Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-29 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

stn,—The present momentous state of affairs in
India, must have engaged the serious attention of
every thoughtful man in the kingdom. From the
Press issues the cry—Something must be wrong in
the way affairs are administered in India—and
each person you meet repeats the cry, tilt there is
the possibility the mind may become deadened to
whatever truth there may be in it. That there is
something wrong is very evident ; and now that
public attention is so strongly drawn towards India
and its affairs., and to the fact that when the present
insurrection is quelled, a thorough re-organisation of
the whole system must follow. It behoves every man
who has the good of his country, and the welfare
of the myriads of his fellow-men in India at heart,
not to withdraw the interest which he feels, until
a more wise and benevolent policy is pursued in
the A lminisiration of that country. Towards this
end I have thought the following extract from
the chapter on " Calamities arising from Infringe-
ment of the Moral Law," from " Combe's Consti-
tution of Man" most. apposite :

History has not yielded half her fruits, and cannot
yield them until mankind shall possess a true theory of
their own nature, and a religion in harmony with the
order of Providence. England has still much to learn in
this respect. Her conquest and dominion of India is
immoral, and as God's laws can neither be abrogated nor
evaded, serious evils mast at this moment be flowing to
herself from this action, in her own social circles, of the
selfish and domineering propensities which have
prompted her to make and retain that violent ac-
quisition. At the same time these conquests could
not occur without weakness and immorality predomi-
nating in the subjected nation. Their fate is the
cause of their own low, moral, intellectual, and physical
condition ; and, apparently, the scourge, even of foreign
oppression, is intended to stimulate its victims to greater
energy of action, or to sweep them away as encumberers
of the soil. The first aim of nature seems to be to de,
velop strength, and to give the world to the energetic.
Among moral beings, however, that strength must be re-
gulated by morality, or they must suer. The immoral
may possess, but the natural law declares they shall not
enjoy the earth. If I may hazard a conjecture in regard
to India, I should hope that before the close of another
century the public mind of Great Britain will have made
so great a progress in the knowledge of, and belief in, the
moral order of God's providence that it will compel her
rulers eider to relinquish that c inquest, as prejudicial
equally to England and India, or to administer it on the
principles of morality, for the benefit of the Indian people
themselves. It may be affirmed that this is already done,
and that, under British sway, India is now more prospe-
rous and happy than she ever was under her native princes.
English testimony, however, is not competent to establish
this proposition ; and we have never heard it confirmed
by the general voice of the conquered people. Besides,
it is notorious that we rule India as a conquered nation,
and deprive her people of all high places of honour and
authority in tho administration of their own affairs. A
moral government of India would imply a thorough edn-
I Aldan of her people in the natural laws, and training them
to reverence and obey them ; the employment of them in
the administration of their own government ; placing them
on a footing of equality in rights and rank with the British,
and preparing them to become a free, moral, and intellec-
tual people. If we should ever bring4hem into this con-
diticn, and be contented to act towards them on the prin-
ciples of beneficience and justice, we might withdraw our
armies and enjoy all the profits of their commerce from
the bonds of interest, respect, and affection, which such
conduct would „evoke. These ideas will probably appear
chimerical and Utopian to most readers, but the other
alternative is not fanciful. While the British public mind
continues to disbelieve in God's moral government of the
world, and to sanction the present system of domination in
India, British institutions will never become thoroughly
moral at home ; And so ,tong as they continue immoral, her
religion will prove a rope of sand to bind her people to
virtue ; her wealth Nyill be a snare, and her power will
have a canker at its c,-,re that will eat out its strength,
and add her empire to the list of those that have fallen by
their defiance of God's moral providence, and their reliance
on their own animal and intellectual superiority.
I am, Sir, yours very iseepelAWY, S.
Liverpool, July ‘.27, 1857.