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Leader (1850-1860), 26th March 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, Vn 470. Makch 26. 1859-] THE LEADEB. 397

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      Vn 470. Makch 26. 1859-] The Leadeb. 397

      Vn 470 . Makch 26 . 1859- ] THE LEADEB . 397

      Literature, Science, Art, &C

      LITERATURE , SCIENCE , ART , & c

      Literary Chronicle Of The Week..— A. - —...

      LITERARY CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK . . — a . — ¦ — ¦ "¦ "¦

      The Secret Offer To The Literary Fund, C...

      The secret offer to the Literary Fund , communicated through Messrs . Dickens and Elwyn ( the Editor of the QuarterIt / % is Understood to be a lar « -e sum of money offered by a benevolent lady , in addition to the fund remaining over and above from the hitherto unsuccessful proceedings of the Guild of Literature and Art . This sum ot . money having remained inactive all this time upo : i their handstand amounting , it is said , to about . £ . 5 , 000 , and friends hav than

      Mr . Dickens . Jus e more once tried to induce the Committee of the Literary Fund to accept it—under , conditions ;; and what these ' . conditions have been it is not difficult to imagine , seeing that Mr . Dickens has long been urging upon th . ; subscribers to the Fund a series of reformatory measures not agreeable to the committee . We do not . purpose to enter into that question now ; all that we can do is , to inform the ' reader , of the nature of this now movement , which has diverted , for a time , the thunder of Mr . Dickens and his friends from the heads of tlia Committee of the Literary Fund .

      of Cambridge . Mr . Cureton was once employee in the library of the Museum , and lias gained much celebrity as a Syriac scholar . It may be doubted whether mere scholarship , without the aid of such patronage as that of the Prince Consort , would have led to such a result . It is stated that before this appointment no person outside the pale of the Royal Family has ever held the post of Royal Trustee to the British Museum . Among coming events interesting to the . literary world is the annual feast of the Literary Fund . It is fixed for Wednesday , the 18 th of May , and the Right Hon . W \ E . ( jj-ladstone , the statesman and literary man , who did not pacify the Isles of Greece , " but did criticise Homer , is to preside . This is always the most interesting , if iiot the best , dinner of the season .

      From Paris we hear that the Emir Abdrel-Kadir lias got his Memoirs in the press ; a French literary gentleman having undertaken the task of translating them from the Arabic MSS .

      The meeting appointed for Wednesday last ; when Mr . Dickens aud Mr . Elwyn were to communicate the nature of the proposal to the Committee , proved quite abortive ; for no sooner had the gentlemen met , than some ingenious . . person- started a preliminary question , whether they had a right to meet for such a purpose ; and after some , consideration it was decided that , according to the provisions of their .. Charter ,, they had not . ; , ami , consequently , as nought could be done , and nought could be said ,. Lord La . nsdowne , Lord Mahoii , and the rest of the noble and distinguished committeemen retired .. A curious instance this of the value of forms .

      The " Vestiges" question has taken a new form , and has developed itself in an unexpected Kianner ; bidding fair to be the greatest literary cause celebre since . Juhiu . 4- The Critic , which makes itself very busy in all such matters , this week prints a formal document signed by Dv . Jnmes Coxc , the nephew of George Combe , and one of his literary executors , and written , it is alleged , with the full concurrence of his co-executors , in which the imputation of authorship to George Combe is most emphatically and strenuously denied . " Mr . George Combe" says Dr . Coxe ,

      " knew nothing of the ' Vestiges' till he saw u published copy of the work ;¦ anil we are confident that he never , by word , look , or silent acquiescence , knowingly gave tin ? slightest countenance to the supposition that ho was its author , or hiul taken any part whatever in its production . " This statement is strong , but . it proves rather top much . JIow can any man pronounce absolutely upon what another knows or does not know , or has scon or not soon ? It is impossible . And then , in opposition to the denial of his ever having given " the slightest countenance to the

      supposition that he was ltd author , " even by ^ auent acquiescence , ' welmvo Professor Owen ' s evidence , that in his letters to Combe ho always treated him us the author , and ho never denied the assumption m his replies . Two other events in connexion with the quostion aro tho emphatic denial of Professor Nicholof any ' complicity in tho authorship , coupled witli an announcement that ho will shortly publish a work in' which tho views of , tho " Vestiges" will 1 ) 0 refuted ; and Mr . David Page's emphatic aissertion , that " Mi , llobort Chambers is tho solo and responsible author of the book , "

      No new books of marked importance hovo either appoared ov boon announced . Two' additions tp tho cheap popular pres . i are spoken of ; one a penny Bell ' s . £ , (/» , to appear twico a week , and the other , an Esiglinli edition of tho JVaw York Lodger , ft cheap periodical < jix tlio pattern of the Family Herald , which ha . n risen in Aiuorioa to a circuluf ion of nearly hulf-a-inlllion . 'Jfli ' o British Museum has got . two now trustees . One , the Kuv . W . Curoton , of St . Margui-ot ' s , Wostminstor , aud Canon of tho Abbey , appointed to tho vacant Royal trusteeship which wns beon ' unu'llol siiioo tho death of . tho old Duko

      The People, Talked Their Language, Adopt...

      the people , talked their language , adopted their customs , and countenanced their superstitions . " Clothed in the" sacerdotal yellow cloth , with the mark of sandal wood on their foreheads , their long hair streaming down their backs , their copper vessels in their hands , their wooden sandals on their feet , these " New jkahmans" found acceptance among the people , and were welcomed by the princes of 'Southern India . They performed their , ablutions with scrupulous regularity ; they ate no animal food ; they drank no intoxicating liquors , but found in the simple fare of vegetables and milk at once a disguise and a protection . The Christians had hitherto appeared upon the scene , eating and

      drinking—gluttonous and wine-bibbers—and they had paid penalty of an addiction -to those feverish stimulants under the burning copper skits of the East . The holy men who now wandered half-naked among the natives of Southern India , and , sitting on their haunches , ate the common fare of the country , braved the climate with comparative immunity , and were not suspected of fellowship with the " sensual Europeans , who had turned Goa into a style of corruption . Whether it was necessary to the : due simulation of the Brahnianiciil character to preserve in ' ¦ all-other , respects very grea _ t purity of lit'o , niay be left to . all who are acquainted with the habits of that priestly class to conjecture for themselves . "

      CHRISTIANITY IN IXDrA . Christianity , in India . An Historical Narrative . By John William Kaye . Smith , Elder , and Go . Of all subjects at the present time , this is perhaps the most important to an Englishman ; and we may esteem it a groat happiness- 'that it has fallen into the hands of one so competent ; to all the relations of the great argument as Mr . Kaye . To a tliorough knowledge of India , Mr . Kaye adds much power of eloquence , . which , wli . cn / there is

      occasion , illuminates these pages with remarkable radiance . As an example of this , we might instance his narrative of the heroic missionary elForts . of the Jesuit , Francis ^ Xavier , -which is as line a piece of writing as we have met with , in its war .. "With the ' mission-of ' this extraordinary man properly begins the history ; all events prior to that pei-iod are fubulous or mythical . The story of St . Thomas having been an apostle here is simply a mistake ; it relates to a St . Thomas of the eighth century , not of the first . in India

      The greatest enemies of Christianity have been Christians themselves . Their conduct , so inconsistent -with their profession , and so infamous in itself , is of a nature to make one shudder . The natives summed it up in one sentence of broken English— "Christianreligion , devil religion ; Christian much drunk ; Christian , mucli do wrong ; much beat and abuse others . " AVe regret to add that this saying was especially true ot the Protestants ; against the Romanist very different charges have to he brought , lished marvels in

      Soon after Xavier had accomp Syria , and died , Rome began to spoil the work he liatl done , after her usual fashion . She contested tho supremacy of the Patriarch of Babylon . She camo down like a wolf oil the fold upon the "doomed Indian Churches . More than one Syrian prelate expiated their alleged heresies in the dungeons of the Inquisition . Don Alexis tie Monozos , archbishop of Goa , conducted tho work of persecution with stern cruelty ; declaring the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff , and excommunicating the patriarch . Sixty yeur . s of servitude and hypocrisy , iiecording to Gibbon , succeeded . But n . s soon as the Portuguese empire was shaken by the courage and industry of tho Dutch , tho Nostoriana assorted tha roligion of their fathers .

      It is , however , on tlio eastern coast that tho movements of tlio Jesuits had to bo tnicod . The time of the stiungo drama that they enacted was tlic ocvcntuentli " century . - In tho regions watered by tlio GangOiS they wore disheartened and repulsed , but in the Southern Poninwula they had , according to their own account , marvellous huccoss . They sought thoir converts among tho Brahmans , luid for that purpose assumed , tho disguirtu oi JJrnhmans , calling themselves Wontom Brahmana . " They shrank , " ways . our author , * ' f ' roiu no amount of labour—fi'oiu no Hutt ' oring—from no humiliation . They turned iwklo from the practice of no deceit —from tho exorcise of no hy pocrisy . They liod in word and they lied in action . " Following this nllunoutf plan of dissimulation , they mixed with

      The whole affair -was a . pretence and an hypocrisy ; for instance , under the pretext of administering medicine to them , they baptised all . the dying children . Their notion was to save virtual proselytes by . the / magic of priestcraft . The Christianitv of Madura , so taught , was mere idolatry , and disguised itself as -adroitly as the priests who taiiirlit it ; Instead of attempting to break down caste , they made a parade of it in their own behoof ; . dcclarin

      ' converting was y becoming themselves hc-jithen . s . At length the fraud exploded , and the contests betwixt the Dutch and Portuguese brought the whole matter to a premature close . It had ni ) root in truth , and perished at the slightest collision . The Dutch merchants , if they did not encourage the Malabar Christians , " sheltered them against the rapacity of the Jesuits ; and the dawn of the eighteenth century found the authority of Rome a mere shadow among the Syrian churches . " The ruin of the Jesuit missions in Southern India was accomplished , in' time , by a natural internal process , rather than by any outward ' , violence . The >'• New Brahmans" were detected at last . They were found to bo only Foringhces- . ' disguise ,- and the natives rejected their ministrations with anger and contempt .

      The first Protestant church was erected in Madras , in lo'Kl , by onn Streyn . shani Master , a devout man , and chief of the factory ; in 1713 , another was erected in Bombay . More -idecency of life had commenced among the saJtlors * , but true Christianity was of tardy growth . At tho beginning of the eighteenth ' century , however , Engla was cpnsociatod with the Hollander , and tho Dane , in missionary enterprise . Of the IiihL named , Bartholomew ZiogonbuUj , and Henry Plutscho , two distinguished men , undertook not to baptize , but to convert the heathen . Thoy translated the Bible into tho vulgar tonuuu of I lie natives , tlio Taniul ; and in duo cour . su tlio word * , at tivat punctured on the primitive palmyra . loaf , were perpetuated by mourn of tho printing liro-rw . ' At fuvt paper w . is not to bo procured . " The mi ^ ionum-n looked tho diflioulty boldly in the facto , and niiulu paper lor themselves . " Tlio naiiu ' , ton , of J / rodoriok Schwartz , is honourably < lirttingui . < hud u * that pt a ruli ff iou * Jubimivi , U » r nearly hull ' n century in Southern India . ., During all thin tinio , however , mid long aitorwanlfi __ , ( uri ,, ir the noriodH nvui- which Hastings and C'llvo pre ' fiided—tho conduct ) of Kuropoaii spcioty wan nioul , immoral . The groiMOst » oeinl vices prevuiled ; drunkeniu'Srt , ooneubiiui ^ e , and worno . "JLtwuw of little urfo to think of vhrititianising tho people , until tho Knglish in Ind ' m had begun m some meurfuro to chrititiuni / . e themselves . " Never-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26031859/page/13/