PUBLIC BUILDINGS
houses, a form of speculation greatly in vogue at the time. Before the buildings were completed young Kiernander's creditors pressed for payment, and, finding him unable to meet their demand, they took alarm, and had his property attached and sold at a ruinous loss. The property of the elder Kiernander, as his son's security, was also seized, and the sheriff's seal was placed upon the Mission Church, the school-house, and the burial-ground. At this deplorable juncture a member of the Mission Church congregation, Mr. Charles Grant, of the Company's Civil Service, came forward to rescue the Mission buildings. The church, school-house, and burial-ground, which had cost altogether a lakh of rupees, were assessed at one-tenth of that sum only. Mr. Grant paid ten thousand rupees for the property, which he placed in the hands of three trustees on behalf of the Mission, and thus saved from partition, and perhaps destruction, the outcome of years of devoted toil.
The Kiernanders left Calcutta for the Dutch settlement of Chinsurah, where the old missionary was appointed chaplain, and where he remained till 1795, when the town passed into the hands of the English. His son had died in the interval, leaving a widow and young family, with whom the old man returned to Calcutta, where the last
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