^ 
 
HENRY DEROZIO, 
 
 THE 
 
 EURASIAN 
 
 POET, TEACHER, AND JOURNALIST, 
 
 With Appendices. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS EDWARDS. 
 
 dtekutta : 
 
 ;W, NEWMAN & Co., LD M 4, DALHOUSIE SQUARE. 
 
 1884. 
 

 CALCUTTA: 
 
 PRINTED BV W. NEWMAN & CO., LIMITED, 
 AT THE CAXTON STEAM PRINTING WORKS, 4, DALHOUSIE SQUARE. 
 
 MORSE STEPHENS 
 
THIS 
 MEMOIR OF DEROZIO 
 
 IS 
 DEDICATED TO MY WIFE, 
 
 511682 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 SHORTLY after my arrival in India, I had some 
 thoughts of writing a history of the Eurasian com- 
 munity. I found, however, on closer study of the 
 subject, that, as a community, Eurasians can scarcely 
 be said to have a history. They have founded no 
 empire, built no cities, originated no industry, devel- 
 oped no policy, nor have they created either a 
 philosophy, or a religion, or a school of thought in 
 literature, science, or art. Whole sections of their 
 lower ranks have in the past disappeared entirely 
 among native races, and their higher ranks are being 
 absorbed among pure Europeans. Nevertheless there] 
 is a sense in which they have a history, and that * 
 history is a record of exclusion and repression, 
 from the year 1786, when the general letter of 
 the Court of Directors (i^th March) prohibited the 
 wards of the Upper Orphan School, whose mothers 
 were natives and whose fathers were Britons, 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 from being sent to England for education, to the 
 Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, when the Forest School of 
 Dehra and the Roorkee Engineering College were 
 closed against the sons of Englishmen domiciled in 
 India. Eurasians are the descendants of native 
 mothers by European fathers, of every nationality, and, 
 as a community, they have cast in their lot, since the 
 days of Albuquerque with the race to which their 
 fathers belonged. The Dutch, Portuguese, French, and 
 English, who each in turn fought for the mastery of 
 India, left behind them descendants whose history as 
 communities in no way differs from that of their 
 fathers. There have been, however, men of some mark 
 among them, whose names are not as well known as 
 they deserve to be, and I set about collecting materials 
 for a series of biographies, which would in some fashion 
 picture the men and their surroundings. The indi- 
 viduals with whom I mainly concerned myself were 
 Derozio, Skinner, of the Irregulars, Kidd, the ship- 
 builder, and Ricketts, the contemporary of Derozio 
 and the founder of what is now the Doveton College. 
 This Memoir of Derozio is the first of the series, and, 
 so far as I am concerned, it is likely to be the last. 
 The English reading public of India who buy books 
 is a very small public, and it is very doubtful if any 
 book published in India by a private person ever 
 did more than pay the printing charges ; of course, I 
 except what are called " text-books, " which are 
 
PREFACE. Hi 
 
 prepared for University examinations and cramming 
 purposes, and books used in Government offices. I 
 have little hope that my Memoir will sell in numbers 
 sufficient to pay even for the cost of advertisements 
 which I inserted in several newspapers, asking for 
 information and papers, &c., and offering a fair price 
 for a copy of Derozio's critique on Kant, let alone the 
 four years' labour I have had in collecting materials. 
 I shall be delighted to realise that I am mistaken. 
 In search of materials for this short Memoir of 
 Derozio and for a collection of his poetry, I have 
 ransacked every library in Calcutta to which I could 
 get access departmental, public, and private. I 
 shall be happy to hear from any one who can give 
 me any new facts about Derozio, or who will 
 point out any untrue or unfair statement in my 
 Memoir. I have to acknowledge, with many thanks, 
 the very kind manner in which I have been aided in 
 this bit of work by the Reverend Krishna Mohun 
 Bannerjea, LL. D., one of the few surviving friends of 
 Derozio, the Hon'ble Peary Mohun Mookerjea, of 
 Ooterpara, who very kindly placed the unique library 
 of that town at my disposal, Mr. Henry Andrews, a 
 contemporary of Derozio, the late Peary Chand Mitter, 
 and the officials of the Home Department of the 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Government of India, who very kindly allowed me 
 to examine their library and their files. 
 
 The first rough draft of this Memoir appeared at 
 intervals in the Calcutta Review. This rough draft 
 has been corrected, re-casted, and in parts re-written. 
 
 THOMAS EDWARDS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS. 
 
 Birth and parentage, 2 ; Visit to Bhaugulpore, 4 ; Mr. Drummond, 
 57 ; Derozio's boy companions, 8 ; Close of school career, 9. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 DAVID DRUMMOND, SCHOOLMASTER AND INTERLOPER. 
 
 Drummond's arrival in India, n ; The Phrenological Society, 12; 
 Arguments against Phrenology, 13 14 ; Failing health, 15 ; Drum- 
 mond's poetry, 16 j Independence, 17 ; The Weekly Examiner, 18 ; 
 Religious opinions, 19 ; Drummond's death, 20 ; His grave, 21. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 BHAUGULPORE. 
 
 Life at Bhaugulpore, 2326 ; First contributions to Literature, 27 ; 
 Connection with the Press, 28; Success, 29. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE HINDOO COLLEGE. 
 
 The Academic Association, 31 ; Religious and Philosophical opinions, 
 32 ; The charge of Atheism and Immorality, 33 ; Paine's "Age of 
 Reason," 34 ; The true story, 35; The effects of Derozio's teaching, 
 36 ; Ram Mohun Roy's appeal, 37 ; Dr. Bryce's efforts for 
 improved education, 38 ; Ram Mohun Roy and the Hindoo 
 School, 39 ; Derozio's Critique on Kant, 40 ; The immediate results 
 of the teaching of the Hindoo College, 41. 
 
ii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 CHRISTIAN EFFORT IN INDIA. 
 
 St. Francis Xavier, 43 44 ; Wilson's visit to Goa, 45 ; Dr. Duffs nar- 
 row theology, 46 ; Christianity and Hindooism, 47 ; Essentials of 
 Christianity, 48 ; Divisions in Christianity, 49 ; Brahmoism, 50 ; 
 Christianity and other religions, 51 ; The vivifying ideas of 
 Religion, 52 ; Growth of Christian dogma, 53 ; Non-essentials of 
 Religion, 54 ; Wilson and Duff, 55 ; Duffs mission, 56 ; The 
 disappearance of Converts, 57 ; Indian Society in 1830, 58 ; 
 Duffs method, 60 61 ; Why does it not succeed? 62; The 
 failures of Wilson and Duff, 63 ; The message of peace, 64. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 "SUBVERTER OF ALL RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES." 
 
 Curriculum of the Hindoo College, 66 ; Derozio at work, 67 ; The 
 result of Derozio's teaching, 68 ; The Orders of the Managers, 69 > 
 Prohibition of the Managers, 70 ; Public opinion against the 
 Managers, 71 ; The India Gazette on the orders, 72 ; Ram Comul 
 Sen, 73 ; Meeting of the Managers, 74 ; The Managers in Council, 
 75 ; The result, 76 j Derozio's letter to Mr, Wilson, 77 78 ; 
 Derozio's letter to the Managers, 78 ; Wilson's letter to Derozio, 
 80 8l ; Derozio's vindication, 82 89. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 DUFF AND THE PUPILS OF DEROZIO. 
 
 Derozio's influence, 91 ; The Enquirer, 92 ; The Enquirer on Duff, 
 9394 5 First converts, 95 j The " Rising body of Natives," 96 ; 
 Emma Roberts, 97. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EURASIAN MOVEMENTS OF 1829-30. 
 
 The policy of Suppression, 100103; Missionary and Government 
 education, 104 ; Preparation of the Petition, 105 ; Ricketts 
 appointed Agent, 106 ; Ricketts sails for England, 107 ; Britain 
 in 1829, Ricketts at work, 109110. 
 
CONTENTS. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE TOWN HALL MEETING, MARCH 9TH, 1831. 
 
 Derozio's Speech, 112; The condition of Eurasians, 113; Derozio's 
 eulogy of Ricketts, 114; Supports the motion for a second 
 Petition, 115 116; " Lord Ashley sympathises with us," 117; 
 Firm and respectful remonstrance, 118; The apathy of Eura- 
 sians, 119120. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PUPIL-FRIENDS OF DEROZIO. 
 
 Krishna Mohun Banerjea, 122; Baptism, 123; The teaching of 
 Derozio, 124 ; Mohesh Chunder Ghose, 125 ; Ram Gopal Ghose, 
 126129; Gobin, Russick, and Mitra, 130; Hum Chunder 
 Ghose, Radanauth Sickdar, 131 ; Duckinarunjun Mookerjee, 
 132140. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PUBLIC MAN AND JOURNALIST. 
 
 The East Indian, 142 ; The Second Petition, 143 144 ; Derozio's 
 Speech, 145146 ; The East Indians' Second Petition, 147152 ; 
 The East Indian and the John Bull, 153 ; Derozio and Captain 
 Macnaghten, 154 ; Derozio's letter to the India Gazette, 155 156 ; 
 Journalist, 157 ; Destruction of files, 158 ; Influence in public 
 movements, 159160. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 School examination, 162 ; Last public words, 163 ; The fulfilment 
 of the prophecy, 164; Last verses, 165 ; Cholera, 166 ; Death, 
 167 ; " Atheistic and Immoral Poet," 168 ; The Story of the Con- 
 fession, 169170; The Spirit of his Life, 171 ; The Lesson of his 
 Life, 172173 ; The tribute of the Government Gazette, 175176 ; 
 The tribute of the Sumachar Durpan, 177178 ; The mother and 
 sister, 179; The East Indian, 180; The meeting to erect a 
 Memorial, 181182 ; The last of Derozio's mother and sister, 
 183 ; The end of the Memorial, 184 ; The man as he looked, 185 ; 
 The papers of Derozio, 186 ; The fulfilment of his work, 187189. 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE POETRY OF DEROZIO. 
 
 The style of his Poetry, 192 ; The popular and fashionable model, 
 193 ;The Fakeer of Jungheera, 194 ; Hymn to the Sun, 196 197 ; 
 The Legend of the Shushan, 198; Derozio's notes, 199 201; 
 Sympathy between Nature and Human Nature, 203 ; The Part- 
 ing of the Lovers, 204 ; The close of the poem, 207 ; Changes in 
 Indian society, 208 ; The Enchantress of the Cave, 209 210 ; The 
 Song of the Enchantress, 2ii 213 ; Notes to the Enchantress, 
 214 ; Sonnets, 216217 ; On the Abolition of Satti, 218219 J 
 The minor pieces, 220 221. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 THE PETITION OF 1830. 
 
 The Petition of 1830, 223230 ; Debate in the House of Lords on the 
 Petition of loth March 1830, 230; Correspondence between 
 Ricketts and Lord Carlisle, 232234 ; Debate in the House of 
 Commons, 234 245 ; Ricketts' evidence before the Select Com- 
 mittee of the House of Lords, 245250 ; Ricketts' evidence in 
 the House of Commons, 250254. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 EURASIANS AND POOR EUROPEANS IN INDIA. 
 
 The rise of the community, 255 257; The policy of exclusion, 257; 
 Parentage of Ricketts, 258 ; The policy of repression, 259 ; The 
 Doveton College, 260 261 ; Eurasians and Natives may be edu- 
 cated together in the same College Classes, 261 262 ; Importance 
 of a thorough training to Eurasians, 263 ; The Calcutta and Madras 
 Associations, 204 ; The Law of Life, 264 265 ; Is there to be 
 no mission to Eurasians and poor Europeans ? 266 ; Lord 
 Canning's Minute, 267 ; Lord Lytton's Minute, 267 ; Arch- 
 deacon Baly's Report, 268 ; Hill Schools, 269 ; Elementary Schools, 
 271 ; Technical Schools, 271 272 ; Hill Farms, 273 ; Eurasian 
 Regiments, 273; Utilising of the Lawrence Asylum and other 
 Hill Schools, 274 ; Training Ships, 274 ; The true policy of 
 Eurasians and poor Europeans, 275 276. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS. 
 
 TTTN the old European burying ground of Calcutta, 
 
 1 
 
 on the south side of Park Street, amid obelisks, 
 pyramids, pillars and tombs of various forms, all 
 fast falling to pieces, and from many of which the 
 inscriptions penned by loving and grateful hands, 
 have been obliterated, while the very name and me- 
 mory of those " who sleep below " have long passed 
 into forgetfulness, there is a nameless grave at the 
 western extremity, "next to the monument of Major 
 Maling on the south." Here was laid in the first 
 flush of manhood, 54 years ago, all that was mortal 
 of one of the highest gifted and most accomplished of 
 Eurasians, HENRY Louis VIVIAN DEROZIO, poet, 
 philosopher and free-thinker. 
 
 Since that day a new generation of men has 
 arisen, to whom, though belonging to their own com- 
 munity, such men as Derozio, Ricketts, Kyd, Skinner, 
 Kirkpatrick, Wale Byrne, Montague, Pote, Theobald, 
 Dickens, and others, are names and little more. It 
 seems to us, that if the memory of their worth and 
 usefulness is to be rescued from that oblivion which 
 
the rapid course of time is fast accomplishing, some 
 attempt, however imperfect, should be made to place 
 on record something of their life and work, before 
 the last of those who knew them as they walked 
 the earth and played their part in life, have died out 
 and made it impossible to recover facts and incidents 
 that otherwise must perish. 
 
 Henry Louis Vivian Derozio was born on the loth 
 April 1809, in the house which stands to this day on 
 the 24-Pergunnah side of Circular Road, at the head 
 of Jaun Bazaar Street. The building is surrounded 
 by a large compound in which there is a tank, and is 
 a good specimen of the old-fashioned substantial 
 houses of fifty years ago. Derozio's father/who was 
 descended from a respectable Portuguese family, 
 named DeRozario, occupied a highly respectable 
 position in the mercantile house of Messrs. J. Scott 
 and Co., in Calcutta ; and must have been a man of 
 some means, for the house he dwelt in was his own 
 property, and his children received the best education 
 that could then be procured in Calcutta. He was 
 twice married, and the subject of this biographical 
 sketch was born to his first wife. Besides Henry 
 Louis Vivian Derozio, there were other three children, 
 an elder brother Frank, who seems to have led a 
 worthless life, and ultimately went to the bad, a 
 younger brother Claudius, of whom little or nothing 
 seems to be known beyond the fact that he went to 
 
:^ML^M^^- 
 
 jn 
 
 and Parentage. 3 
 
 Scotland to be educated, and returned with a broad 
 Scottish accent that stuck to him for many a day, 
 a younger sister, Sophia, who died at the age of 17 
 on the 2 1st December 1827, and a sister, Amelia, 
 between whom and Henry there was that warm 
 enduring love which sometimes binds together, in a 
 more than usual degree, a brother and sister. Amelia 
 shared many of her brother's enjoyments, sym- 
 pathised with him in his verse-making, encouraged 
 him in all his undertakings, in short, believed in him 
 and his power to influence thought and men, before 
 any one else did. Of Amelia's future little is known. 
 After death and ill-fortune had broken up the family, 
 she seems to have gone to Serampore, where, it is 
 believed, she married. One other relation it is need- 
 ful to mention. Henry's aunt, his mother's sister, 
 married a European gentleman, an Indigo Planter, at 
 Bhaugulpore. Mr. Arthur Johnson, Derozio's uncle, 
 was born at Ringwood in Hampshire in the year 
 1782. He served for some years in the Royal Navy ; 
 and at the age of 25, settled in India. For many 
 years he was a highly prosperous man, but in the 
 closing years of his life reverses of fortune overtook 
 him, and he died, and was buried at Bhaugulpore in 
 September 1847, a ft er a residence in India of forty 
 years. A monument to his memory records that " he 
 won the respect and good-will of all around him, and 
 secured the lasting friendship of many by his general 
 
4 Visit to Bkaugnlpore. 
 
 worth and benevolence of heart." There is no one 
 in Bhaugulpore to-day who knows anything about his 
 great nephew. On frequent occasions visits were paid 
 to the married aunt; and there, on a rock in the 
 middle of the river, the boy Derozio saw the fakir, 
 which was the first suggestion to his fertile imagina- 
 tion of the longest and most sustained flight of his 
 muse, " T/ie Fakir of Jungeerah? an eastern tale, 
 which to this day stands unrivalled amongst indig- 
 enous Indian poems in excellence and truthfulness 
 of delineation and in beauty and fertility of poetic 
 imagery. 
 
 At an early age Derozio went to the school kept 
 by David Drummond, in Dhurrumtollah, the site of 
 which is now bounded by Goomghur on the north, 
 Hospital Lane on the west, Dhurrumtollah on the 
 south, and Hart's Livery Stables on the east, from 
 each of which directions, gates entered the compound 
 of the school. Here he received all the education that 
 schools and schoolmasters ever gave him. Drummond 
 was a Scotchman, a good example of the best type of 
 the old Scotch Dominie, a scholar and a gentleman, 
 equally versed and well read in the classics, mathe- 
 matics and metaphysics of his day, and trained, as 
 most Scotch students of the close of last century and 
 beginning of this were, less in the grammatical nice- 
 ties and distinctions of verbal criticism, though these 
 were not neglected, than in the thought of the great 
 

 Drummond. 5 
 
 writers of antiquity and in the power of independent 
 thinking. This culture and power of independent 
 thought, Drummond seems to have had the power 
 of imparting in an unusual degree, and on none 
 of his pupils did he more distinctly impress his own 
 individuality than on the young Derozio. 
 
 Amongst many of the orthodox inhabitants of 
 Calcutta the Scotch Schoolmaster was looked on as, 
 if not an open disciple of David Hume, nevertheless, 
 a very doubtful person in whose hands to place their 
 children, lest some of the independence of thought 
 which characterised the master should imbue the 
 pupil, and lead him to reason on subjects which they 
 had been taught to accept with implicit faith. We 
 do not mean to imply that Drummond was charged 
 with open atheism ; but the feeling amongst many 
 parents was that, on the whole, there was some 
 danger of the faith, implict, unreasoned faith, of 
 their fathers being unsettled by the fearless and in- 
 dependent thinking for themselves which character- 
 ised some of Drummond's pupils. In a house in the 
 Chitpore Road, near what is now the Adi Brahmo 
 Samaj, Mr. Sherbourne, a Eurasian, the son of a Brah- 
 min mother, conducted one of the most successful 
 schools in Calcutta. Sherbourne was proud of this 
 parentage, and received from his pupils, the yearly 
 offering, //(/# burik, made to Brahmins. At his school 
 nearly every distinguished native of a former genera- 
 
6 Drummonds Influence. 
 
 tion received the rudiments of an English education 
 before passing to the Hindu College. Among the 
 number of Sherbourne's pupils were Prosono Coomar 
 Tagore and his brother Huro Coomar Tagore. There 
 was another famous school in Boitakhanah, presided 
 over by a most estimable and orthodox pedagogue, a 
 distinguished member of the Old Mission Church, 
 Mr. Hutteman. Round him the faithful gathered ; 
 but those who cared less for orthodoxy and more 
 for a thorough education, sent their sons to Drum- 
 mond of Dhurrumtollah. Hutteman was a good 
 classic, and turned out some fine scholars, but if 
 thought and the power of thinking, and not gram- 
 matical niceties and the power to be unintelligible 
 and a bore in half-a-dozen languages, are the true 
 aim of education, then the countryman of Hume 
 was the better educator. The naturally imaginative, 
 impulsive and powerful mind of Derozio was 
 quickened and spurred into action under the clear, 
 incisive, logical guidance of David Drummond, the 
 crooked-backed, broad-minded Scotchman, who for 
 eight years, from the day Derozio entered his school 
 a child of six, till he left it a lad of fourteen, watch- 
 ed him with interest, and aided the rapid develop- 
 ment of his splendid powers of intellect and imagi- 
 nation ; and before the age of twenty, six years 
 after he left school and entered on the work of his 
 short life, his acquaintance with the literature and 
 
Drummond's acquirements. 7 
 
 thought of England, and so far as these could be 
 attained through the medium of an English trans- 
 lation, his knowledge of the best thinkers and 
 writers of European celebrity, was of such a character 
 as to mark him off, at that early age, as a man not in 
 any degree inferior to, and in some respects far in 
 advance of, any of his contemporaries of any nation- 
 ality in India. Derozio was little of a classic scholar. It 
 is even very doubtful if he ever got much beyond 
 the Gallia est omnis divisa in paries tres which mark- 
 ed the infant classic steps of the scholar of his day ; 
 but there was no poet, or dramatic writer, or thinker 
 of English lineage with whose works Derozio was not 
 familiar familiar in a sense which the examination 
 driven, high pressure students of to-day might well 
 envy. In mathematics he did little more than cross 
 the " asses' bridge." His chief delight, his sole pursuit 
 outside of the cricketing, the amateur theatricals, 
 and other sports natural to boys of his years, was 
 the literature and the thought of England, as he 
 found these embodied in the poets, novelists, drama- 
 tists, and philosophers of that country. Till the 
 latest day of his short life, poetry and philosophy 
 were the chief charm of his existence. There were 
 two places in India where the most recent works 
 issued from the press of Britain could be found. 
 These were the shelves of the most enterprising 
 booksellers, and the library of Derozio, frequently 
 
8 Derozio s Boy-Companions. 
 
 the latter alone. The boy-companions of Derozio 
 were, almost without exception, in after-life note- 
 worthy men. Lawrence Augustus DeSouza has 
 shown by his large-hearted, open-handed, benefac- 
 tions to the Eurasian community, in his care for the 
 widow and the orphan, and the struggling scholar, a 
 kingly example of philanthropy and the wise use of 
 wealth, which will embalm his name, a precious 
 memory, in the hearts of Eurasians. W. Kirkpatrick 
 was one of a band of earnest men, among whom were 
 J. W. Ricketts, Robert J. Rose, Wale Byrne, Henry 
 Andrews, R. H. Hollingberry, and others, who labored 
 incessantly in after-life for the social, moral, religious 
 and intellectual advancement of men of their own 
 blood. Kirkpatrick, M. Crowe, R. Fenwick and other 
 East Indians were the chief leader writers of the old 
 East Indian , a newspaper planned, edited and success- 
 fully carried on by Derozio till his death. Kirkpatrick 
 also edited and wrote for the Orient Pearl, an annual 
 something after the style of the Republic of Letters, 
 and which contains many articles that are interesting 
 reading to this day. J. W. Ricketts contributed to 
 the Orient Pearl, as well as other leading members 
 of the community. Charles Pote, the " Eurasian 
 Artist," another boy-companion of Derozio, whose 
 portrait of Lord Metcalfe adorns the Town Hall of 
 Calcutta, along with Derozio and David Hare, gave 
 that impetus to enquiry among higher class Hindoos. 
 
Close of his School Career. 9 
 
 which made the work of Duff and his successors a 
 matter of easy accomplishment. As lads, DeSouza, 
 DaCosta, Pote, W. Kirkpatrick, McLeod, Galloway 
 and others, were members, with Derozio, of the same 
 Cricket Club, that played on autumn evenings on the 
 maidan^ that took part in school theatricals for which 
 Derozio wrote prologues before the age of 14, and 
 that swam and sported together in early summer 
 mornings in the Bamon Bustee, the great tank now 
 filled up, which once stood at the end of what is 
 now Wood Street, with Camac Street on the west, 
 Theatre Road on the north, and native villages 
 stretching out to the south and east. 
 
 At the age of 14, Derozio, as we have said, ended 
 his school life ; but David Drummond, the grim, 
 Scottish, hunch-backed schoolmaster, and Henry 
 Derozio, the sprightly, clean-limbed, brilliant Eura- 
 sian boy, admired and loved each other as rarely 
 master and pupil do. None watched with greater 
 interest his short career, and there were few sadder 
 hearts in Calcutta, that followed Derozio to his early 
 grave that wintry afternoon, than David Drummond 
 of Dhurrumtollah. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 DAVID DRUMMOND, SHOOLMASTER AND INTERLOPER. 
 
 AVID DRUMMOND was a native of Fife- 
 shire, born in humble circumstances about the 
 year 1785, eleven years before the death of Burns. As 
 a boy, the fame and poetry of the ploughman poet, 
 which filled all Scotland from end to end, quickened 
 the lad Drummond to emulate in some faint fashion 
 what Burns had achieved for Scotland. 
 
 E'en then a wish, I mind its power, 
 A wish that to my latest hour 
 
 Shall strongly heave my breast, 
 That I for poor auld Scotland's sake, 
 Some useful plan or beuk could make, 
 
 Or sing a song at least. 
 
 In this, at least, Drummond was successful. A 
 few of his songs, in the homely Doric of his native 
 land, became popular, before, in the year 1813, ne 
 left Scotland for ever ; and even yet in his native 
 shire the songs of the peasant boy, who, after a 
 residence in India of 30 years, was laid 40 years ago 
 in the grave, are not altogether forgotten. 
 
 The circumstances which impelled the young 
 Scotchman to leave his native land, with a deter- 
 
Drummond' s Arrival in India. 1 1 
 
 mination never to return to it, are hidden in obscurity; 
 but there are sound reasons for believing that theo- 
 logical differences with his own family had some hand 
 in it. There were not a few peasant lads in the Scot- 
 land of 80 years ago, and have been since then, 
 whose parents pinched and saved and hungered 
 themselves, that their sons might some day " wag 
 their heads in a pupit. " The disappointment, 
 grief and rage when hopes of this sort, cherished 
 through embittering poverty and a life-long self- 
 sacrifice almost superhuman, were dashed to the 
 ground by the refusal of the lad to enter the church 
 because his mind had outgrown the narrow theology of 
 the sect he had been educated to enter, may be better 
 imagined than described. Drummond worked his 
 passage out to India and landed, an " Interloper," 
 in the year 1813. He lived with a friend at Ber- 
 hampore for a short time, and was then appointed 
 assistant on Rs. 125 a month, with board and lodging, 
 in the proprietory school of Messrs. Wallace and 
 Measures, after undergoing an examination which 
 satisfied his employers that his attainments were 
 of a high order. A few years after he became sole 
 proprietor ; and the Dhurrumtollah Academy under 
 Drummond speedily attained the highest position 
 amongst the educational establishments of Calcutta, 
 and aided materially in diffusing a high class English 
 education among the children of Europeans, whose 
 
12 The Phrenological Society. 
 
 means did not admit of their sending their sons to 
 England, as well as amongst Eurasians and natives. 
 It was one of the peculiarities of Drummond's school 
 that, as in the Scotland of his day, the laird's son 
 and Jock, the ploughman's boy, sat side by side on 
 the same form with Jenny, the herd's lassie, and 
 romped together before and after school hours, and 
 on the way to and from school, so in Dhurrumtollah, 
 60 years ago, European, Eurasian and native iads 
 conned the same lessons, and mingled together in 
 the same school sports. The impetus given by Drum- 
 mond to education in Calcutta awoke a spirit of 
 competition ; the means of education multiplied, and 
 a healthy rivalry between schools of various sorts 
 produced the happiest results. 
 
 On the 4th of March 1825 a Phrenological Society 
 was established by the admirers of Gall, Spurzheim 
 and Combe. This society met in the Hurkaru 
 rooms, with Dr. Abel as President, Dr. John Grant 
 as Vice-president, and Dr. Patterson as Secretary. 
 For two years Drummond attended the meetings, 
 and was a silent listener tc the arguments and 
 dissertations in favour of phrenology. Then, to the 
 amazement of the society, he published his Objections 
 to Phrenology, in which he declared that " phreno- 
 logy was not the true interpretation of nature, 
 that its principles threw no sure light on the 
 enquiry regarding the operations of the human 
 
Arguments against Phrenology. 13 
 
 mind. " This was the death-blow, not only to the 
 Society, which never recovered from the vigor of 
 Drummond's attack, but to phrenology in India. 
 
 We subjoin a summary of Mr. Drummond's state- 
 ment of his arguments against Phrenology. The 
 book consists of 210 pages, octavo, and cost eight 
 rupees : 
 
 First. If each organ possesses exclusively and 
 independently perception, volition, memory, &c., it 
 must follow that they are distinct and independent 
 existences ; and that unity of consciousness, which 
 is in other words, a man's being himself, is utterly 
 impossible. 
 
 Secondly. If a plurality of organs act, at the same 
 moment in opposition (that is, the one counteracting 
 the other), it must follow, that they neutralize each 
 other in the ratio of their respective forces. 
 
 Thirdly. If a plurality of organs act, at the same 
 moment in conjunction (that is, in producing one 
 individual impulse), why not the whole of them, 
 which would amount to all the unity of mind that 
 has ever been contended for ? 
 
 Fourthly. If the various organs do operate upon 
 and influence each other, this, like everything else, 
 must be done by some particular means. How then 
 is it managed ? What connects these jarring coun- 
 sels ? What so opportunely informs " Cautiousness " 
 that a foe is in the field, and as instantly directs 
 
14 " Objections to Phrenology:" 
 
 him to oppose " Destructiveness " ? What is the 
 medium of communication whereby the excitation 
 of any organ whatever can have the smallest influ- 
 ence even on its nearest companion ? and, 
 
 fifthly. The very essence of Phrenology involves 
 the abandonment both of reason and memory (the 
 one of which directs and judges, the other retains 
 and restores, all the ideas and operations of the 
 mind) by affirming that these, as well as all other 
 attributes of the " glorious and divine intellect of 
 man, " are the result of thirty-five ungoverned, 
 unconnected instincts. 
 
 In the year 1829, shortly after the publication of 
 his Objections to Phrenology, the tear and wear, the 
 worry and the fret, and the intense application of 
 a conscientious teacher's life in India, coupled, it 
 may be, with improprieties in diet, completely broke 
 down the health of Drummond. Unlike the ma- 
 jority of his thrifty countrymen, he lived very nearly 
 if not quite up to his income. His residence was 
 one of the most elegantly furnished in Calcutta, and 
 balls and suppers to kindred spirits were frequent. 
 Nevertheless, Mr. Sandford Arnott, in presenting 
 a copy of his own new Persian Grammar, wrote on 
 the fly leaf " To David Drummond, Esq., who 
 amidst the luxuries of the East never lost his relish 
 for the metaphysics and the muse of Scotland, which 
 he cultivated so successfully." For two years, 1828-30, 
 
Failing Health. 15 
 
 Drummond sought to regain health by a residence 
 in the Straits of Malacca, and left the care of 
 his flourishing school to a Mr. Wilson, who, whatever 
 other attainments he may have had, was deficient 
 in the energy and organising methods of Drummond. 
 The clerical party in Calcutta, headed by Archdea- 
 con Dealtry, if it did not found, at least patronized, 
 a school in the Circular Road, which professed in 
 newspaper advertisements to be " the only school 
 in Calcutta where a Christian education could be 
 obtained. " This, coupled with the secular system 
 pursued in the Dhurrumtollah Academy, and the 
 absence of its moving spirit, began to tell in popular 
 estimation against Drummond's school ; so that, 
 when he returned in 1830, with health little improved 
 by his two years' furlough, the Academy had lost 
 ground, and he was unable to carry on the heavy 
 duties which the labour of a large school implied. 
 Soon afterwards, with the money derived from the 
 sale of the good-will and furniture of his school, he 
 retired to the General Hospital, ^where he remained 
 for years an invalid, Very few, even of his most 
 intimate friends, knew what had become of him. 
 Many of those who knew him best in the years of 
 his prosperity had left India. A new race of men 
 had arisen, striving for literary fame and fortune, 
 who were ignorant of the keen, polished intellect, 
 that in prose and verse had gained the ear of a, 
 
1 6 Drummond's Poetry. 
 
 former generation, and was now drawing out a living 
 death in a Calcutta Hospital. The echoes of the 
 outside world fell faintly on the lonely invalid's ear, 
 and one of these echoes woke the dormant power 
 of Drummond. Sir Charles Metcalfe had freed the 
 Press of India, and amid the general rejoicing, the 
 illuminations and decorations and feasts, addresses 
 and eulogiums, an ode to Metcalfe, which appeared 
 in the Hurkaru with the once well-known initials 
 D. D., woke for a time by its eloquence, its depth 
 of feeling, and its fire, a passing interest in Drum- 
 mond ; but there were few indeed of those who 
 admired the verses, who cared to know that their 
 author was bed-ridden in the depths of poverty, the 
 inmate of a public hospital. An aide-de-camp of 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe called on Mr. Smith, the pro- 
 prietor of the Hurkaru^ to ask for the name of the 
 author, which was given ; and a subscription for 
 fifty copies of Drummond's poems found its way from 
 the generous Metcalfe to the bed-ridden invalid. 
 This collection of poetry was never published. The 
 few who ever saw it in manuscript, amongst others, 
 D. L. Richardson, spoke of it in terms of the high- 
 est commendation, many of the lyrics being charged 
 with " great tenderness and delicacy of feeling. " 
 It was Drummond's dying wish that they should be 
 sent to Scotland and published there, where they 
 would be best appreciated by a people familiar with 
 
Independence. 17 
 
 the genius and idioms of the Doric in which they 
 were written, and the character, habits and associa- 
 tions round which he wove his web of song. The 
 vessel containing the manuscript was lost ; and thus 
 perished some of the finest Scottish lyrics since the 
 days of Burns and Tannahill. 
 
 By the year 1839 he had so far recovered health 
 that he determined to leave the General Hospital, 
 and begin the battle of life with a frame bowed by 
 disease, a shattered constitution, a mind enervated 
 by long illness and seclusion from the world, and 
 literally without a rupee. Failing health and pinch- 
 ing poverty were henceforth his lot till death. 
 There were still a few friends left to him from the 
 days of his hospitable prosperity, amongst whom 
 were Dr. John Grant and D. L. Richardson. These, 
 with the generous impulse of noble minds, at once 
 offered the broken-down schoolmaster that pecuniary 
 assistance which they could well afford. Drummond 
 appreciated their kind offers, but his Scottish pride 
 greater in poverty and sickness than in health and 
 prosperity, would accept no help, no obligations, which, 
 in the state of his health it was very doubtful whether 
 he would ever be able to repay. He would hang on 
 to the skirts of no man, he would be dependent on 
 no one, he would continue to do as he had done 
 living his life in his own way, even though that im- 
 plied pinching poverty and a losing struggle with the 
 
 3 
 
1 8 (( The Weekly Examiner ^ 
 
 inevitable. Drummond's teaching days were over, 
 not only because his impaired health rendered teach- 
 ing impossible, but his pronounced views on religious 
 subjects, now that schools in Calcutta were abundant, 
 rendered it highly improbable that any school of his 
 conducting would have anything but a very small 
 attendance. He could not teach, but he could write, 
 and he thought he saw an opening for a weekly pa- 
 per. Under the auspices of Drummond as proprie- 
 tor, editor, reporter, and all else but printer, the 
 Weekly Examiner, " a journal of politics, news and 
 literature," had an existence of nearly two years, 
 1839-41. To this weekly newspaper both Dr. John 
 Grant and D. L. Richardson frequently contributed, 
 to help their old friend in his new venture ; but the 
 burden of the whole lay heavily on Drummond. The 
 ability with which the Weekly Examiner was con- 
 ducted was generally admitted, and its opinions 
 were respected by a large portion of the press of 
 India. 
 
 However great Drummond's talents undoubtedly 
 were, there were conditions of success which he could 
 not command. His leaders were finished essays, 
 logical and keen ; but his readers were thirsting for 
 news ; the first Afghan war was working up to its 
 tragic-ending. News Drummond could not pay for ; 
 but he served it up second-hand. Besides this, his 
 long illness and reverse of fortune had rendered him 
 
Religious Opinions. 19 
 
 irritable, and he took offence at the neglect with which 
 the Englishman treated his small venture, and never 
 missed an opportunity of hitting heavily and effec- 
 tively. The strength of his reasoning was always 
 superior to his diction. He wrote hurriedly and di- 
 fusely, and cared little for style if his arguments were 
 logically consistent and convincing. At all times he 
 wrote with great vigour and originality, but he was 
 occasionally rash, impulsive and deficient in tact ; 
 and few things delighted him more than originating a 
 controversy and arguing through thick and thin for 
 the view he at first adopted. His religious opinions 
 were never aired in the pages of the Examiner, but 
 in private, with the few remaining of his old friends, 
 he launched out fearlessly on a sea of speculation and 
 discussion, that would make the listener catch his 
 breath in wonder and amazement. To him the right 
 of private judgment claimed by the fathers of the 
 Reformation three hundred years ago, was a very pre- 
 cious thing. He would believe nothing, accept no- 
 thing, unless it could be made as evident and reason- 
 able as a mathematical axiom. Tradition and anti- 
 quity were to him no authority ; and he built up his 
 system of faith and the universe on a basis not much 
 broader than the Cogito ergo sum of Descartes ; but 
 he had neither health nor leisure to think it out and 
 formulate it. Had both been granted him, the name 
 of David Drummond would in all likelihood have 
 
2o Drummond s Death. 
 
 ranked with that of his own great countryman, David 
 Hume, in the roll of Philosophical Sceptics. By the 
 middle of 1841, Drummond was again prostrate with 
 spine disease ; and the struggle which for months he 
 carried on in weakness and pain to keep faith with his 
 subscribers, was nothing short of heroic. Ill-advised, 
 he resorted to stimulants, notably laudanum, in large 
 quantities, to whip the last effort out of an enfeebled 
 body and a harassed mind. Unable to sit up to 
 write, or even to write in bed, his editorials were 
 dictated in spasmodic gasps between the intervals of 
 weakness and bodily agony. At last he gave the 
 struggle up. He was not doing justice to his sub- 
 scribers ; he would not take their money when he 
 could give them no fair equivalent. 
 
 The Weekly Examiner was abandoned. The small 
 sum available from outstanding debts was collected, 
 and with it, broken in health, crushed in spirits, 
 enfeebled in mind, the friends of his better years 
 either dead or out of India, David Drummond for 
 eighteen months lived a life of bodily agony in the 
 depths of a biting poverty, not often paralleled, with a 
 "resignation, tranquillity and stoicism rarely met 
 with." Murmur or complaint never passed his lips, 
 and in the April of 1843, at tne a S e f fifty-six, Da- 
 vid Drummond, interloper and schoolmaster, slept 
 the sleep that knows no waking, to such a life, at 
 least, as that through which he had passed. 
 
His Grave. 21 
 
 Over the remains of David Drummond in the 
 New Burial Ground, Circular Road, there is a monu- 
 ment erected by his friends and pupils, on which are 
 recorded respect for his character, admiration for 
 his talents, and esteem for his worth. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 BHAUGULPORE. 
 
 N leaving school in the year 1823, Derozio be- 
 came a clerk in the firm of Messrs. J. Scott 
 and Company, and remained in their employment 
 for two years. In this firm his father had long held a 
 highly responsible position. There was no fascina- 
 tion for Derozio in the drudgery of the desk, to 
 which so many men of his race have clung, and are 
 clinging, rather than strike out for themselves inde- 
 pendent sources of living, notwithstanding the 
 earnest and eloquent appeals that have been made 
 by such eminent men of their own community as 
 James Kyd, the Kidderpore ship-builder, and others 
 since his day. In face of the positive certainty that 
 educated natives will drive, and now actually are 
 driving, Eurasians from clerkships and quill-driving 
 generally, no adequate effort has yet been put forth 
 by Eurasians themselves to secure a future for their 
 children ; and the recently established Eurasian 
 Associations are too young yet to predict much for 
 their future usefulness. The four walls of an office 
 and a clerk's stool were speedily relinquished by 
 
Life at Bhaugulpore. 23 
 
 Derozio ; and at the age of sixteen in the varied 
 work and life of an Indigo-planter at Bhaugulpore, 
 under the hospitable roof of his uncle Johnson, 
 and the kindly eye of his mother's sister, the lad 
 Derozio for a time found congenial occupation. It 
 was here, at Bhaugulpore, with the ripple of the 
 Ganges in his ear, and the boats of the fisher and 
 the trader borne on the tide, out of whose broad 
 bosom rose the Fakir-inhabited rock of Jungheera, 
 that the youthful poet drunk in all those sweet in- 
 fluences of nature and much of human nature, which 
 indelibly impressed themselves on his intellect and 
 imagination, and stirred him to the production of 
 his most sustained effort in poetry, the Fakir of 
 Jungheera. 
 
 In a note to the lines 
 
 " Jungheera's rocks are hoar and steep 
 " And Ganges wave is broad and deep. " 
 
 Derozio says, " although I once lived nearly three 
 years in the vicinity of Jungheera, I had but one 
 opportunity of seeing that beautiful and truly ro- 
 mantic spot. I had a view of the rocks from the 
 opposite bank of the river, which was broad and full 
 at the time I saw it, during the rainy season. It 
 struck me then as a place where achievements in 
 love and arms might take place ; and the double 
 character I had heard of the Fakir, together with 
 
24 Life at Bhaugulpore. 
 
 some acquaintance with the scenery, induced me to 
 form a tale upon both these circumstances. From 
 " Forest's Tour " along the Ganges and Jumna, I 
 submit to the reader the following description of 
 Jungheera. The foliage he speaks of did not strike 
 me probably in consequence of the great distance at 
 which I saw the island, which in a subsequent part of 
 the poem I have called bleak and bare : 
 
 " At some distance from Monghyr, we saw on the 
 river Ganges on our right, a singular mass of rock 
 standing in the water, and somewhat resembling 
 those of Colgong. It is distant about two hundred 
 yards from the right bank immediately opposite to 
 the village of Sultangunge. It rises about seventy 
 feet above the level of the water, towering abruptly 
 from its bosom ; there is one place only at which a 
 boat can be put in, and where there is a landing- 
 place, and a very steep and winding path leads to 
 the summit. Here is found a small building's Madrissa, 
 or village of Fakirs, or wandering monks who reside 
 
 in it The whole forms a pretty object, as you run 
 
 past in a boat and the thick and luxuriant foliage 
 which crowns the summit adds much to the effect 
 of the picture. " 
 
 Here, at Bhaugulpore, there fell on Derozio's and 
 eye, and lingered in his memory, the plash of oars in 
 the river: the greetings and gossip of women round the 
 well : the creaking of the yoke : the patient toil of the 
 
Life at Bhaugulpore. 25 
 
 ryots in their fields : the sounds that happy children 
 make at play their voices conning lessons, squatted 
 in the mud under a peepul tree or the shade of a 
 verandah : the song of girls grinding at the mill : the 
 wheel and deft hand of the potter fashioning the 
 homely vessels of the ryot and the thicket and the 
 jungle, full of teeming life : the roar of the tiger by 
 night : the stroke of the coppersmith at his forge : 
 the drums and music and songs and processions of 
 pujahs and marriage-feasts, the rippling laughter, 
 half muffled head and gleaming eyes, and winsome 
 face and figure of villiage beauties and over all 
 this myriad tinted, many voiced, ever changing 
 scene, full of life and beauty and wonder, the glorious 
 panorama of an Indian sunset, when in the west 
 clouds wreath themselves in slow majestic motions 
 and unfold their changeful, chameleon tints, deepen- 
 ing into blackest night, and day and its glories seem 
 like a gorgeous dream of beauty, swallowed up by 
 darkness. 
 
 It is that hour when dusky night 
 Comes gathering o'er departing light, 
 When hue by hue and ray by ray, 
 Thine eye may watch it waste away, 
 Until thou canst no more behold 
 The faded tints of pallid gold, 
 And soft descend the shades of night, 
 As did those hues so purely bright ; 
 And in the blue sky, star by star, 
 Shines out, like happiness afar ; 
 A wilderness of worlds ! To dwell 
 In one, with those we have loved well 
 
26 Life at Bhaugulpore. 
 
 Were bliss indeed ! The waters flow 
 
 Gurgling, in darkest hue below, 
 
 And 'gainst the shore the ripple breaks 
 
 As from its cave, the east wind wakes, 
 
 But lo ! where Dian's crest on high appears, 
 
 Faint as the memory of departing years. 
 
 NIGHT (DEROZIO.) 
 
 The moon is gone ; and thus go those we love ; 
 
 The night winds wail ; and thus for them we mourn; 
 The stars look down ; thus spirits from above 
 
 Hallow the mourners' tears upon the urn. 
 Some thoughts are all of joy, and some of woe ; 
 Mine end in tears they're welcome let them flow. 
 
 We look around, 
 
 But vainly look for those who formed a part 
 Of us, as we of them, and whom we wore 
 Like gems in bezels, in the heart's deep core. 
 Where are they now ? gone to that "narrow cell" 
 
 Whose gloom no lamp hath broken, nor shall break, 
 Whose secrets never spirit came to tell : [awake. 
 
 O ! that their day might dawn, for then they would 
 
 ADA (DEROZIO.) 
 
 Mid surroundings and musings such as these, De- 
 rozio's imagination was kindled into enthusiasm; and 
 those graver and more abstract speculations which in 
 after-life, and over his early grave, earned for him, at 
 the hands of fanatics and bigots, the calumnious 
 name of atheist and infidel, were thought out and 
 in some measure formulated. 
 
 It was here at Bhaugulpore that Derozio realized 
 what it is to love and to be loved. Here he saw that 
 light which never shone on land or sea and which 
 only beams from the eyes of those whose lives are 
 intertwined in the bonds which love alone can 
 
First Contributions to Literature. 27 
 
 weave. Who the lady was, or what the circumstances 
 were which parted their lives, will probably never now 
 be known ; but it is very evident that this episode in 
 his life made a lasting impression on him and he 
 steadily refused to marry, though frequently solicited 
 to do so by his mother and sister. 
 
 From his uncle's plantation of Bhaugulpore, De- 
 rozio sent to Dr. John Grant of the India Gazette 
 those poetical contributions which bear the signature 
 of Juvenis. The letters that passed between Derozio 
 and Grant are unhappily lost ; indeed so far as we 
 have been able to learn, no single scrap of his cor- 
 respondence exists, except three letters, the one dated 
 25th April 1831, addressed to the Managing Com- 
 mittee of the Hindoo College, resigning his position 
 as master of the second and third classes in Litera- 
 ture and History ; another, a day later, to his 
 friend Dr. H. H. Wilson, a member of the Committee 
 of the Hindoo College, written in reply to certain 
 questions submitted to him by Dr. Wilson ; and a 
 third which we have been able to recover. 
 These letters will be reproduced in their proper 
 place in this short memoir. The encouragement 
 given by Grant of the India Gazette, and his 
 appreciation of the young poet's merits, induced 
 Derozio to collect his verses and publish them in a 
 separate volume. In the year 1827 he came to 
 Calcutta ; and the lad of 17 saw his first production 
 
28 Connection with tJte Press. 
 
 through the press, and immediately found himself 
 famous. Indigo-planting and Bhaugulpore became 
 things of the past ; and Derozio, as Assistant Editor 
 of the India Gazette, editor of the Calcutta Literary 
 Gazette, contributor to the Calcutta Magazine, the 
 Indian Magazine, The Bengal Annual, and The Kelidos- 
 cope, and assistant-master in the senior department of 
 the Hindoo College, adopted teaching as a profession 
 and literature as a staff. Some of Derozio's articles 
 in the India Gazette are said not to have been popu- 
 lar, being " flippant and pretentious." As a rule 
 his articles were always clever, smart, and lively, 
 and yet had an air of " coxcombery and conceit 
 that injured the effect of much truth and originality 
 of observation." The letters which passed between 
 Grant and Derozio are characterised, by one who 
 knew of their existence, as highly creditable to both, 
 and marked by high chivalrous feeling and admira- 
 tion on both sides, and mutual respect. Pecuniary 
 matters were touched on with a delicacy of phraseo- 
 logy and feeling not common now-a-days. Derozio 
 and Grant agreed to differ, and in their difference 
 mutually respected each other. Dr. John Grant, 
 the editor of the India Gazette, the contemporary, 
 along with Derozio, of Meredith Parker, D. L. 
 Richardson, and David Hare, is thus described by 
 one who remembered him well : " He was a man of 
 great information, and of infinite quotation ; could 
 
Success. 29 
 
 rap you out a paragraph of Cicero, or half a page 
 of Bolingbroke ; simmered easily into poetry ; and 
 after dinner on his legs could pour you forth a 
 stream of rhetoric, which, if it had had any religion 
 in it, would have done for a Scotch sermon." Hare, 
 Grant, Richardson and Parker, all men of ability, 
 were the close friends of Derozio, and admirers of 
 his genius. Of Grant it has been said, " he rocked 
 the cradle of his genius and followed his hearse" 
 to his grave. In 1828 his second volume, which was 
 a reprint of the first, with some additions, notably 
 The Fakir of Jungheera^ raised the fame of Derozio 
 as a poet to the highest point which his too brief life 
 permitted him to reach. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 THE HINDU COLLEGE. 
 
 0^, 
 
 tN the March of 1828, Derozio was appointed 
 master of English Literature and History in the 
 second and third classes of the Hindoo College. 
 This appointment, seemingly so insignificant, marks 
 the early development of one of the most important 
 movements in the intellectual history of the native- 
 born subjects of this land. No teacher ever taught 
 with greater zeal, with more enthusiasm, with more 
 loving intercourse between master and pupil than 
 marked the short term of Derozio's connection with 
 the Hindoo College, 
 
 Neither before, nor since his day, has any teacher, 
 within the walls of any native educational establish- 
 ment in India, ever exercised such an influence over 
 his pupils. It was not alone in the class-rooms and 
 during the hours of teaching that the genial manner, 
 the buoyant spirit, the ready humour, the wide read- 
 ing, the readiness to impart knowledge, and the 
 patience and courtesy of Derozio won the hearts 
 and the high reverence of his pupils. In the inter- 
 vals of teaching he was ever ready in conversation to 
 
The Academic Association. 31 
 
 aid his pupils in their studies, to draw them out to give 
 free and full expression to their opinions, on topics 
 naturally arising from the course of their work in the 
 class-rooms ; and before the hour at which the usual 
 work of his classes began, and sometimes after the 
 hour for closing the day's duties, Derozio, in addition to 
 the work of the class, in order to broaden and deepen 
 the knowledge of his pupils in the thought and 
 literature of England, gave readings in English liter- 
 ature to as many students of the Hindoo College as 
 cared to take advantage of his self-imposed work. 
 In consort with his pupils, he established the Aca- 
 demic Association^ which met in a garden-house be- 
 longing to the Singh family in Manicktollah, where 
 night after night, under the presidency of Derozio, 
 and with Omachurn Bose as Secretary, the lads of 
 the Hindoo College read their papers, discussed, 
 debated and wrangled ; and acquired for themselves 
 the facility of expressing their thoughts in words 
 and the power of ready reply and argument. To 
 these meetings there frequently came the unassuming 
 large-hearted philanthropist, David Hare, in "white 
 jacket and old-fashioned gaiters" or " blue coat," with 
 large brass buttons, the dress-coat of his youth ; and 
 occasionally Sir Edward Ryan, and Colonel Benson, 
 Private Secretary to Lord William Bentinck, Colonel 
 Beatson, afterwards Adjutant-General, and Dr. Mills, 
 the Principal of Bishop's College, visited the meet- 
 
32 Religious and Philosophical Opinions. 
 
 ings. Poetry and Philosophy were the chief themes 
 discussed, Derozio's attainments in philosophy 
 were as wide and varied as his acquaintance with the 
 poets and dramatists. Indeed, his innate gift of 
 song, which entitles him to rank as an English poet 
 of no inconsiderable eminence, was but the outcome 
 of his vigorous intellect, which sought in verse an 
 outlet for the restless mental activity that marks 
 superior minds. No doubt, in the meetings of the 
 Academic Association and in the social circle that 
 gathered round his hospitable table in the old house 
 in Circular Road, subjects were broached and discuss- 
 ed with freedom, which could not have been ap- 
 proached in the class-room. Free-will, fore-ordina- 
 tion, fate, faith, the sacredness of truth, the high 
 duty of cultivating virtue, and the meanness of vice, 
 the nobility of patriotism, the attributes of God, and 
 the arguments for and against the existence of deity 
 as these have been set forth by Hume on the one 
 side, and Reid, Dugald Stewart and Brown on the 
 other ; the hollowness of idolatry, and the shams of 
 the priesthood, were subjects which stirred to their 
 very depths the young, fearless, hopeful hearts of 
 the leading Hindoo youths of Calcutta ; but that 
 either Derozio or his pupils revelled, as has been 
 asserted, in the " more licentious plays of the Res- 
 toration, and the minor pieces of Tom Paine, born 
 of the filth of the worst period of the French Revo- 
 
The charge of Atheism and Immorality. 33 
 
 lution," or that lawless lust and western vice entered 
 into some, with the secularism and anti-theism of the 
 Hindoo College, that Derozio taught "the non-exis- 
 tence of God," that he admitted it, and that he 
 was " an atheistic and immoral poet," are all of 
 them unproved assertions, and baseless calumnies, 
 which Dr. George Smith, the Biographer of Duff, 
 should have been at some pains to sift, before 
 branding with infamy the memory of the dead. 
 We venture to affirm that, whatever books and plays 
 were read and studied by Derozio and his pupils, 
 whatever topics were broached in discussion and 
 in conversation, either in the class-room, the Aca- 
 demic Association, or in the friendly circle under 
 his own roof-tree, the license of thought and the 
 field of thinking were no greater and no more repre- 
 hensible than those over which must traverse the 
 mind of every man who thinks out for himself the 
 realities of nature, humanity and God. Anger, re- 
 probation and foul names, heaped on seekers after 
 truth are the standard weapons of more timid men ; 
 and in too many cases the consequence of their use 
 is that minds naturally open to the reception of 
 truth and a love of its pursuit, bear with them 
 through life contempt of the well-meaning fanatics 
 who would gauge the universe and measure out the 
 love of God by the standard of their own narrow 
 theological dogmatism. 
 
 5 
 
34 P aim's Age of Reason. 
 
 According to Dr. Smith* such was the notoriety of 
 the Hindoo College that the fame of its infidelity 
 reached even America, and an enterprising publisher 
 " issued a cheap octavo edition of a thousand copies 
 and shipped the whole to the Calcutta market 
 These were all bought at once at two shillings a copy; 
 and such was the continued demand for the worst of 
 the treatises that eight rupees (sixteen shillings) were 
 vainly offered for it." In this connexion, a reference 
 is given to the Calcutta Christian Observer for August 
 1832. On turning to the Christian Observer all we 
 find is the following note: "Hume's works were then 
 read with avidity; also Tom Paine's 'Age of Reason,' 
 for a copy of which 8 Rs. were offered by some of 
 the pupils Ed" We venture to rehearse the story 
 of the introduction of Tom Paine's works to Calcutta 
 as told in the columns of the Sumachar Durpnn for 
 July 1832. It may be interesting to state, that the 
 Durpun was a bi-weekly journal, published in 
 English and Bengalee, and was the most useful of 
 all the native papers then published. It was issued 
 from the Mission Press of Serampore, and edited by 
 Dr. Marshman. While interfering little in religious 
 discussions, it nevertheless opposed Hindoo bigotry 
 and intolerance. Its articles were distinguished by 
 good temper and discretion. In the pages of the 
 
 * Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., vol. I, pp. 144-5, Ist edition. 
 
The true story. 35 
 
 Durpun " the cheap edition of a thousand copies," 
 which Dr. Smith sells off at two shillings a copy in 
 his life of Duff, as noted above, stands at something 
 less than a hundred. Here is the statement made 
 by the Sumackar Durpun : " We understand that 
 some time since a large number of the works of 
 Tom Paine, not far short of a hundred, were sent 
 for sale to Calcutta from America ; and that one of 
 the native booksellers, despairing of a sale, fixed 
 the price of each copy at a rupee ; a few were sold 
 at this price, which falling into the hands of some 
 young men educated in English, the anxiety to pur- 
 chase the work became great. The vendor immedi- 
 ately raised the price to five rupees a copy, but even 
 at that price we hear that his whole stock v/as sold 
 among the natives in a few days. Some one soon 
 after took the trouble to translate some part of 
 Paine's ' Age of Reason ' into Bengalee, and to 
 publish it in the Prubhakar, calling upon the mission- 
 aries and upon one venerable character by name to 
 reply to it. We at the same time received several 
 letters from some of the most respectable natives 
 in Calcutta, subscribers of the Durpun, but staunch 
 Hindoos, entreating us not to notice the challenge, 
 or to make the pages of this journal the area for 
 theological disputations. " 
 
 Whoever gave way to " lawless lust and western 
 vice," and comforted themselves with cold secular- 
 
36 The effects of Derozio' s teaching. 
 
 ism and immorality, it was not Derozio, nor was it 
 the immediate circle of lads whom he most power- 
 fully influenced. The moral teaching of Derozio 
 was as high and pure as his own life was blameless ; 
 and issued in as good results as ever follow in the 
 wake of an earnest striving after truth. That he 
 shook the citadel of higher Hindooism to its very 
 foundation, in a fashion that no man, teacher or 
 preacher, has ever done before or since his day. is 
 an undoubted fact, which has been overshadowed by 
 the odium theologicum heaped on his religious opi- 
 nions, the splendid rhetoric of Duff, and that measure 
 of success which the Scottish Missionary accom- 
 plished, by taking up the work of Derozio when 
 his hands were paralyzed, first by calumny, oppro- 
 brium and the bigotry of higher class Hindoos and 
 others, and then by death. Before ever Duff set 
 foot in India, the theistic schism in Hindooism, 
 which exists in strong vitality to-day as the Brahmo 
 Somaj, and which is likely to increase in strength, 
 and work out for the people of India a system of 
 religious thought totally unlike the dogmatic for- 
 mula of the various sections either of the Western 
 or the Eastern Church, had been effected by Ram 
 Mohun Roy. The question of English education 
 had been discussed, and partly settled as early as 
 1816, in the founding of the School Book Society 
 and the Hindoo School. Ram Mohun Roy had 
 
Ram Mohun Roy's appeal. 37 
 
 himself protested against the founding of a Sanscrit 
 College, though himself a Sanscrit scholar ; and 
 in a letter addressed to His Excellency Lord 
 Amherst in 1823, he declared, that the teaching of 
 Sanscrit would completely defeat the object of the 
 Government, and waste the sum set apart for the 
 instruction of the natives of India. A seminary 
 of this sort, he says, " can only be expected to load 
 the minds of youth with grammatical niceties and 
 metaphysical distinctions, of little or no use to their 
 possessors or to society. The pupils will acquire 
 what was known two thousand years ago, with the 
 addition of vain and empty subtleties since then 
 produced by speculative men. The Sanscrit system of 
 education would be the best calculated to keep this 
 country in darkness, but as the improvement of the 
 native population is the object of the Government, it 
 should consequently promote a more liberal and 
 enlightened system of instruction, embracing Mathe- 
 matics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Anatomy, 
 with other useful sciences, which may be accomplished 
 with the sums proposed, by employing a few gentle- 
 men of talents and learning educated in Europe, 
 and providing a college furnished with necessary 
 books, instruments, and other apparatus. " 
 
 The unremitting devotion and energy of David 
 Hare, backed by the leaders of Hindoo Society, had 
 secured the possibility of an English education, and 
 
38 Dr. Bryce's efforts for improved education. 
 
 demonstrated its success, some years before Duff 
 opened his school for Hindoo boys under the patron- 
 age of l<am Mohun Roy in the July of 1830. In 
 1824 Dr. James Bryce, Minister of the Scottish Kirk, 
 Senior Chaplain on the Bengal Establishment, editor 
 of the /<?//;; Bull, and Clerk of Stationery, presented 
 a petition and memorial to the General Assembly of 
 the Church of Scotland, proposing plans for the 
 conduct of Indian missions, which he declared* are 
 now (1834) being "so successfully carried out." 
 This scheme bore with it the recommendation of 
 Ram Mohun Roy. Duff's biographer, however, 
 assertsf that " Dr, Bryce's scheme was one for almost 
 everything that Duff's was not." Bryce's book 
 was published in England during Duff's residence 
 there, after his first five years' work in India, and 
 must have been well known to him. Duff never 
 questioned the general identity of plan between his 
 own work and the proposal of Bryce ; and certainly 
 Bryce believed them to be identical. The institution 
 of the Academic Association by Derozio in 1828 
 had been followed by numerous imitations among 
 the native Hindoos. Native society was in a per- 
 fect ferment, and the full consequence of the impact 
 of European thought and speculation on Eastern 
 ideas and systems had been fairly realised, and 
 
 * "Native Education in India," page 16. 
 
 t Life of Alexander Duft, D.D., vol. I, page 40, 1st edition. 
 
Ram Mohun Roy and the Hindoo School. 39 
 
 partly demonstrated by the teaching of Derozio, 
 before Duff reached India. The great truths and 
 wide speculations opened out by the study of moral 
 philosophy had been unfolded in a series of lectures 
 to which crowded hundreds of English-speaking 
 Hindoo youths, delivered by Derozio at the invita- 
 tion of David Hare, all this, before Duff's voice 
 was heard addressing a native English-speaking 
 assembly. It is a curious distortion of fact to assert 
 as Dr. George Smith in his life of Duff does, that 
 the college watched over and fostered by David 
 Hare, and in which Derozio, as a teacher, effected so 
 much, was a " college which Ram Mohun Roy was 
 ashamed to patronize. " Ram Mohun Roy and David 
 Hare lived through life in the greatest amity and 
 mutual respect. It was David Hare's niece who 
 nursed the Rajah in his last illness ; and Bedford 
 Square, the home of Hare's two brothers, was the 
 home of Ram Mohun Roy during his stay in Eng- 
 land ; while one of them accompanied him to France 
 on the occasion of his visit to Paris. It was the 
 persuasion of David Hare backed by the influence 
 of Sir Edward Hyde East, and the strong common 
 sense of Ram Mohun Roy, which made him with- 
 draw from a movement, the earlier stages of which 
 he had fostered, being fully persuaded, that if his 
 name appeared on the committee of management 
 the objects of the Institution would be frustrated. 
 
40 Derozio s Critique on Kant. 
 
 The large and wealthy section of orthodox Hindoos 
 with whom Ram Mohun Roy had been long at feud, 
 would have altogether withdrawn from the establish- 
 ment of a college with which he was in any way 
 connected. 
 
 The lectures on philosophy which Derozio deliver- 
 ed to crowded audiences of educated Hindoo youths, 
 if even notes of them ever existed, as in all probabi- 
 lity they did, have been lost. Not only so, but a 
 critique of Derozio's on the philosophy of Kant is 
 also seemingly lost to this generation, or stowed away 
 in the lumber of forgotten libraries. Of this critique 
 of Derozio's, Dr. Mill, the distinguished Sanscrit 
 scholar, and one of the most learned and able Princi- 
 pals of the now defunct Bishop's ( Middleton ) 
 College, declared before a large public assembly 
 "that the objections which Derozio published to the 
 philosophy of Kant, were perfectly original, and 
 displayed powers of reasoning and observation 
 which would not disgrace evf.-n gifted philosophers. " 
 Derozio's native friends have been even more eulogis- 
 tic, and in their admiration of his clear, subtle 
 power of thinking, as evidenced in this critique, have 
 mentioned his name in the same breath with that of 
 the greatest of modern Scottish scholars and philo- 
 sophers, Sir William Hamilton. No true estimate of 
 Derozio as a philosopher and thinker can, be arrived 
 at so long as this critique remains unknown. 
 
The immediate results. 41 
 
 The establishment of the Academic Association 
 and the full and free discussion nightly carried on at 
 its meetings was followed within a few months by 
 the establishment of between twelve and fourteen 
 newspapers chiefly conducted by natives, advocating 
 views of all sorts, from orthodox Hindooism to 
 Materialism, and carrying on in print the discussion 
 of questions raised in the Academic Association and 
 in the numerous debating societies which sprung up as 
 offshoots and auxiliaries of the parent society. Duff's 
 lectures on the evidences of Christianity, as well as 
 the rise of about a dozen native schools supported 
 by Hindoos, all these were but the outcome of the 
 training of the Hindoo school, and the influence and 
 teaching of Derozio. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 CHRISTIAN EFFORT IN INDIA, 
 
 IOWARDS the close of the fifteenth and begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth centuries, Portugal was 
 a leading power in Europe and the world. The Portu- 
 guese had contested the supremacy of the Indian 
 seas with the Dutch, and shown the way to India 
 round the Cape, thus changing the commercial route 
 of Europe, bankrupting the Venetians and Genoese, 
 and destroying for the time-being much of the com- 
 merce of the Mediterranean. They discovered and 
 colonized Brazil, made themselves masters of Madeira, 
 the Azores, Cape de Verde, and were to be found 
 in Guinea, Senegambia, Mozambique, the Indian 
 Archipelago and China. Lisbon, their European 
 capital, was the greatest commercial emporium 
 perhaps in the world, and Goa " Golden Goa" the 
 city of their own founding in Western Hindustan, 
 in the splendour and magnificence of its streets, 
 public buildings and religious and charitable insti- 
 tutions and hospitals, rivalled, if it did not surpass, 
 Lisbon itself ; while the inhabitants, in all the pomp 
 and circumstance of stately, luxurious living and 
 
St. Francis Xavier. 43 
 
 eastern magnificence, were probably unmatched even 
 in the East. 
 
 It was at Goa that the first municipality was estab- 
 lished in India by Albuquerque, and the same great 
 statesman and general, while granting to Hindus 
 the full enjoyment of the customs and usages of their 
 religion, resolutely put down Sati. In these and 
 other respects, such as the Muhammadan custom of 
 farming the taxes, the protection of merchants and 
 traders, and the punishment of oppression, Albu- 
 querque outlined a policy in the Portuguese settle- 
 ment of Goa which the English rulers of India have 
 more or less filled in and developed. 
 
 On a May day of the year 1 542, after a voyage from 
 Lisbon of nearly a year's duration, there landed at 
 Goa the earliest and, in some respects, the greatest 
 Christian hero, philanthropist and missionary that 
 has ever laboured in India or the East. In ten years 
 the work of his life was completed. St. Francis 
 Xavier died in the island of Sancian, near Macao, 
 in 1552, while attempting to enter China, and his 
 body was carried back to Goa, where it rests. St. 
 Xavier, on his arrival in Goa, turned his attention 
 first to the European settlers, and, having stirred up 
 in them a spirit of penitence for the depraved lives 
 many of them were leading, and a religious fervour 
 and enthusiasm which his very presence and voice 
 seemed to produce, then turned to the native 
 
44 vS 1 /. Francis Xavier. 
 
 population ; and the burning zeal and fervent spirt 
 of St. Xavier, the colleague of Loyola, in the found- 
 ing of the Society of Jesus, whose members may now 
 be found in every part of the world, had such effect 
 on the pearl fishing population of the coast from 
 Manaar to Cape Comorin, on the native population 
 of the kingdom of Travancore, Malacca, the Banda 
 islands, the Moluccas, Ceylon and Japan, as to stand 
 unrivalled in the records of Christian proselytising 
 enterprise, As a Christian Missionary, St. Xavier's 
 success was, to say the least of it, marvellous. No 
 doubt much of his work was a mere passing wave of 
 excitement which disappeared almost as soon as it 
 was produced ; but the example and presence of 
 this first of missionaries, his own high enthusiasm, 
 his purity of life, his devotion and his faith, sowed the 
 seeds of a new endeavour which are now, after three 
 hundred years of little more than silent growth, be- 
 ginning to influence the people of the East. 
 
 From Francis Xavier to Wilson of Bombay and 
 Duff of Calcutta is a long way ; it includes an inter- 
 val of over three hundred years ; it includes the in- 
 vention of printing ; the revival of learning ; the 
 Reformation ; the growth of commerce, literature 
 and civilization ; the supremacy of the English in 
 India, and the gigantic strides of Physical Science ; 
 it includes the shattering of Protestantism into 
 innumerable schisms and sects, the natural result of 
 
Wilson's visit to Goa. 45 
 
 the right claimed and exercised of private judgment. 
 In St. Xavier's day, Christianity could present an 
 undivided front to Heathenism, and its advocates 
 spoke to men with an authority which, since those 
 days, because of dissent and nonconforming and the 
 multiplying of isms and sects is no longer possible. 
 Even John Wilson of Bombay, with all his simplicity 
 and mildness of character and his undoubted earnest- 
 ness for the christianizing of the natives of India, 
 records in the journal of his visit to Goa in January 
 1834* " I could not but think of their devotedness 
 (the martyr missionaries of the Augustinian order 
 whose portraits adorn the walls of the convent at 
 Goa) and wish that more of it were exhibited among 
 Protestants," and then further on we read :f " I dis- 
 coursed for a considerable time and gave a copy 
 
 of Mr. Candy's * Tracts' and my ' Exposure.' The 
 Hindus of Goa have been well supplied with books 
 during our visit, and many of them have heard the 
 Gospel in its simplicity. We guarded them against 
 being misled by Romish ceremonies. Many of them 
 told us that they well knew that the Goakars do not 
 walk according to the Christian Shastra." This is 
 quite of a piece with Duff's record in his journal, of 
 the ceremonies of the Greek Church as they presented 
 themselves to him in St. Petersburgh. Duff declares 
 
 * Life of John Wilson, D.D. By Dr, George Smith, page 169. 
 t Ibid, page 171. 
 
46 Dr. Duffs narrow theology. 
 
 that he has seen nothing in the most degraded and 
 idolatrous countries of the East to equal the idolatry 
 and degradation of the Greek Church ; the heartless 
 irreverence of its priests, and the superstition of the 
 people. The truth seems to be that neither Wilson, 
 with all his scholarship and philanthropy, nor Duff 
 with his impulsive earnestness and fervent zeal, 
 could ever see beyond the rim of his own theology. 
 It was quite unknown to Duff, and seems to be 
 equally quite unknown to the great majority of 
 British and American Christians, that the Greek 
 Church has accomplished a Missionary enterprise in 
 Siberia and Northern Asia which may fairly rank in 
 importance with any achievement of Christian 
 endeavour in ancient or modern times ; and that 
 some of the very finest hymns that are now to be 
 found in the hymnals of Presbyterians, Episcopalians 
 and Dissenters, are translations from the Liturgies 
 of the Eastern Church. Brahminism may be distin- 
 guished by " exaggeration, confusion, contradiction, 
 puerility and immorality," as Dr. Wilson in his 
 first " Exposure of the Hindu Religion " says it 
 is. Mahomedanism and Buddhism have each been 
 characterised as snares and delusions, and as un- 
 speakably false and corrupt. Language equally 
 strong and much more copious has been, and is 
 sometimes, employed by certain writers and speakers 
 to characterise the Christian church before the Re- 
 
Christianity and Hinduism. 47 
 
 formation ; and Protestant controversial writers even 
 yet speak of the Church of Rome as the Mother of 
 all abominations, the scarlet woman, and the " whore 
 of Babylon." Duff speaks of the Church of Rome to 
 Father Strickland of the Negapatam Mission as " the 
 mother of Harlots drunk with the blood of Saints, 
 destined ultimately to be utterly annihilated."* 
 Dissenters are yet eloquent over the moribund 
 rottenness of Episcopacy, and State aided churches 
 of all sorts ; the bench of bishops and the estab- 
 lished clergy are a " band of dead dogs, not divid- 
 ing the word of life aright," and it is only in their 
 own little " Bethel" that purity and simplicity and 
 adequacy of doctrine, ritual and government, are to 
 be found. If within the sphere of Christian sects and 
 isms there is such diversity of belief, such a formulat- 
 ing of antagonistic doctrines and practices as is com- 
 passed in the round from Jumpers and Sandimanians 
 to the full ritual and dogma implied in a Romish 
 Cathedral service, not to enumerate the frequent 
 heresy hunting of Scottish Presbyterian divines, nor 
 to take any account of Comtism, Mormonism and the 
 latest phase of Spiritualism, and other religious cults 
 which lie mainly outside the bounds of distinctive 
 Christian thought, and yet have been accepted as 
 verities by men reared in Christian lands under the 
 shadow of Christianity in some of its forms, then 
 
 * Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., Vol. II. p. 143, 1st edition. 
 
48 Essentials of Christianity. 
 
 Christians themselves may well wonder and the 
 Heathen they preach to and proselytise may well be 
 lost in astonishment and greater wonder, what 
 indeed, after all, are the essentials of Christianity? 
 
 Nor is this all. Even during the last fifty years, 
 since the July morning of 1830, when Duff opened 
 his school for Hindu boys in the old meeting place 
 of the Brahmo Sabha in the Chitpore Road of 
 Calcutta, and Wilson in Bombay began his work, 
 the position of the Christian theologian has not been 
 strengthened. The study of historical science, the 
 growth of Rationalism, and the great advance in 
 physical science, have made it imperative that the 
 theologian should considerably curtail his pretensions, 
 and that the Bible and Christianity should take their 
 place among the other faiths of the world, a purer 
 faith no doubt, as understood by Western minds ; 
 but, so far as age and numbers are concerned, a 
 younger faith and a faith that dominates but a 
 fraction of humanity a faith which, if it is not to 
 sink to the rank of a philosophy, must, like all other 
 religions, contain mysteries, and statements, and 
 problems insoluble by human reason, and apprehend- 
 ed only by faith. It appears to us that the time is 
 fast approaching in the history of Christian enterprise 
 in India and the world when the question " What are 
 the essentials of Christianity?" will require to be faced 
 and answered. If Christianity has any meaning 
 
Divisions in Christianity. 49 
 
 at all, it clearly implies a Christ-like life, a human 
 life, lived out to the bitter end, it may be, in a more 
 or less near approximation to the human life of its 
 great founder. There have been imported into 
 Christianity an amount of dogmatic assertion regard- 
 ing the unknowable ; rash and utterly unprofitable 
 speculation and fanciful and hair-splitting distinctions 
 on subjects about which, however much may be be- 
 lieved, little can be known ; petty squabbles on ritual, 
 Church government, Headship and State aid, which 
 have resulted in a long series of theological wrangling, 
 schism, rupture and dissent, that are a standing re- 
 proach to Christianity and a deep disgrace to its 
 professors. If the evil lives of Europeans in India and 
 other non-Christian countries have, as we are frequent- 
 ly reminded, considerably retarded the spread of 
 Christianity, the bickerings, and jealousies, and rival- 
 ries of sectarian partisans who go amongst non-Chris- 
 tian peoples professing to teach universal brotherhood, 
 a world-wide charity and a profound unselfishness, 
 have resulted in mischief much more deeply rooted 
 have resulted amongst higher castes of educated 
 Hindus in a total rejection of Christianity excep- 
 tions there are, no doubt ; and in an attempt to 
 purify and elevate the religion of their race from the 
 centuries of accumulated myth and error that have 
 slowly gathered round the germinating ideas that 
 give vitality and permanence to their religion. The 
 
 7 
 
5O Brahmoism. 
 
 Brahmo Sabha of the great Hindu reformer, Ram 
 Mohun Roy, and its lineal descendant, the Brahmo 
 Somaj, are indications that, if Hinduism ever ceases 
 to be the religion of the educated higher class natives 
 of India, it will not be immediately succeeded by 
 any form of Christianity as at present existing. 
 Whatever opinions may be held regarding those 
 claims to divine commission put forth by the late 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, and however much the move- 
 ment of which the Brahmo Somaj is the outcome, 
 may be stigmatized as " vague, ethical rationalism," 
 no one who has an intelligent understanding of the 
 movement will set its founder down as a band-box of 
 vanity, a vulgar quack, a sanctimonious impostor, and 
 the movement itself as a delusion and a snare. Self- 
 deceived and foolish, Brahmoism may be ; but its 
 self-deception and its foolishness have in them some 
 of those startling qualities which, among early Chris- 
 tians, made the foolishness of preaching overcome 
 the wisdom of the world. The power of Brahmoism 
 as a factor in the religious life of Bengal is not to be 
 despised, and its hold on the higher aspirations of 
 Young Bengal, and we may say of India, is of a 
 kind that Christian workers in India would do well 
 not to undervalue or underrate. 
 
 The ideas and aspirations and life of that solitary 
 thinker who wandered by the banks of the Lilijan 
 and sat down, 2,500 years ago, exposed to summer's 
 
Christianity and other religions. 5 1 
 
 heat and winter's cold and rain, to think out for him- 
 self the mystery of pain, disease and death, duty, 
 the universe, and God, even now rule the lives of 
 more than a third of all mankind. Buddhism, dark- 
 ened and overlaid as it is with error and myth, has 
 in it a vitality and a reality inferior only to those of 
 Christianity itself. Neither Buddhism, Hinduism, 
 nor Mahomedanism, religions which have more or 
 less completely satisfied the spiritual needs and as- 
 pirations of millions of human beings of all ranks and 
 ages, and which have accumulated round them the 
 wildest extravagance of imagination and the grossest 
 error and yet retain their hold on such a large propor- 
 tion of humanity, can be expected to fall asunder 
 and evaporate at the touch of the Ithuriel spear of 
 Christianity least of all of a Christianity split up 
 into numerous antagonistic sects. These religions 
 are part of the race characteristics of the peoples 
 who possess them ; they are worked into the very 
 tissue of their lives, and interwoven with their 
 traditions and their history, and all that a people 
 hold dear ; and, until events arise that shall materially 
 alter the conditions of their existence, these historic 
 faiths will retain their supremacy as living powers 
 in the lives of their adherents. It is not wisdom, it is 
 folly, to endeavour to shake the faith of a people in 
 their historic and race-characteristic religion before 
 they are prepared to accept or work out for themselves 
 
52 The vivifying ideas of religion. 
 
 a suitable substitute, and in this respect the rule of 
 the English in India has been on the whole consis- 
 tent. Following in the wake of the wisest and 
 greatest of all the Portuguese Viceroys, Albuquer- 
 que, the rulers of India have affirmed, and again 
 affirmed, that the people shall be left in the free 
 exercise of their religion, and that there shall be no 
 tampering with these rights and privileges so far as 
 the Government is concerned. 
 
 It seems to us wise that this is so, that what is 
 false and impure in them should be left slowly to fade 
 before the light of knowledge and reason and the 
 growth of purity, and that the accumulated myths and 
 errors of ages that have saturated all these great 
 non-Christian systems of faith, should be left to 
 the slow, silent, ever-active influence that is sen- 
 sibly making itself apparent in the efforts of some 
 at least of the educated natives to purify and 
 elevate the faith of their fathers. The ideas, potent 
 now, as at their first promulgation, which have given 
 these systems of belief an enduring vitality for cen- 
 turies, it may be possible to exhibit as forming the 
 essential principles of Christianity, the vivifying 
 ideas of the whole structure of the Christian faith. 
 If, on the other hand, Christians could be brought 
 to realize that ritual and form of Church govern- 
 ment, and the doubtful and dead theology and tradi- 
 tion of which the Christianity of to-day possesses 
 
Growth of Christian dogma. 53 
 
 so large a legacy, however convenient and interest- 
 ing and historical they may be, are nevertheless 
 but the work of men and the formulating of the 
 ideas of the age that gave them birth men and ages, 
 with all their sanctity and scholarship, less able pro- 
 bably to deliver judgment on the points on which they 
 dogmatized than the men of the nineteenth century 
 then it might be possible for good men and true, 
 within and without the pale of Christianity, to have a 
 common platform from which they might labour 
 together for charity, purity and truth. Whether this 
 be so, or not, the fact remains that many of these 
 dogmas were utterly unknown to the early Christians, 
 and were added to the Christian faith at intervals of 
 hundreds of years from the age in which the founder 
 of Christianity lived his pure, simple, unselfish, loving 
 life, the friend and companion of the poor, the in- 
 structor of the ignorant, the feeder of the hungry, 
 the clother of the naked, the nurser of the sick, with 
 the green fields and roads and streets of Pales- 
 tine for his teaching ground, and the synagogue 
 and hillside for his temple. A life such as this seems 
 to us Christianity in its highest practical form ; 
 Christianity as its great founder himself exhibited 
 it, a life and a faith sufficiently broad to enlist under 
 its banner good men and true of every race and creed 
 under the heavens, and to bind together, as one 
 family, all nations of the earth, Wherever men 
 
54 Non-essentials of religion. 
 
 are leading a life such as this, and teaching men so 
 to do, whether we call them Heathen, Buddhist, 
 Hindu or Mahomedan, they are nearer the King- 
 dom of Heaven, than if, with but a feeble pretence 
 or half-hearted effort after such a life, they should 
 ring the whole changes on dogmatic theology, and 
 prate of the eternal damnation of unbelievers, the 
 everlasting decrees of God, His intentions from all 
 eternity, the fore-ordination of the elect ; and squab- 
 ble over candles and chasubles and the cut and colour 
 of a priestly robe, or the form of church government in 
 Apostolic times. It is this petty spirit of stickling 
 and haggling over non-essentials, this tenacious 
 adherence to dogmas evolved from the inner con- 
 sciousness, and embodied in confessions of faith, 
 and articles and catechisms, that has produced 
 dissension, disunion and disgrace ; and that has 
 alienated, and is alienating, thoughtful men all over 
 the world, 
 
 Dr. Wilson came to Bombay in 1825, at the age 
 of 24, a missionary of the church of Scotland, and 
 died in 1875. His life was mainly spent in anti- 
 quarian and philological research, in the duties of 
 his calling as a missionary, and in the advancement 
 of every work of humanity. During his long resi- 
 dence in India, where society changes so rapidly, he 
 became a power and authority in Bombay and took 
 the lead in every social, civic, and philanthropic 
 
Wilson and Duff. 55 
 
 object. In his relationship with the natives of India 
 he was kind and conciliatory, and in the controversies 
 which arose out of his advocacy of Christianity he 
 was distinguished by mildness, fairness, tact and an 
 even temper. For nearly fifty years he worked 
 at the educational, moral, and religious improvement 
 of the Indian people, using their own vernacular in 
 schools, sermons, tracts, itinerant preaching and house 
 visitation. He saw Bombay rise from a mere mili- 
 tary station to the rank of one of the great cities of the 
 world. In all the plans and schemes implied in this 
 change, Dr. Wilson took an active part ; and in 
 matters of great importance to the Empire he was 
 frequently consulted by the Government. 
 
 In the great task of educating the people of India, 
 in successfully advocating the claims of India as a 
 Mission Field, and in helping on every good work 
 on behalf of the Indian people, Dr. Duff, as teacher, 
 preacher and public man, occupies a high rank 
 amongst those who have laboured for India's welfare 
 during this century. Goethe has somewhere said 
 that two conditions are necessary to great men they 
 must be born at the right time, and they must die at 
 the right time ; or they may outlive their fame. 
 Time and the man came together, when Alexander 
 Duff, Missionary of the Church of Scotland, landed 
 in Calcutta a youth of 24, in the May of 1830, five 
 years after John Wilson reached Bombay. Duff's 
 
56 Duffs mission. 
 
 avowed endeavour was to break down the power of 
 Brahmanism, and Christianize the high caste Hindus. 
 He did not break down Brahmanism, and the higher 
 
 o 
 
 class Hindus are non-Christian to this day. What 
 he did accomplish was, to leaven the minds of his 
 pupils in the missionary schools and colleges with 
 Christian doctrines, and Christian ethics : to educate 
 them in the literature and the thought of England ; 
 and leave the leaven to work. That he could even 
 accomplish this much, was due to the condition of 
 affairs existing in India when he reached its shores. 
 All attempts to christianize Brahmanical Hindus 
 before Duff's day, and since his time, have been 
 failures ; and missionaries in the South, the East, 
 the West, and the North of India have been impelled 
 to gather their converts from men of low caste, and 
 men of no caste. Converts there have been from 
 Coolin Brahmins in Duff's time, as well as after and 
 before it ; but it is a gross falsehood to assert that 
 the power of the system of Brahmanism is shattered ; 
 it remains intact to this day, with probably as much 
 vitality and power of endurance as it had three 
 hundred years ago, when St. Xavier, the great 
 Apostle of the Indies, first saw the strand of India 
 rise in the horizon. There is a popular fallacy abroad 
 among evangelicals and others in Britain and America 
 that the citadel of Hinduism was stormed and over- 
 thrown by Duff and his colleagues, in conjunction 
 
The disappearance of converts. 57 
 
 with other missionary agencies in India. It is not 
 so, the leaven is only working ; and we incline to 
 the belief that the result will be, not Free Churchism 
 or Scottish Kirkism, or Episcopacy, or, as we have 
 said, any other form of Christianity as at present 
 existing. 
 
 Two months after he landed in India, Duff began 
 his life's work. Vernacular preaching and teaching 
 had reached the lower classes only, and even these with 
 but intermittent success. On the Southern shores of 
 the Peninsula this was the case. Many of the converts 
 seemed to die out or disappear, without leaving any 
 visible successors. Kiernander's Calcutta converts 
 had so disappeared. Henry Martyn's native Christians 
 could not be found by the missionaries that came after 
 him. Lacroix, the greatest vernacular preacher India 
 ever had, the friend and contemporary of Duff, 
 affirmed, that after fifty years' work he was not cons- 
 cious of having made a single convert, and the Abbe 
 Dubois, after labouring among the people of India 
 as no man living or dead ever did, declared his con- 
 viction that the conversion of the Hindus was im- 
 possible. Vernacular preaching and teaching had 
 been powerless against Brahminism. Duff realised 
 the failure, and prepared his attack on the brain and 
 motive power of Hinduism. Hitherto, then as now, 
 the Brahmins had been able to seize on every ascetic, 
 moral or spiritual development that offered in any 
 
 8 
 
58 State of Indian Society in 1830. 
 
 way to assail their position ; and, by raising it to a 
 caste, absorbe it into Hinduism, thus changing a foe 
 to an ally. Would Duff's method succeed ? He be- 
 lieved it would, if not in his day, then surely in the 
 fulness of time. 
 
 Before attempting any explanation of Duff's me- 
 thod, it is necessary that the condition of affairs in 
 India at the time of his coming should be under- 
 stood, in order that one may realise the conditions 
 and causes that worked together to produce the 
 measure of success he attained. 
 
 Until the year 1822 converts and perverts of all 
 kinds had been excluded from the public service. 
 Lord W. Bentinck threw the service open to all- 
 comers of every caste and creed. Warren Hastings, 
 in the Code of 1772, had secured to Hindus and 
 Muhummadans their own laws of heritable succes- 
 sion. This included the disinheritance of perverts 
 and remained in force till Lord William Bentinck's 
 day. Now, for the first time in the history of India, 
 it was possible for a convert to retain his personal 
 inheritance, and although a change of religion implied 
 degradation from caste, and social and family ban 
 and curse, and insolation, his personal inheritance was 
 left, and a career was possible in some branch of the 
 service. Neither of these was attainable before 1822. 
 Amongst the natives there had been gradually grow- 
 ing and increasing in strength an eagerness to obtain 
 
State of Indian Society in iSjo. 59 
 
 an English education, brought about no doubt by 
 the fact that the contest beween the Orientalists 
 and the Anglicans had ended in the defeat of the for- 
 mer. At all events the minute of Macaulay, Febru- 
 ary 1835, laid the question for ever. English was 
 henceforth to be the language of the official classes, 
 and Sanscrit and Persian handed over to students, 
 scholars, politicals and others. An English educa- 
 tion now meant an entrance to lucrative employment; 
 it was the key that unlocked the gate that blocked 
 the entrance to comparative wealth, and to place and 
 power. It did not imply this only, but to the sons 
 of native gentlemen shut out from the position their 
 family had in many cases occupied in the govern- 
 ment of native States by the spread of English rule, 
 it in some measure implied a resumption of their 
 former state ; and to that earnest band of truth- 
 seekers working silently and alone, common enough 
 in all countries and all ages, the language of England 
 laid bare a new world of ripe thought and speculation, 
 and exact observation, a literature and a history full 
 of the highest thoughts and the noblest efforts. 
 There were " seekers after God," like Ram Mohan 
 Roy, who procured Duff his first pupils, and whose 
 attack on idolatry and caste-prejudices raised the 
 active opposition of his compeers ; and the spirit of 
 religious unrest that has helped to shatter Hindu- 
 ism into multitudinous castes, was probably more 
 
60 Duffs method. 
 
 apparent then than at the present day. These were 
 some of the conditions and influences lying ready 
 at the hand of the strong-willed, impetuous Celt, 
 who dared to differ from his contemporaries and his 
 predecessors, who set at defiance the express com- 
 mands of the Kirk that sent him to India, and who 
 preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Heathen 
 by teaching English in a Calcutta school. 
 
 When John Knox saved from the rapacious maw 
 of unscrupulous Scottish nobles some remnant of 
 that Church property which, had they been permitted, 
 they would have altogether appropriated, he took care 
 that a school and a church should stand together in 
 every parish in Scotland. From John Knox's day up 
 at least to the regimen of School Boards, the school 
 and the church were intimately connected. Here 
 the Bible was the first easy reading book of every 
 Scottish boy and girl, and lessons from its pages and 
 the choicest of its Psalms and verses were daily 
 repeated. As early in this century as 1828, John 
 Wood, in the Sessional schools of Edinburgh, had in 
 active operation methods of working which were 
 attracting the attention of every one interested in 
 education in Scotland. About the same time David 
 Stow, in the slums of Glasgow, was working out and 
 perfecting what he afterwards gave to the world, viz. y 
 his training system a system of moral and intellec- 
 tual training, which in the hands of competent workers, 
 
Duffs method. 61 
 
 has produced the highest results, and is likely to 
 outlive more pretentious systems. The relationship 
 of the Church to the school, as Knox established it, 
 the reading and inculcation of Scripture, as practised 
 in Scotland for the last three hundred years, and 
 the kindred systems of Wood and Stow, Alexander 
 Duff planted in Calcutta, and produced results which 
 were the admiration of his visitors, and which dis- 
 armed objectors to his system. Five years of un- 
 ceasing teaching, preaching, lecturing, and expound- 
 ing; then, in broken health, home to Scotland in 1835. 
 For the next five years broad Scotland rung, from 
 end to end, with the clear full tones of Duff's voice, 
 rousing to a pitch of unexampled enthusiasm the 
 Christian public, North and South of the Tweed, on 
 behalf of Christian Missions ; then back to India in 
 1840 ; more organizing and the crowning of his edu- 
 cational edifice with a thoroughly equipped College 
 staff; more schools and mission stations, native con- 
 verts and native preachers ; and so, with more or less 
 energy and intermission, the work of his life went 
 on till, at the age of 57, he left the shores of India 
 for the last time, bequeathing to India, in the organ- 
 izations he left behind him, and in his life as teacher, 
 preacher and public man, a legacy of usefulness and 
 the highest good to its people. 
 
 As a teacher, Duff's success in India was unrivalled. 
 The conditions which produced the eager desire for 
 
62 Why does it not succeed ? 
 
 an English education, and which materially contri- 
 buted to that success, have been shortly noticed. 
 Duff's schools, colleges and classes supplied that 
 want, and they were filled to overflowing. But in 
 our estimation there can be no continuous working 
 on the lines laid down by Duff, unless the missionary 
 agencies are prepared to supply education at a 
 cheaper rate and of as sound a quality as that 
 provided in the Government schools. Hitherto, 
 missionary schools and colleges have been as fair- 
 ly successful as those under Government control, 
 if the results of the University examinations may be 
 accepted as a test of success ; and if the various 
 missionary schools and colleges can still go on com- 
 peting with each other and with Government es- 
 tablishments, and are able to offer a thorough edu- 
 cation at a still cheaper rate, and are prepared to 
 carry on their work with a yearly increasing balance 
 on the wrong side of the ledger, to be defrayed by 
 increased contributions from missionary funds, then, 
 no doubt, the pupils and students of their schools 
 and colleges may show no diminution. But that they 
 will be able to show students from as high a rank 
 in native society as those who attend the government 
 colleges, where there is no tampering with religious 
 beliefs no one will be prepared to admit. As it is, 
 the bulk of the higher class Hindus are students 
 of Government colleges, and we venture to assert 
 
The failures of Wilson and Duff. 63 
 
 that there were more higher class Hindus in Duffs 
 first school 50 years ago than there are at the present 
 moment in all the missionary colleges in Calcutta 
 combined. 
 
 The second condition necessary to produce a great 
 man, according to Goethe, is that he should die at 
 the right time. Duff outlived his fame except with 
 that circle of Evangelicalism of which he was so 
 distinguished an ornament and advocate. As a great 
 preacher, possessing the true power of the orator to 
 move English speaking assemblies, he, in his day, had 
 few, if any, equals. As a missionary to the Hindus, 
 to christianise the Heathen, his success was probably 
 neither better nor worse than that of the missionaries 
 who had preceded and have succeeded him, if we bear 
 in mind the conditions in existence at the time of his 
 coming to India. That he utterly failed to grasp any 
 of the vivifying ideas of the system of faith which he 
 attacked, and to turn them to any effectual purpose 
 in his crusade against Brahminical Hinduism, is not 
 anywhere apparent in his work. Both Wilson and 
 Duff had the greatest contempt for every form of faith 
 but that which they themselves professed : those who 
 differed from them were not only mistaken, they 
 were wicked. They thus put themselves entirely out 
 of sympathy, not only with the people whose faith 
 they laboured to destroy but with a large body of 
 earnest self-devoted workers in the same field. 
 
64 The message of peace. 
 
 How the legacy of English thought and Western 
 ideas may work on the people of India, their faiths 
 and their institutions, lies yet in the future. 
 
 There are now two thousand years since the song of 
 the angels fell on the ear of the Bethlehem shepherds, 
 " Peace on earth, good will to men," and since, the cry 
 of the Baptist, and the Carpenter of Nazareth, "Re- 
 pent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," startled 
 into newness of life the dwellers on the shores of the 
 Levant. Nevertheless there is no Christian city with- 
 out its slums of poverty, devilry and disease, over 
 which float in mid air the sounds of Church-going 
 bells. How far from being realized is the "peace 
 and good will" announced so long ago, is evidenced 
 in the disgraceful ruptures, bickerings and vitupera- 
 tion of sects calling themselves Christians, and in the 
 clang of arms and the tramp of armed men trained 
 to " horrid war" in every Christian land. That these 
 halcyon days of " peace and good will" will come 
 is the hope of all earnest men and the dream of the 
 poet when men to men the world over, will be 
 clasped together in a common brotherhood. 
 
 " Lo ! the days are hastening on, 
 
 " By prophet bards foretold, 
 
 " When with the ever circling years 
 
 " Comes round the age of gold ; 
 
 " When peace shall over all the earth 
 
 " Her ancient splendours fling, 
 
 " And the whole world send back the cry, 
 
 " Which now the Angel's sing." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 "SUBVERSER OF ALL RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES." 
 
 |HE teaching of Derozio, the force of his in- 
 dividuality, his winning manner, his wide know- 
 ledge of books, his own youth, which placed him in 
 close sympathy with his pupils, his open, generous, 
 chivalrous nature, his humour and playfulness, his fear- 
 less love of truth, his hatred of all that was unmanly 
 and mean, his ardent love of India, evidenced in his 
 conversations and recorded in his lines, 
 
 " My country ! in thy day of glory past 
 A beauteous halo circled round thy brow," 
 
 his social intercourse with his pupils, his unrestricted 
 efforts for their growth in virtue, knowledge and man- 
 liness, produced an intellectual and moral revolution 
 in Hindu society since unparalleled. The effect pro- 
 duced by Derozio on his pupils and on the higher 
 Hindu society of his day, is well and truthfully record- 
 ed in a short manuscript history of the Hindu College 
 by Baboo Hurro Mohun Chatter] i, which his son 
 Chandi Churn Chatterji has kindly placed at our dis- 
 posal.* It should be premised that the extract which 
 follows has reference to the position of affairs in the 
 * See also Christian Observer, Vol. I. o 
 
66 Curriculum of the Hindu College. 
 
 Hindu College during 1828, a year after Derozio's ap- 
 pointment. That year the subjects he taught, or rather 
 the text-books studied in his classes, had been drawn 
 up and fixed by the Committee of Management, which 
 consisted of three Hindu gentlemen, with Dr. H. H. 
 Wilson, the eminent Sanscrit scholar, then Secretary 
 to the Committee of Public Instruction, representing 
 the Government of India, and David Hare, the life 
 long friend of the natives. These were 
 
 Goldsmith's History of Greece, Rome and England. 
 
 Russell's Modern Europe. 
 
 Robertson's Charles the Fifth. 
 
 Gay's Fables. 
 
 Pope's Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. 
 
 Dryden's Virgil. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Lost. 
 
 Shakespeare, one of the Tragedies. 
 
 This was the ground gone over in English History 
 and Literature in the first three classes of the Hindu 
 College during 1828. Derozio taught the second and 
 third classes ; and we venture to assert that this high 
 class teaching, winged with the strength, learning and 
 love of Derozio's individuality, had gone home to the 
 brain and heart of the highest class of native society 
 in Calcutta before Duff, over whose work, which 
 indeed was but the complement of Derozio's, such 
 torrents of eloquence have been poured, ever set his 
 foot in India. 
 
 " Added to these," I quote from the manuscript 
 history, " the students of the first, second and third 
 
Derozio at Work. 6? 
 
 " classes had the advantage of attending a Conversa- 
 " zione established in the schools by Mr. Derozio 
 " where readings in poetry, literature, and moral phil- 
 " osophy were carried on. The meetings were held 
 "almost daily after or before school hours. Though 
 " they were without the knowledge or sanction of the 
 "authorities, yet Mr. Derozio's disinterested zeal and 
 " devotion in bringing up the students in these sub- 
 jects was unbounded, and characterised by a love 
 " and philanthropy which, up to this day, has not been 
 " equalled by any teacher either in or out of the ser- 
 " vice. The students in their turn loved him most 
 " tenderly ; and were ever ready to be guided by his 
 " counsels and imitate him in all their daily actions in 
 " life. In fact, Mr. Derozio acquired such an ascend- 
 " ancy over the minds of his pupils that they would 
 " not move even in their private concerns without his 
 " counsel and advice. On the other hand, he fostered 
 " their taste in literature, taught the evil effects of 
 " idolatry and superstition ; and so far formed their 
 " moral conceptions and feelings as to make them 
 " completely above the antiquated ideas and aspira- 
 " tions of the age. Such was the force of his instruc- 
 " tions that the conduct of the students out of the 
 " college was most exemplary, and gained them the 
 " applause of the outside world, not only in a literary 
 " and scientific point of view, but what was of still 
 " greater importance, they were all considered men of 
 
68 The result of Derozids teaching. 
 
 " ' truth! Indeed, the ' College boy' was a synonym 
 " for truth, and it was a general belief and saying 
 " among our countrymen, which those that remember 
 " the time must acknowledge, that ' such a boy is in- 
 " capable of falsehood because he is a College boy.' " 
 In May 1829 several of the boys in the first and 
 second classes had acquired a remarkable degree of 
 courage and spirit in expressing their opinions on 
 all subjects and particularly on the subject of 
 religion. "The principles and practices of the 
 " Hindu religion were openly ridiculed and con- 
 " demned, and angry disputes were held on moral 
 "subjects; the sentiments of Hume had been 
 
 "widely diffused and warmly patronized The 
 
 " most glowing harangues were made at debating 
 " clubs, then very numerous. The Hindu Reli- 
 "gion was denounced as vile and corrupt and 
 "unworthy the regard of rational beings. The 
 "degraded state of the Hindus formed the topic of 
 " many debates ; their ignorance and superstition 
 " were declared to be the causes of such a state, and 
 " it was then resolved that nothing but a liberal educa- 
 tion could enfranchise the minds of the people, 
 " The degradation of the female mind was viewed 
 " with indignation ; the question at a very large 
 " meeting was carried unanimously, that Hindu 
 " women should be taught, and we are assured of 
 " the fact that the wife of one of the leaders of this 
 
The orders of the Managers. 69 
 
 " new movement was a most accomplished lady, who 
 " reckoned amongst the subjects with which she 
 "was acquainted, Moral Philosophy and Mathe- 
 " matics. The facts that we have mentioned will 
 " serve to explain the subjoined order of the 
 " Managers." 
 
 It having come to the knowledge of the Managers 
 that a belief prevails very generally " that the students 
 " of the Hindu College are liable to lose all religious 
 " principles whatever, it is resolved that Mr. D 
 " Anselm (head master) be requested to communicate 
 " with the teachers, and check as far as^possible all 
 " disquisitions tending to unsettle the belief of the 
 " boys in the great principles of Natural Religion." 
 
 This order of the Managers seems to have pro- 
 duced little or no effect in stemming the rising tide 
 of free enquiry, and so earnest were some of the lads, 
 and so powerfully influenced by the teaching of 
 Derozio, that they refused to be invested with the 
 Brahminical thread ; and, instead of repeating 
 prayers to deities which their enlightened reason and 
 awakened conscience told them were merely the 
 distorted, mythic creation of former days and earlier 
 men, they chose to repeat some noble passage from 
 the Iliad. In the February of 1830 further orders 
 were issued by the Managers, strictly forbidding the 
 teachers from having any communications with their 
 pupils on religious subjects, and specially the religion 
 
7O Prohibition of the Managers. 
 
 of the Hindus ; and that practices, inconsistent with 
 Hindu ideas of propriety, such as eating or drinking 
 in the class rooms, were to be visited with dismissal. 
 In the words of the manuscript history " It was 
 " not until advantage had been taken by some of the 
 "clergymen (Duff, Dealtry, Adam and Hill) of 
 " this growing liberality, in announcing a course of 
 " lectures (to educated Bengalees) of Natural and 
 " Revealed Religion (in Duffs house in College 
 " Square, nearly opposite the Hindu College) that the 
 " Managers were determined to crush the reformers 
 " by promulgating that famous order which called 
 " forth the disapprobation of the public." We quote 
 the orders: "The Managers of the Anglo-Indian 
 " College having heard that several of the students 
 " are in the habit of attending societies at which 
 " political and religious discussions are held " (the 
 discussions which led to the firsfff-eform Bill were 
 agitating the band of lads influenced by Derozio), 
 " think it necessary to announce their strong disap- 
 " probation of the practice, and to prohibit its conti- 
 " nuance. Any students being present at such a 
 " society after the promulgation of this order will 
 " incur their serious displeasure." 
 
 Immediately on the promulgation of this order, 
 every newspaper and journal in Calcutta, secular 
 and religious, charged one after the other against 
 the Managers of the Hindu College, all maintaining 
 
Public opinion against the Managers. 71 
 
 the right of public discussion. The Atheism of 
 Derozio has been so often asserted ; his antagonism 
 to Christianity taken for granted ; and the influence 
 of his teaching declared to " be subversive of all 
 religion whatever," that we hope it may be some 
 answer to these disreputable charges, glibly made 
 by well-meaning men, to quote a paragraph from a 
 leader in the India Gazette, which has considerable 
 resemblance to the style of Derozio, and which, if 
 not written by him, certainly speaks his sentiments 
 regarding the action of the management. 
 
 " We regret much to see the names of such men 
 as David Hare and Rossomoy Dutt attached to a 
 document which presents an example of presump- 
 tuous, tyrannical and absurd intermeddling with the 
 right of private judgment on political and religious 
 questions. The interference is presumptuous, for 
 the Managers, as Managers, have no right whatever 
 to dictate to the students of the institution how 
 they shall dispose of their time out of College, It is 
 tyrannical, for, although they have not the right, 
 they have the power, if they will bear the conse- 
 quences, to^ inflict their serious displeasure on the 
 disobedient. It is absurd and ridiculous, for if the 
 students knew their rights, and had the spirit to 
 claim them, the Managers would not venture to 
 enforce their own order ; and it would fall to the 
 ground, an abortion of intolerance. We recommend 
 
72 The " India Gazette" on the orders. 
 
 the Managers to beware of pursuing the course 
 they have begun. We are aware of their motives, 
 and if we saw any danger of the College passing 
 under sectarian influence, we should be as stoutly 
 opposed to such a result as we are to their present 
 proceedings. But Christianity must not and shall 
 not be put down by the means they are adopting. 
 It must, at least, have a hearingfrom those who are 
 willing to hear, and this is all that its friends desire. 
 They do not desire that any regulations should be 
 made by the Managers in favour of Christianity, but 
 a Christian government and a Christian community 
 will not tolerate that the Managers of an institution, 
 supported in part by public money, should single out 
 Christianity as the only religion against which they 
 direct their official influence and authority. We 
 hope that Messrs. Hill and Duff will revive the 
 meetings, if they have been discontinued, and that 
 their proceedings will henceforth be conducted on 
 just and equal terms. We hope that the students of 
 the Hindu College will continue to attend in spite of 
 the prohibition of the Managers ; and we hope that 
 the Managers will learn to keep within their own 
 province, else they will have a storm about their 
 ears, which will be sooner raised than laid." 
 
 Two months after, that is, in April 1831, decisive 
 measures were taken to remove Derozio and the 
 more advanced of his pupils who had publicly avowed 
 
Ram Comul Sen. 73 
 
 their hostility to Hinduism. The chief mover in 
 this matter was Ram Comul Sen, the grandfather of 
 the well-known Keshub Chunder Sen, the late leader 
 of the Brahmo Somaj. Peary Chand Mittra, himself 
 a distinguished pupil of the Hindu school, and one 
 of that band of the cultured natives of India who 
 are the true friends of their countrymen, and the 
 advocates of every measure of usefulness for their 
 advancement, has very recently given to the public a 
 Life of Dewan Ram Comul Sen, which will be read 
 with interest by all interested in the people of India. 
 Ram Comul Sen began life as a compositor in the 
 Hindustani Press of Dr. Hunter, on eight rupees a 
 month. From this humble position he worked him- 
 self up to hold a very eminent place in the educated 
 society of Calcutta and in the service of India. 
 Before his death he was a member of nearly every 
 learned, educational, and philanthropic society in 
 Calcutta, had published his English and Bengali 
 Dictionary, and taken an active and leading part in 
 every matter in which the best interests of his coun- 
 trymen were concerned, and notably in the spread of 
 European knowledge. He was a firm friend of the 
 orthodox Hindus, and as such, viewed with alarm 
 the consequences of Derozio's teaching, which the 
 more hot-headed among native youths carried be- 
 yond the conclusions of their master. The requisition 
 calling the meeting of the Managers of the Hindu 
 
 10 
 
74 Meeting of the Managers. 
 
 College, which resulted in the practical dismissal of 
 Derozio, was drawn up by Ram Comul Sen, and not 
 only exhibits the alarm and distrust then prevalent 
 in Hindu society, but bears on the face of it some of 
 those charges against Derozio which were then indus- 
 triously circulated, and which Derozio himself repu- 
 diated and challenged his accusers to substantiate. 
 
 The requisition is as follows : 
 
 " The object of convening this meeting is the 
 necessity of checking the growing evil, and the 
 public alarm arising from the very unwarranted 
 arrangements and misconduct of a certain teacher to 
 whom a great many children have been trusted, who, 
 it appears, has materially injured their morals, and 
 introduced some strange system, the tendency of 
 which is destructive to their moral character and to 
 the peace of society. The affair is well known to 
 almost every one, and need not require to be further 
 stated. The consequence is, that no less than twenty- 
 five pupils of respectable families have been with- 
 drawn from the College, a list of which is submitted. 
 There are no less than a hundred and sixty boys 
 absent, some of whom are supposed to be sick ; but 
 many have proposed to remove, unless proper re- 
 medies are adopted. A list of these is also sub- 
 mitted." 
 
 At the meeting convened by Ram Comul Sen 
 various proposals were made, such as that " Mr. 
 
The Managers in Council. 75 
 
 Derozio being the root of all the evils and cause of 
 public alarm, should be discharged from the Col- 
 lege, and all communications between him and the 
 pupils cut off. That such of the students of the 
 higher class whose bad habits are known, and who 
 were in the 'dining party,' should be removed. 
 That all those students publicly hostile to Hindu- 
 ism and the established customs of the country, 
 and who have proved themselves such by their 
 conduct, should be turned out. That boys should 
 not be admitted indiscriminately without previous 
 enquiry regarding their character. That whenever 
 Europeans are procurable, a preference shall be given 
 to them, their character and religion being ascer- 
 tained before admission. That if any of the boys 
 go to hear or attend private lectures or meetings, 
 they be dismissed. That such books as may injure 
 their morals should not be allowed to be taught, 
 brought, or read in the College. That a separate 
 place be fitted for the teachers to dine in ; and 
 the practice of eating on the school table be dis- 
 continued." 
 
 These proposals were carried in their main 
 features ; and in reference to the first, the greatest 
 amount of discussion took place. The following 
 question was keenly discussed by the Managers, 
 viz., "Whether the management had any just grounds 
 to conclude that the morals and tenets of Mr. 
 
76 The Result. 
 
 Derozio, as far as ascertainable from the effects 
 they have produced upon his scholars, are such 
 as to render him an improper person to be 
 entrusted with the education of youth." 
 
 Two of the Managers declared that all they knew 
 of Mr. Derozio was from report only. One acquitted 
 him of all blame for want of proof. Three con- 
 sidered Mr. Derozio an improper person for the 
 education of youth. One Baboo was firmly con- 
 vinced that Mr. Derozio was far from being an 
 improper person for such an office. " David Hare 
 recorded his opinion that Mr. Derozio was a highly 
 competent teacher" and no one had more and 
 better opportunity than Hare had to form an opinion 
 on the subject and that " his instructions have 
 always been most beneficial." Mr. Horace Hayman 
 Wilson said that he had never observed any ill 
 effects from Mr. Derozio's instruction, and that he 
 considered Mr. Derozio to be a teacher of superior 
 ability. 
 
 On this question the majority seemed in favour of 
 Derozio. The next question discussed was whether, 
 in the present state of public feeling amongst the 
 Hindu community, it was expedient to dismiss 
 Derozio. 
 
 Four Baboos declared it was necessary. 
 
 Two, that it was expedient. 
 
 One, that it was unnecessary." 
 
Derozids letter to Mr. Wilson. 77 
 
 Hare and Wilson declined to vote on a question 
 relating to the state of native feeling alone. The 
 removal of Derozio was thereupon determined on, 
 and the management were wise enough to conclude 
 " that they had neither the power nor the right to 
 enforce the prohibition of the boys attending private 
 lectures or 'meetings." 
 
 Mr. Wilson acquainted Derozio with the decision 
 of the Managing Committee, and the following is 
 
 Derozio's reply : 
 
 Calcutta, 2 5 th April, 1831, 
 
 DR. H. H. WILSON. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, The accompanying is my resigna- 
 tion ; but you will observe that I have taken the 
 liberty of departing from your suggestion of making 
 it appear a merit on my part. If I had grounds to 
 believe that my continued connection with the 
 College could be really and permanently prejudicial 
 to that institution, the spirit to leave it without any 
 suggestion but that of my own mind, would not 
 be wanting. I do not conceive, however, that a 
 temporary shock needs such a sacrifice ; and I 
 cannot, therefore, conceal from myself the fact, that 
 my resignation is compulsory. Under these circum- 
 stances, I trust you will see the propriety of my 
 declining to make that appear a merit which is really 
 a necessity. Nevertheless, I thank you heartily for 
 having recommended me to do so, because I perceive 
 
78 Derozitfs letter to Mr. Wilson. 
 
 it to be the dictates of a generous heart anxious to 
 soothe what it could not heal. But I dare not ascribe 
 to myself a merit which I do not possess ; and if my 
 dismissal be considered a deserved disgrace by the 
 wise and good, I must endure it. 
 
 As the intemperate spirit displayed against me 
 by the Native Managers of the College is not likely 
 to subside so completely as lo admit of my return 
 to that institution as speedily as you expect ; and as 
 the chances of life may shape my future destiny so as 
 to bring me but rarely in contact with you, I cannot 
 permit this opportunity to pass without recording 
 my grateful acknowledgments to you for all the 
 kindness you have shown me since I have had the 
 honour and pleasure of being known to you. In 
 particular, I must thank you for the delicacy with 
 which you conveyed to me, on Saturday last, the reso- 
 lution of the Managing Committee and for the sym- 
 pathy which I perceive my case had excited in you. 
 
 Such circumstances when genuine and unaffected, 
 make deeper impressions on my feelings than those 
 greater acts of favour the motives for which we 
 cannot always trace. 
 
 Believe me ft to be, my dear Sir, with sentiments of 
 respect and regard, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 H. L. V. DEROZIO. 
 
Derozio's letter to the Managers. 79 
 
 The following is the letter referred to, containing 
 Derozio's resignation : 
 
 Calcutta, 2$tk April 1831. 
 To 
 
 THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE HINDU 
 COLLEGE. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, Having been informed that the 
 result of your deliberation in close committee on 
 Saturday last was a resolution to dispense with my 
 further services at the College, I am induced to place 
 my resignation in your hands, in order to save 
 myself from the mortification of receiving formal 
 notice of my dismissal. 
 
 It would, however, be unjust to my reputation, 
 which I value, were I to abstain from recording in 
 this communication certain facts which I presume 
 do not appear upon the face of your proceedings. 
 Firstly, no charge was brought against me. Second- 
 ly, if any accusation was brought forward, I was 
 not informed of it. Thirdly, I was not called up to 
 face my accusers, if any such appeared. Fourthly, 
 no witness was examined on either side. Fifthly, 
 my conduct and character underwent scrutiny, and no 
 opportunity was afforded me of defending either. 
 Sixthly, while a majority did not, as I have learned, 
 consider me an unfit person to be connected with 
 the College, it was resolved, notwithstanding, that I 
 
8o Wilson's letter to Derozio. 
 
 should be removed from it, so that, unbiased, un- 
 examined, and unheard, you resolve to dismiss me 
 without evren the mockery of a trial. These are 
 facts. I offer not a word of comment. 
 
 I must also avail myself of this opportunity of 
 recording my thanks to Mr. Wilson, Mr. Hare, and 
 Baboo Sreekissen Sing for the part which, I am in- 
 formed, they respectively took in your proceedings 
 on Saturday last. 
 
 I am, Gentlemen, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 H. L. V. DEROZIO. 
 
 Horace Hayman Wilson's reply to the above letter 
 of Derozio we give below. It contains the wild and 
 unfounded charges brought against Derozio, sedu- 
 lously circulated, and implicitly believed during his 
 life-time and after his death ; and it produced the 
 manly vindication of himself, the only one which 
 Derozio was ever permitted to make, and which 
 came direct from his sensitive nature, burning under 
 a sense of injustice and the cowardly calumnious 
 attacks of men who feared his influence more than 
 they loved truth. 
 
 2$th April, 1831. 
 
 DEAR DEROZIO, I believe you are right : al- 
 though I could have wished you had been less severe 
 upon the native Managers, whose decision was founded 
 
Wilson's letter to Derozio. 81 
 
 merely upon the expediency of yielding to popular 
 clamour, the justice of which it was not incumbent 
 on them to investigate. There was no trial intend- 
 ed there was no condemnation. An impression had 
 gone abroad to your disadvantage, the effects of 
 which were injurious to the College, and which would 
 not have been dispelled by any proof you could 
 have produced, that it was unfounded. I suppose 
 there will still be much discussion on the subject, 
 privately only I trust, but that there will be ; and I 
 should like to have the power of speaking confidently 
 on three charges brought against you. Of course, 
 it rests entirely with you to answer my questions. 
 Do you believe in a God ? Do you think respect and 
 obedience to parents no part of moral duty ? Do 
 you think the intermarriage of brothers and sisters 
 innocent and allowable ? Have you ever maintained 
 these doctrines by argument in the hearing of our 
 scholars ? Now I have no right to interrogate you on 
 these or any other of your sentiments, but these 
 are the rumoured charges against you, and I should 
 be very happy if I could say boldly they were false ; 
 or could produce your written and unqualified denial 
 for the satisfaction of those whose good opinion is 
 worth having. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 H. H. WILSON. 
 ii 
 
82 Derozio's Vindication. 
 
 Next morning Derozio dashed off the following 
 letter : 
 
 26tk April, 1831. 
 H. H. WILSON, ESQ. 
 
 My DEAR SIR, Your letter, which I received last 
 evening, should have been answered earlier but for 
 the interference of other matters which required my 
 attention. I beg your acceptance of this apology 
 for the delay, and thank you for the interest which 
 your communication proves that you continue to 
 take in me. I am sorry, however, that the questions 
 you have put to me will impose upon you the dis- 
 agreeable necessity of reading this long justifica- 
 tion of my conduct and opinions. But I must con- 
 gratulate myself that this opportunity is afforded 
 me of addressing so influential and distinguished an 
 individual as yourself upon matters which, if true, 
 might seriously affect my character. My friends 
 need not, however, be under any apprehension for 
 me ; for myself the conciousness of right is my safe- 
 guard and my consolation. 
 
 (i.) I have never denied the existence of a God 
 in the hearing of any human being. If it be wrong 
 to speak at all upon such a subject, I am guilty ; but 
 I am neither afraid, nor ashamed to confess having 
 stated the doubts of philosophers upon this head, 
 because I have also stated the solution of these 
 
Derozio's Vindication. 83 
 
 doubts. Is it forbidden anywhere to argue upon 
 such a question ? If so, it must be equally wrong to 
 adduce an argument upon either side. Or is it con- 
 sistent with an enlightened notion of truth to wed 
 ourselves to only one view of so important a subject, 
 resolving to close our eyes and ears against all im- 
 pressions that oppose themselves to it ? 
 
 How is any opinion to be strengthened but by com- 
 pletely comprehending the objections that are offer- 
 ed to it, and exposing their futility ? And what have 
 I done more than this ? Entrusted as I was for some 
 time with the education of youth peculiarly circum- 
 stanced, was it for me to have made them pert and 
 ignorant dogmatists, by permitting them to know 
 what could be said upon only one side of grave 
 questions ? Setting aside the narrowness of mind 
 which such a course might have evinced, it would 
 have been injurious to the mental energies and ac- 
 quirements of the young men themselves. And 
 (whatever may be said to the contrary) I can vindi- 
 cate my procedure by quoting no less orthodox au- 
 thority than Lord Bacon : " If a man," says this 
 philosopher (and no one ever had a better right to 
 pronounce an opinion upon such matters than Lord 
 Bacon) " will begin with certainties he shall end in 
 doubt." This, I need scarcely observe, is always the 
 case with contented ignorance when it is roused too 
 late to thought. One doubt suggests another, and 
 
84 Derozirfs Vindication. 
 
 universal scepticism is the consequence. I therefore 
 thought it my duty to acquaint several of the Col- 
 lege students with the substance of Hume's celebrated 
 dialogue between Cleanthes and Philo, in which the 
 most subtile and refined arguments against Theism 
 are adduced. But I have also furnished them with 
 Dr. Reid's and Dugald Stewart's more acute replies 
 to Hume, replies which to this day continue unrefut- 
 ed. " This is the head and front of my offending." 
 If the religious opinions of the students have be- 
 come unhinged in consequence of the course I have 
 pursued, the fault is not mine. To produce con- 
 victions was not within my power ; and if I am to be 
 condemned for the Atheism of some, let me receive 
 credit for the Theism of others. Believe me, my dear 
 Sir, I am too thoroughly imbued with a deep sense 
 of human ignorance, and of the perpetual vicissitudes 
 of opinion, to speak with confidence even of the most 
 unimportant matters. Doubt and uncertainty be- 
 siege us too closely to admit the boldness of dogma- 
 tism to enter an enquiring mind ; and far be it from 
 me to say " this is" and " that is not, " when after 
 the most extensive acquaintance with the researches 
 of science, and after the most daring flights of ge- 
 nius, we must confess with sorrow and disappoint- 
 ment that humility becomes the highest wisdom, 
 for the highest wisdom assures man of his igno- 
 rance. 
 
Derozicts Vindication. 85 
 
 (II.) Your next question is, " Do you think res- 
 pect and obedience to parents no part of moral 
 duty ?" For the first time in my life did I learn 
 from your letter that I am charged with inculcating 
 so hideous, so unnatural, so abominable a principle. 
 The authors of such infamous fabrications are too 
 degraded for my contempt. Had my father been 
 alive, he would have repelled the slander by telling 
 my calumniators, that a son who had endeavoured 
 to discharge every filial duty as I have done, could 
 never have entertained such a sentiment ; but my 
 mother can testify how utterly inconsistent it is 
 with my conduct, and upon her testimony I might 
 risk my vindication. However, I will not stop there, so 
 far from having ever maintained or taught such an 
 opinion, I have always insisted upon respect and obe- 
 dience to parents. I have indeed condemned that 
 feigned respect which some children evince, as being 
 hypocritical and injurious to the moral character ; 
 but I have always endeavoured to cherish the sen- 
 tient feelings of the heart, and to direct them into 
 proper channels. Instances, however, in which I 
 have insisted upon respect and obedience to pa- 
 rents, are not wanting. I shall quote two important 
 ones for your satisfaction : and as the parties are 
 always at hand, you may at any time substantiate 
 what I say. About two or three months ago 
 Dakhinarunjun Mookerjee (who has made so great 
 
86 Derozio's Vindication. 
 
 a noise lately) informed me that his father's treat- 
 ment of him had become utterly insupportable, and 
 that his only chance of escaping it was by leaving 
 his father's home. Although I was aware of the 
 truth of what he had said, I dissuaded him from 
 taking such a course, telling him that much should 
 be endured from a parent, and that the world would 
 not justify his conduct if he left his home without 
 being actually turned out of it. He took my advice, 
 though I regret to say only for a short time. A 
 few weeks ago he left his father's house, and to my 
 great surprise engaged another in my neighbourhood. 
 After he had completed his arrangements with his 
 landlord, he informed me for the first time of what he 
 had done; and when I asked him why he had not con- 
 sulted me before he took such a step : " because," 
 replied he, " I knew you would have prevented it." 
 
 The other instance relates to Mohesh Chunder 
 Sing, having recently behaved rudely to his father 
 and offended some of his other relatives, he called 
 upon me at my house with his uncle Umachurn 
 Bose and his cousin Nondolall Sing. I reproached 
 him severely for his contumacious behaviour, and 
 told him that, until he sought forgiveness from his 
 father, I would not speak to him. I might mention 
 other cases, but these may suffice. 
 
 (III.) " Do you think marriages of brothers and 
 sisters innocent and allowable ?" This is your third 
 
Derozids Vindication. 87 
 
 question. " NO," is my distinct reply ; and I never 
 taught such an absurdity. But I am at a loss to 
 find out how such misrepresentations as those to 
 which I have been exposed have become current. 
 No person who has ever heard me speak upon such 
 subjects could have circulated these untruths ; at 
 least, I can hardly bring myself to think that one 
 of the College students with whom I have been con- 
 nected could be either such a fool as to mistake 
 everything I ever said, or such a knave, as wil- 
 fully to misstate my opinions. I am rather disposed 
 to believe that weak people who are determined 
 upon being alarmed, finding nothing to be frightened 
 at, have imputed these follies to me. That I should be 
 called a sceptic and an infidel is not surprising, as 
 these names are always given to persons who think 
 for themselves in religion ; but I assure you, that the 
 imputations which you say are alleged against me, 
 I have learned for the first time from your letter, never 
 having dreamed that sentiments so opposed to my 
 own could have been ascribed to me. I must trust, 
 therefore, to your generosity to give the most unquali- 
 fied contradiction to these ridiculous stories. I am 
 not a greater monster than most people, though I 
 certainly should not know myself were I to credit 
 all that is said of me. I am aware that for some 
 weeks, some busy bodies have been manufacturing 
 the most absurd and groundless stories about me, 
 
88 Derozicts Vindication. 
 
 and even about my family. Some fools went so far 
 as to say my sister, while others said my daughter 
 (though I have not one) was to have been married 
 to a Hindu young man ! ! ! I traced the report to 
 a person called Brindabone Ghosal, a poor Brahmin, 
 who lives by going from house to house to entertain 
 the inmates with the news of the day, which he in- 
 variably invents. However, it is a satisfaction to 
 reflect that scandal, though often noisy, is not 
 everlasting. 
 
 Now that I have replied to your questions, allow 
 me to ask you, my dear Sir, whether the expediency 
 of yielding to popular clamour can be offered in 
 justification of the measures adopted by the Native 
 Managers of the College towards me ? Their pro- 
 ceedings certainly do not record any condemnation 
 of me, but does it not look very like condemnation 
 of a man's conduct and character to dismiss him from 
 office when popular clamour is against him ? Vague 
 reports and unfounded rumours went abroad concern- 
 ing me ; the Native Managers confirm them by 
 acting towards me as they have done. Excuse my 
 saying it, but I believe there was a determination 
 on their part to get rid of me, not to satisfy popular 
 clamour, but their own bigotry. Had my religion 
 and morals been investigated by them, they could 
 have had no grounds to proceed against me. They 
 therefore thought it most expedient to make no 
 
Derozitfs Vindication. 89 
 
 enquiry, but with anger and precipitation to remove 
 me from the institution. The slovenly manner in 
 which they have done so, is a sufficient indication 
 of the spirit by which they were moved ; for in their 
 rage they have forgotten what was due even to com- 
 mon decency. Every person who has heard of the 
 way in which they have acted is indignant, but to 
 complain of their injustice would be paying them a 
 greater compliment than they deserve. 
 
 In concluding this letter allow me to apologise 
 for its inordinate length, and to repeat my thanks 
 for all that you have done for me in the unpleasant 
 affair by which it has been occasioned. 
 
 I remain, &c., 
 
 H. L. V. DEROZIO. 
 
 12 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 DUFF AND THE PUPILS OF DEROZIO. 
 
 S early as the year 1833, this indignant denial of 
 the vile calumnies circulated by bigotry was 
 printed in the Calcutta Quarterly Magazine and Review 
 (see pages 92-4) ; and the same correspondence 
 appeared in the Bengal Obituary, and must have been 
 perfectly well known, not only to Dr. Duff, who 
 spent an active life in India and England for nearly 
 thirty years after 1848, but to Duff's biographer, Dr. 
 Smith. Not only in the newspapers of the day, but 
 in a fragmentary sketch of Derozio's life given in 
 the Bengal Obituary, these charges were declared 
 to be " the offspring of unfounded calumny," and yet, 
 in the face of this, Dr. George Smith, fifty years 
 after the events, revives these detestable untruths, 
 and sneers at Derozio as " a Eurasian of some 
 ability and much conceit," in order that his faultless 
 idol, Dr. Duff, should walk the stage, " the first mis- 
 sionary of modern times," in the borrowed plumes of 
 the achievements of the dead Derozio. Duff needs 
 no such borrowed plumes ; and his biographer, by the 
 ungracious belittleing of Derozio, and the all but 
 
Derozio' s Influence. 91 
 
 ignoring of the influences which alone made it pos- 
 sible for the Scottish missionary to effect what he 
 did, mars the usefulness and truthfulness of his work, 
 and lays himself open to charges which few bio- 
 graphers would care to incur. We have set forth 
 chronologically the influence of Derozio on the higher 
 class Hindu youth, and the consequences which 
 followed on the impact of Western thought and 
 culture, as exemplified in the teaching of Derozio, 
 on Eastern culture and the higher Hinduism of India. 
 We have endeavoured to exhibit, that to the despised 
 and all but unknown Eurasian lad, Henry Louis 
 Vivian Derozio, belongs the chief glory and high 
 honour of being the first, and to this day, the most 
 effectual motive power to move to its very depths 
 the religious sentiments, aspirations and beliefs of 
 educated Hindus. That Duff only entered on the 
 heritage of Derozio is evidenced in many ways ; 
 and that, had it not been for the well-meant zeal 
 of Duff and other Christian ministers, and the fierce 
 bigotry of religious zealots, Derozio's splendid powers 
 and unparalleled influence might have effected a 
 mightier revolution in the religious beliefs of educated 
 Hindus, than all the missions and missionaries sent 
 to India since the days of St. Francis Xavier. How 
 little hold Duff had on the higher class, or any 
 educated class, of Hindus, is truthfully attested 
 in the pages of The Enquirer, a journal conducted, 
 
92 " The Enquirer? 
 
 fifty years ago, by one of the most distinguished 
 pupil-friends of Derozio still alive. And how truly 
 and fearlessly and fairly Derozio taught his pupil- 
 friends to think and reason, may be gathered from 
 the pages of that journal. We quote a single passage 
 from The Enquirer of March 1832, little more than 
 two months after Derozio was laid in his grave ; and 
 in this connexion, it should be borne in mind that 
 the influence of Derozio over the educated higher 
 class native society of Calcutta continued unabated 
 till his death, and is even now a living reality. We 
 quote from the India Gazette of March loth, 1832, 
 in which the article from The Enquirer is re- 
 produced : 
 
 " Mr. Duffs lectures on Christianity^ intended 
 originally for the Hindus, are now attended by 
 them very rarely. The seats of the audience remain 
 for the most part vacant, but for a few East Indian 
 and European gentlemen that take some interest 
 in the business. The Hindus, we know not why, 
 have given up in a great measure hearing the Rev. 
 gentleman : we could recognise for some time past 
 only about half-a-dozen natives among those that 
 attended the lectures. This is certainly a neglect ; 
 for, considering the claims that have been attributed 
 to Christianity, and the influence it is said to have had 
 over the civilization of man, its enquiry does become 
 important to every one. In consequence of the 
 
" The Enquirer" on Duff. 93 
 
 few Hindus that attend Mr. Duff, a friend has under- 
 taken to write a weekly abstract of the lectures 
 for The Enquirer. We insert the last lecture delivered 
 on the 8th. While we hope on the one hand that 
 the argument of the Parson will be considered upon 
 by our Hindu friends, we must also on the other 
 hand ask the lecturer to give up his indiscriminate 
 abusive declamations against any that are said not 
 to be followers of his doctrines. To say, for in- 
 stance, that those who after hearing his lectures are 
 not convinced of the truth of his positions, are 
 unbelievers of Mr. Duff's religion, (not from any error 
 of the understanding, but from obstinacy), is equally 
 illiberal and unbecoming a lecture on Christianity. 
 Mr. Duff is very fond of the expression ' the disease ' 
 (of those that differ from him in religion) ' is in the 
 heart and not in the head] but hitherto every one 
 perceives he is led more by enthusiasm than by 
 
 sound judgment We blame the Hindus in 
 
 consequence of their fanatical cursing and swearing 
 against apostates from their religion ; and Mr. Duff, 
 with all his information and all his refined notions, 
 can be but little better than they if he be so into- 
 lerant ; and if he in a public capacity charge with 
 criminal and wilful obstinacy those persons that do 
 not feel the truth of religion after his manner. Mr. 
 Duff also dotes on the expression, ' we are bound to 
 believe this, and if we doubt this, we must reject all 
 
94 " The Enquirer" on Duff, 
 
 history* ; here again is a very great misapprehension. 
 Belief is not arbitrary. It comes home itself, how, 
 we do not know. We believe this because we feel 
 it so. We doubt that, because, likewise we feel 
 it so. To say we are bound to do a thing is to sup- 
 pose we have the power to do it ; and we are morally 
 obliged to exercise that poiuer. Now bring this 
 phrase to matters of religion, and see how inconsist- 
 ent you become. The Christian believes in Jesus ; 
 the Hindoo does not ; if both of them be sin- 
 cere, the former feels the truth to be in Jesus, the 
 latter takes a contrary view, and feels it elswhere. 
 We have supposed both to be true in their saying ; 
 and if we be an advocate for the opinion of the one 
 the utmost one can say against the other is, he ts> 
 'much mistaken or deceived ; in other words his 
 understanding has erred. To say this is one thing, 
 and to assume Mr. Duffs dictatorial tone, and attri- 
 bute obstinacy and criminal wickedness to un- 
 believers of our system, is another and a different 
 position. A word to the wise is sufficient, and we 
 dismiss the subject with the hope that our lecturer 
 will stick to such arguments and such reasonings 
 as may bring conviction to the minds of his hearers ; 
 and give up imputing bad hearts to them, and thereby 
 running the risk of prejudicing them against him." 
 
 This is the sort of criticism which Derozio's stu- 
 dents were able from his training, in the class-room, 
 
First Converts. 95 
 
 the Academic and kindred Societies, and in his in- 
 tercourse with them as friends, to bring to bear on 
 the argumentations of Duff and other advocates of 
 Christianity. That Krishna Mohun Banerjee, Mohesh 
 Chunder Ghose, and others of Derozio's pupils went 
 over to Christianity, was only what was to be ex- 
 pected, was only the logical consequence of the 
 teaching of their friend and master ; but that some 
 one else should claim the credit of this awakening 
 and this powerful impulse of independent thinking 
 amongst higher Hinduism, is due to the ignorance 
 and fanatical hero-worship of men who are unable 
 apparenly to see outside the rim of their own theo- 
 logical horizon, and who measure the universe of 
 thought and feeling by the narrow institutes of sec- 
 tarian theology, the confession of Faith, and Cate- 
 chisms and effete metaphysics of generations of men 
 who, neither in learning, culture, training, purity of 
 life or common-sense, have any claim to rank as 
 teachers or leaders of thought, or formulators of re- 
 ligious dogma for all men and for all succeeding 
 ages. 
 
 Duff himself in his own rhetorical way, admits to 
 the full, that the result of English thought and teach- 
 ing on higher Hindu Society had been effected 
 and exhibited before his coming to India, and un- 
 consciously pays the highest tribute to the influence 
 of Derozio. In the month of June 1830, that is less 
 
96 This " Rising body of Natives? 
 
 than a month after he landed in Calcutta, Duff 
 writes thus : " We rejoiced when in the metropolis 
 of British India, we fairly came in contact with a 
 rising body of natives who had learned to think and 
 discuss all subjects with unshackled freedom , though 
 that fredom was ever apt to degenerate. into license 
 in attempting to demolish the claims and preten- 
 sions of the Christian as well as every other pro- 
 fessedly revealed faith. We hailed the circum- 
 stance as indicating the approach of a period for 
 which we had waited, and longed, and prayed." 
 
 This " rising body of natives who had learned to 
 think and discuss all subjects with unshackled free- 
 dom " was the work of the Hindu College English 
 education, and the product of Derozio's teaching and 
 influence. Students of Duff there were none ; and it is 
 nearly fourteen months after June 1830, before the 
 first examination of the General Assembly's Mission 
 School took place, and then the highest pupils or 
 students of Duff s school, on the i5th of August 1831, 
 in the Freemasons' Lodge, 118, Dhurrumtollah, passed 
 a highly creditable oral examination in distinguishing 
 the parts of speech, repeating the rules of syntax, 
 giving the roots of the leading words in their read- 
 ing lesson, and answering questions on Genesis 
 and the Gospels (see the India Gazette for Mon- 
 day, August 1 5th, 1831,) Was it these students 
 of Duff's that Dr. George Smith refers to in a 
 
Emma Roberts. 97 
 
 passage of his biography ? (see page 140, vol. i). " It 
 was a sultry night in August (1831) when twenty of 
 the foremost students of his own (Duff's) and of the 
 Hindu College took their places (in a room in Duff's 
 house) in expectation of a novel exposition." If so, 
 their progress since their examination in the same 
 month must have been even more marvellous than 
 any educational statistic yet recorded. 
 
 The estimation in which Derozio was held by his 
 contemporaries even at the time of his connexion 
 with the Hindu School, may be gathered from the 
 following extract from the preface of Miss Emma 
 Roberts' Oriental Scenes, with other Poems. In the 
 year 1830 this gifted lady was resident at Agra, and 
 her friend Derozio undertook to see her volume of 
 poems through the press : 
 
 " There is however one person to whom more par- 
 "ticular acknowledgments are due, and she, with 
 " great pleasure, mentions her obligation to Mr. H. 
 " L. V. Derozio, to whose invaluable assistance she 
 " is indebted for the superintendence of her volume 
 " through the press, a task which the distance of her 
 " residence from Calcutta precluded her from per- 
 " forming, and which none, save a poet, could have 
 " executed so ably. The author must ever deem her- 
 "self fortunate in procuring, for so important an 
 tf undertaking, the aid of a gentleman whose well 
 " earned reputation confers honour upon the pages 
 
 13 
 
98 Emma Roberts. 
 
 "which have experienced his guarding care from those 
 " typographical errors which they could not other- 
 "wise have escaped." Had Derozio been the wild 
 " Atheist, the immoral poet," the constant referrer 
 " to the most lascivious plays of the Restoration," the 
 dreamer and teacher of filthy grossness, it is not at all 
 likely that the accomplished Emma Roberts would 
 have soiled the purity of her name, and tarnished her 
 reputation by allowing Derozio to handle her proof 
 sheets and emendate her verses. We look on this 
 tribute to the worth of Derozio as one of the strong- 
 est refutations of all the calumny and abuse heaped 
 on him. 
 
e^. 
 
 f 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE EURASIAN MOVEMENT OF 1829-30. 
 
 January 1822, in consequence of a decision 
 of the Supreme Court in Calcutta, which de- 
 clared that a large proportion of East Indians 
 did not come under the denomination of British 
 subjects, a subscription to defray the expenses 
 of an appeal to the King (George IV) in Council 
 was inaugurated. This was the commencement of 
 the first combined movement of the East Indian 
 community, which, after eight years of agitation 
 and organisation, culminated in the Petition of the 
 East Indians, Christian inhabitants of Calcutta and 
 the Provinces comprised within the " Presidency 
 of Fort William, " to the Hon'ble the Commons 
 of the " United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land in Parliament assembled, " presented to the 
 House of Lords by the Earl of Carlisle on the 
 29th March 1830, and to the House of Commons 
 by the Honorable Williams Wynn, on the 4th of 
 May of the same year. 
 
 Towards the close of last century fears regarding 
 the increasing numbers and loyalty of Eurasians were 
 
ioo The Policy of Suppression. 
 
 spread abroad chiefly amongst the servants of the 
 Company ; and, whether from a sense of danger, a 
 feeling of shame and disgrace, or a determination 
 to hedge round the preserves of office in the gift of 
 the Directors from all but those of pure European 
 birth and education, Eurasians were effectually ex- 
 cluded from positions and offices which they were 
 well fitted to occupy. A general letter of the Court 
 of Directors, I4th March 1786, prohibited those wards 
 of the Upper Orphan School of the Bengal Military 
 Society, who were born of native mothers by British 
 fathers, from being sent to England for education. 
 In the Gazette of June 1792, it was notified that no 
 person, the son of a native, shall henceforth be 
 appointed to employment in the Civil, Military or 
 Marine services of the Company, or as sworn officers 
 of the Company's ships, between Europe and India. 
 In 1795, during the Governor-Generalships of Lord 
 Cornwallis, all persons not descended from European 
 parents on both sides, were prohibited from serving 
 in the European branch of the army, unless as fifers, 
 drummers and bandsmen. Those of their number 
 debarred from serving in British regiments, who en- 
 tered the service of native princes, were immediately 
 recalled on the outbreak of hostilities. This was the 
 case in 1801, when the Mahratta war began. Indeed, 
 up to the renewal of the Charter in 1834, the general 
 tendency of the rule of the Company was to level 
 
The Policy of Suppression. 101 
 
 Eurasians to the same rank as natives, while, at the 
 same time, offices to which natives were eligible, 
 such as those of Munsiffs and Sudder Ameens 
 were closed against Eurasians. Besides this, out- 
 side the Presidency towns, they were subject to the 
 rule of Muhamedan law. English by parentage, the 
 majority were denied the rights of British subjects, 
 and in the Mufasal they had the benefit neither of 
 Habeas Corpus nor trial by Jury. Christians by pro- 
 fession, they were subject to the hateful rule of the 
 Koran in criminal matters. English by birth, edu- 
 cation and habits, they were in the eye of the law 
 natives ; nevertheless, when lavish grants were made 
 for the education of natives, no provision was made 
 for Eurasians ; they were then considered not natives, 
 and, loyal to the race of their fathers, many of them 
 with the feelings, tastes and habits of gentlemen, 
 were debarred from entering the British army, or, 
 indeed, serving India in any but the lower offices 
 of the service. Before the year 1791 the Company's 
 services, civil and military, were open to Eurasians ; 
 and members of the community before that date, 
 and for some time after, held positions in the service 
 which, on the whole, notwithstanding a few recent 
 exceptions, they have never attained since. The 
 soldier who commanded the Bombay army during 
 the campaigns of 1803, 1804 and 1805 was General 
 Jones, a Eurasian. Colonel Stevenson, another 
 
IO2 The Policy of Suppression. 
 
 Eurasian, was Quartermaster-General of the army for 
 many years. To these we may add the names of 
 Colonel Nairne, Major Deare, Captain Routledge, 
 Lieutenant Mullins and Colonel Skinner of the Irre- 
 gulars, all of them distinguished officers, notable for 
 fearless bravery and gallantry in action, capable 
 soldiers and leaders of men in the days when war 
 was learned in the field and camp, and not as now- 
 a-days in a cramming establishment and in the bu- 
 reau of a Military Department. There are yet in the 
 civil service, and still more largely in the army, mem- 
 bers of the Eurasian community who, through fa- 
 mily connexions with the Directors of the late Com- 
 pany or other high officials, found an entrance to 
 these services ; but if the fact of their birth is not 
 denied or ignored, it has been frequently suppressed. 
 
 The causes that worked together to produce this 
 exclusion from the higher offices of the Indian ser- 
 vice we have hinted at. We do not think that the 
 Eurasians were entirely blameless. In all probability 
 an amount of self-conceit, not always well-ground- 
 ed in sterling capacity, was as apparent towards the 
 close of last century, as it is to-day, among many 
 individuals of Eurasian birth ; and there may have 
 been foolish talk and vapouring amongst the more 
 restless and headstrong which gave some ground 
 of truth for statements issued, cot with the authority 
 of the Company's responsible officers, but nevertheless 
 
The Policy of Suppression. 103 
 
 from the Government press, which damaged consi- 
 derably the chances of Eurasians occupying any but 
 subordinate posts, and represented them as a dan- 
 gerous element in India to be suppressed and regard- 
 ed with suspicion. Besides this, it seems to us, there 
 can be little doubt that the influence of many Direc- 
 tors and other Indian officials was exerted to pre- 
 vent the rise of Eurasians to higher offices, in order 
 that European uncles and cousins might not meet 
 in the various services of India, and be continually 
 associated on terms of equality with nephews and 
 cousins born of native women, who, even if they were 
 legitimate, and on this account brought no stain on 
 the family honour, had nevertheless in their veins 
 some of the blood of the subject-races ; and might 
 be ready to presume on their European ties, and be 
 a standing dishonour and disgrace to the family 
 escutcheon. Whether we have been successful or 
 not in enumerating all the causes which produced the 
 Gazette Notification of 1792, and the Resolution of 
 Lord Cornwallis' time, 1795, Eurasians were effec- 
 tually excluded by these orders ; and notwithstand- 
 ing the Lex Loci Act of 1831, the concessions granted 
 to men of Indian birth at the renewal of the Charter, 
 1833 and 1855, and the various minutes and resolu- 
 tions since these dates, it is certain that Eurasians 
 have not, during this century, occupied the favour- 
 able position with regard to service in the great 
 
IO4 Missionary and Government Education. 
 
 departments of State in India which they occupied 
 before 1790. Nor is this all ; before the Missionary 
 and Government schools and colleges were estab- 
 lished, it was only a comparatively small number 
 of purely native men who possessed a sufficient ac- 
 quaintance with English to render their services 
 available as clerks and writers and in other posts 
 in the various Government and mercantile offices. 
 These positions were filled almost exclusively by 
 Eurasians up to about 1835. Since then, not only 
 has the Eurasian community largely increased with- 
 out any corresponding multiplication of offices in 
 which their services are desirable, but the conse- 
 quence of Missionary and Government education 
 has been, that large numbers, yearly increasing, of 
 pure natives have been competitors with Eurasians 
 for those very posts which, up to the first quarter of 
 this century, they, because of their English educa- 
 cation, almost monopolised. While pure native 
 races have been provided by Missionaries and the 
 Government with schools, colleges and splendid 
 staffs of teachers to carry on their education, Eura- 
 sians have had to depend almost entirely on their 
 own resources aided by private philanthropy. The 
 consequence is that all the advantages and facilities 
 are on the side of Hindus and Muhamedans, and 
 so culpably negligent have successive Missionaries, 
 Church dignitaries and rulers of India been, that a 
 
Preparation of the Petition. 105 
 
 large proportion of the lower section of Eurasians 
 have sunk in the social scale and practically disap- 
 peared among native races. 
 
 In November 1825, a general meeting of East 
 Indians was held at the house of Mr. Wordsworth, 
 Mr. W. DaCosta, in the chair. This meeting, acting 
 on the advice of an eminent firm of Solicitors in Lon- 
 don, Messrs. Collett, Wimbourn and Collett, appointed 
 a committee of seven to draw up a draft petition to 
 Parliament. The gentlemen composing this Commit- 
 tee were Messrs. Wordsworth, DaCosta, G. Reed, J. L. 
 Heatly, A. Imlach, H. Martindell, with J. W. Ricketts 
 as Secretary. By February of the following year, 
 1826, the draft petition was ready, and lay for some 
 time at the house of Mr. Imlach, 40 Cossitollah, for the 
 inspection of all who might feel interested in, or care 
 to make observations on it, and subscriptions amount- 
 ing to Rs. 2731 were obtained to meet the probable 
 expenses of its presentation to Parliament. By the 
 end of March 1826 the petition was in the hands 
 of a member of the Calcutta Bar for the purpose of 
 undergoing legal revision. There it remained till 
 the May of 1827. It was then evident that the 
 petition should be entrusted to other hands. Accord- 
 ingly a second member of the Bar received the peti- 
 tion for legal revision, with the usual fee of 40 Gold 
 Mohurs. It was not till the December of 1828 that 
 it found its way back to the Committee, who, anxious 
 
 14 
 
io6 Ricketts appointed Agent. 
 
 for its completeness in all its parts, submitted it to a 
 third gentleman. On the 28th February, 1829,3 Meet- 
 ing of the Committee read, discussed and approved 
 of the thrice revised petition, had it engrossed, and 
 placed in the Town Hall for signature, and printed 
 in several newspapers. A General Meeting of the 
 Committee was held in the Town Hall, on the 2Oth 
 April 1829, at which J. W. Ricketts was unanimously 
 appointed the Agent of "the East Indians," a de- 
 signation which, as including the whole body to 
 which they belonged, they preferred to all others, to 
 proceed to England as a deputy in support of the 
 petition, and it was agreed that a fund should be 
 raised "to promote the great and important objects 
 contemplated by us." By the i8th of July 1829, 
 subscriptions amounting to Rs 12,677-5-6 had been 
 received by the Committee, which, after deducting 
 necessary expenses, left a balance of Rs 8,906-4-0. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Ricketts generously offered to undertake 
 the journey to England and the advocacy of the 
 claims of the East Indian community there, on condi- 
 tion that his passage money and the bare expenses 
 incident to the journey and residence in England, 
 should be defrayed by the community. The commu- 
 nity on their part, while gladly availing themselves 
 of Mr. Ricketts' services, considering the responsible 
 public character with which that agent was invested, 
 and the "suitable degree of respectability to be 
 
Ricketts sails for England. 107 
 
 sustained on the occasion," authorised him to draw the 
 sum of ^"500 a year for his support in England, 
 including travelling expenses. It is not to be sup- 
 posed that these preliminaries, scattered as they were 
 over a period of nearly eight years, were so far con- 
 cluded without a considerable amount of public discus- 
 sion, letter-writing and opposition. A small section 
 of the Eurasian community, choosing for themselves 
 the name of Indo-Britons, as distinguished from East 
 Indians, headed by Mr. Charles Reed and J. L. 
 Heatly, the former a gentleman of considerable abili- 
 ty, and possessed of a genius for litigation, opposed 
 the action of the East Indian Committee, and did 
 their best to invalidate and render abortive what 
 had already been effected. The Indo-Britons were 
 worsted in the discussion and their efforts rendered 
 unavailing. J. W. Ricketts sailed for England in the 
 Andromache ', Captain R. L. Laws, and, after a pro- 
 tracted voyage, reached London on the 27th Decem- 
 ber, 1829, the very month in which Lord W. Bentinck, 
 acting on the advice of Butterworth Bayley and Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe, abolished Sati, and the year which 
 saw the suppression of the Thugs. George the IV. was 
 entering on the last year of his reign. The Test and 
 Corporation Acts of Charles IFs reign, which exclud- 
 ed dissenters from civil offices unless they qualified 
 themselves by taking the Sacrament according to 
 the rules of the Church of England, had just been 
 
loS Britain in 1829. 
 
 repealed. Pitt, Castlereagh, Canning, and the whole 
 strength oi the Whigs had unsucessfully advocated 
 the remission of the disabilities of Roman Catholics- 
 Ireland, under the complete control of Daniel 
 O'Connell, the priests and the Catholic associations 
 was on the verge of rebellion, clamouring for the 
 admission to the Imperial Legislature of members of 
 the Romish Church. The Metropolitan police and 
 the Irish and Scotch constabulary were founded by 
 Sir Robert Peel, and in the same year Benjamin 
 Disraeli published his first novel, Vivian Grey, while 
 Gladstone was an undergraduate of Christ's Church, 
 Oxford. The Radicals of Glasgow and the west of 
 Scotland, incited to rebellion by Richmond, the 
 ever-to-be detested Government spy, armed with 
 pikes, were sabred down and ridden over on their way 
 from Glasgow to Stirling by a party of dragoons > 
 and Baird and Hardy, Scotch Radicals, were execut- 
 ed for treason, because they gave expression to poli- 
 tical sentiments much less strong than may be met 
 with any morning now in the columns of a liberal 
 newspaper. Parliament was to meet in February of 
 the following year, 1830. In that Parliament 
 O'Connell introduced a bill for universal suffrage, 
 triennial parliaments, and vote by ballot, .which was 
 rejected by a majority of 306 on the 28th May. 
 When Ricketts landed in England, and during the 
 whole period of his residence there, the great 
 
Ricketts at Work. 109 
 
 struggle for reform occupied the chief attention of 
 statesmen and politicians, and through every grade of 
 society the rising wave of liberalism was producing 
 a commotion unequalled in the history of English 
 politics. To gain the ear of statesmen, to get a 
 hearing for the Petition of the East Indians from 
 the Lords and Commons of England, and to produce 
 an interesting debate in both Houses, amidst the 
 turmoil of reform and the struggle of opposing states- 
 men, was no easy achievement, as Ricketts' country- 
 men were not slow to acknowledge. On his first 
 landing in England, Ricketts interviewed the Chair- 
 man, Deputy Chairman, President of the Board of 
 Control (Lord Ellenborough), and several Directors 
 of the East India Company. By the middle of Feb- 
 ruary he considered that he was in possession of 
 sufficient data to warrant him in believing " that 
 nothing in a satisfactory or tangible shape was to 
 be looked for at the India House," and he resolved 
 to turn his undivided attention to Parliament. Ac- 
 companied by Mr. John Crawford, he called on the 
 Right Honorable C. W. Williams Wynn and obtain- 
 ed his consent to present the Petition to the House 
 of Commons. The Earl of Carlisle undertook to 
 present the Lords' petition. Lord Ashley, then 
 a member of the Board of Control, received Mr. 
 Ricketts with the greatest cordiality, entered with 
 interest into the subject of his mission, was himself 
 
i ro Ricketts at Work. 
 
 anxious to present the petition to the House of 
 Lords, and would have done so but for the influence 
 brought to bear by the Board of Control and the 
 Government. In the interest of East Indians and 
 their petition, Mr. Ricketts corresponded with the 
 Duke of Wellington, Lord Carlisle, the Right 
 Hon'ble Sir Robert Peel, Lord Calthorpe, the 
 Hon'ble Sir Alexander Johnston, for some time 
 Chief-Justice and President in Council, Ceylon, Sir 
 John Bowring, then Dr. John Bowring, Editor of 
 the Westminster Review % and others. He was also 
 examined at great length before the Lords' Select 
 Committee on the affairs of the East India Com- 
 pany on the 3 ist March 1830, and before the Com- 
 mons on the 2 ist and 24th of June ; and, although 
 on the last occasion suffering from fever, he acquit- 
 ted himself in a manner which won for him the high- 
 est praise. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 THE TOWN HALL MEETING, 9TH MARCH 1831. 
 
 t"~N all the meetings and controversies which at 
 that time were moving Eurasians to strive for the 
 rights hitherto withheld from them by the unjust 
 jealousy of the Indian rulers and advisers of those 
 days, Derozio played an independent and important 
 part. The men that as happy boys shouted together 
 in play, now stood on the same platform and raised 
 their voices in indignant protest and appeal against 
 the social and legal ban that denied them even the 
 name or the rights of British-born subjects, and 
 withheld from them the rights of trial by jury and 
 Habeas Corpus. Differences of opinion as to the line 
 of action and the name which the united communi- 
 ty should take, Indo-Britons, East Indians, Indo- 
 Europeans, Anglo-Indians, very early arose in the 
 movement which ultimately culminated in the East 
 Indians' petition to Parliament of 1830, on behalf 
 of which J. W. Ricketts undertook a journey to 
 England, as their agent, to press the justice of their 
 claims to the legal status of British subjects. De- 
 rozio, himself a member of Committee, was opposed 
 
112 Derozicts Speech. 
 
 to the proceedings which J. W. Ricketts brought 
 to such a successful termination. Derozio was im- 
 pressed with the belief, all arguments to the con- 
 trary being had in view, " That the descendants of 
 European foreigners were not included among the 
 parties from whom the petition was said to come." 
 He entertained the impression that in England, that 
 class, who had numerously signed the petition, would 
 not be properly, if at all, represented by Mr. Ricketts. 
 On the return of Ricketts, Reed, Theobald, Theo- 
 dore Dickens, and Derozio, who had consistently 
 opposed the sending of a delegate, joined in honour- 
 ing him for his modest, manly and successful advo- 
 cacy of their claims ; and at a meeting held in the 
 Town Hall on the 28th March 1831, Derozio, in 
 moving the proposition that, as a mark of approba- 
 tion, respect, and affection, Mr. Ricketts should be 
 presented, as a memorial of gratitude by his country- 
 men, with a silver vase, his portrait in oil, and a 
 public dinner welcoming him to his native shore, 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 " Why then am I here this day. I have intimated 
 that I have been called here by duty, and that is a voice 
 which I dare not disobey. I am an East Indian, and 
 therefore I ought to be here. I am interested in the 
 welfare of my countrymen, and therefore I ought to be 
 here. I am anxious to know what measures have been 
 adopted to promote that welfare, and therefore I ought 
 
The condition of Eurasians. 1-13 
 
 to be here. I love my country and I love justice, and 
 therefore I ought to be here. Shall it be said of me 
 that I was a man who, having committed an error, 
 was afraid or ashamed to acknowledge it? They 
 know me not who entertain this opinion of me : I 
 am satisfied that I have done him (J. W. Ricketts) 
 wrong. Publicly was the error committed, as pub- 
 licly is it recalled Our condition is worse than 
 
 savage degradation. Of what savage tribes has it 
 yet been recorded that the parents have consigned 
 their offspring to infamy? No, Sir, it has been left for 
 civilized man to do what no barbarian has ever 
 yet conceived, and that has been to work out for 
 an unhappy class the conditions against which we 
 complain. Taking this view of these conditions, 
 the petition, of which Mr. Ricketts was the bearer, 
 was the remonstrance of East Indians against the 
 
 unnatural cruelty of their fathers This assembly 
 
 has already accorded its thanks to him, but al- 
 though the acknowledgments of grateful hearts 
 are pleasing, the labour of men in a public cause 
 should not be passed by in that way. Mr. Ricketts 
 has told us that our gratulations and the plaudits 
 he has received this day have rendered him indebt- 
 ed to us. Gentlemen, that sentiment has made us 
 doubly his debtors. Conceive yourselves, trans- 
 ported back to the days of Greek and Roman 
 glory, conceive yourselves a community existing 
 
 15 
 
114 Derozio's eulogy of Ricketts. 
 
 in those ages, with brilliant examples before your 
 eyes of honours and triumphs accorded to those 
 who had served their country ; conceive how 
 such examples had operated upon your minds, 
 and how you had then welcomed to his native shore 
 the man who for you has done much and suffered 
 much. Many whom I have now the honour to 
 address are aware that it is not recently that he has 
 exerted himself to ameliorate our condition. In 
 youth, when he first felt life in every limb, that 
 animation was inspired by an unabating zeal to do 
 his country service. You can testify whether I 
 overrate him, when I declare, that if any man is 
 entitled to the gratitude of the East Indian com- 
 munity, that man is John William Ricketts. Had 
 he been entitled to it on no other ground than be- 
 cause the Parental Academic Institution (the Dove- 
 ton College,) an establishment which, if not well 
 supported, is less creditable to those who should 
 support it than to its founder, owes its origin to 
 him, such gratitude had been well deserved. Should 
 we not, therefore, present to him some token of 
 our regard, which he may hand down to his poste- 
 rity, that the conduct of so excellent a father and 
 so worthy a man may not be lost upon his sons ; 
 but that it may inspire his children to render such 
 services to yours as he has done to you. If then, 
 I am surrounded by East Indians, if there be in 
 
Supports, motion for second petition. 115 
 
 your bosoms one spark of manly feeling which 
 may be kindled into a flame ; if you consider 
 patriotic exertion in your cause as worthy of 
 imitation ; if you are alive to just principles of duty, 
 I charge you by all that is dear to your hearts to 
 support the proposition which I shall now submit." 
 
 The proposition so eloquently advocated by Dero- 
 zio, was carried unanimously. At the same meeting, 
 in seconding the motion of his friend Charles Pote, 
 the Eurasian Artist, that a second petition should be 
 drawn up and presented to the new Parliament, and 
 that the agitation of their claims to equal rights as 
 British subjects should be continued till it bore fruit 
 in just concession to rights long withheld, Derozio 
 spoke as follows : 
 
 " I rise to support the proposition of Mr. Pote. 
 As junior counsel in the case, I cannot, however, be 
 expected to dwell so long or so ably upon its merits. 
 But its importance and the necessity of pressing it 
 upon the consideration of this meeting, must be my 
 apology for the liberty I take with the patience and 
 indulgence of all around me. 
 
 " Although our respected delegate has informed 
 us of his having received very favourable assurances 
 from certain noble Lords and other influential 
 individuals in Parliament, I cannot see the evils 
 which the adoption of this resolution is likely 
 to entail. Why are we assembled here this 
 
1 1 6 Supports motion for second petition. 
 
 day ? Are we to confine ourselves to a particular 
 routine and exclude all matters which do not come 
 exactly within it ? Is this assembly unprepared to 
 entertain this proposition? What is the difficulty 
 in its way? Is it characterised by less discretion 
 than zeal? He who entertains such a notion has 
 certainly misunderstood the object of my friend 
 Mr. Pote, and attended but indifferently to the 
 tenor of his suggestions. It is not required of the 
 committee to prepare a petition this moment, nor is 
 it supposed that any individual present has such a 
 document ready in his pocket which he has only 
 to lay upon the table for instant signature. Such 
 speed is not contemplated by us. We only call 
 upon our friends to request the committee to draft 
 another petition, and, that no haste may do mis- 
 chief, to take care that it shall be fully approved of 
 before it is signed and despatched. Suppose this 
 resolution is adopted, and that it afterwards be- 
 comes unnecessary, what harm will be done ? We 
 shall only have to change our minds a matter of 
 no inconvenience. Were there no other considera- 
 tion, the fact that one House of Commons rarely 
 takes cognizance of petitions addressed to its pre- 
 decessor, should be alone sufficient to convince us 
 of the imperative necessity of appealing to the 
 Legislature of Great Britain again. What have we 
 hitherto done ? What have we yet obtained ? 
 
Lord Ashley sympathises with us. 1 1 7 
 
 Where are our spoils? Have our rights been 
 restored ? Have our claims been conceded ? No, 
 sir, we have but just taken the field, and now, shall 
 we rest upon our arms? The spirit of exclusion 
 has only been startled upon his throne ; but there 
 sits the demon still mocking our efforts, and grin- 
 ning over his triumphs. Our hearts must not 
 faint, our nerves must not slacken. Let us not 
 trust our cause to men who have nothing for us 
 but empty profession. Our friend Mr. Ricketts has 
 told us, that Lord Ashley sympathises with us, and 
 that Sir Alexander Johnston is deeply interested 
 for us. But their sympathy and their interest, 
 however likely to call forth our gratitude, should 
 never claim our confidence. Do you suppose, that 
 any Member of the Legislature, touched by so 
 much tenderness, will address either House of Par- 
 liament in some such way as this ? Gentlemen, here 
 am I overflowing with the milk of human kindness, 
 anxious to restore to that long- neglected and unjust- 
 ly treated race, the East Indians, those rights 
 which they do not demand. No, sir, such will never 
 be the language of legislators : the benevolence of 
 statesmen seldom incommodes them to such an 
 alarming degree. But the very facts which Mr. 
 Ricketts' report communicates to us should lead us 
 to distrust noble Lords and honourable gentlemen. 
 What are those facts ? Lord Ashley felt for us ! 
 
1 1 8 Pirm and respectful remonstrance. 
 
 We thank his Lordship. He promised to present 
 our petition. This was generous. But when the 
 time came for his Lordship's hand to follow up the 
 benevolent suggestions of his heart, that hand be- 
 came suddenly paralyzed. Weighty matters of 
 State pressed upon his heart, and the petition 
 was left to make its own way into the House 
 of Commons. I am apprehensive, (though I 
 only suggest the possibility of the thing) that 
 matters of State may be as burdensome to our 
 other sympathising friends in Parliament, and that 
 such paralytic attacks as, we see, do sometimes 
 afflict Lord Ashley, may be common to others who 
 are deeply interested in our welfare. To protect 
 ourselves against such mischances, it would not 
 perhaps be the most unwise course to petition the 
 Legislature. Gentlemen, you have nothing to fear 
 from firm and respectful remonstrance. Your calls 
 for justice must be as incessant as your grievances 
 are heavy. Complain again and again, complain 
 till you are heard. Aye, and until you are answer- 
 ed. The ocean leaves traces of every inroad it 
 makes upon the shore ; but it must repeat those in- 
 roads with unabated strength, and follow them up 
 with rapidity, before it washes away the strand." 
 
 Though the memory of Derozio has been shame- 
 lessly neglected by his fellow Eurasians, his 
 body resting in a nameless grave in an obscure 
 
The Apathy of Eurasians. 119 
 
 corner of a dilapidated graveyard, and his very 
 name, if known at all to the rising generation of men 
 of his own blood, known in a hazy sort of way, the 
 calumnies of his life still clinging to his shadowy 
 memory, the course of action so ably and wisely 
 advocated by Charles Pote and Henry Derozio, has 
 not altogether been without fruit. But we venture to 
 think that, had Eurasians been more energetic in their 
 assertion of equal rights, and an equal share, not only 
 of posts in the Government of India for which they 
 were suited, but of an adequate State-aided system 
 of education for their children, their position to-day 
 would not have been that of a race burdened in the 
 battle of life with conditions which, in some respects, 
 they themselves have induced. Through this repre- 
 hensible apathy and indifference to their own best 
 interests, which rarely allows them to rise much 
 higher than talk and platform oratory, even in the 
 December of 1876, on the occasion of the inaugura- 
 tion of The Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association 
 in the Town Hall of Calcutta, with Sir Richard 
 Temple in the chair, when the Eurasian population 
 of Calcutta was proved by the census of that year 
 to number over u,ooo, and probably double that 
 number in the whole presidency of Bengal, less than 
 three hundred Eurasians came together to organize 
 a movement on which so much of their own future 
 depended, and which afforded them an opportunity 
 
I2O The Apathy of Eurasians. 
 
 of manifesting the reality of their earnestness to help 
 themselves, and exhibiting to the Legislators of India 
 and England their determination to make known 
 their just complaints, "to complain again and again, 
 till they were heard and till they were answered," to 
 follow up with unabated strength and rapidity every 
 means which would ensure the education, the social 
 status, the political influence, and the future well- 
 being of their class. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 THE PUPIL-FRIENDS OF DEROZIO. 
 
 Expanding like the petals of young flowers 
 
 I watch the gentle opening of your minds, 
 
 And the sweet loosening of the spell that binds 
 
 Your intellectual energies and powers 
 
 That stretch (like young birds in soft summer hours,) 
 
 Their wings to try their strength. O ! how the winds 
 
 Of circumstance, and freshening April showers 
 
 Of early knowledge, and unnumbered kinds 
 
 Of new perceptions shed their influence ; 
 
 And how you worship truth's omnipotence ! 
 
 What joyance rains upon me, when I see 
 
 Fame in the mirror of futurity, 
 
 Weaving the chaplets you have yet to gain, 
 
 And then I feel I have not lived in vain. 
 
 Derozio's Sonnet to the Students of the Hindu College. 
 
 JHE lads most powerfully influenced by Derozio, 
 ^ and who were in closest contact and sympathy 
 with him, numbered over eighteen. A note or two 
 regarding the more prominent of these may be in- 
 teresting. 
 
 Krishna Mohun Banerjea, of all Derozio's pupil- 
 friends, was probably the most intimately acquaint- 
 ed with him ; and is the one above all the 
 rest who has distinguished himself as a scholar 
 and a thinker. At the time when Derozio taught 
 
 16 
 
122 Krishna Mohun Banerjea. 
 
 in the Hindoo College, Krishna Mohun Banerjea 
 was a pupil of the first class. Although never 
 in the classes of the College taught by Derozio, 
 he and the others, to be afterwards enumerated, 
 continually associated with him during the inter- 
 vals of school hours and in the gatherings at 
 Derozio's house, as well as in the Academic and 
 other associations, and in the conducting of the 
 Hesperus and other papers. Krishna Mohun was 
 the leader of the advanced Liberal party amongst 
 the Hindoo youths of Calcutta, and he, though a 
 Kulin Brahmin, sat down at Derozio's table with other 
 advanced thinkers of his countrymen, and, in de- 
 fiance of all caste rules, partook freely of beef, beer 
 and other European luxuries. The Brahminical 
 thread was thrown aside, and Pope and Dryden 
 were held in more esteem than the sacred books of 
 the Hindoos. At a meeting of the more bold and 
 liberal-minded of Hindoo youths, held at the house 
 of Krishna Mohun, from which he himself was 
 absent the date being 23rd August, 1831, four 
 months before the death of Derozio carried away 
 by their impulsive feelings, and each inciting the 
 other, after partaking of some roast beef, the mem- 
 bers proceeded to toss the remainder into the com- 
 pound of an adjoining house, occupied by a Brahmin 
 held in high estimation for holiness, shouting at 
 the same time sufficiently loud to reach the ears of 
 
Baptism. 123 
 
 the inmates : " There is beef there is beef. " A 
 personal encounter followed. The family of Krishna 
 Mohun, indignantly appealed to by the orthodox 
 Hindoo community, had no other alternative than to 
 ex-communicate the arch offender. Compelled to 
 flee from the home and friends of his boyhood, and 
 suffering acute mental torments, he was attacked 
 by fever, on recovery from which he entered on his 
 course as journalist with renewed vigor and with 
 more uncompromising decision. At this point of 
 his history he came into immediate contact with Duff. 
 On the 28th of August 1831 the Enquirer announced 
 the baptism of Duff's first convert, Derozio's pupil, 
 Mohesh Chunder Ghose. Duff's next convert was 
 the Editor of the Enquirer, Krishna Mohun 
 Banerjea, also the pupil-friend of Derozio ; but neither 
 of these men joined, or in any way laboured for, 
 the Church of Scotland. They were not Duffs 
 converts, in any true sense of the word and they 
 can be called so only in the sense that, having gone 
 the whole round of speculation, they were in a posi- 
 tion, before they came in contact with Duff, to ap- 
 preciate the arguments and the claims of Christianity. 
 That they were subject to other influences than 
 those of the Scottish Missionary, is evidenced in 
 the fact that they were admitted to the Episcopal 
 Church of England, not to the Kirk of Scotland. 
 The truth is both Banerjea and Ghose had long been 
 
124 Teaching of Derozio. 
 
 in contact with and receiving religious instruction from 
 gentlemen, clerical and lay, belonging to the Epis- 
 copal Church. These men were in truth the first fruits 
 of Derozio's influence and teaching, followed out to 
 their legitimate conclusions, rather than the result of 
 any sustained effort on the part of Duff. The whole 
 fabric of Hindoo prejudices had been broken down by 
 Derozio, and a love for truth and a struggle for its 
 attainment planted in its stead ; and no idea was 
 oftener embodied in words by Derozio in conversation 
 and discussion, or burned into his pupil-friends' me- 
 mories more deeply, than this : " Whatever comes 
 before you in the semblance of truth, that enquire 
 into with all diligence, out of the high respect due 
 to truth. " In defiance of the mandate of the mana- 
 gers of the Hindoo College, forbidding attendance 
 at religious and other discussions, Derozio, in oppo- 
 sition to their bigotry and intolerance, encouraged 
 the students to attend the lectures of Duff; and 
 when remonstrated with by Mr. H. H. Wilson on 
 the injury to his own position in the school, of thus 
 directly setting at defiance the mandate of the mana- 
 gers, he declared it was no business of his to put a 
 stop to free discussion and the search for truth. 
 
 Krishna Mohun taught for some time in the 
 Hare School, has been professor in the now defunct 
 Bishop's College and examiner in the College of 
 Fort William, is honorary doctor-in-law of the Cal- 
 
Mohesh Ckunder Ghose. 125 
 
 cutta University, honorary chaplain to the Bishop of 
 Calcutta, member of the Asiatic Society, and member 
 of the Calcutta Municipality. He has published tracts, 
 sermons, and articles in various forms. In one of 
 his earliest, " Persecuted" he demonstrated that caste 
 was an after-growth of Hindooism, having no exis- 
 tence in its earlier stages. His Dialogues on " Hin- 
 doo Philosophy " are nearly out of print, but will 
 well repay perusal. His most recent work is " The 
 Aryan Witness," 1875, and two supplementary essays 
 on the same topic, 1880, published by Thacker, Spink 
 & Co., of Calcutta. For many years he has been an 
 ordained clergyman of the Church of England, and 
 he has laboured incessantly during a long life for the 
 educational, intellectual and spiritual progress of 
 his countrymen. One of his daughters is well known 
 as Mrs. Wheeler, the Government Inspectress of the 
 Zenana agencies. 
 
 Mohesh Chunder Ghose is spoken of by those 
 who remember him as a " most spirited lad," and 
 a great friend, though no relation, of Ram Gopal 
 Ghose. During the last illness of Derozio his pupil- 
 friends watched by his death-bed in turns. Mohesh 
 Chunder Ghose was present when the Rev. Mr. Hill 
 visited Derozio, and heard all that passed between 
 them, unless what may have been said in a few 
 whispered words ; but though he himself afterwards 
 became a Christian, and had no reason for with- 
 
126 Ram Gopal Ghose. 
 
 holding the truth, he declared there was no death-bed 
 recantation, no documeut signed by Derozio declaring 
 his belief in Christianity, but that Derozio died as he 
 had lived, searching for truth. This testimony he main- 
 tained during the whole term of his short life. He 
 was baptised in the Old Church by the Rev. T.Dealtry, 
 afterwards Bishop of Madras. In the same church 
 Krishna Mohun Banerjea, a short time afterwards, 
 preached the funeral sermon of his old friend and 
 associate. The audience was a crowded one, and 
 amongst the worshippers was David Hare, who knew 
 the preacher and the dead as lads in the school of 
 his own founding. 
 
 Ram Gopal Ghose was born in the October of 
 1815, the son of Gobindo Chunder Ghose, a Mook- 
 tear of the Rajah of Cooch Behar, and an accountant 
 in a Calcutta mercantile house. He received his 
 earliest education in English at the School of Mr. 
 Sherbourne, an East Indian, who was amongst the 
 earliest teachers of English to natives in Calcutta. 
 Dwarkanath Tagore and other well known native 
 gentlemen were also pupils of Sherbourne. At the 
 age of nine he was sent to the Hindu College, where 
 he was favourably noticed by David Hare, whose 
 interest in all the lads, and anxiety for the success 
 of the College, was unremitting. Ram Gopal's father 
 was subsequently unable to pay the fee of Rs. 5-5-3 
 a month for his schooling, David Hare had young 
 
Ram Gopal Ghose. 127 
 
 Ghose placed on the free list. At the age of four- 
 teen he came under the influence of Derozio, and 
 besides doing the work of his class, engaged in the 
 extra studies which Derozio voluntarily directed. 
 The best preparation for public life, however, which 
 Ram Gopal received was in the Academic Society 
 founded by Derozio. At the age of 17, on the 
 recommendation of David Hare, he became assist- 
 ant banian to a Jewish merchant named Joseph ; 
 but long after leaving the Hindu College he con- 
 tinued his studies, and for some years he took his 
 seat in the first class on the Saturday forenoons 
 and took part in the work of the class. In private 
 study and in intercourse with Derozio and his com- 
 panions at the Academic and elsewhere, he broadened 
 and deepened his knowledge and acquired a facility 
 of expressing his views. He contributed a series 
 of letters to the Gyananeshan, then edited by 
 Russick Krishna Mullick, on the Inland Transit 
 Duties, which attracted the notice of Sir Charles 
 Trevelyan, and which aided considerably in effecting 
 their abolition. On the death of the Gyananeshan 
 he started the Bengal Spectator, which Peary Chand 
 Mittra edited for some time. He also founded the 
 Society for the Acquisition of General Knowledge, in 
 which Duckinarunjan Mookerjee and Tara ^Chand 
 Chuckerbutty were active members, This afterwards 
 became the Bengal British India Society. Mr. Kelsall 
 
128 Ram Gopal Ghose & Co. 
 
 joined Mr. Joseph in the business in which Ram 
 Gopal was now a valuable and trusted assistant, and 
 on Mr. Joseph retiring, the firm afterwards became 
 Kelsall, Ghose & Co. He remained partner in the 
 firm till the commercial crisis of 1847 was bridged 
 over, and then retired from the business with two 
 lakhs. Shortly after he was offered a Judgeship in 
 the Calcutta Small Cause Court, which he declined. 
 He then began business on his own account, and the 
 firm of R. G. Ghose & Co. was one of the best known 
 in its day. On the Bengal India Association, ceasing 
 to exist, he, in conjunction with others, founded 
 the British Indian Association, which exists to this 
 day. He was appointed a member of the Council 
 of Education, and took an active interest in many 
 educational institutions in Calcutta. There was 
 scarcely a society of any eminence, social, political 
 or literary, with which he was not associated, and he 
 was appointed to nearly every Government Commit- 
 tee to conduct enquiries regarding every subject of 
 public importance. 
 
 In 1853, when the renewal of the Company's Char- 
 ter was being discussed in Parliament, Ram Gopal 
 called a meeting at the Town Hall to advocate the 
 admission of educated natives into the covenanted 
 service. The meeting was one of the largest that 
 had ever been gathered in Calcutta, and the speech 
 which he made on the occasion was one of his 
 
Ram Gopal Chose. 129 
 
 greatest efforts. Some time afterwards, at the instance 
 of the Government of Bengal, the Justices proposed 
 removing the Burning Ghats from the position they 
 had occupied since the founding of Calcutta, to the 
 banks of the Salt Lake or Tolly's Nallah. Orthodox 
 Hindus received the news of this proposal with con- 
 sternation, and Ram Gopal being appealed to by 
 his countrymen, threw the whole weight of his in- 
 fluence against the proposal, and was able to defeat 
 the project. In grateful acknowledgment of his 
 services the Hindus of Calcutta, after his death, 
 raised a suitable memorial of his worth. 
 
 Ram Gopal Ghose, who began life a poor lad, 
 whose father was unable to pay for his school fees, 
 died leaving property amounting to three lakhs. A 
 few days before his death he cancelled all the debts 
 which his friends owed him to the extent of Rs 40,000. 
 He made ample provision for his widow and relatives, 
 and bequeathed Rs 20,000 to the District Charitable 
 Society of Calcutta, and Rs 40,000 to the Calcutta 
 University. 
 
 Gobin Chunder Bysack belonged to the weaver 
 caste. He was not prepossessing in appearance, 
 owing to a decided squint and other peculiarities 
 but he was a distinguished writer and speaker. 
 While at school he wrote verses which Derozio fre- 
 quently revised, and gave him hints regarding. He 
 was a man of considerable reading and liberal attain- 
 
 17 
 
130 Gobin, Russick, & Mitra. 
 
 ments. In the pages of the Reformer, then owned 
 by Prosono Coomar Tagore, a series of articles 
 attacking Christianity appeared, written by Gobin. 
 These were replied to by the Hon'ble Ross Donnely 
 Mangles in the pages of the Enquirer. The distin- 
 guished scholar and antiquary, Rajendra Lala Mitra, 
 L L. D., C. I. E., was partly educated at the school 
 of Gobin Chunder Bysack. 
 
 Russic Krishna Mullick was one of the most 
 distinguished students of the Hindoo College. He 
 suffered cruel persecution from the members of his 
 own family on account of his religious convictions. 
 He was drugged, carried off from Calcutta, and placed 
 in irons. Afterwards he abandoned his father's 
 house, took up his residence at Chorebagan, and 
 for some time conducted the Gyananeshan. As a 
 deputy collector he was distinguished as a thorough- 
 ly reliable and meritorious officer. His son now 
 occupies the important position of superintendent 
 of roads for the Calcutta Municipality. 
 
 Amrita Lall Mitra was, in early life, the officer in 
 Charge of the Toshakhana, and discharged his duties 
 with zeal and faithfulness. He laid down his office 
 a poorer man than when he took it up. He was son- 
 in-law of the late Sir Rajah Radhakant Bahadoor, 
 for a long time the esteemed head of the orthodox 
 Hindoos of Calcutta, and one of the original founders 
 of the Hindoo College. Amrita Lall Mitra never 
 
Chunder Ghose & Sickdar. 131 
 
 took part with the unorthodox party. Though 
 keeping on friendly terms with his old fellow-stu- 
 dents, he conformed to all the practices of orthodox 
 Hindoos. He suffered from asthma all his life and 
 enjoyed indifferent health, and latterly he retired to 
 Benares where he recently died. His son is now 
 a well-known pleader of the High Court of Calcutta. 
 
 Huru Chunder Ghose was appointed moonsiff at 
 Bancoorah. The salary was small, and the tempta- 
 tions to accept bribes were great and of daily occur- 
 rence. These he resisted and drew on his family for 
 support. His name still lingers in the district where 
 he laboured, as that of a good judge and a godly 
 man. He afterwards became Magistrate of Calcutta 
 and Judge of the Small Cause Court, in the entrance 
 hall of which his bust now stands with the following 
 inscription on the pedestal : 
 
 HURU CHUNDER GHOSE, 
 
 Born 1808, died 1868. 
 For 15 years one of the Judges of the 
 Court of Small Causes. 
 
 His son is now Registrar of Assurances in Calcutta. 
 
 Radhanath Sickdar was the best mathematician 
 in the group of Derozio's friends, and was long em- 
 ployed in the Surveyor-General's office. Physically 
 he was the sturdiest of the lot ; and held the theory 
 that the food of a people determined their character 
 and capacities, Beef-eaters, he declared, ruled the 
 
132 Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 
 
 world. Though not a Christian he had renounced 
 Hindooism altogether and lived after the English 
 fashion. He believed that India would never become 
 a great nation till the inhabitants made use of diet 
 consisting extensively of beef, in which he largely 
 indulged. He fell a martyr to his own theory, and 
 died of a skin eruption induced it is said, by beef- 
 eating. 
 
 Ramtonoo Lahiree was distinguished less for 
 strength of intellect than for the generous unselfish- 
 ness of his nature. 
 
 MaduboChunderMullick was a quiet, unassuming 
 man, who went into business in a castor-oil factory, 
 and met with heavy losses. 
 
 Duckinarunjun Mookerjee's father was a Kulin 
 Brahmin of no special standing in society, and 
 of no special culture or force of intellect. After his 
 marriage with Duckinarunjun's mother he dwelt in 
 her house, and was a sort of pensioner on his wife's 
 family. The relation of the father to the Tagore 
 family seems to have been perfectly well known 
 to Duckinarunjun, and the latter does not appear 
 to have held his father in much awe. At all events, 
 whoever took the young and ardent Hindoo lad to 
 task, for associating with Derozio and for being in- 
 fluenced by his open frankness, winning ways and 
 hatred of all shams, ecclesiastic, civil, social and 
 moral, it was not his father. His undisguised 
 
Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 133 
 
 admiration for Derozio's accomplished sister, and his 
 avowed sympathy and participation in the ideas 
 and aspirations then stirring to their depths the best 
 blood of young Hindooism in Calcutta, induced his 
 relatives to withdraw him from the society of De- 
 rozio for a time. The cause of his rupture with 
 his father may be stated in a few words : the part 
 Derozio played in the matter is stated by Derozio 
 himself in his letter to H. H. Wilson of 26th 
 April 1831. Duckinarunjun and Krishna Mohun 
 Banerjee were very close friends ; and shared in 
 common much of those high hopes, infused by De- 
 rozio, for the future of their countrymen and for the 
 purifying of the religion of their fathers. At the 
 invitation of Duckinarunjun, Krishna Mohun went 
 to spend a few days with him at his home. After 
 about a week, during which the intercourse of the 
 two ardent lads had been uninterrupted, Duckin- 
 arunjun had occasion to leave the house on business, 
 leaving Krishna Mohun alone in his quarters. 
 Duckinarunjun's father, who had up to this time made 
 no remonstrance regarding his son's visitor, took 
 advantage of Duckinarunjun's absence to abuse, most 
 vilely, the lad Krishna Mohun Banerjee, so that he 
 was driven from the house in the absence of his 
 friend. Duckinarunjun on his return learned the 
 cause of his friend's disappearance, and was so hurt 
 by the conduct of his father, that he declared he 
 
134 Duckinarunjun Mookcrjee. 
 
 could no longer remain in a house where the feelings of 
 his friends were outraged and his most intimate com- 
 panion driven by abuse from the house. He took a 
 house near Derozio's in Circular Road, with the result, 
 so far as Derozio was concerned, as detailed in the let- 
 ter above noted. He afterwards returned, not to his 
 father's house, but to that of a relative ; and when the 
 outburst of outraged Hindooism came, that subjected 
 Russic Krishna Mullick to cruel persecution, and that 
 drove Krishna Mohun Banerjea from the home of 
 his childhood, Duckinarunjun received Krishna 
 Mohun and sheltered him for a month. The 
 well known tendencies of Duckinarunjun, shortly 
 after the death of Derozio, became so obnoxious 
 to the advisers of his family that, with their 
 advice, he was drugged, carried from Calcutta, 
 and kept for some time at Benares, from whence he 
 again returned to Calcutta. The drugging and the 
 Benares discipline, whatever it may have been, did 
 more than its work. From the day of his return to 
 Calcutta till his death, more than thirty years after- 
 wards, he was never the same man intellectually or 
 morally that he had been. He seemed as if his reason 
 had been shaken: he behaved in an odd and to him 
 unusual manner; and he appears for a time to have 
 lost all moral control of himself. The philtre with 
 which he was drugged seems to have destroyed his 
 nobler nature and awakened all that was animal in 
 
Duckmarunjun Mocker fee. 135 
 
 his composition ; and ever afterwards the nobler 
 instincts of the man were clouded. He plunged 
 into debauchery and excess of the lowest kind, in 
 part suggested to him by either a deeply cunning 
 or a grossly unwise medical adviser; and it was only 
 when health and purse were impaired that he in a 
 great measure abandoned his evil courses ; but to the 
 end of his days he was distinguished for low animal 
 cunning and intrigue, so much so, that not even 
 his friends would trust him. Of course the friends 
 of his College and Derozio days, out of respect for 
 themselves, fell away from him ; and it was only after 
 a cleaner line of life had been entered on, that some 
 of them had further intercourse with him. His habits 
 became more respectable, or rather less disreputable. 
 He settled down to quiet and vigorous work as edi- 
 tor of a newspaper printed in English andBengalee. 
 This change was partly due to the loss of a legacy, 
 some Rs 60,000, which he inherited from his maternal 
 grandfather, and which he was induced to lend to 
 David Hare with the promise of eight per cent, 
 interest. Hare, though never a bankrupt, got into 
 difficulties, and could only give to Duckinarunjun 
 some land in Calcutta as part payment, payment in 
 full so far as Hare was concerned, of the debt of 
 Rs 60,000. 
 
 About this period in the life history of Duckina- 
 runjun Mookerjee the young Maharani of Burdwan 
 
136 Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 
 
 had been left a widow. The deceased Rajah had 
 no male issue, and before his death he had adopted 
 as his heir a lad whose sister and whose aunt he 
 married ; for all of whom he had amply provided. 
 The income of the young widowed Rani amounted 
 to about Rs 1,000 a month, more or less. Doomed 
 by Hindoo law to perpetual widowhood, and impri- 
 soned for life within the walls of the Zenana, if we 
 except those rare occasions when religious rites per- 
 mitted a short excursion to a neighbouring temple, 
 the slumbering passions of the young Maharani, in- 
 flamed no doubt by the tales and gossip of the wo- 
 men servants, and it may be by intrigues, some- 
 thing of which may have come within her know-, 
 ledge, devised means with the help of her women 
 servants to enjoy in secrecy the society of that sex 
 from which her widowhood debarred her. Rumour 
 says, with how much or how little truth it may 
 be difficult to say, that more than one paramour 
 secretly visited the Maharani and remained in her 
 chamber all night, to be as secretly conveyed 
 without the precincts of the Rajabari before the 
 zenana or the household were stirring. The young 
 Rani had expressed dissatisfaction at the manage- 
 ment of her estate, and desired to have advice regard- 
 ing her share in the Raj and a new Dewan or minis- 
 ter. Something of the young handsome Duckina- 
 runjun Mookerjee, his gallant ways with ladies, his 
 
Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 137 
 
 prepossessing appearance, and his ability reached 
 from the other world, the ear of the imprisoned lady 
 through the ever prattling tongues of women, only 
 too ready to aid their mistress in the accomplishment 
 of her desires. The Dewan of the palace was commu- 
 nicated with, and Duckinarunjun, whether he was 
 conscious of the fact at the time or not, was led in 
 conversation on the business of the Raj past the 
 windows of the Zenana, between the chinks of which 
 the lovely widow peeped Out at the well-mannered, 
 handsome Duckinarunjun as he strolled in converse 
 round the Rajbari. Taken with his appearance, 
 means were devised by which Duckinarunjun, car- 
 ried in a basket, found his way by night within the 
 Zenana to pass the night in the company of the 
 Rani, consulting with her regarding the injustice she 
 was labouring under at the hands of the executors 
 of her deceased husband's will. The basket business 
 went on with more or less intermission for about 
 a year, when an elopement from the palace of the 
 Rani and her jewels with the sympathetic Duckin- 
 arunjun was planned and effected in order that proper 
 legal advice might be obtained and measures taken 
 to secure the best interest of the Rani. At a short 
 distance from the palace there stood an ancient 
 Hindoo temple to which the ladies of the Burdwan 
 Zenana went once a year to perform certain religi- 
 ous rites and to make their offerings at the shrine of 
 
 18 
 
138 Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 
 
 the divinity. It was arranged that on the evening 
 when the yearly poojah came round, the young Rani, 
 accompanied by oneor two of her confidants, zenana 
 domestics, should steal away from the group of re- 
 turning ladies and enter a carriage which was to be 
 in waiting to drive her to Calcutta in company with 
 her adviser Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. The eventful 
 night came, the religious ceremonies were completed 
 and the train of women, about fifty in number, were 
 returning to the palace as day was departing and 
 deepening into that speedy darkness which dwellers 
 in the tropics know so well, when the Rani, unper- 
 ceived, slipped aside, found the carriage, and was 
 whirled towards Calcutta as rapidly as horses could 
 carry her. It was not until the zenana had been 
 reached, and each one was settling in her own quarters, 
 that the runaway was missed. A hue and cry was 
 raised throughout the palace, and a body of sowars 
 (horsemen), which formed part of the palace retinue, 
 was sent off to scour the country in search of the 
 lady who had so suddenly vanished. One party of 
 sowars took the road to Calcutta: the carriage with 
 the Rani and her Dewan, Duckinarunjun was speedily 
 overtaken, and the Rani rescued. Duckinarunjun was 
 being most unmercifully maltreated by the sowars, 
 and in all likelihood would have been killed outright 
 and left on the roadway, when three Missionaries 
 travelling dak from Calcutta, attracted by the noise 
 
Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 139 
 
 came on the scene. They could not wait to settle 
 the matter and see the lady and her friend in safe 
 keeping, but they told the sowars, " we have seen 
 this man in your power being illtreated, if he disap- 
 pears, or any ill befalls him, we will bear witness to 
 what we have seen." Overawed by the Missionaries 
 Duckinarunjun was left unmolested further, and the 
 lady was hurried back to the palace which she had 
 so shortly before quitted. 
 
 Some time after the Rani left the palace and came 
 to Calcutta in order to prosecute her claims. As 
 a widow it was of course impossible that she 
 could again enter the married state. Duckinarunjun 
 though nominally a Hindoo, was not held in much 
 esteem by his co-religionists. A Brahman in the service 
 of Duckinarunjun performed a marriage ceremony, 
 and the Rani and her former Dewan lived together 
 till her death, long afterwards, as husband and wife. 
 One son was born who, when he came to an age suffi- 
 ciently old to comprehend the peculiar relationship 
 of his father and mother, has been heard to reprove 
 his father for being the cause of his not being born 
 Rajah of Burdwan. All his life Duckinarunjun 
 Mookerjee lived in the midst of scheming and 
 intrigues. In the incidents that led up to the Mutiny 
 and throughout its progress, the former pupil of 
 Derozio schemed all round, at one time making 
 overtures to some members of the Tagore family 
 
140 Duckinarunjun Mookerjee. 
 
 regarding certain designs of the King of Oudh, at 
 another seemingly working hard as a loyal subject 
 in the interests of England. All his manoeuvres 
 during the period of the Sepoy Rebellion will pro- 
 bably never be revealed ; but he had sufficient craft 
 to make it appear to Duff and the officials of the 
 Foreign Office that he was a highly deserving and 
 loyal subject. He obtained from Lord Canning the 
 escheated estates of Man Singh, who had joined the 
 rebels. Afterwards he was made a Rajah by the 
 Foreign Office ; and lived on his estate till his death, 
 if not shunned, at least regarded with no feelings of 
 respect either by his co-religionists or his tenantry. 
 Were the true state of matters revealed, probably 
 Duckinarunjun deserved something quite different to 
 what the Government of India in its guileless libera- 
 lity bestowed on him. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 PUBLIC MAN AND JOURNALIST. 
 
 EROZ I O'S career, after the severance of his 
 connection with the Hindu College, was essen- 
 tially that of a public man and journalist ; poetry he 
 rarely touched. Though but a lad of one-and-twenty, 
 he had taken a leading part in one of the greatest and 
 most momentous movements in Indian society, from 
 which his name can never be dissociated ; and he had 
 already made his mark as a leader of thought in India, 
 as a philosopher of unusual acuteness, as a poet dis- 
 tinguished by wonderful command of language, ferti- 
 lity of imagination, and that wide sympathy with 
 Nature which marks the highest intellects, and as the 
 advocate of his own class. There remained for him, 
 though he knew it not, but eight more months of life 
 and work. Full of life and hope and conscious power, 
 the sole support of his now wid owed mother, his 
 sister Amelia, and his younger brother, he projected, 
 managed and edited the East Indian, the first news- 
 paper that was the recognized organ of Eurasians 
 and which advocated their claims and the claims of 
 every question, honest and true and liberal,with an elo- 
 
142 " The East Indian? 
 
 quence and ability and a power of argument of which 
 East Indians may well be proud. Dr. John Grant, a 
 journalist of no inconsiderable ability, the first editor 
 of the Government Gazette, said of the East Indian, 
 that " whatever differences of opinion existed among 
 his (Derozio's) contemporaries as to the mode of con- 
 ducting it, there could be none whatever as to the 
 talents, the perfect honesty, and the unfettered views 
 of the editor." Into this venture, the East Indian, 
 he poured the little fortune of the family. The ex- 
 penses which he incurred in establishing the paper, 
 in the typographical improvements which he intro- 
 duced, and in equipping the office of the East Indian 
 at No. 9, Cossitollah (now No. n, Bentinck Street,) 
 with every facility for the execution of printing in 
 all its branches, swallowed up the little capital Dero- 
 zio had at his disposal. On through the closing 
 months of his life he labored in the printing office 
 and the editorial chair and on the public platform, 
 with an energy, a devotion and an ability which, had 
 he never achieved anything else, would have marked 
 him off as no ordinary man. He was the chief 
 speaker at a meeting of East Indians held in the 
 Town Hall on the first of July 1831, for the purpose 
 of approving the draft of their second petition to Par- 
 liament. J. W. Ricketts occupied the chair. About 
 150 East Indians were present, as well as a number of 
 Hindus, who took a warm interest in the proceedings. 
 
The second petition. 143 
 
 We subjoin a summary of Derozio's speech on the 
 occasion gathered from the India Gazette of Wed- 
 nesday, August 3rd, 1831 : " Mr. H. L. V. Derozio 
 stated, that before proceeding to the rejection or 
 adoption of the draft of the second petition, he would 
 make a few remarks on the mis-statements and mis- 
 apprehensions that had gone abroad regarding the 
 views entertained by East Indians of their disabili- 
 ties. Their grievances were of two kinds, political 
 and legal ; but it had been said that they were seek- 
 ing for privileges to which Europeans and Hindus 
 and Mahomedans were ineligible. The petition 
 stated that they were without any Code of Civil Law. 
 He did not know of any case in corroboration, but 
 would not allow his want of information on this 
 point to be conclusive against it. Judging from the 
 law itself, the argument was certainly in their favor, 
 and nothing could be thrown into the opposite scale 
 but prevalent practice, which a single decision would 
 in a moment overthrow. The law, whatever the 
 practice, was unsuited to their condition, for it re- 
 garded them as Hindus and Mahomedans ; but in 
 what did they assimilate ? Their conduct, habits, 
 thoughts, usages and feelings were totally dissimilar, 
 and was it to be said in the nineteenth century, that 
 in legislating for a whole body it could be just to place 
 them under laws totally unsuited to their circum- 
 stances. It surely could not be considered a great 
 
144 The second petition. 
 
 privilege to be placed under British Law. Let the 
 many who had been ruined in the Supreme Court 
 speak their sentiments ; for, bad as it was, it was 
 better than the jumble of Hindu and Mahomedan 
 Law to which they were subject the moment they 
 crossed the Mahratta Ditch. One great evil arising 
 from this state of the law was, that the greater por- 
 tion of the East Indians, located as they were in 
 Calcutta, had not the means of acquainting them- 
 selves with that law, to which they became subject 
 when they passed its boundaries. He here mention- 
 ed as a case in point. An East Indian gentleman 
 who had been educated in England, having returned 
 to his native land, and while ignorant of the laws to 
 which he was subject, was, through the subornation 
 of perjured witnesses against him, thrown into one 
 of the zillah jails for a period of two years. This 
 was an evil of great magnitude, and the circumstances 
 were such as no European could be placed under. 
 It had been said with regard to the legal and politi- 
 cal privileges which they claimed that, if admitted 
 into the civil and military services, they would on 
 this point have advantages over what are permitted 
 to -the Hindus and Mahomedans, and at the same 
 time would be entitled to hold lands in the interior 
 which Europeans were prevented from doing. The 
 admission of East Indians to certain rights did not 
 preclude the possibility of other classes of the popula- 
 
Derozio's speech. 145 
 
 tion also securing for themselves the privileges to 
 which they were entitled. If East Indians were 
 permitted to enjoy all the privileges they now seek, 
 it would be impossible to withhold the claims of 
 others. Their enemies had tried to set both the 
 European and native community against them by 
 saying that they sought exclusive privileges, well 
 knowing that if they once entered the breach, there 
 would be many to follow. He denied that they had 
 assembled to claim such exclusive privileges. They 
 were in reality righting the battle of the whole com- 
 munity, Native, European and East Indian. Derozio 
 then took a view of the arguments against them 
 which stated that the men of talent and influence 
 of their own class, not only refrained from joining 
 in their proceedings, but were opposed to them. 
 How was this known ? he asked. The men them- 
 selves did not state it ; and if the present measures 
 were disapproved of, why were they not here present, 
 to state their sentiments. They had talent to reason 
 on the subject, or at any rate had sufficient to under- 
 stand what might be advanced in opposition. He 
 found that they had the talent of staying at home, 
 but that was not a distinction that he or those 
 present were ambitious of. With all their influence 
 and mental powers, let them only propose to get up 
 a meeting opposed to the views of the present, and 
 they would, to their mortification, find a beggarly 
 
 19 
 
146 Devozio's speech. 
 
 array of East Indians. They had talent enough to 
 send an agent to England, and had influence to cause 
 an interesting debate in Parliament on the subject 
 of their claims ; and if this were want of talent and 
 influence, they could do very well without the talent 
 and influence that stayed at home and did nothing. 
 Derozio then depicted the consequences of losing 
 the present opportunity ; and the responsibility 
 resting on them to secure for their posterity all the 
 advantages and privileges possible. He expressed high 
 hopes for the new ministry, and believed that the in- 
 troduction of the Reform Bill was but the preliminary 
 step to the introduction of more important reforms. 
 This argued well for East Indians, for they had not 
 now to deal with ignorant and partial men. He 
 advised them to continue to present their claims ; 
 success invited them forward and hope cheered the 
 way. Did they fear to rise i-n the scale of political 
 importance, to be considered worthy of confidence 
 and honour, to be placed under a definite code of 
 laws, and to gain for their children rights and pri- 
 vileges which had not descended from their fathers 
 to themselves ? And he concluded a brilliant and 
 most effective speech by moving the adoption of the 
 Draft petition." 
 
 His friend Pote seconded the resolution, and 
 Drummond of Dhurrumtollah, his old master, wasted 
 with illness, rose to point out that the definitions 
 
The East Indian second petition. 147 
 
 of the petition were not sufficiently clear ; and that 
 the petitioners were really Christians born in India. 
 Derozio overruled the objection by pointing out that, 
 clauses I and 2 of the petition were explicit enough 
 The petition was approved. 
 
 Some discussion then followed as to sending 
 a delegate to England, and the names of Ricketts 
 and Pote were presented to the meeting. Ricketts 
 was willing to go ; but he said that it would 
 entail the loss of his appointment. Pote generous- 
 ly would not hear of this, and himself offered to 
 go. On the vote being taken, 48 only voted, 
 Ricketts 33, Pote 15, the others thinking it prema- 
 ture till sufficient funds had been got together to 
 clear expenses. 
 
 The other speakers at the meeting were Crowe, 
 W. Kirkpatrick, W. R. Fenwick, Mr. Wollaston and 
 H. Andrews. The latter gentleman is still living, 
 and evinces the same warm interest in every measure 
 of usefulness which distinguished him fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 The second petition was transmitted to Mr. John 
 Crawford in England for presentation to Parliament, 
 but, owing to a change of ministry and other causes, 
 so far as we know, it was never presented. The 
 petition will be new to men of this generation at 
 least, and as besides it bears the touch of Derozio's 
 hand, we reproduce it here : 
 
 
148 The East Indians* second petition. 
 
 THE EAST INDIANS' SECOND PETITION. 
 
 Calcutta, June 27, 1831. 
 
 M. L'BLANC, PRINTER. EAST INDIAN OFFICE. 
 THE EAST INDIANS* SECOND PETITION. 
 
 To tJie Honourable the Commons of the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parlia- 
 ment assembled, the Petition of the undersigned inha- 
 bitants of Calcutta and the Provinces comprised with- 
 in tJie Presidency of Fort William in Bengal. 
 
 HUMBLY SHOWETH, 
 
 ist. That your Petitioners are natives of, and 
 residents in, British India ; Christians in religion ; 
 and acknowledging subjection to the Crown of 
 Great Britain ; but labouring under certain griev- 
 ances which they desire to bring under the notice of 
 your Honorable House in the hope of being relieved 
 from them. 
 
 2nd. That your Petitioners consist; first, of those 
 or of the descendants of those, who have been born 
 out of wedlock, of native mothers, and who, although 
 of Christian fathers, and united with Christians in 
 faith, in language, in habits, in manners, in feelings, 
 and in opinions, are yet regarded in the eye of the 
 law as without the pale of Christianity. Secondly, 
 that your Petitioners consist of those, or of the des- 
 cendants of those, who, though of native descent (some 
 entirely and some partially) and born in wedlock, 
 profess the Christian religion, and are assimilated 
 
The second petition. 149 
 
 to Christians by education, feelings, manners, and 
 opinions, but are in like manner regarded by the law 
 as aliens to the Christian faith. 
 
 3rd. That in conformity with the general tenor 
 of Parliamentary enactments relating to India, pro- 
 fessors of the Hindu religion are governed in their civil 
 relations by Hindu law, professors of the Mahummu- 
 dan religion by Mahummudan law, and both Hindus 
 and Mahummudans are subject, in criminal matters, 
 to Mahummudan law ; Hindu and Mahummudan 
 law, both civil and criminal, being modified by the 
 rules and regulations of the East India Company ; 
 while those persons only whom the Bi itish Legis- 
 lature have described as British subjects, or whom 
 the administrators of the law interpret to be so 
 described, enjoy the advantages of the law of Eng- 
 land, as extended by statutes to British India. 
 
 4-th. That by the rigid interpretation which succes- 
 sive Judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature 
 at Fort William have given to the phrase " British 
 subjects," as equivalent to " British-born subjects," 
 your Petitioners, although neither Hindus nor 
 Mahummudans, but Christians in their feelings 
 and principles, habits and associations, are entirely 
 excluded, when resident in the Interior, from the 
 benefits of the law of England. 
 
 5th. That the effect of the position in which your 
 Petitioners are thus placed is to subject them, al- 
 
150 The second petition. 
 
 though Christians, along with the professors of the 
 Hindu and Mahummudan religions, to Mahum- 
 mudan criminal law, which (whatever modifications 
 that law may have undergone by the Company's 
 Regulation) is abhorrent to their feelings and degrad- 
 ing to their characters, as contradistinguishing them 
 from their Christian brethren. 
 
 6th. That a further effect of the position in which 
 your Petitioners are placed by the state of the law, 
 or the interpretation given to it, is that in the civil 
 relations of life they have no law whatever for their 
 guidance. Not being Hindus, they cannot regulate 
 those relations by Hindu law. Not being Mahum- 
 mudans they cannot regulate them by Mahum- 
 mudan law. And not being British-born subjects, 
 they cannot enjoy the advantages of the law of 
 England. Your Petitioners, being without any 
 written law binding upon them in the most important 
 relations of life, are therefore dependent upon what 
 any judge may consider the practice with regard to 
 them in those relations. This leaves them so much 
 in the hands, and at the discretion of the Minis- 
 ter of Justice, that they respectfully solicit from your 
 Honorable House that consideration to this particular 
 which its importance demands. 
 
 Jth. That your Petitioners are systematically,, 
 and as a class, excluded from all superior and cove- 
 nanted offices in the Civil and Military Services,. 
 
The second petition . 151 
 
 and from all sworn offices in the Marine Service of 
 the East India Company ; and that on the notification 
 of the appointment of any one who may be then 
 residing in India, they have been stigmatized as a 
 body by a provision publicly announced in the 
 Gazette of Government, that the appointment should 
 not be valid if the individual appointed be " the son 
 of a native Indian." 
 
 8tk. That your Petitioners as a class are further 
 systematically treated as ineligible to most of those 
 subordinate employments in the Judicial, Revenue, 
 and Police Departments, which are open without 
 reserve to the Hindu and Mahummudan natives of 
 the country. 
 
 gth. That by a General Order, dated the 27th 
 February 1808, of the Commander-in-Chief, for the 
 time being, of his Majesty's Forces in India, they were 
 as a class expressly declared, and are still practical- 
 ly considered to be, disqualified from holding 
 his Majesty's Commission in the British Indian 
 Army. 
 
 loth. That by stipulations in treaties with the 
 powers of India, which still preserve a shadow of 
 independence, your Petitioners, though regarded 
 as natives of India, are practically debarred from 
 engaging in their service in any capacity, with- 
 out the special license of the Supreme Govern- 
 ment of India. 
 
1 52 " The East Indian" Newspaper. 
 
 nth. That the spirit of the entire policy of 
 the East India Company's Government towards 
 your Petitioners has been, and is, degrading, invidious, 
 and proscriptive ; and that instead of encouraging, 
 they have discouraged, every attempt made by your 
 Petitioners to improve their own condition and that 
 of their offspring. 
 
 I2tk. That your Petitioners respectfully refer to 
 the evidence given before the Select Committee 
 appointed by the last Parliament to inquire into 
 the affairs of India, in corroboration and proof 
 of their allegations ; and they confidently solicit 
 from your Honorable House a thorough considera- 
 tion of the grievances herein brought to notice, 
 and relief from their future operation. 
 
 And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever 
 pray. 
 
 Next month, September 1831, there occurred 
 that " passage at arms " between Derozio and 
 Captain Macnaghten which will be referred further to. 
 
 It was not alone on the platform and in the social 
 circle that Derozio advocated the claims of his class. 
 In the columns of the Hesperus, an evening paper 
 which, while teaching in the Hindoo College and 
 assisting Krishna Mohun Banerjee and other of his 
 students in the pages of the Enquirer, he had sue- 
 cessfully launched, he championed the claims of 
 
The " East Indian" and the "John Bull." 153 
 
 Eurasians. The evening Hesperus gave place to the 
 East Indian daily, and the Eurasians of those days 
 responded to the call of Derozio, and worthily 
 supported him and his staff, in the endeavour to 
 secure for East Indians an organ of their own, in 
 which to ventilate their grievances, to attack public 
 shams and official derelictions, and to maintain for 
 themselves a position of power and influence in India, 
 which is still the far off goal, even of the most 
 sanguine Eurasians of to-day. The subscription 
 for this paper was Rs 5 a month, a sum much in 
 excess of what a high class daily may now be had 
 for; and during the two years of its existence, 1830-1, 
 which covered the closing years of Derozio's life, it 
 was distinguished for its public spiritedness and the 
 talent with which it was conducted. No doubt 
 feeling ran high and articles charged with bitterness 
 and sweeping assertions, and it may be, personalities, 
 roused the opposition of other sections of the Press of 
 India ; but in those days an amount of personal feel- 
 ing and vigorous outspoken language was probably 
 imported into public discussions which now-a-days 
 would not be indulged in, unless by the more rabid 
 organs of the press. However this may be, in 
 Derozio's editing of the East Indian a circumstance 
 took place with the like of which this generation is 
 nut altogether unfamiliar. At that time the old 
 John Bull was edited by Robert Adair Macnaghten, 
 
 20 
 
1 54 Derozio & Capt. Macnaghten. 
 
 a gentleman who, for many years before his death in 
 1846, was a Captain on the Retired List of the Bengal 
 Army, a writer of distinguished ability both in verse 
 and prose on the press of India, and who, along with 
 John O'Brien Saunders, Cobb Hurry of the Delhi 
 Gazette, and others, since the days of the deported 
 Silk Buckingham, had gradually developed the high 
 tone and ability of the Indian Press, and freed it 
 from the leading-strings of Government control, till 
 it could rank in usefulness, vigor and independence 
 with the press of any country in the world. An 
 article from the pen of Derozio in the columns of the 
 East Indian had stung Captain Macnaghten of the 
 John Bull beyond the ordinary bounds of prudence, 
 and he made his appearance in the editorial office 
 of the East Indian armed with a cane to demand 
 satisfaction from Derozio. The latter was then a 
 neatly dressed lad of twenty-one, and the Captain 
 a man of at least thirty-five. On acquainting 
 Derozio with the object of his visit, and exhibiting 
 his cane, " I have come to have satisfaction ;" Derozio 
 replied, "Then take it." There must have been 
 something in the tone and bearing of Derozio which 
 speedily effected the evaporation, either of the 
 courage or the intention of the Captain, for he 
 contented himself with gently laying his cane on 
 Derozio's shoulder, and declaring, "Consider your- 
 self assaulted, Sir," then turning on his heel, he left 
 
Derozids letter to the " India Gazette? 155 
 
 the office, followed by the gay laugh of the amus- 
 ed Derozio. Nothing further came of this passage- 
 at-arms beyond a war of words in the various 
 newspapers. We subjoin Derozio's letter closing the 
 discussion : 
 
 ( The India Gazette, September 2Qtk y 1831). 
 CAPTAIN MACNAGHTEN AND MR. DEROZIO. 
 Captain Macnaghten says in to-day's John Bull 
 that he is determined not to read the East Indian and 
 Hurkaru any more. Regarding his assault upon me 
 there are two statements his supported by Captain 
 White, and mine by Mr. King. Whatever opinion the 
 public may entertain regarding the assailant and the 
 assailed, it will be unanimously admitted that the un- 
 fairness of the transaction belongs to Captain Mac- 
 naghten. When gentlemen come to assault others for 
 supposed aggressions, the parties cannot conceal their 
 names from each other without the imputation of 
 cowardice and the suspicion of being ruffians. 
 Captain Macnaghten never gave me his name. I 
 found him out, and even after I succeeded in un- 
 masking him, he continued (till to-day) to call him- 
 self " Tit-for-tat," as if he shrank from identifying 
 himself with the person that assailed me. I dismiss 
 this business from my hands, and the thought of it 
 from my mind, with the satisfaction of having done 
 nothing wrong. Persons of character and respec- 
 tability, whose good opinion I desire, will acquit me 
 
156 Derozids letter to the " India Gazette? 
 
 of everything improper in this transaction. My 
 conduct will sufficiently prove that I had not the 
 least suspicion of being assaulted, as I was ; that I 
 endeavoured to find out my assailant ; and that 
 upon discovering his character, I was prevented by 
 my friends from pursuing him as a gentleman. I 
 am sure there is no other officer in the army who 
 would have come to a stranger as Captain Mac- 
 naghten did to me, without in the first instance 
 
 giving up his name Circumstances depending 
 
 entirely on my being put in possession of my assail- 
 ant's name would have influenced my decision re- 
 garding the course to be taken Captain Mac- 
 
 naghten has done his tattered character no good by 
 
 attempting to patch it up in this way ,,.It is not 
 
 in my nature to entertain a feeling of resentment 
 long ; and now that the affair is about to pass from 
 public attention, and that excitement has given 
 place to reflection, I pity the man who has brought 
 himself into a situation so deplorable. He is even 
 now upon his knees, entreating the Hurkaru to spare 
 him the recollection of his former disgrace ; and it 
 is to be hoped that the editor of that paper will grant 
 the prayer of a fallen man who sues for mercy. 
 With these sentiments I withdraw myself from the 
 scene in which I have been obliged for some days to 
 act so conspicuous a part. Having fixed upon my 
 assailant the infamy which his conduct deserves, I 
 
Journalist. 157 
 
 abandon him to his own reflections and the charity 
 of the public. 
 
 H. L. V. DEROZIO. 
 2jth September, 1831. 
 
 No detailed estimate of Derozio's career and 
 influence as a journalist can ever be hoped for, till 
 some future biographer more fortunate, if not more 
 painstaking, than I have been, may be fortunate 
 enough to disentomb files, more or less complete, of 
 the India Gazette , Calcutta Literary Gazette, Indian 
 Magazine, Calcutta Magazine, the Bengal Journal, 
 the Enquirer, the Hesperus and The East Indian. 
 It is in the pages of these journals, now seemingly 
 lost, or existing only in a mutilated form, that, with 
 the exception of the Fakir of fangkeerak, the most 
 finished productions of Derozio in verse and prose, 
 are shut up. There is not a newspaper office in 
 Calcutta, and we suppose Calcutta is a fair example 
 of India generally in this matter, that possesses a 
 complete file of its own issue. In the case of the 
 Indian Daily News, the lineal successor of Dr. John 
 Grant's India Gazette, and the old Hurkaru, there is 
 not a scrap existing of the older journals which it 
 succeeded. There is not a library, public, private, 
 or departmental, which contains complete files of the 
 Calcutta newspapers of the first half of the century ; 
 and however interesting and useful extracts from 
 
158 Destruction of files. 
 
 the Calcutta and other Gazettes may be, it will be 
 utterly impossible to write the history of that period 
 of India's progress, commercial, social, and other- 
 wise, as fully as could have been done if these and 
 other journals had been preserved. The difficulty of 
 preserving cumbrous files of books in India is well 
 known. In a single night the ravages of white-ants 
 may do much to destroy the most unique and valu- 
 able volumes ; and, if left undisturbed, a few years 
 would complete their destruction. In England, if 
 kept from damp, books may lie for years unimpaired, 
 though covered with dust. Besides this, the rapid 
 changes in society, the various hands through which 
 the property of public journals passes, and the care- 
 lessness of servants render it more uncertain that 
 files shall be preserved and transmitted. It seems to 
 us that, in the matter of the preservation of public 
 newspapers, and providing easy public access to their 
 files, the Government have not been as mindful as 
 they ought ; and we venture to suggest, that steps 
 should be taken to complete, as far as possible, the 
 blank files of defunct journals ; and early sets of 
 those at present existing secured. There are, we are 
 persuaded, cartloads of minutes and trashy reports 
 lumbering the record rooms of Indian Departments, 
 which might very well disappear and make room for 
 that record of public intelligence and stream of criti- 
 cism, suggestion and discussion, on all the multifari- 
 
Influence in public movements. 1 59 
 
 ous topics which concern the press, and the men of 
 the then existing generation, from which the social, 
 political and constitutional history of a country can 
 most truthfully, and with the greatest minuteness, be 
 gathered. 
 
 The influence which Derozio exercised in society, 
 on the platform, and in the press, to bring about, 
 what he himself never lived to see, the first fruits of 
 the moderate assertion of their rights as British 
 subjects by the Eurasian community, has, up to the 
 present time, never yet, we venture to think, been 
 realized. There is no argument used now-a-days on 
 behalf of the Eurasian community which Derozio 
 and the men with whom he was associated 50 years 
 ago, did not use with more eloquence, with greater 
 moderation, and with more indomitable perseverance 
 and ability. It has been the fate of Derozio, as it has 
 been that of other eminent men, that the sun of his 
 short life should go down in baseless calumny and the 
 white heat of religious controversy ; and that 
 the men of succeeding generations, distant from his 
 own, should have imposed on them the task of clearing 
 his character from unjust charges, vindicating his 
 fame as a poet of no mean eminence, and estimating 
 in some fashion his influence on the thought and 
 action of his time. The influence which he exercis- 
 ed on behalf of his own class, and on the general 
 thought of his time, through the press and on the 
 
1 60 Influence in public movements. 
 
 platform, we have pointed out rather than exhibited 
 in detail. That detail can be forthcoming only 
 on a minute study of what we have hitherto failed 
 to obtain access to, if indeed they exist, viz., the 
 files of those journals in which Derozio wrote, and 
 which he conducted with such marked ability, but 
 which the community, who ought to have preserved 
 his memory green, have, to their own shame, allowed 
 so speedily to be annihilated. Even the Library 
 of the Doveton College, an essentially Eurasian 
 Institution, has neither a copy of his works nor a 
 leaf of a newspaper of his conducting, not even a 
 single report or record of the numerous meetings 
 and proceedings, in all of which Eurasians had a vital 
 interest, nor yet a complete set of the reports of 
 their own Institution ; and the few books compos- 
 ing the Library are dropping to pieces, a shameful 
 monument of Eurasian zeal and gratitude, to the 
 honor of their fathers and the memory of their dead. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 THE LAST DAYS. 
 
 (HERE remained for Derozio but one more 
 public appearance, and, singularly enough, that 
 was at the examination of the pupils of the Doveton 
 College, an institution founded by his friend J. W. 
 Ricketts, and the history of which has been told 
 in the Calcutta Review by Dr. George Smith, its 
 second Principal, (see vol. XXIV. page 288,) and 
 by the present writer in the January number of 1881. 
 On the Tuesday, of December I3th, 1831, eleven 
 days before his death, Derozio took part with Mr. 
 Speed of the Hindu School, in examining the 
 classes. There were present the usual concourse of 
 parents and friends ; and of clergymen there were 
 gathered Messrs. Dealtry, Yates, McPherson, Piffard, 
 and notably Duff. On the conclusion of the exami- 
 nation, Derozio, with the warm impulsiveness of his 
 kindly nature, though he was weighted with an amount 
 of work and care under which many ordinary men 
 would wince and sink, declared his intention of 
 delivering a course of lectures on Law and Political 
 Economy, with a view of qualifying the Doveton's 
 
 21 
 
1 62 School Examination. 
 
 pupils to avail themselves of the judicial situations 
 which had so recently been opened to East 
 Indians. 
 
 These lectures were never delivered. Eleven days 
 after, the grave closed on the brilliant lad, and 
 there was quenched one of the most hopeful lives. 
 It is beyond question that, had the lectures been 
 delivered, they would have gathered round Derozio 
 in the Doveton spirits as earnest, unselfish, and 
 noble as those which characterised his connection 
 with the Hindu College. 
 
 In The East Indian of Saturday, 1 7th December, 
 there appears a report of the examination of the 
 pupils of the Dhurrumtollah Academy : this notice 
 contains the last lines written for the East Indian 
 by Derozio. After commenting on the excel- 
 lence of the examination passed by the boys, the 
 notice goes on to say that, " the most pleasing 
 feature in this institution is its freedom from 
 illiberality. At some of the Calcutta schools objec- 
 tions are made to natives, not so much on the part of 
 the masters as of the Christian parents. At the Dhur- 
 rumtollah Academy it is quite delightful to witness 
 the exertions of Hindu and Christian youths, striving 
 together for academic honours ; this will do much 
 towards softening asperities, which always arise in 
 hostile sects ; and when the Hindu and Christian 
 have learned from mutual intercourse how much 
 
Last public words. 163 
 
 there is to be admired in the human character, 
 without reference to differences of opinion in religious 
 matters, shall we be brought nearer than we now are 
 to that happy condition when 
 
 " Man to man the world o'er, 
 Shall brothers be and a' that." 
 
 To those parents who object to the bringing up 
 of their children among native youths, we desire to 
 represent the suicidal nature of their conduct. Can 
 they check the progress of knowledge at certain 
 schools ; can they close the gates of the Hindu Col- 
 lege and other institutions ? If not, is it not obvious 
 that they cannot withhold knowledge from Hindu 
 youths, and if they manifest illiberal feeling towards 
 those youths, are they not afraid of a reaction ? In 
 a few years the Hindus will take their stand by the 
 best and the proudest Christians ; and it cannot be 
 desirable to excite the feelings of the former against 
 the latter. The East Indians complain of suffering 
 from proscription, is it for them to proscribe ? Suf- 
 fering should teach us not to make others suffer. 
 Is it to produced different effect on East Indians ? 
 We hope not. They will find after all, that it is 
 their best interest to unite and co-operate with 
 the other native inhabitants of India. Any other 
 course will subject them to greater opposition than 
 they have at present. Can they afford to make 
 more enemies ?" 
 
164 The fulfilment of the prophecy. 
 
 The clear, far-seeing wisdom of these, the last 
 public words of the greatest Eurasian in many 
 respects that has ever shed lustre on his race, and 
 the broad charity and toleration which they exhibit, 
 clearly mark him off as not only much in advance 
 of the men of his own day, but far ahead in wide 
 sympathy and true liberality even of the men of 
 to-day. Eurasians have, from their earliest existence 
 as a community, declined to have their sons educated 
 side by side with the native lads of India, for moral 
 and religious reasons which in our estimation have 
 been unduly intensified and needlessly persisted 
 in, to their own hurt. The words of Derozio may 
 well ring in the ears of this generation and rouse 
 them to a consciousness of their past unwisdom : 
 " In a few years the Hindus will take their stand 
 by the side of the best and the proudest Christians." 
 How complete a fulfilment of Derozio's words is 
 the present condition of Eurasian youths, ousted 
 from the lower grades of Government service by 
 native lads ; and competing with them in higher 
 education and in the attainment of that rank which 
 the impress of a University degree marks as scho- 
 larship, with all the advantages of heavily sub- 
 sidised Government Colleges thrown into the scale 
 on the side of the natives. " The East Indians 
 complain of suffering from proscription, is it for them 
 to proscribe? " Eurasians have suffered from the 
 
Last verses. 165 
 
 effects of that proscription which Derozio, a man of 
 their own race, their truest friend, and their ablest 
 advocate, pointed out fifty years ago and counselled 
 them, that " suffering should teach them not to make 
 others suffer." Derozio's advice was not followed, 
 and the Eurasians of to-day are reaping the folly 
 of their fathers' sowing. 
 
 We have quoted Derozio's last public appeal to 
 Eurasians. Probably, the last poem he wrote, is 
 one which did not appear in print till the January 
 of 1832, after his death, when it appeared, along 
 with other contributions of East Indians, in the 
 Orient Pearl, an annual, the volume being " inscrib- 
 ed to Sir Charles Metcalfe as a testimony of esteem 
 of the editors for his enlightened views and liberal 
 policy." The poem " Independence" is not in the 
 collected edition of his poetical works, compiled 
 by Mr. Owen Aratoon. The verses are not in his 
 best style, but as they breathe some far away echo 
 of the worry and the fever and the fret through 
 which his manly independence and indomitable 
 spirit rose, we reproduce them here : 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Look on that lamp which seems to glide 
 Like a spirit o'er the stream, 
 
 Casting upon the darkened tide 
 Its own mysterious beam. 
 
1 66 Cholera. 
 
 My heart, and shall that little lamp, 
 
 My glorious image be ; 
 Shall the night so mirk, the stream so damp 
 
 Be lit and cheered by thee ? 
 
 Lo ! in the breath of the tyrant wind 
 
 The trembling flame looks wan 
 And pale, as if fear had seized its mind ; 
 
 It fades, alas, 'tis gone ! 
 
 And wilt thou tremble so, my heart, 
 
 When the mighty breathe on thee ? 
 And shall thy light like this depart ? 
 
 Away ! it cannot be. 
 
 In the autumn of 1831 an unusually high rate of 
 mortality prevailed in Calcutta and its suburbs, the 
 chief causes of death being cholera, dysentery, and 
 fever. In the village of Baraset near Barrackpore 
 whole families had been swept away ; and in the 
 vicinity of Bhowanipore nearly a third of the in- 
 habitants had died. In the villages between the 
 Salt Lake and Calcutta the mortality was not less 
 great. Every day during November there were 
 carried to Kalighaut about fifty dead bodies, and 
 to the neighbouring ghauts about half that number. 
 On the Diamond Harbour road a family of ten 
 men were carried off in a few days, leaving only 
 the widows. Everywhere in Calcutta and its 
 neighbourhood cholera was prevalent ; and nearly 
 every case proved fatal. On Saturday, December 
 1 7th, 1831, the day on which there appeared in the 
 East Indian the notice, already referred to, of the 
 examination of the pupils of tfce school in which 
 
Death. 167 
 
 Derozio received all the education schools could 
 ever give him, he was stricken with cholera, and 
 for six days he struggled with the disease, till 
 the bitter ending came in death. There crowded 
 round his sick-bed, not terrified by the ravages 
 of cholera, but rising above the fear of contagion, 
 the pupil-friends of the Hindu College. All through 
 the sleepless, weary, painful nights and days, there 
 watched the sick-bed of the dying Derozio, Krishna 
 Mohun Banerjee, Ramgopal Ghose, Mohes Chunder 
 Ghose, and others, sharing the anxiety and fatigue 
 of Derozio's mother and his sister, Amelia. Dr. 
 John Grant, the man of all men who first recog- 
 nized Derozio's brilliant capacity, who rocked the 
 cradle of his genius, and followed to the grave his 
 hearse, was in constant attendance ; and when 
 some hopes were entertained that the splendid con- 
 stitution of the dying lad would withstand the 
 ravages of the disease, the doctor's melodious voice 
 rose in the sick chamber, reading to the East 
 Indian boy the second book of Campbell's Plea- 
 sures of Hope. The pleasures of hope were very brief. 
 Racked with pain that filled the room with low 
 moaning, worn out by sleepless days and nights 
 and the violence of cholera-morbus, on Saturday, 
 the 23rd December 1831, the weary eyes closed in 
 death ; and there disappeared from the great river 
 of this mortal life one of the most brilliant morning- 
 
1 68 Atheistic & immoral poetry. 
 
 lights that ever sailed adown its stream. For him, 
 as for all true men, death had no fear, however much 
 they hate it, gate though it be to life, " the gloomy 
 entrance to a sunnier world." This is how Derozio 
 sings of death and fate, and man's eternal energy 
 
 Death ! my best friend, if thou doest ope' the door 
 
 The gloomy entrance to a sunnier world, 
 
 It boots not when my being's scene is furled, 
 
 So thou canst aught like vanished bliss restore. 
 
 I vainly call on thee, for fate the more 
 
 Her bolts hurls down, as she has ever hurled : 
 
 And in my war with her I've felt, and feel 
 
 Griefs path cut to my heart by misery's steel. 
 
 But man's eternal energies can make 
 
 An atmosphere around him, and so take 
 
 Good out of evil, like the yellow bee, 
 
 That sucks from flowers malignant a sweet treasure. 
 
 O ! tyrant fate ! thus shall I vanquish thee, 
 
 For out of suffering shall I gather pleasure. 
 
 The " poor self-satisfied creatures," as Robert 
 Dick, the baker and geologist of Thurso, said of his 
 own detractors, " who make an image of God after 
 their own hearts, and not after the image of their 
 maker," made Derozio's short life and sudden death 
 the peg on which to hang a homily, to point a theo- 
 logical moral, and adorn a tale. " Atheistic and 
 immoral poet, subverser of all religious principles 
 whatever, " were howled over his grave by the " unco' 
 guid ;" and repeated in mocking parrot tones half 
 a century after his death, by small men, hedged 
 round by a comforting theology of their own. That 
 Derozio thought for himself on all topics, is beyond 
 
The story of the confession. 169 
 
 question. That he could neither subscribe to the 
 unquestioning acceptance of the authority of the 
 Romish Church in matters of faith, to the sacerdo- 
 talism of episcopal clergyman, to the fervid evangel- 
 icalism of Duff and his admirers, or to the passion- 
 less, unhuman theology of Calvin, that would " damn 
 to all eternity" millions of beings who never heard the 
 gospel according to their reading ; or, who having 
 heard it, would not, could not accept it, was beyond 
 doubt. With Derozio, as with Sir William Hamilton, 
 Scotch Presbyterian as he was, " Truth like a torch 
 the more it shook it shines" was the moving spring 
 that worked the mechanism of his intellect and life. 
 The death-bed scenes of so-called infidels and athe- 
 ists are part of the current goody literature that 
 meanders round the " Cottage homes of England." It 
 was not to be expected that so independent a thinker 
 as Derozio should go to his grave without a death-bed 
 scene in which the convictions of a life-time are repre- 
 sented as giving place to a hearty and full accept- 
 ance of verities about which, however much may 
 be believed, little positively may be known. That 
 Mr. Hill, the congregational Minister, visited Dero- 
 zio the Sunday before his death, that is, on the 
 second day of his illness, and that he, as well as 
 J. W. Ricketts and others, spoke earnestly to the 
 dying lad regarding the unseen realities that lie 
 beyond the grave, was only natural and Christian 
 
 22 
 
170 The story of the confession. 
 
 like ; but that Derozio died in any other faith than 
 that in which he lived, that is, a child-like confi- 
 dence in the great loving spirit that formed his 
 spirit, " and confessed that he was a Christian, and 
 that he died a believer in the faith of Christ," is a 
 statement which takes for granted that he lived and 
 thought during his short life in antagonism to the 
 teachings of Christ as he understood these. This 
 conclusion we venture to think, cannot be accepted, 
 notwithstanding the statements that have been made 
 regarding what passed between both Hill, J. W. 
 Ricketts and Derozio ; one of these statements 
 going the length of asserting that a written recan- 
 tation of infidelity, and a full avowal of Christianity 
 as these gentlemen and their Church understood 
 it, was produced and signed on his death-bed. If 
 such a document ever existed, it was never exhibited 
 to his closest friends, nor shown to those most likely 
 to be made aware of its existence, vzz., the student 
 friends who continually sought his society and lingered 
 round his dying bed. They knew nothing of this con- 
 fession ; and though his bed was closely watched by 
 one or other of them day and night, no clergyman 
 or friend with a story of confession or recantation 
 was ever seen by them, much less any written docu- 
 ment to that effect, bearing the signature of Derozio. 
 The whole story seems to have arisen from the laud- 
 able anxiety of some of his friends, to get from him 
 
The spirit of his life. 171 
 
 some more definite avowal of religious convictions 
 than he ever could see his way to formulate during 
 his life, and in the course of conversation, no doubt, 
 Derozio expressed himself, as in his calmer and more 
 serious moments he would have done, in such a way 
 as seemed to those anxious for his " soul's welfare,' 1 
 to warrant them in declaring that Derozio had died 
 in the faith of Christ. Derozio lived in the faith and 
 spirit of Christ as he understood that faith and life; 
 and in no other faith could he live or die. That 
 he read the life and teaching of Christ differently 
 from others ; that he set his foot firmly down against 
 dogmatizing, against hypocrisy, against all ill, moral 
 and intellectual, and dared to differ from his fellows 
 and seek for truth with a fearless chivalry, a loving 
 charity, and an undogmatizing modesty, was the 
 head and front of his offending. He suffered the 
 penalty of all who dare think for themselves ; and 
 bigots and fanatics and the well-meaning men who 
 require to have companionship and the assurance of 
 conviction which the authority of others carries 
 with it in religious matters, branded him an infidel. 
 
 Of few men may it be said more fitly than of 
 Derozio, "Here lies one who never feared the face 
 of man," who sought for truth faithfully, fearlessly 
 and with all diligence, chivalry and charity, and 
 after searching for it here awhile, " went to find it 
 in another world ;" who, during the short morning glow 
 
1 72 The lesson of his life. 
 
 of his brief life, worked deligently to culivate the 
 intellect and purify the life of all his pupils, and who 
 spared neither care nor sacrifice to raise the native 
 people of India, and the men of his own race, to a 
 social, moral, intellectual and political position which 
 one day sooner or latter they shall attain. 
 
 There is one lesson from Derozio's life which 
 Eurasians may well con and lay to heart. With no 
 other education than that which a Calcutta adven- 
 ture school, fifty years ago, could give him, he began 
 to earn his own living and support his mother 
 sister and brother, after his father's death, at an age 
 when most lads are " cramming " for examinations, 
 and treading on each other's feet in their eager- 
 ness to enter some of the grades of Government 
 service. Derozio's genius and high natural abilities 
 were accompanied by that tenacity of purpose, 
 that steady application to work, and that deter- 
 mination to make one's way, without which 
 genius and ability are merely marsh lights, to 
 lure their possessors to uselessness and ruin. The 
 advantages which the training of a university course 
 bestow are not by any means to be ignored or des- 
 pised ; and when a training of this sort is compatible 
 with the means and future prospects of lads, it would 
 be the highest folly to withhold it. But when neither 
 the present means, nor the future prospects of a 
 family, warrant the outlay on an expensive education, 
 
The lesson of his life. 173 
 
 which at the end of it leaves its possessor, not 
 in the position to supply a demand for his labour, 
 but in that of a competitor, one among many, with 
 native lads as highly educated, and able to supply 
 the demand for this kind of labour at a much cheap- 
 er rate, and Eurasians find themselves, at the end of 
 an expensive education, little better fitted to earn a 
 living than at a much earlier stage in their lives, it 
 seems high time to use the years spent in college, 
 and which lead to little in many of these cases, to 
 the acquirement of some trade or handicraft which 
 would render it unnecessary to import so largely, as at 
 present, skilled European labour. As long as this 
 remains undone, skilled European workers will con- 
 tinue to be brought to India, to settle here and to 
 leave their children to intensify the difficulties that 
 are gathering round domiciled Europeans in India. 
 
 Tributes to the memory and the worth of Derozio 
 were not wanting. 
 
 We reproduce two. One appeared in a supple- 
 ment to the Government Gazette of Thursday, De- 
 cember 29th, 1830, and the other in the Sumachar 
 Durpun. 
 
 " There are, " said the Government Gazette, " we 
 feel assured, many of our readers who share our feel- 
 ings of sincere concern at the premature death of 
 H. Derozio. When we look back but a few brief 
 years, and remember the intelligent and animated 
 
1/4 The tribute of t/ie " Government Gazette? 
 
 East Indian boy, that gave such indubitable promise 
 of something more than common-place talent, when 
 we reflect on the formidable disadvantages he had 
 to contend with, and the elasticity and success with 
 which he bore up against them, so as to make for 
 himself a name, our regret for departed genius is 
 mingled with admiration at its buoyant energy. 
 Destined to terminate his short career when others 
 are but commencing theirs, he nevertheless lived 
 long enough to acquire a reputation that is not likely 
 to perish ; and that is honourably associated with 
 literature, and the moral, social and political improve- 
 ment of his countrymen His works evinc- 
 ed a vigour of thought, an originality of conception, 
 a play of fancy and a delicacy of tone which occa- 
 sioned the more surprise when the reader came to 
 know that the author was an East Indian boy whose 
 peregrinations had never extended beyond Bengal, 
 and whose Alma Mater had been a Calcutta School. 
 In 1827 his published poems attracted the notice and 
 excited the applause of a section of the London Press. 
 Ever since, his name has been before the public, 
 either as a contributor to various literary works, or as 
 the able and independent editor of a newspaper. Of a 
 diligent and active turn, he was not a youth that 
 could sit down and eat the bread of idleness ; nor had 
 he any false fastidiousness as to the sphere in which 
 he could usefully exert his talents. Our youthful 
 
The tribute of the " Government Gazette" 175 
 
 poet became a teacher in the Hindu College. It 
 certainly, one would imagine, was not the situation a 
 young and ardent mind like his would choose had he 
 a variety of choice. This, however, he had not and 
 he accordingly entered with alacrity and zeal upon 
 
 his new duties The Fakeer of Jungheera 
 
 evinces an extraordinary command of language and 
 an acute perception of the beauty of nature and 
 those idealities which form for the poet a world of his 
 own. Of felicity of thought, no less than the ex- 
 pression of that sympathy which the poetic mind 
 holds with the world, visible and invisible, a Walk by 
 Moonlight, published two or three weeks before his 
 death, furnishes an example. 
 
 " That the interest which he took in the progress of 
 his pupils was as deep as it was generous, and in- 
 dependent of all selfish motives, is sufficiently evident 
 were there no other proof of it than the beautiful son- 
 net addressed to the students of the Hindu College, 
 which he published in the Bengal Annual, 1831. 
 Circumstances impelled Mr. Derozio to resign the 
 situation he held at the Hindu College. Thus 
 thrown on his own resources, he established the 
 East Indian newspaper, which, however other differ- 
 ences of opinion exist among his contemporaries as 
 to the mode of conducting it, there could be none 
 whatever as to the talents, the perfect honesty, and 
 the unfettered views of the editor. The labour 
 
1 76 The tribute of the " Government Gazette? 
 
 of conducting a daily paper in India must be obvious. 
 Elastic and buoyant as was the character of Henry 
 Derozio's mind, it could scarcely be expected, that 
 the constant tension of faculties, caused by his 
 connection with a daily paper of peculiar views, and 
 the organ of a class, no less than his anxiety on other 
 points, not necessary to be dilated on here, and per- 
 haps disappointment of some of those hopes to which 
 the aspiring child of genius is more especially subject, 
 it is, we say, scarcely surprising that these should have 
 affected his frame to a degree that he himself was 
 probably not aware of. To these may also be added 
 a feeling of mortification at having been misconceived 
 in his views, even when his intentions were the most 
 single-hearted, and devoted to what he considered 
 the right. Youth, and the consciousness of elastic 
 and original powers of mind are apt to lead their 
 possessor into some imprudence, and that he should 
 have his share of the rashness, and impetuosity of 
 both united was but natural. Now that he is low, his 
 friends may aver with pride, that if his speculations 
 were not always conclusive, or his inferences legiti- 
 mately formed, his moral character was irreproach- 
 able, his devotion to the spirit of what he deemed 
 truth, even romantically uncompromising, his inten- 
 tion good, and his conduct as a son, a brother and 
 friend, and a member of society, which it was his 
 dearest wish to elevate and improve such as to reflect 
 
The tribute of the " Sumacliar Durpan" 177 
 
 credit on his memory, and to make his death lament- 
 ed by an extensive circle of friends and acquaint- 
 ances." 
 
 Here is how the Serampore paper, the Sumactiar 
 Durpan, already referred to, notices the death of 
 Derozio : " With feelings of unfeigned grief we notice 
 the death of Mr. Derozio, the editor of the East Indian, 
 and formerly one of the teachers of the Hindu 
 College. We learn that about a week before his 
 death he was attacked with cholera, and recovered 
 from the stroke ; but afterwards lingered to the period 
 of his lamented death. 
 
 "Among his own countrymen, Mr. Derozio oc- 
 cupied the first rank as a man of talent. At a very 
 early age he produced poetry of no ordinary charac- 
 ter, which secured the admiration of all the lovers 
 of the art in this country, and gained him a suffrage 
 of many eminent men in England. While in the 
 Hindu College he laboured to instil into the minds 
 of the youth under his care the true principles of 
 science ; and to lead them to think for themselves. 
 The result of his tuition has been that the students 
 brought up under it are vastly superior in acquire- 
 ments to their fellow-countrymen ; that body of 
 enlightened youth form a monument by which he 
 will long be remembered in Calcutta. To no indivi- 
 dual is the country under greater obligations for the 
 impulse which has been given to the native mind, 
 
 23 
 
178 The tribute of the " Sumachar Durpan" 
 
 than to Mr. Derozio. If any proof be needed of this 
 it may be found in the perpetual abuse heaped on 
 him by some of the native papers of this Presidency, 
 foes to every improvement. 
 
 " Thus, at the early age of 21, has this highly-gifted 
 young man been cut off, in the midst of a career of 
 great usefulness, and just as he was about to reap the 
 fruit of his arduous labours in the establishment of 
 his journal. His abilities were great, and his ideas 
 respecting public interest were generally just. On 
 some subjects, particularly those of the most solemn 
 importance to man, it was feared that his high talents 
 and the natural impetuosity of youth had hurried him 
 into speculations which more profound enquiry might 
 have corrected. We therefore lament his death most 
 deeply, because, from the cause just mentioned, he 
 never accomplished half the real good which might 
 have been hoped for from one so richly endowed." 
 
 This high testimony to Derozio's ability and worth 
 is all the more remarkable, coming as it did from 
 a journal conducted by the Missionaries of Serampore, 
 and edited by Mr. Marshman (see Asiatic Jour- 
 nal, Vol. VIII, pages 79 and 133, Asiatic Intelli- 
 gence). 
 
 On the 3Oth of December 1831, the following ad- 
 vertisement appeared in the India Gazette : 
 
 " Encouraged by my friends and most of the East 
 Indian comtnunity to publish the memoir of my late 
 
The Mother and Sister. 179 
 
 brother, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, I bring 
 myself before the public and solicit their patronage 
 
 to the above work. 
 
 AMELIA DEROZIO." 
 
 This memoir never saw the light ; misfortune 
 was closing round the mother and sister of Derozio, 
 and how bravely they met it, may be learned from 
 the following advertisement which appeared in the 
 same paper for a number of days : 
 
 "Private Tuition, Circular Road, Calcutta. In con- 
 sequence of the lamented and untimely death of her 
 son Henry, Mrs. Derozio thus early publishes her 
 intentions without delay. She purposes receiving 
 under her roof a few young ladies and instructing 
 them in the following branches : English and French, 
 Reading and Writing, Geography, History, Arith- 
 metic, the Elements of Mathematics and Physical 
 Science, Needlework and Domestic Economy. As 
 Mrs. Derozio has enjoyed the benefit of the best 
 education in England, and as she will be assisted in 
 the duties of teaching by a very competent individual, 
 she hopes to afford every satisfaction to the parents 
 and guardians of the children entrusted to her care. 
 Being also anxious to give the female education a 
 higher character than it has hitherto possessed in 
 India, it will be her aim to realize that object to the 
 best of her ability. Every possible attention will 
 be paid to the health and morals of the young 
 
i8o The " East Indian? 
 
 ladies. Music, dancing, and drawing at the usual 
 charges." 
 
 We add another advertisement from the newspapers 
 of December 2Qth and following dates, containing 
 an appeal to the community to continue to support 
 the East Indian : 
 
 "The great expenditure of money that has 
 been incurred by the late proprietor (H. Derozio) 
 in establishing this paper, and in its typographical 
 improvements, lately effected, will be wholly lost 
 to his family if the paper is not continued. With 
 the experience of some months to guide us, it 
 is almost superfluous to insist upon the necessity of 
 maintaining a paper which has the interests of the 
 East Indian community in view. Individuals are 
 too often blind to their own interests, and still more 
 so to the general interests of the community. We 
 would appeal to the shame that will follow, if the 
 East Indians should be found unwilling to support 
 their own cause. We have a confidence that the 
 tear of sorrow and the tribute of respect which they 
 have paid at the grave of their departed friend, will 
 be followed by substantial service for all the trouble, 
 toil, care and sacrifice, which have been endured 
 in their service by the lamented editor of the East 
 Indian? 
 
 A meeting of the friends and admirers of Derozio, 
 for the purpose of erecting some suitable monument 
 
The Meeting to erect a Memorial. 181 
 
 to his memory, is thus noticed in the India Gazette of 
 January /th, 1832 : 
 
 MONUMENT TO MR. DEROZIO. 
 
 "At a meeting held on Thursday evening, the 5th 
 January, 1832, at the Parental Academy (now Dove- 
 ton College), to consider the propriety of erecting a 
 monument to the memory of the late Mr. H. L. V. 
 Derozio, J. W. Ricketts, Esq., in the chair, the follow- 
 ing resolutions were unanimously passed : 
 
 ist. Moved by Mr. W. Kirkpatrick, and second- 
 ed by Mr. M. Crowe 
 
 That this meeting is desirous of recording its sense 
 of the loss which our community has recently sustain- 
 ed by the death of Mr. H. L. V. Derozio, whose 
 short but brilliant career of public usefulness has 
 left a chasm in our ranks not easily to be filled 
 up. 
 
 2nd. Moved by Baboo Mohesh Chunder Ghose, 
 and seconded by Mr. Wale Byrn 
 
 That a stone monument, bearing an appropriate 
 inscription, be erected by public subscription to the 
 late Mr. Derozio, as a testimony of our esteem for the 
 memory of one whose loss we have so much reason 
 to deplore. 
 
 yd. Moved by Mr. J. A. Lorimer, and seconded 
 by Baboo Krishna Mohun Banerjea. 
 
 That a committee consisting of the following 
 gentlemen : Messrs. Wale Byrn, A. DeSouza, 
 
1 82 The Meeting to erect a Memorial. 
 
 W. R. Fenwick, D. Hare, D. M. King, W. Kirkpatrick, 
 J. W. Ricketts, J. Welsh, and Baboos Duckinarunjun 
 Mookerjea, and Krishna Mohun Banerjee, be appoint- 
 ed to carry the foregoing resolutions into effect ; 
 and that Mr. W. R. Fenwick be requested to officiate 
 as Secretary to the committee. 
 
 4tk. Moved by Mr. L. Frazer, and seconded by 
 Mr. J. A. Lorimer 
 
 That any surplus that may be left from the sub- 
 scriptions raised on account of the monument, be 
 tendered to the family of the late Mr. Derozio. 
 
 Subscription books were handed round, and 
 donations to the amount of Rs 900 were entered. 
 
 On a letter being read by Mr. Byrn from Mr. 
 Stapleton, offering to publish a lithographic miniature 
 of Mr. Derozio without any remuneration for his 
 labours 
 
 5///. Moved by Baboo Krishna Mohun Banerjee, 
 and seconded by Mr. R. Dias 
 
 That Mr. Stapleton's proposals be accepted, and 
 a miniature of Mr. Derozio be published with the 
 consent of his family ; and that the thanks of the 
 meeting be presented to Mr. Stapleton for his disin- 
 terested offer. Votes of thanks for the use of the 
 Hall and to the Chair closed the meeting." 
 
 School, newspaper, and monument all came to 
 nothing ! A person of little moral worth and some 
 pretensions to literary skill obtained the direction 
 
The last of Derozio's Mother and Sister. 183 
 
 and management of the East Indian, and the con- 
 fidence of Derozio's mother. This person, who has 
 been characterised as little better than a " European 
 loafer," speedily brought the paper to ruin, and, 
 with it, Amelia and her mother. Everything was 
 sold off ; and the mother and sister of Derozio at 
 this point disappeared from mortal ken. Amelia 
 appears again once only. Some years afterwards 
 she was accidentally met at Serampore by Krishna 
 Mohun Banerjea : then she was married. Since 
 then the family have disappeared. Are any mem- 
 bers yet in existence ? Are any of Derozio's books, 
 letters, or manuscripts still available to throw some 
 light on his life and work ? 
 
 The movement to erect a monument to his memory 
 and worth, inaugurated in the hall of the Doveton 
 College, at which two of his best loved friends, 
 Krishna Mohun Banerjee and Mohesh Chunder 
 Ghose spoke in feeling terms of their dead master ; 
 and Kirkpatrick and others who, in the merry days 
 of long ago, had sported with him on the green, 
 and Ricketts who had stood side by side with 
 him on the platforms of public meetings, rousing 
 Eurasians to an assertion of their rights, and 
 Fenwick and Crowe, who had supported him in the 
 heavy task of editing and managing the East 
 Indian, all paid tributes to his memory, came to an 
 ignominious ending ; Fenwick, the man entrusted with 
 
1 84 The end of the Memorial. 
 
 the money, Rs 900, raised on the day o/ the meeting, 
 and whatever other sums he afterwards collected 
 from native, Eurasian and European friends, got 
 into deep waters in money matters ; and, probably 
 believing that his embarrassments were only tem- 
 porary, appropriated the whole of the subscriptions 
 of the Derozio Memorial. Derozio's native friends 
 were disgusted, and the Eurasians made no motion. 
 The keen feelings of regret worked by Derozio's 
 death, died away ; the men that knew him went to 
 join him in another world ; and a generation has 
 arisen that knows him not. It may not yet be too 
 late to place somewhere, either over his grave, or 
 better still, on the walls of the Presidency College 
 library, some simple memorial of his life and work ; 
 and there are surely men of his own race for whom 
 he has done so much, over whom, as we have said, 
 he has cast the glow of his genius, and exhibited 
 in a remarkable manner the heights'to which they may 
 aspire and may attain, there are surely native gentle- 
 men, themselves educated at the Hindu College, and 
 who, together with their sons, are reaping the fruits 
 of Derozio's sowing, who will gladly aid in erecting 
 a modest memorial to the lad who, fifty years ago in 
 poetry, philosophy, and journalism, in the school- 
 room, on the platform, and in the social 6ircle, ex- 
 hibited a genius and a public worth which has too 
 long remained unacknowledged. 
 
The man as he looked. 185 
 
 In stature Derozio was rather below the middle 
 height, always neatly, if somewhat foppishly, dressed. 
 His colour was nearly as dark as that of the darkest 
 native. A frank, pleasing smile was the usual ex- 
 pression of a face round and chubby as a boy's, out 
 of which shone the great brown, glowing eyes that 
 usually indicate the possession of acute feelings and 
 vivid imagination. His hair was long, black, inclined to 
 curl, and parted in the middle. Mr. Owen Aratoon has 
 a small photograph taken from the lithographic mi- 
 niature published by Mr. Stapleton, which represents 
 Derozio as dressed in the high-collared dress coat of 
 his day, and his neck swathed in the white neck-cloth 
 fashionable in the days of our grandfathers. We 
 have already noted his singularly winning manner. 
 His frankness and cordiality, and the whole charm 
 of his presence and conversation, drew men to him ; 
 and those who might be inclined, on a first acquaint- 
 ance, to laugh or sneer at his foppishness and conceit, 
 were speedily won over to admire the brilliant boy, 
 whose vivacity, good humour and acuteness, charmed 
 even strangers. Derozio was conscious of his own 
 powers ; and it is no wonder that an element of con- 
 ceit was discernible in his character. He had some- 
 thing to be conceited about. The reception which his 
 poems met with from the press of India and Eng- 
 land, the crowded audiences that listened to his 
 lectures, the patronage and friendship of such men 
 
 24 
 
1 86 The papers of Derozio. 
 
 as Dr. John Grant, H. M. Parker a gentleman 
 occupying a high position in the Revenue Depart- 
 ment, and moving in the highest circle of European 
 society in Calcutta, a man of culture and no mean 
 poetic order, as evidenced in his " Draught of Immor- 
 tality" no dinner party given by Mr. Parker was 
 complete without Derozio and the accomplished 
 principal of the Hindu College, D. L. Richardson, 
 and others who might be mentioned, all these would 
 have turned the head of most boys of twenty ; but to 
 the end of his short life Derozio retained the childlike 
 simplicity of his character. After his death and the 
 abandonment of the contemplated biography by his 
 sister Amelia, Derozio's papers seem to have 
 passed into the hands of Mr. Richardson. Amongst 
 these papers were several short poems since pub- 
 lished, notably Independence and a second sonnet to the 
 students of the Hindu College, not contained in his 
 collected works, and first published in the Calcutta 
 Quarterly Magazine, 1833. There were also a num- 
 ber of letters, now apparently lost, and an incom- 
 plete translation from the French of M. Pierre 
 Louis Moreau De Maupertuis, on Moral Philosophy. 
 This incomplete translation, three chapters of which 
 were printed after his death in the Calcutta Quarterly 
 Magazine for 1833, along with a short notice of his 
 life and poems, is evidence of this much at least, that 
 Derozio knew sufficient French for all the purposes 
 
The fulfilment of his work. 187 
 
 of a student ; and that his knowledge of Philosophy 
 did not embrace the best ^known authors only, but 
 extended to those whose very names, either in this 
 generation or their own, were and are, quite unknown 
 to the bulk of students of Philosophy. 
 
 The fierce religious excitement which marked 
 Derozio's connexion with the Hindu College, and 
 which distinguished the closing years of his 
 life, has long since passed away. The Brahmo 
 Somaj, now divided into three branches, the Adi 
 Somaj, "presided over by the spirit and genius 
 of the venerable Babu Debendra Nath Tagore, " the 
 Sadharan Brahmo Somaj, " a commonwealth based 
 on constitutional and representative principles," and 
 the " New Dispensation, " the name assumed by 
 those Brahmos who accept the teaching, leavened 
 with the Bible and western culture, of Keshub Chun- 
 der Sen, son of Peary Mohun Sen, who died in 1848, 
 Dewan of the Calcutta Mint, a student of the Hindu 
 College, and a grandson of Ram Comul Sen, the most 
 active member of the committee that decreed the 
 dismissal of Derozio, has entered on the work of re- 
 formation and regeneration begun so long ago by 
 Rajah Roy, who died in England neither Hindu, 
 Mohamadan, nor Christian. 
 
 The schools and colleges of Christian sects are 
 substantially aiding in the great work of educating 
 the people of India, Side by side with the Hare 
 
1 88 The fulfilment of his work. 
 
 School, on the land given as a free gift by Hare for 
 the old Hindu College, there stands its lineal de- 
 scendant, the Presidency College, presided over by a 
 staff of accomplished men, and furnished with a library 
 and apparatus. Adjoining these are the University 
 building and the Medical College Hospital, a group 
 of educational agencies which realize to the full 
 that for which the Indian Rajah and the old- 
 fashioned English clock-maker and others of their 
 day laboured so strenuously. The wheel of time 
 turns round on its axis, and brings its own 
 reparation. The very work which Derozio studied 
 with the students of fifty years ago, and on which 
 was based, in a large measure, the charge of " athe- 
 ism and the subversion of all religion whatever" 
 unjustly brought against him during his life, and 
 repeated after his death, the Life and Works of 
 David Hume, Historian and Sceptic, by no less a 
 person than Professor Thomas Huxley, a name that 
 has stunk for years in evangelical nostrils, is now one 
 of the text-books set down for examination ; and 
 this has been effected with little more than a mild 
 protest from a few well meaning men. The whole 
 field of mental science is now ably taught by dis- 
 tinguished scholars, and successfully studied by the 
 descendants of the very men who crowded to the 
 lectures of Derozio, and who have now entered on 
 the quiet inheritance of a curriculum which, in 
 
The fulfilment of his work. 189 
 
 Derozio's day, called down on him the reviling and 
 abuse of the Christian and Hindu bigots of his day. 
 There are mural tablets, portraits, and busts in the 
 various educational institutions of Calcutta, com- 
 memorating the worth and work of men who have 
 laboured for the advancement of the people of 
 India. Amid them all, the visitor looks in vain for any 
 memorial of HENRY Louis VIVIAN DEROZIO, the 
 gifted Eurasian Teacher, Philosopher and Poet, who 
 during the short period of his connexion with the 
 Hindu College, did more to arouse, quicken and 
 impel the thought of young India, than any man 
 then living or since dead ; who won the esteem and 
 high loving reverence of his pupils, and who exer- 
 cised an influence over them on the side of duty, 
 truth and virtue which has never since been equalled. 
 The generation that knew him, and those that have 
 succeeded, have unconsciously allowed to be realized, 
 in part at least, something of his own ideal as em- 
 bodied in his own lines, The Poefs Grave, although, 
 he sleeps not 
 
 " Beside the ocean's foamy surge 
 
 On an untrodden solitary shore, 
 Where the wind sings an everlasting dirge, 
 
 And the wild wave in its tremendous roar 
 Sweeps o'er the sod ! There let his ashes lie 
 Cold and unmourned ; save when the sea-mew's cry 
 Is wafted on the gale as if 'twere given 
 For him whose hand is cold, whose lyre is riven ! 
 There all in silence let him sleep his sleep !" 
 
190 The fulfilment of his work. 
 
 Not there, but in a nameless grave, in a crowded 
 city grave-yard. 
 
 " No dream shall flit into that slumber deep, 
 
 No wandering mortal thither once shall wend ; 
 
 There nothing over him but the heavens shall weep, 
 There never pilgrim at his shrine shall bend, 
 
 But holy stars alone their nightly vigils keep." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE POETRY OF DEROZIO. 
 
 |HOSE whom the gods love die young " is a 
 trite saying, more or less verified, in some 
 fashion, in the life experience of most men. The 
 promise of Derozio's early years might, or might 
 not, have been realised. Those who knew him best 
 and loved him most, believed, that, had life been 
 granted him, he would have achieved for himself the 
 very highest rank as poet and thinker. Notwithstand- 
 ing all the praise bestowed on his early volumes by 
 the press, and by warm-hearted admirers, Derozio 
 did not, as has been asserted, rest on his oars and seek 
 no higher fame, no more enduring monument of song 
 and thought, than those embodied in boyish verse 
 and speculation. Derozio himself believed that he 
 "had it in him," to rise to higher flights of thought 
 and to delve deep down into the great heart 
 of humanity ; and this self-assurance of conscious 
 power grew in strength, and found expression 
 in conversation with those who came in contact 
 with him during the few months preceding his 
 death. 
 
1 92 The style of his Poetry. 
 
 A good deal has been said regarding the style of 
 Derozio, that it is but an echo of Byron, Moore, and 
 Mrs. McLean (L. E. L.), " exaggerated idealism and 
 pictures of passion." No doubt, the influence of 
 these writers exercised considerable power in mould- 
 ing the form of much of Derozio's poetry. They 
 were the poets then fashionable, and to depart from 
 their models was, for a young unknown writer, to 
 court defeat. Derozio's idea was, first, to gain the ear 
 of the public by singing to them in the prevailing 
 fashion of the day ; and then, having 'gained a hear- 
 ing, to strike out in that style in which his own 
 nature would most vigorously drape his song. 
 
 Commenting on a review of Derozio's poetry 
 which appeared in the I3th No. of the Oriental Quar- 
 terly Magazine for December 1829, the Government 
 Gazette, of about the same date, then edited by Dr. 
 John Grant, says : 
 
 " When the Reviewer blames him (Derozio) for 
 making the Byronic School too much his model, 
 we must say for our young poet that he himself, 
 at the time of publishing his Fakeer of Jungheera, 
 anticipated that an objection against exaggerated 
 passion and sentiment would be made. Why 
 then, it may be asked, did he not adopt a simpler 
 model ? This we shall briefly explain. In an article 
 quoted from the Quarterly Review it is justly re- 
 marked that, 'whoever endeavours to rival the best 
 
The Popular and fashionable model. 193 
 
 models of ancient and modern times, must be sus- 
 tained by his own inherent love of excellence, with- 
 out depending on any other support.' He must give 
 place to others whom fashion shines on. He (who 
 would be popular) must be new and striking, or 
 nothing. The consequence is that books are written, 
 not in the manner that is best fitted to enlighten 
 and amend, or even to instructively amuse the pub- 
 lic, but to flatter it. Mr. Derozio was in no condition 
 to be sustained by his own inherent love of excel- 
 lence without depending on any other support. The 
 style adopted in the Fakeer of Jungheera is not, 
 we believe, the one most congenial to Mr. Derozio. 
 This is very evident in the first volume he published. 
 To bring out a book was to him, however, a serious 
 undertaking, because one of the first considerations 
 was, that the book should sell. To render this pro- 
 bable, he felt it necessary to give in to what he 
 believed to be the general taste ; and he was therefore 
 obliged to adopt the popular and fashionable model. 
 In process of time, however, when Mr. Derozio may 
 be enabled to depend more upon himself than he was 
 then, we have little doubt that he will prove satis- 
 factorily to the public that he is not irretrievably 
 wedded to exaggerated idealism, or pictures of pas- 
 sion." 
 
 For ourselves, we believed with Dr. Grant that, 
 had a few years more of life been possible for Derozio, 
 
 25 
 
194 The Fakeer of Jungheera. 
 
 he would have demonstrated to the full, what he had 
 already demonstrated in part, that there was some- 
 thing more in him and his power of song, than 
 sweet imitative echo. 
 
 The judgment which an impartial world passes 
 on men, and the position assigned them by an un- 
 biased succeeding generation, free from the heats of 
 personal likes and dislikes and bitter controversy, 
 is based, not on what a man might have been, or 
 what at some early period of his life he may have been, 
 but on what he actually was, and what he achieved 
 up to the time of his death. It is on these lines we 
 venture to estimate H. L. V. Derozio. 
 
 The Fakeer of Jungheera is a poem of two cantos 
 without a plot and with few incidents. It may be ana- 
 lysed in a sentence or two. A young Hindu widow 
 is about to perform the rite of Sati, when she is 
 rescued by a former lover, the leader of a band of 
 lawless men, whose stronghold is the rock of Junghee- 
 rah. In a raid, the last on which he was to lead the 
 band before quitting the lawless life for ever, the 
 robber chief is killed and his band scattered, and 
 Nuleeni is found dead in the arms of her dead lover. 
 Around these few incidents the genius of Derozio has 
 woven some of the finest poetic imaginings ; and 
 there are parts of the poem which indicate, if they 
 do not always reach, the true elements which distin- 
 guish the genuine poet ; there are imagination, music, 
 
The opening. 195 
 
 sympathy with nature and human nature, and thought. 
 The opening of the poem alone contains gems of 
 poetic metaphor which would have furnished almost 
 the whole stock-in-trade of better known singers. 
 
 Here is the thought of the opening, without the 
 music. The viewless wind, wandering like young 
 spirits on the wing, over flower bells, waking odours, 
 rustling the grass, breathes like a lover's sigh. The 
 sun-lit stream breaks into dimples like a waking child, 
 smiling in its mother's face. The sun, like heavenly 
 hope set over earthly care, pours blessings on the 
 earth and brings its beauties forth. The butterfly, 
 like a flower plucked by an angel from the fairest 
 bowers of heaven, to which wings had been added, 
 has been sent to earth as an earnest of what beauties 
 bud in heaven. The bee on quivering, melodious 
 wing, like a faithless lover, giddy and wild, sips honey 
 from the floweret's lips. Under the banyan tree, 
 fanned by refreshing winds, the brain circled by fair 
 fancies, and the thought arrayed in robes of song a 
 beauteous spot would be blessed to minstrelsy ; and 
 there the gifted bard might weave delicious dreams. 
 Then follows a piece of vigorous description, but not 
 by any means the best in the poem. 
 
 The golden God of Day has driven 
 
 His chariot to the western gate 
 Of yonder red resplendent heaven, 
 
 Where angels high to hail Him wait ; 
 But ere his couch he press to-night, 
 
 His rays a mournful scene shall light. 
 
196 Hymn to the Sun. 
 
 The laughing wave that rolls below, 
 Gilt with the yellow sunshine's glow, 
 Shall hear, ere changed its hue may be, 
 A maddening wail of misery. 
 
 There are choruses of women, Brahmins and the 
 chief Brahmins, and more descriptive passages. We 
 transcribe the XV. stanza : 
 
 As flits the insect round the flame, 
 
 So wheels the heart round passion's fire. 
 
 Their blindness, madness, still the same, 
 Alike in pangs they both expire. 
 
 Where'er the treacherous taper burns, 
 
 Thither the headlong insect turns ; 
 
 And fearless, fluttering near it still, 
 
 Regardless of all pain or ill, 
 
 Until the warmth that round it plays 
 
 Attracts it nearer to the blaze, 
 
 Expiring there, at last it learns 
 
 Though bright the flame, it scathes, it burns. 
 
 So round the torch that Love hath lit, 
 
 Mad as the moth the heart will flit, 
 
 On giddy wing it wildly wheels, 
 
 Th' enlivening glow its spirit feels ; 
 
 And then it fondly fancies, this 
 
 Must be what minstrels picture bliss, 
 
 Until into the fire it flies, 
 
 And then, too late, lamenting, dies ! 
 
 Stanza XIX., the Hymn to the Sun, though cast 
 in a somewhat hackneyed measure, has a steady flow 
 and majestic ring about it, which ought to make it 
 better known. 
 
 HYMN TO THE SUN. 
 
 God of this beauteous world ! whom earth and heaven 
 Adore in concert, and in concert love, 
 
 Whose praise is hymned by the eternal seven, 
 
 Bright wheeling minstrels of the courts above ! 
 
Hymn to the Sun. 197 
 
 God of this glorious universe ! the sea 
 
 Smiles in thy glance, and gladdens in thy ray, 
 And lifteth up its voice in praise to thee, 
 
 Giver of good, Creator of the day ! 
 God of th' immortal mind ! with power to scan 
 
 Thoughts that like diamonds in the cavern lie, 
 Though deeply bedded in the breast of man, 
 
 Distinct and naked to thy piercing eye. 
 God of Eternity ! whose golden throne 
 
 Is borne upon the wings of angels bright ; 
 God of all goodness, thou art God alone. 
 
 Circled with glory, diademed with light ! 
 Thou look'st from thy pavilion, and each cloud, 
 
 Like fear o'ercome by hope triumphant, flies ; 
 The angry thunder's voice, though raving loud, 
 
 At thy bright presence into silence dies. 
 When all is darkness, like the sad soul's night, 
 
 And tempests lower, like grief upon our hearts. 
 Affrighted nature sees thy forehead bright, 
 
 The black storm furls his banner, and departs. 
 Thou mak'st the rainbow with thy golden beams 
 
 Span the blue ocean rolling at thy feet ; 
 Set in the sky, that arch of promise seems 
 
 Like hope still distant, and like hope still sweet. 
 The flowers, the beauty of the earth, implore, 
 
 Like woman in distress, thy rays to bring 
 Their beauty out of nothing, and their store 
 
 Of scent and sweetness from their latent spring. 
 The forest's green is of thy giving. Thou 
 
 Dost fling its emerald mantle o'er the earth. 
 Prostrate to thee let all creation bow, 
 
 For all creation at thy word had birth. 
 O Sun ! thy herald is the morning star, 
 
 Like fame preceding greatness ; but when day 
 Comes on advancing with thy gilded car 
 
 Heaven's hosts of wonder melt like sparks away. 
 Who shall declare thy glory ? Unto thee 
 
 My heart in fervent adoration kneels ; 
 Thou know'st whate'er its sufferings may be, 
 
 To thee alone it tremblingly appeals, 
 God of this beauteous world whom earth and heaven 
 
 Adore in concert, and in concert love ; 
 Thy praise is hymned by the perpetual seven, 
 
 Bright wheeling minstrels of the courts above. 
 God of this glorious universe ! the sea 
 
 Smiles in thy glance and gladdens in thy ray, 
 And lifteth up its voice in praise to thee, 
 
 Giver of good, Creator of the day ! 
 
198 The Legends of tJie Shushan. 
 
 God of th' immortal mind ! with power to scan 
 
 Thoughts that like diamonds in the cavern lie, 
 Though deeply bedded in the breast of man, 
 
 Distinct and naked to thy piercing eye. 
 God of Eternity ! whose golden throne 
 
 Is borne upon the wings of angels bright ; 
 God of all goodness, thou art God alone, 
 
 Circled with glory, diademed with light ! 
 
 The repetition at the close, of the opening verses 
 is a feature in the poetry of Derozio which occurs 
 frequently. This repetition of the opening notes of 
 the strain as the closing lines are dying on the ear, 
 and thus carrying the memory and imagination back 
 through the whole effort, and again down the line 
 in thought, is a true poetic instinct which poets and 
 musicians of the first order have frequently handled 
 in a fashion to produce results of the happiest and 
 most powerful description. 
 
 The first canto ends with Nuleeni and her lover 
 safe together in the rocky home of Jungheerah. 
 
 The second canto opens with a festive scene at 
 Rajmahal interrupted by the advent of Nuleeni's 
 father, and contains, in our estimation, some of the 
 most vigorous verses Derozio ever wrote. The 
 Legend of the Shushan, with all its imperfections, is 
 worth reading. Here is the opening part. 
 
 O ! Love is strong, and its hopes will build 
 Where nothing beside would dare ; 
 
 O ! Love is bright, and its beams will gild 
 The desert dark, and bare. 
 
Derozio's Notes. 199 
 
 And youth is the time, the joyful time, 
 
 When visions of bliss are before us ; 
 But alas ! when gone, in our sober prime 
 
 We sigh for the days flown o'er us. 
 For youth and love their hopes will build 
 
 Where nothing beside would dare ; 
 And they both are bright, and their beams will gild 
 
 The desert, dark and bare. 
 
 The rain fell fast, and the midnight blast 
 
 Its horrible chaunt did sing, 
 And it howled and raved as it madly passed 
 
 Like a demon on wildest wing. 
 
 The precipitous lightning beamed all bright, 
 
 As it flashed from the dark, dark sky, 
 Like the beautiful glance (which kills with its light) 
 
 Of a woman's large black eye. 
 
 It hissed through the air, and it dipped in the wave, 
 
 And it madly plunged into earth, 
 Then pursued the wind to its desolate cave, 
 
 And hurried to its home in the north. 
 
 Some spirit had charmed each gathered cloud, 
 
 Till the mystic spell it broke ; 
 And then uprising, oft and loud, 
 
 The heavens in thunder spoke. 
 And sooth it seemed as if, save that gleam, 
 
 All nature had lost her light 
 The moon had concealed her beautiful beam ; 
 
 'Twas a fearful, fearful night. 
 
 Derozio's note to the Legend of the Shushan we re- 
 produce in its entirety. The wild weirdness of the 
 original, and how far Derozio followed it, will be 
 apparent to the reader : 
 
 "A student of that excellent institution, the 
 Hindu College, once brought me a translation of the 
 Betal Puncheesee, and the following fragment of a tale 
 having struck me for its wildness, I thought of writ- 
 ing a ballad, the subject of which should be strictly 
 Indian. The Shushan is a place to which the dead 
 
2OO Derozids Notes. 
 
 are conveyed to be burnt. In conformity with the 
 practice of eastern story-tellers, who frequently repeat 
 the burden or moral of the song, I have introduced 
 the "O Love is strong," &c., wherever an oppor- 
 tunity offered : 
 
 "Thereupon, he took the Jogee aside and said, 
 O Gosayn ! you have given me many rubies, but 
 have never even once eaten in my house : I am 
 therefore much ashamed, so pray tell me what 
 it is that you want? 'Great King,' replied the 
 Jogee, ' on the banks of the river Godavurry is a 
 Shushan, where all I wish for will be gained by 
 Muntra. Seven-eighths of what I want have been al- 
 ready obtained ; and I now seek at your hands the 
 remaining portion. You must therefore stay with 
 me one whole night.' ' Agreed,' replied the King 
 * appoint the day.' On the evening of the fourteenth 
 day of the month Bhader come to me armed. * Go, 1 
 returned the Raja, * and I promise to be with you 
 on the day you have fixed.' With this promise the 
 Devotee took leave of the King and proceeded to 
 the Shushan. The Raja was lost in meditation, till 
 the time appointed stole upon him, and then, 
 having armed himself, he went alone in the evening 
 to the Jogee. 
 
 ' Come in and sit down, my son,' said the Devotee ; 
 and the Raja complied with his request, while at the 
 same time he, unalarmed, beheld demons, ghosts, 
 
Derozicts Note. 201 
 
 witches, and malignant spirits, dancing around him, 
 and changing their forms. ' Now,' said the Raja 
 what are your commands ?' ' Four miles south of 
 this,' replied the Jogee, * is a Shushan where, on a 
 tree, hangs a corpse ; bring me that corpse while 
 I pray.' Having now sent the King away, the 
 Jogee sat himself down and commenced his de- 
 votions. The dark night frowned upon him, and 
 such a storm with rain came on as if the heavens 
 would have exhausted themselves and never have 
 rained again, while the demons and evil spirits set up 
 a howl that might have daunted the stoutest heart. 
 But the King held on his way, and though snakes 
 came wreathing round his legs, he got free of them by 
 repeating a charm. At last, overcoming all oppo- 
 sition, he reached the cemetery, where he saw demons 
 beating human beings, witches gnawing the livers 
 of children, and tigers and elephants roaring. As he 
 cast his eyes upon a Serus tree, he saw its roots and 
 branch in flames, and heard these words sounding 
 from all quarters ' Strike, strike ! seize, seize ! take 
 care that none escape.' ' Come what will,' said he 
 then to himself, ' this undoubtedly is the Jogee of 
 whom the Dey made mention to me.' So saying 
 he went up to the tree, where he saw a corpse hang- 
 ing with its head downwards. * Now,' cried he, * my 
 labour is at an end.' Then fearlessly climbing the 
 tree, he made a cut with his sword at the rope that 
 
 26 
 
2O2 Derozids Note. 
 
 suspended the corpse, which, as soon as it fell, 
 began to cry. The King, hearing its voice, was 
 pleased at the thought that it must have been a 
 living being; then having descended, * Who are you ?' 
 said he to it. To his great astonishment the corpse 
 only laughed, and without any reply climbed the 
 tree. The King followed it, and, having brought it 
 down in his arms, repeated his question. But receiv- 
 ing no answer, he thought that it might have been 
 the oil-man, who, the Deyhad said, had been kept in 
 the cemetery by the Jogee ; then, having bound it 
 in his cloak, he began to bring it away. 
 
 He who greatly ventures, will greatly win. * Who 
 are you,' said Betal the corpse, to the Raja, 'and 
 where are you taking me ?' 'I am Raja Vicrom,' 
 said the King, ' and I am taking you to the Jogee/ 
 ' Let it be agreed between us,' replied Betal, 'that if 
 you speak while we are on the road, I shall return.' 
 To this the Raja consented, and proceeded with the 
 corpse. While they were on the way, ' O King/ 
 said Betal, ' the learned and the wise spend their time 
 in songs and study, and the indolent and ignorant 
 in' frivolity and sleep. It therefore behoves us to 
 make an easy journey of it with pleasant conversa- 
 tion. Hear then what I now tell thee' : 
 
 But there was a man, and a holy man, 
 A gifted Sunyasee. 
 
Sympathy between Nature and Human Nature. 203 
 A Sunyasee is a devotee who lives in the desert 
 
 The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell ; 
 His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well. 
 
 The verses from Stanzas X. to XVIII. of the 
 second canto are full of beautiful poetic imagery, 
 dramatic intensity, and that sympathy between 
 nature and human nature which Wordsworth, and 
 above all Burns, in his " Wee modest crimson tippet 
 flower," and " Wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie," 
 developed to the highest point. We do not mean 
 to assert that Derozio may rank in equality as a 
 poet with either Wordsworth or Burns ; but it seems 
 to us that the poetry of Derozio is steeped in an 
 intensity of feeling and passion, and a wealth of 
 beautiful thought, a little fanciful, no doubt ; and that, 
 in common with all true poets, Derozio has felt and 
 expressed, not only the close affinity of the varying 
 moods and the life of man with the changeful phases 
 of nature, but also the sympathy that links together 
 all created things, and that throws the beams of a 
 warm human love around on all Nature. 
 
 The parting between Nuleeni and her lover is, in 
 some respects, one of the finest passages in the 
 " Fakeer of Jungheera." There is in it not much 
 of that deep grip of some of the more abstruse 
 problems of life which age and ripe experience can 
 alone supply ; but there is a freshness and beauty 
 as well as a dramatic force and truthfulness, which 
 
204 TJie parting between the lovers. 
 
 poets of seventeen do not always exhibit, and which 
 may fairly earn for, Derozio a modest niche among 
 
 the minor poets 
 
 * * * * 
 
 x. 
 
 How beautiful is moonlight on the stream ! 
 How bright on life is Hope's enchanting beam : 
 Life moves inconstant like the rippling rill, 
 Hope's and the moon's rays quiver o'er them still ! 
 How soft upon each flower is fair moonlight 
 Making its beauty more serenely bright, 
 Bringing sweet sighs of fragrance from its breast, 
 "Where all its odours are, like thoughts, at rest. 
 How sweet to sit upon a bank and mark 
 The soft moon looking on a little bark, 
 As if she watched it from her azure sphere, 
 The guardian spirit of its blest career ; 
 Flinging her melted pearls upon its sail, 
 That swells with infant pride before the gale, 
 How speeds the shallop with its fleecy wing, 
 Like bliss or fancy quite a fragile thing ! 
 Thus shone the moon upon the hallowed wave, 
 Bright as the wish for freedom, in a slave ; 
 Thus shone the moon upon Jungheera's flower, 
 Nuleeni, rosebud of the rocky bower ; 
 And thus soft beams upon the shallop lay, 
 Which soon must bear her Robber-love away. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Alas ! that fate should come 'twixt heart and heart, 
 And like a tyrant force the loved to part ! 
 Breaking the dream which comes but once to bless 
 Existence with a ray of happiness 
 That golden vision which, in mercy given, 
 Seems as 'twere brought by seraphim from heaven ; 
 And when 'tis gone we wish that life were o'er, 
 To dream in Heaven that dream for evermore. 
 Alas ! that warm celestial Love should know 
 The blights of earth, the agonies of woe 
 The killing poison creeping through each vein, 
 The feelings crushed, and the bewildered brain ; 
 The scorpion stinging every hope to death, 
 And life bereft of all but tears and breath. 
 'Tis well these pangs it never twicecan feel, 
 For hearts impassioned, wounded, never heal 
 
The parting between the lovers. 20 5/ 
 
 Like broken pearls, no power of mortal art 
 Can mend the gems or join the riven heart ! 
 When to some spirit we have linked o,ur lot, 
 One who, through life, can never be forgot ; 
 One whom with fond affection we have placed 
 To light and warm the bosom's dismal waste. 
 O ! if that spirit from the breast be torn, 
 Where like a precious jewel it was worn, 
 What, when 'tis gone, may memory hope to find ? 
 A blank a void a dreariness of mind ! 
 It is as if upon a gloomy night, 
 When one soft .star alone is twinkling bright, 
 An angry, lowering cloud of blackest hue 
 Should gather o'er and quench that lingerer too. 
 
 XII. 
 
 'Tis sweet upon the midnight moon to gaze, 
 
 As o'er the waters shoot her trembling rays ; 
 
 'Tis sweet at star-lit hour to hear the breeze 
 
 Waking o'er pebbles its rich melodies, 
 
 Like a young minstrel with his tuneful art 
 
 Singing to soften the unfeeling heart. 
 
 But oh ! to gaze upon the love 1't eye, 
 
 To feel its warmth, and all its witchery ; 
 
 To hear the melting music of that voice 
 
 W 7 hich bids the bosom madden or rejoice ; 
 
 To know that every glance, and thought, and tone 
 
 Of one devoted spirit is our own 
 
 O ! this is joy, like that to angels given, 
 
 Filled to the brim, the heavenliest cup of heaven. 
 
 Her Robber-love and young JNuleeni share 
 
 Each bliss as perfect as the heart may bear, 
 
 All those soft dreams th' impassioned spirit knows, 
 
 Those wild emotions Love alone bestows 
 
 Ecstatic fancies which but once can be, 
 
 Making us quite forget Mortality ! 
 
 He looked upon her eye as 'twere the star 
 
 Of life and death to him no gem afar 
 
 That sparkled o'er them in the clear blue sky 
 
 Foretold so truly of his destiny, 
 
 Thsre was a softened sadness on his brow, 
 
 But seldom there, though too apparent now ; 
 
 The savage sternness from his face was gone, 
 
 Where but that beam of Melancholy s'uone, 
 
 As 'twere prophetic of the grief that soon 
 
 Must fling its shadow on their blissful moon 
 
 Or like a herald onward sent to tell, 
 
 That all within his bosom was not well. 
 
206 The parting between the lovers. 
 
 ' Thee, sweet ! to-night for one short hour I leave 
 
 ' A daring conquest must my hand achieve ; 
 
 ' And 'tis my promise, ere another chief 
 
 * Shall be selected for thy love's relief, 
 
 ' Once more to lead them to their prey alone, 
 
 ' Then quit for ever, and be all thine own. 
 
 1 Quench not the light of that life-giving eye, 
 
 ' Swift on the wings of Love to thee I'll fly ; 
 
 ' But one short hour and I demand no more 
 
 ' For ever thine, when that short hour is o'er." 
 
 XIII. 
 
 How dreadful is the storm, with flag unfurled ! 
 
 And sheathless lightning warring with the world, 
 
 Lost is of light the last remaining ray, 
 
 As if the stars had burnt themselves away, 
 
 Or as the wind, by furious demons driven, 
 
 Had quenched for ever those small lamps of heaven ! 
 
 Hark ! how it rushes like a maniac by, 
 
 Raving and singing as it cuts the sky ; 
 
 Hark ! how it hissing o'er the river flies 
 
 Chafing the waves and moaning till it dies ! 
 
 As though the spirits of the storm, unblest, 
 
 Had been sent down to trouble all at rest. 
 
 Snatched is the moon from heaven, as she had been 
 
 Too fair a witness for so dark a scene : 
 
 As though her delicate and gentle form 
 
 Might ne'er abide the gathering of the storm : 
 
 But, like the beautiful on earth, be still 
 
 Bowed or destroyed beneath the blasts of ill. 
 
 The heavens their flood-gates all at once unbar, 
 
 Th? waters wildly hurry to the war. 
 
 Madly to earth the rain in torrents gushed, 
 
 As from its dismal prison-clouds it rushed 
 
 Against Jungheera's rocks and shelving shore; 
 
 Loud howls the tempest wild the breakers roar, 
 
 Thus, as the tempest dimmed the moon-light scene 
 
 Upon Nuleeni's soul, where all had been 
 
 At peace, those words of parting quenched the light 
 
 Which made existence most divinely bright. 
 
 Farewell ! alas ! that melancholy word 
 
 Comes spell-like on the heart whene'er 'tis heard, 
 
 As if the spirit from that moment were 
 
 Bound with a curse to be dissevered ne'er. 
 
 It lingers on the ear, as if ' twould be 
 
 Still sounding, until slow Eternity 
 
 Came stealing o'er existence ; and there seems 
 
 An omen in its echo, as in dreams 
 
The close of the Poem. 207 
 
 The trusting maiden fondly seeks a sign 
 Her hope's mysterious history to divine. 
 Ah ! there's a mournful, a prophetic spell 
 In the faint fall of early love's farewell. 
 
 We close our extracts from the "Fakeer of Junghee- 
 ra" with a description of the night in which Nuleeni 
 goes forth to search the battle-plain for her lover. 
 
 High from her cljud pavillion, fleecy white, 
 
 The moon rains down her showers of icy %ht. 
 
 And worlds in multitudes, resplendent, throng 
 
 Around her throne like minstrels with their song, 
 
 Loosening sweet music on the fragrant breeze, 
 
 That silent listens to their melodies. 
 
 The earth sleeps listless ; she will wake again 
 
 When morning breaks her dream ; but shall the slain, 
 
 Whom now upon her bosom cold she bears, 
 
 Yet find a land unreached by mortal cares 
 
 A morning blushing in a brighter sky 
 
 Than that above which seems for bliss too nigh ? 
 
 Mysterious sleep ! whate'er of nothingness 
 
 Man learns, it is from thee : but thou canst bless 
 
 The heart to whom Hope's joy-inspiring name 
 
 Has long been but a sound ; whose being's flame 
 
 Is almost quenched into the latest spark 
 
 That gleams to show how all around is dark ; 
 
 Though dread thine influence, the soul of grief 
 
 Woos thee alone, for thou canst yield relief, 
 
 Such as the dreams of waking life may ne'er 
 
 Bestow on human suffering, and despair. 
 
 Now all around is tranquil as the sea 
 When hushed it seems as in a reverie ; 
 So still, so silent, you might hear the beat 
 Of your own heart, or seraph's viewless feet ; 
 Or deem your mind's imagining had found 
 Some spell to form itself into a sound 
 One of those thin ethereal tones that we 
 Oft hear at night the heart's best minstrelsy. 
 Too pure for mortal ear and earthly pain 
 But lo ! alone upon the battle-plain, 
 Pale as embodied moonlight, glides a form, 
 Like a soft breeze when silenced is the storm ! 
 
208 Changes in Indian Society. 
 
 Is it a spirit from a happier sphere 
 
 Come down to mourn o'er wreck'd enjoyment here ? 
 
 Or learn that earth has lost its paradise ? 
 
 Or bear a tale of suffering 1o the skies. 
 
 "Tis poor Nuleeni ! 
 
 That the " Fakeer of Jungheera" is not better 
 known to the students of English literature, and that 
 it seems to be totally unknown to this generation of 
 fairly cultured men and women, is due, in some 
 measure, to the fact, that, as a rule, things Indian 
 have a weak vitality. There is probably no society 
 in the world which experiences more frequent changes 
 in so short a period as the society which forms the 
 brain and heart of India. One race of officials and mer- 
 chants succeeds another ; and a man toiling in the 
 plains of India for half a century may see set succeed 
 set in ever vanishing trains ; and he himself, though 
 known well perhaps to the men who formed society 
 at his first coming, may, unless he is in some promi- 
 nent position, be all but unknown to later comers. 
 On the other hand, men who have made for themselves 
 a fair reputation in India, return to Britain and ex- 
 perience something of the spirit, at least, of the 
 lines 
 
 "no one, now, 
 
 Dwells in the Hall of Ivor ; 
 Men, dogs and horses all are dead, 
 He is the sole survivor." 
 
 The cultured and literary circle of which Derozio 
 formed not the least ornament, fifty years ago, in 
 
The Enchantress of the Cave. 209 
 
 Calcutta : Grant, Richardson, Parker, Calder Camp- 
 bell, John Silk Buckingham, R. Haldane Rattray, and 
 other men of brilliant parts, have all but faded out 
 from the memory of India and her people ; and if the 
 memory of Derozio, the brilliant Eurasian lad who 
 gave such solid evidence of wide capacity and genius, 
 has shared the same fate, it is because the commu- 
 nity to which he belonged, for which he laboured, and 
 over which he threw the radiance of his genius, are 
 so apathetic, so indifferent to their own interests, 
 and apparently so ashamed of their origin, as to be 
 deserted by the men who ought to organize and 
 lead them on the path of progress and self-helpfulness, 
 and inspire in them a love for the country which is 
 their native land, instead of talking of England as 
 "home," claiming to be Englishmen, and learning to 
 despise the race of their mothers. 
 
 Of Derozio's minor pieces, " The Enchantress of 
 the Cave," is the longest. It is cast in the same 
 dramatic mould that characterises some portions of 
 his "Fakeer of Jungheera," and it exhibits a mi- 
 nuteness of detail, and a fidelity to nature, which mark 
 some of his best productions* Like the " Fakeer of 
 Jungheera," the " Enchantress of the Cave " is strung 
 on but a slender thread of narrative. The story 
 may be briefly summarised in a line or two : and 
 even then the tale, with the exception of the inter- 
 view in the cave, is rather hinted at than detailed. 
 
 27 
 
2io The Enchantress of the Cave, 
 
 The night before a decisive battle is to be fought 
 between Muhammadans and Hindus for the mas- 
 tery of India, Nazim seeks the enchantress of the 
 cave to learn " whether all is well" with his wife 
 Jumeeli, whom he has left behind. He finds that 
 the youth who. had accompanied him to battle has 
 deserted him, and he proceeds alone to the cave. 
 In the " Enchantress " he discovers Jumeeli, his wife, 
 who had accompanied him to battle, disguised in 
 male attire, and again assumed the guise of an en- 
 chantress. This is the whole story. The ride to 
 the cave in thus described : 
 
 O'er many a hill he urged his horse, 
 
 Unchecked his speed, uncrossed his course, 
 
 The rowel of his spur was red ; 
 
 Away like lightning-shaft he sped, 
 
 The hills rung with his clattering tread ; 
 
 Yet gallantly he urged him on, 
 
 For the cave must be gained ere rise of sun ; 
 
 His course like a mountaineer's arrow he kept. 
 
 Full forward he went the ravine is leapt : 
 
 That milk white barb now neighed aloud, 
 
 And toss'd on high his crest so proud ; 
 
 The white foam blanched his bridle rein, 
 
 As wildly streamed his flowing mane ; 
 
 He champed the bit that galled him much, 
 
 Then sprung to Nazim's spurring touch ; 
 
 Away he bounds his speed might cope 
 
 With flight of fleetest antelope ; 
 
 Now down the vale he wends, and now 
 
 Has almost reached the lofty brow 
 
 Of yonder hill and when 'tis past, 
 
 He'll win the wished-for cave at last. 
 
 'Tis won he's gone no more I hear 
 
 His charger's tramp ring on my ear, 
 
 Its very echo now is still, 
 
 And silent are the vale and hill ! 
 
The Song of the Enchantress. 2 1 1 
 
 Here is a picture of the cave and the enchantress 
 which recalls some of the weird effects of the " Le- 
 gend of the Shushan :" 
 
 His steed is tied to a withered tree, 
 And now the caverns enters he ; 
 And who is the hag so wan and grim 
 That sits there, all regardless of him ? 
 Her yellow skin is shrivelled and shrunk, 
 Her locks are grey, and her eyes are sunk ; 
 And time has set on her brow, it appears, 
 Perchance the seal of a hundred years. 
 
 A hundred years of sorrow and care 
 Look, look on that brow what paleness is there ! 
 And there's an unearthly flash in her eye 
 When first it is fixed on a passer-by ; 
 Her lips are parched, her jaws are lank, 
 The cave that shields her is dreary and dank ; 
 A cauldron is seething in that lone cave, 
 Which yawns like a desolate, loathsome grave ; 
 And she, the tenant who makes it her home, 
 Looks like an Afrit* escaped from the tomb ! 
 
 Here in its entirety is the " Song of the Enchan- 
 tress." The notes A to F, appended to this poem, 
 show an amount of out-of-the-way reading, and an 
 acquaintance with legendary lore, which exhibits, in 
 some fashion, one side, at least, of the wide reading 
 of Derozio : 
 
 Oh ! Chuhulmenarf is far from me, 
 
 But there the treasure of ages be ; 
 
 There wilt thou find great Jemshid's gem,J 
 
 And Gian Ben Gian's bright diadem. 
 
 And the wealth of the Seventy-two is there 
 
 But, creature of clay ! 
 
 They're far away 
 
 " These were a kind of Medusae or Lamiae supposed to be the most terrible 
 and cruel of all the orders of the Dives." Vide Vathek and (f Herbelot. 
 t FzV&noteA. 
 \ Vide note B. 
 
212 The Song of tfie Enchantress. 
 
 Then why dost thou come to claim my care ? 
 The Seal* of the fifth king can controul 
 Genius and Giant, and Ogre and Ghoul ; 
 By its power the tides of the sea are confined. 
 It quenches the fire, and it hushes the wind 
 Say, dost thou seek this talisman true ? 
 In its search there is many a peril to rue, 
 And ere it is won thou must wander far, 
 For buried it lies in Chuhulmenar. 
 
 To-morrow the leaguering cohorts assail 
 
 The Hindu, and well know I who will prevail ; 
 
 I ween by thy pistols, and sabre, and shield, 
 
 That thou art just come from the tented field ; 
 
 But there is no charm, save the strength of thine arm, 
 
 To vanquish thy foeman, and keep thee from harm. 
 
 The friendly Simurght through th' ethereal path, 
 
 It was once said, bore Tahamurath ; 
 
 The wonderful bird o'er the dark desert bore him, 
 
 Till all from Kaf to Kaft was before him ; 
 
 He took from its bosom the plumes for his helm, 
 
 Then where was the power that he could not o'erwhelm ? 
 
 But fled's the Simurgh to the mountain that stands 
 
 On the stone that ne'er moves but when Alia commands. 
 
 'Mid noxious winds, and vapours damp 
 Love seldom flies to the warrior's camp ; 
 Once Rustum and Zal loved well, 'tis true, 
 Since then such faith has been proved by few. 
 O ! com'st thou here like the nightingale 
 That hath no young rose to list his tale ? 
 Or does the Sultana of thy lone heart, 
 Forgetting thy pain, play the tyrant's part ? 
 Or is she faithless, and hath she fled 
 To share with another her shame and bed ? 
 There once was a charm in the opal stone 
 To make the false heart all thine own ; 
 But the Peri- King came and stole the gem 
 And placed it in his own diadem ; 
 Since then, it has lost the potent spell 
 To bind the frail and the faithless well. 
 In the cygnet's down there once was power 
 To blight the woe of an evil hour ; 
 
 * The Seal of Soliman Jared. Vide note C. 
 
 t A fabulous bird. Vide note D. 
 
 j From one extremity of the earth to the other. Vide note E. 
 
 Sukhrat. Vide note F. 
 
The Song of the Enchantress. 213 
 
 But ah ! the swan with her crest of pride 
 
 Spurns the purple Jumna's tide ; 
 
 They say 'twas told to seers of old 
 
 That the faintest heart waxed warm and bold 
 
 If it could obtain, 
 
 Regardless of pain, 
 
 And reckless of all that it counted loss, 
 A plume from the wing of the albatross 
 But that bird has poised him high in air, 
 And, alas ! his resting-place is there ! * 
 Every mystic spell and charm 
 That yielded bliss, or kept from harm, 
 Is fled, is fled like a dream of the night, 
 Save one that I must not bring to light, 
 Save one that to name I must not dare 
 
 Then say, Oh ! say 
 
 Why, creature of clay, 
 Hither thou com'st to claim my care ? 
 What to me is Jemshid's gem, 
 Or the King of the Peri's diadem ? 
 Chuhulmenar is a city fair, 
 But what to me is the wealth that's there ? 
 The fifth King's seal on the wretch bestow 
 Whom slaves of Eblist have wrung with woe ; 
 No victim am I of spectre foul, 
 And why should I shrink from a hell-hound's howl 
 I seek not to curb the chainless sea, 
 And what are the winds and the waves to me? 
 Cold, cold on the sod at dawn I may lie, 
 But somewhat I seek to know ere I die 
 'Tis not my doom perchance that's sealed, 
 And now too late to be repealed, 
 Whate'er it be, to heaven and it 
 With faith and patience I submit ; 
 But yet I could not brave the strife 
 Without the fears which now I feel, 
 Fears not, alas ! for mine own life, 
 From me that scarce a thought could steal. 
 Thou may'st have seen the tendril twine 
 Around the green bough of the vine, 
 How fresh and fair, how sweet and young 
 It looked, as to the branch it clung ! 
 But when the bough was riven away 
 It ne'er survived the wreck a day ! 
 Thou may'st have seen in many a grove 
 The queen of spring, the Bulbul's love ! 
 
 * It is said that this bird sleeps -while flying. 
 t The Muhammadan Pluto. 
 
214 Notes to the Enchantress of the Cave. 
 
 How fair she smiled ! her every leaf 
 Might give a glow to the cheek of grief, 
 And every odour that she shed 
 Imparted sweetness ere it fled. 
 Thou then perchance didst rudely tear 
 The flowret from its stalk, and wear 
 That fragile emblem of the fair 
 Upon thy breast but it perished there ! 
 So, like the tendril to its vine 
 Jumeeli's heart has clung to mine ; 
 And as the rose from its own tree 
 Too soon she'd fade, if torn from me, 
 And oh ! I could not calmly die 
 Until I knew that all was well 
 With her, who claims my latest sigh 
 If thou thus much to me canst tell, 
 If this, thy dark, prophetic eye 
 Can see I seek nor sign nor spell." 
 
 There is a red streak in the east 
 Of coming light it gives them warning 
 To glorious brightness now increased, 
 It shines upon the dews of morning, 
 But where is Nazim, where his bride ? 
 To battle's red field, side by side 
 They're gone. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 (A) Oh! Chuhulmenar is far from me. 
 
 Chuhulmenar is the modern name of Istakhar. It signifies "forty 
 pillars " so called (as Mrs. Ramsbottom would say) because forty 
 pillars were built in it by Soliman Ben Daoud. It was known to the 
 Greeks by the name of Persepolis, so famous in the history of " Mace- 
 donia's Madman." Here, it is said, are deposited the treasures of the 
 seventy-two pre- Adamite Sultans (about whom Mussulmans only pre- 
 tend to know anything,) and the diadem of Gian Ben Gian, the 
 chief of the Genii, to whom the building of the pyramids of Egypt, 
 as well as the temple of Soliman, has been ascribed. Gian Ben Gian 
 is said to have reigned two thousand years over the Peris. 
 
 (B) There wilt thou find great JemshicTs gem. 
 
 Jemshid's gem has given birth to many oriental similes, and most of 
 the Hindoostanee poets have made allusions to it. I hope to be for- 
 given for having made mention of it here, as I have nowhere read of 
 
Astrophel and Stella. 215 
 
 the gem of Jemshid being in Istakhar, although that sultan built that 
 city. The story of this gem, like that of many wonderful things, 
 seems enveloped in a cloud of mystery, so that it may be all a fable, 
 or I may be right. 
 
 (C) The Seal of the fifth ktng can controul 
 Genius and Giant ^ and Ogre and Ghoid. 
 
 The most famous talisman of the east was the seal of Soliman 
 Jared, fifth monarch of the world, after Adam. It not only controul- 
 ed Genii and demons of all kinds, but the possessor of it had the 
 entire command of the elements. Vathek, Richardson^ D'Herbelot. 
 
 (D) The friendly Simurgh. 
 
 "Kara avis in terris," and wonderful stories are told concerning 
 it. For a more particular account of it I beg to refer the reader to 
 Calif Vathek. 
 
 (E) Till all from Kaf 'to Kaf was before him. 
 
 This mountain, which is no other than Caucasus, was supposed to 
 surround the world like a wall ; and the sun, it was believed, rose 
 from one of its eminences, and set on the opposite hence " from 
 Kaf to Kaf" signified from one extremity of the earth to the other. 
 It was to this mountain that the Simurgh bore Tahamurath through 
 the air, and over the desert. From the breast of this bird he took 
 the plumes for his helmet, and they have been since worn by the most 
 renowned warriors of the east, who consequently have never wanted 
 success.' Vathek. 
 
 (F) To the mountain that stands 
 
 On the stone that ne'er moves but ivhen Alia commands. 
 This stone is called Sukhrat, and resembles, or is thought to be, 
 an emerald. On it stands mount Kaf ; and when Alia commands it, 
 or any of its fibres to move, an earthquake is produced. 
 
 In this abrupt fashion the tale ends, and the 
 imagination is left to conceive what follows. 
 
 The rare merit of some of Sir Philip Sidney's 
 sonnets is too well known to require that their ex- 
 cellence should be dilated on here. The XXXIst 
 of Astrophel and Stella beginning 
 
 With how sad steps O ! moon thou climb'st the skies, 
 How silently, and with how wan a face, 
 
216 Sonnets. 
 
 And the XXXIXth, 
 
 Come sleep, O ! sleep ! the certain knot of peace, 
 The baiting place of wit, the balm of woe, 
 
 The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release, 
 The indifferent judge between the high and low. 
 
 are probably two of the most exquisite of the whole 
 one hundred sonnets and songs of Astrophel and 
 Stella ; nevertheless we hazard the opinion that, with 
 the exception of the XXXIXth, there are a few of 
 Derozio's sonnets that come little, if anything, short 
 in merit of some of the best productions of Sir 
 Philip Sidney. The sonnets of the Eurasian lad 
 whose Alma Mater was a Dhurrumtollah Adventure 
 School, who never travelled beyond the limits of 
 Bengal, and whose chivalry, charity and purity in 
 some respects resembled Sidney's, the idol of Eliza- 
 bethan England, may be read with interest side by 
 side with those of the representative of the " un- 
 stained young manhood" of England's sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Here are some of Derozio's sonnets : 
 
 TO THE RISING MOON. 
 
 Why art thou blushing Lady ? Art thou ashamed 
 To show thy full fair face ? Behind yon screen 
 Of trees which Nature has enrobed with green, 
 Thou stand'st as one whose hidden sins are named, 
 Peeping the leafy crevices between 
 Like memory looking through the chinks of years 
 For some fair island spot unsoiled by tears. 
 Now thou'rt ascen ling, melancholy queen ! 
 But the red rose has sickened on thy cheek, 
 And there thou wanderest, sorrowful and weak, 
 
Sonnets. 217 
 
 And heedless where thou'rt straying, sad and pale, 
 Like grief-struck maiden, who has heard revealed 
 To all the world that which she wished concealed, 
 Her trusting loves and hapless frailty's tale. 
 
 TO THE MOON. 
 
 Lonely thou wanderest through wide heaven, like one 
 
 That has some fearful deed of darkness done, 
 
 With grief upon thy cheek ; while sad despair 
 
 Coldly refuseth thee a shelter, where 
 
 Repose might give thee welcome. Or hast thou 
 
 Washed with pale light thy melancholy brow, 
 
 Because the dreams hope brought thee once have fled 
 
 And left the thoughts of sadness in their stead ? 
 
 Ah, no ! it is that thou art too near earth 
 
 Ever to witness rosy pleasure's birth ; 
 
 And ceaseless gazing on the thousand showers 
 
 Of ill that inundate this world of ours 
 
 Has touched thy heart, and bid thine aspect be, 
 
 For our misfortunes, pale with sympathy. 
 
 NIGHT. 
 
 Like our young dreams of fame, aud hope, and love, 
 
 Bright, beautiful, but far above our reach, 
 
 Night's jewels sparkle in her coronet ; 
 
 So dead a stillness fills the voiceless air, 
 
 That, if an angel should pass by the while, 
 
 Well would we hear the waving of his wing : 
 
 And feel the dew he scattered. The soft breeze 
 
 Which walks forth at this hour from grave to grave, 
 
 To fan the forest blossoms to repose, 
 
 Still slumbers in his cavern ; and the moon, 
 
 Pallid, and weary, wandering slowly on, 
 
 Comes, like a widow, sorrowing for her lord. 
 
 These sonnets will probably recall to the reader's 
 mind the lines " To the Moon" of P. B. Shelley- 
 Art thou pale for weariness 
 
 Of climbing heaven, and gazing on the earth, 
 Wandering companionless 
 
 Among the stars, that have a different birth, 
 And ever changing, like a joyless eye 
 That finds no object worth its constancy ? 
 
 28 
 
218 The Abolition of Sattee. 
 
 Derozio's power of linking with and transferring 
 to inanimate nature the living passions, hopes, and 
 fears of human nature is well exemplified in his 
 sonnets. 
 
 There are several other of Derozio's minor pieces 
 that will well repay the reading. Here is one 
 ON THE ABOLITION OF SATTEE. 
 
 " The practice of Sattee^ or of burning or burying 
 alive tlie widows of Hindoos, is hereby declared illegal, 
 and punishable by the Criminal Courts. " Regulation 
 XVII., 1829. 
 
 Red from his chambers came the morning sun 
 And frowned dark Ganges, on thy fatal shore, 
 
 Journeying on high ; but when the day was done 
 He set in smiles, to rise in blood no more, 
 
 Hark ! heard ye not ? the widow's wail is over ; 
 No more the flames from impious pyres ascend, 
 
 See Mercy now primeval peace restore, 
 While peans glad the arch ethereal rend, 
 
 For India hails at last, her father and her friend. 
 
 Back to its cavern ebbs the tide of crime, 
 
 There fettered, locked, and powerless it sleeps, 
 And history bending o'er the page of time, 
 
 Where many a mournful record still she keeps, 
 The widowed Hindoo's fate no longer weeps ; 
 
 The priestly tyrant's cruel charm is broken, 
 And to his den alarmed the monster creeps ; 
 
 The charm that mars his mystic spell is broken, 
 O'er all the land 'tis spread : he trembles at the token. 
 
 Bentinck, be thine the everlasting mead ! 
 
 The heart's full homage, still is virtue's claim, 
 And 'tis the good man's ever honoured deed 
 
 Which gives an immortality to fame : 
 Transient and fierce, though dazzling is the flame 
 
 That glory lights upon the wastes of War : 
 Nations unborn shall venerate thy name, 
 
 A triumph than the conqueror's mightier far, 
 Thy memory shall be blessed as is the morning star, 
 
The Abolition of Sattee. 219 
 
 He is the friend of man who breaks the seal 
 
 That despot custom sets on deed and thought, 
 He labours generously for human weal 
 
 Who holds the omnipotence of fear as naught ; 
 The winged mind will not co earth be brought, 
 
 'Twill sink to clay if it imprisoned be ; 
 For 'tis with high immortal longings fraught, 
 
 And these are dimmed or quenched eternally, 
 Until it feels the hand that sets its pinions free. 
 
 And woman hath endured, and still endures, 
 
 Wrong, which her weakness and her woes should shield, 
 The slave and victim of the treacherous lures 
 
 Which wily arts, to man, the tyrant yield : 
 And hete the sight of star, or flower, or field ; 
 
 Or bird that journeys through the sunny air, 
 Or social bliss from woman has been sealed, 
 
 To her, the sky is dark the earth is bare, 
 And Heaven's most hallowed breath pronounced forbidden fare. 
 
 Nurtured in darkness, born to many woes 
 
 Words, the mind's instrument but ill supplied, 
 Delight, even as a name she scarcely knows, 
 
 And while an infant sold to be a bride, 
 To be a mother her exalted pride, 
 
 And yet not her's, a mother's sigh or smile 
 Oft doomed in youth to stem the icy tide 
 
 Of rude neglect, caused by some wanton's wile 
 And forced at last to grace her lord's funereal pile. 
 
 Daughters of Europe ! by our Ganges side, 
 
 Which wept and murmured as it flowed along, 
 Have wives, yet virgins, nay, yet infants, died, 
 
 While priestly fiends have yelled a dismal song 
 'Mid deafening clamours of the drum and gong : 
 
 And mothers on their pyres have seen the hands 
 Which clung around them when those hands were young, 
 
 Lighting around them such unholy brands 
 As demons kindle when they rave through hell in bands. 
 
 But with prophetic ken, dispelling fears 
 
 Which haunt the mind that dwells on nature's plan, 
 The Bard beholds through mists of coming years 
 
 A rising sprit speaking peace to man. 
 The storm is passing, and the rainbow's span 
 
 Stretcheth from North to South : the ebon car 
 Of darkness rolls away : the breezes fan 
 
 The infant dawn, and morning's herald star 
 Comes trembling into day : O ! can the Sun be far ? 
 
22O The minor pieces. 
 
 This is probably one of the noblest odes ever writ- 
 ten by Derozio ; and there are ideas and aspirations 
 in it which, we doubt not, will wake a ready response 
 in all who read it. 
 
 There is scarcely anything he ever wrote, which 
 does not bear the impress of his strong fertile 
 imagination and his culture. The " Poet's Habita- 
 tion, " the " New Atlantis," " Ada," " Address to 
 the Greeks," " Poetic Haunts," the " Golden Vase." 
 The translation from Hafiz and several of his 
 sonnets are all productions of great merit, and cer- 
 tainly give evidence of considerable powers. 
 
 The " Golden Vase" is a subject which has been 
 handled by poets since the days of Boccaccio. Keats 
 dealt with it in his own melodious, sumptuous way, in 
 his " Isabella or the Pot of Basil." Derozio has woven 
 round the theme a simple thread of burning love and 
 woman's constancy : and his independent, natural 
 treatment of the topic ought to have earned for him a 
 warmer recognition of his genuine capacity. 
 
 Derozio may only claim to rank among the minor 
 poets of his day. His was the first glad song of 
 conscious power, poured forth, steeped in the feeling, 
 passion, and imagination of his simple, boyish nature. 
 Should this memoir in any way help to call atten- 
 tion to the brilliant lad, and his short life of promise, 
 rather than of fulfilment it will have served its 
 purpose, if it vindicates for him an humble place in 
 
7 he minor pieces. 221 
 
 ,.. *' the choir invisible, 
 
 * Of those immortal dead who live again 
 
 * In minds made better by their presence : live 
 In pulses stirred to generosity, 
 
 In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
 
 For miserable aims, that end with self, 
 
 In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, 
 
 And, with their mild persistence, urge men's search 
 
 To vaster issues," 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The Petition of 1830. 
 
 The following is the full text of the East Indian 
 Petition : 
 
 To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, the petition of the under- 
 signed Christian inhabitants of Calcutta, and the provinces comprised 
 within the presidency of Fort William, 
 HUMBLY SHEWETH, 
 
 1 . That your petitioners are members of a numerous increasing 
 and widely-dispersed class of subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, 
 living within the territories at present governed by the United Com- 
 pany of merchants trading to the East Indies, in the province of 
 Bengal, and in the town of Calcutta. 
 
 2. That the body of which they compose a part, forms a distinct 
 class of society in British India, which dates its existence more re- 
 motely from the time when the East India Company hrst formed 
 permanent establishments on the continent of India, but chiefly from 
 the more recent period, when the acquisition of immense territories 
 required the presence of an increased number of Europeans to main- 
 tain and govern them. 
 
 3. That they are descended, in most instances, on the father's 
 side, from the European subjects of the Crown of Great Britain, and 
 on the mother's side, from the natives of India ; and that in other 
 instances they are the children of intermarriages between the offsprings 
 of such connexions ; but that, although thus closely allied to the 
 European and Native races, they are excluded from almost all those 
 advantages which each respectively enjoys, and are subject to peculiar 
 grievances from which both are exempt. 
 
 4. The first grievance which your petitioners beg leave to bring 
 to the notice of your Honourable House is, that a very large majority 
 of the class to which they belong are entirely destitute of any rule 
 of civil law, to which they can refer as a standard that is to regulate 
 their conduct in the various relations of society. Those of your 
 petitioners who live in Calcutta within the limited jurisdiction of the 
 Supreme Court, are guided in their civil relations by the Laws of 
 England ; but the moment they pass beyond that jurisdiction, to 
 reside either temporarily or permanently in the interior, they are 
 thereby placed beyond the pale of all civil law, whether British, Hindu, 
 or Muhamedan. By the rigid interpretation, which successive Judges 
 of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Fort William, have given to 
 
224 APPENDIX. 
 
 the phrase " British subjects " in the various acts of Parliament 
 relating to India, your petitioners are excluded from coming under 
 that denomination, and are consequently prevented from enjoying 
 ihe benefits of the Laws of England, and, by their profession of 
 the Christian religion, they are equally debarred from the adoption 
 of the Hindu or Mahomedan civil law ; while there is no other civil 
 code to which they can have recourse as their guide in the various 
 transactions and relations of life. However extraordinary the fact 
 may appear, your petitioners affirm, without fear of contradiction, 
 that there is no law which regulates their marriages and makes them 
 lawful, there is no law which shows the rule that is to define the 
 legitimacy or illegitimacy of their issue, there is no law which pre- 
 scribes the succession to their property, there is no law which points 
 out whether they possess the right of bequeathing by will, and, 
 if so, to what extent, there is no law that declares which of their 
 children, or whether one or all, shall succeed in case of intestacy. 
 In these and other equally important particulars, they have no law 
 to direct or control them ; and they are thus treated as utterly un- 
 worthy of any one of those rights, which it is the express object of 
 a code of civil law to define and the primary design of society and 
 Government to protect. Your petitioners thus literally compose 
 a great body of out-laws, not made so by any crimes of their own, 
 and on that very account feeling the more deeply the legalized 
 wrongs that have been inflicted on them, and the contemptuous in- 
 difference and neglect with which their anomalous civil condition 
 has been regarded. It is not, however, the invidious judicial cons- 
 truction of the doubtful languages of the Acts of Parliaments that has 
 alone tended to degrade their civil condition ; nor have they ever been 
 permitted to enjoy the full advantage that would have arisen to them 
 from the absolute and total neglect of that condition by their im- 
 mediate rulers. A Rule and Regulation* of the Government of the 
 East India Company has, by clear and express definition, included 
 your petitioners in the class of " native subjects of the British Govern- 
 ment," and has thereby subjected them to the numerous disabilities 
 of their Hindu and Muhamedan fellow-subjects ; while, by another 
 enactmentf of the local Government they have, as belonging to the 
 above-mentioned class, been deprived in a body of the protection of 
 the Act of Habeas Corpus ; having been made liable to be taken up on 
 suspicion by any of the local authorities, and confined as State pri- 
 soners, without the legal possibility of ever obtaining their release, 
 since the only appeal they could have would be to the local Govern- 
 ment. Thus they are not virtually and by implicaton but directly 
 and immediately denuded of the first and most important of all civil 
 rights personal security ; and they may, therefore, be justly con- 
 sidered as holding their property, their liberty, and even their lives 
 at the discretion of every powerful public functionary. 
 
 * Regulation VIII of 1818. | t Regulation III of 1818. 
 
APPENDIX. 225 
 
 5. The second grievance under which your petitioners labour is, that 
 they are amenable in the interior to Muhammadan criminal law, a law 
 in itself barbarous and imperfect, founded on the most intolerant 
 principles, and intimately interwoven with a system of religion and 
 a state of society wholly opposed to their opinions and habits. The 
 law of Muhammad was promulgated only for believers in the Koran, 
 and towards all who are considered infidels, it bears a most oppressive 
 aspect. Many of the punishments, when specific, are of a sanguinary 
 description, and, in others, an almost unlimited discretion is given to 
 the judge. It is arbitrarily administered, and though a right of appeal 
 is in many cases allowed to the Superior Court of Criminal Jurisdic- 
 tion of the East India Company, called the Nizamut Adawlut, yet 
 that tribunal possesses the extraordinary power, on such appeal, of 
 increasing the punishment which is awarded at their discretion, and 
 without hearing fresh evidence. The only modifications which the 
 Muhammadan criminal code has received, in its application to your 
 petitioners, have been produced by the supplementary Regulations of 
 the East India Company, which, instead of softening and mitigating 
 its inflictions, have, in some instances, even increased the harshness 
 of its character. In proof of this statement your petitioners beg to cite 
 the third Regulation of the year 1821, by the express provisions of 
 which they are made liable, in all cases, to be dealt with as Hindu 
 and Muhammadan natives of the lowest rank, and to be fined, im- 
 prisoned, and corporally punished, not merely at the discretion of the 
 European Judges or Magistrates of the East Indian Company, but 
 even of the Hindu and Muhammadan officers of justice ; while from 
 the operation of this Regulation, not only British subjects, in the 
 restricted application which has been given to that appellation, but 
 also European and American foreigners resident in the interior are 
 exempted. Thus the law recognizes the existence of your petitioners, 
 only for the purpose of punishment, and never for that of protection ; 
 while the criminal code, to which they have been made amenable, is 
 distinguished by the intolerance of its spirit, by the aggravated 
 severity of its provisions, by its total incongruity with their religious 
 belief and social condition, and by the deep-felt degradation to which, 
 in its actual administration, your petitioners are subjected. 
 
 6. The third grievance, to which your petitoners are subject, is that 
 they are excluded from all superior and convenanted offices in the 
 Civil and Military services, and from all sworn offices in the Marine 
 service of the East India Company. The invariable preamble to the 
 appointment of an individual to any of these services runs thus : 
 " Provided A. B. (the person receiving the appointment) be not the 
 son of a native Indian," a restriction which was first adopted by 
 the Directors of the East India Company on the 9th November 1791, 
 and which is always republished in the Gazette of Government^ on 
 the notification of the appointment of any one who may be then 
 residing in India. Your petitioners do not dispute the right of the 
 Court of Directors to give the appointments in their service to those 
 
 29 
 
226 APPENDIX. 
 
 whom they may deem most worthy, but they humbly submit that no 
 wise, just, or beneficent Government will ever impose any other general 
 condition on candidates for employment than fitness for the offices 
 they may seek ; still less will it exclude any class of men, on the 
 ground of birth or colour, when it does not possess the power of 
 limiting their increase, or of diminishing their number ; and, least of 
 all, will it wantonly add insult to injury, and to proscription a load of 
 public and gratuitous contumely. 
 
 7. The fourth grievance of your petitioners is that they are not only 
 expressly excluded from all those offices of trust and emolument in the 
 Civil, Military and Marine services of the East India Company's Gov- 
 ernment, which are open to " British subjects," but that they are also 
 treated as ineligible to most of those subordinate employments in the 
 Judicial, Revenue and Police Departments, and even in the Military 
 service, which are open without reserve to the Hindu and Muhammadan 
 natives of the country. Your petitioners are prohibited from being 
 appointed to the situations of Munsiff, Sheristadar, and almost all other 
 inferior Judicial offices ; they are prevented from practising as Vakeels 
 or Pleaders in every one of the courts of justice of the East India 
 Company, from the highest to the lowest ; they are shut out from all 
 the subordinate offices in the departments of General, Revenue and 
 Police ; and in the Army they are not permitted to till the posts of 
 native commissioned or non-commissioned officers, nor even that of 
 a naick or corporal in a native regiment, although leave is given to 
 them to shed their blood in the ranks as privates, and to officiate in 
 the regimental band as drummers and musicians. Thus, of the 
 many thousand subordinate employments under the local Government, 
 there are few from which they are not excluded except on condition 
 of abjuring the Christian faith, in which case, their eligibility as 
 natives of India would be at once restored. 
 
 8. The fifth grievance, of which your petitioners complain, is, that 
 they are expressly declared to be disqualified from holding His 
 Majesty's commission in the British Indian army. The Commander- 
 in-Chief for the time being of His Majesty's Forces in India, on the 
 2yth of February 1808, issued a general order, still in force, by which 
 no person can be recommended in India for any vacant commission 
 in His Majesty's service, who belongs to the class of which your 
 petitioners compose a part. Your petitioners humbly trust that His 
 Majesty, in the exercise of his royal prerogative, will see fit to rescind 
 this invidious order, and though they are aware that it does not belong 
 to your Honorable House to free them from the galling disability to 
 which it has subjected them, yet they have deemed it important to 
 be mentioned in this place, as an additional proof of that system of 
 cruel proscriptions, of which they have been made the unoffending 
 victims. 
 
 9. The sixth grievance imposed upon your petitioners is that, by 
 stipulations in treaties with all the powers in India, which still pre- 
 serve a shadow of independence, they are debarred from employing 
 
APPENDIX. 227 
 
 your petitioners in any capacity without the permission of the 
 Supreme Government of India. It is true that, in those treaties, 
 only " Europeans and Americans" are expressly prohibited from being 
 so employed; yet, although these are denominations under which 
 your petitioners cannot be classed, the restriction is practically applied 
 to them also. Thus, by the limited signification which has been 
 given to the phrase " British subjects" so as to exclude your petition- 
 ers, who are subjects of the British Crown, they are exposed to 
 intolerable grievances ; and by the extended meaning which has been 
 given to the terms " Europeans and Americans," so as to include 
 your petitioners, who are natives of Asia, they are prevented, except 
 under special license seldom given, and always liable to be recalled, 
 from employing their talents and industry in the service of any of the 
 Native Princes. In both cases, but by contrary means, alike cruel 
 and unjust to your petitioners, the one great object of exclusion is 
 effected ; and thus whatever step they take in life, and to whatever 
 quarter they look, exclusion, disability and proscription meet them 
 at every turn. 
 
 10. The last grievance to which your petitioner will advert is that 
 every plan proposed by others, or adopted by themselves, for the 
 improvement oi the class to which they belong instead of receiving 
 the fostering countenance of the paternal Government has met with 
 positive disapproval, or cold neglect, strongly contrasted with the 
 active and liberal encouragement that has been laudably given by 
 the local authorities to various institutions formed for the benefit 
 of other classes of the population. In support of this statement your 
 petitioners beg to refer to the benevolent plan proposed by the late 
 Colonel Kirkpatrick, in 1782, having for its objects to secure a provi- 
 sion for the sons of European officers by native mothers by educating 
 them in England, and obtaining cadetships for them in the Indian 
 army. This scheme, which received the approbation of the whole 
 military service, and was not opposed by the local Government, was 
 rejected in the most unqualified manner by the Court of Directors, 
 the residence of such children in Europe for education being that part 
 of it which especially called forth their reprobation. In the same 
 manner, at a more recent period, two institutions were commenced 
 by the exertions of your petitioners, and devoted to the education 
 of their children, called the Parental Academic [nstitution (now the 
 Doveton College) and the Calcutta Grammar School, amidst severe 
 pecuniary difficulties, and with the certain prospect of great advantage 
 resulting from even a slight measure of assistance from Government, 
 have been refused a participation with other similar institutions in 
 those funds, which the East India Company is required, by Act of 
 Parliament, to apply to the moral and intellectual improvement of the 
 Natives of India. Thus their European parents are Irowned 
 upon for endeavouring to send them to England for education. Your 
 petitioners themselves are discouraged in their humble attempts to 
 extend the blessings of education among their own class in India, 
 
228 APPENDIX. 
 
 Every avenue of honorable ambition and of social improvement is shut 
 up against them ; and it is with a keen and long cherished convicton of 
 the wrongs they have suffered from the race of their fathers that they 
 now bring themselves to the notice of your Honorable House, and res- 
 pectfully ask for that equality of rights and privileges to which, in 
 common with every other class of His Majesty's subjects, they are 
 unquestionably entitled. 
 
 11. Your petitioners have now briefly enumerated the principal 
 grievances for which they seek redress from your Honorable House ; 
 but the statements they have made are very far from expressing the 
 depth and the extent of the degradation which has been entailed upon 
 them, and the numerous ramifications of the evils which they suffer. 
 What they have styled their grievances are not individual cases of 
 grievances peculiar to one person, one time, and one occasion; but they 
 are classes of grievances, each class extending to the whole body 
 to which your petitioners belong, and all of them spread over the entire 
 period of existence, pervading every transaction and relation of life, 
 and doubly left, first, in their own persons and fortune, and, secondly, 
 in the condition and prospects of their rising offspring. 
 
 12. However diversified and pervading the particular effects of the 
 grievances your petitioners suffer, there is one unvarying general result 
 which they produce : there is one point to which they are all made 
 to tend, and that is, to place your petitioners in the situation of a 
 proscribed class, to prevent their amalgamation with the European 
 population, and to creat and perpetuate against them the most 
 mortifying and injurious prejudices. Your petitioners are aware that 
 the abolition of those social prejudices, of which they are made the 
 object, cannot be brought within the scope of legislative enactments, 
 and it is with no such view that they seek for the interposition of 
 your Honorable House. They trust to the loyalty and rectitude 
 of their own conduct for that place and consideration in society 
 which belong to them ; but they think they have a right to complain 
 when the acts of the legislative and governing powers, instead of having 
 a tendency to neutralize and destroy the prejudices that exist against 
 your petitioners, have had the direct and certain effect of calling them 
 into existence. Your petitioners neither ask nor expect any special 
 interference in their behalf, but they warmly protest against those 
 invidious distinctions which mark them, in the land of their birth, as 
 outcasts and aliens, bereft of all privileges, and strangers alike to the 
 rights of society, and to the feelings of humanity. It is surely not the 
 characteristic of a paternal and an enlightened Government, which 
 should be the common and equal protector of all its subjects, to scatter 
 with its own hands the seeds of discord and to array the different 
 classes of society against each other in bitter contempt and implac- 
 able hatred. Yet such is the undeniable tendency of the exclusive 
 and contumelious system of misgovernment, under which your peti- 
 tioners have long suffered, and which, if continued, must produce in 
 the class to which they belong, hitherto free from the slightest reproach 
 
APPENDIX. 229 
 
 of disloyalty or disaffection, permanent dissatisfaction, and even entire 
 alienation of mind from the British authority in India. 
 
 13. Your petitioners disclaim every invidious or unfriendly feeling 
 in the contrast, which they have had occasion to present of their own 
 depressed condition, with the superior advantages and privileges en- 
 joyed by other parts of the population. There are numerous and 
 weighty grievances which they suffer, in common with British-born 
 subjects on the one hand, and with Hindus and Muhammadans on the 
 other, but which, as organs of a distinct class, your petitioners have 
 not considered it proper on the present condition to detail. These 
 common grounds uf complaint have produced in their mindsasyrr- 
 pathy with those classes ; and in those instances, in which your peti- 
 tioners labour under peculiar disadvantages, they are far from wish- 
 ing to bring their fellow-subjects to the same level with themselves 
 or to claim any exclusive countervailing privilege. Although profess- 
 ing the Christian religion, speaking the English language, and as- 
 similated in dress, manners and education to their paternal ancestors, 
 they do not, on these or other grounds, ask for any favours or immu- 
 nities which they would not equally solicit for their fellow-subjects of 
 the Hindu and Muhammadan religions. But being Christians and 
 descendants of Englishmen, your petitioners humbly submit that it is 
 cruel and unjust to make their belief and descent the grounds of civil 
 outlawry, of degrading disqualification, and of a uniform and persever- 
 ing course of contumelious and insulting treatment ; and that it is 
 especially inconsistent and impolitic in a Christian and British Govern- 
 ment to adopt and reduce to practice such an odious system of exclu- 
 sion, and thus to fix marks of deep contempt and degradation on the 
 partakers of their own blood, and the professors of a common-faith. 
 
 14. Your petitioners may be permitted to observ* that, however 
 strong the language they have deemed it requisite to employ 
 in the exposition of their grievances, and however acute the 
 feelings of which that language is the feeble and imperfect expres- 
 sion, they have never lost sight of the obedience and respect 
 which have been claimed by their immediate rulers. From them, 
 indeed, the condition of your petitioners has not received the consider- 
 ation which they had a right to expect, and which they earnestly hope 
 your Honorable House will bestow. Their complaints when presented 
 in the most respectful terms, through the proper channels, have been 
 treated as futile and unfounded ; nor has any disposition been shown 
 to alleviate the acknowledged extreme hardships under which they 
 suffer. To the East India Company, therefore, in its own charac- 
 ter, or to its local Government, your petitioners, as a body, feel that 
 they owe nothing. They have received from it no sympathy or redress, 
 nothing but studied insult, contemptuous indifference, or at best, empty 
 profession. But in that Company and its servants, your petitioners 
 see the legally-constituted representatives of British power and authority 
 in India, and they have therefore conscientiously discharged the duties 
 of peaceable and obedient subjects, in the fond, although hitherto vain, 
 
230 APPENDIX. 
 
 expectation that their peculiar grievances would attract the attention 
 of those who have the ability, and, they trust, the will to remedy them. 
 15. Your petitioners hope that it is only necessary to bring to the 
 notice of your Honorable House the evils which have been entailed 
 upon their body, to produce at once the disposition to remove them. 
 With regard to such matters as may appear fit for the direct interfer- 
 ence of Parliament, your petitioners cannot doubt that an immediate 
 remedy will be applied, and, with regard to such as seem to reside, 
 during the existence of the present charter of the East India Company, 
 within the province of that body and their local Government, your 
 petitioners pray that to them their rights and interests may no longer 
 be committed, without appeal ; and that, in any new charter which the 
 Legislature may grant, a clause may be inserted, expressly prohibiting, 
 in all its parts, that system of exclusion directed against your petition- 
 ers which has hitherto formed a distinguishing feature in the policy of 
 the Company's Government. They pray to be delivered that from 
 state of neglect and abandonment in which they have hitherto been 
 allowed to remain, beyond the pale of civil law, ignominiously driven 
 from all community of rights and privileges with any of the denomina- 
 tions of the society in which they reside. They pray your Honorable 
 House to admit them to the fellowship of their fathers, to rescue them 
 from subjection to institutions the most degrading and despotic, 
 and to treat them as subjects of the British Crown, to which alone 
 they recognize their allegiance to be due, and to which they desire 
 to bind themselves and their posterity by the indissoluble ties of 
 justice and of gratitude. 
 
 And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, 
 
 The following is a report of the debate in the House of 
 
 Lords on the occasion of the presentation of the petition. 
 
 The notes are those made by Mr. J. W. Ricketts : 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 29x11 MARCH 1830. 
 
 ^ THE EARL OF CARLISLE. I rise to present a petition from the Chris- 
 tian inhabitants of Calcutta and the provinces comprised within the 
 Presidency of Fort William, praying for the revision of the laws affect- 
 ing the native Christian population of India. * I can only say, my 
 Lords, that I have a most earnest desire that relief should be afforded 
 to the petitioners who labor under great hardships. 
 
 LORD ELLENBOROUGH. This is far from being a favorable op- 
 portunity for entering into a discussion upon the statements of the 
 petition. I must, however, assure the Noble Earl that I feel, as every 
 person of the slightest humanity must do, the greatest compassion for 
 the unfortunate situation of the class to which the petitioners belong. 
 
 * These are the descendants of Europeans by native mothers, and the 
 offspring of intermarriages. 
 
APPENDIX. 231 
 
 I am fully conscious, too, that it is of great importance to alleviate the 
 evils of their condition ; and no man will rejoice more at such a cir- 
 cumstance than myself, if a way can be found of doing so, without a 
 violation of the principles essential to the conservation of the British 
 empire in India. * There are some grievances stated in that petition, 
 which, if they practically exist, I think might be redressed without 
 danger, and that at no distant period. If, for example, they lie under 
 inconveniences with respect to the law of marriage or of succession, I see 
 no reason why a remedy should not be applied. What, however, is really 
 asked by the petitioners, is not an equality of civil rights, but an ad- 
 mission to privileges from which the great body of the native population 
 of India are excluded. They are the illegitimate offspring of European 
 fathers and native mothers t, and they wish to be placed in a situation 
 such as is filled by illegitimate children in no part of the world. 
 Nevertheless, since the arrival of the petition in this conntry, it has 
 received the greatest consideration both from the Board of Control and 
 the Directors of the East India Company. I am not prepared to state 
 the result of that consideration at the present moment ; but will say 
 that there is every disposition to ameliorate the condition of the peti- 
 tioners and grant their prayers, as far as may be consistent with the two 
 great objects we must always bear in mind when legislating for India, 
 namely, the conservation of our empire and the well-being of the 
 great body of the people. 
 
 THE EARL OF CARLISLE. What difference is there between the 
 children of half-castes, and the half-castes themselves ? 
 
 LORD ELLENBOROUGH. As regards the privileges of Europeans, 
 
 * Here is an apprehension of danger altogether without foundation, and is only 
 calculated to mislead the English public. It is the same as saying, " If we do 
 wrong, we are safe ; but if we do right, we are surrounded with danger." Danger 
 and insecurity may certainly spring from the wrongs and grievances of a discon- 
 tented people ; but if the petitioners have been uniformly loyal in their conduct 
 under all the load of degrading disabilities heretofore systematically heaped upon 
 them, is it to be supposed that the abolition of these disabilities would lead them all 
 at once to abandon their loyalty for rebellion ? 
 
 t The petitioners are persons born both in and out of wedlock who labour alike 
 under the same disabilities. 
 
 t Quite the reverse. In England, for instance, no enquiry is ever made into 
 legitimacy or illegitimacy of birth, either to qualify or disqualify for office; and, if it 
 were not thought invidious to mention names, many individuals might be point- 
 ed out as coming under the latter class, who nevertheless fill responsible and im- 
 portant offices in the State. On this very subject too, speaking of the legal incapa- 
 city of an illegitimate child, Blackstone says " And really any other distinction 
 but that of not inheriting which civil policy renders necessary would, with regard 
 to the innocent offspring of his parent's, crimes be odious, unjust, and cruel to the 
 last degree." Nor, indeed, is the political disability, as applicable to East Indians, 
 the sons of the European fathers and native mothers, really grounded upon the fact 
 of illegitimacy of birth ; since there are instances of persons, the illegitimate sons of 
 European parents on both sides, who have been unscrupulously admitted into the 
 East India Company's service, both civil and military. The objection then is 
 merely skin-deep, and distitute of all reason and justice ; applying as it does ex- 
 clusivly to persons descended from Indian mothers ; but shall such an objection 
 alike absured and unjust, continue to operate as a libel upon the British administra- 
 tion in india in this liberal and enlightened age ? 
 
232 APPENDIX. 
 
 the children of half-castes are in the same situation as the half-castes 
 themselves, but not so as regards offices under the Company, for as 
 natives they may be appointed to any military situation in the Com- 
 pany's service to which natives are eligible. 
 
 Ricketts' note to the last statement is : " Not so, they are ineli- 
 gible to the posts of Subadars, Jemadars, Havildars and Naiks in 
 the Native Army in India." 
 
 The following letters passed between Lord Carlisle and 
 Mr. Ricketts regarding his Lordship's statement in the 
 House of Lords : 
 
 GROSVENOR PLACE, 
 gth June 1830. 
 
 Lord Carlisle presents his compliments to Mr. Ricketts, and begs 
 leave to acknowledge the receipt of the copies (of report of the debate 
 from the " Mirror of Parliament") which have just reached him. 
 
 He is aware that the observations he made upon presenting the 
 petition to the House of Lords were very imperfectly, if at all, re- 
 ported. He must, however, be allowed to say that he did state the 
 various grievances which were enumerated by the petitioners, and 
 concluded with professing that he was actuated by no unfriendly feel- 
 ing to the Government of India or to the noble Lord at the head of 
 the Board of Control, and that he was disposed to believe that the 
 noble Lord was sincerely desirous of correcting the anomalies detailed 
 in the petition, and of remedying the grievances, and ameliorating 
 the condition of what must be considered an unfortunate portion of 
 the population of British India. If Lord Carlisle had been apprised 
 of the intention of publishing the debates upon presenting the petitions 
 in the two Houses, he could have easily furnished the short account 
 of what he did say. As the statement appears at present, it omits 
 what he did say, and put words into his mouth he never used. 
 
 Lord Carlisle must also observejthat he was aware that it was the 
 intention of the Committee of the Lords to examine Mr. Ricketts, 
 and imagined that his evidence would afford more information than a 
 discussion in the House. 
 J. W. RICKETTS, 
 
 6, Cloudsley Terrace^ Liverpool Road. 
 
 Although in this note Lord Carlisle declares that he is 
 reported to have used words he never uttered, and that the 
 account omits what he did say, his Lordship's short speech 
 appears in Hansard as we have quoted it without any note 
 to the effect that this is not what Lord Carlisle did say. 
 It might be interesting to learn in how many instances 
 speeches quoted in the early days of Parliamentary report- 
 ing are really in every respect what they purport to be. 
 
APPENDIX. 233 
 
 Mr. Ricketts's reply is as follows : 
 
 CLOUDSLEY TERRACE, LIVERPOOL 
 lot h June 1830. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Ricketts presents his compliments to Lord Carlisle and 
 rs extremely sorry to find that the report of his Lordship's speech, as 
 given in the Parliamentary debates on the East Indians' petition, is 
 so very imperfect. 
 
 Mr. Ricketts was of course very anxious to obtain a correct report 
 of the debates, and not relying on what appeared in the newspapers, 
 he had recourse to the " Mirror of Parliament" Office for their version 
 of them, but he regrets to be still disappointed. Mr. Ricketts unfor- 
 tunately reached the House of Lords a little too late to hear what 
 took place on the occasion, as he was misinformed as to the usual 
 hour for the commencement of business. Mr. Ricketts begs to apo- 
 logize to Lord Carlisle for his apparent want of attention in not 
 making his Lordship acquainted with his intention to publish the 
 debates, which was formed only since the presentation of the Petition 
 in the Commons. 
 
 RIGHT HON'BLE LORD CARLISLE, 
 12, Grosvenor Place. 
 
 With regard to the incorrection of the reported debates in the 
 Lords, Mr. Ricketts wrote as follows : I can only account for it in 
 this way : When his Lordship rose to present the Lords' petition, 
 having commenced with stating that it was one from a certain class 
 of the Christian population in India, it is likely enough that this cir- 
 cumstance alone was quite sufficient to produce a sort of narcotic 
 effect on the mind of the reporter, who must have treated the matter 
 as one of subordinate interest, relating to scenes separated by the dis- 
 tance of half the globe, and hence a mere hurried guess, as I must 
 now call it, at Lord Carlisle's speech on the occasion as given in 
 the " Mirror of Parliament." Quite otherwise, however, with the 
 Lower House. When Mr. Wynn rose to present the Commons' petition, 
 the cry of " Order, order" resounded more than once from the speaker, 
 and Mr, Wynn himself, experiencing some little inconvenience from 
 the prevailing buzz in the house, very courteously turned round and 
 requested the Honorable Members to desist for a few moments. 
 Perfect silence and order being now restored, Mr. Wynn proceeded 
 without interruption and was attentively listened to, and the whole 
 of the debate growing out of the matter became strikingly spirited 
 and interesting. 
 
 Before finally quitting this branch of the subject, I must be allowed 
 to express my sense of gratitude to Lord Carlisle, for the kind share 
 of interest he took in presenting our petition in the House of Lords, 
 and in examining me before the Lords' Committee ; and though he had 
 but a simple part to act in the matter, and abstained, for the reason 
 assigned in his letter, from enlarging on our case while presenting 
 
 30 
 
234 APPENDIX. 
 
 the petition, yet our obligations to his Lordship remain uneffected by 
 that circumstance. 
 
 Mr. Ricketts wrote of the debate in the House of Com- 
 mons as follows : 
 
 After the Easter recess our petition was presented by Mr. Wynn 
 in the House of Commons on the 4th of May. Never before, since 
 my arrival in England, did I witness a more interesting spectacle 
 than the one presented to my sight on this occasion ; and Mr. Wynn 
 very kindly secured a seat for rne in the House below the gallery, where 
 I truly enjoyed a rich mental feast, afforded by the warm bebate aris- 
 ing from the subject, one which was now, for the first time, fairly and 
 tangibly brought before the Legislature. Without exception, it was 
 decidedly the best thing in the way of a debate in the House that 
 evening, as was also acknowledged by others ; and Mr. Crawford, 
 who was likewise present, came up to congratulate me on the peculiar 
 warmth of interest shown to be felt by the different speakers, and on 
 the happy issue of the business so far as it went, 
 
 To Mr. Wynn, therefore, and also to Sir James Mackintosh and Sir 
 Charles Forbes, to Mr. J. Stewart and Mr. Wolryche Whitmore, are 
 the East Indian public pre-eminently indebted for the highly beneficial 
 results accruing from their parliamentary exertions in an affair which 
 concerns a politically degraded and proscribed class of Christian popu- 
 lation, subject to the rule of a British Christian Government, at half 
 the distance of the globe. Nor are our obligations, in this respect, 
 the less due to Dr. S. Lushington and Mr. J. Hume, who, but for 
 the lateness of their arrival on the particular evening referred to, would 
 have taken their full share in the debate. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 4TH MAY 1830. 
 
 MR. WILLIAMS WYNN. I regret, Sir, that the duty of presenting 
 the petition which I now hold in my hand, has devolved upon 
 me, in consequence of the indisposition of my Noble Friend, the 
 Member for Woodstock (Lord Ashley). I regret that it is not in the 
 power of that Noble Lord to present the petition, because I am sure 
 that it would have made a greater impression upon the House if it 
 had come from his hands, instead of from mine ; and that, not merely 
 on account of his official character as one of the Commissioners for 
 the Affairs of India, but also on account of the great diligence and 
 attention which he has been in the habit of bestowing upon all subjects 
 connected with that country. This petition is very numerously, and 
 I may also add very respectably, signed by the Christian inhabitants 
 of Calcutta and the provinces comprised within the Presidency of Fort 
 William, descended on the one side from European subjects of the 
 Crown of Great Britain, and on the other, from natives of India, who 
 may, therefore, be denominated Indo-Britons, though they are more 
 generally known by the title of half-castes. The grievances of which 
 the petitioners complain are numerous ; but may, I believe, be com. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 prised under two heads. Whilst they live in Calcutta, within the 
 limited jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, they are guided in their 
 civil relations by the laws of England : but the moment they pass from 
 that jurisdiction, they complain that they are placed beyond the pale 
 of all civil law, whether British, Hindu or Muhammadan. They like, 
 wise complain that they are excluded from all superior offices in 
 the civil and military services of the East India Company. To this 
 Subject I alluded last year, when I had the honour of presenting 
 a petition from the natives of India, complaining that they were 
 excluded from all offices of trust and emolument in the land of their 
 fathers. For my own part I cannot separate the cases of these two 
 different classes of petitioners. This, however, I must say, that what- 
 ever arguments applied to the case of the natives of India, apply with 
 infinitely stronger force to those unfortunate individuals who compose 
 the subscribers to this petition. They, at least, are of our blood and 
 of our religion ; many of them have been educated in this country, and 
 are possessed of capacity and acquirements of the first description . 
 Though they profess themselves to be, and actually are, Christians, 
 they are, when in the interior, amenable to the Muhammedan criminal 
 law. They are thus deprived of all the advantages of trial by jury ; 
 and, when accused of offences, are liable to be fined and imprisoned, 
 and corporally punished, not merely by Europeans but also by Muham- 
 medan officers of justice. Questions may arise as to the validity of 
 their marriages ; and all such questions must be decided not according 
 to the principles of Christians, but according to those of Muhammedan 
 law. How great the disadvantages are, which arise from this system, 
 have been made apparent in the inquiries that have been recently in- 
 stituted into this subject by the Committee of both Houses now sit- 
 ting on the East India Company's Charter. It happens that a great 
 many females, the daughters of European fathers by native mothers, 
 are married to European officers, high in the service of the Company, 
 at Calcutta. I have been told that, among the officers who hold the 
 highest situation on the staff in the Company's service at Calcutta, 
 there is not at present one who is not married to a female of Indian 
 descent. Supposing that an offence should be charged against any of 
 these married couples, whilst residing in the interior, the husband 
 would be sent to Calcutta to be tried by Europeans according to the 
 principles of British law ; but the wife might be tried and condemned 
 before any Muhammadan magistrate. This is not merely a grievance 
 in itself, but it gives rise to a feeling among the half-castes, that they 
 stand in a different situation from their European relations, with whom 
 they would otherwise mix upon terms of equality, and to whom they 
 are, in point of fact, equal in this country. 
 
 There is nothing in the law or constitution of this country to pre- 
 vent any half-caste from being elected a Member of Parliament, or 
 from taking his seat in this House. They are frequently sent over 
 to this country for education, and, in many instances, receive one 
 equal to that received by any gentleman whom I am now addressing 
 
236 APPENDIX. 
 
 and they are, consequently, equally competent to discharge the duties 
 of any situation however important. The grievance which the peti- 
 tioners feel the most severely, is their exclusion, by the East India 
 Company, from all employments in their service, civil and military. 
 "Within these few years this injustice, glaring as it originally was, 
 has received considerable mitigation ; for the exclusion has been con- 
 fined to the sons of parents either of whom were of unmixed Indian 
 blood. Formerly, any one who had a tinge of colour in his skin, was 
 certain to meet with obstruction in his road to preferment ; indeed, 
 it was impossible for him to advance at all. [t came within my own 
 knowledge that, on one occasion, the son of an English officer, by 
 a lady whom he had married in England, was darker than suited the 
 taste of our military critics ; and there was, in consequence, a refusal 
 to admit him, though regularly nominated, into the Company's service. 
 I know that there are those who talk of the inherent unfitness of 
 persons of Indian descent to fill offices of trust and importance in 
 India. I should be ashamed to argue with those who uphold such 
 doctrines. I should blush if I were compelled to go through the 
 names of those who, in spite of these regulations, have worked out their 
 way to greatness by the commanding force of their talents. 
 
 I last year adverted to a distinguished instance in the case of Colonel 
 Skinner, who, though he was excluded, owing to his descent from a 
 native mother, from serving in the East India Company's regular army, 
 raised a corps of 8,000 men, and distinguished himself in an eminent man- 
 ner during the late wars. For his intrepid disinterested conduct, although 
 rejected by the Company's service, he earned for himself the rank of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel in the King's service, and obtained the Cross of a 
 Commander of the Bath. I have seen evidence* within the last two 
 days, which proves Colonel Skinner's influence in India to be so great 
 as to enable him to raise 10,000 men at any time. That officer is a 
 gallant man, and as loyally attached to his Sovereign as man can be ; 
 but is it wise, I would ask, to make such a man, with such influence, 
 the object of proscription ? If such policy is to be permanently adopt- 
 ed, individuals in his circumstances will soon be animated with feel- 
 ings of hostility to our Indian Government. If the career of honor is 
 shut against them, those talents which cannot be used in favor of the 
 Government, will be used for its destruction. Others hold it to be 
 politic that these men should be systematically degraded, and why ? 
 * 'Because (say they) the natives of India look upon these half-castes 
 in a very different manner from that in which they look upon Euro- 
 peans." This mode of argument is really monstrous. The governors 
 of India first place these individuals in a state of degradation, and 
 then urge that degradation as a reason for continuing it. 
 
 Upon this subject, I will only refer to what had been so well stated 
 by Sir Thomas Munro. That excellent officer, in a minute upon this 
 
 See the evidence of R. D. Mangles, Esq., before the Lords' Committee. 
 
APPENDIX. 237 
 
 subject, dated 3ist December 1824, says : "With what grace can you 
 talk of your paternal government of India, if you exclude descendants 
 of European fathers by native mothers from all offices ; and if, over a 
 population of 50,000,000, you enact that no one but an European shall 
 order any punishment ? Such an interdiction is a sentence of degrada- 
 tion on a whole people, from which no good can arise. How can we 
 expect that the Hindu population will be good subjects, unless we hold 
 out to them inducements to become so ? If superior acquirements can- 
 not open the road to distinction, how can you expect individuals to 
 take the trouble of acquiring them ? When obtained, they can answer no 
 other purpose than that of showing their possessor the fallen condition 
 of the caste to which he belongs. This is true of every nation, and of 
 every country it is true of our own. Let England be subjugated by a 
 foreign force, let the natives of it be excluded from all offices of 
 trust and emolument, and then all their knowledge, and all their 
 literature, both foreign and domestic, will not save them from 
 being, in a few generations, a low-minded, deceitful, and dishonest race." 
 
 This is the opinion of Sir Thomas Munro, and I think it applies 
 most forcibly to the present subject. The whole of the minute, indeed, 
 from which it is selected, appears to me well worthy the attention 
 of the House ; and, as it has not been published in the very valuable 
 Life of Sir Thomas Munro, which has lately appeared, I shall, when 
 this petition is disposed of, move that it be laid before the House, and 
 I only wish that every gentleman may take the trouble of reading it 
 through, since I am convinced that every one must be no less delight- 
 ed than benefited by the sentiments of enlightened humanity, and by 
 the high-minded and liberal views which it contains. 
 
 Before I sit down, I cannot help observing that the effect of this 
 system of exclusion are not merely confined to their legal operation, 
 but are also productive of great moral and personal degradation. I 
 found that to be the case during the period in which I myself super- 
 intended the affairs of India. I discovered that, in a charitable insti- 
 tution founded by Lord Clive for the benefit of the widows and chil- 
 dren of his companions in arms, and without any intention on the part 
 of that great man of establishing any system of an exclusive nature, it 
 had since been directed that, before any widow could receive the bene- 
 fit of it, an affidavit must be made that she was not of native blood. 
 This restriction I was enabled to abolish, but by the regulations of 
 the Military Fund, established both at Madras and Bombay, the one 
 in the year 1808, the other in the year 1816, it is still provided that 
 it shall be an indispensable qualification to any child who seeks relief 
 from it, that both the parent and the child should be European and 
 of unmixed blood ; and it is likewise added that four removes from 
 African or Asiatic blood should be considered as restoring the blood 
 to purity. I thought, then, and I am still of the same opinion, that 
 a state of society in which such regulations were publicly avowed and 
 acted upon was one which required revision and reformation, I trust, 
 
238 APPENDIX. 
 
 therefore, that, whatever may be the issue of the inquiry now proceed- 
 ing up-stairs, the House will take into its consideration the situation 
 both of these petitioners and of the natives, and will admit them to 
 every office which their education and acquirements render them 
 qualified to discharge. I may, perhaps, be asked, "Would you wish 
 the whole government of India to find its way into the hands of 
 Asiatics ?" To that question I would merely answer, that it is my 
 belief that such a permission as that which I now seek to obtain 
 as a matter of right for the half-castes, would never be too extensive- 
 ly granted to them in practice. No matter in what hands the patron- 
 age of India may be hereafter vested, whether it be in those of the 
 East India Company, or of the British Government, we may be sure 
 that, under any European administration, sufficient favour will be 
 shown to Europeans, and that nothing but decided merit will place 
 an Asiatic on the same level with them. It is unwise to let men in 
 the situation of these petitioners feel that the career of honour is shut 
 against them ; and in a House of Commons which has removed the 
 exclusion which for so many years operated upon a large class of its 
 Catholic fellow-subjects an exclusion which was only justified on 
 political grounds, even by those who advocated its continuance in 
 a House of Commons which has also taken the first step to emancipate 
 the Jews from the state of degradation to which they have been so long 
 consigned by the law of this country in such a House of Commons, 
 I say, I do not expect to find any opposition made to so reasonable 
 a prayer as this, that men should not be shut out from all offices 
 of trust in the country of their birth, simply because they derived their 
 origin from its original inhabitants. I beg leave to move, Sir, that this 
 petition be brought up. 
 
 The petition was then brought up, and on the question that the 
 petition be now read, 
 
 Mr. STUART WORTLEY said : As the whole subject of the govern- 
 ment of India is now undergoing the consideration of a committee 
 above stairs, I am sensible that the present would be an unfit oppor- 
 tunity to enter into a discussion upon the situation of that class of 
 persons from whom this petition has been presented by my honor- 
 able friend. Yet, after what has passed, I should not feel myself justi- 
 fied if I suffered the petition to be brought up without offering a few 
 observations to the attention of the House. The principal object that 
 I have in view, in rising at this time to address the House, is to assure 
 the Right Honorable Gentleman, the House, and the petitioners them- 
 selves, that the half-castes are not looked upon with any of that contemp- 
 tuous feeling which they are disposed to attribute to the Government 
 of India- I believe it to be the disposition of the local Government, 
 and I am sure it is the disposition of the Government at home, to give 
 every consideration to the state and condition of the people of India. 
 They are very far, indeed, from being insensible to their condition, 
 and are always ready to consider in what way relief can be afforded 
 
APPENDIX. 239 
 
 to them, consistently with the principles that must regulate the Govern- 
 ment of a country so situated. Amongst the grievances stated in the 
 petition, there appear some to which a remedy may be applied, name- 
 ly, those relating to marriages and successions. These are points affect- 
 ing the relations of social life, and remedies might, I think, be easily 
 discovered ; but though I admit this, yet, when I am called upon to 
 go beyond these grievances, and into the consideration of others, I 
 then am certainly unable to decide whether these can be remedied, 
 and for this reason, that they involve very great and important consider- 
 ations respecting political government.* I beg also to say that I am 
 obliged to consider that it would be highly inconvenient to enter 
 into such an explanation as the subject necessarily requires, on 
 the question of the bringing up or reading of a petition ; for, Sir, the 
 question is one of a most extensive nature, and must, of necessity, be 
 brought under the consideration of the Body now delegated by the 
 House to inquire into the subject of India. This I conceive to be the 
 most proper course to be pursued on this subject, and I must also 
 say, I am sure that whoever will carefully, and in detail, inquire into it, 
 will see how exceedingly difficult it will be at oncerto find a remedy for 
 what is complained of. I shall also take leave to add, as the Right 
 Honorable Gentleman has taken this opportunity of adverting to the 
 evidence given before the Committee, that although what he has men- 
 tioned is quite to the purpose, and well illustrates Ms views, yet there 
 is one point on which the evidence has not reached the bottom. 
 In the course of that evidence the number of persons situated like 
 the petitioners in the provinces of Bengal was inquired into. One of 
 the complaints made is, that they are excluded from all government and 
 other situations ; and let us consider the answer which does not prove 
 their condition to be so very bad, though I will not assert that a very 
 extensive field lies open to their ambition. The fact is, that the wit- 
 ness, whose petition I believe this to be, was examined before the 
 Committee. On being asked what is the number of this class of persons 
 in Bengal and its dependencies, he says he believes about z.ooo.f 
 He is then asked what proportion of this is fit for the holding of offices, 
 and he says 1,500. Then the question is put to him, what number of 
 them are actually employed? and his answer is, that there are two- 
 thirds of that number, or about 1,000 persons in actual employment. 
 I do not mean to say that this is an answer to the petition ; but it is at 
 
 *This is the old bugbear again ; or, in other words, a pretence to do wrong under 
 a colouring of danger in the attempt to do right. 
 
 t In the evidence here referred to the number is estimated at 20,000, not at 2,000 
 as stated by Mr. Wortley. Of this number i,oooor more are supposed to be em- 
 ployed in public and private offices, and about 500 are deemed to be qualified for 
 offices of trust and responsibility ; but, instead of their being so employed, they are 
 just tantalized with a sight of these offices, to decipher the harsh and unjust prohibi- 
 tion inscribed upon them, " Touch not, taste not, handle not ;" while they are per- 
 mitted to hold inferior situations, the highest salaries of which fall below the level 
 of what is enjoyed by every beardless youth in the Civil Service at the very threshold 
 of his public career. 
 
240 APPENDIX. 
 
 least a" palliation of the case ; and it is, at all events, clear proof that 
 there is not such a number of them destitute of employment as it is 
 wished that we should believe. Unless I were to enter fully upon the 
 whole subject of the law, and of the distinctions which have resulted 
 from peculiar circumstances, I could not with propriety now go far- 
 ther ; and in, conclusion, I will beg to repeat what I said at the com- 
 mencement that I should be one of the last persons who would throw 
 any obstacle in the way of allowing these petitioners to forward their 
 interests that it is by no means from any prejudice against either caste 
 or colour that the Government excludes these individuals from the 
 higher offices, but that the question involves other points of the great- 
 est magnitude, and that it remains for the Parliament alone to consider 
 and decide on the course that ought to be pursued. 
 
 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Sir, I confess I have been anxious to 
 deliver my sentiments on this subject, and the causes of that anxiety 
 are, I trust, of such a nature as may excuse it. I have had an opportu- 
 nity of observing the persons and characters of the men whose peti- 
 tion is now before us, and I have made them the subject of as much 
 inquiry and reflection as I was capable of. I need not say that I will 
 not condescend to urge anything against the pretended inferiority of 
 national character, or against the notion of there being one class created 
 to rule, and another merely to obey. I have ever accounted such doctrines 
 as the common phrases of the advocates of oppression ; and sure I am that 
 there is no reason, and not a shadow of foundation, for them in any part 
 of the character of the natives of India. I shall not follow my Right 
 Honorable Friend in giving the example of a single person of high 
 attainments, which might not be admitted as an argument, from the sin- 
 gularity of the circumstance ; but I will say, that I made minute inquiry 
 in the places of education, in counting-houses, and in the offices of 
 Government, where, it is true, some of these unfortunate beings are 
 admitted to inferior offices, and in which they have just liberty enough 
 to enable them to get a sight of what would be the object of their ambi- 
 tion, and are tantalized with the view of what it is impossible for them 
 to attain. My main reason for rising has been the impulse of my con- 
 science, and that obliges me to declare that there is no class of indivi- 
 duals not in actual slavery, throughout the dominions of the Crown in 
 these realms, that is used with so much needless harshness and oppres- 
 sion as this race. 
 
 I do not agree with the Honorable Secretary to the Board of Control, 
 that this is not a proper opportunity to enter upon this subject, because 
 the whole must come before the Committee now examining into the 
 state of India. I am quite sure, and on this I think even he will agree 
 with me, that this Committee cannot go into all the branches of so vast 
 an inquiry as the government of one hundred millions of men; and I am 
 equally convinced that, unless we take frequent opportunities of preli- 
 minary discussion in this House, we shall never be ripe for the proper 
 consideration of this great and extensive subject. I confess I feel sur- 
 prised at the idea implied in what the Honorable Secretary to the Board 
 
APPENDIX. 241 
 
 of Control has said, namely, that the petitioners have brought forward 
 overcharged statements; and I am sure that if he will reflect and consider 
 for a moment on the grievances they have laboured under the patience 
 with which they have endured them, and the profound silence observed 
 for many years by the petitioners, and then compare those with the neg- 
 ligence and the progressive insults of the Government, he will entertain 
 no feeling but one of surprise at the forbearance they have manifested. 
 The stigma, however, remains as deep as ever the brand still burns ; 
 they are disgraced and degraded because they are deprived of all those 
 honors that ought to be the reward of their exertions ; and it is of this 
 disgrace and degradation, brought upon them needlessly and unwisely, 
 that they now complain. The Honorable Secretary also left out of 
 consideration one or two of the chief exclusions they suffer from. 
 He talked of their marriages, and of rules respecting them. I confess 
 I do not know by what regulations marriages are governed in the pro- 
 vinces. it certainly cannot be the law of England ; but this at least 
 appears, that these unfortunate people are in what may be, without any 
 exaggeration, designated a state of outlawry. Although the regulation 
 only extends to exclude them from the higher offices of the Company, 
 yet the fact is, that under pretence of this they are also excluded from 
 all the lower offices even those which may be held by natives. If 
 because Muhammadans may fill many offices, which they actually do in 
 the collection of the revenue and in the courts of the provinces, and 
 from which the petitioners are in point of fact excluded, then it may be, 
 and it is said, that there is no law to this effect. I know that is true : 
 know there is no such law ; but, since the fact is so, they are still in 
 a state of outlawry, and the disgrace and the stigma still remain ; for no 
 sooner are they excluded by regulation from the higher offices, then by 
 practice they are shut out from the others. Nothing is more deplorable 
 than the way in which we see tyrannical laws followed up by still more 
 tyrannical practices. 
 
 I am surprised that gentlemen have not taken into consideration this 
 question, whether the exclusion from offices of a particular class of natives 
 on account of their professing the doctrines of Christianity, is not an 
 argument against the line of policy we pursue. It is nothing to say 
 that this result from usage, and not from law : this usage is only the 
 tyrannical child of a tyrannical parent. I say, that when we take 
 into consideration the events of the last forty years, and that the class, 
 whose grievances are now the subject of complaint, have become as res- 
 pectable a body as any in India, this result will be made clear, that 
 
 as soon as it is declared that any one class is inferior to the others 
 
 no matter what the character of the community may be when this 
 declaration is made from that moment the class thus branded will 
 be visited by evils of a deeper dye. No man who knows me will doubt 
 the high esteem and the warm regard I entertain for all those with 
 whom I had the happiness to be acquainted in India. I say, I be- 
 lieve that there is greater generosity, and a higher point of honor to be 
 found amongst the British population in India, than in most other 
 
 31 
 
242 APPENDIX. 
 
 parts of the world ; but if I am called upon to point out the most 
 odious light in which the exclusions that are sanctioned there, are 
 to be regarded I almost hesitate to state it ; but still I will avow 
 that these exclusions of the half-castes do assume the odious appear- 
 ance of exclusions made by fathers against their children. I do 
 not believe that those who made these regulations ever could have 
 contemplated their subsequent effects ; and I am sure that many of 
 those who, from motives of State policy, are induced thus to act, 
 put their hands to what they would have recoiled from with horror 
 in a private station. But I am still sure that, if the signatures to these 
 regulations prove that they are the disfranchisement of children by 
 their parents, and such as the parties would be incapable of, if they 
 had considered for a moment, these regulations are such as ought 
 not to be allowed to continue. 
 
 I shall not longer delay the House ; but I have this day read an 
 account of a meeting held at Calcutta on the 1 5th of December, and 
 I read speeches delivered in the English language by two Hindus of 
 rank and learning, and containing sentiments which would do honor 
 to the members of any assembly. One of them, Rammohun Roy, 
 has embraced your religion, notwithstanding the degradations you 
 impose upon those who profess Christianity. He says, he is convinced 
 that the more the natives of India come in contact and associate with 
 English gentlemen, the more will they improve in every light, whether 
 political, commercial, or moral. I cannot but agree with him in this 
 view ; and, thinking that the abolition of distinctions is the best 
 course to be pursued, I most heartily concur in the prayer of this 
 Petition. 
 
 MR. R. C. FERGUSSON. I cannot help offering my opinion to the 
 House upon this very important subject. Shortly after I had the 
 honor of a seat in this House, I did state my opinion upon it, and 
 called the attention of the Right Honorable Gentleman then at the 
 head of the Board of Control to its consideration, and his answer was 
 similar to his statement of this day, that the question was one which 
 required the deepest and most serious deliberation. I never was the 
 advocate of exclusion ; and I said, then, and I say now, that it will 
 be the policy of the Government of England to draw more upon the 
 talents and the acquirements of the natives of India, than they now do. 
 I say, also, that some of the statements in this petition are of a very 
 questionable description ; but I, at the same time, admit that the 
 petitioners are placed in a very painful situation. In the first place, it 
 is difficult to say what law they are under. They are not Muhammedans, 
 but it is asubject of consideration whether it be policy that Muhammedans 
 should have the benefit of laws which they have not, or whether they 
 should be excluded from the law which applies to other Christians, 
 They are, at present, subject to the laws which are administered by 
 natives ; and although no injury may, in fact, accrue, yet it is hard to 
 subject them to the verdict of a Muhammedan or a Hindu tribunal 
 The interest I have taken in them they have long known. I felt it 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 long before I had the honor of a seat in this House. If this class wish 
 for all the advantages and privileges of British subjects, I think they 
 ought to have them ; but at the same time, I do not know that much 
 real advantage would result to them, for then they would be subject to 
 all the regulations and all the restrictions that British residents are 
 now governed by. If they wish to be considered as natives, and as 
 British subjects, too, then they will have greater privileges than 
 British subjects enjoy ; and if the matter be left to their own choice, 
 I think they will pause a long while before they will choose to be 
 considered merely as British subjects. 
 
 When, however, we enter upon the consideration of this subject, 
 we ought not, in my opinion, to confine ourselves to the case merely 
 of half-caste Christians, as distinguished from that of the Hindus 
 and the Muhammedans ; nor ought we to make any difference in 
 their favor, notwithstanding their being partly of European blood. 
 The petitioners are not, as they would wish to have it believed, 
 excluded from all offices. They certainly are not in a situation to fill 
 the highest offices ; but there are vast numbers of places cf emolument 
 filled by this class. I say this to their credit, for they owe it to their 
 intelligence and their industry, and in these qualities they are not 
 excelled by any other class of men. They are not, however, practi- 
 cally oppressed. If, as is true, they are excluded from the higher 
 employments, they do net suffer more than other classes, and there is no 
 greater injury inflicted by the exclusion of a Christian than of a Hindu. 
 My Right Honorable and Learned Friend has spoken of the case of 
 Rammohun Roy ; and of him I can also speak from acquaintance 
 as one than whom there is no man of more intelligence. I wish I 
 could say with my Right Honorable Friend that he is a Christian, 
 but I do not believe he is. He has certainly shaken off his prejudices, 
 and believes that there is but one God and not a thousand, as some 
 persons believe to be the faith of ether Hindus ; but he is so far 
 advanced that his faith would not disable him from the enjoyment of 
 any office that his talents would entitle him to. I think we ought to 
 examine how far the talents of all the natives may be used for the 
 benefit of our Government ; but this, in fact, may be considered as in 
 progress ; for now, in point of fact, more and more confidence is d aily 
 placed in them, both as respects their admission to offices, and to the 
 administration of justice. The present question then, I am of opinion, 
 ought to be considered with reference to every class of natives, at the 
 same time that I desire to be known as one friendly to the petitioners/ 
 and I shall be their friend, and be always ready to render them every 
 service in my power. In conclusion, I will observe that not only is 
 this a subject for serious consideration, but that it is a state of things 
 the remedy for which cannot be afforded at once, but must be given 
 by degrees. 
 
 MR. WOLRYCHE WHITMORE. After the discussion that has taken 
 place, I will not detain the House ; but I should not discharge my 
 duty if I did not offer one or two observations, I coLgratulate, then, 
 
244 APPENDIX. 
 
 both the House and the natives of India on this discussion the House, 
 because we perform a sacred duty in showing that we extend our care 
 and our protection over every portion of the dominions under the 
 British Crown ; and not only that, but that we are ever ready to do 
 our duty. I congratulate the natives of India, and especially the class 
 to which the petitioners belong, on the effect of this Petition, because 
 I am sure that it is only necessary for their interests to have the subject 
 publicly discussed in order to their pi ogress and advancement. I feel 
 also that we should not confine ourselves, in our consideration of this 
 subject, merely to the half-caste ; but I cannot concur with the Honor- 
 able Gentleman in thinking that the exclusion of that particular class is 
 not an injustice. It is a subject that must occupy the attention of the 
 Committee, and I think it quite as important as the question whether 
 Englishmen shall be restrained from holding land ; and my opinion is, 
 that natives ought to be allowed to fill every situation accessible to 
 other subjects, except, perhaps, some very few, in which their admis- 
 sion might be accompanied with the idea of danger or insecurity. 
 
 SIR CHARLES FORBES Sir, I rise to support this petition, and to 
 give my testimony in favor of all that has been said of the high character 
 of the natives of India. I shall not go further into the subject at 
 present, but will conclude by saying that, after an experience of 
 twenty-two years in India and seventeen years here, the more I see of 
 my own countrymen, the more I like the natives of India. 
 
 MR. WILLIAMS WYNN. I shall make but one or two observations. 
 In the first place, with respect to the situations of emolument held by 
 this class, the highest office possessed by any of them does not yield 
 more than ^600 or ^760 a year. They are excluded from all military 
 offices, and from civil stations under the Government. I can see no 
 reason why this exclusion should always be enforced in the instructions 
 sent out by the Court of Directors, in which, when an appointment is 
 bestowed, it is always accompanied with these words "provided he 
 be not the son of a native 'of India." Now, there is no reason why 
 this should be continued, or why a person should be continued, or why 
 a person should be excluded from all commissions in the Army, as 
 well as all civil employments, because he may happen to be the son of a 
 native mother. Neither can I see why native Christians should be on a 
 worse footing than any other class, and excluded expressly by the regu- 
 lations of the Madras Government from the offices of district munsifs, 
 which are open to other natives, whether Hindus or Muhammedans.* 
 
 MR. STUART WORTLEY. As to the statement of the Right Honor- 
 able Gentleman, I confess I was not aware of the continuance of the 
 exceptions in instructions sent out ; nor did I imagine that there was 
 the distinction he alluded to in his last observation. 
 
 MR. JOHN STEWART. I rise to bear testimony to the respectability of 
 the class to which the petitioners belong ; and my v.ish is, that all the 
 disabilities of which they complain should be removed. I do not agree 
 
 * See Bishop Heber's correspondence, and Madras Regulations, 1816. 
 
APPENDIX. 245 
 
 with the Honorable Secretary to the Board of Control that the present 
 is an unfit opportunity for the discussion of this subject ; on the con- 
 trary, I concur with the Right Honorable and Learned Gentleman 
 opposite, that the oftener we discuss the affairs of India, the better 
 prepared we shall be to legislate for the natives of that country. 
 I fully agree in the account given of the grievances suffered by the 
 petitioners, one consequence of which is, in a great measure, that 
 they are excluded from mixing in European society ; and the native 
 Indians are thence induced to look upon them with a degree of distrust 
 and contempt. These are the very painful effects that result from 
 these regulations ; and I have thought it right to state them, in the 
 hope that Government may take the subject into their serious consi- 
 deration. 
 
 The petition was then read, and laid upon the table. 
 
 MR. WILLIAMS WYNN. In moving that this petition be printed, 
 I merely wish to accompany the motion with a desire that it should be 
 referred to the East India Committee. 
 
 MR. STUART\VORTLEY. As my observations have been commented 
 on by the Right Honorable Members for Knaresborough, as well as 
 by the Honorable Member for Beverley, I beg to observe that I 
 neither had, nor have any objection to discussion upon this subject ; 
 and that the only reason why I did not think it convenient to enter 
 upon it was, that at this moment another branch of the subject was 
 under consideration, I do confess I am still of opinion that such a 
 course is incovenient on the presentation of a petition, because, were 
 we to go fully into the question, it would necessarily occupy the atten- 
 tion of the House for a long period. I beg at the same time to say 
 that, so far from wishing to decry discussion, I am sure that it will be 
 productive of the best effect ; and that I shall, on every proper occasion, 
 forward it as much as lies in my power. 
 
 The petition was then ordered to be printed. 
 
 MR. WILLIAMS WYNN. I beg now to move for the copy of a 
 Minute by the late Sir Thomas Munro, on the state of the country 
 and condition of the people under the Presidency of Fort St. George, 
 dated 3 1st December 1824. 
 
 Mr. Ricketts's evidence before both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment contains a mass of valuable information relating to 
 Eurasians, to Calcutta institutions, means of education, 
 and other interesting matters which at the present day will, 
 we are sure, be read with interest. We have ventured to 
 summarise it, prefixing the following note of Mr. Ric- 
 ketts : 
 
 On the 3 1st of March, in obedience to a summons from the House 
 of Lords, I attended to give evidence before their Select Committee 
 on the affairs of India. 
 
 The Committee Meeting was well attended, and the Duke of 
 
246 APPENDIX. 
 
 Wellington was also present on the occasion. Most of the Peers 
 showed an inclination to draw out to public view, by the fair drift of 
 their questions, the aggravated evils of our civil and political condi- 
 tion ; while Lord Ellenborough was the only one among them who, 
 assuming a sort of ex-ojficio position in the affair, endeavoured, by 
 the ordinary process of cross-examination, to palliate and soften 
 down, as much as possible, the otherwise glaringly self-evident hard- 
 ship of our case. 
 
 I am a native of Calcutta, the bearer of a petition from 
 a portion of the inhabitants of that town and of the 
 presidency of Fort William, which has been presented to 
 the House of Lords. The petition is signed by between 
 six and seven hundred, mostly persons immediately de- 
 scended from European fathers and native mothers, as well 
 as of intermarriages between these descendants. Our 
 first grievance is, that we are destitute of civil law. We 
 are not recognised as British subjects by the Supreme Court 
 of Calcutta if residing in the mofussil ; we are thrown 
 upon the jurisdiction of the mofussil courts which are 
 regulated by the Muhammadan law. As Christians, we can- 
 not avail ourselves of the Muhammadan civil law, though 
 we are subject to the Criminal Code. In all that regards 
 marriages and succession to property, we are without any 
 definite rule of civil law by which our affairs can be regu- 
 lated. The provisions of the Muhammadan Criminal Code 
 are barbarous as applicable to a Christian population, even 
 though the Code is modified by the Company's Regula- 
 tions. We may appeal to the Sudder Dewany Adawlat in 
 Calcutta ; but in the year 1821, when the question of 
 appeal was tried, it was the opinion of the Judge that 
 we could not claim a right of appeal to the Supreme 
 Court, even though the Sudder Dewany Adawlat Court 
 possessed the power of increasing the punishment 
 without fresh evidence being adduced. We are ex- 
 cluded from all superior covenanted offices, either by 
 the positive Regulations of the Company or by the 
 established usage of the service. It is provided by 
 Regulation that the son of a native Indian shall not be 
 appointed to the regular service of the Company, or to the 
 Military service of the Company. Even the descendants 
 
APPENDIX. 247 
 
 of intermarriages are not eligible, but there has been some 
 modification of this within the last two years by order of 
 the Court of Directors, though there is no law on the sub- 
 ject. I know instances in which persons, not immediate- 
 ly descended from native mothers, have been refused 
 appointments under the Company simply on account of 
 their parentage ; and if there has been an alteration of the 
 phraseology of the Company's Regulations since 1827, the 
 fact of refusal of appointments remains unchanged. We 
 are not allowed to act as pleaders in any of the Courts. 
 We can hold no commissions in the Company's or the 
 King's service. We may be drummers and fifers, but I am 
 not aware of any instance in which a number of the com- 
 munity has been advanced to the rank of corporal ; the 
 order withholding commissions was passed in the year 
 1088 by the Commander-in-Chief, and it has never been 
 repealed. There are instances of deviation from this rule. 
 Some of our class were admitted into both the civil and 
 military services prior to the prohibition. The Quarter- 
 master-General of the Army is an East Indian, admitted 
 before 1791, and Mr. Achmuty, of the civil service. 
 Colonel Skinner is an officer who has served with great 
 distinction. He is the son of a native mother. I have 
 never heard of any objection on the part of the natives of 
 India to serve under him, or any objection on account of 
 his mother having lost caste. Members of our class who 
 take service under Native States are required to return to 
 the Company's territories on the outbreak of war. The 
 Mahratta officers who were employed in the year 1801 and 
 1802 were invited back to the Company's territories under 
 promise of being pensioned. Some availed themselves of 
 the pension, others were barbarously murdered by the 
 native princes the moment they were aware of their inten- 
 tion to leave the State. Treaties with native States prevent 
 Europeans from taking service, but we are, in this 
 instance, recognised sometimes as Europeans, and 
 sometimes as natives, as it serves the purposes of the 
 Government. We are recognised as natives except 
 
248 APPENDIX. 
 
 within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and yet 
 the officers who were employed by the Mahratta States 
 of Scindia and Holkar were threatened to be dealt with 
 as traitors if they did not return to the Company's terri- 
 tories. The public and private schools for the education 
 of children of East Indians have never received assistance 
 from Government in any shape whatever. We are excluded 
 from participating in the grant for the education of the 
 natives of India. The number of East Indians would 
 not, I think, be overrated, were they estimated at 20,000 
 more or less in Calcutta and all the province. There was 
 a police report made in the year 1822, and the Christian 
 population in Calcutta alone was estimated at 13,138, 
 of which there were 2,254 Europeans ; consequently we 
 were included in the remainder, that is, 10,884. Since 
 1822 the number must have considerably increased. We 
 outnumber the Europeans very considerably, and our 
 number is on the increase owing to the increased number 
 
 of Europeans and of intermarriages We 
 
 are principally employed in subordinate capacities in the 
 public offices of Government, chiefly as clerks. During 
 Nepal war East Indians were employed in the Irregular 
 corps ; but the corps was disbanded. I say, with perfect 
 confidence, that there are many persons of half-blood 
 qualified to hold high positions. I dare say we might 
 collect about 500 so qualified. Many are employed in 
 trade of various kinds in the Calcutta and China trade, 
 as officers and captains of ships, and as merchants. Baretto's 
 house was considered one of the wealthiest in India ; 
 there are also Lackersteen's, Brightman and Bruce, and 
 Allan's houses. The educational establishments for the 
 education of East Indians in Calcutta are : the Military 
 Orphan School, Parental Academic Institution (now 
 Doveton College), and the Calcutta Grammar School. 
 In the Military Orphan schools, Upper and Lower, 
 there are perhaps 800, including both sexes. There 
 are from 130 to 140 in the Parental Academic In- 
 stitution, and about 40 or 50 in the Grammar School. 
 Besides these there are private schools. Pupils continue 
 
APPENDIX. 249 
 
 in school till the age of 17 or 1 8, and there is no collegiate 
 education in Calcutta, unless it be in the Bishop's College, 
 which is confined to Missionary purposes. The Parental 
 Academic Institution has succeeded to a happy extent 
 in raising the tone of education in the country. There are 
 other persons of half-blood who have no education, and 
 are in a state of great destitution ; their children are 
 educated at the Free School and the Benevolent Institu- 
 tion. The children of European soldiers by native mothers 
 are brought up at the Lower Orphan School and sent out 
 as drummers, fifers or apprenticed to tradesmen. Three 
 different applications were made to the Government, one 
 for medicines for the Parental Academic Institution, and 
 two for pecuniary assistance. All were refused, although 
 the assistance sought for would have been as valuable for the 
 sanction it would have afforded the school as from the 
 amount of pecuniary aid. East Indians have been employed 
 as preachers, missionaries and teachers, and in these posi- 
 tions have never subjected themselves to any degree of cen- 
 sure or reproach. The influence they possess in such occupa- 
 tions would be very much increased by the removal of the 
 restrictions to which they are at present subject. It is 
 a thing for which the natives themselves cannot account, 
 that the Government should reject, as it does, their own 
 Christian offspring, and treat them with marked neglect 
 and proscription. My opinion of education in Calcutta 
 is such that, having brought two of my own sons to Eng- 
 land for education, and not being satisfied with what I 
 have seen in the country, it is my intention to take them 
 back to Calcutta. As natives of the country and as fix- 
 tures of the soil, the East Indians might be rendered in- 
 struments of great good to the country. If the real inter- 
 ests of India be sought, they cannot be more effectually 
 promoted than through the instrumentality of those who 
 have been born, educated, and are destined to spend their 
 lives in the country. Dr. Marshman made an application 
 for pecuniary assistance for the Benevolent Institution, 
 which the Government complied with. Mr. Thomason 
 
 32 
 
250 APPENDIX. 
 
 made an application for the Female Asylum, this was also 
 granted ; and grants have been made to other institutions 
 in consequence of applications from Europeans in their 
 behalf, such as the Free School and others. My father 
 was an Ensign in the Engineers, and died at the Siege of 
 Seringapatam, in 1792. I was educated in the school sup- 
 ported by the army, the Military Orphan School, and never 
 went to another. Many of my countrymen, who have 
 been educated in England, Scotland, and Ireland, have, on 
 their going back to India, been so much disappointed 
 at the state of things that they have, in many instances, 
 returned to Europe to seek a living, finding that the door 
 was completely shut against them in their native land : I 
 mean men of first rate education. There was a son of a 
 General officer who returned in 1825 ; he had obtained 
 the diploma of a doctor of medicine, but he found that 
 the state of society was such as to compel him to return 
 to Europe ; and I believe he is now practising in England. 
 There have been some other instances of this kind. 
 
 The following is Mr. Ricketts's account of his attendance 
 before the House of Commons : 
 
 I attended in the House of Commons on Monday, the 2ist of June, 
 for the purpose of giving my evidence. The interrogatories put to 
 me on this occasion happily discovered much of a feeling of deep 
 interest in the details of our case. Hence the eliciting of many fresh 
 points in my examination before the Committee in the Lower House 
 which was left untouched before that of the Upper. The Committee 
 adjourned about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and resumed my examina- 
 tion at their next sitting on Thursday, the 24th. My bodily health 
 had, since my first arrival in England, now begun to decline sensibly 
 from a perpetual struggle with the extreme fickleness of the climate ; 
 and on this occasion I proceeded to the House under a violent ir- 
 ritation of fever, which becoming known, [ was advised to go home. 
 This, however, I declined doing, from my great anxiety to despatch the 
 business, lest a total cessation might take place from the approaching 
 event of the King's death, which occurred, as it turned out, but two days 
 after, and my adjourned examination was accordingly gone through. 
 
 Upon now taking a cool and deliberate retrospect of the whole mat- 
 ter, I have only to regret my failure in repulsing, with a due regard 
 to justice and in the strongest terms compatible with a sense of pro- 
 per decorum, certain antiquated notions of an illiberal stamp, hatched 
 in a particular quarter connected with the India House, as embodied 
 in the questions put to me in the course of my examination. For this 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 self-conscious failure on my part, I hope not to stand chargeable 
 with a deficiency of right feeling suited to the case, since, in my own 
 defence, I can truly plead a weak state of health very sensibly affect- 
 ing my spirits, doubtless superinduced by the benumbing influence of 
 a desperately severe and changeable climate. What I here allude to 
 regards questions relative to "colour, caste of mothers, want of men- 
 tal qualifications," and so forth; the two former being indeed of so 
 grave a magnitude as to prop up a system of aristocracy, based on 
 the flimsy texture of the skin, to the utter overthrow of every principle 
 of sound moral philosophy. 
 
 So far as regards any silly prejudice arising from " colour and 
 caste of mothers," these are distortions of the fact too puerile and un- 
 founded to deserve a serious thought in the mind of a reasonable being ; 
 but, with regard to the matter of "mental qualifications," the question 
 seems to claim a little sober treatment. And here, I would ask, what 
 are the qualifications necessary to fit men for the public service in 
 India ? Are they human, angelic, or divine ? If the two latter, cold 
 and hopeless despair belongs to our case, until the millennium shall 
 have done its perfect work amongst us ; but I rather think that the qua- 
 lifications so much insisted on are merely human ; and what are they ? 
 Embracing the circle of moral qualities, they consist in principles 
 of uniform probity and rectitude, which lead to correctness of public 
 character and conduct through life ; and with regard to mental quali- 
 ties, they are made up of such ingredients as common sense, a sound 
 understanding, combined with a competent knowledge of English and 
 the vernacular dialects of the country, and a practical aptitude for 
 the despatch of public business. With these qualifications (taken on 
 the lowest scale, for the mere sake of argument, but which may of 
 course be carried to a still higher pitch if desirable,) superadded to an 
 honest regard for the public good of India, it must require the pre- 
 sence of a monstrous political anomaly to bar the door against candi- 
 dates for public employments, such an anomaly as has, I must say it 
 to the shame of England, already too long been allowed to exist in 
 India. 
 
 The leading points in Mr. Ricketts's examination before 
 the House of Commons are as follows : > 
 
 " I am the agent of certain parties in the town of 
 Calcutta who have presented a petition to the House 
 of Commons. They have been called by various 
 names, such as Eurasians, Anglo-Indians, Indo-Britons, 
 Half-castes, &c., but they have latterly selected the 
 name of East Indians for themselves. The class of persons 
 included in that designation are the descendants of Euro- 
 pean British subjects and European foreigners by native 
 
252 APPENDIX. 
 
 mothers, legitimate and illegitimate, as well as their off- 
 spring. The religion or caste of the native mothers of most 
 of the East Indians within the province of Bengal are Mu- 
 hammedans of respectable families, but reduced circum- 
 stances; they are in many instances Moghals and Pathans. 
 There are a large proportion of the officers in the Company's 
 service married to East Indian ladies. 
 
 " The disadvantages we labour under are set forth in the 
 petition, of which I am the bearer. We are liable to be 
 fined, imprisoned, and corporally punished at the discretion 
 of the Judge, or to trial for capital crime ; and in none of 
 these instances can we claim the intervention of a jury. We 
 are excluded from the regular service of the Company, civil 
 and '' military ; and none but the subordinate situations of 
 clerks are open to us. Before 1791 the Company's service, 
 civil and military, was open to us, and the Bombay army 
 was commanded by General Jones, an East Indian, during 
 the campaigns of 1803 and 1805. The present Quarter- 
 master-General of the Army, Colonel Stevenson, is also an 
 East Indian. There are also members of the community 
 in the King's army, such as Major Deare, Captain Rutledge, 
 Lieutenant Mullins, and others. Colonel Skinner is in the 
 Irregular service ; he has commanded from 8,000 to 10,000 
 troops. In the medical profession there have been Drs. 
 Lumsdain, Breton and Lycke ; the latter practiced in 
 Calcutta and retired to England with a fortune ; there have 
 also been Drs. Frith, Gordon, Clarke, Imlach, Dick, Free, 
 and Casey, all East Indians, and more or less eminent in 
 their profession. Besides these professions, there are East 
 Indians engaged as Indigo-planters, Schoolmasters, Archi- 
 tects, Carvers and Gilders, Undertakers, &c. ; and the East 
 Indian commercial houses in Calcutta are the firms of 
 Lackersteen, Vrignon, Mendes, Baretto and Brightman, and 
 Mr. Kid is the Master Ship-Builder of the Company in 
 Calcutta. The sons of private soldiers by native women are 
 employed as drummers and fifers in the army, and appren- 
 ticed to trades at the expense of the Lower Orphan School, 
 which was founded for the reception and education, along 
 
APPENDIX. 253 
 
 with the Upper Military Orphan School, of between 800 
 and 900 children. The Upper Orphan School is intended 
 for the sons of officers by native women. Both schools 
 have been established by the army, not by the Company, 
 and the legitimate children are sent to that branch of the 
 institution which is in England. A large proportion of the 
 lower class of East Indians used to be much neglected, but 
 the European Asylum, the Benevolent Institution, the Free 
 School, the Parental Academy (now Doveton College), the 
 Calcutta Grammar School, and other schools have spread 
 education much more extensively than formerly. The usual 
 salary of an East Indian employed as a clerk is between 
 Rs. 50 and 100 a month. I think that an East Indian 
 might perform the duties of Judge or Collector for one-third 
 the salary of a European with comfort to himself and ad- 
 vantage to the public service. An East Indian being a 
 native of the soil, his views and prospects are confined to 
 India, and he has no idea of amassing a large fortune to 
 return to a distant land, where he would be subject to ex- 
 penses from which he is exempt in India. East Indians 
 who have been in the Company's services in various capa- 
 cities, in the professions, and in mercantile pursuits, have 
 been as much respected as Europeans have been in these 
 positions. There is no distinction made by the natives 
 between East Indians and Europeans, the distinction ema- 
 nates from the authorities of this country. They first ori- 
 ginated the distinction, and then used it as an argument for 
 keeping us where we are. The prejudices against us have 
 diminished of late. A much more liberal policy has been 
 adopted towards the descendants of European fathers by 
 native mothers by the Dutch, French, Spaniards and Portu- 
 guese in all their settlements. Two-thirds of the council 
 of Ceylon are composed of gentlemen born on the island. 
 Sir Alexander Johnston found them the most efficient instru- 
 ments in the public service, and with their assistance he 
 was enabled to carry the measure of slave emancipation, 
 and bring into operation trial by jury. I was educated entire- 
 ly in the Upper Military Orphan School of Calcutta, and 
 
254 APPENDIX. 
 
 was taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, the use 
 of the globes, English grammar, &c., but neither Latin nor 
 Greek. 
 
 Up to the year 1827 East Indians were excluded from 
 sitting upon grand or petty juries ; since then ; they are ad- 
 missible by law to sit on juries, and have been summoned 
 and served in common with Europeans. We are held in 
 equal respect by the natives of India with Europeans. I 
 could instance the case of Indigo-planters and merchants 
 who are scattered in different parts of the country, who are 
 visited by Princes and Nabobs as Europeans are, and trest 
 ed with equal respect. Rammohun Roy, " a learned and 
 respectable native in Calcutta," associates with us as he 
 does with Europeans, and so would any other respectable 
 native. 
 
 The native mothers of East Indians are chiefly Muham- 
 medans ; there are some Hindus. The natives identify us 
 with our fathers, and make no inquiry regarding our mothers. 
 It would be an improvement of our class ; it would tend to 
 the general improvement of society, if we were placed exact- 
 ly upon a footing with British-born subjects not in the 
 King's or the Company's services. The odious distinction 
 now made strikes at the root of all civil and social improve- 
 ment in India." 
 
 The result of the Eurasian Movement of 1829-30 was the 
 passing in the year 1832, when a new Charter was granted 
 to the Company, of what is known as the Lexi Loct Act, 
 and the insertion in the Charter of the clause that no one 
 should be excluded from any office because of his creed 
 or colour. This in some measure freed East Indians from 
 the anomalous position they occupied in the eye of the law 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 EURASIANS AND POOR EUROPEANS IN INDIA. 
 
 That has happened in India which has occurred in most 
 lands and in all times, wherever and whenever two races 
 at different stages of civilization have met. The races have 
 mingled, and an amalgam has been produced possessing 
 qualities akin to both. The question and it is a most 
 momentous one to men of English descent in India, and one 
 that is only as yet in process of solution is what part men 
 of European extraction, born in India, and more or less 
 completely educated there, shall take in the industrial and 
 commercial development of India's future, and in the civil, 
 military, medical, and other great State departments of the 
 empire? That they aie weighted with many and grave 
 retarding conditions in the struggle for a higher and a 
 brighter future for their sons conditions inherited, ac- 
 quired, and, it may be, imposed no ne who knows Eura- 
 sian, will, we should think, be prepared to deny ; and it 
 is the influence these conditions may exercise in hindering 
 Eurasians from acquiring for themselves, and transmitting 
 to succeeding generations, a lot in life less hampered with 
 difficulties, a character more stable and tenacious of pur- 
 pose, and a determination to be, to do and dare, all that 
 men may, which, it seems to us, all who have the interests 
 of India at heart, and who labour for the well-being of 
 Eurasians and poor Europeans, much more the community 
 who suffer under them in the race of life, should employ 
 every means in the training and education of the rising 
 race to eradicate or minimise. 
 
 Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English adventurers 
 and settlers left behind them a race of men which, be- 
 cause of the less desirable qualities inherited from their 
 mothers, their uninterrupted contact and intercourse with 
 
256 APPENDIX. 
 
 natives, low class, natives in many cases, as servants, 
 during that period of life when the future character is formed 
 and crystallized, and the want of that healthy rivalry and 
 fellowship with the hardy race of their fathers, which 
 their isolated position entailed grew up and transmitted 
 to their children qualities which weighted them in no 
 ordinary fashion in their struggle to acquire a living and 
 keep their footing with the hardier native races of India 
 and the descendants of their fathers' race. The lax morali- 
 ty in which many were cradled, the enervating effects of 
 the climate of the country on races of European extraction, 
 and other causes, such as the tendency, which has mani- 
 fested itself more or less markedly wherever a mixed 
 race has been produced, for the pure race of the fathers to 
 repudiate the equality of the mixed one, in many instances 
 to treat its members with indignity or scant courtesy all 
 these causes, and such as these, tended still further to bur- 
 den Eurasians, and hedge them round with a mass of retard- 
 ing conditions in their life's progress, which in the case of 
 many individuals, required an effort short of heroic to 
 overcome, and which in the case of many more will require 
 a force little short of the marvellous to triumph over. 
 
 This is not the age, nor is this either the occasion or 
 the place, to draw aside the curtain of India's past a 
 past that comes so very near our own day and disclose 
 in all its hideousness the depravity, the concubinage, and 
 something worse that characterised the lives of not a few 
 Europeans during the existence of the Honorable East 
 India Company. In the year 1814 this is the state of affairs 
 testified to as existing " the state of concubinage in which 
 so many native females live corrupts all morality and de- 
 cency. Nearly every European private soldier has a family 
 of half-castes ; and there have been officers of rank and 
 civilians in the country not contented without seraglios, 
 like other Nabobs whom they learned to exceed in de- 
 bauchery." Thus arose the worst and the lowest sec- 
 tion of the community, and its creative source is not al- 
 together dried up to this day. The large majority of 
 Eurasians, however, have intermarried with Europeans, and 
 are gentlemen in manners, tastes, and education. They 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 have characteristics of their own as every mixed race have, 
 and it is in the development of what is desirable, and the 
 modification or erasure of the deterrent conditions they 
 have inherited that their future lies. 
 
 Since the beginning of this century the Eurasian com- 
 munity has advanced considerably in self-reliance, educa- 
 tion and social status. The picture we have of Eurasians, 
 as the century opens, drawn by the hand of a warm-hearted 
 English gentleman, is that of a large class of British subjects, 
 with tastes, educations, traditions and religion in close sym- 
 pathy with Englishmen, and hearts pulsating with a loyalty 
 as devoted to English rules as those of natives of Britain 
 themselves, who, nevertheless, were debarred from occupy- 
 ing many positions in the service of India, the very land of 
 their birth, which their intimate knowledge of the native 
 races and the vernaculars eminently qualified them to attain. 
 
 No doubt their birth and training tended in some mea- 
 sure to rob their character of some of those higher qualities 
 which characterise the race of their fathers ; and to foster 
 in them some of those less desirable attributes which a life- 
 long contact with the lower class of natives is likely to pro- 
 duce in the descendants even of the most robust races ; in- 
 ordinate conceit, an excessive self-confidence, not always 
 well grounded, love of finery and display, a disinclination 
 to do for themselves even in the commonest details of every- 
 day-life the slightest service that dependants could be got to 
 perform, and an aversion to engage in any pursuit, or take 
 up any calling, which was supposed beneath the dignity of 
 gentlemen and the descendants of a conquering race to fol- 
 low. It should be bprne in mind, however, that from the 
 very earliest days of the East India Company down even 
 to within thirty years of the date when the Empire of India 
 passed from the hands of a company of traders to the Im- 
 perial rule of the Crown of England, no one not even Eng- 
 lishmen was allowed to settle in India, and follow even the 
 most peaceful calling without the special permission of the 
 Court of Directors ; and when, for any reason, an individual 
 became obnoxious or troublesome, the permission was 
 withdrawn and the offender deported. Even Alexander 
 
 33 
 
258 APPENDIX, 
 
 Duff, before he sailed from Britain in the year 1829, had to 
 furnish himself with the Company's permission to settle in 
 India, and permission for a lady to accompany him as his 
 wife was refused until the veritable Mrs Duff was produced. 
 The Company's servants all over India formed an exclusive 
 circle, and enjoyed a monopoly of office and emolument 
 which no outsiders interlopers they were called could ever 
 attain ; and there will readily occur to our readers the 
 names of families who for three generations have been re- 
 presented in India by some of their members. When by 
 family influence and other interest brought to bear on those 
 who had the guidance of the Company's affairs, it was alone 
 possible to obtain an entrance on an Indian career, it is 
 not at all to be wondered at either that the land swarmed 
 with European adventurers ready to barter, to intrigue, or 
 to fight for their own hand, or sell their services to the high- 
 est bidder as occasion offered, or that Eurasians, notwith- 
 standing their parentage, or rather because of their parent- 
 age, which placed them under a social ban, should have 
 failed to secure for their community a worthy position in 
 any of the services. 
 
 There fell on the field of Seringapatam, with many 
 other gallant men, a brave and gallant soldier, Ensign 
 Ricketts of the Engineers, whose orphan boy found a 
 home in the Upper Orphan School of Kidderpore. J. W. 
 Ricketts, the ward of Kidderpore Orphan School, was one of 
 the earliest and ablest members of the Eurasian community, 
 who lived and laboured here in India for their well-being, 
 and who advocated, and advocated successfully, the claims 
 of Eurasians to be freed from civil and political disabilities, 
 and to have some share in the civil and military services of 
 India. It was largely due to the agitation which he and 
 others originated, and to the mission which he undertook 
 in 1830 to plead their cause in England, that, in the year 
 1833, during the Governor-Generalship of Lord W. Ben- 
 tinck, the Indian service wss thrown open to all persons, 
 whatever their birth or colour. 
 
 How little the rulers of India have found it needful to 
 regard, either in spirit or letter, the great charter of Indian 
 
APPENDIX. 259 
 
 freedom and right, is apparent from the fact that it was only 
 in the year 1853 that the Indian Civil Service was thrown 
 open to competition ; and that now, in 1884, it is impossible 
 out of England to obtain any appointment in any great 
 Indian department except in its very lowest ranks, or under 
 very exceptional circumstances, without undergoing a resi- 
 dence and training in England, which practically closes 
 the way to high office to all but the comparatively wealthy* 
 Besides this one by one every door of entrance to Govern- 
 ment service is being deliberately closed against the Domi- 
 ciled community, and a recent Secretary of State for 
 India declared that the descendants of Englishmen shall 
 not be allowed to compete on equal terms with Asiatics. 
 Even in the lower grades of the departments there are 
 fairly educated Eurasian lads, as fairly educated as the 
 sons of the lower middle ranks in England, who owe their 
 education small thanks to the Indian Legislature to 
 adventure schools and missionary colleges and individual 
 philanthropy, and who are competing side by side with high- 
 ly educated, State educated, Hindus and Muhammadans. 
 What chance can lads of European extraction with the 
 traditions and tastes and aspirations of their fathers, and 
 for whom the State does so little either to educate them 
 or fit them in any way to serve India, have with the sons of 
 native races whose habits of life and modes of living render 
 it possible for them to live in comparative comfort on a 
 sum which would inevitably starve to death even the 
 mythical Scottish student who is supposed to cultivate 
 literature on a little oatmeal? In this matter of education, 
 Eurasian lads must compete with natives at a disadvan- 
 tage, and the conditions of equality in the struggle will 
 be more equally distributed when Eurasians avail them- 
 selves of the education provided in State-aided colleges, 
 or enjoy the same advantages in this respect as natives. 
 The cost per head to India for educating the sons of 
 natives, Hindus and Muhammadans, many of them belong- 
 ing to the higher classes and perfectly able to pay hand- 
 somely for their own education, ranged during 1880, in 
 the Presidency of Bengal, from R&. 193 in the Presidency 
 
260 APPENDIX. 
 
 College to Rs. 605 in the Berhampore College, while mis- 
 sionary and independent colleges, whose students rank 
 as high in the examinations of the Calcutta University, 
 are able to produce their results at a cost to the 
 State of Rs. 18 in the General Assembly's College ; 
 Rs. 63 in the Free Church College ; Rs. 86 in the now 
 defunct Cathedral Mission ; Rs. 5 1 in St. Xavier's College ; 
 Rs. 60 in the London Mission Institution ; and Rs. 176 in 
 the Doveton College. Amongst all the educational institu- 
 tions in existence in India the only distinctively Eurasian 
 College is the Doveton. The kindred Madras Doveton 
 College owes its existence to the same generous founder, 
 and was organised by Morgan, the first and ablest of the 
 Principals of the Doveton College, Calcutta. 
 
 The Doveton College, which has played a most import- 
 ant part in the educational and intellectual progress of the 
 Eurasian community, owes its origin to the son of the 
 English ensign who left his boy a ward of the Orphan School 
 of Kidderpore, and its most liberal donor, whose name it 
 bears, was a member of the same community, abandoned 
 by his nearest relatives, picked out of a charity school 
 in Madras, and educated by his uncle to serve with distinc- 
 tion in the Nizam's dominions. The story of the Doveton 
 and its vicissitudes, from the Saturday evening of ist March 
 1823, when John William Ricketts gathered in his house in 
 South Colinga Street a few members and friends of the 
 community, and thus laid the foundation of what is now the 
 Doveton College, was ably told 25 years ago in the pages of 
 the Calcutta Review (see Vol. XXIV, page 288) by Dr. 
 George Smith, who succeeded Morgan in the Principalship, 
 and has been rehearsed at greater length in the fiftieth report 
 of that institution by Mr. Henry Andrews, one of the men 
 yet alive, who fifty years ago laboured to secure for Eurasians 
 a legal and political status, and a share in the various 
 offices of State. From first to last, down even to the 
 present day, the history of this Eurasian Institution, 
 notwithstanding the Doveton and DeSouza bequests, has 
 been the history of a struggle against chronic indebtedness, 
 and against the indifference of the very community for 
 
APPENDIX. 26l 
 
 whom it has done so much, and in whose hands lies so 
 much of its future usefulness. 
 
 Whatever the Doveton may have effected in the past, 
 when it stood almost alone in India, it owes largely to its own 
 community. While Hindoo and Muhammadan colleges 
 were founded and endowed at State expense, Government, 
 though again and again solicited, refused its aid, although 
 there is scarcely a Governor-General, or Member of Council, 
 or Chief-Justice, or Judge, from the days of Lord Hastings, 
 that did not subscribe liberally to ,its funds. It was not 
 till 1864, ten years after the passing of the " Educational 
 Despatch" of 1854, that Government were induced to give 
 a grant of Rs. 380 to promote the higher education of 
 Doveton students. Six years afterwards this grant was 
 withdrawn owing to unfavourable results at the University 
 examinations. In 1872, Rs. 250 was again granted, and 
 had it not been for the very favourable results attained by 
 Doveton students at the University examinations of 1880, 
 in all probability there would have been a withdrawal of 
 the grant for the second time. 
 
 The position which, in the main, the Eurasian commu- 
 nity has taken up, is this, that, as a Christian community 
 whose traditions and feelings are wholly English, they have 
 declined to have their sons educated along with those of 
 the non-Christian natives of India. 
 
 In the effort to educate their children separately, they 
 were totally unaided by State grants, as we have said, 
 until 1864, while large sums of public money were and are 
 lavishly expended in providing higher class education for 
 the non-Christian subjects of India. Eurasians have labour- 
 ed for more than half a century to provide a Christian high 
 class education for their sons and daughters ; and more 
 than once in the history of the effort, disaster and defeat 
 has confronted them. If the effort is ever to be crowned 
 with success, it can only be by some wealthy member of 
 the community bequeathing a sufficiently large endowment 
 to make it possible to employ the best staff that money can 
 procure. Until some such event as this occurs, the idea 
 for the embodiment of which Eurasians have struggled so 
 
262 APPENDIX. 
 
 long, an educational establishment complete in all its 
 parts from an infant school to the full curriculum of an 
 English college, can so far at least, as a thoroughly equipped 
 college department is concerned, only be a dream fitfully 
 realised. It appears to us that, however desirable in some 
 respects the full realization of this complete scheme may be, 
 there are no valid reasons why the sons of Eurasians should 
 not sit side by side with those of Hindus and Muhamma- 
 dans in the class-rooms of the Government colleges. By 
 the time Eurasian lads are ready to enter on the study of 
 the subjects implied in the curriculum of a college, the 
 teachings of the family, the social circle, and their own 
 educational establishments will have already done much to 
 form the character and rendered it highly improbable that 
 either their faith or their morals will be injuriously affected 
 by such an arrangement. It seems to us that there has 
 been far too much made by ecclesiastics of the moral and 
 religious difficulties of the educating together of Eurasians 
 and natives, and by the very community who have no 
 other choice than to trust their children from their very 
 earliest years largely in the hands of native ayahs and 
 bearers, drawn from the very lowest social and moral stra- 
 tum of native society. Had their children from their birth 
 been tended by Christian English-speaking servants, drawn 
 from the lower ranks of their own community, free from the 
 grosser vices of lower class natives, then it might have been 
 intelligible that to consort with low class Hindu and 
 Muhammadan lads in school work and school sports would 
 have been a process to which few parents would have cared 
 to subject their children. We are bound to say that 
 many Eurasian lads are in psssession of an anount of ver- 
 nacular abuse and nastiness acquired from native servants 
 which it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to* 
 acquire either in the upper classes of a well regulated school, 
 or still less in the class-rooms of an efficient college, even 
 though educated side by side with lads of purely native 
 birth. 
 
 India is the home, the native land, of Eurasians in as 
 true a sense as it is of men of pure Indian blood, It is to 
 
APPENDIX. 263 
 
 India, and in India that Eurasians have to look for a career ; 
 and India is the only future of their children. In this strug- 
 gle for existence they have as competitors and fellow-sub- 
 jects purely native races, who, whatever defects of charac- 
 ter they may labour under, are many of them indued with 
 a tenacity of purpose and a splendid power of endurance 
 which some sections of the Eurasian community would do 
 well to emulate, and which all sections of Eurasian society 
 will do well not to underrate. The natives of India are 
 largely availing themselves of the high class education 
 provided for them in State-aided schools and colleges, and 
 are now crowding the subordinate grades of departments, 
 and occupying some of the higher, which, even twenty years 
 ago, were filled by men of European extraction or of purely 
 English birth. It is clearly imperative that, if Eurasians 
 are to compete with natives for posts in Government depart- 
 ments with any fair measure of success, they must be as well 
 equipped as possible with a high class liberal education to 
 fit them for the contest ; and those of their number who are 
 not sufficiently wealthy to train and educate their lads in 
 England, should avail themselves of the education offered 
 in the Government high class schools and colleges. The 
 supply of educated natives and Eurasians is yearly increasing, 
 and however much in past years the Government of India 
 may have been induced to impart to their dealings with 
 Eurasians and natives occasional strokes of philanthropy, 
 these will become rarer and more rare as the debt of In- 
 dia accumulates and the power of taxation approaches its 
 limits, and the purely utilitarian principles that dominate 
 the transactions of the bulk of States and men will impell 
 the rulers of India to choose, on sound business principles, 
 from amongst candidates equally fitted to serve the State in 
 any capacity those that can be had cheapest. It is here, it 
 seems to us, that purely native races will have the advantage 
 because of their simpler and less expensive mode of living, 
 unless Eurasians can claim and demonstrate the possession 
 and exercise of such higher traits of character and capacity 
 as will render their services to the State comparable in value 
 with those of the highly-paid English "competition- wallah." 
 
264 APPENDIX. 
 
 That the Eurasian community are alive in some degree to 
 the grave crisis approaching in their position, is indicated by 
 the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Associations which have 
 recently sprung up in the Bengal and Madras presidencies. 
 These have brought the weight of public opinion to bear on 
 Indian officials, and agitated and discussed many topics of 
 great interest to the community. The possession, for some 
 time, of an organ of their own to advocate and agitate the 
 claims of their community, and the existence of an associa- 
 tion with many branches, which claims that it "practically re- 
 presents the whole domiciled Anglo-Indian and Eurasian 
 community," marks a stage in their history and a power of as- 
 serting themselves something akin to the movement of 1829 
 under the guidance of J. W. Ricketts. The present move- 
 ment, which bears with it so many high hopes, will be close- 
 ly watched both in India and in England, and if the enthu- 
 siastic Madras meetings of a few years ago, which preceded 
 the formation of a Eurasian society with multifarious schemes 
 for the advantage of the community, the Calcutta Society, 
 and the various mofussil branches, end in wrangling and 
 windy talk, there will sink below the social horizon, of this 
 generation at least, some of the highest hopes that have been 
 formed by it of the power of Eurasians to organize their 
 own community, and to do that for themselves in the direc- 
 tion of education, the provision of a future career for 
 their children, and general self-helpfulness, which hitherto 
 neither State nor charity has done, nor is imminently likely 
 to do. The result of this movement is in their own hands, 
 and its success or failure will be a test of their own choos- 
 ing, to mark their fitness or unfitness for taking a self-reliant 
 independent part in the service of India and the develop- 
 ment of its resources. 
 
 There is a law in life as clearly distinguishable in the 
 history of races and nationalities, as in the life history of 
 the animal and vegetable creations of the geologic past, and 
 the infinite modifications and adaptations of form and colour 
 and function of the present. It is this, that through the 
 whole myriad linked web and woof of life, from its lowest 
 microscopic form to its highest development, there is a 
 
APPENDIX. 265 
 
 never-ceasing struggle for existence resulting in a survival 
 of the fittest. Whole species and genera of plants and ani- 
 mals have again and again disappeared from the earth in 
 the long pre-historic past, and given place, in succession, 
 to others, with forms and functions suited to the new con- 
 ditions. The Turanian races of primaeval Europe were swept 
 out before the advance of the early Aryans, and Teutons 
 and Slaves followed in the wake of Celts, to renew the same 
 struggle, a struggle continued to our own day over wider 
 areas of the earth's surface, and which will continue with 
 more or less intensity of waxing or waning, producing fresh 
 combination and results that may not be foretold, " till suns 
 shall rise and set no more." Eurasians are the outcome 
 of one of these many struggles for existence ; and no 
 amount of sentiment, or poetry, or patriotism, or 
 philanthropy, however much they may mitigate, can 
 exempt them from the conditions to which all races of 
 men, all life, are subject. If they can acquire and develope 
 habits, capacities, and conditions of life, that will render 
 it possible for them to co-exist with older and purer native 
 races, or that will maintain the ascendancy of the race 
 from whence they sprung, then their future is secure ; and 
 it is a future weighted with responsibility and it may be 
 with glory and renown. If not, they will as surely go 
 under in the struggle of life as race after race has already 
 disappeared, or is disappearing, before others with more en- 
 during qualities. This may be, and is, very sad, very 
 lamentable ; and the question may well arise, whether there 
 is no room in this world of ours for anything but the play 
 and rule of remorseless law. The answer to this seems to 
 be, whether men will believe it or not, that the laws which 
 dominate the moral and spiritual nature of man are as cer- 
 tain and resistless, though but faintly known and barely 
 realized, as those which regulate and circumscribe what is 
 material. Violation or disregard, deliberate or unconscious, 
 of these laws, known or unknown, physical, moral or spiri- 
 tual, brings its own consequences, proximate and remote, 
 so remote that no human calculus may forecast the future 
 hopeless lot, the misery and the woe and the wretched death, 
 
 34 
 
266 APPENDIX. 
 
 that lie waiting, like avenging furies, men and races of man 
 who in any way make for themselves, or have inherited, con- 
 ditions and surroundings and consequences which render it 
 inevitable, either that they should sink to the lowest level in 
 the social scale, or die out of sheer inanition, or be slain by 
 the vices that eat out their manhood and vitality. 
 
 It is in view of consequences such as these, consequences 
 with which, here in India, the progeny of the earlier Dutch 
 and Portuguese settlers aie already face to face; and which 
 seem at no distant date likely to overtake the lower class of 
 Eurasians and poor Europeans, that the law of human bro- 
 therhood, the law of Christian charity, may and ought to 
 find a wide and a fertile field of usefulness. The islands of 
 the Pacific are strewn with the missionary evangelists of every 
 Christian sect. Round the fringes of the " Dark" African 
 Continent Christian pioneers are working their way inland 
 among hordes of savage men. In America and in Asia the 
 missionary follows the footsteps of the merchant. In all the 
 wide world fabulous wealth is expended to evangelise and 
 to Christianise ; is there to be no mission to the poor Eura- 
 sian and the poor Indo-European ? Will the men of "The 
 Oxford Mission" who are labouring here under the auspices 
 of the " Right Reverend Father in God," Bishop Johnson 
 of Calcutta, with all the wealth of the rank and fashion of 
 England at their back, and the other missionary agencies who 
 are doing so much for pure asiatics, lay aside for a little their 
 classics and their mathematics and their metaphysics, and the 
 interesting legacy of dogmatic theology which has been in- 
 herited from the fathers of their Church, and gather together 
 the " gutter children" of European extraction in Calcutta and 
 elsewhere, and train them up in clean, self-reliant lives, and 
 apprentice them to trades, that they may grow up with some 
 hope of leading useful lives rather than develope into pests 
 of society and a standing reproach to Indian statecraft and 
 the Christian Church? The pietism that would hunger 
 and thirst for the conversion of heathen lands, that would 
 talk itself into a frenzy of enthusiasm over the evangeliza- 
 tion of the higher class of Brahmins, that can build ornate 
 cathedrals and found churches, and spend splendid sums 
 
APPENDIX. 267 
 
 of money in printing Bibles, and raising rival preaching 
 houses, within sound of the "jangle " of each other's bells, 
 that can talk and meditate on the goodness and love, and 
 infinite pity, of the "All Father," and the brotherhood of 
 all men, and yet leave their own flesh and blood, the sons 
 and daughters of their own fathers, to grow up in hunger, 
 and ignorance, and vice, consorting with, and sinking to 
 the level of, the veriest scum of Indian society, is not Chris- 
 tianity as its great Founder taught it by both precept and 
 example, is cant, contemptible cant, which will do more 
 irreparable mischief to the cause of true Christ-like teaching 
 in India and the world than all the accumulated wrong- 
 doing and immorality that have been perpetrated in India 
 since the rule of England first began. 
 
 Twenty years ago Lord Canning placed it on record, 
 that "If measures for educating these children are not 
 promptly and vigorously encouraged and aided by the 
 Government, we shall soon find ourselves embarrassed in 
 all large towns and stations with a floating population of 
 Indianized English loosely brought up, and exhibiting 
 most of the worst qualities of both races, whilst the 
 Eurasian population, already so numerous that the means 
 of education offered to it are quite inadequate, will in- 
 crease more rapidly than ever. I can hardly imagine a 
 more profitless, unmanageable community than one so com- 
 posed. It might be long before it would grow to what 
 would be called a class dangerous to the State, but very 
 few years will make it, if neglected, a glaring reproach to 
 the Government and to the faith which it will, however 
 ignorant and vicious, nominally profess. On the other 
 hand, if cared for betimes, it will become a source of 
 strength and usefulness to British rule in India." 
 
 In the March of 1879, Lord Lytton, in a minute on the 
 education and employment of natives and poor Europeans, 
 which will probably render his name one of the land- 
 marks in their history, declared that " Lord Canning's 
 warning has unhappily been justified by the event. We 
 were told officially, two years ago, that there were be- 
 tween eleven and twelve thousand European and Eurasian 
 
268 APPENDIX. 
 
 children in India growing up without any education at all 
 a scandal to the English name and the English Govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Lord Canning's minute called into existence about a 
 dozen schools, hill schools, half the cost of which the State 
 provided, and to which a grant-in-aid is still continued. 
 The charges at these schools are necessarily so high, we are 
 told, that the wealthy alone can take advantage of them. 
 So that down to the present day neither State nor Church 
 has touched even the fringe of what is a yearly increasing 
 incubus, a peril to the State, and a scandal to the Church ; 
 the minute of Lord Lytton has produced as yet nothing but 
 a crop of suggestions, two'reports and some wrangling. 
 
 The lengthy preliminary report of Archdeacon Baly ap- 
 peared towards the close of 1880, and amid a mass of de- 
 tails neither new nor, in our opinion, necessary at so early 
 a stage of the enquiry, the Archdeacon recommended the 
 establishment of hill schools and the subordination of the 
 Training Colleges to the Episcopal Church in India. These 
 in effect were the two proposals contained in the " Prelimi- 
 nary Report," which occupied about 59 pages of the Gazette 
 of December i3th, 1879. ft seems to us that, however 
 creditable these proposals may be, as evidencing the phi- 
 lanthropic desires of the Archdeacon and his loyalty to his 
 own Church, they are both of them utterly impracticable as 
 solutions of the problem he has undertaken in some fashion 
 to solve. We doubt if there be any body of sane legis- 
 lators, either in or out of India, who would saddle the peo- 
 ple of this country with the up-keep of a circle of hill 
 schools, in which would be gathered together the children 
 of poor Eurasians and " Poor Whites" all over India. The 
 idea is so completely Utopian that the kindly feelings of 
 the proposer must have obscured his more robust common 
 sense; while the suggestion that the Training College for 
 Indian teachers should be under the control of the clergy 
 of the Church to which the Archdeacon belongs, will, in 
 our estimation, rouse the religious animosity of every reli- 
 gious sect in India ; and if persisted in, will embitter the 
 whole question and sink it from one of imperial importance 
 
APPENDIX. 269 
 
 to the white heat of a profitless religious struggle. If it is 
 imperative, as the advocates of hill boarding-schools main- 
 tain, that the children of European extraction in India 
 should pass the adolescent period of their lives under the 
 most favourable conditions which are likely to secure heal- 
 thy bodies and vigorous minds, is not this a truism which 
 will be universally admitted ? Is not this as true of Eng- 
 land and the world as it is of India ? But when these ad- 
 vocates go on to argue that this in India should be effected 
 at partly Government expense, because we are told the pa- 
 rents are too poor so to educate and train their children, 
 then we say, that if a scheme of this sort is launched and 
 not strictly confined to the orphans and waifs of Indian so- 
 ciety, the State will raise up a race of State paupers from 
 whom all feelings of shame at receiving State alms will be 
 eliminated, and who will marry and give in marriage, and 
 produce children, to enter on much the same pauper life, and 
 in turn look more to the State and less to their own exertions 
 for the means of living. If the State wishes to pauperise 
 the less wealthy Europeans and Eurasians, no better method 
 could probably be employed than this. A race of men, whe- 
 ther Europeans, Asiatics, or denizens of other parts of the 
 earth's surface, who cannot suitably educate and provide for 
 their children (beyond mere elementary education which the 
 State may and ought to compel all its subjects to acquire), 
 have no claim to pose as martyrs and benefactors to humanity, 
 if, in view of their own and their descendant's future, they 
 continue to bring children into the world to live a pauper's 
 life, or to suffer, to agonize, and to die. A race nurtured 
 under conditions such as these would be a thorn in the body 
 politic, and the moment State aid for their nurture was 
 withdrawn, as inevitably it would be, they would sink into 
 utter insignificance, or be trodden under foot in the social 
 struggle, and annihilated by the men of a sturdier race. 
 Men of European birth and extraction domiciled perma- 
 nently in India are already beginning to feel bitterly some 
 of the penalties incident to their lot. They at least can at 
 the worst suffer and die, leaving no race behind them, with 
 weaker bodies and less elastic minds, to grill and sweat and 
 
2/0 APPENDIX, 
 
 suffer beneath an Indian sun; and if puny creatures of the race 
 have been already produced, who can only exist by periodic 
 sojourns on breezy hill-tops, then their expiring effort should 
 be to enable them to effect this sojourn ; and the philanthro- 
 pic and the charitable may well aid them in their resolves. 
 If the Government of India are themselves bringing out skill- 
 ed artizans and others from England to work on their rail- 
 ways and public works and elsewhere, and paying them such 
 wretched sums that they are unable to educate and provide 
 for their children in a manner suitable to the needs of the 
 climate of India, and are allowing mercantile houses, trading 
 firms and others to perpetrate the same injustice, then the 
 sooner this iniquity is exposed, and the cruel facts are made 
 public, the better it will be for England and for India. 
 If it is the need of India that men of this sort should 
 be brought to her shores to labour for the State, then 
 the State should see to it, that they may return to the 
 land of their birth and not remain here a disgrace to 
 Englishmen and a cancer in her rule ; or, if remaining, 
 they should be a strength and bulwark, and not a race 
 of sickly paupers. The Government seems to us to have 
 committed a grave mistake in appointing the committee 
 at all ; and would have acted with greater wisdom had 
 it handed the whole subject over to the educational depart- 
 ment of the Presidency. The department has officers all 
 over the Presidency, who, we are bound to say, would 
 have supplied facts and suggestions from the yearly round 
 of their duties and experience, certainly not less authentic 
 than those supplied by Archdeacon Baly, and as certainly 
 more varied and valuable, because coming from those the 
 business of whose life it is to labour for the educational 
 advancement of the people. No doubt, the Venerable 
 Archdeacon Baly, in an enquiry of this sort, would prove 
 a valuable witness, but it seems to us that it is to the edu- 
 cational department the Government ought to look for a 
 clear and succinct digest of the facts on which it is pro- 
 posed to legislate, and for a practical working scheme for 
 the attainment of the subject legislated for. It is no dis- 
 paragement to the Archdeacon to say that there are in the 
 
APPENDIX. 271 
 
 educational departments of India gentlemen of not less 
 wide culture, and quite as varied and lengthy Indian 
 experience, whose acquaintance with the condition of 
 European and Eurasian education and employment is 
 much more real and varied than any thing to which Arch- 
 deacon Baly can aspire. His appointment to the position 
 he held on the committee was probably due to the fact that 
 he has evinced his interest in the subject by the publication 
 of a pamphlet distinguished by earnestness and thought- 
 fulness. 
 
 It seems to us that elementary schools for Eurasians 
 and poor Europeans should be established, ought long 
 ago to have been established under Government control 
 and support in all the large Presidency towns and sta- 
 tions. It is in these towns and stations that Eurasians, 
 wealthy and indigent alike, are gathered together in the 
 largest numbers, and a local rate for educational purposes, 
 if such a rate were deemed needful, would press with 
 least hardship on the population of European extraction. 
 If the Government are really bent on vigorous action in 
 the matter, and will remit it to the educational depart- 
 ments of each Presidency, a very few years may see a 
 network of efficient schools all over India affiliated with 
 the already established higher class schools and colleges 
 with an undenominational Training College, or its equi- 
 valent, in the capital of each Presidency, and a large pro- 
 portion of children of school-going age in a fair way to 
 wipe out some of the reproach which, as long as this 
 remains undone, will lie on the rulers of India. 
 
 We have no faith whatever that, were the Government 
 to establish all over the country technical schools, such 
 as that which now occupies the premises of Bishop's Col- 
 lege at Seebpore, these alone would train up a band of 
 skilled tradesmen of European extraction which would 
 render it unnecessary to import skilled European labour 
 as largely as at present, or would in the end vindicate the 
 wisdom of Government in incurring so large an expense 
 for what after all is but an experiment with but a problem- 
 atical outcome. Technical schools can never create an 
 
2/2 APPENDIX. 
 
 industry, however valuable they may be in diffusing sound 
 knowledge. Technical schools have their uses highly 
 important uses, especially in countries where the population 
 has already mastered and developed a practical knowledge 
 of handicrafts and a moderate degree of skill in these 
 pursuits ; but this is not the position which the Eurasian 
 community occupies. It is only the merest fraction of 
 the whole number who have followed, or whose parents 
 have followed, engineering or mechanical pursuits. If 
 it is contended that they have never had opportunities for 
 doing so, and that it is the duty of the State to provide 
 facilities for acquiring knowledge of this sort, then it appears 
 to us that such a position is untenable, for it amounts to 
 a declaration that the State ought to provide facilities for 
 learning trades which neither the individual nor the com- 
 munity have found it to their advantage to follow. The 
 supremacy of Britain in the mechanical arts and manufac- 
 tures was not acquired in technical schools, and would 
 probably never have been attained had it been sought 
 for there. That supermacy and the skill acquired by other 
 nationalities in kindred arts and professions, are due 
 mainly to individual enterprise ; and where a paternal 
 Government has thought proper to intervene, unless in 
 the way of supplying skilled theoretical knowledge based 
 on practice, and that but sparingly, the result has generally 
 been disastrous. To set up technical schools all over India, 
 is to begin at the wrong end, and to foster the growth of 
 a class of men who, after the course of technical instruc- 
 tion had been ended, would look to the Government to 
 supply them with fairly-paid posts in which the heaviest 
 tools they would be required to use would be the pen, the 
 pencil, and the compass. 
 
 A trade or handicraft is only to be learned effectually by 
 the learner doing for himself, under the supervision of a 
 skilled journeyman, every process implied in a correct 
 practical knoweldge of the branch sought to be acquired. 
 A more or less lengthy apprenticeship has proved itself in 
 all time and in all countries the best school for rearing up 
 a band of skilled, intelligent workmen ; and, until Eurasians 
 
APPENDIX. 273 
 
 show a much more marked tendency to undergo this, the 
 best of all practical trainings, the less said about technical 
 schools the better, as one of the panaceas for their ills. 
 
 The same objection, in our opinion, applies to the establish- 
 ment of large hill farms under Government control. Agricul- 
 tural colleges and lectureships are in our estimation impera- 
 tively needed in every large Presidency town in India, where 
 the most advanced theory and practice of agriculturists all 
 over the world would be taught and exhibited in field work 
 to lads who have already taken part in, and mastered more 
 or less the practical details of farm work, and who mean 
 to follow it in the same practical fashion in after-life. But 
 it is a grave error to suppose that lads, Eurasian lads, who 
 all their days have been sitting on school benches and cram- 
 ming for College and University examinations, and who have 
 shown no aptitude and no desire for the profession of agri- 
 culture by submit! ing to the only process by which its prac- 
 tical details can be learned, will condescend to twist the tail 
 of a bullock, or handle a farm implement unless by proxy. 
 
 The question of Eurasian regiments has been discussed 
 with more or less intermission since the mutiny and before 
 it. On the one hand, it is maintained that a splendid body 
 of men of European extraction could be secured to the 
 country, and a new outlet for Eurasian youths attained, by 
 the enrolling of distinctive Eurasian regiments, which 
 would cost less to the State, and would largely undertake 
 the duties which highly paid Europeans at present perform. 
 On the other hand, it is held by officers and others who 
 probably draw largely from their own experience of the very 
 lowest class of Eurasians as bandsmen and drummers, that 
 an experiment of this sort would be a very lively one for 
 the officers commanding and a doubtful one for the State. 
 Indeed, SD warm a f.iend to the community as Archdeacon 
 Baly classes colonisation of lands out of India, or of the hill 
 tracts of the peninsula, and Eurasian regiments, in the 
 same category, as equally hopeless (see The Employment of 
 Europeans in India, page 26). 
 
 If there is a sufficiently large number of Eurasian lads in 
 each Presidency, who are ready to adopt soldiering as a 
 
 35 
 
274 APPENDIX. 
 
 profession, and who are prepared to submit themselves to 
 all the hardships and subordinate routine duties implied in 
 a soldier's life in India, then it seems to us it is only a ques- 
 tion of training and discipline ; and the Government may 
 safely enrol one regiment at least in each Presidency as a 
 trial. In view of the practicability of Eurasian regiments it 
 might not be inappropriate for the Government to utilise 
 the Lawrence Asylum, and the Hill and other schools of a 
 more or less eleemosynary character all over India, wher- 
 ever Eurasian boys are educated, so that the training of a 
 portion of them at least should have in view their entering 
 the army. 
 
 The very lowest class of Eurasians who may, for various 
 causes, be entering on a life of loaferism and vice, should be 
 brought together in industrial schools, somewhat after the 
 model of those in Britain, and taught trades, or, after a 
 preliminary training, be drafted into the Army, the Navy, 
 the Merchant service, or wherever else they can serve India 
 and make a living. At Madras, Bombay, and in the 
 Hooghly, training-ships for Eurasian lads, such as those now 
 to be found in almost all the large seaports of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, would rescue many from a life of vagabondage 
 and, it may be, crime, and fit them for earning a living as 
 able seamen. 
 
 The Eurasian community, it appears to us, while availing 
 themselves of every legitimate channel to ventilate their griev- 
 ances, to memorialize State departments, to petition Govern- 
 ment, to interview statesmen and legislators with deputa- 
 tions and to bring the weight of public opinion to bear on 
 every hindrance which stands in the way of their advance- 
 ment, should continually bear in mind, that their future 
 lies largely in their own hands, and that they need not hope 
 that either the high officials of India or England, or the 
 Government of either, will do for their community what 
 they will not do for themselves. It is not by scathing 
 attacks on parties or Government, or by bitter and acri- 
 monious comments on public men and public measures, 
 or by virulent onslaughts on departments and functios, 
 aries, however useful these attacks may be in certain 
 
APPENDIX. 275 
 
 stages of public mendacity, peculation, nepotism, and 
 general wrong-doing that any race or any community ever 
 vindicated, or ever will vindicate, its own fitness for positions 
 of trust and responsibility, where judicial calmness of judg- 
 ment, moderation of speech, fertility of resource, and sterl- 
 ing integrity are eminently needful. It is in the daily ex- 
 hibition of those higher qualities and characteristics which 
 mark off a race fit to fight the battle of life manfully, and 
 help to mould the future of a great people, that Eurasians 
 will find the shortest method of solving the problem of their 
 ovvn future and demonstrate their capacity to fill the highest 
 orifices in the Indian Empire, Whenever and wherever 
 these qualities manifest themselves, the rulers of India and 
 the friends of the Indian people will not be slow to acknow- 
 ledge them, to honor them, and to glory in them. Whe- 
 ther or not these qualities will be developed and exhi- 
 bited more largely in the future than they have been in the 
 past, depends greatly on Eurasians themselves, and not on 
 any power lying outside their own will and resolve. The 
 laws that govern existence in some of its aspects, are with- 
 out pity and destitute of remorse ; the fittest are the sole 
 survivors, and the struggle of life goes on. It is chiefly in 
 adversity, though not seldom in prosperity, that men and 
 races show the sterling powers and capacities inherent in 
 their natures ; and if this crisis in their history through which 
 they are about to pass, and on which they have already 
 entered, brings to the surface, in the Eurasian community, 
 qualities which otherwise would have lain dormant, then, 
 indeed, to them, "sweet are the uses of adversity." 
 Throughout this long struggle for a higher, a more varied, 
 and a more useful position in India, Eurasians have been 
 followed by the anxious hopes, and the best wishes of some 
 of the noblest Englishmen who have ever served India ; and 
 there are now in England and in India numerous sympa- 
 thisers who will be the first to grieve if, by violence of 
 speech, unreasonableness in their demands, over-statemenr 
 of their claims, or deficiency in self-helpfulness, they 
 should injure, or cast to the ground the promising hopes 
 cherished of their future. As we have already noted, the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 conditions inherited, acquired, and it may be imposed, 
 which act as hindrances in their efforts towards a brighter 
 future, are such as require, in many instances, no ordt 
 nary effort to overcome. Every inch on their road to 
 success must be gained for themselves and by themselves, 
 amidst healthy rivalry, the play of interests, and the force 
 of character. In the view of such a contest, big with their 
 future fate, through which, as through the valley of the 
 shadow of racial and social death, their way lies to a 
 higher and a nobler life, the hearts of those in whose veins 
 flow their fathers' blood may well pulse with the excite- 
 ment born of high hope and manly warfare ; and there 
 may well linger in the years, and quicken the impulse, 
 of all fighting this fight of social life or death, imperial 
 usefulness or uselessness, some such words as these : 
 
 ' Courage, brother, do not stumble, 
 ' Though thy path be dark as night, 
 ' There's a star to guide the humble, 
 ' Trust in God and do the right. 
 
 * Let the road be long and dreary, 
 ' And its ending out of sight, 
 ' Foot it bravely, strong or weary, 
 1 Trust in God and do the right. 
 
 ' Trust no party, Church or faction, 
 ' Trust no leader in the fight, 
 ' But in every word and action 
 ' Trust in God and do the right." 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
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