Indian Gup. By the Rev. J. R. Baldwin. (Neville Beeman.)
—Mr. Baldwin was appointed to an Indian chaplaincy in the May of the year of Mutiny, 1857, and received orders to sail on September 4th. It was a time when such an appointment was, to say the least, not the most desirable thing. Mr. Baldwin expressed his doubts to one of the most eminent of the directors. It is "only a flash in the pan," said the wise man. So, encouraged, he went. The Bishop (Dr. Wilson) was a little startling. "Remember, young man," he said, "that you are not to think you have done your work when you have preached two stupid sermons on Sunday." The interview was closed by an invitation to breakfast. Before breakfast came a service in the chapel, and as part of the service an extempore prayer by the Bishop, "very topical." "We pray for our young friend that her mind may not be given to the vanities of this wicked world." The "young friend" was the new chaplain's wife, who was wearing a Parisian bonnet which the Bishop thought too gay. His first station was at Rancegange, a dismal place where cholera was epidemic. Here he stayed six months, not with- out some strange experiences, not altogether to the credit of the English character. They go to explain the official dislike of Europeans outside the Service. Then came an order to go up to Lucknow, which had just been relieved by Sir Colin Campbell. The journey was exciting ; there was no little danger from the enemy, and from what Mr. Baldwin honestly confesses he feared more, the small-pox. But we cannot follow the narrative. It is full from beginning to end of humour and of good sense. "Stories Untold of the Mutiny and After" is the sub-title of the book, and it is an excellent description. Mr. Baldwin lets us see behind the scenes. Still it must not be supposed that he depreciates the great men of the time or the English raj in general. He recognises fully its merit, and he ex- presses himself in the most hopeful way of the prospects of missionary enterprise. The results seem long, in coming, but tome they will, he is sure, and with surprising suddenness and on a grand scale,—" a nation born in a day."—The Cross in the Land of the Trident, by Harlan P. Beach, is a book full of prac- tically useful information about India, relating both to the past and the present.
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