690 LIFE OF OOBDEN. [cma®
1867. me very grateful for the accident which released me from
Ar. 63. my Parliamentary duties, and thereby relieved me from the
necessity of making any public declaration of opinion OO
the subject; for the more I reflect on it, the less do I feel
able to take any part which would harmonize with the
views and prejudices of the British public.
“I am, and always have been, of opinion (see the enclosed
extract from Hansard) that we have attempted an impossibility
 in giving ourselves to the task of governing
one hundred willions of Asiatics. God and his visible
natural laws have opposed insuperable obstacles to the
success of such a scheme. But if the plan were practicable
at the great cost and risk which we now see to be insepa~
rable from it, what advantage can it confer on ourselves!
We all know the motive which took the East India Company
 to Asia—monopoly, not merely as towards foreigners;
but against the rest of their own countrymen. But now
that the trade of Hindoostan is thrown open to all the world
on equal terms, what exclusive advantage can wo derive t0
compensate for all the trouble, cost, and risk of ruling over
such a people I—a people which has shown itself, after 2
century of contact with us, to be capable of crimes which
would revolt any savage tribe of whom we read in Dr.
Livingstone’s narrative, and which had never seen 8
Christian or European till he penetrated among them.
“The religious people who now tell us that we must hold
India to convert it, ought, I should think, to be convinced
by what has passed that sending red coats as well as black
to Christianize a people is not the most likely way to insure
the blessing of God on our missionary efforts.
“I am aware that it is quite useless to preach these doctrines
 in the present temper of the people of this country;
but if forced to appear in public to offer my opinion on the
topics of the day, I could not ignore this greatest of all