33 tO 1 
 
 of V 
 
 ens " . "'- ' tor 
 
 Job
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CHAIRMAN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY, 
 
 OCCASIONED BY 
 
 MR. TWINING'S LETTER 
 
 TO THAT GENTLEMAN, 
 
 ON THE DANGER OF INTERFERING IN THE RELI- 
 
 GIOUS OPINIONS OF THE NATIVES OF INDIA 
 AND ON THE VIEWS OF THE 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, 
 
 AS DIRECTED TO INDIA. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN OWEN, M. A. 
 
 CURATE OF FULHAM, AND ONE OF THE GRATUITOUS 
 
 SECRETARIES OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN 
 
 BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 " We have been sadly defective in what we owed to God and Man, 
 since we have had a footing in this country, (viz. India,) as well by depart- 
 ing most shamefully from our Christian profession ourselves, as in with- 
 holding those sources of moral perfection from the natives which true 
 Christianity alone can establish." 
 
 See Report lately made to the Governor and Council at 
 Madras, by the Rev. Dr. KER, Chaplain. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, BOOKSELLER TO HER 
 
 MAJESTY, PICCADILLY; 
 BLACK, PARRY, AND KINGSBURY, 
 
 LEADENHALL-STREET ; 
 AND RIVINGTONS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. 
 
 Bi/ Stanhope and Tilling, Wilderness-rou: t Chelsea, 
 
 1807.
 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 A SECOND impression of these Remarks 
 having been suddenly and speedily called 
 
 , for, 1 cannot avail myself of any hints 
 
 \ which the judgment of persons whose opi- 
 nions I revere, might suggest for rendering 
 the Address more worthy of the cause. I 
 have, I trust, done something : but I have 
 left large scope for the exertions of abler 
 pens. The question at issue is of awful 
 
 ^magnitude: and will, I trust, be felt and 
 
 2 treated as such ! 
 
 I cannot dismiss this Advertisement 
 without warmly recommending a very ex- 
 cellent and able Paper addressed to the 
 Proprietors of India Stock, subscribed a 
 PROPRIETOR, which came into my hands 
 while I was preparing this second impres- 
 sion. 
 
 Fulham, Dec. 16, 1807- 
 
 354867
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD PARRY, Esq. 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 MR. TWINING having avowed himself 
 the Author of a Letter addressed to you as Chair- 
 man of the East India Company, " On the Danger 
 of interfering in the Religious Opinions of the Na- 
 tives of India, and on the Views of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society as directed to India ;' 3 
 and having, in addition to the authentication of 
 that Letter, announced his intention of bringing 
 the matter which it contains, " in concurrence 
 with many most respectable Proprietors,"* under 
 the consideration of a General Court; I feel it a 
 duty which I owe to the Society, the Company, 
 and the Public, to trouble you with a few remarks 
 on that extraordinary publication. While the Let- 
 * Preface to Second Edition. 
 B
 
 tcr to \vhicli I allude continued anonymous, I had 
 a difficulty in persuading myself that it deserved, 
 or would be thought to require, any serious ani- 
 madversion. But whatever judgment I may have 
 formed of Mr. TVining's production, I cannot be 
 indifferent to the influence which it will derive 
 from the station and character of its author ; and 
 the countenance of those " many respectable Pro- 
 prietors" who concur in approving, and have 
 pledged themselves to support it. Under this 
 change of circumstances, my opinion of its im- 
 portance has, I confess, experienced a correspond- 
 ent change. I see in it, not the hasty, random, 
 and ephemeral pamphlet; but the deliberate, 
 formal, and accredited instrument : not one of 
 those fortuitous and solitary attacks upon the Bri- 
 tish and Foreign Bible Society, which have gone to 
 their grave, without an owner to claim, or an ad- 
 mirer to regret them ; but a solemn and concerted 
 declaration, which is to be put upon record, of 
 open and unalterable hostility against the circula- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures among the Nations of 
 the East; and against all attempts whatever to 
 evangelize one of the most populous and benighted 
 portions of the Habitable World. 
 
 This impression, Sir, has overruled all the scruples 
 I had about breaking that silence which my feelings 
 and my employments equally admonished me to
 
 f 3 ) 
 
 keep. And I trust, Sir, it will be accepted as 
 some apology for the little concoction and arrange- 
 ment which the ensuing remarks may appear to 
 have received, that they must be written with 
 rapidity, in order to anticipate your discussion; 
 and that if any other advocate had interposed his 
 good offices, they would never have been written 
 at all. I think it at the same time my duty to 
 assure you, that I offer them to your consideration 
 as an Individual, and not as an Officer of the So- 
 ciety with which I am connected. I write without 
 communication with any person whatsoever : and 
 desire to be considered as alone responsible for 
 every thing I may advance on its behalf. Happy 
 should I have been, Sir, had the task of maintain- 
 ing so important a cause devolved upon an advo- 
 cate, possessed at once of better qualifications and 
 more leisure for doing justice to its defence. 
 
 The British and Foreign Bible Society, Sir, has 
 been formally charged with having discovered " a 
 strong disposition to interfere in the religious opi- 
 nions of the native inhabitants of India."* Now, Sir, 
 it will save rne in the present, and your Court in a 
 future, stage of the business, much waste both of 
 time and words, if we come to an immediate un- 
 derstanding upon the terms in which the accusa-. 
 tion is couched. By Religious interference (which 
 is the question at issue), that mode of proceeding 
 * Letter, p. 3.
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 is to be understood, which trespasses in some way 
 or other, upon the lawful liberty of the subject in 
 matters affecting his Religion. Interference in 
 this sense (and in any other sense it is always 
 innocent, sometimes necessary, and often lauda- 
 ble) presumes the employment of force under 
 some of its modifications either of restraint or 
 compulsion, either of preventing people from ex- 
 ercising a Religion which they choose, or urging 
 upon them the exercise of one which they refuse.* 
 Now, Sir, if I could discover in the views of the 
 Bible Society any tendency to act or to counte- 
 nance such interference as this in the remotest 
 degree, I should concur with your informant in 
 considering " our possessions in the East," and, 
 what is still more important, the inviolable rights 
 of conscience, " in a situation of most imminent 
 and unprecedented peril ;" and would give him my 
 thanks for exciting you " to step forth and arrest 
 the progress of such rash and unwarrantable pror 
 
 ceedings."t 
 
 If any such design as has been imputed does 
 exist, it must be found either in the OBJECT of 
 
 * " I speak not" (says Dr. Ker) " of interfering with their 
 religious prejudices, or endeavouring to convert the natives by 
 an effort on the part of the British Government. Conversion, 
 in my opinion, must be the consequence which would naturally 
 flow from our attention to their moral instrucion, and their 
 more intimate acquaintance with the English character." 
 
 t Letter, p. 5.
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 the Society, its EAST INDIAN PATRONAGE, or its 
 ACTUAL PROCEEDINGS. I shall request your at- 
 tention, Sir, to a few observations upon each of 
 these in their order. 
 
 And, first, as to the OBJECT of the Society. 
 You have been told, Sir, that "the chief object" 
 of the Society " is the universal dissemination of 
 the Christian Faith." * With what degree of truth 
 and correctness this assertion is made, the first 
 Article of the Society's Constitution will show : 
 
 " The Designation of this Society shall be the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, of which the 
 SOLE OBJECT shall be to encourage a wider CIRCU- 
 LATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES." 
 
 Art. I. P. 25. Report I. 
 
 Thus, Sir, it appears, in the very outset, that the 
 Author has either misconceived, or misrepresented, 
 that fundamental particular, upon which, above 
 all others, it was important that he should have 
 been faithful and exact. He has been guilty of a 
 Misnomer in drawing up his Indictment, which, 
 not only in point of form, but of substance also, 
 must prove fatal to the Prosecution of his Cause. 
 The Society which I undertake to defend, does not 
 answer to the designation under which he accuses 
 it; nor does it belong to that class in which he 
 has placed it Whatever may be the end which 
 * Letter, p. 4.
 
 the Society contemplates, that only can be consi- 
 dered as its object, towards which its means are 
 directed, and in which they all converge and ter- 
 minate. That central, that ultimate point, in the 
 case of the Society under consideration, is, as we 
 have seen, Sir, not " the Dissemination of the 
 Christian Faith," but <f THE CIRCULATION OF 
 THE SCRIPTURES." In this respect, Sir, the So- 
 ciety possesses a characteristic feature, which dis- 
 criminates it from every voluntary association on 
 an extensive scale for religious purposes now in 
 existence, and brings the question of its merits or 
 demerits within very narrow and convenient 
 bounds. 
 
 There exists, Sir, in this country, as you very 
 well know, a most venerable and useful Institu- 
 tion, " The Society for promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge." This Society may be accurately enough 
 represented within the limits prescribed by its 
 charter, (and happy should I be to see British 
 India within those limits), as having for its object, 
 the Dissemination of the Christian Faith. The 
 latitude of its designation, and the generality with 
 which its object is expressed, allow to this Society 
 an unlimited choice of means. It may define and 
 systemize and classify the several points of Chris- 
 tian Theology : it may issue Tracts on all and any 
 matters of Doctrine and Discipline, at its discre- 
 tion: it may employ Missionaries and Catechists,
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 erect Churches and Schools, and proceed ad libi- 
 tum, for the accomplishment of its purposes. 
 And why ? For the reason above given : because 
 its Designation is general and its object unde- 
 fined. Not so the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society. It can do but one act for the propaga- 
 tion of Christianity; it can distribute but one. 
 Book; and that Book the BIBLE. It can sup- 
 port no Missionaries, erect no Churches, endow 
 no Schools, disseminate no Tracts; it cannot issue 
 even a Dissertation to recommend the Bible, nor 
 annex a single Note to explain it. Its designation 
 and its object confine it to the circulation of the 
 Scriptures : it can do nothing out of these limits ; 
 it can do nothing beyond them. 
 
 Such being the case, I am really at a loss to 
 imagine, on \vhat grounds of even remote plausi- 
 bility, any man can have reasoned himself into a 
 belief, that a Society, whose line of operation is so 
 precisely defined, whose measures of proceeding 
 are drawn from vague and indefinite generalities 
 into one sole, exclusive, and cognizable object, 
 can be chargeable with the design of culpable inter- 
 ference in the religious opinions of those to whose 
 voluntary improvement its services are devoted. 
 
 Does the translation of the Scriptures into the 
 native languages of India imply such culpable 
 interference? Putting out of the question in what 
 degree literature, and arts, and polity, are con-
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 corned to cultivate those antient and venerable 
 languages ; it cannot I think admit of a question, 
 that we are bound, both in justice and gratitude, 
 to impart to those nations over which Providence 
 has given us a beneficial dominion, some portion 
 at least of the light we enjoy, through the only 
 channels by which they can receive it. Besides, 
 if we derive into our own language the spurious 
 morality of India,* it is but just that we should 
 pour back into theirs the genuine morality of Chris- 
 tendom. If we acquaint ourselves, through the 
 medium of translation, with their mythological 
 absurdities and amatory trifles, it is but fair that 
 we should afford them an opportunity of becoming 
 acquainted, through the same innocent medium, 
 with the august mysteries of human redemption, 
 arrd the solid realities of the Gospel. There is, at 
 all events, nothing rude, or offensive, or unjust, 
 in such a commerce. It is, to say the least, giv- 
 ing gold for brass. Heathens have, certainly, no 
 reason to complain of the exchange. 
 
 But if the translation of the Scriptures be inno- 
 cent, the circulation of them may possibly be 
 construed into an act of aggression upon the sys- 
 tems of India. I cannot pretend to say what 
 answer a Brahmin might give if consulted, whether 
 the Sooder might receive a copy of that Shaster in 
 
 * See the Code ofGentoo La\vs, translated into English by 
 Mr. Halhed.
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 which God is represented to be no respecter of 
 persons. But, whatever way his answer might 
 incline, it would in my judgment determine 
 nothing. The Scriptures, as a revelation from 
 heaven, have at least as good a claim to a free 
 circulation, in whatever language they may happen 
 to appear, as any Treatises upon law, or morals, 
 or polite literature. For the mode of distribution, 
 the Society makes no specific provision. That 
 must depend upon local wants and facilities ; and 
 will be naturally regulated, and restrained, so 
 far as restraint may be necessary, by the laws 
 and usages of the several countries in which dis- 
 tribution is made. Persons in a situation to know 
 the necessities and disposition of the people, will, 
 it is presumed, either sell them as an article of 
 commerce to purchasers, or gratuitously bestow 
 them as a dole of chanty upon petitioners. There 
 is no room for apprehending that they will be 
 forced upon any. They are messengers that speak 
 not to the ear, but to the eye : they are oracles 
 that remain silent, till they are consulted. In 
 short, as they can do no one good who is not will- 
 ing to search them, it is utterly impossible that 
 they should be forced upon any one who is unwill- 
 ing to receive them. 
 
 Since therefore the object of the Society is not, 
 AS has been stated, " The Dissemination of the 
 
 c
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 Christian Faith," but the circulation of the Holy 
 Scriptu res; an object, simple and determinate ; and 
 at the same time, beneficial and inoffensive; it fol- 
 lows, that the views of the Society, so far as their 
 OBJECT is concerned, are not of a description to 
 justify the charge of interference; nor conse- 
 quently to occasion in the Governors of India, 
 either at home or abroad, any reasonable ground 
 of alarm. 
 
 I come now, Sir, in the next place to consider 
 the PATRONAGE which the Society enjoys in per- 
 sons connected with the administration of INDIAN 
 affairs. On this part of his charge, the accuser of 
 the Society is peculiarly and rhetorically severe. 
 " If the leading Members of that Society are also 
 leading Members of the East India Company; and 
 not only of the East India Company, but of the 
 Court of Directors ; nay, Sir, not only of the Court 
 of Directors, but of the Board of Controul ; if, I 
 say, these alarming hypotheses are true, then*, 
 &c." Now, Sir, it does certainly turn out, that 
 these alarming hypotheses are, with a little qua- 
 lification, substantially true. Mr. Thornton, the 
 Director, is a Member; Mr. Grant, the Deputy 
 Chairman, is a Vice President ; and Lord Teign- 
 uiouth, " late Governor General of India, and 
 now a Member of the Board of Controul," is Pre- 
 
 * Letter, p. 5.
 
 sident of the Society. But, Sir, I must caution 
 your correspondent against inferring, and inviting 
 others to infer, from the mere existence of such 
 names on the list of the Society's patrons, that 
 there is any thing in its construction and its de- 
 sign, which particularly identifies it with oriental 
 affairs. He might as reasonably identify every 
 society that is ushered into notice under the names 
 
 of Angerstein and Goldsmidt and Bonar and 
 
 <j 
 
 Watts, with objects of moiried or commercial spe- 
 culation. The fact is, Sir, that the Society sought 
 these East Indian Patrons, and not they the So- 
 ciety. It came, with all its machinery, ready 
 made to their hands : and they extended to it, as 
 to what institution having religion and morals and 
 human happiness for its object do they not ? the 
 benefit of their countenance and then- contribution. 
 Really, Sir, to judge from the stress which your 
 Informant lays upon this part of his accusation, 
 both in the text and the notes of his Letter, one 
 -should be led to conclude, that your two Direc- 
 tors, Mr. Grant and Mr. Thornton, never passed a 
 sleeping moment without dreaming about the So- 
 ciety, nor a waking one without labouring for it. 
 I believe in my conscience that they have the in- 
 terest of the Institution at heart, and would gladly 
 embrace every opportunity to promote it. But it 
 does so happen, that neither of these gentlemen
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 has, to my knowledge, attended a single Com- 
 mittee-Meeting of the Society during a period of 
 more than three years and a half, that it has existed ; 
 though they are severally qualified to do so, the 
 former by his Office, the latter by his Subscrip- 
 tion. These gentlemen have deserted no duty to 
 
 J 
 
 the Society, Sir, by absenting themselves; and 
 must in all probability have deserted many duties 
 both to business and benevolence had they acted 
 otherwise. They have only declined the exercise 
 of a privilege : but I think, Sir, it must be obvious, 
 that they would never have allowed such a privi- 
 lege to lie dormant, had they entertained the design 
 insinuated by their accuser, of influencing the So- 
 ciety to particular measures, and employing it as 
 an instrument to <( disturb the religious systems of 
 India."* 
 
 Lord Teignmouth, Sir, accepted the Presidency 
 of the Society, not with that sort of unwillingness 
 which is vulgarly reported to qualify the members 
 of our order for a Mitre; but with that reluctance, 
 which they who know his Lordship will believe to 
 have been sincere, and which I take upon myself 
 to assure you, Sir, was overruled by consider- 
 ations, with which Indian affairs had not the re-r 
 motest connection. At the time in which his 
 Lordship became President of the Society he had 
 ceased to be Governor General of India, and had 
 * Letter, p. 4.
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 not begun to be a Member of the Board of Con- 
 troul. I do not mean to say that his Lordship 
 would have considered a connection with Govern- 
 ment, or the India House, as interfering with his 
 personal right to patronize a Society whose object 
 approved itself to his understanding and his heart : 
 all I mean to contend for is, that his Lordship had 
 no such connection, when, at the instance of Per- 
 sonages whom it would do him honour to name, 
 he took the Society under his Patronage ; and that 
 he therefore stands completely exonerated from the 
 suspicion of projecting it as an instrument of inter- 
 ference with India. It is true, Sir, I cannot de- 
 fend his Lordship's conduct subsequently to his 
 acceptance of the Presidency upon the same prin- 
 ciples as those which I have adopted in defending 
 his Brethren of Leadenhall Street: much as I wish 
 his Lordship's reputation to come pure out of this 
 Trial, I cannot dissemble on his behalf Mentiri 
 nescio He has not been a sleeping Partner in the 
 concern. No, Sir, I owe the confession to truth : 
 that for much of that order, correctness, and effi- 
 ciency which have exposed it to the attacks of Bigotry 
 and Irreligion, and made it invulnerable by them 
 all, the Institution is indebted to the condescend- 
 ing, assiduous, and patient attention which the 
 Noble President has paid to its concerns. If a 
 conduct like this should expose his Lordship to the 
 displeasure of that Court in which his merits are to 
 be canvassed; if it should not bring honour to
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 himself and confusion to his accusers; I can only 
 say, that I shall envy neither the principles nor the 
 feelings of his Judges. 
 
 I have hitherto confined myself to a defence of 
 these gentlemen from the imputation of blame, for 
 having, under their circumstances, connected them- 
 selves with the Society : but I will take upon my- 
 self to say, Sir, that there would have been some 
 room for imputing blame to them on the other 
 hand, if they had employed such circumstances as 
 a ground for declining the connection. It must 
 be remembered, Sir, that we are speaking of a 
 Society, which has been shown to have a definite 
 object, and that object unexceptionable, the circu- 
 lation of the Scriptures ; not in India and the United 
 Kingdom; but in all countries that need, desire, 
 and are capable of using them ; as well as our own : 
 in short, to adopt the Society's own designation 
 AT HOME AND ABROAD. 
 
 Now, Sir, I will take things at their worst : I will 
 suppose Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Grant, and Lord 
 Teignmoutli, to have stood, when the Institution 
 was proposed to their patronage, in the precise 
 situation which they now occupy, with respect to 
 the India House and the Executive Government. 
 These gentlemen would probably have appeared, 
 in the eyes of their accusers, to advantage, had 
 they severally pleaded, " I am an East India Di- 
 rector, therefore I cannot join you ; and I am suc- 
 cessor to the East India Chair, therefore I cannot 
 patronize you ; and I am a Member of the Board
 
 of Controul, therefore I must be excused pre- 
 siding over you :" in mine, I confess, they would 
 have made a very different figure. I should have 
 concluded that they were actuated by a spirit not 
 very dissimilar to that, which converted a farm, a 
 yoke of oxen, and a wife, into pleas for declining a 
 religious duty : nor do I think that I should have 
 stood alone in adopting such a conclusion. 
 
 Indeed, Sir, if the Bible be a good book, and 
 consequently facilitating the acquisition of it in 
 their vernacular tongues to all nations who may 
 be disposed to receive it, be a good thing, I am at 
 a loss to see how any station or employment can 
 justify a Christian in refusing to such an under- 
 taking, his countenance and support; and, to the 
 utmost of his ability, his co-operation. If official 
 employment is to neutralize personal exertion, if a 
 connection with the Executive Government, or the 
 India House, is to operate as a disability upon 
 those who hold it, to promote, at their discretion, 
 the circulation of the Scriptures ; to what a state of 
 moral vassalage are the numerous members of each 
 department reduced ? For if the principle applies 
 to any, it applies to all ; and then see, Sir, what is 
 the consequence: not a single individual in the 
 one department, from the First Lord of the 
 Treasury down to the lowest officer of Excise ; nor 
 in the other, from the President of the Board of 
 Controul down to the meanest porter in the house, 
 will be at liberty to aid the propagation of 
 Christianity out of the limits of the kingdom,
 
 though he should have the strongest religion* 
 motives for desiring it, and every facility for peace- 
 ably securing its accomplishment. 
 
 It would be, Sir, a waste of argument to attempt 
 reasoning down such an hypothesis as your corres- 
 pondent has set up, in his insinuations against the 
 East Indian patronage of the Bible Society. His 
 present Majesty's Great-grandfather, to his immor- 
 tal honour, patronized the first Mission that went 
 among the Hindoos ; and if the nerves of your 
 Correspondent will allow him to cut open a few 
 more pages of Dr. Buchanan's Memoir, in which 
 he thinks he has discovered " such sanguinary doc- 
 trine,"* he will find copies of two letters f from that 
 truly Christian Monarch to the primitive Mission- 
 aries, written in a spirit very different from that 
 which it is the object of Mr. Twining's Letter to 
 infuse into the Court of Proprietors. His present 
 Majesty is not less distinguished than was his royal 
 Ancestor, by the encouragement which he has 
 given to religion. It will not, I should think, be very 
 easy to persuade Him, that he lias endangered his 
 government, either at home or abroad, by admitting, 
 or rather adopting, into his councils, a nobleman 
 
 * " I really cannot cut open the leaves which contain the 
 sequel of such sanguinary doctrine." Letter, p. 27. 
 
 t This sangninary doctrine of Dr. Buchanan, gentle 
 reader, consists in a recommendation to the Civil Power to en- 
 courage Christianity among the natives of India, and to coerce 
 the sanguinary spirit of the Mahometans by suitable restraints 
 See further, p. 26".
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 whose only fault is that he loves the Scriptures, 
 presides over a Society that promotes their circu- 
 lation, and differs from certain individuals in think- 
 ing, that their translation and distribution in the 
 vernacular tongues of India, will strengthen the 
 allegiance, exalt the morals, and improve the hap- 
 piness of our Hindoo and Mahometan subjects. 
 
 Having said enough, Sir, I trust, to show, that 
 there is nothing, either in the Object of the Society, 
 or its Oriental Patronage, which can justify the 
 suspicion that has been entertained of its pernicious 
 design, I shall now briefly examine, whether such 
 justification can be found in that part of its PRO- 
 CEEDINGS which has been produced in evidence 
 against it. 
 
 'Sir, I have looked most carefully over those 
 Extracts from the Society's Reports and Corres- 
 pondence which have occasioned in the mind of 
 our accuser such suspicion and alarm; and I do 
 most sincerely assure you, that I cannot discover 
 any thing upon the record, by which the dexterity 
 of special pleading itself could succeed in impugn- 
 ing the correctness and propriety of its proceedings. 
 I see in them no step of which the Society has 
 occasion to repent, no expression for which it ought 
 to apologize, no measure at home or abroad from 
 which it has any but the best of consequences to 
 expect. 
 
 It appears, indeed, from these Extracts, that the 
 Society wished to do something for China, that 
 
 D
 
 C 18 ) 
 
 great empire in which are more than 300 millions 
 of persons, that in matters of religion cannot dis- 
 cern their right hand from their left.* It appears 
 that they felt for 30 millions of Tartars, and 50 
 millions of Indians, and sent types for a Turkish 
 New Testament to Karass, and 2000/. in aid 
 of Oriental translations, to Calcutta. These are 
 all the facts which the evidence contains ; and 
 what do they prove ? For the Society they prove 
 much, and will I am persuaded attach the majority 
 of Mr. Twining's readers to its interests : but for 
 Mr. Twining what do they prove? NOTHING. 
 
 I have laid much stress, Sir, in the early part of 
 this Defence, upon the simplicity and determinate- 
 ness of the Society's OBJECT : it is worthy of your 
 attention, with what undeviating fidelity and cor- 
 rectness that object is prosecuted through the whole 
 of these proceedings. Whether you advert, Sir, 
 to the text of the Report, or the Extracts of Cor- 
 respondence, you will find nothing discoursed of 
 but the Scriptures. In all the Society's commu- 
 munications with India or the Caucasus, with Cal- 
 cutta or Karass, the Bible, and that alone, is the 
 object of inquiry and of report : details of its pro- 
 gress make up the whole of their recital ; and when 
 they dilate at all, it is upon the grievous topic of its 
 scarcity, or the joyous prospect of its effects. If 
 the Society corresponds with Missionaries, whether 
 directly or indirectly, it does not communicate with 
 * Jonah, iv. 11.
 
 ( 19 ) . 
 
 them quasi Missionaries : nor interfere in any 
 degree with their profession or pursuits. So pre- 
 cisely is the limit of the Society's object defined, 
 that, so far as that object is concerned, it can and 
 does correspond with members of every Christian 
 denomination throughout the world, from the 
 Roman Catholic Priest in Swabia, to the Chief 
 Minister of the Baptist Missionaries* at Serampore. 
 
 But it seems the Author of the Letter does 
 not know " who these Missionaries may be." 
 Sir George Barlow would have informed him, in 
 whose printed speech they are acknowledged with 
 respect, as " the Society of Protestant Missionaries 
 at Serampore." His Majesty's Librarian can in- 
 form him, by exhibiting to his view, upon the royal 
 shelves, a copy of the first Bengalee New Testa- 
 ment imported into this country, the work of those 
 very Missionaries, whom, it seems, it is a credit, 
 and that in a senior merchant on the Bengal esta- 
 blishment, not to know" who they may be." 
 
 It has become a sort of fashion, Sir, among 
 Authors who wish to set all the world right in 
 
 o 
 
 matters of Religion, to affect a sort of ostentatious 
 ignorance of the very subject upon which they 
 profess to write. Thus, Sir, you shall read a 
 long Caveat, the dullness of which is onlv relieved 
 
 O ' i * 
 
 by its ill-humour, against Calvinists, and Enthu- 
 
 * " I know not >who these Missionaries may be, but this 
 Letter -proves their intercourse with the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society." Note on p. 14.
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 siasts, and Methodists ; and find the Author, 
 either in the outset or at the close, declaring that 
 he knows not wherein either of those characters 
 consists ; an I what is more, taking credit to him- 
 self for making such a declaration. As for Mr. 
 Carey, the Chief Minister of the Baptist Mis- 
 sion the Correspondent whose Letter has been 
 produced ; he is known, I presume, to all those, 
 who do not consider Literature disgraced by an 
 alliance with Piety. As Teacher of the Bengalee, 
 Mahratta, and Shanscrit languages, in the College 
 of Fort William, and a Member of the Asiatic 
 Society, Mr. Carey is not a Correspondent whom 
 any Institution need be anxious to disown. It is, 
 however, Sir, important to observe that the So- 
 ciety's Correspondence with Mr. Carey goes no 
 farther than to the translation of the Scriptures. 
 It stops within that line, which defines, as I have 
 before observed, the object of the Society; and 
 which every atom of its history shows to have 
 been most religiously observed. 
 
 What has been said of Mr. Carey's Letter may 
 be applied with equal truth to that of the Rev. 
 D. Brown. It treats of the Translation of the 
 Scriptures, and of that alone ; and therefore adds 
 another to the many monuments of the Society's 
 fidelity in adhering to the object of its institution. 
 To whom that Letter, than which a more gratify- 
 ing one to a Christian mind was never put upon 
 record, was addressed, would have been matter
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 of little moment, had not an awkward attempt at 
 Divination, and that for no very kind purpose, on 
 the part of our Opponent, rendered it necessary 
 to reveal it. The blank, Sir, is not to be filled up 
 with the name of Mr. Grant, but with that of the 
 humble Individual who has now the honour of 
 addressing you. The cause of its suppression * in 
 the publication, was neither artifice nor fear, but 
 a principle more nearly allied to virtue, for which, 
 however, after what has happened, a Member of 
 the Bible Society can expect to obtain but little 
 credit with persons of our Opponent's way of 
 thinking. 
 
 You may remember, Sir, with what rhetorical 
 emphasis our Opponent dilated upon the potency 
 of our East Indian Patronage. I trust I was not 
 unsuccessful in reducing the extravagant dimen- 
 sions of that bloated chimera. It is worthy of 
 your observation, Sir, how strictly the proceedings 
 of the Society, as produced in evidence against it, 
 confirm the reasonings which I advanced on that 
 particular. Carry your eye, Sir, along the 12 
 pages of Criminal Matter which our Opponent has 
 gleaned from our Papers ; and you will no where 
 perceive any traces of that formidable influence 
 which was represented as threatening such 
 
 * " I have no right to guess the suppressed name of the 
 Gentleman to whom this Letter is addressed: but I believe I 
 shall be correct in observing, that Mr. Brown was private 
 Chaplain to C. Grant, Esq. in Bengal." Note, p. 13. of Letter.
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 disastrous effects. In one place only did he 
 think he had found the vestige of a foot from 
 Leadenhall Street ; and in that one place was he 
 mistaken. The inference is obvious : what Mr. 
 Twining has failed to discover, others will look for 
 in vain. 
 
 Let me now, Sir, be allowed to make my ap- 
 peal to you, whether there be any thing in the 
 Object, the Patronage, or the Proceedings, of the 
 Society against which judgment is demanded, that 
 can be construed into matter of offence to the 
 Native Inhabitants of India. Could any object 
 have been selected with more judgment ? any Pa- 
 tronage have been employed with more mildness? 
 any Proceedings have been conducted with more 
 correctness? Has Mr. Twining showed, is he 
 prepared to show, that the Society has aimed at 
 any object but that which it professes; that the 
 Patronage which it enjoys has been used for any 
 purposes of intimidation or officious interference; 
 that, in any one instance, it has been guilty of even 
 an accidental aberration from the line of its pro- 
 fession ? What then has Mr. Twining proved ? I 
 repeat, Sir, with confidence, what I have before 
 declared, He has proved NOTHING. I go farther, 
 Sir, and challenge contradiction when I say, that 
 he has not even attempted to prove any thing. 
 What comments has he made on the Society's pro- 
 ceedings? NONE. For, if we except a few crip- 
 pled Italics, and Patagonian Capitals, and a
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 cynical Note or two which vanished like the thistle 
 down while we brushed over the evidence, he has 
 left those Proceedings to speak for themselves* 
 and they have spoken, Sir, as I trust has been 
 shown, every thing but what they were intended 
 to prove. 
 
 Mr. Twining, Sir, has asserted much, predicted 
 much, threatened much : but where are his Facts ? 
 He has asserted that your " possessions in the 
 East are in a situation of most imminent and un- 
 precedented peril:" He has predicted that " the 
 arms of fifty millions of people will drive you" 
 from Hindostan: He has threatened you with 
 " the extermination" of " your Eastern Sove- 
 reignty." But where are his premises for such 
 conclusions? Where are his credentials for such 
 vaticination? Has the Bible Society excited any 
 alarm in Hindostan? Who -then has been alarmed? 
 Has it given any offence? Who then has been 
 offended? Has it produced any remonstrance? 
 From what quarter has that remonstrance comer 
 What Rajah, or Sultan, what Brahmin or Priest, 
 what Hindoo or Mahometan, has audibly com- 
 plained that his Shaster or his Koran are in dan- 
 ger ? We hear of none : then where, Sir, I repeat, 
 are Mr. Twining'sjfac/s ? 
 
 Why, truly, Sir, they are at Buenos Ayres and 
 Rosetta and Vellore? What then were the expe- 
 ditions to Egypt and South America undertaken 
 for the propagation of Religion? Was this the
 
 ( S4 ) 
 
 motive which actuated our Cabinet and influenced 
 our Commanders, and produced the alternations of 
 joy and sorrow at Whitehall and at Lloyd's ? Doubt- 
 less the Turks liked us the less for being Christians, 
 and the Spaniards for being Protestants: but does 
 any human being believe, that, going as we did 
 with arms in our hands, we should have shared a 
 better fate, had we professed to plant the Crescent 
 on the shores of Egypt, or the Cross on those of 
 South America? And was the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity the object for shaving the upper lip of the 
 native troops at Vellore, and forcibly effacing from 
 their bodies the sacred mark of Cast? Will the 
 Military Commanders who enjoined this act of per- 
 sonal violence, say will the agents who executed 
 it, say will the Company who know the secret of 
 the whole transaction, say will Mr. Twining him- 
 
 7 / 
 
 self, with all his bias towards assertion, say that 
 the disasters which drenched that place in blood, 
 had any connection, directly or indirectly, with the 
 Dissemination of the Christian Faith? If not then 
 what lessons does such an occurrence teach us? 
 Many I conceive against Military violence, but 
 none that I can discern against Missionary kind- 
 ness. It seems then, Sir, that the cases which 
 Mr. Twining brings into comparison fail in two 
 particulars in which parallel cases should at least 
 agree: they have no resemblance to one another 
 either in the means or the end. Really, Sir, a 
 writer who confounds objects so distinct, and mea-
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 Sures so dissimilar, may be pitied if he does it in- 
 nocently, or blamed if he does it wilfully: but 
 can in neither case expect that you should adopt 
 his errors into your System of Oriental Adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 And now, Sir, having done what I conceived to 
 be my duty, I have only to apologize to you for 
 the length of this address. I might have saved 
 much both of your time and my own, if I could 
 have prevailed upon myself to throw the burden of 
 proof, where in truth it ought to rest, on the shoul- 
 ders of the Accuser. I might have reasonably de- 
 murred to his gratuitous charges, and claimed an 
 acquittal for the Society from the defect of evi- 
 dence to convict it j but I wished to see it put fairly 
 upon its trial: convinced that it would appear, 
 upon a strict investigation, not merely innocent, 
 but laudable; not only undeserving of blame, but 
 entitled to commendation and support. 
 
 But while I have entered into detail where detail 
 appeared necessary, I have scrupulously avoided 
 it wherever it could be spared. With this view, 
 Sir, I have not justified the Society for adopting 
 as their opinion, that Christ will "bring from all 
 nations and religions, languages and kingdoms* 
 of this world, some, as trophies of his triumph on 
 
 * This passage (extracted from the Letter of a Roman Ca- 
 tholic Priest in Swabia, to the Secretary of the Society, is 
 Italicised by Mr. Twining, which is his typographical way of 
 displaying the grounds of his " suspicion and anxiety." 
 

 
 the Cross;" because I supposed, that they who 
 know the Scriptures never doubted this position; 
 and they who do not, would never be persuaded to 
 believe it. In like manner, I have not apologized 
 for the Society's calling Mahometanisni " a Bloody 
 and Degrading Superstition," because I did not 
 conceive it deserved a better character; nor for its 
 anticipating " the Downfall" of that System of Im- 
 posture, because I considered such an event to be 
 a consummation, which Christians of every descrip- 
 tion both expected and desired. For similar rea- 
 sons, Sir, I have declined affirmatively proving 
 whatever did not seem absolutely to require it. 
 I have not proved that it is the duty of the British 
 Government, and therefore of the East India Com- 
 pany, to encourage Christianity among their Eastern 
 subjects, because I thought a Community of Re- 
 ligion (so far as it could be effected) between the 
 Governors and Governed, was recognized as a 
 principle both of justice and of policy by all the 
 States of Christendom.* I have not shown that the 
 diffusion of Christianity among our Eastern fellow 
 subjects is desirable, because I thought such posi- 
 tion was distinctly comprehended in Mr. Twining's 
 own admission of their darkness and infidelity :t 
 
 * The Portuguese, the Spaniards, and the French, have 
 propagated the Romish faith in all their foreign settlements ; 
 and the Danes have not been indifferent to the promotion of 
 the Protestant faith in theirs. How have the English acted in 
 this respect ? 
 
 f " \Vhose minds and doctrines are known to be obscured 
 by the darkness of infidelity," Letter, p. 4.
 
 nor have I argued that it is practicable, because, 
 if the opposite opinions of Dr. Buchanan and Mr. 
 Twining be considered as destroying one another, 
 there still remains the recent, decided, and official 
 testimony of Dr. Ker* in favour of such a conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 I have not accounted for the only expression in 
 Dr. Buchanan's Memoir which seemed to require 
 an explanation, "the policy of COERCING the con- 
 temptuous spirit of our native subjects ;" because 
 the Society did not make itself accountable for 
 any sentiments contained in that Memoir, but 
 merely referred to it as evidence of a fact.^ I 
 might, however, have shown, that when reduced 
 from Mr. Twining's favourite Capitals, and re- 
 ferred to the context from which it was unnatu- 
 rally wrested, the expression (( coercing" is riot 
 
 * Dr. Ker, one of the Company's Chaplains at Madras, in 
 a Report made to the Governor and Council, by their Order, 
 speaks to this point as follows: 
 
 " Pure Christianity is far from being a Religion for which the 
 highest cast of Hindoos have any disrespect," and again, " I do 
 not mention this as an experiment, the result of which might 
 be considered as problematical ; the experiment has been al- 
 ready made, and the consequences have proved commensu- 
 rate with the highest expectation which reasonable men could 
 entertain." 
 
 t The Society, in its 2d Report, p. 133, as extracted by 
 Mr. Twining, states certain Translations of the Scriptures into 
 the Oriental languages, as actually going on in Bengal, and 
 quotes an assertion to that effect from Dr. Buchanan's Memoir, 
 p. 81.
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 only harmless, but proper. Dr. Buchanan, Sir, 
 in describing the turbulent and bloody spirit of 
 our native Mahometan subjects, proceeds, " A 
 wise policy seems to demand, that we should use 
 every means of coercing this contemptuous spirit 
 of our native subjects." Who does not see, that 
 the measure recommended is civil and not reli- 
 gious restraint. And are not all restraining laws 
 made for the purposes of civil coercion ? And if 
 the civil power may not coerce the turbulence of 
 its subjects, then can the magistrate never become 
 " a terror to evil doers, but must bear the sword in 
 vain." As for coercion iri matters of religion, it 
 is saying little to affirm that the Bible Society, and 
 British Christians, and Dr. Buchanan himself, 
 abhor the sentiment ; they go further ; they spurn 
 the imputation which has attempted to fasten such 
 a sentiment upon them. 
 
 J have not pointed out the comparative indiffer- 
 ence, upon Mr. Twining's principles, between one 
 religion and another, to the welfare of a people; 
 nor the impossibility, on those principles, of India 
 being Christianized by any human means, so long 
 as it shall remain under the dominion of the Com- 
 pany ; nor the alternative to which Providence is 
 by consequence reduced, of either giving up that 
 country to everlasting superstition, or of working 
 some miracle* in order to accomplish its conversion; 
 
 * " I shall hope, Sir, that our native subjects in every part 
 pf the East will be permitted quietly to follow their own reJi-
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 because I considered such inferences as too ob- 
 vious to be overlooked, and too shocking to be 
 endured. Finally, Sir, I have ventured to take 
 for granted, considering who would be my judges, 
 and in what an awful crisis I write, that the 
 Bible is the only Book which contains the re- 
 vealed will of God; that the sooner it supersedes 
 the Shaster and the Koran, the sooner Avill the 
 happiness of India be consummated; and that the 
 more we contribute, as a Nation and as Indivi- 
 duals, to promote this end by lawful means, the 
 greater blessings we shall draw down upon our 
 commerce and our arms, upon ourselves and our 
 posterity. 
 
 I have the Honor to be, Sir, 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 your faithful Servant, 
 Dec, 16, 1807. JOHN OWEN, 
 
 gious prejudices and absurdities, untill it shall please the Om- 
 nipotent Power of HEAVEN to lead them into the paths of 
 J.IGHT and TRUTH," LETTER, p. 31. 
 
 354867
 
 THE TWO LETTERS OF GEORGE I. 
 
 REFERRED TQ IN PAGE 16. 
 
 " GEORGE, by the Grace of God, King of 
 Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender 
 of the Faith, &c. To the Reverend and Learned 
 BARTHOLOMEW ZIEGENBALGIUS, and JOHN 
 ERNEST GRUNDLERUS, Missionaries at Tran-t 
 cjuebar, in the East Indies. 
 
 "REVEREND AND BELOVED, 
 
 " Your letters, dated the 20th January of the present 
 year, were most welcome to us ; not only because the 
 work undertaken by you of converting the heathen to 
 the Christian faith, doth, by the grace of God, prosper, 
 but also because that in this, our kingdom, suck a 
 laudable teal for the promotion of the Gospel prevails. 
 
 " We pray you may be endued with health and 
 strength of body, that you may long continue to fulfil 
 your ministry with good success; of which, as \ve 
 shall be rejoiced to hear, so you will always find us 
 ready to succour you in whatever may tend to promote 
 your work, and to excite your zeal. We assure you 
 of the continuance of our royal favour. 
 
 Given at our Palace of Hampton 
 Court the 23d August, A. 1). 
 1717, in the 4th year of our 
 Reign. 
 
 " GEORGE, R. 
 " HATTORF."
 
 " REVEREND AND BELOVED, 
 
 " From your letters, dated Tranquebar, the 12th 
 September, 1725, which some time since came to hand, 
 we received much pleasure ; since by them we are 
 informed not only of your zealous exertions in the 
 prosecution of the work committed to you, but also of 
 the happy success which hath hitherto attended it, and 
 which hath been graciously given of God. 
 
 " We return you thanks for these accounts, and it 
 will be acceptable to us, if you continue to communi- 
 cate whatever shall occur in the progress of your 
 Mission. 
 
 " In the mean time, we pray you may enjoy strength 
 of b<.dy and mind for the long continuance of your 
 labours in this good work, to the glory of God, and 
 the promotion of Christianity among the heathens, 
 that its perpetuity may not fail in generations to come. 
 
 " GEORGE, R. 
 
 " Given at our Palace at St. James's, 
 the 23d of February, 1727, in the 
 13th year of our Reign." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Stanhope and Tilling, Printer. 5 , 
 Chelsea.
 
 27 35
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which It was borrowed. 
 
 BNIVERSn \LIFORNI1 
 
 LOt ES
 
 BIUJO: