BRITISH RULE AND BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. BY JOSEPH KINGSMILL, M.A. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO SIR JOHN LAWRENCE, BART., G.C.B. "The toleration of all religions, and the zealous propagation of our own, is the way to LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. 1859. TO SIR JOHN LAWRENCE, BART., G.C.B., TO WHOM, IN CONJUNCTION WITH HIS DEEPLY-LAMENTED BROTHER, THE LATE SIR HENRY LAWRENCE, THE BRITISH NATION HAS ASSIGNED THE FIRST PLACE AMONGST THE ILLUSTRIOUS ENGLISHMEN, WHO BY THEIR WISDOM AND BRAVERY PRESERVED INDIA TO THE BRITISH CROWN, IN THE EVENTFUL CRISIS OF 1857, AND AT THE SAME TIME SHOWED TO THE WORLD, HOW COMPATIBLE, AN ENLIGHTENED ZEAL FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE TRUE RELIGION, IS WITH THE TOLERATION OF OPPOSING SYSTEMS OF BELIEF, AS WELL AS WITH THE SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE ; THE FOLLOWING PAGES, DESIGNED TO PROMOTE, IN HUMBLE DEGREE, THE INTERESTS OF BRITISH RULE AND BRITISH CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST, ARE, BY PERMISSION, DEDICATED, WITH GREAT INDIVIDUAL ADMIRATION AND ESTEEM, BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. It is usual with authors to preface their works with some apology for their temerity or presumption in taking upon themselves so prominent a position in the eyes of the public. In truth, it does look like arrogance in any ordinary mortal to write a book and publish it to the world, when so many persons, in every way more competent, modestly refrain from the attempt, or unhappily fail. All I can say for myself is, that having more than once done so with impunity, and as indeed I am encouraged to believe, with some advantage to the cause which I undertook to advocate, I am the more confident in the hope that my present production will not prove wholly useless, or unacceptable to the class of readers for whom I write. Like its predecessors, moreover, the book lays claim to no literary merit, beyond perhaps that of arrangement and convenient compilation of interesting historical facts, and opinions collected from the most eminent persons who have written on the subject, or who have themselves been actors in the important events recorded. It is not, therefore, open to severe criticism. My highest aspiration is, that God may make useful, in some measure, what I have here put together, for the advancement of the Christian religion in the world—that is, of Scriptural Christianity-without reference to those nice distinctions of faith and discipline which human infirmity has introduced into the bosom of the Church, and which sink into utter insignificance when viewed either in reference to the fundamental truths of the Gospel, or to the wants of a world still enveloped in gross darkness. Ardently attached to the Church so happily established in England, and desiring its extension in every way, I nevertheless from my heart do rejoice that God is honouring and attesting, by |