continue in this state. But now the English government in India, instead of interposing its power to exclude missionaries from this country, permits them to proceed to any part of its territories which they may select for their residence and operations. All parts of India which are subject to the English (and these contain 100,000,000 of inhabitants), are as open for the free propagation of Christianity, by any proper means, as the United States are. In all these territories missionaries can circulate the Scriptures and any other religious books, and can preach all the principles of the gospel and against the rites and practices, and the superstitions and doctrines of Mohammedans and Hindus as much as they please, and yet be under the protection of English laws and English magistrates. Thus so far as the government is concerned, all external obstacles and internal restrictions are removed, the inhabitants of all classes are accessible, and missionaries are protected in the use of all proper ways and means in the prosecution of their work. Surely this is great progress. It is one of the triumphs of the missionary enterprise, and it has not been achieved without

much effort and perseverance.

THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT HAS WITHDRAWN ITS SUPPORT OF THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.

The East India Company on assuming the possession of the country from Hindu and Mohammedan kings and princes, who had long supported their respective systems of religion and superstition, continued the policy of those governments, confirming their acts and administering their laws. Thus for some years the English government in India exhibited the strange and anomalous appearance of supporting Christianity for their countrymen, Hinduism for the Hindus, and Mohammedanism for the Mohammedans. They erected churches and supported chaplains for Christians; they repaired mosques for Mohammedans, and temples for Hindus; and they had several thousands of these with their moolahs and brahmins, their festivals, ceremonies, and worship under their care and superintendence.* These proceed

* See pages 331–337.

ings were understood by the native population to show the approbation of the English government to each of these systems of religion, and that it was right for each class of people to follow their own religion. I have often heard brahmins and others argue earnestly from these proceedings that the English believed the Hindu and Mohammedan religions to be true, and to be good religions for those who practise them. I have seen brahmins in a time of drought spend a part of each day in prayers and ceremonies before, around, and over their idols to procure rain, and at the end of the drought they would make up their account for these idolatrous services and obtain payment for them at the English magistrate's office.

Now it often appeared to be of little use for missionaries to try to convince people of the falsehood of their religious systems, and the folly and iniquity of their idolatrous rites and worship, while they had before them such proceedings of the government, and obtained payments of money for their idolatrous rites and ceremonies. Happily these difficulties, long so embarrassing and discouraging and dishonorable to a Christian government, have been in a great degree removed, and there is reason to hope that the exceptionable things of this character which still continue, will erelong cease. And this great change in the policy of the government of India, is to be ascribed to the repeated and long-continued exertions of missionaries and others connected with the missionary cause in India and England. This change is one of the results of the missionary enterprise, and its importance cannot well be appreciated by those who have not seen the magnitude of the evil, the iniquity of various kinds connected with these systems of superstition, and the obstacles which they created in various ways to the spread of Christianity.

RECENT LAWS ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND PROTECTION.

Another important change in favor of Christianity is in the laws securing liberty of conscience to all classes of the inhabitants. Some account of the peculiar laws or institution of the Hindus, called Caste, has been given in another part of this work.*

* Page 465-473.

If any Hindu violated the rules of caste, he was to be expelled from his house and his home, to be disowned by his family and his friends, and to lose all right to his property, hereditary or acquired. He was to be regarded as dead, and funeral ceremonies were to be performed for him. These rules of caste were the laws of the Hindu governments in India, and the English in succeeding to their power administered the laws which they found already established and in force. Thus the English courts administered the Hindu laws, and among them the rules of caste, for the Hindus. According to these laws, if any Hindu should become a Christian he was expelled from his caste and was exposed to the evils of being an out-caste. Many Hindus who became Christians suffered all the losses and evils of this unreasonable and unrighteous law. In such cases the law was regarded as so plain and its meaning as so explicit that the converts generally without any formal and judiciary proceedings submitted voluntarily to their losses and sufferings.

Such a law must necessarily be a great obstacle to the progress of Christianity. Missionaries and others who wished for the spread of the Gospel, used what means they could to effect some change. But the Hindus and Mohammedans were satisfied with these laws; not 1 among 100 of them wished for any change. In 1832 in the administration of Lord William Bentinck, a law was passed which was designed to secure liberty of conscience in Bengal. This law was limited in its operations to Bengal, and even there did not produce all the good effects expected from it. No further laws affecting caste were enacted till 1850, when the legislative council of India passed the following law:-"So much of any law or usage in force within the British territories, as inflicts on any person forfeiture of rights or property, or may be held in any way to impair or affect any right of inheritance, by reason of his or her renouncing or having been excluded from the communion of any religion or being deprived of caste, shall cease to be enforced as law in the courts of the East India Company, and in the courts established by the Royal Charter within the said territories." This law was designed to secure full liberty of conscience to all classes of people, to place Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, and Hindus on equal ground, permitting every man to profess what

religion he pleases and to change his religion when he pleases, and yet enjoy the full protection of the laws. And yet the law gave great offence to the Hindus and Mohammedans, and they made vigorous and persevering but unavailing efforts to get it repealed.*

This law does not interfere with the caste of any class of people. Caste, with its social distinctions and religious observances, will continue just as long as the Hindus please to retain them. They will long continue to be a great obstacle to the progress of Christianity and civilization. But the rules of caste and the decisions of its members are no longer to be recognized as the laws of the land, and so no one can suffer so far as the law can protect him in his civil rights by disregarding them. The evils of caste will still be many, and the sufferings occasioned by it will be great, because they will be of such a nature that no law can remove them nor apply any remedy for them, any more than laws can provide a remedy for many social evils in the complicated relations of families and society.

The interpretation of the object and spirit of this law and the application of its principles by the courts, appear to have been very satisfactory to the friends of religious freedom. The importance of this law, applicable as it was at once to 100,000,000 of people in the English territory, and to be applied to 50,000,000 more as fast as they come under the English government, can scarcely be overestimated. The whole history of legislation does not contain a law which has produced more important consequences than will result from this enactment. And this law is one of the results of the missionary enterprise in India.

No one would expect, after considering the origin, nature, and influence of castes, to hear it had ever become an acknowledged and cherished feeling and usage in any Christian community. And yet the history of Christianity in India contains some painful chapters upon this subject. Unhappily there have been some mistaken opinions in respect to the existence and prevalence of caste in the mission churches of India, and so it appears expedient to give some account of it. The manner in which the distinctions of caste were treated by the Romish mis

* See page 473.

sionaries, and how they were admitted into their churches and communities of native Christians, has been described.* The first Protestant missionaries appear to have had correct views of the nature of caste, and to have pursued a proper course in respect to it. Their rule was, "when any heathen embraced Christianity, he must renounce all superstitions connected with caste, for we admit no such distinctions, but teach them that in Christ they are all one, none having any preference before another." In the course of two or three generations the native Christian communities at some of their stations consisted chiefly of the descendants of their early converts, and many of these, though attending upon the instructions of the missionaries, yet not giving evidence of personal piety were not communicants; just as it is in many religious societies and congregations in America. From such communities, surrounded as they were by Hindus and Roman Catholics all carefully observing the rules of caste and attaching much importance to their observance, the missionaries found it difficult to exclude all the prejudices of caste. In their journals and correspondence they often spoke of their difficulties on this subject. These difficulties continued gradually to increase till they resulted in the observance and toleration of some distinctions among these Christian communities, corresponding somewhat to some of the rules of caste among the Hindus and Roman Catholics. But these distinctions observed in the Protestant communities, were regarded at first as merely of a civil and social character, and not as having their origin and observance in religion and morality.

These distinctions among the native Christians in the course of time became more and more like the distinctions of caste among the Hindus, and exerted a very unhappy influence. They regarded these distinctions as involving their personal, family, and social respectability in their own communities and in the view of the Hindus. Vigorous and persevering efforts have been made to reform these churches and to eradicate these distinctions from the native Christian communities, but the evils of admitting them, and then tolerating them so long, are found to

* See page 517–519.