Rev. Mr. Woodside's-American Missionaries-Opening of the Ganges Canal-Excitement of Natives-Moral Effect-Missionaries' Opinion of the Company's Government -Its General Effects-Native States-A Seekh Temple-The Gooroo-Farewell to my Countrymen-Last view of Himalayas-Roorkhee-Workshops-Native Workmen-Repugnance between the English and Native Races-The Ganges CanalOther Buildings-Meeruth Again-Mutiny at Meeruth-Conduct of Officers, and their Feelings toward the Sepoys.

I FOUND Mr. Woodside's compound filled with tents, camels, horses, elephants, and servants, it being the convention of all the American Missionaries in that part of the country, and most of those who attended having to live, as they had come to Dehra, in tents. There were about twenty Missionaries present, some of whom had brought their wives and children. It was strange how my heart warmed at finding myself again in the company of so many of my own countrymen.

66

-I was particularly pleased with the Rev. Mr. Bwho had served in the Mexican war, and had afterwards enlisted as a "soldier of the Cross." He was stationed in the Punjab, and recommended me very strongly to visit that country. Mr. B— had come to Dehra by marching," that is to say travelling with horses and camels and tents. The distance he had come was three hundred and twenty miles, the time occupied was thirty days, which will give a good idea of the slowness of the mode of locomotion, which was formerly universal in India, and is still the only practicable plan in many parts of the country.

Mr. B- - described to me very vividly some of the scenes at the opening of the Ganges Canal. It seems that the Brahmuns were very much opposed to its construction, as all the ghâts on the Ganges were in their hands, and they made

their fortunes by contributions levied upon the bathers, whereas any one who pleased might bathe in the canal, and convenient ghâts had been constructed for the purpose by Government, at short distances. This opposition of the Brahmuns would have been enough at one time to have prevented the building of the canal; or at any rate they would have been reimbursed by government for their loss. I refer to the period when a Sepoy was turned out of the service for becoming a Christian, and when it was a standing regulation that "no natives but those of the Hindoo and Moosulman persuasions" should fill a post in the Honourable Company's service. On the day of the opening of the canal, Mr. B- and a friend got into a boat and were carried on with the first of the water. The banks on both sides were crowded with thousands of natives from all the country round. It was night, and the ruddy glare of torches lit up the empty bed of the canal, and the close packed masses of black-skinned naked Hindoos, waiting with trembling anxiety to witness the result. They had been assured by the Brahmuns that the mighty goddess Gunga could not be diverted from her ancient and Heaven-appointed bed; that her pure waters would refuse to flow in any but the sacred channel. No doubt, in the minds of many of the spectators, the question to be decided was not whether the task of the engineers had been perfectly carried out; but whether the Brahmuns, the emanations from the godhead, nay, whether the very power of the gods themselves, would not be overcome by the irresistible might of that dread impersonality, "The Warrior Company."

As the water advanced wild shouts arose from the crowds, the mighty masses swayed to and fro with excitement, and finally they rushed headlong into the water. Many of them had never before bathed in the sin-absorbing waters-others had only done so in rare pilgrimages and at the expense of the greatest privations.

It is not too much to say that the opening of the Ganges Canal is the greatest blow that has ever been inflicted upon the infallible authority of the Brahmuns. The mighty goddess leaves her place at the bidding of an English engineer,

and flows in a channel which he has constructed. The armies of Heaven do not interpose to prevent the sacrilege; on the contrary, blessings arise, both temporal and spiritual. Millions of acres are fertilized and yield abundant crops, the inhabitants have the highest privileges of their religion brought to their door, and the same stream which washes away the sins of the cultivator will bear his plenteous harvests, rapidly and cheaply to a market. The benevolent science of the foreigner, stands triumphant over the mercenary superstition and the money-getting lies of the Brahmun.

I dined at Mr. Woodside's. I was curious in questioning these missionaries with a view of obtaining the opinions of disinterested and well-informed men, on the actual working of the Company's government. All with whom I conversed spoke in the highest terms, both of the general policy of the Government, and the great improvements in the condition of its subjects. Especially, they said, that too much praise could not be given to the very high character of the civil service; and the integrity, equity, and benevolent spirit of its members, generally. At the same time they confessed that the greatest oppressions were continually committed in the name of Government; but assured me that they were, in every instance, traceable to the native subordinates, and could not properly be laid at the door of the European officials. The missionaries from the Punjab spoke with particular warmth of the great improvements in the administration of that country, during the few years that had elapsed since its annexation by the British. The revenue of the country had been considerably reduced; the quota of each tax-payer was equitably adjusted; and he no longer had to satisfy the extortion of the taxgatherer, as well as the just demands of Government. Public improvements had been extensively planned, and their execution begun. Every man felt sure of his head, his wife, and his property-whereas, under the old rule, no man's life was safe, and if any one had collected wealth by industry, skill, or enterprize, he soon learned that his gains must be shared by his rulers small and great.

To show still further the effect of a transfer from native to

English rule, I quote the words of a missionary now in this city. "At one of the missionary stations of our church in Upper India, a native chief was in power when the missionary first visited the city, which then contained a population of sixteen thousand souls. Soon afterwards the old chief died and left no heirs. His principality, according to native usage, escheated to the British; if his town had been on the other side of the Sutlěj, it would have fallen, in like manner, to the miserable old king referred to above. British rule was set up, the reign of law commenced, people from neighbouring districts, still under native rulers, removed to this town, and in a few years its population was numbered at nearly eighty thousand souls. Facts like this confute whole pages of declamation."

No one who sympathizes with the restoration of order in France by the Great Napoleon, ought to object to the annexation of native territories by the Company. The two cases are almost exactly parallel. In both we have the forcible substitution of a good government for a bad one-of law for anarchy. In both certain rights were necessarily violated, and certain classes offended. Whatever differences there are in the two cases, are in favour of the English. The tyranny of a native government is worse than that of the Bourbons, or of the Revolutionary authorities. In France there was a large class who were much attached to the old Royal government; in an Indian State, such a class is small, and consists of the government officials who live by extortion, and the feudal princes who grow rich by violence and plunder. In France, too, if Napoleon had not arisen, the Bourbons would probably have been restored, and would have inaugurated a government purified of the abuses which had driven them from the throne. In India there was no such chance. ernments there never change or improve-they only become weak. The royal races degenerate, and, as vitality diminishes in the central organ of the body politic, the extremities become corrupt and disorganized. Then comes a bloody usurpation, and the same thing is repeated. Sometimes the catastrophe is a conquest; but, with that change, the above formula is an accurate description of the history of the native

Gov

dynasties of India. Fortunate are those States which, at such a crisis in the affairs of their rulers, have been taken under British protection, and saved from the indefinite repetition of revolutions, tyrannies, anarchy, and conquest. The term "revolution," which I employ, may be misunderstood. I would not imply a popular movement. There never has been, and never can be anything of the kind in India, with reference to government. The great mass of the population have stood inactive for centuries, and seen their country invaded; their royal families in chains, or put to the sword; armies of invaders devastating their fields, and robbing their wealth. They have beheld, unmoved, every possible change in the supreme power; they have submitted without a murmur, to the most grinding cruelty and oppression; but they have never once struck a blow in their own defence-they only fled to the jungul and its tigers, when their country was overrun by robbers, like the Maharattas, of more than average cruelty; or took refuge in the British territories, when, as in the case of Oude, the tyranny of government was no longer endurable.

I was very glad to learn that during the Punjab war, the Punjabee proclamations of the English General were printed at the press of the American missionaries. This fact alone, shows the light in which our countrymen looked upon that movement. The English government has lately had the opportunity of repaying its obligations. During the recent disturbances a very large amount of American property was destroyed at Loodianah. As soon as order was restored, Sir John Lawrence assessed the sum upon the town, and thus promptly reimbursed the loss sustained by our missions.

After dinner, I drove out with Mr. Woodside, in his buggy. We visited a handsome new surai which has recently been built by public subscription; the school-house of the missionaries, a pukka building on the model of a Connecticut Seminary, and a Seekh temple-which last is a curious place. It consists of a court containing one large building on a raised platform, and four similar, but smaller edifices at each of the four corners. The Seekhs, it is well known, are a religious