On the 2nd of December, in the same year, his friend and con nection, the Right Honourable Charles 1V. Williams Wynn, who was at the time president of the Board of Control, consulted him confi dentially respecting the appointment to the vacant see of Calcutta, but did not offer him the appointment. There was every probability in fact that in the course of a few years Heber would obtain a mitre at home. But in another communication the vacant see was offered to him, and, without pressing him to accept it, Mr. Wynn expressed the opinion that in no position would Heber's talents find so ample a field or be so beneficial as in India. Twice the offer was declined, ou account of his wife and child ; but immediately after the second refusal he wrote (January 12th, 1823) stating his willingness to go to India. He congratulated himself upon the fact that no worldly motives led him to this decision. Tho prospects of usefuluess in so grand a field as India overbore all pecuniary considerations, and they had no influence iu determining his conduct when the proposition of going to that country was first made to him. Besides, he bad often expressed his liking for such a sphere of action, and he had "a lurking fondness for all which belongs to India or Asia." On the 22nd of April ho saw Hodnet for the last time, and, after having been conse crated, be embarked for his diocese on the 16th of Juno 1823.
The diocese of Calcutta extended at this time over the whole of India, end embraced Ceylon, the Mauritius, and Australasia. In India the field of the bishop's labours was three times larger than Great Britain and Ireland. The number of chaplains who constituted his staff at Bengal was fixed at twenty-eight, but this number was never completed, and of the number who were appointed several were on furlough. The bishop had no council to assist him, was required to act on his own responsibility, and to write almost every official document with his own hand. On the 15th of June 1324, Bishop Heber began the visitation of his vast diocese,. He visited nearly every station of importance in the upper provinces of Bengal and north of Bombay, and after an absence from Calcutta of about eleven months, during which he had seldom slept out of his cabin or tent, ho arrived at Bombay. The Journal which he kept during his visita tion, and which has been published in three octavo volumes (and since reprinted so as to form two volumes of Murray's Home and Colonial Library '), shows the extent of his observations on general subjects and the graphic power which he possessed of describing the novel scenes in which he was placed. From April to August he remained
at Bombay to investigate and superintend the interests of the western portion of his diocese. On the 15th of August he sailed for Ceylon, and after remaining there some time he proceeded to Calcutta, which he reached on the 21st of October. If it had been possible to have educated his children in India, he was now prepared, he states, to end his days amongst the objecte of his solicitude. In February 1826 he left Calcutta for Madras to visit the southern provinces. On the 1st of April he arrived at Trichinopoli, and on the 3rd, after investigating the state of the mission and confirming fifteen natives, on whom he bestowed tho episcopal benediction in the Tamul language, he retired to use a cold bath, in which he was found dead about half-an-hour afterwards. Within less than three weeks he would have completed his forty-third year.
The candour, modesty, and simplicity of Bishop Heber's manners, his unwearied earnestness and his mild and steady zeal, combined with his talents and attainments, had inspired veneration and respect not only amongst the European but the native population of India, It was said by those who were capable of judging, that few persons, civil or military, had undergone so much labour, traversed as much country, seen and regulated so much in so short a time. On the announce ment of his death the most eminent men at each of the three Presi dencies and lu Ceylon united in showing their regret at the loss which they had sustalued. At Calcutta it was agreed to erect In the es 1 ed t.i.._ra. a monument to his memory, which wee afterwards executed by Chantrey. A monument, also by Chantrey, was erected in St. George's Church, Madras, iu testimony of the public) regret. At Bombay it was resolved to establish, in Bishop's College, Calcutta, one or more scholarships under the title of 'Bishop Ilebsr'a Bombay Scholarship.' Mural tablets were erected in the churches of Trichl impel' and at Colombo in Ceylon. His friends in England placed a monument in St. Paul's Cathedral ; and in Hodnet church them is a tablet to his memory, the inscription on which was written by Southey.
(Life of Reginald Ileber, by his Widow, 2 vole. 4to, London, 1830. This work contains Selections from his Correspondence, Unpublished Poem, and Private Papers; the Jonrnal of his Tour in Russia, tee., and a History of the Cossets Last Days of Bishop Baer, by the Archbishop of Madras.)