The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-09 00:00:00

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.

THE late circular in the Punjaub of Mr. MONT.
(MISERY regarding the employment of native
Christians in the public service, we do not
hesitate to confess, is not at all to our taste.
It is clear that in penning it he had an eye to
other parties than those subordinates whom
he ostensibly addressed. And however much
we may love Christianity, we do not admire
claptrap, or like to see turned to platform uses
a subject so sacred as this. We have, indeed,
no fancy for spasmodic action, whether in the
affairs of religion or of tho State ; nor can we
see what occasion there was for any announoe-

ment of the kind. Wa know of nothing in
Indian laws, or Indian regulations, or Indian
official practice, to give the slightest occasion
for putting forth such a document at all. We
are aware of no rule to prohibit the employ-
ment of native Christians in the public ser-
vice ; on the contrary, all the legislation of
India tends the other way. Nor in practice
are native Christians prevented from holding
public offices where fit for them ; since there
are many native Christians in the public ser-
vice in other parts of India, if not in the Pun-
jaub. That they should have been excluded
from the public service there is, of course, a
deep disgrace to the Commissioner, as the
circular itself admits ; but we do not see how
it can be held to be a disgrace to the func-
tionaries of other provinces where a different
system has prevailed.
The truth is, that the native Christians have
obtained comparatively little promotion in
India, not because they are Christians, but
because they are for the most part a very poor
and ignorant, and, We may add, too generally
a degraded class. There have, to be sure,
been some noble exceptions, but very
few. Indeed, conversions must necessarily
be rare among the better classes, con-
sidering that by it they are wholly cut off from
their race, their families, and their friends.
Nothing but great enlightenment and the
highest moral courage could induce a man to
face such difficulties for such an object ; added
to an intensity of religious feeling such as
is rarely met with even among ourselves.
To expect to find all these exceptirnal quali-
ties unitel among the natives generally would
be to expect a miracle, for which we have no
right to look. We see, accordingly, that the
great majority of native Christians are com-
posed of the descendants of the Nestorian
settlers—of those who were forcibly converted
by the Portuguese—or of the earlier European
adventurers who adopted native habits and
married native wives. Of mere converts there
are very few; and these are not usually per-
sons who have been induced to profess Chris-
tianity out of any enlightened preference for
its doctrines. They are mostly men too igno-
rant to know much either of the new religion
they have adopted, or of the eld one they
have left.

This state of things is very sad, but it will
not be improved by sending circulars to the
missionaries, inviting them to elect converts
for public employment in the Punjaub. This
may serve as a forcing-pit for hypocrites; but
it will do nothing else. What is wanted is
the spread of Christianity on its merits, and
not by such baits as these. They will attract
only the dishonest among the people; and it
is not the offscourings of India, but its intellect
and integrity, that we must gain to our side.
This can only be done by imbuing the
upper and middle classes with our language
and our literature, and so gradually changing

the whole tone• of native thought. It 13
fir ' hat the native mind,
now choke it, for
Wre must do
is an error to
indoos as
conversion

language
.d by the
official lan•

Their aeveral
the vernacular

, . was the language
of the State. In that language all the public
business was transacted, and iu that language
all the records, whether civil or military, were
kept. That language, therefore, every aspirant
to public employment was compelled to learn,
as were all above the mere peasantry who were
in any way brought in contact with the
Sovereign, or his viceroys, or his feudatories,
or his officials in any shape. The consequence
was that every village was filled with self-
supporting schools, where the favoured tongue
was taught. Had we followed the same prin-
ciple it would have been the same with us; for
at the Presidercies where the English is the
language of the law courts and of commerce in
its higher branches, there is no dearth of
persons sufficiently versed in it, nor woul.l
there be in the Mofussil after a short tie,.
English is not more difficult than Persian ;
and what proved so effectual for the spreaoc.^i
the one would prove equally effectual for the
spread of the other if we had but the couri4e
to make the plunge.
When the study of English had thus beco4.c
general, and the native mind had become fully
impressed by means of it with English ideas,
we should have no fear for the progress of
Christianity : it would speedily supplant the
Koran and the Hindoo plurality of gods.
Even as it in, we find the instructed native
ashamed of his religion, though he is prevented
by the natural dread of isolation from the
adoption of a purer creed. Let English, how-
ever, be everywhere introduced as the language
of office, as Persian was by the Moguls, and
the study of it begun as a task would be con-
tinued as a recreation, till the whole tone of
thought among all classes of India but the
very lowest was changed. Even the ideas of
the lowest would gradually assume the same
hue, on the principle of assimilation which we
everywhere see. Thus at no distant period
the universal mind of India would be prepared
for the reception of the Gospel ; but thus only
can the thorns be rooted out which now choke
the seed there wherever it is sown. Thus
only can that vast empire be turned into good
ground, which brings forth fruit, the Scripture
tells us, a hundredfold.

LORD PAN MURE AND HIS FREE KIT.
No one can have recently passed by the Horse
Guards without noticing the enormous
placards which, as a further inducement to the
" few fine young men" who are " wanted to
complete" the regiments in her Mtkjesty's ser-
vice, state in the most prominent manner
that every man on enlistment will receive a
bounty in cash of 21., with the addition of a
" free kit."

Until about three years ago the bounty was
nominally much larger, but after the recruit
had been attracted by the offer of 51. he found
on joining his regiment that 3/. were deducted
for the purchase of regimental necessaries.
He felt that he had been inveigled under false
pretences, and never got rid of the impression
that he had been deliberately cheated. The
result was, that not only did the man enter
the service with a feeling of discontent, but
that many others were deterred from enlisting
by his representations of the injustice which
had been done to him. When Lord Papuanßs
became Minister for War one of his first steps
was to abolish this system and to enact that
every recruit should be paid the whole of his
bounty in cash without any deductions, his
regimental necessaries being supplied by the
public. That the change was in itself most
salutary cannot for a moment be doubted ; but

thus that we must prepare the nati
by uprooting the weeds that now clic
the reception of Divine truths. We
as the Mahomedans did. It is an
suppose that they persecuted the Hi
a rule. Their great instrument of cc
was the introduction of their own
and literature ; and this they effecte,
simple process of making it the off
guage throughout the land. Theis
officers, of course, spoke the w
fluently ; but Persian alone was the