India. The obstacles which have existed in India, and which have retarded the extension of European civilization, will now be effectually removed by the noble step taken by Lord Hardinge, the Governor General, for promoting education in that country.[97] This benevolent and excellent man, whose well earned laurels on the field of battle are not more honorable than his philanthropic efforts in extending education among the natives of India, and in improving their social condition, "has directed the Council of Education and other authorities charged with the duty of superintending public instruction throughout the provinces subject to the government of Bengal, to submit returns of the students who may be fitted according to their degrees of merit and capacity, for such of the various public offices, as with reference to their age, abilities and other circumstances, they may be deemed qualified to fill." As this order recognizes no distinction of schools, or castes, or religion, it will have a great influence on the people, towards inducing them to give their children the benefit of a good education, which to a great extent must be obtained through the Christian missionaries. "It is," says the Friend of India, "the most powerful impulse which the cause of education has received during the last twenty-five years. It makes the seminaries the nursery of the service, and the service the stimulant of the seminaries. It introduces the enlightened principles adopted by European governments, of recruiting the public service in every department from those who have earned distinctions in the public schools. At the same time it will be found instrumental in the highest degree in the general elevation of the country. It will transplant into the interior that European knowledge and science which has hitherto been confined to Calcutta, and diffuse their influence through every district."
The renunciation of idolatry must necessarily follow the first steps in this great work of reform, and we already see it noticed that in southern India, within the short period of three months, eight hundred and thirty-two persons renounced idolatry and embraced Christianity. This large number was a part of the population of seven villages.[98]
Such changes are not without their effects on the great mass of the natives, indeed it is only by removing from their minds the gross superstition in which they have been for ages immersed, that there can be a hope of improving their social condition. The wealthy Hindoos cling to their ancient religion with greater tenacity as it totters towards its downfall, than when in its most flourishing state. Alarmed at the innovations which European civilization and Christianity have made, they are printing by subscription, a series of popular religious books in monthly numbers, on their doctrines, rites, superstitions and idolatry. Fearing that the Europeans and such as have been taught to observe these things with ridicule, might controvert them, they have confined the subscription to Hindoos, and have directed that their books shall be rigidly kept from the hands of Christians.
The Mahommedans too, in Bengal, are greatly alarmed at the danger to which their religion is exposed. They have prepared tracts and books in opposition to Christianity, and have sent, or are sending emissaries in every direction, with a view to strengthen the tottering cause of their false prophet.[99] A Mahommedan merchant in Bombay has printed at his own expense, two thousand copies of the Koran for gratuitous distribution, at a cost of several thousand dollars.
In former times the efforts of the missionaries were directed to proselyting among the Hindoos and other idolaters of the East, without first making themselves acquainted with the fabric which they were laboring so earnestly to demolish. Nursed and educated as the natives were in the doctrines and superstitions which for ages their forefathers had venerated and professed, the efforts of the missionaries and of others who labored to improve their condition were unattended with success—and a conflict between Oriental and European civilization—between Hindooism and Christianity—between the false science of the shastres and the enlightenment of Europe, for a long time existed; and it seemed doubtful whether truth or falsehood would triumph. Now, the system is changed, and a course is pursued which bids fair to produce the most wonderful effects on the people of India and China.
It has been asserted that the missionary enterprise in India was a failure, and did not warrant the large sums expended there. Those who are unfriendly to the cause do not see that more than half the amount there expended was for educating the people, for improving their social condition, for translating valuable books into their various languages and for establishing among them that mighty engine of civilization and reform, the printing press.[100]
But it is not merely in the translation and distribution of these books, that the missionaries have rendered so much service. In this labor it is true they have contributed greatly towards disseminating Christian truth and useful knowledge among a large class of people, and have improved their religious, their moral and their social condition. But to Europe and to the learned world they have also furnished a vast deal of philological knowledge, elucidating and developing languages scarcely known beyond the precincts of the several countries in which they were spoken. Many of these languages, too, were previously unwritten; and from this rude state the missionaries have trained and moulded them into forms adapted to written speech.
While speaking of the labors of the missionaries in the East, I should do great injustice to Catholics not to speak of their efforts to improve the moral and religious condition of the people in these distant countries. In the most barbarous and secluded portions of the earth do we find these devoted men diligently laboring to elevate the condition of the natives. In many do we see a zeal and devotedness, an endurance of hardships, of the most severe privations, and often martyrdom itself, which has never been surpassed in the annals of missionary enterprise. Neither François Xavier, nor Ignatius Loyola, so famous among the pioneers of the Eastern missions, ever exhibited a greater zeal or devotedness than we now witness among the Catholic missionaries in Thibet, China, Corea, the islands of the Eastern Archipelago and Oceanica. They too have added much to our stock of knowledge of the inhabitants, their manners and customs, and their languages. Their narratives give us particular accounts of the productions of the countries in which they reside, their trade, commerce, and all that interests us.
Siam. An interesting fact connected with the progress of European civilization, and the extension of Christianity in the kingdom of Siam, seems deserving of notice in this place. It was communicated by the American Mission in that country.
"The king of Siam despatched one of his ships to Ceylon about the close of last year, to carry back some Ceylonese Boodhists whom he had invited to Siam, two or three years before, and also to send a fresh ecclesiastical embassy to that island—regarded by all Boodhists as very sacred—to make further religious researches in the primitive nursery of their faith. That embassy fulfilled its mission, and returned to Siam in June, bringing a letter to his Majesty from a high priest of Boodh in Ceylon, written in English, and stating in substance, that the religion of Boodh had become almost extinct in Ceylon, chiefly through the influence of the Christian religion, and the schools and seminaries of the missionaries and English residents in that part of the world; and that, if some aid from abroad could not be obtained to prop up crumbling Boodhism in that island, it must soon become utterly extinct. The writer expressed much pain at the thought, that the very birth place of his religion should not have some permanent witness of it; and requested that his Majesty, in his pious zeal for Boodhism, would send him funds, with which he might build a Wat (Religious house) and support priests in honor of his god. He suggested that this would be a noble work for a great king, and one that would confer upon him the highest honors of Boodhism."[101]