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there; and, as we shall afterwards see, a school of Dr. Wilson's, commenced in 1832, was removed to the fort and opened on a larger scale, with the view of developing it into an "institution." Then the turn of Madras naturally came, but, of course, little could be done till first a missionary was sought and found. The influence of Dr. Duff's great speech in the Assembly of 1835 had, however, told powerfully on the mind of a licentiate of the Church, then living on the banks of the Nith, near Dumfries, and the afterwards renowned John Anderson had consecrated himself to evangelistic work in India. He was prepared to undertake the conduct of the Madras mission; and being ordained in St. George's Church, Edinburgh, on July 13th, 1836, left soon afterwards for his destination.

Before proceeding to his own proper sphere, he visited Calcutta to see the working of the institution there. He arrived at the Bengal capital on the 27th of December 1836, and received hospitality from the Rev. Mr. Mackay, who, during Dr. Duff's absence in Europe, was head of the mission. He finally reached Madras on the 22nd February 1837. At that time he was in his thirtysecond year, a period of life considerably more advanced than that at which most of the Free Church missionaries have proceeded to the East, but this was a decided advantage to any one going to commence operations in a new and untried sphere.

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The germ from which the great Madras institution ultimately developed was already in existence when Mr. Anderson first reached that presidency seat. In June 1835 the Rev. Messrs. Bowie and Lawrie, Scotch chaplains at Madras, had founded what was called St. Andrew's School, the name being probably taken from that of the so-called patron saint of Scotland. On Mr. Anderson's arrival this school was placed under his care, and, removing it to the native city, he re-opened it on the 3rd of April 1837, with an attendance of fifty-nine pupils.' In doing so, he made no secret of his intention to aim at the conversion of the pupils to Christianity, and let it be distinctly known that this was the very purpose the Foreign Mission Committee had in view in sending him and his brethren out. His first circular is an extremely straightforward document; and if, when conversions took place in the school, some of the natives professed to feel amazed, as if some strange thing had happened, they certainly could not in justice complain that they were left without previous warning of what was likely to occur.

"It is,' said the circular, the wish of the Committee of the Indian mission to establish a school at

each of the three presidencies as the most important stations in India for the advancement of their object.' "The object is simply to convey, through the channel of a good education, as great an amount of truth as pos

There had once been 150, but the admission of a Pariah, whom the School Committee (to their honour be it said) had refused to expel, had brought it down considerably.-Madras Native Herald for October 9, 1847, p. 2.

sible to the native mind, especially of Bible truth. Every branch of knowledge communicated is to be made subservient to this desirable end. The ultimate object is that these institutions shall be a normal seminary, in which native teachers and preachers may be trained up to convey to their benighted countrymen the benefit of a sound education, and the blessings of the gospel of Christ."

Despite the unfurling of the Christian flag thus con| spicuously, the zealous and efficient teaching of Mr. Anderson began to produce its natural effects, and by December 22, 1838, the attendance of pupils had advanced from 59 to 277. The course of an Indian mission school, like that of true love, never yet did run smooth, and presently rocks appeared in mid-channel, and rapids presented themselves with broken water, so that the faithless were tempted to doubt whether the former placidity of movement would ever return. To speak less figuratively, scarcely had the mission began to make progress when troubles arose. The first was caused by a renewal of the old caste struggle. Two Pariah boys had found their way into the school under false colours, and when they were discovered some of the caste youths and their friends wished the expulsion of the intruders. Mr. Anderson could not in conscience comply with their request, and about 100 of his pupils in consequence left. Ten of these were received into the Native Education Society's School, the European Committee of which-who evidently fell into the error of supposing caste and worldly rank the same *-stating that they deemed it right to afford an asylum "when the feelings of a boy were shocked by his being associated with persons of an inferior class of life." The caste struggle was more severe than it would have been had the intolerant heathen party not obtained European countenance; but Mr. Anderson finally achieved the victory, for in a few months the places of the boys who had left him on the Pariah question were supplied by new-comers, whilst the Committee of the rival school was partly broken up by the secession of four eminent Christians from its ranks. His triumph struck a blow at the caste system in Madras, from which it has never recovered.

II.

FREEDOM LEGALLY SECURED FOR NATIVE YOUTHS.

On the 8th of April 1846, a young man called Ponumbalum appeared at the mission house, having walked thither no less than thirty-five miles. His convictions in favour of Christianity were of long standing. Ten

By caste law men of the highest rank, unless by birth Hindus, are on the level of Pariahs, if not even lower, and the humblest Sudra should be above associating with the Governor-General of India. Mr. Anderson was as much a Pariah as the boys whose expulsion was demanded, so also were the European members of the Native Education Society's Committee.

years before, when he was only fourteen, he had sought | possible to draw off the attention of the populace, while baptism from the Rev. Mr. Winslow, but, with other boys, had been carried off by a heathen mob. Five different times did his relatives put forth all their efforts to induce him to return home, but he stood firm as a rock, and was admitted into the congregation on the 17th of May. Four days previously, two other youths, Ramanoojum and C. Sungeeve, were received into the Church on the 3rd of June, and a fourth, R. Soondrum, on the 17th. A few months later, three others appeared, Davanaygum, Govindoo, and Ragavooloo, and on the 10th September a fourth, called S. R. Soondrum-making eight in all.

One of these eight, Ragavooloo, was a Brahman, and the Hindus, feeling that the loss of a young man belonging to the sacred caste would be a considerable blow to their faith, induced the relatives to apply for a writ of habeas corpus against Mr. Anderson. The result which followed was as gratifying to the supporters of missions as it was disappointing to the Brahmanic party. Sir William Burton, the judge who tried the case, showed that the one object which a habeas corpus writ was designed to serve was to set the person in whose favour it was sought free from illegal restraint. He was simply allowed to go where he pleased, provided he possessed discretion to be trusted to take care of himself. The legal phrase, age of discretion, was not a good one, for it was not so much age, as the actual attainment of discretion, which the court had to ascertain before deciding that a youth was entitled to be his own master. In England the law allows a child of fourteen to appoint its own guardian, and there was even a case in which the court refused to deliver one less than fourteen to its father. There was reason to believe that Ragavooloo, though of small stature and juvenile aspect, was seventeen years of age, though his relatives declared him only twelve. A circumstance which threw doubt on the statements of the family was, that no horoscope had been produced, though one must have been made at a Brahman boy's birth.

The judge, having ascertained by personally questioning him, that he was possessed of discretion enough to be allowed to live where he pleased, asked him where he wanted to go; on which he replied, to Mr Anderson. Means were then taken to enable him to carry out his wish, which it was very difficult to do in the face of the riotous Hindu mob, some three or four thousand strong, the majority being Brahmans. In vain did the police attempt to clear the street in front of the court-house to let the people out; the multitude simply shifted their ground, and that not so much from fear of the official authorities, as from the variation, in their own opinion, as to the door by which Ragavooloo would come out. It was manifest that when he did make his appearance, the Brahmans would attempt to seize him, and he was therefore kept in the court-house till a late hour in the evening. As even then there were no signs of dispersion, a coach was so placed at the sheriff's office as if

Mr. Anderson's own vehicle was being drawn up in an adjacent enclosure, which communicated with the courthouse. The Rev. Mr. Braidwood, the deputy sheriff, the chief constable, and Ragavooloo, entered this latter conveyance, and the shutters of it having been closed on all sides, the coachman received orders to drive to the mission. Before, however, he had emerged through the gateway into the street, the mob became aware of the manœuvre in progress, and made a rush at the vehicle, with the object of seizing the horse's head. On this the coachman caused the animal to rear, plunge, and then set off at full gallop, the Brahmans and others running behind, shouting and throwing stones. The coachman was struck repeatedly, but he resolutely kept his seat and did his duty to the last. When the coach entered the mission enclosure, a body of police, stationed there for the purpose, closed the gate, and remaining inside, prepared to defend the place against assault. Afterwards the deputy sheriff was escorted back to his office, and the Rev. Mr. Anderson conveyed in safety from the court-house home. The mob gradually dispersed, and before long the storm had been succeeded by a calm. On Wednesday, 23rd September 1846, Ragavooloo was baptized, along with three other youths, Davanagum, Govindrajooloo, and S. R. Soondrum.

The eight baptisms now reported greatly stirred up the heathen; who, however, failed to remove more than 300 pupils from the schools. They, at the same time, sent a memorial to the Court of Directors, wherein they begged that they might be saved from "the fangs of the missionaries;" the plain meaning of which was, that the court should prevent parents sending their children to such schools as they pleased, and aid in coercing young men, who had lost faith in Hinduism, into professing to believe what they deemed untrue. Of course the court could not possibly have granted the wishes of the intolerant memorialists, and the petition was void of effect.

At a communion which occurred soon after the eight baptisms, twenty-one natives sat down at the table, fifteen of them, including a female, being converts of the mission. The same year (1846) three of them, Messrs. Venkataramiah, Rajahgopaul, and Ettirajooloo, were licensed as preachers; and on December 15, the institution was removed to new premises on the Esplanade, affording better accommodation than those previously occupied.

III.

EMANCIPATION OF NATIVE FEMALES. IN February 1847, two of the first class in the girls' school at Madras, Unnum and Mooniatta by name, came under conviction of sin through means of direct appeals made by Mr. Anderson to the consciences of the pupils. The same effect was produced next month

on two others, called Venkatlutchmoo and Yaygah; and shortly afterwards on a fifth girl, called Mungah. On Wednesday, the 7th of April, Unnum and Mooniatta, hearing that they were to be married (of course without any reference to their own feelings) to heathen men, became convinced that if they failed to carry out their religious convictions now, they would probably never be permitted to do so. They therefore took refuge in the Mission-house, and, in the circumstances, were gladly received. That same evening Unnum's grandmother, Ummariee Ummah, was sent for, and came. She was a fine gray-haired old Moodeelly, and having herself some leanings towards Christianity, was with little difficulty persuaded to place her granddaughter, and indeed herself, under the guardianship of the missionaries.* The youngest of her grandsons consented to do so likewise, while the two elder went off to avoid eating " Pariah rice." By Pariah they meant European, Europeans, as already stated, being on the Hindoo system Pariahs, or, if it be possible, even something lower. Mooniatta's mother, Jyalanda, accompanied by other relatives, arrived on Thursday in a half-frantic state, and having failed to induce the daughter to return home, and remain contented to be an idolatress, applied in forma pauperis for a writ of habeas corpus against Mr. Anderson. That same Thursday there arrived two of the other girls— Venkatlutchmoo and Yaygah-an act of wonderful courage on their part, as heathens, armed with stones, sticks, and iron bars, were already in front of the Mission-house, and were restrained only by the presence of the chief magistrate and the police from proceeding to open violence. Next day (Friday) there was another arrival-that of Mungah. The first pair- Unnum and Mooniatta-were Tamul girls; the three who followed -Venkatlutchmoo, Yaygah, and Mungah-were Teloogoos. The ages of the five ranged from eleven to thirteen years. All had been in the girls' school more than two years, and some of them more than three. Each had for more than a year been studying the Gospels in English, having previously read them in her own language. The trials of the three Teloogoo girls from their relatives were moderate, and they had little difficulty in standing their ground.

Of course, the events which have just been related produced great excitement throughout Madras, and struck what to the short-sighted might appear a fatal blow at the cause of Christian female education. Of 170 girls who had been in the school before Unnum and Mooniatta came seeking baptism, only three - two Hindoos and a native Protestant-returned on the

* Unnum's grandmother was baptized on the 9th January 1848, and received the name of Sarah.

+ Before the coming of the five girls, there were already in the Mission-house, with the sanction of their guardians, three others -namely, a native Protestant girl of twelve, called Mary; a Roman Catholic of the same age, named Ummanee; and a child of seven, Shunmoogum, who had been placed under Mr. Anderson's charge by Sir William Burton. With the five new-comers, there were eight in all.

morrow (Thursday). On Friday, no more than one came, and on Saturday even that one, terrified apparently by the loneliness of the place, stayed away. By the end of the same week, the attendance of girls at Triplicane had fallen from a hundred to thirty-eight, and the schools of all the other missions had suffered severely. The costs had been heavy, but if in providence all went well, the gain would be much more than worth the price paid for its attainment. Under God, everything would depend on the result of the legal proceedings in the case of Mooniatta.

Jyalanda, her mother, obtained the writ which she sought. It was directed against Mr. Anderson, and required him to appear on the 20th inst., bringing with him Moniatta. The demand was of course met with cheerful obedience. When the day came, a horoscope was presented on the part of the mother, to prove that her daughter was only seven years eight months and twenty-seven days old; but the judge saw good reason for believing the horoscope forged, and forming the opinion that Mooniatta was—what she appeared to be-somewhat more than twelve years old. He intimated that, by the English law which was administered in the Madras Supreme Court, the girl was entitled to go where she pleased, provided that she possessed sufficient discretion to make a choice. To decide whether or not she possessed the discretion spoken of, and whether the desire to become a Christian was a youthful whim or a fixed resolve, he proceeded publicly to question her in the following fashion:

"Whether," asked Sir William, "do you wish to go to Mr. Anderson's or to your mother's?"

M.-"I like to go to Mr. Anderson's."

Sir W.-"Now consider. Answer truly. You were born to your mother, your mother suckled you at her breast, she carried you about when you were a little child, she gave you food and clothes, she put you to a good school; now, what is the reason that you wish to leave her and go to another place?"

M.-"If I go home, they will force me to worship idols made by men: they have eyes, but they see not; ears have they, but they hear not; a mouth have they, but they speak not. I wish to go to a place where I can be saved."

Being further questioned as to her religious belief, she was answering very satisfactorily, when her brother suddenly seized her first by the hand, and then by the back of the neck, making her scream with terror. The chief magistrate and half-a-dozen others forced him after a struggle to quit his hold, and he was committed to prison for contempt of court. This terminated the proceedings for the time being, and the court broke up, after it had been intimated that the decision would be postponed till the 3rd May, that Sir Edward Gambier, the Chief-Justice, might have an opportunity of forming an opinion on the important question involved.

When the 3rd of May came, Sir Edward Gambier, who had privately questioned Mooniatta for about

three-quarters of an hour, with the view of testing whether or not she was possessed of discretion, concurred with Sir William Burton in declaring her entitled to go where she pleased; on which she, without hesitation, decided to return with Mr. Anderson to the mission. Some weeks subsequently, Mooniatta's mother and brother, at the instigation of some influential Hindoos, who again were doubtless counselled, or at least instructed, by European lawyers, applied to Sir Edward Gambier for a new writ of habeas corpus in the case, founding their demand on the statute of George III., chap. 142, sect. 12, which provides that the rights of fathers of families, according to the Hindoo law, shall

be regarded. Both judges, however, considered that Mooniatta's case had been properly decided on English law, the Hindoo code not being in force within the limits of the Supreme Court, except in the case of contracts and inheritance. The writ was therefore refused. The view taken by the Madras judges in the Mooniatta case was confirmed a few months later by the decision of the Chief-Justice of Calcutta in that of Radhakant Dutt.*

The decision of the Madras judges in Mooniatta's case was of incalculable importance to the cause of missions. It was the very charter of Indian female emancipation.

IMPRESSIONS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK IN AMERICA. BY PROFESSOR J. L. PORTER, AUTHOR OF "THE GIANT CITIES OF BASHAN," ETC.

BE

A PRAIRIE.

HE first view of a prairie is impressive; and I was fortunate in getting my first view under favourable circumstances. Beneath a canopy of lowering clouds we swept westward the livelong day, through the dense forests, and past the little "clearings" and new "townships" of Indiana and Illinois. It was just such a day as one might expect in England in the gloomy month of November, but which seemed strangely out of place in an American May. I began at last to feel disappointed with the Far West, and to wish myself back in sunny Virginia. It is true, there was something of romance in the very idea of a primeval forest; but a drive through it by railway becomes dreary enough after the first hour or two. Along most of the line the forest runs on each side like a wall, the underwood .hutting out all view; or where at intervals there is a wider space, it is filled with hideous charred stumps, and huge trunks of trees, lying rotting and half-buried in slimy pools. Animal life there is none, except where, on the borders of the far distant farm-steadings, herds of wildlooking hogs prowl in search of nuts, and, it is said, of snakes and other vermin. A western forest is not picturesque when viewed from the window of a railway-car.

Evening was drawing on when a remarkable change took place in the face of the sky. The dark mass of clouds in the west suddenly parted,

as if rent asunder by some mighty agency, and revealed a brilliant background, which gilded the topmost leaves, though the sun was still unseen. Gradually the clouds rolled back, their leaden hues changed to deep purple, and this again to burnished gold, when a sunbeam broke loose and shot across the murky sky. Just then we emerged from the forest, and I found myself, for the first time, upon a prairie. In a moment I was on the platform at the end of the car, with a free view on each side. An unvarying plain, covered with tall, coarse, brownish grass, stretched to the horizon; and the horizon was unbroken, save where the dark line of the forest we had left shut it in behind us. Away in front there was a strange intensity of colour, such as I could not remember to have ever seen before, except once, at the Island of Rhodes, after a storm. At first it appeared in the clouds round the sun, and then gradually expanded and descended, till earth and sky seemed alike illumined by a wild, weird blaze of ruddy light. Shafts, too, as if of

* If some readers are of opinion that twelve is a very early age for Hindoo girls to separate from their relatives with the view of seeking baptism, they should give due weight to two facts not universally known, and even when known apt to be forgotten. The first is, that Orientals are physically and mentally precocions, and that a Hindoo girl of twelve is as far advanced as an English one of fourteen, if not even more. The second is, that Hindoo girls are married at so early an age; and when they go to live in their husbands' houses, are so certain to be denied liberty of conscience, that if they are not allowed to seek baptism at or soon after the age of twelve, they, in most cases, will never be permitted to do it for the whole remainder of their lives.

liquid fire, darted upwards and outwards to | viting, and the people in it seemed somewhat every quarter of the heavens; while the vapours rough; but it was late, I was wearied, and I that hung in the atmosphere, and rolled along resolved to remain. the surface of the prairie, caught the yellow tint, and were transformed into glowing transparencies. The whole seemed to me just as if one of the grandest of Turner's wonderful pictures had been realized.

On we swept amid silence, and solitude, and a vastness like the ocean itself, towards that dazzling halo.

CHICAGO.

During a great part of the night the noises through the house prevented the possibility of sleep. They were so strange and unceasing, that I could not account for them. I formed all sorts of theories about them, but none. were satisfactory. In the morning the whole was explained. The apartments round mine were occupied by a troop of Japanese jugglers, who spent, as it appeared, the quiet hours practising It was late on a Saturday night when I their tricks, and teaching the little boys and reached Chicago, and to get a quiet resting- girls to perform. This, of course, accounted for place for Sunday was a weary work. I first the vacant room; but a man who has slept in a tried Tremont House, formerly one of the finest Bedawy tent can tolerate, when necessity dehotels in the States-now a congeries of moder-mands, the neighbourhood even of Japanese ately-sized houses, fitted up, I presume, as well as possible, but with accommodation for about half its ordinary number of guests. The old hotel was burned to the ground. "Can I have a bed?" I inquired at the office, in company with a score of others who had made a race from the train.

"Certainly; No. 159."

I called a porter to take up my portmanteau. "Just wait a bit," said the clerk, as he gave out, in rapid succession, ticket after ticket to the dusty travellers; and each ticket No. 159.

"You must have made a mistake," I ventured to suggest; "No. 159 is my room."

jugglers.

Early on Sunday morning I asked the landlord whether he could direct me to a Presbyterian church. He replied sulkily that he knew nothing about such places; he calculated that most of them had been burned. So I went out to explore, and wandered away among the ruins. I had seen many ruined cities in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere, but never aught like Chicago. Looking over it from an elevated point, the general aspect was that of the debris of an enormous quarry of white limestone. There were no houses half-burned, no remains of blackened walls, no beams and fragments of

"There are seven beds in it," was the curt, charred timber, such as one generally sees on the but not very encouraging reply.

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I resolved to try elsewhere. I went from hotel to hotel, for there are a number grouped together. The answer I got was pretty much the same in each-no single room to be had on any terms. I turned at last into the open door of a small house-I forget the name, if it had a name-went up a long, straight flight of stairs, and fortunately found there a vacant room, tolerably comfortable. The landlord, it is true, looked rather seedy, the dining-room was not in

site of a great fire. The fire of Chicago appears
to have been so intense, that it burnt up every-
thing that would burn, and made the strongest
walls dissolve before it into heaps of shapeless
rubbish. I saw here and there immense masses
of fused metal, and lumps of vitrified pottery,
mixed up oddly with nails, and bolts, and
joiners' tools; and in one place a doll's head
appeared projecting quaintly from a conglome-
rate of china-ware, brass-screws, and knives and
forks. A few large warehouses were already re-
built, and more were in progress; but not a
tithe of the ruins had yet been touched. They
lay there as the fire left them.
tent far exceeded what I had expected, for
Chicago was not compact like a European city.
It covered a vast area. Its streets were wide;

Their ex

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