end it passed through one of the severest of those social storms to which it was always exposed in times of success. He had the satisfaction of seeing several of his pupils receiving training for the work of native missionaries, and beginning that work. Branch schools, too, were formed in several villages in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. The operations of the mission were greatly enlarged.
In 1844 Lord Hardinge became governor-general. One of his first acts was to declare government appointments open not only to those who had studied at Government College, but to the students of similar institutions, a step which greatly delighted Duff. In the same year Duff took part in founding the ‘Calcutta Review,’ to the early numbers of which he contributed frequently. The first editor was Mr. (afterwards Sir J. W.) Kaye, who on leaving Calcutta in 1845 besought Duff to undertake the charge, the ‘Review’ having proved a great success. Duff continued to edit it till ill-health drove him likewise away in 1849, when it was handed over to one of his colleagues. This arrangement continued till 1856, when the ‘Review’ passed into other hands.
In 1849 Duff had the advantage, on his way home, of traversing India and seeing many of the chief seats of mission work. His second visit home was signalised by his elevation to the chair of the general assembly of the Free church in 1851, and another mission tour, the chief object of which was to induce that church to place its foreign mission scheme on a higher and less precarious platform, and secure for it an income adequate to its great importance. Hardly less was it signalised by his appearance before Indian committees of parliament, to give evidence on various questions, but especially that of education. This led to the famous despatch of Lord Halifax, president of the board of control, addressed to the Marquis of Dalhousie, then governor-general, and signed by ten directors of the East India Company. This despatch was really inspired by Duff, and embodied the very views with which he had started his work in 1830. It proceeded on the principle that ‘ the education we desire to see extended in India must be effected by means of the English language in the higher branches of education, and by that of the vernacular languages to the great mass of the people.’ The plan embraced a system of universities, secondary schools, primary schools, normal schools, art, medical, and engineering colleges, and finally female schools. The system of grants in aid was to be applied without restriction. The Bible was to be in the libraries of the colleges and schools, and the pupils were to be allowed freely to consult it, and to ask questions on it of their instructors, who if they chose might give instructions on it, but out of school hours. While Duff was delighted with this minute, it was a great disappointment to him during all the remainder of his life that he could not get its provisions fully and fairly carried into effect.
In 1854 Duff, at the earnest solicitation of a citizen of great enthusiasm and public spirit, Mr. George H. Stuart of Philadelphia, paid a visit to the United States. His travels and orations in that country were a series of triumphs. ‘No such man has visited us since the days of Whitefield’ was the general testimony as he parted from them on the quays of New York. ‘Never did any man leave our shores so encircled with christian sympathy and affection.’ The university of New York conferred on him the degree of LL.D. The university of Aberdeen had previously made him D.D.
When he returned to India in 1856, Lord Canning was governor-general, and there were mutterings of the great storm which soon burst out. Duff, who knew the people well, was not unprepared for it, and with other missionaries had been urging on the authorities his views regarding the right treatment of the people. What followed was recorded by him in a series of twenty-five letters to the convener of the foreign missions committee, which were published from time to time in the ‘Witness’ newspaper, and afterwards collected in a volume which went through several editions, entitled ‘The Indian Mutiny: its Causes and Results’ (1858). When the mutiny was over, Duff preached a memorable sermon in the Scotch Free church, in which, like another Knox, he condemned the policy of the government, some of whose members were present. The mutiny had no such unfavourable effect as some dreaded on the progress of christianity in India. In 1850, a census showed the native protestant christians to be 127,000. In 1871 the number was 318,363. Among the martyrs during the mutiny was his third convert, Gopeenath Nundi. The loyalty of the native christians to the British government was conspicuous.
During this period of Duff's stay in India, his chief object of public solicitude was the university of Calcutta, now in the course of foundation. He had been appointed by the governor-general to be one of those who drew up its constitution. ‘For the first six years of the history of the university,’ says his biographer, Dr. George Smith, ‘in all that secured its catholicity, and in such questions as pure text-books and the establishment of the chair of physical science contemplated in
