friend, Mr Dempster of Dunnichen, and records in his diary how he ate of an "eel three feet long, and nine inches round;" and that the "daily fare is grouse, roastbeef, giblets, tripe, soup, oysters, etc., etc.; strong beer by Hunter, twenty-two years old, most excellent. Three wines-bravo!"

Soon after this his two American pupils were sent down to St Andrews by order of their father. Here Mr Bell could take a firm hold of them; and he entered them at the United College, made them rise at five, and forced them to work hard at languages and sciences. He himself rose at four. In July 1783, the tutor and his pupils were attacked with an endemic sore throat, which had been travelling all over Europe. Bell was much the worst; but he was tenderly nursed by his friend Mr Berkeley (afterwards a prebendary of Canterbury), a son of the great Bishop Berkeley. For three days Bell was unable to swallow anything; but, says Mr Berkeley, "under God, a poached egg saved Bell's life."

The young men did very well at college. One of them gained a prize for an essay on the "Immortality of the Soul," a subject which, owing to its complete freedom from data and exemption from the ordinary rules of argument and methods of inquiry, is a standing favourite with Scottish students.

The father did not write much, and sent money still seldomer. Mr Bell, who had only a salary of £40 ayear-paid uncertainly-had to write often and again: "It is scarcely possible for me to express my astonishment at your silence." He goes on to say that he is

employed "day and night in the service of your sons;" that he "takes from his usual hours of rest," and yet his fees are "not anything like the usual reward of mere boys who are employed as tutors." Besides, Mr Bell has to be "every hour in the day with them,” to prevent their extravagance from ruining them. The boys kept a "servant out of livery," but Mr Bell himself was not paid.

Bell now began to take mathematical pupils. His first pupil was a nephew of Mrs Dempster's; but “the young man, going into the county of Angus, was put into a damp bed," and died of rheumatic fever. He, however, succeeded in at length collecting eight pupils; but the receipts were not satisfactory. He now thought of returning to Virginia, and wrote to Mr Braxton: "What prospects may I indulge "—this was the epistolary manner of the period "from a revisitation to Virginia? Any academies erected? Any encouragement in the line of the Church? Shall I come out in holy orders? What is now the mode of obtaining them in America? Can they be come at with you?" He was willing to do anything; but "the line of the Church" and holy orders that are "to be come at " strike one as a reminiscence of the days of currency and tobacco.

An event now occurred which turned the whole stream of his existence. A general election was at hand. The St Andrews burghs had to return a member to Parliament; and the constituency consisted entirely of the town-councillors of the burghs.1 The

1 Unlike the Spartan virtue of these modern days, the town

rival candidates were Mr Dempster of Dunnichen and a Mr Campbell, of the family of Breadalbane. Every engine of private and secret persuasion was put in motion; every kind of human weakness was appealed to; and most of the voters had been got at through their pockets. All the town-councillors had pledged themselves to the one or to the other candidate with one exception; and it so happened that an exactly equal number had pledged themselves on both sides. The councillor who had refused to give any promise was Bailie Bell. With him virtually lay the whole power of electing. He was approached in every possible way; and at length the Breadalbane candidate went so far as to offer him £500 for his vote—a large sum in those days. The honest bailie sternly declined, and gave his vote for Mr Dempster. The new member was profuse in his thanks, and promised to take a fatherly interest in his son.

Bell now resolved to enter the Church of England. By the aid of his friend Berkeley he obtained an introduction to Dr Porteus, the Bishop of Chester, by whom he was ordained. Soon after this, a vacancy occurred in the Episcopal Chapel at Leith. Bell went there to preach; the congregation was satisfied; and he was engaged at a salary of fifty guineas a-year to act as curate. This salary was afterwards raised to £70.

Not long after this appointment, he was offered a situation as tutor to a son of Lord Conyngham, who was intended for Parliament or for diplomacy. He was councillors were not impervious to argument, if conveyed in a manner sufficiently weighty.

not only to teach the usual subjects, but also to direct the political studies of the lad; and on this occasion Mr Dempster wrote to him that "the old proverb, Honesty is the best policy, is worth Montesquieu, Bolingbroke, and De Lolme, all put together." There is always a populous school of "political thinkers" who deal largely in general statements and major premises; but they are not very happy or helpful in fitting everyday circumstances and actual cases to their wide and loose maxims. Honesty is not only the best policy, it is the necessary condition of the most moderate success. This agreement with Lord Conyngham was, however, never carried out; and Mr Dempster now urged Bell to go to India, to lecture there on natural philosophy, and to do work "in the way of tuition.”

22

CHAPTER IV.

INDIA.

ANDREW BELL, now Dr Bell (his University, with thoughtful generosity, had given him an M.D.), sailed from the Downs for India on the 21st of February 1787 with £128, 10s. in his pocket; and on the 2d of June his ship reached Madras. His destination was Calcutta; but the committee for establishing a Military Male Orphan Asylum at Madras, believing they saw in Dr Bell "a person eminently qualified to superintend the education of children," asked him to stay in that city, and he accordingly cut short his journey.

Here promotion and appointments flowed in upon him all at once. Between August and October of that year he obtained one chaplainship to a regiment and three deputy-chaplainships-all offices with little work but certain pay; and he began also to give courses of lectures, which were very successful. Those were the days in India of the pagoda tree; and his first course of lectures brought him in the sum of 972 pagodas, or £360. The lectures even became the rage with the ladies of the town; and one correspondent writes that "the ladies are determined to encounter every incon