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[Illustration: C. M. Tucker

from a Photograph taken at Toronto in 1875.

W. Notman Photo. Walker & Boutall, Ph.Sc.]




                            A LADY OF ENGLAND

                         _THE LIFE AND LETTERS_
                                   OF
                         CHARLOTTE MARIA TUCKER

                                   BY
                              AGNES GIBERNE

         AUTHOR OF ‘SUN, MOON, AND STARS,’ ‘RADIANT SUNS,’ ETC.

                           ‘_Nil desperandum_’

                       Motto of the Tucker Family

                                NEW YORK
                          A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON
                          51 EAST TENTH STREET
                                  1895

         Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty




AUTHOR’S PREFACE


The principal mass of materials for this Biography was placed in my
hands last summer by the Rev. W. F. Tucker Hamilton, nephew of Charlotte
Maria Tucker (A. L. O. E.), and since then many other relatives or
friends, both in England and in India, have contributed their share of
help, either in the way of written recollections or of correspondence.
A paucity of materials exists as to the early part of the life; but
in later years the difficulty is of a precisely opposite description,
arising from a superabundance of details. Hundreds of letters, more or
less interesting in themselves, have had to be put ruthlessly aside, to
make room for others of greater interest. From first to last the long
series between Charlotte Tucker and her own especial sister-friend, Mrs.
Hamilton, takes precedence of all other letters in point of freedom,
naturalness, and simplicity. The perfect trust and unshadowed devotion
which subsisted between these two form a rare and beautiful picture.

It has seemed to me, and it may seem to others, that the main question in
the Life of Miss Tucker is, not so much what she _did_ here or there,
in England or in India, as what she _was_. Many a discussion has taken
place, and doubtless will again take place, as to the wisdom of her
modes of Missionary work, and as to the degree of success or non-success
which attended her labours. I have endeavoured to give fairly certain
opposite views upon this question, even while strongly impressed with the
conviction that no human being is capable of judging with respect to the
worth of work done in his own age and generation. Subtle consequences,
working below the surface, are often far more weighty, far more lasting,
than the most approved ‘results’ following immediately upon certain
efforts,--results which are, not seldom, found after a while to be of the
nature of mere froth. Nothing can be more unprofitable, usually, than
the task of endeavouring to ‘count conversions.’ It is of infinitely
greater importance to note with what absolute self-devotion Miss Tucker
entered into the toil, with what resolution she persevered in the face of
obstacles, with what eagerness she did the very utmost within her power.

In writing the story of Miss Tucker’s life at Batala, it has been
impossible not to write also, in some degree, the story of the Infant
Church at Batala. My main object has of course been simply to show what
Charlotte Maria Tucker herself was; and Mission work, Mission incidents,
Missionaries themselves, come in merely incidentally, as part of the
background to her figure. Mention of them is accidental and fragmentary;
not systematic. At the same time there is no doubt that nothing would
have gratified Miss Tucker more than that any use should have been made
of her letters likely to help forward the great work of Missions among
the Heathen. Some years before the end, when in severe illness she
thought herself to be passing away, she spoke of the possibility that
her long correspondence about Batala might be so employed, and earnestly
hoped that, if it were so, no one-sided account should be given, but that
shadow as well as sunshine, the dark as well as the bright aspect, should
be frankly presented. I have endeavoured to carry out her wishes in this
particular.

It is to be regretted that at least a few letters from Mrs. Hamilton to
Miss Tucker cannot be interspersed among the many from Miss Tucker to
Mrs. Hamilton. None, however, have come to hand. Before Miss Tucker went
to India she destroyed the bulk of her papers, after a ruthless fashion;
and it does not appear that while in India she kept any of the letters
that she received.

After some hesitation I have decided to give generally the names in full
of those Missionaries, with whom she was most closely associated. I have
also decided _not_ to give the names of Indian Christians, with very
few exceptions,--as of the Head Master of the Native Boys’ School at
Batala, whom she counted a personal friend; also of one or two Ordained
Native Clergymen, and one or two contributors of slight material towards
this _Life_. In many