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Christian Responses to the Indian Mutiny of 1857

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Brian Stanley
Brian Stanley*
Affiliation:
Spurgeon's College, London
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Extract

In an article published over a decade ago, Olive Anderson demonstrated the major contribution made by the Indian mutiny to the growth of Christian militarism in Victorian Britain. The Crimean war had accustomed the British public to the view that Britain’s soldiery had spiritual needs which could and should be met by the exertions of voluntary subscription, but it was the mutiny which established the more ambitious claim that Christian soldiers were the best ones. The military exploits of Henry Havelock and others of similar piety in stemming the tide of the sepoy rebellion enshrined Christian faith of an evangelical stamp as an almost indispensable ingredient in the constitution of the Victorian hero. The intention of this paper is to endorse and amplify Anderson’s conclusions by examining the responses of Christian opinion in Britain to the mutiny at its most alarming stage in the later months of 1857. Specific attention will be given to the reactions of nonconformists, in the light of the generally accepted view that early Victorian nonconformist attitudes to foreign affairs were characterised by a firm commitment to pacific principles and a disinclination for imperial entanglements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 20: The Church and War , 1983 , pp. 277 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1983

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References

1 Anderson, Olive, ’The growth of Christian militarism in mid-Victorian Britain‘ EHR 86 (1971) pp 46–72 Google ScholarPubMed.

2 See also Hamilton, C.I., ’Naval hagiography and the Victorian hero‘ HJ 23 (1980) pp 381-98Google Scholar.

3 See Summerton, [N.W.], ’Dissenting attitudes [to foreign relations, peace and war, 1840-1890]‘ JEH 28 (1977) pp 151-78Google Scholar; Bebbington, [D.W.], The nonconformist conscience: [chapel and politics, 1870-1914] (London 1982) pp 106-7Google Scholar.

4 Clarkson, [William], India and the gospel; [or, an empire for the messiah] (London 1850) p 296 Google Scholar.

5 Clarkson, , India and the gospel pp 291–302 Google Scholar; Rowley, Henry ed, Speeches on missions: by the Right Reverend Samuel Wilberforce, D.D., late bishop of Winchester (London 1874) p 97 Google Scholar; Smith, George, Our national relations with China; being two speeches delivered in Exeter Hall and in the Free-Trade Hall, Manchester, by the bishop of Victoria (London 1857) pp 5–7 Google Scholar.

6 See my unpublished PhD thesis, ‘Home support for overseas missions in early Victorian England, c.1838-1873’ (Cambridge 1979) p 226.

7 Ibid p 226.

8 Clarkson, , India and the gospel p 110 Google Scholar.

9 S[chool of] Ofriental and] Affrican] S[tudies], Methodist Missionary Society archives, home letters, box 15, S. Lord to G. Osborn, 11 March 1853. I am grateful to the Methodist Church overseas division (Methodist Missionary Society) for permission to cite material from this archive.

10 The Rev. Mr Fitzgerald of Camden chapel, StPaneras, , in The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 7 col 3Google Scholar.

11 Bolt, [Christine], Victorian attitudes [to race] (London 1971) p 157 Google Scholar.

12 For accounts of the atrocities, real and alleged, see Hibbert, Christopher, The great mutiny: India 1857 (London 1978) pp 206-15Google Scholar; Chaudhuri, S.B., English historical writings on the Indian mutiny 1857-1859 (Calcutta 1979) pp 256-65Google Scholar.

13 This was the last of a series of days of national fasting and humiliation called in the nineteenth century; see Anderson, [Olive], ’[The] reactions of Church and Dissent [towards the Crimean War]‘ JEH 16 (1965) p 215n.Google Scholar

14 The Nonconformist 14 Oct 1857 p 803.

15 There is no reason to suppose that the views expressed from London pulpits were unrepresentative of views expressed in the nation at large: ‘The discourses delivered in our large towns were similar in substance to those addressed to metropolitan hearers’: The Nonconformist 14 Oct 1857 p 805.

16 The Queen’s proclamation stated that the object of the humiliation day was ‘that so both we and our people may humble ourselves before Almighty God in order to obtain pardon of our sins, and in the most devout and solemn manner send up our prayers and supplications to the Divine Majesty for imploring His blessing and assistance on our arms for the restoration of tranquillity’: The Times 28 Sept 1857 p 4 col 2.

17 See Anderson, ‘Reactions of Church and Dissent’ pp 214-16.

18 The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 5 col 5. See also ‘National sins the sources of national calamities’ C[hurch] M[issionary] I[ntelligencer] 8 (1857) pp 241-51.

19 The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 5 col 4.

20 Ibid p 8 col 5.

21 Rev. Or M’Caul in Ibid p 6 col 2. See also Rev. John Forster on p 6 col 5.

22 CMI 8 (1857) p 249.

23 Rev. Richard Chaffer in The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 6 col 6.

24 Rev. W. Goode in Ibid p 6 col 3.

25 Ibid p 8 col 4.

26 Ibid p 5 col 6 (Dr Crely) and p 7 col 1 (Preb. James).

27 Ibid p 6 col 5.

28 Ibid p 5 col 6 (Dr Crely).

29 Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 6834 p 279.

30 Rev. A. B. Suter in The Times, 8 Oct 1857, p 6 col 4.

31 See especially Rev. B.M. Cowie in Ibid p 5 col 1 and Rev. Warwick R. Wroth on p 7 col 6.

32 The total of 137 omits the further sermons briefly reported in Ibid p 8 col 6 and p 9 cols 1-2.

33 Ibid p 8 col 5.

34 Ibid p 5 col 6 ( R. Liddell ), p 8 col 1 ( C. Brown ), p 8 cols 3-4 ( J. Kelly ).

35 Rev. Spencer Pearsall in Ibid p 7 col 5.

36 Rev John Baillie in Ibid p 7 col 3.

37 See the comment in The Nonconformist, 14 Oct 1857, p 803.

38 The congregationalist James Spence in The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 6 col 3. Spence was, however, in no doubt about the intrinsic righteousness of Britain’s position in India.

39 The Nonconformist, 14 Oct 1857, pp 805-6. For James’s peace principles see Summerton, ‘Dissenting attitudes’ p 169.

40 The Nonconformist, 14 Oct 1857 p 806.

41 The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 7 col 1.

42 Leeds Mercury 27 Oct 1857 p 4 col 1. For the limited nature of Baines’s pacific commitment see Summerton, ‘Dissenting attitudes’ pp 163, 167; Fraser, Derek, ’Edward Baines‘ in Hollis, Patricia ed, Pressure from without in early Victorian England (London 1974) p 200 Google Scholar.

43 The Nonconformist 15 July 1857 pp 553-6.

44 Ibid 22 July 1857 pp 563-4.

45 lbid p 571. See also Miall, Arthur, life of Edward Mitili (London 1884) pp 218-20Google Scholar.

46 The Nonconformist 6 Oct 1857 p 781; cf Anderson, ‘Reactions of Church and Dissent’ pp 216-17.

47 The Nonconformist 14 Oct 1857 pp 801-2.

48 G[reater] L[ondon] R[ecord] O[ffice], Liberation Society executive committee minutes 1853-61 (A/Lib/2). The special minute was based on the report of a sub-committee comprising Miall, Dr C.J. Foster (chairman of the society’s parliamentary committee) and the secretary, J. Carvell Williams (minute 758 dated 30 Oct 1857).

49 Mackintosh, W.H., Disestablishment and liberation: the movement for the separation of the anglican church from state control (London 1972) pp 100–1 Google Scholar, wrongly construes the fourth paragraph of the society’s minute as designed to protect native interests (whereas in fact it warned that native ‘prejudices’ must yield to the interests of justice), and exaggerates the difference between liberationist and Anglican missionary responses to the mutiny. Machin, G.I.T., Politics and the churches in Great Britain 1832 to 1868 (Oxford 1977) pp 294-5Google Scholar, fails to perceive that nonconformists were at least as concerned to promote a Christian policy in India as to ensure that government did not infringe voluntarist principles; see Baptist Magazine 49 (1857) pp 758-9.

50 GLRO, Liberation Society executive committee minutes 1853-61, circular dated 18 Nov 1857.

51 The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 8 col 5.

52 Morley, [John], [The] life of [Richard] Cobden, new edn 2 vols (London 1896) 2 p 206 Google Scholar.

53 Cf Summerton, ‘Dissenting attitudes’ pp 171-2.

54 Morley, Life of Cobden 2 p 214; see also Read, D., Cobden and Bright: a Victorian political partnership (London 1967) pp 205-7Google Scholar.

55 SOAS, Council for World Mission archives, LMS home office incoming letters, box 11, H. Richard on behalf of committee of Peace Society to LMS directors, nd [1859?]. I am grateful to the Council for World Mission for permission to cite material from this archive.

56 Annual report of the London Missionary Society, 1858 p 1; see also Wesleyan Methodist Magazine 5th ser 3(1857) p 1131.

57 Brock, [W.], [A biographical sketch of] Sir Henry Havelock [, K.C.B.] 4 edn (London 1858) p 210 Google Scholar; see also Ibid p 188.

58 This interpretation differs in some respects from that of Bolt, Victorian attitudes pp 165, 178-83.

59 See Rev. Edward Auriol in The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 6 col 4, and Stock, Eugene, The history of the Church Missionary Society: its environment, its men and its work 4 vols (London 1899-1916) 2 p 217 Google Scholar.

60 Baptist Magazine 50 (1858) p 323.

61 Marshman, J.C., Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock K.C.B, new edn (London 1902) p 294 Google Scholar. For the importance of the concept of providence to Havelock see Brock, Sir Henry Havelock p 143.

62 See Bebbington, , The nonconformist conscience pp 106–26 Google Scholar; Summerton, ‘Dissenting attitudes’ pp 167-78.

63 See my article, “Commerce and Christianity”: providence theory, the missionary move ment, and the imperialism of free trade, 1842-1860’ HJ 26 (1983) pp 71-94.

64 Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson in The Times 8 Oct 1857 p 6 col 2.