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.

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 abhorence of using violence to the natives. This does very well for a beginning; 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 Controller, they attribute a great part of our

deities on the one 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.

These 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; fanati-national calamities to these ugly images of cism will lead to promotion abroad. The civil servant in India will not only not dare to exercise his own judgment, in checking the indiscretions 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 Brahmins, who, after stuffing themselves with rum and rice, and borrowing money from the missionaries, would run away and cover the gospel and its possessors 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 very probable causes 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.

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 caste, 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 caste; 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, 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. Verelst employed the whole influence of Government to restore a Hindoo to his caste, who had forfeited it, not by any neglect of his own, but by having been compelled, by a most unpardonable act of violence, to swallow a "But I think it my duty to make a solemn peculiar circumstances of the case, were very drop of cow broth. The Brahmins, from the appeal to all who still retain the fear of God, anxious to comply with the wishes of Governand who admit that religion and the course of ment; the principal men among them met once conduct which it prescribes are not to be banished from the affairs of nations-now when consultations, and an examination of their at Kishnagur, and once at Calcutta; but after the political sky, so long overcast, has become most ancient records, they declared to Lord more lowering and black than ever-whether Clive, that as there was no precedent to justify this is a period for augmenting the weight of the act, they found it impossible to restore the our national sins and provocations, by an ex-unfortunate man to his caste, and he died soon clusive TOLERATION of idolatry; a crime which, after of a broken heart."-Scott Waring's Preunless the Bible be a forgery, has actually face, p. lvi.

drawn forth the heaviest denunciations of vengeance, and the most fearful inflictions of Divine displeasure."-Considerations, &c. 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 Control, from see official interference the public might

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 soothes 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,

"The Mahomedan princes of India naturally gave a preference to the service of men of their own religion, who, from whatever country they came, were of a more vigorous constitution than the stoutest of the subjected nation. This preference has continually encouraged adventurers from Tartary, Persia, and Arabia, to seek their fortunes under a government from which they were sure of receiving greater encouragement than they could expect at home. From these origins, time has formed in India a mighty nation of near ten millions of Mahomedans."—Orme's Indostan, I. p. 24.

Precisely similar to this is the opinion of Dr. Robertson, Note xl.—Indian Disquisition.

in a state of the last imbecility-about to be them numbers of Mahomedans, who, seduced drowned by the rising of the tide, after the by a finer climate, and a richer country, forgot most approved and orthodox manner of their their own. religion. They had the curiosity to land; and as they perceived some more signs of life than were at first apparent, a young Englishman poured down his throat the greatest part of a bottle of lavender water, which he happened to have in his pocket. The effects of such a stimulus, applied to a stomach accustomed to nothing stronger than water, were instantaneous and powerful. The Hindoo revived sufficiently to admit of his being conveyed to the boat, was carried to Calcutta, and perfectly recovered. He had drunk, however, in the company of Europeans;-no matter whether voluntary or involuntary,-the offence was committed: he lost caste, was turned away from his home, and avoided, of course, by every relation and friend. The poor man came before the police, making the bitterest complaints upon being restored to life; and for three years the burden of supporting him fell upon the mistaken Samaritan who had rescued him from death. During that period, scarcely a day elapsed in which the degraded resurgent did not appear before the European, and curse him with the bitterest curses-as the cause of all his misery and desolation. At the end of that period he fell ill, and of course was not again thwarted in his passion for dying. The writer of this article vouches for the truth of this anecdote; and many persons who were at Calcutta at the time must have a distinct recollection of the fact, which excited a great deal of conversation and amusement, mingled with compassion.

It is this institution of castes which has preserved India in the same state in which it existed in the days of Alexander; and which would leave it without the slightest change in habits and manners, if we were to abandon the eountry to-morrow. We are astonished to observe the late resident in Bengal speaking of the fifteen millions of Mahomedans in India as converts from the Hindoos; an opinion, in support of which he does not offer the shadow of an argument, except by asking, whether the Mahomedans have the Tartar face? and if not, how they can be the descendants of the first conquerors of India? Probably not altogether. But does this writer imagine, that the Mahomedan empire could exist in Hindostan for 700 years without the intrusion of Persians, Arabians, and every species of Mussulmen adventurers from every part of the East, which had embraced the religion of Mahomed? And let them come from what quarter they would, could they ally themselves to Hindoo women without producing in their descendants an approximation to the Hindoo features? Robertson, who has investigated this subject with the greatest care, and looked into all the authorities, is expressly of an opposite opinion; and considers the Mussulman inhabitants of Hindostan to be merely the descendants of Mahomedan adventurers, and not converts from the Hindoo faith.

Dr.

"The armies" (says Orme) "which made the first conquests for the heads of the respectI've dynasties, or for other invaders, left behind

As to the religion of the Ceylonese, from which the Bengal resident would infer the facility of making converts of the Hindoos, it is to be observed, that the religion of Boudhou, in ancient times, extended from the north of Tartary to Ceylon, from the Indus to Siam, and (it Foe and Boudhou are the same persons) over China. That of the two religions of Boudhou and Bramá, the one was the parent of the other, there can be very little doubt; but the compa rative antiquity of the two is so very disputed a point, that it is quite unfair to state the case of the Ceylonese as an instance of conversion from the Hindoo religion to any other: and even if the religion of Bramá is the most ancient of the two, it is still to be proved, that the Ceylonese professed that religion before they changed it for their present faith. In point of fact, however, the boasted Christianity of the Ceylonese is proved by the testimony of the missionaries themselves, to be little better than nominal. The following extract from one of their own communications, dated Columbo, 1805, will set this matter in its true light:

"The elders, deacons, and some of the members of the Dutch congregation, came to see us, and we paid them a visit in return, and made a little inquiry concerning the state of the church on this island, which is, in one word, miserable! One hundred thousand of those who are called Christians (because they are baptized) need not go back to heathenism, for they never have been any thing else but heathens, worshippers of Budda: they have been induced, for worldly reasons, to be baptized. O Lord have mercy on the poor inhabitants of this populous island!"

-Trans. Miss. Soc. II. 265.

What success the Syrian Christians had in making converts; in what degree they have gained their numbers by victories over the native superstition, or lost their original numbers by the idolatrous examples to which for so many centuries they have been exposed; are points wrapt up in so much obscurity, that no kind of inference, as to the facility of converting the natives, can be drawn from them. Their present number is supposed to be about

150,000.

It would be of no use to quote the example of Japan and China, even if the progress of the faith in these empires had been much greater than it is. We do not say it is difficult to convert the Japanese, or the Chinese; but the

Hindoos. We are not saying it is difficult to convert human creatures; but difficult to convert human creatures with such institutions. To mention the example of other nations who have them not, is to pass over the material objection, and to answer others which are merely imaginary, and have never been made.

3dly, The duty of conversion is less plain, and less imperious, when conversion exposes the convert to great present misery. An African or an Otaheite proselyte might not perhaps be less honoured by his countrymen if he became a Christian; an Hindoo is instantly subjected to the most perfect degradation. A change of faith might increase the immediate happiness of any other individual; it annihilates for ever all the human comforts which an Hindoo enjoys. The eternal happiness which you proffer him, is therefore less attractive to him than to any other heathen, from the life of misery by which he purchases it.

Nothing is more precarious than our empire in India. Suppose we were to be driven out of it to-morrow, and to leave behind us twenty thousand converted Hindoos, it is most probable they would relapse into heathenism; but their original station in society could not be regained. The duty of making converts, therefore, among such a people, as it arises from the general duty of benevolence, is less strong than it would be in many other cases; because, situated as we are, it is quite certain we shall expose them to a great deal of misery, and not quite certain we shall do them any future good.

without being able to fix upon their minds the more sublime motives by which you profess to be actuated. What a missionary will do here. after with the heart of a convert, is a matter of doubt and speculation. He is quite certain, however, that he must accustom the man to see himself considered infamous; and good principles can hardly be exposed to a ruder shock. Whoever has seen much of Hindoo Christians must have perceived, that the man who bears that name is very commonly nothing more than a drunken reprobate, who conceives himself at liberty to eat and drink anything he pleases, and annexes hardly any other meaning to the name of Christianity. Such sort of converts may swell the list of names, and gratify the puerile pride of a missionary; but what real, discreet Christian can wish to see such Christianity prevail? But it will be urged, if the present converts should become worse Hindoos, and very indifferent Christians, still the next generation will do better; and by degrees, and at the expiration of half a century, or a century, true Christianity may prevail. We may apply to such sort of Jacobin converters what Mr. Burke said of the Jacobin politicians in his time,-"To such men a whole generation of human beings are of no more consequence than a frog in an air-pump." For the distant prospect of doing what most probably after all, they will never be able to effect, there is no degree of present misery and horror to which they will not expose the subjects of their experiment.

As the duty of making proselytes springs 4thly, Conversion is no duty at all, if it mere- from the duty of benevolence, there is a priority ly destroys the old religion, without really and of choice in conversion. The greatest zeal effectually teaching the new one. Brother should plainly be directed to the most desperate Ringletaube may write home that he makes a misery and ignorance. Now, in comparison to Christian, when, in reality, he ought only to many other nations who are equally ignorant state that he has destroyed an Hindoo. Foolish of the truths of Christianity, the Hindoos are a and imperfect as the religion of an Hindoo is, civilized and a moral people. That they have it is at least some restraint upon the intemper- remained in the same state for so many centu ance of human passions. It is better a Brah-ries, is at once a proof that the institutions min should be respected, than that nobody should be respected. An Hindoo had better believe that a deity with an hundred legs and arms, will reward and punish him hereafter, than that he is not to be punished at all. Now, when you have destroyed the faith of an Hindoo, are you quite sure that you will graft upon his mind fresh principles of action, and make him any more than a nominal Christian?

You have 30,000 Europeans in India, and 60 millions of other subjects. If proselytism were to go on as rapidly as the most visionary Anabaptist could dream or desire, in what manner are these people to be taught the genuine truths and practices of Christianity? Where are the clergy to come from? Who is to defray the expense of the establishment? and who can foresee the immense and perilous difficulties of bending the laws, manners, and initutions of a country to the dictates of a new religion? If it were easy to persuade the Hindoos that their own religion was folly, it would be indefinitely difficult effectually to teach them any other. They would tumble their own idols into the river, and you would build them no churches: you would destroy all their present motives for doing right and avoiding wrong,

which established that state could not be highly unfavourable to human happiness. After all that has been said of the vices of the Hindoos, we believe that an Hindoo is more mild and sober than most Europeans, and as honest and chaste. In astronomy the Hindoos have certainly made very high advances;—some, and not an unimportant progress in many sciences. As manufacturers, they are extremely ingenious-and as agriculturists, industrious. Christianity would improve them; (whom would it not improve?) but if Christianity cannot be extended to all, there are many other nations who want it more.

The Hindoos have some very savage customs, which it would be desirable to abolish. Some swing on hooks, some run knives through their hands, and widows burn themselves to death: but these follies (even the last) are quite voluntary on the part of the sufferers. We dislike all misery, voluntary or involuntary; but the difference between the torments which a man chooses, and those which he endures from

We are here, of course, arguing the question only in which it must be placed, though certainly the lowest in a worldly point of view. This is one point of view and least important.

the choice of others, is very great. It is a con- | dence. The late resident writes well; but is siderable wretchedness that men and women miserably fanatical towards the conclusion. should be shut up in religious houses; but it is only an object of legislative interference, when such incarceration is compulsory. Monasteries and nunneries with us would be harmless institutions; because the moment a devotee found he had acted like a fool, he might avail himself of the discovery and run away; and so may an Hindoo, if he repents of his resolution of running hooks into his flesh.

Mr. Cunningham has been diligent in looking into books upon the subject: and though an evangelical gentleman, is not uncharitable to those who differ from him in opinion. There is a passage in the publication of his reverend brother, Mr. Owen, which, had we been less accustomed than we have been of late to this kind of writing, would appear to be quite incredible.

The duties of conversion appear to be of less "I have not pointed out the comparative inimportance, when it is impossible to procure difference, upon Mr. Twining's principles, beproper persons to undertake them, and when such religious embassies, in consequence, de- tween one religion and another, to the welfare volve upon the lowest of the people. Who of a people; nor the impossibility, on those wishes to see scrofula and atheism cured by a human means, so long as it shall remain under principles, of India being Christianized by any single sermon in Bengal? who wishes to see the dominion of the Company; nor the alterna the religious hoy riding at anchor in the Hoogly tive to which Providence is by consequence reduced, river? or shoals of jumpers exhibiting their nimble piety before the learned Brahmins of of either giving up that country to everlasting su Benares? This madness is disgusting and perstition, or of working some miracle in order to accomplish its conversion."-Owen's Address, p. 28. dangerous enough at home:-Why are we to send out little detachments of maniacs to spread This is really beyond any thing we ever reover the fine regions of the world the most un-member to have read. The hoy, the cock-fight, just and contemptible opinion of the gospel? The wise and rational part of the Christian ministry find they have enough to do at home to combat with passions unfavourable to human happiness, and to make men act up to their professions. But if a tinker is a devout man, he infallibly sets off for the East. Let any man read the Anabaptist missions :-can he do so without deeming such men pernicious and extravagant in their own country,-and without feeling that they are benefiting us much more by their absence, than the Hindoos by their advice?

and the religious newspaper, are pure reason when compared to it. The idea of reducing Providence to an alternative!! and, by a motion at the India House, carried by ballot! We would not insinuate, in the most distant manner, that Mr. Owen is not a gentleman of the most sincere piety; but the misfortune is, all extra superfine persons accustom themselves to a familiar phraseology upon the most sacred subjects, which is quite shocking to the common and inferior orders of Christians. Providence reduced to an alternative!!!!! Let it be remembered, this phrase comes from a member of a religious party, who are loud in their complaints of being confounded with enthusiasts and fanatics.

It is somewhat strange, in a duty which is stated by one party to be so clear and so indispensable, that no man of moderation and good sense can be found to perform it. And if no We cannot conclude without the most pointed other instruments remain but visionary enthu- reprobation of the low mischief of the Christian siasts, some doubt may be honestly raised Observer; a publication which appears to have whether it is not better to drop the scheme en- no other method of discussing a question fairly tirely. open to discussion, than that of accusing their Shortly stated, then, our argument is this:-antagonists of infidelity. No art can be more We see not the slightest prospect of success;-unmanly, or, if its consequences are foreseen, we see much danger in making the attempt;- more wicked. If this publication had been the and we doubt if the conversion of the Hindoos work of a single individual, we might have would ever be more than nominal. If it is passed it over in silent disgust; but as it is a duty of general benevolence to convert the looked upon as the organ of a great political Heathen, it is less a duty to convert the Hin-religious party in this country, we think it right doos than any other people, because they are already highly civilized, and because you must infallibly subject them to infamy and present degradation. The instruments employed for these purposes are calculated to bring ridicule and disgrace upon the gospel; and in the dis-expose the best possessions of the country cretion of those at home, whom we consider as to extreme danger, and if it was in the hands of their patrons, we have not the smallest reli- men who were discreet, as well as devout, we ance; but, on the contrary, we are convinced should consider it to be a scheme of true piety, they would behold the loss of our Indian em- benevolence, and wisdom: but the baseness and pire, not with the humility of men convinced of malignity of fanaticism shall never prevent us erroneous views and projects, but with the from attacking its arrogance, its ignorance, and pride, the exultation, and the alacrity of martyrs. its activity. For what vice can be more treOf the books which have handled this sub-mendous than that which, while it wears the ject on either side, we have little to say. Ma- outward appearance of religion, destroys the jor Scott Waring's book is the best against the happiness of man, and dishonours the name of Missions; but he wants arrangement and pru- God?

to notice the very unworthy manner in which they are attempting to extend their influence. For ourselves, if there were a fair prospect of carrying the gospel into regions where it was before unknown,-if such a project did not

F

CATHOLICS.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1808.]

THE various publications which have issued from the press in favour of religious liberty, have now nearly silenced the arguments of their opponents; and, teaching sense to some, and inspiring others with shame, have left those only on the field who can neither learn nor blush.

But, though the argument is given up, and the justice of the Catholic cause admitted, it seems to be generally conceived, that their case, at present, is utterly hopeless; and that, to advocate it any longer, will only irritate the oppressed, without producing any change of opinion in those by whose influence and authority that oppression is continued. To this - opinion, unfortunately too prevalent, we have many reasons for not subscribing.

the grand juries in Ireland to petition against further concessions; and, in six months afterwards, government were compelled to introduce, themselves, those further relaxations of the penal code, of which they had just before assured the Catholics they must abandon all hope. Such is the absurdity of supposing that a few interested and ignorant individuals can postpone, at their pleasure and caprice, the happiness of millions.

As to the feeling of irritation with which such continued discussion may inspire the Irish Catholics, we are convinced that no opinion could be so prejudicial to the cordial union which we hope may always subsist between the two countries, as that all the efforts of the Irish were unavailing,-that argument was hopeless, that their case was prejudged with a sullen inflexibility which circumstances could not influence, pity soften, or reason subdue.

We are by no means convinced, that the decorous silence recommended upon the Catholic question would be rewarded by those future concessions, of which many persons appear to be so certain. We have a strange incredulity where persecution is to be abo

indisputable rights. When we see it done, we will believe it. Till it is done, we shall always consider it to be highly improbable-much too improbable-to justify the smallest relaxation in the Catholics themselves, or in those who are well-wishers to their cause. When the fanciful period at present assigned for the emancipation arrives, new scruples may arise

We do not understand what is meant in this country by the notion, that a measure, of consummate wisdom and imperious necessity, is to be deferred for any time, or to depend upon any contingency. Whenever it can be made clear to the understanding of the great mass of enlightened people, that any system of political conduct is necessary to the public welfare, every obstacle (as it ought) will be swept away before it; and as we conceive it to be by no means improbable, that the country may, erelished, and any class of men restored to their long, be placed in a situation where its safety or ruin will depend upon its conduct towards the Catholics, we sincerely believe we are doing our duty in throwing every possible light on this momentous question. Neither do we understand where this passive submission to ignorance and error is to end. Is it confined to religion? or does it extend to war and peace, as well as religion? Would it be tolerated, if any man were to say, "Abstain from all arguments in favour of peace; the court have resolved upon eternal war; and, as you cannot have peace, to what purpose urge the necessity of it?" We answer,-that courts must be presumed to be open to the influence of reason; or, if they were not, to the influence of prudence and discretion, when they perceive the public opinion to be loudly and clearly against them. To lie by in timid and indolent silence, -to suppose an inflexibility, in which no court ever could, under pressing circumstances, persevere-and to neglect a regular and vigorous appeal to public opinion, is to give up all chance of doing good, and to abandon the only instrument by which the few are ever prevented from ruining the many.

It is folly to talk of any other ultimatum in government than perfect justice to the fair claims of the subject. The concessions to the Irish Catholics in 1792 were to be the ne plus ultra. Every engine was set on foot to induce

*History of the Penal Laws against the Irish Catholics, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Union. Henry Parnell Esq. M.P.

By

fresh forbearance be called for-and the operations of common sense be deferred for another generation. Toleration never had a present tense, nor taxation a future one. The answer which Paul received from Felix, he owed to the subject on which he spoke. When justice and righteousness were his theme, Felix told him to go away, and he would hear him some other time. All men who have spoken to courts upon such disagreeable topics, have received the same answer. Felix, however, trembled when he gave it; but his fear was ill-directed. He trembled at the subjecthe ought to have trembled at the delay.

Little or nothing is to be expected from the shame of deferring what it is so wicked and perilous to defer. Profligacy in taking office is so extreme, that we have no doubt public men may be found, who, for half a century, would postpone all remedies for a pestilence, if the preservation of their places depended upon the propagation of the virus. To us, such kind of conduct conveys no other action than that of sordid avaricious impudence:-it puts to sale the best interests of the country for some improvement in the wines and meats and carriages which a