vants to wreak unmentionable tortures on innocent women and on little children.

Maulavee Ismail was, I hope, a good man. But the faith which he expressly inculcates is one above goodness,-separable from goodness.

"Every man ought, therefore," he says, "to hold fast the two points" (of Unity and of the Law), "and to avoid idolatry and heresy, as the two latter pervert the faith. All other sins, in comparison, are less than these, as they corrupt the morals only." "If one alone commits faults equal to all [sinners], but be free from idolatry, yet he shall be pardoned through the blessings of the doctrine of unity; while all the good actions of a polytheist will turn to no good When he is fully convinced that there is no lord but God-that there is no place of refuge beyond his protection-that the sinner can find refuge nowhere, and that there is no equal with God in power,-then, whatever transgressions he may be guilty of, may be ascribed to the frailty of human nature, or to error. But at the same time he ought to be awfully respectful, and be so repentant of his sins that he feel weary of life; he shall then be much visited with God's blessings, which shall not be less than his sorrow. In fact, he who is a perfect Unitarian" (believer in the Unity), "his sins even will be more effective than the worship of others. A sinful Unitarian is a hundredfold better than a pious polytheist." "Although a man be full of sins, have no shame, be a regular appropriator of others' property, and have no idea of good or bad, yet he is better than one guilty of idolatry, by worshipping others besides God; because in this way he is misled by Satan."

We see at a glance the fearful antinomian excesses to which such a doctrine directly leads, which it almost sanctions by more than implication. It is easy to inveigh against it; but has Christianity as yet shown any better pattern to India? The following passage may well lead us to doubt whether it has. It seems perfectly truthful and devoid of malevolence, as a record of the writer's impressions.

"The Nasárás (Christians) say that all the affairs concerning both worlds are in the power of Christ; that one who follows and supplicates Him, is exempted from all services to God; that he will receive no punishment for any sins; that he is beyond distinction of lawful and unlawful, . . . and

...

MUSSULMAN RELIGIOUS REFORM.

313

though he may do whatever he may like, he will be pardoned through the intercession of Jesus in the day of judgment... May God direct them to the right path!"

From this it would seem that Christianity had presented to Maulavee Ismail precisely the same antinomian character which his Mahommedanism presents to us; that it was equally to him a faith without works. Would it have been possible for him to have so conceived it, to have so described it, if Christian practice had been there to prove the contrary?

Maulavee's Ismail conduct, as appears from his biography, was consistent with his doctrine. After six years of travel with Syed Ahmed in Arabia and Turkey, on his return—

"The distressed degraded condition to which the people of India, of late, had been reduced, and which, when compared with the prosperous and happy state of the tribes whom they had lately visited, seemed much more deplorable, excited the patriotic zeal of the Hajjis (pilgrims); the relief of their countrymen from their present miserable grievances was the object which wholly engrossed their attention. They travelled throughout India, and went from town to town preaching...the holy war. Emissaries were likewise sent into the interior to prepare the minds of the Mahommedans for a holy war. Such was the force of the orations of Maulavee Ismail, that in less than two years the majority of respectable Mahommedans were in his favour. At Delhi he preached in the grand mosque on every Friday and Tuesday. The assembly on these occasions was generally very great; so much so, that one could hardly get near enough to hear him. In short, thousands of Mussulmen. . . were reclaimed from the darkness of blasphemy in which they were plunged.

Since that time, there have been two parties among the Mahommedans of India. The followers of the reformer are nicknamed 'Wahabees' by their opponents, while the others are called 'Mooshriks,' or associators of others with God... Since that period, Mahommedanism in India has much prospered... The custom of paying illegal reverence to the tombs of the saints, &c. has been much checked, though not abolished. The doctrines of the unity of God, and the Soonnees (legal traditions) are now better understood by the generality of the Mussulmen of India, than they were before his " (Maulavee Ismail's) "time. Many of the old mosques which had been neglected, have been restored to their former position, as sacred places of worship."

Such is the remarkable movement of Mahommedan religious reform in India, which must have had a great share in preparing the present revolt, which must be its chief animating power. It will be observed, however, that, considered in this light, the combination with high-caste Hindooism, politically so skilful, yet has tended strongly to weaken the genuineness of the struggle. A single-minded Wahabee would not have tolerated such a compromise. The deadly enmity of the Sikhs to the mutineers is also explained by the narration of Maulavee Ismail's life. The holy war, preached by the reformers within our own territories, was, in fact, waged against the Sikhs, 1826-31,1 and there are very likely old soldiers in our Sikh corps now before Delhi or in the field, who have served in it. They understand the bearing of the rebellion, if we do not.

Another remarkable token of the revival of Mussulman enthusiasm was the tracts which were largely circulated in Qude, the year before its annexation (1855). Of one of these, written originally in Persian, but translated into Hindostanee, and printed in 1852, at Cawnpore, under the title of "The Sword the Key of Heaven and Hell," the English journals of the day gave some account. It declared war sinful when made for conquest or dominion, lawful when undertaken for religion's sake. In comparison with the faith, wives, children, property, have no claims on the true believer; they are to be abandoned one and all, or they will bring temporal and eternal ruin on all who cling to them. For the warrior alone is there peace and joy, here or hereafter. The Mussulmen are weak, their numbers are declining; it is God's judgment on them for forgetting in sloth and luxury more paramount 'duties. Now a leader is born in the family of the Prophet, let the faithful arise, and soon in all Hindostan let no phrase be heard but "God is God" (Allah-il-Allah).

Who the leader referred to was, I do not know.

(1) A short account of it will be found in Captain Cunningham's "History of the Sikhs," second edition, pp. 190, and following.

MUSSULMAN RELIGIOUS REFORM.

315

The chief seat of the disciples of Maulavee Ismail appears to be in Bhopal. But in Mr. Wylie's "Bengal as a Field of Missions" will be found many scattered notices of other reformed Mussulman communities in our own territories. Some, prevailing in the eastern districts of Bengal, call themselves " Ferazees," and were founded by a man named Shurkitullah, (still alive), a direct disciple of the Arabian Wahabees. In Dacca, the sect "has spread with extraordinary rapidity," "and in Fureedpore, Backergunge and Mymensing," all districts of Eastern Bengal, it is reckoned to comprise "one-sixth of the Mussulman population of the above places ; in the city of Dacca itself, one

ور

to

third. It seems also to be one-third in the district of Backergunge (3,500 square miles), where the population (of 1,000,000) is about equally divided between Hindoos and Mussulmen. "These reformers, as their name implies, profess adhesion to no law, no institution, no ceremony, but what has a divine origin. They pretend to conform more rigidly to the Koran; abstain from anything that has the slightest appearance of heathenism, and are both more exclusive and more self-conceited than their neighbours. They are a united body, strict in their devotions, and proselyting in their spirit. The Ferazees are inclined to think that they ought to be exempted from paying any landtax to Government, or, indeed, acknowledging any Christian as their master." In Dacca" the Ferazees have the character of being stricter in their morals than their other Mahommedan brethren; but they are inclined to intolerance and persecution, and in showing their contempt of the religious opinions of their neighbours, they frequently occasion affrays and disturbances in the town." Shurkitullah himself, it would seem, at the date when this was written, was 66 under the ban of the police, for exciting his disciples in the country to withhold the payment of revenue." Farther to the north, in Rungpore, among those who are better acquainted than the rest with the tenets" of Mahommedanism," many have of late years become Ferazees."1

66

(1) "Bengal as a Field of Missions," pp. 103, 104, 113, 114, 125.

In the western districts of Bengal, again, a reforming sect of "Moolavies" appear to have been founded by Moolavee Abdullulah, and extends eastward as far as Dacca, where there are "a considerable number" of them, as well as of the Ferazees.

All these facts show the strong religious fermentation now existing amongst the Mussulmen of India, which should be capable of producing good effects if duly turned to account. The converts from Mahommedanism in Bengal, bear, I am happy to say, a high character. "If you can once get the ear of the Mussulmen," says the Rev. J. Sale, of Jessore, "there is every reason to expect that they will judge fairly and act manfully. Amongst the churches formed of Mussulman converts in Jessore, there is a pleasing independence of spirit, a desire to do what they can for the spread of the Gospel, and a disposition to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." Report of Calcutta Mission Conference of 1855, p. 21.

APPENDIX E. (See p. 93.)

Condition of the French Settlements in India.

The following extracts as to the state of Pondicherry are taken from "Ten Years in India," a work by a Madras officer, Captain Albert Hervey, published in 1850. Captain Hervey can hardly be deemed likely to have been prejudiced in favour of the French settlements, as he had to enter Pondicherry as a prisoner, followed by a shouting rabble of more than 200 natives, from having accidentally peppered a reaper whilst out snipe-shooting. The mere fact, indeed, of two European officers being arrested by natives for such a cause, would be probably inconceivable in our own territory,