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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

minimumim TIC.O. 882

5PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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Lord Knutsford, with my most respectful request that, if his Lordship has no objection, the Bishop of Mauritius may be asked his opinion upon those documents.

3. At the same time I think I ought not to shrink from giving expression to my own disapproval of a considerable portion of their contents. These papers, especially the appendices, compel me to do so, much to my regret, for Mr. Walshe is a clergyman with whom I have always had the pleasure of being on friendly terms, and who is in many respects much appreciated, particularly in connexion with his studious and thoughtful pursuits in his work amongst the seafaring population,

4. The singular temerity, however, of many of his judgments, and (possibly) of the unhesitating advice volunteered to high authorities, is to my mind quite unbecoming his position. His personal difference with his Bishop, and charges against him ought never to have been imported into, much less incorporated with, this memorial.

It is clear that questions of speculative opinion and doctrine are irrelevant. Moreover, Mr. Walshe, is in my view, not altogether accurate in dealing with local facts regarding primary education, church organisation, and missionary operations.

With these interests Mr. Walshe has not much identified himself in Mauritius, and I am of opinion that he is but slightly conversant with them in their Colonial aspects and bearings. These documents bear me out, I fear, in saying this.

5. On what grounds the memorialist speaks of the Indians from " their own point of view" is not very clear, but in any case he appears to ignore the foremost part which his own church has always taken here in Indian work, particularly in connexion with schools, a part which has often been brought under the notice of the Secretary of State; also the fact that the education grants in aid are already quite independent of churches or creeds, and entirely open to non-Christian managers and teachers, whether Mahomedan, Hindu, Buddhist, or what not; also that Mosque schools are a common institution, and not referable to the special causes Mr. Walshe imagines; and again, that schools aided according to their religious management, such as he advocates, are just those in which, if Christian, the danger here is most acute of what he is pleased to consider demoralising proselytism; or in which, on the other hand, if they be non-Christian, a far more demoralising and sectarian obscurantism must necessarily prevail.

For this and other reasons the Church of England would greet with highest satisfaction any increase at length voted more particularly in favour of 2nd grade or Indian Govern- ment schools, for which she has long in vain petitioned. But this should by no means come out of our ecclesiastical revenues, and if Mr. Walshe has any idea, as seems to be hinted more than once, that non-Christian religions, as religions, should be encouraged, subsidized, or endowed from public funds, we join issue with him altogether.

The Church of England can never allow any influence she may possess to be used in favour of such proposals.

6. The Church of England has been singularly blessed in triumphing over that "straitness" and those "discouragements," &c., &c., the mention of which in a report of the Diocesan Society Mr. Walshe most strangely and erroneously interprets as a confession of " torpidity" and "decadence." The logical inference from such mention is greatly in her favour, according to the principle that the vitality and energy of a system are measured by the stress and adverse influence which they surmount. On the other hand Mr. Walshe's unfriendly charge of intolerance and bigotry, especially in the direction of (vangelistic propagandism, is at least contradictory of that of "apathy" or "torpidity," and thus both are refuted.

7. Missionary zeal in a diocesan council cannot surely be imputed as a reproach. I am gratified to have Mr. Walshe's testimony to its existence in ours, and the Bishop or his representative will at all times, I am sure, most thankfully receive and welcome sympathy and co-operation in this respect on the part of the memorialist himself; even though it be on the very broadest lines consistent with securing and maintaining the necessary pre-eminence of the historic circumstances of our most holy faith.

Such enthusiasm, though it be accounted excessive, is really our highest glory, and one is glad to see the patient and continuous labours of the two great societies thus bearing fruit.

Without pretending that it is exempt from the application, as a common place, of the inevitable human exceptions, it may, with gratitude to God, be safely asserted that the cause of Protestant Christianity is extending and deepening amongst the Indian population; and that it will bear, and invites, scrutiny.

Though unfortunately for myself I never had the distinguished honour of being a missionary, yet I have been called during more than a quarter of a century to assist more than one Bishop in the administration of operations of the kind. It is to me, therefore, a

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high privilege to be allowed an opportunity of defending their cause against aspersion, and of adding my humble and unpledged testimony to the blessing they secure; as well as to the sincerity and devotion, in their sphere, of the appointed agents, quite equal to that of the inemorialist in his own most useful department of the church's work.

I conclude by again expressing a high sense of Mr. Walshe's intentions in favour of primary education; whilst recording my opinion that he is, in some important particulars, greatly mistaken in his facts, views, judgments, and recommendations.

The question of Indian schools has never met with adequate consideration; and as the memorialist admits, it is so urgent as to be worthy of being dealt with independently, rather than as a mere episode in the treatment of the question of ecclesiastical grants and their redistribution. And I am fully persuaded that the Secretary of State will give his full support to the Church of England in the painful defence and struggle which have been forced upon her.

To his Excellency

Sir Charles Cameron Lees, K.C.M.G.,

&c.

&c.

&c. Governor of Mauritius.

I have, &c.

(Signed) A. D. MATHEWS,

Archdeacon of Mauritius, and

Commissary in Charge.

2094.

No. 27.

LORD KNUTSFORD to SI C. C. LEES.

(No. 72.)

SIB,

Downing Street, February 25, 1890. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Despatches of the numbers and dates noted in the margin," with their enclosures, relating to the proposed redistri- bution of the ecclesiastical grants between the Churches of Rome, England, and Scotland in Mauritius.

Sir J. Pope Hennessy, No. 571, December 11, 1889. Colonel Hall, No. 587, December 19, 1889. Sir C. C. Lee, No. 6, January 7, 1890. Sir C. C. Lee, No. 15, January 8, 1890.

Sir C. C. Lees, No. 16, January 9, 1890.

Sir C. C. Lee, No. 19, January 9, 1890.

approve the resolution of the Council of grants in aid.

2. After full consideration of the papers before me, I regret that I am unable to Government as to the redistribution of the

3. I hold that the object to be kept in view in arranging the distribution of these grants in aid is so to distribute them "that each church should be kept in good working order, and be enabled, as far as possible, to carry out the duties imposed upon it, without favour being shown to any particular church.

4. The number of persons belonging to either church, that is, the number of persons whose wants have to be met, must, I am ready to admit, form a material, indeed, perhaps, the most material, factor in the consideration of how the grants should be distributed, but still, as I have pointed out in my Despatch, No. 314, of 20th September 1889,† it

is not by any means the only determining factor in the case. The general wants and legitimate requirements of the churches have to be carefully weighed and considered.

5. For reasons quite apart from mere numbers, as, for example, that in one church the clergy are married, while in the other they are celibate; or that the clergy in one case are in receipt of fees which the clergy in the other case do not receive; or that the members of one church are more widely scattered throughout the Colony so that arrangements have to be made commensurate with the area of administration, or that the members in one case are of a much poorer class, one church may necessarily and legitimately incur more expense than another in effectively carrying out her proper work which it is the object of the grants to secure.

6. No one would wish without good cause to curtail in any degree the efforts of church, but it may be reasonable and fair, if the distribution of the grants is very dis- any proportionate, looking to numbers and other conditions, to re-arrange such distribution, although the work of one church may be to a certain extent temporarily hampered by such re-adjustment.

Nos. 12, 17, 20, 21, 22, and 23.

↑ No. 8.