EXPLANATIONS OF THE REVOLT IN INDIA.

Various speculations have been broached to explain the Indian Revolt. "No theory can be considered adequate which attributes it to any immediate and trifling irritation of the traditional prejudices of the people. We must rather regard it as the outburst of long aroused but hitherto repressed passions, due to the obvious provocations of a foreign rule, which, however favorably it may compare with the tyrannies it displaced, has yet been itself a tyranny, hard, inexorable, and often abusive."-Boston Advertiser. "The plot is essentially a Mohammedan business, which is manifest by making Delhi the centre, and setting up a phantom successor of the Great Mogul. The Sepoys are a pampered army of high caste men, who have been long ripe for disaffection and revolt. There are, also, large bodies of lawless men, the successors of the old Mahrattas, always ready for mischief. The Mohammedans are the old tyrants of the country, who would like again to set up their standard, and rule in our despite. These, therefore, and not the peaceable, well-to-do inhabitants, compose the revolters. They see in the gradual consolidation of British power and government a full end to all their hopes of lawless plunder. The Mohammedans and Hindoos hate one another; but for once they have combined against our rule, which is the only protection for law and order throughout India. You now see the whole merits of the question at a glance.-Cor. Independent in India.

"There are in India from forty to fifty thousand British troops, and a population of one hundred and forty millions. That so small a force should hold so vast a multitude in subjection, would be more strange, were the nature of Indian society different. This vast country, stretching from the eighth to the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, a distance of near two thousand miles, is not one homogeneous whole, but an aggregate of separate nationalities, differing in language as well as in scenery, soil, and social state. Like Europe, its nations have affinity, but not amity, though embraced to a great extent under the one rule of the East India Company. Hence any concordant action is not to be looked for on the part of the different sections of the country. Moreover, the people, as such, take no active interest in the government exercised over them. The Hindoos proper, at the time of the English advent, had been ruled for centuries by the Mohammedans, who came down from the Northwest, when their religion was young and fresh, in irresistible hordes of plundering, slaughtering inconoclasts. The conflict has been, in most cases, one between the Mahommedan and the Englishman for the sway of Indian rule and Indian revenue; and when the Mahommedan has gone down before the Christian, the millions who till the soil, and weave the cotton, and ply the hammer, care little for the change. They labor, and live, and die, whether it be the effete Mahommedan, or the strong handed Englishman, that grasps the revenue of their toil. The Hindoo is not given to rebellion, he is content to serve; but with the Mahommedan population there is an actual hatred of British sovereignty. It is they, not the Hindoos, that have lost by the transfer of mastery in the East to western hands. As a body, there is much that is vindictive and malignant in their temperament; and the trouble that has arisen is undoubtedly due to their chafing under the changes by which they have ceased to be lords in India. Being of a more warlike temper than the true Hindoos, the Sepoys are largely drawn from their ranks, especially in Northern India, where the present revolt has taken place. The attempt to replace upon the throne at Delhi the descendant of the Great Mogul, is a bold one, and seems less unnatural when we remember that it was only so late as 1803 that Delhi was captured from

its Mahratta masters, and that the royal family has been allowed to retain the titles, and to receive the honors of sovereignty.—Am. Presb.

A French writer of the name of Ramond, has labored through a series of articles, to prove, with not a little show of reason, that "these events are solely the consequences of a military conspiracy, in which the Sepoys have alone taken part, and which had no other aim than to place the splendid pay and elevated rank of the English officers in the hands of their subadars and jemadars. We detect no trace of fanaticism, in spite of the cartridge question, and we observe no indication of the slightest shadow of patriotism. At the same time, no sympathy for the movement has been manifested by the population. The indifference with which the latter has contemplated passing events is most remarkable, and ought to furnish matter of reflection to those who persist in attributing the Sepoy revolt to a national movement. Since the Sepoys have been masters of all the provinces which compose the Vice-Presidency of Agra, inhabited by 40 or 50 million souls, not a single levy of men or money has been made, not a band of volunteers has been organized, not a single town or village, even of those occupied by the insurgents, has proved, by a sign or a step, that it has joined the movement."

COMMENTS ON THE INDIAN REVOLT:

THE VIEWS TAKEN BY BOTH BRITISH AND AMERICAN CHRISTIANS.

DR. DUFF.-Writing from Calcutta to the New York Observer, Dr. D. says:-- "Nearly half the native army is in a state of secret or open mutiny, and the other half known to be disaffected. But this is not all; the populace generally is known to be more or less disaffected. You see, then, how very serious is the crisis. Nothing but some gracious and signal interposition of the God of Providence seems competent now to save our empire in India. If there be a general rising, as any day there may be, the probability is that not an European life will anywhere escape the universal and indiscriminate massacre."

DR. CANDLISH, EDINBURGH.- -“I feel deeply that perhaps we have been too much speculating on what may be called the mere secondary causes of these events; and I feel it to be our duty to point out the strong reasons why all classes should humble themselves in the sight of God, tracing these events, as we must do in a large measure, to the sins and short-comings of which as a nation we have been guilty of in reference to our Indian Empire. That Empire has been entrusted, by Divine Providence, to our care, evidently for great and important results; and great sin lies on the country and all the churches for neglecting the means God has put within our reach for ameliorating the condition of the millions in India. I am sure all of us must have had our hearts moved with sympathy and deep feeling as we read the harrowing accounts of the monstrous proceedings connected with this mutiny. But with all this, I think we should still cherish good hope, not only that these disastrous proceedings may come to an end, and that this mutiny will be quelled, but that what has taken place will turn out to the furtherance of the Gospel of Christ. I believe it may very likely turn out that this mutiny, and the horrid proceedings on thepart of the Bengal army, will be found to have inflicted upon Hindooism, the interests of Superstition in India, and the whole system of caste, perhaps the heaviest blow they have yet received, and that, so far from these mutinies and disastrous proceedings having been occasioned by any undue zeal in the

cause of Christ, it will turn out that it is those who have been most zealous in promoting the cause of Christ among the Hindoos, will be found to be the saviours of that country in the long run. We cannot doubt but that out of all this confusion, there will arise a better state of things, more favorable for the promulgation of the Gospel.

PEACEFUL EFFECT OF MISSIONS.-Missionaries have been established in more than 300 stations scattered throughout India; mission schools have amounted to the number of 2,015; there have been nearly 80,000 children in these schools, in the proportion of about four boys to one girl. Missionaries have itinerated in all directions, singly and in company with native Christians; and nearly 80,000 converts have been made in Southern India. Yet we believe we are correct in saying, that in no single instance has any popular disturbance been due to missionary proceedings. On the contrary, during the late Santhal rebellion, it was remarked that the missionary influence had a decidedly peaceful tendency. Again, there is no instance in which the proceedings of the mutineers have been traced to missionaries or to missionary transactions. The Hindoo ringleaders, and still more stout y the Mussulmans, refer generally to religious motives; but they give no practical instance. It is an important fact that the disturbances have not broken out in the chief scenes of missionary labor and conversion, for example, in the Burdwan and Kishnagur districts of Bengal. These are great facts; and, in noticing the causes and progress of the revolt, we will not suffer a conscientious band of men to endure unjust censure, nor will we admit the flagrant dishonesty of Mussulman or Hindoo pretexts for revolt as just averments.-London Globe.

AMERICAN COMMENTS.-The whole military force of the British Government in India is represented as being 80 regiments, of about 1000 men each, with English officers, of which seventy are composed of native soldiers, (Sepoys,) while only eighteen regiments of European troops, scattered over that vast country, have been relied upon to keep in subjection 150,000,000 of people.

British rule commenced, and for many years was upheld, by severities and outrages, the memory of which has doubtless festered in the minds of the natives from generation to generation. Like the slaves in our own country, the native population has been governed by a few, who have kept the ascendency, because the masses were ignorant of their physical power. It seems that the natives have been gaining in intelligence, and increasing in discontent, until the more intelligent and restless have stirred up the masses to open revolt. Although there is no evidence that the native population generally is opposed to missions, yet it is believed that many of them fear that Europeans were devising plans to extirpate the Mahommedan faith, and that this is the real ground of the revolt. The immediate occasion was the introduction of a new weapon, the English rifle, and the consequent distribution of certain cartridges, which the natives were influenced to believe, by the more desperate of their own countrymen, had been prepared with the fat of animals held in abhorrence, by biting of which their caste would be broken.

In view of the vigorous control exercised over the natives, and the cruelties perpetrated upon them from the date of their subjugation, though British rule has been milder during the last twenty-five years than previously, one is reminded of the declaration in Scripture, "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Instead of allaying discontent, and suppressing violence by humane measures, the fearful work of vengeance has been going on against the native population. The panic was universal throughout the whole of Northern India, and the exasperation against the native insurgents was wrought up to the highest pitch. Yet

the native population, not the Europeans, were the party that had first suffered injury, oppression and barbarity. The atrocities committed by the natives, smarting under the wrongs inflicted upon their predecessors, the iron rule in which they themselves have been held, and the apprehensions that their religion and nationality were to be extinguished, have aroused the Europeans to a spirit of vengeance, and even barbarity disgraceful to humanity. What will be thought by the civilized world of retaliatory cruelties, related by the missionaries, like the following: "Two of the natives were hung, and forty were blown from guns. It is said three regiments have been turned loose to hunt the mutineers to the death. At Peshawer, forty-six soldiers and officers, belonging the mutinous regiments there, have been executed; some having been hung, but the greater portion blown from the cannon's mouth. Two were executed here (Lahore) by the latter method. Twenty more were thus dealt with at Ferozepore, and at Ambala half a score or so have met a similar fate. The carnage at Delhi, which the English were about invading, will most likely be fearful. It is understood that no quarter will be granted, and we can guess what will be the result."

It is true the recent provocation has been great; but who was the original wrong-doer? Who, for a century, has ruled the nations with a rod of iron, making conquest after conquest, with a view to bring all India under despotic sway? And what excuse can a civilized and Christian nation give for inflicting such horrid cruelties upon a heathen or semi-civilized people, even in retaliation for barbarous enormities? Even if the terrified natives are quelled, a rancorous hatred to the Europeans will swell their bosoms, and be handed down through coming generations. Meantime, the smothering fires may break forth in fury, and overwhelm the foreign population.

EFFECT ON MISSIONS.-The Executive Committee of the missions of the Presbyterian church have learned that four missionary families have met with a violent death, necessity laid upon seven others to take refuge in military forts, and the flight of most of the rest from their stations; the exposures and sufferings of the native missionary laborers and native converts, and their being subject to peculiar temptations in maintaining their Christian profession; and the destruction of mission churches, school buildings, dwelling houses and printing presses, with a large stock of the Holy Scriptures and Tracts, the pecuniary loss already reported being more than $100,000.-Am. Missionary, N. Ÿ.

A wail of anguish has gone up from old England as tidings have come from the East; -a cry for vengeance has been uttered-for vengeance on the Moslem, a retribution proportioned to the atrocities which have made Delhi and Cawnpore names to curdle the blood with horror, and to flush the cheek with wrath. Nor is it matter for wonder that it should be so. Though the blow which has filled so many English homes with wailing is not aimed at us, yet is America moved by the news. We are no apologists for revenge; but this is no hour, when a nation is goaded by crimes so maddening, when its sons and brothers are in the fury of a strife so relentless-aye, and its daughters and its sisters are, it may be, in the grasp of the bestial Mahommedans of India - this is no hour for Christian men of a kindred blood and faith to utter Pharasaic rebukes. A season will come for rebuke, and when it does come, England must heed it. Immense as is the undertaking, the spirit of Great Britain will not rest until the work of re-conquest is accomplished. Then, if she fails to give heed to the fearful lesson she is now learning, and fulfil her duty to India, a mightier voice than ours may be expected to address her in tones

that must be heard. Providence will compel England to be faithful to her

enormous trust.

To go into a consideration of the defects of the Anglo-Indian system, would be unwarranted by the limits of our columns, and the purposes of our paper, but we would invoke a generous sympathy for England in this day of bitter sorrow, not merely to thousands of estimable households, but to the whole nation. It is her due to receive it, our privilege to award it. The day may come when we shall prize England's sympathy.

Still more we would say, let India, her people and her woes, have a remembrance in your sympathies and in your prayers. It is by such overturnings as this that doors are opened for the utterance of the truth, and this calamity may be overruled to the spiritual good of India. We believe that it will be so. Pray for India. Pray, too, for those who are in peril — American missionaries and their families, as well as those from old England. God grant that it be not lack of information alone that allows us to refrain from bewailing the outrage, torture and slaughter of our own countrymen and women with their babes in that land.—Am. Presbyterian, Phila.

BRITISH RETALIATION IN INDIA.

We have from the first expected a terrible retaliation upon the rebellious Sepoys, if not upon the mass of the people of India. The work of vengeance has now commenced in earnest; and it is well to put some of its details on permanent record as specimeus of a spurions or degenerate Christianity.

ATTEMPT TO RESTRAIN AND REGULATE THE WORK OF VENGEANCE.The Governor General and his Council early issued instructions relative to the treatment of the mutineers. "They consist of twelve articles, in which indispensable rigor and politic lenity or forbearance are well combined. The general burning of villages is condemned; apart from the effect of the practice upon the feelings and dispositions of the country people, it would prevent them from returning to their villages, and resuming the cultivation of the fields — a point of vital importance, inasmuch as, if the lands remain unsown, distress and even famine might be added to the other difficulties with which the government would have to contend. The Governor and Council observe, besides, that extreme severity, after the requisite impression had been made on the rebellious and disorderly, would have the effect of exasperating the people. The spirit of animosity against their rulers being engendered in their minds, their feelings being embittered by the remembrance of needless bloodshed, the task of settling the country would be rendered incalculably more arduous."

A precaution quite as wise as it was humane; but how was it received even by reputed Christians in England and India? With a general outburst of complaints, with a prompt, determined, relentless howl for vengeance. The Governor General was overwhelmed with all manner of hard names, and his immediate recall demanded to appease the popular wrath, just because he had interposed the shield of his power to prevent a lawless, brutal, wholesale retaliation on the people of India!

THE SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH IN THIS MATTER." If the cruelties committed by the mutineers are awful, so are the punishments inflicted. Many of the mutineers have been tried by court-martial, and not only has