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    * s tigafcion of long-cherished revenge , the whole * c ivhized 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 perform 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 Van Diemen ' 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 Jiorror . "

    Nevertheless , the want is imperative , and 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 .

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    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 Shaftesbtjbi 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 iu this particular instance , the proposition is one sustained by simple common sense . Lord Shaftesbury 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 Pai / MKRSton ' s episcopal appointments : in short , he is one of the men wno 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 action , more Christian and less sectarian . No —man ™ has"done-mare- on-his-Bide ™ of ~ -the ~ ques * tion 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

    the dictate of common sense . 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 societv , 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 ori g inal instincts of numanity 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 clay to break down the law of policy established by traditional expediency , and already the new rule

    that native Christians shall bo encouraged for public service is at work in the Punjab , proclaimed with the sanction of Lawrence by Montgomery , Judicial Commissioner , that is , Deputy-Governor . Will the people of England endorse the polioy-of-LArW-nENGE or-inaist-, upon-revei ? tingto the ' traditional' policy ? Lord Suavtesiiuhy has constituted himself leading counsel for the Lawhenok policy ; ho has put it before the public , helms no doubt impressed it upon the Government , which is supposed to be ' impartial' upon the matter ; and he will lny it before Parliament 5 we must say that we have little doubt as to the ultimate decision .

    . Theee is a stir of life in the Church o England . Its ministers are now fully a \ vak < to the fact that the Church of England hai not been the church of the people . Thougl supported by endowments and by compulsory rates , it has been a church for those who coulc dress well and pay for pews . One coulc tolerate pews in dissenting chapels buill by peculiar Protestants ; but that the national church , supported by the State , shoulc have been parcelled out in pews for rich men

    leaving the narrowed aisles for the parisl : poor , was an ingenious perversity of things The present services for the working classes are an attempt to redress this anomaly . West minster Abbey was worthily used ay her thousands thronged to it last Sunday to heai the Word of God ; and though many Avert curious and idle deserters of their own parisl : temples , yet the doors were opened withoul money and without price , and the poor Avere free to enter . Dean Trench pointedly

    rebuked the attendance of ordinary churchgoers , and subsequent services will probably shoAV 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 . Paucras Church on Tuesday ; and Dr . Hook , of Leeds , preached on Wednesday to the working folk or Whitechapel . It is said by some that he preached over the heads of his audience , and failed tc

    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 uselessnesa in not enabling them to rise to the height oi your argument . If you talk of no aspect ol Christianity but that which comes home a 1 once to them , you may leave out the noblest part of your theme , and give them the ider that your religion is mean , merely practical and poor . If you talk to them only oi themes familiar to them—on the hardships o

    the poor , and the loAvliness of their lot—yoi speak of what they knoAV better than you and of what they feel more keenly . Meu 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 Avith 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 down 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 Avorkshop and at his hearth , you would , starting from the platform of a mutual sympathy , lead him oil 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 iu place of spiritual truths . A very simple intellect can conceive the very grandest spiritual ideas , but intellectual truths can only be grasped b y educated minds . The labourer in our fields can bo

    taugl ^ t- » -the _ idea ^ of _ an « ftlUseeiug ^ Gx > di , _ jyi » L understand the loving kindness of J ' loub'NOE Nightingale , and can share the spirit of gratitude in which the sick soldier kissed her shadow as she passed . But you cannot hammer the clashing clauses of nn Athanasian Creed into his head , nor explain to him how peop le predestined to be damned are free to be saved . You can take the labourer , in , spirit , from his ill-lighted , mean room and show him the g lory

    in from another standing-point . In tho present instance , Lord SiiAJfTESiiuitr , moved by strong convictions of his own , animated by success , has identified himself with a newlyawakened public feeling-, and wo say , with

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    Hitherto WORKMEN IN THE CHURCH S 6 ^ ^ THE LEAD EB . [ No- 407 , January 9 , 1858 . — == - ^——^— ^———" ^—¦ ^ r ^ ntr . mur r-vr mrru r"TTTT"Rr > 'Fr

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 9, 1858, page 36, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2225/page/12/