will be respected, and the greatest desire will invariably be shown by the British Government to augment their security, comfort, and happiness."

And as were the pledges of Lord William Bentinck, so also were those of Lord Dalhousie, when, in 1849, the annexation of the Punjaub was proclaimed:

"The British Government will leave to all the people, whether Mussulman, Hindoo, or Sikh, the free exercise of their own religions; but it will not permit any man to interfere with the other in the observance of such forms and customs as their respective religions may either enjoin or permit."

Other similar pledges might be cited; but these, spread over a space of half-a-century, will suffice. It is well that the reader should bear them steadily in mind. It was equally just and politic that such pledges should be given. It would have been equally unjust and impolitic to ignore them at any subsequent time.

But such general promises of toleration as these did not bind the Government to any active interference in the ecclesiastical affairs of the people. It was no part, indeed, of the original design that we should take the administration of the mosques and pagodas into our own hands. But in the course of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, regulations were issued in both the Bengal and the Madras Presidencies, which, although originating in nothing more than a desire to do justice between man and man by the prevention of fraudulent practices, have ever since, in the minds of many Christian men, been a reproach to the British Government and to the British nation. These Regulations set forth that, "Whereas considerable endowments had been granted in money, or by assignment of

lands, or of the produce or portions of the produce of lands, by former Governments of this country, as well as by the British Government and by individuals, for the support of mosques, Hindoo temples, colleges, and choultries, and for other pious and beneficial purposes; and whereas there were grounds to believe that the produce of such endowments was, in many instances, appropriated contrary to the intentions of the donors; and whereas it was the duty of the Government to provide that all such endowments be applied according to the real intent and will of the grantor," &c. &c.; "the general superintendence of all endowments," &c. was to be thenceforth "vested in the Board of Revenue;" and that "it should be the duty of the Board of Revenue to take such measures as might be necessary to ensure that all endowments made for the maintenance of establishments of the description above mentioned were duly appropriated to the purpose for which they were destined by the Government, or the individual by whom such endowments were made." "In like manner," proceeded the Regulations, "it shall be the duty of that Board to provide, with the sanction of Government, for the due repair and maintenance of all public edifices which have been erected at the expense either of the former or the present Government, or of individuals, and which either are or can be rendered conducive to the convenience of the community." To enable the Board the better to carry into effect the duties entrusted to them by this Regulation, local agents were to be appointed in each

zillah; "and," said the Regulations, "the collector of the zillah shall be ex officio one of those agents." And in order that the beneficent intention of these Acts might not be misinterpreted, it was set forth that it was "to be clearly understood that the object of the Regulation was solely to provide for the due appropriation of lands or other endowments, and not to resume any part of them." The words which I have used are those of the Madras Regulation (VII. of 1817), which follows very closely the Bengal Act (XIX. of 1810). The substance of the Regulations was held to be bad enough; but the words, if possible, were still worse, for they openly declared the conservancy of the false religions of the country to be a "pious and beneficial purpose." Some portions of these Regulations were subsequently modified; and, as will presently be seen, the practice which they directed was disallowed by the Home Government; but substantially they remained unrepealed up to the close of the reign of the East India Company. It remained for Her Majesty's Government to sweep them out of the code.

IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 397

CHAPTER XI.

Ignorance of the people of England-Their dawning apprehensions-Mr. Charles Grant-The extension of the ecclesiastical establishment-Bishop Wilson-The despatch of 1833-Misgivings of the Court-Subsequent orders.

IT was long before the state of things described in the last chapter was well understood by Christian England. People had heard of Juggernauth, and had encouraged exaggerated ideas of the wholesale slaughter committed by the crushing wheels of the great idol-car. Every child's book, illustrative of the manners and customs of foreign nations, had an impressive picture of Juggernauth making high holiday at the expense of hundreds of prostrate worshippers. But it was little known to what extent the great Pooree temple, or any other idol-home of the same kind, was supported and patronised by the British Government.

The history, indeed, of British administration in India was, for a long time, a sealed book. How India was governed few people cared to inquire. It was not until the first quarter of the present century had worn away, that the religious mind of England was in any way awakened to a sense of the extent to

which the British Government in India had linked itself with the idolatries of the country, and of the evils resulting from this unnatural alliance. Then the voice, perhaps of expostulation, perhaps of denunciation, was heard at public meetings and in private assemblies. The religious societies addressed themselves to the consideration of the great question, and individual men, appealing to the public mind through the press or from the platform, gave utterance, with no uncertain sound, to the convictions which had forced themselves upon them. Many, indeed, conceiving that the source of the evil lay in the indifference, if not in the impiety, of the Court of Directors, spoke in no measured language of the delinquencies of that body; and even the placid dulness of the India-House elections was for a time disturbed by appeals to the religious sensibilities of languid proprietors; and men who were not proprietors

qualified" for the purpose of infusing more of the religious element into the constituency at large. Candidates for the Direction were compelled to put forth manifestoes declaratory of their views on this important question,* and long debates in the Court of

Mr. Tucker has left on record the following account of an attempt that was made to extract a religious pledge from him:-"I was called upon by a proprietor to give a pledge that I was friendly to particular views connected with this subject, and disposed to promote particular objects.

On my declining to give the pledge required, the proprietor observed that it was high time for him, and other proprietors who thought as he did, to look out for a candidate who would give such a

pledge, and that it was high time for those, who were not proprietors, to become such for the same purpose."" In a few pregnant sentences of this paper, Mr. Tucker enunciated his views-"I am of opinion," he wrote, "that the Government should never identify itself with the missionary and other societies which have been instituted for the propagation of the Christian religion in the East. In the minds of the people of India, Government is habitually associated with the idea of power, of force, and