Imatges de pàgina
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confiscation of the revenues of the heathen temples. Those revenues had been guaranteed by the treaties of annexation to which England owed the countries where the temples were placed. Timid persons, willing to please both parties, recommended the Company to discontinue the money payments, but commute them into lands. The Bengal Board of Revenue, however, had clearer eyes, and laughed to scorn this attempt to palter in a double sense. "The distinction," they wrote to the Secretary of the Government, "appears to them quite illusory. There is, in fact, no argument against the simple payment of a donation [should not this be dotation ?] in money, which does not apply with greater force against a permanent endowment in land; and if it be not just and expedient to pursue the one course, it may be certainly predicated that no case can be made out for adopting the other." Of this decision of the authorities, Mr Kaye expresses his unqualified approval. There being no escape," he writes, "through the agency of a compromise, Government, except where there was some special justificatory plea for resumption, held to the money payments; and I humbly conceive that they were right."

As Mr Kaye approaches the present time, we are glad to perceive a widening of his views of Christian brotherhood, and a tendency to attribute actions to proper motives, the absence of which we observed with so much pain in the early part of his narrative. The character of Bishop Wilson receives a just and eloquent eulogium from the same pen which dealt such scant praise to Bishop Middleton. Yet the efforts of the two men were directed to the same end, and finally took the same form. Can anything be more consolatory to the labourers in that great and toilsome vineyard than the consciousness that their actions will be viewed

in a generous spirit by those who, like Mr Kaye, have the talent and eloquence to protect them from the wrong constructions which are sure to be put upon them by ignorance and malice? It would be no depreciation of the simple and pure-minded

Daniel Wilson to believe that his latest hours might have been soothed by the knowledge that his name would live in the tender attachment and admirable language of the historian of Christianity in India. The last infirmity of noble minds might have been elevated in his instance by the belief that a tribute so delicate and kind would be an incentive to others to follow in his steps.

"For the period of a quarter of a century that most evangelical of bishops, and most devout of men, presided over the Indian Church. No warnings of failing health, of enfeebling age, of increasing exhaustion, and prostration; no thought of home and its endearing ties, of honoured old age, and lettered ease in his native country, could drive him or lure him from his post. He had resolved to die in harness; and in harness he died, bewailing the wickedness of the heathen, in the midst of the great Indian rebellion, and praying for their conversion to the saving faith. He was a man sui generis. He lived in the world, but was not of it. I do not think that I ever saw in a man of his advanced years such childlike simplicity. mixed largely with society; indeed, it may be said that, in the best Christian sense, he was of a really social disposi

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tion; hospitable, courteous, of an overflowing kindliness, incapable of a malicious feeling or an ungenerous act; and yet I have known people to writhe beneath the guileless, unconsidered words which had fallen from his lips. eccentricities of demeanour, conspicuous as they were to some, and frequent subjects of irreverent discourse to men unmindful of his many fine qualities, were little observed by those who came within their genial influence, and had eyes to

see and faculties to understand the inner nature of the man. His strong devotional spirit, his self-forgetfulness in his

Master's cause, his unstinting love to

wards his fellows, his earnestness of speech, his energy of action, had something of an almost apostolic greatness about them. Few of his contemporaries had taken so little of the form and pressure of the times in which he lived.

"In the course of his long episcopal career, he traversed all parts of India. In the progress of Christian missions he took the deepest interest, and he went from station to station, encouraging, animating, aiding all. He was of the high evangelical order of Churchmen; and he would not sanction any of those compromises and half conversions, those

clingings to the old garments of caste, which the earlier missionaries, not altogether without episcopal authority, had yielded to in perfect good faith, and, as some think, with full Christian warrant. On the banner which he carried, the word 'Thorough' was emblazoned. He did everything in a large way. Although pure gospel truth was far dearer to him than the dignity of the Church over which he presided, he strove mightily for the outward honour of that Church, and he has left an enduring monument of his resolution in the great cathedral of Calcutta. In the face of many discouragements discouragements even from friends, who believed that the money expended on that magnificent structure might have been more profitably diffused over a larger area - he laboured onwards unceasingly, giving largely from his own store, and seeing the completion of his work, as he often said he should, in time to lay his bones beneath it. If he was mistaken in this, it was a grand mistake. Only those who were alike ignorant and uncharitable ascribed it to personal vanity. The dominant idea in his mind was that of an outward manifestation of the glories of the Christian Church, speaking through its visible magnificence to the senses of the unconverted. Why should Error be proclaimed thus triumphantly, with all that is gorgeous and beautiful in Art to symbolise its attractions, and Truth be left without a fitting monument of its greatness? He had visions, too, of a noble army of Christian Churchmen, in association with a richly-endowed cathedral establishment, radiating thence to the uttermost parts of the Indies, and carrying the glad tidings of salvation to places where none before had breathed the name of Christ. He may have been right, or he may have been wrong; but

right or wrong, he was moved only by honest impulses and worthy desires to do God service in that way; and the most that can be said by those who differ from him is that his way was not their way, and that in all probability he had considered the subject more thoughtfully and prayerfully than themselves.

"That the character and example of such a man as Bishop Wilson must have contributed largely to that progressive improvement in the religious character of the English in India, which we contemplate with so much satisfaction, is not to be doubted. Certainly, an impulse was given to the active Christianity of our countrymen, the good fruits of which it is not easy to overvalue. Among the principal laymen of the period-ser

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vants of the Company-there were many men of distinguished piety and benevolence; men who, like Wilberforce Bird, Frederick Millett, and John Lowis, in Bengal; Thomas Thomason (worthy son of a worthy master), in the North-Western Provinces; J. B. Thomas, in Madras; and James Farish, in Bombay, demonstrated, by the lustre which their Christian graces shed upon their high position, how the best servants of Christ might also be the best servants of the temporal Government. Their example was largely followed by men of less elevated station. The military servants of the Government vied with the civilians. Even the ensign cheerfully contributed his rupees to church-building funds and missionary societies. The ordinances of the Church were diligently observed. The Sabbathday was kept holy. Family prayer became a necessity of daily life. Public theatricals languished for want of aristocratic support. English gentlemen esteemed it a reproach to be seen at the nautches of the native gentry. Society ceased to tolerate public lotteries. There was an increased demand for religious books and periodicals. And, altogether, the manifestations of a vital Christianity were not less encouraging than those evinced by contemporary middle classes at home."

With Christianity yielding such fruits in the capital and among the English officials, the course for further extension seemed opening to an indefinite extent. Great obstacles, no doubt, lay in the way; but they were perceived to be obstacles, and would have been subdued in time if the great rebellion of 1857 had not diverted men's minds into other channels. In a triumphant enumeration Kaye looks with just pride on the of the conquests already gained, Mr abolition of suttee and of infanticide, and looks forward to the nobler victories in store, when woman shall be elevated to her true position in the social scale, and polygamy, with all its debasing evils, be eradicated from the Indian soil. But again and again he warns us against an ostentatious interference with even the worst of the native institutions. There are already in Hindostan upwards of two hundred clergymen of the Church of England engaged in what practically are missionary labours. The nonconformists have also their accredited servants devoted

to the same holy cause. The path has been opened for the individual and unofficial exertions of any person -of whatever rank or station-in the private advancement of the truth. And even the State, which it was formerly the policy to exclude from the mere enunciation of its religious sentiments, has come forward with a great and solemn declaration of its Christian faith in the most important document that ever was published in India. The proclamation of Queen Victoria, which was promulgated among the princes and people in November 1858, conveying the glad message of pardon and peace, contained these words: "Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion"-but it went on to what was considered by the zealots, in both quarters of the world, a non sequitur -"we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. And we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us, that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure."

Mr Kaye's commentary on this is

in fact the conclusions to which his historical inquiries and strong religious convictions have led. A few lines may sum up the wise counsel he gives to India and England. "The Christianity," he says, "of the British Government and nation, and the toleration of the State, are in these words distinctly proclaimed. These principles are now to be wrought out in practice. In doing so, the Government is not called upon to commit itself to any farther innovations, or to resort to a system of cowardly retrogression. Whatever may have been its ancient shortcomings, the State had already done as much as it behoved it to do, in vindication of its own religion, before the rebellion of 1857 burst over our heads. And I think it had done all that it prudently could do in the present state of the Hindoo mind, to divest, by authoritative interference, Hindooism of its most revolting attributes. More at some future period may be done, when we see that the harvest is ready; but at present it is wiser, I do not say to leave, but to aid, the Hindoo mind to work out its own regeneration, than to force on from without the desired changes, which to be effectual must take growth from within."

A DISSOLVING VIEW OF MONEY AND THE FRANCHISE.

but, leaving the country to look after itself, takes himself off to America!

ever

WHEN Parliamentary Reform is the absorbing topic of the day, the absence from the field of so distin--and all because it better suits his guished a Radical as Mr Cobden has private business! Yet this Mr Cobnaturally excited much remark. His den is no penniless patriot, compelled obstinate reticence and seclusion by necessity to neglect his country, when Mr Bright was touring as an agi- but a prosperous manufacturer, who, tator, followed by his abrupt depar- moreover, has pocketed a larger ture to America when the Parliamen- amount of the people's money in tary Session was opening, were mys- return for a few years' services, than teries which have been variously in- the hardest-working Prime-Minister terpreted. The Brightites, with the that a "bloated aristocracy usual narrow-mindedness of the sect, furnished to the State. Nevertheless, could attribute this strange conduct in utter disregard of the £70,000 to nothing but jealousy. Mr Cobden, retaining-fee, and as if to burlesque they said, had been the great man in all Mr Bright's aspirations for the the Corn-law agitation, and he would overthrow of the aristocracy and not now consent to play second to their replacement by manufacturers, Mr Bright! Others said that Cob- off went Mr Cobden, leaving the batden, who, though not gifted with the tle of Reform to be fought in his abgrand "stump" oratory of Bright, sence, and without even his counteis far more politic and versed in the nance! signs of the time, saw that the new agitation would prove a failure, and therefore desired to keep out of it. For our own part, we were content to accept Mr Cobden's own statement of the matter-namely, that he went to America to look after his private business. But this occasioned a reflection. At the time that Mr Cobden's letter, announcing his intended departure, appeared in the newspapers, his friend Bright was denouncing the nobility and landed gentry because, as a "leisure class," they monopolised the chief places in our governmental system. As if it were not most natural that men who, from their youth, have devoted their attention to public affairs, should be preferred as statesmen to manufacturers, who give their whole time to money-making and their private business! And now, as if to challenge public attention in a most striking manner to this truth, on the eve of a momentous session of Parliament, the most distinguished chief of the Radical party not only refuses to take his part in the Reform agitation,

It

So extraordinary a desertion is unparalleled, and certainly, from a Radical point of view, it admits of no justification. But we can throw more light on the motives of the fugitive. These are deducible from the contents of a work which he has published, and left behind him. is a species of petard calculated to blow his own party to shivers on the Reform question; and after preparing the last sheets for press, it was only natural that he should make off before the explosion came. The book in question is a translation of M. Chevalier's able work "On the Probable Fall of Gold ;"* and we do not exaggerate when we say that the publication of that book is the heaviest knock on the head that could be administered to the present insane demands for a reduction of the franchise. For what is the gist of that book but to show that the fall in the value of money will in a few years become so rapid as entirely to revolutionise our nomenclature of value-so that what is £5 now, will then figure for £10? "It

* On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold: the Commercial and Social Consequences which may ensue, and the Measures which it invites. By MICHEL CHEVALIER, Member of the Institute of France, &c. &c. Translated, with Preface, by RICHARD COBDEN, Esq. Manchester, 1859.

is estimated by M. Chevalier," says Mr Cobden in his preface, "that the present yield of gold amounts, in ten years, to about as much as the entire production during the 356 years which intervened between the date of the discovery of America by Columbus and the year 1848, when the mines of California were discovered." M. Chevalier is too prudent to fix dogmatically the exact extent of the coming fall in the value of money; but his facts lead to the inference that within ten years that fall will amount to no less than onehalf-and this is the result which he himself seems to regard as most probable. It is time the public was considering the subject. "I wish I could believe," says Mr Cobden, "that this work will be read as widely as, from its great importance, it deserves to be. It is a subject on which the early possession of knowledge and the exercise of forethought will confer great advantages over ignorance and indifference, and afford the only safeguard against probable loss." We shall be content for the present if we can direct to it the attention of the public in such a manner as to hold back the Legislature from perilous innovations on the constitution, seeing that the franchise will soon be lowered to a dangerous extent without any Reform Bill at all.

Upwards of eight years have elapsed since the Magazine directed attention to the very points which M. Chevalier now discusses in detail.* At that time, when the most eminent geological authorities were asserting that the gold-mines would soon be exhausted, the Magazine took an entirely opposite view, and, on grounds identical with those now held by M. Chevalier, maintained that the auriferous area of the new mines was so extensive that they would long continue to be highly productive, and that, in consequence, a great fall would take place in the value of money. The continued productiveness of the mines has already falsified the calculations of those who anticipated their speedy exhaustion; and M. Chevalier sees

every reason to believe that their present productiveness will continue unimpaired for a long time to come. If so, there will be no lack of hands to work them. Taking Australia and California together, the ordinary daily earnings of the miner, says M. Chevalier, is 16s. ; and yet, at the present hour, men will labour at gold-finding (witness the gold-washers of the Rhine) even though they only make 15d. or 20d. a-day! To how low a point, then, must the productiveness of the mines fall before they will cease to be worked! But let us compare the earnings of the miners with even the highest rate of wages which generally prevails in temperate climates, and amongst the most prosperous nations of Europe,—say, five francs 4s. 2d. How wide a margin is still left! "It follows," says M. Chevalier, "that the value of gold might fall till nineteen francs (16s.) should correspond only to the amount of wellbeing which can at present be procured for five francs (4s. 2d.) By this calculation, the fall in the value of money would in the end amount to three-fourths ; — in other words, to procure the same amount of subsistence it would be requisite (other things being equal) to give four times as much gold as at present. According to this, we are very far from the end of the crisis."

Let us briefly exhibit the extraordinary change that has occurred in the supply of the precious metals within the last half-century. At the beginning of the present century the annual addition made to the stock of gold amongst the nations of Christendom was barely £2,500,000. After 1830, when the Ural and Siberian mines began to be developed, the annual supply of gold rose by degrees to £7,000,000,-at which amount it stood in 1848. Now, the annual yield of gold (according to M. Chevalier, who is the highest authority on the subject) amounts to £38,000,000. In other words, the annual supply of gold has increased more than five-fold within the last ten years, and fifteen-fold since the beginning of the century! Already the

* "The Currency Extension Act of Nature," Jan. 1851.

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