official Calcutta Gazette, announcing
that the missionaries had established a press at Serampore and were
printing the Bible in Bengali, roused Lord Wellesley, who had fettered
the press in British India. Mr. Brown was able to inform the
Governor-General that this very Serampore press had refused to print a
political attack on the English Government, and that it was intended
for the spiritual instruction only of the natives. This called forth
the assurance from that liberal statesman that he was personally
favourable to the conversion of the heathen. When he was further told
that such an Oriental press would be invaluable to the College of Fort
William, he not only withdrew his opposition but made Carey first
teacher of Bengali. It was on the 7th February 1801 that the last
sheet with the final corrections was put into Carey's hands. When a
volume had been bound it was reverently offered to God by being placed
on the Communion-table of the chapel, and the mission families and the
new-made converts gathered around it with solemn thanksgiving to God
led by Krishna Pal. Carey preached from the words (Col. iii. 11) "Let
the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." The centenary
was celebrated in Calcutta in 1901, under Dr. Rouse, whose fine
scholarship had just revised the translation.

When the first copies reached England, Andrew Fuller sent one to the
second Earl Spencer, the peer who had used the wealth of Sarah, Duchess
of Marlborough, to collect the great library at Althorp. Carey had been
a poor tenant of his, though the Earl knew it not. When the Bengali New
Testament reached him, with its story, he sent a cheque for L50 to help
to translate the Old Testament, and he took care that a copy should be
presented to George III., as by his own request. Mr. Bowyer was
received one morning at Windsor, and along with the volume presented an
address expressing the desire that His Majesty might live to see its
principles universally prevail throughout his Eastern dominions. On
this the lord in waiting whispered a doubt whether the book had come
through the proper channel. At once the king replied that the Board of
Control had nothing to do with it, and turning to Mr. Bowyer said, "I
am greatly pleased to find that any of my subjects are employed in this
manner."

This now rare volume, to be found on the shelves of the Serampore
College Library, where it leads the host of the Carey translations, is
coarse a