ART. VI.-The Urgent Claims of India for more Christian Missions. By a Layman in India. London, 1852.

THIS pamphlet, although intended for publication in London, and for circulation amongst the supporters of missions in England, has been written and printed in Calcutta ; and it contains much matter that is well worthy of being seriously pondered by all well-wishers of India, whether their residence be within its territories or beyond its borders. We hope none will be misled by the somewhat ambiguous title, to suppose that it is the production of some crotchetty, discontented, universal fault finder, some "latter-day saint," or idle dreamer, who regards the existing missions as not sufficiently Christian in their principles or their modes of operation, and who desires that they should be superseded by another set of a more Christian character, that is, of a character more in accordance with the crotchetty author's notions of Christianity. In the pamphlet itself, we find an immediate and unambiguous solution of the question which the title might suggest, whether our author wishes for missions more Christian than the existing ones, or whether he desires a greater number of missions, similar in kind and character to those that now exist. Had the former been his meaning, we should either not have noticed his pamphlet at all, or have dismissed it with a brief acknowledgment of its receipt; but as the latter is unequivocally his intention, we hesitate not to devote an article to the consideration of his views, and the discussion of some of the subjects that he brings before us. Agreeing very fully with our author in his general views and sentiments, we shall have little more to do in general than to state over again his statements, and enforce his arguments; while we shall not fail to express our dissent, in the event of meeting with any sentiments in which we do not

concur.

The missionary enterprise may be viewed in two different aspects, according as we especially regard the duty of Christians to propagate their religion, or the condition of those who are to be the subjects of missionary operations. The former view is more appropriate to a strictly religious periodical; but the latter comes fully within the field that we occupy. The Calcutta Review is not a religious periodical, in the ordinary sense of that term; but it is a periodical devoted to the advocacy of every measure that seems to promise good to the people of India, and to the free discussion of every proposal, emanating from whatever quarter, in which the interests

of the people of this land are involved. Now that the extension of Christian Missions is such a measure, it were a waste of words to prove. In this view then we propose to go over a portion of the ground occupied by our author; and while we shall say very little as to the missionary enterprise, as a measure tending to the enlargement of the boundaries of the Christian church, we shall freely state our opinions respecting it, as a measure bearing very directly upon the interests of the people amongst whom we sojourn. We shall restrict ourselves still further, and shall leave out of view, altogether, the eternal destinies of the people to whom it is the object of missions to make known the Gospel; and shall confine ourselves to a view of their present moral and social condition, and the manner in which this condition will be affected by the spread of Christianity among them. That Christian Missions, even as they exist in India at present, are of sufficient magnitude to justify a prominent notice in such a periodical as this, is fully evinced by the statements of facts contained in a late number of this Review; and were there nothing but the fact that the views and condition of 100,000 of our fellow-subjects have been entirely altered by the operations of the missionaries, while those of many thousands more have been very materially modified,-we should regard it as a shrinking from the post which we occupy, were we to refuse, when proper occasions present themselves, to consider the character of these operations, to bear testimony to what we know of the beneficial effects that have been produced, and to lend our advocacy to those who, like the author of the pamphlet before us, desire the extension of the agency employed.

Our plan thus leads us, first of all, to make some remarks on the moral and social character prevalent among the Hindus. Now this is a subject on which there is a strange diversity of opinion amongst those who have sojourned in this country. Europeans, generally, arrive in India with the impression that the Hindus are a mild, quiet and inoffensive race; and their first intercourse with the natives tends generally to deepen the impression. Many live for years in the country, and never see more of native character than its smooth exterior. They scarcely ever come into contact with any natives, except their domestic servants, who take advantage when they can, but, upon the whole, do their work tolerably well, and act and are treated like very fair-going machines. But the European who comes into contact with the natives in the counting-house, in the courts, or in the factory, must be singularly obtuse in his perceptions if he do not ere long perceive, that the most distinguishing charac

teristics of the "mild race," are cunning, deceit, dishonesty, deliberate falsehood, and endless stratagems. If he read the newspapers, as all people in India do, it will not be long ere the almost daily reports of robberies attended with violence, atrocious cruelties, the murder of women and children for the sake of their ornaments, and other crimes of constant occurrence, and of a degree of heinousness scarcely known elsewhere, completely dispel his original delusion, and replace it by a conviction, that the Hindus are the most criminal people on the face of the earth. Hence it is, that while so many of our Indian sojourners sit down in apathetic indifference, without caring or seeking to know any thing of the moral and social state of their fellow-subjects, supposing that they are well enough, and just about as good and as bad as the rest of mankind,—so many more take up with the notion that they are helplessly and irrecoverably depraved, and spend years and years in the country without making a single effort to elevate the position, or ameliorate the condition, of those by whom they are surrounded.

In pleasing contrast at once with the apathetic and sluggish on the one hand, and with the despondent croakers on the other are those who, thoroughly acquainted with the inherent vices of the Hindu character and the Hindu system, yet believing conscientiously that the Gospel is capable of grappling even with such gigantic evils, grudge not their personal labor, and their liberal contributions, but are forward in identifying themselves with every measure which has, for its object, the good of the inhabitants of India. Such an one is the "Layman," the author of the pamphlet before us; and if his efforts to engage others to embark in the same enterprise needed vindication, we might well adopt the challenge of his own motto " Is there not a cause ?"-Is there, or is there not a cause ?-We shall see.

In taking a rapid survey of Hindu character, we must say at the outset, that we are not to be understood as intimating that all Hindus are alike. In all communities there are individuals who fall far below the average standard, and others who rise far above it; and both classes are to be found in this community. It will be no answer then to any of our statements, to point to individuals who are free from the vices that we assert to be characteristic of the community; and this even, were it not true that the number of those who fall far short of the average standard greatly exceeds that of those who rise above it.

Another preliminary remark we must make. We can faith

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fully promise, that in estimating the prevalent character of the Hindus, we shall "set down nought in malice;" but we cannot promise that we shall "nothing extenuate." There are certain practices that we know to be prevalent, about which we cannot write in these pages; certain sins and crimes so odious and base, that they ensure for themselves concealment and silence, by reason of their very odiousness; as some foul animals escape capture by the fetidness of the odour that they emit.

There are few qualities, that those who know the Hindus best, more unanimously ascribe to them, than the want of all regard for truth. If we were to examine the theology, the ethics, the geography, the history, and the popular astronomy of the Hindus, we should probably be able to satisfy ourselves, that it is impossible to contemplate these habitually, without having the love of truth, and almost the power of discriminating truth from falsehood, eventually obliterated from the mind. But be this so or no, we cannot turn our steps any where amongst the people, without discovering that such obliteration is well-nigh univer-. sal. Without leaving our houses, we find that our servants constantly lie to us, for any cause, or for no cause that is appreciable by our understandings.

If we go to any court of justice, and listen to the proceedings for a single hour, we shall certainly find false cases brought forward, and supported on oath by suborned witnesses; and more surprising still, we shall find that scarcely any man, however good his cause, will ever venture to trust that cause to the prevalence of truth. The plaintiff and the defendant in civil suits, the accuser and the accused in criminal prosecutions, alike put their trust in the power of falsehood. We believe there is not one judge, or one magistrate, of considerable experience in the country, who will declare that he believes that one case out of many hundreds that he has decided, has not been supported by perjured testimony on one side or the other, or that one out of every hundred has not been supported by perjury on both sides. But why, it will be said, do not the judges and magistrates reject this testimony altogether? This is easily said, but how can it be done? A magistrate may have a strong conviction that the story told him is either a tissue of unadulterated falsehood, or a skilfully concocted compound of partially told truth and auxiliary lies; but how is he to separate the one from the other? How to bring perjury home to the witnesses? It ought to be considered that the Bengali witness is no common liar; he is a proficient in the craft. The poet's description of the skilful poet is a hundred-fold more applicable to him

than to any poet that has ever written from the days of Homer downwards;

Atque ita mentitur, sic veris falsa remiscet,

Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepet imum.

And these perjured witnesses are not merely the vilest of the people suborned by the vile; but they are suborned by those who are accounted honorable. We venture to assert that no Hindu gentleman would, in the smallest degree, suffer in his reputation, were it ever so notorious, that he had knowingly made use of false testimony to support his own cause; while he would assuredly be regarded as having failed in his duties of friendship, if he scrupled himself to swear to a falsehood, could he thereby promote the interests of a friend. We assert without fear of contradiction, that such a line of conduct would be regarded generally as simply a refusal to accommodate a friend, when it could be done by a trifling inconvenience, or a small sacrifice on his own part. We say not that there are no native gentlemen who would act thus; we believe that there are such; but we speak of the tone of feeling amongst society generally, and we are persuaded that any one so acting, would suffer in general estimation.

In connexion with this, we may take the liberty to mention, that from the position that we happen to occupy, we are very frequently asked to grant recommendations to candidates for various situations; and we have never discovered that our ability to testify truly to the merits of the candidate is at all an element in the calculation of those who bespeak the recommendation. A request is made for a certificate. If it be granted in favorable terms, it is regarded as simply a personal favor; if it is refused, on the ground that we either know nothing at all of the applicant, or that, knowing him, we regard him as altogether unqualified for the appointment, the refusal is regarded simply as a personal discourtesy. There are few Europeans, of any standing in the country, who have not had abundance of similar experience.

If we go to the bazar, we find an abundance of adulterated goods, false weights and measures, the seller exercising all his ingenuity to cheat the buyer, and the buyer divided between solicitude to avoid being cheated, and to cheat the seller. In the domestic circle, the staple of conversation is falsehood, lying tales of the gods, slanders and defamation. In the intercourse of man with man in society, we fear that everywhere the amenities of life verge far too nearly on the confines of falsehood; but here the most undisguised and glaring falsehood is the prevalent rule. Even the brahman continually flatters the cold