Chapter 2 HOUSE OF COMMONS, BRITISH PARLIAMENT DECIDES ON ‘CHRISTIANISATION OF INDIA SPEECHES OF WILLIAM WILBERFORCE * JUNE 22, 1813 Mr. Wilberforce rose and spoke as follows : Thave listened with no little pleasure to the hon. gentleman, who. for the first time, has been just delivering his sentiments; and I cordially congratulate him on the manifestation of talents and principles which, I trust, will render him a valuable accession to this House, and to his country ; but before I proceed to the more direct discussion of the question before us, he will allow me to express my dissent from his opinion. that it might be advisable to employ our regular clergy as missionaries. It was a proposition, indeed, which naturally recommended itself to the mind of any ‘one, who, like my hon. friend and myself, being attached, on principle, to the church of England, and being deeply impressed with a sense of the blessings which we ourselves derive from it, are of course desirous of communicating the same blessings to others of our fellow subjects. I grant that it is much to be regretted, and among the Roman Catholics it has been the reproach of the Protestant churches, that they have taken so little interest in conversionof the = Taken from Hansard: June 22. 1813, Columns 831-872; (From the Original Edition, printed for J. Hatchard, Piccadilly.) 63heathen nations; and I may take this opportunity of declaring it as my opinion, that it is much to be regretted, that our excellent church establishment contains within itselfno means of providing fit agents for the important work of preaching Christianity to the heathen, Nor is this a new opinion : on the contrary, | had the honour of stating it many years ago to two venerable and most respected prelates, the late archbishop of Canterbury and the late bishop of London ; and they expressed themselves favourably of a proposition which I submitted to their consideration, that there should be a distinct ordination for missionaries, which should empower them to perform the offices of the church in foreign countries, but should not render them capable of holding church. preferments, or even of officiating as clergymen in this kingdom. It is obvious, that the qualifications required in those who discharge the duties of the ministerial office in this highly civilized community, where Christianity also is the established religion of the land, are very different from those for which we ought chiefly to look, in men whose office it will be to preach the Gospel to the heathen nations, which they will find unacquainted with the first principles of religion and morality ; from the qualifications which we should require in instructors who will probably be cast among barbarians, and, besides having to encounter the grossest ignorance and its attendant vices, will also have to endure great bodily hardships. and privations. But this is not the time for enlarging farther on this. point, or on the suggestion of my hon. friend. It will not, I know, escape him, passing over other objections to the measure, that it necessarily implies, that the missionaries who are to officiate in India, are to be expressly commissioned and employed by the state. or by the East India Company ; whereas, [am persuaded. we shall all concur in thinking, that it ought to be left to the spontaneous benevolence and zeal of individual Christians, controuled of course by the discretion of government, to engage 64in the work of preaching the Gospel to the natives in our Indian territories ; and that the missionaries should be clearly understood to be armed with no authority, furnished with no commission, from the governing power of the country. Allow me, Sir, before we proceed farther, to endeavour to do away a misconception of the thirteenth Resolution, which appears generally to prevail, that the only object it has in view is, to secure, to such missionaries as the Board of Controul shall sanction, permission to go to India, and to remain there, so long as they shall continue to exercise the duties of their office ina peaceable and orderly manner. This undoubtedly is one object of the Resolution, but by no means the only, perhaps not the principal, one. I beg you to observe, that the very terms of the Resolution, expressly State,that “we are to enlighten and inform the minds of the subjects of our East Indian empire.” And after much reflection, 1 do not hesitate to declare, that, from enlightening and informing them, in other words, from education and instruction, from the diffusion of knowledge, from the progress of science, more especially from all these combined with the circulation of the Holy Scriptures in the native languages. I ultimately expect even more than from the direct labours of missionaries, properly so called. By enlightening the minds of the natives, we should root out their errors, without provoking their prejudices 5 and it would be impossible that men of enlarged and instructed minds could continue enslaved by such a monstrous system of follies and superstitions as that under the yoke of which the natives of Hindostan now groan. They would, in short, become Christians, if I may so express myself, without knowing it.* Before I enter further into the argument, more especially + Emphasis, wherever its occurs, has been added by the Compiler. 6s