Page images
PDF
EPUB

plete their true military education, by bringing them under the mild discipline of the Cross.

At Home, the public mind is of necessity deeply absorbed by questions arising out of the subject to which we have last referred. All classes of the religious community are deep in the consideration of what are the true measures to be employed for the regeneration and safety of re-conquered India. Individuals of the first distinction are pronouncing, at public meetings all over the country, the almost undivided opinion, that England has dishonoured herself in the administration of India by the suppression of her religious character. She has not governed as a Christian country; has assumed that all faiths are to be esteemed of equal claims by statesmen; has regarded it as right to secure the allegiance of India by withholding from her all that could make her great and happy.

The various religious "Societies," also, are all mustering for the war against superstition in some and irreligion in others. The Church Missionary Society is known to have efficient measures in store. The Protestant Dissenting Societies are equally buckling on their armour. And the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has, much to her honour, already taken the field. A public meeting has been held, with the Primate in the chair, at which the chief speakers were the Bishops of London and Oxford, Mr. Pullen, and Sir J. Page Wood. The speech of the first of these dignitaries, although characterized by his usual force, nature, and frankness, appears to us to have carried the principle of bye-gones are bye-gones," or "what is past is to be forgotten," to a dangerous extent, if it be so interpreted as to suggest the slightest apology for the past administrators of India. They appear to us to have altogether blinked their principles. We must believe their shame-faced exhibitions of Christianity to have been the deep and ever-flowing source of calamities to our Indian Empire. And it is no violation of Christian charity to put that fact, visible and imperishable, upon record ;-not for the purpose of insult or revenge, but so as to provoke a blush and a tear for the past, and strong resolutions for the future. The Bishop of Oxford's speech was, we confess, more to our mind. It spoke out. It called things by their right names. It denounced a crooked and cowardly policy, as a national crime. It took upon ourselves at home a just share of the general guilt and dishonour; and it called upon every man in the community to put his soul into the act, and go forth, resolving, as far as God should enable him, to plant the Cross upon the walls of every city and fortress of India, till all should know and adore the Crucified. We sometimes feel ourselves to have strong reason for complaint against the Right Rev. speaker; and we do not hesitate, with all the respect due to his high office and his father's name, to express it. But in his recent Charge, as well as on several of his late public addresses, he has deserved well of the Church and of the country, and it is with

E

no reluctant hand that we render him the thanks and honour which he appears to us to deserve.

There is one other Home topic, on which it must be wholly unnecessary for us to attempt to instruct our readers. The money question has forced itself upon the attention of every man. And it is curious how many points of coincidence this disturbance has with the present insurrection in India.

In the money question, as well as in India, the storm has been wholly unexpected; the bad have been the curse of the better; a great Idol of Gold has been set up; crimes have been committed under the veil of secrecy; grand conspiracies have been formed to do wrong; false principles have been acted upon;-for almost the whole mischief may be traced to men falling into the capital error of trading upon false capital in order to secure inordinate gain. And how sad have been the consequences! Many honourable names are tarnished; poverty has turned wealth out of doors; and it was, for a time, a matter of doubt whether the Bank of England herself might not appear in the list of Bankrupts. Her Governors are reported to have stood despondingly for a time over an almost empty till. In this case, happily, we have wanted neither transports nor armies. Lord Palmerston has fought the battle of the "Panic," and all seems to be getting right again.

Parliament, as our readers know, has been called together to grant the Ministers an indemnity. The Law of the country isand that it is an admirable law, none but self-interested advocates can doubt that the Bank of England is to issue notes only to the extent of fourteen millions beyond the cash in its coffers. This law has now, under a most formidable pressure, been interrupted; and every reasonable man acquiesces in the violation. It is an unquestioned maxim, that "necessity has no law;" and in this instance it is easy, we believe, to prove that the necessity existed. No doubt the relaxation will cease the moment the necessity has passed; and though the stream of the currency has been disturbed, a little time will restore it to its proper channel and to its proper elevation.

And now our contracting space warns us that we must arrest our hand. What words are these! Soon, we shall cease to have the mastery over our hands, and they will be grasped and fixed by the strong cold hand of Death. The dying year must not fail to remind us that death is near our own door; and should prompt us so to think, watch, pray, and labour, as those on whom that dark curtain is about to fall, and to hide us from the world for ever. To the ungodly or careless, terrible is this truth; but what says the inspired prophet? "He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.... I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the water of life freely. He that overcometh, shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.'" What more do we need for time or eternity?

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Ministry of the Word, the Knowledge of
the Heart in, 364.

Mission to the Masses, 285.

Missions and the outbreak in India,
Remarks on the supposed connexion
between, 585.

Mosaic Deluge, geological proofs of, 513.
Mutiny of the Bengal Sepoys, Notes on
the assumed connexion with Mission-
ary efforts in India, 586.

New Year, thoughts on the, 1.
Notes on Preaching, 505, 577, 654, 728,
801.

Obituary of the Rev. Joseph Jones, 140.
H. Kemble, Esq., 494.
Rev. G. C. Gorham, 566.

Oxford in 1857, 438.

Bp. of, and Convocation, 456.
Curates Society, 500.

Parliament, Meeting of, 208.

dissolution of, 282.

New, Meeting of, 355, 425.
prorogation of, 641.

Parliamentary Oaths Bill, 642.

-proceedings, 208, 425.
Pelham, Hon. and Rev. J. T., Appoint-
ment to the See of Norwich, 356.
Persia, war with, 71, 143, 206, 425.
Peshawur Mission, 71.

Political Economy, history of the science
of, 625.

Preachers, Advice to, 370.

Preaching, effect in, What constitutes,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Caldwell's Dravidian Comparative Gram-
mar, 371.

Charge, Bishop of Kentucky, 188.
Convocation, Journal of, 447.
Cox's Latin Sermon before Convocation,
447.

Craik's Search of Truth, 188.

Davidson's Hartwell Horne, 302, 382.
Denison's Sermons on the Real Presence,
15.

Dred; a Tale of the Great Dismal
Swamp, by Mrs. Stowe, 115.

Ferguson's Americaby Riverand Rail, 39.
Fortune's Residence among the Chinese,
677.

Froude's History of England, 401.

Gardiner, Captain, Memoir of, 517.
Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronté, 487.
Goode on the Eucharist, 15.

Harford's Life of Michael Angelo, 329.
Heygate's "Ember Hours," 605.
Huntingdon, Countess of, Memorials .,

691.

India, History of the British Empire in,
by E. Thornton, Esq. 662, 753.
Jackson's Life of the Rev. Dr. Newton,
589.

Kane's Arctic Explorations, 471.
Kingsley's Glaucus, or Wonders of the
Shore, 198.

"Two Years Ago," 415.
Knight's Lectures on Prophecy, 163.

Lay Agency, a Letter to Lord Denbigh,
on the Use of Scripture Readers, by
the Rev. R. C. Savage, 134.
Lectures on Prophecy, by the Rev. W.
Knight, 163.

Ecclesiastical History, by

Rev. A. P. Stanley, 769.
Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti, by
J. S. Harford, 329.

Charlotte Bronté, by E. C. Gas-
kell, 487.

the Rev. Dr. Newton, by Thomas
Jackson, 589.

Life and Opinions of General Sir Charles
Napier, 807.

Life Studies, by Rev. J. Baillie, 855.
Lynch's Rivulet, 127.

M'Caul's New Constitution for Church
and State, 447.

Macgregor's Law of Reformatories,

320.

« PreviousContinue »