The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-06 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1858.

The two Ileums of Parliament have each re-
ceived such a petition as probably never was pre-
sented to them before. Its contents are intended
as an instruction to the Committee of the grand
inquest of the nation now sitting on the Indian
Resolutions ; and also, Lord SHAPTESBURY said,
in presenting it to the House of Lords, as a vin-
dication of the petitioners from the charges of
bigotry, ♦iolence, and a desire for compulsory
proselytism in regard to Christianity in India.
It is, in fact, a formal declaration of the course
which the Government, in the judgment of the
petitioners, should take in regard to its future
relations to Christianity, Heathenism, and Ma-
homedanism in our Indian Empire. The sub-
scribing petitioners are probably a greater novely
than the petition itself. They are ail of them
officers of religious societies ; each has certainly
not a handle, but, as certainly, a very long tail t
his name—a tail on which, in his own circle, he
probably plumes himself as much as a Chinese
mandarin on the queue which distinguishes him
from rebels at home and barbarians abroad. If
we have counted them aright, these gentlemen
represent not fewer than five missionary societies,
whose names we have certainly heard before. But
to these are added the names of eight other socie-
ties, or institutes, as some term themselves, most
of them unknown to us even by name. However, a
prince is a prince, though his domains comprise but
a few acres of the European district called Ger-
many ; and we suppose treasurers, and chairmen,

and secretaries, have a right to their titles,

although conferred by an unknown committee,
and although the pounds sterling in:their balance-
sheets never extend beyond three or four figures
at most.
We really intend nothing profane, or even un-
civil, when we confess that we did glance down
the long column of the aristocracy of religious
officials with a smile. It seemed as if Lord
SHAFTESBURY had held a levee of the elite
of all the societies, and then published the
list of attendants and the object of their
attendance, to show the thoughtless word
without, and the Houses of Parliament especially,
that the " Evangelical " Religions world had its
magnates who were of no small importance. Here
- is a monitory petition to Parliament, signed by
forty-four names ; but names, Lord SHAFTESBURY
would say, like arguments, must be weighed, not
counted. The names, then, of the Secretaries,
Chairmen, and Treasurers of the Church, Baptist,
Independent, Wesleyan, and Moravian Societies
—from three to six for each society—may claim
to appear on a document relating to Christianity
among the heathen.
We must
to account for
own, however, to
being a little puzzled how
the names of three officers of
the " Prayer
Book and Homily society.” The Anglican
prayer book seems of rather doubtful utilityg forli
Asiatics, and homilies of the time of Queen ErazA.-
BETH much more so. The officials of the Naval
and Military Bible Society, too, seem to have
but a remote connection with the business of con-
verting the heathen ; we are not indeed aware of
thepeculiarities of Naval and Military Bibles-1)w
they can hardly, of course, be such as to suggest
more than other bibles the idea of conversion by