The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

SIR J. PAKINGTON ON INDIA.

Sia J. PAKINGTON, who was present at the Worcester
Agricultural Association on the :Ind inst., in the
course of his address upon that occasion made the
following remarks upon India :

He confessed that he felt very anxious that England
should speak out in this crisis of its history. They could
not at this moment commit a greater folly than to shut
their eyes to the magnitude of the crisis. He thought
that the greatest faith that the Government had committed
—and here he spoke of the Government of India rather
than of her Majesty's Ministers in this country—had been
in underrating the magnitude of the rebellion, and in speak-
ing of it as only a military mutiny, and a passing outbreak
which would spi•edily be subdued. ( Hear, heat). They
might depend on it this was not a mere passing military
mutiny. He believed that instead of its being a mere
military mutiny, it was a deeplyorganised, long matured,
conspiracy, with the object of exterminating the English in
India. ( Hear, hear.) In this aspect they ought to view
it; and in viewing it in this aspect was our greatest safety.
His advice to the country was: don't let us underrate the
danger, but let us meet it in the spirit of Englishmen
determined to subdue it. (Cheers.) He wished to be
clear from any misunderstanding as to the opinion which
he entertained on this subject. Let it not be supposed
that in using this language lie felt anything like an ap-
proach to despondency or despair. On the contrary, he
could say with sincerity that the view which he took of the
state of uffairs—gloomy and anxious as he admitted it to
be—was a sanguine feeling of ultimate success.
There was one fact which they would all have observed in
connection with this rebellion. He thought it was clear to
demonstration that the relative superiority, man to man, of
the European over the Hindoo was now as great as it was
when the great Clive won the battle of Plessy. It was ex•
traordinnry that it should be so when they considered that
the soldiers whom the Europeans had now to contend with
were the soldiers whom they had trained up themselves.
But it was the fact that the superiority of the European
over the Hindoo was as great now as it ever was; and
when the reinforcements from England should have
landed in India, and marched to the assistance of our
1 army there, he sanguinely hoped that the authority of the
Queen of England would soon be re-established. (Cheers.)

There was another fact on which he grounded a
strong hope, and he formed it on a private letter received
a few days since from the Governor of Ceylon, who said we
had great reason to be thankful that the matter was not
worse than it is. The Governor of Ceylon wrote that we
in England had hardly yet a full conception of the danger
which we had escaped, for that India had been saved by the
premature outbreak at Meerut. In another fortnight, had
not that outbreak taken plaice, there would have been a
simultaneous massacre of all the Europeans in India.
And his correspondent used this remarkable expression,
that " he verily believed there would not have been a
European left to tell the tale." We had been saved that
danger by the premature outbreak at Meerut. This, then,
he would say, wes the time for Englishmen to prove their
loyalty, and at all events to support the Throne ; and this
done, he believed the triumphant result would be to re-
establish our dominion in India.
With regard to the atrocities of the sepoys,
justice must be vin Heated, crime must be punished,
the power of England must be asserted, and the
horrible deeds committed must be treated as they
deserved. Englishmen demanded this; but he would say
let it be done in no vindictive spirit. Let justice be tem-
pered with mercy. It might be perhaps not an acceptable
sentiment to them, but it was a sentiment deep in his
heart, and when they came to deal with the matter after the
victory had been gained, let them bear in mind that our
own hands were not clean. (Hear, hear.) India had not
been governed as it ought to have been. ( Hear, hear.) It
was only yesterday that be had submitted to the astonished
eyes of a large party in a country house official proof that
in collecting the revenues of India there had been practised
in the name of England—he would not say by the
authority, but he feared not without the knowledge of
linglishtuen—there had been practised tortures little less

985

horrible than those which we now deplored. This must
be borne in mind iu the day of reckonitrz ; and in dealing
with this question let them bear in mind these two great
cardinal objects—first, t.iat as a great nation we must re-
establish the authority of the Sovereign in India; and
secondly, that when that authority is re established India
must be better governed. (Hear, hear.) We must take
care that our past errors are corrected, and our great
mission so fulfilled that we may not only reap the benefit
in the government of that great empire, but so do it as to
promote the happiness, the welfare, and the ultimate
civilisation of that vast portion of the human race intrusted
to our care. ( Loud cheers.)

WHO CAUSED TIIE REVOLT?
TO TIIE EDITOR OP " TILE PRESS."
Sir,—The Whigs are unfortunate, but they aro
never wrong ;theref.lre, although the Indian mutiny
is part of their ill.luek, they ate utterly blameless,
and not only exhibited the greatest possible sagacity
in foreseeing it, but adv:ed the most vigorous
measures for its prevention. To prove this is, how-
ever, somewhat difficult ; so, amongst other sohemes
they have had recourse to in order to convince the
sceptics, they lay the blame on the missionaries—an
hypothesis which politicians in general, of what•
ever party, have, in order to save the credit of their
craft, supported. On the other hand, the evangelical
party of all denominations have not been slow to
vindicate the missionaries, asserting, not only that
they have all along acted from the best of motives,
but, what is somewhat more problematical, that they
have acted with consummate prudence. I will
attempt to do justice betwixt the parties.
I am no to be drawn into any ethical dis-
cussion. 1 will not inquire into the justice of the
various annexations, repudiations, and subsidiary
treaties ; neither will I argue the case as to whether
the missionary is bound, in season and out of season,
to attempt to convert the heathen. All I mean to
determine is, the specific share the Government on
the one hand, and the missionaries on the other, have
had in creating the discontent which has led to the
revolt. Such being try assign, it follows that I must
look to the different questions involved from an Indian
and not from an English point of view ; for it is the
discontent of the Indians, not of the English, which
I propose to inquire into.
John Company has his backers, who are ready to
prove that he has acted on the strictest principles of
international justice, and that he now governs on
the purest and most humane system of administra-
tion. But to prove all this needs an elaborate trea-
tise extending to the length of Alison's " Europe ;"
and meantime the question is, bow do the natives,
who cart not and will not engage in this lengthened
inquiry, and who, like all natives, draw simple infe-
rences from what they see, regard John Company?
No,v, the great patent fact of the conquest of India
stares them in the face, and, without overworking
their brains, they jump at once to a conclusion ; for,
judging of others by themselves just as we do, and
being conscious of very strong robber instincts, they
see in the conquest of India what would be the per-
fect satisfaction of their desires, and naturally con-
clude that this conquest has been effected under the in-
tluence of similar instincts on our part. What other opi-
nion can Mahrattas and Rohillas, Sikhs and Pindarries,
come to? The little they know of their own history
corroborates such a conclusion, and the great deal
they know of their own ,passions and desires seems
to them to make it certain. With respect to our
administration, again, they see our collectors wring
from the relue,tant ryot by torture his scanty wealth ;
they think torture the most natural means of col-
lecting taxes, and so long as they are not tortured
themselves see little harm in it, but they do not
think it shows any extraordinary clemency on our
part. If they take the pains of inquiring still more
minutely into our policy, they find us meddling with
the law of succession, trampling under foot the sanc•
tities of prescription, cancelling pensions which we
had promised to pay, and annexing Oude, which we
had promised to respect; and, totally unaccustomed
to nice distinctions, being, in fact, poor "ignorant
niggers," they naturally conclude we are actuated by
the same rapacious motives which would impel them
to similar proceedings, and they are lost in admira-
tion, not of our superior virtue, but of our superior
proficiency in the science of extortion.
Now, it is an axiom that a robber nation is very
impatient of its own maxims and practice being
tried against itself; and since the inhabitants of
Hindostan think themselves in this position relative
to John Company, it is plain, as a matter of fact,
John Company, that is to say the Whigs, who for
half a century have managed his affairs, are re-
sponsible for a considerable share of the discontent
in India which has produced the revolt.
Let us now inquire how the missionaries stand,
applying to them the same principles of reasoning,
or, in other words, looking at their proceedings
through an Indian pair of spectacles.
I find from the Edinburgh Evening Post and
Scottish Record, the organ cf the Presbyterian
Community of Scotland, that—
Seven years back the missionary conference of Madras,
made up not alone of Church of Scotland miesionarrea but

986

also evangelical men of other parties, amounting to
eighteen individuals, hail a meeting on the subject of
caste.

The resolutions adopted were
caste being a distinction founded upon supposed
birth, parity or impurity, is in its nature essentially a
religious and not a mere civil institution, and consequently
opposed to the declarations of Scripture. It was therefore
resolved that candidates from the heathen should be well
instructed regarding the sinful nature and subterfuges of
eAste, and before receiving this ordinance should he
required to declare that they renounce caste usages for ever
both in principle and practice. That a Christian refusing
to receive a brother Christian into his house—especially to
receive a catechist or preacher to eat with him, to listen to
his instructions, to join with him in prayer, or to receive
the Lord's Supper from a native minister on account of
cute—can proceed only from the heathenish idea of birth,
purity, or pollution, and ought not to be tolerated in the
Church of Christ. In Jesus Christ there is neither
Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor unciroutncision,
barbarian, Scythian, 'Auld or free. How utterly incon-
sistent then in that body of which Jesus Christ is the head,
and where all are members one of another.
Wa can form an idea of the effect of such doctrine
without putting on our Indian spectacles. Let us
suppose that the clergy should decide upon preach-
ing that "conversion" should ipso facto abrogate
the distinctions of society; that a catechist or
preacher, whatever may be his position in society,
should be entitled to intrude on us whenever it
suited him; that he should be entitled to eat with
us, and that we should be bound to listen to his in-
strurtions and join him in prayer, whatever might
be our position in society. Just propose this to the
most evangelical of our aristocrats, and you will
have a taint idea how the same proposal would be
received by a Hindoo, whose ideas of caste are much
higher and more inflexible than ours. He would tell
you that no doctrine could be propounded more
calculated to sow dissension among families, to
break up ties of relationship, and, indeed, to em-

bitter the whole intercourse of society.
We may be perfectly certain that this denunciation
of caste has been preached all over India with high.
pressure missionary vehemence ; consequently, we
may also be certain that a great deal of discontent
has been caused thereby. This is the missionaries'
share in bringing on the mutiny.*
I have purposely said I would abstain from ethical
discussions ' • but I would suggest to the missionaries
that St. Paul sanctioned the institutions of society in
the Roman empire—that, although in relation to
God all men are equal, it does not follow they are so
in relation to one another, notwithstanding that the
authority of Jean Jaques Rousseau and the Socialists
might be alleged in support of such an inference ;
and I would further suggest whether it would not
be better to give prominence to the great doctrines
of Christianity, trusting to their influence indirectly
to abolish caste, than to preach a doctrine which is
sure to raise Hindoo society in arms both against
Christianity and Christians, and consequently to
minimise conversion.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant, NAPIEIt'S GHOST.

[We do not endorse all the opinions of correspon-
dents on the subject of Indian affairs.—En. PaEss.]

foreign an 4 Colonial 3nteliigenec.