676 



MURRAY. 



m.iji'sty'scommibsion, constituting the new arrange- 

 ment for the administration of the British affairs 

 in China, he found Dr Morrison there ; and, in 

 pursuance of instructions received from our go- 

 vernment, appointed him Chinese secretary and in- 

 terpreter to the commission. Dr Morrison was 

 then, and had been for some time, in declining 

 health ; he, nevertheless, consented to accompany 

 his lordship, on his resolving to proceed immedi- 

 ately to Canton, and was with him, in an open 

 boat and in a storm of rain, on the Canton river, 

 in the night between the 24th and 25th of July, 

 1834. The party did not arrive at Canton till the 

 morning of the 25th. From that time, disease 

 made rapid advances, and he expired in the fifty- 

 third year of his age, on the evening of the 1st of 

 August, in the arms of his eldest son, John Robert 

 Morrison. This gentleman was appointed his 

 father's successor in the duties of his offices. The 

 following is a list of publications by Dr Morrison 

 which have not been already noticed. 1. A 

 Tract, printed in China, in Chinese, entitled A 

 Voyage round the World, illustrative of the Man- 

 ners and Religious Opinions of Christians. 2. 

 A translation into Chinese of The Morning and 

 Evening Prayers of the English Church ; with the 

 Psalter, divided into Portions to be read daily. 3. 

 A translation into Chinese of the two first 

 Homilies of the English Church. 4. Introduc- 

 tion to the reading of the Sacred Scriptures, in 

 Chinese, with Chronological, Historical, and Lite- 

 rary Notices, and a System of Reference to Books, 

 Chapters, and Verses. 5. Epitome of Church 

 History and Prophecy. 6. The Devotional Times, 

 Forms, &c., of the Protestant Church. 7. Aids 

 to Devotion, taken from the English Liturgy. 8. 

 Prayers and Hymns, in Chinese, 1833. '9. A 

 work on the First Epistle of St Peter. 10. 

 Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese 

 Language; with free and verbal Translations. 



11. China; a Dialogue for the Use of Schools. 



12. Hints on Missions. 13. Religious Tracts, 

 addressed to Sailors. 14. A Sermon preached 

 at Whampoa, 1833; printed in London. 15. 

 A Volume of Sermons in English. 



MURRAY, ALEXANDER; a distinguished lin- 

 guist, was born at Dunkitterick, in the parish of 

 Minnigaff, stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on the 22d 

 October, 1775. His ancestors for several gener- 

 ations were humble Galloway shepherds. His 

 father's whole property consisted only of two or 

 three scores of sheep, and four muir lands cows. 

 " He had no debts," says his son, " and no money." 

 As all his other sons were shepherds, it was with 

 him a matter of course that Alexander should be 

 brought up to the same employment ; and accord- 

 ingly, as soon as he had strength for any thing, that 

 is, when he was about seven or eight years of age, 

 he was sent to the hills with the sheep. However, 

 from the first he gave no promise of making a good 

 shepherd, and he was often blamed by his father as 

 lazy and useless. The truth is, he was not stout, 

 and was likewise short-sighted, which bis father 

 did not know. Besides, " I was sedentary," says 

 he, " indolent, and given to books, and writing on 

 boards with coals." But his father was too poor 

 to send him to school, his attendance upon which, 

 indeed, would have been scarcely practicable, un- 

 less he could have been boarded in the village, 

 from which their cottage, situated in a wild and 

 sequestered glen, was five or six miles distant. 

 About this time, however, (in May, 1784,) a bro- 



ther of his mother's, who had made a little money, 

 came to pay them a visit ; and hearing accounts of 

 the genius of his nephew, offered to be at the ex- 

 pense of boarding him for a short time in New 

 Galloway, and keeping him at school there. His 

 attendance at school, however, had scarcely lasted 

 for three months, when he fell into bad health, and 

 he was obliged to return home. For nearly five 

 years after this he was left again to be his own in- 

 structor, with no assistance whatever from any 

 one. As soon as he became sufficiently well he 

 was put to his old employment of assisting the rest 

 of the family as a shepherd boy. " I was still," 

 he says, however, " attached to reading, printing of 

 words, and getting by heart ballads, of which I 

 procured several. About this time, and for years 

 after, I spent every sixpence that friends or 

 strangers gave me, on ballads and penny histories. 

 I carried bundles of these in my pockets, and read 

 them when sent to look for cattle on the banks of 

 Loch Greanoch, and on the wild hills in its neigh- 

 bourhood." And thus passed away about three 

 years of his life. All this time the bihle and these 

 ballads seem to have formed almost his only read- 

 ing ; yet even with this scanty library he contrived 

 to acquire among the simple inhabitants of the glen, 

 a reputation for unrivalled erudition. He was now 

 twelve years of age ; and as there seemed to be no 

 likelihood that he would ever be able to gain his 

 bread as a shepherd, bis parents were probably 

 anxious that he should attempt something in an- 

 other way to help to maintain himself. Accordingly, 

 in the latter part of the year 1787, he engaged as 

 teacher in the families of two of the neighbouring 

 farmers ; for bis services in which capacity, 

 throughout the winter, he was remunerated with 

 the sum of sixteen shillings. He had probably, 

 however, his board free in addition to his salary, of 

 which he immediately laid out a part in the pur- 

 chase of books. In 1790, he attended school dur- 

 ing the summer for about three months and a half. 

 It seems to have been about this time that his taste 

 for learning foreign languages first began to de- 

 velope itself, having been excited, as he tells us, 

 by his study of " Salmon's Geography." The fol- 

 lowing summer, that of the year 1791, was spent 

 by him still more laboriously than any of the pre- 

 ceding ; and the advancement he made is a surpris- 

 ing evidence of what diligence may accomplish. 

 He again attended school for about three months, 

 and, in addition to the tasks of the school, he read 

 with avidity by himself whatever books in English, 

 Latin, or Greek, he could any where borrow. He 

 in fact actually made himself familiar, and that 

 chiefly by his own unassisted exertions, with the 

 French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and 

 perused several of the principal authors in all of 

 them, within about a year and a half from the time 

 when they were all entirely unknown to him ; for 

 it was at the end of May, 1790, that he commenced 

 the study of French ; and all this work had been 

 done by the end of November in the year follow- 

 ing. There is not, perhaps, on record a more ex- 

 traordinary instance of youthful ardour and perse- 

 verance. He was again engaged in teaching during 

 the winter, and received, as he states, for his la- 

 bours about thirty-five or forty shillings. "Idevoted," 

 however, he says, "as usual, every spare hour to 

 study. French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, occu- 

 pied all my leisure time." In the summer of 1792, 

 he returned to school for the last time ; and re- 

 mained for about three months and a half. The 



