The Express.
London, England, 1857-09-11 00:00:00

CARDINAL lIIBJUL4N ON INDIA.

In the Dublin Prsoisan's Journal of Wednesday
hat we find the following remarks, published as " Estrada
trots • Discourse preached in St. John's Cathedral, &Need,
ca Sunday morning, by hie Eminence Cantina Wilma,
ea Nitwit of the Manchester and Salford Catholic Orphan

Asylums "
" But, now, teisthres, let us come more closely to the cir-
cumstances in which we ere placed. We me looking anxi-
ously forward to to-morrow for we know not what news
it may heft us concerning our immense Indian empire.
We do not know—we trust, we hope, we pray to God, that
we may have received the worst, and that we may not have
to mourn over greater lowa, but, on the contrary, to rejoice
that a victory, though it will be Wood-stained in our annals,
may have put an end to dismal snapeoae. It may, indeed,
be thus; but, under tainting circumstances, the aspect of
Whin is moat serious. Now, trace what has happened to its
stated source. If the acconnts that have been given to us be
true, this seems to have been the cause of our propene cala-
mities : we have been for • hundred years striving to civilise
an immense population; to cinlbe it in every way except by
Christianising it. On the contrary, the very WM of all our
efforts to attach those millions and millions of poor Bladece
to as hat been the promise that we will not make them
Christians. I will not examine this principle; it Is one
which has been adopted, and upon that we have acted. We
have told them, again end again, ' No, we dolnot dedte you
to be Christians.' If not those exprees words, others as
strong have been used. 'We do not wish you to be Chris-
bane ; remain heathens as you are, provided you are faithful
subjects of our Sovereign, sad provided you serve ea la our
meat end of worldly advantage. Be it so. We have made
the attempt to civilise according to our system but in one
point only have we succeeded mmaking them adopt Eu-
rope se ensthoda, and skill, and that is in the art of war.. We
have succeeded in making them soldiers—we have taught
them all the secrets of war:fere—we have trained and
disciplined them under our best Atoms, and have made •
powerful army. At the same time, es I have said. it Ism
been under the condition of not making the slightest ap-
proach towards winning their consciences er their hearts to
God. Now, what happens? Just observe how small a
canoe may lead to groat results. If the accents which we
have read be tres—and, certainly, they have been repeated,
if not firnied, down to yesterday—it seems that, eo far
did we carry that denim to make then geed and powerful
soldiers, that the very last sm. that had been invented have
been pet late tisk Yob ; and anisected with this we. the
assearity of waking nee of anal unctuous substance in pre-
paring the charge for en. The contractor—the person who
undertakes to tend& the cartridges, finding that there was
a slight, a trilling gain upon using an animal substance,
Mead of that which was prescribed, commits a commercial
hand, for it is nothing else, of gaining a little upon his con-
tract
.by using a substance which be thought could make no
evical„
cdoiffzrizo, andd
yet
attempt made all
pon the !titled:sr:ince of
those
pour people. Thus, while withuone hand we have again
and agate declared to them that we should not attempt to
change their religion, with the other we minister to
them that whkh they consider it to be • breech of their
religion to Meta. And really upon this dishonesty for a
trifle—for this miserable gain—which some one or Mho. has
made, we have had 28,000 men thrown Sato rebellion ; we
have had °Beers murdered in cold blood by their own sol-
diers ; we have had men, women, and children butchered in
the mast brutal manner ; we have had a large Presidency
thrown into a state of rebellion ; we have the inhabitants of
our greet cities trembling for their liver and wo know not
what to-morrow may bring us of further 'dismay. All this
may be the result of one petty commercial attempt at unjust
gain. See then how small a commercial crime may produce
an immense national disaster, and may poemibly rob us of an
empire. Is it not then the interest of every one to establish
the standard of commercial honour on such • footing as that
no man should dare to violate the sacred law of his *fawned-
ahip ? In this case you see what it has done. God, as
yet, only knows what will be the result. And, yet, does it
not redd to you, my brethren, as if the Almighty
spoke to the nation in some way, and said, " Give an
account of your stewardship in that vent empire P" Does
not everybody say so ? Do not the organs of fpnblic
opinion cry out, ' The time is coma fee • thorough reform of
our system of government in India ?* It is necessary that
we should read and study past events, and see if we hen
been governing this mitten justly end righteously as became
a Cheerier' people. It ham come home to the national ten-
science that this is the case, and I hare endeavoured to poled
out where your duty is, and what course of conduct yea
should adopt, to prevent such calamities; for, if every elms
wen to do the same there is no doubt we should not have
theme abeam in distant colonies which lead es often to
rebellion and, at length, even to separation. And now,
while I ma "taking of India, oar vast mercantile em-
pire, allow me to come nester home in the gnostic° of
national justice. I dare say Anse of you have seen, yester-
day, an ktereMieg extract from the life of • late ilinatriess
puma, Sir Charles Napier—a life published some
time ego, in which ha clearly foretold that one Indian
army would rebel; that it would rise up ageism& is
officers, those few English ones that remained; and that the
East India Company, whom he had warned again and again
In vain, would feel the disastrous consequences of such an
event. Such wee his prophecy, and he orincluded by raying
—' But I do not wish to lad the life of Cassandra, giving
nothing but evil auguries to people who will not take notice
of them.' Now, as them words of that goat men, as he
showed himeelf always in India, have come thoroughly to
passe, I will quote some other words of hie spoken to myself,
and you will see to what extent they agree with those. A
few years ago—the year before his death—l was in the
Exhibition in Loader, looking at a picture representing
one of his battles, in which he was in the very centre
of danger, the moot conspicuous object amid the terrors
of the fight. Standing clan to it was the hero of the
piece, Sir Charles Napier himself. It we impossible to
mistake him; but he desired to be introduced to
me. I asked him • few questions shout the picture sod its
correctness, and he then took me by the arm and drew me
aside—there were several pennon around us—and he said—
" Cardinal Wiseman, you Catholics are shamefully treated in
India. I have told them again and again—l have told the
government there—that a time was coming veryecioei when, to
save our empire, we should require to be united combined
forces of all British subjects 'about distinction, and that it
was their duty to prevent any disunion many religions differ-
ence.% I have spoken in vain ; they will not listen to rat, and
they are keeping up • eystem of disunion and separation in-
stead of union. I have been again and again ashamed when
in India at being thanked by the Catholics as for a favour
for what was but a piece of cernmoneet justice." Them
nearly are the very words which he epoke to myself,
and I ran vouch for the truth of every expression. Hera,
again, he foretold the events which have come to pass, and
declared to me that the time was approaching when it would
be necessary to unite all, without dultlection, in • combined
effort, to save the Indian Empire. Yet, what has been done
by its rulers? Every regulation by which catholic. can be
made to feel that they are • distinct ChM, that they are not
to expect the muse treatment ma others, is still continued, or
rather strengthened ; It is almost impossible for a catholic
soldier to have his children educated in his own religion;
and what is mete, if he die, he can hardly reckon on their

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being brought up in it. so one sided are the rules for the
education of orphans. So that a prior catholic hee to fight
their bottles, has to fro into peril of hie life with this feeling
- either he has sent his child against his coseclence to a

arlio.7.wiere he will letatigh-tern or for the aalieni
trilling remuneration which be coubl not otherwise gain, or

ilia. Sat ho has given his child no education, end is ;eine to
have him en orphan in the hands of those who
will linty ethic tie him contrary to his wishes and con-
victions. Is this fair? Is this public justice? Is this
the stew srdship proper to sgreat national corporation,
which has emphatically end publicly declared to its very
heatheneubject sthat it knowsnodifference of religion in those
who hithially ems it t U Boy isoogstes n spode &arch