Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/469

Rh he says: “Missionaries must be sent away about their business, and the practice of attempting conversions be put immediate stop to. If a black individual express a sincere desire to become a Christian, by all means let his wishes be instantly attended to by the ministers of the Gospel, [the Episcopalian chaplains of the troops and civilians.] By the substitution of this arrangement we are certain that there would be no material diminution of the number of real converts per annum, for at present the interior of a Cremorne omnibus would afford them ample accommodation.”—United Service Magazine, 1857, p. 480.

In that “omnibus” I would have claimed at least three seats—one each for Joel and Emma, and one for Peggy, Emma's mother, and would have felt satisfied, as I handed them in, that the youngest and weakest of their number had a courage and constancy for Jesus and his cause which might well put to shame—as it will yet in the presence of “the worthy Judge eternal”—the cowardice and sarcasm of this unworthy Briton, who thus dared to offset the policy and claims of the East India Company against the present and final salvation of two hundred millions of benighted men.

I am thankful that this despicable and wicked utterance expressed the feelings of a very small fraction of English society—smaller to-day than ever, and growing “beautifully less”—while the “Company” whose policy and practices it pronounced, within twelve months of the day when these words were printed, was forever extinguished, as a governing body, by the Parliament of England, which resolved to sustain British Christianity, while they vindicated British supremacy, in India. The clique who could thus insult God and his ministers, and wish to hinder the conversion of India's millions, were regarded as henceforth unworthy to administer the political affairs of that great empire; and this very utterance was the knell of their doom, as it was also of the Sepoy power on which they so vainly and madly leaned for support. Natives and Christians alike celebrated with gladness the day that saw the country pass under the control of the Queen of England, to be henceforth ruled by the Parliamentary Government of Great Britain.