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"We have again to express our anxious desire that you should accomplish, with as little delay as may be practicable, the arrangements which we believe to be already in progress for abolishing the Pilgrim-tax, and for discontinuing the connexion of the Government with the management of all funds which may be assigned for the support of the religious institutions in India. We more particularly desire that the management of all temples and other places of religious resort, together with the revenues derived therefrom, be resigned into the hands of the natives; and that the interference of the public authorities in the religious ceremonies of the people, be regulated by the instructions conveyed in our despatch of the 20th of February, 1833." "We further desire," said the Court, "that you will make such arrangements as may appear to you to be necessary for relieving all our servants, whether Christians, Mahomedans or Hindoos, from the compulsory performance of any acts, which you may consider to be justly liable to objections on the ground of religious scruples."

It is admitted even by those who have been loudest in their condemnation of the traditional policy of the East India Company, that from that time the Court of Directors never drew back again. Their orders for the severance of all connexion between the State and the idolatries of the country were explicit and imperative; and they watched with a jealous eye the measures of the local Government, stimulating the inactive and rebuking the dis

obedient, and never missing an opportunity of pushing on the good work by timely exhortation and instruction. Under this pressure, the local authorities were compelled-reluctantly, I am afraid, in some cases-to move forward in the right direction; and in all the presidencies of India, the work of dissolution went on, if not with a celerity to satisfy the more eager, with a steadfastness that gave plentiful assurance to the more reasonable Christian reformers. Bonds such as then existed, the growth of years, could not be hastily severed. The complications were so great; the questions involved were so numerous; the evil to be eradicated was so much a part of the general administrative system of the country, that the work to be achieved was a great and laborious one, and only to be eventually accomplished by progressive efforts extending over many years.

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CHAPTER XII.

Severance of Government connexion with Idolatry-Employment of Native agency-Administration of temple-funds-Landed endowments-Moneypayments-Missionary efforts-Bishop Wilson-Connexion of Government servants with Missionary schemes-The Hindoo law of inheritance -Education.

THE work, however, was worthily commenced. The great series of Government measures for the severance of its connexion with the idolatries of the country was fitly inaugurated by the total abolition of the Pilgrim-tax. And on the 3rd of May, 1840, in pursuance of an Act passed in the preceding month, the gate of the great temple of Juggernauth was thrown open to the pilgrim, amidst a convulsion of nature which threatened to destroy even the stately pagoda itself.

The year 1841 was a year of determined and systematic action. The supreme Government issued its orders to the minor Governments, and they in turn sent forth their instructions to the departments under them. But it was an easier thing to direct absolute withdrawal from "all interference with native temples and places of religious resort," than to carry these instructions into effect. Indeed, when the work came to be done, it was found to be

very difficult. The administration of the religious endowments was so mixed up with the revenue system of the country that our public officers, in many instances, found themselves perplexed in the extreme, not knowing how to carry out the orders of the Government without doing palpable injustice to a large number of people.

The first thing to be accomplished was the substitution of some other agency from that of the servants of Government, to which the executive management of the religious institutions might be entrusted. Nothing was plainer than that the administration should be vested in those individuals who, professing the same faith, may be thought best qualified to conduct that administration with fidelity and regularity, such individuals, together with their subordinate officers, being held responsible to the courts of justice for any breach of the duties and trusts assumed by them." The theory of this was excellent, and the practice would seem to have been easy of fulfilment; but a question arose as to the appointment of these native trustees. Doubtless, the best means of securing the conduct of the administration with fidelity and regularity was by vesting the appointment of trustees and managers in the hands of the Government. But it was objected to this, that there was little real difference between Government servants and Government nominees; and that, therefore, the disconnexion of the Christian Government from the administration of the heathen institutions of the country would, under such a system, be

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incomplete. On the other hand, under any other system, there was likely to be no small amount of mismanagement and malversation, no remedy for which could possibly be supplied by our courts of justice. Here, again, a difficult question was suggested, or one, rather, made difficult by the widely different opinions brought to its solution. There were some who contended that idolatry, being an unmitigated evil, could not be rendered worse by the bad administration of its affairs-that it was better to leave it to perish by the innate force of its own corruption than to endeavour to impart any respectability and security to it. Others, on the other hand, declared that to withdraw all securities against administrative corruption was simply to superadd evil upon evil, and that there was no reason why, because the religion of the people was false, there should be no check upon the evil practices of those entrusted with the management of its affairs. That a false religion well conducted is worse than the same thing ill conducted, is not very apparent. The question, however, was considered an open one, and the practice was left uncertain. Whilst the Bombay Government resolved that the choice of administrators should be left to the worshippers themselves,*

"In carrying out the principle of entirely severing Government and its officers from any interference whatever in matters connected with the native religious institutions, the Governor in Council is of opinion that in whatever way corporate bodies of trusts may be established, it should be provided that vacancies are to be filled up without the intervention of Government, either by a

kind of election in certain families, or in such other way as the Government of India may determine upon, and that the Poojárees, or officiating priests, or the heads of the castes connected with the institution should be the parties having authority to prosecute the trustees for any malversation or breach of trust."-Resolution of Bombay Government, Feb. 27, 1841.

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