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 have been :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 massacre all the
exczitnge s io. se who would erect the sign of the cross eu
"—Thornton. India, vol. iv. p. 78.