MEMOIR OF LORD TEIGNMOUTH. (With a Portrait.) In the eighth number of the Imperial Magazine, we gave a Plate of the Right Honourable Lord Teignmouth, which is now prefixed to this article. On two accounts this nobleman has an imperious claim to some biographical notice, among the public characters of the present age, independently of those private virtues which ennoble the most exalted stations, and give to title a dignity which neither birth nor princes can confer. As Governor of India, his lordship's name is enrolled in the temple of fame, and as President of the British and Foreign Bible Society, it is engraven on the hearts of thousands, and consigned to immortality. In the Bigraphical Dictionary of living authors, the character of this Nobleman is thus pourtrayed. ...... Under the article Heraldry, in the Encyclopædia Londinensis, the following account is given of this Nobleman and his family, which we the more readily transcribe, because it marks with precision the principal events of his public life, and states with exactness the distinct periods of those appointments and honours, with which, as a citizen of the British Empire, his name is now associated. Shore, (John) Baron Teignmouth, and a Baronet, a Commissioner for the Affairs of India, and a Privy Counsellor in England; born Oct. 8, 1751, married Feb. 14, 1786, Charlotte, only daughter of James Cornish, Esq. of Teignmouth; and has issue Charles John, heir-apparent, born Jan. 13, 1796, and several other children. His Lordship is descended from the family of Shore, of Heathcote in Derbyshire. "TEIGNMOUTH, Right Honourable He was appointed in 1786, a Member Sir John Shore, Baron of the king- of the Supreme Council at Fort Wildom of Ireland. This nobleman liam in Bengal; and in 1792 elected was born in Devonshire, in 1751, to succeed Lord Cornwallis as Goverand early in life went to India in nor General of India, which situation the civil service. He there con- he continued to fill until March 1798. tracted an intimacy with Mr. Hastings, He was created a Baronet of England and filled several important offices. in 1792, and elevated to the Peerage In 1786, he married the only daughter of Ireland, Oct. 24, 1797, by the title of Mr. Cornish, a respectable medical of Baron Teignmouth; appointed a practitioner at Teignmouth; and in Commissioner for the Affairs of India, 1793, he was appointed Governor Ge- April 4, 1807, and sworn one of the neral of Bengal, at which time he was Privy Council, April 8, following. created a Baronet. He was the bo--Motto: Perimus licitis, " Death in a som friend of Sir William Jones, and good cause." succeeded him in the presidentship of Having thus connected together the the Asiatic Society, in which capacity testimonies of Biography and Hehe delivered a handsome eulogy on his raldry, as already given in the public predecessor, which was printed toge- prints, we now proceed to draw from ther with some other well-written a private source of information, some essays of his composition, in the tran- facts not generally known, which cansactions of that learned body. Lord not but place his Lordship's character Teignmouth, in 1803, instituted the in an amiable point of view. With British and Foreign Bible Society, this information we have chiefly been the cause of which he has advocated, favoured by a highly respected gentleas its president, with great ability. man, whose communication we deem He is at present one of the Commis- it an honour to have received. This sioners for managing the Affairs of gentleman, who held a staff situation India, and the author of, Memoirs of in India, during the whole period of the Life, Writings, and Correspond- his Lordship's government, was intience, of Sir William Jones, 4to. 1804.mately acquainted with him: and havThe Works of Sir William Jones, with the life of the Author, 13 vols. 8vo. 1807. A Letter to the Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, D. D. on the subject of the Bible Society, 8vo. 1810. Considerations on communicating to the Inhabitants of India, the Knowledge of Christianity, 8vo. 1811." Biog. Dic. of Living Authors. ing retired from camps and garrisons, he now cultivates in private life, those Christian graces, by which the congenial spirit of Lord Teignmouth is distinguished; and which will continue to flourish when empires shall be forgotten, and the connection between India and England shall be dissolved. We have only to observe, that as some branches of his communication have been anticipated in the preceding paragraphs, he will easily perceive the cause of those partial omissions, which on no other account would have taken place. ployment of his talents, and the early acquirement of an intimate knowledge of the Persian, and the popular Oriental languages. In the year 1786, during Mr. Pitt's Administration, when Lord Melville The Right Honourable Lord Teign- was President of the Board of Control, mouth is an honorary member of the and the Marquis Cornwallis Governor Board of Control for Affairs in India, General of India, we find Mr. Shore and the noble President of the British at the head of the revenue department; and Foreign Bible Society. This lat- and in 1787, he had the honour, with ter situation he has had the honour to the Honourable Charles Stuart, by a sustain, from the primary establish- | special commission from the King, to ment of that glorious institution. As invest Marquis Cornwallis with the the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, most noble order of the Garter. Mr. through the medium of this great So- Shore continued in India, high in the ciety, its subordinate branches, and esteem and confidence of Marquis ample correspondence, extends over a Cornwallis, until December 1792, when considerable portion of the habitable reiterated attacks of sickness, comglobe, the name of its noble Presi- pelled him to return to England, for dent, must excite a general interest, the benefit of his health.* and secure the veneration of those Christian spirits, which harmonizing in love, are endeavouring, through this vast machine, to promote its great design, in proclaiming, through the written word, "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will towards men." Lord Teignmouth was called to this exalted station, as President, from the original formation of the institution in 1804. From that moment to the present, his indefatigable labours prove, that he engaged in this work from a purity of principle, which alone could preserve him from growing weary in well doing. On this ground, he lives, not only in the eye of the British empire, but in that of foreign nations, and kindreds, and tongues; and we cannot doubt, that his name will hereafter be mentioned with pleasing veneration in languages which to us are yet unknown. By the Reverend John Owen, in his History of the Bible Society, this truly Christian Nobleman has been judiciously denominated "The patron of religion, and an example of its influence, while discharging the functions of Governor General of Bengal.”—Vol. I. page 68. Lord Teignmouth, who is about 68 years of age, embarked for Bengal on the civil establishment of the Honourable the East India Company, about the year 1768, as Mr. John Shore. Here he passed through the various gradations of that service, in the civil and judicial, but chiefly in the revenue department, and qualified himself for the highest offices, by the energetic em | Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville, being well acquainted with his inflexible integrity, and eminent qualifications, induced the King to create him a Baronet. This was done in 1792, and he was appointed provisional successor to Marquis Cornwallis, who resigned the government of British India to Sir John Shore, Bart. on the 28th of October, 1793. In April 1794, that universal scholar, and justly celebrated orientalist, Sir William Jones, who was judge of the Supreme Court in India, and the intimate acquaintance of Sir John Shore, departed this life at Calcutta ; and was succeeded by him in the chair, as President of the Asiatic Society. On the 22d of May following he pronounced at a full meeting, a masterly eulogium on his departed friend. In this be unconsciously delineated many striking features of character, which, though peculiarly applicable to the deceased, many who heard could not but transfer to the speaker his successor. Among the various effusions to which the death of Sir William Jones gave rise, was the following verse, written by her Grace the Duchess of Devonshire in 1795, as delineating his character, and designed as a tribute of respect to his revered memory. These lines falling into the hands of Lady Jones, were, at her particular request, introduced by Lord Teignmouth into the memoir of her late husband, which he was then writing. * See in his "Life of Sir William Jones," a letter written by himself. To give the sentiments contained in them another application,we need only change the name of the deceased for that of the biographer, and justice will sanction the appropriation. Admir'd and valued in a distant land, The prostrate Hindoo own'd his fostering hand, which he was enabled to prevent intestine commotion from ripening into birth, without permitting those whose latent purposes he had defeated, to discover the motive by which he had been actuated. Undaunted courage and inflexible justice were distinguishing characteristics of his arduous administration. Amidst the storms integrity remained unshaken; and, under every circumstance, his eye was steadily fixed on that authority with which he was entrusted as GovernorGeneral of British India, and which he invariably succeeded in preserving from violation. Lord Teignmouth continued Gover-produced by conflicting passions, his nor General of the British Empire in the East Indies, from October 28th, 1793, to the 12th of March 1798, the interval of which forms a period of nearly four years and a half; the most eventful in itself to Britain, and the most ominous in its effects and consequences to the nations of Europe that has ever occurred in any era of their history. The frowns of insulted Omnipotence seemed at that time to hang on the kingdoms engaged in war; the roots of empire appeared to be loosened; and the prognostics of famine, in many places, threatened to complete the desolations of the sword. Lord Teignmouth, who was succeeded by the present Marquis Wellesley, then Lord Mornington, rendered at this crisis to his native country an essential service, by sending home large supplies of rice, so that England, during a scarcity of corn, was partially fed with this valuable article shipped from Bengal. The Duke of Wellington, then Lieutenant-Colonel Wellesley, commanding the 33d regiment of foot, arrived in Calcutta in 1797. It was not merely with foreign nations, that England had at this time to contend. Discontents prevailed in the heart of the empire; and many places exhibited the presages of commotion, India had its share of these internal calamities, arising from causes which have not hitherto been fully developed, but which history hereafter will clearly elucidate. On some of these occasions, his Lordship's courage was proved by a test not destitute of severity, which called into exercise those diversified talents, which his arduous and awfully responsible station so fully required. Without entering, in this brief biographical sketch, into a minute detail of Lord Teignmouth's public services, we shall alone add, that with all his other virtues and talents, this distinguished Nobleman possessed a deep penetration, to discern remote effects in their pregnant causes, through 66 In every station which his Lordship has hitherto been called to fill, his attachment to the cause of Christianity has been invincible. Among the dissolute morals which prevailed in India, during his dominion there, he had in this respect courage to be almost singly good." His attendance on public worship was regular and devout, without the parade of ceremony, the tinsel of ostentation, or the pageantry of state. In his public capacity, the duties of his station were always discharged without those gaudy trappings of greatness, by which diminutive minds are captivated; and this, in the estimation of mental imbecility, rendered his administration less dignified than that of his predecessors. To the tale of sorrow, his Lordship always lent a willing ear; and the benevolence of his heart found an ample evidence in the liberality of his hand. In India and in England, his character has sustained that pleasing uniformity in the cause of virtue, which genuine Christian principles can alone inspire. To the sound of music he has always manifested a strong attachment; and the sweetness of that spirit which breathes through his friendly epistles, is but an emanation of that harmony which pervades his soul. In domestic life, surrounded by a numerous offspring, his Lordship displays those social virtues which extend the bond of union to every branch of the family circle. To his domestics he is kind and affectionate, and on all occasions is easy of access. As a husband and a father, he stands pre-eminently adorned with those excellencies, which can alone render virtue amiable, authority respectable, and example worthy of imitation. |