vinces of India. This took place in the year 1641, A. D. In reading the narrative of the treatment which the English settler received at the hands of the Irish native, graphically told by the atheist Scot, we seem to be reading an ex * The Irish remarked that the English planters, who had expelled them from their possessions, suppressed their religion, and bereaved them of their liberties, were but a handful compared to the natives-that they lived in the most supine security, interspersed with their numerous enemies, trusting to the protection of a small army which was scattered in inconsiderable divisions throughout the whole kingdom. The Castle of Dublin contained arms for 10,000 men with 35 pieces of cannon, and a proportionable amount of ammunition; yet was this important place guarded, and that without care, by no greater force than 50 men. • * The Irish, everywhere mingled with the English, needed but a hint from their leaders and priests to begin hostilities against a people, whom they hated on account of their religion, and envied for their riches and prosperity. After rapacity had fully exerted itself, cruelty, and the most barbarous, that ever in any nation was known or heard of, began its operations. An universal massacre commenced of the English now defenceless, and passively resigned to their inhuman foes. No age, no sex, no condition was spared. The wife weeping for her butchered husband, and embracing her helpless children, was pierced with them, and perished by the same stroke. The old, the young, the vigorous, the infirm underwent a like fate, and were confounded in one common ruin. In vain did flight save them from the first assault. Destruction was everywhere let loose, and met the hunted victims at every town. In vain was recourse had to relations, to companions, to friends; all connections were dissolved, and death was dealt by that hand from which protection was implored and expected. Without provocation, without opposition, the astonished English, living in profound peace and free security, were massacred by their nearest neighbours, with whom they had long upheld a continued intercourse of kindness and good offices. But death was the lightest punishment inflicted by these rebels. All the tortures which wanton cruelty could devise, all the lingering pain of body, the anguish of mind, the agonies of despair, could not satiate revenge excited without injury, and cruelty derived from no cause. To enter into particulars would shock the least delicate humanity. Such enormities, though attested by undoubted evidence, appear almost incredible. Depraved nature, even perverted religion, encouraged by the utmost license, reach not to such a pitch of ferocity, unless the pity, inherent in human breasts, be destroyed by that contagion of example, which transports men beyond all the usual motives of conduct and behaviour. The stately buildings and commodious habitations of the planters were consumed with fire, or laid level with the ground. And where the miserable owners, shut up in their houses, and preparing for defence, perished in the flames together with their wives and children, a double triumph was afforded to these insulting butchers. If anywhere a number assembled together, and, assuming courage from despair, were resolved to sweeten death by revenge on their assassins; they were disarmed by capitulations and promises of safety, confirmed by the most solemn oaths. But no sooner had they surrendered, than the rebels, with perfidy equal to their cruelty, made them share the fate of their unhappy countrymen. Amidst all these enormities, the sacred name of Religion resounded on every side, not to stop the hands of these Savages, but to enforce their blows, and to steel their hearts against every movement of human or social sympathy. The English, as heretics, abhorred by God and detestable to all holy men, were marked out for slaughter, and, of all actions, to rid the world of these declared enemies to Catholic faith, was represented as the most meritorious." SEPT., 1858. M tract from an Indian Journal of 1857. Religion was the word 'which resounded there, as here, to enforce the blow, and steel the heart against every movement of sympathy. The English were pointed out as heretics abhorred by God, and, ⚫ detestable to all holy men; were marked for slaughter; and, of all actions, to rid the world of these detestable enemies to the catholic faith and piety, was represented as the most • meritorious." Should not this teach us to be charitable? And let it not go forth that the tyranny of our rule deserved this bitter chastisement, that there were none who cared for the natives. This is not the case. There were missionaries spiritual and missionaries lay-men who devoted their lives and their incomes to the one great duty of caring for the people, who fed the hungry, who looked after the sick, who protected the oppressed, and visited those in prison. And let it not be said, that we were a Godless people, and that nothing was done to promote the cause of Christianity, or that we were ashamed of our creed. In every station rose the Christian Church; in nearly every district was the Christian native mission, accompanied by its schools, its village preaching, and the dispersing of God's word; in some cases we went too far, but we believed that we were doing God's service. And, to those who consider that the use of the sacred Word as a class-book in Government schools is the only real badge of Christianity, we answer, that the best and wisest are opposed to this degradation of the Scriptures; and indeed, if we examine our own systems, if we look back to our own youthful days, we shall find that religion is not inculcated in schools. It is not taught at Eton or Westminster, the rudiments of our faith are not a test at Haileybury or Addiscombe; but it is taught on the knees of the father, it is drank in from the fond lips of the mother; it is the legacy given before death by aged and venerated relatives; it is the genius of home embodied in the form of Christianity; it is not rewarded by prizes and scholarships. Often the boy least gifted with intellectual gifts is the most endowed with the Spirit, and the first in the race of the world is less than the least in the kingdom of heaven. We once contributed to the pages of this Review* a paper on the duties of the Collector of Revenue in the North-West Provinces, and described his pleasing labours. To a true philanthropist there is no more suitable destiny than that of being the earthly providence of so many thousands. But how sadly altered now is our position! Every Englishman is not only a freeman, but a missionary of liberty, and though the servant of a despotic Government, there was the consolation that the Government was paternal, that political offences were unknown, and * Vol. XXIII. page 136. that the position of the subjects was happy. Let this be mentioned no longer. The waters of the Ganges will not wash away the blood, years will not efface the memory, of 1857. Hundreds have perished violently. We have been surrounded, attacked, insulted, slain, and in return we have used a giant's strength, and crushed them; but no longer can we hope to have friendly meetings and friendly greetings. No longer can we dwell among the people, like parents among their children. They have all-we have all-tasted blood. We hate them, and they hate us to the death. It is a dreadful feature in this war of races, to contemplate the destruction of all pity, all sympathy, all the precepts of Christianity. Those who arrive fresh from England are amazed to hear gentle ladies, who are usually the angels of mercy, talking of slaughter, of hanging, of revenge, devoting whole tribes, whole classes, to the gallows. The common ground of humanity is cut away from under us. We talk of them as wild beasts, and yet we have to live among them for the best years of our lives, to eat from their hands; and it will be well if continuation of pressure does not convert them into assassins. It is well for India that the leaven of English feeling is gradually working into the mass, and that a milder policy is taking the place of that indiscriminate revenge, which would have lowered us in the scale of civilized nations. In our firm and undisputed Constitution at home, we know nothing practically of the necessity of charity and forgiveness, which every rebellion entails. A Frenchman, who has known the horror of a revolution in his own country, would see the necessity of shortening the sword of justice. The people of India had seen us rise wonderfully and suddenly, like a star from afar, and they had worshipped us. They had admitted our prestige, and kingdoms had sunk before us; but now a lying rumour had gone forth-such a rumour as scattered the Assyrian army from before Jerusalem-that our power was gone, that our time was up. We find this in every intercepted letter not meant for European eye, that both friends and enemies had conceived a firm belief that such was the case, and they acted according to the best of their judgment for themselves. Some sided with us, because certain hostile tribes in their neighbourhood had taken the other part. Some respectable landholders stood up at first for order, not for us, but their timidity at last compelled them to give way and join the stream; many revolted unwillingly, having much to lose; many were compromised by their relations, or forcibly carried away by their dependants. Many shrunk from massacre or private crime; they considered the Empire vacant, as effectually it was, when our native army revolted, and our European army was nowhere; and they tendered their allegiance according to their family predilections; if their local position permitted it, stood aloof to watch events; or, if they were wise, temporized with both parties. Their situation was peculiar, but history supplies parallels. Such must have been the situation of the Britons, when the Romans abandoned the island. Besides, their situation was critical, the representatives of effete dynasties were busy and active, the propagandists of violent religious wars were loud and powerful; and, as one potent landholder, who has the proud honor of having protected English life, and now reaps the fruit, remarked to his guests in the hour of doubt and uncertainty." You may send ships and men and reconquer the kingdom, but they may arrive too late to save the lives of me and my family; it is that which I must think of." But for every native who met us in the field, or who has fallen into our power, the sword, the cannon's mouth, and the rope have been adjudged without inquiry and without discrimination. Many went defiantly, like Spartans, to death, and looked about at the last moment with an air of triumph. The great Searcher of hearts alone knows what strength sustained them. None have craved life, or seemed to care to purchase it; reckless with the lives of others they have not cared for their own. Thousands are now making head against us, because there is no alternative, no loop-hole for escape, because the gates of mercy have been irrevocably closed. Let our rulers pause and reflect that they have a great and not uncivilized people under them, congregating in rich cities, scattered in innumerable villages-a people cunning in art, courteous in manner, brave in battle, fearless in death, and inflexible in religious convictions. It may be that they have risen in righteous indignation against us, for our feelings are not their feelings; our Gods are not their Gods; the question of right and wrong is not decided in the same way by them and by us. We cannot exterminate this people who count by millions, and re-colonize with Anglo-Saxons; we cannot make India a solitude, and then call it peace. Let us then confess that we have committed great errors, that it is the hand of God that has saved us, and still saves us— -that He meant to chastise, and not to destroy us; and, confessing our own shortcomings, in spite of our powers, our learning, the wisdom of our counsellors, and the vastness of our physical force, let us be indulgent and forgiving to the weak, the ignorant, the deluded, the so-called rebel. ART. III.-1. Rules of the Uncovenanted Service Family Pension Fund. 2. Reports on the Bengal Civil and Military Funds. N a former Article* we took occasion to bring under review ance Offices, with the view of comparing the rates of premium for assurance of lives charged therein, and the premiums as computed by us from various tables of mortality. We now propose, in the first place, to direct attention to the results of an enquiry into the mortality of members of the Uncovenanted Service Fund, more especially the East Indian members, in the belief that the information submitted will not only be interesting, but may possibly prove valuable for the purposes of the Fund. More noble or magnificent institutions of the kind, than the provident funds established in connexion with the Services of the East India Company, do not exist in the world. The prosperity, nay the very existence, of these institutions, depends the ассиracy with which the tables represent the mortality among the members. Any contribution therefore to Indian vital statistics, however humble, must be considered, not only interesting in a scientific point of view, but of considerable practical value, as affording data whence to test the position of the great monetary interests we have referred to. The present enquiry is incidental to an entirely separate investigation, the results of which will hereafter appear. Our readers, who take an interest in such pursuits, will recollect that the most important existing tables of mortality, applicable to European residents in India, are those of Mr. Neison and Mr. Woolhouse. Mr. Woolhouse's observations, subsequently adopted by Mr. Griffith Davies, are founded on Dodwell and Miles' army lists, and embrace 6,017 officers of the Bengal army, who entered the service from 1760 to 1834, inclusive, a period of seventy-six years. Mr. Neison's data were obtained from the patronage books of the India House, and have reference to 5,199 military cadets appointed to the Bengal army from 1800 to 1847, inclusive, a period of forty-eight years; while Mr. Francis' tables, applicable to mixed assured lives of all classes, were deduced from data supplied by the experience of two of the oldest local life * Vol. XIX., Page 210. |