Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/323

Rh I, accordingly, at length found a purchaser, and with great satisfaction left a place, in the beautifying and improving of which my mind had once been much engrossed. In that transaction I sincerely rejoice to this hour, although disappointed in getting out to India. I gave up a place and a situation which continually presented objects calculated to excite and gratify 'the lust of the eye and the pride of life.' Instead of being engaged in such poor matters, my time is now more at my command; and I find my power of applying property usefully very considerably increased." A man thus resolved and disencumbered was not likely to remain long inactive; and his new course of enterprise embraced such a variety of religious benevolence, that we can only bestow a glance upon the objects in which the men of the present generation found him toiling, with unabated hopes and undiminished energy.

One of the first of these was the plan of christianizing Africa, through the agency of its own children. That dark continent, hitherto so impervious to Europeans, and its climate so noxious to all but its natives, presented insuperable obstacles to the zealous missionary as well as the enterprising explorer; so that, to repair thither, was considered as a journey to that country

In this difficulty, the idea had occurred to Mr. John Campbell, himself afterwards a successful explorer of Africa, that native children brought to Britain, there educated in Christianity and the arts of civilization, and afterwards returned to their homes, would prove the fittest missionaries and teachers of their countrymen. It was a simple expedient, the soundness of which all our subsequent experience has verified. But, with all its excellence, Campbell, at that time nothing more than a poor tradesman in Edinburgh, could only propose it, for funds were wanting for its accomplishment. In 1798 he met with Robert Haldane, to whom he mentioned his scheme; and the latter, struck with its promising character, at once offered to defray the expense, which was calculated at from £6000 to £7000. Accordingly, twenty-four African children, belonging to the families of different chiefs, were shipped at Sierra Leone, and brought safely to London. Nothing now remained than that they should be sent to Edinburgh, and placed under Mr. Haldane's care, who, in the anticipation of such an arrival, had leased the large old tenement in King's Park, well known to tourists as the house of the Laird of Dumbiedykes. But here, unfortunately, a ground of refusal had occurred. Mr. Haldane, while he defrayed the whole expense of the experiment, was not to be intrusted with the management and education of the children, which, on the contrary, was to be placed under a London committee. He could not accede to proposals so unexpected, and made at the last hour, and he found himself constrained to withdraw from the enterprise. It is gratifying to add, however, that the main purpose was not abandoned, or the children neglected. After having received a religious education, and been taught several handicraft professions, these youthful missionaries were, in due time, restored to their homes.

While this unpleasant affair was pending, and after it had terminated so unsatisfactorily, Mr. Haldane was by no means idle in the work of Christian benevolence; and the disappointments he experienced, both in his Indian and African efforts, seemed only to recal him with redoubled vigour into the field. Among his labours may be mentioned his zealous dissemination of religious