EXTENT OF MISSIONARY LABOURS.

445

thus, although large sums have been annually granted towards this institution, although it possesses an abundant and able staff of professors, and is on the whole well attended, it is difficult to trace the good results of its teachings amongst those for whose especial benefit it was originally planned.

That the missionaries of the many religious societies who have made India their field have not been less active in preaching the Gospel than in imparting education amongst the heathen, there is abundant proof.

At the present moment, fifty-three years from the first commencement of missionary labour in the East, there are distributed over various parts of the Company's territories 360 missionaries actively engaged in preaching the Gospel to the heathen, assisted by upwards of 500 native preachers. They are attached to twenty-two missionary societies, and have founded 270 churches, which are attended by upwards of 15,000 members. Of these members, by far the largest proportion is found in the Madras presidency; whilst within the limits of the Bombay government there are the fewest.

Although it is stated that these labours are being carried on in various districts in almost every part of India, it must be borne in mind that the missionary-stations are for the most part collected in the vicinity of populous towns and cities; whence it is hoped that the spirit of truth, once having taken hold of the people, will be disseminated throughout the surrounding districts. In this manner Calcutta possesses twenty-nine missionaries, established at twelve stations in different parts of the city. Madras is as liberally supplied; Bombay has thirteen missionaries; Agra eight; and Benares eleven."

Comparing this extensive machinery with the actual visible results of its labours, a casual examiner might reasonably feel disappointed. But looking below the upper surface of things, viewing all circumstances together, the number of converts, small though they are, and doubtful in sincerity, as many must be, should rather be a matter of congratulation and pleasant surprise than otherwise.

In no heathen country in the world has superstition become so firmly rooted in the national mind as in India. Aided by caste, by the impress of antiquity, by the powerful arm of a numerous and influential priesthood, and, above all, by the sanction, the openly-avowed countenance and encouragement of the British authorities, it may well be matter for astonishment that even the smallest success has been accomplished. As regards all the educational establishments connected

• Calcutta Review, vol. xvi. p. 245.

with the government of India, it is positively forbidden to introduce the subject of Christianity in any way. Not a volume that makes any allusion to the Gospel is permitted within those "godless" walls; not even the name of the Saviour, not the merest idea of the Creator, is allowed to pass the lips, or enter the thoughts, of any within those institutions of a Christian government! Professors who dare to infringe these stringent laws are dismissed; native pupils, who openly become converts to Christianity through missionary efforts, are not permitted to remain as students; and even for an officer of a government college to pen an article advocating Christian views for a local periodical, is visited with the heavy displeasure of the higher powers.

It is not difficult to picture the sad results of this state of things. Year by year the evil grows. Thousands upon thousands of young men are turned loose upon the world infidels in heart and practice. Profligate and unprincipled in their lives, and becoming the heads of families, they propagate the vice and atheism engendered by the British College, to future generations. It has been stated on authority too good to be doubted, that of between fifty and sixty pupils of the Government Hindoo College at Calcutta, who were privately questioned by their principal as to their belief in any creed, four only expressed their belief in the religion of the Vedas; a few were undecided; and the remainder openly avowed their utter disbelief in Brahminism, and in all other creeds. This fact is too well known in India to need confirmation; though it may cause some astonishment in England to learn that the only results of the much-vaunted educational grants of the East India Company is the raising up of a race of licentious infidels.

How great the unchristian antagonism of the government is to the labours of the missionary may be partly estimated by the preceding facts; but it is only those who have lived in the East, and who, knowing well the peculiarities of the native character, understand to the full the deep hold which all governmental measures take on the Hindoo mind. They are so accustomed to look up to the government as the parent of all authority, the dispenser of all patronage, the only motive power in a vast society, which owns literally no other public than that of the services, that any thing emanating from it receives at once the impress of popular currency; whilst all opposed to it is regarded with, to say the least, suspicion. It is thus that whilst the missionaries, full of devoted zeal and untiring energy, have with difficulty converted their • Government Education in India, by W. Knighton, M.A. &c. p. 19.

Ibid. p. 18.

4

CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY.

447

hundreds, the government, by the aid of their "Godless colleges," have converted their hundreds of thousands.

The missionaries, however, do not despair; they know that their work progresses, that the good seed is deep in the soil; and that if some of their converts are not so sincere and steadfast as they could desire, there are hundreds who have listened to the Word, and drunk deep of its truths, but who have not yet the courage to avow themselves openly. During the ten years ending 1812, but 161 Hindoos had been converted to Christianity. Within the next ten years the number of converts amounted to 403. The following decade witnessed the conversion of 647; and the period ending 1842, as many as 1055. The ten years just past it is estimated have seen not less than 2000 heathens embracing Christianity.

Not less encouraging than the above, is the fact of more than one native rajah having become converted to the Christian faith. The rajah of Coorj has recently brought his daughter to this country, to be educated in the English tongue, and brought up in the Protestant religion. And still more recently the young Maharajah of the Punjab, Dulup Sing, has been formally admitted into the Christian Church by public baptism, in the presence of a large number of the officials of that government which forbids the mention of the Christian name within its schools.

CHAPTER V.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

IN

the early periods of Hindoo history the administration of justice was conducted in the most primitive mode, and with the happiest results. The law, like most other institutions, was derived from the celebrated code of Menu, which, if in some particulars savouring of superstition, and occasionally of puerilities, was nevertheless based on a just appreciation of the social rights and duties of man.

The sovereign was declared to be the prime administrator of justice, aided by learned and upright Brahmins. In criminal cases the king was enjoined to see to the proper carrying out of the law; but in civil cases, especially such as were instituted in remote districts, his representatives in the various provinces were expected to act conjointly with such Brahmins as were deputed for the purpose. Their remuneration appears to have been derived from a levy of five per cent on all debts admitted by the defendants, and of ten per cent upon all such as, having been denied, were afterwards proved against them.

It was enjoined upon the administrators of justice that they should carefully observe the countenances, the gestures, and mode of speech of the principal parties concerned in a suit, as well as of their witnesses. They were also to bear in mind the local usages of the district in which a case was tried, the peculiar laws and rules of classes, as well as the customs of traders and others; bearing in mind, under certain reservations, the principles established by former judges. The king, or his representative, was strictly forbidden from deciding causes upon his own opinion, without obtaining the advice and assistance of persons learned in the laws of the country. He was cautioned against encouraging litigation; and counselled to bear with patience and equanimity the irritability of suitors, or the infirmities of old and sick persons, who may have to appear before him. Finally, it was laid down with much solemnity, that the sovereign who received the taxes levied upon the people, without affording them in return a strict measure of justice, was

not only guilty of a crime, but one of the worst of criminals; an injunction which it would be well if the present rulers of India would take to themselves and ponder over.

Punishments were sometimes so indistinctly declared as to leave the fate of an offender quite uncertain, and although not always in themselves severe, were frequently very disproportioned to the offence. Thus the slaying a priest, drinking spirits, or stealing gold from a priest, were all crimes classed under one head, and punished alike. Still more inconsistent were the punishments for adultery.

There does not appear to be any express punishment for murder, though, from the general text, it may be gathered that that crime, with arson and robbery attended with violence, was visited capitally. Theft was punished, if small, with a fine; if of greater amount, with cutting off of the hand; but if the thief were taken with the stolen goods upon him, the offence was capital. Receivers of stolen goods, and those who harboured thieves, were punished with the same severity as the thieves themselves. It is remarkable that, in cases of small theft, the fine of a Brahmin offender was at least eight times as great as that of a Sudra; and the scale varies in a similar manner and proportion with regard to all the classes: a king committing an offence was to pay a thousand times as great a fine as would be exacted from an ordinary person. Robbery incurred the amputation of the limb employed in perpetrating the offence; and if the robbery was accompanied by violence, the crime was made capital: all who sheltered robbers, or supplied them with food or implements, were to be punished with death.

The civil code of the Hindoos was far more perfect and reconcilable with our own ideas of strict justice than was their criminal statutes. Indeed, there is a spirit of enlightened impartiality about it, which not only speaks highly for the social condition of the Hindoos of those days, but throws the practice of the Anglo-Indian judicature far into the shade. For this reason, it is proposed to go somewhat more into detail than would otherwise have been the case; and it would be well if our own civil and sessional judges throughout India perused the clauses of this code, and endeavoured to act somewhat in accordance with them. By doing so, they would consult their own reputation, and the happiness and welfare of those over whose rights and liberties they sit in judgment.

That the native system under their former governments worked well, there does not appear to be any reasonable ground for doubting; indeed we have the testimony of men who have studied the subject

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