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will even bear to be compared, if the comparison be conducted with perfect fairness, with an equal proportion of the population in any of the old Christian countries in Europe. To assert, therefore, that the native Christians are no better, still more to assert that they are worse, than heathens, may reasonably be concluded to be a calumny. We are not left, however, to the evidence of those who are supposed to be interested parties, or to probable inference from facts. The hostile testimony of one portion of English people who have been in India is rebutted by the favourable testimony of another and better informed portion. Many English gentlemen in India, some of them holding high official positions, civil or military, help forward the cause of missions, not merely by their contributions, but far more materially by their co-operation, especially by taking an active part in the management of the affairs of the missions as members of missionary committees. In doing this, they bear their testimony, the testimony not of words merely, but of actions that speak louder than words, both to the reality of the work the missionaries are doing and to the reality of its results. Some persons, also, of the very highest position, such as Lord Lawrence, Governor-General of India, Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, and Lord Napier and Ettrick, Governor of Madras, whose names carry weight wherever they are known, have borne distinct, emphatic testimony, in this country itself, to the reality of the work they saw done in India, and the reality, in the main, of the Christianity of the native converts. It may be said, indeed, that the higher the position occupied by any Englishman in India, and the wider his experience, the more decidedly favourable has been the testimony he has borne.

A fair estimate of the results of Indian missions cannot be made if our attention be restricted to direct results alone, such as the number of conversions that have taken place and the moral and spiritual value of those conversions. It is certain that indirect results also of great importance have been brought about. There was a time when indirect results were much less

cared for than they are now. It was then the sole object of missionaries, as was right and natural, to make converts to Christianity. To that object they devoted all their energies. With that object they preached, made translations of Scripture, printed and circulated books and tracts, established schools, gave medicine to the sick, helped the down-trodden to rise. The object they aimed at has only partially been accomplished, very partially only as yet; but the means they used for the accomplishment of that object have brought into existence, generally without their knowledge, a whole class of agencies of a more

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or less distinctively Christian character, by which results of the greatest possible importance, and on the largest possible scale, have been produced. Had it not been for the efforts that have been made by Christian missionaries for the conversion of the natives to Christianity, directly by Christian teaching and preaching, indirectly by means of the influences that have been brought to bear on public education, probably neither the mental and moral enlightenment we now see spreading in India, nor any of the fruits of that enlightenment, would have had any existence. The indirect results of Indian missions have never been more highly estimated than by the Indian Government itself. The Blue-book, after treating of the number of converts, says:

'But the missionaries in India hold the opinion that the winning of these converts, whether in the cities or in the open country, is but a small portion of the beneficial results which have sprung from their labours. No statistics can give a fair view of all that they have done. They consider that their distinctive teaching, now applied to the country for many years, has powerfully affected the entire population. The moral tone of their preaching is recognised and highly approved by multitudes who do not follow them as converts. The various lessons which they inculcate have given to the people at large new ideas, not only on purely religious questions, but on the nature of evil, the obligations of law, and the motives by which human conduct should be regulated. Insensibly a higher standard of moral conduct is becoming familiar to the people, especially to the young, which has been set before them, not merely by public teaching, but by the millions of printed books and tracts which are scattered widely through the country. On this account, they express no wonder that the ancient systems are no longer defended as they once were; many doubts are felt about the rules of caste; the great festivals are not attended by the vast crowds of former years; and several Theistic schools have been growing up among the more educated classes, especially in the presidency cities, who profess to have no faith in the idol-gods of their fathers. They consider that the influences of their religious teaching are assisted and increased by the example of the better portions of the English community; by the spread of English literature and English education; by the freedom given to the press; by the high standard, tone, and purpose of Indian legislation; and by the spirit of freedom, benevolence, and justice which pervades the English rule. And they augur well of the future moral progress of the native population of India, from the signs of solid advance already exhibited on every hand, and gained within the brief period of two generations. This view of the general influence of their teaching, and of the greatness of the revolution which it is silently producing, is not taken by missionaries only. It has been accepted by many distinguished residents in India, and experienced officers of the Government; and has been emphatically endorsed by the high authority of Sir Bartle

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Frere. Without pronouncing an opinion upon the matter, the Government of India cannot but acknowledge the great obligation under which it is laid by the benevolent exertions of these 600 missionaries, whose blameless example and self-denying labours are infusing new vigour into the stereotyped life of the great populations placed under English rule, and are preparing them to be in every way better men and better citizens of the great Empire in which they dwell.'

This testimony of the Indian Government to the importance and value of the indirect results of Indian missions is one of the most remarkable facts that can claim to have a place in missionary history. Those results, as the Dean of Westminister observes, in the sermon published as an introduction to Professor Max Müller's lecture, consist not merely in the adoption of this or that outward form of Christianity by this or that section of the Indian community. It is something which is in appearance less, but in reality far greater than this. Individual conversions may relapse, may be accounted for by special motives; but longsustained, wide-reaching changes of the whole tenour and bent of a man or of a nation are beyond suspicion. . . . [The verdict of the Indian Government] is a verdict on which we can rest with the assurance that it is not likely to be reversed.'

Looking at the results achieved by Indian missions, it is evident that they suggest reasons both for disappointment and for encouragement; but we are of opinion that the reasons for encouragement decidedly preponderate. The friends of missions may naturally feel at times disappointed, may still more naturally feel at times dissatisfied, when they compare what has been done with what still remains to be done. But there is no reason why they should give way to despondency, much less to despair. On the contrary, there is every reason why they should be thankful that so good a work has been begun on so large a scale, and resolve to take courage and go forward. A little dissatisfaction with results already accomplished will be found to act in the main as a wholesome stimulus to further exertion. Every person who sets himself to accomplish any religious or benevolent work on a large scale in this world, however he may seem to others to have succeeded, will seem to himself to have failed, or at least to have had so little success that he will naturally feel dissatisfied; but this impression will only have the effect of urging him forward, both to extend the range of his work, and to endeavour to bring it to greater perfection in details. We regard with special interest, but also with special anxiety, the progress which the native Church that has been planted in some districts in India is making towards maturity. It is already distinguished for

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docility and liberality, but we should wish to see it, on the one hand, freer from inherited faults and failings, and on the other, more self-reliant, more progressive, more comprehensive, extending itself with equal zeal and rapidity amongst the higher and the lower classes. At present too large a proportion of the native converts belong to the lower classes and the aboriginal tribes. We trust that ere long this defect will be remedied, and that the blessings which flow from the religion of the Lord of All will not much longer be restricted, as hitherto has too much been the case, to the poorer classes, and to the members of a few castes out of many, but may become the common property and the uniting bond of all classes and castes, bringing all hearts into subjection to the beneficent dominion of Christ, purifying every portion of society, and infusing new vigour into every variety of life. What a grand future India, with her teeming population and her high intellectual gifts, might expect to see, if she would only give up her dreams, her caste exclusiveness, and the moral cowardice which so often keeps her from acting up to her convictions, and were to submit herself unreservedly to the dominion of the Truth! Such a result would prove a source of blessings of incalculable value, not only to India, but to all Asia and the world.

ART. III.-Life of William Earl of Shelburne, afterwards first Marquess of Lansdowne, with Extracts from his Papers and Correspondence.

WH

HATEVER,' says Walpole, in reference to his Memoirs of the Reign of George II.,' leads to a knowledge of the characters of remarkable persons, of the manners of the age. and of its political intrigues, comes properly within my plan.' Lord E. Fitzmaurice's plan is equally extensive, and embraces nearly the same class of topics. His Life of his distinguished ancestor trenches too often on the domain of history to be adequately described as a biography; and its main value consists in the abundance of fresh light it throws on the various and remarkable characters and events with which the founder of Bowood and Lansdowne House was intimately acquainted or mixed up. Individually considered, however, and from the purely personal point of view, his life and career are eminently calculated to fix and reward attention. He attained the highest object of ambition to which a subject can aspire: he was Prime Minister of England during a brief but most important interval: and one of his successors in that proud position, the author of 'Conyngsby

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and Sybil,' has termed him the ablest and most accomplished minister of the eighteenth century: the first great minister who comprehended the rising importance of the middle class.' Bentham always said that he was the only minister he ever heard of who did not fear the people.'

Lord Shelburne was a patron of all intellectual pursuits, as well as a statesman: he eagerly courted the society of men of letters and philosophers: and he stated shortly before his death that he knew Junius and knew all about the writing and production of those letters.' He served with distinction as a soldier: he was unceasingly engaged in party combinations or intrigues he was almost invariably behind the scenes when the plot of the political drama had attained the highest point of interest: he was on the most familiar footing with the principal performers; he was thoroughly conversant with their views, springs of action, distinctive qualities and capacity; and we hold it, therefore, fortunate in the extreme that we are enabled to compare his recorded impressions with the contemporary Memoirs, Diaries, and Reminiscences on which historians like Mr. Adolphus, Lord Stanhope, and Mr. Massey have hitherto had no alternative but to rely.

The present volume (as described in the Preface) includes the period between 1737 and 1766, and ends with the acceptance by Lord Shelburne of the post of Secretary of State in the Ministry of Lord Chatham.' But exact chronological arrangement of the materials has been disregarded: it probably proved impracticable; and based on observations matured and corrected (if not taken) long afterwards, will be found sketches, more or less finished, of Sir Robert Walpole, Sunderland, Carteret, Lord Chatham, Henry Fox (the first Lord Holland), Pulteney, the Pelhams, Lord Bute, Mansfield, Hardwicke, Lord George Sackville, Barré, Wolfe, and many others. These sketches are comprised in A Chapter of Autobiography' and various Memoranda written by Lord Shelburne between 1800 and his death in 1805. The fragmentary character of the Remains imposed a task of considerable difficulty and delicacy

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*The conversation with Sir Richard Phillips about Junius, which Lord E. Fitzmaurice reprints in his Preface, was published in Wade's (commonly called Bohn's)Junius' in 1850; so that there is small cause for the apprehension of the leading journal that these few words (Lord S.'s) may rekindle the whole Junius controversy in all its vehemence.' But there is one of Lord Shelburne's statements which has recently acquired additional significance: namely, that 'none of the parties ever guessed at as Junius was the true Junius. Nobody has ever suspected him.' This was said in April, 1805, when it was at one time supposed no one had guessed at or suspected Francis. But it is now clear that the identity of Francis with Junius was discussed by Pitt in conversation with both Lord Eldon and Lord Aberdeen. (See 'Notes and Queries' for August 2, 1873.)

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