seminate their religion among the Pagan nations who are subjected to their empire: it is true they have not the aid of miracles; but it is their duty to attempt such conversion by the earnest and abundant employment of the best human means in their power. We believe that we are in possession of a revealed religion; that we are exclusively in possession of a revealed religion; and that the possession of that religion can alone confer immortality, and best confer present happiness. This religion, too, teaches us the duties of general benevolence: and how, under such a system, the conversion of Heathens can be a matter of indifference, we profess not to be able to understand.

*

So

*The extent of this conceffion, will, however, neceffarily depend upon the doctrines held by different fects and different individuals in the Chriftian world. If it be fettled, that a future exiftence, or an happy future exiftence, is denied to Heathens who have never even heard of the Chriftian faith, then the duty of attempting to convert seems to be very imperious. If, on the contrary, the better rule be, that no man will be punished for not availing himself of the opportunities which he has never enjoyed, then the cafe is very materially altered. We do not prefume to give any decided opinion on these subjects; but when we consider for how many centuries after the Christian æra Providence allowed the greater part of the human race to live and die, without any poffibility of their attaining to the knowledge of thefe facred truths, by means of any human exertion, we muft be fatisfied, that the rapid or fpeedy converfion of the whole world to Christianity forms no part of the scheme of its Almighty Governor; and that it can be no offence in his eyes, that we do not defert our domeftic duties, and expofe the lives and worldly hap pinefs of multitudes of our countrymen to hazard, in order to attempt this converfion, under circumftances the moft untoward and unpromifing. In this cafe, as in moft others, we are disposed to think, that the relative importance of the duties enjoined to us, may be fafely eftimated from the facilities which Providence holds out for their performance, and the certainty of the rewards with which they are to be attended. Why does a confcientious Director of the Eaft India Company maintain his fon or his father in affluence, when, with the fame money, he might relieve the wants of five hundred paupers in China or Peru? or why does he dedicate to their amufement and delight, thofe hours and intellectual exertions, by which he might poffibly illuminate the ignorance of a kraal of Hottentots, or reform the profligacy of an Areoy coterie in Otaheite. The only anfwer which can be given to this is, that our parents and children are nearer to us than the people of India or China; that the good we can do to them, if fmaller in amount, is more certain, and the gratification to be derived from it more conftant and fecure. Therefore it is that we Say, that our duties to our families, to our neighbours, and to our country, are fet before us by God himself; and that we are not at liberty to

defert

So much for the general rule, now for the exceptions.

No man (not an anabaptist) will, we presume, contend that it is our duty to preach the natives into an insurrection, or to lay be fore them so fully, and emphatically the scheme of the gospel, as to make them rise up in the dead of the night and shoot their instructors through the head. If conversion be the greatest of all objects, the possession of the country to be converted, is the only mean in this instance by which that conversion can be accomplished; for we have no right to look for a miraculous conversion of the Hindoos; and it would be little short of a miracle, if General Oudinot was to display the same spirit as the serious part of the Directors of the East India Company. Even for missionary purposes, therefore, the utmost discretion is necessary; and if we wish to teach the natives a better religion, we must take care to do it in a manner which will not inspire them with a passion for political change, or we shall inevitably lose our disciples altogether, To us it appears quite clear, from the extracts before us, that neither Hindoo nor Mahometan are at all indifferent to the attacks made upon their religion; the arrogance, and the irritability of the Mahomedan are universally acknowledged; and we put it to our readers, whether the Brahmans seem in these extracts to show the smallest disposition to behold the encroachments upon their religion with passiveness and unconcern. A missionary who con verted only a few of the refuse of society, might live for ever in peace in India, and receive his salary from his fanatical masters for pompous predictions of universal conversion, transmitted by the ships of the season; but, if he had any marked success among the natives, it could not fail to excite much more dangerous specimens of jealousy and discontent than those which we have extracted from the Anabaptist Journal. How is it in human nature, that a Brahman should be indifferent to encroachments upon his religion? His reputation, his dignity, and in great measure his wealth, depend upon the preservation of the present superstitions; and why is it to be supposed that motives which are so powerful with all other human beings, are inoperative with him alone? If the Brahmans, however, are disposed to excite a rebellion in support of their own influence, no man, who

knows

defert them, in order to gain a remote chance of conferring greater benefits on ftrangers at a distance. The application of all this to the fubject of miflions is obvious and decifive; and, laying the hazards of the experiment out of the queftion, we have no hefitation in faying, that there is fcarcely a parifh in England or Ireland, in which the zeal and activity of any one of these Indian apolles would not have done more good, repreffed more immorality, and awakened more devotion,-than can be expected from their joint efforts in the populous regions of Afia.

knows any thing of India, can doubt that they have it in their power to effect it.

It is in vain to say, that these attempts to diffuse christianity, do not originate from the government in India. The omnipotence of government in the East is well known to the natives; if government does not prohibit, it tolerates; if it tolerates the conversion of the natives, the suspicion may be easily formed that it encourages that conversion. If the Brahmans do not believe this themselves, they may easily persuade the common people that such is the fact; nor are there wanting, besides the activity of these new missionaries, many other circumstances to corroborate such a rumour. Under the auspices of the College at Fort William, the scriptures are in a course of translation into the languages of almost the whole continent of oriental India, and we perceive that in aid of this object, the Bible Society has voted a very magnificent subscription. The three principal chaplains of our Indian settlements are (as might be expected) of principles exactly corresponding with the enthusiasm of their employers at home; and their zeal upon the subject of religion, has shone and burnt with the most exemplary fury. These circumstances, if they do not really impose upon the minds of the leading natives, may give them a very powerful handle for misrepresenting the intentions of government to the lower orders.

We see from the massacre of Vellore, what a powerful engine attachment to religion may be rendered in Hindostan. The rumours might all have been false; but that event shows they were tremendously powerful when excited. The object, therefore, is not only, not to do any thing violent and unjust upon subjects of religion, but not to give any strong colour to jealous and disaffected natives for misrepresenting your intentions.

All these observations have tenfold force, when applied to an empire which rests so entirely upon opinion. If physical force could be called in to stop the progress of error, we could afford to be misrepresented for a season; but 30,000 white men living in the midst of 70 millions sable subjects, must be always in the right, or at least never represented as grossly in the wrong. Attention to the prejudicies of the subject, is wise in all governments, but quite indispensable in a government constituted as our empire in India is constituted; where an uninterrupted series of dexterous conduct is not only necessary to our prosperity, but to our existence.

Those reasonings are entitled to a little more consideration, at a period when the French threaten our existence in India by open force, and by every species of intrigue with the native powers. In all governments, every thing takes its tone from the head: Fanaticism has got into the government at home; fanaticism will

lead

lead to promotion abroad. The civil servant in India will not only not dare to exercise his own judgement, in checking the in-, discretions of ignorant missionaries; but he will strive to recommend himself to his holy masters in Leadenhall Street, by imitating Brother Cran and Brother Ringletaube, and by every species of fanatical excess. Methodism at home is no unprofitable game to play. In the East it will soon be the infallible road to promotion. This is the great evil; if the management was in the hands of men who were as discreet and wise in their devotion, as they are in matters of temporal welfare, the desire of putting an end to missions might be premature, and indecorous.. But, the misfortune is, the men who wield the instrument, ought not, in common sense and propriety, to be trusted with it for a single instant. Upon this subject they are quite insane, and ungovernable; they would deliberately, piously, and conscientiously expose our whole Eastern empire to destruction, for the sake of converting half a dozen Brahmans, who, after stuffing themselves with rum and rice, and borrowing money from the missionaries, would run away, and cover the gospel and its professors with every species of impious ridicule and abuse.

Upon the whole, it appears to us hardly possible to push the business of proselytism in India to any length, without incurring the utmost risk of losing our empire. The danger is more tremendous, because it may be so sudden; religious fears are a very probable cause of disaffection in the troops; if the troops are generally disaffected, our Indian empire may be lost to us as suddenly as a frigate or a fort; and that empire is governed by men who, we are very much afraid, would feel proud to lose it in such a cause.

But I think it my duty to make a folemn appeal, to all who ftill retain the fear of God, and who admit, that religion, and the course of conduct which it prefcribes, are not to be banilhed from the affairs of nations, now when the political fky, fo long overcaft, has become more lowering and black than ever, whether this is a period for augmenting the weight of our national fins and provocations, by an exclusive TOLERATION of idolatry; a crime which, unless the Bible be a forgery, has actually drawn forth the heaviest denunciations of vengeance, and the most fearful inflictions of the divine difpleafure. '-Confiderations on Communicating the Knowledge of Chriflianity to the Natives of India, p. 98.

Can it be credited, that this is an extract from a pamphlet generally supposed to be written by a noble Lord at the Board of Controul, from whose official interference, the public might have expected a corrective to the pious temerity of others?

The other leaders of the party, indeed, make at present great professions of toleration, and express the strongest abhorrence of using violence to the natives. This does very well for a beginning;

but

but we have little confidence in such declarations. We believe their fingers itch to be at the stone and clay gods of the Hindoos; and that, in common with the noble Controuler, they attribute a great part of our national calamities to these ugly images of deities on the other side of the world. We again repeat, that upon such subjects, the best and ablest men, if once tinged by fanaticism, are not to be trusted for a single moment.

2dly, Another reason for giving up the task of conversion, is the want of success. In India, religion extends its empire over the minutest actions of life. It is not merely a law for moral conduct, and for occasional worship; but it dictates to a man his trade, his dress, his food, and his whole behaviour. His religion also punishes a violation of its exactions, not by eternal and future punishments, but by present infamy. If an Hindoo is irreligious, or, in other words, if he loses his cast, he is deserted by father, mother, wife, child, and kindred, and becomes instantly a solitary wanderer upon the earth: to touch him, to receive him, to eat with him, is a pollution producing a similar loss of cast; and the state of such a degraded man is worse than death itself. To these evils an Hindoo must expose himself, before he becomes a Christian; and this difficulty must a missionary overcome, before he can expect the smallest success; a difficulty which, it is quite clear, that they themselves, after a short residence in India, consider to be insuperable.

As a proof of the tenacious manner in which the Hindoos cling to their religious prejudices, we shall state two or three very short anecdotes, to which any person who has resided in India might easily produce many parallels.

In the year 1766, the late Lord Clive and Mr Verelft employed the whole influence of Government to reftore a Hindoo to his caft, who had forfeited it, not by any neglect of his own, but by having been compelled, by a moft unpardonable act of violence, to fwallow a drop of cow broth. The Brahmins, from the peculiar circumftances of the cafe, were very anxious to comply with the wishes of Government; the principal men among them met once at Kishnagur, and once at Calcutta ; but after confultations, and an examination of their mot antient records, they declared to Lord Clive, that as there was no precedent to justify the act, they found it impoffible to reftore the unfortu nate man to his caft, and he died foon after of a broken heart." Scott Waring's Preface, p. lvi.

It is the custom of the Hindoos, to expose dying people upon the banks of the Ganges. There is something peculiarly holy in that river; and it sooths the agonies of death, to look upon its waters in the last moments. A party of English were coming down in a boat, and perceived upon the bank a pious Hindoo, in a state of the last imbecility,—about to be drowned by the rising

of