CHAP. the affront he had received; for he attributed it to their unfriendly offices with the Go vernor. Lest this Englishman should be deemed uncourteous, or, what is worse, intolerant toward the prelate, we ought to bear in mind the political character of the Jesuits, and the exclusive pretensions of their church; the perseverance with which they press forward to the summit of power, both civil and ecclesiastical, wherever they can gain a footing; and the cruelty and intolerance with which they have invariably exercised their authority when attained. The governor of Madras was awake to this danger, and knew that he was only guarding his country's interests, and the personal safety and liberty of those under his protection, when resisting all the efforts of the Jesuits to take this first step in their usual course of ambition and oppression. His conduct towards the Capuchins ought to be sufficient to shield his memory from all imputations of religious prejudice in the matter. He was acting the part of a faithful and prudent statesman; and who can tell how far the prosperity which the British have subsequently enjoyed in India, is to be attributed, under Divine Providence, to such judicious precautions in the infancy of their eastern government? 1 1 The following letter, published not many years before, will show that the British protestants had no slight cause to watch the Jesuits, and hold them at bay, at home as well as abroad. It was written by one Con à Mahony, an Irish Jesuit, and printed at Lisbon, 'but was pretended to be printed at Frankfort, in 1645." This" exhortation to his countrymen, to cut the throats of all the Protestants in Ireland,” will need no comment. My dear Irish, go on, and perfect the work of your liberty and defence, which is so happily begun by you, and A. D. 1707. 21. While, however, we vindicate the policy of our countrymen in making this discrimination between the Jesuits and other orders of Duty and policy of romanists in India, and think them, as in promoting Christianity the case of the Dutch, justified therein by in India. the law of self-defence; it cannot but be regretted, by every one who knows the worth of pure religion, that the British Legislature did not from the first acknowledge the obligation that Divine Providence had laid upon them, to provide means for the religious instruction of the heathen brought under their dominion. By a Christian government, this duty ought to have been regarded as paramount to every secular consideration: but experience has proved, to all who have had patience and candour to investigate the course of events, that it would have been also sound policy, even in a temporal view of the question. So far from there being any kill all the heretics, and all that do assist and defend them: you have in the space of four or five years, that is, betwixt the year 1641, and the year 1645, wherein I write this, killed a hundred and fifty thousand heretics, as your enemies do acknowledge, neither do you deny it and for my own part, as I verily believe that you have killed more of them, so I would to God you had killed them all; which you must either do, or drive them all out of Ireland, that our Holy Land may be plagued no longer with such a light, changeable, inconstant, barbarous, ignorant, and lawless generation of people." Neither was this Jesuit one jot more merciful to the King than he was to his protestant subjects; concerning whom he saith in the same exhortation: "We, catholic Irish, will not, nor never would, neither ought we to suffer our country to be ruled by a proud King, who calls himself the head of the church: let us, therefore, chuse a Catholic King from among our own brethren; and let us have Irish Catholic judges and magistrates to rule us in all matters temporal, and the Pope in all matters spiritual."Geddes' History of the Expulsion of the Moriscoes out of Spain, pp. 84, 88. III. CHAP. reasonable cause for the apprehensions that have sometimes been expressed, lest the natives should have been jealous of any attempts to introduce among them the religion of their rulers, there is reason to believe that they would have respected them the more on that very account: while those of them whom it might have pleased God to convert to the Christian faith, would have been personally interested to maintain the British rule, and felt bound to their Christian governors by a tie more sacred, and, therefore, more permanent, than any that can be formed by mere sublunary calculations. So true is it in such cases, as in all others, that duty and interest go together, and advance each other. Every attempt, then, to discourage missionary exertions in India has proceeded from a very short-sighted policy indeed; besides being a palpable dereliction of a most sacred duty. Instead, however, of indulging in reproaches against those, who, in times past, paid so little regard to their responsibilities as Christian rulers; or in conjectures as to what might have been the result of a more consistent mode of proceeding; it will be much more grateful to the mind, to render unto Almighty God the tribute of praise for His forbearance towards our country, which, as far as His peculiar glory is concerned, has hitherto occupied His eastern vineyard, as a cumberer of the ground. And these, our thanksgivings, shall be followed by fervent prayer, that He will henceforth vouchsafe to the Sovereign and Government of this great empire, a measure of wisdom and grace so to carry forward His merciful design in committing to them the occupation of India, that hence forth the record of their progress in that vast region may run in a parallel line with the HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. Then shall we, or our posterity, rejoice to contrast the light of the future with the darkness of the past. A. D. 1707. CHAPTER IV. ROMISH MISSIONS AT PONDICHERRY. French mis by the impose on the Pope. 1. THE French, as related in the preceding sionaries of chapter, succeeded in obtaining a settlement at Pondicherry interrupted Pondicherry in the year 1664. Following the Jesuits, who example of the Portuguese, they directed their missionaries to attend to the conversion of the natives. These monks were of several orders, and for a time they appear to have co-operated harmoniously and with some success. But many years did not elapse before the Jesuits came among them, and began to interrupt them in their work, as they had done at Madura and in Malabar. The accommodating system of these intruders, and the protests of all other orders of monks against their conformity to the Heathen superstitions, have been already noticed and at the same time some reference was made to the constitution obtained from Pope Gregory XV., prohibiting all such customs as could not be adopted without compromising the Christian religion. This constitution was sent direct to the Jesuits, in the year 1623; but they contrived, as was 1 1 N.B.-To avoid the frequency of reference to the authority now used, it may suffice to state here, that nearly the whole of this chapter will form a brief analysis of those parts |