintain dignity without the appearance of pride: manner is something with every body, and every thing with some-Be guarded in discourse, attentive and slow to speak, never acquiesce in immoral or pernicious opinions-Beware of concessions and pledges-Be not forward to assign reasons to those who have no right to demand them-Be not subservient nor timid in manner, but manly and independent, firm and decidedThink nothing in conduct unimportant and indifferent-Be of no partyBe popular, if possible; but, at any rate, be respected-Remonstrate against abuses, where there is any chance of correcting them-Advise and encourage youth-Rather set than follow example-Observe a grave economy in domestic affairs-Practise strict temperance-Remember what is expected in England-and lastly, remember the final account," '-vol. i. pp. 60, 61.

The state of the English church in India at this period, was far from being encouraging to the new Bishop. In the early stages of our connexion with that country, our countrymen were dependent for their spiritual concerns, not upon rectors, and vicars, and curates, as at home. In India there were no ecclesiastical districts or divisions of any kind, and the few clergymen who officiated there, called chaplains, were either appointed at particular stations by the Company, under the control of the local agents, or were attached to the army. In 1814, the total number of English clergymen in the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, did not exceed thirty-two-a number that was moreover subVOL. 11. (1831.) No. IV.

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