Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 9th January 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 12

Page 12
Page 12
12 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      The Kegis Sla.Ve Trade And Its Substitut...

      atigation of long-cherished revenge , the whole civilized world has shuddered at ; I believe that the whole civilized world will shudder at the thought of what they would do if let loose within the islands of the West Indies or the woods of Guiana . Hopelessly banished from their own country—the only country tolerable to them—cut off for ever from the women of . their race , their caste destroyed , forced to peribrm daily labours that are hateful to them , life would be worthless and unbearable : and ,

      ; urged on by passion , fanaticism , and malignant hate , they would devote their whole energies to the accomplishment of whatever vengeance would inflict the greatest torment , the most revolting degradation , upon their foes . If parents in Yan Piemen ' Land could not protect their little children from the convicts , how would parents in the West Indies manage better with the Sepoys ? I say again , that this idea of sending convict Sepoys to supply the labour needs of our West Indian possessions fills me with ^ horror . "

      Ifevertheless , the want is imperative , « nd to us it appears that there is but one way of relieving it—that is , to throw open the coast of Africa to tropical America and permit her to supply her wants even to repletion . By this means , in the course of time an amount of trained negrolabour would be available to meet the demands of every country in the world requiring such labour . And' there is little

      probability of an extension of slave-holding states in America by this process . The negro can barely exist , cannot form an effectual labouring class either to the North or the South . Let tropical America , then , gorge herself with negroes , that they may—educated , civilized , and in course of time free—regurgitate to Africa , the West Indian Islands , and throughout the tropics , the trained labourers of their side of the world—the civilizers .

      Qfi The Leader. [No. 407, Jantjaby 9, 18...

      qfi THE LEADER . [ No . 407 , Jantjaby 9 , 1858 .

      Christianity Or Caste ? A Public Opinion...

      CHRISTIANITY OR CASTE ? A public opinion is gradually rising up which puts before Government a very simple alternative . It is the patronage of Christianity or of caste in India . Lord Shaftesbtjbt has constituted himself the spokesman of public opinion , which advocates Christianity as the preferable influence . He has had so many successes , that , when he undertakes a cause , it has an additional chance of success ; and in this particular instance , the proposition is one sustained by simple common sense . Lord Shaftesbuhy became the advocate for children in factories , for women in mines , and he obtained from Parliament those laws which he considered to be necessary for the protection of his clients ; he arrested the short-time legislation ; and he , it is said , has influenced the selection of Lord Paxmerston ' s episcopal appointments : in short , he ia one of the men who considerably impel and guide the action of this country . We differ from him in many respects ; we consider him to be on some questions tenacious of his opinion to bigotry , almost avowedly the upholder of dogma as against argument ; but we must confess that he has throughout his public life become every year more candid , more frank , more considerate of other persons' opinions , more liberal in his octi 6 nfTnol ^ 'Glrnstian ~ aird ~ lesa ~ sectarian 7-- ] N : oman has done more on his side of the question to enlarge to useful proportions the action of the clergy in this country , and we recognize in him , therefore , a coadjutor in a mission which we believe ourselves to assist in from another standing-point . In the present instance , Lord SKAirTEaBUKJr , moved by strong convictions of his own , animated by Bucceas , has identified himself with a newlyawakerted public feeling , and we any , with

      the dictate of common sense . Hitherto we have discouraged Christianity in India : in the exercise of an impartiality carried to burlesque , we have positively made Christianity a disqualification . Native soldiers who have been converted have been discountenanced ; civilians have been excluded from public office ; and the mutiny tells us how far that policy succeeded . We look back to the causes of the mutiny , and we find them to be two : they are the

      disappointed ambition of Mahometan and Hindoo chiefs , who thought that their conquerors had fallen asleep , and resolved to seize the opportunity for getting their own again ; but they wanted a public opinion to work upon , and they found it . In India a certain tribe whose origin is the despair of ethnologists , exercises by birth the office of clergy . It attained the very highest influence in the country , superior even to the military , and it maintained its position by instilling into the

      other castes superstitions calculated to create a belief in overwhelming powers which would constantly interfere with the business of life . The most elaborate ceremonials were set on foot and gradually developed in India , even since a date not very ancient . They were allied with natural phenomena , perhaps with the secrets of freemasonry , and they were engrained in the very occupations of trade and industry . Once entangled in the belief , the Hindoo believer found his creed

      confirmed by the change of seasons , the aspect of the skies , the visit of the storm , the behaviour of castes about him ; by his own happiness , his own sufferings , the constitution of society , and the labour of his own handicraft . With such a creed , the more abominable and revolting it is , the greater its exhibition of power , the more obstinate its tenacity ; and if Spain abandoned its Inquisition in fear , India cannot without many a groan and many a pale convulsion , abandon

      the faith in Juggernaut , the truth of which was testified by the burning of the wife , the slaughter of the infant , and the exulting passion of the wretch that hung swinging upon an iron hook . Such a creed must engender ruffians by the million , must breed assassins whose hopes as well as malignity would constitute them the coadjutors against any alien , more simple , and more beneficent faith . The real cause of the late mutiny was Hindooism .

      Hitherto our policy in India has been to tolerate and encourage that creed , with the empirical exception of forbidding some of its rites . We excluded and discouraged the creed that brings men together , unites aliens , stamps crime as the curse to him that commits it , and calls forth the best feelings of our nature . We repelled the allies whose original instincts of humanity induced them to join us , even from that hotbed of crime and superstition . The practical and energetic Sir John Lawrence has been one

      of the first in the present day to break down the law of policy established by traditional expediency , and already the new rule that native Christians shall be encouraged for public service is at work in the Punjab , proclaimed with the sanction of Lawrence by Montgomery , Judicial Commissioner , that is , Deputy- Q overnor . — -WilKthe-people' -of—Bngland-endorso ^ the

      policy of Lawrence , or insist upon reverting to the ' traditional' policy P Lord Shavtesbvjix has constituted himself leading counsel for the Lawrence policy ; ho has put it before the public , ho lias no doubt impressed it upon the Government , which is supposed to be ' impartial' upon the matter ; and he will lay it before Parliament 5 wo must Bay that we have little doubt as to the ultimate decision .

      Workmen In The Church. There Is A Stir O...

      WORKMEN IN THE CHURCH . There is a stir of life in the Church of England . Its ministers are now fully awake to the fact that the Church of England has not been the church of the people . Though supported by endowments and by compulsory rates , it has been a church for those who could dress well and pay for pews . One could tolerate pews in dissenting chapels built by peculiar Protestants ; but that the national church , supported by the State , should

      have been parcelled out in pews for rich men , leaving the narrowed aisles for the parish poor , was an ingenious perversity of things . The present services for the working classes are an attempt to redress tin ' s anomaly . Westminster Abbey was worthily used when thousands thronged to it last Sunday to hear the Word of God ; and though many were curious and idle deserters of their own parish temples , yet the doors were opened without money and without price , and the poor were

      free to enter . Dean Trench pointedly rebuked the attendance of ordinary churchgoers , and subsequent services will probably show the effect of his admonition . The Bishop of London has been going to our meanest districts , preaching the Gospel to the very poor ; the Bishop of Oxford brought his fervid eloquence to St . Pancras Church on Tuesday ; aud Dr . Hook , of Leeds , preached on Wednesday to the working folk of Whitechapel . It is said by some that he preached over the heads of his audience , and failed to

      touch their hearts . It is not easy to preach to the poor . There is danger in bringing down Christianity to their level of ideas : and there is uselessness in not enabling them to rise to the height of your argument . If you talk of no aspect of Christianity but that which comes home at once to them , you may leave out the noblest part of your theme , and give them the idea that your religion is mean , merely practical , and poor . If you talk to them only on

      themes familiar to them—on the hardships of the poor , and the lowliness of their lot—you speak of what they know better than you , and of what they feel more keenly . Men seek in religion * something afar from the sphere of their sorrow '—from that daily sorrow that surrounds them : religion must , in its true meaniug , re-attach them to that Heaven that lay about them in their infancy , when the children even of the poor are free from the worldly cares that increase with

      years . But to take them out of their sphere of worldliness—for the poor are worldly to excess , always forced to think of daily wants and daily tasks — you must come clown and lead them out of their daily life . A simple sermon on the beauty of holiness would be foreign to the hard-pressed mechanic ; but if you could by illustration show that you thought of him in his workshop and at his hearth , you would , starting from the platform of a mutual sympathy , lead him on to the holiness of the truths which it is

      your mission to expound . The rich and varied records of the Bible supply plenty of illustrations . But beware of expounding intellectual subtleties in place of sp iritual truths . A very simple intellect can concoivo the very grandest spiritual ideas , but intellectual truths can only be grasped by educated miude ., —Xlie _ labpurj 2 r . Jin ^ ou £ ^ taught the idea of an all-seeing God , cnii understand the loving kindness of " Flokexob Nightingale , and can share the spirit of gift " titudo in which the sick soldier kissed her

      shadow as she passed . But you cannot hammor the clashing clauses of an Athanasian Creed into his head , nor explain to him how peop le predestined to be damned are free to be suvod . You can take the labourer , in spirit , from his ill-lighted , mean room and show him the glory

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 9, 1858, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09011858/page/12/