The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-29 00:00:00

TILE INDIAN FAMINE.

A public meeting was held in the Egyptian Hall, at the
Mansion House, yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock, to devise
immediate measures for alleviating the distress caused by
the famine which is now prevailing in India. The Right
Hon. the Lord Mayor presided ; and amongst the gentle-
men on the platform were the Marquis of Clanricarde, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. R. W. Crawford, M.P.,
Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., Col. Sykes, M.P., Mr. Tite,
M.P., Mr. Gregson, M.P., Sir Herbert Edwardes, Sir
Edward Ryan, Mr. Var sittart, M.P., Alderman Salomons,
M.P., Aldermen Mechi, Rose, Finnis, besides Mr. W.
Dent, Mr. Arbuthnot, and other gentlemen interested in
our commercial relations with India.
The Rev. Mr. Davis, chaplain to the Lord Mayor, having
offered up a special prayer composed for the occasion,
The LORD MAYOR briefly introduced the subject, remark-
ing that he had been requested to convene this meeting to

Iconsider the' means of relieving the sufferers from that
great calamity which had lately fallen with unexampled
severity on the population of a great part of our Eastern
Empire. He was much gratified by witnessing in the
numerous attendance that day a proof of the sympathy
with which that object was regarded by the public, and he
was especially pleased to meet on that occasion several most
distinguished gentlemen, who were either members of her
Majesty's Government, or members of one or the other
House of Parliament. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
had kindly undertaken to move the first resolution. (Cheers.)
Mr. GLADSTONE—My Lord Mayor and gentlemen, I shall
submit to the meeting a:resolution which has been placed in
my hands, and the purport of which is as follows :—" That
this meeting, deeply sympathising with the distress arising
from the devastating famine in the north-western provinces
of India, and being desirous of aiding the noble exertions of
the relief committee in Calcutta and Bombay in their en-
deavours to relieve the distress of their fellow subjects in
India, now reduced to a state of appalling destitution, feels
called upon publicly to record its sense of this calamity,
and its sympathy with their suffering fellow subjects." I
apprehend I am right in saving that this large meeting has
been called at a moment's notice, but the subject on account
of which it has been convened does not require much deli-
beration, and the citizens generally of London, and not
least those leading persons in all classes and all pursuits
whom I have the satisfaction of ,seeing in this room, do not,
I trust require much time to consider whether they shall
step forward and save from the horrors of famine their suf.
fering fellow creatures in India. (Cheers.) My Lord Mayor
I cannot but be reminded by this noble hall, 'in which it,
has been my lot, and the lot of many I see around me, to
appear before, often and often, how we came to this board
to share the hospitality of the City of London in the time of
many of your lordship's predecessors. We have enjoyed at
the tables laid in this hall the good things which Providence
has bounteously 'given for our sustenance and comfort.
May our recollections of the facility with which we our-
selves :arrive at such means of sustenance and comfort,
and the abundance with which the blessings of God have
been poured upon us, move every heart among us with one
thought and one desire to do what we can for an object,
than which no more urgent or more noble one, I would
venture to say, ever was proposed to an assembly of the
citizens of London. (Cheers) I have not come to' this
place to-day because I felt that it belonged peculiarly to
me to do so, or that I had any peculiar qualification for as -
sisting you in the high purpose of this meeting, but I was
desirous that such a meeting, for such a purpose, should not
pass by without the appearance of at least one member of
her Majesty's Government—(cheers)—to testify in his own
behalf, and I am certain I may say not less on behalf of
every one of my colleagues, our hearty approval of, and
warm sympathy with, the object for which you have called
your fellow-citizens together. (Cheers.) You are well
aware that it is not necessary for me to apologise on their
behalf. They have sought, or are seeking in change of air
that relief from their parliamentary labours which, after all,
it is not unnatural they should seek ; and I am bound to
say that I myself was arrested in the execution of a similar
intention, which I very gladly postponed to attend this
meeting. (Cheers.) My Lord Mayor, I shall not presume
to instruct the meeting on the particular case which has
brought us here, for whatever may be required to be said
upon the subject, you will hear much better from those
who are acquainted with the particular circumstances of
India, and whose correspondence and constant intercourse
with those who are resident in that country give them
higher qualifications, and enable them to afford greater and
more accurate information. It is enough for me to say that
I find it authentically stated to us that though the know-
ledge of this famine has come somewhat suddenly upon us,
yet the features of it are so broad and so appalling that it
must at once speak for itself. Fifteen hundred thousand
human beings, as it is stated to us on what I believe un-
doubted authority, have nothing under Providence but the
hand of charity to trust to to save them from the horrors
of a premature death. (Hear, hear.) That alone, I
think, is such a basis of fact, such an ample justification
for your assembling yourselves together, such a ground
for appealing to the whole people of this country,
whom on these occasions the City of London appropriately
leads, that nothing, that can be said even by others
better informed than myself can add much force to the
ideas conveyed by those few simple words, A million
and a half of men, women, and children dependent on
charity for the very means of subsistence, not in the gene-
ral sense in which we are accustomed to use these terms, but
for the means of rescue from a horrible and otherwise in-
evitable death. (Hear.) The ties which connect us with
India are of a nature which render this appeal if possible
still more forcible than when it is considered on general
grounds. I confess lam not one of those who are in the
habitual belief which has so widely prevailed in this coun-
try, that it is to her connexion with India, and such like
connexions, that England owes her material greatness,
wealth, and prosperity. I am strongly and deeply convinced
that the roots of the greatness of this country lie within
the shores of these little islands, and not beyond them.
(Cheers.) At the same time, no man who is capable of
appreciating what belongs to the welfare of mankind can
fail to see that, with whatever feelings it mrly have been,
we have undertaken immense responsibilities with respect
to our transmarine possessions, and we come under the con-
ditions of a sacred trust towards them which we cannot but
discharge. (Hear.) We carry to India, and in constantly
and rapidly increasing quantities, the productions of this
country, and exchange them for the productions of India,
and it is satisfactory, even on an occasion of this kind, when
we deplore the want of the necessary means of subsistence
for a portion of our fellow creatures, to recollect that the
pursuits in which the great bulk of the citizens of London
are engaged are pursuits the daily and inevitable tendency,
of which is to render the occurrence of these great visita-
tions more rare, and to mitigate their severity when they
arrive. (Hear.) Still they do arrive, and on this occasion
they stare us in the face, and I ask whether on every ground,
whether as men, as philanthropists, as citizens, or as Chris-
tians, we ought not to rush forward to avail ourselves of the
opportunity which is now afforded us to relieve this distress ?
(Cheers.) For though no doubt we set a high value on our
commerce with India, as we do on our commerce with the
world, though that no doubt is the prevailing source of the
wealth and power of this country—we have more to do with
India than to unite it in the bonds of commercial intercourse
with ourselves, valuable as in my opinion those relations are.
We have to carry to India more than wealth which our shores
produce. We owe to India a boon of which we can never
acquit ourselves by thc; mere exercise of political rule, and
by our sway over the millions who inhabit that country.
We must desire to communicate to them some better and
higher gift. Often and often do we hear of the duty—and
we hear rightly and reasonably of the duty and of the hope
—a bright and glorious hope—that something may be done
towards carrying Christianity into India. (Cheers.) And,
my lord mayor, let me venture to say that in my opinion
this meeting is no small missionary meeting. (Cheers.)
You have difficulties in making known the gospel to the
multitudes who inhabit India. You are beset by your own
differences—you are besett still more perhaps by the fact
that you exercise political authority o ver the people of India,
because we are liable to the suspicion that when we attempt
to teach them directly, and by that means attempt their
conversion—when we teach or attempt to teach them the
truths of the gospel, we are liable to the suspicion that it is
with political objects Sand ends that we engage in that holy
work. Ido not state that as a reason why that work should
not be prosecuted, but as a reason why that prosecution is
materially and seriously injurei. But here you have an
opportunity to which those Lin drances do not apply.
(Hear.) There are arguments in Christian life and in
Christian works which nothing can resist. The residents
of India have it in their power, each of them, to become a
living sermon—each of them to be, as it wore, an apostle
by his own life and conversatior, and by exhibiting, in the
face of the people of India, what are the doctrines of Chris-
tianity by letting them know wlat are the practical results
of Christianity. (Cheers.) Atd if we will, on this occa-
sion, follow the example of that Saviour who was content to
spend His time and thought m earth in assuaging the
woes which beset human life, I trust we may do something
to convince our suffering ani afflicted fellow-subjects
that the religion we profess io indeed a religion of love,
and by means which can excite no suspicion that we are
doing something to win them towards us. (Cheers.) My
whole purpose is to bear willing and cordial testimony to
the sacredness and worthiness ef the object for which this
meeti
of those
nghas3en
who,co etntvoogkehde and on my own behalf and on
behalf r w.th myself, form for a time
the administration of the count* I earnestly commend it to
your hearty and cordial support; and I further venture tc
express a hope that this meeting is not to be the accom-
plishment, but only the beginnirF and starting point of a
great work—that the words 'Watch, uttered within these
wall, will be echoed from one and of the country to the
other, and that we shall be able to bear something like a
national testimony, and make ,omething like a national
offering, in order to mitigate the pressure of one of the
severest visitations sent upon any portion of mankind
within the memory of any of to now present. (Cheers.)
The Hon. A. R.INNAIIID seconded the motion, which was
carried by acclamation.
Sir E. RYAN moved the second resolution :--" That in
consideration of the extreme urgency of the case, and of the
necessity of adopting immediate measures to relieve the
misery now so unhappily existing, this meeting most anxi-
ously entreats the benevolent. contributions of our fellow-
citizens, and of the public at large ; and recommends that
subscription lists be opened, and that all the London and