Had the government of the mission been in the hands of a body acquainted, by personal experience, with the needs of the Serampore Brethren, any misimderstanding s]jringing up could easily have been allayed ; but, man- aged by the class of men we have just spoken of, the disagreement between the Baptist Missionary Society and the Serampore missionaries (originatmg in 1817) lasted for some time, and even seriously threatened the success of the enterprise. In 1822 Dr. Marshman had dispatched his son John to England to restore pleasant rekuions. The disagreement continuing. Dr. Marshman decided to go before the society in person, and in 1826 returned home. But even he failed in his mission ; and in 1827, after much argument, the matter ended in the separation of the Serampore mission from the general society. To a man like Dr. Marshman, now hoary with age, tliis matter became a serious annoyance, and his strength of body and of mind were greatly impaired. Additional trouble came when the ownership of the buildings at the Serampore mission was to be disposed of, tlie home society naturally enough claiming the property, although it had been secured mainly by the hard labors of Carey and Marshman. In 1823, Dr. Marshman's trials had become very heavy. At that time Mr. Ward was taken away by cholera. " For twen- ty-three years had the threefold cord between Carey, Marshman, and Ward been unbroken. They had lived together like brothers, alike in aim and purposes, each supplying what the other lacked ; and the distress of the parting Avas terrible, especially to Dr. Marshman, who, at the time of his friend's illness, was suffering from an attack of deafness, temporary indeed, but for some days total, so that he coukl only watch the final strug- gle without hearing a single word." His mental strength was even then sorely tried, for " he wrote as if he longed to be Avith those whose toils and sorrows were at an end." Greater was the shock that the treatment of the home society brought upon him. " Morbid attacks of depression came on, during which he wandered about unable to apply liimself so much as even to write a let- ter." June 9, 1834, Dr. Carey died, and he was left alone to defend his cause. In 183G a daughter of his, who had married the afterwards so celebrated Christian soldier of the British army, Henry Havclock, barely escaped with her life from her bungalow, which had caught fire, losing one of her three children, a baby, in the flames. The nervous excitement which this affair caused Dr. Marshman prostrated him completelj', and he died Dec. 5, 1837. A few days previous to this event arrangements had been concluded in London for the re- imion of the Serampore Mission with the parent society, and for retaining Dr. Marshman in the superintendence.
By severe and diligent labor Dr. Marshman had ac- quired a complete knowledge of the Bengalee, Sanscrit, and Chinese languages. Into the Chinese he translated v.— F F F
the four Gospels, the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and the Corinthians, and the book of Genesis. He also wrote A Dissertation on the Characters and Sounds of the Chi- nese Language (1809, 4to) : — The Worlcs of Confucius, containing the original Text, with a Translation (1811, 4to, reviewed in London Quarterly Review, xi, 332) : — Clavis Sinica: — Elements of Chinese Grammar, with a Prelimina7-y Dissei-tation on the Characters and Col- loquial Medium of the Chinese (Serampore, 1814). In Sanscrit and Bengalee he assisted Dr. Carey in the preparation of a Sanscrit grammar in 1815, and a Ben- galee and English dictionary in 1825. In 1827 he pub- lished an abridgment of the dictionary. He also en- gaged in a controversy with Eammohun Roy (q. v.), who distinguished himself greatly among his country- men in India by his spirited attacks upon idolatry, and by the publication of a work entitled The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace, in which, while exalting the precepts, he asperses the miracles of Christ. Dr. IMarsh- man answered tliis work by a series of articles in the Fi-iend of India (a periodical issued by the Serampore missionaries), subsequently republished in book form (Loud. 1822), entitled A Defence of the Deity and Atone- ment of Jesus Christ, in reply to Rammohun Roy, of Cal- cutta. In 1824 appeared a second London edition of Bammohun Roy's work, illustrated with a portrait of the author, and containing a reply to Dr. Marshman. In a sketch of Dr. Blarshman's character at the end of the first volume of Dr. Cox's History of the Baptist Mis- sionary Society he is spoken of as "possessed of great mental power and diligence, of firmness bordering upon obstinacy, and of much wariness." See Lond. Gent. Mag. 1838, pt. ii, p. 216; English Cyclopcedia of Biography (1857), iv, 120; Kaye, Christianity in India, ch. vii; Yonge, Pioneers and Founders (Lond. 1872, 12rno), ch. v ; Trevor, India, its Natives and Missions, p. 316 ; Marsh- man (J.), Life and Times of Carey, Marshman. and Ward (Lond. 1859, 2 vols. 8vo ; popular ed., N. ¥.1867, 12mo),
Marsiac, Council of (Concilium Marsiacense),'>Nas, held Dec. 8, 1326, by William de Flavacour, archbishop of Auch, and his suffragans. The proceedings are of little interest. This council established the feast of S. Martha, the sister of S. I\Iary Magdalene, celebrated on the fourth of the calends of August. See Landon, Man- ual of Councils, p. 390.