The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-15 00:00:00

(Stamped Id. Additional.) [TWOPENCE.

2HE DRAMA.

TEE ABOZIGINEN PROTECTIoN SOCIETY AND
TEE INDIAN

TO TIC unary ROY. 105111 VERNON ISMER,
PAESI:ANT OP THE WARD OV CONTROL.
Sir,—As the Committee of the Aborigine,' Protection
Society, we crave the attention of the Bisset of Control on
the subject of the calamitous events whii h have recently
taken place, and are still in progress, in British India. We
congratulate ourselves that we are addressing you a. presi-
dent of the board, being confident that we may expect the
ammo courteous reception which we experienced ninny years
ago, when you Blle l an important office in another depart-
ment of the state.

Whilst we approach nth much diffidence a subject of so
much difficulty, as well as importance and magnitude, as
that of the Indian mutinies, with their many and compli-
cated attendant elm-magmata, we feel that to refrain from
doing so when the lives and wall-being of so large a number
of our fellow-creatures are at stake, would be a serious dere-
liction of duty, and a desertion of the post assigned to us by
the society which we represent.
Let it not be innigiaed that we are either apologists for re-
hellion, or have leas sympathy than others for our own coun-
trymen under the terrible earrings which they have had to
endure, when we come forward as the advocates of humane
anllchristina measure,

We earnestly plead for that searching and impartial in-
quiry, which MUM be the sweet guide to the cure and pre-
vention of the tail. which all deplore, ea well so on indis-
pensable mesas for rescuing the innocent from suffering with
the guilty, and for apportioning the punishment due to
different degrees of guilt. We do not doubt that each in-
quiry is consistent with your own madmen* but we con-
template with horror those demands fur blood and vengeance
which are vehemently made, both in Britain and In British
India. We would hope that such expressions may be the
transient ebullition of exasperated feelings, rather than the
result of deliberate reflection ; but from whatever source they
spring, we cannot but deprecate the pernicious influence
which they are calculated to exert. It is in opposition to this
influence that we respectfully offer the following considera-
tions to your notice.
When large numbers of persona are concerned in the per-
petration of some great enormity, it is generally a compara-
tively few who are chiefly to blame; and whilst they merit
severe punishment, the indiscriminate chastisement of the
multitude would not only Le opposed to the mercy which
Christianity enjoins, but would be inconsistent with justioe
and policy.
It often happen. that there to some important but deep-
seated muse which prepares the =ases to become the dupes
of their ringleaders. In India there are probably several
such causes. Strong attachment to religions belief bears no
proportion to its freedom front error, and in the professors of
• true, as well ain the victims of a fides faith, it may de-
generate into fanaticism, and prompt to the commission ef
the most savage atrocities. 14 under such an influence, the
Hindco does nut spare his own person or those of hie nearest
relatives, can it be ourprioing if he chow no mercy when his
exasperated zeal is directed against the opponents of his re-
ligion and the profaners of his sacred things ? If his sin-
cerity do not in some degree diminish Lis criminality, it must
at least alter its character, and modify the treatment which
it should receive.

The forced use of greased cartridges; was doubtless but one
amongst many circumstances to lead the misguided sepoye
to conclude that their scruples were wsntonl violated ; and,
greatly as they were mistaken in this belief, the effect pro-
duced on their conduct was not the lees powerful.
It le generally admitted that in the government of India
a great degree of consideration and leniency, amounting, so
some have supposed, to weakness, has been shown towards the
idolatrous worship of the natives. The sepeys, in common
with the other Hindoo inhabitants, have, with Poole coop-
tiona, been remarkable for their confidence in this tolerant
spirit of the Conipsny and for the fidelity with which they
have oared in many hard-fought battles. But this confi-
dence has been gradually weakened, es the native population
of India hare not merely found their faits assailed, but, with
eyes gradually opened to the truth, they bare seen them-
selves borne down by excessive and impolitic taxation, their
customs interfered with, and their race despised.
The setting aside of the law of adoption, which most mate-
rially affected their social e7etem, and tho employment of
native itoope on distant service, may be cited amongst some
of the causes of offence which may bare brought on the pro-
sent state of thinri, which all deplore, sod which many eye-
' witnesses had foreseen.

It is no indifference towards that religion which we revere,
and whose sacred dictates most strongly inculcate the merci-
ful polity which we advocate, that prompta us to regard it as
no part of the duty of the government of India to put down
by law the prefeseton of the native faith, when the practices
to which it leads are not repugnant to morality. We believe
that the most effectual conversion, whether we leek to the
number or the conduct of the converts, is to be found in the
powerful influence of consistent Christian palette°, end in
the irresistible arguments which the sincere acid patient in-
vestigators of truth must ever have at command when
opposed to the advocates of error.
We do not, however, unite with those who attribute the
creel butchery of our countrymen to the overstrained zeal
of a few Ohara who may have aimed at the conversion of
the Fagan.. Some of these officers have, we know, vindicated
Christianity from the reproach which the vices of ethers have
brought upon it, and won the affection of the natives by the
blessings which they have conferred. Bather let the cen-
sures cf our country justly Lill n thaw who, unrestrained
by religion, have trampled on the prejudices of the natives,
current:bed on their inheritance, and cast studied contempt
on their race.
In conclusion, we would mepectfully, but with earnest
sincerity, earnss our conviction, that, in treating the Indian
mutinies in a truly Christian epirit, aided by the light which
impertial inquiry would afford, order would be most promptly
and effectually restored ; the disaffected would be reclaimed;
the Wade' rewarded; nod prosperity would return to a vast
and populous territory, long famed for its opulence, though
at present impoverished and agitated under our unhappy
miemusegement. In this change Britain would rejoice, and
the Sovereign and her =interne would receive the honour
which loyal subjects do not cease to crave for them.
Signed on behalf ot the committee,
R. N. Fotrt.r.n, Chairman.
T110,4A. Honoaty, M.D , Hoist. Secretary.
F. W. CIIESSON, Secretary.
Ang., UM.

DEATII OF AN AMERICAN Al:711011.—Dr. Rufus
W. Griswold died at his residence in this city on Thursday
evening, after a llegering Ulnae, aged 42 years. Be has
left a mark in Amerieen literature which will not he racily
obliterated. Probably his meet popular production is " The
Poets and Poetry of America." At the time of his decease,
he was employed in completing the revision of " The Repnb-
limn Court," and had in progress new editions of all his
works on the history of Literature. There is also Mom-
pieta an Illustreted Life of Washington. An Essay on the
Introduction of Printing into the Middle Colonies wee
neatly reedy for the press. Dr. G. was born in Rut-
land Co., Vt.. Feb. 15, lBls.—New York Journal of an-
swot, Aug. 29.
DE iTII UNDER SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES.—
A beneefennier, mewed David Rankin, was apprehend-A
on Saturday and lodged in the Central PoliemoMee, on sus-
picion of having caused the death of a fee do named Mary
Collins. The prisener and the deceased, it appears, lived to-
gether, and lolged in the room of the hose of a Mrs. Canon
in Oil Wynd. The room was separated from the kitchen by
a thin wooden partition. On Friday night thee 1 ad quenelle&
about souse money matters, and their landlady stater: she
heard the prison., strike the deceased several timw. After
a linie rho breed the deceased call out, "Oh, David, don't
kill me!" 'lbis was followed by a painful choking sound,
es if the deceased wee gasping for breath. Rankin called
for a light, when Mrs. Canon entered the moon with a Needle,
and found the female Collins in Led. She was then living,
hut never spoke, end died cehortly after. A man who resides
in the flat immediately above, likorixe states that he heard a
noise of quarreling underneath. end heard the deemed cry-
lag out the words mentioned. The body was removed to the
Central Police-48e°, end examined by Dr. M`Cill, but no
particular mere* of violence were obserwilile. A pa., .3, tem
examinstion has been made but the result has not transpired.
Rankin has barn transferred to the eheriff, and the ease is
undergoing inveetigation.—Cl-sgate Daily Mail.
MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE AT NIORNINGOIDE.
On Saturday morning, about seven o'clock, a labourer, on
his way put a field in a turn at Plewlende, immediately to
the south of the Morningside Aerlum, °Nerved a man and
woman lying on the ground. Rig suspicions being aroused
by the attitude of the woman, he approached an I found that
she was quite dead end cold, whilst the man. in a anniewhat
muddled state, was lying close beside her. The labourer at
once hastened for medical assistance, and Dr. 'harden and
Dr. Beilbv were smeedily upon the spot. They examined the
body, sad fund that life was hopelerely extinct. and rceiced
soiree marks around the neck. which might have pro-
ceeded from auffeatlng pressure. The roan who was
beside the corpse, and who is named David Kennedy, was
apprehended and oinveve4 to Edinburgh. Upon inquiry, it
was ascertained that Kennedy, accompanied by three other
men, named Thomas Oeurlay, John RAW, and William
Nivea, had, on Friday night, after the elms of the theatre,
left Princes-street in a este for Morningside, acing with two
preetittetes; had called et • hews, where they were known,
at Morningside, hut on account of their unsteady appearance,
the being much the worm for liquor, had been r
tame.. They had then, it is supposed, gone to spend
the night in the fields. Through the activity of the county
force, the three men were sten quickly apprehended, and
taken before the sheriff. All four have been remitted. They
belong to the waren claw.—blinieryA Doily :Repress.
MAILS TOR TIM CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.—SOUTII-
marrow, MOND AT.—The Union Steam Companya steam-
ship Dees, Captain Strati (Woof the Royal Mail Company),
will leave this port to-morrow with the Ant Cape mail under
the new contract. The Dane left the dock. this morning for
a trial trip. She proceeded to Stoke's Bay, when her speed
was tested by the measured mile; the result was highly satis-
factory to the Admiralty eurveyors who were on board. fibs
will take out six parmesan and &boat 90 tan of cargo.

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