The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-25 00:00:00

LECTURE ON INDIA.

On Friday evening an address on "India" was de-
livered at Dorford Baptist Chapel by the Rev. W. H.
Denman, of Serampore. There was a large attendance,
and the chapel was well filled. The minister of the
chapel, the Rev. Frederick Perkins, presided. After a
psalm had been sung and prayer offered by the Rev. J.
Burt, of Weymouth,
The Rev. CHAIRMAN offered a few remarks, observing
that the object before the meeting, that of missionary
enterprise was a glorious one—namely, to carry the
gospel "to every creature," that no son or daughter of
earth should be ignorant of "The truth as it is in
Jesus." This object, great and glorious as it was, would
eventually be accomplished, for the means were such as
the Most High had sanctioned, and were, like the
laws of nature by which the whole universe was held
tegether in harmony, very simple. There was a beauti-
ful adaptation of those means to secure the end in view.
The speaker concluded by reading a letter from the
Rev. Josiah Miller, minister of South-street Chapel, re-
gretting that a severe cold prevented his attendance.
The Rev. W. H. DENHAM then addressed the as-
sembly. He said his purpose that evening was to ex-
press AOllll3 sympathy with the great work of Christian
missions ; and to aid his hearers in forming somewhat
of a correct conception of the great and noble country
which was to occupy their thoughts and conversation
for an hour. India was one of the noblest countries
under heaven ; and the difficulty was to convey a just
and accurate idea of what a land it is to those who have
not travelled there, or who have travelled in Europe and
were only acquainted with the scenery, physical features,
and people of nations they had met with similar to
those met with on the European continent. From early
life he had taken • deep interest in India, he had
given fourteen of the best years of his life to the interest
of that eountry, and intended in a few months again to
return thither to spend the remainder of his life in that
land of his voluntary exile and prayer and where his
family were. Two of his brethren had traversed a very
large portion of the continent of India; and to himself
the whole of the north west of India was perfectly
familiar, its cities and towns he had personally visited,
with the lands more easterly, even to the very borders of
AABAM and China. In 1851 and 1852 he went to the
very extremities of our pouessions in Burmah Proper
and Arraaan, and the year before last right through
Northern India, and visiting and transacting IRlS-
sionary business with many persons in the various
towns in his route, such as Benares, Dinapore, Bogul-
pore, and places all were now familar with—Cawnpore,
which possessed a more than ordinary share of melancholy
interest, Allahabad, Agra, and Lucknow. It was, in-
deed, less than two years ago that he left the last
named city, so painful in remembrance and associations,
where, perhaps, a siege of all others had been sustained,
and instances of moral heroism had been displayed un-
paralleled in the world's history ; so that his address
would not be "got up" from books, but the information
he would convey was of matters personally familiar to
him. Some had thought of India in connection with the
island upon which we dwell—this little rocky, sea-girt
island; and in order to aid in forming something like an
idea of the magnitude of India he ventured an illustra-
tion recently suggested to his mind. Let them conceive
of the whole area of that chapel representing India, then,
if he drew his finger across the small table before him,
he might say, " let one half of this table represent
England." • Things so dissimilar could not be compared,
they must be contrasted. Upon this island dwelt two
races, or, at the utmost, three; and there were but two
languages spoken, and which were akin to the Gaelic or
Celtic—the Erse in Ireland, Gaelic in Scotland, and
Welch in the Principality ; but these were branches of
one great sister Celtic tongue. Whereas in India there
are 13 polished languages, with 30 dialects and more
akin to those languages, and spoken by as many varying
people, as different in aspect, and, in many instances, in
their habits as the various nations upon the European
continent. He instanced a case where lie had had a dis-
cussion on India with two Indian residents—one of
whom spoke Gezerati, another Flindi and Hindostani,
whilst Imuself (the Rev. Mr. Denman) used the Bengali.
Though he could understand two of the languages one of
the persons could understand him and the other could
not—they were, though residents in one land, barba-
rians to each other. Each of those residents would, in
speaking of the people they were most familiar with,
give a different amount of India. This might explain
how, when discrepant accounts were occasionally heard,

though the deatrilptions were equally correct, yet, at the
tame time, be exceedingly dissimilar. However,
could be 'aid, all the people had feeling' and views n
common in reference to religion, just as a the varying
T
sectslri
istinia!Al.
• North-West man, or one from Code, was easily dui-
t. ishable. Some of the people were an Intelligent as
rAarell tmliegreht were
any gentleman in this town, anluxurioui in their live
in ~
as literate in their attainments, while some lived pre-
eouipsiasd
AunHidketlt, the
a one
g
C itehll!,
seriously by the Able, or savage, or dweller, on the hills,
barbarous, and untutored, we as illiterate—destitute of
the very elements of knowledge—is the tribe, Dr.
Livingstone Met with in the centre of Africa. There
were tribes in /ndip Very little above the brutes, con-
tending for their forest dwellings with the tiger, the
snake, or the wild buffalo ?lord, and within two dale
journey of such might be found men ale polished as any
highly eitocated inhabitant of Dorchester. A few weeks
ago the Thrive in • money article startled, doubtless, a
good many periods by stating that there were half a
dozen men in Caloutta *ITO could buy up Lombard.
street. This might, of course, be ezeggeration, yet
there were men immensely rich in thell vast continent.
On being tucked by a banker he (Mr. Denten) without
the slightest difficulty called upon some three or four
men in all the Presidencies reputed to possess hum
£2,000,000 to £4,000,000 sterling. One of those men in
Bombay, and Who had been knighted by Her Majesty,
gave away year by year immense sums. Another person
fed one greet division of our army free of expense. To
him it was a trifle, comparatively as nothing. Their
commercial enterprise was amazing. Look at their
textile fabrics, their beautiful shawls and embroidery'
in the whole world there was nothing like Wein. Com-
pare them with the products of the loom in this country,
or with the workmanship of Faris, and the moat unini-
tiated would instantly pronounce in their favour. We
had not yet reached the power and skill of the Hindoo's
fingers, his beautiful manipulation, the artistic blend-
ing of colours mingling in those most exquisite fabrics.
Although, ail to their jewelry, they hardly knew how to
set the stones like the English artist, yet visitors to the
Exhibition had informed him that the Most beautiful
specimens of filagree were from India. In India not only
were seen the dazzling tiara around the brew or the bean-
tif ul stomacher, but horses were completely es-
parisoned in jewels, and elephants, too, when a
native king or gentleman was on a pilgrimage.
Twice since lie (Mr. Denham) had been in India, had he
heard of • man weighing himself in gold, and giving it
away. Still it would be wrong to think that great for-
tunes were to be made in India—competencies might be
had. Yet, he unhesitatingly said, the wealth of India was
untouched. Gold and silver, and jewels, the richest and
most beautiful stones to be seen here had been pro-
duced in India. True, the mines had yet to be descended
for that mineral wealth, the jungle yet to be cleared
away, and industry and enterprise set to work upon the
land ; but the real money wealth of India, Si, well as
her comforts and advantages, remained to be developed.
When intersected with R net work of railways—and
these were laid down on a most gigantic wile, and tele-
graphs likewise, which recently had saved the empire,
were commented on • most colossal scale—then look
at India with its variety of products, its sugar, cotton,
indigo, rice, and all the varied productions for which it
was remarkable, and what would be the result if all were
realized to our advantage? Look at the fields of richest
loam —hundreds and hundreds of miles covered with
bountiful harvests, successive harvest, during the year.
Down the centre of northern India rolled the mighty
Ganges, into which greet and glorious river thousands
of tributariee emptied their waters, compered with many
of which the Thames was but a streamlet, a little rivulet.
As to the length of the Gangei, he had gone in a steamer
from sunrise to sundown for 28 days, and then but tra-
versed two thirds of its course, 1,800 miles, and reached
Allehabed. And the face of that river was covered
with native craft. Its length as the crow files was 1,900
mile, ; and, of course, it watered, fertilized, enriched the
glorious plains along its noble banks. He had looked
across its peerleu waters, this way and that, and had
just 46e1l that it had a brink, a bank line; but it seemed
like a mighty Inland sea—it was like looking from
Weymouth across the bay some mile or so to the Coast.
guard house. And most beautiful towns, most remark-
able buildings were found on the banks of the Ganges
and the Juruna. Before the siege the city of Delhi was
perfect marble. At Agra was a building known to
every one—the Taj MARI, composed of the purest
marble, inlaid with jewels within and without; occupying
the area of St. Paul', Cathedral, but having the form of
• mosque, with its four minarets and beautiful cupola in
the centre. The very lowest estimate of the money
value of the beautiful fabric was the enormous sum of
£1,700,000. The whole of the Koran or Hindu Bible,
was inlaid in that beautiful building. Indeed things
that seemed in England remnant* were reality in India,
and led to a belief in the wonders of the Arabian
Night.. Mrs. Colin hieckenzie's cheap reprint of Six
Yearn in India, entitled Delhi, and such works OA the
late General Sleeman's Rambles in Upper India, were
very rich in information. At the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, was • model in ivory of the TO Mahal,
which would occupy • great proportion of that chapel,
and all who saw it pronounoed it one of the remit
gems of architecture ever seen ; yet that wanted the
Inlay. When he saw the Alhambra at the Crystal
Palace, having looked upon the beautiful enamel in
India, paint appeared to be paltry, and only conveyed
to him a feeble idea of the structure erected by the
royal Mnsaulmans or Mahometans. He would not refer
to the Machu or Bombay Presidendee, but confine him-
self to that part of India he had just left. The moun-
tains of Amain, the foot of the Himaleyas, when first
rising, appeared like the mountains of this country, but
they soon shut up their heads abruptly some thousands
of feet above the level of the sec After passing over
some 800 miles, where not • hillock broke the scene,
yet all exquisitely beautiful, the country still, however,
gradually rose thousande of feet, then grand, and peer-
less in their motion, the mountains heaved their lofty
heads right up into God's bright blue, to heights never
yet reached by the boldest teronaut—regions of eternal
ice and primeral snows from the day God placed his
creating finger upon them. These mountains went
right across the land in a double chain, hero and there
adorned with beautiful cities, like Simla, 10,000 feet
above the sea's level, having a olimate like ours, and
where trees, familiar in much-loved England, were
found. Going lower a constant change took place. The
graceful palm might be found in all its beautiful va-
rieties, the date, the beautiful bamboo, the wide-spread-
ing acacia, and the lordly banyan. Near his residence
rose a banyan, that marvellous specimen of God's work,
beneath which 10,000 men could stand. Lower still
whole forests could be seen at once in flower, or their
variegated foliage covered with blossoms of parasitic
plants, showing how beautiful God was on this earth,
and telling how beautiful must heaven be. Then the
people were very anoient ; and, though India was cursed
with one of the foulest systems of idolatry, yet it pos-
sessed one of the completest systems of theological
philosophy the world had ever known. Their learned
pundits always pointed north-westward, towards Chat-
den, when asked to point to the origin of the people.
All believed they came from Persia, just where that
wonderful country, Assyria, had been laid open by
Layard, and whence had been lately brought the mar-
vellous marbles on which, perhaps, Daniel or Ezekiel
had gazed when in Babylon, and where had been de-
ciphered, by Col. Rawlinson, the curious hammer-headed
cuneiform characters, whose translation had filled up
the history of the Book of Kings, furnished the account
of Senacherib, and the life of Nebuchadnezzar when
mad, engraved with the pen, as Job said, till
the last fire shall have obliterated them. There
stood God's testimonies. And those inscriptions were
evidently pure Sanecrit—the mother of all the lan-
guages of the human race. The articles brought by
Solomon's ship masters—the ape, peacock, ivory,
had the words used in the books of the Indians, and there
was no doubt that the things spoken of came to Soloman
in ships by Bombay. India had books, too, the most
ancient in the world save Moses, Job and Joshua. After
adducing several interesting historical parallels, he urged
that serious and careful attention was deserved and
should be given to no ancient a people. The whole popu-
lation of our land was about 20,000,000. If any one were
to attempt to write down 10,000 strokes, however early
he began, and however rapid his msnipulation, midnight
would close on him ere he finished his task; ten days
would be required to write down one million. But coins
to the correctest census of the population of India and it
was stated at 180,000,000—0 r nearly 200,000,000 of liv-
ing souls. Well, in India there was food enough for
every man and vast quantities were sent away, but none
was imported. What then must be that land, its
fertility and resources, that could feed so vest a popula-
tion? Place the youngest child of any family at that
chapel door, and he would be decrep t before the last of
the unparalleled phalanx, six or eight abreast, had
passed by. England had for the last century possessed
the greater part of India, and still those myriads,
notwithstanding the outbreak, called themselves our
fellow-citizens, subjects of our Queen, and boasted
of English law, preferring the justice of the Englishman
to native treatment. A few years back, so far as reli-
gion was concerned, all was in gross darkness. The
Indian could talk as metaphysically, argue as acutely, as
the most erudite German, bat still the whole land
groaned under one fell system of idolatry. The number
of Christian missionaries was very inadequate. 50 or 60
years ago there was not • printed page in India; now
; there were thousands of presses at work in Calcutta,
! and 120,000 works, besides tracts, were sent out to all
parts of India, and though many of the journals and
books might be objectionable, still let the press be free.
At Calcutta and Serampore were colleges well filled with
students, but if greater results were expected the number
of missionaries must be doubled. The disproportion of
I these men to the numbers to be reached was quite melan-
choly to gaze upon. Such men as Havelock, Mont-
gomery, Lawrence, Edwardes, men of highest station in
the political, civil, and military departments, and moving
amongst the most influential of our race, favoured the
missionary cause. General Havelock was baptized by
his (Mr. Denman's) predecessor ; General Heckford and
Mr. Echnonstone belonged to the Baptist church;
General Elphinstene, though an Episcopalian, had a
large heart and was not ashamed to come amongst them.
Such men would not hesitate a moment at presiding over
a meeting such as the present one. The rev, gentleman
deprecated the course some politicians took relative to
India, and said that to save India our 'policy must be
reversed, urging non-interference with the religion of
, the natives, but asking a fair field for Christian missions.
1 When in Gods, in Lucknow, two years ago, every man
lie met, whether ploughman or shopkeeper, was armed
—all carried swords, and none knew on going out that
he should return home alive. This was under native
government. The rev, gentleman concluded by asking
aid on behalf of Foreign Missions.
A collection was made, and the assembly then sepa-
rated.