Towards the close of the year 1847 my brother's health again failed, not as before, from the nervous irritation produced by the heat upon his system, but from repeated attacks of dysentery, which so weakened him as to render a voyage to sea essential for his restoration. After a short voyage along the coast, he was obliged to resort to Madras for medical aid, and it was there that, after mature deliberation, the professional men in that place declared that his constitution was not suited for India, and that he must proceed home immediately, for ever renouncing the hope of being able to return.

This decision was too plainly in accordance with his own experience to allow of its being disputed, and it was with a heavy heart that he bade adieu to India's shores: after his return home he frequently expressed his lively sorrow on this account, and said he found it more difficult to submit to the will of God in this trial, than in any other he had ever experienced. He returned home by the overland route, and arrived in England in the month of March, just in time to have the painful satisfaction of closing his beloved father's eyes, and ministering to him in his last hours. He reached Durham on the 15th of April; and on the 18th his father died.