The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 27, 1858. 1170 derived from local idolatries. The same impor tant chapter deals excellently with the subject of caste, an institution, the true nature of which it is of paramount importance that those who have assumed the direct government of this immense section of the human family should clearly com prehend. The word is in everybody's mouth, but few have distinct and accurate conception of its meaning. Yet that meaning must afford the clue to any wise and successful system of legis lation and government for India. Mr. Trevor's conclusion is that caste is a social, rather than a religious, institution, invented by the Aryan tribes—the original Hind«) invaders—to conso lidate and perpetuate their hold upon the mass of the people, whom they reduced into that helpless serfdom once prevalent throughout Europe. In them was invested the Sudra caste (pp. 38, 39). We commend the whole of this carefully-written chapter to careful consideration, for we know not where is to be found more clearly, and exhibited with the little apparent effort of one thoroughly familiar with his subject, the latest state of know ledge respecting it. We are bound to say that the tone of the work is eminently Christian and patriotic ; and in this aspect of it we congratulate the author on his absolute freedom from cant—from that short sighted, smooth-tongued, so-called " religious view" of India, too prevalent among certain well-meaning classes of this country, and calcu lated exactly to defeat the true objects of a truly wise—that is, a Christian—statesmanship. The march of events is constantly exhibited as under the guidance of Divine Providence, which has selected the British nation to give enlightenment, to give rest and tranquillity, to the exhausted States of India. With this view our rule is often placed in vivid contrast with that which it has displaced. Neither a maudlin sentimental affec tion for the " gentle Ilindoo," nor a blind admi ration of the martial and gorgeous Mohammedan, prevents a searching exposure of the real bar barity of both Governments, as well as the fearful bloodshed and misery attending their collisions. These are topics which we rejoice to see brought with boldness, precision, and often through the medium of a very picturesque style, under the notice of our " millions" at the present con juncture. The following are the author's reflections on the decline of the Mogul Empire after the death of Aurungzebe, when the capture of Delhi by the Mahrattas, and the deposition, murder, and exile of the last descendants of Timour, with the re volt of all its feudatories, had left the field clear or the rise of British power : It was surely time for the bloody strife to cease. For B.2.ren hundred and fifty years the Mohammedan power had been engaged in the subjugation of India. Its that con quests were made when the Danes were contending with the Saxons for the mastery of England : the sceptre fell from its grasp while England was disputing with her North American colonies, in the reign of George 111. The Norman Conquest, the Wars of the Plantageneta and the Roses, the Medireval Church, the Protestant Reformation, the Great Rebellion, the Restoration, successively stamped their character on this island while India was plunged in one monotonous series of barbarian ravages. The British constitution was born, matured, cut away, recovered, and carried towards completeness, while Hindu liberties lay struggling under the iron heel of Mussulman despotism. Literature was planted in England, and nourished up to her present stately growth ; the principles of civil and religious liberty were developed from the very germ ; private honour and public faith grew up as the pillars of society; and the light of compassion was thrown upon the deepest recesses of poverty and crime, in a period during which India learnt absolutely nothing from tbe Moham medan rulers. • Blood had flowed enough to steep the ltrilish isles in one crimson sea. Treasure was heaped together, of which Euglaud, with her agricultural riches and inexhaustible commercial credit, never saw the tithe in one place. Magnificence, which all the courts of Europe could not match, dazzled even the orier.tal eye. The !radishes had ruled and moved as very gods among their yrostrat•: subjects. And now that all was gone— The cloud-upped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The insubstantial pageant faded-- not one national or social benefit remained to cotnpen3ate for the aaful price of the show. The empire was dis solved : lblam had achieved no victory ovcr idolatry ; and the result of the struggle was a vast diminution in num bers, wealth, and morals. The ruins of ancient cities attest, to the present hour, the desolation in which alone the biussulman could make peace with the and • Sixty-flve Mohammedan conquerors and rulers of Hindustan are enumerated from Mahmoud of (Anent (a.o. 1001) to the last of the Moguls (A.D. 1760). Of this number, twenty-four were assassinated, eleven deposed or abdicated, two slain in battle, one killed by a fall, and twentreeven alleged to have died a natural death. .- with every allowance for inaccuracy, the accounts of the Greeks testify to many qualities which are sought for in vain from the servile but revengeful race which emerged from under the sceptre of the Mogul. Such is the contrast between the civilization of the Gospel and that of the Koran. Such are the effects of ruling populous nations for the sole advantage of a dominant race : and similar mast be the consequences at all times of trying to govern India by the sword alone. (pp. 141, 2.) The progress of British ascendancy, and the conduct of its promoters, are judged on the same commanding principle : Warren Hastings was not free from the faults of his age and class. Highly accomplished in classical sad oriental literature, lie was devoid of an influential sense of religion, lax in morals, self-confident, and ambitious. But his lofty and sagacious mind was animated more by a passion for his country's glory than for personal advan tage. His defects ware common to his accusers and the whole state of society in which they lived. It was the age of the French Revolution, when religion and morals were at their lowest ehb throughout Europe. In India the natives were in reasonable doubt whether their con gnerors owned any religion at all. There were but few clergymen, fewer churches, and no Christian missions. Such was the absence even of the externals of Christianity, that horse•races were publicly run in Calcutta on the Lord's day. It is vain to expect that human nature will be restrained by its own sense of honour or honesty, where God is denied, and the heart not illumined from above. (pp. '214,5.) Here is Mr. Trevor's account of the causes as we trust it may at length be styled, the late mutiny, which will be read with interest, as pro ceeding from a thoughtful and experienced ob server of Indian affairs : Beneath the general calm, some reasons fur serious apprehension had long been manifest to the more die cerning. The reverses sustained in Affghsnistan bad tarnished the lustre of the British arms. The rapid pro gress of the annexation policy had excited the alarm of princes and chieftains, ambitious for personal ascendancy, and caring little for the general tranquillity and improve. ment. These feelings were diligently fomented by num bers of pensioned rulers and their discontented follawers. The progress of European civilization was hateful to the old Hindu and Mohammedan bigots, who valued nothing so much as a rigid adherence to their decaying superstitions. A society was in active existence in Calcutta, called the l)hurma Sobah, established fcr the preservation of Hindu religion and caste against, European innovations. By this society, every effort of government at moral progress, every improvement in the law, every step in national education, was denounced as an attack on the social and religious institutions of their ancestors. These accusa tions were vented in public meetings, and widely dissemi nated by means of the native press. Such elements of disturbance were naturally to be expected, and need have inspired no dismay ; but they required a watchful eye, with a prompt and powerful arm. The discontented classes, though numerically insignificant, were active and resolute; the bulk of the population, to whom the improved administration gave increase of wealth and happiness, are proverbially apathetic. Submissive to all governments, they were never known to he zealous for any. Everything in India depends on the possession and the exhibition of power; and the British power was now again seriously called in question in the East. An opinion had been widely spread that Russia was severely tasking all our resources in the Crimea. The Court of Persia was again alive with intrigues, and cor responding with the Mohammedan princes in India. The expedition against that country in DCA greatly weakened the European force at the disposal of the Indian Govern ment. No augmentation of the army had taken place proportionate to the increase of territory and population acquired in the Punjab, Pegu, and Gude ; and serious apprehensions bad been expressed by Lord Dalhousie's Government on this point, which were not sufficiently regarded by the Ministers of the Crown. Meantime the native army, on which the main reliance was to be reposed, was itself, in Bengal, the object of no little uneasiness. A disposition to mutiny had often ap peared in its ranks. Largely composed of Mohammedans, Brahmins, and Rsjpoots, it was peculiarly open to the appeals of bigotry and fanaticism. An idea took posses sion of the sepoys that, after reducing India under one authority, the British intended to reduce it to one religion. Every annexation lent strength to this notion. f hr, sepoys were aware also of the weakness of the European force, and many symptoms indicated a disposition, sooner or later, to try their own strength. The annexation of nude, however just or unavoidable, might well fan the smoult:eting embers of discontent. The Bengal sepoys were mostly natives of that kingdom, and after serving their time returned thither in the enjoy. ment of pensions. Under the corrupt system of the native Government, the sepoys were allowed advantages in the courts of justice which British administration could never tolerate. Again, the lax condition of the police bad left every petty chief to maintain his own castle and retainers, and to these independent classes the restraints of British The country had been for generations the paradise of adventurers, the Algid& of India, the nursing place and sanctuary of scoundrelism, Buchan is without a parallel on earth. When the fiat of Lord Dalhousie went forth, there were left standing in the country two hundred and forty-six forts, mounting tour hundred and thirty-six guns, and having eight thousand gunners to work them. lie took into our service about twelve thousand of the regular forces and live hundred artillerymen, and the rest, with arms in their hands, were sent adrift to meek their fortunes.—The Srpoy Iterolt, by IL Mead. law could not but prove odious. A further effect of annexation was the disbandment of two-thirds of the K. ragged and mutinous army, who, roaming the country quest of employment, spread everywhere their own . content.* The inflammable elements might still, perhaps, care and watchfulness h ave b een :subdued; but, unfc nal ely, Lord Dalhousie, in the ardour of a high-winch reform, had announced the intention of early introdt the improved system of land revenue, and the arum meat filled the great zemindars with alarm and indignat In such a State as Oude these men are so inevi powerful that prudence might have dictated a longer ration of their corruption and tyranny. Though subj for so many centurie=s to Masan'man usurpation, Ott still largely populated by Hindus, among whom the ' min and Kshatriya castes muster strong. It contaii oldest and probably the most warlike Hindu ripulatik. India, mixed with large numbers of haughty and intract Mussulmans. Such men are not easily won to a toy master, for, unfortunately, both Mussulmau and E are slow to appreciate public improvements, whet chased at the cost of private prerogative or prejudice. How far any plot was formed for the overthrow , British power is not at present satisfactorily ascertaii But predictions are said to have been afloat that the tenary anniversary of the battle of Plessey was dem witness the destruction of the empire then found( India. Such prophecies have a notorious tendeal fulfil themselves, and it is now certain that dila( was alarmingly prevalent iu the ranks of the Bengal before a suspicion of the impending danger had troi the minds of the officers or the Government. 291-20.) In another place we find a most telling, structive parallel between the mutinies at 31( in 1857, and at Vellore in 1806: The mutiny which broke out at Meerut on the loth 1.57, followed, to the nolninest particular, the preceth the 10th July, 180 j, at Vellore. In both a Beth Mohammedan family was in dangerous proximity font with the means of mischief, and at liberty to apply I without check or observation. Both occasions exhi the same ignorance on the part of the European oL of the disposition of their native troops ; with the tame tatuated refusal of infoemation when proffered. ' pretext for *notli mutinies was found in an alleged of to the native religion and caste, and in both the officers had unknowingly, or carelessly, suffered a prat be supplied equally offensive to Mussulman and Hi Both conspiracies were based on the suspicion of gen ized plan to enforce Christianity, Benton the troop then on the population. Both were fomented by en gent rumours, industriously propagated by religious am cants and other emissaries ;• and iu both the predictit of astrology were called in to anticipate the downfall British power. In two points the parallel fails. The Govemmet 1808 were without. warning or example in the calami which overtook them ; that of 1857, with precedent of ' before their eyes, permitted it to be repeated on and a more destructive scale. (pp. 214, 5.) The work before us consists of eleven chaps preceded by an excellent glossary and map, followed by a chronological table of our tt torial acquisitions in India, lists of the in States, and the Christian Churches and 31's, in India. The first chapter exhibits a vivid picture ol geography and natural features of India, gig just as much as is requisite, and no more, details forcing themselves on the view of one of his subject, and personally familiar with scenes with which it is concerned. The se' and third chapters are devoted to " The Hind the fifth and sixth are concerned with the mon, decline, and fall of the Moguls ; the sec with Europeans in India; the eighth, ninth, tenth, with the British empire there ; last is devoted, nominally, to the Progrel Christianity. This vast subject is thus seen laid out ; and the only fault of any mot which we have to point out is that which should have thought least likely to be chargi against an English clergyman, once resident cially in India, and whose book shows throughout imbued with the best spirit of . tianity, and a desire of advancing it iu It Mr. Trevor's last chapter is excellent as tar goes, but shows marks of perfunctoriness and perfection. What there is we accept as rat) and temperate, but there might and one have been more, from so competent an disc. There is, however, an intimation towards close of the chapter, that the author may ere bring forth another work of a supplemer character, devoted exclusively to this women subject. • Among other extravagancies it was currently report! the Europeans were about to mike ;a human `scot".. . person of a native; that a hundred bodies, without Leath, lying on the banks of the Moose river ; that lin urorea. built a church which it required a sacrifice of bulagn 1:,• sanctify; and that they designed to massacr e all the excz i t ng e s io . se who would erect the sign of the cross eu "—Thornton . India, vol. iv. p. 78. of file kin g ' s my i n to Lb s . 31 uit'a afortn- 0 icipind duci D i ; tt it oation. xitably 'r tol„ ejected tt 'ode i s Brah- ins Ow lion in Ii actabln fore's.° Si if in par. se. at the Woe]. he ten. 'tied in ded in ocy fiction II arms roablt,l (PP. L in. n I eerut a h 31sy. dem ~1 V hrord al rnisL then hibited °then. Me Ile Ti„ affrnnt tl t oldest ater to ,r 3 1 ..,;;,d amt.. 0 moult• a tent of if 111rg. 7 ?tem, and tern Dative a dons of the re, t ut . IC ftul 1' h the econd dluz: inva- z l xenth and i d the ess ut t sell a oaten one ;L 2ide it oth• hint 0 ludic. .wit t. to rycf. s the e long :ntary stous 1 Led in 11.• u