THE

MISSIONARY OBSERVER.

JUNE, 1884.

Serious Illness of Mr. Mulholland.

It is with extreme regret that we have to lay before the friends of the Mission the following letters from Dr. Buckley, in reference to the dangerous illness of Mr. Mulholland. We have also received letters from Mr. Miller and Dr. Stewart, in which the case is spoken of as a critical one. We trust the next mail may bring more favourable tidings; but we confess that we look forward to its arrival with the deepest anxiety. In a letter received from Mr. Mulholland, dated March 15th, he says:-"I shall try to let you have 'Bazaar Sketches,' No. 2, in time for the May Observer, but writing with the thermometer in the printing office to-day at 91°, is not the most pleasant occupation." In a P.S. he adds, "I am feeling a little better than when I wrote you last."

Dr. Buckley writes:

Cuttack, April 12th, 1884.

MY DEAR BROther Hill,-We are in the midst of deep affliction. Mr. Mulholland is seriously ill of inflammation of the lungs, and we have felt grave apprehensions as to the issue; but we know that this is in the Lord's hands, and I am thankful to say that the prospect is decidedly brighter to-day than it was yesterday, though there is still cause for anxiety.

You may be sure that medical attention and skill will not be lacking at this time of trial, and friends will do all that can be done in the way of nursing and watching over the invalid. Dr. Stewart was with him last evening more than two hours, and Dr. Mookerjee, the military doctor, also saw him at the same time. Mrs. Mulholland, too, is prostrate from repeated attacks of fever, but I am thankful to say is to-day somewhat better. On Wednesday-the day when our apprehensions were first excited Mrs. Buckley went over and had the two boys brought over to our house. The younger, Tommy, was at the time suffering from fever, and that afternoon had fearful convulsions. I am thankful to say that the convulsive attack has not returned, and that he is really better though very weak, and he requires watching over night and day. But to add to our anxieties, the elder boy, David, had high fever yesterday, and though after a few hours it passed off, I am sorry to say that it has returned to-day. It is a day of darkness and trouble, and we must cry to the Lord.

Cuttack, April 19th.

It has been a very anxious and trying week. Mr. Mulholland is still very ill, and we have many fears as to the issue, but all that medical skill can do to arrest the progress of the disease is being done. Many prayers are offered for him, and the issue, be it what it may, will be for the glory of the Lord. This we cannot doubt. What a comfort when we can feel assured that Christ will be magnified in our bodies,

whether it be by life or by death. On Tuesday afternoon we all thought that he was dying. He wished to see his children, and they were sent for; the two boys who as I mentioned a week ago have been with us from the day his illness became serious, were brought, and he prayed for them and exhorted them to seek the Saviour while they were young. Little baby, who has been lovingly cared for by Mrs. Miller, did not understand what it was all about, and began to cry; her father gave her a loving kiss and she was taken away. It was a touching scene; but our brother's mind was kept in perfect peace, stayed on his blessed Saviour. We all thought the end was near, but the Lord had otherwise appointed; and when I saw him the next day he said, "I am still in the land of the living-still on this side the river." To-day there seems a little more hope of a favourable issue, but I will give you the latest news of his state before posting this an hour hence. He requires, as you will suppose, constant attention night and day, but this is lovingly rendered.

I am glad to say that Mrs. Mulholland is better, and so are the boys with us, though they have had several attacks of fever during the week, especially the younger. Pray for us that the trying scenes through which we are passing may humble and purify us, and that if it be the will of the Lord our brother's life may be precious in His sight.

3.0 p.m.-I have just heard that our brother has been quiet all day, and thinks he is a little better; he does not complain of pain.

Yours affectionately,

J. BUCKLEY.

Since sending the above to the press, we have received the following letter from Dr. Buckley. The Lord has been better than our fears, and the friends of the Mission will learn with gratitude that our brother is somewhat better, and will pray that his health may be fully restored. Dr. Buckley writes:

Cuttack, 26th April, 1884.

MY DEAR BROTHER HILL,-One line to let you know that our afflicted brother is gradually improving, but the progress is very slow, and he is extremely weak-not able to walk. I am not, however, aware that there is any particularly unfavourable symptom. He was yesterday able for a little while to leave his bed for an invalid chair, and found it a pleasant change. He had last night two hours' natural sleep. The Lord, as he said to me, had done great things for him, but it will, I fear, be a long time before he has strength to do much. Meanwhile, brother Miller and myself have to do the best we can at the office. Mrs. Buckley and I thought of rest and change. The Lord has appointed heavier work at our old post, and His will must be right. Ever yours,

JOHN BUCKLEY.

Sambalpur Book Room & Preaching Stations.

MR. PIKE has forwarded the following list of sums received on account of the Book Room and Preaching Stations-which sums he desires to acknowledge with best thanks. His address, during his stay in England, is LOUGHBOROUGH.

The State Church in India.

SOME months ago the Calcutta Correspondent of "The Times" telegraphed home to the effect that grants from the Indian revenue for ecclesiastical purposes were to be reduced. This announcement, being premature, was speedily contradicted. It now seems, from a Return ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 6th March, 1884, on East India Ecclesiastical Grants, that this statement originated in letters from the Government of India to the Secretary of State, in which these reductions were recommended. But, as such a recommendation, though supported by Lord Ripon, Sir E. Baring, and Mr. Ilbert, was opposed by four members of the Governor's Council (Episcopalians, no doubt) Lord Kimberley, "in the presence of such wide differences of opinion, has great doubt whether it is desirable to proceed further in the matter." To the above Return, or Blue Book, we may again refer, as it contains a letter from "W. Hill," and an extract from the "General Baptist Magazine." In the meantime, to enable our readers to form an idea how ecclesiastical matters are managed in India, we ask their attention to the following article from "The Friend of India and Statesman."

WE are aware that Lord Ripon leaves the Ecclesiastical Department to be administered by a Member of Council supposed to be orthodox, and that he is watched with jealousy. But the Viceroy has by law the power to dispose of all church matters at his discretion, and every order is passed in his name, and by virtue of his authority. It is strange to have the management of the English Church in India, the appointing and transferring the clergymen, and possibly deciding whether the misconduct of one of them should be punished by dismissal, by a disciple of the Vatican. The founders of the Colonial Church of England hardly expected that its Bishops and other ministers would be paid and kept in order by a Roman Catholic peer.

This is an anomaly which will inevitably suggest the question, why are Protestant ministers supported in India out of taxes levied from Hindoos and Mahomedans? We lately discussed this topic with reference to a single station, Cuttack, and we shall now take up the case of the Lower Provinces generally. According to the Quarterly Civil List, the Ecclesiastical Department in these provinces consisted, on the 1st of July, of a Bishop, an Archdeacon, and twenty-one chaplains, paid exclusively by Government, and twelve ministers partly so paid. The Right Rev. Edward Ralph Johnson, Lord Bishop of Calcutta, receives Rs. 3,831 a month, and has just returned from six months' furlough, from 27th March. We hope he thoroughly enjoyed himself at home, where he no doubt met a number of Colonial Bishops, it being a remarkable fact that no one can walk from the Oxford and Cambridge to the Athenæum Club without coming across a Colonial Bishop on leave. The Ven. J. Baly, Archdeacon and Commissary, gets Rs. 1,241 a month, and has just returned from nine months' furlough, from 12th February last. Dr. Johnson in his dictionary defined an archdeacon as one who performed archdeaconical functions, a description which would hardly apply to Dr. Baly when on furlough. The pay of the chaplains varies from Rs. 1,446 drawn by Rev. G. G. Gillan, (on furlough) to Rs. 500 drawn by Rev. W. J. Rowland (on furlough). Three of the other chaplains are also absent on long leave. The ministers receiving allowances, are partly paid by the Additional Clergy Society, partly by private subscription, and get Rs. 150 a month from Government. None of them are entered as on leave. Now it is sometimes supposed that these clergymen are paid for definite services, performed under such conditions that it is but reasonable that the State should bear the expense; and to some extent this is true. The chaplains at the military stations are required for the soldiers, and the Bishop and Archdeacon may be supposed to be employed, partly in looking after these military chaplains. But this explanation will by no means cover all the cases. The Calcutta chaplains are certainly more numerous than they would be were they kept only for the troops, who indeed

have their own chaplain of Fort William, the Rev. T. Wanreford. There is a chaplain for Bankipore, where there are no troops of any kind, in addition to the chaplain of the neighbouring cantonment of Dinapore, Cuttack, Hazaribagh, Berhampore, and Dacca have chaplains, though they have no European troops. The smaller stations, as Bhagulpore, Midnapore, and Chittagong, get Rs 150 a month towards keeping a minister. It thus comes to pass, that the smaller stations have to pay in part for their own clergy, while the richer towns get them at the expense of the public. The edifices of the Church of England are kept up at the cost of Government, and every chaplain makes a contingent bill for various charges connected with the public worship.

All other Indian sects, Christian and heathen, manage to maintain their own clergy, and it is certainly hard on them that they have to keep up the chaplains and so forth of the Church of England as well, particularly as the members of that Church are the richest. A ryot who gives his measure of rice to the collection of his Roman Catholic priest, or Brahmin, or Moulvi, has a part of his contribution to the salt tax spent on the salary of the Lord Bishop of a hostile church, on furlough. This drain on the small resources of the country by the number of officials on pension or furlough, or who send their money to England for their families, is an admitted evil; but in other cases, it is presumed to be paid for by work done for the benefit of tax-payers. But the vast majority of the tax-payers consider the entertainment of the clergymen of the Church of England no benefit to them whatever. They belong to hostile persuasions, and they find no set-off against the considerable expenditure of the Ecclesiastical Department. We do not for a moment contend that Bishops are useless, or their pay excessive, or their furloughs unnecessary; but we certainly think that they and the rest of the clergy should be supported by those who believe in them, and not by those who consider them as false teachers.

The only reason why the Church of England in India is supported by the State, while other churches or creeds have to pay their own way, is that it includes a greater number of persons possessing political power, which they use to rób the less fortunate in this respect, by imposing an unjust burden upon them for their own benefit. Having a majority in the Home Legislature, they use it to compel those in a minority to support their clergy, whom they are themselves bound, by every precept of justice and religion, to support. It is a matter of money, and those commissioned to settle it, do so in such a way as to gain unfairly at the expense of others. Were any other sect in a majority in Parliament, or were sects equally represented there, the injustice would be at once remedied, and derided. Men like Lord Ripon are averse to raise the question, by showing that their religion makes them think differently from the majority in Parliament. But there is a strong secular opinion arising, opposed to all injustice in money matters, which is becoming too powerful for the selfishness which inclines those having a good thing to cling to it, right or wrong. The Church of England has been disestablished in Ireland and Ceylon, in deference to this opinion, and we think that it cannot much longer maintain its position in India. The only explanation of the subsidies given to it-the superior political power of its members is every day becoming less applicable. In this country, Roman Catholics, Dissenters, Jews, Hindoos, and Mahomedans are rapidly acquiring a share in the principal offices, and it may be doubted if the Church of England has a majority in any Legislature or High Court. There is a similar decline in the political influence of the Church at home, and there can be little doubt that if Mr. Gladstone proposed the abolition of the Indian Church, as an Establishment, he would carry his point, and rally his party. The recent resolution of the House of Commons in favour of a reduction of expenditure, offers a favourable opportunity for agitating the grievance. If all unnecessary expenditure is to be curtailed, why continue to pay large and increasing sums for the support of a Church quite able to maintain its own clergy, and which is far the most expensive in the world? A Bishop on Rs. 3,831, on furlough, with his Archdeacon on furlough, and his private chaplain also on furlough, may be a necessity, but there are a sufficient number of rich men in the Church of England to pay for such necessities, without forcing Hindoo ryots and English dissenters to contribute.