CHAPTER V. 1813-1816. RENEWAL OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER-EFFORTS TO GAIN FREE ACCESS FOR MISSIONARIES TO INDIA, AND TO ESTABLISH AN EPISCOPATE -EXERTIONS OF DR. BUCHANAN AND MR. PRATT-COMMENCEMENT OF 66 THE MISSIONARY REGISTER"-THE SUBJECT OF THE EAST-INDIA CHARTER BROUGHT BEFORE PARLIAMENT, AND THE EFFORTS OF THE FRIENDS OF MISSIONS CROWNED WITH SUCCESS-THE MISSIONARY CAUSE RECEIVES A NEW IMPULSE-ASSOCIATIONS ARE ORGANIZED-MR. PRATT TRAVELS FOR THE SOCIETY FRIENDLY COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. - THE renewal of the East-India Company's Charter in 1813, forms an epoch in the history of modern Missions. Some account of the Religious Movement connected with that event will find an appropriate place in this Memoir; for the Church Missionary Society was called by its position to take a very prominent share in the exertions then made to obtain greater facilities of access to the heathen world ; and the energies of its Secretary were then taxed to the utmost, and confessedly contributed in no small degree to bring about the happy result. The Charter which was about to expire had been granted by Parliament in 1793. At that time attempts were made, especially by Mr. Wilberforce, to obtain the introduction of some clauses favourable to the advancement of useful knowledge among the inhabitants of British India, and tending to their moral and religious improvement. Nothing more, however, was then effected than the passing of a Resolution in the House of Commons, proposed by Mr. Wilberforce, which remained as a permanent record on the books of the House, serving to shew what they considered it would be their duty to do whenever a better opportunity should present itself. This was previous to the establishment of the Church Missionary Society. In the mean time zeal in the Missionary cause had very much increased throughout the country; and it was felt that, upon this new occasion, greater and more vigorous efforts should be made to open India to the Gospel. As Parliamentary discussions upon this subject were anticipated some time before the expiration of the then existing Charter, the friends of Missions began to bestir themselves in the early part of 1812; more than a year before the new Charter would be granted. The object they had in view was two-fold: to obtain free access for Missionaries into the British Possessions in India; and to promote the completion of the Ecclesiastical Establishment by the erection of an Episcopate. The only Protestant Mission which had in any measure received the countenance of the Company, was that which had been planted for more than a century on the coast of Coromandel. The admission of any others into the country had been regarded with a jealous eye. It was feared that the security of the empire would be endangered by the introduction of persons, whose avowed object was the conversion of the natives to the Christian faith. Dr. Carey and his companions of the Baptist Communion, had gained a footing in India through the Danish Settlement at Serampore, near Calcutta ; and by their exemplary conduct and useful labours had conciliated the favour and esteem of the local Government of Bengal. But when the number, originally small, was reduced by death, no disposition was manifested to allow them to replenish their strength. So far from it, some persons sent from England by way of America to re-inforce the infant Mission were required by the Government to quit the country; although in no case was there the slightest impeachment of the propriety of their conduct, or the purity of their intentions. A very different course of policy had been pursued by the King's Government in Ceylon, without producing the smallest interruption to the public tranquillity; and thus ample proof had been afforded to the rulers of the continent of India, that there was really no sufficient ground for their fears, when weighed even by the principles of political expediency. The noble conduct of Schwartz,* so serviceable as it was known to have been to the State, ought to have convinced the Court how beneficially the admission of wise and pious men, bent upon the improvement and moral cultivation of the natives, would have operated in strengthening the foundations of the Indian empire. But they were inexorable; and the unyielding opposition thus manifested made it the more imperative, * See Life of Schwartz, by Dean Pearson. that the decisive step should now be taken, of appealing to a higher authority. The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and the Church Missionary Society, were foremost in the agitation of this memorable question. On the 5th of May, 1812, the first of these bodies met and drew up a Memorial, which was afterwards presented to His Majesty's Ministers and the Court of Directors. On the 21st of April preceding, a Special Committee Meeting of the Church Missionary Society took place, Mr. Wilberforce being in the chair; when it was resolved to call a Special General Meeting of the Society on the 24th inst. At this Meeting 400 gentlemen were present, including several Members of Parliament; Lord Gambier was in the chair. A Deputation was appointed to seek for interviews with His Majesty's Ministers and the Court of Directors, and to use all available means of obtaining a favourable reply to their petition. Mr. Pratt took a very active share in these proceedings, and especially in preparing various papers upon India to awaken public attention. On the 1st of May the Committee passed a vote of thanks to him, which they recorded on their Minutes, "for his laborious exertions in promoting the object of the late Special General Meeting." And as it appeared necessary, under present circumstances, " to employ the press in an extensive and indefinite way," it was further resolved, "that the Secretary be authorized to exercise his discretion therein, as circumstances may require." The Rev. Dr. Claudius Buchanan formerly ViceProvost of the College of Fort-William in Bengal, had returned to England in 1808, and rendered most essential service in the present movement. It was, indeed, by him that the necessity of a complete Ecclesiastical Establishment for India had been first distinctly pointed out in his "Memoir" on that subject in 1805. The original conception of this able work he attributed to the suggestion of the excellent Bishop Porteus, who had "attentively surveyed the state of our dominions in Asia, and expressed his conviction of the indispensable necessity of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for our Indian empire." "His celebrated "Christian Researches in the East," published early in 1811, had roused the public attention to the spiritual wants of India still more. Mr. Pratt now wrote to him to propose, that he should again take up his pen in this cause. He sent word, in reply, that he was already thus engaged, and was preparing a "Prospectus of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India," to be distributed among the Members of both Houses: and he adds "I think two or three short addresses might be drawn up from these materials (the Memoir, Resolutions, and Prospectus) for the Members of Parliament by some of your most luminous pens, every man in his own manner. Mr. Vansittart and Mr. Dealtry, for example, might each send forth a sheet, after his own manner; and you and Mr. Macaulay might do the same. You need not give your names, and therefore may say any thing you like. So you will escape, and I shall be willing to receive the stabs." The result of the interviews of the Deputation from Memoir of Dr. Buchanan, by Dean Pearson. Part. II. Chap. 3. |